analog_kidd

I've been using a program called Kodi http://kodi.tv/ (formerly called XBMC). It has it's roots as an app that could stream video content to/from your PC/XBox, but it has grown beyond that.   It's got a steep learning curve, but there is a ton of content that can be viewed. The app knows where to find video from all over the net, such as the ABC/NBC/etc. websites, and makes it easy to view by indexing it and presenting it to the viewer.  The genius of the app is that it is modular, and people write these add-ons for it. There are add-ons for all kinds of things. There is even one for live TV streaming. Not sure how they do it, but I was able to watch Fox News Channel over the PC. Switching back and forth between the cable and PC, I noticed only a few second delay.   I built a PC in a special case that looks like a stereo, and added it to my TV rack. It's dedicated to watching stuff on the internet. We also use Amazon Prime, and use the PC for that.

"You can have my Barney doll, when you pry it from my cold dead fingers"

I was thinking about requesting one of those Google Wallet Cards, and was wondering if anyone had any experience with them, or the Google Wallet in general?   We have been doing the Dave Ramsey plan for many years now, and I pretty much just spend cash for my every day purchases, such as gas or lunch, etc. It's a real pain mostly at the gas pump where I have to go in to pre-pay, then in again to get any change.   I have a Debit card, but I don't like using it very often. We had the card compromised a time or two, and since it is tied to my primary checking account, I always worry that someone could clean me out.   I opened a second checking account that I use just for online purchases. Just before I make an online purchase, I transfer just enough money from primary checking to this account. This way, if the account got hacked, it would just be an empty account.   Someone told me about the feature of the Google Wallet App that you can scan in all of your Store Loyalty cards (you know, the grocery card that gets you the discount that brings the cost down to what it should be), so I downloaded the app and entered all my cards. We'll see how that works the next time I go grocery shopping.   Looking into the feature of Google Wallet, it looks like I can transfer money from any of my accounts, or even a credit card, and then spend from the balance of my account. Similar I guess to PayPal. Some stores allow you to pay with the app, and all you do is put the phone near the card scanner. It has to be a special scanner that can read your phone. The nice thing is they also give you a Debit card that you can use at stores that don't have the scanner.   I'm thinking that instead of getting my cash "allowance" every pay day, I can just transfer that money to my Google Wallet. Since it's easy to transfer money, I'm thinking I could close out the extra bank account.   So, has anyone else ever used this service?

  I use the hosts file method too, and never have an issue with malware. Plus it make my browser experience much nicer as it hides a lot of the more annoying ads.

My wife and I went to SA years ago for an anniversary. I recall there being enough to do to keep us busy for a day or two. Especially if you add a trip to the beach in there. We spent the better part of a day walking around the old city.Be warned, most of them are shops. But they are still cool to walk around.   Definitely stay at a Bed & Breakfast. They are awesome. Look for one in the old part of the city. It will be full of character and history. The one we stayed out loaned out bikes. We rode all over the place and saw a lot of stuff the tour guides never take you to.   Take the horse and carriage ride from the fort at night. That was one of the more memorable things we did.

I'm OK with the plan, as long as there are some restrictions. Such as, no one person should be allowed to have more than ten cans. I mean, really, who needs more than ten anyway?   Also, corn of any kind is OK, but never any of those evil Black Beans. Those cans only exist to kill.

During my wait I heard lots of jet activity overhead, although I couldn't actually see any of them. I also noticed one of the boat ramp areas along his route was closed to the public, and there was a marine patrol boat of some sort in the water. I also saw that helicopter make a few passes while I was waiting.

I'm stuck here where Pellissippi and Edgemoor merge. I'm about 100 yards away from the cop, so looks like I left work 5 minutes late. I'd like to thank his highness for allowing me to unwind after work in what would have a hectic drive home. Planning his visit around drive time was thoughtful.

Last year, we had a guy at work that was always giving things funnier names. He called the Polar Vortex the "Arctic Swirly". That's what everyone there calls it now.

I bet both of their ears are still ringing.

We have Verizon Samsung Galaxy S3's. Love the phone, and used to love the service until we moved last year and I have to go outside to get a signal. Wasn't bad in the summer, but it has sucked the last few months. There is an AT&T tower in plain sight about 1/4 mile away, so we are going to convert over to them. Our VZ contract ended on Jan 3, and we were all set to walk into AT&T, until we remembered that 2 years ago when we got our S3's, the S4 came out a month or two later.   So, now we have decided to wait until the new S6 comes out in a few months before switching. Looks like  that may be a pretty cool phone if any of the rumors are true. I never felt the need to root the S3, and I hear that the S6 is moving toward being more of a stock O/S like the Nexus, so I hope I won't feel the need to root that one either.

The MDA group has no idea about the concept of picking one's battles. Jeff Foxworthy and Alan Jackson make their living entertaining red blooded, gun toting Americans. Jeff and Alan will not lose one penny of income by standing firm, in fact it may very well help them earn more. Unlike Jay Leno, who may lose a sponsorship, there is no way they would cave to MDA.

The following quote is one of the more powerful ones that she mentioned:      It came from the article named "A Nation of Cowards". It was a good read. I found it here: http://www.rkba.org/comment/cowards.html

On some level I think I can understand how the idea of Communism may be appealing to some of these people. For a generation now, young people have been taught that Capitalism is bad, and that somehow the wealthy are the cause of all their problems. They have been told that it is not fair that the wealthy have all that money, and they have nothing. If only there was a way to make it fairer and have those evil rich people share their money.

