Tuesday, June 11. 2019
On this episode I go on a bothy overnighter with fellow YouTubers: 'Renegade Scot' & 'Walk With Wallace'. The amount of footage taken was a bit overwhelming, and most of it was completely unusable given our condition by the end of it, however, I've managed to subtly sift through enough of it to produce almost fifteen minutes worth of somewhat politically correct material that is almost Generation Snowflake friendly.
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Sunday, June 9. 2019
This is a bit of a follow-up episode to my 'Making A Cold Smoker' video, where I take you through all the steps necessary to cure and smoke some top quality badass bitchin' bacon. The whole process shouldn't take you any longer than nine or ten days, but the end result is worth all the effort.
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Monday, May 27. 2019
On this episode I go on a little overnight hammock camp with my good friends Dawn and Ray to a nearby woodland setting. This is the politically incorrect edit of the trip, so if you've got kids watching either put earmuffs on them or go check out Ray's (more politically correct) version of the trip here.
This campsite is a fantastic place which the owners like to keep relatively quiet and low key, however, I got invited along because my friends had been there before.
The owners of this woodland promote a more rustic camping experience which is set in a beautiful piece of Scottish woodland. With a small selection of bothy/cabin-like buildings dotted around the area, the pitches are well spaced out, each with its own fire pit and spacious surroundings.
This is a truly fantastic place which is a well-kept local secret, and I'll hopefully be returning to it again in the not too distant future.
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Friday, May 17. 2019
On this episode I show you how to build a cold smoker from an old pedal bin before running it through a couple of beta tests. This video was inspired by YouTube channel 'English Country Life' and their excellent series on how to home cure bacon.
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Sunday, April 28. 2019
A trip to Loch Tummel to spend the Easter weekend with friends.
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Sunday, March 17. 2019
Perhaps a slightly overdramatic title, but sometimes things just don't quite pan out the way you intended.
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Tuesday, March 12. 2019
On this episode I run through my kit list for a forthcoming 4 to 5 day trip, go on a little woodland recce to try scope out a suitable location for building a bushcraft shelter, and showcase my wood roaster & kettle smoker.
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Monday, February 25. 2019
On this episode of 'The Bushcraft Bothier' I go on a little recce to scope out an alleged bushcraft camp and shelter that is rumoured to exist in some local woodlands, in an effort to get a few ideas of what might be involved in a potential future project of my own.
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Wednesday, February 6. 2019
The Cateran Trail is a 103 kilometre (64 mile) circular walking route in central Scotland. The trail has no official beginning or end and can be joined at any stage. The route was established, way-marked and is now maintained by, the Perth & Kinross Countryside Trust. A variety of terrain is covered by the trail including farmland, mountains and forest. The path itself follows old drovers' roads, minor paved roads and farm tracks and can be walked in four or five days. It is now designated as one of Scotland's Great Trails by Scottish Natural Heritage. As of 2018 it was estimated that around 8,000 people were using the trail each year.
The trail is named after the Caterans: groups of highlanders who from the 1300s until the 1600s supplemented their subsistence income by rustling cattle from the relatively prosperous glens before driving them back to the upland areas. It goes without saying that those living in the glens did not appreciate the activities of the Caterans and raids were often followed by running battles with many killed as cattle owners tried to recover their livestock.
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Friday, January 4. 2019
There are many ways to spend the transition from one year to the next. Some people go to the pub, others spend it with close family and friends. For me, I opted for a two night winter camp at Loch Tummel where I pitched my teepee tent and centrally heated it with an Aladdin Blue Flame Paraffin Heater.
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Monday, December 31. 2018
It's that time of year again when I feel the urge to get out of Dodge and escape the excessive consumerism that has sadly become Christmas. On this episode I catch a cold, eat lots of steak, slow cook a leg of lamb on top of the bothy stove, talk about my wood processing tools, and listen to an audiobook about 'The Skinwalker'. This video is concluded with a nice little time-lapse of my walk out on Boxing Day using my new GoPro Hero 7 Black. So join me, ladies and gentlemen, for my 2018 Xmas Avoidance Strategy (or 'Brexmas' as I have come to refer to it) and maybe next year you too will make the decision to escape what has ultimately become nothing other than a huge commercial anti-climax.
