DEF CON 34 BCCC: Beer Chilling Goes Rogue

 

On an overcast afternoon in April, I found myself handing off a strange piece of equipment to be trucked to Las Vegas. It came into my possession in a bankruptcy that still shocks people. And it was the cornerstone of a contraption that won the Murder Hobos a spot on the podium of DEF CON's most unpredictable hardware event, the Beer* Chilling Contraption Contest.

In its 21st year, Beer Chilling has a long history as a sideshow and contest at DEF CON in Las Vegas. Others have recounted the full history better than I can. The rules are simple: Cool a beverage from some high temperature to some lower temperature. Measure how long it takes to do that. Don't mess up the beer. Get a score, iterate, and improve. The quirkiness and creativity keeps me coming back as a spectator and contestant. It doesn't hurt that they bring more and better components every year where people can build and compete entirely with on-site materials with the help of incredible volunteers. But the kookiest ideas are reserved for the Unlimited segment where people bring their contraptions from miles around to compete. tinribs and melody-rs, parent-child team members of the Murder Hobos have stuck their toe in the water with Hacked devices at previous years. This year, they had an eye on a design, and I helped acquire some key components. This serendipitous acquisition would allow the three of us to make a proper run at Unlimited, the no holds barred part of the competition.

In November 2025, news broke that Rogue Ales was bankrupt. A fixture of PNW craft brewing would be broken up and auctioned off out of their brewery/warehouse on the harbor. While browsing the auction site, tinribs lit upon the lab's dusty PolyScience circulating chiller which retails for over $5000 brand new. It works by running a compressor for cooling in tandem with a heater for precise temperature control via sensors with a tolerance of .01C! One could place an object within the body to chill it, or you could pipe the chiller liquid out of the chiller for cooling outside the unit. $250 YOLO bid and a week of nail-biting later, it was his. The only problem was it was in Newport, Oregon, 1000 miles away from home. I jetted down from Portland metro the next weekend and picked it up, and he made his way to me in April 2026 for the exchange by car. Before they left home, I tested it and found that, barring a slow leak, it still worked just fine. Whew. With a device whose pedigree could not be denied, the chiller was going to be the cornerstone of our Beer Chilling Contraption for 2026.

The hard part would be turning serendipity into success. We couldn't just show up with a commercial chiller. It needed to be part of a larger contraption. tinribs got to work. He had acquired two big dispenser plates from soda vending machines. And a 3D printer board could be a control head. But the chiller allowed the entire contraption to be fully regenerative: only electricity, not ice, dry ice, liquid nitrogen, or any other substance would be needed to restart the cooling process and make another run. The design eventually morphed into the following stack of components:

• Control Head: 
• 3D Printed Peristaltic Pump
• 3D Printer Board running Marlin
• Stepper Motor
• Raspberry Pi
• Thermistors 
• Thermal Battery: 
• Cooler
• Soda Machine Dispenser Cooling Plates
• Phase Change Material coolant packs
• Regenerative Loop: 
• PolyScience Circulating Chiller

Behold! The Machine!

  

The cycle design looked something like this: 

1. The chiller cools the battery to a certain low temperature.
2. The control head pumps the beverage into the battery.
3. The battery cools the liquid (without freezing it!)
4. And the chiller restores the battery to equilibrium for the next run.

A host of tweaks followed. In testing, the deep freeze -20C PCM packs had to be swapped out for less-aggressive -8C versions. An alcohol rinse was added to ensure all water was purged after a run. The final settings were dialed in with a control page that not only accepted settings values but also displayed sensor history. We calibrated the machine the day before with 5% alcohol solutions carbonated with a Sodastream and microwaved to 100F/38C. All of tinribs and melody-rs' hard work and testing was about to pay off.

On the day of, we hit the contest floor and felt the energy. The booth was crowded and covered in buckets of water and ice, dry ice fog, and discarded beverage containers from runs past. Fire marshal violations were posted proudly on the most dangerous-looking devices (while making it clear all violations had been remediated). Eager contest goers were still experimenting as the clock ticked down. Each team got three runs, and everyone was using theirs to the fullest.

