New Trek teaser Posters released

I recently came across some teaser posters, supposedly released at a comic convention, that are connected to the upcoming Star Trek movie. Its a set of four, with each poster focusing on one character per poster... and as of this time, I can easily recognize three of the four, but I draw a blank with one of them. I can't place the character (or for that matter, the race - assuming this is an alien race being represented).

Each poster is also presented in a monochrome color, with Uhura in red, Spock in blue, Kirk in Gold and the mystery person in Black... and by the way, these colors mean something in Classic Trek - Gold for command, Blue for Science and Engineering, while Red is for Support (including Security and Communications). Later, in the next generation, for some unexplained reason, they interchanged Gold, Blue and Red to now represent Engineering, Science and Medicine and Command - though in the latter case, it now looks more Maroon than Red.

So who are the characters I can name? Well there's Spock (the Vulcan), as Portrayed by Zachary Quinto of the Heroes TV fame - though I must sat that this Spock looks somewhat surprised ar at awe, as his eyes seem to portray. I wonder... does this mean he's a bit more emotional than he should be?

Then there's James T. Kirk (Human) as portrayed by Chris Pine (hey! I remember his name, guess he's getting more famous for this role!), and followers of the classic Trek series know that Kirk was the Captain of the USS Enterprise - the youngest ever in the history of Starfleet.

The last one I recognize is Nyota Uhura, the communications officer of the Enterprise... and the name of the actress escapes me right now, but Nyota is suppoed to be really pretty, and I think this lady chosen to prtray her does not dissappoint. I look forward to the fact that the classic uniform for ladies were really short skirts, and I would like to see this new Uhura in it. Call it a natural male fantasy.

Now, one other aspect of these poster is the fact that they can be placed in a quadrant to form a large symbol of the Star Trek logo, with the unrecognized character at the upper left, Uhura at teh upper right, Spock at the lower left and Kirk at the lower right.

One more thing, each poster has the expected relaese date of Star Trek XI, which is 05.08.09 (or May 8, 2009 for those who find the numbers slightly confusing), in ohter words, an early summer release.

View from on high

I've recently taken pictures of surrounding building tops from the offices or buildings I have been able to visit or chance upon. It may be a strange hobby - or subject matter, and I'm sure others might have thought it, well, unusual. So why my sudden interest?

Call it a vivid imagination, but have you ever wondered how the city would look like from the viewpoint of someone either swinging from building to building, or better yet, flying low - but not too low, of course... that you could see everything or everyone like the size of ants? Where vehicles looked like toys, or maybe even smaller? I have, hence, taken these pictures... to sort of put into perspective what artists in comicbooks might refer to as the bird's eye view.

To see, or at least, get to imagine, what a person who could do such feats would see - how they would see it, and consider... what would they be thinking as they passed above us, a populace that may be unaware of their moving silently (or not so silently) above us... possibly looking down on what we are doing, or ignoring us as they focus on other possibly more important things in their minds.

Here is my collection of pictures - ones that try to capture said feeling, such view. As you see these pictures, imagine yourself moving past these scenes, and consider - what first comes to mind as you witness such a view from above.

Could you easily locate your home from above? Would you be disoriented by the differing view? I can imagine how easily lost may people would feel from the ground - would their sense of direction be improved if they came form above? Or would they be further lost by the very different viewpoint? Consider, for example, do you remember what the color of your roof is? What is the closest landmark you can remember, how would this look from above? Could you spot it miles away, just by its unique shape?

Notice the beauty of each view - how the city seems to look very different from what you would normally see at the street level... how vast and open the space above seems to suddenly feel, as opposed to the close, cramped feeling one might experience with grounded vehicles and corridors.

Would you feel happier, or brighter because of this? Would you possibly feel a sense of superiority?

Would your perspective of the human race change, if you are able to do this and you know, for a fact that you were unique in having this skill or power, would your fellowship with everyone else be affected? I hope not. But not everyone might feel grounded - yes, ironic isn’t it… that one would have the need to feel grounded if he (or she) could fly?

Is this how a hero would feel? Would there be a certain smugness? Would a person's values change overnight? Would mine? I'd like to think that they won't. I'll still think of myself as the same, except for the simple fact that I could suddenly fly that is. But change my habits? Change my thinking? Change how I treat others? I'd like to think that my values are more grounded (there's that word again, I know...), more solid... similar to those instilled on a young boy who grew up from Smallville.

In connection to this, I remember reading one of the earlier profound lessons shared by Merlin to Arthur (I know I read it somewhere – I think it came from the Once and Future King – great book that); anyway , as Arthur, who was still a boy, was transformed into a bird, he flew on high and as he looked down, he saw how the lands looked from above - how the lines he expected to see – those normally found in maps, those that would normally discern one country from another; and segregated territories from each other… were surprisingly missing from above... making Arthur realize that there really were no separating lines, and that these territories were more man-made out of political convenience or arrangements. A lesson he would later use to consider consolidation rather than segregation.

It was, after all, at that point that Arthur started learning wisdom and a greater (though not yet global) perspective in life that others had not even imagined. So simple an idea… so wonderful a though, yet so different from the reality we live in.

