NM AW #1 – Starting

This article was originally posted on March 6, 2016 on my homebrew website, Fat Grey Tom’s Cider. It has been re-posted here with the same time stamp.

The Fat Grey Tom’s Cider of old, is, alas, dead.

I, Wheeler, moved to New Mexico for a job. Bryce also moved away. Leo stayed in Reno.

After nearly three years in New Mexico (three years in July) I’ve decided to start brewing again and the easiest place to restart is with a simple cider.

I did the usual. Managed to find some five-gallon buckets from a candy maker ($2 a pop), got some dextrose (corn sugar) and did the usual Great Value apple juice.

Since I haven’t been able to find any Carlo Rossis, or 4-liter carboys, I went with a 4.6 gallon batch, or 6 containers of 96-ounce apple juice.

Still a stand-by, I went with the Nottingham Ale Yeast.

I still have as of yet to get any bottles (we don’t recycle in Española) but I’m not worried because I plan on a month or two in primary, same for secondary, for the cider.

The current plan is to rack this batch onto a few quarts of Trader Joe’s tart cherry juice (something we never did in Reno) or, failing that, rack it on top of some frozen, then boiled, raspberries. Raspberries are a tried-and-true recipe for us, that looks super pretty and tastes purely amazing.

I also plan, at secondary, to rack a new batch of cider on the lees.

Cider with lid in primary, above. Sani bucket below.

Cider with lid in primary, above. Sani bucket below.

Searching federal search warrants in New Mexico: A how-to guide

Since I haven’t updated the blog in quite a while, I thought it would not hurt to cross-post my guide on looking up federal search warrants on PACER, in New Mexico.

This was orginally posted, as part of a work-in-progress cops and courts guide, here: http://nmcourts.wheelerc.org/.

Looking up federal search warrants on PACER

Searching New Mexico federal search warrants requires a PACER account and a willingness to shell out some cash for unneeded documents.

But, maybe we can change that. I’m currently hosting (on google drive) all of the federal search warrants (the dockets, the reports and the affidavits/applications) I download when looking to see if anything has been filed for my jurisdiction. If anyone has a better way to archive and share them, please let me know. I would like to make it as open and easy as possible.

Here’s the link. Want to add more? Please email them to me. As will be explained below, the report should be saved (into a PDF) and the date it is run should be listed on the document name. (More warrants are unsealed as each month progresses.)

(LINK: On Google Drive)

If you’re using pacer, you should have RECAP installed. (It’s PACER backwards). I find it works best on Chrome, although it also works on Firefox. It automatically uploads the document to the Internet Archive so whenever someone else looks at case file/docket you’re looking at, they can bypass PACER and download, for free, from the Archive. This also includes you, if you lose the document or can’t find it on your computer.

There are two ways to search for search warrants. The first is the easiest, but requires running reports, which could (technically) cost well above the normal $3/30 page ceiling for charges on PACER.

The second merely requires the knowledge that search warrants use the two middle letters of “mr”. Example: 15-mr-439

As an example, a civil case is usually numbered by: the last two digits of the year (15) – CV for civils – the number of the case here, such as 125. Example: 15-cv-00125.

Criminal magistrate cases are MJ. Example: 15-mj-00125 or 15-mj-125.

Criminal district court cases are CR. Example: 15-cr-00125 or 15-cr-125.

The first method (for illustrated first method, see below).

1. Log into pacer and go to the NM District Court.

2. Click on “Reports” at the top of the page.

3. Under criminal reports, click on “Criminal Cases.”

4. Under “Office” select “Albuquerque.” Under “Case types” select “Miscellaneous Criminal.”

5. Click on “Run Report.”

6. Choose which warrant to view. The report should only show unsealed search warrants.

The second method

1. Go into PACER, NM District Court, and search for the year of search warrants you desire, using the middle letters of MJ. It should for 2015, start at 15-mj-00001.

The first method, illustrated

1. Log into pacer and go to the NM District Court.

2. Click on “Reports” at the top of the page.

Fed SW Step 1A

 

3. Under criminal reports, click on “Criminal Cases.”

Fed SW Step 2

4. Under “Office” select “Albuquerque.” Under “Case types” select “Miscellaneous Criminal.”

Fed SW Step 3

5. Click on “Run Report.”

6. Choose which warrant to view. The report should only show unsealed search warrants.

Fed SW Step 4

 

This guide, website and all the information contained therein is distributed under a Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution-Only license.
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Review – Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir by Tony Hillerman

This review was originally posted on Goodreads.com and reviews.wheelerc.org on July 19, 2015.

