Thursday, November 29, 2012

Day 28: Remember Remember the Cause Behind Movember



Alright folks. Today and tomorrow are more or less your last chance to donate to the Georgetown MBA team and me!

We're in 23rd place nationwide, with a touch over $25K raised. A strong showing to be sure. If you've forgotten the point of all of this mustachioed madness, it is:

"Movember's primary objective is to raise awareness and funds for men's health issues, specifically prostate and testicular cancer initiatives. We want everyone to know that most cancers are highly curable if caught in the early stages, therefore Movember aims to increase early detection, diagnosis and effective treatment. This will ultimately reduce the number of deaths from cancer."


 "There are still many issues to be addressed, particularly when it comes to diagnosis - a key focus for many Movember funded research programs. Today, there still isn't a test that accurately tells a man which type of prostate cancer he has, resulting in many men being over-diagnosed and having to undergo unnecessary and harmful treatment."
(Movember )


As I said in a previous post, I feel like your money is actually getting stuff done with this organization. Specifically, I pointed to their minimal administrative costs relative to other "charities" (Where the Money Goes).  I once donated $500 to Amnesty International- I then got $500 of various mail over the next two years asking for more money. Doesn't make sense. Let's not kid ourselves, no organization runs with 100% efficiency, but in spite of that, Movember is providing a huge stream of funding for researching male cancers. And, if the organization didn't exist, chances are that the funding would not either.

Granted, there's a lot of silliness that goes on with the constant Facebook floods of mustache update pics, but this is one of the few movements I know that can actually have tangible results while being fun and entertaining.

OKAY. So now, allow me to step off my soapbox. Today I wore one of the three ties I purchased on Black Friday. 

This one:

I then had multiple people comment that it was a "Republican tie." WHAT?! Seriously?! How can a tie be Republican? I bought it because red and simple is a traditional POWER tie. I thought it would be good for business formal situations! And it is! But apparently I also look Republican when I wear it... Go figure.

My roommate in particular, saw me wearing it today and commented: "Dude you look like you are a member of the Young Republicans." Sigh.

At the end of the day, believe me, I hate dressing up in business formal. I would prefer to wear jeans and a t-shirt for all of my daily interactions for the rest of my life. Just this past Saturday night, I headed over to Liz's place. We were going to grab dinner, and then spend the night at her place. When I showed up she said:

"So... are you wearing that?"

(I was wearing a plain green t-shirt)

Me: "Um... yeah."
Liz: "You don't have anything nicer to wear?"
Me: "This is a nice t shirt!"
Liz: (Head in hands) "I want to wear something cute and we won't be able to eat anywhere because you are in a t-shirt!"
Me: "Well I wore a t-shirt because it's cold and I would just be wearing my fleece over it!"
Liz: "Good. Because we're going mountain climbing."

Liz is a good sport about my refusal to dress up voluntarily. I was not so lucky in the past. I once dated a girl who said to me one night when I asked what was wrong:

"I dressed up to go out with you tonight and you look like you are staying in to play video games!" I was wearing this shirt:

Fun Fact: I have this shirt in both black AND white, and still rock it with pride!

That relationship didn't last long. It was kindof doomed right when she said that. 

Similarly, at the very first Finance Club meeting I ever attended, we were essentially given a dress code for meeting with the real life finance people. Black or Dark Blue suits, white or blue shirt, dark tie, shiny (polished) shoes. Suffice to say, that day I realized I would never have a career in Finance.



10:03 PM Update: Liz says- "STEVE. You look SO weird in these pictures. Maybe it's just my laptop screen but you look like an alien!"

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