Similarly, do we see city boundaries? Or like Arthur, would we just see a continuing mass of land, with countless roofs and patches of greens? Would the differences likewise elude us when viewed from above?

Lucky for us, there is software that can give us an idea as to how our city – and neighborhood would look like from above through satellite pictures – hence giving us that bird’s eye view perspective, and more. But that is limited to just one dimension – not having the option to look at things from different perspectives. I mean, can you imagine looking at the city through a 3-D version? Yes we have Google Earth, and Sim City to give us an idea about this. But something seemed missing in both – maybe if these two could be integrated?

Anyway, As I was saying, this gave me a different perspective… as it may do others. Now, what perspective that is, is really up to the person and said person’s action sometimes. Would you feel like Superman and feel the need to protect this city? Or be ever vigilant like Batman? Would you thrill to swinging from roof to roof like Spider-man? Would your (or my) interest be put to good use? Or would I use them poorly? Would I be the consummate voyeur - looking at windows and rooftops to see people doing things on the mistaken assumption that they are safe from prying eyes? The thought had occurred to me.

One definite advantage I can see, I won't be as affected by rising gasoline prices, and maybe I won't have to inhale too much pollution too. Travel from one place to another would simply be from point A to B, without worrying about traffic signs, crooked cops waiting to entrap you with their vague signs, nor crazy public transport drivers.

Mind you, this is not a flight (pun intended) of fancy. But I do wonder at times, heck I even dream it in some cases – about me flying... so I guess, its a flight of fantasy - and how it seems the most natural thing at that. No... I won’t be proceeding to a roof or ceiling to test that theory like Peter Petrelli of Heroes – I've a vivid imagination, but I’m still grounded on reality – thank you very much (but it is tempting).

So, until I accidentally find a flying carpet, or they finally invent a jet pack for one's back just like in James Bond, or a device that just defies gravity for whatever reason, these pictures will be as close to my seeing how I would view the world while flying... that is, if I could.

Aquarium update - July 2008

I went to Caritmar last Sunday, on the off chance of finding some fish that I was looking for. This place isn't the usual place I would go to because it really is rather out of the way with my usual routes... and I normally ply the Greenhills area, or Mandaluyong - but Pasay? Nope. I'd need a strong incentive to go there. Sunday was different though - we; that is, the kids and I, had nothing to do, so we decided to go to my dad's place in Paranaque to get something. Unfortunately, we were unable to get what we went to get, but lucky for me, I had our portable hard drive at the trunk of the car, so we went and delivered it to their uncle Dict's place in Makati - for him to check if it was still okay (turns out that it was, the problem being the casing and not the hard drive itself - lucky for me and our stored data). However, since Uncle Dict wasn't home either (we just left the hard drive), I decided to try out Cartimar in search for that elusive Cardinal Tetra - a fish I have been unsuccessfully trying to source for nearly a year - and I even tried 'Ask Yahoo' about where I could find them, which goes to show how much I was willing to try unorthodox (at least to me) ways to find a store that had them. Anyway, someone did answer Yahoo Questions, telling me that there were Cardinals in Cartimar, and I was somewhat skeptical of this answer, so I just ignored it. Still, we were already in Makati, which was a relatively short drive to Cartimar, and since there was nothing to do at home... off we went that Sunday afternoon - hoping, but not expecting, to find Cardinals. I was somewhat surprised to see the place upgraded in some places - though not all stalls were affected, but I was impressed with some of the shops - and their prices were hardly Cartimar-oriented these days, meaning they were not exactly cheap. Just to give an example, one aqua shop was seling Crystal Shrimps (first time I've seen them) for 1,500 pesos each... definitely an eyebrow raiser, specially when you think that one shrimp is hardly an inch long. They're colored a bright red-orange and white, so they somehow resemble the color patterns of Koi fish. Cherry shrimps were at 50 pesos each - again rather costly... and this time, they're roughly a centimeter long - easily ignored. But this shop was also selling discus, with small ones priced at 400 pesos each, and I did not bother to ask how much the bigger ones were (roughly the same price as the expensive shrimp - maybe more). But I did not get anything from them - I just placed things into memory for future reference. I, then started searching the different stalls for possible Cardinals, but it seemed that none of them were carrying such... I then tried the smaller stalls - those side by side to each other in the less glamorous stalls - but no go. So I resigned myself to getting a few Neon tetras which I saw in just one stall - reasoning out that if I could not get Cardinals, well... neons were as close to them as I could find. Let me explain... from afar, you'd think these two were of the same breed - same shape, same bright color, but for one tiny detail... the Neons have a bright blue hue on top of a red hue that disappears towards its stomach to the head - in other words, the red stripe is not fully presented at its bottom. The Cardinals, on the other hand, have said red stripe all the way from right after the fish's head up to right before its tail - a solid stripe, not disappearing. Now that you know, see if you can spot the Cardinal from the Neons in this page. Mind you, the differences do not end there - for example, Neons prefere colder climate, and cooler aquariums, while Cardinals like it warm (hence are great companions to Discus fishes, who like the same temperature). Neons are frail, while Cardinals are sturdy. Neons can breed in captivity with no problem, while Cardinals, on the other hand, have not been bred successfully - or those that have been bred in captivity lose their bright hues; which explains why they are hard to find in pet shops - they have to taken from their normal breeding grounds in the Amazon river.

