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Duncan Iain MacLeod's Web Site
Although born in Dumfries in the Borders of Scotland, my formative years were spent on Lewis, in the Western Isles. My secondary school education was at the Nicolson Institute and then progressing to study quantity surveying (doing a year out in Hull). After graduating, I worked at Gatwick Airport as a Q.S., then moved to Darlington for the job of maintenance officer with a housing association; later working as a clerk with an electrical repair firm and got as far as my basic training with the TA RAMC.
I moved back to Lewis in 1995 and worked for the local Citizens Advice Bureau in Stornoway. Having been interested in computers since school, I decided to get some real qualifications in the topic by attending courses at the Lews Castle College. After studying there for a year, the next course available to me was a postgraduate IT course at The Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. Successfully passing the Certificate and Diploma stages, I then decided to work on my Information Systems Masters project part-time; completing it a year later in 1999.
I am now working full-time as an Instructor in IT/Computing at the Aberdeen College. Shortly after starting work, I was out on the roads of Aberdeenshire taking people through the Computers Don't Bite course. I also work part-time as a Lecturer, teaching evening classes, writing courses, and working in schools.
The RPG book project was sent to the publishers to be critiqued, and generally savaged. Although it seems to have reached that stage of limbo that eats up projects you put time into.
We've being playing around with an online psychometric test at work, I'm supposed to be a mastermind (honest!), a subset of the rationalist; though my boss reckons I'm more of an inspector - probably depends on the environment I'm in.
Events in 2000: finding it hard not to draw a smiley when writing the year 00; had my tonsils ripped out in February; trying to get accommodation sorted out; joined a gym in August, and sometimes managed to go 4 times a week, but haven't sorted out a diet for myself; won a badge for my score at the work's bowling night; congratulations to Carmen and Colin on the birth of James; spent most of the summer writing a Higher Still course for learning ops students, which led to another writing contract in the Autumn; failed again to get a promotion; upgraded to a Nokia 7110 phone but haven't been sad enough to investigate WAP properly.
Events in 2001: moved flats; made the New Year's resolutions to have no regrets [did quite well on that score], and wear a shirt and tie to work [almost managed this]; working on another writing contract for work; been described as a technoluddite; got 100% on the Internet ECDL exam; bought a Jack Vettriano print for the living room; was described as "the bestest Easter bunny ever"; did some part-time work at Peterhead Academy; got made an Anne Robinson mask; got promoted, bought myself a car for the job.
Events in 2002: made the New Year's resolutions to do more cooking and make my own lunch. Got given a Kandinsky print as a leaving present. Started my new job as a computing lecturer.
According to the death clock I will die on Monday June 20th, 2039.
Currently reading for pleasure: The Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian.
Last 5 albums bought: "Q: Best of 2001"; "The Commitments" soundtrack; Curtis Mayfield "Live in Chicago"; "Mobo 2000"; Cure "Paris".
Newsgroups subscribed to: rec.games.miniatures.historical
Interesting Links - in my humble opinion (also see my work-related bookmarks)
- Favourite Pages
Media: Virgin Radio, BBC Radio 4, Stornoway Gazette (also as part of Hebrides.com), Channel 4, CNN European site, The Press & Journal, Aberdeen Independent, The Electronic Telegraph, The Independent, Sailor's Project Gutenberg Server [Maryland, USA], the Guardian's Education site.
Worldwide: There is a very good index of webcams at the EarthCam site. Check out this Earth-viewer, 'live' pictures from satellites (can also select the city you are interested in).
Travelling home: Calmac, Citylink, The Trainline.
- Maps and Geography
Map Libraries and Map Archives - worldwide, Library of Congress - Geography and Map Reading Room, Bodleian Library Map Room, John Speed's maps at the sites of Richard Nicholson and Heritage Publishing, Ordnance Survey, VisitBritain, Strolling, National Geographic, Multi Media Mapping (very good maps of UK), Perry-Castaņeda Library Map Collection, Nexor satellite weather photos, UK Street Map (good details), MapQuest (US with some non-US cities), GPS resource library, Maps.Com - its a shop, but enough freebies to use. Maps and photographs from Microsoft's TerraServer.
- Plays, movies, music and other cultural stuff
Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards!, Romeo & Juliet, The Rolling Stones, Malt Whisky File, Clan MacLeod Society, M*A*S*H, The Ashvale (chip shops), E. Hane's unofficial Runrig site, The Doors, Isaac Asimov, David Bowie, J.J. Smith (I'm on his new album), Danger Mouse, D. Francis' ReBoot page, Backgammon, The L-Space Web (Pratchett), J. S. Bolhafner's "Cerebus The Aardvark" sites, The Dark Knight, Talking Heads, Alt.Culture (an interesting book on mid-90's society), the complete works of Shakespeare, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (nuff said!), Dawson's Creek, Jurassic Punk (video clips and trailers from movies, animations and cartoons). 101 Incredibly Useful Sites, and Yahoo's useful site of the day, Thundercats out-takes, the Sledge Hammer! Arsenal, the wonderful etch-a-sketch, Mr Benn. The West Wing has made it to British television, and a good episode guide can be found at MightyBigTV. The fun Scalextric game. Getting into Daria on Channel 5. Build yourself out of Java lego blocks.
