The Banzai Beard Bonanza II: Bonsai's Revenge
Day 18: My father took a new batch of mug shots yesterday, but I'm still waiting for him to download them off his camera and email them my way. Reaction to the beard continues to pour in, mostly positive, though I still suspect some of that is mere politeness. (The dark bastard posits, and I smile because I find this genuinely funny, that the beard is a hit because I have a face that is well-suited to being obscured.)

Addition: Day 17 in photographs.







There is still itchiness, but at the risk of inviting disaster I believe the worst is behind me. Of larger concern now is that I need a haircut. I think I shall use level 2 rather than the shorter level 1; I prefer level 1, but it leaves my head looking gray, whereas at the level 2 length the brown of my hair is again readily apparent. I am not yet ready to adopt the Coach Oldham look of a shaved head with a full, bushy beard, and level 1 would be just a tad too close to that look. Bear of a weekend ahead, but I hope to use the M.L.K. Day day off for R&R, including cutting my hair.

The Quality of Mercy
It's not that I don't care about Haiti, it just strikes me as monstrously hypocritical to have ignored the plight of that woebegone land for all these years only to now pretend that it's the most important cause in the world. Most of the world, at least if journalistic accounts are to be believed, is thus behaving monstrously hypocritically. If asked, I suppose that, yes, I'd rather be perceived as callous than hypocritical, though of course we are all hypocrites at one time or another.

To wit: Pray for the blighted people of that benighted land.

The Rebel Black Dot Songs of the Day
Fountains of Wayne, "The Man in the Santa Suit" from Out-of-State Plates, Disc Two (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: I spent a not inconsiderable amount of time today wearing a gorilla suit. I considered "Clint Eastwood" by Gorillaz for the R.B.D.S.O.T.D., but "The Man in the Santa Suit" is far more relevant to today's fantabulous adventure.

Mittwoch, 13 Januar
Paul Simon, "Kodachrome" via iTunes (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: The Impossible Ingenue has borrowed the X-700 for her photography class. Apparently, her professor was quite pleased to hear she had access to one, it's quite a spectacular camera, though normally hamstrung by being in the hands—mine own—of a complete amateur. The Ingenue has promised to teach me a thing or two about proper photography; so, in time I'll be an incomplete amateur.