My hair in its natural form.

I discovered today that the web host which I was using that announced they were going out of business has begun shutting down sooner than expected. I have recent backups of the sites that need to be moved in a hurry, but the fact that I have to move three websites in a hurry when my to-do list already includes eight other things for the next three days (on top of my actual job) is really not making me happy.

Also, I've decided that as long as my face is going to be all beardy, I don't have to worry about my hair either. Going about without any product in my hair for the first time in god knows how long... usually that only happens on Sundays. If I'm not using any goop on my head I almost always have a hat on.

And in other news, my trio's music is now available in high-quality download at Bandcamp, and you get an extra bonus track for buying the whole disc!

No, those WERE the droid you were looking for!

This is my face (and beard) when I found out that a couple of droids got away with the technical readouts for my space-based laser. Then, I found out that they got away in an escape capsual and my gunners didn't fire on them because there were no lifesigns aboard. IDIOTS. Anyway, now I have to send a bunch of guys down to a planet that is way too hot. Not just an area of the planet, apparently the whole freakin planet. I might owe those guys a vacation somewhere cold after this, like Hoth.

I should be in bed already

We're two-thirds of the way done. Jeff's contest has definitely stirred the donation pot and we're nearly halfway to the goal on the money front. That's the kind of initiative I like to see. Well done, lad. <cya>Also, please note that when it inevitably goes horribly awry, it has not been sponsored or endorsed by the HoNoToGroABeMo organization, so point your lawyers somewhere else.</cya>

On that note, little has been said for the Fabulous Prize^* which is traditionally awarded to the person who brings in the most sponsorship. This is because it's still in flux^**. Rest assured that if you topple Jeff from that peak, you'll be rewarded^***.

^* Potentially not any more fabulous than a t-shirt

^** Read: I'm still waiting for a volunteer to provide one

^*** Actual monetary value of reward may approach zero

Little known fact: There is no cya tag in HTML.

The less time-challenged of you may notice that it is not, in fact, 11:59:59 when I took this picture.

This little (?) guy's beard is more filled out than mine, but at least mine isn't blue.

You see here that he's quite intimidating, even if his wings are not physically capable of flight.

He has yet to be named, incidentally. Any ideas would be welcomed.

Word Count: 24060, 0 today

Starting new fictional works is hard, mmkay?

"[Jonathan accidentally had a cut while shaving]

Jonathan Harker: I didn't hear you coming in.

Dracula: Take care how you cut yourself. It is more dangerous than you think.

[Dracula breaks the mirror]

Dracula: A foul bauble of man's vanity. Perhaps you should grow a beard.

[He licks the blood off the razor]

Dracula: The letters I requested, have you written them?

[Harker hands him the letters]

Dracula: Good. Should you leave these rooms, you will not by any chance go to sleep in any other part of the castle. It is old and has many bad memories. Be warned."

- Bram Stoker's Dracula, 1992

Today was for the celebration of a friend's birthday in the style of his choosing - namely, the viewing of and commentary on 1980's sci-fi movies. Included among the selections were The Last Starfighter (still enjoyable for it's intensely '80's schlocky cheese, but damn that flick didn't age well), The Dark Crystal (an epic work of art), and The Black Hole. I had only seen the latter once in the vague dawn of my youth, and so visiting it here again was a fascinating experience on multiple fronts:

• What the frak happened to that Disney? - I think it's safe to say that The Black Hole is a starkly unique Disney offering in that contains a level of maturity and grit not seen before or since: Death of a main character by abdominal whirling blades impalement, followed immediately by electrocution. A villain who enslaves the entire crew of his starship as robots (cyborgs, really) and thereby killing them. A WTF ending that certainly can't be classified as "happy". Yes, there are a couple of cute and amusing robot sidekicks - even edgy Disney still has to be Disney - but this movie clearly was not standard Disney fare, and doing more films like this would have made the company more respectfully interesting.

• The movie holds up surprisingly well - While some of the effects are obviously dated, watching this movie in 2011 is still an enjoyable thing. The design is exceedingly inspired, especially the industrial-battleship appearance of the starship Cygnus, and the way many of the zero gravity sequences were accomplished is both simple and still looks good today as a believable effect. There is deliciously cheesy dialogue, rather stereotyped characters, and several over-the-top ideas for sure, but the entire package manages to hold up remarkably well in the intervening 30+ years since it's release.

• Excellent casting - Maximilian Schell. Anthony Perkins. Robert Forster. And one of the all-time Cmar favorites, Ernest Borgnine. This was a serious collection of acting talent that were given plenty of opportunities to chew the scenery. In the spirit of us watching this at a birthday gathering, I was forced to note that Borgnine was 62 when he did this film, and he's still going strong at 94 years young in the present day.

