analog_kidd

Don't be too excited about Corker retiring. He has said from the beginning that he really wanted to be Governor, and never really wanted to be a Senator. Speculation is that he and Haslam will switch seats. They will stump for each other, both have name recognition, and lots of donors, so if this turns out to be the plan, it'll be hard to keep either out of office.

To me, the anthem is a solemn time of reflection, where focus is upon the flag and the men who have stood behind that flag over the last 200+ years. What these players are doing is bringing attention to themselves, when all attention should on the flag. It's distracting, disrespectful and just the wrong time to do your protest. Besides, they way they are doing it is stupid. Most people, myself included, really have no idea what they are protesting. I know it's about cop brutality, blah, blah, blah, but what specifically? I don't see them continuing the protest afterwards, unless it is to bring more attention to themselves in the form of boasting that nobody can tell them what to do. But beyond that, I don't see any of them actively trying to make anything better off the field. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough. To me, the NFL and Team Owners are on the wrong side of this fight. NEVER go against patriotism. NEVER! You will never win. They should have nipped this in the bud a long time ago and took a stand. Even if that stand was to be neutral, by letting the players feel however they want on their own time, but not allow the disruption to the game. Instead they are backing the players, and are looking just as unpatriotic. The NFL, Owners and Players are all saying Trump is being divisive and trying to split America, but I say that it was them that have been divisive. They knew from the beginning that many Americans don't like this, but they did not care. It has been dividing us since CK did it last year, but "dammit, I'm a player and you gotta listen to me". Now Trump speaks his mind and the entire league loses their collective minds. He has just as much right to speak his mind as they do. Now, sometimes I wish he would go about things a bit differently... Calling them SOB's may not have been the best term to use, but you know what? It's what many of us think and say to like-minded friends. It's refreshing that he speaks his mind without political-correcting every sentence that he speaks. Sometimes its embarrassing, but it is refreshing. Besides, I see these players do and say way worse things than "SOB" every week. If they are that big of a P***Y that that is what offends them, perhaps they should try ballet instead of football. Lastly, the NFL itself is being horribly hypocritical here. They have fined players for wanting to do their own form of protest or issue awareness because the method took place in the form of an addition to a uniform on the field. The player that wanted to wear pink in honor of his mother with breast cancer, the player with a mental illness that wanted to wear green shoes to bring attention to mental health day, the player that wanted to wear purple cleats to bring attention to domestic violence. All of them fined or told "No you can't do that". But now the NFL says the President can't tell THEM what to do? They put the kibosh on many good forms of issue awareness, but cop bashing while kneeling over the American flag is the one they get behind? Shameful!

First, let me say that I rarely use the classifieds, and have never bought anything there. Im just more of a buy it new And keep it forever kinda guy. That said, On the occasion that I do have something to look for, I have two things that limit my views: How long has it been listed, and how far down the list is it currently? If its more than a week old, i figure someone else already got any good deal, and I generally wont go past the first or second page of posts.

If you are in to Podcasts, the "Stuff You Should Know" series has a very interesting episode about chiggers. I want to say it was about a year or so ago.

With a spare computer that has HDMI video output, or a $50 Raspberry Pi, you can install the Kodi App. Kodi has been getting a bad rap lately because people load illegal add-ons onto it, but there are tons of 100% legit add-ons that you can get right from Kodi, or even third party developers, that give you a plethora of legal, free content. Go to their page and browse some of their add-ons to see what is available. I also use it to watch movies that I rip from my DVD's. I was tired of the grand kids leaving DVD's all over to get scratched. Now I rip them, and they can watch from the PC without ever opening a DVD case. I have a PC in the living room set up to use for Kodi and Amazon Prime video. I have a Rasberry Pi with Kodi in the bedroom that I can use to stream the ripped DVD's from the PC. There is also USTVNow. They stream several channels like ABC, CBS, etc. You can watch some for free if you don't mind the low-def. For $20 a month you get a much better selection of channels and Hi-def. I think they even have a plan with DVR capability.

