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 common: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. 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.