You might be able to figure this one out from the title. I’m nothing if not helpful!

Last week I spent part of the afternoon at the bottom of the sea. Well, in a sense. As part of a day long introduction to diving medicine at the DDRC in Plymouth (formely the Diving Disease Research Centre) I took part in a chamber dive which involved compressing the air within a sealed chamber to an equivalent pressure of 30msw (meters sea water). This happened quite rapidly, taking two to three minutes. Before we commenced, our chamber attendant dropped a plastic cup which fell as you’d expect it to. He also informed us that several ping pong balls were stashed around the chamber.

During the descent several of the ping pong balls exploded in dramatic fashion. You have to clear your ears constantly too, which was the scariest part. I sometimes struggle to equalise the pressure in my ears so this was a point of concern, but I managed to stay on top of it and avoid ear barotrauma which can be nasty. The heat is also incredible, rising from room temperature to upwards of 30 to 35 degrees over a short period.

At 30msw, the plastic cup almost floated to the ground. The density of the air was much greater, and the beginning of nitrogen narcosis was setting. One of our group members started giggling and I managed to just about keep it together. Narcosis is supposed to be like being drunk without the hangover. A prospect that is quite terrifying if you’re depending on someone else to keep you alive.

On the return to the surface the temperature plummeted. The first stage of the ascent was to 6m with a stop, then 3m where we had to breathe oxygen from masks. It was quite a lot of effort to breathe but it’s important to create a gradient to get rid of any accumulated inert gas – the longer you spend at depth, the more nitrogen accumulates in your blood and tissues and you risk “the bends” or decompression sickness if you don’t make enough decompression stops. Breathing oxygen also reduces the length of decompression time required.

It was a fascinating experience from a non-diver perspective and an experience unlike anything I’ve ever done before. It provided some insight into the effects of pressure at depth and the problems that can arise.

Desk Update

After stripping the darker finish, I gave the desk a couple of coats of Danish oil to help preserve it. The surface isn’t going to get heavy use but sealing it seemed like a sensible choice. I filled the holes left from the radiator and painted that portion of wall magnolia to tidy it up. This is going to be a sewing table if you couldn’t tell from the machines.

Temu-too (or two?)

The items from Temu arrived remarkably quickly compared to my old experiences of DX.com where you place an order then forget about it, and have a pleasant surprise when a package arrives after two months. For the most parts, it’s what I expected. The stuff is cheap, and some of it of dubious quality, but for small ditzel-y things then it’s fine. The app does bombard you with offers and other nonsense so it’s hard to really recommend. There are items which are much more expensive on Amazon, and for those I’d say it’s worth it. The customer service is somewhat lacking though and there’s no real troubleshooting if anything goes wrong. For those reasons and more, I won’t be embracing Temu as wholeheartedly as the app would like.

Tears of the Kingdom

I’ve been playing a decent amount of Tears of the Kingdom over the last week or so. The puzzle aspects of it are compelling and some of the results hilarious. In trying to move a platform horizontally towards a goal, I sent it shooting into space at great pace. It was unexpected and made me burst out laughing. This game is packed with moments of joy which are entirely spontaneous, and it’s really something when one of your horrifying contraptions does what its supposed to. The combat is quite satisfying too although I do tend to die a lot. There’s a definite difficulty spike in some areas but I enjoy that challenge, and it may be a case of rethinking your approach rather than repeating the same doomed actions.

Back to games and DIY, as usual.