BUZZURRO

This morning at around 10AM I left the house to drive. It snowed yesterday, and the roads were a mess, snowy, slushy and icy, but I figured that by the day after a snowstorm,at 10AM no less, the city and state would have taken care of the roads. The snow had after all stopped falling by 6PM the night before. The sun is out. It’s a beautiful day.

I’m from NJ. Sometimes it is hard to say nice things about NJ, based on the negative press it always gets, but on the day after a snow storm the major roads were always plowed clean and driving on them was never a problem. It was actually kind of nice because even though the roads were clear from snow, the scenery on the side of the road was covered in it and it is a very pretty thing to see.
Back to New Mexico…the roads today were still a mess. I could see that dirt was thrown on the icy, snowy mess but that only turned it into a mushy, slushy, slippery bigger mess.

It was tough going. Everyone was driving slow. 2 times I had to make a turn and felt the car sliding away from my control. I saw 2 accidents on the short drive home too. It’s a big shame that the roads are in such a bad condition the day after a snowstorm. It’s not like it never snows in this area either. It snows a few times every year. They should have cleaned the roads a little better. I was not happy I was disturbed by what I was seeing. So, what’s an unhappy and disturbed girl supposed to do? Call and complain to the correct officials. I did.

I called the city to complain about their roads. They told me to call the state because the roads in question were state roads. The state told me to call the city to complain, but when I told them that the city had given me their phone number in the first place, they transferred me to the correct people ,whoever they are. This person told me that they can’t plow the streets because the snow will then block entrances to buildings. They only sprinkle dirt and salt on it and let the normal flow of traffic take care of the mushy stuff left over, and/or the sun to melt it so it’s not even a problem.

Huh? This is a policy of making the roads clear of snow? Let the traffic or sun take care of it? That’s the most irresponsible thing I’ve ever heard. Cars are slipping and sliding all over. Traffic accidents are occurring all over.
I complained again and told whoever I was speaking to that the streets were a slushy, slippery mess.
“Nothing we can do.” He replied. “We can’t plow the roads with cars on them. ”
When I pointed out that in other states who get snow they plow the roads and while people may not like having to clear more snow from their properties, they do like the clear roads better.
He repeated that there is nothing they can do. Snow may be an act of God, but cleaning or not cleaning the roads is an act of man. In this case a lazy man from a lazy state.

UPDATE: Now the roads that I complained about are snow-free, ice-free and even are dry. The sun was out and melted a lot of snow, but many of the side streets and parking lots are still filled with ice and snow. Could my complaining have been the reason they were finally cleaned ?

His technique is not exactly perfect, his interpretation is a little slow for my taste, and the player has huge feet, yet I liked the video.

Yesterday as I was walking outside I saw my landlord putting up a row of paper bags alongside his house. “What are those bags ?” I asked him while pointing to one. “They are farolitos.” He responded. “Faro WHAT ?” I asked. And he replied “Farolitos. They are a New Mexican Christmas decoration. They are traditional. These one I am using are electric, but many times they are just paper bags filled with sand and candles.” “Oh.” I responded, not thinking that a row of brown paper bags was very aesthetically appealing, as Christmas decorations usually are.
Nevertheless, when I got home I did like any other computer geek would do. I Googled ‘farolitos’, I wanted to know their history and why they are a New Mexico tradition. I found out that what are called ‘ farolitos’ in Santa Fe and other Northern New Mexican towns are called ‘luminarias’ in Albuquerque and other Southern or Central New Mexican towns. New Mexico is very unlike New Jersey or California where I have also lived. They have a lot of traditions here, many of them Spanish in origin.
This is what I found.

At nighttime I left the house to take a look at these farolitos. They look pretty.

Here is a picture of some farolitos at night:

For those unfamiliar with the story of Hannukah here is a link :

The celebration of Hanukkah goes back to 165 B.C.E. (B.C.E. stands for “Before the Common Era,” which is an alternative way of referring to the Christian-based calendar). At that time, the Jews of Judea had lived for many years under the oppressive hand of Syria, whose rulers outlawed Jewish worship and desecrated the temple in Jerusalem. Even though they were outnumbered, the Jews took up arms to defend their lifestyle and religion. They overwhelmed the Syrians in two decisive battles. Their leader was Judah Maccabees, whose mythic strength earned him the nickname “The Hammer.”

