mo-induced depression

wow, I really did drop the ball on the whole "posting everyday" thing, huh!

Sorry about that, I've been a little distracted lately though. I do have a good reason though - remember last week how it was my birthday? Well, another significant even happened too...

I proposed to my girlfriend, and she said yes.

I had about 20ish of my closest friends at my local pub for the celebration. We bought the birthday cake out, everyone sang, and I did the whole "say a few words", and thanked everyone for coming, telling them all how special they are to me, then directed the praise towards my girlfriend, and twisted it into a proposal! I was so nervous at the time, I honestly couldn't tell you what I said, but I do remember my brain saying to me "stop rambling, just bloody ask the question!". I asked, she said yes, we hugged, everyone cheered.

But, I guess this is a MOvember related blog, so back to the mo'.....

I, and others around me, are starting to hit a Mo wall. The first week or so the novelty of seeing what everyone was doing hit hard, and it was all laughs, watching everyone's progression. But now most of the guys at my work have a fairly decent mo, and it appears as thought they won't get much more than where they're at, and a lot of us are getting antsy. Personally, I'm starting to look beyond MOvember, and seeing what the future holds. I had a beard when I started, so will I go back to that? Will I keep the handlebars? Will I ever go clean-shaven again? Have I found another look that I'm starting to like? Who really did shoot Mr. Burns? Those questions and more, after the break....

Mo Mo Mo Your Boat

I have to make sure that I post today, because I doubt that I'll post much on the weekend. And why?

Because tomorrow it's my birthday! Huzzah! (for those of you playing along at home, I'll be turning 28)

Tomorrow I'm having a bit of a shindig at my favourite Melbourne bar. Naturally, it'll be a lot of mates standing around, talking shit, drinking too much, chatting to girls who normally wouldn't give a second glimpse in the street, telling jokes and probably singing a little louder than we would've 6 beers earlier.

However, with a lot of my mates, one thing has dawned on a few of them. I've got a couple of emails this week with variants of:

"uhh, hey dude. You're still in on the Movember thing right? I hope so, because I'm doing Movember this year, and I've got a pretty weak moustache so far, and I just wanna make sure I'm not the only one".

So it's probably bound to be almost a repeat of my 15th birthday when we were all trying to grow facial hair for the first time.

I'll see how many photos I can get ;)

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Everybody Loves Ray-- uhh, i mean, Bogans

I got a comment in my previous entry about the "Hitler Moustache", which Julia posted to a Vanity Fair article (which also has the same image I used. Hmmm ... I wonder if they search for material with Google Images too?). In the article, the writer decided to grow a Hitler Moustache as an experiment while talking about Hitler (to be honest, I didn't read the whole thing, so I don't know what the conclusion was), but over the last day or two with discussions from others, as well as seeing other Mo-Bros and their progression, there's another that hits the list.

The Handlebar Moustache.

It's the mo' that is pretty much associated with bogans and bikies. Yet, I think I have a theory that given the chance, every man would like one. I know nobody with a handlebar (mind you, I live down the road from a Harley shop, so I see my fair share each day), yet in the past week, they're everywhere. I'm sporting one this month, and I know a few other mates doing the same. Another friend of mine noted that there's about 5 guys in his company sporting them too, so now his staff meetings are more like a H-Block reunion party than a business conference.

So, I wish to throw out a challenge to my Mo Bros - after MOvember, I say hang onto that handlebar moustache. Wear it thick and with pride.

It's time to take the handlebar back.

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Mo-Watch : At The Movies

Okay, so I didn't post yesterday, but that was mainly due to my 32k ride that I did. It may be nothin' to some of you, but for this Mo Bro', it's the most exercise I've done in a very long time.

But tonight, I went to the movies, and spied a couple of very nice mo's. Not in the crowd - in the movie. Mo-Watch at the movies presents:

30 Days Of Night


Now, aside from the fact that the movie had zero plot, the token black guy still doesn't make it to the end of the movie, Josh Hartnet's agent still insists on him playing grizzly old men to which he's anything but, plot holes that were too numerous to count and Melissa George's character, who was so stupid I could've reached into the screen and slapped her. There was also some good bits, but I'll refrain from giving away the good bits.

