My 2018’s List of Obsolete or Nuisance Items

My 2018’s List of Obsolete or Nuisance or Useless Items or Inventions 

Our needs and things that support them changes overtime, based on new technologies and inventions, on new and better ways of doing things or new requirement for the greater good.

With pressing needs on sustainability side – for one, a lot of what we use or buy today should be shelved and forgotten, replaced by more eco-friendly, safe or value-adding things in life.

Here are my picks of obsolete or nuisance everyday items:

1.       Paper staples, staple wire and staple wire remover.  I’m sure you’ve been "nuisanced" by the little evil thing one way or the other – and the fact is, we moved on and invented other ‘attacher’ techs.  Binder clips, old-school paper clips, clothes line clip, tapes – you name it.  Staples are not just nuisance or safety issue – it’s a waste of metal (non-reusable) – yes small and trivial but imagine a trillion little angled wire pieces used by 2-3 billion people! Loose or misfired staple wires lying on the floor is an obvious safety risk for kids and barefooted adults. So the next time the cashier attempts to staple your receipt with the card validation print-out, or staple the top-open end of the paper bag - shout “Nooooh”.

Climbing Mt Apo - Then and Now

1994 - my first climb in Mt Apo, with UP Mountaineer friends. (photo credit - Ivan Sarenas)

I first climbed Mt Apo way back 1994, as part of my team’s backpacking trip in southern Philippines including Leyte, parts of Mindanao and Cebu.  This was that time that reaching Tacloban (Leyte) by boat from Manila takes around 25 to 30 hours!  My group was the usual gung-ho type where fun is the priority, and planning was next to none.

Before the trip, one senior org member that we consulted told us that Mt Apo is “typical” and nothing to worry about.  Only to experience, unprepared - for a windy summit camp with temperature dipping to 0-degree C during the night!

Eco-Living: Small DIY Furniture Projects

Carpentry is a real man’s skill.  Something I only partially learned from my Dad during my teen-age years.  But came the corporate life, and a busy social life – and the old-school skill was lost.

But it doesn’t have to stay ‘lost’ forever.  There was a time that I found it ‘painful’ to see wood scraps from my friend’s home project. After decades of not handling a hammer or saw, I just worked on it – intent of removing the scrap from sight – and producing something useful.

Alas, my first in the series of small DIY from-scrap projects – a small giraffe-themed short foyer table (that looks like a bench) of some sort.

My Giraffe table.  I only used angular to connect the 'legs' (back then I have not learned using wood glue), all parts were scrap plywood.  +5 years and still alive, recently as our home's Christmas tree stand.

Eco-Living: Baking Soda for Home and Personal Care

Initially experimented adding stevia (for flavor) and sea salt, but later just use VCO mix.

Yes, sodium bicarbonate.   Food-grade, but also useful in many other things.   

I happen to watch this CNN episode on green living and saw this home-made toothpaste – which made me intrigued.  I’ve heard the same stuff before, but never tried it.  Yes, even after reading that fluoride is a known neurotoxin – an indispensable ingredient in every toothpaste that we buy.

Now NaHC03 (the baking soda, dude) – is simply natural with no harmful effects on human.  Food-grade! Used for baking!  But a very good cleaner and acid neutralizer.   It’s been around for centuries (actually ancient Egypt used the same substance for mummification)  – but distracting advertisement easily lured us all in buying bad brands and products.  So start the better alternative – DIY!

How I make my toothpaste

Get a small re-purposed glass or plastic container.  I used a very small candy jar, (and another small pickle-bottle to store my ‘deodorant’).

2016 Year-Ender – my Top Picks

1.       (Sports) Padyak Palawan.   I was glad this pushed through even with little support and sponsorship.  Here, I clocked my fastest mountain bike ride (58kph – that’s fast for me), my longest tour (~700km), and longest travel by bike (11 ride days).  More importantly, it was good that we decided to make it a conservation ride, and was able to raise a modest fund for our partner NGO – CCI.  If there’s one problem with this, it is that – it could be addicting and we might do another trip! :)

First day of our 12-day ride.  Here pedaling from Buliluyan (Southern most pt of Bataraza), an escort of policemen and marines tailing the team (only in this section). 

