ruaraidh's blog

Res Dogs

I really enjoyed watching Reservation Dogs, especially seasons 1 and 2. The 3rd season had a very different feel to it and seemed driven more as a series of individual stories than an over-arching story across the season; it was not lesser for this it just felt different.

The stories in the show were fun and told the difficult aspects of life well too. I particularly enjoyed things like “white jesus”, and doughnuts being “white people food” as thus should be avoided. I want to try catfish and fry bread to see what they are like. Flamin Flamers can stay on the show XD

I enjoyed the depiction of the extended groups; cousin uncles, cousin-grandson, aunties, etc. I am familiar with something that's perhaps similar here, an auntie or uncle not needing to be blood to have those titles but it doesn't extend much further than that.

North of North

Similar to Reservation Dogs, I really enjoyed this show. Location was obvs amazing, I wish here experienced cold that was below-freezing for extended periods of time, much nicer than being around freezing with slush and sleet.

Again, it was good to see them tackle harder issues of their place, especially with the incomers seeing a “blank slate” and having loads of ideas to improve the area. Very familiar with that rhetoric tbh, hear it frequently enough.

Connections

I enjoyed the similarities depicted in both shows with aspects of being of The Highlands. Folk who've grand ideas of how to improve the area and the casual racism that associated. The implicit power dynamic of money and investment; lack of investment running the place down.

I'd like to say the community aspect is similar too but that would not be my experience, unfortunately. Perhaps it was before but I don't experience that today, that could also just be me.

I enjoyed the use of non-English in both series, it was awesome to hear them. I wish it was more prevalent in TBh here but there're too many folk with colonised minds^1 ^2 here to go for that.

The Night Manager

We watched the 2 seasons back-to-back having not somehow missed the 1st season for over a decade. Thoroughly enjoyed the 1st season, it had a good James Bond feel to it; music, locations and cinematography doing the work there. The 2nd season was not so good, it seemed far more of a cash-in and the ending felt kind of flat. A lot of action in a short-space of time for a relatively short and quiet ending. It didn't feel like it fitted the longer show at all. It certainly lost the James Bond feel to it. He even lost the Night Manager aspect of his identity...?! Like he was at least a night manager in the 1st series.

I have a Letterboxd account too if folk wish to follow there for not-great reviews

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Keeping my old house free of mould or at least reducing it as much as possible.

We use a broad range of products to try and reduce the mould that infiltrates the house here. Perhaps it may be of help to folk who are searching for solutions.

Mechanical

The most expensive item we use is by far the dehumidifier, this is the one that we bought a few years ago when the landlord wanted return of their one. It's done a super job in getting rid of the largest portion of humidity we deal with. Regularly removes about 2 litres per day of use. I'm beginning to think it's running out of juice and/or we need a larger one to deal with the house instead of rooms.

The next device we have is an air purifier, this small one from Meaco, again, it does a grand job. It usually lives in the children's room to keep them healthier or in the living room to keep the ash/dust from the fire minimal.

Recently we bought a window vacuum to remove the volume of water that clings to the colder windows of the house, to save it from evaporating into the rooms. So far, it's doing a good job.
We used to clean with a squeegee and a towel which was a bother as the towel often was saturated before we were finished.

As part of a government scheme we had some mechanical extraction installed in the house, so in 3 rooms (kitchen, bathroom and “utility”) there is humidity controlled fans that boost when humidity reaches a certain level. This did have a positive effect really quickly, windows were noticeably less misty on cold mornings.

Chemical

We have used a small variety of chemical help too. It was originally bleach from, I think dettol. The stench from the bleach was pretty rough, so we took another look and found a pair of products that reduces the need for bleach spray. Mould shield and Mould killer. In the few months I've tried the shield the usual small spots of mould that appear after a cold/wet week haven't re-appeared. The other benefit of the shield is that it can be painted over when dry! So we have doubled up where possible and have painted over the Mould Shield with paint from Rustoleum that is mould resistant. There's a reasonable array of colours and it covers the wall well.

Passive

The passive activities we do is to open the windows when possible, usually when warmer and certainly for 15 minutes in the morning (often longer but not all day).

