Я поддержал Мартин Хинрич

Мой русский класс должен написать политическую поддержку. Я решил написать блог о Мартине Хинриче, и разместить его на моем блоге, для моих русских читателей.

На прошлых выборах, шестого ноября две тысячи двенадцатого года, я поддержал Мартина Хинрича. Он участвовал в выборах вСША сенат, и выиграл. Сенат в США это как Совет Федераций в России.

Он выглядит, как человек которому вы можете доверять. Полтики всегда так выглядят.

Политически, я не демократ и не республиканец. Это две большие политические партии в США. По-моему, обе демократы и республиканцы ужасные. Я Либретэриян. Я думаю, что республиканцы обычно менее ужасные, немного.

Мне нравится Мартин Хинрич потому что его идеи имеют смысл, даже если он демократ. Хинрич голосует  за логичное экономическое законодательство, гражданские свободы и права на ношения оружия. Это не обычно, что демократ за права на ношения оружия.

У Мартина Хинрича есть жена - её зовут Джулия, и двое детей - Майка и Картир. Его семейная жизнь всегда очень общественная, и вероятно, искренная. Я не нашел никаких сумасшедших историй на Интернете о сексуальных скандалах.

Он изучал машиностроение в Государственном университете в штате Миссури, и был в аспирантуре в Университете Нью-Мексико.

Прежде, чем он выйграл, Мартин Хинрич провел веселую вечеринку, чтобы собрать деньги. Она была в "Трактор пивоваренный завод". Трактор имеет свое собственное пиво, очень вкусное, и вечеринка была очень веселая. Другие вечеринки для сбора денег не были веселыми.

Спасибо Олегу за исправления!

новые слова для меня
выбор	election
поддержать	to support
голосуеть	to vote
законодательство	legistration/laws/lawmaking
гражданские	civil
ношения оружия	bear arms, weapons, pro-gun
общественное	public
вероятно	probably
искренность	to be sincere
машиностроение	mechanical engineering
провести	to hold
чтобы собрать	to collect something
пивоваренный завод	brewery, beer making factory
сборщики денег	fundraisers

* If any of this sounds weird, please leave a comment or send me an email with a correction and explanation. I am trying to learn. Thanks!!

Structure Fire

In continuing with the theme of destruction, this blog post is dedicated to a structure fire today at 2404 Garfield Ave SE, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87106 at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 29, 2012.

I was watering my plants outside and my neighbors started talking about, and pointing towards, a gigantic cloud of black smoke forming three blocks away. As soon as I saw the cloud, I started to run towards it to see what was going on and if I could help. After running 50 feet, I decided it would be a good idea to grab my camera, and my keys, so I could take some pictures and lock my house up.

From two blocks away, the heat from the fire became apparent. The roads were also crowded with onlookers. The entire atmosphere was that of a UNM Student Ghetto carnival.

I texted my friend Alicia one of these pictures, and then realized my other friends may be interested in reading about the fire, so I decided to write a blog post.

The emergency workers were trying to get everyone away. They said propane tanks were present and could explode. After this, I started walking away.

My neighborhood association president - Jennifer Simpson. Her house is just down the street from the fire, and I borrowed her hair dryer on the way back to finish winterizing my awesome single pained windows.

I have never seen the streets so crowded. The emergency service vehicles were having trouble getting it with all the traffic. I was on foot.

An artists rendition of an aerial view of the fire.

The most amazing thing to me was the number of cars packed into the area surrounding the fire. The only other times I've seen things so packed were during Isotope's baseball games, and maybe during Lobo football games. Even then, these side streets NEVER see that much traffic.

Hopefully no one was hurt, and the fire department was able to contain the blaze. After a few days, I may take some pictures of the rubble, being careful not to get too close or do anything dangerous.

Thanksgiving Dump

This blog post is about going to the Grant County Municipal landfill, or dump, at Thanksgiving, not some other form of a gigantic Thanksgiving dump.

My family and I spent a good portion of our Thanksgiving holiday cleaning out a bunch of crap from my uncle's house. He passed away six months ago, and his house is scheduled to finalize selling in a week. All that means we have to get the house ready to sell.

I look out and admire a sea of old tires.

For some reason, I found the way the sun was shining, and the bulldozer crashing through the garbage, to be sort of attractive and interesting, in a kind of dystopian, WALL-E, sort of way.

Short Term Kitchen Rental

Today a woman called me about renting my kitchen from 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. Her number was from the 732 area code. My buddy Efrain and I have been working towards putting my apartment up as a short term vacation rental, but we never discussed posting the advertisement yet. Additionally, I just woke up when she called.