2.       (Conservation) 25,000 Trees -  Reforestation program.    25,000 trees seems easy but I realize that inviting or bringing self-funded people to a remote mountain to ask them to plant in a steep and rough terrain is not particularly easy. But I’m glad my team from UP Mountaineers pursued this project (3 trips this year and more next year). We always say ‘give something back’, and there’s no better way for mountaineers to give back (to the mountains and community) than to rehabilitate a denuded mountain.

A selfie - showing off my first planted sapling (wilding).  I only planted 58 saplings that day, the terrain was really challenging. 

25000 Trees - Reforestation Project

Steep planting-site terrain in Mt. Apo.  Wildings are collected by foresters in healthy areas, and re-planted.  

As a mountaineer – it’s hard to just sit pretty and relaxed when a favorite mountain was suddenly raged by fire – its forest decimated.  Like 140 hectares of it!

While it’s natural for mountain forest to ‘die and be reborn’ as part of its cycle, just like human-caused environmental issue like climate change – a human-triggered problem is best managed by intervention.  To accelerate rehabilitation, if not to totally cure it. 

Palawan Eco-travel and Exploration

Illegally trafficked Palawan forest turtles by the thousands! (pic c/o Katala Foundation, from Traffic.org site)

Palawan is the Philippines' equivalent of Galapagos or Madagascar.  Unique endemic species thrive in this elongated, narrow strip of island in the West of Philippines.  Geologically, Palawan is a ‘break-off’ from Asia mainland unlike the rest of the Philippines and this geological difference contributed to Palawan’s eco-diversity not seen in other parts of the country.

Unfortunately, continued illegal wildlife trade and habitat destruction threatened most of the species and many are in critically endangered status.

It is for this reason that our team from UP Mountaineers decided to do a travel exploration around Palawan before the end of this year – to raise awareness on wildlife and nature conservation, and to raise fund for our partner NGO – The Center of Conservation and Innovation.   We’ll travel in the most responsible and sustainable way while discovering the various sites of the island, and while campaigning for its conservation.

Center of Conservation and Innovations is a biodiversity conservation NGO that aims to promote the development of new biodiversity conservation approaches and regenerative livelihoods- by developing partnerships and building capabilities for science-based, nature-inspired, and socially appropriate conservation strategies.

One of the long-running program of CCI is Tandikan (Philippine pheasant) conservation.  One of the most beautiful ground birds that I’ve personally seen.  Others include hornbill and pangolin conservation studies.  It’s common in our local news that forest turtles, exotic birds and pangolins are heavily poached and trafficked – a sad reality of our wildlife threat.

My team will document and publish interesting stories about various sites, the travel or other matters as we explore various places in the island.   

How can you help?

ICC will need a lot of help – from the local community, from volunteers, and from the local government.  The other crucial factor is support; from us – mere spectators but future beneficiaries and stakeholders of their work.

Any contribution big or small – will definitely help us both in the awareness campaign and in actual conservation effort, with the hope of preserving our natural treasures for our future generations.
We encourage cash donations sent directly to ICC (details will be shared as needed).  Or in the meantime – post your pledge for this worthwhile endeavour.  Will post more details of this trip as we get closer to the date.

Stay tuned…

A Journey of a Thousand Flowers

Alpine bush-flower surviving the extreme condition, near Ama Dablam Khumbu Nepal (2015)

A Valentine's post, remembering many of the beautiful creations that simply make everyone smile.
Outdoor travel will almost always expose one to great opportunities to see a wide variety of flowers, of any shape, color and kind!
Throughout my decades of travel, I've pictured some every now and then, and still deciding whether to regret not capturing others.
So for your next outdoor escape, make sure you click that cam every single time you see a flower. You'd eventually realize that these seemingly "pass-by or momentary decorations" can actually add color and beauty in your travel or outdoor memories.

Low-Impact Mountaineering

A day-climb near Tingri, Tibet. Cho Oyu and Shisha behind me.2005.

“LNT” or Leave No Trace are old, known set of principles in conserving our mountain and nature playground.  More popular quote of ‘Take nothing but pictures, Leave nothing but footprints, Kill nothing but time” – offered nice and summarized version of LNT’s intent.

