Author: Benson Hendrix

Benson Hendrix, APR has been called everything from a “social media zen warrior” to the ” ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper of Public Relations,” and from a “behind the scenes powerbroker,” to “the loudmouth PR love child of Henry Rollins and Anthony Bourdain,” but doesn’t really believe any of it (except maybe the “Rowdy” Roddy Piper part). Hendrix is the Digital Media Manager for the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and loves helping organizations and people tell the stories that are important to them. He is also an adjunct social media instructor at the University of New Mexico, and the Social Media Strategist for TEDxABQ. In the few minutes a week he calls "spare time," he relaxes with his wife and chases his dream to be a better photographer.
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How Very Cool

Posted on by Benson Hendrix

According to this article from CNN, scientists in Wales have determined that dolphins living off of the coast of Wales communicate in a different dialect than dolphins living off of the coast of Ireland.

(Apparently, the Welsh Dolphins spend a lot of time discussing the value of sheep, while the Irish Dolphins talk about how many ways they can drink Guinness, repeatedly say “Kiss me Blarney stone, the damn tuna nets got me again!” and debate how to the get the English out of Northern Ireland.)

That said, the best thing in the article was the dateline. Bangor, Wales. I stayed in the town while on tour with a rugby team many years ago. It’s the coolest little college town! Actually, all of Wales was amazing! I miss being there, it’s so green and lush and beautiful. If you ever get the chance to go, do it!

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Technology, Wordpress

Almost There…

Posted on by Benson Hendrix

We take a break in our political and public relations blogging to inform you…

As of 11:42 Mountain time, WordPress.com was at 999,947 blogs.

Almost one million!  Come on little train!  “I think I can… I think I can…” 🙂

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Uncategorized

The Grilling Buddha

Posted on by Benson Hendrix

I love our wonderful New Mexico springtimes. The birds singing, the breeze through the trees… and the chance to fire up the grill.

Grill??

As my dog says,

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“Grill?? As in Food??? For me!?!? Oh boy!”

I love to grill. I’d grill every day if I could, as it is I’m going to start grilling every weekend until probably November. However it’s been a while since I had a grill. Not since I started living in apartments about 6 years ago (it’s a long story). But this year, living in my SO’s house, I could finally get a grill. It’s not the biggest or the baddest grill…

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But it’s mine! And it only cost me $10 at Home Depot!

It was the last one, a display model!

(more pictures to follow)

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Uncategorized

A Day at the Park

Posted on by Benson Hendrix

A couple of weeks back I visited Phil Chacon Park in Albuquerque to check out the Albuquerque Aardvarks rugby team in their match with the Glendale, Colorado Raptors. Following are some of the picture I took at the match. The action was so fierce and fast paced that some of the other images came out blurry.

Aardvarks’ Warming Up The Aardvarks started with a warm-up huddle. Focused on a single goal, winning.

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albuquerque

Searching for the Hidden Park (Sept. 30, 2006 Redux)

Posted on by Benson Hendrix

 

Recently my GF told me about this hidden park in our neighborhood. We’ve taken Pickles (my dog) out there a couple of times, and given Pickles recent escape attempts (chronicled below), I decided Saturday morning to take her on a walk.

My GF leaves for work about 6:45 in the morning on Saturdays, and this Saturday I couldn’t get back to sleep after she left, so I did a little blogging and a little blog reading until it warmed up.

Around 10:30 I decided it was warm enough and I was bored enough to go back to the “Hidden Park”. This time, however, I thought I’d chronicle our little adventure.

So I started rounding up everything I needed for a successful walk.

Loaded pipe?

Check.

iPod ready to go? Check. (and ironic if you can see the audiobook playing, “Blog” by Hugh Hewitt) 😉

Ready to go. I just keep thinking I’m missing something.

Something important…

Oh yeah, the dog!

Now, ready to go and all that, away we went. (more pics in Part 2)

 

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albuquerque

Searching for the Hidden Park Pt. 2 (Sept. 30, 2006)

Posted on by Benson Hendrix

Pickles and I kept walking in the neighborhood, enjoying the morning and the beautiful sunny day we have so many of in New Mexico.

