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Always something to do in Saipan

Grass Volleyball Tournament on Sunday

The Northern Mariana Islands Volleyball Association is looking for more coed pairs to play in their upcoming PTI Grass Volleyball Tournament to be held at the Navy Hill baseball field this Sunday.

Event organizer EJ Lee said, “Oh, my gosh. This is going to be a lot of fun. I love volleyball. Hee, hee, hee.”

Registration for the event will begin at 9 AM on Sunday, December 9 at the Navy Hill baseball field. The first game will be played at 9:30 AM.

Veteran Spiker, Sal Shwartz comments on the upcoming event, “Yo! Dis kind of tournament really helps develop the sport of volleyball. I’ve been playin here since before the war, and I can tell da sport is really growing!”

All of the games will be Coed Doubles, with Men having to attack from 10 feet off the net. This unique format levels the playing field for all players when playing on a women’s height net. All players must be 16 and over and all skill levels are invited to play. Players must bring a good sportsmanlike attitude.

Event co-organizer Russ Quinn quipped, “We are looking for the next EJ Lee. We’re hoping that more young players get involved in our sport.”

The cost to participate is $10 for NMIVA members and $15 for non-members.

Players who are interested in participating but who don’t have a partner can contact Lee at 287-7540 or Quinn at 287-0318. Unpaired players will be matched up before the event begins.

The tournament is being sponsored by NMIVA, PTI, PIC, Triple J and Pacific Trading Company.

This is EJ Lee’s first time organizing a tournament. She wants to make sure everyone knows that. Vinney Barbarino states, “We’s real proud of EJ, she’s really done a good job makin everybody comfortable”.

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Northern Marianas Academy is holding a fundraiser at the Drunken Face of Evil Bar on Thursday night. That's Porky's Bar in Garapan for those of you not in the know. Now you know. And knowing is half the battle.

Sorry, Bruce. I couldn't resist.

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Grand Hotel will host Laff Adai this and every Monday at the Southern Cross Bar.

Last Monday was the first night. Come check out the newest comedy club in Micronesia!

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The big Unity March is this Friday at 5 PM. Bring poster board.

Too much for one person

There is a Beautify CNMI meeting at Cafe at the Park at 6 PM, Soccer Ref training is at Fiesta at 6:30 PM, and Grand Hotel is showing the Pop Music Festival finals at 6:00 and 7:30. What am I going to do?

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It looks like Sunday is going to be busy, too. Friends of the Mariana Islands have their monthly cleanup of Laulau Beach at 8 AM. Marianas Dive is going to join in, helping with the beach cleanup, but then hosting their own underwater cleanup at around 10 AM. Then weather permitting, we are all going to have a potluck BBQ around lunch time.

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I leave for Thailand two weeks from Monday.

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...and if you haven't registered to vote, today is the deadline.

Speaking of voting, if any candidate would like to be profiled on this blog, please contact me before I leave for Thailand.

Photo Contest Winners

On Friday night we announced the 10 finalists and the Grand Prize winner of the Photo Contest to raise awareness for the Micronesia Challenge. Here are a few of the top 10:

Leslie Ware won the Grand Prize with his photo of a Fairy Tern flying in front of some Flame Trees. He won a one night stay at Aqua Resort and lunch for two at Grand Hotel.

He also had two other photos chosen as top 10 finalists:

These next two photos were taken by Takahiro Noguchi. If I had been a judge, I would have chosen the picture of the fish as the Grand Prize winner (Sorry, Les).

Laura Williams from Division of Fish & Wildlife submitted this photo of Bikkia tetrandra:

I'm not sure if the judges have a sense of humor or if this is just a coincidence, but Harry Blalock's photo of a hermit crab was chosen as a finalist:

This photo of Yoshimi Yanagasawa and her Mom was also chosen:

Aya Matsumoto had two photos in the top 10:

Here are two of the winning photographers accepting their Beautify CNMI prize packs:

Each Beautify CNMI giftpack includes one of our turtle bags, two t-shirts, several bumper stickers, and a limited edition Beautify CNMI mug.

They are limited edition because I dropped the bag they were in and about 1/4 of them broke.

Oops.

The top 10 finalists and 10 Honorable Mentions were on display at our event at the Grand Hotel on Friday.

After the announcement of the winners we had a public forum hosted by Marianas Resource Conservation & Development Council (that's me). Over 30 people participated, including several public school teachers. Dr. Peter Houk, Biologist from Division of Environmental Quality, and Greg Moretti, Marine Protected Area Specialist from NOAA, presented on some of the work they are doing concerning the Micronesia Challenge.

Afterwards we had a long question & answer session.

The event was a success.

Thank you, Aqua Resort, Grand Hotel,and Marianas RC&D for providing prizes!

Thank you, Grand Hotel for hosting the event!

Thank you, Marianas RC&D for paying!

What are you doing for Happy Hour this Friday?

In my last post I mentioned that we are going to announce the winners of the Photo Contest at an event on Friday at Grand Hotel during Happy Hour. The top 10 photographers will get a Beautify CNMI! prize pack and the Grand Prize winner will get a one night stay at Aqua Resort.

