What’s the first impression you want to give people?

daily writing prompt

This is a tough one. I don’t think I’ve ever considered it. I think maybe the first impression I want to give depends on the situation. If the first impression I get from someone is “good person” then the first impression I want to give is “good person”. If the first impression I get is “colossal douchebag” then the first impression I want to give is “I think you’re a colossal douchebag, go away”.

I suppose there are a few impressions I’d like to give off when first meeting someone new. Here’s a bit of a list of things.

• I am not a colossal douchebag
• I might be smart, but I am not sure. Hopefully I am smarter than I think I am
• If you are a decent person I will be your ally. If you are a fascist then go die in a fire or something
• I don’t care how you live your life or who you fall in love with or where you or your family come from. I only care that you are happy and content. Unless you are a fascist, in which case you can go eat a great big bag of VD encrusted dicks

Okay… maybe those things are a little too complicated to be first impressions. How about this:

I am nice, even though I am really shy and not very good socially.

Yeah… that’s probably it. That probably sums me up all right.

What book are you reading right now?

Daily writing prompt

This question hurts my heart and soul a little bit. Actually it is probably more accurate to say it hurts my eyes.

There is back story to this one. I was in seventh grade. 11 or 12 years old, I think? I don’t really remember. I went to the eye doctor and learned that I needed reading glasses. That was the first step that lead to my current reading situation. Around the time I started college I discovered the concept of reading for fun. That happened at the exact time that I couldn’t afford to spend time reading for fun, but what can you do, right? First it was Anthony Burgess. Next it was a deep dive into horror fiction, first with Clive Barker and then with Stephen King. That turned into a lifelong source of enjoyment.

A few years ago… maybe more than just a few years ago, I learned that I need glasses for seeing distances too. That lead to my first pair of bifocals. Progressive lenses, actually but it’s the same difference. Unfortunately, that first pair of progressives made reading a book a little difficult. My eyes got super tired really fast from all the extra work needed to keep focusing through the right spot on the lens. It doesn’t make reading a book impossible, but it does take a bit of the fun out of it. I’ve gotten one new pair of glasses since then and they did make things a smidge easier, but my eyes still run out of gas much quicker than I would like them to.

When the difficulties started I was commuting to work four days a week, and my commute was (as it still is now) very long. I signed up for Audible and my reading habit turned into an audiobook habit. That kept me going for a long time. Then the pandemic hit and I didn’t have a four day a week commute anymore so Audible became an expense that didn’t seem worth it anymore. Even driving in one day a week didn’t seem worth it. Starting in March we’re going to bump up to two days a week. When that happens I will likely sign up for Audible again and get back into books while I drive.

The end result of all of this is the actual answer to today’s question. I am currently not reading (or listening) to any books. None. I am a little sad to admit it. A little ashamed too. There are still some releases that are worth the effort. One came out this week and another is about to come out. I will add them to my xmas wish list though so I won’t be reading them any time soon. One is Geddy Lee’s memoir, My Effin’ Life. The other is a new Stephen King short story collection. I also have a copy of Roger Daltrey’s autobiography that I started but haven’t finished. I very much want to get back into that. Don’t forget a book about the making of The Godfather that I started last xmas. I want to finish that too.

Reading is a great source of enjoyment for me. I would read a bunch of pop-culture fiction, horror and science fiction and maybe a mystery thrown in, and then I would read a non-fiction book or two, histories or biographies mostly, or the odd piece of actual legitimate literature. The idea being that I would try to read something that could to broaden my brain in between things that were purely entertaining. These days though… nothing. Unfortunately.

So the tl;dr thing here is that I am not currently reading anything and it will be a while before I try to start something new. Sorry about that, folks.