+[[!tag tags/misc]]
+
+People keep asking me about
+[the beard thing](http://www.itwire.com/content/view/22838/1090/)... Here's
+my take on what happened and why.
+
+Just before I left for [LCA 2009](http://lca2009.linux.org.au), my
+wife offered to send along one of the
+[limited edition prints](http://karenskollage.blogspot.com/2008/11/copies-of-waterfall-photo-for-sale.html)
+of her
+[award-winning waterfall photograph](http://www.mnh.si.edu/exhibits/natures_best_2008/gallery/waterfall.html). She knew from prior years that the LCA
+organizers often host an auction or raffle to raise money for some worthy
+charity at the conference banquet. Since the photo was taken at
+[Milford Sound](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milford_Sound) on the way
+to last year's [LCA in Melbourne](http://lca2008.linux.org.au/),
+there was a connection between the photo and LCA. We had no idea what
+this year's charity might be, nor did we anticipate that her photo
+would become the centerpiece of the evening's fund-raising activities.
+
+The charity selected this year was an organization that is trying to
+[save the Tasmanian Devil](http://www.tassiedevil.com.au/) from
+extinction. Professor Hamish McCallum, the chief scientist with the
+program gave a talk after dinner and before the auction began.
+The native population is suffering from a fatal facial tumor disease that
+results in horrible lesions, and is likely to kill off all the Devils within
+a decade or three. My family and I all have a strong love of nature, and
+Karen and I had the pleasure of touring Tasmania after
+[LCA 2003 in Perth](http://www.linux.org.au/conf/2003/), so this seemed like
+a great charity to raise money for with her photo.
+
+As often happens at LCA, the auction and related fund-raising activities
+got complicated. This year, the photo alone was bid up to $2500 (which was
+very cool!), before people started offering things for higher bids. For years,
+going maybe as far back as Perth, I've been cajoled about shaving my beard
+if the bidding hit some level, and have always said no. This year, someone
+offered $5000 if I would shave my beard, and again I said no. Much later,
+after more cajoling and many counter offers, when the bids and various
+matching offers had us approaching $20,000 in total donation to the charity,
+I relented and announced that if we hit a total of $25,000 going to the
+charity I would consent to a shave. The resulting frenzy, including
+the suggestion that if it went high enough
+[Linus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds) should do the
+shaving, and the formation of a bidding consortium that kept raising more
+money and bidding against itself, was completely unexpected! Others have
+tried to capture [details of the insanity](http://zarfmouse.livejournal.com/291848.html),
+but the bottom line is that by the end of the evening, the total had blown
+*way* past anything we could have imagined, and by the end of the conference
+the total going to the charity was on the order of $40,000!
+
+Why did I agree to let Linus shave my beard? To be honest, I'm not entirely
+certain. I only had one beer that evening, so I can't blame intoxication. The
+fact that it would yield a worthy charity something over 10 times what my
+wife's photo alone had drawn as a maximum bid seemed significant to me. In
+hindsight, I also think I was at least a little bit curious to see what
+my face looked like after having a beard since sometime around September
+of 1982! In any case, I made the offer, insane amounts of money were raised,
+and on the last day of the conference, over the lunch hour, Linus took
+trimmers in hand and removed my beard in front of an audience.
+
+The reactions have been completely overwhelming. A local TV station
+and a local newspaper in Hobart were both there and ran stories. The ripple
+of mentions in the blogosphere was and is just astounding. There's even a
+silly
+[Shaving Bdale](http://andrew.secretlab.com.au/lca2009/ShavingBdale.html)
+game created overnight by the "Mad Scientists" at
+[Secret Lab](http://secretlab.com.au)! And from all over the globe, people
+I do and don't know have been sending emails and finding me on IRC to plead
+with me to grow my beard again! Right after the shave, my good friend
+[Keith Packard](http://keithp.com) said "Bdale, grow it back!". Before
+I left Hobart, my wife emailed saying she and the kids hoped I wasn't
+waiting until I got home to start. Joey Hess blogged
+[a hairy tale](http://kitenet.net/~joey/blog/entry/a_hairy_tale/) about
+how I'd scarred the minds of young Debian developers. The leader of
+[Debian-RS](http://www.debian-rs.org/) sent word by email that the group
+all hoped I would re-grow my beard. And on and on and on... I'm really not
+used to being the center of so much attention!
+
+Being suddenly without beard felt weird in lots of silly little ways. I
+was hyper-sensitive to drafts. The feel of cold beverages hitting my upper
+lip was downright strange. And I kept wanting to scratch what wasn't there!
+After making faces at myself in the mirror for a while, I decided I really
+wasn't happy, and do prefer being bearded. So I haven't shaved since Saturday
+morning in Hobart, and am pretty scruffy looking. My wife said today that
+I'm "already starting to look like Bdale again".
+
+At the current growth rate, I have high hopes of having at least some facial
+dignity back by the time I
+[speak at FOSDEM](http://fosdem.org/2009/schedule/events/debian). And no,
+I won't be shaving my beard off again any time soon...
+
projects / web / gag.com / commitdiff