seekingalpha.com has a article about AMREP titled “Amrep’s Rio Rancho Dream May Turn Out To Be A Desert Mirage“. Everyone who lives in Rio Rancho should know about AMREP (especially if they live in one of their shitty houses). Overall the article indicates that the company’s media business is on the decline and it’s not well understood how much it’s real estate is worth.
It is currently a company that engages mainly in the business of subscription fulfillment services, newsstand distribution services and product packaging and fulfillment services as well as a bit of staffing businesses. We will call these businesses collectively as Media services and they make up pretty much all of the company’s business activities on a regular basis. The second aspect of the stock’s value is its large ownership of land in the city of Rio Rancho, New Mexico.
In the 1960s, AXR purchased the massive plot of land in Rio Rancho and it was mass marketed to people all over the world as a retirement home or an investment property. The 1960s ads marketed them as wonderful investments at a mere $10/month attracted investors worldwide and particularly from New York. AXR then sold thousands of plots to different investors without considering the future development possibilities of Rio Rancho. Thus, Rio Rancho is now left with the legacy of this antiquated platting method where any meaningful area for development has already been developed and most of the land left has been divided in ownership due to AXR’s own past plot sales.
Be sure to check out their website, which is as shitty as their houses.
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.
On 11/12/13 I reported to a conference room on the 3rd floor of the RR5 building at the Intel Rio Rancho, New Mexico site. All technicians were to report at their designated time to find out their employment status. My manager stated he had to read from the script and the only part I remember from that script was that “my skills were found to be less than my peers”, or something to that effect. I was notified by my manager that I was “redeployed”, Intel’s term for people that are being laid off. I was told that I would still be employed until 1/15/2014 but that I did not need to come in unless I wanted to.
Intel had announced a few months before that this layoff was going to happen. While I had been mentally preparing myself for it and thinking about what would happen if I did get laid off I wasn’t really expecting to be let go. I had talked to my manger the day before and he didn’t indicate that he was expecting me to be let go. Of course he wouldn’t have any way to know for sure. He wasn’t involved in the decision making process other than to fill out a “skills matrix” of some kind on me. I don’t have any reason to believe that he wrote something like “this guy has no skillz!”. In fact my performance review for the previous year was quite good and my manager was discussing a promotion for me in the next year or two. He was also encouraging me to go to school to finish my degree. Things seemed pretty positive from my point of view.
If I was missing some sort of skills or I was supposed to know something, at least as far as my manger and I was concerned, I think I would have known. This layoff wasn’t supposed to have anything to do with performance anyway. It was supposed to be all skills based. It’s mystery to my exactly what caused me to be on HR’s shit list, but I’m not believing that this layoff was completely skills based.
Intel did a number of things to make this process go easy on the employees. I effectively got a 2 month paid vacation, they waited until the beginning of the year before I was terminated allowing me to get bonuses and other benefits and I get a severance. They could have given no notice and just terminated my employment immediately.
I have moved on and accepted what has happen. It wasn’t easy especially with 18 years at Intel, it hurt. Feelings of rejection and “why me” had a much bigger impact on me than I expected and its hard not to hold a little resentment over how it all went down. But I was better prepared for this layoff financially than the last one in 2006. I am already taking classes to start a career in another industry. Hopefully New Mexico provides jobs in that industry or I may be moving out of state.
From the thread at Reddit “One of the best pictures I will ever take…“, Redditor AJ192 took a stunning picture of fireworks and lightening at the Rio Rancho High School firework show.
On the City of Rio Rancho’s page about “Kamp Out for Kamp Rio” there is about 10 paragraphs on how to stand in line. This is so people can sign up for Rio Rancho’s apparently popular “Kamp Rio 2013” summer day camp for kids.
“Standing In Line” Rules and Etiquette
The Parks & Recreation Department staff makes every attempt to ensure that the registration for summer camp is a fair process for everyone. The summer camp line is nothing unique. Throughout life, we are all subject to “standing in lines”: Black Friday shopping, theme parks, concerts, at the grocery store, etc. As with every aspect of life, there is a protocol that should be followed.
Stay In Line At All Times. Anyone who has claimed a spot in the registration line is required to stay in line with the exception of short restroom breaks. If an individual, who has claimed a spot in the registration line, needs to leave for any reason that person needs to be replaced temporarily by a family member or friend until the person returns.
A Tent Or Chair Does Not Hold Your Place In Line. An individual will not be allowed to place a chair or tent to claim their spot in the registration line. Do not leave for work/school/home/shopping/restaurants or anything else until your registration has been accepted by Parks & Recreation staff or your tent and chairs will be removed by city staff.
Do Not Reserve Or Hold Spots For Others. Think how annoyed you would be after hours of waiting, suddenly and out of nowhere, five friends join the person in front of you making your wait even longer?
