Now that the dust has settled from yet another epic chin-thicket competition this year, it is once again time to give out the Cmar Beard Awards for 2011!

In the end, we raised an amazing $5,267.46, which eclipsed our optimistic goal of $5,000, and also welcomed several new participants into the fold. As tends to happen every year, there was a large influx of donations on the final day, leading to an exciting finish. When midnight rolled around, it turned out that yours truly was sitting in the number one spot, and so founder Bob declared me the winner! However, it turns out that there was a delay in a final hefty contribution to last year's winner, Pete DiLillo, so in the early morning hours of December 1 he accrued the most funds of all of us, and pushed us over the top in making our goal! I imagine his expression the next day to be something like he showed us with his Day 28 pic:

In the end, the true winners of this follicular competition were all of us who participated. It was an entertaining month for an excellent cause, and seeing us hit our donation goal was an awesome thing. Bob has posted two recaps looking back on the experience, and as the HoNoToGroABeMo Crackling Virility Hedge Champion for 2011, I add my own humble thanks to all who donated.

That noted, it is time to bestow the Awards! As with last year's awards, these have nothing to do with any donations received, and everything to do with the glorious pictography of lush face-manes:

• Best Beard Photo: This year saw a new bar raised for photographic excellence and composition, but there was only one picture the entire month that forced me to laugh out loud when I saw it. Additionally, it demonstrates in a very obvious way the principle of How Not To Grow A Beard. As such, the clear winner of the best photo this year is Kris Johnson for his Day 30 entry:



• Man Most Exemplifying How Not To Grow A Beard: In prior years, this has been a rather easy category to judge, but that turns out not to be the case. Prior hands-down winner Jeff Greiner's jaw-thicket grew in rather thicker this year - perhaps practice does train a beard? - leaving the field a bit more open. After some deliberation, it was clear that newcomer Frederick Hurley showed us all how not growing a beard is done. Or not done, as the case might be, as shown in his final image:



• Best Time Lapse Photo Series: Creative photo composition is the order of the day in this competition, but this year only one person gave us uniformly consistent poses to show his mandibular sprouts from day to day. That man is newcomer Andrew Rothman! (Click through to view the slideshow.)
• Man Most Exemplifying How To Grow A Beard: As this competition broadens in terms of participants, we are adding some to the fold who are able to muster up incredibly dense facial carpets. This year, the mysterious Beard A. Nonymous blew us all away with his jungle-like final jaw result. Seriously, dude, that is vastly impressive:



• Best Use Of Non-Facially Generated Props: The ante was certainly upped in this category, but Pete DiLillo once again takes the prize for his colorful use all manner of headgear and weaponry. (click through for the slideshow)



• Daily Commitment To The Task: November is a busy month, and few find the time and the stamina to start on Day 1 and produce a post every day for all 30 days. Our founder, Bob, led the pack in this regard as he does each year, and finds himself co-accepting this award with Jeff Greiner, Jim Van Verth, and myself for 2011. Strong work, gentlemen!
• Best-Spun Beardy Yarns: Every participant strives to put down some good words with their hairy pictographs. This year saw a range of pithy comments, beard quotes, facial hair history, and inspirational tales, to name but a few. However, Jim Van Verth pulled out the clear and consistent win. He made every picture a clue to a certain board game or digital game, and then followed each up the next day with some fascinating history and insight into the game in question. Congratulations to Jim for spinning some beardy yarns with a gaming bent!
• Most Intriguing Contest In Follicular Bribery: Along with our mandibular shrubbery, anew phenomenon grew forth during this year's contest, namely that several participants devised their own personal contests to bribe potential donors their way. Of all of these, Jeff Greiner's was clearly the best. Not only did it require the most work, but it was a meta-contest that involved bribing all of us participants with Manly Points to bring our A-game and increase participation and donations. Excellent work, Jeff! Be sure to check out how the points played out.

Congratulations to all of the winners! To all the participants, it was a pleasure joining you once again in this endeavor, and to give recognition where recognition is due. To everyone else, I’ll merely note that only 314 days remain until HoNoToGroABeMo 2012, and this whole mad affair will start up again.

