About Outsidecontext.com
The Iron Church – Why Do People Quit Fitness Training?
And what the science — and AI — say about how to stop them. I would leave work after a long, hard day in the city and simply have no energy to attend my GoJu Ryu Karate training. I’d call my wife, as though for permission to quit, and she would always talk me into going. So, I did. I would always call her back after the lesson, almost high from how awesome it felt to use my body. She knew exactly what to say to get me to go, always motivating and tailoring her advice to me. So perhaps people quit fitness because the system they are using treats them like the average of their demographic — just a spreadsheet entry saying “Male, 28, Intermediate” — rather than a unique athlete whose capacity shifts from week to week. Life intervenes on us all, and real psychology is incompatible [...]
The Iron Church: Why Most ‘AI’ Fitness Apps Are Just Marketing (And How I Built One That Actually Works)
7 AI Pipelines ? 5 AI Prompts, 2 Deterministic Engines. Discover the technical strategy behind building The Iron Church—an AI fitness trainer defined by periodisation science, multi-prompt architecture, and serious consideration of your real equipment. This article is the technical deep dive for anyone who wants to understand what “AI-generated workouts” actually mean when you refuse to cut corners. Introduction This isn’t a story about prompts. It’s a story about why real AI products need state, constraints, and domain logic. There is a specific kind of professional irritation that arises when you spend your working life directing and building real AI systems, only to encounter something that treats AI as merely a marketing feature. AI on the box, we call it. Once you are trained to notice it, you spot it immediately, with telltale signs and vague claims. Such as “personalisation” claims, which amount to little more than a [...]
Announcing my new book: Trials & Tea Ceremonies: Misadventures in Far Away Places.
A hilarious and heartfelt journey for anyone who has ever wondered: "Is this it?" What happens when the life you've built no longer feels like your own? For Basho, turning thirty felt less like a milestone and more like "a splinter in the mind." A series of personal crises convinced him and his partner, Cesca, to make a radical choice. They walked away from their careers, put their lives in storage, and set off on a year-long, unscripted adventure across a dozen countries to answer one question: Is there a better way to live? Their path takes them from the rugged shores of Australia to the spiritual heart of India and the serene temples of Japan. But between the moments of transcendent beauty, a deeper, wilder journey unfolds. They must face down spitting alpacas, chaotic farm hosts, a terrifying encounter with the world’s largest spider in a Laotian toilet, [...]
The day I met the Buddha, and killed him
Delhi. Many people say they have “done” Delhi, but in all honesty they haven’t. They have perhaps done the tourist parts of New Delhi, or maybe spent some time in an Ashram there – which amounts [...]
Basho rewrites: Rime of the Frostmaiden – Defeating Auril, DM’s guide and ending
**Caution: this post contains spoilers for Rime of the Frostmaiden!** When I was a child, I had no one to play Dungeons & Dragons with. Now, I am 46 and play with my own children. Yes - I [...]
What is Daoism/Taoism?
Before we start I should add a caveat to this article: I am a philosopher and a Daoist. As such, I suppose, I am open to accusations of bias and a lack of objectivity. This is unavoidable. However, if one [...]
Children of the Red Rose
**Caution this post contains spoilers for Children of the Red Rose!** When I was a child, I had no one to play Dungeons and Dragons with, it being the 80’s and the game not being popular here in the [...]
The Hidden Context in some Great Movies
I love the cinema and movies. I also make films myself. What stared as a simple passion for the action and adventure in films has become a life long urge to understand what the filmmaker, [...]
“The Backroad to Bures”
"The Backroad to Bures" by Basho AI image upscaled from 2019. It would make a lovely computer background.
Varanasi City of Gods – Special Edition
How does it make one feel to be in one of the most “holy” cities in the world?
Jawbreaker – Ultimate AI Upscaled 4k edition
I was at the gym and, as usual, I was watching downloaded films on the gym's TV while cycling or rowing. I decided to watch the documentary "Samsara" by Ron Fricke and was amazed to see that I had [...]
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist | Dungeons & Dragons
**Caution this post contains spoilers for WDH!** My players (9-year-old children, my wife and her 70+-year-old mother) just completed Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, and there follows my write up of the adventure. The piplins! [...]
Remembering Catherine
"Remembering Catherine" by Basho Today, on the anniversary of her passing, I present a new painting; a present for my mother in law. This digital portrait was painted in Rebelle 5 Pro.
And so I went for a walk…
"And so I went for a walk..." by Basho Painted by hand onto a Microsoft Surface Studio 2 in the software "Rebelle" using a digital stylus. This is near the village of "Mount Bures, Suffolk, UK" [...]
Basho rewrites: Rime of the Frostmaiden – Destruction’s Light.
**Caution this post contains spoilers for Destruction's Light!** When I was a child, I had no one to play Dungeons & Dragons with. Now, I am 45 and play with my own children. Yes - I built my [...]
“Countryside walk” – Digital Watercolour
"Countryside walk" by Basho Painted in Rebelle 3.
Kyoto, Nara, Himeji, green tea and finding inner peace
I have written before about travellers wanting a point to it all, to travelling. In part this is perhaps seen as them wanting to justify the vast cost of travel; to have a point for spending all that money, [...]
“Morgan” – Digital Watercolour
"Morgan" by Basho Painted in Rebelle 3.