But as we walk thru established paths, blaze a new trail, or climb our regular mountain – we still somehow impact our environment – especially mountains with rich flora and fauna.  Glaciated mountains probably have higher tolerance to humans, but as ‘tropicanos’, every visit we make in our supposedly green and rich mountains will inadvertently leave an eco-mark.  Simply leaving your poo behind, or throwing biodegradable food scraps, or stepping on rich undergrowth – already contribute  a direct impact on nature.  Repeated practice increases the impact, even exponentially when near or past the ‘tipping’ (or tolerance) point.

So the question is  - how to reduce if not near-eliminate our eco signature?

Zermatt – A Glimpse of a tiny town in the Swiss Alps

Matterhorn as seen from Zermatt

Unless you’re a skier or live near or around the Alps, or a Swiss for that matter – you may not have heard or have interest in a little town called Zermatt.

I only came across this town name when I was planning my travel itinerary, not that I was planning to go Swiss-side, but the pull of a beautiful mountain called Matterhorn is hard to be simply crossed out from my travel checklist.  And Zermatt appeared in my Google search as the jump-off town.

Not expecting anything but a ‘nice little mountain town’,  (and I should add ‘nice little expensive mountain town’), I was in for a pleasant surprise.  

Help our Oceans




a photo exhibit (in Gbelt Makati) reveals both
the beauty, and the bad state of our oceans.

  Being a diver and former host of a conservation show (GMA7’s Born to be Wild), I can’t help but be continually awed by the beauty of this Ocean Planet, and at the same time - be bothered by its ailments. Inspired by yet another ‘call to action’ photo exhibit at Greenbelt 5, here’s the hinted tips about ‘what should we do’ (with the obvious premise that –our oceans and all of us are severely threatened);


1. In general, we need to lower “over-consumption” of ocean products. A good mix of food especially plant-based will help ease off the pressure on our oceans. Collectively, we can help reduce demand.

Tree Planting is Fun



pix c/o Fredd Ochavo (UPM). Tree Planting
does work, you just have to believe ;)

 There’s no question that more trees means better biosphere. It absorbs/retains carbon (responsible for global warming), provides O2, many trees supports an eco-system and provides shelter/food for wildlife, inhibits landslide/flush floods among many other thousand things. So if you’re in doubt what ‘environmental activity’ to do, plant a tree! Many trees! Oh, just make sure that the tree is indigenous in your target place – lest you introduce an invasive/harmful flora. Simple tips here:


1. Make it fun! Some people have little interest in ‘just planting a seedling’. Add another fun activity near the area such as island hopping, hiking to a nearby mountain, swimming in a clean river somewhere, etc. If you’re not the organizer and your friends are not too keen, add your own activity flavour after/before the planting for your group. In Alaminos, we added hundred islands tour and beacheneering as part of the mangrove rehab program.

Save our Reefs

Video c/o Doc Eric & Ed - here I'm installing a small reef module somewhere in Bauan Batangas.
Just to offer some little things on how to help protect, conserve and rehabilitate our reefs...
Why should we care? If coral system dies (predicted 2050 by some groups if issues were not addressed), ocean life will be at big risk and will obviously impact humans. Food source alone relies very heavily on ocean. Even pigs and chicken relies very heavily on fish products for food – yes those pellets, and pigs/chicken eat more than what humans directly consume (according to Sea Shepherd Conservation Society).

Ice Art

I recently watched NatGeo’s Explorers Top 125 – Chasing Ice (only the last few parts) and again got reminded about how fragile our Ice and glacier systems are and that we are losing them at a fast rate due to Climate Change.

Now, to see pictures or videos (and be awed by the beauty of the ice world) is one thing, but to see it first hand is another. I felt fortunate to have seen so many of these natural ICE ART but thought that it’s a shame that we’ll lose them, that these may never be seen by our grandchildren’s children.

Let me dedicate these few trip pictures, for HOPE and awareness - that WE (individually and collectively) can actually (still) do something about the disappearing glaciers or melting ice.

1. Cho Oyu’s little glacier ‘peaks’ (Tibet). Though they look like stalagmites, these structures are made by glacier movement -- when the underground ice push itself down-slope, some misdirected ice is pushed upwards creating this nice little peaks. At least that’s my guess ;)

2. Karakoram’s icicles. This is one of the easiest to find among natural ‘ice art’, even on roofs or flowing rivers. Saw this one going down from Concordia (Karakoram). Para lang popsicles! :)



Living with Less

Earth Care:
Tree Planting briefing - Tanay Rizal

A friend shared this article about Living with less , and I thought it was a good reminder for me. This thought was something I acquired since I was 19yo, but living a more ‘complex’ life after college, and recently doing all sort of activities made me acquire and keep so many things. Still, in my own little ways – I struggle and fight to live a not-so-materialistic lifestyle, both as ‘life contentment training’, and to preserve the only living environment we know today – our planet.

