LavaCon 2025

-
Image
I spoke at the LavaCon this week. My presentation was very well received. There were well over 100 folks who chose to attend my presentation. Afterwards we had a supplier meeting in Cartersville and a hike up Pine Mountain. https://www.lavacon.org/ It was good to enjoy some brief moments with a llama as part of the conference. And it was good to meet up with lots of folks I have got to know over the years.
Post a Comment
-
Home

This is a pretty good x-prize contestant. They seem to have fun anyway. Watch the videos. The X-prize should go to the chinese for launching their astronaut this week. (I know they are not eligble). You wouldn't see me getting into one of these things.

I have winterization work to do today. It is quite foggy, I hope it clears a little. I am worried about the clearances on my stove.. one thing says one thing another piece of paper says another. I can't move the chimney now... It is in. We plan on moving the wall in a few years but I am at the minimal clearances now.

I won the area 9 speech contest yesterday only because no one else showed up to compete. That is not the way to win. So now I have to practice for the southern division contest in Ithaca on November 8th.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LavaCon 2025

-
Image
I spoke at the LavaCon this week. My presentation was very well received. There were well over 100 folks who chose to attend my presentation. Afterwards we had a supplier meeting in Cartersville and a hike up Pine Mountain. https://www.lavacon.org/ It was good to enjoy some brief moments with a llama as part of the conference. And it was good to meet up with lots of folks I have got to know over the years.
Read more
-
The New York Times on the Web Christmas eve was eventful again this year. We left to go to Rochester on Christmas eve and I again this year managed to damage Bonnie's car. Last year we hit some black ice on an overpass up in downtown Rochester. This year I went down a seasonal road that I thought was clear like all the regular roads. It was not. We hit the hardest, thickest, slipperiest ice I have ever seen on a road. I had to put the car in the ditch to avoid getting us killed. The car is still there. We moved it out of the first ditch and then after getting some chains made it down most of the hill. This is the low stress version of the story The chains slipped off at that point and it is back in the ditch. Of course, I can't even get a wrecker up on the road since it is seasonal road. I will not drive on Christmas eve again, I doubt.
Read more

Back on the Farm Again.

-
Image
I was up on the farm finalizing some new tenants and a new building. I specifically made some time to hike the forest. I definitely have a real regret of not doing exactly that more often. Woods are magical. There is such order in the absolute randomness of nature. I also managed to get some nice sunrise pics from 17,000 Feet. One is over Susquehanna, PA. The other as we are about to cross the Hudson River.
Read more
-
Image
The vehicle is a .... well uh, I'm not sure, but it is specially designed for....uh... Antarctica! Notice the name on the vehicle. Almost all the vehicles get a name. The rigger truck is called "Rigger Mortise". There are pickles (forklifts) called heckle and jeckle. The names go on and on. Some detail oriented folks noticed fans and open windows in some pictures I have posted. Today you can see both. I am at lunch on a particularly nice day in town. The palm was added for an added touch. The cool drink is a typical Antarctican cool drink, water in a Nalgene bottle. The local custom for the cool drink is usually served frozen, often solid. I have an insulator for my Nalgene bottle with a few chemical hand warmers ready to help keep it liquid. Interesting enough it is very difficult to melt water from snow if you don't have a little water to start the process (when it is colder than 20 below out). The water actually will get a nasty burned taste. This is absolutely ...
Read more
-
Image
I am in LA. I missed my connection. I did manage to get the red-eye out tonight. So it looks like I get to spend another night on a plane. I slept last night. I probably got 4 or 5 hours of sleep. I caught up with a fellow ice person last night for the flight. We were recounting the experience. Our experiences and impressions were very similar. He was saying that he can't describe a lot of it. He went on to say that even looking at his photos, they didn't tell what he was experiencing. We agreed about how strange it was meeting the winter-overs we were taking over for when we got there in October. "They had that weird stare and they talked ok and everything but there was no emotional content to what they were saying". There is a zombie like quality to some people who spend a lot of time on the ice. After a couple of weeks at pole he was medivaced to McMurdo for altitude sickness (there were quite a few this year). It got better and went back to pole. This guy is a ...
Read more