The Full Moon effect, you ask? Do you follow?

/ January 26, 2015

My friend Justine over at the always-interesting Eclectic Odds N Sods asked early this a.m. from over there in the U.K., “What happens to you at full moon?”

That was her entry into some pretty cool photographs of the lunar situation over at her side of the big pond.

She’s good with the lens.

Check it out.

http://eclecticoddsnsods.com/2015/01/26/what-happens-to-you-at-a-full-moon/

I, on the other hand, it being daytime here in the Little Bitty I share with my dear wife Karen in the Syracuse, N.Y., city neighborhood of Eastwood, and me sitting in my desk chair (recliner) in my office (living room) with my colleague (Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle) took her question in an entirely different direction.

Bright Monday selfie in Syracuse, N.Y.

Bright Monday selfie in Syracuse, N.Y.

My beard is beyond rather-full today. Blame it on the moon?

That would fit the theme, you know, but it’s more likely because tomorrow is the day for my regular vanity appointment with my friend Theresa Constantine at her Hairy Notions salon. Whew!

Here’s the link to my story explaining the roots of my every-four-week trip for a cut, beard trim and great talk.

Along the lines of time well spent and following your intincts, I received a notification from WordPress yesterday among the comments from you all (on the old-school link that I’ve added to my browser bar because the new notifications method doesn’t cut it for so many labor-intensive reasons).

http://wordpress.com/notifications/

Hey, now!

Hey, now!

I notched follower No. 1,000 on Sunday, according to the folks who tally such things. At this moment, my (old style) stats page reads: 1,035 followers for the blog, 78 for comments, and 4,024 for Facebook through publicize. I hooked that last feature up for a few days earlier on through this now-23-month-old journey at markbialczak.com, but disengaged the click when I decided my Facebook friends and I were all better served if I linked the post’s URL myself, so I could write a different headline and lead paragraph in addition to what appears here on WordPress. (I do much the same on my Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, too, by the way, because social media is way cool.)

So, thank you for following, whether it were early on, midway through my writings, or just now. Chances are pretty good that I’ve clicked back to your blog and taken a look, followed, read, read regularly if interested, conversed here and there, become friends when natural and fitting …

I hope you find reason to do the same here. I know things can get hairy …

How does the full moon affect you? How often do you get your hair cut, or trim your beard if that applies? How do you use social media as it applies to your blog?

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73 thoughts on “The Full Moon effect, you ask? Do you follow?”

  1. Hmmm… Well, first of all, congratulations on the follower badge! Way to go! Now, your next goal is 1,337 to get the LEET badge. 😀

    As for the photo, I think you should have Theresa skip trimming the beard this time, and instead have her braid it and put a few beads in. You could even have the beads be heart-shaped and surprise Karen for Valentine’s Day! Actually, before I read, I figured you were letting it grow because it’s so cold up there. Are you getting that blizzard that’s up North?

    The full moon? Well, it turns me into a werewolf, of course. And while I don’t get my hair trimmed as often as I should, I never cut my beard. 😉 Stay warm, my friend!

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  6. Aah the full moon! Around these parts (South Africa) we are having some electricity troubles, which means intermittent power cuts, which means being forced to sit on my porch and absorb the moonlight, mostly because for once there is nothing else to do. It always turns out to be a startlingly good use of time, this being forced to quiet down. Congratulations on your 1000 followers – your writing deserves it!

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  8. I got the old notifications link from a comment at Colleen’s blog – I love it Mark! Tell me, does anyone have a link to the old stats page. I miss it so. One could see best post ever or look back at 7day, 30 days, this past quarter, or look at the stats over a period of time for a specific post. I am sad. Very sad. 😦

    Nice pic though Mark. 😉
    Diana xo

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    • The old stats page is still offered through official WordPress channels, Diana, much like the old Create Post page for which most of us in our circle are so wedded to still. Go to the very bottom of the new stats page to find a click for the old stats page. It is labeled clearly as such.

      As an aside, yesterday for the very first time, all of those valued statistic graphs showed up on the new stats page for me. But when they were there, the individual story counts were not. So when I clicked on the header to get the story counts, the graphs disappeared. Now I can’t figure out how to get them back.

      Finally, thank you for your kind words about my gnarly full moon beard picture. Which was actually not taken at full moon, but had me at morning-non-groom. 🙂

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      • Thanks Mark, I will check that out. I may save to my favourites just in case that link disappears!

        And regarding the beard, apparently ‘lumberjack’ is the in thing and considered sexy even; at least in Canada! So get yourself a flannel shirt and run with it! #lumbersexual
        Diana xo

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  9. Congrats on the followers 🙂 Your empire grows. I notice the full moon as often as I notice any other outdoor naturey thing, which is never 😦 I had a therapist once tell me I needed to spend more time communing with nature. Huh. Star-gazing (which would include moon-gazing) is fun, though. Have taken astronomy classes and some of those were outdoors with telescopes. Thanks for reminding me!

