Gecko Bloggle

Hi,

Greetings everybody, all twelve of you that still check this feed.

Yep, check it.  I’m doing one of those NabloPoMo things.  Sorry Karla.

You’re excited, I can tell.

So, last year, I did the NaBloPoMo (National Blog Post Month) which went pretty well.  I *think* I did a post every day, and certainly grew a moustache, though it was a fairly odd one due to my silver hair not quite translating into anything more than salt & pepper and some cayenne in my ‘stache.

So yeah, the moustache part is for Movember, which started in Australia, it seems, and is all about “changing the face of men’s health,” whatever the hell that means.  I’m guessing/hoping that it means we’re looking like cheesy 70s actors in order to remind ourselves to NOT ignore our aches and pains, and to get checkups, and to see doctors when weird shit is going on, physically speaking.  Do not tough it out, I guess, is the message.  What do I know?  I haven’t even read any deeper than the posters and pre-scripted bumpf that comes with registration.  Maybe it’s a month of excessive chest bumping and high-fiving, but I somehow doubt it, even if it DOES come from Australia.  “High-Five” doesn’t seem very Australian to me, unless it’s the kids’ TV show, which is better than the Doodlbebops, but nowhere NEAR as good as the Upside-Down Show.

Uh, yeah, here’s my pre-scripted thing to ask for donations so I can shave raise awareness.  Of stuff.  Or something.

Hi,

I have decided to join a global movement that is bringing much needed attention to prostate cancer.  I’m doing this by growing a Moustache this Movember, the month formerly known as November. My commitment is to grow a moustache all November and I am hoping that you will support my efforts by making a donation.  The funds raised go directly to Prostate Cancer Canada.

What many people don’t know is that 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer to afflict Canadian men with 25,500 diagnosed and 4,400 dying from the disease each year.

Facts like these have convinced me I should get involved.

To make a donation, you can either:

•    Click this link http://ca.movember.com/mospace/273776/ and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account , or
•    Write a cheque payable to ‘Prostate Cancer Canada’, referencing my Registration Number 273776 and mailing it to: Prostate Cancer Canada, 145 Front Street East, Ste. 306, Toronto, ON M5A 1E3, Canada.

All donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Prostate Cancer Canada will use the money raised by Movember for the development of programs related to awareness, public education, advocacy, support of those affected, and research into the prevention, detection, treatment and cure of prostate cancer.

For more details on how the funds raised from previous campaigns have been used and the impact Movember is having please click [HERE].

Thank you

Yeah, no.  Seriously.  Don’t die at 40, like my friend Jan did.  Or at 43, like my grandfather did.  I was two when he went, so I never got to have a grandfather I could remember, (aside from Ace*, maybe.)  Get things checked out.  Mmkay?  Not that any of them had prostate cancer, that I’m aware of, but still.  Early this year, I had this harsh pain in my right calf muscle, and went to the clinic just to make sure I wasn’t hurting it more by walking around after some sorta pull, and the doctor there decided that she couldn’t let me go without scaring warning me that it could be a deep-vein thrombosis, and sent me to the hospital.  It wasn’t.  I was fine, but still.  I was okay just kinda limping around.  Women?  Women get stuff checked out.  Props to Arwen for getting me to the clinic in the first place.  I guess she didn’t want me dying of a blood clot from my leg.  A good sign she isn’t going to kill me in my sleep any time soon.

Or is that just what she wants me to think?  Sneaky.

So now that you read a little about me, and I have nothing more interesting to say than last night was fun with the 4yo and the 7yo running around Marpole and getting candy from maaaaaaybe every seventh or eighth house (c’mon people, don’t let the malls run Halloween.)  I bet the DND and collectible figurines place at Metrotown would be fun once they started having the odd drink under the counter, though.  Weird to think I used to work in that mall, way back in the day.

Wait, what?  Oh, yeah.  Now that you see I have nothing to say, maybe you can go visit a few of my friends (actual, live, in person, PEOPLE who I’ve MET) at their blogs, even though they’re not all involved in NaBloPoMo.

Arwen, Bubbledom, Claire, Barb, Monkeypants, MoxieSnacks, NoPantsIsland, Ramdon Ranblings, The (Mighty Mighty) Cheeseblog, St. Aardvark, Skonen Blades, Unknown Origins Podcast, and even Johnny Bliss from way over in Vienna.

And now, I shall stop procrastinating, and go fold some laundry, ’cause that’s what hardcore gangsta techie dads DO.

First pics of Movember will start later this week.  Stay tuned for that.  No point right now, ’cause it’s just day one, and that’d result in a picture of ME, not my stache.

Also, XKCD rocks my world.  I need a wall-sized poster of this.

* I’ll tell you folks about Ace some time this month.  He keeps pestering me from the back of my head to write him into a a book I haven’t done more than start the first chapter of.  He deserves space on a page somewhere, so maybe I’ll finally get to him online somehow.  He would have liked that, I think.