The entire discussion was extremely confusing, but I was pretty sure I sold her on the rental concept by combining jokes and pleasant descriptions about my place. This is interesting, since I did not even know I should/could/am rent(ing) out my kitchen and place for five hour blocks. While we were discussing how far away my apartment is from "the university" she mentioned that she did some graduate work in an obscure humanities department. This, combined with her eastern seaboard accent and out of state phone number, prompted me to ask "Just to make sure, since I am somewhat confused by this entire conversation, that you are interested in renting my place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Princeton street?" She laughed, and said "No, I'm interested in renting someplace close by Princeton University." That sort of ended our discussion, but she did mention "But I'm coming to Albuquerque later this year, and your place sounds great! I'll rent it when I'm in town then."

She got my information by Google'ing "Princeton Kitchen Rental" and watching my YouTube video describing the kitchen in one of my rental units. This comes up on page two of the Google results for that phrase. I posted this video on June 13, 2009 and included my phone number in the video description.

Everything is in order to put my apartment up for short term rentals. I was waiting on two things, and both of those have been addressed. The first thing I was waiting on was the jets on my hot tub were messed up. My hot tub has since been repaired. The second is that I was concerned that my home owners insurance policy would not cover short term rentals, and (after confirming, in writing) my insurance will cover them. My buddy Efrain is ready to go on helping with the labor for a portion of the profits. An interior decorator minded medical doctor named Maggie gave me some suggestions on quick improvements to make (especially with regard to my bathroom) and I'm going to quickly address the easiest / biggest of her suggestions.

Coming soon: short term vacation rentals by Brian, on Princeton STREET (not Princeton, N.J.) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A.

My Last Twinkie

Today I had my last Twinkie, (or four....) This was my last Twinkie in two senses, it was the last Twinkie I ate in my life, since I consumed it about 12 minutes before writing this blog post. It also may be the last Twinkie I ever eat, because Hostess seems totally unable to successfully deal with organized labor problems. Granted, Hostess has threatened this sort of action before, but it looks like they followed through with the initial stages of liquidation and have taken the necessary steps to scrap Hostess. As soon as I heard about this terrible news, I rode my bicycle over to the supermarket known as Ghetto Smith's to buy some.

It seems totally, totally ridiculous to me that the Baker's Union would rather scrap Hostess than grant concessions. I'm surprised that Hostess did not move all of their production offshore to take advantage of cheaper labor, and less hassle from unions in the United States. That's the lesson I learn from this bedtime story - avoid producing things in the United States that depend on relatively unskilled human labor. Then again, I have studied game theory and generally have not supported collective bargaining in the United States, since about the Industrial Revolution.

While going to Ghetto Smith's near UNM to buy my last package of Twinkies, I noticed that the display had only three boxes left...

...and one box looked like it had already been opened.

I have not had a Twinkie in about eights years. Mostly, this is because I do not want to be fat. The last time I actually remember eating one was as an undergraduate student, likely around second year of college (2004?) Despite that lapse in my consumption of cream-filled awesomeness, it makes me sad that the James Taggart types may be able to actually destroy Twinkies.

I realize that Hostess will likely sell off the Twinkie® brand, and I will be able to enjoy another delicious Twinkie, just under new ownership!

Twinkie delivery for my tenants

Russian Project - Мой друг Олег

As many of my real-life friends know, I have been studying Russian for some time. As one of the many, many benefits of my self-employment, I now have the flexibility to take Russian 101 at the University of New Mexico. Russian 101 is almost all review for me, but the beginning is a good place to start, and that is the first Russian class in the Russian degree program at UNM.

For my class, I did a presentation on my friend Oleg Semenov (Олег Анатольевич Семёнов.) If you are a native Russian speaker, please excuse any of my errors. I am still learning.

Мой друг Олег

Brian Stinar

24.10.2012

Это мой друг. Его зовут Олег Анатольевич Семёнов. Он высокий человек, и он блондин.

(This is my friend. His name is Oleg Son-Of-Anatoli Semenov. He is a tall man, and blonde.)

Он родился тридцатого июня, тысяча девятьсот восемьдесят третього года в Алмате, Казахстанне.

(He was born the thirtieth of June, in the 1983rd year, in Almaty, Kazakhstan.)

Мы стали друзьями когда Мы учились в аспирантуре. Сейчас он аспирант на факультете информатики (computer science).

(We started to become friends when we studied in graduate school. Now he is a graduate student in the department of informatics [computer science.])

Он любит ездить на Гавайи, в Miami и в Калифорнию, но он живёт в Albuquerque.

(He loves to go to Hawaii, Miami and California, but now he lives in Albuquerque.)

Это его сестра, её зовут Настя. она живёт здесь.

(This is his sister, her name is Nastya. She lives here.)

Это его мать - Ольга.

(This is his mom - Olga.)

и его отец - Анатолий. Они живут в Алмате.

