Goin Batty...

Hey, y'all...how is everybody doin?...im good here...mostly because i get to go on vacation tomorrow...yay!...its gonna be great, and im sure y'all will hear about it when i come back...ill give you guys some info about it today, too...this post will mostly be a goodbye post...i wont be back till saturday...so you wont have any blogs to read all this week...i know...please, stop crying...its okay...ill be back...and ill try to post next sunday or maybe even saturday night...do you feel better now?...wipe away the tears...daddy's comin back...oka-lee-doe-ka-lee...i reckon i should begin...

yesterday we went to fagatele bay in leone...once again, its a private, secluded little beach that we had to hike to...though this one isnt nearly as far away as a'asu...the hike was only a small hill...but still kinda treacherous...it was muddy, and while we were at the shore it began to rain...so the steep mucky hill became even more slippery and wet...so that was a tad scary...but for the most part, the trail to this beach was smooth and steady...that picture of the house above was at the entrance of the path to get down to the beach...dont worry...that isnt a house that someone lives in...though it could be mistaken for one around here...i think its just a small shed that a family owned and probably uses as a sort of getaway...a place to lounge and relax...it was kinda neat...sure its ramshackle and creepy...however, its also kinda rustic and simple...anyways, i also like the inspirational quote on the side of the wall...either the samoan who wrote it didnt know english very well or didnt know how to translate samoan into english correctly...it says, "love over come for all difficulting"...lisa, william, and i, english teachers extraordinaires, thought they meant "love will overcome all difficult times"...we just thought that was kinda funny...

one of the frightening parts of the hike was having to climb down this dangerous ladder...it was probably about twenty-five feet tall...and it was placed on a rocky waterfall...with a pool of stones at the bottom...i had bloody images in my mind as i carefully stepped down on it...i saw the ladder cracking in half...i saw the ladder sliding off its position...i saw myself tumbling down the ladder...either way, i saw myself falling terribly to my violent, painful death...and my blood (and chunks of my brain!) flowing over the rocks...yes, im a little imaginative...and melodramatic...but those images are probably what kept me from not falling of that rickety old ladder...right?...they kept me cautious and alert...

those were just some random samoans that were at the beach...besides them, we had the entire beach to ourselves...it was wonderful...the water here was warm and the shore was sandy...it was a sweet day at the beach...i was telling chad on the phone today though that im gettin kinda sick of beaches...call me crazy, but theyre gettin sorta boring..."ho-hum"..."just another day on a tropical, beautiful beach"...you can send me hate mail at njoestark@aol.com... i shouldnt be taking this place for granted...i should feel extremely lucky to be goin swimmin in the ocean every weekend...and i do...but ya know...humans need variety...and i wouldnt mind some snow and ice...but for now...ill stick with the sunny, gorgeous, south pacific beaches ;-)

okay...im gonna give you guys a quick list tonight...just to let y'all know, ill be giving my annual top ten movies list next week some time (suzy's been dying to hear it!)...i still have to see one movie...casino royale...so, before i do that list ill do this one...

My Five Worst Movies of 2006:

5. The Wild = remember this cgi kiddie flick?...yeah, neither do i...this forgettable movie (by disney!) is a regurgitated checklist of every other computer animated film...there's madagascar (crazy animals escaping the zoo)...there's finding nemo (a father searching for his son)...there's shrek (the zany and comedic foreign and black characters)...there's ice age (a worshipping mass of a single creature)...and there's, again, ice age 2 (the mistaken identity of an animal)...a complete and utter retread...

4. The Break-Up = a movie that starts out charming and funny, and ends horribly dark and serious...oh, and annoying...vince vaughn and jennifer aniston are mean and cruel to eachother, and their misunderstandings and miscommunications are depressingly irritating...i wanted to gouge my eyes out...and shove my soda straw in my ears...its overly prolonged ("when's it gonna end?!") and sleep-inducing, and their long cat and mouse game of breaking up and getting back together is tortuous to watch...i so wanted to dump this movie half way through...

3. Happy Feet = how this simplistic, amatuer movie won the oscar over monster house and cars is unfathomable to me...both of those latter movies are unique, exciting, and animated splendidly...this flick about singing and dancing penguins (yes, they karaoke to bad 80's tunes) is oddly detached and tedious...somewhere along the way, probably after one of the scenes with robin williams pretending to be a penguin pretending to be robin williams, a political message on global warming is shoved down our throats...it even has a black and white montage of politicians in washington discussing the issue...this animated inconvenient truth becomes totally strange and unsatisfying...

