Tomorrow is the last day December 30, 2009
Hey Beard Fans!
Tomorrow is the last day of Year of the Beard. What a year it’s been. I know I have fallen off the blogging wagon recently so you may have been wondering how the beard growing is going. Rest assured, I still have the beard and all is well. Until Friday. Then this monstrosity is leaving my face. For good.
I’ve gotten a lot of questions recently so I’m going to try to answer a few here.
How much money did the last fundraiser make? We made $1,807! That’s absolutely absurd! I guess the chance to win a 40″ TV is all you really need to bring in some mad cash.
What are your plans to shave? Is there a party? No. I’m going to be shaving alone. It’s going to be a private, quiet, personal event. However I will video tape it and put it up on YouTube!
What’s going to happen to YearOfTheBeard.com? Well we still have the domain name registered for another year, so if I see anything beard related, I’ll throw it up here. I’m not going to update regularly (not like I was doing that recently anyways), but at the beginning of the year I will post a video or two (one of me shaving, and another montage). So keep an eye out for those. I also am going to go back to my old video game blog. I sort of have that up and running now, but I’m going to get it more finalized, then I’ll post a link on here, if you wish to follow my writing career.
Will you ever grow a beard again? Yes. I will start 2010 clean shaven, but honestly I think my best “look” is when I have a two week beard going. So I’ll probably be clean shaven for a bit, just to stay as far away from the beard look as possible. But I think pretty soon the task of shaving every day will annoy me, so I’ll rest on a comfortable stubble. But who knows.
What are the plans for 2010? Any other challenges/charities? I have already signed up for one challenge in 2010, the Mile Challenge. The goal is to run 365 miles in 365 days. You don’t have to run a mile every day, it just has to average out. It’s not for charity, but it should help my health, which is good. I don’t have any fundraising planned yet, but I do plan on doing some volunteer work, most likely with kids.
Those are all the questions I can think of off the top of my head. If you have any others, feel free to email me. If you pledged money at the beginning of the year, I’m going to be emailing you tonight with my address. Please try to get your donation to me as soon as possible.
Thanks for the great year everyone!
What happened to November December 1, 2009
Well it’s December all of a sudden. I don’t know when that happened.
I guess I should probably announce the party that’s happening this Saturday. That’s right, short notice. If you’re my friend on Facebook you may have been aware a little earlier, but the fact is that our next fundraiser is going to be at McCarthy’s Downtown (same place as the March Fundraiser). The address is 1231 Main Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44113. It starts at 7pm sharp. There is going to be food so bring your appetite. We’re also going to be raffling off prizes like we did last time. There will be cool baskets and gift cards, just like last time, but this time we have an even cooler prize. A 40″ Flatscreen HDTV! Yep, we got an amazing donation for the raffle, so come on out and try to win that thing! Party starts at 7pm, raffle will be at 10pm sharp! (but we’ll take donations after that if you just want to donate)
I really hope to see as many people as possible on Saturday.
In other news, a buddy of mine at work was in NYC recently and found something amazing. Why try to explain it when I can just show a picture?
Novembeard November 9, 2009
Holy Beard Batman, it’s November already!
Another month flew by, and it was another month of very few updates with me. I guess I’m just really busy these days. The end of the year is rapidly approaching. It seems like just a few months ago I barely had any sort of respectable facial hair growth at all and I was doubting if I could even call this thing a “beard.” Now it’s November and the bottom of face looks like, and I quote my roommate Holly on this, “a plant that is attempting to put roots down.” I’m not 100% sure what that means, but I looked in the mirror and I sort of get it. My face is like the flower, and the beard is the roots. Floating in mid air.
Anyway.
The year is coming to a close and that means 2 things. 1) I will be beardless very soon. 2) We need to have an end of the year fundraising blowout. We need to get some more cash in for the DVC. I will have the information on that… tomorrow. I promise.
But what else has been going on with Year of the Beard? Oh not much really. I’ve been playing soccer, both real and in video game format. I’m trying to organize my comic book collection. I have filmed a few movies, that pretty much star my beard. Turns out all you have to do to be a great actor is grow a beard. Think of any bearded person. ANYONE. Got it? He was a great actor, I guarantee it.
For Halloween I dressed up as Joaquin Phoenix. It was a HOOT! You can swing over to my Facebook page to see some pictures. While you’re there, you might as well drop $5 in the donations for the DVC. It’s not like you’re busy or anything.
I’m somewhat thrown off because I haven’t moved recently. It seems a bit odd for me to be in one place for such a long time. But my new house is working out great. Our shower stopped draining for a few days, and we had to get that snaked. Somehow, no one in the house blamed this on my beard. I think I dodged a bullet there.
That’s pretty much it. Nothing exciting in beard world. I’ll post a picture here, so you can see the progress. Remember, Christmas is coming up, and nothing says, “Merry Christmas!” Better than a Year of the Beard T-Shirt, or a donation to Year of the Beard in someone’s name!
Okay I’m having a problem with the photos right now, can’t seem to get them to work. So just head over to Facebook for my recent photos.
Toodles!
My Dad Told Me To Update My Blog October 13, 2009
And he’s right. I haven’t updated in a while and Octobeard (as it’s been called) has been a big month. So.
Here.
We.
Go.
Less than three months left! Sooner than later I will not have a beard. That will be interesting. I have a hard time imagining my life without the beard. I wonder what it’ll be like to be able to eat without getting any hair in my food. Or how my face will feel. Or if maybe I can finally get a date. Only time will tell. For those of you who are wondering where I have been recently, I promise, my social life will once again be active come 2010.