Group Support

IF you know of another method or tool that would be useful, feel free to get in touch =)

#Mould #Mold #Mildew #HomeImprovements

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Started my #FediLibrary book reading with 2 books from the local library.

Drystone, A life rebuilt by @kristiedegaris@mastodon.scot and Ashes and Stones by @AllysonShaw@wandering.shop

Looking forward to finishing them soon and, hopefully, reading some more books from Fediverse 🤓

My Bookwyrm book list which folk can recommend books too if they so wish =) hopefully the embed below works!

📖

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Reading this article that suggests that blaming depopulation on housing is lazy.

My addition to the conversation here:

Granted I'm not in Lochinver BUT the nearest hospital is still around 80 miles away. I moved into one of these communities and brought with me a family; 1 child in nursery, 1 in primary and, until recently, 1 in secondary school. My primary job is seasonal and my partner's primary job is not quite full-time.

I hear, regularly, of jobs available but no housing available. An example; a tiny swimming pool nearby has been needing lifeguards for months; positions are available. There was someone who could take the job, they weren't able to because of no housing.

This goes for school teachers too.

We have fewer services because our housing stock is being depleted for short-term lets. Skye has 10% of the housing removed for short-term letting or as this opinion piece writes that there were 25 right-move rents available in the Highland Council region, whilst there were 4,000 short-term lets available.

Whilst also fighting increasing house prices on wages that are stagnating, via jobs that don't pay well. How is one to compete with folk who can buy sight-unseen? Who have much higher wages and can attain loans to buy what becomes a commercial property?

It's a cycle that starts with houses being bought-out by people who want a return on a financial investment and give no hoots about community.

No housing, no people; no people, no jobs can be filled; no jobs, services disappear.

I also believe that centralisation is a massive problem. Too much of our society is being cut and moved to larger population centers where we receive lesser care because the centralised services are already under-funded and under-workered.

This is an active clearance for commercial gain, in my long-held opinion. Who benefits? Folk who live outwith the communities and those, within, who don't see the problem because their pockets are getting lined.

Perhaps it is lazy. I also believe the people who can change this, and know the solutions, refuse to utilise the solutions because they too are rentiers.

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'cos the UK Gov is quite shite, I'm downloading Wikipedia and keeping them alive via torrent/magnet files.

You can download a copy too using the Kiwix program.

There are plenty other things you can download from their library too, like iFixit. To do so you need to search in the library and click 'download' and have a torrent program, like qbittorrent installed and running to keep sharing it.

I have the following downloaded: * Wikipedia via Kiwix, English wikipedia in full from Jan 2024 * Uicipeid, Gàidhlig Wikipedia from July 2025 * Am Faclair Saor, Gàidhlig Wiktionary from Aug 2025 * Wiki Top 1Million, Wiki Top 1 million pages from Aug 2025. * Wiki for Schools, Wiki for schoolds from Aug 2024. * Vicipéid, Irish Wikipedia from July 2025 * Wikipedia via itself, English wiki from Aug 2025

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Self fulfilling cycle of lies told to Americans by Scots and the anger that comes of it

This is something I've come across at both work and in online circles. I've mainly seen it from Scots and aimed at USians, specifically those who claims Scottish heritage.

The cycle goes like this:

1. USian claims Scottishness
2. Scot gets grumpy at this, tells lies to USian
3. USian on-boards lie, perhaps they know it's a lie but thinks it's funny
4. USian repeats lie to another Scot
5. Scot gets grumpy because USian is shiting on their culture
6. Scot tells a lie to USian
7. Repeat from stage 3

I've likely butchered aspects of this pathway but the bones of it is there. At my palce of work USians are held in contempt and viewed as cash-cows. Apparently USians all claim to be descended from some Scottish king or claim some other actually harmless thing that doesn't affect anyone. The Scot at work assumes that “Hey I'm Scotch” (this tends to be the form the Scots project, not actually used by USians) means that they are ethnically Scottish, not that they are of Scottish descent, heritage or diaspora. It somehow means they are apropriating the heritage and culture of Scotland despite never being in Scotland, except they may have and currently are. Without even thinking deeper on it they hatch this gotcha to catch the USian unaware. This gotcha is to blatantly lie about some aspect of culture or heritage to them. We don't really have colour TV, we only wear kilts on Thursdays, or some such shite, as an example.