The contest runners greeted us with amazement. This was a contraption in the real sense of the word. We found electrical power and waited for the battery to come to temp: 2.5C. The 110F/43C car ride 45 minutes from home had done its worst, and our late arrival compounded the time pressure. After 45 minutes, we were coming down to the wire.

While we waited, I explained the machine to the curious (plenty of those at DEF CON) and tinribs set up the control head. I bought Bud Lightbeer's BCCC SAO. This is an official temperature keeping device for the contest, and it runs off an electronic badge! tinribs hit a snag with the awful DEF CON wifi. The open network is never reliable, but we thought it might afford us at least token access to a simple web server. Deauth packets were being more annoying than usual, and we couldn't maintain a connection for longer than 20 seconds. Panic! We broke out the backup screen and keyboard. Always bet on a hard line.

The run was over almost as soon as it began. A hot beer was pulled from a bucket being kept at 100F by a sous vide stick. There was some struggle to deliver a proper beer without so much foam to match our calibrated liquid volume, but we finally got 330g of Bud Light at 97F, the timer started, and the drink disappeared down the 3D printed receptacle as the pump whirred to life. The Hacked bracket hosted an impressive 920W run from a can shaken in an ice bath. Q, a research chemist, looked on as we made our attempt. 1'06" later, we measured a cool 34.7F. We came in second overall and sat atop the Unlimited bracket with over 850W of power sucked out of the drink in that time. Because of our battery regen time, we could not attempt a second run, but we were not complaining.

  

The BCCC might not look like something that would thrive at DEF CON. Chemistry, specific heat, phase changes, tubing, and liquid sensors aren't standard features of many computer conventions. But observing the people that are drawn here makes it click: A team of kids was chilling soda with their parents by pouring from bucket to bucket. The all-women team Eutectic Point flew their ice-bath heat exchanger from across the country to compete. And we all shared a love of creating something that we could explain and improve.

I was not a primary designer or tester on the contraption this year, and I appreciate being able to ride along with tinribs and melody-rs and take to the contest stage in victory once more. Many thanks to them, the other contestants, Rogue Ales for allowing us to salvage something from their demise, and the wonderful contest volunteers, especially the few veterans returning for the first time in a long time. Next year, the BCCC promises us more: ice, dry ice, and equipment to try. And we promise to bring it with a pit crew's practice, and maybe a few more tricks up our sleeves to drop our time and raise our wattage.

* Note: The BCCC is now 21, and it can drink. It was known by Beverage Chilling Contraption Contest in the past!

Ender 3 v2 Cura Slicer Fine Tuning

I am trying to print a star tracker for a friend, but the accuracy of parts coming off the bed can’t be trusted. In addition, I’m switching filament from PLA+ to ABS or PETG, so I wanted to get as accurate as possible with a forgiving filament before I attempt that. I have been enjoying the Ender 3 since adding the CR Touch as detailed in the previous post. Leveling is a breeze, and I don’t have any more head crashes.But this last hurdle for print quality was really bugging me.

After troubleshooting for years to get level, I went back down the rabbit holes of forums and walkthroughs and YouTube videos. I emerged with novel Cura (5.12) settings that made my prints sharper, corners tighter, and top/bottom squish without crazy failures of tolerance. I changed one setting at a time, for the most part, and printed a new cube or partial cube, depending on what problem I was solving.

As you can see on the calibration cubes picture, there is still a little elephants foot left on the bottom, but I’m much closer to where I need to be, dimensionally, and closer to mechanical precision needed for future projects. This should give me the solid base I need for ABS as well.

Layer Dimensions & Elephant's Foot Fixes

• Initial Layer Horizontal Expansion: -0.2mm (and tested to -0.3 mm) to shrink the footprint of the first layer.
• Initial Layer Line Width: 95% / 90% to push less plastic into the base layer; more room for the squish, but can screw with adhesion.
• Top/Bottom Flow: 95% to reduce over-extrusion on the solid floor/roof layers without touching the rest of the model. Tried down to 80 which did not improve things and lead to spaghetti.

