Mustache – TestBlog

Calling CQ

Calling CQ is still a weird thing for me. I mostly just spin the dial and hope to find someone else calling CQ; or even better someone calling CQ DX or CQ Contest. These are great because it’s a narrow set of conversational topics. You get an RST, you give an RST, you exchange QTH and probably a handle and maybe compare equipment. Then you move on.

For an introvert like me, this is tops because I get to make a contact and send off a QSL card (and hopefully get one back) without having to stumble through an open-ended conversation.

I’ve called CQ myself twice since the HF rig went on the air at the beginning of September. The first call resulted in a nice QSO with a ham in central Pennsylvania. A bit generic, but nice. And I was so frazzled at the end of that I dropped the frequency.

Tonight I called CQ and ended up making contact with KB1TUR in Northwest Maine. It was a great QSO where we talked about home and micro brews as well as the standard ham topics. At 11 minutes, that is by far my longest QSO. Unfortunately the band started shifting and we started losing each other in the noise.

At any rate it seems there is a standing offer to boil up some lobsters in Maine if I manage to find myself in the area with a trunk full of homebrew. So I have that going for me. Which is nice.

The real question—and one that wasn’t asked during the QSO—who has the better mustache?

Mustacular!

Remember the first time you tried a craft beer? The first time you bought wine that wasn’t on the bottom shelf? The first time you wore silk anything?

The first time I used Woodsman Mustache Wax [1] was like that. Oh for all that is holy, this stuff is ridiculous. A little BB-sized ball is all it takes to wax down the whole Fu Manchu.

Clubman, while widely available was going at the rate of about a quarter of a tube per day. This stuff pays for itself. It’s tacky enough that I don’t need to roll the whole thing just to get it to stay in place. The unrolled look is way more comfortable. And I smell pretty frickin’ awesome too. So, yeah, grow yourself a mustache and then pick yourself up some Woodsman.

Now if you excuse me, I’m going to go hang out with Paul Bunyan and chop down some frickin’ trees.

Christmas list

A co-worker pointed me to BeardBrand [1] for some awesome mustache wax [2]. Clubman [3] has gotten me through the better part of a year, to be sure, but the vagaries of winter condensation/freezing/reheating can quickly turn a well waxed mustache into something that looks like oozing snotpuss on one’s upper lip.

If you leave it alone, it dries and holds alright. That’s usually not an option however. So if you clean it up then you get ragged/frayed appearance that looks worse than letting the whiskers free range in the first place. This is a harder wax that should weather the weather better.

The added bonus is watching the informational videos. Certainly tapping into the Dollar Shave Club [4] aesthetic.

So, yeah, I’ve got new fodder for the Christmas list. Lots of awesome to be found there.

[1] http://www.beardbrand.com/
[2] http://www.beardbrand.com/collections/beard-care/products/woodsman-wax
[3] http://www.clubmanonline.com/shaving-wax-nick-relief.html
[4] http://www.dollarshaveclub.com/

Paging Mr. Zog

Went looking for mustache wax here in the West of O over lunch and came up 0 for 3. Guessing no one west of 72nd Street has a stylish mustache? Did Council Bluffs intercept the mustache wax supply truck as it was heading west? Do the denizens of West O have some secret mustache wax substitute they keep all to themselves?

I hardly ever have this problem in the Tuck. Just sayin’. Not sure what I’m saying, but I’m definitely saying it.