Anyway, if I could not find Cardinals, then Neons would have to suffice. I bought some plants to place in the aquariums - it seems that the stall owner said they were onion-like plants, though to me they seemed like vallisneira, which happen to be long thin leaves - and having a bunch of them could help form a great natural backdrop of greens for my aquarium.

For good measure, I also got me four female Sword tails to supplement the three males I have at home, and likewise decided to add some Pink danioes. If we were leaving catimar, I thought that at least it would not be empty handed... and the trip would not be a total waste.

Then, just out of the blue, I tell the kids that we might as well look at the other shops - get to know what they have, and then I spot a rather nice and well maintained shop with small fishes (you can't miss it because its at the corner), and as I look around I see Rummy noses - hmmm... I was thinking that I'll be needing some of that too, then as I look up to scan the other partitions, I notice a small sign saying 'Cardinal' - but no cardinals were in it. Why am I not surprised?

So, out of the blue, I ask the lady if they had no more cardinals - and she says they STILL DO! She then shows me eight - they were in the row right behind what I was looking for, full sized by the looks of them and tells me they have more upstairs! I asked how much, and they cost a fairly reasonable 80 pesos each. Bio Research sells them for 140 to 170 each! - man, what a rip-off... and lucky I did not buy form them when they had - and they rarely have, by the way. In a too good to be true feeling I automatically ask if they give discounts for anyone getting 10 pieces... and she says, yes... 75 pesos each.

You could guess that this was my moment of truth, and after a very brief moment's hesitation; all two seconds fo it, I bought 10. She then tells me that they also have Otos (Otocinclus), and mine died a few months ago; so I got two - then I asked if they also had shrimp - they did. This kind of shop was what I 've been looking for - they had the fished I wanted and were professional in caring for their fishes - she even took time to cover the Cardinals' plastic with newspapers to either keep them in the dark - less stress from the travel with bright sunlight, or so the plastics won't be stuck with each other.

I honestly didn't know what to do with my Neons now, but resolved to place them in a separate aquarium from my Cardinals - can't have them crowding around... besides, the shop I got the Neons from were - lets jsut say, not as serious with the quality fo their handling fishes, so I did not want to put these two groups together.

I have to say that watching my Cardinals is a joy, and I'm just glad to have found them. The Sword tails look happy (at least, the males do), the Danios look fine - though my Neons looked unable to adapt (they are a rather frail breed), and have since disappeared - either dead or eaten.

Ah well, it may sound a bit cruel or insensitive of me, but they were just replacements for cardianls - and not too costly at that, so I don't really mind their loss. As for my plants, I'll be fixing them maybe later to make their environs better - but for now, the plants are in the aquarium where there are Clown Loaches and Red Tail Sharks, which is where I also added the Sword tails, Danios and Neon Tetras. In case the plants have snail eggs - and I start having snail infestations... these fishes will make short work of said snails.

I would have wanted to show off my awuarium, but I've had difficulties taking pictures of my aquarium fishes - always getting blurry pictures - but for the sake of this entry, I'll try again. As it is, the pictures above were lifted from the internet.

Now, to mention my current inventory of fishes, in my 35 gallon community tank, I hvae the following : Red Tail Sharks (2), Tiger Barbs (4), Clown Loaches (4), Sword tails (7), Pink Danios (4), Spotted Talking Catfish (1), Neon tetra (0) - none survived the transition.

In my 23 gallon octagon tank, I have the following: Cardinals (10), Rummy Nose (1), Ottos (2), Albino Corys (3), Ghost Shrimps (M.I.A.), I suspect that some of these fishes are responsible for them being unseen... they could be in hiding, or they could be pushing daisies... so far, I've only discovered three of them, and that was only because they went out of their hidey holes becasue they smelled food.

Now it can be told - how I destroyed my first aquarium

This happened several years ago, and its repercussions are still being felt up to now. The 35-gallon aquarium I have is actually a ‘hand-me-down’, but its by no means my original aquarium. though my original was likewise a black-bordered aquarium, like the one I have right now, it was basically newer and its glass was not as scratched as the one I have right now.

So what happened to my original aquarium? A simple case of gravity and stupidity, really - the first being a natural law, the second; borne out of a belief (poor gamble really) that I could beat the gravity odds.

See, I was cleaning the aquarium - and I mean, really cleaning this one, so I removed the fishes… got the gravel into a pail to clean it up, removed the water of course and cleaned the filter. Now,since our water pressure was basically weak that day, I had some difficulty holding the hose in place, as the water was trickling into the aquarium.

Feeling a bit impatient and tired of holding the hose, I looked for something to keep it in place, but could not find anything that would hold the hose in place. What I found, actually, was a small dumbbell and decided that if I could balance it at the aquarium’s corner, as it holds down the hose, I could then do other things while the water filled itself up.