Corner Bulging & Pressure Relief

• Outer Wall Speed: Lowered to 25 to 30 mm/s to keep nozzle pressure steady as the printer slows down for turns.
• Enable Jerk Control: Checked. Also set Outer Wall Jerk set to 10mm/s; maintain clean momentum through 90-degree corners and prevent jitter and blobs

Seam Hiding & Blob Prevention

• Enable Coasting: Checked (using default values) to stop pushing filament right before a line ends, using up leftover nozzle pressure naturally instead of leaving a blob. Dramatically reduced visibility of seams.
• Outer Wall Wipe Distance: 0.3 mm to wipe the nozzle over the starting line and smooth out any seam bump.
• Retraction Speed / Prime Speed: Retraction Speed set to 45mm/s and Retraction Prime Speed lowered to 25mm/s; prevents filament from slamming back into the nozzle.
• Z Seam Alignment: Sharpest Corner and Corner Preference: Hide Seam; physically tucks the seam out of sight.

Temperature & Cooling

• Printing Temperature: Dropped down to 220°C (from 235°C) to male the PLA+ less fluid and reduce oozing pressure. This took care of almost all my blobbing.
• Build Plate Temperature: Dropped to 55°C (from 60°C) to hopefully reduce slouching.
• Regular Fan Speed at Layer: Set to Layer 2 to ensure cooling kicks on immediately after the base layer to freeze the plastic into shape.

 References:

• Prusa Elephant Foot Guide
• Reddit thread on Cura settings
• Initial Layer Extrusion
• Ender 3 Community page on bed temp 

Ford Maverick 2026 Upgrades

It’s white. It’s got steel rims. It looks like a utility locator company truck. And I love it.

Here’s a running list of upgrades I’ve added or rejected from my base model Ford Maverick XL Hybrid:

• Mabett Bed Storage Cubbies. The biggest upgrade was filling the spots in the bed with these two plastic cubbies. They fit just enough bungee and tie downs to do “truck stuff”. They come with 4 screws each, so be sure to get some M6 screws to fill all the holes.
• Jump Starter. Hasn’t arrived yet, but the USB-C plug I installed kept draining the battery to nothing. Had to jump it. Humiliating. Get one of these instead.
• Mabett cup holders and trash can. Tiny but mighty, this center console fills the gap below the charger block. The can stays centered in the Flexbed bracket, and I have an extra spot for empties on a road trip.
• Mabett Mud Flaps. I had zero road grime after a trip to Seattle and back in the rain. Couldn’t have a better endorsement. Install by removing and replacing the stock clips.
• Mabett Under Front Seat Storage. Just a bit of extra room for a first aid kit and other stuff I want but won’t need all the time. Keeps me from having to fill up the backseat storage so much.
• 12V bed plug; particularly useful for running pumps for the stand up paddle boards. Just pop off the electrical cover and connect it up. You will need the key on to run the hybrid motor, most likely.
• Mobile antenna for my Baofeng. Helped me get mobile and use my Ham license.
• Tailgate Molding Rivets, Plastic. The ones on the tailgate keep breaking. I keep the pack in the truck. These are much sturdier.
• Tailgate hole cover; mostly for paranoia factor of getting sand or rocks stuck inside the tailgate.
• Hitch Hole Cover. Just plain vanity. The tail end looks chopped up without it.
• Adeptus Mechanicus sticker. Heralding its arrival as a hybrid being, my steel steed gets an emblem of the machine god. Some day, when my flesh disgusts me enough (or my knees give out), I will join her in communion with the Omnissiah.
• Snarky Plate Surround — BOUGHT A TRUCK — FOR THE GAS MILEAGE. My family is going to disown me when they see it, but I bet I’ll get fist bumps in the Fred Meyer parking lot.

It’s not all Xibit-style customization up in here. The Flexbed stuff is nice, but it needs to go further. The attachment bracket used for the trash can was supposed to be a Ford thing used across their line. Not sure it took off. I want it on the dash for a phone holder. I want it on the bumper for tailgating, add more cup holders or something. Make it sturdier. Make it universal.

