Coming Soon: 4th Oceanic Blog-A-Thon!

World Oceans Day is only 2 weeks away! June 8th is just around the corner! :o)

So I guess it's time for another reminder about the Oceanic Blog-A-Thon (4th edition already?!) and instructions for participating!

The Oceanic Blog-A-Thon is an annual (as long as I can keep it going!) blogging marathon in honour of World Oceans Day. It's a moment to stop and to celebrate and share our love and respect and gratitude for the 80% of our planet that is covered by water: our seas and oceans. It's a moment to try and help increase awareness in the people around us, help them realise how important our oceans are to us, either on a personal level, or for scientific/ecological reasons. We get together to share fond memories of the seas, beaches, coastal holidays. We teach/learn something about a special oceanic environment or critter or plant. We remember how the oceans have inspired us at some point in our lives...

This year I won't be hosting the Oceanic Blog-A-Thon on the same day as WOD because on June 8th I'll be on a sailboat in the Greek Isles celebrating my parents' 40th Anniversary, without an internet connection! So the Blog-A-Thon will take place over the following weekend: June 9th (starting as soon as I get home from the airport) and 10th. To participate all you need to do is write an ocean-related post on your blog, whatever inspires you! Post it anytime around World Oceans Day (June 8th) or that same weekend, and then either e-mail me the link at crazycrisb AT ymail DOT com (trying to avoid robotic spam trolls) or just leave a comment here (or on the blogathon page when it's up) with the link. As in previous years I'll visit each of your posts and write a little introduction and link up to it on the main Oceanic Blog-A-Thon post here so everyone else will be able to go read your post on your blog.

The link at the top of this post sends you to more info and things you could do for WOD. You can visit the previous editions of the Oceanic Blog-A-Thon by clicking: 2011 - 2010 - 2009.

I hope you've got your creative aquatic juices flowing! I've pretty much figured out what I'm going to write on both my blogs... now I just need to squeeze out the time this week in between preparing and teaching my classes and preparing for the trip so I can have them written and scheduled to post automatically on WOD! Will be a challenge! :p  Can't wait to see what you guys have up your sleeves this year! :o)

Please help me get the word out about this event! Tell your own readers about it (use the photo above), they might want to join in the fishy fun! Let's see how many participants we can get this year... ;o)

To Beach Or Not To Beach?

Yesterday was my first visit to the beach this year (I'm not counting my first dive 2 weeks ago, wearing a neoprene suit is a bit cheating), thanks to my sister being home for the week (to celebrate her 30th bday!) with some friends from the UK and Canada. Can't come to Alicante for a week and not go to the beach!

Gorgeous day at the Playa de San Juan. Lots of sun, a light breeze, a flat Mediterranean. But the question is...

The Iron Throne is MINE!

Wear Blue Tell Twosday!

Only one month left 'till World Oceans Day! have you been thinking about what you're going to write for the Oceanic Blog-A-Thon? ;o)

It's strange that with a planet 3/4 covered by water we seem to pay a lot more attention to what happens on land than we do in the sea. Although perhaps it's not that strange seeing as how we have lungs instead of gills and live on land... Whether or not they agree on Climate Change (and rationally I don't understand how one couldn't agree on that!), you can be pretty sure almost everyone is aware of the situation / debate. At the very least the name rings a bell. Ditto deforestation problems in the Amazon and other tropical forests. Problems with wetlands.

Sadly very few people seem to be aware of the very serious problems our Oceans are facing day after day! These include rising sea temperatures (global warming), overfishing (which not only reduces some fish species to unsustainable population levels, it can modify the balance in complex ocean food webs), habitat destruction, acidification and pollution. Just one of these would be a severe problem... their combined effect is even worse and threatens extinction for many aquatic species, starting with anything living in a coral reef! ;o(

So it's time to take action! Do something to help protect our oceans! At the very least we need to get the word out, increase public awareness as to how vital the oceans are for our survival on this planet! It's time to start Wearing Blue and Telling Two again. For more information on the Main Factors Destroying Ocean Health (and possible solutions!), check out the State of the Ocean website.

 Finally, I wanted to embed another adorable video announcing World Oceans Day... but can't seem to make it work! So just go see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1mq9HiCwHE&feature=youtu.be

 

I sure hope I'll be seeing many of you here for the Oceanic Blog-A-Thon on the weekend of June 9th and 10th! :o)

Mother's Day Walk

Yesterday was Mother's Day here in Spain, and as usual my dad sent my sisters and me an e-mail reminding us of the date a few days before. Why the reminder? Well, as I'm sure you will have noticed when I said yesterday, it's probably not the same day you guys celebrate Mother's Day! I think it's on a different day in every single country I've lived in!!! When we were in Mexico it was May 10th (always), in the U.S. the 2nd Sunday in May... and I needed a reminder of that because my last year of high school and first two years of college I was in a different country (Mexico then Spain)! In Spain it's the 1st Sunday in May. Then when I moved to Belgium it was back to the 2nd Sunday... but my mom was in Spain so for her it was a week earlier! Plus I got confused with publicity on French TV channels (which we got in Belgium) because in France it's the last Sunday in May! My parents visited my sister in England the 2nd weekend of March... lucky coincidence turned out that Sunday was Mother's Day there! And I have absolutely no idea when Mother's Day is in New Zealand where my other sister lives! :p  All this is very confusing!