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Thursday, November 8. 2018
After saving a pile of cash from undergoing the Sober October ordeal, I recently decided to invest in a new action camera: the GoPro Hero 7 Black. So, in order to test it out I decided to take it on a solo overnighter to a remote Scottish bothy. All the footage was shot at 2.7k as I wasn't sure how long the memory card would last, however, in retrospect I probably should've shot everything in 4k to get a better idea of the quality. You may however notice that I made a bit of a schoolboy error near the end of the video by forgetting that I'd been playing around with the zoom function, however, all in all, I'm pretty happy with the footage captured, especially the quality of the audio which has been a bone of contention for me in all my previous videos.
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Sunday, October 28. 2018
A little intro/preview video I put together to help promote my YouTube channel. Note: Music is written and performed by Lung (a band I played bass for during the late 1990s).
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Monday, October 8. 2018
On this episode of 'The Bushcraft Bothier' I deviate somewhat from my usual format of wild camping and visiting remote mountain bothies, to bring you a 101 on baking sourdough bread.
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Tuesday, October 2. 2018
A two-nighter at one of my favourite mountain bothies - where spoons were carved, cheeseburgers were munched and social anxiety was discussed.
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Monday, August 20. 2018
A two-nighter involving a wild woodland hammock camp followed by a bothy and a spot of unsuccessful fishing.
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Friday, July 20. 2018
The U.S. and the Russians had over 25,000 nuclear tipped missiles pointed at each other during the Cold War (still have over 8000) and we almost destroyed all life on the planet accidentally several times. Not just once. Several times we nearly set off the goddam apocalypse by a misplaced cunt hair.
Here's the deal. I know Trump sucks. But he's a product of the Cold War like we all are. I think whether you're a Republican or Democrat, dove or hawk, deep inside, we all knew eventually one day we would make friends with the Russians because the Cold War was fucking insane. After Trump's Helsinki steaming turd trip does anyone find it just a tad hilarious to watch all these geriatric blind distempered hawk Cold Warriors lose their shit? Come on. It's comedy gold. Obviously, he's not doing what they want him to do. Something's up and they're not getting their way like they ALWAYS get their way. This time he didn't say what they wanted him to say. So the fuck what? The CIA has been treating our own presidents like their own puppets to put their OWN words up our leader's ass. Maybe this time a President said, "You know what? I'm cool. I can speak for myself thank you. You do know you work for me right? Not the other way around. I'm the elected leader. No one really elects you. You guys have been slinging the same shit for 70 fucking years and not much has changed. Whether you like me or not that's how our system works. I think, if I'm not mistaken, Eisenhower warned us about you fuckers."
What did Mueller do during the Anthrax Attack? Oh, right I forgot, he tried to pin it on a lone nut when it couldn't have possibly been Bruce Ivins. It would have taken him 6000 man hours to make those spores. Have we ever seen the 70 some videos of what hit the Pentagon? Nope. The FBI couldn't even get all the hijackers straight because more than a few showed up alive after they were dead. They never even said "Anyone can fake a passport!". They just wanted us to believe they were dangerous, clever, evil terrorists from the Middle East somewhere, so we could start Operation Oil Change. And we were told our intelligence agencies dropped the ball on 9-11. Mistakes were made. I think they were still high on that MKULTRA acid when they came up with the plan if you ask me. That shit was pure Sandoz.
I don't support Trump but I also don't support our intelligence agencies. They're not doing what you think they're doing. They want more war like a hard on. Trump probably doesn't want to go into Syria. They've been planning this war on terror since before 9-11. Remember the plan? They want to control 7 countries in the Middle East and Syria is the next one on the chopping block. Trump is probably getting cold feet because he knows it's going to mean war with Russia. He's stupid but not that stupid. In the Tao te Ching it says you'll always be safe with a selfish man because he wants to save his own golf course and own back yard. An ideological man will fuck shit up every time. The higher the ideals the lower the results. A real Capitalist like Trump wants to save his own ass. He's practical. Fuck ideals. What are they worth when we're all dead?
Continue reading "James Inman: The Cold War & The Trump Treason Rabbit Hole"
Wednesday, July 11. 2018
A three day solo adventure involving me burning my fingers, wild camping and bagging my 100th bothy.