Rejected Upgrades — these ones failed due to practicality, functionality, or budget reality:

• Rough Country Tonneau Cover. As a former Ranger owner that had a fiberglass flat top installed, I love the idea of the latest covers, but I don’t find myself using the bed for anything but hauling right now. Since the bed is so small, removing it every time to store it in the garage seems like a pain. Check Reddit for the best recommendations. People really like the 3-piece ones. Hard Cover is better if you get snow.
• USB-C in the bed. I couldn’t find one that didn’t stay active all the time and drain my battery. When I left town, I had to jump it when I got back. Since I uninstalled it, no issues.
• Inverter in the bed. A 12v inverter is going to last longer inside the truck than wired into an open bed. Just plug it in when you need it into the 12v outlet. Get one near the tailgate with the 12V connectors..
• Wired motion detecting lights. Just get a few magnetized LED handhelds from Harbor Freight and attach them in the cubbies. Mischief managed.
• Under seat storage dividers. I’ve got the hybrid, so space is at a premium here. Just put a blanket under there to stop your secret stash from rolling around.
• Rain guards for the window. Almost pulled the trigger on these after one too many drips in the drive thru. The in-channel ones were recommended. Instead, I keep a cloth in the door now. Helps wipe the dust from the Fischer Price interior too, lol.

Wyse 3040 Thin Client as a CUPS Print Server

 I bought a HP LaserJet Pro M405dn via surplus from a previous company, and it has become the most reliable printer I've ever owned. It’s compact, quiet, and the refills are cheap to this day. The only problem was it didn’t come with a wireless card.

When we had a reclaimed desktop as a Plex server, I plugged it in there on USB and shared it on the network. Windows 10 made that doable, but not easy. WSD issues, permissions for Work and surplused laptops running business versions of Windows. The problems piled up, and I got fed up. I went searching for a print server.

If this were 2010, I’d buy a raspberry pi and be done. But the tariffs and RAM crisis have made even the stock models as rare, and I was fed up. Enter the Wyse 3040, a refurbished line of thin clients from Dell. Small but mighty, this thin client was an Intel Atom SBC with soldered ram coming in at 2GB and 8GB storage.

For an OS, I tried a few distros, including the Dell  but could never get them to be compact enough. Debian 13 was my savior. A headless, compact build out of the box took up less than 4GB on install, and the installer boot disk came with non-free drivers that saved the day:

1. Plug in a mouse and keyboard and DisplayPort monitor.
2. Unlock UEFI
3. Unlock the BIOS with the default password, Fireport,  if needed (mine came unlocked from the reseller linked above)
4. Plug in your boot disk to USB. There’s a USB 3.0 blue port on the front which felt faster on the third install. Grumble grumble…
5. You want the advanced install options so you can survival select a pared down set of options and install the non-free drivers.
6. During install, be sure to select xfce for your GUI instead of the heavier Gnome ones. You can even go headless, but I did not.
7. You will need to enable some kernel modules to see the eMMC after launch  the installer can see your storage just fine, but the OS can’t boot without them. This thread on Reddit was awesome. After install, enable the modules as the OP says, but then make them load every boot by following this comment. The UEFI trick is also necessary.
8. You might need to do similar kernel module shenanigans for your WiFi card. I did not, as you will see later.

After that, I was able to boot, enable SSH to get into my print server headless, and the rest could be done remotely. CUPS was the next challenge. My Xfinity (Comcast) router had their crappy hotspot turned on. This blocked devices from finding each other on the network. 24hrs later, it was off and I was running headless. I installed the printer via USB and configured CUPS in a browser. The test page was a sweet victory.

I had a memory of printers with expansion slots for WiFi back in the dark days of the 2000s, so I googled my printer. It turns out the dn in the model number means direct networking. Under a panel, I found an Ethernet port. An office move meant the router was sitting right next to the printer, and I could have just plugged it directly in all along. Oh well. What’s a bit of trouble in GRUB for old times sake?

