www.beautifycnmi.org

Our url at http://www.beautifycnmi.com expired and after about six months of trying to get it renewed I finally gave up and purchased http://www.beautifycnmi.ORG.

At the moment I have it redirecting to this blog. Well, I say at the moment, but I really have no plans on creating a Beautify CNMI website, although it would be nice.

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In addition to this blog, Beautify CNMI has a Myspace page, a Facebook Fan Page, and a Facebook Group.

Christmas Trees and other fun events

The We Love Saipan Network will host their 11th Blogger Meetup this Wednesday at Java Joes at 7 PM.

Bloggers, Blog Readers, Blogger Wannabes, and people who just like chicken nuggets and coffee are welcome to attend!

The We Love Saipan Network hosts a Blogger meetup on the last Wednesday of every month.

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Paseo de Marianas Promoters will be holding their second annual Green Christmas for the Children of the Marianas celebration this week. The main event is the christmas tree decorating contest where 14 different elementary schools decorate a tree with ornaments made from recycled materials.

The decorating starts Wednesday after school and the students will have a chance to continue decorating up until about 5 PM Thursday. The trees will then be judged Thursday at 6 PM. Come down on Wednesday to watch the trees get decorated and come down on Thursday for the tree lighting.

I really enjoyed this event last year. It reminded me of what the Paseo should look like every day, not just on a few nights during the holiday season.

HERE are some pictures from last year.

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Feeling community service oriented? Friends of the Mariana Islands will lead a cleanup of the Garapan Tourist District on Sunday morning at 8 AM. Meet up at the American Memorial Park parking lot and bring two friends and water.

The Beautify CNMI coalition will provide trash bags and rubber gloves.

An Ethical Question?

A fellow blogger who dives regularly, recently recounted a story in which he helped two hermit crabs find new homes. Another fellow blogger/diver wasn't too happy with the first blogger/diver, and posted the previous blog post about not taking the shells of hermit crabs if a hermit crab was living in it.

That really pissed off the first blogger/diver.

Now.

I fish (not very well) and I eat fish. I eat crab and I've eaten hermit crabs off of the beach.

With that understanding, I pose the following question:

Is it ethical for a SCUBA diver to take the shell from a live crab?

Is taking a shell from a live crab similar to taking the horn from a Rhino (or Saipanda) or the fins from a shark? Or is it more like sheering the wool off of a sheep? Would it have been ethical to take the crabs if the diver had eaten the crabs? Since fishing with SCUBA is illegal, did the diver break the law?

Second, I pose an ethics in blogging question:

Is it ethical to use pictures from another site without permission?

Is it enough to just link back to the original site? Do you have to get permission first?

Carnival of the Blue

I'll write more on the brilliance of "Blog Carnivals" later; in the meantime check out Blogfish.

Blogger Meetup

If you don't know what a blog is, let me help: You are reading one right now.

The We Love Saipan Network, along with the Saipan Blogger and the Passion Profit, are hosting the CNMI's first Blogger Meetup this Wednesday night at 7 PM at Java Joe's.

The meeting will be an informal meeting for anyone with a blog or the desire or interest to start a blog. Some of us have been blogging for a few years, some for only a few days. All are welcome!

We'll share tips, ideas, links, and expertise. Hope to see you there!

New Bloggers!

Our stable of bloggers is growing! Keep a look out for posts from the Passion Profit, Walt Goodridge, and the newly elected Beautify CNMI Animal Welfare Committee Chair, Katie Busenkell.

Thank you, Webmasters!

It looks like Ruth Tighe is the latest person to add a link to Beautify CNMI! from her website (Ruth Tighe: On My Mind). We are also featured prominently on www.saipan.com, www.cnmi.net, www.kirida.com, chamolinaole.blogspot.com, www.welovesaipan.com, and many, many others.

Every time a new website links to us, the Beautify CNMI! pagerank increases. The higher our pagerank, the higher we will appear in search results. That will help us reach more people and, as Cinta says, infect more people with the Beauty Virus.

Please add one of the following links or images to your email or online forum signature, or the main page of your blog, myspace profile, livejournal, or other website (linking to the Beautify CNMI! website, of course).

If enough bloggers link to us, I'll start a blogroll. Maybe.

Simply copy and paste the code below into your blog template:

Text:

Beautify CNMI!


<a href="http://beautifycnmi.blogspot.com/">Beautify CNMI!</a>



White Background
170 x 170 pixels:




<center><a href="http://beautifycnmi.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://myspace-784.vo.llnwd.net/01223/48/70/1223540784_m.jpg" /></a></center>


More to come soon...

I'm getting there

Thanks everyone for your patience while I get this blog back up to par. I've got a pretty busy weekend, but I'll try to get all of our partners up and linked to by Sunday night.

Blogging in the News

Beautify CNMI! is mentioned in Walt Goodridge's weekly column today:

"BeautifyCNMI's blog at www.beautifycnmi.blogspot.com (also www.beautifycnmi.com) chronicles the vision, efforts and successes of this unique coalition to make Saipan a pleasing place to live and visit-all documented for the world to see."

I may be wrong, but I believe that Beautify CNMI! is the second communitiy organization in the CNMI to have a blog....Marianas Resource Conservation & Development was the first.

New Blogger Update

I'm working on updating this blog. I've started to add links to all of our "Proud Partners." It will just take me a while to add all of the names, companies, etc.

New Rule:

If you don't have a website, you won't be listed as a partner.

I will continue to post your name, how you have participated, and pictures of you in the body of the posts, but the sidebar is meant to be a list of links. If you don't have a website, I can't link to you.

We had a lot of dead links up before. That makes us look lame. I don't want to look lame.

I'll have us looking good in a few days,

Angelo

Blogging in Beta Blogger

I'm switching this blog over to the new Blogger. Depending on how motivated I am to sit in front of the computer, it will take a day or five to get this blog looking pretty again.

The new Blogger is pretty fancy. The new archive system allows you to navigate to any page within the site from any page. Nifty! You can also bounce between the next or the previous post with the click of a button. Awesome! It also allows the webmaster to attach labels to each post. Woot!

It is also a lot easier for the webmaster (me) to edit and to play around with the format of the blog. Anything that makes my life easier is good.

Happy New Year,

Angelo

P.S. Would you like to contribute to this website? I could sure use the help if you would like to be the one to report on our activites, post pictures, or whatever. It is really easy and I can give you a quick tutorial.

The possibilities of what we can post here are limitless. Are you a photographer? Do you want to post your pictures of the beautiful places in the CNMI on this website for the world to see? Are you an aspiring journalist? Want a worldwide audience?

International Visitors

Our website continues to get dozens of hits every day from people within the CNMI, on the mainland, and in other countries. Click on the map above to view the most up do date country share of the last 100 visitors to our website.

Link to us!

Are you a blogger? Do you want to help Beautify CNMI?

Then help us get the word out!

Please add one of the following links or images to your email or online forum signature, or the main page of your blog, myspace profile, livejournal, or other website (linking to the Beautify CNMI! website, of course).

Simply copy and paste the code below into your blog template:

Text:

Beautify CNMI!


<a href="http://www.beautifycnmi.org/">Beautify CNMI!</a>



White Background
170 x 170 pixels:




<center><a href="http://www.beautifycnmi.org/"><img src="http://myspace-784.vo.llnwd.net/01223/48/70/1223540784_m.jpg" /></a></center>