We live in a part of town with a lot of support for Patricia Madrid. Last week while at the State Fair my GF and I picked up a Halliburton Heather sign for our yard for the heck of it and the guy at the Democratic Party for New Mexico tent and he told us that we lived in a part of town that was pretty friendly for Madrid. My GF joked that she didn’t want a brick thrown through her window and, and the guy told us there were parts of town where that could probably happen.

Anyway, back to the walk. We came to a bend in the road, one way was a quick jaunt to the main roads, the opposite of which led us down a winding road into Pleasant Valley Sunday-land.
We turned left (at Albuquerque, heh heh) and before long, the road led us to an ominous looking entry lane…
What would wait for us on the other side? Only the Shadow knows…

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albuquerque

Searching for the Hidden Park Pt. 3 (Sept. 30, 2006)

Posted on by Benson Hendrix

What was waiting for us? We walked down the little lane…

And there it was, in its glory, hidden from the outside world by a protective ring of houses. A little slice of shady paradise in Albuquerque. (without the SCA’ers swinging swords at each other).

Pickles started to drag me around to look for her favorite spots, which included the entire park.

She took time to say hi to a new addition to the park she’d never met before. A dog that was very happy to see her, I’m sure.

We looked down another of the side entrances to the park.

And how cool! Tibetan prayer flags!

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New Mexico, travel

A Few Days Around the State

Posted on by Benson Hendrix

I’ve taken this week off from work (except for Friday), and my GF and I decided to do a couple of day trips. Yesterday we went to Santa Fe (I know, not much of a day trip) but we went the scenic way through Madrid (pronounced “Mahd-rid” not “Ma-Drid” as they say in Spain).

Madrid’s a funky little village on NM 14 between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. It’s a very artsy community, with art galleries located in every other house along the main drag we strolled along.

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public relations

Via Con Dios, Amigos

Posted on by Benson Hendrix

This was just in from the ABQ Tribune today. Albuquerque Journal Associate Sports Editor Mike Hall died from pneumonia today. Mike was 61 years old. Update: The Albuquerque Journal did a great article in Saturday’s paper as well.

Mike was a friend of mine. He hired me to work on the Journal sports desk over 10 years ago. Well, he didn’t as much “hire” me as let me work there part time (I was already working for the City Desk as a runner) during the week when they needed someone to answer phones.

Mike was still the sports editor at the time, before moving over and letting someone else take the helm of the sports desk. Mike then went on to cover Lobo Women’s Basketball. Mike was very dedicated to the women’s team. He worked hard to find the latest recruits that UNM was interested in and then would write features about them. This in turn helped the women’s program to recruit better players.

Mike was a great guy. I remember one time, when I was still playing rugby, I walked into the office one afternoon and Mike called me over to his desk. “I’m kinda concerned about you playing rugby,” he told me. He showed me an article about a New Zealand rugby player who was accused of sticking his hands up players… well you get the idea. “Is this what rugby is like?” he asked with a grin before we moved on to getting ready for that day’s work.

When Mike was around there was always something smart-assy that would come out of his mouth. Never in a malicious way, but in a light-hearted tone that would bring out the best in you for a response.

However, Mike was a pretty serious smoker. I don’t know how much he smoked, but he was often was seen outside indulging in a smoke break. Then before I left the Journal he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He took some time off to fight it and slowly started to come back to work as he was getting better. Then after I left the Journal he got sick again and, from what I had heard he had to be placed in a coma for a few weeks to try and fight it off.

Mike, you were greatly loved and you will be missed. Now the big paper up there has someone to cover the women’s beat.

Ah, but I wrote “amigos” in the headline…

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Uncategorized

UNM’s New Prez

Posted on by Benson Hendrix

According to the Albuquerque Journal, the University of New Mexico has a new president. Finally, they picked someone to replace Louis Caldera, the former Clinton-era Secretary of the Army. Although I have to say, having graduated from the University of New Mexico, having someone running the show who had to run an institution like the Army would be a benefit when dealing with that damn teachers union! 😉

Instead of picking the “safe” candidate, New Mexico Tech President Dan Lopez, the regents at UNM went with president of Oklahoma State University, David Schmidly. Schmidly was picked in part because he comes from a larger institution with a medical school. Lopez was the safe pick because he was endorsed by the Hispano Roundtable , and because he runs a college in New Mexico and everyone would have been happy letting him try to run UNM.

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