analog_kidd

It's genius, really. The .GOV makes it look like they are doing you a favor, when the reality of it is you are buying savings bonds and giving the drunken sailors more money to spend.   This program is for people who are completely clueless. They may think that they are getting a good deal, but they would be far better served opening a ROTH IRA and contributing to that. One of the pages I visited from the link above gave the example of a person putting away $5 every month and having $21,000 for retirement. Seriously? What is $21k going to do for you in 40 years?   If you'll recall, GW Bush wanted to allow people to put a portion of their social security contributions into an IRA type investment. It would allow people to take control of their own retirement if they wanted. They would be able to pick the investment options for that part of their retirement. Or they could continue just the way things are now and let the Gov manage it. Your choice. It was eventually put up for vote to the public during a general election, and the dumb-ass Americans voted it down. I remember there was a big push against it by a lot of politicians (presumably because it would remove that money from their reach), and the option was worded poorly and made confusing on the ballot. GW was made to be an idiot for suggesting it, but now that Obama has an idea, it's amazing. The difference is who gets to control your money.   I've been griping for years about all the stuff they teach you in school that you'll never use, but basic life skills are ignored. How about teaching the simple concept of compound interest, and the value of saving for retirement early? A basic money management class should be a requirement in school. I bet most high school graduates have never been shown how to balance a checkbook. By the time many people figure out they should be saving for retirement, they have missed the most important decade of their savings potential.   I've always thought that a cool idea would be to open an IRA for every newborn. $500 put into an IRA at age 0, if it follows the standard of doubling every 7 years if invested wisely, would grow to about $64k at retirement. That's without ever adding another penny to the account. Families could get together and donate to the fund instead of buying stupid crap the baby doesn't care about.

If you are up for an adventure, try driving through the abandoned train tunnel at Nemo Bridge near Wartburg, TN. The tracks are removed, so no chance of meeting a train, but you could meet another driver. I usually honk a few times before entering, since the tunnel is curved and you can't see all the way through. The "road" leading up to the tunnel is only a road in the sense that at one time it may have had some gravel laid down, and there are no trees in the path where you drive. Calling it a giant collection of potholes might be more fitting. I've seen people drive a street car down there, but I would recommend a truck with good clearance. You'll want the clearance in the tunnel anyway since there are huge dips that fill up with water. In a 4WD truck you'll be fine, but a car won't make it if it has rained recently.   Catoosa Road that leads up to the coordinates below is well paved and very nice. While you are in the area, cross the bridge over to Rock Creek campground and hike up the Cumberland trail. One of my all-time favorite backpacking spots is up that trail to the Alley Ford campsite. At a leisurely pace it takes about 1.5 hours to hike it in, and 1.5 back out.   Here is the location of the start of the dirt road:   https://www.google.com/maps/place/36%C2%B004'06.3%22N+84%C2%B039'34.8%22W/@36.0697601,-84.6587846,990m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0?hl=en       Here is a video (not mine) of someone driving thru the tunnel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIfPhYh4-lg

My setup is a PC in the living room running Kodi, and a Rasberry Pi in the bedroom, running a version of Kodi on the OpenElec distribution of Linux. I use them both to stream content from online. The PC in the living room I use to rip my DVD's to the hard drive, and use Kodi to watch them. Unfortunately, I had a difficult time getting the movies on the PC to play on the R-Pi in the bedroom.   I just installed the Plex Media Server on the LR computer. It is an amazing program that lets you stream local content stored on the hard drive to just about anything. There is an app that you can download for Windows, MAC, Android, IOS, or you can even connect to it from just a browser. I installed the Kodi plug in, and now I can watch all those movies on the BR device, streaming from the LR.   I installed the app on my android phone and tablets, and I can even stream to them from anywhere in the world as long as the device has an Internet connection. It did take a little bit of fiddling with my router to allow the devices to connect from outside my home, but it was pretty easy, and there are plenty of instructions on the web. It's pretty cool to be able to take out your phone and watch video stored on your home PC. 

