Watch #ABQ Become the Silicon Valley of the Southwest!

Albuquerque ain’t exactly Silicon Valley, but we’re getting there! With lots of great scientific projects going on and one of the best science and natural history museums in the Southwest, our city is slowly becoming a great place for people in the technology industry to make their careers.

From September 7 to September 15, the Albuquerque Tech Fiesta will gather around technology professionals from around the state to discuss startups, new developments in the field, and more. According to the event’s director of operations, Maralyn Beck, the Albuquerque Tech Fiesta aims to bring together the industries of the future and those that historically made Albuquerque what it is today: “This was all started by the New Mexico Technology Council trying to bring together the tech community and trying to marry the Sandia labs, technical and businesses communities. It’s all of these communities that are siloed in what they’re doing.”

The event will feature 21 expert panels, keynote addresses, the Sandia Science and Technology Showcase, TedEx, and more. In addition to the New Mexico Technology Council, the week is also sponsored by the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque Business First, StartUp New Mexico, and many more. To read more about the event, including how to register, click here.

Creating a Productive Home Office

It’s 2013 and more and more companies are letting their employees work from home. Making a living as an independent contractor is also becoming more common. So how in the world do these people stay productive and avoid the distractions that come with working from home?

It turns out that with the right methods of organizing and a healthy, focused mindset, that “useless” desk in your apartment can actually turn into a productive home office. Hongkiat.com had an article featuring 8 tips for creating an organized and productive home office. Among their tips are:

●    Don’t Mix Work With Personal Life: We’ll start with the most evident tip, blending work and pleasure as one. Even with the firmest intention to separate the both of them in your home office at the initial stage, the two are bound to mix since your office is in your home...Examine your home office from time to time to see how much of your workspace has been infested with distractions. Resolve to clear away your TV, game consoles, and other forms of distractions and keep them out of sight...Maintain that boundary within your home where work begins and ends. Keep this workspace as distinct from your other rooms as possible because such differentiation can have a psychological effect on how you divide work and play. 

●    Get Good Seating Support: Are you getting the seat support you need? You may not think comfort and support matter to your productivity, because who has the time to enjoy a real good work chair when engrossed with tons of work? As it turns out, that is precisely the reason why you should take note of your seating support if you are spending most of your time sitting on your chair when working...Here’s a comprehensive guide if you’re keen on getting an ergonomically designed desk chair. If you are a little tight on budget, consider purchasing a seat support for your desk chair. 

●    Simplify Processes: Have you complicated your home office and work processes so much so that it has become too overwhelming to work anymore? If so, it’s time to go back to basics – simplify...Remember that the key to an organized office is efficiency, and the more things you have around, the harder it is to keep everything in order...A typical disorganized office is when you have difficulties finding where you keep your documents. A workspace organized in too complex a manner causes may seem neat on the surface but will cause a lot of sorting or filing problems as there are too many categories....Keep things clean and minimal. When you over-organized, you will tend to procrastinate keeping your workspace neat because it’s too time-consuming and tedious. Eventually, you get clutter. This not only applies to just the physical layout of your work area; it is the same in your computer. Sort for easy access. The general rule is to keep the desktop as clear as possible with only a few files or apps that you’re working on. Maintain a minimalistic organization and a clean desk (keep ugly wires out of sight with these gadgets) so your mind won’t wander from one thing to another that easily. 

To read Hongkiat.com’s full list of tips for creating an organized, productive home office, click here. Are you Sandia Village resident who works from home? Comment on our Facebook page, and let us know how you stay productive at home!

Don’t “Hog” All the Fun at Burque Bacon Week

Can you smell that? Yep, you guessed it: bacon!

Albuquerque is now home to lots of perennial festivals, but this inaugural event, the Southwest Bacon Fest should definitely be a crowd favorite. On November 2 at the Albuquerque Balloon Museum, The Southwest Bacon Fest will play host to local restaurants, food trucks, caterers, and culinary artist who love to showcase one thing: bacon! The event is part of the first ever Burque Bacon Week, a six-day celebration of everyone’s favorite pork product: “The Southwest Bacon Fest will showcase local food vendors and their incredible bacon creations, from grilled, savory bacon treats to bacon coffees, candies and sweets,” according to a news release.

Tickets to the Southwest Bacon Fest will be available shortly. For adults, admission is $7, which includes full admission to the famous Albuquerque Balloon Museum. Tickets for kids ages 4 to 12 will be just $2, and children 3 and under will be admitted for free.

And if you’re a professional or amateur cook, you can get your own vendor table for $150; sponsor opportunities are also available.

We’re looking forward to it! And we sure hope some of our residents bring home some tasty treats to share with the rest of us! (But we won’t blame you if you “hog” it all to yourself.)

Saving Money as a Student in ABQ

As you probably heard, we offer a rent discount for college students! But there are countless other ways to save money as a college student also—and, of course, living in a relatively cheap town like Albuquerque and going to a well-priced college like the University of New Mexico or Central New Mexico Community College doesn’t hurt either!

BeingFrugal.net has an awesome list of 51 different ways to save money as a college student. Here are some of our favorites:

• Bus it. Public transportation is one of man’s greatest inventions because it is cheaper than car insurance and history’s highest gas prices (which you won’t have to pay if you ride the bus/metro/insert other mode of public transportation here). All it takes is a small fare or your campus’s bus passes (some universities charge, others give them out for free for a limited number of hours).
• Don’t just leave those cans and bottles from last weekend’s party on the curb to be taken away by the garbage man. Recycle them yourself and get cash from a grocery store that provides this service. This method of recycling, known as the Bottle Bill, is only in certain state’s legislation so hopefully you live in one of those 11 states.
• Thrift stores, garage sales and second-hand shops are a college student’s best friend when old clothes wear out. It is a widely held belief that thrift stores are thee places to shop whether you are cheap or not, because there is such a wide range of clothing that fits anyone’s taste and it’s rare that you’ll see someone else wearing the same clothing item you’ve bought from a second-hand shop.
• At the beginning of every week buy enough food to last you one week in one meal. i.e. chicken and rice for dinner the next seven days. It lacks the variety one enjoys, but we’re in college so we’re aiming for cheap and edible.

Do you have any other ideas for how college students can save money while in school? Let us know, and post a comment on our Facebook page! And don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about our student discount program.

It All Starts with an Organized Kitchen

It takes lots of time and experience to get to know a kitchen inside and out. Sure, maybe your parents were used to cooking big meals for lots of guests, and somehow the next morning the kitchen was still in one piece. But if you’ve only been living independently for a few years, learning how to keep your kitchen organized and functional can be a challenge.

IdealHomeDecorTips.com has offered us some great ways to reduce kitchen clutter and make it overall more practical for daily use. Some of their tips included:

• Set your priorities: A very simple way to make efficient use of your kitchen shelving space is by organizing your dishes, cups and bowls by frequency of use. Store your everyday kitchenware on easy-to-reach lower shelves. Then place special-occasion champagne glasses, platters and other fancy ware on top shelves.
• Stash your stuff: Make a drawer specifically for plastic bags, aluminum foil and plastic wrap near the fridge to speed up the process of strong leftovers. Another smart idea is to keep a cabinet of Tupperware underneath this drawer.
• Throw it out: It’s always a good idea to go through your fridge every other week to throw away those food items that you or your roommates may have forgotten about. This is also a great time to organize everything in your fridge in a neat manner to maximize fridge space.
• Divide and conquer: Drawer organizers are one of the best ways to organize all elements of your apartment. Instead of a big glob of silverware all jumbled together you can easily separate and find your spoons, forks and knives in no time.

To read their full list of kitchen organizing tips, click here.