First episode of To Boldly Go is online at the following http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0195rlg/To_Boldly_Go_Down/

By controlling the gases that we are breathing we are taking greater control of what is being dissolved in the blood itself, most notably the amounts of oxygen and of nitrogen. With simple Nitrox mixes (ranging from normal air with about 22% oxygen through to 50% oxygen) you can strike a ballance between the depth you are going to and the length of time you are going to be under for. Longer dive times will require more worry about the amount of Nitrogen dissolved in the blood, so having a mix with a greater amount of oxygen in it can help to remove this as an issue.

Ultimately what this is is an example of how, having studied what the human body requires in order to operate additional equipment has been added to enhance the performance and ability to function in new environments.

This in turn led to me thinking about how exactly we can modify our bodies behaviour. I posit that there are three categories we can classify modifications in,

Additions: Building equipment that joins onto the human body in some way. This could be in the form of the breathing gear for diving, sub-dermal implants, pacemakers and at a very crude level piercings and tattoos could also be considered to come under this.

Physical Training: The most obvious item that falls under this category is exercise. I hesitated as to whether this might classify as a hack or not and indeed you may notice that through this I’ve used the word hack less and less as my assuredness that it applies to all of these things waned. However ultimately though I think that specific concentrated efforts of particular types could be called hacks. By training in particular ways you can condition different muscles to be more attuned to particular motions.

Mental Trickery: A surprisingly broad category this once you start to consider it. At a basic level, forms of relaxation and meditation could be lumped into this, as through a decided action we are altering our perceptions and behaviours. I think that sensory stimuli could be classified here as well though, meaning that, for example, Heston Blumenthal’s use of music to alter peoples’ perceptions of flavour could be considered as mental trickery.

Now I’m aware that a lot of forms of activity may fall under more than one of these. A diver for instance may use equipment to facilitate his breathing, physical training to ensure he is fit enough to operate in the environment and mentally he needs to stay as relaxed as possible. The nature of the task hasn’t changed, however through a combination of all these factors he has improved his ability to operate in the new environment.

It becomes an interesting mental exercise to consider what might be done in order to perform differently or better under different circumstances. For instance could a different sensory input effect our ability to endure or use air more efficiently. Would a taste or a smell effect our bodies performance.

It also becomes interesting to start considering on a smaller scale what experiments on could be performed on yourself. Personal hacking if you will.

The music itself was also amazing and, combined with the enormous screens showing montages of videos and sections from the games was an awesome show. It did make me realise how much though I’ve seen of art from the Final Fantasy series and it’s influence on various media but how little I’ve actually played of the majority of the games. There are bits of a number of the games I have played at various times but I’ve never completed the stories of most of them and I haven’t played any of the newer games in the series at all.

So we’ve decided to work our way through them.

Now the decision to do this is a big one for me. I’m notoriously bad at finishing games, even when I enjoy the plot and the atmosphere they portray. I’ll get to a part that takes me more than a few goes to surpass and then I start to lose heart and eventually get distracted. Hopefully with a bit of help though I can stick with them this time.

So to begin the first of the games, Final Fantasy I, as it was re-released for the Game boy Advance.

Starting the game is a familiar thing for anybody who has ever played one of the many many Japanese RPG games out there. It’s a top down world view and combat is wonderfully simple and turn based. It’s almost the exact formula that Pokemon has made Nintendo an absolute bucket load with (although this was produced first). I love this and will openly admit to having played two of the Pokemon games to completion and having dabbled with several of the others.

My choice of starting characters has very little basis in knowledge of the game (although they seem to be serving me well so far). A dark mage was a must, simply for coolness sake and, although I like the white mages costume too (and saw a girl with an awesome dress based on this at Distant Worlds) the aristocratic musketeer look of the Red Mage won out on this occasion, especially as he has far better combat stats.

To balance these two I then have a warrior and a monk. So my party hopefully has a good balance of Straightforward combat and magic capable characters. After maybe 5 hours of intermittent play they came to be something like this,

and now after about 23 hours of play they look like this,

As you can see things have advanced a lot. I’ve got two crystals now (of the four) so I’m guessing that I might be in the region of half way through (wild stab in the dark really). SO far, as can probably be told by the fact that I’m still playing, it is good fun. I’ve explored the main lands about as much as I can, especially now that I have my airship and know the general lay of the land. Even so there are still new bits I’m finding to get into underneath and new dungeons I’m finding to explore which bring their own new challenges. It really has settled into an exploring to advance the story though a lot of the time. Once you’re in a dungeon you do tend to settle into a routine until the objective is obtained (the dungeon itself rarely contains much in the way of puzzling) and then puzzle comes from trying to work out where to take your key items and what to do next.

Having said all that I haven’t felt the need to do much in the way of grinding and it does play as if I’m trying to advance the story of this small band of saviours and rescue the land. That in and of itself I think is what Square have tried to keep, with varying degrees of success throughout all the FF games – you are part of the plot.