• And, of course, SPACE DRACULA - Maximilian Schell's Dr. Hans Reinhardt is a mad, creepy villain. He sports a glorious black and white face-mane, the power of which I attempt to replicate in vain with a cat in today's beardy image. His gentle accent, horrific deeds, and snazzy crimson uniform earn him the title of SPACE DRACULA, without question.

image from disney.wikia.com, linked above

Descriptor of the day: scruffy face-fluff

I may actually still be inebriated in this picture and it was taken about 20 hours after my last drink.

After a 3 AM kind of evening, that included bowling, tequila, ale, lager, and scotch, I needed a little recuperating time today. I also needed to get a ton of things done, that I totally neglected. I did manage to put of the tree and put a few lights on it though, so that's good. And before you take a page from Bob and start crying about how I'm part of the problem by setting up too early. I'll just point out that I'm not throwing it in your face in october, and I'm not trying to get you to buy anything, so my motivations are purely to have the tree up for viewing on turkey day, the family holiday that my wife and I host.

Speaking of sponsorships, why don't you take some time and give thanks for the boobies this week by sponsoring a beard today. Like right now. Like mine.

I'm not sure what's worse, cigarette smoke or candy replicates from 19 aught 2.

Taking some tips from my fellow Beardsmen today and I'm trying out the tough-guy look. Also, considering it's Sunday I thought the T-shirt was thematically appropriate. (The Walking Dead is tonight! EEeeeeeeeeeeeee!) Annnnnyway, you better watch out breast cancer, me and my posse are rollin' into town and we fight for our ladies!

I'm missing a staff -- and I don't mean a Gal Friday.

Twenty days down, ten to go. My daughter is already asking me to shave. But to fight cancer I will stay strong...

The game pictured here isn't strictly vintage, being only 8 years old. It also doesn't feature a bearded protagonist; much the opposite, really. However, it does have the auspicious distinction of shared a name with a work by Nietzsche. So perhaps this is a picture of me taking a picture of the abyss.

Back in the day, the name Lucas used to be associated with quality, as opposed to taking a beloved franchise and turning it into a steaming pile of Gungan poo. The game company LucasArts was known for its Star Wars games, of course, but before that was known as the go-to company for point-and-click adventure games. Day Nineteen's game is the latest in probably the best known of their games, the Monkey Island series. Beginning in 1990 with The Secret of Monkey Island and continuing to today's Tales of Monkey Island, this series tells the tale of Guybrush Threepwood, aspiring pirate, rescuer of the fair Elaine, and foiler of evil plots by the ghost pirate LeChuck. And yes, in Tales of Monkey Island, his ship is devoured by giant manatee.

Unfortunately, the adventure game business died out in the late 1990s/early 2000s, pretty much with the rise of the first person shooter, and with it much of LucasArts. Tales of Monkey Island is being published by the new king of point-and-click adventures, Telltale Games. If you're feeling nostalgic, they're worth checking out.

That's me, listening to the deer hunters round up.

I'm listening to a song by Bananas at Large called 30 Point Buck on the Deer Hunters Roundup on the radio. It's a very funny song, I wouldn't lie to you.

Just like I wouldn't lie to you about the importance of breasts and the need to save them from cancer. So pony up and donate folks. And thank you to all who have donated so far and to those who plan on donating soon. I can say this because I know that you plan on it.

When I $ay run, run.

So I had an idea for what to post about, and I gave it some good though, and I came here to write it, and I saw Kris Johnson's post, and now I can't remember what I was going to write about.

I don't seem to do so great with the sponsorship here on the weekends, but looking at the leader board it seems there's been some serious movement of late. On the other hand, I feel the beard is doing a much better job of looking beardy with each passing day.

Still no sign of any out of town trouble like the psychic predicted, but I think I'm starting to hear voices.

You alone can make my song take flight...

Yes, I'm exfoliating. And let's be honest: you could probably stand to exfoliate, too. I'm not suggesting that your pores are anything but pristine, but dead skin is dead skin, am I right? Go ahead. Exfoliate. I'll wait.

All done? Good. Now, as long as you're following good advice, let me suggest that you click the "$$" button up there above this post and donate a couple of bucks to help fund breast cancer research. It may not do much for your skin, but think of it as exfoliant for the soul.

Thanks.

Sandy, this one's for you.

Today I'm wearing my boots and flannel to visit with our Canadian friends Jess and Alain. Going up to Dewey's Pizza for the best pizza in the world. Yum.

