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January 31, 2010, a Sunday
Elephant Butte Lake State Park (South Monticello), New Mexico, USA
— Watched Ratatouille, and it reminded me of Life of Brian
Had my normal breakfast then worked up a blog entry. We left at 10:15 and ...

Walked to the overlook by the campground, then bushwhacked down to the boat ramp, then went ...

Back to the RV around 11:10. I set up our Primos Vision Blind near the RV because Gambel's quail had been going by periodically. I downselected images and assigned the final file names for images from last year.

I had lunch around 12:20 of Clif Bars and continued to downselect images and assign final file names for images from last year. I went out to the blind to try to photograph the quail that were starting to come by the blind, and in my haste I forgot to bring a CF card with me. :( I had to leave the blind to get one, and I think spooked the quail too much because they didn't return for the half hour that waited for them. I went back inside the RV and downselected images and assigned the final file names for images from last year. J and I went out to the blind when the quail started to come by again. The quail didn't come by while we were in the blind, but they flew over the area. So, after half an hour in the blind, I went back inside the RV. J stayed for another hour, and the quail didn't show up. When J came back into the RV, I went outside to put away my camera gear. I saw a small raptor, possible a harrier, perched just down the hill from the blind, and that might be what spooked the quail. I finished downselecting and renaming the images from last year.

We had dinner around 6:10 of Wanchai Ferry Cashew Chicken. It was pretty tasty, especially because J supplemented it with additional cashews.

While we were having that nice relaxing meal, Gixen successfully sniped an auction on eBay for me. :)

We went over to our friend Andy Baird's RV at 7:00 to watch Ratatouille. It's a Pixar film, and the graphics were amazing! I liked the story too. In it, a world-class chef, Auguste Gusteau, wrote a book called Everyone Can Cook, and his ghost appears to the main character, Remy, and tells him that cooking is only for people willing to take risks and do something new. After his death, Gusteau's restaurant was being run by his staff, and they were diligently following his old recipes — not creating anything new. The critics panned the restaurant, and business started to decline. Remy, who had no formal training, arrives, and whips up a soup from scratch which saves the restaurant. In other words, the "True Believers" didn't get it. It reminded me of my favorite movie, Monty Python's Life of Brian and the scene where Brian, the reluctant religious leader, tries to persuade an enormous crowd of his followers to think for themselves:
  • Brian: Look, you've got it all wrong! You don't need to follow me, you don't need to follow anybody! You've got to think for yourselves! You're all individuals!
  • The Crowd (in unison): Yes! We're all individuals!
  • Brian: You're all different!
  • The Crowd (in unison): Yes, we are all different!
  • Man in Crowd: I'm not.
  • Another Man: Shhh!
We returned to the RV around 9:30, and I did some computer work before going to bed.