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Cake day: February 6th, 2025

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  • 20 years ago, almost to the hour, (only remember as it was a long Easter weekend), I’d sat up from the Thursday night and had worked my way through ~40 Shrek 2 ecstasy tablets over that timespan. It was later reported in the papers they were adulterated with methamphetamine. Which explains why we were hiding in a closet watching every fault on the wall turn into some sort of insect and scurry away.

    But the real killer was the gravity bongs with cheap hash (there was literal bits of plastic bags in it as filler). On my 10th one or so I got kicked back out my body like I’d just been hadoukened by The Ancient One and was in some plane in space where I could see all my memories like wee tv screens. I was pulled back into the current timeline and was hovering just above my body for a second before being jolted back in.

    I immediately had excruciating pain in my wrists and it felt like invisible inter-dimensional chains were being dragged through them. Not metaphorically. It felt mechanical. Deliberate. But the worst bit was the time loops. The same minute kept repeating for what felt like an eternity, I could see time rewinding and it’d repeat the same minute again and again and again until I realised I had free will and told my cousin to phone and ambulance before I jumped out the window to break the loop.

    And that kids, is how I got persistent hallucinogenic perception disorder and about a decade of sleep paralysis (every night).





  • Right next to Princeton university so probably.

    Expensive though and we ended up moving to an ex-whorehouse on the PA/NJ border owned by the Heinz/Kerry family oddly. Stairs to the third floor took you through the bedrooms on the second and interior rooms all had peepholes. 👀

    Back to sunny Scotland at 16 and seen how absolutely depressing my peers past few years had been in comparison. Drinking cider under bridges in the rain while I was living my best Disney channel life.


  • 5sh

    Other than my parents being kids (17 when they had me, 5 kids by the time they were 28); it was pretty idyllic. Spent my childhood between England and Belgium and teenage years in America (on the same street Einstein used to live on!).

    I wasn’t really spoiled as such, but certainly extremely privileged compared to most.

    Deduct a few points for the undiagnosed ADHD throughout my family.


  • Probably a myth but interesting none the less:

    https://www.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/the-pharaohs-daughter-who-was-the-mother-of-all-scots-2507668

    Scota, Iberia, Gaels, and Brutus for Britain

    If we treat the medieval origin legends as literal history, the story goes far beyond just Scota — it ties the Gaelic and British peoples into a single sweeping migration narrative that connects Biblical, Egyptian, Scythian, Iberian, and Celtic threads.

    📜 Medieval Storyline with Sources and Dates

    1. Historia Brittonum (c. 830)

    This early British text, attributed to Nennius, combines the Scota legend with another powerful myth: that Britain itself was named after Brutus of Troy, the great-grandson of the Trojan hero Aeneas. According to this version, Brutus fled Troy after its fall, wandered through the Mediterranean, and finally landed in Albion (Britain), naming it after himself and becoming its first king.

    1. Lebor Gabála Érenn (11th century)

    This “Book of Invasions” describes how Scota, daughter of an Egyptian Pharaoh, married Niul, who was connected to the legendary linguist Fenius Farsaidh. Their son, Goídel Glas, supposedly created the Gaelic language.

    This Gaelic line migrated through Scythia and eventually reached Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal). In the myth, the people named the region Iberia after a leader named Ith, or in some versions, the name connects back to these same wandering Gaelic ancestors. From Iberia, the Milesians — Scota’s descendants — sailed to Ireland and Scotland, conquering the land and giving their name, Gaels (from Goídel Glas), to the people and Scotia (from Scota) to the land.

    🌍 How Names Were “Transferred”

    🏰 Iberia • In these legends, the Gaelic ancestors settled in Iberia before Ireland. Some texts claim the region took its name from Ith, a Milesian scout and leader, though historians see this as an invented connection. • This narrative frames the Iberian Peninsula as a stepping stone on the Gaelic migration path, reinforcing their ancient, far-ranging pedigree.

    🏰 Gaels • The people are said to take their name directly from Goídel Glas, Scota’s son, who created the Gaelic language by mixing tongues during his wanderings. • “Gael” became synonymous with the Irish and Scottish Gaelic-speaking peoples, while “Scoti” or “Scotia” tied the name back to Scota herself.

    ⚔️ Brutus and Britain • In parallel, the Historia Brittonum and later Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae (12th century) tell how Brutus, the Trojan exile, landed in Britain and founded a new kingdom. • The legend says Albion was renamed Britannia after Brutus, giving the people their name — Britons. • Together, Brutus for Britain and Scota for Scotia formed a matched pair of noble origin myths that linked the whole British Isles to classical and Biblical civilizations.

    🏺 Local “Evidence” and Sites • For Scota, places like Scota’s Grave at Slieve Mish in County Kerry are shown as proof she died fighting for the Milesians’ conquest of Ireland. • Some local traditions claim wells, hills, and burial mounds mark her passage. • For Brutus, the supposed site of his landing is sometimes pointed out around Totnes, Devon, or other coastal locations in southern England.

    ✅ If Taken as “True”

    All of this together forms a grand medieval framework: • The Gaels trace their name to Goídel Glas, their land to Scota, and their early migrations through Scythia and Iberia. • The Britons claim descent from Brutus, a Trojan prince. • Both peoples are woven into a mythic genealogy that connects them to Egypt, Troy, Spain, and the Biblical world, boosting the prestige of medieval Irish and British kings by tying them to ancient global empires.

    While modern historians and geneticists view these as legendary rather than literal, they remain some of the most powerful origin stories in medieval Celtic and British tradition.