October has actually been an awesome month as far as publicity goes. First of all, you may have heard of a little publication called “Cleveland Magazine.” If you haven’t, it’s a magazine about Cleveland. October’s issue is their “best of Cleveland” issue, and guess who got best beard? Okay that’s not true. I didn’t win best beard. I’m not sure if anyone did. Regardless, they did do a little piece on me and my Year of the Beard project. You can pick up a copy at your local news stand now, or you can check out the article here.
Now most people would think, “Oh, I’m in Cleveland Magazine, I guess that’s enough press for one month.” But Year of the Beard knows no shame. So what did I do? I up and got published in the Plain Dealer as well. If you’re unfamiliar, the Plain Dealer happens to be Cleveland’s daily newspaper, and boy is it good. Check out the winning captions from “last week’s contest.” Yep. Number 4. All me. You know I don’t want to say some are better than others, but all I am saying is that I’d be pissed if I sent in “Look, Daddy, it’s an Obama tree” for a few reasons. First off, because I’m not funny. Second, because my name would be stricken and replaced by “multiple entries.” So to all of you who submitted that. Good job. Try to be a little more original next time.
And that’s it.
PSYCH!
My Facebook has been blowing up lately with a pretty awesome video that some people found online. It’s a wonderful song about how awesome beards are. I know none of us here at Year of the Beard need any reminding about how awesome beards are, but just in case you may have forgotten, I’ll leave you with the song.
PEACE!
Good to see you again Cleveland! You haven’t changed a bit! September 27, 2009
Hello Year of the Beard fans! I am finally back in Cleveland after my two week vacation. It was quite a trip. Let’s do a short recap.
I started off by driving to New York to see a bunch of people. I had some great pizza and was really excited to be able to spend as much time with as many people as I got to see. One of the highlights of that leg of the tour was a little video game called NBA 2K7 (I believe it was 2K7 but it could have been a different year). For those of you who don’t know, I am quite the video game player. I used to have a blog about being the best in the world at NHL ‘94 for the Sega Genesis. I had to stop that blog in order to keep up with this one. But anyways, the people I was staying with had this basketball game for their Xbox 360, and I was really excited about playing as LeBron, so I picked up the controller and took the whole house on. I beat Jarod a few times, and beat Jeff like four times in a row (that battle ended around 4 in the morning). Only Joe was able to beat me, and it’s technically his game, so I think that is a victory on my part.
From New York, I picked up my friend Peter and we drove down to Philadelphia to stay with my buddy Matt. I had the genius idea of leaving New York during rush hour, so that two and a half hour drive ended up being about 4 hours. But we did eat cheesesteaks as soon as we got there. The next day, Matt, Peter and I drove to Delaware to visit our friend Austin. On the way there, a car ahead of us on the highway, swerved out of control, did a 180, bumped into a semi-truck, did another 180 the opposite way, and then somehow pulled over the shoulder across four lanes without hitting any other cars or doing any more damage to itself. And everyone in the car looked fine! It was quite the site.
Delaware was filled with funny videos and funnier songs.
We then drove back to Philly the next day and Matt and Austin had to go to a wedding, so Peter and I found out where the hotel was that everyone was staying after the wedding, and we went there and just waited for everyone to show up. Luckily for us, there was a 1974 high school reunion going on in the hotel, which provided us with plenty of entertainment until the real party got started. Congratulations Zach and Katie!
At this point in my journey I was flying solo again, and I drove from Philly to Athens, GA. If you’re keeping score, that’s a twelve hour drive. I wouldn’t recommend it. I got into Georgia and it was pouring rain. The next day I found out that it had been raining for about a week straight, and that Atlanta (and hour away) was flooded. Luckily for me, Athens was starting to dry up. I was staying with my friends Tim and Aiola, and on day two of my stay we decided to go see some bears and crocodiles. On the way there, a woman turned her pickup truck right in front of us. Tim slammed on the brakes but there was nothing he could do, and he hit the side of the truck. Rather than stopping, the lady just drove off! We managed to pull into a driveway and we called 911. While we were waiting, a car pulled up and the driver told us that someone had followed the woman who turned in front of us, and had blocked her car in the parking lot that she was turning into. I walked through the parking lot and found the truck, and there was a guy standing near it talking to the police. I joined the conversation. It turns out the woman turned in the parking lot (after getting in our little accident) and just decided to park her car. The guy following her asked her what she was doing and she ran into a Kroger. He then blocked her truck into her parking space. The cops went into the Kroger and arrested the woman for leaving the scene of an accident and driving without a license. Luckily no one was hurt.
We also did a trivia night in Athens and did absolutely terrible.
I left Athens and drove to Cincinnati to visit my mom. That drive should have been under eight hours. However, as I was driving through Smokey Mountains National park, an RV lit on fire and they closed the road… for “a few hours.” I had to double back and drive around the park, which added about two hours to the trip. But I got to Cinci alright and my mom and I had an amazing dinner at some hotel.
Next day, Mom and I drive home and I went to see my roommate’s band play. It was pretty awesome. I had a party to go to the next day and I told everyone who was expecting to see me that there was no way I was making it home in time. I then showed up to the party as a surprise! Fran was the most surprised.
So that’s my whole trip. Any questions, please ask.
Things to do in Philadelphia September 17, 2009
Edit: Done
- Eat a cheesesteak
Drink a YuenglingGo to a WaWa
Looks like I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow.
Leaving New York
I arrived on Monday with a bang. Spent the majority of my time in Astoria and Brooklyn. Leaving for Philly later today.
Not to say that I don’t enjoy New York, I like it and all. But every time I come back it reminds me of why I moved home after school. It’s just not for me.