There was one sensational mo'. You can't tell from the photo, but the guy above does have a sweet skinny mo across his top lip. Matched up with his cheap black suit, and he's quite the goth-emo-boy on his way to see Marilyn Manson because 'nobody else understands him'. Josh does a fairly nice little mo that's matched with some stubble (I'm guessing it took him a good month or two to get it), and his side-kick who looked like a hairy version of Tom Morello. This movie has something for everyone that loves facial hair.

I give it 2 handlebars out of five:

a nod's as good as a wink

well, what a difference a day makes. I went from having unrecognisable stubble, gave it a good night's rest and after the shave in the morning. Now I'm starting to kinda see where it's going. And it looks like everyone else is in the same boat. It's become a secret men's club.

You pass guys in the local supermarket, around the building at work, and you see another guy with shitty stubble, and he notices yours and you give each other a little nod and a polite smile. One guy even said to me "that's comin' along nicely" as he passed me in the bakery section of Coles. Normally I would've seen that as a come-on, but now, it's a cool club that I'm a part of. It's a bit dorky, but yeah, it kinda feels like we're all Stonecutters or something.

Tomorrow is another test of the mo'. I'm going with a couple of mates in the morning to ride along the Yarra Trail. It's 33km up along the Yarra River, but it should be fun, plus I'll see how aerodynamic the new look is.

.... that's if my fitness levels allow me to make it.

facial update...

Well I figure it's time for me to give an update on how I'm going with MOvember. Usually I'm a fairly hirsute guy, but I must say, it's getting to the end of Day 4, and I'm a little disappointed with the little activity that's goin' on. If you'll excuse the fact I took this early Sunday morning before any form of caffeine had passed my lips, this is my shocking growth levels...



I've still gotta have a shave, so hopefully it'll be a bit more noticeable once I've shaved the rest of my face, but still, not as fast as I thought I'd be growing.

In other good news, I'm a quarter of the way to my $1,000 target! Huzzah!

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don't forget your toothpaste

So I've been talking lately about what style of mo' that everyone's going to go with. The good old Handlebars is a popular look, some going for a bit more of a porno mo', others going for a bit of a thinner version. But yet nobody I know is going the Toothbrush

It was once a sign of class and style. It was a very high society style of mo' and all the businessmen about town wore them with pride. Charlie Chaplin even had one, as did whichever the fat one is between Laurel & Hardy. Then suddenly another guy came along sporting this look, and suddenly the toothbrush moustache became almost a sign of evil and suddenly it was very un-PC to have one. Who ruined this look?

Hitler.

Sure, he gassed and tortured a couple of jews here and there, but let's look at the true crime - destroying the coolness of facial hair that is the quiant toothbrush moustache. It's barely a mo' at all. Small, and very low maintenance. Personally, I'd love to grow a toothbrush moustache, but oh no, that's a look that I've been talked out of many times in the last week. Yet somehow the same style, but one lip down, call it a 'soul patch' and suddenly it's fashionable again.

Screw you, Hitler, you mo' wrecking bastard.

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it's a long way to the top if you wanna rock a mo'

Well, today is day 2.

I'm not liking this bare-faced look at all. My girlfriend sat staring at me on the couch for most of the night saying "you look so young" over and over again.

My desk at work is near the front door, so almost everyone that walked in that morning commented on my lack of beardness. I've also been compared to Ricky Gervais, which is slightly disturbing.

The stubble is starting to show a bit better, so the weekend will no doubt be spent playing around with a few different design ideas. I'm thinking I might try the Jules Winfield look (see the pic on the right), but whether my genetics will let me, is another issue. Time will tell

The Boonie Boys is up to $530 all up, with another 1 or 2 Mo Bro's who are signing up today.

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goodbye my lover, goodbye my friend...

Let me just say that I have a really thick beard. A few fellow beardoes that I know, some of them have quite soft facial hair. Not me. I'm thinking of gathering up all my beard trimmings, gluing them all together and using them to scrub the pots and pans tonight after dinner.

So, I've decided that in preparation for tomorrow's "unveiling", I'm going to shave in two parts - a rough draft tonight, then in the morning, crank out the Schick that I posted about yesterday and smooth everything out. To get me used to have no beard, I've gone very slowly...



wish me luck!