I wrote a related article and mentioned this never-ending ‘life upgrade’ in my older blogs – and I’m reposting it here..

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The New Age of Earth Care

(Originally posted June2007)

In today’s era of Global Warming, things and personal preference would have to change. Little ‘sacrifices’ and normal perks we look for are easily put aside for a grander end in mind – Saving the world!

About Bamboo



my bamboo-framed bike


Bamboo has been used by man since a thousand years back – it’s readily available, easy to grow and harvest, relatively strong and provides a wide variety of uses. In the Philippines, this has been used as main material for traditional Nipa Hut, as fence material, for art work, house items like drinking ‘glass’ or sandok (big spoon), candle holder, even as a weapon like the traditional spear.


Nowadays – we’ve seen the admirable effort of various groups in transforming this as the sustainable material of the future. Plywood made of bamboo? Some construction groups already started using this. Bamboo-made kitchen and dining items? I’ve seen a lot in Make Room stores, and bought a dozen pieces of dinner ‘ware’ from Gourdo’s, at a very cheap pre-Christmas sale prices. Bamboo bikes? I have one and it’s a functional work of art.  I even used it in an adventure race and the bamboo-framed bike did just fine (and I didn’t haha). Oh don’t forget our Bamboo Organ – Pinoys should make more of that..

Hidden Species of Taal Lake



Taal seahorse (maybe pipefish) c/o Doc Nielsen

 Last night, I had a kamustahan dinner with the Born to be Wild show manager/executive producer, and it was nice to hear that Born continue to get strong audience support (and even won awards). (I used to be one of the hosts  but kept in touch with the team every now and then). As another proof of the show’s health and standing, GMA7 just launched “Born Impact” – (Sunday morning) which I concluded to be like a supplementary show of Born to be Wild.


Then fresh from an animal operation (a big dog got ‘crashed’ by a water tank, but is now safe), Doc Nielsen (one of the hosts of the TV show) showed up -luckily without the dog or blood scent haha! Doc N has been in the show for quite some time but it was the first time we met. Well, we sort of knew each other anyway given common acquaintances so we’re not really strangers.

He just recently came back from a 10-day Taal documentary work – and I was surprised about some findings (and pictures) that he shared with me.

The picture posted here was claimed by locals to be a seahorse (although I think it’s a pipefish, a close relative of a seahorse). I’m a frequent visitor of Taal either for leisure, trainings (ex. sailing, boat rescue), kayaking  but not into-deep about its marine life (unlike the neighbouring Verde passage). Sure I did a docu work with Born about this place, had a few quick encounters with sea snakes (they pop their heads up to breathe), and observed thousands of sea birds frequenting the area – but still has not deep-dived (figuratively and literally) in this lake.

Trash Talk

I’ve recently supported (project still on-going) Red Bull’s campaign (youtube here) on solid wastes. This is a metro-wide, school-targeted effort to create awareness, and get some trash-problem solving project on the way (to be funded by Red Bull).


This campaign is also supported by Gaby dela Merced (formula 3 racer, model, actress), and Sen. Koko Pimentel.

I recall Ilac ‘Gwaping’ Diaz’ similar effort on this area, (among many other things that he’s embarking on) – his construction team is utilizing recovered plastic bottles and old tires as medium or part of construction material. The plastic bottles are tightly filled with sands, making them like ‘bottle-shaped’ bricks; these are sandwich-cemented with other materials in building walls. Same for tires I guess.

Now talking about solid trash – the topic on synthetic, non-biodegradable PLASTIC comes to mind.

Earth has been adaptive for the past 4bn+ years. Eons upon eons of different ‘environment’ or types of biosphere were created, disappeared and recreated. Reading through Earth’s history a long time back, I was even surprised to learn that there was a time that O2 was not present in the atmosphere and when it did (excessively at that time because of plant life abundance), many life forms perished!