I've seen reports that say Millennials are managing their money better than previous generations at their age. Perhaps this has something to do with it... They realize the ROI of being saddled with massive debt is not there. It has been drummed into everyone's heads over the past few decades that you HAVE to go to college. How many people do you know that went to college for 4 years, amassed $60,000 worth of student loans and are now working at Walmart, doing nothing similar to what their degree is in. College just isn't for everyone. That's not a bad thing, lots of people are very successful without having a college degree. What really matters is drive and gumption. I would love to see a swing toward Trade Schools becoming popular. Plumbers, Electricians, HVAC Tech, etc. can all easily make $60k - $80k a year, especially if they have their own business. Paying $15k for Tech school and making $60k sounds a lot better than paying $60k for college and making $15k. I would also love to see a push in high schools toward a technical bent. If a kid really doesn't have the desire (or capacity) to go to college, let them spend their last two years of HS in Trade type classes. Teach them Auto Shop, Welding, Plumbing, maybe some basic business classes. It would empower them to be successful without a college degree.

Last I heard Sunday evening, it was up to $18M. J.J. is a classy guy, who works hard on and off the field.

Naw, I had to go to Vegas for a work conference. The good news was we had vendors wining and dining us, so I didn't need to consume much tea, as there was plenty of free beer. I took a side trip to Zion National Park for a couple of personal days, since I was out there and so close. We hiked 10 miles a day in +105 degree heat. I needed about a gallon of tea with dinner after that.

I just returned from a far away land where Iced Tea always comes unsweetened, and if you dare to ask for Sweet Tea, they give you a disgusted look and point at the sugar packets on the table.

My bees had a rough year this year. The hive that I bought a new queen for, must have rejected her. I had checked on it a few weeks after putting her in, and there was no sign of babies being made, there were very few bees, and there was a nasty wax moth infestation beginning. Wax moths will absolutely destroy your hive. This particular hive had a ton of honey in it, and the wax moths bored thru the comb and all that honey dripped right out the bottom of the hive. Unfortunately That hive did not make it and I had to take it apart. My oldest hive, however, finally got around to making some honey. This one swarms every year, and so the remaining bees waste a lot of time building back resources. They never seem to be able to make extra honey. Well this year they did. Out of about the 5 frames they filled, I was able to harvest about 12 jars of honey from them this weekend. It's not a lot, but I'm just so glad to see any kind of return on my investment and work.

It's funny, last time there was a major upgrade, it changed the way TGO looked. I thought to myself, I'll never get used to this. Now I can't even recall what changed.

I knew a couple that had an unexpected third child, and they named it Lastun, because it was the last 'un they were gonna have. I think the kid goes by his middle name.

Several decades ago, when I was still a young teenager, my grandfather had a place in Murphy, NC. He was quite the woodworking craftsman himself, but also knew many other talented folks. One of those people was a several generation descendant of Davey Crockett. He would hand make replicas of Betsy and sell them to folks. He said you could put your name on the list, and when your name came up, how ever long that took (could be years), he would call you and let you know your gun was ready. If you no longer wanted it, no hard feelings, he would call the next name on the list. It was a long list. It's been so long ago, I don't recall too much about the guns, but I recall him being a very interesting guy. Of course he had a lot of family history regarding Crockett.

This song got played on my Amazon Echo the other day and I thought it was interesting. Never heard it before.

We have an Echo in the kitchen, and it is very handy. IT's how we make shopping lists now. We just say add XYZ to shopping list. When my wife does the shopping, everything we both need is right there on her phone in the Alexa app. We also find it very useful for setting cooking timers, or asking the occasional random question. Plus, we play music from it all the time, and it sounds really good. There's probably a million things we could use it for that we aren't. They are always adding new features, and it's hard to keep up. My wife didn't want one either. She is creeped out by it listening all the time, and she thinks that "they" could be recording us. Ours was a Christmas gift from my son, so we had to set it up. Once she got used to having it around, she uses it all the time.

Well, I experienced a lot of disappointment on Prime Day. There were two different items I wanted, and I wanted them in quantity of two or three. Amazon would only let me buy one each at the sale price. Any more than that had to be bought at full price. I'm sure they did that to make sure there was plenty to go around, but there were cheaper options available in different brands for the additional, full priced items, so it didn't make sense for me to buy the sale item. In another case, I was watching a CamelBack daypack. I got an alert the deal was starting in ten minutes. I sat down at my PC and killed time on TGO for 11 minutes, went back to Amazon and the deal had sold out. Prime Day is great if you love Chinese knock-offs of weird stuff. Mostly it feels like Amazon is having a yard sale of the crap that does not sell. I had my wish list full of quality, name brand items that I added over the last week or so. Not a single one showed up in the sale. I did pick up one of their 8" tablets for $50. For that price, the thing is a steal. I already have one of their 8" and a couple of their 7" tablets. Used to be able to root the 7" ones and load stock Android on them. They have all their tablets locked down now, so that can't be done anymore. Still, for $50 you get a solid tablet that is great for web browsing and email checking, and can even stream video well enough.