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Monday, July 9. 2018
Many moons ago I played bass guitar in a band called Jonestown. Recently I acquired a rare recording of our first ever gig at The Bongo Club in Edinburgh (circa 2003), where we supported The Starry Wisdom Cult.
All music and lyrics written and performed by Jonestown.
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Thursday, June 7. 2018
A three day solo adventure into the Scottish wilderness to scope out a couple of bothies and spend an evening wild hammock camping.
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Sunday, May 20. 2018
Creating an ember from friction using an elderberry bow drill.
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Sunday, May 13. 2018
'I'm Scared of It All' is a poem written by Robert William Service.
This poem is spoken through someone that feels trapped in "the haste and the waste of it all", meaning civilisation. The first stanza voices the speaker's distaste of the "terrible town" and all of the big flashy aspects of society. Then, in the second stanza, he talks of the solitude and rawness of different aspects of the wild and states, "I know that I'm safer up there". Throughout the third stanza, the reader gets a description of the unfriendly faces of society and how lonely the speaker feels despite the crowds surrounding him. This is followed by another stanza illustrating the highlights of nature and then two criticising society's materialism. In the final stanzas, the speaker concludes that, "nature is best after all" and decides to abandon civilisation for the wild.
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Monday, April 30. 2018
A circular five day hiking trip through Scotland's Cairngorms exploring the mountain bothies in the region.
Cairngorms National Park is located in northeast Scotland. Officially established as a park in 2003, it is Britain’s largest National Park and located within the heart of the Scottish Highlands. The park has a large upland plateau, and is categorised as a “protected landscape” which allows for limited development within its borders.
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Wednesday, April 18. 2018
Video documenting my April 2018 attempt of the Cape Wrath Trail.
The trail chewed me up and spat me out of course, but my unfinished business with this hike may be tackled again sooner than expected.
The Cape Wrath Trail (CWT) is a hiking route that runs through the Scottish Highlands and along the west coast of Scotland.
Depending on the route taken it can be well over 200 miles in length and is considered to be one of the most challenging long distance walks in the UK. Despite not being an officially recognised National Trail it has grown to be one of the most highly regarded backpacking routes, attracting hikers from around the world.
Officially the trail is not endorsed by the Scottish Natural Heritage and it is not waymarked or signposted. Facilities along the trail are also minimal and it covers some of the remotest parts of mainland Britain.
The CWT is also part of the International Appalachian Trail (IAT) and with many remote mountain bothies en route, it is a bothy bagging extravaganza.
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Thursday, January 4. 2018
Tuesday, November 7. 2017
Saturday, October 28. 2017
Never trust anyone with an extreme aversion to conspiracy. If they loath conspiracy theories and they're not a covert agent or provocateur themselves, they might as well be since they're doing the same work for them, wittingly or unwittingly. That may sound a tad harsh but trust me, the next time you're confronted by one of these rationalist con-artists and their incessant ridicule, be proud, stand firm and boldly proclaim, "You're goddam right I'm a conspiracy theorist! Fuck you."
Look, I get it. I know what it feels like to be rational, to grasp objective reality without bias. We’ve all experimented with it in high school but the conspiracy theorist, even the craziest test sample have always seemed much more curious to me. Even if they follow all the wrong paths, using flawed epistemology and illogic, at the very least they're still poking around, looking deeper, embracing their insanity or pushing limits. The rationalist seems too confident to me, too afraid to be wrong, too worried what other people think, too stuck in the way things are and too grounded in orthodox.
I'd much rather be batshit, out of my mind insane any day of the week than a reasonable man who sees everything at face value or views the world as it seems to be. To see each part for what it is, in itself and mistaking that part for the whole only leads to our inevitable doom, the abyss of boredom. The calculating mind skilled at complexity can build a car and fly it to the moon, it may one day count each star in the known universe, but do you have the insight and natural instinct to step outside and ponder the totality? The entire vista? The Alpha and Omega with all the dots connected?