Anyhow I showed up at my parents' place with a new trio of orchids (one for each daughter).

Then we hopped in the car to go do a bit of exploring in the back country (i.e. my hiking haunts!). I chose I place I'd been curious about for a while now, only 1/2h from Alicante: an artificial reservoir with a damn built in the early 17th century! I'd been told the Pantano de Tibi is a beautiful place and the walking is easy (my mom has several frustrating health problems which don't let her do all the crazy hiking she used to love, has to take it easier now).

Movie Madness: The Avengers rule!

In one word:

AWESOME!!!

Some random thoughts (because I'm still a bit tired from my crazy weekend in Germany and Luxembourg and can't seem to get my brain to function rationally, and I really wanted to get this out before it hit the screens in the US):

Monthly Movies: April'12

April... an odd month with a few movies I'm kind of scared about confessing in public that I actually went to see them! :p

Four-legged furry critter, adieu.

Luna, canine elegance.

Not a good weekend. No siree. I've been trying to write this post for a couple of days now, but just couldn't seem to do it. Opening iPhoto and trying to select photos would just make me start crying all over again... as do a number of other random (or canine-related) things.

Return to the Sierra de Bernia for a proper hike this time!

So last Fall, when I was looking for other groups to go hiking with other than the Centro Excursionista de Alicante (because they only went out once a month), I managed to snag a spot on a hike organised by the Diputación Provincial de Alicante (provincial representation of the government). The destination was the Sierra de Bernia, a mountain that separates the green northernmost part of the Province of Alicante from the drier south (in fact the northern face of Bernia is the rainiest place in the province!). It turned out to be an interesting, albeit somewhat frustrating, hike. Frustrating because it was an "easy" hike, just crossing the mountain via the easiest pass and then hiking downhill to a river. Forget about getting close to the summit! And yet interesting because of the chance to visit the ruins of a 16th century military fort and because of the crazy weather (dark clouds kept moving around giving us really interesting views). In any case it left me wanting more! Wanting to go back and try the summit. Wanting to go back and cross the mountain through the Forat (a hole through the mountain!). And on the Sunday before Easter I finally got to go back!!! :o)

April 1st. Palm Sunday. No procession for me this year. Up bright and early to meet up with other members of the CEA at the bull ring downtown at 8 a.m. Everyone piles into the cars, and off we go, heading north to arrive around 9h30 at the "Casas de Bernia", about the closest we can get to the mountain by car (although there were a couple more options on the southern face). A gloriously sunshiny day, with no signs of those pesky rain clouds that hid everything from me on my previous visit! :o)

Sierra de Bernia, north, seen from Casas de Bernia

Lovely Valentine

Have you seen this music video? Paul McCartney's latest song "My Valentine" featuring Johnny Depp on the guitar and Nathalie Portman interpreting the lyrics in sign language... it's quite beautiful! :o)

I'm afraid I've once again been rather absent on the blogs... some of you whom I visit regularly will have noticed my lack of comments lately. I'm really sorry! I'm afraid I'm a bit swamped with my classes and trying to find a more regular job that would give me some financial stability (if such a thing even exists these days). Plus with the Easter holidays some of my friends have finally had some free time to get together! Other than catching up on blog reading, I still have a hike pending for here, a couple new Semana Santa posts for my other blog, half-started book reports for this one, and trying to re-start the "Fishy Fridays" and "Come Dive With Me" series (the latter of which I had hope to do before the diving season started up again... too late I'm heading out under the waves next Saturday!). Oh, and start getting things ready for World Oceans Day! (I'm helping to translate their website to Spanish) And I could show you some scary photos of how much organising I need to do around the house... :p

Some days I look at everything that needs to get done (the "real" stuff) and it's just so overwhelming I hide on the sofa and watch TV instead of facing it... which of course makes it all worse the next day... *sigh* Must. Get. Organised! I used to be so organised once upon a time... whatever happened to me? ;(

Monthly Movies: March'12

This is the "how on earth did I manage to go this often to the movies?" month! I even saw 4 movies in an 8-day period! Kind of crazy, even for me! :p
March was definitely a month for flights of the imagination and high doses of adrenaline: spies being double-crossed, spies competing for the same girl, Martians, the magic of the earliest movies, guys threatening to jump off a ledge and some funny retired Brits lost in India...

Only Two Months Until World Oceans Day!

Oh, and HAPPY EASTER!!! ;o)

Today is April 8th... which means that June 8th - World Oceans Day - is only two months away! Which is a big deal on this blog, as those of you who've hung around here for the past couple of years already know! :D

What's that? You're new and haven't got a clue as to what WOD is??? Allow me!