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The Best 4 Letter F-word There Is

Even though I've not done a MOvember before, I have plenty of mates who have and all agree, that this year seems to be the biggest yet, which is great news. There's more promotions, more sponsorship, more word of mouth and it seems that every man and his dog is doing it this year, which is even better news.

Because of the extra attention, it clearly means more budget. Which means that there's extra budget to throw around. And thrown around they have.

I quickly reached $30 in sponsorship, and I got sent a MoBro pack:



In case you can't see, there's a Schick Quattro Titanium razor and a Movember moustache comb+mirror, in a neat little toiletries bag!

I then reached $50 in sponsorship and I got sent the MoBro Rewards Card:



This gets you all sorts of cool shit. Usually stuff like 10% off here, and 20% off there, and other state-only benefits - if you live in Tassie, you get a free golf game each week at the Launceston Golf Club! if you live in Victoria, you get a free burger EVERY DAY at any Grill'd burger bar!

Then when I reached $100, I got a ticket to the Gala Parte:



Pretty sweet, huh!

There's also a Souvenir Shop where you can also buy heaps of cool stuff too. I bought a t-shirt, a couple of wrist bands, and a poster set.

I'm also the captain of my MOvember team (we're called "Boonie's Boys"), so I'm also in charge of setting up the MOvember office party at the end of the month, so when you register your company as a part of MOvember, they send you out a pack that has heaps of free stuff like beer coasters, posters, stickers, tomato sauce, more wristbands, and the newly most sought after possession currently in our offices - the Man Of Movember sash!

How's that for some awesome participation rewards!

It's the last 24 hours that I have left with my beard, so if you'll excuse me, I need to be alone for a while with just me and my beard.

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to Mo, or not to Mo, that is the question

I figure that in the last few days in October, there's many of you guys reading this who are probably thinking "should I do Movember this year?", let me drop some knowledge on you, so that the next time someone asks if you're doing Movember and you say no, and follow it up with something along the lines of "it's just such big commitment". Let me assure you, it's not. It's nothing. Think about it this way...

Did you know that nearly 3,000 men die every year from prostate cancer? That's about the same amount of women that die from breast cancer, yet everyone seems so damn concerned about what appears to be the more fashionable cause of breast cancer that prostate cancer is often forgotten. In fact, in a 2002 survey, only 52% of men said that they felt that they were informed to a satisfactory level about prostate cancer. Given that 1 in 9 men will get prostate cancer, this is not nearly enough.

More than 18,000 men Australia wide are diagnosed with prostate cancer every single year. That's almost a 1 in 6 chance of dying. The rest will spend the majority of their lives in and out of doctors surgery, choosing between the course of treatment that will keep them alive as long as possible.

Or how about the fact that 1 in 6 men will suffer mental depression, but most of them won't actually seek help. Between 1988 and 2002, the suicide rate amongst men was 4 times that of women. Depression is an illness, not a weakness and men shouldn't feel ashamed to seek help. Yet studies show that yes, they do.

So, when you take that into consideration, I figure getting around with a funny looking moustache for a month isn't really that much to give up at all. It's events like this that are important to talk about and make known, or more importantly, do something about it. So I'm growing my Mo, raising some cash, talking about it with friends and family, and doing it all with a gigantic smile on my face.

Because I'm thinking that if I do my part now, they'll be able to help out my parts later.

In the beginning, there were beards....

So, this is my blog for my Movember effort for this year. It's the first year that I've done MOvember, so I thought to honour this mammoth occasion, I'd be incredibly nerdy and devote a whole blog to my facial follicle festivities.

I'll post pictures along the way of my progress, give props to classic mo' wearers of our time, and times gone past, and any other Mo related news I can find along the way. Given that it's only around for 1 month, I'll try my hardest to have something new each day.

So, to give you guys a bit of a current update, this is my facial hair situation as it currently stands:



I've had this little beauty for about the past 5 or 6 months. Before that, I had, well, essentially the same thing I've had for the last 10 years or so - the Hat Strap look that follows down and into a goatee. I've had facial hair ever since I've been able to grow something that's not peach-fuzz. Naturally, November 1st is going to be a very nervous day for me, as part of the rules is that you must be completely clean shaven at the start of November.