Unfortunately, gravity had other plans… I had just let go of the dumbbell and taken a few paces away, when the dumbbell slips form the corner, and in true Murphy’s Law fashion, it falls into the aquarium, hits the bottom, and goes through said bottom… spilling the already accumulated water (possibly 5 gallons of water)
onto the floor. So… I had to act fast or just keep my fish in the large water container where I had placed them. Lucky for me, I remember my dad having an old aquarium, which, for some reason I was not privy to, ws no longer being used. So I asked for it… drove to Paranaque… loaded the old aquarium… drove home and cleaned said aquarium.

So as I said earlier, this stupidity with the dumbbell… its still being felt, at least, until I get to buy a new aquarium. What was I thinking of? Boy… did I learn a lesson.

In the past, i was too embarrassed to mention this… but now, I can easily laugh about the experience. So what made me bring it up now? I've been transferring blog posts from here to my mirror blog, and I came across several old aquarium blogs. Naturally I remembered this, and decided to share it.

Things to Come

I can dream, or as 'The Secret' tells it... visualize!

My daughter showed this site to me, and I decided to have some fun. Couldn't find Fortune or GQ though, so this had to do. The picture was taken by a company staff, using a different camera (thank you, Ryan); then it was emailed to me (thank you, Erika)... so I could not really control the picture's clarity. As for the background - well, its a painting collage. People who know it may recognize where it was taken... otherwise, I'm not telling.

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com

While I'm at it, here's another picture (or should I say, magazine...) of Bubbles, our pet. As you can see, she's not exactly camera shy - in fact I'd suspect that she even posed for this cover shoot.

Nothing to talk about - is life at a stand still?

This is what I'm thinking about this weekend... after all, it would be nice to have entries into any of my blogs on a continuous basis - but if I can't think of anything to enter, does this mean I've had a week go by with nothing to discuss? Nothing new, nothing meaningful and worth sharing?

Or am I simply not trying hard enough?

For one, what did I do differently? Well... I had to do some house-cleaning of my emails - which got me to discover some long forgotten photos... roughly almost a year old, of me with some friends. Do I post these? Its not exactly chronological. I also discovered (while housecleaning some CDs) old pictures that could go well with some of my older articles - should I add these as well? What's stopping me?

For one, this blog... and the others I would possibly imagine, show a work-in-progress, which means I have a chronology of my lessons learned. After all, this was one reason I came up with my blogs - to get to learn about how to do these things... and later, enhance them. So, do I enhance everything? Thus possibly losing my chronology records? Shouldn't I improve things as I learn, but maybe have a side comment about what changed so I'd have both? Will others care? Do I have too many hang-ups? Cause this is starting to read like I have one.

As to the hang-ups... no. Its just that my sense of preserving things for posterity is battling my want to practice continuous improvement. So how do I handle this? Simple... why can't I have both? I've created another 'wanderingmind' blog - and I was thinking that it would be a mirror of this... in case this goes down for whatever reason (my business continuity side thought to do this), I'd have a sort of off-site (blogspot) back-up. But... and here's the 'raison d'etre' of my having the mirror site, I can use said site as a polished version of what I have here. This way, I get to preserve my original site, as is... warts and all, if you will, and still practice continuous improvement by showing a more streamlined site in the other location. So where is this site?

Its... http://minutiaemusings.wordpress.com

Aside from house-cleaning of my email; a task that can't be finished in a day it seems, I also stumbled upon - actually tried searching for, a few sites / blogs that had something to do with photography in general, and digital photography in particular. So as you can see, I'm trying to get more knowledge to even better myself on said topic. Here are two sites I've thought about joining... they won't be the last, mind you... but they seem to be great as a sources for articles for starters like me.

http://www.photographyblog.com
http://www.ephotozine.com

So there you have it... I was actually able to talk about something after all.

Experimenting with lighting

Here are a few pictures where I took the opportunity to experiment with the lighting settings of my Canon Ixus. Basically, I wanted to see what the difference with a flash photography picture and one using no flash photography would be. As one will see, the effects are quite dramatic.

In this first picture, I had Bryce stay at the Mall of Asia balcony, just outside Italiani's Restaurant, and this balcony does overlook Manila Bay's seemingly new hang out - where once it was just reclaimed land, now it teems with small restaurants - thus becoming a seeming walkway where many people love to hang around in. As you can see, Bryce is very visible - a perfect pciture, for all intents and purposes... however, one can hardly see the background, with eaception to the wonderful sunset effect, as can only be appreciated from the viewpoint of said bay-side area. Now doesn't that seeming orange sky look picture perfect too?

This next picture is the result of my not using a flash... rather letting the camera's aperture try to absorb more light form its background. Bryce can hardly be seen here, but take a look at the background. In this picture, you can see how alive the background really is - that it is not just a simplt barren background. This was obviously missed by the first picture, since the flash overpowered the background lighting.

Now, having seen the difference... is there a way to have both foreground and background equally taken? Maybe, but I still have to idscover how it can be done - also, I know of a technique... but one that will need more post-production effects via photoshop. However, this would entail taking two pictures - preferably with a tripod, so the camera doea not move, as I take one picture with flash, and another without flash... then combine the best of both.

I'll try this technique out some time. But as for this experiment, I'd say I learned from it.

