I’m Tony Stark. I build neat stuff, got a great girl, occasionally save the world. So why can’t I sleep?
~from the Iron Man 3 trailer

Hope everyone had a fun Hallowe’en yesterday.
It’s ironic, the day after Hallowe’en marks the beginning of my quest to be like Tony Stark of Disney’s Marvel’s Iron Man (I’m pretty sure that’s how I legally have to type it now).
Yes it’s Movember and I’m growing my Movember moustache Robert Downey Jr. style, or at least trying to, to raise awareness for the Movember cause(s).
Before you walk off thinking it’s just the prostate cancer stuff, Movember itself is downplaying that dimension. In their Top 5 Tips, only No. 3 and 4 are Prostate-related. No. 1 and 2 are to hang out with guys, and have a good talk. No. 5 is to move more to stay healthy. Those are the bullets I’m more concerned about, so we can shift the focus a little off our Prostates. Whew! 😉
Oh yeah, so back to Iron Man. It was jarring, in an overall good way, to see, at the beginning of 2013’s Iron Man 3, a Tony Stark visibly rattled and vulnerable. That’s a very natural response to colossal alien attack of the Avengers Assemble movie, yet we paint our heroes like they never feel fear or insecurity. Especially the dudes.
It impressed me that Hollywood wrote this into one of its most enduring, top-grossing and incorrigible egos, who in fact is a human being (moreso than most of his super-powered compatriots) who’s actually still growing up.
So that’s my role model for the facial hair this year, which was a big deal for a couple of people following my Movember involvement these past years.

I think it’s new this year that Mo-vember will be a bit more of a MOVE-mber with the move more pledge: to walk/run 60k over the month. I’m taking that pledge with the hopes that this P-T working Dad of 2 can slot in the time and space to walk 60k, and figure out the app that counts those kms. Why 60? Apparently 60 men die of suicide every hour (one every minute!) so this is a way to remember that. You can consider this a good ol’ fashioned Kilometre Club kind of fundraiser too, maybe even pledge per km!

So here’s the obligatory Movember 1st pic:

(my cheat this year is leaving that soul patch, something I did years ago. I thought it’d be nice to get a little head start on my Mo, and quite honestly was saving a few shaving strokes. Now there’s a tongue-twister to try! And that too!)

BONUS: I’d been pretty slack on my shaving up until a few days before Movember which allowed me to do a preview of the Tony Stark.

Here’s the link to my Movember page.
Please consider supporting our team by donating.
You can also join our follicle-growing exploits,… or be an all-round healthy guy and talk it up!

My next Movember post: Gone too soon – grieving my father-in-law Art Harrison’s passing this summer