Lava Boat: A Fiery Thought Experiment

It began, as all great engineering breakthroughs do, with a game of "floor is lava." Two grandkids (ages 2 and 4), a Buick Enclave, and a driveway transformed into molten chaos. Somewhere between the car and the curb, the Enclave became a vessel adrift on a river of lava. Naturally, this led to a question: could a lava boat actually exist?

Gemini and I dove into the concept with scientific rigor and a healthy dose of absurdity. The result: a speculative design for a vessel capable of navigating lakes and rivers of lava. Behold, the Lava Boat!

And if you're as old as I am, this might be running through your head right now:

The Lava Boat (da na na)

Soon will be making another run

The Lava Boat (da na na)

Promises something for everyone

Welcome aboard it’s La ah VA!!

My Wildest Fantasy

Don't worry, be happy! ... I mean, don't worry, this post is still rated G despite the title. Well, maybe PG - nearly everything on this blog should probably be read with supervision, just to keep the kiddos from going [brain dead]. 😄So anyway, back to that title... my wildest fantasy... season. Well, maybe not so much "fantasy season" (my NFL Fantasy teams are only so-so this year) but more "ESPN College Pick'em" season. Let's go.

So, each year a group of us are in this ESPN College Pick'em battle, where you predict the outcome of a slate of NCAA football games. Our group is in "confidence mode," which means you don’t just pick winners - you also rank each game from 1 to 10 in confidence, and earn that many points when your pick is correct. Usually I do mid-pack at best, often falling way down the list. One year I started off really strong, claiming the #3 spot after the first week or two, but a couple of weeks later I'd dropped almost to the bottom after some really lousy weeks of picks. And that's typically where I finish - somewhere near the bottom of the list, never more than mid-way up the group board.

This year... that has changed. I'm not sure what's different, but I'm leading our group (maybe the teams are playing as badly as I usually pick? maybe it's my changing my team name from "Tony's lousy picks" to "Mr T's Hit Squad"? see the logo to the right - used for both the college Pick'em and my NFL fantasy teams). 

What about...

System Update: About Page Online

After years of running this place like a half‑broken dorm phone line, I finally gave the About page some love. It now blinks, glows, and generally behaves like a terminal splash screen from 1995.

Highlights include:

• A bold+italic [LAPSE... brain dead] identity marker that blinks like it’s waiting for input.
• A sidebar cursor with its own rhythm (1.5s cycle — not too fast, not too slow).
• A footer prompt that says press any key to continue... and actually takes you back home. Retro jokes that double as navigation? Yes please.

Why bother? Because this blog isn’t just text — it’s an experience. If you grew up on ANSI art, amber CRTs, or the thrill of typing dir /p just to watch the screen flicker, you’ll get it. If not, well, at least the links work.

So go ahead: press any key to continue... and see the new About page in action.