the Earth-bound adventures of the Lost and Found

and it's 3 a.m.... i'm not really supposed to be wasting time on this anymore. but the computer was on tonight, and the files were just beckoning to be revised.... anyway, i've decided that glass is the best material for this because we can etch and color the art on one surface and etch the text on the front surface. i saw a plaque today that did that at... eden nature park. that's where we went this afternoon for papa's birthday. of course, everything there closes by 4 or 5 pm if you're not staying overnight, plus it started raining on our way there up to the time we finally left at eight. we were waiting for the rain to stop but it just poured harder and harder... anyway, at least we got to swim in the pool. underwater pix to come.

this ALBUM ubder construction--text and pix of Banacon Island, Pamilacan Island and others to follow-- in the meantime, check out Bohol's alternative tourist destinations in their Coastal Resource Management (CRM) Learning Showcase Tour on www.bohol.gov.ph (but hey, i'm guessing. try google to be sure). also wrote an article about that CRM tour by the way, and the spots they feature. might post that on my journal.

Start:      Aug 27, '04 unfortunately, no plans. even if it's the first time i'm home again for this occasion since 2001. at least we're together.

well, it's almost 4 a.m. and i'm still here online. of course, when i'm home i'm usually online only after 1 a.m., when prepaid internet's cheaper. so sorry, my brain's a little slow at this hour of the night (or day, depending on whether you're a night owl or a moring person) and you won't be getting much out of me about kadayawan. i'll let the pictures tell the story. unfortunately, i haven't had them developed yet. i used up 5 rolls of film in my 5 hours of walking on the streets under the afternoon sun just to get good shots of the Indak-Indak sa Kadalanan or tribal streetdancing. you have to understand, it's the first time i have a camera in my possession during kadayawan. all those other years after high school i was away at college or at work. *TRIVIA* believe it or not, i was actually part of our high school contingent once for the streetdancing, dancing all around downtown in the heat in full costume. i don't think our school pa...

Start:      Sep 25, '04 6:00p Location:      Ralph's Wine & Liquor, the jazz bar on the street parallel to gorordo ave. intersecting escario st. The Women in Literary Arts (WILA) Inc. is turning 13! We're having a jazz night with lots of wine and dancing, and for a change, our guests will be reading our poems.

Start:      Sep 17, '04 Location:      TBA Launching of Mending Nets: A Handbook on the Prosecution of Fishery and Coastal Law Violations , a book authored by the Environmental Legal Assistance Center (ELAC) and published by the Coastal Resource Management Project (CRMP) [edited and some parts written by yours truly =)] for fiscals, chiefs of police, law enforcers, etc. The first book ever that's specific to this field. To be distributed nationwide for free! Check out www.oneocean.org after the launch for details.

first published under lost and found (my monthly column) in Sun.Star Weekend Cebu on Aug. 21, 2004 Ever since, I’ve had one constant goal: to be perfect. Sure, people say nobody’s perfect. But even as a child I didn’t believe that. I knew I couldn’t be perfectly good, or perfectly beautiful—I had enough people telling me I wasn’t. But I was certain I could be perfectly whole, complete in myself. Self-sufficiency: perhaps the nearest word I can think of to approximate the vision of perfection in my head. More than independence, self-sufficiency is the state of not needing anyone outside of one’s self. Somehow I’ve always had the idea that I can learn and do anything I put my mind to. Only time keeps me from reading every book on every subject. In other words, perfection is being “jack of all trades, master of all”. The only way I can’t accomplish something exactly as it SHOULD be done—excellent results using the least amount of time and resources—is if I don’t put in enough effort and ...

August 15, 2004. Sorry, too tired to do a write-up for this one. Just watch out for when i post my article on this and my trip to the Badian Island Resort & Spa later on in my journal. Both articles are set to come out in the September 2004 issue of Destination Cebu . Didn't bring my camera on this trek because it was raining and it was muddy and we were actually supposed to go rapelling and river climbing that day. All photos were taken by Jochen, German guide and owner of Planet Action Adventure in Moalboal, using a waterproof digital camera that you can use with one hand (in case you're holding on for dear life to a rope on the side of a cliff). Cool huh? PS As you can see, the normally clear blue Kawasan Falls became a muddy brown because of the sudden flood in the mountains. I say PLANT MORE TREES to stop flooding, siltation of rivers and seas, and the global warming that's causing this weird overly cool weather around the world! =========== Read the article here...

Text and Photos by Jeneen R. Garcia first published in Destination Cebu, August 2004 Twenty years ago, with an underwater desert fringing its shores, the irony of Sumilon Island would not have escaped anyone. One of the two oldest marine sanctuaries in the country, the Sumilon Island Fish Sanctuary was established in 1973 by the Silliman University Marine Lab (SUML). The Municipal Council of Oslob, a town 15 minutes away by boat from Sumilon and 120 km south of Cebu City, also passed an ordinance declaring the entire 50-hectare island as a marine reserve. Fish and corals, already abundant to begin with, teemed more than ever in the waters off the uninhabited island. A decade later, only sand and rubble covered its silent depths. Muro-ami had dramatically changed Sumilon’s seascape. Muro-ami is a fishing method used in reefs where skin divers pound corals with weights to scare the fish and drive them towards a large net. As many as 200 divers are used for this operation, sometimes incl...

