I’m still waiting for The Village at Rio Rancho to open. According to the Albuquerque Journal “Unser corridor attracting more business, development“, the area is growing with business. But its not clear what is going on with The Village.
The Village at Rio Rancho, proposed for 65 acres across the street from Rust, remains preliminary, according to Geisel.
“We are excited that the developer is starting to make plans for the next steps in the project,” he added.
//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Ua5PaSqKD6k
Back in 2010 the internet freaked out about a picture of pink goo that was claimed to be mechanically separated chicken. I wrote “Fake Picture Of Mechanically Separated Chicken” where I try to explain how it’s not possible.
McDonalds Canada has released a video “Pink goop in Chicken McNuggets? McDonald’s Canada answers (Super Bowl XLVIII)” (apparently it was a Canadian Superbowl ad) that shows how mechanically separated chicken is used to make Chicken McNuggets.
The offical ingredients list of Chicken McNuggets from the McDonald’s website
Ingredients: White Boneless Chicken, Water, Food Starch-Modified, Salt, Seasoning (Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Salt, Wheat Starch, Natural Flavoring [Botanical Source], Safflower Oil, Dextrose, Citric Acid), Sodium Phosphates, Natural Flavor (Botanical Source). Battered and Breaded with: Water, Enriched Flour (Bleached Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Yellow Corn Flour, Bleached Wheat Flour, Food Starch-Modified, Salt, Leavening (Baking Soda, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate, Calcium Lactate), Spices, Wheat Starch, Dextrose, Corn Starch.
What surprises me is the source of the original pink goo picture still has not been identified.
I went to the “River of Lights” at the Albuquerque Botanical Gardens for this first time this year on opening day, Nov 30th 2013. My Mom was in town otherwise I would not have gone.
I still get confused between the Botanical Gardens/Aquarium and the Zoo. I drove to the Zoo (aka BioPark) thinking thats where the event was held and instead found the park and ride to the Botanical Gardens. I then drove to the Botanical Gardens, saw the crazy traffic getting into the park and drove back to the park and ride at the zoo. We then rode a school bus from the zoo to the event.
We arrived at the Botanical Garends near opening and there was a long line to get in but it moved fast.
Even with all the displays being (I assume) LED rope lights, I have to wonder how much power the displays consume.
In the center of the park there were some carolers singing in a covered area surrounded a large open area. It was dark and leaves covering the ground everywhere. There was some sort of short metal garden barrier near the carolers that my Mom and I tripped over. I informed an “official” with the park that someone is going to trip and break their leg on it.
Overall there were lots of people, there were lots of we made light display, it was cold. There were expensive alcoholic beverages to be had. My mom compared it favorably to the Phoenix Zoo ZooLights although she thought Albuquerque’s attempt was smaller and more expensive.
On Friday 7 September 2012 4 friends and I rode horses into the Pecos along with 2 pack horses and 1 one guide. We rode about 8 miles up to East Pecos Baldy. The horses were provided by Tererro General Store and Riding Stables at a cost of approximately $1250 (not including tip). The pack horses carried each of our back packs at about 30-40lbs each and 70lbs of food (with an undermined but significant amount of that weight in alcohol). Since the Pecos Wilderness is a Wilderness, no motorized vehicles are allowed.
The Tererro General Store typically takes hunting parties into the Pecos but we not interested in hunting, just a way to get into the mountain without having to carry 40lbs plus packs 8 miles in. However we were hiking out, all downhill and theoretically with less pack weight. What could go wrong?
Which brings me to the title of the article. Apparently there has been an overall reduction of horse packing business for the Tererro General store and insurance is not only becoming more expensive but harder to get as insurance companies don’t want to cover horse packing. Therefore this will be their last year of providing these trips and they plan to sell off the stables and horses. We weren’t the last trip up for the horses as they had a few more hunting parties going up but we were near to being the last trip.
This is the first time I have rode a horse since I went to the Philmont Scout Ranch over 20 years ago. I was a little nervous that the horse I was going to be riding would take one look at me and decide to ignore all my commands. There was nothing to be nervous about. The horses, mine was name Sampson, has been on this trip many time and knew the way better than I did and was used to newbies trying to drive. There was very little for me to do except keep him from running into the other horses when they suddenly stopped and from taking any shortcuts that we might get stuck in (they aren’t all that smart sometimes).
We start the trip about 10am New Mexico time and arrived at our destination 8 miles up the mountain about 12:30pm. The 8 mile ride took us through some forest, then to a large clearing with some grazing cattle.
We were back in forest when getting to our final destination.
It mostly rained the whole time so we had to come up with covered communal area where we could sit around the fire and not get soaked. There also wasn’t a lot of firewood, the area had been picked pretty clean. What little firewood we found was wet.
We spent time exploring the area near East Pecos Baldy. There are supposed to be big horned sheep in the area but all we came across was cattle and a few bow hunters on horseback also looking for sheep.
We were lucky to have a day of no rain where we were able to hike to the top of Ease Pecos Baldy.
Finally, we hiked out on 10 September 2012. While we ate and drank our way through most of our supplies we still managed to have quite a bit of weight on us on our way out. Making us wonder why we didn’t rent horse to take us out.
