No gel for you!

Iran recently baned Western haircuts and eyebrow plucking for men. I wonder what they consider a "Western haircut?" Does the mullet count? What might happen if you walked into a barber shop in Tehran, sat down in the chair and confidently asked for business in the front and party in the back?

In other news, for those of you that didn't know, the first batch of homebrews is disappearing fast. Between splitting it with co-brewmaster Houle and wanting everyone in State College to try one, it is starting to seem unlikely that there will be any left over to crack during the next brew session. We were lucky to come away with a good beer this time being that the instructional video by Midwest Supplies noted the necessary first step to brewing is having a homebrew. My idea to keep a few around till then is to put a couple "somewhere I'll be able to find them later" as this ensures I won't be able to find them for a while. Last week I was sure that I lost my debit card. I called PNC to order a new one - a $7.50 replacement fee - sure it was gone. When they asked if I wanted the option of waiting a few days to see if it would turn up I told them it didn't seem like much use and to go ahead and send out a new one. Sure enough, the next morning the card 'appeared' in the pocket of my jeans.

Oh well...one final note about the beer. We decided to call the first batch the 'Branch Campus Bitter' in honor of our good friend Phil who made a hilarious comment - that I can't seem to remember - about branch campuses during a Super Bowl commercial. The branch campus is a foreign idea to people from Wyo, as we only have UW and a handful of community colleges. But Penn State seems to have them everywhere. I think there is one under the sink in my bathroom.

Backing down from a bad idea

I don't know how many people have been following the debate over constructing walls around Sunni neighborhoods in Iraq. There has been quite a bit of other domestic news over the last week to distract attention from the 'war.' But that doesn't mean it has gone away - over 170 people were killed in Baghdad on the same day as the shootings at VT.

I don't know how we can continue to claim that there are not major civil issues in Iraq and then suggest building walls to keep Sunni's separate from Shiite's. If this is the best idea we can come up with, what does that say for the prospects of a stable Iraq?

On a side note, it completely blows my mind that over 70,000 people turned out to watch Penn State v. Penn State spring football last weekend. It would take 3 regular season Wyo games to total that many fans.

Hope everyone had a great Earth Day!

in the aftermath...

I guess that there isn't much I can say about Virginia Tech that hasn't already been blogged, written in an OpEd, or put on a newsite. Like a lot of people I was glued to coverage - mainly through the Internet. Between what happened at Virginia Tech and a thread about the struggles of ex-cons on chris uggen's blog (see 'keep hanging on'), it was a somber stretch this week.

One thing that I really don't understand in the aftermath of the shootings at VT are calls for the relaxation of gun laws. Is this really the best way to prevent incidents like this in the future? The logic behind it just seems so backwards. I understand that had more people had guns in the classrooms than it is possible that things would have turned out differently. But is it really plausible to try and prevent things like this by arming everybody? Would you really feel safer this way? More guns are not going to lead to fewer deaths. Imagine what would happen if every confrontation now had a lethal weapon involved.

It just doesn't seem like a logical response. In the end, there probably isn't a way to wipe out this problem completely. Even under stricter gun laws, a determined person would probably still be able to their hands on one. Even if we all make an effort to pay more attention to the warning signs, someone is still going to slip by. It could have just as easily have been Penn State, the University of Wyoming, a construction site up the Southfork, a business building, or a hospital. But that doesn't mean that we stick a handgun in our backpacks and leave the house in fear everyday. But it does mean that we can all think about ourselves a little less and others a little more. And we can start listening to Jimmy V and take time to laugh, think, and cry everyday.

And we remember that life is precious.

He's so hot right now...

While the Warner Jeep was the original in my budding career behind the camera, it has not been the most successful. The unique view into championship hockey has surpassed the 1000 view mark. Not bad for a hillbilly from rural wyo!

I just really wanted to mess around with the links. Part of the various nerd activities that get me through the day.

pics

http://picasaweb.google.com/wray1123

After readings Zack's blog I guess you can do this.

People who drink light "beer" don't like the taste of beer; they just like to pee a lot.

Riding the high of a crazy championship game I came home and it was time to bottle the first batch of beer that Jason Houle (the co-founder of this micro-brew) brewed a while back. It had taken a little long, but I was assured that it would be OK. And it tasted pretty good when we sampled it, and it seemed pretty clear. So we're both pretty optimistic about the outcome. I'm sure one particular reader can expect a list of questions tomorrow as I recount everything to make me feel like we did it all right. Amy will be happy to know that I did a Google search for 'beer quotes' for the title (the credit belongs to the Capital Brewery, Middleton, WI)

Houle is a University of Maine grad and fan. Let's try to

remember the lesson learned from the Frozen Four - a hockey fan is alright outside of the rink. He is a Red Sox fan, which sits nicely with some of you out there. I don't feel bad about saying that he got a hard time tonight when some of the bottles he donated to the cause turned out to be twist off. That was a pretty branch campus move on his part. Anyways, in a few weeks we'll crack open the first beer - 48 total - of batch #1 (sign to follow).

On a side note. I put some more pics of other stuff on my public gallery at Picasa. I think you can follow the link to the gallery from the link for the FF album I sent. If not, or if you don't have that, let me know. Might as well take advantage of the technology.

No frickin way...I got too much range for that

Well I figure that I will start the inevitable wave of Frozen Four posts made by the Warner boys. And no matter how much we talk about it, I don't think that we'll be able capture everything about the weekend.

But for me, it has to start with the crap sundae that I was served as I tried to get to St Louis. My flight was supposed to land 5 hours before the puck hit the ice for the first of the semi-final games. I left my house at 5:15am and had what was supposed to be an hour layover in Washington. Well 10 hours later and 2 missed semi-final games I arrived at the Downtown Hilton at about 9pm. My plane in Washington (Dulles) had a mechanical problem and I ended up on a 7pm flight rather than the 8:35am flight I booked. Now I understand these things happen and I tried not to get too upset, but those of use that were stranded in Dulles were in unanimous agreement that we were left in the dark for most of the day. Here's some things we were told:

"Your flight is coming from Syracuse and had a small problem there, so we will be a little bit delayed."

"Your plane is here, we are just waiting to locate a cleaning crew before we can load you."

"Someone got sick on the plane and we have to wait for that to get cleaned up" (But I don't know where this one started, the previous two were announced)

"Your plane has a mechanical problem, but the mechanics are actively working on it and we should be on our way shortly"

And finally, "Your plane might not get off the ground today, so you might want try and get on another flight"

I finally got one a 7pm flight, much too late to see any hockey on Thursday. When I departed they still hadn't cancelled the original flight, then scheduled for a 10:15PM departure. They gave us $100 vouchers, but I have been actively working (and when I say it I mean it) on emails and letters to send out to United which I hope result in a free flight back west this summer. Thanks to Bubba, I can only speculate at this point how many times the phrases "hoser" and "snack on that for lunch" will appear in the letter.

But several angry shots of Jager and $2 pitchers from the Morgan Street Brewery later I put that behind me and was ready for fun. And it was. I'll save hockey details for another post, and share a few of my favorite pics of the Arch, which was amazing. I changed a couple to black and white because I think it looks really cool that way. One quick word on the FF experience. Hockey fans are incredible. There were some fierce rivals there, but off the ice everyone was so awesome and just wanted to see good hockey and have fun. And the championship game was incredible. Can't wait to see all the other pics!