Will be in Des Moines today, looking for a nice lunch option, somethiing like the Cafe in Ames maybe, ideally with some gluten free options.

Fire away!

yo dudes,

With my job I am in many middle and small cities with colleges and universities..

I would like to start keeping a list and invite anyone else to add their experiences...


Tonight I will be staying in Bloomington, IN for the first time.





Cool towns:
NIU (Dekalb, IL) - Has a HyVee felt like central iowa
University of Kentucky (Lexington, KY) - awesome city (had shots with little horse riding guys)
University of Nebraska (Lincoln, NE) - Runza
University of Wisconsin (Madison, WI) - THE OLD FASHIONED!!!

Meh towns:
Illinois State (Normal, IL)
Vincennes University (Vincennes, IN)
University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana, IL)
Notre Dame (South Bend, IN)


I'm sure i will remember more


please feel free to add any you've visited!!!!!!!!

Voting is open for the Cyclone Fanatic Movie Villain Tournament Round of 64.


How to vote:
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 10 PM

This week, we are looking for songs with the following in title or lyrics: pride and proud.


"On That Note” is presented weekly by @MeanDean, @cyclones500 and myself.

It’s the Weekend

Things are really starting to shape and I had to do this just to break it down for myself and see if ISU has a chance. I’m putting out both teams best lineup.


125 - Poulin Dec Peterson. Stevo won the h2h at NCAA. 3-0 ISU
133 - Ayala Dec Ortega 3-3
141 - Frost Dec Bailey. Repeat of NCAA. 6-3 ISU
149 - Ech Dec Estrada. 9-3
157 - Caliendo Dec Paniro. 9-6
165 - Kennedy Dec Euton. 9-9
174 - Arnold Dec MJ. 12-9 Iowa
184 - Ferrari maj Dean 16-9 Iowa
197 - Elam Dec Endene 16-12
285 - Bastida Dec Kueter. 16-15

Guys this is going be a tight one. Iowa has more sure things. Hard to see them losing at 57-84. Some of these matchups could get kind of wonky. Let’s hope we get both teams at full strength.

A couple of weeks ago a tree in our front yard was hit by lightning. It is a little leaf linden that is about 2 feet in diameter. The lightning created some random cracks in the bark in the bottome 20 feet of the tree but more devastatingly it blasted the bark pretty much clean off in an area about 5 feet high and 8-10" wide at the bottom of the tree. I found chunks of bark across and down the street over 100 feet from the tree. I trimmed off the shredded bark in that area but what should I do around it? Should I remove, leave or try to fasten tight the loose but intact bark on either side of this area? What should I be doing to help protect the tree? I know when I was a kid I saw people paint open areas like that but I haven't seen that for years so I'm guessing it really doesn't do any good. Should I proactively apply pesticides or fungicides?

Any help would be appreciated.

Iowa State lands 2026 Chris Sailer's No. 1 ranked Punter Lucas Tenbrock, their first specialist of the class.

Complete longshot here... but does anyone know of anyone in Iowa that does hydrostatic testing/certification of gas cylinders that have passed their date stamp?

With just three home and home games each year in Big 12 play moving forward, who should Iowa State fans want to play?

I've got my list of 1-15 here. Would love to know your thoughts!

Looks like the punter for the class. Same HS as the three Barrett brothers.

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Iowa State lands Bryson Williams and now has commitments from 6 of the top 10 players in Nebraska for 2026.

Fast, long, rangy safety. Track sprinter, 10.88 100m.

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Hy-Vee sent us an email informing us that we won two club passes for the 12th and 13th. We never signed up for anything, but we do shop at Hy-Vee occasionally and are perk members. My nephew races a IMCA Modified here in eastern Iowa, and I help with the car, so my wife and I are both race fans. I've watched Indy races on TV, but I've never attended one in person, so we decided to accept the passes and may go to the event.

Is it a good event?

Thanks!

Chris Williams welcomes new Chief Content Producer Jake Brend to the team by digging into the state of media, his past as a Cyclone fan, and what he will bring to Cyclone Fanatic. All this and more presented by Mechdyne.

CMC is rated the top coach in Big 12 and #10 in CFB.


Interesting note on Scott Frost, he has been a head coach for 7 seasons and only has one winning season (which happened to be 13-0).

My god has this gas station gone to ****. Employees are clueless and slower than humanly possible, bathrooms are terrible, etc. Using my rewards was almost an impossible task for the person working tonight. Using what I have in rewards left and switching full time to kwik star or QT. End of rant.

We watch a ton of Food Network shows and this one just came as a shock.

RIP to a great chef and TV personality.

Today Alli ran a clinic for my Lewis Central girls wrestling program, and I just want to let everyone know what an amazing job she did!!! She is such a valuable asset to Cyclone wrestling and CRTC we should all be very grateful for her!

She made 40 LC girls wrestlers better today, and I can’t thank her enough!!

The group we had for the event has had some schedule changes, and we can no longer attend. I would like to sell our table. Event is Thursday, July 24, at 5:00 in the Sukup End Zone.

Asking $600, normal cost is $800, and is sold out. Eight people per table.

If interested please contact me at [email protected]

We're moving into a new house and I want to start using Home Assistant. Looking for what type of setup to run.

I have a Windows 11 NUC just laying around that I could use.

I have a bunch of smart lights. Some Hue.
The new house has Ecobee thermostat
I have a couple of Google nest Cameras
Today I use Google Assistant to control things and run routines.

I'm going to be buying probably 8 smart blinds from SmartWings. They are giving me the option of ZigBee or ZWave Plus.

Would this be a good use case for Home Assistant?
Should I use my NUC for this purpose? Will i have to constantly be updating it or is this set it and forget it?
Should I use Zigbee or ZWave?
Anything else I'm missing?

Chris Williams & Brent Blum discuss the state of local media and Cyclone Fanatic’s big announcement that Jake Brend is joining our team as a content creator. The guys discuss where 2025/26 ranks in terms of anticipation for Iowa State athletics compared to last offseason. Is Bill Self cooked? Is Kelvin Sampson somehow underrated? The Matt Campbell / Pat Fitzgerald comp and more, all presented by Mechdyne.

Please help me welcome Jake Brend to our team at Cyclone Fanatic. Jake started with us full-time today. Think about what he has done for local TV covering the Cyclones over the years. Now he will do that digitally for CF - on steroids. We are heavily investing in our video and podcast production going forward. Of course, Rob Gray will still be on the ground for us in terms of writing about the Cyclones.

I have 2 young kids, 7 and 5, and am super excited that the young one will be out of daycare and going to kindergarten in the fall so I should be able to save quite a bit more money. I mention this to other people and they say well it just goes from daycare expenses to sports/activities costs. I know that these cost more, but it seems like all you hear about is kids doing tournaments/travel ball all the time. My neighbors are gone every weekend during the summer for baseball tournaments all over the state. There seems like there are competitions all over the place and that is the new norm even for young kids. I heard a commercial today for Des Moines softball tryouts for what I am assuming are "elite" teams that start at an 8 and under division. I can't believe that they have tryouts for specific teams at that age. Are the days of pee wee baseball with just kids from the local schools or other sports like that without having to travel all over the state done? I live in Ankeny so it is hard to believe that there isn't enough kids that they have to travel all over to play teams. I am all about kids playing sports but I really don't want to go crazy competitive and cost wise especially for super young kids. Any input from other Fanatics on this issue?

Our guy Jackson Pence together some recruiting news for you all.

Check them out! Enjoy!


https://cyclonefanatic.com/2025/06/recruiting-cyclones-earn-commitment-from-de-ajibola-afuye/

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