As the current, reigning, and defending HoNoToGroABeMo Crackling Virility Hedge Champion - even under contested circumstances from the #1 Contender to the Title, Pete - I think it only appropriate to provide some parting beardly thoughts from WWE professional wrestler and current (at the time of this posting) World Heavyweight Champion Bryan Danielson:

(This is crossposted with minor editing from my column at The Secret Lair. The original can be found here.)

"Exhibit A: take a look at any picture of any great cartographer. What do you see? Beards and moustaches. Ptolemy? Check. Mercator? Check. Blaeu? Check. Arno Peters? No beard, no 'tache. Check."

- from Strange Maps 542 - Untamed Wilds to Whiskers End: Travels in Beardland

Today was all about some respectable pruning of the crackling virility hedge. I hadn't planned on posting today, but then I reviewed the donation combat of the evening and morning, which played out like a tight old-school eBay auction bidding war. Jeff's prediction somehow came true, despite the fact that I didn't think I would muster enough support to pass him. Then, vastly generous people made that happen, and at midnight I found myself riding high at the head of the pack. Come sunrise, I was blown away to see that Pete had marshaled a final massive burst that made us surpass our goal.

Men, that was a great showing. Donators, that was brilliant generosity, and we all owe you copious thanks. And while Bob has named me the winner for being at the top at the end of yesterday, really, we all won, and that's the important thing.

In just a few days... the Cmar Beard Awards cometh.

Descriptor of the day: trimmed and shocked

We three, we happy three, we band of bearded brothers

It is over. The beards have been grown, the money has been collected, another HoNoToGroABeMo is over. And now, time for some congratulations and some thank yous and some final business.

First, congratulations to Cmar (Cmaaaaarrrr!) for pulling out a traditional last-minute win. And also to Pete, for raising a ridiculous amount of money. And to all of us, really, for meeting and surpassing our goal. It didn't look like it would happen, but we pulled it off.

Secondly, a big thank you to all who donated to my cause. I think this year I might have raised the most in the three years I've been doing this, and it's all because of you.

And the final business: yesterday's game was of course Ratchet & Clank. The original was developed by Insomniac Games, led by design director Brian Allgeier, and first released for the PlayStation 2 in 2002. Ratchet & Clank led to numerous sequels, the latest of which, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, I had the honor of working on.

Hey, the month is over, so I can be a little self-serving, right?

HoNoToGroABeMo you have my heart!

We made our goal this year and that is awesome. I also had my best year in terms of fund raising by 200%, which is awesome. Plus, I did this Manly Points thing this year and that was fun and seemed to encourage some others to post more and that was awesome.

Last year I felt like we had a financial success but I didn't take the time to connect with the community as much. I didn't read many posts. I didn't engage in many conversations. This year I vowed to do it better. I read every post and I responded to many of them, either by comments or through the manly points bonus points system.

There were some fantastic themes going on this year as well. I really liked the Beard Anonymous mix and had a lot of fun with Brian's "evil beard".

I want to also comment on the fantastic-ness I get out of HoNoToGroABeMo that I've noticed every year. First, and foremost, I get to help people. Women people...even better. Second, I get to be part of an awesome community full of people who want to help people. Third, it's a huge boost to my productivity. Each year as the school year starts I get busy with that and all my projects in life take a back seat. The self-imposed obligation to post daily here ends up being the kick in the butt that I need every year that kicks up my productivity again. As a result of my time on this site I am fruitful from December through August...and that's no small something.

For the women, thank you HoNoToGroABeMo. For the people, thank you HoNoToGroABeMo. For making me a better person, thank you HoNoToGroABeMo.

Now, the final Manly Points wherein we will discover who the manliest man of the bunch is. Everyone gets a bonus 5,000 points for meeting our goal...this is not reflected below. This time in order from most points to least!

Cmaaarr - 349 (+10 for winning)

Pete - 348 (+5 for bringing loads of cash...and since we know that sponsorship money makes beards grow, and beards are next to manliness...bringing in sponsorships means manliness)

Bob - 339 (+10 for helping to make all this possible)

Jim - 330

Wesley - 316

Kris - 315

Jeffrey - 306

A Dam - 300

Brian - 285

Chooch - 260

Jason - 252 (Not bad for starting a week late)

Drew - 216

Wannes - 209

Michael - 149 (+10 for sushi, -5 for whining about not getting points for it instead of waiting until he had posted about it)

Duane - 145

Brian E - 140 ( I opted to go Brian over Beard A Non based entirely off of funds raised...Beard A Non had it on pics, but as I established before, sponsorships are close to manliness)

Beard A Non - 140

Fred - 109

Chris - 80

And with this...the only thing left to come by the site for now is the highly anticipated Cmar awards.