I saw in the news that there is a guy with a terminal illness and he doesn't think he'll make it to the opening day. His dying wish was to get to see the movie. I heard that the studio had compassion and is letting the guy watch it early.

We were just there a few weekends ago. I knew we would be partaking of adult beverages, so I didn't carry, and so I didn't pay a lot of attention to any postings. For some reason I seem to recall a sign at their entrance that said no guns OR KNIVES. I don't recall if the sign was a legal posting or not. We didn't go there at night since I wanted to visit a few other places, but we went there for breakfast the next morning. They definitely did not do a patdown or wanding.   Speaking of knives, I always carry a pocket knife. I don't even think about it, it's just natural for me to grab keys, wallet and knife no matter where I am going. That weekend we went to the Titans game, and I brought my knife. We get to the entrance and there is a sign that says no guns or knives. I knew they would probably confiscate it and never return it, so I walked out to the parking lot and found a nice little place to drop it. I figured maybe someone would find it, but it was a goner for sure at the gate. To my wife's amazement, it was still there after the game.

From the previews last week, it looked to me like it was all flashbacks for Morgan. I have a feeling that they will make us wait another whole week to find out about Glenn.   My gut tells me that Glenn will survive. It is a cheap shot by the writers, but since he is such a fan favorite, I think all will be forgiven by the masses.   I think Rick will end up on top of the RV and wait for the herd to pass. maybe he will keep them herded up there which will allow the others to circle back and lead them away with the car horn. Speaking of the RV, isn't that the same crappy one from the beginning that always had trouble starting? I would have traded that piece of crap in a long time ago.   The thing that keeps bothering me about the last couple of shows is they hear the horn and the gunfire from Alexandria. How far does that sound really carry, especially with a forest in between? Maybe a 1/2 mile? 1 mile, tops, but that would be faint. It's taking them forever to get back.

The only good thing about the time change this time of year is the extra hour of sleep you get on Sunday morning. Wouldn't you know it, I fell asleep on the couch early last night, and then woke up at 5:00am this morning and couldn't go back to sleep.  :censored:

Yeah, I keep the Sam Adams bottles too. I do something similar. I soak them for a bit, peel off as much label as I can, then scrape off the rest with this little plastic scraper I have. I clean off the glue and the last of the label by scrubbing with a Brillo pad. Makes them sparkle right up.   I only mentioned the Highland bottles because the plastic label easily comes right off in one piece and there is no residue at all.   Funny, I just tossed out a few Sweetwater bottles because I couldn't easily get the labels off. I started and quickly said it wasn't worth it. I've got a big enough collection now that if I have to put any effort into it, I just toss them.  :)

We need some common sense legislation that will prevent this kind of senseless killing. The majority of Americans already agree with this idea.   I bet you won't hear that statement from Obama or Clinton about this tragedy.

I've made wine for years, but just got started in making beer. I had nearly all the equipment from the wine making, although I did buy a separate primary fermenter just to keep the buckets from imparting off flavors into each other. I just use an ice bath to chill the wort for now, but will probably upgrade to one of those chillers you attach to the sink faucet.   I'm sticking with the kit beers for now. They have everything you need, ingredient-wise, and they are pretty easy to do. If you just follow the directions it will come out fine. I'm doing a whiskey barrel stout right now that looks like it will be awesome when done. I like a dark, heavy beer, so this is right up my alley. Unless you like cheap beer, I'm not so sure there is much of a cost savings to making it from a kit, but the satisfaction of knowing you made a quality beer that tastes great make it worthwhile to me. I get the kits for about $50 and they make about 4 ~ 12 packs of beer. With my go-to beer of Sam Adams being about $13 a 12-pack, it's pretty much break even. Discounting my time of course.   Speaking of time, you do need to plan your time. Expect to burn most of an afternoon making the wort. And, importantly, read the directions and make sure you have time set aside in the future when you are supposed to bottle it. One of my times I got ahead of myself and didn't realize I was going out of town the following weekend when I was supposed to bottle. I ended up having to stay up late one night to get it all done in time.   It's funny, I buy beer from the store now based on what kind of bottle it comes in. I only get them if they can be re-used. I like Sam Adams, and they are pop off bottles so that works, but I find the labels a pain to remove. I'm kinda weird about wanting the bottles to not have old labels on them. I recently found Highland Brewing Co, a company out of Highlands, NC, and their bottles have a plastic label that easily peels right off, especially if you run some hot water over them. Plus the beer is good and about the same price as Sammies, so it all works out.   I have also bought empty bottles from Ferment Station in Knoxville. I think they charge about $12 for a 24 bottle case. I prefer to recycle my own, but I have two batches going on now and needed extra bottles. Walmart also sells 64oz growler bottles that are convenient, They are best for when you have a couple people at once enjoying a frost beverage, as you pretty much need to finish it when you open it.   Speaking of Ferment Station, they are great folks and have anything you need for beer and wine making. Not sure about beer, but they will even help you bottle wine, and have a filter if you want wine cleared up before bottling. They also have a nice room with a grain grinder if you want to make up your own beer recipe from scratch. I highly recommend using them. BTW they moved across the parking lot a few weeks ago, so if you are familiar with them don't freak out when you pull up and they are not in their old location. The new space is a bit larger and set up very nicely.

