How it went…

Trivia night last Friday night was as great a success as we could have hoped.

Things kicked off promptly at 6.00pm with the BBQ firing up and the sizzled sausages flying off the grill.  Teams then made their way inside, many of them packing their own drinks and portable feasts.

Keil Jones, captain of the Mobrarians, faced a brief interrogation by the press in the form of a Channel 7 news cameraman, then introduced the evening and the rules.  Thereafter, yours truly quiz-mastered, while the lovely Amelia Jones tracked how everyone was doing on the journey to the all-important main prize.

Everyone had a great time, though cries were heard that the questions were a little too hard — just the challenge we promised!  A veritable swag of prizes were handed out.  In the end, the grand winners were the Front Row Team, led by CityLibraries Executive Manager Susan Coker – who promptly (and very generously) handed some of the best prizes back to be give out again!

As soon as we can we’ll post a few photographs here, so everyone can see the spirit of the evening for themselves.

In the end, we raised over $1000 for Movember and, through the event itself, and the Channel 7 news piece, raised a little awareness for men’s health.  Our thanks to the sponsors who donated our prizes, and to our colleagues who gave so much of their time and support, cannot be overstated.

Tonight

No posting for a week, sadly, as we’ve had our noses to the grindstone getting ready for the BBQ/Trivia night tonight at CityLibraries Thuringowa.

It’s been great fun preparing, particularly late nights trawling through the world of obscure facts to come up with suitable tortuous questions.

We ‘ve had as many bookings and as much support from our colleagues and community as we could have hoped for. Our sponsors have been terrific, contributing over $1000 in prizes.  All in all it should be a rollicking good night.

If you live locally and can’t make it tonight, but would still love to support Movember and the Mobrarians, feel free to drop in to any of the CityLibraries Townsville branches to donate…

Five Days to Trivia Night

The Mobrarians Movember Trivia Night is now only five days away, and we’re certainly very excited.

Team bookings are coming in strongly as we lure Townsville’s most trivial minds out of the woodwork, but there’s always room for more supporters of this great cause and even those who just want to have a fantastic night and a chance to win some cool prizes.

Speaking of prizes, we have a few more prize donors that we’d love to thank: Cactus Jack’s for gift vouchers; Kirwan Ten Pin and Squash Centre for family passes; the Townsville RSL for gift vouchers to their Lavarack restaurant; and Willows Shopping Centre for numerous vouchers.  Our prize donors have been very generous this year — we can’t thank them enough.

As a final bit of Trivia news, participants are now welcome to BYO their own alcoholic drinks on the night to enhance their already stratospheric enjoyment — though, of course, we encourage responsible drinking and never, ever driving afterwards…

Resistance is futile – pop over to our online events booking calendar right now and sign-up to join the fun.

Let’s All Spare A Thought…

Team Bloom ‘ Tache have put together a video illustrating the sacrifices made on our behalf by our glorious Mo-sistas… A round of applause ’cause, bless her, she just doesn’t give up…

What Does It Feel Like To Kiss A Moustache? from Angeline Gragasin on Vimeo.

We totally won’t mention that November 18 is Have Sex With a Guy With A Mustache Day.  We’ll just let that meme quietly spread all on its own…

Stronger Together

Ask anyone who’s been stripped down to the bone by an unstoppable army of voracious killer ants or caught up in a zombie apocalypse:  there’s strength in numbers.  Usefulness, too.  If you tie a bunch of knots you have a net and the world is your fish farm.  Tie one knot and all you have is a ruined piece of string.  Or one ninth of a cat o’ nine tails.

Movember now gives us the opportunity to grow strong by bonding our individual teams into networks.  Library staff around the world can reach out to form uber-teams of information-savvy folk who are already dedicated to connecting their local communities to things that they need to know to make their lives better.

When we as mo-brothas and mo-sistas strive to raise awareness of men’s health issues and the need to fund research into them, we’re playing to our strengths in ways that no one else can.  For us, working within charitable movements is just another form of embedded librarianship,  wherein we move ourselves out of the libraries and into community groups pursuing worthy causes and do what we do: inform, empower, connect, enhance, inspire.

Imagine if, this Movember, we library workers all do that together.

In that spirit, we welcome the Handlebar Librarians, MoALIAs and Radelaide Mobrarians to the Mobrarians network! <cue fireworks>

And we extend an open invitation to other Movember library workers, wherever you are, to add your strength to the Mobrarian network.

Remember… a dirty naked guy in a field is just creepy, but when half a million of his friends show up – you get Woodstock…

Prizes!

