iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 09/06/2026

So…let’s talk about vision. About a month ago, I had a detached retina in my right eye, and the subsequent surgery to repair it. The problem is: it has drastically changed the vision in that eye so that my glasses don’t work with it. It makes it hard to read. This is bad for a writer.

The author, with disheveled bed head, wearing a pair of test glasses with interchangeable lenses. Generally funny lookin’.

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Septimus Brown @septimusbrown.com · 18/04/2026

I would definitely

Duck outside a door with a sign: "do not let the duck in"

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 18/03/2026

Re team USA in the world baseball classic. As it turns out: Joy trumped grim determination Joy trumped war. Joy trumped…Trump.

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 11/03/2026

Thinking about MTG and Noam. When you sell your soul to the devil, you should not expect good customer service.

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 11/02/2026

My trashcan says ITEMS NOT ALLOWED IN THIS CONTAINER: Hot ashes, Rocks/Dirt/Construction Debris, Concrete, Paint/chemicals, Auto Parts, Dead animals, Hazardous Materials. My recycle bin, also from the City of Phoenix, says nothing. Apparently dead animals are recyclable. Awesome!

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😈Miss Hell Batkeeper😈 @mishellbaker.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

You don't have to understand something to avoid hating it. It is perfectly possible just to presume things you don't understand are fine for someone else. Not everything in existence has to minutely prove to you, personally, its right to exist.

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 04/01/2026

So here’s a pickle. Does anyone know for sure whether SFWA considers the version of LanguageTool where you run your own server locally an LLM for purposes of Nebula eligibility? I mean, it’s not like I’m in the running for one, or even a member, but…

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TropicalChrome @tropicalchrome.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

Screenshot from a New Years MASH episode, with caption: here's to the new year may she be a damn sight better than the old one

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Martha Wells @marthawells.com · 14/12/2025

For today only (Dec 14) All Systems Red (1st book in The Murderbot Diaries) is on sale across all US ebook retailers for $2.99 (published by Tordotcom, edited by @leeharris.net cover art by Jaime Jones) www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/...

kobo.com

All Systems Red ebook by Martha Wells - Rakuten Kobo

Read "All Systems Red The Murderbot Diaries" by Martha Wells available from Rakuten Kobo. Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award for Best Novella Winner of the Alex Award A New York Times and USA...

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 12/12/2025

@peculiarityshop.bsky.social Well. Either there's a feeding frenzy at your shop, or I've just bought an awful lot of jewelry. I suspect the former, since I haven't been charged for anything.

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 11/12/2025

#mac #review. A short review of my new Mac Studio m4max. The thing that creeps up on you is just now fast this thing is internally. Moving up from an M1 mini, the bandwidth to the SSD is astonishing. The thing boots almost instantly. Blender starts in one bounce of the dock icon.

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 10/12/2025

IOS 2026 first impression: screen jizz is back. So is skeuomorphism, apparently. Looks cheezy.

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 02/11/2025

Fsck baseball, if the big money teams always win.

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 30/10/2025

If you can use AI to do your job, AI will do your job.

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 11/10/2025

How much water can a garden hose spew out in 24 hours? Not quite a pool full, as it turns out.

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Gracie12 📎 @gracienlucy.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

"If you're afraid that books might change someone's thinking, you're not afraid of books, you're afraid of thinking."
~Andrea Junker

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 26/09/2025

MacOS Tahoe 26. Liquid Glass=Screen Jizz. Watch the Welcome screen and tell me you don’t see it. You can turn off the transparency silliness in the accessability settings.

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Gareth L. Powell / G.L. Powell @garethlpowell.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Hardbacks are books. Paperbacks are books. eBooks are books. Audio books are books. The delivery mechanism doesn't matter. What matters is the enjoyment of story.

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 07/07/2025

New thing that will get you blocked on my feed: politicizing the deaths of the campers in Texas.

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 02/07/2025

With regard to the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and President Trump over the Big Stupid Bill, all I can think is: cellmates. These two need to be cellmates.

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 25/06/2025

Yanno those email spams about butter in coffee?

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 10/06/2025

I’ve noticed that my feed has a lot of book ads. Ads are the backbone of enshittification, so I’ve pruned my feed accordingly. The irony is not lost on me that I came here to post ads of my own. #conflicted

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 08/06/2025

Slogging through Pimsler’s Romanian. My mouth feels like I’ve been chewing rubber bands. Learning a second language is hard.