(And his father - Anatoli. They live in Almaty.)

Вопросы?

(Questions?)

2105 Rio Grande Police Bust

On Friday October 26 2012 at 10:00 a.m., I was riding in my friend's car and she pointed out a very interesting police raid going down. We were driving down Rio Grande Boulevard when I managed to snap off a few pictures of the raid.

2105 Rio Grande - According to the mailbox

Lessons learned: 

1. Cops like to bust in your door at about 10:00 a.m.
2. Don't let your tenants become so bad that the sheriff's department wants to bust down their door. 
3. My phone is awesome and can quickly get cool looking action shots of the sheriff's department busting into crack houses.
4. Female friends do not want to stop and let you take more pictures, when there is a possibility of getting shot.

How to Watch or Download Joyce Meyer Videos

My dad likes to watch a preacher named Joyce Meyer preach. However, my family is considering cancelling their super expensive satellite TV subscription. About the only thing they will regret missing are Joyce Meyer's sermons.

Tonight my mom agreed to sew a pair of my pants if I helped her watch Joyce Meyer online. Fulfilling my end of that bargain is the purpose of this blog post. I like blog posts because they are impossible to lose, and can act as a living set of instructions (if updated.) There are five main steps to watching Joyce Meyer online, with her current webpage:

1. Go to www.joycemeyer.org
2. Click on BROADCAST
3. Click on the broadcast you want to watch.
4. Click on the full screen icon, if you want to watch the broadcast in full screen mode.
5. If the movie pauses when you switch it to full screen, make sure to click "play."

1. Go to www.joycemeyer.org
2. Click on BROADCAST

3.   Click on the broadcast you want to watch.

4.  Click on the full screen icon, if you want to watch the broadcast in full screen mode.

5.  If the movie pauses when you switch it to full screen, make sure to click "play."

If you want to download Joyce Meyer videos to watch later, the process is slightly different:

1. Go to this web page.
2. Right click the "download file" link for the sermon you want to watch. 
3. Click "Save Link As" 
4. Select a place on your computer to store the file you will remember later.
5. Click on the file to play it, after it has finished downloading to watch it later. 

Tile Table - Finished Product

The very first year I made yearly goals, one of my goals was learning how to fabricate tile from its (relatively) principle components. To me, this meant using clay, glaze and:

1. Rolling it out to an appropriate thickness (3/8 of an inch thick for a 1/4 thick finished tile)
2. Hand building designs on the tiles, if applicable
3. Drying them properly (very slowly, on newspapers so it can have some give, covered in plastic)
4. Trimming and sanding the dry tiles so they look smooth and finished
5. Bisque firing them in a kiln, which involves loading them in a not dumb way - this is where you find out if step number 1 left any air bubbles in them, creating bombs inside the kiln, instead of pieces of art
6. Applying glaze in the correct fashion (dipping), the correct period of drying between applications (2 days) and carefully cleaning the glaze off the portions that should not be glazed
7. Glaze firing them in the kiln, with all the same considerations as bisque firing, except now also being concerned with dripping glaze destroying someone else's project or permanently attaching my tile to the kiln
8. Bringing the hippy craft studio workers home made wine or beer, or nice microbrew (they were over 21) for the lessons in ceramics, keeping the craft studio open for me, and being extremely liberal in the material consumption policy 

In order to complete this table, I had about three times as many rejected tiles that I did not use. These tiles have since become accents in my father's construction project.

After giving the table to my father and mother for Christmas, my dad has since added an amazing cherry border to the table, as well as resurfacing the metal legs and framing. 

The bright blue with the Zias remind me of the New Mexican sky, and the sandy grout of the sandy earth we have in many parts of the state here.

Thanks to my buddy Jeremy Brewster for taking these picture! If things slow down with my software business, one of my plans is to start another, bigger, tile project at the UNM craft studio. It was a great deal of fun being involved in a creative process there, and that's where I met my friend Kevin Horschel (a.k.a K-Dawg.) 

Gone Ghetto Fishing - Part 2

Despite the recent success I have been enjoying with the new software company I own (blog post and grand opening party coming soon) I still have been going fishing with my friends. This is not to provide for a cheap or free source of animal protein, as I had originally anticipated while becoming 'self employed' / poor, but continues to be a good way to hang out and talk with my buddies in a relaxing way.

My friend Efrain Grijalva and I went down to Tingley Beach, and some kids gave me a (relatively) small catfish. We were talking with them for a while, and they planned on throwing the fish back. So far, I have only caught a couple of small blue gills, and I thought it would be fun to clean and eat the catfish. I asked them if I could have it, and they said sure!

I already ate the other part.

As Efrain and I were leaving, we noticed another person that was fishing down by us caught a gigantic catfish. This thing was super, super gigantic as compared to the other catfish I observed.