Tony Hillerman’s Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir is both sorely disappointing, for how badly and boringly it is written, and how much of a sell-out shill Hillerman, despite still calling himself a “journalist.”

Please, let us be clear: I do not just mean “shill” as a put down. I am being exact in language here. Hillerman is a shill and he should feel deeply ashamed and ethically compromised for it.

Even if Hillerman weren’t a shill and a disgrace to the journalism profession, his memoir is still a terrible and boring read.

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Review – Among the Thugs by Bill Buford

This review was originally posted on Goodreads.com (truncated) and reviews.wheelerc.org on July 5, 2015.

There are two kinds of violence in Among the Thugs.

The first is the violence we, the reading and civilized public, are supposed to abhor: violence perpetrated by the football (soccer) hooligans.

The second kind of violence is that perpetrated by the police forces against protesters of all stripes, including those football hooligans, American author Bill Buford all but outright states is an entirely acceptable form of violence perpetrated by state actors.

Don’t get me wrong: Among The Thugs is an enjoyable read and the violence is certainly disturbing.
However, Buford falters many times and a large portion of his falters are the sanctioning of state terror and violence.

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Review – Dear Life: Stories by Alice Munro

This review was originally posted on Goodreads.com and reviews.wheelerc.org on May 31, 2015.

Dear Life: Stories is, as one reviewer posited, a bad place to start reading such an acclaimed author. This may very well be true. Either way, I have no intention of continuing to read any of Munro’s work after reading what amounts to an extremely over sold and boring set of stories.

I honestly have no idea where Munro earned her reputation from, earning the Nobel prize and all. Then again, Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow earned the Pulitzer and I’m stuck a third of the way through that. So, yes, I can see the award winning, I just can’t understand it.

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Review – Clans of the Alphane Moon by Phillip K. Dick

This review was originally posted on Goodreads.com and reviews.wheelerc.org on Jan. 17, 2015.

A fast-paced novel, Clans of the Alphane Moon has a little of everything: a meditation on the civil rights of the mentally ill and the freedom of free will and free agency; the trials of marriage and divorce; the insanity of a paranoid security apparatus.

Far from being the failure or claptrap Barry Malzberg calls it (sci-fe being a lesser genre in his not-so-humble opinion) in at least one edition (Bluejay Special Edition) of the book.

Worth the read.

On Goodreads

Review – The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace

This review was originally posted on Goodreads.com and reviews.wheelerc.org on March 26, 2015.

Certainly a valiant and well-written first attempt, The Broom of the System falls short. It’s not a classic, it’s not a great, but it’s more or less enjoyable. It is, partially, a story about stories. Also, the use of different forms of media forms (transcripts, journal entries, etc.) is a welcome touch that has not, unfortunately, caught on.

On Goodreads

Review – Samaritan by Richard Price

This review was originally posted on Goodreads.com and reviews.wheelerc.org on March 25, 2015.

Samaritan, the first Richard Price book I’ve read, reminded me why reading can be so enjoyable. Plotting, pace, dialogue, characters, it’s all brilliant here. Easy to look over are the beautiful turns of phrase.

I will admit, at the end, the morality starts beginning to feel less like a revelation after the fifth or sixth time and more like hammer banging on an already flush nail.

Leading up to that morality, and the play itself, was not something I realized until I finished the book, was not something I was cognizant of. Brilliant.

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Review – The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

This review was originally posted on Goodreads.com and reviews.wheelerc.org on March 17, 2015.

The sequel (in a planned series) to The Long Earth is a disjointed, unbelievable and internal-morality questionable series of vignettes, too many characters and, worst of all, no actual plot.

Please, don’t get me wrong. I love Terry Pratchett’s books, to a fault, and I feel sacrilegious writing this review after his early death.

The Long War is, however, an un-plotted bore that breaks the suspension of disbelief and has an uneven moral grounding.

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Review – Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff

This review was originally posted on Goodreads.com and reviews.wheelerc.org on March 1, 2015.

Detroit is a great pseudo-memoir by the Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Charlie LeDuff. It mixes new material with articles from his time at the Detroit News, a newspaper, that is, his personal observations and story with the stories he was covering.

I thought it was a great read, but that does not mean it is a perfect work of non-fiction by any means.

He’s certainly a great journalist and a great writer. At one point, he pokes a frozen dead man with his pencil. He’s carrying that around because pens freeze. (This is true. And it’s terrible when it happens and one has no pencils.)

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