A Meeting with the President

Few people in the history of this country have been as charismatic, open, and connected with the people that they lead, and we were given the good fortune to meet one of these great leaders. We're talking, of course, about the President of the La Cienega Acequia, Carl Dickens.
His interview, like that of J.J. Gonzales, only reinforced that WPI had much to offer the rural areas of Santa Fe.

Take a gander at the interview right here. You can download it, too.


Part 1

Part 1 download!

Part 2

Part 2 download!


Part 3

Part 3 download!


Part 4

Part 4 download!


Part 5

Part 5 download!


Part 6

Part 6 download!


Part 7

Part 7 download!

A True Dearth of Firewood

Finding firewood in Santa Fe is like trying to catch Sam doing work at the complex, Dave being tall, or Andrew acting human. It just ain't happening.

What should have been a simple trip down to the local super market ended up being a nearly 2 hour long scavenger hunt where the only thing to be hunted was a faggot, or a bundle of sticks and wood. No fewer than six different stores told us that the last bundle was sold earlier that day, but that wasn't even the most annoying issue. At Wal-Mart I asked an employee if they sold fire wood, his response was "fire wood? Like for what?"After I explained that fire wood was for burning, he then proceeded to tell me that fire wood was out of season. I was under the impression that trees grew all year round, but I guess this is a mistaken assumption.

Finally after all hope was lost, the air was rent with honk, and Bob Saget was cursed a plenty, we resigned to going to Smith's super market to pick up a Dura-Flame™ log. It was here that we discovered the holy grail of fire wood. Bundles upon bundles were stacked against the walls lining the inside of the store. $16 and four bundles later we were finally able to put to use our 72 hershey's chocolate bars. Smores were made aplenty, but there was always enough chocolate left for s'more.

Pranzo Dessert, Take 2

Just another day hard at work for us WPI students. Chris's parents graciously took us out to dinner on their brief stint in Santa Fe. For anyone reading this who may or may not be Chris's parents...thanks again.

At any rate, it is our charge to sample the culinary treats of Santa Fe, and in my opinion we have diligently risen to the challenge, with a little help from our friends.

I will give you that we are just uncultured college students, but I believe anyone will tell you that if there is one thing college students know how to do, it is eat. In this regard we are very well suited to the task.

We haven't eaten desert very many places, but of the places that we have, I enjoy Pranzo the most. It is the only place we have been that has not a micro-brewery, but a micro-creamery. They make their own ice cream and it is exceptional. Thus far, we have sampled the Cinnamon, the Black Raspberry, the Caramel Praline, and the Vanilla Bean. All of them were quite good, with Caramel Praline being my personal favorite.

More on this later. Hopefully...

Camping

Cold.



There was a lot of controversy about this particular camping trip, but one thing that can't be argued is that it was cold. Fortunately we were in a beautiful area so that was designated for camping, so we were legally allowed to build a campfire and didn't have to break any laws for the night.

Our campground was located at Hyde State Park just 8 miles out of Santa Fe, via Hyde Park Road. The drive, while short, afforded a drastic change in scenery. Buildings turned into sprawling aspen trees and sounds of traffic gave way to the sounds of a babbling brook.

Overall it was a cold,yet pleasant experience. I very much look forward to doing it again sometime.

And Just When You Thought It Couldn't Get Better

Turns out my technical philandering has paid off, we can now post music and sound on the blog! Resultantly, our once-dormant interviews are now available for your listening pleasure!
Here's Part 1 of the interview we had with Acequia Big-Wig JJ Gonzales on the history of the Acequias and New Mexico Water Rights. Take a listen here, or download it!



The rest of the interview is available on the blog post about the interview, here.

ARTS Lab

Let's use our imaginations for a second and imagine if you were one of the first explorers of the new world, and say you came across the fabled City of Gold. You're standing in the middle of their equivalent of their town square, and gold surrounds you. The material that you were told from birth to be the rarest material in the world is the most common thing in sight. The thing that your civilization has stolen, lied, and killed for is paved into the roads. Here it is gold, not Gold. It's woven into the threads of rags, people are dusting it off of their feet so as to not track it into their homes. It is so commonly valueless to the inhabitants that they don't even need to offer it to you. You can just take it. It is their dirt.
Take a moment to dwell on this.
Now replace that gold with the concepts of creative potential, intellectual capability, and modern technological resources.

This is an accurate description of what we found at ARTS Lab

We went down to Albuquerque by train to pick up the car that was left by our Gracious Adviser that morning. We decided to spend the day in Albuquerque, starting with lunch at the Flying Star Cafe. During our meal of assorted cheeses (Grilled, Mac'n', and Cream), Simon suggested that we start by visiting ARTS Lab that happened to just be down the road.
The external portion of the building was rather unimpressive, it if felt like we were approaching the undecorated rear of a supermarket. Once inside, however.
Supercomputer Clusters! Green Screen Movie Sets! Fully Functional Miniature Planetariums!

And the people! Remember that metaphor that I mentioned at the beginning. They were beyond eager to help and give us full access to every part of their facilities. Though officially part of UNM, they had difficulty generating participation in the student body. "I think it's because it's so unapproachable," Said Joe Dean, "but really, we love it when people come in with suggestions or ideas." He then returned to work on a new Planetarium presentation on a Quadcore monolith with 16 GB of RAM, one of the slower computers in the Lab. We visited other parts of the lab, talked to really interesting people, sat under the planetarium dome, gawked at their (shockingly impressive but shamefully unused) Supercomputing Server Cluster and before we knew it the day had gone. We left that day full of new business cards and hope. This was certainly the most incredible potential contact for an IQP project center yet!

Our only regret about the entire experience is that we didn't bring a camera.
Oh well, guess we have to go back!

Getting the Power of the Point

Getting 20 members of the Santa Fe community to come to the Complex let us feel that we were reaching out for future students. Below we have the visuals of the power point, other fun attachments to follow.