2. Click = dont even tell me that you liked this film...because if you did, i hate you...seriously...i hate you if you found this movie to be entertaining...i usually like adam sandler movies (i can beat anybody in a billy madison quote contest), but i despise how this movie tries its darndest to be dramatic and deep...its manipulative (tons of product placement), its cheesy (sandler running and crying in the rain is cringe-worthy), and its mean spirited (tons of useless swearing...and sandler's character is hella malicious...never once does he use his universal remote control to do good in the world)...this movie, along with sandler's goofy, fake, and immature performance, is horridly corny and eye-rollingly unreal...it couldve been a great bruce almighty/its a wonderful life-type uplifting movie...but its dreadfully not...

1. Running With Scissors = maybe its just because i read the brilliant autobiography by augusten burroughs, but i think this is by far the worst movie of 2006...its an unwatchable (literally!) pile of wild and colorful events with entirely no real, hearfelt story...unlike the book, it presents these sitcomy, outrageous caricatures of insane patients without any authentic compassion...they just become flat and boring and confusing...oh, and the mom in the book isnt nearly as cruel and annoying as she is in the movie...its simply a awfully made movie with underdeveloped characters and a bafflingly non-existent story line...its just so, so wrong...i dont think i could be paid to watch this movie again...i feel so horrible for augusten...how could he let these people ruin his grand book?!...read the novel...barf on the movie...

alright, y'all...tell me what you think...did you like some of these movies?...where am i wrong?...and send me some of the worst movies you saw last year...

there were these little puppies playing on the beach we were at...they were so adorable...i wanted to eat them up...they must have been owned by the samoans that were at the beach with us...im sure, in the future, these cute, delightful lil pups will become like the typically seen feral, diseased, ugly dogs that roam the island...which is kinda sad...

those were just some pictures of lisa, william, and john frolicking in the water...

i just wanted to give you guys some brief info on the trip im going on...im going to western samoa...its a nearby island (though we do have to fly) thats samoan but is not an american territory...its supposed to be stunningly beautiful...i guess its a lot more touristy and more tropical and beachy than the god forsaken island we're on now...we're actually goin to two islands...upolu and savai'i...i cant wait...a relaxing, superb vacation in the breathtaking western samoa...here are some links about the islands...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Samoa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upolu

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savai%27i

http://www.visitsamoa.ws/

http://www.govt.ws/

http://www.mapsouthpacific.com/samoa/index.html

http://www.polynesia.com/maps/samoamap.html

while we were at this beach a storm came through...it was actually kinda spooky...these dark, heavy clouds rolled over us as a sheet of rain pounded down...but before the storm came, its ominousness could be felt...the waves seemed more threatening...the air seemed thicker and quieter...and the swaying trees whispered in the wind...it was menacing and ill-omened...oh, and did i mention the bats?...there were hundreds of bats flying over our heads...probably trying to escape the foreboding storm...it was hella creepy...but kinda cool, too...i think bats are awesome, man...they swooped and glided over the jungle shoreline like an army of evil vampires...i could have sworn i saw batman...i have a clip of it on youtube...its sorta hard to see the chilling, fearsome black bats...but even just watching this clip you can experience the petrifying, sinister brewing of the wicked storm...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h12mu4KTvsM

here's a really short clip of a crab that i filmed on a'asu beach...these tiny hermit crabs were every where...and they were so camouflaged with their rock-like shells...but i wanted to take one home...like at the mall...and name it herbie...or gary...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSEJiZ21akA

we went to our favorite restaurant on island after the beach...the hong kong house...and i had fried bananas with ice cream and whipped cream and a cherry on top...oh my lawd...it was orgasmic...

here are the links to the two hotels we're staying at while on our vacation...in savai'i we're actually sleeping in these fales...theyre pretty much beach cabanas...with no walls!...and all you get is a rolled up mat and a mosquito net...so that should be interesting...but it still seems to be lovely...i mean, who wouldnt wanna sleep on a beach in the south pacific?...with the picturesque ocean right next to us and the moon at night and the sun rise in the morning right over our heads...im positive it will be absolutely astonishing...the other hotel, in upolu seems pretty, as well...im so thrilled and happy to be going on this vacation...and im hoping its as groovy as i have imagined it to be...

http://www.vacations-beachfale.ws/

http://www.samoa-hotels.ws/Vacations_Beach_Fales/hotel_yourhost.php

http://www.eventpolynesia.com/directory/samoa/vacationsbeachfale.htm

http://www.kitano.ws/

http://www.pacificislandtravel.com/samoa/hotels/kitano_tusitala.html

okay, y'all...ill talk to you guys when i get back...leave me a message...im gonna be buying some souvenirs while im on my vacation, and im keeping in mind those wonderful friends of mine who leave me messages ;-)

i love ya and miss y'all...

-JOE

"Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living."

-Miriam Beard