A Tribute to Crichton

I was scanning my computer when a familiar manuscript popped on the screen. I remembered, it was one of my unfinished articles. You see i write a lot of articles and a handful of novels which for unreasonable reasons i always have unfinished.

I write for fun and i write whatever that is that stimulates my interest and imagination at the moment. No, i don't thing i should get a writing job. I believe writing i a hobby and not a job. :) I mean, i could get a lot of money from writing, SURE. But if i write, its not because i'm paid to...it's because i want to.

So here is an article which i was a little hesitant to publish and have it for all people to read. It's a little revealing for my part. But hey, these events were when i was in my teens and my college days and now am 25. :) So whatever scenes i reveal in this article are all in the past. And all are forgiven and forgotten. I request that you focus on the main thing of this article which is Michael Crichton, my favorite author of all time.

Though he didn't know and he will  never know what a great part he was to me in my college days (and until now), it doesn't matter. Because i'm sure he knew he is part of the lives of the millions of people he touched with his ideas through his masterpiece of novels.

So here it is:
Confessions to Michael

THE CAVE, the Volunteers and the Tarsier Man

                                                                          

I have been a program manager for Philippine Tarsier Foundation for three years now.  I am happy, of course, it provided me, honestly with one of the best experiences in my life. 

I love nature, i really REALLY do. When i was little, my friends throw candy wrappers anywhere while i would keep them in my pocket. I cry for the longest when my pet chicken died and i got very upset whenever--even for safety reasons--my parents would cut a nearby tree.

And God amazingly gave me the chance of working in Philippine Tarsier Foundation. 

A job is a job and its not all fun. It becomes routine, boring and even stressful! But every time and no matter how many times i do it, Trekking in the forest never fails to make me feel so very grateful and happy.

Well, so much for the introduction, :) :) :)--yes that was just an intro. What i really want to share is the trekking that we did with the volunteers, with the tarsier man and this wonderful yet unknown cave--honestly, i'd like to keep it unknown, the fewer the human disturbance, the better.

The photos above above are just taken from the entrance part of the cave, since as we go deeper it becomes darker and darker and very3x dark. The holes above the cave are filled with bats. First there these tiny bats barely even visible on the photo, but we move deeper into the cave there is this very high and wide ceiling filled with huge (well not so veeery huge, but they were big) bags.

YES--the cave floor was covered all with bat poop!!! And Marianne got her feet deep in the dark brown moist stuff. And yes, it was fun!!!

    

The treking in the forest was great, as always and the volunteers were great companions too! Marianne was as always, slipping and tripping---:), we were glad Matthew was there to join after a month or so of being in other islands and other country, Iga brought a friend--the more the merrier!!! and Naomi, the 2 week volunteer whom we all missed.

Mr. Carlito Pizarras was the best jungle explore and so was Nars!!!

YEAH!!! Well, yeah i was too melodramatic at the beginning but, i guess i love my job because i can experience all THESE...for free!!! :) :) :)

Want to trek? Check out http://www.tarsierfoundation.org/the-foundation/eco-tourism/day-trekking

Ocean Lover

Its been a very long time since i've posted something in this blog. As i scanned through the posts, it made me feel nostalgic and i felt excited to make a new post. So here it is.

Obviously, the photo above is not from me. Its from my dive master, Ms. Yza Lagahit. Yes, your thinking it right, i took a dive course! :) It was four days. One day of theory and 3 days of diving. We made 5 dives all in all.

We dived in the dolphin territory waters of the Paradise Island, Pamilacan. Despite my fever, cough and colds, the dive went amazingly well. I mean, underwater, it was, honetly, very easy! But when am on surface and worse, on land, it was not that comfortable. Atleast for me. we all have to carry equipments way much heavier than i expected and i legs would shake because i was not physically well. But when the instructor points his thump down, we deflate the BCD and went underwater, it was amazing. No discomfort on my part. :)

The challenging part for me was the equalization. I could not equalize fast and easy because i had colds and my ears hurts during descend. But as i push with equalization until i feel bubbles in both my ears then it would hurt no more. One of my co-trainees, Havier, a Spanish guy, with his never ending humor and energy got lost in the group during the dive! Kamila's nose hurt all throughout the dive, Iga suite was too tight, Liberty brought too little weights, Danny's cylinder slipped and Adriane ran out of air! So my equalization was the least of everybody's concern. 

My buddy was a Polish girl with blue eyes and lovely curly orange hair. And she was the best buddy because she is easiest to spot and she scans for me every few minutes and we were always in front, beside, over or under each other and it made me feel safe. My favorite entry is the backroll, because the giant stride made my knees tremble. I could not stand long with all the weight, but probably when am not sick it would be a breeze. My favorite fish is nemo and my favorite coral is the black one that looks like a sea grass but hard and itchy--Mariane touched it an now her wrist had those little red itchy spots. I wanted to see more of the Baracuda--we saw two but they were gone after 3 seconds; glad that it was only a snake skin and not a real one; would have been exciting if the eel we saw was alive and was relieved that we were on the shore when we saw the small shark but dismayed that i was dead and was still a baby. And i was happy that i performed the mask clearing underwater correctly despite the fact that my buddy said my hair looked really funny. 

I will upload some more photos. Because unfortunately, i don't have an underwater camera, so i have to wait for others to upload theirs...:)

AND... i am happiest that i now have a great idea for my newest novel, "Ocean Lover".