MacGyver

You'll break your teeth!

One of the first bosses I ever had gave me a piece of advice that I've never forgotten, and have passed on to people who work for me.  It's especially relevant for those of us who work in technical fields.  He told me, "whether you wind up staying here for a few years or your whole career, figure out something that you want to become an expert in and then figure out how to get us to pay for it."  That sounds blunt coming from a manager, but it actually really serves you and your employer really well.  You get to build your expertise, and they get to benefit from having a more informed employee.  If the relationship is healthy, you might stay forever.  But, he recognized that they'd likely get more than their money's worth even if I only stayed for a few years.   From your posts, it sounds like you need to figure out something you'd like to be an expert in and figure out a way to get there.  Whether it's certs or school or something else entirely.  Desktop support doesn't have a career path.  There are plenty of folks who start there, but they shouldn't stay there.  Some advance to managing other people.  Some build their expertise in something else and move on - networking, servers, virtualization, security, etc...  But, in most companies, desktop support is seen as a completely commoditized support position.  Recruiting agencies typically have a funnel full of people they can move into a position the day someone walks out the door.  There is exactly zero reason for a big company to even lift a finger to try to accommodate the needs of those employees - because most of them are going to wind up walking out the door anyway.   The previous paragraph sounds pretty gloom and doom, but on the flip side, there's never been  more opportunity in the field than there is right now.  I know for a fact that as of this morning there are more that 860 full time tech jobs that are unfilled in middle Tennessee right now.  So, the beauty of the situation is that a person with skills can literally take their pick of positions.   Isaac Newton's laws often seem to apply to people, too - namely that an object at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by some outside force.  It seems like you've got some outside forces starting to apply some pressure.  If you were my employee, I'd encourage you to really spend some time thinking about where you'd like to be or what you'd like to do, next.   One of my favorite sayings is, "visualize what it looks like to really kick ass; then figure out the next physical action to get your kicking foot in motion."  That one's a close second to my favorite personal motivational saying that, "it feels great to suck less."   Good luck.

Comcast and the telecommunications lobby have been Marsha Blackburn's biggest donors. Unsurprisingly, she's sought to repay her corporate taskmasters by introducing legislation to ban services like Chattanooga's EPB. http://m.ibtimes.com/marsha-blackburn-r-tn-why-one-congresswoman-wants-block-fast-cheap-internet-her-district-1630060

I agree with the tactical part of Google being involved.  It's probably the consumer's only real option for change right now.   The problem I have with it is philosophical. The fact is that Google is one of the largest companies in the world - they're already a defacto monopoly.  They've been turning their back on that whole "do no evil" thing for a while.  What happens when they eliminate the competition?

The fact that we as Americans tolerate the garbage we put up with from the cable/telecom companies blows my mind.  They've got all of our legislators bought off, and that's convenient  as they skip towards monopoly status.   I'd love to see someone other than Google challenging the status quo, but frankly a group like Google may be the only one with pockets deep enough to make a change.  

One of the unfortunate traits of corporate America today is that they're more than willing to burn through employees just like any other consumable.  The most recent downturn in the economy has exacerbated this due to the oversupply of workers seeking employment.  A company that looks at the bottom line and nothing else is going to have no incentive to treat their employees as anything but another commodity.     Mike's comment above about the employee/employer relationship is sort of the old Jack Welch thought of, "you come to the work during the week, we pay you on Friday and we all leave for the weekend squared up."  This is an okay thought, but I think it's changing some on both ends.  On the big company side of things, I think the relationship is degrading rapidly.  The modern corporation really doesn't know any type of loyalty.   That's changing the employee landscape as well.  There are some folks who think that people like Chelsey Manning, Edward Snowden and the insider who helped take down Sony shouldn't really be seen as single point outliers, but rather should be viewed as endemic of a larger shift in the millennial generation.  Basically this group has been conditioned to know no institutional loyalty, either.  This shift may play out in interesting ways.     On the small business side of things, I think there are some interesting things happening.  Most of us really value our employees and recognize the benefit of going to some lengths to make life good for them.  Small things matter.  Most of us spend most of our working hours at work.  How do we expect to get the best out of our employees if we don't care about them in return?  If the relationship is too lopsided, I'd argue that management team is taking a very short-sighted view and that will bite them in the long term.   There are times when we all expect a lot of our employees, but that's a give and take.  If all I do is take, sooner or later I'm going to reach down in that bag and find it empty.