We’re drawing ever nearer to the Mobrarian’s mega-trivia night (you can feel a strange electric tension building in the air, yeah? well, that’s us…) and some of the very lovely people we’ve approached to ask for prizes have been coming through for us with some truly great stuff!

Adrenalin Dive have given us tickets for a spectacular outer barrier reef cruise for two.  From Billabong Sanctuary we’ve received a pair of day passes to their fantastic park.  Birch, Carroll and Coyle cinemas in Sturt Street have showered us in movie tickets.  Jupiters Townsville Hotel and Casino have given us dinner for two at Aqua, one of Townsville’s best restaurants.  And Top Frames have done a frankly gorgeous job of framing up an historical photograph from our very own local history collection, making a really special piece of photographic art.  We can’t thank these local businesses enough for their generosity in supporting our Movember efforts.

It’s great to think that so far we’ve only heard back from a handful of the people and business we approached for prizes.  Stay tuned and we’ll keep you informed as the prize tally grows.

Don’t forget, all you brainy locals, that you can have all the fun of taking part in the trivia night and winning these prizes as easily as telephoning your preferred branch of CityLibraries Townsville or booking through our online event calendar!

Off and Mo-ing!

Well day one of this great month has finally come!

All across Australia men everywhere took a razor to their face and received that last desperate kiss from their loved ones. I’m sure most of them then proceeded to work where they were going to pretend to do what they normally do and to the untrained eye it will appear that they are working like normal. But the truth is they are devoting 87.5% of their charitable brain power to the effort of Mo-growing. Yes, 87.5%. Long, difficult and important studies, by me just then, have established that this is the focus required to grow an awesome Mo. Why do men put themselves at risk like this? Why do they operate for one month on just 12.5% brain power?

‘Cause the ladies love a Mo ….

No, wait. It’s because Movember is a great cause! Because growing a Mo is something we can do, using brain power, and it’s fun. Because men’s health needs it.

So starting today I’ve classified my upper lip to be a fuzz-zone. I’ve dedicated 87.5% brain power to making that happen and if i’m somewhat successful someone may even notice it and ask me why … That’s when I’ll hit ‘em with the hard facts about Movember and men’s health and get that much needed donation out of them

So good luck everyone on their Mo journey … I can’t wait to see some progress pics!

 

KaptainKeil.

It’s Movember Eve…

In honour of the event I have mangled beyond all recognition the much loved traditional poem, “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” though it must be said I lacked the stamina to rework all sixteen million lines of the poem.  And yes, I cheated on the final rhyme.  I’m only human.

 

‘Twas the night before Mo-day, and faces were clean –

Not a moustache was growing, no none could be seen.

The razors were stored at the back of the drawer;

All shaving cream, too, left behind at the store.

Movember was coming the very next day,

A month for top lips to show us the way

When all round the world our mo-bros and mo-sistas

Make plenty of noise so those who have missed us

Will see that we’re here and hear all that we’re saying

That men’s health statistics are truly dismaying -

By paying a little to help a good cause

Or joining a team and so making it yours

Or blogging and tweeting to spread our word quickly

Or telling your partner, “It’s really just tickly…”

We promise you’ll reap all the good that you’ve sewn

The man that you’re saving may be him who’s at home…

 

On which note, happy Halloween to our friends in the US, and a happy Mo-Eve to everyone, everywhere who’s about to join us in a month of changing the face of men’s health…

Woolly Mo’s

Andrea over at Drea’s Crochet certainly has the right stuff… unable to grow her own Movember mo for chromosomal reasons, she’s supported the cause by getting innovative with crochet: behold the majesty of the crochet artificial mustache.  There’s a pattern, for mo-sistas and mo-bros who want to join the fun and crochet up their own.

Speaking of Mo’s

Let us draw your attention to a site dedicated to the moustache growing of a bygone error… erm… I mean era: Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century… Truly aspirational material for those of us who labour all Movember long to produce something that looks like a sprinkle of coal dust on the upper lip. 

Thrill to the sight of luxuriant growths that might have daunted the hardiest Victorian explorer armed with the sharpest machete.

Sigh with relief that Movember is only one month long…

Surrender to the inspirational power of moustaches that could coil about a ship and drag it to the bottom of the sea like some strange hairy kraken and join the Mobrarians, or give us money.

To repeat…

<gestures like a Jedi>

You will join the Mobrarians…

You will give us money…

And if you’re too smart for Jedi mind tricks, then clearly you’re smart enough to attend our fundraising trivia night and sausage sizzle at CityLibraries Thuringowa on Friday, 19 November, where you’ll probably have lots of fun and quite possibly win prizes.  Form a team of up to six people and contact your local branch of CityLibraries Townsville to make a booking, or book through our online event calendar…