Scott Macdonald

Category: Life

  • Referendum Night

    Referendum Night

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    Scott Macdonald
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    I don’t think I’ve managed to get over that night. I’ve really tried to, by diving into political work – and trying to develop the tools and the means of organising, and fighting future elections.

  • A year in review – Part 2 – April

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    Scott Macdonald
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    I’m mostly going to be writing this as stream of consciousness – as I recall it happening, and my thoughts around the time. Straight into April! None of the April Fools were funny. The Scottish Greens came closest – A sneaky wee press-release on their website, entitled. “Independence is our opportunity to protect outer space.”…

  • A year in review – Part 1

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    Scott Macdonald
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    This was the year I became a political activist worth a damn. It was also the year the paranoid proved to be prophets. I found both Scottish political year in review programmes exhausting. Rather than revisiting the past, I was reliving it. And it hurt terribly.

  • On writing implements

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    Scott Macdonald
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    I’m trying to recreate the writing implements of my youth. I’m browsing stationary stores, looking for pads of just the right kind of squared paper in which I learned the quadratic formula, proved the sine rule, came up with a rudimentary proof of Pythagoras, wrote simple algorithms to find perfect numbers, came to a crash…

  • Reviewing movies

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    Scott Macdonald
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    It’s Edinburgh Film Festival time again. Every year, I end up writing loads of reviews all the while wondering how *other people* review movies. I find it difficult, but not impossible to churn out 3 or 4 pieces a day. Here’s how I cope. When watching, I keep scribbling notes, to remind myself of people,…

  • Enjoying Twitter 101

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    Scott Macdonald
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    There’s little surprise that QI host Stephen Fry was one of the first major cheerleaders for tweeting. Twitter isn’t in itself very interesting – but becomes interesting through being a source and user-driven broadcaster of interesting things from its users. I hesitate to use the word recipe. Recipes involve doing things precisely and in order…

  • Fitness wahoozery

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    Scott Macdonald
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    I was asked recently about how exercise is coming along. It went south over October and November, although I kept the PureGym membership and occasionally went to make heavy things move. Over the past three months, I’ve improved. One of my co-workers is a personal trainer and martial artist, and with his help I’ve started…

  • Cleaning up Windows – no more

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    Scott Macdonald
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    I refuse to fix, descum or wipe computers for people who don’t want to care about computer security – or just don’t want to get to grips with a Windows install disc. Each time I copy off personal stuff, install Windows, patch Windows, install Windows anti-virus, install a secure browser and shore up the computer…

  • Where the Scottie hires someone to make him fit

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    Scott Macdonald
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    I often cycle to work. The bicycle is one of our greatest transport inventions, transferring up to 98% of the energy from the rider to the wheels, this means I don’t really need to put a very large amount of effort into it, and coasting – stop pedalling and letting momentum take you forward – is…

  • First ever bike touring trip

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    Scott Macdonald
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    A no-longer-hypothetical bike run from Pitlochry to Nairn. I expect it to take two and a bit days, I will allow it to take no more than three and a half before running to the nearest train station.