537 recovered guns seems like a lot to me. I doubt that 537 guns were sold illegally and then 100% of them recovered. Making a total WAG, I would assume maybe 10 - 20% of illegally sold guns are ever recovered. That would mean that the shop was selling upwards of 5000 guns illegally.   If there is any truth at all to the number when they say "537 guns were recovered at crime scenes" it was probably privately owned, legally sold private collections of people who were robbed. The police came to the house (crime scene) and found them safely locked in Joe-Bob's safe. Or they were stolen and recovered from pawn shops and returned to the owners. Heck, that could be like just 5 or 6 people if the robberies had happened in the TGO community.   :cool:

The whole episode I kept thinking they were luring them away to some awesome mass destruction. Then we find out they were just pointing them in another direction and releasing them. The first thing I thought was, well that's a pretty crappy thing to do to whatever band of survivors might be down the road. It would mean certain death for anyone in their path.   It was interesting too how in the trailers leading up to the episode, they made you think one thing, and the actual episode reveals something completely different. For instance the scene with Rick yelling "You think you can take this community away from me?" I thought was either Morgan, or one of the Wolves. Turns out it was much to do about nothing with the guy just talking tough.   I also thought the scene where they were building the walls along the road, and the walkers appeared was interesting. It showed the old locals how much they really need our rag-tag band. They were too scared to even shoot them, much less hand to hand combat. Not sure if Rick was holding back on taking action because he wanted them to learn, or at least try, or if he was wanting to make a point of what they were capable of.

Friends of ours have been to Thailand a couple of times. They say that over there they all use a "Squatty Potty", that was the term they used years ago, But it's a bit different than the video above. It's more like a little trough that you straddle and squat over. When you are done with your business, you flush and water runs thru the trough.   That video is pretty epic, though. Handing the kids TP to wipe their face with was hilarious.

Pretty stoked... I just got tickets to go see Joe B in Knoxville in November. It's been a long time since I've been to a bonafide rock concert, and this one should be great.

Yet, they will happily make and sell gaming consoles to the round-eyed devils.

I know someone who is a probation officer, and I think they typically wear those dressy tactical cargo pants with a polo that has their office label and logo on it. And they carry a sidearm. Pretty hard to not understand that they are some kind of law enforcement just at a quick glance.   The part of the story that gets me is the social media outrage. In his job, he is not there to protect anyone. The pistol is for his protection due to the criminals he interacts with each day. He has no more firearm / safety training each year than I do. Why is everyone outraged that someone like him can't carry into the restaurant, but nobody outside of TGO could give a rat's ass about any one of us?

Thanks for all the suggestions. Sounds like there is plenty to do. I'm definitely looking forward to the whole weekend.   My wife got us set up in a Bed and Breakfast place about 6 miles SE of downtown. We'll probably just use Uber on Saturday for the sightseeing tour. Looks like we can buy a parking pass for $30 at the stadium parking lot for game day. Is that a good idea? How long will it take us to get out to the Interstate from there? (does it get all jammed up?)

