South Of The Border, Down Antarctica Way

This is a personal blog - sometimes, very personal, as my long time readers will testify - but occasionally I like to do entries about others, when I feel they deserve it :) Well, this is one of those times, concerning an internet friend of mine and her dream - and how you can help.

The friend in question is a New York city gal who I know from Twitter (where she posts under the ID misssomething) She also has a blog, which looks a lot more professional than this one - there's videos on it and everything! - and shows up occasionally on sites like flickr as well.

Recently, the credit crunch which has been affecting most of the planet for what seems like ages got a lot more personal for her, as she lost her job. I know what that feels like (GroupieGirl has been looking for work for a while now, and I spent most of the last recession unemployed) and I rather doubt it's any easier on the other side of the Atlantic.

How does she intend to bounce back from this? Well, how about going on an expedition to Antarctica? And of course, since this is the internet age, blogging about the experience... There's a competition being run where the winner will get to go and do just that, and it's clearly something she'd like to do, as she states in this blog post.

Of course, she's got to win the competition first. Which is where you all come in. So I'd really like you to do the following to help her achieve her goal:

1. Check out her pitch at the competition website.

2. Register with the website, which you have to do in order to vote. Don't worry, all you have to do is provide an email address and a password - this is to stop people from spamming the vote. They'll then send you a confirmation email (which, for me, ended up in my "junk" folder, interestingly)

3. Cast your vote for Nicole St.Clair. This is the most important part - they can only count votes which are actually cast, and voting for someone else...well, that's not going to help her any, is it?

4. Call, write to, or email all your friends and tell them to repeat steps 1-3.

And if all that sounds like too much hard work, and you or someone you know is on Twitter, then at least re-tweet the original message which she posted there yesterday.

Go on...you know it makes sense. Think of it as your good deed for the day. I mean, how often do you get the chance to help someone fulfill their dreams? And it's not like you have to put your hand in your pocket or run a race in a silly costume or anything like that. Just a few taps on a keyboard and a couple clicks on a mouse. That's it.

Good luck in your quest to reach the seventh continent, Nicole. Looking forward to reading all about it :)

UPDATE, 2009.07.31
Nicole's contacted me with details of a new blog she's started, called simply, I Want To Go To Antarctica. Feel free to check it out. Oh, and if you haven't already done so, don't forget to VOTE!