I don’t know about you but the latest commercial for the, “You drink, you drive, you lose” campaign is very dramatic. When I first saw this commercial I was stunned. I thought to myself, “This will finally get the message across!” Then two days later I saw a news story about a mother that was driving while drunk, she hit a pole which collapsed on to the roof of her vehicle hitting her six month old baby, sitting in the child seat on the passenger side.
When are people going to learn!
The holiday season is here, so please be safe and report any drunk drivers by calling 311 or 242 COPS (242-2677)
My sister joined LinkedIn the other day and added me to her network. I have been on LinkedIn for a couple of years, but I never really completed my profile. I was paying more attention to my Facebook account, my Twitter account, my Flickr account, my YouTube account and my Duke City Fix account. I actually belong to a few more, but there are too many to list.
There are just a few accounts that I am active on a daily basis, Facebook and Twitter. I tried to be active on all my accounts on a daily basis, but I soon realized that I have used half the day just making small updates and not adding any real content to all of them. That is why I now just focus on two of them. When I have something relevant to say on the others I will add it to those sites, but that is few and far between.
Each of the sites I belong to have their own niche. I realized early on that I cannot post across the board the same content. LinkedIn is to professional to post that I have advanced on Pirates and I don’t want to look to stuffy by posting business tips on Facebook (I still do though), the Facebook audience is more forgiving.
It’s almost a full-time job to post to all of my sites daily, but that is what is needed if you are trying to brand yourself. Looking for content that is relevant to your interests and your audience can be difficult. Right now I’m just focusing on two sites, if I find content that works on the others I will post. I try to maintain the other sites because I don’t want them to languish.
So, how many sites do you have? Post them in my comments and I will subscribe.
My parents had intended to give me a different name when I was born; instead they named me Anthony Lovato in honor of my Uncle Anthony. At the time of my birth my uncle was serving in the Vietnam War. His platoon was caught in an ambush and a big fire fight broke out. My uncle was separated from his unit and had to survive on his own until he was able to make it back to base.
It was during this time that he was MIA that I was born. My parents named me after my Uncle Anthony Lovato, because they feared the worst. My Uncle Sal (Jr) Lovato flew the Huey helicopters in Vietnam. His tour was up when my Uncle Anthony went MIA, so he stayed for another tour to see if he could locate him. It was not long after my Uncle Jr. signed up for another tour, that my Uncle Anthony was able to make his way back to another unit.
Our freedom is not free. Sacrifices are made by the brave men and women that fight in our military. Some pay the ultimate sacrifice and give their lives, so that we could live in a free society.
I want to thank each and every brave soldier who made the sacrifice to be away from his/her family, who sacrificed comfort to fight in dangerous conditions and who scarified a limb for America. I want to thank the brave men and women that made the ultimate sacrifice and gave their lives so that my family can live in peace and lead a free life.
Thank you! God bless each and every one of you! I know that freedom isn’t free and each one of you have stepped up to the challenge. God Bless all of you!
We are indeed blessed here in New Mexico. We don’t have strong earthquakes, we don’t have a lot of humidity, we don’t have a lot of rain and we don’t, for the most part get a lot of snow. We have over 300 days of sunshine and the weather here is very pleasant the majority of the year.
Here we are the second week of November and we are still in the mid to upper 50’s in the afternoon. We have to remember that our weather can change in an instant, don’t forget that we are over 5,000 ft high and we do have the occasional storm. It is important to be prepared for the unexpected.
This is the time of year where we get our cars and houses ready for winter, but let us not forget about our needs if we should get trapped in our car in a snow storm or severe weather.
Put together an emergency kit and keep it in your car. Grab an old duffle bag and put a couple of thick blankets, flashlight (with new batteries), compass, mirror and get some MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) at your local military outlet store. Some peanuts, crackers and granola bars are good snacks. While you are there at the military outlet store grab a few solar blankets, they help to keep you warm and are also a windbreaker. Also, keep a car charger for your cell phone in your car. You will also need some water so keep at least a couple of gallons of water in your trunk, along with some flares and a blinking LED light. Try to carry enough supplies for a couple of days.
If you get tapped in a snow bank, run your car just long enough to warm up the interior and then turn it off (remember you have blankets). You may want to keep it running to keep you warm but that could create some problems. If you keep it running you could poison yourself from the exhaust fumes and the car will run out of fuel. The point is to survive until they find you. So, that means DON’T LEAVE YOUR CAR! You may think that you can make the hike to help, but the elements can be deceiving. The car is bigger and and can be seen from the air, it also provides shelter.
