A Small Diversion
by John Weckerle
One of my favorite hobbies, albeit one I do not have time to indulge in all that often, is what I call “zootography.” I’ve visited a number of zoos – for example, Wildlife West, Albuquerque Biopark, Bronx Zoo, Houston Zoo, Palm Beach Zoo, Cameron Park Zoo (Waco, TX), Lowry Park Zoo (Tampa), Los Angeles Zoo, Boston Aquarium, and the Aquarium of the Pacific – and have always had a great time. This past Wednesday was my birthday, and I have a zoo just minutes from the house, so I decided to take a little time off and stroll around Wildlife West with the camera. Today, I’ll share a few of the photos with our readers. Have a great Sunday!
A Town Is More Than Pavement and Pipes
by John Weckerle
In recent letters to The Independent (May 14; letter not available online) and the Mountain View Telegraph (May 15), Janelle Turner and Kathryn Cleaver make the case that municipalities should wait until all infrastructure projects are completed, police forces are fully staffed, and libraries are in their final stage of completion before providing funding for other things like Town events and other community initiatives. I respectfully disagree. »» A Town Is More Than Pavement and Pipes
Let’s all pay more for less
by John Weckerle
This evening, NBC Nightly News reported that Kroger Foods, the owners of Smith’s in Edgewood, is experimenting with with 3-quart milk containers as a replacement for gallon containers – supposedly, according to anchor Brian Williams, as a means of reducing “sticker shock” and essentially making us not notice that we are paying more for less.
This is a trend that I’ve found offensive for years. Rather than raise the price up front, the strategy is to shrink the container, wait a bit, and then raise the price. Food companies seem to think that the American people are perhaps not bright enough to realize that the packages are getting smaller, and the prices are going up. Food costs what it costs, and families need as much food as they need. As prices go up, and container sizes go do down, we’re paying for more packaging and more transportation per unit of food contained therein.
Thanks a lot, Kroger, and thanks to any others who are, in fact, making it that much more difficult for people to feed their families for the simple goal of hiding from us the fact that we’re paying more for less – no doubt, with no corresponding adjustment to profit margins. Just understand: we’re smarter than you think.
Q’mon, Qwest…
by John Weckerle
I occasionally help people out with network issues. For most complicated things, we have more accomplished individuals, but if it’s simple, I try to handle it. Hooking your existing router up to your new Qwest DSL modem should be easy, right? Well…
Yesterday afternoon, I spent what felt like 3 days trying to work this one out. The issue? In hooking a router up to a gateway (in this case, the Qwest DSL modem), you need to change the IP settings (IP is short for Internet Protocol; IP addresses tell the router where to look for the modem, your computer, and the computers that tell your computer where the web sites you want to view are located) in your router from those relevant to your old internet service provider to those associated with the new one. This is a relatively simple task for anyone who knows how to access the administration panel for the router, which should be covered in the router’s user guides. »» Q’mon, Qwest…
Will the Grinches steal Edgewood’s music festival?
Note: Portions of this article were submitted as a letter to the editor of The Independent, who has indicated it will appear in the May 14, 2008 edition. Thanks, Independent!
by John Weckerle
There appears to be an effort underway on the part of some Edgewood politicians to cut the funding for the Town’s annual celebration and the Wildlife West annual summer music festival. With less than three months before the event is scheduled to occur, this will place a severe hardship upon Wildlife West. The rationalizations provided for this puzzling behavior simply do not appear to hold water.
In this May 8, 2008 letter to the editor of the Mountain View Telegraph, Town Councilor Glenn Felton’s response to letters regarding the Wildlife West Nature Park’s events raises concerns regarding funding and the provision of complimentary tickets to vendors, volunteers and sponsors. Many of Mr. Felton’s criticisms, and those of other opponents of the Park, are inappropriate and potentially misleading. »» Will the Grinches steal Edgewood’s music festival?
NM-Central.com – From New Mexico’s True Heartland!
Welcome to NM-Central.com, providing perspectives from New Mexico’s real central valley. That’s right – the Estancia Valley, and not the Rio Grande Valley, contains the actual geographic center of the state, about 12 miles south-southwest of the town of Willard in Torrance County. This may come as a surprise to some, especially those who think they live in the East Mountains – since said mountains are not “East” at all. They are West. Period.
We invite you to join with us in discussion ranging from statewide to local issues – all, of course, from a true central perspective.