  Is that place still posted? We went to a wedding rehearsal dinner there a year ago, and I don't recall seeing a sign. I know it used to be posted a few years ago, but I thought that it changed ownership since then.

At work, the parking situation is horrible. A lot of people park there, and even though the lot is huge, it fills up fast. If you get there late, the only open spots are probably a 1/4 mile from where you have to enter at, so it's a long walk, and even longer if it's raining. For some reason, there is an inordinate amount of handicap spots right outside the entrance. To me it looks like there are about 5 times the amount of HC spots for a lot of this size. I'm always amazed that nearly every one of those spaces are filled up. I just can't imagine there are that many handicapped folks at work.   One day I noticed a friend's car parked in one of the HC spots. His wife had a brain aneurysm years ago, and even though she had a bit of memory loss, and couldn't do her job anymore, she gets around fine. She does qualify for the HC sticker, so good for her. He however, is perfectly healthy, and she does not come to work with him. I questioned him about it that day I saw him park there, and he said he was in a hurry to respond to an emergency and didn't want to have to take the time to park way out. I gave him grief over it, but he just blew it off. After that I started looking, and I would see his car there more often than not. 

Sadly, I bet a lot of Professors agree with this idea, and will just go ahead and do it.   How about we just go ahead and give out degrees too. Especially if you have some life experience. You say you used to deal drugs? Here's your Pharmacy license. You stabbed somebody once? Here's your surgeons license. Strong arm robbery? We'll make you an IRS Manager. Con artist? Hello Senator.

In today's society of "Zero Tolerance", this kid would have to be expelled and probably sent to jail. Then the irony of it is that the "stolen" gun would just be returned to the parent. The school or police would have no right to do anything else with it.

He could play Beatles songs better than the Beatles. Rest in Peace Joe.

A lot of the blame for this rests upon Al Sharpton for inciting this kind of animosity, then secondly the blame falls to NY Mayor Debassio and President Obama for standing beside them and not backing up their own officers. Not backing up the officers over the last few months is a traitorous act, and this killing is the result of that act.   Obama is the Chief Law Enforcement Office of the land, the top cop. For him to side with the criminals, for no better reason than the color of their skin, is unconscionable. He was supposed to be the great unifier, What he really is, is a divider. He has divided white from black, and cops from citizens.   I fear that this is the beginning of something very bad. The NY cops stood by recently, with their hands tied, and let the so-called peaceful protesters march past shouting that they wanted dead cops. I think that this will start a war of sorts between cops and citizens. These kind of protests are going end up with lots of dead people in the future.

I have listened to it several times now. I usually listen to it while on my PC and it just fades into background sound. There is nothing really great, or awful about it. It's not their best, for sure, but not their worst either. There is only one song with lyrics, and one other with a few clips of Stephen Hawking speaking. Other than that it is an instrumental album. A lot of the songs are very short, and seem to flow into the next one without an end or beginning.   If you want to give it a listen, go over to www.grooveshark.com . I think I found it there the other day. It's a legit site similar to Pandora that you can search for albums and listen online.

here in Oak Ridge, I used to go to Ken's Barber Shop. It had that old-timey feel of a real barber shop. They didn't take your name, you just looked at the other men and remembered who is before you. It had been there for ever.   The owner (not Ken) bought the barber shop over in Groves Center (behind the new Kroger), and the lady that I liked to cut my hair from Kens moved there, so I followed her. She said they were trying to build up clients at that location, so I obliged.   Just recently, they closed the Ken's location, and moved the Groves location to the end of the shopping center in a much larger store front, and combined the two shops. This new location is pretty cool. They have a pool table in there, and they bring out corn-hole on nice days. It's decorated with old fashioned tin plate signs advertising guns, ammo, tobacco and motor oil. They use mechanics tool chests for their work stations. They even have a station for a straight razor shave if you like. The haircut was great. Trimmed up the neck and sideburns with a straight razor, finished up with a wipe down from a cool towel soaked in alcohol, and a dusting of talc. All for $12.   If you are looking for a barber shop in Oak Ridge, with that old fashioned feel, I can recommend them. I think their name is simply "The Barber Shop".

The question I always wonder about, is are these people reimbursed for the value of these guns, or are they just taken? I'd say for many people this could amount to tens of thousands of dollars. How can you value a family heirloom. What if it's somebody's crazy dad with a generational hand me down collection? Can the (adult) kid claim the guns and get them?

The other day I saw Cabela's had .22 ammo on sale and, miracle of miracles, there was some in stock. They also had free shipping if you got your order above $50. I was running around frantically trying to figure out what else to buy before they ran out of stock and remembered I needed some Hoppe's gun cleaner.   I wasn't paying close enough attention and accidentally put Hoppe's #9 Bench Rest Copper Remover Gun Bore Cleaner in my cart instead of just the regular cleaner.    Can I use this stuff instead for every day cleaning? Or is it really just designed for copper cleaning? It says it cleans powder residue, but is the original better at doing that?   It costs about 3 times what the basic stuff does, so I hate to waste it.   Thanks,

We bought a house this past February, and there are two apple trees right near the house. We thought, It might be nice to have a little fruit tree orchard all right there in the same spot, so we bought several more fruit trees and planted them near the apples. This fall, the tree produced apples that were very mis-shapen and not very tasty. They would drop faster than I could collect them up, and stunk horribly. By the time I got to them on the weekend, they were a rotten mess.   Next Spring, I plan on digging up the trees I planted and moving them to the back 40.