One of the awesome out-of-the-way spots that I got to visit in the Philippines in April was the small island of Isla Verde (Verde Island) in Batangas Province. I was there along with a team of educators and scientists to do an outreach to the local community about their local marine biodiversity and how to safeguard…
Category: Travel
Favorite Shots from My 2015 Philippines Trip
Me snorkeling in the Verde Island Passage. More snorkeling pics here. While I wasn't shooting up a storm in the Philippines, I did get some decent shots while I was there. Here's a summary of my favorite pictures during the trip.
Exploring Manila’s 2nd Largest Mall: the SM Mall of Asia
On my last day in the Philippines, I was hot, tired, and not up for any long excursions. So I decided to go… to the mall. The SM Mall of Asia to be exact, the third largest in all of the Philippines at 390,193 m² and 1,000+ shops. It's second only to the SM Megamall for…
Running Up a Volcano in the Philippines, Like a Boss
NOTE: I posted this status update to my Facebook wall on April 18, which lots of people seemed to appreciate. I'm reposting it here, with some additional details, for posterity's sake and to have a more permanent archive of it. So I've been running three times a week for about nine months now, which alternates…
From Fear to Bliss in the World’s Richest Reef
As I write this, I’m flying home from an epic two-week adventure in the Philippines, my first trip back to the homeland in more than 15 years. The impetus for this trip was to participate in the 2015 Philippines Verde Island Passage Marine Biodiversity Expedition sponsored by the California Academy of Sciences. You can read all about…
Holy Carp, I’m Flying to the Philippines Tomorrow!
Early tomorrow morning, I board the first of several flights that will eventually get me back to the homeland, the Philippines Islands! Incredibly, it's been seventeen years since I've been to PI! That's me as a much younger man above, during my second trip in 1998. This is the first time I'm going home without…
Mounting an iPhone on My Buddy Scooter Safely and Securely: the Ram X-grip
One of the challenges of riding on a scooter is navigating while driving. Pulling out your phone is out of the question, and it's hard to hear audio directions amidst all of the traffic noise. How can you put your phone or GPS unit in your line of sight securely and safely? Enter the Ram…
Lindy Focus 2014: All that Jazz!
This past week I got to experience my first Lindy Focus, in lovely Asheville, North Carolina, along with 1,000 other lindy hoppers and jazz musicians from around the US. I had almost zero expectations for the event, having only viewed a couple of videos and chatted with some friends about it. There are a lot of…
Lindy Focus: A Dance Camp, Non-stop Party, and Jazz Jam in Asheville
I’m currently having a grand time at “Lindy Focus,” a weeklong celebration of lindy hop and swingin jazz in Asheville, North Carolina. Held in the Crowne Plaza Resort in Asheville, the hotel basically gets overrun by 1,000 or so lindy hoppers and jazz musicians for seven days of festivities. There’s classes, jazz jams, vintage clothing…
Scooting to Lands End and Back (video)
I bought a mount for my phone on my scooter and decided to try out taking videos of my ride. Here's one of my favorite rides in the city, from my apartment to Lands End and back. On the way there I shot a timelapse video. And on the way back, I shot a…