Meme: 5 O’Clock Shadow
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Evo Terra is the co-founder of Podiobooks.com. He is also a podcaster, author and cult leader. He is not the handsome devil pictured on the left; that would be me.
Why do I have a picture of myself up next to a blurb about Evo Terra? Well, it turns out that Evo and I have a couple things in common1: facial hair and blogs. Recently, Evo began posting a daily picture of himself taken at 5:00 and tagging it (of all things) “5 O’Clock Shadow”. Always looking for an excuse to post more, I immediately glommed on to the idea and decided to do it myself.
Well, not immediately. I meant to start snapping 5:00 photos with my camera phone last week, but shadow time invariably passed quietly each day and my bescruffled visage remained uncaptured. Yesterday I remembered to take a picture with my camera phone as I was leaving work shortly after 6:00.
The thing is, it takes me two or three days to grow a proper 5 o’clock shadow, and even then my stubble is sparse and patchy, like the grass in my backyard. I didn’t shave this morning, so today’s picture is actually two days worth of growth. Careful when you’re clicking on it; I don’t want anyone losing an eye.
Seriously, my stubble is so sparse that it doesn’t even show up in the pictures. I’ll need a better camera before I revisit How Not To Grow A Beard Month in November.
- Not a cult. There’s a simple reason I don’t want to be a cult leader: lack of fashion sense. I can barely color-coordinate my own wardrobe in the morning; I sure as hell don’t want to be responsible for telling hundreds upon thousands of my followers how to dress. [back]
Hey, at least you are able to grow a beard. Think of all the poor guys who lack that ability.
One of my friends couldn’t do it even if he wanted to. It takes him a few months to grow three granny hairs on his chin. At which time he proclaims he really needs to shave. It’s very sad.
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Right now, I haven’t shaven in 3-4 days, and I don’t have close to as much scruff as you in those pics.
Here’s what 3-4 days growth looks like on me.
http://greghowley.com/temp/scruff.jpg
(I’m home sick today)
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That’s not scruff, that’s my goatee! Should some shaving catastrophe necessitate its removal I will need three weeks to grow it back!
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Apparently I didn’t read the last paragraph. I’m home sick today, and my brain is elsewhere.
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In your defense, the last paragraph doesn’t do a whole lot to make it clear that the goatee is a fairly permanent fixture. How Not to Grow a Beard Month (née Week) is a demonstration of my inability to grow a full beard; the goatee is really the best I can do.
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