Log on Blog!

One of the first things I can think of for this blog, is to log. After all this blog is titled SCUBA!

I used to maintain a pretty detailed log book, from dive#, time/date, location, surrounding condition, RNT group, max depth, visibility, comments, and even accumulated total water hours! I was trained to do so, until I got back to Taiwan.

Being an experienced, if not said "professional", the most frequently asked question is: "How many dives?" The answer varies from 200+ to 500+ according to my mood that time, and people believed it. Sometimes I wondered, however, how many exactly?

Now, after acquiring my first dive computer, with USB interface to download dive profiles and software to keep track of divelogs, the same old question poped out. "Dive# to start" Sure I can initialize from any numbers I want, but that would be pointless. Therefore to begin with the electronic log, I want the closest possible number of my past dives.

Nov 21, 1992 - From Mammal to Amphibia

OWI - 5 dives (Nov 1992)
OWII - 6 dives (Oct 1993)
Pemengill - 18 dives (Mar 21~26 1994)
Advanced* - 8 dives (May 1994)
Sister Island - 2 dives (Oct 1994)

Total dives before 1995 : 39

Logged dives after:

#40 Langkawi - 1 dive (Feb 7 2000)
#41,42 福連國小 - 2 dives (Aug 26 2001)

Estimated dives after #42:

Year 2001
Can't remember! Assumed dives 5-2(logged) = 3
(3)

Year 2002
Almost every Saturday in summer, if Typhoon not present.
22weeks from mid May to mid October, Minus 5 weeks for assumed bad weather, thus 17
17 days of 2 dives = 34
Make that 30, sometimes only 1 dive and call it a day.
(30)

Year 2003
Saturday Leisure -- approximate 5 days *2 = 10 dives
Coast Guard training -- 5 weeks * 4 = 20 dives
澎湖 -- 8 days * 2 = 16 dives
Maldives -- 6 dives
Phillipines -- 1 dive
(53)

Year 2004
Nitrox course -- 4 dives
Saturday Leisure -- approximate 4 days *2 = 8 dives
Coast Guard training -- 5 weeks * 4 = 20 dives
永安港 -- 1 dive
墾丁 -- 2 dives
(35)

Estimated dives : 121
Assumed total dives : 163

I knew it! After 11 years I'm still under 200 (sigh).

Why Fangorn?

首先來解釋一下Fangorn這個字。
在托爾金的小說"魔戒"中譯本裡面，這個字只代表一個意思，就是音譯的地名"法貢森林"。但是原文書中，這個字還代表了居住在法貢森林中的種族(法貢族)、語言(法貢語)、還有最老的長老的名字(法貢，也就是樹鬚)。
所以，我就是Fangorn。

If you are reading this part of the article, you probably already know what "Fangorn" is. For those of you who don't, here's a short explaination.
The term "Fangorn" appeared in the masterpiece, The Lord Of The Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien, reffering to a native toungue of a race which in English called Ent. In other words, the Entish word for Ent is Fangorn. Thus the forest they inhabit is called "Fangorn Forest". Moreover, the oldest of the Ents, known as Treebeard in English, is also called "Fangorn" in Entish.
So what does it got to do with me? Well, check out the Chinese translation for Ent and you'll see!!