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 07/06/2025

For the robin singing outside our bedroom window: I am robin. Hear me roar. I used to be a dinosaur. I sing my notes in groups of four. My tiny brain will hold no more.

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 26/05/2025

If you want to understand what's wrong with AI writing, consider this: Cats have a finite number of behaviors. You could put a few hundred of the most common in an AI model and have it generate the statistically most likely next behavior. And you'd miss out on everything that makes a cat a pet.

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 26/05/2025

Non-famous authors, sound off. If you knew this would be the cost, would you still consider it?

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 23/05/2025

Hypothesis: warming all natural peanutbutter makes it easier to stir the oil back in. Procedure: a newly opened container of Kroger natural creamy peanutbutter was placed in the microwave for 30 seconds. Results: stirring was *much* easier. Science is delicious!

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 14/05/2025

I think I know why this radio’s reception is fuzzy.

Mork the orange and white kitten climbing through the dial hole of an antique console radio

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Septimus Brown @septimusbrown.com · 17/04/2025

I live with two little liars 🐈‍⬛🐈

"the car has been fed. Don't fall for her bullshit"

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 09/04/2025

#amwriting Reworking the plot in the novel formerly known as Ghost Light. From chapter 1: "Some people have an innate, edgy sense of their personal style. I drunk-shop online and hit thrift stores. The results are similar."

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 03/04/2025

Taking a short break from Bluesky. Nothing to say, and I’ve been doomscrolling.

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 13/03/2025

#amwriting Music for writing: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Original Soundtrack) Reznor/Ross

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 13/03/2025

#amwriting “When you stare into the abyss so long that it winks at you like an old girlfriend, you get used to it. But that dread is still there. Bravery is just…” he trails off. “Carrying on anyway. You did teach me that.”

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 13/03/2025

#writing Memorable names are worth the effort. After I roll up my characters' ethnic background and (often) presented gender, I use that information on one of the many Name the Baby sites. If they're older, I pay attention to naming trends when they were born. Characterization begins with the name.

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 05/03/2025

I #amwriting. Is it weird to use data from a real city and dice to make sure stories are ethnically balanced? Today, I rolled a single-ethnicity white guy, but English is not his home language. So meet Dr. Valter Nissen, Danish professor of folklore and mythology, Kemper College, LakePort MN.

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 04/03/2025

#amwriting "A poltergeist with a semiautomatic pistol seemed like cartoon-level errors in judgement waiting to happen.”

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 28/02/2025

I hate to shut down. She looks so peaceful and warm.

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 26/02/2025

Telling me I'm homophobic for not following you back is a great way to get a block from me. Doing so without any interesting or amusing content, doubly so.

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 26/02/2025

#amwriting Soundtrack: The Girl wtih the Dragon Tattoo (Original Soundtrack-Reznor/Ross 2011)

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 26/02/2025

I #amwriting Ghost Light. It's dark at Brenda the Witch's, and it smells like my attic: the dusty, old dreams of the dead, thrice abandoned, their people long gone, but the things themselves remain.

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 25/02/2025

I’m clearly making progress with the viola. Tonight, I was cussed by the cat.

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 24/02/2025

For all my new followers, welcome! I'm James. Thanks for following me. I'm a real human being (no AI, and the cats don't type.) I write darkly humorous paranormal mysteries, steampunk, cyberpunk, and technical books. www.jamesrstrickland.com for more details.

jamesrstrickland.com

James R. Strickland - Books and News

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 16/02/2025

I write books! The second in my Poltergeist! series of paranormal mysteries, Dead of Winter follows poltergeist detective Nina Cohen as she goes undercover in an American high school, a century or so after her own school experiences. #booksky www.amazon.com/dp/B0CVZV77SR

amazon.com

Poltergeist! Dead of Winter

Amazon.com: Poltergeist! Dead of Winter eBook : Strickland, James: Books

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James R. Strickland (he/him) @jamesrstrickland.com · 13/02/2025

Banging away on Ghost Light. I hate the early stages of writing a novel. So easy to second-guess, so easy to say “I hate where this is going” before it’s going anywhere. Meh, characters interact, plot emerges. When the novel hits critical mass, it almost writes itself. Soon, I hope. #amwriting

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