2009: A Year of Diving and Underwater Videos
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at December 31st, 2009
Total Dives: 43
Total Time Underwater: 32 hours 30 minutes
Maximum Depth: 117 feet
Wrecks Penetrated: 6
Freshwater Dives: 1
Night Dives: 2
To my friends who follow my endeavors and bear with my underwater stories, this post is as expected. Easily, the highlight of my 2009 was literally beneath the surface. For me, and many others, diving isn’t just a hobby. It’s more of an epiphany that humbles your eyes to things which we aren’t accustomed to seeing.
I finished my open water course in April, advanced course in June and have fallen into the fever of dive addiction, apparent to many who have undergone similar experiences. I completed my gear, logged 43 dives invested in trips around the country, and most importantly opened up to a new circle of dive friends.
Diving in Coron
Paradise exists, and it is in the Philippines. Coron was my first major dive trip of 2009. Straight after completing my AOW course, wreck diving seemed more and more enticing as a break from the underwater flora. Coron’s beauty is ironic. Above the surface, the bay of Coron is a blue carpet that taints itself in a bloody sunset crescendo. Beneath, the remnants of the Japanese occupation remain preserved in the sand. Oil tankers, gunships and frigates are the biggest fish in the sea.
Diving in Puerto Galera
I did two trips to Puerto Galera this year and they’ve both been captured in the two videos that follow. My two trips to The Canyons were the hardest dives of the year as we’d literally be crawling on the ocean floor so as not to be swept away by the current. Puerto Galera is alive with big fish.
Clam Seeding in Anvaya Cove
Just like any endeavor, there comes a point when you want to put add a little more depth and meaning to your actions. The volunteer Clam seeding activity for UN Volunteers Day achieved precisely this — a free dive and directly helping the environment by planting clams around the Anvaya Cove reef. Think of these giant clams as the big oaks of the forest. A few of these will directly tip the point of the reef’s biodiversity, bringing in more fish and more corals. We brought in 79 of these and created a spawning network along the reef.
The Future
For 2010 I plan to invest more in quality dives rather than quantity. Hopefully I can find a group that will be doing Palau, Apo Reef, and Tubbataha (tough luck here as you’d have to plan this a year in advance). If you’re a diver (or want to learn how to dive), let’s go!
A short word of thanks
I’d like to extend a special thanks to the guys from Sony Philippines for lending me two Marine Packs and three cameras throughout the year — a T series and two W series for shooting my dives. All the videos above were taken using these two cameras.
O Handpresso, Thou Art Glorious!
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at December 30th, 2009
This is the unboxing of the Handpresso, a portable solution to making espresso absolutely anywhere, without the need for electricity. This particular ‘Handpresso Wild’ package comes with the complete outdoor set, perfect for coffee lovers who also display nomadic tendencies. For purposes of convenience I bought the model that uses E.S.E. pods (Easy Serving Espresso) rather than the one that uses ground beans.
Congratulations Jay and Aileen!
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at December 26th, 2009
Jay has converted and is moving to the south. We (southern bloggers) are growing!
Congrats guys! More here.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at December 25th, 2009
Merry Christmas, Internet friends!
Vue Bar: Displacing Makati into the South
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at December 23rd, 2009
Prepare for some temporal displacement, south people. Vue Bar is a hint of the Makati life brought into the Bellevue Hotel in Filinvest. A little bird told me about this place recently opening at the beginning of the month so we decided to check it out last night (before simbang gabi!).
The “view” of Vue Bar is the Northgate cyberzone alive with the flashes of call center flair.
It’s a little eerie to find a posh bar in the south with a dress code. Usually, shorts and slippers are the main staple adorned with less than PHP50.00 beer (San Mig Light here is PHP90.00), but of course, there’s always a price for ambiance and this is a fresh takeaway from the usual BF / Alabang / Muntinlupa scene.
Vue Bar is located at the 22nd floor of The Bellueve Hotel. It is open from 5PM till 1AM. Dress code: no slippers, sando, shorts.
Nokia X3 retails for P8,830
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at December 23rd, 2009
So Nokia ends the year releasing the revamped XpressMusic line, the X series starting with the X3. The X3 is the very first S40 based device that comes equipped with the Nokia Ovi store built in, and it is essentially the same as any XpressMusic line.
