My friend Jim and I had a great time watching the Timberwolves beat the Trail Blazers tonight! 119 - 114 πŸ€

Bitcoin near or at new all-time highs today.

Home Electric Upgrade

We’ve had a crew from Advantage Electric at our house for the last couple days and hopefully we’ll be wrapped up tomorrow. A wide variety of improvements. They put a number of the Lutron Caseta switches in today and I’m already realizing how nice it is when all the lighting is in that system. I’m excited about all of these things. ⚑️

  • Hang 7 replacement light fixtures.
  • Replace halogen puck light with LED.
  • Install recessed electric receptacle for TV.
  • Replace 2 under-cabinet halogen lights with LED.
  • Replace 4 under-cabinet halogen lights with LED.
  • Replace 6 fluorescent lights with LED.
  • Replace 3 fluorescent closet lights with LED.
  • Replace 2 fluorescent utility lights with LED.
  • Remediate 2 dangerous electric receptacles.
  • Replace exhaust fan that doesn’t shut off.
  • Install 5 electric receptacles with USB C power.
  • Modernize electric receptacles on main floor and basement.
  • Install Lutron Caseta light switches on main floor and basement.
  • Remount electric meter to exterior wall, add emergency disconnect.
  • Replace main electric panel, add whole home surge protection.

Dune: Part Two

After multiple delays Dune: Part Two arrived in theaters! Tammy got us all tickets for last night’s sold-out showing at Edina 4. I’m the Dune fan in the family, but since we saw the first one as a family we decided to all go again.

I thought it was breathtaking. It would be difficult for me to pull out one specific area to highlight. The movie was 2h 46m but I never once took note of the time. I was completely there, engaged in this epic story. I read all six books of the Dune series in college and just like that last movie this makes me want to read them all again. The complex world of Dune and all of the interconnections is incredible.

Now, the rest of the family? This will be their last Dune movie. Tammy just doesn’t vibe with this kind of epic sci-fi story. Tyler found it just too long and slow. The violence was much more than Mazie wanted. Overall the Harkonnen’s were super-creepy, dark, and violent for all of us really. I keep thinking that having read the book maybe I experience the movies different than the rest of the family. I also do think feel that Villeneuve’s interpretations of Dune have a lot more violence than the original story, but I would need to re-read the books to see if that is really the case.

Dune: Part Three is in development now. I can’t wait to see it!

Getting Tesla Model Y

Yesterday we purchased a 2024 Tesla Model Y! This will be my primary car replacing the Mazda CX-9. Our Model 3 has become Tammy’s primary car since the pandemic when she started driving it more. Before then the Model 3 was always with me at the office. 😊

We test drove the Model Y, Model S, and Model X. I find the Model 3 to be uncomfortable to get in and out of and the Model S was nearly identical. We all loved the Model X but the price jump is huge β€” you can buy two Model Y’s for the price. Additionally, with our small South Minneapolis garage I was very doubtful the Model X doors would work.

We did consider the idea of getting a non-Tesla EV, but the infrastructure upgrades to add another model of charger into our garage was going to be very difficult. We would have had to jump from 200A to 400A service for the house, install an additional main panel, have utility work done in the yard. The dollars add up quick on that stuff. The benefit of using the same charging setup at home was a big win. If we had a bigger garage and the power wasn’t an issue we would have looked hard at the Rivian. ⚑️

I decided to get the Stealth Grey and the standard 19" wheels. I also went for the Black and White interior which is very white. It looks great, and I’m hoping I’ll still think it looks great after three or four years of wear. Fingers crossed on that. Dual Motor and long range battery. Tow hitch for bike rack. I also opted into Enhanced Autopilot so it has the same capability as the Model 3 does. I continue to view Full Self Driving as a better monthly “add on” for trips. The Model 3 computer would need an upgrade to use it, so the Model Y will be our first time to try it.

I continue to be blown away by Tesla’s purchasing process. It took 5 minutes at the dealership after I did the test drive to put down the deposit. Within seconds of that transaction completing I loaded the Tesla app on my phone and it already showed the second car in my profile. I completed the purchase process while I was brewing my coffee at home this morning. The comparison to the buying process for the Mazda where I sat at the dealership for 90 minutes is shocking.