Also, I did some leaf cleanup and had a surprise visit from the gutter cleaners... I hadn't actually scheduled for them to come, but oh well... my gutters are clean now!

It's great that there are other initiatives to raise awareness and cold hard cash for cancer charities. I just wish that HoNoToGroABeMo had a little more recognition.

I don't know the dates or anything (and I'm too lazy to look them up just now) but I only heard of Movember this year and it's showing up everywhere.

Wonderful for the greater good (THE GREATER GOOD), but still a little frustrating.

A man on a mission...to have a functional computer...and to FIGHT BREAST CANCER!

Today is a day of triumph for my HoNoToGroABeMo-ing. That's right, go look at the rankings. I'm not only winning, I have second place beat by 200%. I had a couple of very generous and awesome donors that found me via a posting I did over at EN World. I went on a marketing blitz last night and one of those postings paid off. You guys ROCK!

That means I now have 6 total, awesome D&D prizes to give out...and three entrants. Just saying, if you tossed in $5 you'd be just as eligible to win as someone who donated $100. So, you know, you should totally toss in some money as well, who can lose?

To make matters better, Roxxy has agreed that she'll do an additional character portrait, or "BUST" (get it...she can up with that one) for every $100 raised.

I guess what I'm saying is that if you'll toss in the sponsorships right now there is a REALLY good chance you'll win.

In less awesome news, I decided today to update my desktop Mac to Lion. This was stupid since I'm still having issues with iTunes on my laptop that, a month after they told me it would be resolved, is not resolved. So if this installation went sour, I'd be left with two computers with problems.

Guess what?

Think I can get into the genius bar and fix things before Thanksgiving? Because I REALLY don't want to go to the Apple store...the one in the mall...during the month of insanity. *sigh*

And now the Manly Points:

Chris - 70

Beard A Non - 110

Drew - 145

Wesley - 217 (+1 double-geeky)

Bob - 214

Duane - 120

Brian - 197

Cmaaarr - 223 (+2 for T-Rex mucus)

Fred - 89

Me - 110

Jeffrey - 212

Kris - 205 (+2 for toughing it out like a man)

Michael - 41

Pete - 192

Brian E - 115

A Dam - 187

Jim - 216 (+1 manatee)

Wannes - 159 (+1 spicy)

Chooch - 180

Jason - 137

Hi

It's imperative that I post this evening, but inspiration utterly eludes me. So here, with a minimum of comment, is my photograph.

Beardtastic.

Seriously. Late night. Many fun units had. Very late. Must go. Save the boobs. Yay.

If only it was anywhere near my size.

I have 5 words for you: Duel of Fates bowling ball

Word Count: 24060, 0 today.

But Duel of Fates bowling ball.

Spicy!

That innocent looking jar next to me in the picture is a jar of Mick's Ghost Pepper Jelly. That's right. Bhut Jolokia, in jelly form.

Now I am far from a rookie when it comes to eating spicy stuff. In fact I love all things hot and spicy, but that jelly is one mean condiment. About half a teaspoon of that stuff on a cream cheese bagel is a serious heat kick that will have your taste buds burning for about half an hour to 45 minutes.

I figured that eating hot food and getting my face all warm and sweaty would be a good way to encourage some beard grow.

Onward to beardiness!

"This week, Georgia's board of education approved a plan that allows teachers to keep using the word 'Evolution' when teaching biology. Though, as a compromise, dinosaurs are now called 'Jesus Horses.'"

"It's being reported that Tipper Gore is considering a run for the Senate seat once held by her husband Al Gore. Initial polls already have her winning by a landslide, because nobody wants to see Tipper lose and grow a beard."

- Jimmy Fallon, Saturday Night Live, "Weekend Update"

If you think that human sinus infections can be severe, then you've clearly never gazed into the cavernous cranial passages of a Tyrannosaurus. Impacted with herbivorous remains and the skull of a stray time-traveller or three, the melon-sized sinus pockets of this legendary therapod can become inflamed and ripe with gallons of thick, slimy pus.

And I, by virtue of my specialty, get to disimpact them. No wonder they let me into the museum for free...

Gloves? Somebody? Anyone?

Descriptor of the Day: fuzzy wuzzy

Guh. Blug. Grah.

I am not feeling terribly photogenic today, either, thanks to a sore throat and lingering sinus headache. But it seems that a certain someone feels it necessary to deduct "manly points" if I don't post a photo every day. So blame Jeff Greiner. I know I do.

On the breast cancer research front, it's nice to see that we're closing in on halfway to our goal but I think we're going to need to kick it up a notch if we want to see $5,000 in donations by the end of the month. I've just told my beard to get its act together; maybe that will work.