Thank you, Aqua Resort!

This photo contest was put on to raise awareness for the Micronesia Challenge, which is a pledge by the leaders of the Marianas, Guam, Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands to Effectively Conserve 30% of our Near Shore Resources and 20% of our Forest Resources by 2020.

After we announce the winners of the photo contest, we will have a forum on some of the Near Shore Resources aspects of the Micronesia Challenge. I have asked Peter Houk from the Division of Environmental Quality to present on coral reefs and I have asked Greg Moretti from NOAA to present on Marine Protected Areas. After the presentations we will have a question and answer session.

This event is hosted by the Marianas Resource Conservation & Development Council. We are paying for food and iced tea. Other beverages will be available for purchase.

Teachers, this is a great opportunity for your students to learn about Conservation in the Marianas. I would greatly appreciate it if you gave extra credit to your students for attending.

This is a great opportunity for divers and fishermen to be able to ask questions about the Micronesia Challenge. So divers and fishermen, please attend.

I have heard a rumor that there will be Beautify CNMI merchandise available for participants, but this is only a rumor and it can not be confirmed until the event begins.

Bloggers, I would appreciate if you would help me advertise this event on your blog.

I hope we get some good feedback from this event. If successful, we will repeat this event at other locations on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota...so please come help me make it successful!

Micronesia Challenge Photo Contest

I'm helping the Micronesia Challenge Outreach Committee by putting together a photo contest. I went ahead and reserved www.micronesiachallenge.com, set up a blog at micronesiachallenge.blogspot.com, directed the website url to the blog url, and started posting the pictures.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

We are going to announce the winners on Friday at Grand Hotel, which is followed by a Micronesia Challenge panel discussion.

1st Annual Grand Fiesta Pop Music Festival

I'm always amazed at the people who say there is nothing to do on this island. I feel like the opposite is true; there is ALWAYS something to do on this island. Why, even as I type this, I'm skipping soccer practice...and missing out on the Thursday Night Street Market.

Tomorrow at this time people will be playing ultimate frisbee. Also tomorrow night, Karidat has a fundraiser at Aqua Resort and Grand Hotel has their Friday Night Food Court between 6-9, where they are going to award Beautify CNMI with yet another generous donation.

Saturday morning the women have their soccer semi-finals, Beach Road Magazine has their Car Rally, the Japanese Community will be cleaning up the Okinawa Memorial and planting Flame Trees, and then later on is the last night of the Taste of the Marianas. Sunday is just as busy.

Another great upcoming event is the Grand Fiesta Pop Music Festival, the preliminaries of which have already been going on for a couple of weeks. This is a contest to find local songwriters and to give them a chance to get into the studio. There was an open call for composers to submit original pop song demos and the field of 26 has already been trimmed down to 15.

This coming Tuesday, May 29, the First Cirlce band will perform all 15 songs starting at 7 PM. Judges are going to narrow the top 15 down to the top 10 and the winners are going to record a compilation CD. Grand Fiesta has already worked out a deal with local radio station KWAW to play all 10 songs on the radio for at least a month. The compilation CD will be available locally for purchase.

This is a great way for local artists to get heard. I know that no one is going to get the type of exposure that they would on American Idol, but Grand Fiesta is going to promote the hell out of these artists for an entire month and they get the chance to get some free studio time.

The whole things concludes with a concert at the end of July. There will be prizes in several categories, but the grand prize winner will win $1000. Not a bad deal if you ask me.

Bounty of the Sea

I'm in the middle of a great dinner at Grand Hotel's Coral Restaurant (heck yeah, free wireless Internet!) They have a new buffet on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays called Bounty of the Sea. All you can eat lobster? All you can drink beer and wine? Local price of $16? Need I say more?

All right, back to my pitcher of beer. I'll write more on dinner later.

Bodies on Fire - Backstage Pass

So my modeling career started and ended last night with the Bodies on Fire finale at the Saipan Grand Hotel. I am proud to say that I wore a brightly colored speedo onstage. In public. In front of people that I know.

Here are some pictures from backstage:

Getting ready for the big show. The hair and makeup guys gave everybody a faux hawk. I was no exception.

This picture was taken just after the guys finished lathering each other up with baby oil. Seriously.

Does this sarong make my ass look fat?

The show is about to begin, but first, group pictures!

Don't get burned by those Bodies on Fire!

A nice picture of the girls about to go onstage.

Next segment!

Elmer is the frickin' man!

I take that back. Captain Manila is the frickin' man!

You lookin' at me?

The "towel" segment.

Another shot of the "towel" segment.

This is the most action Ryan has gotten since he moved to Saipan.

This is what a Body on Fire model sees when they walk down the runway.

So who looks more like Ozzie Ozbourne in this picture? Ryan or Angel?

Jackie was my modeling partner. I'm flashing Blue Steel in this picture. Isn't it beautiful?

Three more satisfied customers.

I think that is more than enough pictures. If I get a lot of comments requesting a picture of me in a speedo, I'll post one, but somehow I expect most of the comments will be for me NOT to post a speedo picture.