This is a guest post from our Movember Correspondent Chris Carter. For the month of November, Chris shared his experience growing out a mustache to raise awareness of cancers that affect men.

Admittedly, the photos in my first Movember update weren’t terribly interesting unless you just enjoy seeing facial hair grow. As previously mentioned, I had something a bit more involved than a simple mustache in mind, so growing in a full beard was a necessary evil before grooming down to the mustache I had planned.

Shortly after submitting my previous update to the editor, the initial grooming commenced. I decided on a slightly tapered Trucker mustache with a chin strip and medium-length sideburns, a look I dubbed “The Evil Trucker.” As it turns out, this is not a look for the lazy or forgetful groomer. It took 10-15 minutes to properly shave and trim my face once the initial grooming—a 25-minute affair on its own—was done. Also, as it turns out, I had unknowingly/subconsciously selected a style that closely resembled one of the greatest video game heroes to date.

Week Three:

If you aren’t sure which game hero I inadvertently modeled my look after, don’t feel bad as I didn’t realize it myself until it was brought to my attention since all the time I had spent playing the game which starred this character was spent playing as the character himself and viewing the world through his eyes and never really viewing the character himself other than on the game’s packaging and in story mode, which I skipped right past in order to play the game in multi-player mode with my former co-workers at the end of long work days.

Week Four:

The Mo is Cool. How Did the Fundraising Go?

I am a bit disheartened to report that my effort in growing and grooming my mo apparently exceeded the frequency and/or effectiveness of my fund raising efforts (I guess I didn’t spam my friends enough) because I only ended up raising $88 (Thanks, Mom and Cathy!), $50 of which I donated to the cause myself. Additionally—and likely due to my late timing and lack of naming a specific position desired—my donation matching offer did not result in any solid job leads, though I made a few new LinkedIn connections with some Twitter followers who saw my challenge.

Fortunately, other members of my Movember team were able to raise some significant amounts, putting our team over $16,000 as of December 3rd and the friendly competition we had going with the Boston team resulted in their raising over $20,000 for the cause. Not a bad effort overall.

Oops. I Meant to Chip in a Few Bucks But Forgot. Sorry. Now Who’s This Video Game Character You Look Like?

Still not sure? I threw the following image together after the resemblance was brought to my attention by some friends on Twitter…

I am Not Gordon Freeman (Gordon Has Green Eyes)

Yep, it turns out that, when groomed with my Evil Trucker look, I’m a dead ringer for Gordon Freeman of Half-Life fame. Unfortunately…or perhaps fortunately, the resemblance wasn’t brought to my attention until a couple of days before the big Movember Gala, else I would have had no choice but to suit up and go as Gordon himself in order to take home the prize for “Best Mo in Character”, which instead went to a guy who dressed up like a greaser. Oh well, there’s always 2010!

That’s Rad. Now I Feel Bad for Not Chipping in. Is it Too Late Now?

I thought you’d never ask! If you’re in Austin and you’d like to meet members of my team and/or help push us closer to our $20,000 goal, we’ll be having a get together on Thursday, December 10th at Boomerang’s Pies on Guadalupe. Check out http://twtvite.com/vgvrfi for more details and to RSVP! Hope to see you there!

Chris Carter is a tech-savvy creative.  Check out his LinkedIn profile. Hire him!

GET UPDATES: Like what you read? Add our RSS feed! [what’s that?]. Or start your morning with Republic of Austin in your InBox! Or read us 24-7 on Twitter!

This is a guest post from our Movember Correspondent Chris Carter. For the month of November, Chris will be sharing his experience growing out a mustache to raise awareness of cancers that affect men.

Now that you’ve been introduced to Movember, I’ve been asked to share my experience with the whole “growing a mustache…err…mo” thing, so here goes nothin’.

I’ve had some kind of facial hair for all but a few weeks out of the past 15 years or so, so it felt odd to be clean-shaven on day one. Fortunately, my beard grows fast, so I only had to cope with being a baby face for a day or two. I credit the fast growth to vitamins and cupcakes. Here are my daily snapshots for the first week:

Though most of the guys who are growing simple mustaches were shaving their face clean except for their mustaches since day one, I have something a little more challenging in mind that necessitated growing things out a bit before shaving down to my Mo—more on that soon! Here are the snapshots I took during week two:

Astute readers are probably wondering why I’m still sporting a full beard on day fourteen when this thing is all about growing a mustache. That’s about to change, but first…

Let’s Make This (More) Interesting

I’m asking for your help to make the following three things happen:

1. Raise money for Movember to fund cancer research
2. Help my team, “Team Austin”, beat “Team Boston” by raising more money than them
3. Get me a job

Say What Now?

Where does finding me a job fit in here? Glad you asked. My previous employer of nearly five years was purchased by a competitor back in late 2007 and, after eight or nine rounds of lay-offs, my job was outsourced in August of this year, so I’m now a free agent, and if you care anything about numbers 1 or 2 above, I’m going to give something in return for your helping me find a new place to call home.

Here’s the Deal

If I have an acceptable job offer in my possession on or before Monday, December 7th, 2009, I will match the total donations made via My Movember Donation Page up to and including $1,000 total donations—not per person…unless it’s a REALLY good job offer!

A Little Something Extra for My Teammates

In addition to the primary matching challenge above, if someone who is a fund-raising member of Team Austin is responsible for connecting me with the company from which I end up accepting an offer AND I receive a signing bonus as part of their offer, I’ll chip in 25% of the after-tax amount of that signing bonus to Movember to benefit the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. By the way, note that the only qualifier is that you have to be a fund-raising member of our team. I don’t care when you join, as long as you’re already a member of the team and have already raised some money for the team (it will show any amount you’ve raised on our team page) when you contact me. Just keep in mind that, you’ll need to register and raise some money before contacting me and that the conditions for the primary matching offer must be met in order for the bonus offer to apply.

Killer Idea. How Can I Help?

• Easy way? Chip in a few dollars via My Movember Donation Page to support the cause. (As a little added incentive, I’ve posted my latest Movember photo there where you can see me sporting my new Evil Trucker Mo!)
• Not so easy way? Join Team Austin—nearly 50 strong so far and we’re trying to beat the Boston team, so we can use all the help we can get—and help push Team Austin to the top!
• Overachiever? Do one or both of the above and take a peek at my experience and recommendations on My LinkedIn Profile and drop me a note there or @ me on Twitter if you think I’d be a good fit for any opportunities you are aware of…and with the Evil Trucker look I’m sporting for the rest of the month, I’ll need all the help I can get!

Chris Carter is a tech-savvy creative.  Check out his LinkedIn profile. Hire him!

FOLLOW: Like what you read? Add our RSS feed! [what’s that?]. Or start your morning with Republic of Austin in your InBox! Or read us 24-7 on Twitter!