Be Patient – Everyone in line is in the same situation. Don’t be come irritated with others in line or with the Parks & Recreation staff.
Restroom Break – If you leave the line for any amount of time longer than short restroom breaks, you cannot expect to come back and take up your old place.
Respect Personal Space Of Others – While there is no need to stand body-to-body in the line, there is also no need to extend your tent/bbq grill/chairs/picnic-tables, etc. amongst a large space. Doing so will only irritate people and heighten tensions.
No Smoking In Line! If you are a smoker, now is not the time to light up – save that until you get home.
No Line Jumping – Quite simply – don’t!
“Standing in line” has universally understood rules and etiquette, but there are still those who break the rules mentioned above. With that said, the above rules apply and everyone’s cooperation and attention to this matter is sincerely appreciated.
Limestone formations along a hiking trail in the Ojito
The Ojito Wilderness is about 11,000 acres of Sandoval county, New Mexico that was designated wilderness by congress in 2005 throught the 1964 Wildness Act. It is located west of Rio Rancho, New Mexico and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
The glow from Albuquerque can bee seen east of the Ojito. The Sandia’s can bee seen to the left of the short mesa and right of the tall light tower. The small red lights are from the radio towers on top of the Sandias.
People have been going to the Ojito for years before it was protected as a wilderness, it’s not one of the better known outdoor areas near the Albuquerque. The Ojito is a combination of desert; sand, cactus and scrub but also contains some pine trees and grasses. It’s sort of a transition area between the deserts in Albquerque and the forests of the Jemez. What makes the Ojito special is the number of impressive rock formations. There are a number of hoodoos formed by water millions of years ago, badlands and buffs.
Ojito HoodoosOjito Badlands
I have had two trips to the Ojito, once in April of 2011 and this last time in June of 2012 and it will probably be a annual trip for me. Spring or Fall are good times to spend overnight in the Ojito, June is not. It’s hot, most plants have stopped flowering and there was a large number of nats and other flying insects. One of the reasons I like living in the desert is the lack of flying bugs so I was surprised at how many there was. There is no water, lakes or streams and people must bring it with them. As this is official Wilderness land no wheeled vehicles are allowed. Including bicycles. This probably keeps people away but backpacking a short distance in is well worth experience.
Firepit with hoodoos and a pine tree in the background
The area I camped included a group of hoodoos with a large area of sand and trees farther out. In the middle of the sand area there is a fire pit. Believe it or not while the rest of the state was under fire restrictions the Ojito was not. I verified with the BLM and was specifically told that the Ojito was not included with the rest of the state. Part of the reason might be because there is so little to burn. There are some pine trees spotted around the area the vegetation is pretty spares and well adapted to not getting water.
Trying to find out the fire restrictions in the Ojito was difficult. The official BLM webpage for the Ojito doesn’t tell a whole lot about restrictions in federal lands, as they are often different from the state lands. NM Fire Info lists state land fire restrictions and Public Lands Information Center lists federal fire restrictions.
FInally, New Mexico First District Representative Martin Heinrich created the Ojito.org website.
“Thank you for visiting the Ojito website. I hope you find the information here useful as you learn about and explore this unique and beautiful place. As someone who dedicated several years of my life to the creation the Ojito Wilderness, I also hope you will leave the area just as you found it. If we are all good stewards of this wild landscape, generations to come will continue to enjoy Ojito’s opportunities for hiking, hunting, photography and outdoor adventure. Enjoy. This is where the West is still wild.”
For the last month the weather has been mostly sunny and warm on the days I work and either windy, cold or rainy or all of the above on the days I’m off. I had a some sun and little wind yesterday but today it snowed.
Were not getting anything like Denver’s projected 20 inches of show. The lack of cooperation by the weather isn’t helping because I have a number of outdoor things to do around the house before I potentially go out of town for three months starting in May.
Intel Corp. said on Monday it will spend $1 billion to $1.5 billion to retool a factory in New Mexico, which will start to make chips with cutting-edge 45-nanometer-wide transistors in the second half of 2008.
The factory to be renovated in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, is known as Fab 11X and will be the fourth Intel plant to use 45-nanometer technology, which includes new materials that boost chip efficiency by cutting leakage of electrical current.
Rio Rancho, New Mexico is just butted up against Albuquerque to the north. Thanks to Intel (the largest employer in Rio Rancho and one of the largest in the state) they will have the worlds largest WiFi hot spot. It will cover 103 square miles including residential homes. Funny since you can barley get DSL and no internet via cable.
I lived in Rio Rancho (often called Rio Rathole) when I first moved here. At the time it was mostly a overgrown truck stop with no roads. The road have improved some and the whole city has grown up a lot, it’s good to see some high tech anything moving in.
[Update:] Check out the submission I made to slashdot. Unfortunately I couldn’t remember my password otherwise I would have tons of traffic coming to this site 🙂
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