Bracket Buster Parfait

Most, if not all, of you who read this already know, but I'll post it here anyway: I won! Well, I won my first round match. I still have to win four more times to be declared the champion of the MormonTimes "Blogger Brawl." But thank you so much for voting for me!

I will next need your help on April 14--and it seems I'll need a LOT of help. They run a Blogger Brawl recap in the weekly print version of MT, and this week it mentioned that my second-round opponent "racked up more votes in his first day of competition than most bloggers get in three days." Yikes.

So I'm doing well in one bracket...but that's about it. My NCAA Tournament picks this year are worse than they've ever been, and that's saying something. I had hoped to run my own personal March Madness in this space like I did last year with sitcoms (this year's theme is still a secret), but I've been pretty busy with work and with looking for an apartment, plus I wouldn't be able to add all the clips and links I want, so it will have to be an April Madness event instead (come to think of it, I'm pretty sure I waited until April for last year's as well).

But I will be able to do it in April, because I finally found the place I want, and will be living on my own again starting April 1 (not an April Fool's joke)! Well, living with roommates. But definitely living in a separate place from my parents. A place with high speed Internet. Which means I'll have no excuse not to blog. Except I'll probably spend the first three weeks watching the episodes of Stewart and Colbert that I missed.

Polls are open

It's up! Voting for my first round matchup runs through Sunday night. Feel free to visit your local library and vote for me on each of their computers.

Rock the vote

I made it. I'm one of the finalists for this contest. The article says there will be 16 bloggers brawling for the title, but they've actually expanded it to 32.

The tourney gets under way Wednesday, but my first round match up doesn't start until March 12, a week from Friday. (I'll send out a reminder next week.) At that point, voting will be open for three days, so I'll need your help to advance.

I know the name of the person I'll be competing against, and I'm pretty sure I found her blog. I won't link to it, because I could be wrong, and because I have nothing against her, and I don't want you leaving harassing comments on her poorly spellchecked posts (you know you would).

She's only 20 years old, which means she likely has better access to the demographic that votes for American Idol and in online polls and such. So we need to get the word out--hence the early heads up. Keep checking this space for updates.

(Oh, and I'm aware that I'll be having a birthday before this 20-something contest ends--but I had already planned with just matching my new age up with the year. Twenty-ten is the number that comes after twenty-nine, right?)