I heard some advise a while back: Ride a motorcycle like you're invisible and everyone else is drunk. I try to keep this in mind while riding, especially in heavy traffic.   And... I'm holding out for hovercrafts as opposed to self driving cars. I think they would be way cooler.

Was the whole "Open your mouth to reduce the pressure, or you'll pop a retina" thing nonsense while shooting the 50 cal, or can that really happen?

I grew up in South Florida and the Miami Dolphins have been my team that I hate to love over the years. I always hope for a repeat of 1972, but they never even get close to delivering. Now that we are Tennesseeans, I'm all for the Titans, but I still have that soft spot in my heart for Miami.   My wonderful wife, for my birthday, bought me a pair of tickets to go see the Titans and Miami play in Nashville.Every year since I turned 35, I've been saying as a joke "well, I'm too old to play pro football now, but I can be President." So for my 50th she got me tickets. I've never really been to Nashville, aside from just passing through, so we thought we would make a weekend of it. We are going to head over there early Saturday, and spend the day/evening seeing the sights.   I'm looking for recommendations on the "must see" places. I'm not so much into Country Music, but I do love the Blues. Are there any Blues restaurants or clubs that are great? Also, what are the best tourist places to visit? We'll likely Uber our way into town from where we are staying, so we'll mostly just be walking around the down-town area.   I'm really excited about the whole weekend, and want to maximize the fun. Thanks

Once again, Tennessee snatches defeat from the jaws of victory. Not going for 2 points after that last touchdown, was just bad coaching.

I was watching an episode of Stossel on "Borders" and they had a section about state borders. The guest said that in the early 40's there was a movement to separate off the norther half into another state, and it was just about to be approved, when the Japanese attacked. WW-II started and the nation lost interest.

We opened up a 2nd checking account at our bank just to use with a debit card. Whenever we want to buy something online, we'll transfer the money into the 2nd account and then use that to pay. If the card gets hacked, they'll only get what few dollars remain in the account.   I also got one of those Google Wallet cards. From the app on my phone I can easily transfer money from my main account into the Google account and I can pay using either use my phone or the debit card they sent me. I got it because we have done the Dave Ramsey method of only using cash to pay for daily items. Paying for gas is such a pain when using cash. You have to go in, wait in line behind the guy getting lotto tickets (who can't make up his mind which of the 586 different scratch off's he wants), pay more than you think you need so you can get a complete fill up, pump the gas, then go back in to get your change, but first you have to wait in line again. With the Google card, I just transfer my week's worth of "allowance" into the card and use that at the pump to pay. My phone keeps up with the balance almost immediately, so I know how much money I have on hand at any time.   Again, with the google card, I usually don't have more than $100 loaded in it at any time, but usually way less. If it gets hacked, that's all they get.   With the Google card, there is only one card issued per Google account, so only I can use it. With the 2nd bank account, I have multiple (me and my wife) debit cards from the same account. The problem we have hit with the 2nd account is not coordinating with each other when buying stuff, and the account gets nearly overdrawn.   And using an ATM is just a bad idea in general. Plan ahead, and get money out at the bank ahead of time. My wife has a routine of going to the bank every other Friday to get out the money we will use for the next two weeks for groceries, dining out, gas, pocket cash, etc. If the money is gone before the two weeks is up, we just do without. It's a self discipline that we have imposed upon ourselves. Funny how you only do without once or twice before you start to plan a little better.

One report I heard said that the crane got hit by lightning. So, a mosque full of Muslims gets hit by lightning on the anniversary of 9/11. Sounds like someone is trying to get a message through.   The thing I thought was interesting, when 9/11 happened, there was celebrations and dancing in the street by Muslims and their leaders. This tragedy happens and we send condolences. 

The friends we went tot he Chattanooga Escape with, told us yesterday they went to the Knoxville one recently. They said it was fun, but not quite the production of the Chattanooga one. Maybe over time it will get better. Still they said they would go to the Knoxville one again when they update to new scenarios.