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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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I spent most of the holiday up in Rochester. I had to get my Mom in the Hospital. Hopefully she recovers quickly, but this looks like the end of her living alone. Her cats were hugging each other. I had to take a picture. It was about zero out this morning. I got this great pic of a Sundog. The ice crystals were low to the ground. It does appear pretty freaky.
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Soon it will be 2009. Aren't we supposed to be living on the moon by now, at least? I will be heading up to Rochester. I may be headed up to Canada to look at a firewood processor some guy has for sale too. I will be in Chicago the 9th through the 12th for work and then later in the month out in Ohio to pick up some new farm equipment. A neighbor had a house fire on Christmas. This guy is always doing something, from working on a boat to cars to outboards to minibikes. I would always check out his latest project as I drove by. Now he is busy sorting through and tearing down. I hope he replaces with something nicer looking than what he was living in. Either way it was clearly a tragedy for the family. I ran 5k yesterday in 23:30. That made me feel pretty good. I am on target for my fitness goal.
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My truck can sure get dirty this time of year. In my neighborhood we used pulverized shale on the roads to aid traction. It really makes a mess.
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Another Christmas has come and gone. I am looking for purpose. I cooked a 14 lb turkey in an old pressure cooker. What a way to go! Put your deep fryers away and get out the pressure cooker. It took an 1 hour and 15 minutes to absolutely cook the slightly frozen bird. The meat just fell off the bones. It was pretty unbelievable.
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It is the day before the day before Christmas. I have my orange tree adorned nicely. Here is a great article about something that is basically mind-blowing for folks who don't work in nano-technology. We can see that there is a theme that these different technology trends really move fast without popular media noticing... up to a point. This one is one that will tip the scale of nano-technology becoming mainstream. It is genius on many levels, the technology itself, the metaphorical content, the extremes. The worlds smallest car. There are 60 carbon atoms per wheel! The Nanocar The turkeys took a walk by today.
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I went to the Salvation Army the other night, both for donation and shopping. It was a refreshing experience around the holidays. It was illuminating seeing all the clothes and stuff that had been donated. There was a lot of stuff to be sure. It helped me remember and put in place all the excess of our society. People today get what they need not what they want. I know it doesn't always seem like that all the time, but the fact of the matter is that our society is very affluent and is excessive even at the Salvation Army. It was quite nice to see the efforts of folks trying to better themselves and the facilitation of goodwill without a single "Merry Christmas" or item of the commercial blitz that begets the normal holiday culture of which we are all immersed. Christmas in Antarctica helped me see the overload we are subjected to in our normal lives.
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My website was down for a couple of days. My domain registration lapsed; Yikes! I had changed email addresses and I forgot I had a a different domain registrar than the hosting company and I didn't update my email address with the registrar. Well, after I got the name servers figured out it was back. It has been cold out. It got down to zero the other night. DJ and I went for walk in the full-moonlight the other evening. It was cold. We saw shooting stars. One looked like it was only a few thousand feet away! It looked more like fireworks than a shooting star. It was close! I guess shooting stars have to land somewhere; why not Berkshire? The flame went out before it hit the ground, but it wasn't that high up. Dress for the cold and it is a lot of fun outside this time of year. There is a lot to see and it helps keep you grounded on your natural environment. The mean rooster went for a ride recently. He was dubbed "Roto-Rooster". The idealic winter scene is the ...
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