The Model Y is on the way and I will pick it up next week! 🀩

Winter Along the Gunflint Photography Workshop

Last weekend I drove up to Grand Marais to take Winter Along the Gunflint Photography Workshop with Bryan Hansel. It has been a decade since I took a workshop and Tammy decided it was time for me to get out in the field and shoot for a weekend so she got me this great workshop for my birthday. I was eager to go, and also a little anxious since I hadn’t done more serious photography for a few years. I was rusty for sure.

Our workshop started on Friday with some classroom learning, and then we shot sunset from the Campground Beach in Grand Marais. The winter part of the workshop was tested with the lack of any snow to speak of in Grand Marais. Hansel adapted with it though and still got us plenty of great spots to capture beautiful images.

That first night I got this sunset view of the last rays along the Campground Beach.

We were up early to get the sunrise the next morning. We drove a short distance to Cascade River State Park and captured the first rays that morning.

We did find some snow when we went in to Elbow Lake. We setup these classic snowshoes on the lake.

That afternoon the winds were going pretty good and I was hopeful that we would get some big waves coming in on the Lighthouse in Grand Marais.

The wind continued and the waves were steady as the sun set.

Hansel led a great workshop and I learned a number of new things from him. His Lightroom skills were top notch and he showed us some processing techniques that were incredible. I also liked the fresh perspective he brought to composition.

See list of Photography Workshops.

How I burned $10,000

Meme coins are one of the parts of the crypto ecosystem that I have no interest in. They are pure speculation. I’m fine if folks want to do that, but it’s not my thing. I’ve never owned any Dogecoin. A little over a year ago when BONK launched as a Solana version of Dogecoin I didn’t pay any attention. πŸͺ™

I received alerts of incoming transfers of BONK tokens into my Solana wallet. It turns out as an owner of Famous Fox NFTs I received special airdrops of BONK tokens. A lot actually. I was annoyed by the clutter and without thinking much about it burned 394,305,096 Bonk tokens that were cluttering up my wallet. πŸ”₯

Well, as it turns out BONK has traded actively. My nearly 400M burned tokens were worth as little as $70 at the 1-year low of $0.0000001763… and $10,000 at current price the current price of $0.00002536. 😳

I guess “easy come, easy go” as they say. On the bright side I don’t have to bother with the tax treatment of the air drop. πŸ€·β€β™‚οΈ

Posting this on leap day means I’ll only revisit this mistake once every four years in my On This Day page.

Reviewing my On This Day page today made me do a double take β€” so few posts. Then I remembered it is leap day, and February 29, 2024 is only the 6th leap day since my blog was started. 😁

On Artist Point in Grand Marais in pre-dawn light to catch the sunrise.

Lake Superior, Grand Marais.

First time winter hiking today with these hiking crampons. Amazing stability and still easy to walk on.

Suggestion from Bryan Hansel to find your photography style β€” go through your photos for the year and pick your favorite single one from each month. Not your best, or most liked. Your favorite! Look at those twelve photos and reflect on what the common threads are between them all.

Ice Climbers along the Cascade River.

How is it possible that I’m just now discovering how amazing Swedish Cream is. Wow.

Geared up for sunrise winter photography.

Out early shooting the sunrise. Good waves on Lake Superior.

Bryan Hansel getting everyone started on our workshop.

Morning coffee and pastry at 190Β° Coffee and Tea. Early morning snowfall. Heading on to Grand Marais.

Good morning from the Sundew in Duluth, Minnesota.

ENS: Blockchain Native Organization

The section from the ENS DAO February 13th update impressed me.

In January 2024, the ENS Protocol registered 39.8k new .eth domains, bringing the total to 2.1 million. The protocol generated revenue of $1.3 million during this period, all of which was allocated to the ENS DAO. The number of Ethereum account holders with at least one ENS name increased by 33.9k, totaling 818k. There were 31.7k primary ENS names set, making the overall count 737k. Additionally, 8k new avatar records were created, reaching a cumulative total of 149k.

Ethereum Name Service is doing an amazing job showing how a crypto service can work. This is a $15.6M run rate driven completely off the protocol. That all goes into the DAO with a robust governance structure. As an ENS token holder I can vote in the DAO, or delegate to others.

They are creating the blueprint for how you can create a blockchain native organization.