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Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - Leasburg Dam State Park, Radium Springs NM

Hanging in there, Prickly Pear Cactus, Leasburg Dam State Park, Radium Springs NM, January 23, 2009
Hanging in there, Prickly Pear Cactus, Leasburg Dam State Park, Radium Springs NM, January 23, 2009

Life's tough - while it lasts

Life can be a struggle out here in the desert. Those pesky creosotes, in taking over so much of the desert, haven't made life easy for the natives. Some don't survive. Others put up a valiant struggle against long odds and manage to barely hang in there. Like this Prickly Pear cactus.

Night camp

Site 9 - Leasburg Dam State Park, Radium Springs NM

Ask What Surprised Them

I was afraid of flying for a long time and could only travel vicariously. When friends came back from faraway places, it wasn't just out of politeness that I asked what they saw. I really wanted to know. And I found the best way to get information out of them was to ask what surprised them. How was the place different from what they expected? This is an extremely useful question. You can ask it of the most unobservant people, and it will extract information they didn't even know they were recording.

The Age of the Essay, Paul Graham, September 2004

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