I just went to see Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Actually I saw it twice. My wife, grandson and I all loved the 1st movie, and we told him he was not to see the 2nd movie without us. He and his folks moved out of state a while back, and so just me and the wife went to see it. The grandkids unexpectedly got to come spend a week with us last week, so I had to pretend like I never saw it I really enjoyed the movie, and will watch it again when it comes out on video.

Try Melatonin, its a dietary supplement found in the vitamin aisle. It doesn't make you sleepy, but it will help your brain to flip over to fall asleep mode. Told a friend about it a few weeks ago for his wife, and she said it changed her life.

I wouldn't mind a booth with quality cigars / pipes for sale. Combined with @1Fast4By's Whiskey booth, we could keep the ATF really nervous.

In years past, I don't recall there being gates anywhere except the concert area. I don't think anyone will be giving anyone a second look except for that area. Plus, as has already been noted, it's perfectly legal with your permit. The City is probably just trying to make people think twice before carrying.

My dad called and said that in Crossville they had "tornado warning - seek shelter immediately" alerts come over their cell phones, and there were reports of apple-sized hail. They faired out OK though.

I for one, really miss the politics section. It was usually the first forum I visited, followed by General Chat. I know this is a gun forum, but those are my two favorite forums. I think part of that is, because this is a gun forum, most of us are like-minded and share the same interests. I just like hanging out with a bunch of other guys that for the most part, think like I think, and like what I like. Sure, there were some posts that I didn't like, or agree with, but I have thick skin and realize people have differing opinions, and I can respect that, as long as others can respect my opinions too. I actually like the discourse, as it gives me a peek into the way other people might think, and gives me a different perspective on an issue. It probably won't change my belief, but at least I can get an insight as to why someone might think that way. One of the trends happening now all over America is, if someone doesn't like what you have to say, then they shut you down. In a way this feels a bit like that. That forum was a great place to vent. I am a conservative that lives in a world of liberals. My work is filled with them, my main hobby is filled with them, and my family is all liberal, so I generally just keep quiet around them all. For me, the forum was a good outlet. I really like the idea of a politics section not showing up in the new posts feed, but think making it a paid members only section will limit differing points of view.

I had one of my honeybee hives swarm last month. When that happens, the queen permanently leaves the hive. They had lots of replacement queens growing, so I was sure they would be OK. A month and a half later I now see there is no queen in the hive. Don't know what happend to the new-born queen. When several are born, usually one becomes the reigning queen and the rest are killed or evicted. The new queen will leave the hive for a few days to mate, maybe she couldn't find her way back, or she got eaten by a bird. They can make a new queen, but it has to be from an egg that is only a few days old. Since there has been no queen for weeks, there was no viable eggs to use to make a new queen. So, I had to order a new queen to put into the hive. I have never done that before, so it was a new experience. The bee and a few attendants came in a hollowed out block of wood, and was just shipped in the mail. The post office called and said I had to pick them up. Not sure why they couldn't come the rest of the way, but whatever. Here is how they came in the mail, and the bees checking her out after I put her on the hive.

When a hive decides to swarm, the queen and about half of the bees in the hive will swarm and gather in a tree. First they gorge on honey because it may be a while till they get established again. So, half of your bees, and a good portion of your honey just fly away. This is why they are docile in a swarm... they have nothing really to defend, so why bother. Stinging someone is a death sentence for the bee. When they gather like that, they will send out scout bees to look for a new home. Each scout will return and give a report of the new place they discovered. Somehow they all decide which one to use, communicate where it is, and all at once they ALL fly straight to the new home. Bees amaze me

I've got the exact same problem. There is a cardinal that pecks on my windows ALL DAY LONG. It starts at sunrise, and quits at dusk. I'm surprised it hasn't injured itself yet. It pecks on the sunroom for a while, then heads around back and pecks on the back room windows, then goes to the side of the house and pecks on the side room windows. It will land near the window, then fly at it in attack mode, wrestle with itself for a moment, then land again. Repeat that over and over and over. I'm sure it's going after it's reflection, but we have waaay too many windows to try and cover them up with anything.