This site is officially migrated to lester.orpheusteam.com

Over the many years of teaching and running a scuba dive centre, week in and week out teaching the same courses, has somehow ruin my passion for diving.

However, when I am teaching pro courses, it somehow brought the joy back. But with the recent two years, Orpheus Dive Professional market has been very much affected.

Reason is simple, when I teach and interact with students, my objective is to promote continuing education to them. Whether they do take the path of Master Scuba Diver Challenge or becoming a PADI Divemaster, I take the joy in it.

Today, a customer walked in and said “I am a Rescue Diver, with 3 specialties and I want to become a Master Scuba Diver”. I was like “Huh, really?”

I spent lottsa time sharing with her diving experience and simply talking about diving. I realize that this is something I missed out alot in my career. Simply talking about diving, nothing about money, nothing about your education, about anything else but ABOUT DIVING. AND NO, she is not a babe. She is old enough to be my elder sister or even mother:)

I simply enjoy talking about diving, about underwater photography and I can go on and on and on and on and on.. .. till the cows fly

I think in life, no matter what industry you are in, you do get jaded and tired of the same work you are doing. However, it is very important to rediscover the reason you went into it. Unlike most occupation, where you do it because the money is good, diving is very different. You go into it because of passion, and for any job that you do because of passion, dun like the burdens kill the passion. Think about why you did it, and rediscover the joy of it .

I thank Alison for making this possible for me, helping me rediscover the joy of diving and what diving meant to me. Now, off to the drawing board for more new marketing ideas.

Still nursing the pain, my Powerbook took me to SgScuba, where I came across a post on whether to buy or rent housings for cameras.

Over the years of diving, seeing underwater photography becoming more and more popular, and with PADI launching the PADI Digital Underwater Photography, the number of divers owning a underwater housing has increased tremendously.

However, I have always been puzzled with one thing. Some divers will invest in more than SGD$1000 for their camera but not willing to invest in a better housing to protect their camera. This is something that I cannot totally comprehend.

Imagine buying a underwater housing for SGD$200 to protect a SGD$1000 camera? Where is the maths or logic to this?

Imagine you have a 1 million dollars diamond necklace. Instead of securing it in a safe, the owner choose to store it in a Milo tin

Well, the faith of the ownership of a brand new Nikon D200 lies in the hands of Chris. He is heading to Hong Kong this weekend, and I gave him a list of contacts of camera shops in HK. He needs to grab some grey lens. And again, Chris offered to get the Nikon D200 for me. Well, I have finally given in to the darklord this time.

Told Chris that if he is able to get a brand new one for SGD$1800, get one for me. I know this price is quite impossible to get, but if luck is on his side, he will be coming back with one Nikon D200. Nevertheless, I was on clubsnap and was just surfing for gears for sale and came across the lens that John has describe, the nikon 50mm F1.8 for portrait shotting.

Hmmm, dun care lar. Get the lens before the camera. Anyway, I have already decided to get either the Nikon D200 or Fuji S5Pro, and both the sets do not come with lens anyway. So paid SGD$150 for the nikon 50mm F1.8

First I came across this term “succubus” while watching “Charmed”, with original cast of Shannen Doherty, Alyssa Milano, Holly Marie Combs.

This morning, I was just lying back, relaxing and refusing to move cuz the ribs got slightly worst after my rescue pool on Thursday.

So decided to pop in a DVD to keep me occupied, the movie is about a succubus. What the hell is that?

According to Wikipedia, a succubus (plural succubi) is a demon who takes the form of a beautiful human female to seduce men (especially monks) in dreams to have sexual intercourse. They draw energy from the men to sustain themselves, often until the point of exhaustion or death of the victim.

Man, imagine getting fuck till you die. This gives a new meaning to “Die Cock Standing”

Just found out why Aylwin has not been diving that much recently. Thought he was really busy working but the fact is that, he has been busy surfing youtube.

Okay, as right now, we have the following participants who are ready to rock and roll at Raja Ampat.

1) Lester

2) Janice

3) Calvin

4) Andy

5) Karla

6) Pei Min

7) Wai Yin

Julynn

9) Lionel

10) Jason

11) Lawrence

12) Lloyd

13) Wei Qun

So only 3 more spaces to come. Now the next nightmare is gonna start, co-ordinating the air ticket and who is going on which trip.

“Woof woof wo woooofff woo” translate that, it means, “Thank you for diving with Orpheus Dive”. Jill has been recently been promoted to Orpheus Babe, so Wai Yin, time to stand down, the new hot bitch is here to stay!

Jill has even got a Orpheus Dive Uniform now. Welcome to the team my girl!

I did not expect anyone to actually reply the eNews on Raja Ampat Expedition and Photoshop class:) Well, at least now I know that there are actually people reading it.

Now that things are getting more organized, I will be sending out an email soon to confirm the participants for the trip.

I am beginning to see why so many people loves to blog. It is a good way for one person to express their thoughts and sharing it with million of people. And also, it is a good marketing tool.

yeah, everything lester does is all about money. In some ways, this is true. But I do give back to others.

Now, time to install a blog for Orpheus Team. Many of us want some sort of websites, but unfortunately, not everyone has a talent nor time to learn how to create their website.

So having a blog is like having their own personal domain.

I have successfully using SME Server to create a new domain call bloggie.orpheusteam.com

After browsing through www.hotscripts.com,  Boast Machine and Life Type caught my eyes, but being a visual person, I choose Lifetype because of the available templates for Lifetype is more than Boastmachine. However, boastmachine seem to be more well documented than Lifetype.

Well, upload 9Mb of files up the server now. Pacific internet seems to be getting from bad to worst. Speed is bad, accounting for Pacific Internet is even worst. This is probably going to be the last year I am using them.

Okay, while waiting for the files to be uploaded, what can a bored instructor, unable to sleep because the ribs are hurting like hell do? Well, surf the website for more information on his dream set up

First stop, www.wetpixel.com to see what is IN and what is OUT in the world of underwater photography. Wooooo, Aquatica to offer Ikelite strobe bulkhead on housings. Seem interesting, another plus point for Aquatica when the time comes for me to get me housing for me camera. Haha, that is assuming I have enough money to get my dream camera. Okay, nothing interesting on the first page, so off to the forum of wetpixel. I wonder who thought of the name wetpixel? How can a pixel ever be wet?

Found a rather interesting article on wide angle lens. Divers are generally asking which is a better lens. The 10.5mm versus 12-24. While many agreed that the 10.5mm on land is rather useless and only for creative shot underwater, compared to 12-24 is more commonly used on land and still acceptable for WA (wide angle) in water. I personally have seen images taken with the 10.5mm and i SIMPLY LOVE IT. Well, looks like the 10.5mm is going to be the first lens I am getting. And guess how much it cost? As much as the damn freaking camera. The suggested retail price is SGD$1300.

Damn, it is almost 5am and I still cannot sleep. And the files are still uploading.

Time to surf to singnet.com.sg. A quick search shows that right now, Singtel is offering a promotional rate of S$78 for broadband and we are paying Pacific Net for their junk services at S$130. And what got me so agitated about their sales and account services is that when our plan of S$130 was over, instead of writing to us informing that the plan is over and there are other promotional plans, they upgraded us to a S$300 plan instead. And I have spent more than half a year wrestling with them on this. And now, over at their website http://www.pacific.net.sg/business/promotions/, I discovered that their new plans is onlyy S$98. Alright, time to write a nasty email to complain about their services (since I am waiting for the files to be uploaded).

It is already hard enough to run a diving business, every cent saved is much needed to ensure that we survive in the market.

Woah. Files are finally done. Installation seem easy. Now to customize it