No 3G. No WLAN. 3.2MP camera. This is a basic “X” unit (X stands for “social entertainment and youthfulness”) which includes living wallpapers that change with your battery status and a skinnable media player.
The Nokia X3 retails for PHP 8,830.00.
Good Afternoon
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at December 19th, 2009
Speedtests should not be the measure of mobile broadband
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at December 17th, 2009I don’t get it.
I don’t understand the hype behind these speed tests.
SMART, Globe, SUN … does it really matter who claims to be the fastest? Based on studies, Globe claims to be the fastest but everyone else says it isn’t so. SMART fluctuates as well. SUN is the “fastest” and also the “slowest.”
So… what now?
For me it’s really simple. Buy the mobile broadband of choice that has relatively OK coverage where you frequent. The reason why I use SMARTBro is because it’s more effective in non-Ayala properties (this is a personal observation so it might be different with you). If you go to an Ayala Mall anyway, there will always be a free WiFi coffee shop around the corner so it negates the need for a dongle. Besides, lots of malls have free WiFi anyway.
To summarize: SMARTBro = better outside malls. Inside malls = use free WiFi. Cebu = SMARTBro. Davao = Are you kidding?! There’s free WiFi on the streets!!!
Again, these are personal observations.
And, when technology fails (believe me, we put too much trust in technology), use this for SMART and this for Globe.
Hands on with the Nokia N900 running on Maemo Interface
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at December 17th, 2009
The Nokia N900, seen wild in this blurry camera phone pic, is in Manila. Yesterday was Nokia’s Christmas Party and apart from winning a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone (!!!) at the raffle I got the chance to take a peek at the new N900. I only got the better of 4 minutes with the device so here are my first impressions in bullet form. These are general impressions on the N900 as well as the new Maemo user interface.
The N900 is beautiful. It is a sturdy messaging phone, light to the touch with fast UI response.
- The multiple desktop functions of the Maemo UI is similar to the iPod / iPhone’s. You are allowed to have four desktops which you can scroll through using your thumb. Imagine combining the widget home screen interface of Samsung and Apple’s iPhone and this is what you get. It works.
- The “apps menu” icon has been changed to resemble a series of squares on the upper left. Pressing that opens the application menu. One noticeable difference is that “Messaging” has been changed to “Conversations” which is really the move to threaded messaging. When you have multiple messages open, Maemo shows this ala Expose for Mac OS X with each window (let’s say, two message threads and the main Inbox) all neatly aligned. You can delete a window using the big “X” on the upper right hand side. The N900 is highlighted by its really good integration of messaging applications.
- The new UI is fast. Essentially, the changes are really aesthetic. I can compare it to how HTC made their own interface (before the SenseUI of the HTC Hero) over and above Windows Mobile to compensate for the slow and rather outdated UI. Maemo is Linux based so it does feel lighter.
- I noticed that Maemo doesn’t have a back button. I could be wrong but going back to previous functions entails using a hidden button on the N900 which I discovered by accident. Again, I’m not sure if this is a feature of the N900 per se or as a part of Maemo.
- No pricing yet. This phone isn’t even OFFICIALLY out yet locally.
Pray for his soul
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at December 16th, 2009
Earlier, I met up with Karlo for a business meeting in Bonifacio High Street. I wasn’t there when the explosion echoed, but from what my cousin tells me, it was blaring. They saw the body of the poor soul being moved out of the car. I had my camera yet I thought twice if I should take the shot. I took it.
Very sad. Very unfortunate and so close to Christmas. Let’s pray for his soul and for his family.
A Decade of Zombies in Four Parts
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at December 15th, 2009
Last week, Scrivs and the gang were shooting ideas for our year end series for ForeverGeek. I think it was Franky who suggested we do a “10 Years of…” series.
So, in the advent of the pending apocalypse, I wrote a four part series titled “A Decade of Zombies.”
This series doesn’t aim to list down every single zombie film and reference in the past ten years. What it wants to achieve however, is to bring together a sort of cohesiveness into the building of a cultural phenomenon that hinges on two themes: breaking social norms in order to survive, and finding order in total anarchy.
Parts I-IV below.
