And I realized there were more than four or five people I wanted to meet. On some occasions, such as meeting Patrick, I was overwhelmed with how excited I was to see the Whiskerinos in the flesh and I hugged him. I felt like Ryanhale, Dub and I had been friends for years. Scrivener and I sat and observed and analyzed the behavior of certain contestants for a few moments in real life, much like we did in IM during the contest. Byron, who was someone I didn’t acknowledge as much as others during the life of the contest, was an extremely cool guy and I regretted not getting to know him better during the last four months. The same is true for Joey Green Jacket.

I don’t know what I could say that sums up the whole experience. I’m really looking for the words. As ridiculous as I felt to explain to people that I was in a beard contest, it was so obvious, almost from the beginning, that the beards really weren’t the center of the contest. Josh Wright introduced me to a word when I first started hanging at Relative: brodown. A brodown is basically dudes hanging out, drinking some beers and shooting the breeze. That is essentially what this contest was but extended over a four month period. I feel older now that it’s over. I learned something, but I don’t know what it is yet.

and yeah, everything michael said. and stuff.

I’m glad you participated (and continue to participate) in the Whiskerino. And don’t nay-say the connections you’ve made. Online friendships are an odd thing but they can be rather long lasting due to the fact that you don’t have that annoying factor of hanging out all of the time.