What were we doing in Mall fo Asia? It was Barbie's birthday treat for her family, and we decided to celebrate via dinner - this happened June 1, a day before her birthday. Here are a few pictures - taken without flash photography. This first one is me, with Bryce and Dad on the background - and I must say that I'n getting better at taking pictures of myself by holding the camera at arm's lenght. Had this been with a flashbulb, I'm sure my face would have been over-exposed.

As you can see, when people move, a blurry effect happens. In this particular picture, tita Tonette was the victim of said blurry effect, while uncle Dict and Mommy had no such problem.

Here's the birthday girl herself, at the head of the table (she is paying for it) with uncle Ben and of course Bernice flanking her.

Just to make sure, I took another picture of tita Tonette (note: the tita and uncle labels are for the benefit of Bryce and Bernice), but as you can see, she still was quite animated in talking, hence the blurry hand. Oh well...

Hong Kong: day 3 - shopping in unfamiliar territory

As usual, I woke up early - but unlike the Disneyland Hotel, there did not seem to be any place for me to explore, so I just relaxed myself by dipping in a hot tub - and boy, did I need this, since my leg muscles were acheing from all the walk we did thepast two days. I also boiled some drinking water then sat on a comfortable chair - with nothing but my bathrobe on, while sipping some tea as I watched the sun rise higher by our hotel window's view of the harbor. For a brief moment, I felt like a Taipan.

I also watched CNN to Scan the the news; there were snipets showing China's minutes of silence in remembrance of the quake... then I read a few chapters from the book I brought along with me, in case of such situations. I was just waiting for 8 A.M. before calling Barbie's room to wake them up, then I'd wake Bryce up to get him to do his usual morning rituals, as we prepared for breakfast.

Lucky for us, our accomodation included breakfast at the 40th floor's lounge, and we proceeded to enjoy a buffet made of cereals, poached eggs, bacon, toast and orange juice; while the kids had the same, with exception to hot chocolate instead of the juice - Barbie had the same, but with coffee.

With breakfast done by 9:30, we could plan for the day's shopping. Slight problem... most shops open around 11 A.M.; so no matter how early we wanted to go - there was nowhere to go to at that time. Anoehr slight problem, it was still raining. Still we took this opportunity to ask our friendly concierge where we could go to find great places to shop. Armed with a map, he marked a few locations and, once again, using the same card he used yesterday to mark Ocean Park, he marked the place we were going to... so we could show this to the cab's driver. We were also able to borrow a pair of umbrellas - courtesy of the hotel

As mentioned, we went to one place, but had to just walk around since the stores were still closed - or still busy openning. We looked for Toys R Us (and found it eventually - after trying to decipher where we were in the map), so the kids could buy something.

Me? What I wanted to get in Hong Kong was too expensive for my curent budget (a Digital SLR Canon camera - maybe, next time...), so I just went around without any expectations of what to search for... or what to buy. Apparently, this was not the place Barbie wanted to go to either - but since Hong Kong was not that familiar a place to her as well, she wsa at a loss to where we should go as well.

We went back to the hotel, checked-out but left our luggage while we were planning to explore H.K further. We, of course, inquired once again with our friendly concierge, and discovered that there was a shoping place just across the harbor - accessible either by a long cab ride, or better yet, by ferry ride. We opted to take the ferry - an added experience, waiting for us to try

Good thing too, since the ferry ride was very reasonable, and it did not take too long to cross the harbor from Wan Chai station to Tsim Sha Tsui (the place Barbie recognized as familar in sound regarding shopping), either. It was also the first ferry ride of the kids - at least, I think so.

So upon arriving at Tsim Sha Tsui (boy, these names are hard to spell), we entered one mall, which seemed interconnected to other malls. Again Barbie recognized the place - alas, she also has a 'not too keen' sense of direction (even here at home). So it felt like the blind leading the blind - far as looiing for the bargain places were concerned.

We went around, up down left and right - took lunch in a place we at least were familar with (Pizza Hut)- only after a long walk at that... which was ironic since we were near said place earlier, when they did not think to have lunch... All the while, we were wasting time. This was the irony, since we were not privy to the place, we did not know if we were near, far or way way far from wehre we wanted to go. All the while, Barbie was complaining that we were not going where we wanted to go - but could not tell us where we needed to go. All she said ws that we had entered from the back, and she had shopped here before - arriving at the front. So... back and front, not too hard to decipher right? Nope.

Finally, after almost two hours of walking, Barbie mentions soemthing crucial - that where she went was the opposite of the water (harbor), as opposed to our going parallel to it (which was most of the time). This made me realize that we needed to move one direction - away from the water. had I known this earlier, we would have found what Barbie meant to find a whole lot sooner. Apparently, she did not enter from the front (meaning opposite of where we came from), but rather from the side.


This discovery happened after we were basically frustrated and tired of walking. I personally wanted to just go back to the hotel and rest. Still, we just decided to buy at least one thing - so as not to make the trip a total waste. I got a 1 gig memory card for my camera - that's it. Bryce got a PSP game, Bernice just looked for something cute - and Barbie? Nada. She could find nothing to buy.

We finally went back to the ferry - just to make sure we were in the right side of the harbor as time came close to our pick-up schedule. We then rested in Starbucks (and may I say that the price of a frapuchino in H.K. was really much higher than compared to that in the Philippines - and we make our fraps smoother too).

