Well this is it. I’ve had a blast.

Here’s the deal. I have a trip planned to South Florida that is going to involve first time meetings with five engineers that work for our consulting company. These men are the professional end of our business, and they have no idea that I write their reports in my home, sporting my jammies and a beard full of Cracker Barrel left overs. Bottom line, I need to impress these guys, and while one man should be able to impress another with his ability (and willingness) to grow a gnarly beard, I don’t think it will work this time. So I’ve decided to trim WAY back to my normal every day length for this event.

I know what you’re going to say, “Switch to Team Trimmers!”. Don’t get me wrong, I’m down with Team Trimmers – some of my good friends are trimmers – but that’s not why I‘ve participated Whiskerino these past two years. I am never without a beard, and these four months are a chance to grow an unfettered, unkempt hobo-style beard. To be honest, the last month is the best part for me, and I just can’t see myself putting 100% creativity into a look I already wear 365 days a year.

So it is with great sadness that I leave you beardos. I am still planning on attending the Throwdown, so hopefully I’ll get to see you all there. Just don’t mock my baby beard please.

to @Mackle, I can’t thank you enough for this. It has been more than a simple beard/networking site for me. Jenny and I had already lived in Knoxville for a year when the ’07 round came up, but our home-based jobs and our churchless lifestyle left us few opportunities to meet people.

And then we met @Tedford and @Sariebell through Whiskerino. We all got some jabs about “Internet Swinging”, but in the end, we found a great group of people who have stayed close friends for the last two years. This year I met @Knoxandy, who is sure to become a regular golfing partner in the years to come.

I guess what I’m saying here is that Whiskerino is more than an internet community, it’s a platform for people to come together and become more than the sum of their parts. This has fostered a real life community for me, and that’s more than I’ll ever say for Facebook or MySpace.