What my colleagues and I think a lot of people online are unaware of is this cycle they're creating. They're manufacturing their own future outrage. Why? Because they're from the United States of America.

I'm using bigotry because it is clear to me that it's a thin veil surrounding an accepted racism. When called on it, the bigotry doesn't really withstand any scrutiny at all.

As a whole it irks me on multiple levels. There's the outright racism, which is disgusting to begin with. The other aspect is that USians that visit, in my experience and knowledge, are the more engaged visitors. They really want to know the truth, even if it hurts their oral-history. They are keen to try just about anything. As a result scumbag tour-guides and tour groups prey on them. Take their money, feed them lies and send them home packaged in Royal Stewart.
To this point, I've heard a tour-guide state that the reason that Jacobites lost the Battle of Culloden was the lack of archers on the Jacobite side. An aspect forgotten or maybe not even begun to be understood is that a lot of Scottish history, in Scots world, is on-going and for those who stayed in Scotland, it never got on to the boat. In North America, Scottish history was frozen at the point they got on the boat and kept refreshed or amended or even fabricated from when they got off the boat. The USian who says “I'm Scottish” is getting across their Scottish heritage, many a Scot chooses to lose that in translation.

Anyway, I think we Scots should drop the bullshit and be the truth speakers were purport ourselves to be and how we are seen. Us telling lies to other about our own history and culture does a dis-service to everyone, especially the speaker of the lies.

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This was a question I received today, the day of writing, and it sparked a question in my head. What is it to be a local? How does one define it?

Let's start with some dictionary wanking.

Britannica defines it as

a person who lives in a particular area, city, or town : a local person — usually plural

or

located or living nearby

These two I think give interesting perspectives on what it is. How big is the area? Is it a council region? If so, Highland is pretty massive; 26,000 square kilometres for ~240,000 people If it's the baile, then it's pretty tiny (~200 people), if it includes the bailtean immediately nearby we're probably still around 1,000 people. Not many at all.

What if it's a situation of geographic context?

This is the path that I thought of when I was asked. My answer was “ish”. Why ish? Because although the people asking were from the South of England, I don't feel local to here, I'm from the Black Isle, on the other coast. But to them, I'm close enough to be a local. The distance between the two areas is around 70 miles (110 km).

If they were from mainland Europe, USA or, especially, Australia I'd answer with yes. I think the distance involved and that we're still in The Gàidhealtachd would allow me that.

Are there other factors?

What if you move in from elsewhere and are resident for a long time? Are you then a local? How long would it be? I know there's this 5 year window before people who're resident begin to open up, especially if they're generationally resident. Why 5 years? Because it's likely you'll leave within that window.

What if you were from there, move away in your teens and move back as an adult?

Do you need a continuity of stay? Continuity of lineage? Could you be born and raised elsewhere, move somewhere where family are from (and still are) and be a local?

Could you be regionally local and move to a nearby place? Are you local then? How far before you're not?

I read an article by Rhoda Meek and the piece quoted gave a perspective..

Hold your wheesht for at least three years.

“You will be called blow-ins. It’s not an insult, it simply reflects the fact that many people blow right back out again and we have feelings that get hurt, and ­friendships that disappear, and so we ­protect ourselves until we trust you.

and

“There are people who no longer live here who will always be more local than you or I will ever be. That’s OK. It’s life. You could live here 60 years and still be a blow-in.

as well as a different article of hers

I inhabit two worlds. On one hand, I croft and Gaelic is my first language. I live in the house my great great grandfather built, I know my land — I’ve explored and adventured over it thousands of times. Tiree, and the crofts I share with my father in Caolas are home in every sense of the word.

On the other hand, I grew up in a different world. I moved to Tiree as an adult, seeking a different life. I work for an American based tech company and travel regularly, slipping in and out of identities with a strange ease. From wellies in the morning, to a transatlantic flight in the afternoon.

These I think demonstrate that it's not a simple question. I think it means different things to different people.

Ultimately, it may not even matter.

Do I feel like a local? No.

Will I? Maybe, my children certainly will.

Do those with naïve questions need the ins-and-outs? Probably not and yes-ish will do.

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