Okay, was gone for a couple days, so I'm quite a bit behind on the vote sharing, but I lucked out with the timing and didn't miss any voting. Let me cut the crap and get right to it...

Ben Miller vs. Steven Zwartjes
Voted for Miller. Zwartjes finally ran into someone that I know somewhat well, which was pretty much all I was looking for. I don't have a whole lot to add on Ben's half, but it does seem that Zwartjes caused a lot of problems with his last time in Kart. I wasn't around during the time, and only heard snippets through others, but I have been kind of surprised by the suspicion that has arisen around him. Still, either way I figured that Ben was better known, and perhaps better liked. Kind of surprised by the close voting margin, and I think that a few years back, Zwartjes would've been almost assured a 4th round spot, but I guess most people feel separated from him now, or never knew him to begin with. The right person probably moved on either way. Anyone who is in the running for Mr. Holland needs to be kicked out ASAP, as far as I’m concerned.

Finn Berger vs. Jon Prentice
Voted for Finn. 1 vote for Jon? Where were the MKDDers here? I figured Finn for a commanding win, yeah, but I expected much more support for Jon.

Much the same reasoning for Finn in this round as in his past rounds. I don't know his opponent well, and he's one of the nicest guys in the community. Plus, apparently he looks just like Gandalf. And, you know, wizards are awesome.

*Puts on robe and wizard hat.* 8)

*Casts Round 4 Finn*

Sami Cetin vs. Jonathan Steel
Voted for Cetin. Steel put up something of a fight here, which was nice to see. However, as is the case with much of the MKDD crew, he ran into someone I've known for quite a while. Sami, while not knowing him personally, was someone that I got to know through gaming during my time in SMK. While "Keep on Karting!" was generally the extent of our conversations, we did talk on AIM a couple of times, and he was always helpful with anything I had to ask. I don't really have much to add on him, as I can't really speak for anything other than his karting skills, so I guess it's time to move on...

Jason Whalls vs. Myles Bukrim
Didn't vote, of course, but I'd be biased anyway. This was an interesting matchup, even for someone not voting in it. While I surely want to advance, I would put Myles ahead of 4+ of the people that did make it into the final 16, so I think he got hosed with the matchup (and I suppose that's also a little commentary on how much my opinion here strays from the actual way the bracket will work out). I've already said that I think Myles is a great guy, if a bit eccentric/crazy. I do wish he'd purchase a dictionary, or perhaps request one for Christmas, so that he can grasp the true meaning of retirement. Still, being out in left field, or at least a short-stop playing a bit deep, has made him a unique personality around Kart, and also a fantastic joke source.

As for me, with every round that passes, I become more surprised at how I'm doing in this. I really didn't expect to get much support from the beginning, and while I would like to see good results, I have walked into most of my matches thinking that there is a possibility of a loss. I guess I kind of figured myself to be unknown to most of you. I know a lot of people have read the fake chats - I got loads of comments from people I had never heard of - but outside of that, I've only really talked to a pretty small group online for the last couple years. Anyway, I appreciate the support, and sorry to lose you, Myles.

One final thing...the vote tally sucked in my match. I understand that there may have been a couple people that deemed it "too close to vote," but like I've said in some IRC conversations, those matches are the ones that are the most important for you to vote in. (Actually, Louis said that, but I’ll take credit for it, since it was what I meant anyway. ) Besides, I've never met a group of karters that I couldn’t rank in a well organized list. What is so hard about this?  

Kevin Booth vs. Pier-Yves Lemire
Voted for Booth. Okay, I know the last match only got 20, but 19 here....what the hell? Sub-20 is something that should not, under any circumstances ---- not even if Europe explodes ---- ever happen. Granted, a lot of you like Booth and a lot of you like PY, but come on. If the creator of the Kart community as we know it can't get some draw, how the hell are we planning on finishing this thing?

Anyway, I don't know Pier well, so I apologize in advance for being brief. From what I have seen of him, he appears to be a fairly cool guy. Still, that's precisely the problem I have voting for him...I haven't seen much of him. My Canadian friends tell me he's cool though, and he seems to be getting some good support against Booth, something most people couldn't do. An impressive run, at very least, though I can't begin to do him justice with my writing.

Booth however, is the person I've spent the most time talking to online since I started up in 1997, and while a few people are gaining now, it will be a while before whatever mark I'm at with him is surpassed.

A couple things that I think are good about Booth...he probably deserves this much after all the time I've spent ripping on him now...

