Thank You, Monpeeps!

"The first thing you should do is thank votre peeps" - A special someone's solid suggestion.

Yes folks, the news is in, and it is good. After narrowing down close to 90 submissions, The Vancouver Province has chosen the bloggers who will compete to replace longtime favourites The Kurtenbloggers as their beat writers for the Vancouver Canucks NHL hockey team. On the list? "The Sleepless Knight" himself, j.Bowman.

This is obviously huge news for me and fans of j.Bowman Can't Sleep. The opportunity to bring the goods and write about the Canucks for the largest newspaper in Vancouver means a great deal to me, and I could not have done it without you.

It was only a week ago when Marissa Massulo sent me a link to the online article in which The Province announced that their long tenured team was moving on and they were looking for replacements (I'm using your name without permission, Meese. If you didn't want that, well... you shouldn't have helped lol). Within a day I had a Facebook campaign page set up and I sent out invites for some friends and fans to throw down their support and join "Team Bowman". I didn't invite EVERYONE on my Facebook because, well I hate when people just do a "blanket invite" to just anyone. (I haven't seen you since 6th grade, no I do not want to go see your band play Wednesday night. "687 Not Yet Responded"? Yeah no sh*t)

(In case you are wondering, yes, I am talking about you!)

I invited those who I know have read this blog at some point over the last year and a half since I've been writing it. People whose opinions I highly respect and whom it makes me very proud to have them even read j.B.C.S. in the first place. Their support (coupled with my regular lack of sleep) are the main reasons I still write this and even if I didn't get selected as a finalist in this contest, it felt like enough of a win that when I needed you, you backed me. So much so that this weekend, when I was certain I hadn't made the cut, I started to write personalized thank you emails to every single person who took a few minutes out of their day to email or tweet on my behalf to The Province. I felt it was the least I could do.

Well, as I found out pretty late in the game, the dream ain't over yet. Not even close. Over the next few weeks j.B.C.S. will be working overtime to try and outgun the other 9 finalists. As glad as I am to be selected, I have to say when it comes right down to it, getting this far was the easy part. "The little blog that could" will be going up against some pretty heavy competition, which is fine with me because someone has to be the scrappy underdog and I'm calling dibs. I am definitely in an esteemed group of very creative and established writers and although I don't have nearly amount of Twitter followers or daily readers they do, there are two things I do have which I feel gives me a legitimate shot at this.

I got you. And I got me.

Is anyone that this will change the style, the flow or the nonsense of this blog? Don't be. I got to where I am because people like you read, and I believe you read because you can tell I'm being true to myself and I'm having fun. I'm going to be the same writer you supported for this job, because I have an obligation to every single one of you to show that you were right to believe in me and that every word you said on my behalf was on the money. I am not changing for anyone. Although the only difference will be that I will be writing clean from now on, so you'll just have to actually speak with me to hear some cussin'.

So before I wrap this up, I wanted to also thank the team at Province Sports and the panel of judges for selecting the "Pasty White Delight" to compete for the spot. No need to retweet this to them, this one is for you. Also congratulations to Mike Halford and Jason Brough (the men who wrote the Orland Kurtenblog) for their new positions at NBC Sports' prohockeytalk.com. However, the main purpose of this post (which also happens to be "Post 57" this year and tops my yearly record of 56 posts set in 2010) is to sincerely thank you all for your help. Win or lose, it means a great deal and I will try to make you proud.

You all got me to the dance, now it's up to me to bust-a-move. It's a good thing I've got sick moves.

Thanks for Reading Everything

- jB

Links to the four posts I wrote during the selection process can be viewed by clicking the links below. Just so you know what you are getting into.

Getting to Know Your 2011/2012 Vancouver Canucks

"The Gameover" Canucks vs. Rangers recap

Cody Hodgson & Liev Schreiber: Two Journeys?

"Weise Side Story" Canucks vs. Predators recap

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