The enitire photoset can be viewed on the Flickr set “2012-09-07 Pecos Pack Trip“.
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.
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.
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.
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?
It’s not well know but the Durango Silverton train that runs from (surprise!) Durango, Colorado to Silverton, Colorado offers what they call wilderness access. Depending on the time of year the train will make stops along certain areas of the track where back backers can get off.
On 26 August 2010 I took a trip with three other friends to Durango, Colorado. We drove down US550 from Albuquerque to Durango and we spent the night in a cabin at the Lightner Creek Campground near Durango so that we could be on the Durango Silverton train at about 9am.
Just like in the days when the train was a main mode of transportation, the backpacks are loaded into the baggage car. The baggage car looked pretty rickety and at the very least needs a new paint job.
The train dropped us off just before a bridge over the Animas river at Cascade Canyon.
After hiking a short distance along the river we came across a newer cabin fully stocked with firewood where no one was apparently home.
Near the cabin was a rusted out old truck.
There was an interesting old train engine that had been converted to do some sort of milling work not far from the cabin.
My party and I ended up setting up camp near the Animus and maybe a 1/3 of a mile from the tracks in an established camping area. While some of my party thought it was pathetic that we didn’t really do much of a hike, I thought the area was great place to pitch a tent.
While exploring, we hiked up the river for and found what was left of a building.
While waiting for the train to pick us up, we hung out at a picnic area where the train apparently stops for large group activities.
We did what one does while camping: eating, drinking and enjoying nature without internet access. I took about 200 photos of our trip and they can be found on a set call “Durango Silverton Train & Backpack Trip” on Flickr.
A tumblr blog called Early Onset Of Night posted a picture of that they claim is mechanically separated chicken. The substance looks like a extruded pink ice cream.
Basically, the entire chicken is smashed and pressed through a sieve—bones, eyes, guts, and all. it comes out looking like this.
I’m by no means an expert on mechanically separated chicken but I think some critical thinking would be helpful. According to Wikipedia, mechanically separated meat machines are designed to separate the bone from the meat, not grind everything together into a paste. The picture and text has been reposted all over the internet as if it was true and many sites like Gizmodo are even claiming this is what Chicken Nuggets from McDonalds are made of (Lack of story verification is why I don’t read Gizmodo anymore and what does this have to do with gizmos). I’ve eaten Chicken McNuggets and they don’t look anything like this. I don’t believe that the FDA would allow a product on the market made of a whole chicken ground up into unrecognizable pulp with bacteria intact. I don’t know what this is a picture of but I’m pretty sure it’s not mechanically separated chicken.
Gizmodo commenter Jackdilla discribes MSC:
I sell over 100,000lbs of this monthly to companies all over the country. It’s not gonna kill you but let me clear up some confusion.
You would never find yourself eating a chicken nugget or a patty made from MSC. They are mostly made for lost cost feeding programs such as prisons.
The people below saying that its made from ground up chickens are incorrect. After the chicken is deboned and you have removed the breasts, drums, wings and so on you are left with the chicken carcass, which is just a bunch of bone with tiny pieces of meat attached. That is thrown into a special machine that grinds it up and separates the meat from the bone fragments. There are no eyes, skin, organs, claws, beaks or anything of that nature.
AND Mcdonalds uses all white breast meat in their chicken nuggets. So does every other fast food restaurant chain.
MSC is mostly used in hot dogs. Unless it says All beef or all pork then its made with chicken MSC. If it says meat then it can be a mixture of beef/pork/MSC.
It’s just a way for manufacturers to cut down on waste and provide a cheaper product for us.
A YouTube video shows a automatic poultry deboner in action.
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/_eAc5DC1KE0?fs=1&hl=en_US&border=1
Snopes has an article with this same picture and text. They provide additional information about MSC and how the information that is with the picture is incorrect. They don’t have any information about where the picture is from.
I probably should have named this entry “This Is Not A Picture Of Mechanically Separated Chicken” because it’s clearly a real picture of something, I just don’t think it was ever an animal product. It looks to me to be some sort of foam rubber product possibly used for insulation.
Note: Also NOT PINK SLIME!
KOB recently did an interesting article on a group of independent iPhone developers in Albuquerque who work at a coffee shop and call themselves the Cocoa Conspiracy. The group includes Andrew Stone of Stone Design who has a number of both Mac and iPhone applications.
Apparently Stone Design’s Twittelator Pro is doing well. The article also talks about a very cool sounding hot air balloon and chase crew app.
“It can actually overlay the chase group’s position and the balloon’s location and speed over a map live. That way people can plan their routes to get to the balloon and where it’s going to land,”
That’s an awesome idea, I wish I would have thought of it. Albuquerque has “Largest balloon convention in the world” according to Wikipedia so it’s fitting that a app like this should be developed in Albuquerque.
I want to hook up with these guys perhaps they can give me some help in developing my own apps. The article fails to mention what coffee shop the “The Cocoa Conspiracy” hang out at.
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Update: The group has a website at cocoaconspiracy.com and apparently meet at the RB Winnings Coffee Thursdays at 9:30 am.
Doesn't Fit In 