First, while not necessarily the most book-smart person that I know online, he makes up for what he lacks with his honesty and genuine interest in people. So many people become friends with Booth simply because he cares about them and their problems. Of course, this often saps his time and occasionally frequently brings psychos into his life, but it's still amazing. There were times that I'd be online talking to karters, and I'd comment about how I was overloaded talking to about 3-4 people, only to hear that he was talking to the entire online kart community at once. Okay, maybe I exaggerate slightly, but it really did seem to me that at one point, everyone from here talked to Booth. Of course, sometimes it seemed to me that he cares too much, sometimes involving himself in what I would consider to be pretty ridiculous matters, often involving people who are just acting childish. Still, who am I to judge how he spends his time? I don’t exactly contribute to the advance of modern medicine while I’m online...

He's also one of the most honest people I know. Again, maybe sometimes too honest. I've heard some stories that made my vomit vomit. Maybe that's why so many people like him too. After talking to Booth, you can always look at your life and say, "At least I'm not him."  

And after reading this post, he'll say, "God, he's a dickhead."

That said, it's not all sunshine and daffodils. I have been a bit irked by his recent posting/IMing tendencies. I know he's not around a ton to talk with the IRC guys, but the nearly endless stream of sexual innuendos from altered wordings does grow less humorous over time. Actually, innuendo is the wrong word...they're generally not subtle or indirect. They were, however, always something he did, but it just seems like that's all he's around to say to most of us anymore.

And, as always, I have to mention that he is always too down on himself. And occasionally to up on himself...he has emotional highs and lows like few other people that I've seen online. This is old news as far as my Booth view goes, but it has clearly come back to the forefront with his most recent adventures into online poker, a game where you can't let yourself get too high or too low. I have come to the conclusion that Kevin is not a gambler, or at least should not be a gambler, despite his success compared to Louis and myself so far. I've never seen someone go from, "I'm an IDIOT and I should shoot myself" to, "I am GOD" in successive hands like he does.

Still, Booth is one of the nicest guys that I know, and one of my best online friends. It'd be tough for him to find a matchup where he wouldn't get my vote.

One quick thing I want to mention...That online poker stuff had given me much more of a chance to talk with Wingert, who was kicked out last round and I had little to say. The time I've spent both playing and talking about poker with him has be wholly enjoyable, except when I lose, so Brent has definitely moved up some on the Whalls Popularity Scale (WPS), something I'm sure he's proud of. Also, Nicholas St-Louis moved up a few WPS points for his time in IRC and poker.

Anyway, by day, 2/2, 1/1 (or 2/2 if you count me), and 2/2. Perfection? Can it be? A great day in vote sharing, surely.

A reminder: [b]VOTE[/b]

So ends another day of outrageously long vote sharing.

William got my vote here. Tough luck for Liem, against any other opponent I would have voted for him. These guys are the ones I would have liked to see reach the final.
    So why William?
    Because he was the game's first GOD and still remains human.
    Because his strat page laid open the secrets of top class driving for all karters.
    Because he's one of the guys who maintain this extraordinary site
    And because it's impossible not to like a considerate, sympathetic and helpful Irishman. That he has the guts to pull a stunt like Susan, speaks volumes.

Michael would have deserved to go on not only because of all the work he puts in, even though that in itself would have been enough. He also has a rare ability to grasp the essence of an issue, and say the right things in the right way. Not a frequent poster - but the #1 quality poster.
   And besides, though I do not know him well, he seems a very nice person. And it's alsways hard to vote against nice persons.

finn

Just wanted to share my vote here:

I voted for Liem.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a HUGE Lacey fan if not the biggest Lacey fan. Lacey is definitely in my top 5 favorite personalities and it was a shame to have to vote against him here. People have already listed great things about Lacey so I won't go into any further detail.

I do however, want to explain why I voted for Liem.

For one, he is one out of only 2 karters I have met in person (the other being Weatherton) and if I have met you in person it's hard for me to vote against you (and I stayed true to that voting for Weatherton/Liem in all of their matchups).

Secondly, Liem basically runs the show around here (along with a few others - mainly Penev, myself and to a certain extent Booth). Liem is one of the people that basically enables this whole place to function as it does. He's a problem solver and a diligent worker. He always ends up taking on stuff that other people who are either too lazy, too incompetent or too unmotivated to get done and he makes it happen. Not only that, he does all of it without hardly anyone knowing about it... and very often does he get his due credit for the things he does. I want to try avoid restating what I wrote in his bio but he basically made the MK64 page what it is today using his Excel genius and was the main reason the MKSC and early MKDD pages were around and functioning as they were.