By 5:30 P.M., we went back to the hotel, and just waited at the lower lobby. I just took a picture of the kids by the upper-lobby, as a reminder that we had been here. Our ride arrived - a bit late, due to traffic caused by the H.K. rush hour and the rains. This resulted in our rather later than hoped check-in, thus not being able to have selective seats on the plane ride back. Barbie and Bernice got to sit beside each other, Bryce was just behind them and I was about a few seats away from them (center seat, center isle). A small sacrifice to pay, I thought, as it was just an hour and a half trip - one that I could pass the time away with either a book or watching a T.V. program.

We then proceeded to the airport's waiting lobby, and on the way, checked out the Duty Free shops as we moved along. This is where Barbie bought something for herself, and I got some 'pasalubong' for my office-mates and my mom. We thought about geting more, but decided that we'd rather go Duty Free shopping when we got home.

While waiting, someone approached me with a note (definitely not written by her) explaining that she did not speak English and needed assistance in knowing her flight departure gate. As I tried helping, suddenly two more people apporached wiht the same problem. I was wondering why this was happening. Was I that apporachable?

I tried getting airport personnel to help them, as I was too tired to try helping... even if I could. Just to show you how tired I was, I could not get my dates straight. I forgot that looking at the flight schedule might help - but I also was not too familar with their ticket design to decipher certain data. I believe the ticket of the first woman that approached me, had to be either too late or too early for said flight. Her fligth was not on the screen, so I could not help in showing her where to go - what gate to proceed to. I wished I could help further, but the best I could do was let airport personnel assist them. It was frustrating to want to help, but not be able to.

We eventually boarded our plane; the flight was not eventful or memorable, we rached Philippine shores, disembarked, got an airport taxi and arrived home around 1:30 A.M.. and I had to work the next day. Man, there were times I wondered why we had too hectic a schedule - but as hectic as things were, as frustrating as it seemed at times, this trip was still memorable and enjoyable.

Sure, there would be things I would do differently next time. For one, we were not able to go the the Duty Free anymore - since work got in the way. But that's okay. We still got a lot of great memories... we enjoyed the Dsiney and Ocean park experience as a family... and this was the main point o fhte trip. Will we co this again? Not immediately, and not as hectic next time, and I would get into more research about what to do - oh yeah, and make sure we do our internet check-in in time for having a comfortable flight back home.

So there you have it... our Hong Kong experience. Lessons learned and all. Hope reading it gives anyone planning to go to H.K. a better idea of what to do and what not to do.

If I were to summarize:
a) confirm travel schedule early - ues the inernet for this, and make sure it happens both ways;
b) plan for 'Kairos' time, make things memorable and enjoyable;
c) if no one is familar with the place, it might be prudent to ask friends what to do, where to go - or maybe, a guide may be useful - being adventurous is fine, but not with kids along.

Hmmm... I should suggest a bullet-list option for blogs.

Ocean Park: Jelly Fish

Once we finished the River ride, we went back up (yes... through those escalators again) and searched for the Jelly Fish aquariums. After all, this seemed to be one of the park's new attractions.

Besides, though we can honestly say we've known of Jelly Fishes from pictures and videos, we are aonce again awed by seeing the real deal. Now, I'd have to mention that the only reason we see Jelly Fishes - which would otherwise be colorless, was becasue they have the tendency to reflect light - in this case, colored lights, so it can be seen with the bare eye. As you can see in this picture, the jelly fishes are colored green.

This is not their real color, of course... Rather, it is the result of a colored light from above, and, of course, the Jelly Fishes' ability to capture and seemingly keep any reflection. Once this is done, the Jelly Fishes then became visible.

In this regard, when we entered one room, it was pitch black with the only lights coming form the aquariums keeping the jelly fishes. This gave an almost surreal feel... more so since these glass containers were cylindrical (shades of Aliens came to mind) making it feel like an almost alien environment. The colors were also changing adding to the dynamics of the jelly fish movements. Other rooms had larger species of the Jellies - and these were placed in your usual aquarium types.

Once again we were requested not to use flash photography, thus it was a challenge to get pictures - yet those we took turned out to be very beautiful... as you can no doubt see.

I had to think just how such wonderful looking creatures can sometimes cause a lot of grief to beach bathers, after all, I have heard and seen the effects of a jelly fish sting to a person's skin - and yet... I had to remind myself as well, weren't these attacks mroe of a defensive act? I also remember the one time I saw Jelly Fishes, washed up on the beach's shore - there were a couple of them, and they were all rather large (considering their circumference - as spread out in the beach, was about a foot and a half. This of course happened when I was still a teen, vacationing wiht my cousins in Matabungkay. Bakc then these were obviosuly dead Jelly Fishes.

What caused them to stray to the beach's shore? I don't know. It did get the interest of bathing in the beach out of my system, though. No way did I want these large creatures to get ahold of me back then.

Still, just like the sharks that we saw earlier - these Jelly Fishes were nice to look at, but I would not still go near them in open water.

