If you're like me, you love competition. From sports, to work, to random spur-of-the-moment eating contests, I can't get enough of competing against others. That's why it's awesome to work in an office that can make a competition out of about anything - pizza eating contests, "coverage of the week" contests - you name it, we've probably had a contest for it. I think it's safe to say that competitiveness runs through the entire BLAST team.

We recently began two big competitions in our office that has everyone excited. The first is an American Idol contest in which we each drew out of a hat, a male and female contestant, and the person with the last man or woman standing wins a special prize (cross your fingers - we're shooting for a day off from work!).

The second competition was the NCAA men's basketball tournament, which finished up last night. We each filled out an online bracket on Yahoo! Sports and watched as our points tallied up - or in the case of some (Carey, in the above picture), watched as their picks lost one-by-one. For those that missed the unbelievably exciting championship game, check out this shot that sent the game into overtime, and singlehandedly won me $100, as the office winner! Our fearless leader, Kelly, came in a close second. Carey on the other hand, was able to able to come away with her original $10 for finishing dead last with her bracket.

Competition may not be your thing, but here at BLAST, it's part of the culture. We compete with hundreds of other PR people every day for coverage, so it's par for the course. Don't get me wrong, we work together as a team in everything we do - but watch out when a contest arises! American race car driver and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, Al Unser, Jr., might have said it best when he said, "Besides winning, [the most fun thing is] getting out there and mixing it up with friends; it's the competition." What competitions have you been in lately?