My Trip to Anda

Anda is a town of Bohol province. Located in the eastern-most coastal area of Bohol. Coming from capital of Bohol, Tagbilaran, with average speed, you can reach Anda in 2:00-2:30 hours. In two barangays that we visited, Talisay and Badiang, both have Fishermen Association, smart guess, people's main livelihood there is fishing. The town is now shifting to another form of livelihood which is tourism. They showcase their beaches, culture and supernatural practices. The latter is what I'm most interested in.
__________________________________ Anda Kidz ---------------------------------------------------------
Before visiting the sites of Anda, we stop by Talisay to do volunteer efforts for the Anda Kidz Foundation. They're building a community center for children. The project is spearheaded by Robin Gurney, an English - Estonian guy and co-initiated with TAFIAS (Talisay Fishermen's Association). For more details about the project, visit http://andakidz.org/community-centre. If you can help, they will be very happy to serve you their best Tilapia chips, Taro polvoron, and Taro ice cream.
Left side view if facing the Center from the road. Walls are mostly covered now.	Robin Gurney, the guy who is to blame for the awesome community center.	Instead of bricks or hollow blocks, plastic bottles with sand inside are used for the wall of the Community center.
Plastic bottles arranged to form ANDA on the wall.	The front view. A little more work and it will be done.	The Anda Kids. The two girls at the right are the pioneer Anda Kids.
__________________________________ Lamanoc Island - Anda's Mystic Island ---------------------------------------------------------
Lamanoc Island is situated on Barangay Badiang, northwest of Anda. On your way to the island you'll be walking on a mixed wood and bamboo bridge. As of my visit, when you're about to reach the cottage at the end of the bridge, you'll be walking on a much harder path because the bridge is a bit destroyed in that point. You'll need to make sure of every step 'til you reach the cottage.
From the cottage you'll need to ride a bangka (small wooden boat) going to the island. If you're a heavy weight then must choose a bigger one. Anyway, the water is not deep in the area. While riding on the canoe, look around and you'll be amazed by the magnificent beauty of nature in that place. Take a moment to breath 'cause the scenery is really breathtaking.
You should wear slippers instead of shoes because chances are, when it's low tide the boat can't bring you close enough to the land.
While in the island, the guide will warn you not to be very nuissance or disturbing for it is a mystic place. Should observe the "tabi tabi po" belief. Why you're riding on a bangka and not on a fast moving speed boat?

Shaman's Cave. The Shaman will come into this cave to ask from the spirit of nature for bountiful harvest, good catch, protection and elixirs.	A heart-shaped fossilized clam attached to rock.
A cottage built in the island. Probably for refreshments, because going around the island is a series uphill and downhill walking.	Tangod cave. Trading spot of chinese and filipino traders.
Red Hematite Painting. Looks like blood.	Funny-looking rock formation. What does it look like?
Belongings of Ka Iska, the Witch who stayed in the cave.	The Wooden Cross. It is the most obvious figure when going into the island.

__________________________________ Anda's Beach ---------------------------------------------------------
Anda's beach is as magnificent as top beaches in the country like panglao or boracay. There is no much resort in Anda but the most popular are Amun Ini Beach Resort & Spa, Anda White Beach Resort and J&R Residences. Never been in this popular resorts, poor of me. I just been to Ande De Boracay which share the same coast line. One person said that it's sand is finer than that of Panglao. Well, I don't really know which is which. I didn't evaluate it. Just recently I was able to snorkel the beach of Anda and was a able spot some Nemos - clown fish, zebra-striped fish, blow fish, sea urchins and some other fishes.

This is all I can share about Anda, just for now. I know soon enough this place will be crowded. The place is really amazing together with its people. Hope you can share something about this place soon.

LED Matrix Display Housing Prototype

This is the prototype of the LED matrix display housing. It is scaled to a smaller size. The idea is to see if edges fit together. The material is just a cardboard. As you can see, the fit is perfect. It is made possible with the use of a LASER cutter which I rent at FabLab (Fabrication Laboratory, yeah Bohol got one). The LASER cutter perfectly defined the cut. The machine just follow the design you feed into it. I use CAD to create the design and then feed to the cutter.

Testing LED Matrix Display for My Parent's Shop

I created a LED (Light Emitting Diode) Display for my parent's shop to help attract customers. The shop is not obvious to people because it is situated on the side of a building with a narrow alley way. It has no show window for showcase, so hopefully a dynamic sign can help.

I used Gizduino ( an Arduino clone of e-gizmo.com) and LED Matrix display with column driver. If you're interested in making something like this just comment below or email.

This project is not yet finish, still need to create the housing. Building the housing is also an interesting part because the plan is to make it like a puzzle that fits together.  Stay tune for my next post.