Having seen this, we wanted to see if we could still get back and catch a glimpse of the pandas, so it was off we went... back through the cable cars, as the rains got strong once again. Unfortunately, once we reached the panda's place, all we saw were two sleeping pandas. Actually, all we could see were their back and butts. So scratch that... besides, the park was closing already, and this afforded us another challenge (or problem) since the park did not seem to have an abundance of cabs waiting - in fact there was a long line of commuters waiting for cabs to arrive.

We were not too keen on waiting under the rain, so we asked one park officer what possible alternatives we could avail of... he suggested we take a particular bus that would bring us to a stop near our hotel's general vicinity. We waited at the bus stop, missed the first bus - as we were trying to decipher what the scheduels (mostly in chinese) were trying to tell us. We rode the second bus, and I was straining to see familiar billboards or signs to guarantee that we were going the right way (we seeemed to be... at least, for the most part that I could remember).

We went down the specified bus station, walked a bit until I spotted some familar landmarks. From there, I tried to position the possible location of our hotel, and eventually found it. Thank God for my sense of direction and 'ranger' skills.

We reached the hotel, but not before stopping in a 7-11 type store to get us some rammen soup, and milk for the kids - after all, we were wet and tired... needing a hot shower and hot soup. Before sleeping I watched the night lights from both sides of the Victoria Harbor, hoping ot get a glimpse of what Menchu said would be a lighting spectacle that would happen every 8 P.M. but found no such display - perhaps it was not done, due to the strong rains. Ah well...

As we prepared to sleep, I was contemplating the fact that we would be going home tommorow. Mcuh as I enjoyed Hong Kong, I was, at times, wondering how our dog, Bubbles was doing. I was also wondering what we would be doing next - after all, with this evening's rains, the famed night market was not an option - and even if it was, we (specially the kids) were tired to go through with it.

Ocean park: River Ride (a.k.a. Log Jam)

We were unable to see the show with the dolphins - at least, from a closer vantage point. But we did get to see them perform from afar - which, in a way was good as well... after all, if you can't be close enough to touch them, then might as well watch from afar, so you can capture the entire show with one look and not suffer a tennis neck with all that left-right-left-right look and movement, the all the better for the viewer.

To me it was, well... all right. As I said, if you can't touch them... then its just another show. So after observing them - and the seals, for a few minutes, we decided to explore the park some more, while everyone else was transfixed with the dolphins and seals.

This is when we decided to descend several long escalators to the lower parts of the park. It certainly reminded me of all those walk-a-lators in the airport. And Barbie tool some pictures along the way. Here for example is a picture of us jsut starting the descent... Here, meanwhile is another picture to show how deep each escalator was (there were about four pairs along the mountain-side). Remember... Bernice had to go down, go past Barbie, and then Barbie took the picture - with no hurry, as Bernice was close to one escalator's end - and if you could see the bottom of said escalator, you would see the entrance to the next one... with a slight egress to the left to go to another ride - the train tunnel ride... something we were contemplating on until Barbie realized that it was a mountainside roller coaster... and during a very rainy day. So yes, we passed that one without discussion. We then took the river ride (log jam) and Barbie decided not to join us again, I sat up front, but Bernice, seeing that Barbie was not going, asked to sit in front of me, so I agreed. I gave the kids instructions, we prepared to go through the ride wihle it was raining, so we all put our head covers up, and away we went... To Bernice's dismay, the first quick bump had water splach around - thus getting her pants (and undies) wet... did I fail to inform her about this happening? I guess I had an idea... since there's a similar ride back in Enchanted Kingdom, a theme park in Laguna. But since I had not experienced this particular ride, how could I be sure enough? (he.. he..). But the bigger dip was still ahead. When we reached said fall, Barbie tried getting us in video... but it was really too fast.

What we had, however... as a souvenir from said ride, was a picture taken by the ride's cameras. This was a great shot... it showed Bryce from behind laughing, me with a priceless enjoing laugh... and an even more priceless grimmace from Bernice as she saw (up front) where we were going (or falling to). Needless to say we did ge wet - again... but we enjoyed the ride. I suspect though that Bernice, now knowing better, may, or may not opt to ride front again.

Ocean Park: Marine aquariums

First off, let me put my experience into perspective - I have two aquariums that I loosely maintain - just fresh water fishes, though. And these two aquariums are sometimes a challenge to maintain (they demand time from me) and keeping the fishes healthy is sometimes tricky.

Even then, I meet a few bumps along the way... the fish I like to get is not available, the plants I like to find are not around - so even if I had enough funds (which are, at times, diverted to more immediate needs), I would be hard pressed to come up with an aquarium i would be satisfied with - one that comes close to an Amano (a Japanese nature aquarist) inspired tank.

That said, I had a microcosmic idea of the challenges faced in keeping and maintaining domestically designed aquariums. I can just imagine all the challenges faced by everyone in this theme park, when it comes to maintaining their aquariums. That said, our first stop was to reach the summit of the Ocean Park and look for the Dolphin and Seal show... but everyone also remembered what barbie said earlier about having lunch at Ocean Park, so we did just that.

We were trying to find McDonald's, as the park's map hinted at - unfortunately, it did not hint at which altitude we would find McDonald's. So the first familiar food we found - and this was a stall at the summit, we ordered our meals there. As luck would have it, this served grilled (or barbecued) chicken, fish fillet or spare ribs meals complete with one large sausage and lots of fries.

