James Alan Gardner

Born 1955 in Canada. Not too much fear of being nuked, except the night when the air raid sirens went off in the 1980s. (Some sort of electrical problem. By then, they weren't being well-maintained, so we all got a chance to be terrified.)

Hey, I've already done the St. Jacobs Market and the Transylvania Club. If Tor had sprung for Book 3, I was going to do Perimeter and the Clay & Glass Gallery.

I love how people in manga think. "Oh, when we humiliate and banish the bastard son, let's also give him the only weapon that can hurt us."

WOMEN👏DON’T👏WANT👏CHOCOLATES 👏FOR 👏VALENTINE’S 👏DAY 👏THEY 👏WANT 👏MERRIAM-WEBSTER’S 👏COLLEGIATE 👏DICTIONARY 👏TWELFTH 👏EDITION 👏

Louise Jensen Duffy (@LouiseWeebe) on twitter: "So, a lot of people ask me why I buy so many books. The truth is, I have a genetic disorder where my body doesn't produce enough books of its own, so I have to supplement."

A lot of you need to learn the difference between "I'm not interested in this story" and "no human being could possibly want to create or read/watch this story and its existence is a personal insult against me."

Donald Trump is if Brexit became president. That's obvious, right?

living in a world where the only two jobs are “gambling” and “murder” isn’t nearly as cool as Cowboy Bebop made it out to be

Dogbert weighing Scott Adams’ heart against a feather

My reading stats for 2025 (only counting works I actually finished in 2025, not ones I started but then put down):

Audiobooks: 110
Manga series/graphic novels: 60
Hardcopy books: 22
Ebooks: 4

(I count a manga series if I read it from the beginning to most recent episode, for at least 20 episodes.)

NOW GO OUT THERE AND LIVE THE FINAL DAYS OF THIS SHITSTAINED YEAR BEING KIND AND BOLD AND DARING AND FOLLOW THE RULES OF THE PIT WHEN YOU SEE SOMEBODY GO DOWN YOU HELP THEM THE FUCK BACK UP

That black cat named Moon at Stonehenge surrounded by its adoring crowd during this year's winter solstice

Fine, whatever, this random cat is your new god of the winter solstice

A bunny wearing a Santa hat peeks out of a red gift box in front of a decorated Christmas tree.

It was the Dunning of tymes. It was the Kruger of tymes.

"Seen" is such a common word, I wondered if you could notice when people started to say, "I feel seen." But it's very obvious:
books.google.com/ngrams/graph...

yellow poster with drawings of the sailor moons. text says: TRANS PEOPLE EXISTING DOES LITERALLY NOTHING NEGATIVE TO YOUR LIVES, YOU CRYBABY WIMPS YOUR LIFE IS GETTING HARDER AND COSTLIER BECAUSE OF THE OLIGARGS, NOT TRANS PEOPLE

reminder:

A photo of the box for the 90s Sailor Moon "Crystal Message" fortune telling crystal ball toy from Japan. The package shows a "crystal ball" with a Sailor Moon figure inside from Sailor Moon S that will light up and talk, telling you your fortune specifically in things like "luck" and "romance".

"I asked ChatGPT"

"I asked Grok"

Well, I asked the Sailor Moon fortune telling crystal ball. We are not the same.

Woah!

Ontario passed a law starting Jan 2026 that it is illegal for companies to ghost you.

If you have interviewed for a job they are legally required to inform you if they hire someone else or close the position.

The law also requires salary transparency on listings and disclosing use of AI

Wow, Mars, that makes me feel really good. Thanks! And good luck on beating your block!

spoke with the executive director of my local food bank today and got this really incredible line: "if you donate 1 can of green beans, we can give away 1 can of green beans. but if you donate a dollar, we can give away 6 cans of green beans"

While the term "spooning" has been around for a while, distinguishing between the big spoon and the little spoon is a 21st century thing:
books.google.com/ngrams/graph...

Got another anti-Covid shot today. This makes my 11th since the pandemic started.

Today's forecast: "chance of flurries". Sigh...

Vaccinations today: shingles and flu. My arms hurt a bit, but that's better than getting shingles or flu. (Covid booster next week.)

FYI: My Google alerts tell me that a James A. Gardner recently died in Indiana. Just letting people know, that's not me. (My condolences to Mr. Gardner's friends & family.)

Two slightly distorted guitars...

The problem was that they only had the monkey's paw. If you have the whole monkey, wishing works great.