Update: Antarctic Vote Count

The current Antarctic Trip Vote count is as follows; 884 - 668 - 613 - 587 - 389 (how did yesterday's fifth place entrant lose 63 votes overnight??) out of 260 candidates registered. I am still in second place, and third place is creeping up on me rather quickly.

If you've already voted, then please encourage your family, friends, colleagues and neighbors to vote for the person whom you think would be best for this unique job: traveling to Antarctica for the month of February 2010 and writing about it for the public on a blog. Here is my 300-word essay; hopefully, you will agree that I am a very well-qualified candidate for this job opportunity. Voting ends at noon EDT 30 September and there is one vote allowed per valid email address (registration required).

Details: Quark Expeditions is searching for an Official Blogger to join a voyage to Antarctica. Their goals, according to an email I received recently from their official spokesperson, Prisca, are to have their official blogger write a daily blog entry in English about his or her experience on this Antarctic trip, and to help raise public awareness of the environmental and conservation issues that pertain to the Antarctic. To select their official blogger, they are asking candidates to enter a competition where the public votes for whom they think would do the best job.

I am a wonderful candidate for this job as the official blogger for Quark Expeditions because I have been a prolific writer of a science and nature blog for five years, I have earned essential scientific training and background as well as having taught all age groups from children through adults, I have always strongly supported environmental and conservation objectives, and I possess intellectual curiosity combined with a sense of wonder.

Perhaps most important of these stated job requirements is writing ability. I have proven that I write consistently and well because I am one of just a few blog writers whose contributions have appeared in every edition of the Open Laboratory, which is a print collection of the finest science, medicine and natural history writing published in the blogosphere; I am also a published writer and additionally, my blog platform here at ScienceBlogs provides tremendous international reach, unwavering public support by my fellow blog writing colleagues, and strong technical support among the ScienceBlogs staff as well as from its parent company, Seed Media Group. Furthermore, a trip like this would be an amazing way for me to thank all of you, dear readers, for supporting me throughout these past difficult years.

I've posted a picture and written a 300 word essay and my entry is public. To vote, go there and register your email address (and create a different password from that used for your email). Then, within a few seconds to an hour or so, you will receive a confirmatory message at your registered email address so you can then vote in this competition. Remember, according to the rules, there is "one vote per valid email address" and no more than two votes per individual. So after you've voted, be sure to ask everyone you know to vote for me, too. If you've had troubles registering your email address, please contact me (so I know of your troubles) and Quark Expedition's marketing manager, Prisca Campbell, who will then register your email address by hand, as she's already done for at least one of my readers.

Voting ends at noon EDT on 30 September 2009, and the Official Quark Blogger will travel to Antarctica in February 2010 to blog about the experience, chronicling the action, the emotion, and the drama as this polar adventure unfolds.