analog_kidd

Yep! Several years ago the wife and i agreed we were done buying gifts for each other. So, Christmas, birthday, anniversary, we just focus on each other and the day, or family. We'll spend the day doing something, or going out to a nice dinner, or whatever. But no gifts. It makes Christmas SOoooo much more enjoyable. Not fretting over what to buy each other, or buying crap that neither will use, just to buy something.

Next one has to be Wagon Wheel

<edit> Sorry, double-tap

Yanno, I looked at the pic and just skipped over the post. If it were an embeded Youtube link, I might have gave it a listen. I'm glad you asked again, cuz that was a great song. What a gut punch there at the end. I'm not sure what genre of music this is, but a lot of "country" music is going like this. It's not really country, but not really rock either. More like Electric Americana.

Been rocking out to Brave Rival's new album...

One simple thing everyone can do is to use a DNS service like Quad9 or Cloudflare to help avoid malicious web sites where malware may live. How does it work, you ask? Well, the whole internet is made up of IP Addresses, but we humans can't remember something like 67.227.201.56, so our computers use DNS as a database of easy to remember names that represent IP Addresses. So when I visit tngunowners.com, my computer asks the DNS Server what IP Address that is, the DNS server looks it up and tells my browser, and sends me to the site's IP address. The quad9 DNS server maintains a long list of bad websites. If your computer tries to go to a bad web site, it will ask the DNS server, "hey, what IP is www.badSite.com?" and the Quad9 DNS server, who knows it's a bad site, will just return an IP that doesn't exist, and you'll just get a "page not found" error. It's not fool proof, but it's a really good start. Other DNS providers, like "Cloudflare for Families" do malware blocking, and also offer blocking for adult content, so all the naughty sites will also be a "page not found". I don't think Quad9 has the adult filtering, but I think their malware is better, so use whichever is better for your situation. You can set the DNS settings manually on each computer. Just find where your ip address is configured and you will see a place to add a DNS server IP. Usually there is a place for two IPs, it will use the 2nd one as a fall back if the first is not available. It's probably set "automatically", but you can over-ride it. Fill in both places with the DNS Server IP's, and restart your computer. The better way is to go into your router settings, and look for something called DHCP. DHCP is what gives every device on your network an IP address, but you can also configure things like what DNS server to use for each device. Setting the DNS server here will ensure that EVERY device on your network will get the secure DNS server setting. WARNING: this is not for the feint of heart. If you don't know how to make these changes, ask someone who does. You "could" break your internet for the whole house. Really, it's not that hard, tho. You can find the IPs to use here: https://quad9.net/service/service-addresses-and-features https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-1-1-1-1-for-families/

Couple of nights ago, we were watching the men's synchronized diving, and I think it was the team from China had a guy named Wang, and a guy named Long. Every time they came up, i would shout to the wife "The Long Wang Team is up" and then proceed to hee haw. She was not as amused as I was https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/long-daoyi-wang-zongyuan-win-mens-3m-secure-chinas-sweep-synchro-diving-events

Sean Penn is my guy to hate on. He will never get another penny out of me for anything he does or has done. He can just #$%& right off as far as I'm concerned.

I have not seen it yet, but was told, if you like John Wick, you will love Monkey Man. Same kind of non-stop action. Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare was decent. It started off with a bang, then got slow in the middle, but picked up again at the end. Die Hart 2 is a steaming pile of garbage. Unfrosted with Jerry Seinfeld is silly, but I really liked it for some reason. Last Stop in Yuma County was pretty good. Ricky Stanicky was pretty funny. Cena does pretty good at comedy. I find his characters annoying, but he plays them well.

Dang, I missed the Heather cameo. maybe I just didn't recognize her. BUT, did you catch the Six MIllion Dollar Man "Da-na-na-na-na" sound effect in there somewhere? I thought that was clever.

I do a lot of backpacking, and years ago I gave up on boots and went to Trail Runner sneakers. Unless you are wearing the jungle boots that come up to your calf, you are only fooling yourself that you are getting ankle support from a pair of boots. Try putting them on and see if you can bend your ankle out, simulating a rolling. I bet you can roll it. Anyway, a good pair of trail runners are lightweight and super comfortable. I use Altra Lone Peaks. Pick up last year's version for probably $100 or so. DO NOT get the water proof versions. The regular ones have little holes around the base, and your foot will squish all the water out in no time. I will completely submerge into a creek, and I'm 100% dry in 30 minutes. The Altra shoes have a wide toe box, so your toes are not all squished up, and that really helps with comfort and blister prevention. Why do all shoes come to a point at the toe? Your feet don't look like that. These are way more natural. They do have a hint of looking like clown shoes, but the comfort of them is worth it. The one thing about the Altras that takes a bit to get used to is they have what is known as Zero Drop. Where most shoes have an elevated heel, the Altras are flat from heel to toe. The other brand that is gaining popularity is Topo Athletic. They have that same wide toe box. I'll probably get a pair of theose my next go around.

Got a buddy up in PA that tried them a year or two ago when they had a brood event up there. Said they were OK. He grilled them and they were just crunchy. His son in law tried them and got real sick. Broke out in hives. Apparently they have the same ingredient that causes people with shellfish allergies to get sick, which his son in law has. So, be careful

One of my favorite jokes: Me to friend: Have you ever smelled Mothballs? Friend: Yeah Me: How did you get their little legs apart?

New album by the Black Keys:

The wife and I have our phone locations shared with each other. To be honest, I had forgotten that we did it, and I have never used it to snoop on her whereabouts, and I'm sure she never has either. BUT, if she is extra late coming home, and not responding to a text or call, I would not hesitate to look her up, and she would do the same. Our kids are grown and living in remote parts of the country, and we don't share location. But if they were still living at home and 20-something, I think i would ask them to share their location and respect their answer. Or ask them to at least share on special occasions, like going out on a date with a new person or something like that.

Well, I know punctuation is important... Just ask the Panda that eats, shoots and leaves

Saturday Night Live actually being funny

Collecting bottles along the road and bringing them to the 7-11 to trade in for the deposit, and then buying a Slurpee

I'd be fine with a text message alert that I an see in the morning when I get up, but linking in to the Amber Alert system is too much. First off, everyone knows what an Amber alert is. But you get woken up at 5:30 am to a "Blue Alert" and sleepy me says "WTF is a Blue Alert?" And what am I going to be able to do about it? 99.999% of the people that alert went to, rolled back over and went back to sleep. If it were something like "Take cover - Zombies attacking" then, YES wake me up. THAT I need to know ASAP and will do something about. And, don't get me wrong, I'm a supporter of Law enforcement, and this cop getting killed is a horrible thing, but I'm not getting alerts when my stand-up neighbor gets shot by the most dangerous bad guy in the state. Is the point of these alerts to let you know someone really dangerous is out there running around, or to just point out that a cop was shot? Sorry, I'm a little grumpy. Oak Ridge got a new alert system I signed up for and it went of at 5am this morning with a phone call to tell me a road was closed. I'm just annoyed with alerts this week.