Thank you for sharing this. You've opened me up to a whole new world of experiences! Do you typically buy the hatch chile in the grocery store, then have them roasted outside? Or will it be available for sale in the parking lot already roasted? Thank you again!
In New Mexico at least, you buy them inside the store in large quantity, take your shopping cart full of them out to the propane fired roaster set up in the parking lot, help the attendant dump your chiles in the barrel, watch them tumble and crackle in the flames, then finally tell the attendant when they are roasted/charred to the degree you want them to be. Every grocery store does this, and during the roasting season, the entire town will smell like roasted chiles. It's possible that other places with less of a chile culture might use a modified routine.
In season, I usually go to one of the roasters set up in a parking lot. They’re all over Albuquerque and most of NM but also Denver and Pueblo and probably other cities in the southwest. There are several stands on Federal in Denver, for instance.
You choose your variety of chile (and the heat) and buy it in 25 lb increments. They fresh roast it for you at that time. 25 lbs is a lot of chile and it’s perishable, so you have to take it home and process it. Ideally will last most of the year. I peel and eat as much as I can while it’s fresh, and for the rest, it’s best to freeze it with the skins still on, as they’re easily removed when it’s thawed.
I still have an old desk for a desktop PC I had at my parents house and took to university with me. It is made of cheap particle board, has many nicks/scratches, and a warped surface, but is still sturdy. Since it isn't new or made of expensive wood, my favorite part has been customizing it to fit my needs by drilling holes, adding makeshift shelves made of scrap wood, drilling in stands for my speakers, attaching pipe for mounting a camera, making an under-desk mount for my laptop, itd. It isn't pretty, but it has allowed me to fix any annoyances I had as far as comfort, desk space optimization and efficiency go. I drool when I see some of the battlestations people post, but my desk makes me happy because it is the one I have to use.
Freakonomics covered this in one of their podcasts. Their finding was that home-field advantage had more to do with the crowd influencing the calls of the officials. They would typically favor the home team. I wonder if this will change further with the use of VAR.
It's amazing that the MLB has the smallest home field advantage, despite the fact that baseball fields are actually pretty different from each other.
I would've thought stuff like being used to the visual backdrop behind a pitcher's arm would let you see a pitch better or knowing where to stand to best play a ball caroming off the outfield wall would give more of an advantage.
> It's amazing that the MLB has the smallest home field advantage
And given that, relative to the other sports, there's an actual difference in the rules and play of the game based on which team is at home (less so now hat the DH is in both leagues).
Speaking on crowds influencing officials, I think this has been obvious in MMA with no crowds.
There are times of little action where the ref separates fighters, typically as the inaction goes on the crowd boos more and more. With no crowd different strategies have been implemented to allow for a slower pace at times.
Also the commentators talk so loud in the empty arenas the players have said they can hear them and make adjustments based on their commentary.
Last week a commentator shouted out to stop a fight at a UFC event which has caused some turmoil afterwards as well.
Fans can also now hear all the strikes and slams to the mat watching at home because of the silence. It's made it a much better experience imo.
While all this is happening the judges are also sitting ring side so there is certainly a human factor of outside influence going on in their decision making. (MMA and boxing judges are notorious incompetent)
I've set my parents up with a Fire Stick with Netflix, Sling, Prime, etc.. But the internet in their area isn't that good and the streams cut out frequently. I live 3 hours away and have FIOS, so I typically don't run into issues on my end and can't easily drop by to troubleshoot. It's a hard sell when they are used to always being able to turn on the TV and have something to watch without the frustrations of network issues.