We stuffed ourselves, and in the kids and Barbie's case, could not finish their respective meals - even when they were very hungry. It was that many. We were also, just like yesterday... focusing more on the need to speed up our experience so we could maximize the time. Oh well... at least, after this meal, we really did need to walk.

Oh yeah... one last thing about the summit - though it had telescopes (the ones you insert a coin into to view the lower areas), the weather did not afford a good view, so we skipped that. We also skipped a ride that would make us enter a revolving disk, where we would sit and be brought even higher (and the ride was at the peak) to view Hong Kong all around - but, as I said, the weather was not cooperative, so all anyone would see are rain mists similar to fog. There was one saving grace, to me at least, as the summit was also frequented by some large birds - I can't say they were eagles... though they could have been. Vultures, they were definitely not - those I've seen in Africa. But hey were there - flying around.

Once is a while, they would swoop down the mountain-side, and one even tried landing at a shed's ceiling - but came in too fast, so had to swoop up again. I wished I had taken a picture of these - but they were moving fast (or too far), but apparently - just like the thought of seeing the crows (or ravens) I thought that we wouldn't have these kinds of free-flying birds, so close to where people worked back in the Philippines.

Nope... most eagles I saw back home were in a sanctuary, kept were in large cages - not free. But mind you, the cage was not to keep them captivated - I feel that they were being protected from possible narrow-minded poachers... even if they were an endangered species. I, of course refer to the Philippine Eagle - a.k.a. the Monkey-eating Eagle, with a wing span wider than the well known American Eagle. Sorry, I digressed.

We were also kind of hoping that going to Ocean Park on a week day (it was Monday) would mean a whole less number of people - but wouldn't you know it, there were still several bus-loads of Japanese tourists arriving at the park. It seems that their travel agent also had the same logic about less people during that day, so they scheduled their excursions to this park on Mondays too. On hindsight, I would have done the same thing, if I were looking after the park's interest, and schedule bus-loads of tourists during off-peak visiting days. Still, their numbers did not really daunt us - well... with exception to the Dolphin show later.

Before that happened though, it was off to see the aquariums, so armed with the map (yes, the one that vaguely described where to find McDonald's) we searched for the famed aquariums. It wasn't hard, really - all we needed to do was follow the lines of people going form one place to another. As we entered, we were greeted by a whole lot of information about sharks - yes, his was the shark aquarium, and I would have wanted to stay longer and read up on everything - but the experience of seeing one up close pulled everyone into the corridors. I managed to take one shot with Bryce... and even this, I had to time quickly, so as not to block everyone else from moving in. My first reaction to seeing the sharks was 'whoa...' to see so many, in one tank - up close. This was a new experience to me - and I'm sure, to the kids as well. We were rooted at our spot for a while, as we observed how they swam... how they looked. Then, we finally just moved on to see the rest of the aquarium's denizens. We then went elsewhere where we were introduced to the coral reefs, and their inhabitants - and I'm sure they were trying to educate people with videos and all - but nothing like seeing things for yourself made the experience better - for example, though they were mostly stoic and hardly lively, it was till better to see starfish, than to watch them... okay, maybe in this case, watching them move in a video was way better - but other sea creatures were better seen live. We started, innocently enough, with small aquariums... and I took pictures of these as much as I could... and since the place reminded everyone not to use flash photography, I complied by adjusting the setting of my camera. Here's what I came up with - at least, the presentable ones. Not bad photography if I say so myself. But this was also aided by the fact that the subjects I took were hardly moving - aiding in my getting clear pictures. See... in my camera - with flash turned off, the light had to be absorbed elsewhere, making for a slower - longer take. Had the subject (or my hands) moved, all I would see is a blur (as can be seen by some fishes in the second picture - the ones with the clown fishes). Now, unless that was my intent, or it was deemed acceptable by my standards (say, like a fleeting background) it would have made for lousy pictures. When we finally saw the large aquarium, I gave my second 'whoa' expression. Like any aquarist, I wanted - dreamed to have a large tank of my won with a community of fishes residing in them. But I would never be able to (and rightly so) match and keep the number of fishes in such a large tank... so best to watch and enjoy them. Now these I had to take pictures of... and again, lucky for me, these fishes were not camera shy - heck they probably got used to the faces milling about, and I might even suspect them of being attention seekers (juuust... kidding). I tried to see if I could capture the size of this aquarium - rather, oceanarium, but found it difficult. Just to give you an idea, though, here's a pair of manta rays swimming around the tank with hardly any worry - or at least, they look that way. So I can also offer as a subtle clue the fact that as the waters get deeper, the color within the oceanarium gets greener. One other thing too - if you'll look closely to the previous two pictures, you will notice the water's surface - in these latter pictures, said surface can hardly be seen. Here's Another manta - this time,at rest... and quite close to the view window's glass too. I took a picture of Barbie with the kids, hoping to get a piece of the background - unfortunately my camera was off, and when I turned it on, it automatically went to flash mode... so, clear picture of my family... not so, for the background. Oh well... Here's a video of the fishes - as taken by Barbie. Its rather large (36MB) so this may take some buffering time.
Next stop, we try a ride (log jam).