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  10. The full moon seems to produce odd things around me but generally doesn’t seem to affect me personally. When i was the safety manager of a tanker company,the full moon was a challenge. Our errors and mistakes and odd occurences skyrocketed. To the credit of the drivers the rate of chargeable accidents did not change. But weird stuff would happen ,,like a driver would be parked and unloading and and a car would come along and run into the truck. Or a laoding rack would fail at a customers and there would be a spill. I once had a new driver deliver a whole B-train load (58,000 liters or about 15,000 US gallons) of gasoline to the wrong station – and not just the wrong outlet, but the wrong company completely. He delivered to a Shell station across the road from his customer. There are easily a dozen checks to make sure this does not happen – including a map of the delivery site – and he ignored them all. He was on probation before and unemployed after. His trainer was given a warning and a dressing down. It was not a good full moon. The list goes on – ha! we had one driver who misunderstood his delivery city and drove about 4 hours out of his way before we noticed it on the GPS satellite and straightened him out. He lost 8 hours of wages. i had a woman terminal manage who hated full oons., She had worked in fuel delivery for 20 years and could tell stories that would make your hair curl.

    Oh, and i get my hair cut about every 2 months now that I don’t attend an office – about every 4 weeks when I did. And I am currently blogless.

    Fun post Mark.

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    • I keep the cut schedule because of this wild beard. And I want to see my friend, too, at her salon, Paul. 🙂

      Your trucking tales regarding the full moon do not surprise me in the least. It has that effect on the world.

      And you do very well guest blogging, my friend.

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  12. I like your beard, Mark! I have found while working in a nursing home, there are many different variations of moon effects! But mainly there are a lot of crazy behaviors at night there, any day of the month. I love looking at the moon, I am a little suspicious about Friday the 13th and also Full Moon behavior. Smiles, Robin

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  13. Congratulations!! Last time I checked, it was a crescent. As for the full moon, I get sort of witchy, not evil. I mean, I want to go hang out in the woods or at least take a jog out under the stars.

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  14. I should get my hair cut every four weeks. It’s think and grows crazy fast and I wear it short and spiky. But usually it drags out an extra week or three. The full moon keeps me awake. And sadly, it really makes things more difficult at work 😦 .

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  16. Hurray to 1000 followers! Your head looks like a newborn baby. Well, the top does anyway. 🙂 I guess every month makes sense for a dude. I only go 2-3x per year, but that’s because I’m cheap!

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  18. Haircut every six to eight weeks, depending on how I am growing it out (or not).

    Full moons make all creatures crazy. I can tell something is up before I know the moon cycle by the cats sometimes.

    Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr all post links to my published posts on here. I am having a love/hate relationship with Facebook so the auto updates are all I need to get by right now.

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  19. Full moon? If it has any effect on me, I am unaware of it.

    Hair and beard trimming: I have a Braun trimmer. I use it once a week to trim my beard, trim my mustache, trim my nose and ear hairs and I run it across my entire head to basically trim my own hair (short buzz cut for what’s left of my hair, which ain’t that much). I haven’t been to the barber for a haircut in well over two years.

    Social media: I don’t use it at all with respect to my blog. I don’t have a Twitter account. I do have a Facebook account, but it’s not connected to my blog. I use it exclusively to keep track of my grown up kids and what they’re doing with their lives.

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  20. Congratulations Mark. We have had beautiful little crescent moons here in California lately.For some reason your blog here causes my computer to run very slow. I just got a High Handles warning from Norton.

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  21. Congratulations and well-earned, Mark! Gosh, you and the way you blog are a fine example of being transparent and fearless online. You’re so talented and skilled at both the “social” and “media” parts of social media, which is tough. Plus, you bring me home to North East God’s Country in a good way 😉

    Just for you, my first public poem :D…

    You make me laugh.
    You make me spry.
    You make me think.
    You’re friend, McFly.

    Here’s to the next 2,000. Cheers!

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  22. red rum!!!! congrats, mark you deserve 1000 and many more. full moon seems to make everyone else act a bit crazy, which means they probably think that about me too ) i embrace it fully – take cover today with all the expected extreme weather coming to the east )

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    • We seem to be to the western edge of the nor’eater, knock on wood, Beth, and the forecast is for a mere 3 inches here in the city of Syracuse. Knock on wood.

      Yes, red rum, Mrs. Torrance!!! Do I see Horace in your mirror pouring you a drink?

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  23. Such a varied hodge podge of questions and topics today! Perhaps that’s how the full moon effects you? Ha! I love the moon but rarely keep track of when it’s full or not to really determine how I might be reacting to it. Social media? I just try to keep my blog off FB at all costs lest it offends someone near and dear. And cutting my hair? Try to do it as little as possible.

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  24. haha i love the name of her salon and wow a full bear, well it gives your wife more to play with doesn’t it, until it has a nice short back and sides. Thank you for mentioning my post, i suppose having a hair cut or bear trim is better than running around the garden naked and howling isnt it? grins x

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  25. Congratulations and I agree with brickhousechick, not one bit surprising. You were one of my first followers and made me feel sort of validated so you have a permanent warm place in my little lentil of a heart. I don’t understand using social media one bit. I just plod along….

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  26. FULL MOON=FULL BEARD. Makes sense to me!

    CONGRATULATIONS, Mr. B for such a following. It does not surprise me one bit that readers out there want to read what you’ve got to say!! When I see you in June, can I have your autograph?

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