June 8th has been officially declared (by the U.N. after some pushing and prodding) as World Oceans Day. It's a time to contemplate how crucial the oceans are to the well-being of our planet, how they inspire humanity, how they captivate our souls... And it's time to give something back!

Page vs Screen: Game of Thrones

Last year around this time I wrote a "Book Report" post on the first four books in the series Song of Ice and Fire by George Martin (I just noticed I never wrote the book report for book 5 Dance With Dragnos last summer, darn!), with some video clips from the soon to be aired HBO TV show embedded. It was pretty obvious I was excited about the new TV series... and it definitely lived up to any expectations I had for it! So much so that I ordered the first season on BluRay as soon as it was available, and then had a nice little Game of Thrones marathon two weeks ago! Since then I've been rushing to finish re-reading the first book so I could write this post before season 2 premières! (I read it in 2 days the first time around, but now am busier plus I no longer have the drive to keep reading into night to find out "what happens next") :p

To be more precise this post should be titled "A Game of Thrones vs Game of Thrones s1", but, same difference! I took a lot of notes while re-watching the first season, plus added elements as I continued through the book, and it hasn't been easy bringing a semblance of order to the chaos of my thoughts, so I hope things are understandable! Here goes nothing... (Warning! Spoilers for s1 of Game of Thrones)

Hiking the Snow Well route from Ibi to Alcoy

I believe I mentioned last Fall that the Diputación (Provincial Government in Alicante aka representation of the National Gvmt) organises hikes on Sundays... They fill up a bus, and since it's subsidised it's quite a bit cheaper than other groups that take you out by bus... which means there's a very high demand to get a spot! In fact, if you don't send in your e-mail requesting a spot for a Sunday hike at precisely 9 a.m. the previous Monday... then forget about it! I tried 3-4 times between last Spring and Fall and only got in once! So when I saw that they were starting up again this past weekend, I set an alarm on my cellphone to go off last Monday at 8h55 to remind me to go into my e-mail draft folder and get ready to send the e-mail (already prepared with the necessary attachments) as soon as the clock struck 9! And 10' later I had an answer confirming I had scored a spot for myself and a friend, YAY! :o)

The group in charge of the Spring hikes is quite a bit more hard core than the one in the Fall. Those were all "easy" to "moderate". The hikes programmed for this next month are all "difficult"! Sadly because of budget cuts (damn never-ending crisis!) only 5 outings have been authorised (i.e. financed), which is a pity because the guides were telling us they had put together a fascinating programme which would have involved crossing the whole Province of Alicante, from north to south, in 20 days of 5-6h hikes! Now there's something I would love to do! But it wasn't meant to be... another year perhaps? 

So they just kept 5 hikes from their original list, and last Sunday (Mar 25) was a 16.4 km (10.2mi) hike from the town of Ibi to the town of Alcoy, crossing the mountain that separates the two (which meant a climb of about 554m - 1818ft - followed by a descent of 740m - 2428ft -). We pretty much followed the PR-26 from Ibi to the summit of the Menejador, in the Natural Park of the Font Roja, and then followed the PR-160 down towards Alcoy until we reached the river Polop, which we followed until the Vía Verde de Alcoy and walked along that until we got into town. I wasn't able to find a map online with this exact route charted, so I adapted one (all hail powerpoint!). The purple arrows show the way! ;o)

I'm not a morning person, so getting up (indecently) early to go on all these Sunday hikes hasn't been easy... and it was a lot harder last Sunday because we lost an hour the night before! Oh well, at least when we started out from Ibi at 9h30 we had gorgeous blue skies and warm sunshine. :o)

Historic Dive Into The Ocean's Deepest Depths

Have you heard the news? Check this out!!!

There's a more complete video on the National Geographic website, but try as I might I can't seem to be able to embed it!

James Cameron is now the third person (and the only one to have done it solo) to have reached the Ocean's deepest point in the Mariana Trench! I first happened upon the story via the fabulous site io9, and while reading the story I just linked to, what particularly hit me was the fact that humans have only visited the bottom of the Mariana Trench ONCE, in 1960 (there have also been two unmanned trips)! To think, we've sent more ships to the moon than we have to explore the ocean's depths...

You can find out more about the amazing National Geographic DeepSea Challenge at their website:

"We know less about the deepest points on our planet than we do about the surface of Mars. The DEEPSEA CHALLENGE team is dedicated to advancing the world’s understanding of our ocean’s vast range of biological and geological phenomena. The historic expedition to the Mariana Trench’s lowest point, the Challenger Deep, which lies 6.83 miles (10.99 kilometers) below the ocean surface, is the first extensive scientific exploration in a manned submersible of the deepest spot on Earth. Piloting the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER, which is outfitted for scientific exploration, James Cameron will conduct tests, collect samples, and document the experience in the high-resolution 3-D for which he’s known globally."

I for one look forward to seeing more footage of the dive and reading about any possible life he might have seen down there! :o)