©2008 Bryan Bortz
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Well, you are in for a shock next time you see me. I no longer have a beard. Lets get the reactions I had at first out of the way.
My reactions to my de-bearding:
- Whoa my chin is gone!
- Whoa I need a haircut too!
- Whoa I don’t recognize my self!
- Whoa my face feels funny!
- Whoa, was this a good idea?
- Whoa! People are going to freak when they see me!
- Hmm, I look less manly. Like I needed that…
So I have had a goatee since mid High School.I had full a beard since before the summer of 2005. All the people I have met and know me from MATC in Visual Communications have known me as a bearded fellow. That is a weird concept, and part of why I did not shave, people liked me when I had a beard (not because, just concurrently.) So obviously the beard was not that weird on me.
I never really had a very thick beard on the sides, so it never looked all that great. I get the impression it was not very attractive, and that it was not very professional. I need a haircut to match now. I need a haircut ASAP, maybe shaving it off in the early hours of Christmas was not the best idea. 
And no pictures, It will be fun for the next few months too see peoples reactions. (or down right scary) (Maybe it will come back, or the goatee, Time will tell.) (Wiggling my chin in front of the mirror is like an out of body experience.)
Edit: MY CHIN IS COLD!
So a few days ago I saw a link to the HITs for the photo based product search in Amazon’s new iPhone app. And decided it might be fun to do some. And amazon was paying 10¢ a pop, so I thought it might be worth seeing how easy it was. I quickly started seeing patterns on what people were using to app to find many of them were obviously taken at the office and at their desk because trends appeared quickly.
Below is a list of some of the things I saw come up often and some notes about them.
For the watches, I was only able to find an exact match once. And for the coffee cups, never. I found every book someone took a photo of though. Only two photos appeared to come from inside a store.
| Item | # | Notes |
| Phones | 12 | Three of them were Blackberries three were iPhones or iPhone boxes and 3 office phones |
| Watches | 10 | I was only able to identify one of them |
| Figurine / Toy | 9 | Was able to identify about three of them exactly |
| Mugs, Cups or Glasses | 8 | Not able to match any |
| Computers | 8 | Four were Mac Four were PC. All but one were laptops, the other was an old G4 |
| Books | 7 | Was able to find them all |
| Appliances | 6 | |
| Headphones | 6 | |
| Candy | 5 | |
| Water | 4 | |
| Hard Drive | 4 | One WD, Two Lacie One Maxtor |
| Widget | 4 | Adapters, connectors, etc. was only able to find one audio connector |
| Household Supplies | 3 | Lysol, Cleaners, etc |
| Lotion or Soap | 3 | |
| Monitors | 3 | |
| Mouse | 3 | One Apple, Two Microsoft |
| Printer | 3 | |
| Router/Switch | 3 | Two routers and one switch |
| Shoes | 3 | |
| Coke | 2 | Regular and Coke Zero |
| Keyboard | 2 | HP and Logitec |
| Lamp | 2 | |
| Other drinks | 2 | I think they were wine |
| Posters | 2 | Was not able to match either |
| Powertools | 2 | matched both |
| Speakers | 2 | Matched One |
| Sunglasses | 2 | No matches |
| Supliments | 2 | |
| TV | 2 | Both HDTV |
| Video Game Accesories | 2 | Controller and Memory Card |
| Water Bottles | 2 | Found both |
| Bluetooth Headsets | 1 | |
| Calculator | 1 | |
| CDs | 1 | Portishead – Third |
| Chairs | 1 | |
| Clocks | 1 | |
| Clothing | 1 | Winter hat |
| Decoration | 1 | |
| DVDs | 1 | It was the closeup of the back of one. |
| Fan | 1 | |
| Food | 1 | Bananas (Amazon only had things made from bananas) |
| Jewelry | 1 | A blurry ring |
| Kleenex | 1 | |
| Magnets | 1 | |
| Mailbox | 1 | A blue Mailbox! It would be illegal for Amazon to sell one! |
| Memory Card Reader | 1 | |
| Micrometer | 1 | Digital |
| Person | 1 | It was actually their tie, you could not see their face |
| Playing Cards | 1 | |
| Scooter | 1 | |
| Sculptures | 1 | |
| Software | 1 | A Garageband Jam Pack |
| Stocking | 1 | |
| Sun | 1 | |
| Video Cameras | 1 | |
| Video Games | 1 | Guitar Hero On Tour |
| Walkie Talkies | 1 | |
| iPod Touch Screenshots | 1 |
And another year passes. Lots of big things happened this year, and other things did not.
My brother Chris and his wife Heather had their baby! He was born at 6:33pm on the 16th of September 2008 weighing 8lbs 4oz. His name is Aaden. And now I am an Uncle!
More Photos: Facebook Album (You might have to be friends with Chris to see them)
For those who have not been following my Twitter, Facebook Status, etc. My mom had an aneurism on tuesday. I had been at St. Mary’s in Madison since then. She is currently stable and had what looks to be successful surgery, but we will not know how well things really are until the the end of the weekend next week.