Conspiracy theorists are the idea generators, creative thinkers and collectors of lost trivia, history and myth. They’re not serious philosophers but more like risk taking ecstatic thinkers, unattached to ideas, comfortable juggling all kinds of thoughts, points of view, rational or irrational, old and new. Not afraid to think, "What if everything is fucked? What if it’s all been covertly planned and set in motion by highly trained unicorns?" The rationalist will tell their little jokes and call this man a paranoid grotesque miscreant, but you could just as easily say this unqualified clown is not afraid to face his darkest most frightening ideas and visions. The scientific rationalists are too careful of the ideas they cultivate akin to the religious priest. Ever notice how they both have the same concern over what other people think? Always correcting wrong words, thoughts and ideas as if the whole world will explode into a geyser of purple molten shit without their solemn advice or official answer?
The conspiracy theorist is a lot like the artist or fool. They don't care if they're right or wrong so much as they want more ideas, more points of view and every scrap of information until everything is connected. Seeing a vast conspiracy everywhere is also like seeing illusion everywhere which is an unlimited skepticism too, until you begin to doubt your own mind, the deepest conspiracy.
"The fool who persists in his folly will become wise." - William Blake
I took a self-help class years ago back in the 90s at a Unitarian Church. We had a workbook, it was mostly psychology, dream work and imagination, etc. There were only three people in the group. One guy was an extremely sane, levelheaded Federal judge. The other was the richest man in Sioux City, Iowa - Radio Ray (he invented some kind of transistor for RCA). And then there’s me, comedian, conspiracy nut, Buddhist, impoverished artist. In one of the exercises we were told to lay back, close our eyes and imagine our own death. When it was time to tell our stories, the Federal judge said he saw himself dying in bed, old and grey drifting off to sleep. Radio Ray said he’d die at home in his bed, old, with his family all around - peacefully falling to sleep. When my turn came, without thinking said, "I saw myself die in some kind of biological or nuclear holocaust with fire falling from the sky and people running through the streets screaming and looting.” They both just sat there and stared at me. The look on their face was, “What the fuck is wrong with you?” I started feeling kind of uncomfortable, so I said, “What? You’ve never worried about the apocalypse? Am I the only one who thinks about that? Was I doing this wrong?” After the acute Dementophobia (fear of insanity) passed there was a brief moment when I felt kind of sorry for both of them in a weird way, stuck with their conventional imagination and corny thoughts on death but then, I was like, fuck it. They’re sane and rich. I need a beer. What time is it? I should get out of here.
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Friday, October 27. 2017
I'm skeptical of this whole Russian hacking obsession. Everyone seems to agree on it. All 17 intelligence agencies claim Russian involvement in the 2016 election. It's all everyone seems to want to talk about. Hmmm let's see, when's the last time all the intelligence agencies agreed on something? Oh that's right, it was WMDs in Iraq. Turned out they were wrong about that too. All of them. Does anyone ask how the fuck that happened? How did all of our intelligence agencies get WMDs in Iraq so wrong without ONE calling bullshit? The only reasonable way it could have happened is if they wanted to be wrong. Essentially that's what they did. They tricked everyone. Now we're told to just trust them again (when they were ALL wrong before) yet this time it's for real.
I'm not saying this because I support Trump. I can't stand the guy. I also know he's said, when speaking of the Russian hacking intelligence assessment, "These are the same people who told us there were WMD's in Iraq." But Cheeto Jesus is not the first person to ever say that. And it wasn't that hard of an argument for him to make. But once he said it everyone else stopped saying it because they didn't want to sound like they support Our Landlord in Chief. But the truth is the truth regardless of who says it, even if it's Fuckface Von Clownstick. So what, he said one true thing.
My problem with all of this Russian coverage since the election is what they're not talking about. They're not talking about how we could have hacked our own election. We write the software for the Diebold voting machines. We run the election servers. Anyone could have given those DNC emails to WikiLeaks. We have our own ways of rigging an election. We've been doing it all over the world for years.
Here's a story I find a bit creepy. A hard drive on one of our election servers got erased. Do you seriously think Russia has the ability to infiltrate the IT department and plant a technician inside the Center for Elections Systems at Kennesaw State University to completely wipe a server the very day after a lawsuit was filed to retrieve that very data? No they don't and it doesn't even matter if you think Russia might have been responsible because we admitted we wiped it. The IT guys, the technicians who run those servers said they did it. They even made a statement and admitted the server wiping was due to "standard operating procedures".