Legend has it that when the Jewish army entered the temple to reconsecrate it, their first task was to rekindle the Eternal Light, a sacred oil lamp that was left burning continuously. The Maccabees had one jar of oil, enough to keep the flame lit only for a single day. They sent out a messenger to find and bring back more sanctified oil, and it took the messenger eight days to return. Miraculously, the Eternal Light continued to burn those eight days. Hanukkah, which also is called the Festival of Lights, celebrates that wonder.

One of the traditions Jewish people do is to light one candle a night for 8 nights to commemorate the miracle of the lights (that lasted for 8 days instead of one). One other thing they do is to eat foods fried in oil to commemorate the miracle of the oil (that lasted for 8 days instead of one.)
Now here is my dilemma; as any overweight person trying to lose weight can tell you, eating food fried in oil is a no-no.
One of the traditional foods is latkes, usually made with potatos and onions. They not only are fried in oil, because of their consistency, they also absorb a lot of oil. One latka alone packs a lot of calories and fat.

What do I do?
Eat them anyway !

Happy Hannukah everyone !

This is the fourth year that the Weblog Awards take place.
Let me say they are a farce.
The rules say it is not allowed to vote more than once in 24 hours from the same computer.
Although, it is very easy to cheat and vote multiple times per day:

For those who wants to vote more than once a day, just go to root:\Documents and Settings\userid\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\
#SharedObjects\????????\weblogawards.org\award_poll_1_15.swf\
and delete the file poll_34.sol.

Apparently, this or other techniques have been put into practice during this edition of the Awards. Some claimed they have seen exponential, miraculous growths of votes, at frequencies of hundredths in hours.
Personally, I can say that tonight I casted a vote. Then, I could see the total votes for all competitors in the same category. Then I refreshed the web page from which I voted, and saw that the votes of one of the competitor blogs increased by one. Then, I refreshed the page after one second. The votes for that blog increased. Then, I refreshed. Then, they increased again. And so on. And so forth. Nice, huh ?

Several months ago while looking for a job in the newspaper Santa Fe New Mexican, a coworker said to me, ” Why are you reading the Santa Fe New Mexican? It is the absolute worst newspaper I have ever seen. Try the Albuquerque Journal. (a statewide newspaper). I answered “I’m looking for a job in Santa Fe. Those classifieds are more helpful to me because it is from Santa Fe.” ” That makes sense, but the rest of it really sucks.”
Today I picked up a Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper. One of the stories was of the suicide bomber in Iraq who drove his truck to an area where many poor Shiite seeking work gather. He offered them a job, and then as they gathered around the truck he exploded it. It was packed with explosives and many people died, with many more maimed victims. The article was on page 3, but there was a quote on the front page which is what grabbed my attention. It said “76 Iraqis seeking work are dead from suicide bomber, but they knew that the area had several suicide bombings in the past.”
As if to say their deaths were indirectly their fault for being at that location in the first place.
As a person who has sought work before, as most have done at somepoint in their lives, I was deeply offended. These poor people were just seeking work. They nneeded money. They weren’t kidnapping others for ransom or doing anything horrible; just seeking work and they do not deserve to die or even to carry a small amount of blame for their deaths as the person who wrote /said the quote implied on the first page. It’s a tragedy. A big tragedy. The terrorists who did this horrible act are one hundred percent guilty of being the most scoundrelly low form of life, and to even imply that the victims were at fault for seeking work in an area known for having had several suicide bombers in the past is completely wrong.
I decided with much anger to turn to page 3 to see what other crap was said in this terrible article that in effect blamed the victims. This is the article titled For Laborers, Seeking Work Is Risking Death.
I read the article once and then I read it twice. Nowhere in that article is the blurb I read on page one telling the reader to read the story on page 3. My question is “Who write this crap? Someone from Iraqi terrorists are really good guys fan club? .” I can’t believe an American newspaper, one that tries to impartially report the news, would be so favorable to the humanoid forms that brought about such a horrible attack. Obviously though, someone at the Santa Fe New Mexican thinks up and writes such crap..
It is true that I picked up the newspaper which is what the editor wants all possible customers to do, but I’m not going to pay any money for this junk. I’ll buy a real newspaper. The Santa Fe New Mexican really is the absolute worst newspaper.