Iain K. MacLeod

He/Him | Paid Worker. Unremarkable Hobbyist. Occasional Friend. Full-time Dad. Great-great-great-grandnephew of Angus “Giant” MacAskill. Worked skateboard check at 1994 Gobblefest in Cape Breton. Based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. aka Boost Ventilator. For more info…

Pinned post from October 28, 2022

Favourite Quotations

“If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood of fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.” — Louis Brandeis “PLEASE AUTHENTICATE MY EXISTENCE” — Charlie Brooker “If you put shame in a Petri dish, it needs three things to grow exponentially:...

January 17, 2025

Soft Eating

I was able to survive Nova Scotia Health's Esophageal Soft Eating Guidelines of dietary recommendations for four weeks post-surgery. I originally thought I would be forced to eat only soup for months but this diet was pretty flexible and focused on soft, moist, easy-to-swallow foods to help reduce strain and prevent irritation or block...

November 28, 2024

Winner, Winner, Bird Dinner

“…we ran a quick contest asking subscribers to show us how they used the bonus bird decals that came with their shipments of “The Birds and Trees of North America.” We chose these five winners, and they’ll each receive a “sold-out edition from The Archives that is tangentially related to birds.” In this case, a “Shenandoah” 3-Pack. Con...

November 17, 2024

For My Health

*Record scratch* *Freeze frame* Yup, that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation. This is a failure of sorts. Not hereditary, so I can’t blame my family. No known cause or trigger, so no big regrets. I sleep with a wedge and have an eating schedule that rivals a Mogwai—no late-night snacks. No prevention, no c...

October 17, 2024

Mailchimp Crazy

Source: https://mailchi.mp/6ea53a5dc374/district-5-e-news-july-6740886 Source: https://mailchi.mp/8812502370d0/fios-newsletter-mat-10th-17652667

May 5, 2024

A Thruple of Podcasts on A.I., Media, and the Web

“On this special episode of Decoder, science educator and YouTuber Hank Green is guest hosting. And the guest? It’s Nilay Patel, who sat down with Hank to discuss building The Verge, the state of media, and the future of the web. Also: whether the fediverse is worth investing in, and how social platforms’ control of distribution has sh...

November 30, 2023

RIP Shane MacGowan

Earlier this year on Record Store Day, The Pogues' compilation of non-album tracks called “The Stiff Records B-Sides (1984-1987)” was released on vinyl. It’s a track listing of deep but still prime Shane MacGowan songs and/or performances, here's an Apple Music playlist version you can stream for yourself.

November 2, 2023

♪♫ The App for the Bus Can Be Found and Loaded-Down ♫♪

Finally. After many years of realizing how out-of-date our mass transit system is by travelling pretty much everywhere and anywhere else in the world and wondering how much longer our city would continue relying on exact change or increasingly more difficult to find paper tickets and littered transfers, we have entered a new, modern ph...

October 25, 2023

Background Work

“There are things in that film in the background that I think tell a whole other story that nobody has brought to me yet, and in some ways, that’s frustrating because you take the time to put them there and you wonder who’s going to catch them. But I’m excited by the idea of people finding those things.” — Director Ari Aster in Vanity ...

October 19, 2023

I Am Easier to Understand

I have fallen into the Venn Diagram of all these fan bases at one time or another, but this is a post about one sad album from the saddest dads of all, The National. My suggestion is that for the 2029 or 2039 reissue, they update the liner notes to be more reflective of the collaborative nature of using several guest vocalists, similar...

June 9, 2023

Creative Self-help

Thoughts and habits not conducive to the work: • Believing you’re not good enough. • Feeling you don’t have the energy it takes. • Mistaking adopted rules for absolute truths. • Not wanting to do the work (laziness). • Not taking the work to its highest expression (settling). • Having goals so ambitious that you can’t begin. • Thinking...

May 30, 2023

Incorporating Birthdays

I recently had a birthday and thought I would share some of the random junk joy I received in my inbox. To me, Meta's Facebook is probably the best "gift" to birthdays…an easy way to remind you that you and your friends and family are aging. And if you get a birthday reminder and question how you even know this person, it might be time...

February 2, 2023

How to Export Contacts from your iPhone

I couldn't find instructions that didn't focus on using the Contacts app on a Mac or using the iCloud.com interface, so here is one way I was able to export my contacts from my iPhone: 1. Open the Contacts app on your iPhone 2. Click the "< Lists" button in the top left corner of the screen 3. Long-hold your finger on one of the Contac...

January 19, 2023

Cross Unposting

Dear random organization and/or business, I was only able to find your recent and really relevant information posted on one of your various social media accounts—while your “news” section hasn’t been updated in a couple years—and I just wanted to share it on another platform without it looking like it originated from me. – Me, over-and...

October 20, 2022

Old People Food

A non-exhaustive list of nourishment for experienced folx. • All-Bran • Allsorts • Apricots • Barley sugar candy • Baked beans • Banana pudding • Blancmange • Blood or white pudding • Bridge Mixture • Boiled dinner • Boost nutritional drink • Bourbon cookies • Bread pudding • Butter pecan ice cream • Caravan bars • Cat food • Chicken b...

April 10, 2022

Thank You Mrs Boyd

In a world before “screen time” and ubiquitous internet were the moral panics of the day (fear mongering was content with stranger danger, cable TV, Dungeons & Dragons, and heavy metal), I was a grade five student at Chebucto Heights Elementary school. I remember “kite day” and skipping rope being big deals, eating hard-ass breadsticks...

September 10, 2021

Philips CPAP Recall & Class Action

Tired? Got sleep apnea? If so, hear about this? Using a recalled Philips CPAP? You might be interested in this class action. Update #1: People Who Used Recalled Philips Breathing Machines Face Painful Choices | ProPublica Update #2: Philips Recalled Breathing Machines in 2021. Chemicals of “Concern” Found in Replacement Machines Raised...

March 4, 2021

Hey, HEY World

Sometimes we need a new way to do the same old thing. That sometimes is now and that new thing is HEY. Pay for email? In this economy? You're already been trading your eyeballs, behaviour, and soul for it—not to mention the bills are long overdue for free social networks. I can't keep handing over my address book and seeing the fundame...