After many an hour taking care of one of my sick children, and playing Champions Online, I have taken this manly step forward and grown this veritable forest of follicle... something.

Really, the lighting makes it more than it seems. Which is probably a sad thing. It feels like (palpation as Dr. Cmar would say) course and ineffective sandpaper.

Smoothly Shaved on the Second.

Yes, sirs. I, in my magnanimousnous, have decided to give myself a handicap. "How?" you ask. Well, by the simple means of beginning this party a couple of days later than the rest. Yes, indeed. I did not shear my mass of manly medulla until early this morning, November the Second.

And so, my friends, all I can say is, "Bring it!"

Beside which, Beards4Boobs is just awesome! Even made my wife giggle.

Like fuzzy sandpaper

And here it is, lads. This is what you're up against. Note the significant darkening of the upper lip and chin.

That's right. SIGNIFICANT.

On the other hand, I need to up my sponsorship game. You guys are putting me awesomely to shame! We've collected a staggering $301 already, only $20 of which I can put claim to. I am humbled and overjoyed.

Rise, my pretties...

So we have reached the 24 hour mark, and I must say... I'm actually not disappointed. I am under no illusions about my ability to swiftly generate the lush, uniform jaw-mane of a Mr. Van Verth, for example, and the fact that I have both visually and palpably appreciable grainage at the Day 1 mark is reassuring.

Then again, I've been prostrate most of the weekend battling a non-swine flu illness, so my body has had plenty of extra time to devote to follicular pursuits. That, and the one-hour daylight savings buffer was a generous gift from the world at large to the cause.

Gentlemen, tomorrow we enter the work-week, and then it's really on.

Sensation: still disturbingly tingled by breezes

Palpation: fine-grain, especially under the jaw, with maxillary smoothness

Personal satisfaction rating: 4 (on a scale of 5 Norsemen)

Youthful and Determined

Just to establish my bona fides, here is my baby-faced self as of this morning. The actual shaving process occurred at 4pm yesterday, so as to provide an equal starting point against the nefarious Dr. Cmaaarrr.

The result this morning is... disappointing. I would estimate the scruffiness as about a #300 grit, sufficient to smooth out a rough spot, but hardly industrial abrasiveness. Clearly I am out of practice. Time to go do some chin-ups and lip curls.

I can haz NRG? plz?

I have the fortune, or perhaps the misfortune carrying the Satanberry (the support phone) this weekend. You see me here, after having been up since 4am, freshly returned from buying Pumpkin Spice coffee from my local bagel shoppe.

There should be more stubble. After a long night (or a very early morning), I deserve more stubble.

Newly shorn, and ready to grow!

The post is going up late, but the picture was on time!

I almost forgot to shave today, but I remembered at the last moment. Wouldn't want to be cheating with 2-3 days of stubble to start the event.

So here we are, slight smirk and shower curtain in the background. Let's see how this grows.

RAWR!

To the left you will see my complete Halloween outfit this year: A pair of bunny ears. They were an 11th-hour (Well, 6th hour, but trick or treating was from 6 to 8 so...) decision and went over mostly well with the kids.

I donned the ears again this morning, after shaving the unmanly stubble that had encroached upon my face over the past several days, and took the picture you are now gazing longingly at. At some point in there, I also wrote 1500 words for my NaNo novel, so all in all it's been a pretty productive morning.

For comparison purposes I'm rocking this picture Two-Face style. Also, it's first thing in the morning. Thus the hair and attire.

I couldn't remember if I was supposed to shave on Day 1 or Day 0...so I'm doing it first thing Day 1, where as usually my pictures will come from the afternoon...it's a fair compromise.

It is so.

Shut up.

In any case, I opted to make this picture for Day 1 a comparision picture. I was going to take a pic pre-shaving and then one post-shaving and splice them together.

Then I forgot.

So as I was in the midst of shaving when I remembered I just stopped at the half-way point and I took this picture to be my comparison.

It is now time for me to go back and finish the other half.

Beard Status: Silky Smooth/Scruffy Stuff

In My Ears: Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Primary Phase) audiobook

Beard Sponsor of the Day: Myself. That's right, I donated to myself. What? I'm willing to sell this space each day to anyone who donates towards my win and sends an email to let me know it happened.

Smile and the world smiles with you.

It's becoming something of a tradition for my son and I to wear matching Hallowe'en costumes, and I've worked this tradition into a sort of synchronicity with How Not to Grow a Beard Month. In 2007, on the eve of the first HoNoToGroABeMo (when it was just me and my blog), I shaved so I could be The Red Skull to Kyle's Captain America. Last year, my naked chin was necessary so I could play Luke Skywalker to Kyle's Yoda.

This year, Kyle wanted to be Batman.

He wanted me to be Robin.

While Robin is certainly clean shaven (having not quite reached puberty), there's just no way I'm going to don yellow tights and green short-shorts. I have my...well, it's not dignity, but at a glance it bears some passing resemblance to dignity.

I offered up what I felt was a more appropriate solution: The Dark Knight's eternal nemesis, the Clown Prince of Crime known as The Joker. But which Joker? Heath Ledger? Jack Nicholson? No, I decided my costume would be an homage to the greatest Joker of all time and—not coincidentally—a man who appreciated the value of facial hair: Cesar Romero.

It's no secret that Romero prized his own moustache so much that he refused to shave it before assuming the role of The Joker, arch-villain to Adam West's Batman. And that's why I'm sporting a moustache with my Hallowe'en costume, a moustache that I have just now removed (along with the rest of my Joker garb).

My face is cleanly-shorn and November is here. Let it begin.