I talk to Liem quite abit online when we both happen to be on at the same time. And anytime something is going wrong with the server or the messageboard or something else site related it's usually Liem I'm IMing or emailing and strategizing with.

I'm sad to see Liem go and at the same time I'm glad to see Lacey do well... after all he's Susan!

Mark Jones   wrote on 10/25/04 at 13:24:45:


If the biggest Lacey fan didn't vote for Lacey.... What the hell were the rest of us thinking?  lol...

Forgot to vote,But if I did vote most likey I whould have voted for Susan

Brent, it must have been the 8% idiot speaking when he did that

Everett didn't vote?!?! Argh!

We have an upset!

Michael Liem vs. William Lacey
Voted for Lacey. This was probably the single closest match for me so far. I opened up the e-mail and got ready to write down a name, and just stared at the screen for about 5 minutes. I'm glad most others shared my feelings on this.

I don't have a lot to add about either person that hasn't been said (sometimes twice) in the last two rounds. What was interesting was how closely they countered each other in my mind. Lacey I've gotten to know slightly better than Liem, due to his time in IRC and some of the posts I've seen on the MB, and I really like his sense of humor, which is very important in how much I end up liking people usually. Liem has always been helpful in any way that he can, but I don't often talk to him, so Lacey got a sizable advantage here.

Liem, however, is one of the most important people in the community. His contributions are possibly the most important ones around Kart. Lacey does have the strat page and profiles work to speak in his favor though. It really ends up being almost the exact opposite of how I talk to them. Liem surely has the advantage in this department.

What it ended up coming down to was that I want to rank what I know of someone's personality higher than what someone has done to make the site work. Still, Lacey only got my vote by the slimmest of margins, and I really don't think any matches in this contest will be any closer than this one, which is interesting as I didn't expect this match to be nearly as big as it was.

Anyway, I really think Liem should be in the next round regardless. He seems so deserving that it was almost painful to vote against him, but I guess that's the way it goes. I really would liked to see a few extra matches at the end of this all, if only for some fun. Joke matches or serious matches, like Iacopuff vs. Susan, Liem vs. Booth, Fried vs. Whoever...the more Fried matches, the better...Marius seems logical now with the NTSC/PAL arguments, but I think we could probably fire out a good 5-10 Fried matches in 1 day just for kicks. How about Jeff G. vs. Steven G.? An Elsaesser battle? In-state/country battles? Whalls vs. Everett? Greatest liars battles? Thugpassion vs. Kronitor? Bottom of the barrel battles? Bobby Yu vs. Mike Klass? The possibilities are endless, and I really think  it'd be fun to throw together a week or so of these matches.

Anyway, a very strange 1/1 here. Hopefully these upsets can keep up....*looks at Cetin/Whalls*....yeah...we need more upsets.  

Lacey vs. Liem
My Vote: Liem

I was really shocked by the result of this match.  I actually logged into the Prediction bracket to see if anyone had been stupid enough to predict Lacey and get eliminated...and I see the 14-15 result.  Wow.

First off, I don't really know Lacey, so that definitely hurt his chances of getting my vote.  There are very few people in the kart community that I know at all well, and thats the twenty or so I have ever talked at on AIM.  Lacey isn't among those.

While being the first GOD is definitely a huge accomplishment, and his pic as a girl is good for laughs, there is no way Lacey is as important to Kart as Liem is.  Liem makes everything work.  Not only does he do a ton of work to update the site, but without his knowledge we probably wouldn't have such an awesome site anyways.  He is also nice and fun to talk to, and he forgives all the times I delay updating something    And while I really can't ignore Lacey's accomplishment in reaching GOD, Liem was a great karter as well in both MK64 and SMK.  I voted Liem without any doubt that I was choosing right.

Robin   wrote on 10/26/04 at 01:08:53:
I did not expect Lacey to win ether but im sure nothing but noobs voted for lacey

dunkle can you put your avatar of moo moo farm back on im getting you confused with grandjean

Pobre the 2nd   wrote on 10/26/04 at 03:58:44:


No, it's everybody's favorite course, everyone LOVES Moo Moo Farm!  We'll be so sad if DunkEL takes it off

Back on topic, I ought to just go and vote for everybody beforehand to avoid forgetting