I'll see you all next year!

This year I did not shave shortly after midnight as is my usual way. Now, I'm not going to say that that was the cause of the additional late donations which drove us up over $5,000, but it is at the very least an interesting correlation.

Imagine what we could achieve if we didn't shave at all!

Our current tally is a staggering $5,096.41. Last year's winner, Pete DiLillo, can lay claim to much of the late surge, but as it came well after midnight, the title stays with Cmaaarrr.

Well done, lads. Well done.

Okay, so this is NOT the conclusion of the Manly Points.

I just saw something amazing this morning and had to mention it. When I woke up I was curious who won this thing so I fired up the iPad and checked the totals.

As expected, and in total manly fashion I saw that Cmar surpassed my total by about $40. Very good, Cmar continues to manage to save all his donations until the last day and challenge us all. Good on you sir!

Then I get ready for the day and come out into the living room where my wife says, "I thought you said Cmar won. Pete has over $900."

Confused I double checked. Apparently while I was in the shower this morning Pete managed to bring us to within inches of our lofty goal.

Having been delegated to 3rd place I am going to declare this a win for everyone.

Congrats on the great contributions Pete!

Manly Point finals when I get home tonight.

Good bearding all!

I've officially completed this more times than NaNoWriMo!

Wow, it was a treat watching that donation counter spin free like it was attached to a air conditioner. It seems to have settled at about $4300-$4400, which is lower than the goal but more than we've ever gotten before. I am humbled and awestruck by the generosity of those who donated. I donated as well (as I also suspect most of my soon-to-be-not-bearded brethren did), but it was a paltry sum compared to the total.

I missed yesterday's post, my first of the year. I have a very short time frame to get my picture in before midnight, and even getting one before sunrise can be a chore, and after over two dozen days of doing it, I just had to miss one. Maybe next year I'll post in the morning before I go to bed each day. Don't know.

I may post another pic in a few days, after I shave off the cheeks and neck and settle into my winter goatee. But the weekend's starting so who knows when I'll actually get around to it.

Yay!

Another last day surge! With one donation hitting just after midnight EST, it was close, but Dr. Cmaaarrr pulled out another come-from-behind victory.

We came up short of the goal, but not by very much. $4,362.75! I am once again astonished by what we've accomplished with a bit inspired tomfoolery.

Of course, our donors deserve the real credit. Thank you all so much for your generosity, and in many cases, for putting up with your husbands, brothers, friends, and coworkers looking a little shaggy for a month.

Thanks also to all the gentlemen who posted, whether once or thirty times this month. You gave your time, you very likely put up with some ribbing, you pandered for sponsorship, and in most cases, parted with some of your own hard-earned cash, too.

It'll take a week or two for the echecks and various other payments to filter in, but then I'll send the whole amount to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. I will post back when it's done. I'll also put together a Fabulous Prize for our winner. Likely a winner's T-Shirt again this year unless I am otherwise inspired.

If you're an RSS user, feel free to stay subscribed to the feed. Stray posts tend to pop up now and again. Likewise, the website will remain up and active if you want to check in or send an off-season donation.

As for me, I must concede the least-unable-to-grow-a-beard title to my cousin-in-law, Beard A. Nonymous. That's quite the magnificent face rug you've got there, young man. I'll entertain any argument on the subject before I call it case closed, but it'll have to be a pretty good argument.

If you've read this far, I 'll thank you for that as well. I'll be back tomorrow with some more wrap-up, but for now, good night!

Well, this was fun. Hopefully I'll be able to raise some more funds next year, but all in all I'm pleased with the final combined result. That's just awesome.

So long everyone.

Beards all around!

Glad that I could raise my paltry sum, and glad that I could supply someone out there with a ThinkGeek gift card. Very, very glad that I could get together with Jeff and Jim (and past HoNoToGroABeMo champ, Mur Lafferty, and my amazing wife Natania) for drinks and sushi tonight.

Although I demand some extra manly points. Jim got 'em for sushi. What am I? Chopped liver?

Here's to another great year. Where's my razor?!