When the search party starts to look for you they will send out people on land and air. You have the mirror to signal to both and use your horn once every 15 min. if you see activity or hear vehicles. These are just a few tips to help you survive the elements if you should get stranded. Do you have any tips to add, let me know. Go out and enjoy winter, but be safe and prepared.
I’m glad to see that real trucks and SUVs are being built. In recent years we have seen a decrease in truck and SUV sales due to many reasons, but the main reason is due to the increase in fuel prices. This has left off-road enthusiasts with little hope that manufactures’ would continue to build trucks and SUVs that are rugged enough to go off-road.
There is still hope, here are three new vehicles that were made to go off-road and come from the manufacture with many off-road accessories.
Ford
The Ford F-150 SVT Raptor is made to be driven off-road, while at the same time is comfortable to drive within the city. The truck comes with 35” tires and reservoir shocks. Ford is coming out with two new versions of the SVT Raptor, the SVT Raptor with a 6.2 liter V8 and the FR Raptor XT. Check out motorauthority.com for more information.
Jeep
Jeep has always produced vehicles that can be driven off-road and the 2010 Wrangler Rubicon is no exception. Mopar has an extensive line of off-road accessories and Jeep put these parts on one of their Jeep Wrangler Rubicons to show how easy it is to modify a Jeep. If you want more information check out Topspeed.com
Hummer
With recent events that caused GM to sell the Hummer line to a Chinese company, the Hummer looked like it was on its last leg. Well, it seems that the Chinese company is willing to let Hummer run its US division and has come out with two new versions for the off-road enthusiast. The fist is model is called the H3 Moab; it’s geared towards the off-road enthusiast. The second model is called the H3T Sportsman and it’s geared towards the hunting enthusiast. If you want more information check out Worldcarfans.com.
I have lived in the South Valley most of my life. I have seen the City of Albuquerque grow all around the South Valley and I have also seen Bernalillo County ignore the South Valley. These two entities have direct and indirect control over the South Valley and its residents. For example, when I call the Albuquerque police department for assistance I get the standard that is not our district. When I point out that I’m in the city portion of the South Valley they consult their maps and eventually send an officer over: however, they always insist that I call the County. If you live in the South Valley you have to make more than one phone call to get anything done.
Recently the county has been working on restriping Bridge Ave., which to say the least has been a real pain in the ass! I don’t know if you have ever driven down Bridge, it’s an exercise in patience. None of the lights are synchronized. It takes me 15-20 minutes to drive from my house near Goff to the freeway every morning—that is only a two mile drive. The restriping project caused a big headache the other day. Traffic was backed up from the bridge all the way to Atrisco! The reason was because the light at La Vega was short cycling. It only allowed 3 or 4 cars through and would stay red for over a minute—unreal! I called the City’s 311 line and was told they could not help me because that was County. I called the County and got a voice mail. I have never really spoken to a County official—I always get voicemail.
These types of complaints are common from South Valley residents. This is why it is so important that the South Valley incorporates! The South Valley can take control of its destiny. This means infrastructure, economic growth, and quality of life issues (there are not that many parks in the South Valley).
The South Valley Incorporation committee meets every 2nd Tuesday of each month. The next meeting is this upcoming Tuesday. They meet at the Rio Grande High School Library. If you want some say, if you want your opinion to be heard, you should attend these meetings. The South Valley needs to take control, it needs to stop being at the mercy of the City of Albuquerque and the County of Bernalillo.
If you have a GPS device and use it when you are out exploring, offroading, cycling, hiking, etc. and you record your waypoints for upload later—you are in for a treat!Trails.com is now GPS integrated.What does that mean; well I will tell you what that means.
If you have saved your waypoints and uploaded them to you your computer, but wanted to share them with your friends—the only way to do that was to print out the maps or send them via email.There was no way to share your waypoints on your GPS unit with your friends GPS unit.That is where Trails.com comes in; now that Trails.com is GPS integrated you can upload your waypoints and your friend can download them to his/her GPS unit.As long as your GPS unit supports .GPX files you can download any GPS coordinates from any user that uploads them to Trail.com—Coooool!
This is going to make Geocaching a lot more accessible and fun.
Born and rasied here in Albuquerque. Graduated in 2006 with my Associates in Business Administration.
I love the outdoors! Four-Wheeling is one of my hobbies and Photography is another.
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