Text and Photos by Jeneen R. Garcia first published in Sun.Star Cebu on Aug. 12, 2004 Seven hours. The long and winding trip along dusty mountain cliffs is not for the impatient or the faint of heart. In the middle of Igorot country, Sagada is a land as fierce as its warriors. Sharp rocks jut out between the pine trees, narrow dirt roads twist and turn among boulders. Anyone taking that 7-hour bumpy ride to Sagada after traveling the 6 hours from Manila to Baguio must be crazy. But there we were, the seven of us who had made up our minds to go no matter what, sitting in the rickety 6 a.m. bus at the Dangwa terminal in Baguio. Because the journey is long and the roads are risky, the last trip out usually leaves by 11 a.m. Alternating between sleep and awed stares at the view along the way, we got down at St. Joseph’s, a pension house on top of a hill. We had a late lunch (budget meals from P50 to P70 for poor souls like us), then met up with our guide at the Municipal Hall, near the ma...

Text and Photos by Jeneen R. Garcia first published in Sun.Star Cebu on Aug. 12, 2004 Seven hours. The long and winding trip along dusty mountain cliffs is not for the impatient or the faint of heart. In the middle of Igorot country, Sagada is a land as fierce as its warriors. Sharp rocks jut out between the pine trees, narrow dirt roads twist and turn among boulders. Anyone taking that 7-hour bumpy ride to Sagada after traveling the 6 hours from Manila to Baguio must be crazy. But there we were, the seven of us who had made up our minds to go no matter what, sitting in the rickety 6 a.m. bus at the Dangwa terminal in Baguio. Because the journey is long and the roads are risky, the last trip out usually leaves by 11 a.m. Alternating between sleep and awed stares at the view along the way, we got down at St. Joseph�s, a pension house on top of a hill. We had a late lunch (budget meals from P50 to P70 for poor souls like us), then met up with our guide at the Municipal Hall, near the ma...

An adventure last May 21 to 23, 2004 with two friends, BJ and Chico. Lazily walked three hours along the beach going back to the resort after a dip in the spring. Went around the island's beaches and waterfall in a day. Took the motorcycle down Siquijor's bewitched mountains late at night after spelunking in Cantabon Cave. Afterwards, we spent the afternoon till evening visiting Dumaguete's artists at Maria Gallery, and then had barbecue at the boulevard. Actually we had time to kill because all the boats and floats were fully booked. The economy was really running last summer.

August 6, 2004 Cebu Provincial Charter Day mwahahaha! now i have a new obsession: HTML. i was browsing through the blogs of some of my contacts' contacts, and i noticed that they were able to change their fonts and even add buttons to their entries! i've always had an idea that with HTML, you can manipulate how anything appears on the web, but this afternoon, as i took advantage of the free Globequest wireless internet in ayala, i decided i should know at least enough HTML to be able to do things in my blog. so here it is--the result of some of my experiments. i mean, sure, i know i can still do this (and much more) by just formatting my document in Microsoft Frontpage and then copy-pasting the HTML code, but it's fun knowing how it's done from scratch. and now i know how to interpret the basics of this language =) i don't need to blindly copy the source code from websites i like anymore. now i can copy intelligently. How I Did It everything's explained step-...

Start:      Aug 13, '04 8:00p End:      Aug 13, '04 9:30p Location:      Canadian Consulate, Abellana St., Guadalupe, Cebu City This is a weekly event. Anyone who wants to learn more about God's Word is welcome to join =)

Start:      Aug 14, '04 End:      Aug 15, '04 Location:      Badian Island and Moalboal, Cebu Getting a taste of the Badian Resort Spa for free! Hoping to dive in Badian Island and Pescador Island in Moalboal, and visit Kawasan Falls again in Badian. This trip is work for Destination Cebu =)

After 6 long years of postponements, I was finally able to go to Sagada. Fortunately, our office had a Strategic Planning Workshop in Baguio last Feb, so I planned a trip to Sagada, no matter what (it's not all the time you get a free trip all the way to Baguio, after all, just 7 hours away from Sagada). I'd been wanting to go there for its big cave. Caves with water where you can swim have always fascinated me. Anyway, you can read about The Road to Sagada in my journal.

Start:      Aug 21, '04 Location:      Davao City Hope you can join the celebration for a bountiful harvest of flowers and fruits. I'm going home for the first time since the elections =)

since i'm posting my "artistic rendition" of a fishkill here, anyway, i might as well add some educational stuff about it, too, since i also researched on it for the comic strip. Ok, here goes... Fishkills can be caused by three major factors: toxic discharges (chemical), diseases (biological), and oxygen depletion (physical). Usually, though, the cause is a combination of these (that is, when the environment is critical for fish because of low oxygen or poisonous pesticides, for example, they're more vulnerable to disease). Oxygen depletion is the most common cause, a result of TOO MANY algae or plants in the water (when the water turns really green) because of fertilizers or sewage that run off into the sea from the land. Algae and plants are essential food for the fish, but when they die, the decomposition process uses up the oxygen in the water. Also, when there's no sunlight (cloudy or nighttime), plants use up oxygen instead of producing it. The solution? Pl...

Start:      Aug 4, '04 8:30a Location:      IBP Social Hall Does Cebu really need a coal-fired power plant dirtying its air just to meet the power demand, or are there viable, cleaner alternatives?

We sing at Sacred Heart Church (Cebu) every first and second Sunday of the month at 7pm. The wonders of having a camera phone (not mine)...