It’s not all doom and gloom either and throughout the game there lots of little moments of humour and referencing,

Time will tell where the story will take me (although I’m sure a few people could tell me already) but as of now, I think it’s going pretty well.

I’m not normally one for writing about other people specifically or about personal matters online but I feel that in remembrance of him something is deserved. It took me a little time to consider what I would write about. His sailing was certainly a major part of his life, as was his work on the early days of the transatlantic cable and his position in the community. He helped others in so many ways and was a respected member of the greater community of Oban.

I’d like to write something about him but I think it’s going to take some time and care to do it justice so I’m afraid for now at least it will have to wait. For now though I’m just going to post this picture from West Highland Yachting Week 2005 when he was still sailing and winning

As a cyclist, it seems to be a common theme to encounter a lot of people who view the road sharing between cyclists and motorists as a battle of two sides. Each side in this battle is clearly defined and must abhor the other, fearing them for the crazy, unpredictable ways. In most cases, as I’m sure you know this is bollocks. The majority of both sides are relatively calm and polite, although they may exhibit the odd moment of minor internal anger have no desire to kill, maim or otherwise harm the other side. There are however things both cyclists and motorists can do to ensure all round happy road use.

Motorists are expected to know, be aware of and follow the highway code and many of the relevant things are clearly documented (give space when passing, wait for slower moving road users to move out the way etc). So these are the easy ones (and yes they even apply to you oh drivers of white vans). Cyclists however don’t have this same expectation and I believe that this drives a lot of the anger against them from motorists. If cyclists want to be treated as road users then they need to behave as though they are road users.

This is if anything the key point that I wanted to make. Cyclists need to behave in a way that ensures that other road users see them as such. The most commonly broken rule for this is Traffic lights and pedestrian crossings. When these say stop, as a cyclist you may be a lot smaller and nimbler and wondrously good at avoiding things but this still means stop. Not charge when you think you can make it. Simply stop and wait. It won’t make everyone your friend, but it will help make sure that people know that your there and having to wait within the rules just like they are.

Of course there were still some beautiful boats, both of the ludicrously expensive and the immaculately crafted kinds. Among the ludicrously expensive were the lines of Sunseekers, Princess and Fairline boats which scarily nearly all sold during the show. Even the £13.7 million Sunseeker Predator 130 I’m led to believe sold, which I guess just goes to highlight how the financial situation really is double sided at present.

Of course there is a certain amount of craftsmanship in most of the boats, requiring careful molding and fitting out. However some of the wooden boats must take an amazing amount of work to produce. Even some of the little wooden dinghies show the days of work that have gone into them.

My choice of the boats would probably be one of the Oyster or Hanse yachts. I’m far more partial to the sailing boats than the enormous cruisers like the Sunseekers, the promise of being able to elegantly and efficiently cruise around without the enormous costs of fuel being an amazing draw for me. Of course some of the Oysters are fairly epic boats in themselves (http://www.oystermarine.com/) and an 80ft+ boat must take some serious handling. The Hanses ( http://www.hanseyachts.co.uk/ )are a little more modest really, coming in around 40ft, and I’ll confess I was quite partial to the shade of grey on some of their hulls.

In theory I should be offering some deep comment on electronics from the show, that being what I’m supposed to know about these days. I didn’t really get anything exciting from that side of things though and, if pushed I think the most exciting thing in that regard was the holographic display on the B&G stand which wasn’t actually a product.

All in all very little seems to change between years at the boat shows.

It’s damn close to 20 years old now ^_^

(Incase you’re wondering these were among the first properly portable GPS units and are rare like hens teeth.)

Alas the interviews didn’t really come to anything, but there are some exciting new plans afoot from myself an Nic, both of excitement and intellect…

Glastonbury came or went in all it’s awesomeness and troubles. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing, although on the whole I did enjoy myself. On the plus side there were some interesting bands, some interesting stalls and artistic things around. On the other hand I think that the reason Glastonbury is able to have all the things it has is also it’s biggest downfall – it’s size.

By being so large it seems to have drawn a large number of people who I think are there to get drunk and take drugs over everything else. Any political message Glastonbury has is lost on them and they do nothing to help with any political messages that the organisers wish to make being taken seriously. Especially, in mind at least the environmental messages. I’d really love to see an environmental impact assessment for the event, taking into account the litter, damage to the ground, the energy usages and the water pollution.

The smaller stages were where I enjoyed myself most, notably at the Avalon stage. Bands that perhaps aren’t quite so well known, but are also sometimes working a lot harder for their audiences respect. Two of my favourites from the whole thing and possibly the two best examples of the, Katzenjammer and Devotchka. Both were bands new to me who were in their own ways both amazing to watch and exceptionally skilled with the instruments (members in both bands had some awesome switches between instruments). Of course there was also Flogging Molly who were there too which was also an exceptionally good bit of showmanship.

For the future though I think smaller festivals are the way to go. Probably also festivals based around rocky/folky stuff are more suited to what I think I really enjoy. Much as I love dance music, the people that tend to be there most are completely mashed, which is fine up to a certain point. Beyond that point though it starts to simply become annoying.