Broadcasting Seeds for Reforestation

During my first year in college, one of our ROTC activity was to plant mahogany seedlings on top of a hill called “The Dome”. A year later, we did the same thing on exactly the same place. Many years later, I went back to the same place to take pictures of birds and it seems that not one seedling have grown. Why is that so? My theory is that the way it was planted or perhaps the roots were disturbed.

Now, I have this idea that instead of planting seedlings, why not plant seeds? Just broadcasting method. Anyway that is the natural way. But sadly, as of the moment I can not test it myself because of a personal problem.

However, I think some groups can do it with little effort, hikers or mountaineers for example. If every time they climb a mountain for fun, they will bring seeds and throw them to the empty parts of the mountain, maybe in some years some parts of the mountain will get reforested.

What kind of seeds they should bring?

I was told that the best way to reforest a forest is re-virginazation. It means that you plant trees that was growing in the area. Maybe LGU, environmental groups, or the DENR have that data. And, how are they going to get so many seeds? The help of schools will be great.

When I went to Barangay Bucari and Barangay Camandag in Leon some years ago, I saw huge parts of mountains were bald. If we can ask the locals to throw seeds in those areas, maybe it might get reforested. Or maybe, the military can pour seeds from a helicopter. But, using a helicopter should be done with caution since if a seed hit a person it might be lethal.

Mine is just a theory, but I think it is feasible since the birds have been planting seeds the same way for so many years and they were succesful.

Are Zoo Shows Educational?

Are Zoo Shows Educational? 

 

                On the November 28, 2010 episode of 24 Oras, they featured the Davao Crocodile Center, a zoo in Davao. It was shown that the staffs of the Davao Crocodile Center were encouraging people to pet the animals which included birds, crocodile, and a snake. This situation is not unique to Davao Crocodile Center but is a common practice on other zoos also. The intention, which was to educate and make people love wild animals is good. However, good intentions may not always give good results. The reason I am saying this is that I remember an episode on TV where a woman climbed over a barricade to take a close-up photo of a cuddly polar bear. The bear grabbed the woman to tear her and the woman panicked for help. She was rescued but badly wounded. After that, was an interview of a sociologist describing that it happened because wild animals were described on TV and zoos as cuddly and can be petted. He said that it should be discouraged and wild animals should always be treated as wild and should be left in the wild. Then a video clip of people near the cuddly walruses was shown. The walruses were in the beach which is their natural habitat, and the people were taking photographs as souvenirs neglecting the dangers of getting ran over by the walruses which sometimes chased them.
                Now, going back to the zoo, and without discussing the maltreatment against animals, we can see that they are encouraging people to pet the wild animals. Is that the right way to educate and make people love animals? Are there no better way to make people realize the importance of wild animals?
                Here is the video of the woman and the polar bear, but this is a different TV show, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wGbCNDw-m0>. And I am sorry I cannot find the video of the walruses and the sociologist.

Organizing Photography Files

As we make more and more pictures, it will become more difficult to organize or to locate a certain picture. One way is to add a tag via Lightroom, but I have not tried it because I realized that I should keep the files as original as possible. So, I made my own way of organizing files. It may not work for everyone but at the moment, it works for me. If you have any suggestion, kindly comment below.

I arranged my pictures by genres>sub-genres>date taken>keywords. Below are screenshots of how I do it.

with keywords after the date

I also suggest that you make a  separate folder to track your submissions which may include rules and updates (Win, Lost, Exhibited, and a note regarding other details). This will come handy when later you will find a good outlet for submission and you wanted to know which of your pictures had been submitted elsewhere before.

Cold Mountain - Come Back to Me

Cold Mountain has been filled with wonderful scenes and one of my favorite is the one where a letter from Ada is read to Inman by the nurse. It is, I think, my most favorite love letter in a movie. The audience can really feel how Ada long for Inman and Inman too as he listen to the nurse that reads the letter.

This was the letter:

Dear Mr. Inman,

Since you’ve left, time has been measured out in bitter chapters. Last fall, my poor father died. Our farm at Black Cove is abandoned. Every house in this mountain is touched by tragedy. Each day we dread of learning who has fallen, who will not return from this terrible war. And no word from you. Are you alive? I pray to God you are. This war is lost on the battlefield and is being lost twice over by those who stayed behind.

I’m still waiting, as I promised I would. But I find myself alone and at the end of my wits, too embarrassed to keep taking from those who can least afford to give.

My last thread of courage now is to put my faith in you, and to believe I will see you again. So now I say to you, plain as I can. If you are fighting, stop fighting. If you are marching, stop marching. Come back to me. Come back to me is my request.

Full Metal Jacket - Get Some Scene

Full Metal Jacket is one of my favorite movie. I am not sure if it was the first movie I have ever watched but I cannot remember any movie I watched before it. I was around 10 years old, and I watched it in a movie theater. If I remember it correctly, there was a scene where the soldiers entered people’s houses and they inspected every corner. They even shot at the ceiling to make sure no one was hiding there. But, I cannot find a copy with that scene now. I also feel that in my copy now, the scene where the black soldier was shot in the foot was slightly edited. The one I have watched in the theater was more violent because of the blood that burst from the boot.

But, the scene that I always remember was the “get some” scene. It was the scene where Rafterman and Joker were riding a helicopter and the machine gunner was shooting Vietnamese farmers.

Here is my take on that scene:

On the surface, we see that Rafterman was gagging because he was experiencing motion sickness while the machine gunner was shooting farmers. However, the gagging was also showing the audience that he was repulsed by what the gunner was doing. Then the camera cuts to Joker. If we look at Joker’s face we can see that he was avoiding to look at the gunner’s direction. We see that he was avoiding the wind from the open door. However it was also showing the audience that Joker was repulsed by what the gunner was doing. We get that confirmation when Joker turned his head and we see the look on his face. Then, Joker asked the gunner if he shot women and children, the gunner says, “sometimes,” and Rafterman coughed as if to puke. The gunner said, “Ain’t war hell?” and laughed.

When I was attending IYAS, a national writing workshop organized by University of Saint La Salle, I asked a panelist regarding the use of symbols. He said that symbols should not be forced into the story. In the get some scene, the use of imagery was clearly not forced and we understand it immediately when we see it. Of course Full Metal Jacket used many other imagery and some of those needs some in depth analysis. The get some scene does not. It tells us that war is hell in less than three minutes in a way that is not forced and easy to comprehend.

Traditional Medicine Vendor

This man was selling what he claimed as herbal medicine. He was showing a tree root drenched in thick liquid. This liquid was the one inside those small bottles.

I have seen vendors like him in the streets of Iloilo City since I was a child. I am not sure whether it was him or his relative, but their mode selling is just the same. They claim that the liquid can heal snake bites, insect bites, and other wounds.

My First Time at Calle Real Pedestrianization

Last Sunday, I went for the first time at the pedestrianization project of Iloilo City. The performances were participated by Sun Yat Sen High School and Iloilo City Community College. Here are some of the picrures: