LavaCon 2026 and the future.

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LavaCon is a conference now going on 25 years. Its always fun at conferences where folks collaborate on what the future holds. This year I drove to Charlotte NC from Duluth GA to attend. I used the Tesla in Full Self Drive. I went park-to-park without touching the wheel for over 200 miles. It's crazy. I don't think most people understand how well it works. Lots of nay-sayers still, but it really does work. Be on guard, but enjoy. I spent some of my time "driving" while conversing with Grok as part of my daydreaming. I was discussing with Grok an idea I have of building a West system (cold molded) old style barrel-back runabout maybe 20 feet long- all varnished Mahogony. Of course this boat would have an exotic 12-cylinder engine under a transparent engine hatch between the twin cockpits. We discussed the designs, available actual study plans and pre-lofted design documents for the hull. We also discussed the best engine (perhaps a BMW N73) coupled with a Velvet Dri...
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http://www.catfastferry.com/the_ship/

Bonnie and I went to Toronto Friday night on the fast ferry. We stayed at the Westin Harbour where on Saturday the World Championship of Public Speaking took place. We came home on the ferry Saturday night. By the time we got to Berkshire it was actually Sunday morning.

The ferry was neat. It was clean, fast, smooth and fun. We went business class. We had fun chating and making friends on the way over. They serve food in business class and the leather couches are pretty comfy. I slept on the way back.

We didn't have passports with us. It turns out that to travel between Canada and the US you just plain need a passport with you these days. We weren't sure if they were going to let us into Canada.

The one little movie of the stern wake of the cat while under way got corrupted. Maybe I need a new camera. Grr.

The Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking was worthwhile. The top ten competed and the winner was named, Lance Miller from California. He nailed a speech using a mnemonic device of "Cha Ching" where the theme was that we "validate" people and we allow them to validate us, much like getting your parking garage ticket stamped in a professional's office. All the speeches gave us a lot to think about and made us laugh. The 1800 people in the audience were well behaved (no one got out of their seats for 90 minutes during the competition) and it is interesting to see the mutual support in each other even at these high levels of competition. I need to get a copy of the video of these speeches. It is impressive to anyone. To a Toastmaster that can pick out subtle flaws these speeches are impressive and inspiring. As I was talking to my brother I was reminded that I had been quoted that public speaking is the original multimedia.

Bonnie and I had a great dinner at The Old Mill on the west side of Toronto. It took me hours on the web to decide on that place before we went. We were not disappointed. It was quite away from where we were staying but we could still take the subway. The food was excellent and the service was exceptional. For an appetizer I had asparagus wrapped in smoked salmon.




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