DIVE DRY WITH DR. BILL #817: NOT UP TO THE TASK, DR. BILL?
Way back in 2013 I made a three week trip to the Philippines to dive (what else?) and finally meet a number of dive friends who lived there. On the second leg of my flight to Manila from Taipei, I met up with Erik Goossens from Switzerland with whom I'd be rooming at my first dive destination. We were driven to Club Ocellaris in Anilao and settled in awaiting the arrival of another friend, Evie Go, from Manila. Later I went on solo to Sabang (Puerto Galera) to dive with Action Divers for a week before returning to Manila to meet up with more friends.
Although I only dove a little more than two weeks, my dive total was 60 with all but one of them about an hour or more. That's a lot of time spent underwater and equals a lot of video footage shot. In fact, when I returned from the trip and did the initial edit of the footage at home, I ended up with almost 300 GB of compressed video (an estimated 25 hours). After the initial edit, I decided to take a break... which has lasted six years. Editing down that footage into a BluRay of the trip just seemed too daunting a task!
Now given my battle with the cancers, I need projects to focus on and keep my mind on something other than my impending demise. I wrote a 136-page autobiography for my granddaughters (along with two additional sections totaling 73 pages). Then I tackled a bucket list item, a novel covering my first year on Catalina (1969-70) which is nearly 300 pages long. Still seeking projects, I assembled my 800+ "Dive Dry with Dr. Bill" newspaper columns into a 23-volume set.
I kept procrastinating on the final edit of the Philippines footage since it was such a daunting task. Recently I decided to look at it once more. When I realized I had more than four hours of footage of just the cnidarians (coral, soft coral, anemones, etc.), I retreated to my safe space. After all, I'm a left winger on most issues.
After doing some mental gymnastics (almost as tough as physical ones these days), I decided that maybe I could just focus on the vertebrates I filmed like the fish and turtles. After all, there were "only" 130 GB of these subjects which is about the size of my other BluRay projects from the Bahamas, ABC Islands, Palau and the Egyptian Red Sea. I can do it... can't I?
So, I'm slowly psyching up to deal with this project. There were so many subjects I filmed and even some halfway decent footage... and maybe a little "indecent" video as well. After all, I've been called the fish pornographer by some. Nothing like a good mating sequence to titillate my viewers (and readers). I still have to identify about 80 of my fine finned friends, but I can simply leave out the ones I can't!
Speaking of species identification, I really would like to do a companion BluRay about the marine invertebrates of the Philippines after I'm through with the fish. If I just cover the stingers (Cnidarians) superficially, that would mean only editing another 100 GB and there is some cool footage in that collection. Unfortunately many of the invertebrates in this region of the world have not been described scientifically and given a name so that makes the task more difficult.
Hopefully I'll live long enough to complete both. I just switched from infusion-based chemo to Xeloda, a pill-based version of the 5FU drug. Instead of 2 1/2 days with a chemo pump, I take 112 pills over a two-week period. If I can tackle that challenge, I can do anything! Maybe even fall in love again. Nah, that's asking way too much of any woman.
© 2019 Dr. Bill Bushing. For the entire archived set of over 800 "Dive Dry" columns, visit my website Star Thrower Educational Multimedia (S.T.E.M.) Home Page
Image caption: Male ribbon eel and ornate ghost pipefish; warty frogfish and blue-spotted ray.
Way back in 2013 I made a three week trip to the Philippines to dive (what else?) and finally meet a number of dive friends who lived there. On the second leg of my flight to Manila from Taipei, I met up with Erik Goossens from Switzerland with whom I'd be rooming at my first dive destination. We were driven to Club Ocellaris in Anilao and settled in awaiting the arrival of another friend, Evie Go, from Manila. Later I went on solo to Sabang (Puerto Galera) to dive with Action Divers for a week before returning to Manila to meet up with more friends.
Although I only dove a little more than two weeks, my dive total was 60 with all but one of them about an hour or more. That's a lot of time spent underwater and equals a lot of video footage shot. In fact, when I returned from the trip and did the initial edit of the footage at home, I ended up with almost 300 GB of compressed video (an estimated 25 hours). After the initial edit, I decided to take a break... which has lasted six years. Editing down that footage into a BluRay of the trip just seemed too daunting a task!
Now given my battle with the cancers, I need projects to focus on and keep my mind on something other than my impending demise. I wrote a 136-page autobiography for my granddaughters (along with two additional sections totaling 73 pages). Then I tackled a bucket list item, a novel covering my first year on Catalina (1969-70) which is nearly 300 pages long. Still seeking projects, I assembled my 800+ "Dive Dry with Dr. Bill" newspaper columns into a 23-volume set.
I kept procrastinating on the final edit of the Philippines footage since it was such a daunting task. Recently I decided to look at it once more. When I realized I had more than four hours of footage of just the cnidarians (coral, soft coral, anemones, etc.), I retreated to my safe space. After all, I'm a left winger on most issues.
After doing some mental gymnastics (almost as tough as physical ones these days), I decided that maybe I could just focus on the vertebrates I filmed like the fish and turtles. After all, there were "only" 130 GB of these subjects which is about the size of my other BluRay projects from the Bahamas, ABC Islands, Palau and the Egyptian Red Sea. I can do it... can't I?
So, I'm slowly psyching up to deal with this project. There were so many subjects I filmed and even some halfway decent footage... and maybe a little "indecent" video as well. After all, I've been called the fish pornographer by some. Nothing like a good mating sequence to titillate my viewers (and readers). I still have to identify about 80 of my fine finned friends, but I can simply leave out the ones I can't!
Speaking of species identification, I really would like to do a companion BluRay about the marine invertebrates of the Philippines after I'm through with the fish. If I just cover the stingers (Cnidarians) superficially, that would mean only editing another 100 GB and there is some cool footage in that collection. Unfortunately many of the invertebrates in this region of the world have not been described scientifically and given a name so that makes the task more difficult.
Hopefully I'll live long enough to complete both. I just switched from infusion-based chemo to Xeloda, a pill-based version of the 5FU drug. Instead of 2 1/2 days with a chemo pump, I take 112 pills over a two-week period. If I can tackle that challenge, I can do anything! Maybe even fall in love again. Nah, that's asking way too much of any woman.
© 2019 Dr. Bill Bushing. For the entire archived set of over 800 "Dive Dry" columns, visit my website Star Thrower Educational Multimedia (S.T.E.M.) Home Page
Image caption: Male ribbon eel and ornate ghost pipefish; warty frogfish and blue-spotted ray.
