One might not realize this because of my infrequency of posting, but I spend a lot of my day reading the Internet. I can’t help it really, it calls to me like that extra slice of pizza peaking out from under the box lid. Oh yes, my RSS reader is heavy with the weight of 500 pieces of saucy pie.

And so it was, this morning, whilst I was perusing the “comics” section of my reader when I read in the FLOG about a new blog.

“Hmm,” I thought and Clicky Click Click there I was at the latest Seattle-based blog.

Hulk #208 was different. I like the idea of Hulk becoming Bruce Banner again and living like a normal person. It’s a nice change from all of that violence with different villains coming and attacking Hulk.
That was the extent of my first letter published in a “real” comic book, real meaning Marvel, sometimes DC. Anything else was fairly contemptible to the thirteen year-old connoisseur of the form I considered myself to be, back in those halcyon days of the mid 1970s. I was a “true believer”, a pocket money-offering pilgrim to the mighty Marvel Comics Group, a division of Cadence Industries Corporation.

Go. Read the whole thing. Then tell me if these three posts he’s written are any indication that this guy could claim WSB’s Blarch Badness crown in 2009.

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I give up. There’s just so much gaming and governing and finger-pointing that I don’t have a choice, regardless of whether Seattle Bubble already withdrew.

I said if anyone was cheating, I’d throw everyone out. So, everyone in that side is hereby disqualified. The other semifinal on the Coyote side continues, at least for the moment.

Honestly, I don’t feel much like continuing this tournament. This was supposed to be fun, and it’s far from fun now. I can’t deal with the melodrama, or chronological adults acting like a bunch of spoiled kids.

The antics of Lookout Landing have left me embarrassed to say I’m a Mariners fan. And considering the sort of crap the M’s have pulled the last 13 years, it’s awfully hard to get me embarrassed about being an M’s fan.

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So, the selection committee has met for the last few days trying to decide who is in and who is out of the tournament. There was the usual yelling, fighting, chair-throwing, and occasional moments of harmony. But finally, late last night, the committee emerged from their pizza-and-beer-induced stupor to put in my hands the lineup for this year’s Blarch Badness.
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And it’s official — this bracket is busted beyond all recognition. West Seattle keeps bringing the upsets, short-circuiting Electrolicious, while the usr/bin/girl robots stuff a sock in BlatherWatch. And now, the thrilling conclusion.

BALLARD REGIONAL
Regional Finals
February 22
#7 #!/usr/bin/girl vs #8 West Seattle Blog
And what’s remarkable is that for all the bellyaching about the “Ballard Regional” the West Seattleites are now just one vote away from the Final Four. But now, can the flannel-wearing, Admiral movie watching, Spud eating insurgency prevail over an anime army? The suspense is… no, that’s not a “killing me” feeling. I think that’s a kidney stone.

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UPDATE:
Dpolls apparently has given up the ghost. I’m not exactly sure who was leading at the time the poll stopped worked. In fact, WSB thinks /usr/bin/girl was winning and vice versa. So, at least this is easy.

Here’s a new poll. Cross your fingers that PollDaddy isn’t floating in the virtual fishtank tomorrow. Two things:

1. I’m extending the deadline one day — to Thursday. It will now close at the same time the U District closes. Hopefully.

2. To maintain the “vote once-per-day” attitude I elected to NOT cookie-lock the poll. That means you can vote as many times as you like. HOWEVER… since this will run three more days I ask you to please keep it to three votes per person. In fact, if I see clear evidence that someone’s been flooding the poll, I’ll kill it and we’ll draw a name from a hat. Got it? Be polite in your ballot box stuffing, please.

UPDATE #2:
What did I say up there? That if you start flooding it I’ll be pissy? Well, someone did. So, I blew away the results, and it’s now cookie-locked. Please act like grownups, OK? It’s just a stupid poll.

Take Our Poll from PollDaddy.com

Voting is still open in the second round of theU District regional, and also in the West Seattle and Capitol Hill regional finals. Tomorrow, on to the U District for the last of the regionals.

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The Slog has been routed. Football season is over. And now, two remain, capturing two of Seattle’s undying passions — whining about traffic and whining about transit! Kidding.

