Out of the Fires of Mordor

Back in 2009, I grew a mustache for a production of Albert Herring at the University of Michigan which inadvertently gave one of my students a panic attack. After that I made a vow:

[N]ow I realize that this mustache is actually very dangerous and has the potential to unleash much pain and psychological anguish on the world, like Pandora's Box or The One Ring... [I]t must be destroyed (possibly in the fires of Mordor, although that sounds like a lot of work) before it has a chance to harm anyone else.

Well, the mustache is back again, and hopefully this time I can harness its powers for good rather than evil. I am a member of Yahoo!'s Movember team. Movember is an organization that was founded in Australia to help raise money for cancer prevention:
 
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HjRhqx2EaQs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>iframe>



I had a beard in October (which turned into a goatee for Halloween), but according to the Movember rules I had to start November 1st clean-shaven. Here's the 'stache on day eight:

So as you can see, this 'stache rocks a lot harder than my previous 'staches. And that's only after eight days - I can't wait to see how awesome it will be by the end of the month.

If you would like to donate to the Movember cause in my name, you may do so on my Movember profile page: http://mobro.co/opticwalrus

"I am the one who knocks!"

We had a costume contest at work for Halloween, and I had Breaking Bad on the mind since it recently wrapped up its stellar fourth season.  A similarly Breaking Bad-obsessed co-worker and I decided to go as a pair of characters from the show: I as Walter White, the lead character, and he as Tio Hector Salamanca, a old man confined to a wheelchair and a respirator, whose only way of communicating with others is to ring a bell (once for yes, twice for no). I went to the trouble of securing a wheelchair and bell for him - all he had to do was find a bathrobe. But on the day of the contest he was like, "Sorry man, didn't have time to get one." I was a little disappointed, but we got our picture taken for the contest anyways:

I didn't think we would have a chance in the costume contest for the same reason that I didn't expect to win a prize for my gelatina colorida earlier last month - when you put forth something that people are less familiar with (such as a kind of strange Brazilian gelatin dessert or characters from a critically acclaimed but largely unknown T.V. show), you run the risk of marginalizing your chances for recognition. In fact, one of the members of the judging panel IM'ed me during their deliberations saying that they didn't know who we were supposed to be (I sent them some YouTube links). However, I've kind of made it my life's mission to champion lesser-known but worthy works, be it through my Brian Presents: film lectures, the music I program on my voice recitals, or even the Halloween costumes that I choose. And I was actually surprised by the number of people at work who saw us and started to gush about how much they too love Breaking Bad.

Much to my delight, the day after the contest I arrived at work to find an the results sitting in my inbox: Best Original Costume, baby! I ended up getting a really nice Yahoo!-branded gym bag for my efforts. All in all, I brought in a very impressive haul of free stuff through Yahoo! in the month of October:

For those of you playing "I Spy," items include: a gym bag, a cake pan and quiche pans (for the dessert contest), two Yahoo! Oktoberfest glasses, a mug from a product launch, a portable charcoal grill that I won in a raffle, a bound notebook, and a t-shirt. Pity - I forgot to include the "Awesome Costume" ribbon that I also won for my Breaking Bad ensemble.

Note: The title of this post refers to Trick or Treating! Or to this clip. It's up to you!