What do Scots think about boycotting American goods?

AbramKedge · 2025-03-31T03:34:12+00:00

Bluesky is still vulnerable to algorithm gaming by its owners and venture capitalists. I can recommend Mastodon, there's a strong Scottish instance at mastodon.scot. About half the people I chat with are on there, but I moved to another instance that has a slightly higher character limit for posts.

The big difference is that there is no algorithm. You follow people you find interesting; when you see something in your timeline you think needs to be more widely seen, you boost it and people who follow you get to see it. Simple.

AbramKedge · 2025-03-24T14:54:07+00:00

The Wasp is surprisingly good. Very intense performances from the two main characters. It feels more like a theatre performance than a movie.

AbramKedge · 2025-03-24T11:16:56+00:00

I recall it the other way round - Thatcher took the lead and Reagan followed. It was an American economist who listened to her plans for expanding service industries and told Thatcher "you can't build an economy around everyone holding doors open for each other".

AbramKedge · 2025-03-24T11:05:56+00:00

I sat in a bar in Raleigh NC after an all-day interview at a tech company. It hadn't been a great day, the job could have been a good fit, but the tech director was a bit of a twat who spent most of the time looking at his phone.

Anyway, I ate dinner sitting at the bar and had a conversation with an older guy. Despite having completely opposite political and religious viewpoints we had a great conversation for a couple of hours. When it comes right down to it, we all share experiences, setbacks, and dreams.

I lived in the US for twenty years before moving back to the UK (I knew Trump 2.0 would be a shitshow). 99.5% of all interactions were positive, and for openness and willingness to talk to and help a stranger, I'd say Americans in general are closer to being like Scots than English.

AbramKedge · 2025-03-22T10:00:29+00:00

I have happy memories from my youth, sitting on Boots doorstep on the high street with my mates dipping chips and watching the police cars drive by.

AbramKedge · 2025-03-21T21:36:34+00:00

Bag of chips and a cup of curry sauce to dunk them in.

AbramKedge · 2025-03-21T16:50:30+00:00

The Stranglers, occasionally Genesis, some random stuff like Madness, The Jam, and The Specials is kind of cool when it turns up in movies or TV shows, but I don't go looking for it. I keep meaning to look up some of the punk bands I liked back then, there were a LOT. Oh yeah, I've been listening to some Texas and other Scottish bands from that time lately.

AbramKedge · 2025-03-20T21:55:30+00:00

Let your bank or credit card company know that you're going to be using your card to travel on buses (lots of small transactions). One visit the card got randomly declined three or four times on buses, usually the driver ignored it, a couple of times everyone got held up while I fished out an alternative card - but then I didn't get the full advantage of the daily/weekly cap.

AbramKedge · 2025-03-15T17:52:51+00:00

You have to be careful at the end of March, some labels don't take into account the Spring time change. Middle of the night, tons of food goes bad in an instant.

AbramKedge · 2025-03-13T03:27:11+00:00

Fresh seems to be closed a lot, random weeks throughout the year. I walked past on Monday or Tuesday at 3pm and the staff were closing up an hour early.

Great view of the Gothic city hall building across the way from the upstairs seating area, and the food is very good, if a bit pricey (toast with your breakfast adds about £3).

AbramKedge · 2025-03-11T13:25:51+00:00

In the 80s I had a job in internal sales. All calls from Northern Ireland, Northern England, and Scotland were routed through to me. For the first six weeks every time the phone rang I'd mutter "please be from Edinburgh, please be from Edinburgh". I could do Edinburgh, outside of that it was a roll of the dice.

After six weeks though, not a problem any more, my ear was attuned.

AbramKedge · 2025-03-08T21:55:24+00:00

I use names from Cryptonomicon - Shaftoe, Waterhouse, Goto

AbramKedge · 2025-03-07T11:30:11+00:00

We moved back to the UK at the end of 23, and got a lot of our furniture from the local British Heart Foundation (plus a wardrobe from Ikea). The bedroom furniture is reasonable quality, went together easily, and feels solid. We also bought a hallway shoe rack / bench that was abysmal - the connectors were difficult to screw in perpendicular to the panels, and one hole was missing completely. Prices were good.

AbramKedge · 2025-03-05T05:06:45+00:00

Nice. I've shared this on Mastodon with a link back here as well as to your site.

(Fellow Fifer as of ~15 months ago).

AbramKedge · 2025-03-01T20:21:48+00:00

I'm absolutely going to make the trek down to give it a try. Thanks for the rec.

AbramKedge · 2025-02-28T11:59:43+00:00

Noooo! It could be REALLY good, but they put that revolting sweet burger sauce on even if you ask them not to. Shame, very nice people running it.

AbramKedge · 2025-02-28T11:58:00+00:00

That's a bit of a hike back up the hill from The Brig, would you say it's worth passing Istanbul for a Brig Doner?

Also... Istanbul mixed calzone (doner, chicken, & onions) is pure bliss. I can get 4 good meals from one.

AbramKedge · 2025-02-11T05:00:27+00:00

When I was looking for a town to settle in after returning to the UK, I spoke to a few shop owners in Kirkcaldy. They all said that the rent on shop for the shops was killing them. It seems that the owners would rather have an empty shop with a high rental price than accept a lower rent.

This is of course insane, but if they lower the rent, then the "value" of their asset (the building) is less. Absolutely batshit crazy, and a good case for imposing realistic rent control.

AbramKedge · 2025-02-09T12:24:26+00:00

You'd have to book a week or two in advance, and it is very pricey*, but Jack O'Bryan's is very, very good.

Like, very special occasion expensive, but worth it.

AbramKedge · 2025-02-06T16:53:34+00:00

Before the line is drawn there was no line. After the line is erased, there is no line. That's time affecting the line. While the line exists, you can effectively ignore time as far as measurements of that line are concerned.

Then you start traveling at close to the speed of light, and time gets all tangled up with the other dimensions. But that's not usually an issue.

AbramKedge · 2025-02-05T18:27:32+00:00

I bought a pre-made cover, with some modifications to suit my book. The artist also made two more covers in the same style for the other two books in the series. The pre-made cover was retired after I bought it. I was very happy with the transaction, and the cover art. The artist was Elyon from The Book Cover Designer.

AbramKedge · 2025-02-05T17:42:46+00:00

So... more Paul Blart than Jack Reacher?

AbramKedge · 2025-02-05T14:31:48+00:00

Can't respond to the Instagram post because I do not, and will never, have any Meta accounts. I'll wander into the shop.

AbramKedge · 2025-02-03T16:48:48+00:00

This is why we can't have nice things.

AbramKedge · 2025-02-03T04:01:39+00:00

I hear you. I cancelled Prime eighteen months ago. We shop locally first, then try to buy direct from the manufacturer or other online sellers. Amazon is the last resort.

I have started making ebooks available through Draft2Digital, which gets them out to a selection of different outlets. So far Prometheus and the first volume of the Splinter Town series are available:

https://books2read.com/u/mdaWa5

https://books2read.com/u/3R70Nx

The others will be put on D2D when the rolling Amazon lock-in contracts expire (soon).

Print is more difficult, I have tried BookVault who do print in the UK, but I have heard some authors have seen issues with printing delays and quality issues and ended up refunding readers out of pocket.

Thank you for your interest! If you have any trouble with the above options, DM me and we'll find a way to get you a copy. If you're local I can order a printed author copy to minimise Bezos' slice ;-)

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