CAPITOL HILL REGIONAL
Regional Finals
February 21
#4 Seattle Bon Vivant vs #7 Lookout Landing
That’s right, it’s food vs. baseball! Viv rode our readership’s anti-Slog sentiments into the regional finals, while Lookout Landing is doing better than the M’s have the last few years. Both find themselves on the doorstep of the final four. So, baseball, or hot dogs and apple pie? (Sorry, we’re not Chevy people.)

Voting is still open in the second round of other regionals: U District and Ballard, and also in the West Seattle Final. Tomorrow, one more time across the Ship Canal — the Ballard finals.

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And then there were eight. Or about to be, anyway. And this week, we’ll pick the Final Four. Are you exciting? Tingling with anticipation? Then you should really see your doctor about getting your medication adjusted.

WEST SEATTLE REGIONAL
Regional Finals
February 20
#1 Chris Pirillo vs #3 Seattle Daily Photo
Neither Chris nor Kim have even been challenged, so now, as those English footie commentators would say, a lot will be asked of each of them. On one side, the ubergeek of Seattle (now that Bob Scoble has left town) who has not done a lick of campaigning. On the other side, Seattle’s premier photoblogger who has done nothing but flog this contest.

So, choose one. But choose wisely. You don’t want to piss off anyone with a camera or a website now, would you?

And remember, voting is still open in the second round of other regionals: U District, Capitol Hill, Ballard. Tomorrow, the Capitol Hill Regional finals.

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We close out Round Two with the U District Regional, which goes on Friday, the day of the week I’m most tired. So I end up writing pithier comments. Given my penchant for Faulkneresque 100 word monster sentences, this is probably the day to ask me to write something for you that’s under 500 words and over 4 sentences.

U DISTRICT REGIONAL
Regional Semifinals
February 16
#1 Not Martha vs #4 USS Mariner
Someone paged Megan earlier this week, and her readers showed up. She had more votes than the entire Capitol Hill regional. And now, she has USS Mariner — and its vast collection of Mariner fans and scalliwags — in her sights. But knowing Derek, he probably doesn’t give a rat patootie about this contest. Unless, of course, I mention his new book, The Cheater’s Guide to Baseball, which you should pre-order a copy of today.

#2 Horse’s Ass vs #6 izzlepfaff
Capitol Hill Seattle played with fire. And they got burned. Bad. And hoisted on their own petard. And let’s assume there’s another military cliche here, because I’ve run out of them. Now it’s Goldie vs. Skot. Liberals vs. humorists. But aren’t most humorists liberals?

And here are links to the other three regionals: West Seattle, Capitol Hill, Ballard.

Next week, the Regional Finals. We’re getting closer to wherever the fictional finals site would be. The Space Needle? Elephant Super Wash? Dick’s?

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Round One is moving into the books. Round Two starts now. Yeah, it’s going to take a while, isn’t it? But you can do it. Eat your Wheaties (or whole-grain spelt flour 100% organic cruelty-free breakfast cereal of your choice).

Yeah, and apparently the polls expired early. They might do that on more than one of these rounds. So, to solve this problem, I will be launching the polls sometime between 8am and 9am the rest of the way. Gives you something to do in your bleary pre-caffeinated state at the office, at least.

Next time we do this (if there IS a next time) I think we’ll build our own voting software.

WEST SEATTLE REGIONAL
Regional Semifinals
February 13
#1 Chris Pirillo vs. #4 Postman on Politics

So, after Round One we now know two things we didn’t know before: The Pirillo Effect is real, and you all like politics more than KEXP. I don’t know if I should be concerned or not. I hold out hope geeks will prevail over politics, because if politics wins, we’ll spend the next year discussing and debating the next round of the Badness and never really come to a conclusion, even after two advisory votes.

#3 Seattle Daily Photo vs. #7 Anita Rowland

Both had fairly solid wins in the opening round. Both are worthy of your vote. We like them both.

Reminder: Voting in the first round continues for two other regionals. Tomorrow, Round Two in the Capitol Hill bracket.

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We took your input. We haggled over who should be in or out. And now, it’s time to announce the brackets for Blarch Badness. Who has the Best Blog In Seattle? Let’s find out.

Originally, it was going to be 32 blogs, but after some talking we decided to add three “play-in” rounds, bumping the total number of blogs to 38. We’ve grouped the extras into certain classes you’ll see in a moment.

And an apology to the 30 or so we also considered that didn’t make it, in addition to the thousands around the area we just didn’t know about. We’ll do better next year.

So, without further ado, let’s warm up Billy Packer, cue the theme music, and unveil the brackets!
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