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From Santa Fe, we drove to Albuquerque and stopped at quite a few amazing spots on the way. The first stop was Bandelier National Monument. It’s one hour loop. The hike is short, with occasional ladder climbs, and has small caves at the end. Next, we headed to the Spence Hot Springs. It’s open to the public and free. The hike is a bit involved with a fair bit of a climb. Unfortunately, it was a complete disappointment. The pool was small. The water wasn’t very warm except inside a small cave where it all came from. I would recommend skipping it. ...

I stared at the clothing in the souvenir shop. “Cancún” is written on the cap. “Cancún” is written on the chest. Cancún written on the derrière. In myriad fonts and sizes. I wondered who buys all these souvenirs. I have occasionally purchased souvenir clothing in the past. But it is usually lower quality, overpriced, and seems to give a garish look. Then this guy steps into the shop.

An expensive place full of tourists is considered a popular destination. While an inexpensive place full of tourists will be called a crowded one. An expensive place lacking tourists is termed an exclusive destination. While an inexpensive place lacking tourists is considered deserted. It is never about other tourists, it is always about how much you spent.

I started using Google Notebook around 2008. Once I received a notice that it will shut down, I switched to Evernote around 2012. Unlike Google, note-taking is the central business of Evernote, I thought I would be fine. I was wrong. Evernote became terrible over time. Then I heard about a service called Notion. I deliberated and decided to wait out. Turns out a new cool kid on the block showed up soon enough. It was called Roam Research. They had such an enthusiastic fan following that they decided not to even have a freemium model. I was tired of moving notes from one proprietary system to another. And decided not to use either Notion or Roam research. ...

Continuing the drive from Carlsbad, New Mexico, we drove to Santa Fe. There isn’t much to do in Santa Fe. The drive is perfect. And the drive to Albuquerque is full of great hikes.

Continuing the journey from Shakespeare ghost town, we visited Las Cruces (“The Crosses”), New Mexico, and El Paso, Texas. El Paso is a border town and for foreigners, I would recommend carrying a US visa or green card as there are temporary CBP checkpoints set up in its vicinity. I wouldn’t recommend spending more than a few hours in Las Cruces. If you are planning to eat then do check out the town/pueblo of Mesilla next to Las Cruces before leaving. Our next stop was El Paso, Texas. Right across the Rio Grande is the Mexican city of Juárez. ...

Java made a huge mistake of having no network timeouts. A network request can block a thread forever. Even Python did the same. The language designers should have chosen some conservative appropriate numbers instead. What’s surprising is that the Go language repeated it! Here’s a simple demo

The name “Chavez” has three syllables. And is pronounced in 5 different ways!

Duolingo is a waste of time. Here are better alternatives.

Driving from Phoenix, Arizona to El Paso, Texas. Lordsburg is a small town to stop over for a night. And here, we came across this hidden gem of a ghost town. It is only 7$ per person. The tour guide, a native of Ohio, who married the daughter of the owner, lives in this abandoned ghost town. He carries guns for the critters as there are tons of rattlesnakes around. The tour is about 2-hours. It is highly informative and I would highly recommend this tour if you have a few hours to spare. ...