flyzabit

Voted +1

OK, why not -- I'll ask to go with... Here are some qualifications:
1.a. I counted about 45 countries and 6 continents from A/L background when I had to apply for clearance at "Never A Straight Answer". I wouldn't mind saying that I've been to more continents than Delta....
1.b. I live two doors down from one of the Mars Meteorite guys. His license plate proves it.

2. Experience:
a. I've seen fairy penguins in Melbourne...why not the real thing?
b. I didn't get south of Buenos Aires, and the visa isn't required now.
c. I worked in Alaska (no, Not the Deadliest Catch).
d. I got married, and for the first time ever, added a few-too-many pounds of natural insulation.
e. My mother-in-law runs an Inuit Art Gallery and spends a lot of time in Cape Dorset -- so I have access to the right clothes for the climate.
f. I know enough not to put my tongue on a flagpole for a double-dog-dare bet.

3. I can assist in valuable translation in languages used to/from and ON Antartica: English, Spanish, Norwegian (yes! who else got to both poles first?) , and (rusty) Russian.

Examples: (English and Spanish left out for brevity, but I do understand Argentian Spansih spoken with an Italian (or German) accent, and could give EZVictor instructions in either.)

C) Norwegian:
1) Pass deg for isbreen rett fram! Snu på en femøring til venstre (høyre) AKKURAT NÅ!
2) Jeg er IKKE sjøsyke! Jeg bare ser på pingvin. (* = I am NOT seasick. I'm just looking at a penguin.)
3) Hvorfor øser vi? (* = Why are we bailing?)
3) Å fy! Dette er ikke kaldt her! Du skulle gå nord og ned! (and you'd have to understand the pun there...a polite way to tell someone where to go, and to the Norsemen, it was cold...)

D) Russian:
1) Осторожно! АЙСБЕРГ прямо перед нами!
2) это не холодно -- только ледяной. (* = It is not cold, just icy.)
3) я американец. я не должны это делать.
4) я не страдаю морскаю болезнью. я морской волк! (* = I am not seasick. I'm a Sea Wolf (sea dog).)
5) (and I'll identify when the Russian sailors just impugned your good mother's reputation...)

... и это были верхушка айсберга!
(and that is the "tip of the iceberg"!)

Canarsie

Thank you for your votes! Please keep them coming!Actually, you could have said that as few as six days ago.

You have quite a list of credentials for the trip to Antarctica!
____________________________

I hope that I am faced with the incredibly difficult dilemma of deciding how to choose who will be my companion for the Antarctica trip, should I win that opportunity. That sounds like an idea for an OMNI forum thread: Who Will Be The Next FlyerTalk Member To Go To Antarctica With Me? An OMNI Game

...nah...maybe not...

Anyway, I was thinking about changing what I write every few days to keep the weblog fresh interesting and perhaps gain some stray votes. Any thoughts on that?

However, I have no idea how the person currently in the lead has already amassed 736 votes thus far. Is he a FlyerTalk member?

monitor

...Sounds like a good game to me.
There is no problem with that. All we need is to have wijomas write a scoring script for that election with the slight variation being that Canarsie always comes up on top with the most votes.

wijomas

And a script to automatically vote every 10 seconds...?

Canarsie

I am currently tied for 26th place with 54 votes, and it was relatively easy slicing through the first 11 pages of entries, as I am now on the second page.

Getting to that first page will be more difficult, and reaching first place will be exponentially more difficult than that.He is now up to 737.

I only need 684 additional votes to take over first place — at least, as of right now...

monitor

Just like the one somebody supposedly wrote for the OMNI countdown and countup games.

Dovster

Here's a hint from his blog: "I host a radio show."

He's probably been plugging his entry on the air.

I think you need an entirely new approach. Perhaps something along these lines:

wijomas

I wonder who that could've been. I know it wasn't me...

monitor

Since we don't want wijomas to end up in the pokey, we must come up with a way to involve at least a few of the hundreds of thousand FTers. A whole lot of them never read Community Buzz.

wijomas

Perhaps Canarsie could offer free first-class Round the World tickets to everyone who votes for him.

mersk862

That's why I think dov and cholula's idea to put this in their sig is a great idea - should help spread word around just a little easier.

Now just need to think of some witty way to phrase it for my sig...

Cholula

It's your call but I think what you wrote was pretty clever and would be hard to top IMO. Plus I think this is going to be less about the blog content than the ability to amass the troops to vote for you.

Maybe the guy is really into Twitter and/or MySpace or Facebook. Or is a member of a large IBB like this one and is getting votes that way.

I'm thinking you're also going to have to take this outside FlyerTalk as the guy has built a commanding lead that's going to be hard to catch. Consider promoting this on any other websites you visit.

And, if you haven't already done so, you might want to consider an e-mail campaign, with a link to the blog, asking your e-mail list to e-mail their friends and their friends to e-mail theirs, etc.

I'd be willing to ask my e-mail list of friends and family to vote for you and I'm betting that others would too.

No way should anybody but a FT'er win this contest.

Dovster

I was serious when I wrote that his blog includes the statement "I host a radio show."

That has got to be giving him some help in getting votes. Of course, that only makes Canarsie's task more difficult -- not impossible. We have got to get as many FTers involved in this as possible.

flyzabit

Well, if you don't get past him, maybe you'll have luck talking Richard Branson into organizaing a trip into space like THIS:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/02/2...trip-to-space/ and http://www.25millionpoints.com.au/

It closed 30June09 (winner TBA 08Sept09), and was only open to residents of Australia (darn!) who were members of Virgin Blue Velocity rewards.

Since he offered this promo (that's his "Nana" in one photo), and he offered to double Sully's salary, why couldn't he talked into this? Between you and atdiff pulling this off, and those moderators who could sell hot sauce....
This should be easier than selling refrigerators to penguins...
---------
Or try to work on ZERO-G ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_Gravity_Corporation and http://www.gozerog.com/ . They're willing to take it YOUR destination...
Maybe THEY'D be up for a Flyertalk / blogging contest... (must have posted first message before 7/1/09, etc.)
-- And if enough of us sent money (plus 3% fee) to atldiff via PayPal, maybe we could send two FTers (moderators) at $4,950 + 5% each into space (or at least weightlessness). "Your ZERO-G Experience includes 12-15 parabolas, your own ZERO-G flight suit, ZERO-G merchandise, a Regravitation Celebration, certificate of weightless completion, photos and video of your unique experience."
Sounds like the straits off Ushaia.... hence the common nickname for this type of plane... I'll put together the post-flight celebration, and EasyVictor will consolidate the photos....

Jeeves

I just voted - #56. Good luck, Mr. C.