Oh really? I'll let you in on a little secret. IT guys rarely delete anything unless someone specifically tells them to. It's way too easy to save stuff now on another hard drive. Hard drive space is cheap. They may have deleted crap back when they used floppy discs but today you can buy a four terabyte hard drive for $99 (this one looks like a sweet deal). Do you have any idea how much simple election data you can save on a four terabyte hard drive? It would be close to all the data from every election in the U.S. since we started voting for fuck sake. No one, (if they know what they're doing and they do because they're running the goddam server) deletes shit these days unless they have to wipe it or they're trying to hide something.
Anyway I thought this story was interesting because it's something no one is talking about while all 17 intelligence agencies are pointing in the opposite direction. (AP article).
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Sunday, October 8. 2017
The Las Vegas shooting conspiracy! Yeah whatever. Don't care. What I find interesting is occasionally I'll come across articles on conspiracy theorists, their warped epistemology, their need to feel unique or in possession of insider knowledge, "I know things you don't know", etc. My only problem with this theory is the sheer number of intelligent, rational, sane, professionals who still believe something is not quite right with the official story on 9-11. I know you can find lists online of 9-11 Truthers with master's degrees, architects and engineers, Ph.D.s, scientists, military, former CIA agents, but what I'm talking about are those that I personally know. These are people I'm friends with, college professors, people with master's degrees, one has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology - who fully believe something is still fucked with 9-11.
My only question is this: How is it, these types (who don't believe any other conspiracy theories like vaccine, flat earth, fake moon landing, New World Order, government gun grab, Sandy Hook or Las Vegas shooter crap) are able to accept 9-11 Truth conspiracy when they're obviously not the type to talk about it openly, don't want to be seen as special, know the definition of epistemology and are quite literally very sane people? How does that happen? Now what?
Several Zogby polls over the years have shown at least 50% of the American population don't believe the official story when there is a virtual corporate media blackout on 9-11 Truth (and most progressive media too like The Nation, PBS and Democracy Now) yet at the same time, in addition, when they do mention 9-11 conspiracy over the corporate airwaves it's been completely ridiculed or explained away for the past 16 years. How is it that many people are still delusional? How are they unable to trust the mainstream view on 9-11? How is it the private perception (just sitting around at a bar, family reunion or casual conversation) and the public perception (NY Times, MSNBC, CNN, Fox, BBC, History Channel) are at such odds? Half the people I talk to in private don't believe the official story on 9-11 but it's the complete opposite when you turn on the TV. That, in and of itself, is frightening to me for some reason.
And this Anti-Conspiracy Trust Me The Official Story Is Totally Legit guitar solo has been going on for literally 16 years. On November 10th 2001 George W. Bush gave a speech at the U.N. and said this:
"Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of September the 11th; malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists, themselves, away from the guilty."
That was only one month after the attacks. Wrap that around your Adderall XR 20 mg addled brain. Remember, this is way back when everyone was still shitting their pants, we were on the doorstep of Armageddon and nobody was even thinking about conspiracy, very few people were asking questions online, there were no 9-11 conspiracy books, websites or YouTube documentaries. None of my friends were talking about it. It's just creepy to me that he would say that. I'll bet half the assembly, in a deep coma bored out of their minds, cracked open their eyes thinking: "Wait, what? What the fuck did he just say? Conspiracy? Jesus Tits!"
Telling someone to not think about conspiracy one month after 9-11 is like coming home at three in the morning saying, "Honey, before I tell you why I'm late and the horrifying experience I just had I want you to know I wasn't out with any hookers so don't think about hookers. Anyone that might tell you I was with a hooker is feeding you malicious lies to shift the blame. I know this looks weird because I'm still covered in cocaine, I smell like Chanel No. 5, there's a very clear video online of my pants coming straight down at freefall speed, all three of our cars are wrecked even though the criminals hit only two, I have five frames of a surveillance video of whatever it was that hit our fourth car, I didn't do that myself but you can't see anything at all in the video anyway. Don't worry about it. I do have 70 other videos of the same wreck but I can't show you those for your own safety. The police were trying to stop these assholes from wrecking into our cars but all their vehicles were in Wichita or some shit getting worked on. They only had like two cop cars available to protect the entire town so they didn't make it in time. The fucking dispatch was all confused. You know how those 911 calls can be so crazy. Anyway, it wasn't hookers so don't even think about hookers, and cocaine, but we're going to need more cocaine, so I'm going to need more money."
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