Author: gregjsmith

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The Village At Rio Rancho Will Be Here Some Day

The Village At Rio Rancho, a Albuquerque Uptown style outdoor shopping center, is still coming soon. According to the Rio Rancho Observer the city planning and zoning was to approve the plan on January 24th (and they did) which would allow the developer to start work on the Cinemark movie theater.

Building a new movie theater so close to the recently built Premiere Cinemas is a mistake according to me. I’m more interested in having the rest of the complex built where I predict there will be an Apple Store.

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Obama Visted Intel In Chandler, Az

U.S. President Obama Speaks at Intel's Fab 42

President Barack Obama to Arizona speaking at Intel’s Fab 42, a state of that art chip manufacturing plant under construction in Chandler, AZ on January 25, 2012. from Intel Photos on Flickr

AZCentral.com has three articles about President Obama visit to the Intel site in Chandler on Thursday.

Obama or Intel haven’t made any friends with the construction workers according to the article “Obama’s visit tests readiness at Intel“.

One necessary requirement for hosting the president was shutting down construction for a day on the Fab 42 site, which didn’t sit well with all of the project’s roughly 3,000 active workers.

Some complained that they would not be paid for the unscheduled day off.

Jones said the one-day hiatus would be handled the same as if a thunderstorm had rolled into town Wednesday. A make-up day will be scheduled, and crews will be paid to work that day, instead, Jones said.

Apparently the 6000 people that came to see Obama’s speech had to stand for hours and many got sick doing so according to the article “Thousands wait for hours to see Obama“.

He would not be the only one on whom the day took a toll. Some left in wheelchairs, some walked out on their own, but clearly even a perfect January day can be a bit overwhelming after standing in the sun for hours on end.

There was the expected political nonsense from people who didn’t vote for Obama in the article “Leaders: Obama had no role in Intel project“.

Weninger said he sees the president’s visit as a political move by Obama to take credit for the Intel project. “I respect the president and am happy he is coming to Chandler and highlighting Intel and our great business community,” he posted on his political Facebook page. “I’m just saying it’s not true if he insinuates that his policies led to this expansion. It didn’t. When you couple his press release with the visit a day after the State of the Union, it’s hard to come to a different conclusion.”

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Someone Stole Gas From My Truck In My Driveway

tire tracks from gas theifs

There’s no better way to feel violated than to have someone steal something of yours from your own home. Even if it’s a few gallons of gas.

This morning I walked out to my truck to when leaving for work and saw my gas door and cap off of my truck. My first thought was “that’s not suppose to be like that”. Then I started to realize that someone stole the gas and I started to panic a little while I wondered what else they did, did they try to break into my house too?

The snow we had the night before was a big help since they left tire and foot tracks all over and it was easy to determine exactly where they had been. Thankfully all they did was take gas and they didn’t take much as a gas can only holds a few gallons of gas. They even left marks in the snow from the hose and the gas can.

hose and gas can marks left from gas theifs

It was suggested on Twitter that I check if they drilled my tank, which happened a few months ago in Rio Rancho. Thankfully they did not drill a hole in my tank.

Finally, I used the Rio Rancho Police Department’s online crime reporting form and left for work. In case the perpetrators are reading this, I have made some security related updates in case of a next time.

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Master Bedroom Remodel: It's Almost Complete

Its hard to belive that I can call a project complete, but I’m getting so close to the Master Bedroom project being complete.

Last month I hired someone to finish the drywall in both the bedroom and bathroom (along with a hallway issue). They taped and cleaned up the parts where the new and old dry comes together then textured them.

Master bedroom needs a closet door

Since then I have painted, put in a new door and installed the closet hardware. The only thing left is to put in trim, all the outlet covers and a closet door. Those will be completed once I decide exactly what I want.

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Some Company To Build Fake City In New Mexico

Some Company I never heard of is going to build a fake city somewhere in the Albuquerque Metro area. the 20 square mile city will be used to… test technologies? Why they can’t do the same thing is a real city is beyond my understand of the press release.

Pegasus Global Holdings, an international technology development firm, is announcing plans to develop The Center for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation (The Center), a first of its scale and scope fully integrated testing and evaluation facility for new and emerging technologies. With offices in Washington, DC; Reston, Virginia; and London, UK, Pegasus Global plans to locate the privately owned, commercially operated facility in the State of New Mexico
The Center will resemble a mid-sized American city, including urban canyons, suburban neighborhoods, rural communities and distant localities. It will offer the only of its kind opportunity to replicate the real-world challenges of upgrading existing city infrastructure to that of a 21st Century smart city, operating within a green economy.

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Serious Eats Reviews Blake's Lottaburger

From Serious Eat’s A Hamburger Today review of Blake’s Lottaburger.

But the green chiles are the real draw, of course. Each chile chunk was warm and juicily popped open, hot and sturdy, under the teeth. And whereas many fast-food chains tone down their “spicy” creations for a mass market, these were the spiciest thing I’ve ever tasted on a fast food burger. Without the green chile, the burger is still better than McDonald’s and Burger King, but the green chili really makes it a star. The Green Chile Lotaburger comes with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, and mustard. None of the other toppings are spectacular, not that it matters much since you can barely anything beyond the green chile.

I’ve lived in New Mexico for 15 years and I have yet to eat at Blakes. I probably wouldn’t like the spicy green chile anyway.

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The Centipede That Crawled Throughout The Door Frame

Centipede that crawled through the door frame today

Last week I changed the water on the aquarium. I used the spigot in the front of the house with the Python venturi pump, which caused all the water to dump right near the front door. About 15 minutes later Saturn the cat was the front door, trying to climb to the top. I went to investigate and a few seconds later centipede came through the door frame.

This is the first time I have seen a centipede at the house and the first time I have seen a Scolopendra Hereos at all. At about 3 inches long, it’s half the length of the centipede I previously posted about in Austin, Texas. The one I captured looked exactly the same, until I killed it with alcohol and it lost some of it’s color.

I would rather have scorpions than these things any day.

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People In Arizona Offended By Middle Eastern Dust Storm Words?

2011 - 07 - 18 - dust storm

According to the NYTimes, some people in Arizona are offended by the term “Haboob” when referring to dust storms. I don’t know if the short NYTimes article is being sensationalist or if there are more than a few people cited in the article that are actually offended.

Not everyone was put out by the use of the term. David Wilson of Goodyear, Ariz., said those who wanted to avoid Arabic terms should steer clear of algebra, zero, pajamas and khaki, as well. “Let’s not become so ‘xenophobic’ that we forget to remember that we are citizens of the world, nor fail to recognize the contributions of all cultures to the richness of our language,” he wrote.

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Living In A Tourist Town

Wendy Tremayne writes “Flat Tires in the Desert – The Thing About Tourists & Locals” about being a celebrity in a tourist town.

For five years people have bobbed their heads over our fence, climbed it to look in, and waited at our gate to ask for a tour. We’ve had to sneak in our back ally to avoid what at times is a flood of tourists. We skip getting our mail afraid of who may be waiting outside the gate.

We finally got the locals and store owners to stop telling tourists that they have to check out Wendy & Mikeys place. No they don’t. We have nothing to sell. We did not make a life decision to work in tourism.

What kind of people go to someone’s private residence and request a tour?