Mount Wudang and the Meaning of Life
In China, Daoist temples atop mountains are so numerous that there must be something about these high places that answers a longing for cliff edges and being above the clouds. A simplistic analysis of this, one using that most ignoble [...]
The Purpose of Travel – Now Published!
We often take arriving at the destination to be the purpose of travel. Taken in this way the journey itself is not the point, rather it is the serious business of transporting our bodies from one place to another. Getting [...]
Yaks for tea and Tibetan Temples. Living the high life in Shangri-la
"You have to imagine," said the man in broken English, "that this..." he gestured his hands at the view in front of us, "big lake... flood wide and deep... great water!" He broke into a wide toothy smile.
A Wild Sheep Chase
**Caution this post contains spoilers for The Wild Sheep Chase!** When I was a child, I had no one to play Dungeons and Dragons with, it being the 80’s and the game not being popular here in the United [...]
Basho’s bonus modules: Rime of the Frostmaiden – an Adventure with Pirates
When I was a child, I had no one to play Dungeons & Dragons with. Now, I am 45 and play with my own children. Yes - I built my own players! Our players: the piplins! [...]
OMEGA Speedmaster Professional “Moonwatch” review
THE SPEEDMASTER PROFESSIONAL MOONWATCH. For well over half a century, the OMEGA Speedmaster has witnessed events that have tested the limits of physical endurance and human courage, including the first manned lunar landing in July of 1969 and every one of NASA’s piloted missions since March of 1965.
The Alam Clock Lesson
Early in my leadership career, I had a junior member of staff who was late to work. Nothing unusual about that, you may think, for are we not all occasionally late into the office? Most of us commute and moreover [...]
Basho rewrites: Rime of the Frostmaiden – Sunblight
**Caution this post contains spoilers for Sunblight!** When I was a child, I had no one to play Dungeons & Dragons with. Now, I am 46 and play with my own children. Yes - I built my own [...]
You’re the Pretender – a Tier 1 tribute
A loving tribute to 5 years of Tier 1 Military Simulations events. They say that it is only when you lose something that you realise the value it had. That emotional wrench requires a loss of access. Not that [...]
Maxpedition Rolly Polly Extreme Review
Maxpedition's latest is put through its paces
James’ Travel Packing
What do you need for a year long adventure? Don’t ask me, it’s my first time! Nevertheless, I am taking [...]
“Zombies, Run!” Review : a running game with bite!
I got into running about a year ago after ending up in hospital twice in three karate lessons. After the second time my wife and I had "a conversation" and I agreed to take up a sport less likely to cause injuries. I clearly picked the wrong one though.
Singapore: Gateway to SE Asia
The hottest cold One of the first things that hits you on arrival to Singapore airport is the intense cold. Litres of Icy cold air is blasted at you from almost all directions from a myriad of air-conditioning machines the size of skyscrapers and it is quite nice to get outside and experience a little heat for a while. Air-conditioning has been taken to new heights by the Singaporeans, indeed the entire Tube system is frosty cold conditioned, as is every single mall and many of the pavement steps surrounding them. To walk around Singapore is to be blasted by heat and cold at such extremes you wonder if you have wandered into a new form of torture.
Basho’s ricotta lasagna recipe
My ricotta lasagna recipe, you can make it either veggy or non-veggy. Very tasty!
Basho reviews the Ketogenic Diet
Introduction Only if you had been marooned on a desert island, or perhaps blasted into outer space, could [...]
San Francisco
24 hours in "The City!"
“Samuel” – Digital Watercolour
"Samuel" by Basho Painted in Rebelle 3.
The Blue Mountains
I can see my house from here!
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ : Book Review
The first line of Philip Pullman’s novel reads: This is the story of Jesus and his brother Christ, of how [...]
This Is India Podcast
Hello and welcome to an experiment! Cecsa and I have sat down and recorded a podcast of our time [...]
Life Stories 2 : Strange Happenings
This one is legendary. When I was fresh out of University I moved down to live with my then girlfriend (now wife) Francesca in Southampton,England...
Outside Context New Zealand articles now on iPhone
The most common question I have been asked by people after returning home is, “which was your favourite country to [...]
Malvern 2010 Show Garden – Losing Control, Releasing Nature
When Cesca first showed me the drawing plans for the UCS garden at RHS Malvern, I knew that it was [...]
Tokyo: Akihabara, Asakusa and Shibuya
Tokyo, like Beijing and especially like Delhi, is a city that one could spend a lifetime in and never feel [...]
iPhone Review: the best office PDA ever
Many people have jumped both onto and off of the iPhone release wagon. First it was touted as the next big thing, a mind blowing, life changing and stylish entry into the phone market. Bringing with it some amazing connectivity apps and the Apple pledge “that if you used this phone then you were officially cool” Even the price wasn't putting too many people off.
Australia Zoo
We visit the home of The Crocodile Hunter, Crikey!
8 Years’ today!
8 Years' ago today, Cesca and I took off on a 1 year backpacking adventure around the World. I'll never [...]
Mysore
In India, catching a tuk tuk and negotiating the fare – or even the simple existence of the destination – is a national pastime. Not one driver, in three months, took us where we wanted to go without comment, argument or an all out fight. At first, this grates on the nerves and then you cant help but be brought down by it. Then you feel victimised for being western and (relatively) rich. You start to think that they are all out to get you personally. However, it is none of these; it is an official sport. Take it as a sport, a sparring match, and you suddenly find it fun.