Hey crew

Ben wrote a column yesterday that is very good on the new rules that were announced.


Ben is going to be writing a weekly column during the season! CW and I presented Ben with the idea and here we are. I’m excited for this. I think it’s going to be a really great addition to the site and a start into some of the ways we want to grow the wrestling coverage!

Enjoy!

Yup. Dead.
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I am amazed at the facts in the last paragraph of Ben Visser’s article on the homepage.

His question is very thought provoking IMO.

What ever happened to Rob Gray? I always liked his articles especially the Where are they now series. Seems like he hasn't written anything for a while. Course CW never writes anything anymore guess the podcast stuff is what we are supposed to get our info from. Why listen for 50 minutes when you can read a article in 5 or less. Oh well so much for this friday night thought.

Going downtown tomorrow and was looking for some new bars with patios. Came across this post from Catch Des Moines. The heading picture looks like a good spot for a night cap but I can’t figure out where it is. Looks like East Village, probably Locust St, but I can’t find it on google street view.

Anyone recognize it?

The Big 10 announced its conference matchups for the 2024 and 2025 season. They have done away with divisions and the conference game will be a simple #1 v #2. The major innovation is how they are protecting key rivalries. They have have adopted what they are calling Flex Protect Plus model. While the name doesn't really tell you much on its face, it boils down to each conference member can have up to three protected annual conference games each year, but are not required to have three.

In practice this results in most of the members having one or two annual rivalries protected: OSU-Michigan, Michigan-MSU, USC-UCLA, Rutgers-Maryland, etc. Penn St ends up with no protected rivalries, while Iowa has three with Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Minnesota.

So looking at the future Big 12, I am curious how this model would apply. I would say the obvious ones are Sunflower, Farmaggedon, Revivalry, UH-Tech, WVU-Cinci. I would imagine that UCF and BYU wouldn't have any protected annual rivals, but what other matchups do you feel need to be protected? ISU-OSU, BYU-TCU, UCF-UH, others?

I’m looking for a company to service a sprinkler system at a house in Clive. Rain King used to handle it but they got bought out by A+ Lawn and Landscape. A+ is one of the worst companies that I’ve ever done business with, so I need another company that can service the system as far as repairs and yearly start and winterize service. Does anyone have any recommendations? Feel free to DM me too.

The Final Four saw 1 blowout and a classic back and forth thriller. Appropriate that championship will add another chapter to the New York Boston rivalry.

Voting is open for the Championship of the Cyclone Fanatic Sitcom Tournament.



How to vote (this will apply to all rounds):

• To select the favorite (the show seeded highest), choose the Heart emoji.
• To select the underdog, choose the Rainbow emoji.

No other emojis will be counted.

Deadline to vote: Now through Sunday at 7 PM

So Jurassic World is on.

It's the scene where some big dino's on the loose and a bunch of pterodoctyl type of things are attacking the commons area. The people are panicking like they can't believe they vacationed to a place with dinosaurs that had a history of issues and things are going badly.

Anyway, I'm one who saw the OG JP in the theaters, and thought it was bombastic. As time went on, I came to realize that while it was groundbreaking with its CGI and all, it wasn't that good of movie, with a bunch of stupid characters like most monster movies.

And then the other ones were kind of similar. But then I've come back around to enjoy the absurdity of it including Jurassic World.

What are movies or shows/franchises that you had similar experiences with?

I'd put Independence Day up there. It was all the rage as a blockbuster, but it in the end it's kind of a clunky B-movie with marginal effects, but I like it more now with just that perspective.

Thanks to Northwestern University’s Special Collections department for providing the above scan of the I.A.C. Student.

Who is being protected in the 2024 schedule? Before any further realignment...

ISU - KU, KSU or just KSU??

OSU - TT?
TCU - BU?
WVU - Cincy?

What is Iowa State getting in Carson Van Dinter?

I talked to his high school coach about who he is as a player and how things came together leading to his commitment:

...that the "L" and the "L" in the name of outdoor equipment and apparel purveyor, L.L.Bean, come from their founder, whose name was "Leon Leonwood Bean"?

Leon... Leonwood... Bean

Does anyone else have any "strange as ****" facts that keep them up at night?

https://big12sports.com/news/2023/6/7/big-12-conference-to-establish-big-12-mexico.aspx

I like that Yormark is thinking outside of the box. Will take time to see if this is successful but call me optimistic. I wouldn't mind having a basketball game down in Mexico City. Would be a fun trip much like the Hawaii tournaments. Giving up a home game might matter to some though.

Resolved. Not sure what on earth was going on there.

Putting new floors in kitchen/dining/entry/half bath on main floor. Need about 475 sq ft. Looking at CoreTec per a buddies recommendation due to ease of install (his advice) but that stuffs not cheap. Might spend the money but haven’t tackled this before. Got some samples and a kind that I like for 3.98 per sq ft for Coretec pro plus (I think it’s called that). Any advice welcome.

Where can I buy treated fascia boards in Ames or Des Moines? Everywhere I’ve checked all they have is untreated.

Since there are a lot of new users since the option existed to opt in to the special Gaming and Hobbies forum, I thought I’d do a PSA.

If you are into the various types of gaming or do many hobbies, you can opt in to start and participate in such threads. The section has always been opt in because it used to have a ton of threads clobbering things up. Somewhere over the years though the option to opt in disappeared and nobody noticed.

Under your user preferences, you should now see a Gaming and Hobbies Opt In choice alongside the opt out options for Politics and In State Rivals. Sorry for the confusion of one being opt in and the others opt out, that should get cleaned up at some point.

I have all the best equipment and play 2-3 times a week but my game still sucks balls. What do I need to buy?

I am working with a club of about 130 members.

I want to be able to send text messages to all 130 members individually so they can reply individually and not to the group.

Looking for a free or inexpensive app to do this from my iPhone.

Have used ‘East Message’ but it commonly gets contacts mixed up and messages go to the wrong people.

TIA

Damn it all to hell

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