Doug, you'll be in our thoughts and prayers today.  Keep us updated on what's going on.     If you'd like, feel free to have a family member post an update.

Good equipment and the skills to operate it don't come cheap.

I probably wouldn't bet on that plan.

Those are pretty cool!

Inside the Kingdom seems to be troubled at best.  And, while the revolutions seem distant, they're probably not as far off as they look.  The house of Saud has been fairly effective at controlling their people internally, whether classic bread and circuses or forced repression of critical voices.  But, they've played with fire in their tolerance/support for the Wahhabists, and that's likely to bite them sooner or later.   It won't stand forever.

I've spent some time in Saudi Arabia at the invitation of King Abdullah.  They've got their issues - human rights and otherwise.  But, make no mistake.  His was a voice of moderation in the middle East, and they are an important ally.  I hope that their transition is a smooth one.  We need that, and so does the middle East at large.    If we lose a moderate voice in the region, we all lose.

I'll loop in with the CMT guys in the next few weeks.  Last we spoke, we were considering a spring buy.

He's my go to pundit for these things

Now that's my kind of fun!

I've never even heard of this manufacturer. That said, recent times have all kinds of folks jumping on the AR wagon. There's nothing particularly compelling about that rifle - even at $551. It looks like a basic build with basic spec-grade components. I'm sure some others around here will chime in, but you could likely build a similarly spec'd rifle and maybe save a few bucks. On the flip side, you wouldn't save too many bucks building one yourself, and for the price, it might provide a good platform to build on later. I'd probably save my money and put it towards a more tested system with a known warranty behind it. Maybe a M&P15 Sport or something at a similar price point.

The Docter sights that used to sit on top of the ACOGs had an optical sensor that would dim the sight down to basically the off position while the cover was on. Once you took the cover off, it adjusted the brightness automatically. I've had one CR2032 last for years.

I wonder what the motivation is here? Love Glocks or hate them, their factory mags are some of the finest ever made, and their widely available. I guess people will buy them just because they say Magpul and there are tons of Glocks out there? I'd love to see them follow up on the MagEx extension for Glock 21 mags with an honest to goodness hi-cap .45 mag. That's about all that's keeping me from building a .45 caliber brother for my 9mm AR.

Nice! I hope you come across a whole pack of hogs.

That's pretty cool.

I think the Nelson is the better of two good choices.  The Marvel units are great, but it's not often that you get someone as enthusiastic about customer service as Larry Nelson.   That alone is would likely seal my decision.

I bet that thing's a veritable tree magnet.   It sure is pretty, though.

This ought to be a case study on what happens when institutional groupthink runs amok.

Between St. Augustine and Savannah, it's worth taking the NPS ferry out to Cumberland Island National Seashore. It's pretty uninhabited, and you can watch the descendants of the Carnegie's old horses run the beach. Heck, if you're going for your anniversary, I'd spend the night at the bed & breakfast on the island, The Greyfield Inn - greyfieldinn.com

Garufa's right about the water, and that's probably worth mentioning since you stated an interest in Lanier.    I've got a boat in my driveway right now that used to be on Lanier.  Lanier is the main water source for Atlanta, and they're consuming at an massive rate. My dad got tired of not being able to put the boat into the water without backing off the ramp and going another 60 feet into the mud.  Atlanta's consumption of water isn't going down, and there's going to come a day pretty soon when Lanier just isn't accessible the casual boater without some new ramps/infrastructure.   Add to it the safety factor of having so many people on the lake on any given weekend, and you can keep Lanier.