For reference:

• A good walkthrough, but the info is dated: https://qubitsandbytes.co.uk/install-a-new-os-on-a-dell-wyse-3040/

GettingOut Messaging and Video Visits Refunds

Update: the below did not work, in the end! They wanted the inmate number which I did not have access to anymore. It is not readily available on my account screens either. I took this information and contacted my Attorney General for the state of Washington with the below information. I had a refund through their scam handling department in 10 days. Getting Out still denied all wrongdoing.

Second Update: I have had more than one person reach out about this with a similar experience. Let me know if you have, and if something else worked for you.

Getting Out is a predatory company that handles inmate communications. Their system is designed to take your money, charge bogus fees, and never let you get any stored value back out.

It is next to impossible to find out how to get refunds online, so I’ve documented it here for everyone stuck in this nightmare of having a relative in jail and not being able to get their money back once they’re out.

Call their Customer Service Line https://www.gettingout.com/contact-us/

Press 1 for English or select a different language as necessary.

Listen to a minutes-long disclaimer and give your rights to take your stored value away after 180 days.

Press 1 to accept.

Press 1 to go into the deposits message.

Press 0 to be transferred to a hold queue.

When you ask for a refund, you will be told you need your contact information and the inmate number. That number should be in the app for GettingOut Messaging under your contacts, but it was not for me.

Once they discover this, you will need to send a note to the parent company ViaPath to get a refund.

Send To: customerservice@viapath.com

Phone number of your account

Name on the account

Facility name

Inmate name

PIN (4-8 digits)

This is how refunds are done in 2026. Email. To a third party. I’ll let you know if it actually works. (spoiler: it did not  I contacted the AG)

If you try pressing zero at the big menu before deposits, you will be presented with “That option is disabled” message because they know the easiest way to frustrate people is to remove it and hide it in a sub menu. No matter how deep.

Regardless of what you think about people in jail, the families of these people are being taken advantage of by this company, and they are keeping money they are not entitled to if they built a better system.

The disclaimer ensures ViaPath can keep your money after that time of you can’t get it back within the time frame which is not allowed for other stored value like gift cards.

The queue staff are unhelpful as a rule. You should encourage them to unionize to improve conditions so they will not be yelled at by frustrated families.

Everyone on this line is trained to send your concerns with the system not being operational or easy to their tech support department to be looked at. They know they are hard to contact, so this statement is bullshit.

Everyone is trained to say that your concerns about the usability of the system will be sent to their supervisor. This is bullshit. It is hard on purpose.

Everyone on the line has the same regional accent, so the call center is not in the US. That jurisdiction has laws for consumer protection. If you figure out where, I will work with you to ensure the company pays.

Ender 3 v2 + Cura + Professional Firmware - Setup

For my future reference, here are the things I had to do to get an Ender 3 v2 tuned and ready after an extensive rebuild. Thanks past-me! Future-me appreciates you writing it down somewhere that you’ll be able to find.

After a spate of nozzle replacements and struggling with adhesion, I added a runout sensor, a new hot end, and a CRTouch. This sent me down a rabbit hole of software upgrades, and it is MUCH easier to use as a result.

I installed the Professional Firmware by mriscoc on GitHub. The features he collects are impossible to find in a better package.

I upgraded my screen firmware for which I needed to track down an 8GB SD Card formatted in a specific way. They’re becoming super rare locally, but photo stores should have them if you’re Amazon-averse. The firmware is in the source zip for the mriscoc firmware above for multiple different models. Use the test GCode included in the how-to before you move on. You want to make sure you have it right as the slicer setup is cumbersome.

Follow the recalibration steps to tune the hot end and bed PIDs. Then do the extruder steps calibration and maybe even zsteps. Then set your bed mesh and do Bed Tramming calibrations to get the perfectly level bed. This should resolve most calibration issues with your prints.

Now you're ready to work on your slicer.

The CRTouch requires gcode to be added to the beginning of the printer profile right after G28, auto home. Add “G29 L0 J” to test the bed level just before starting a print.

Was also able to get thumbnails on the new firmware and screen combo. This takes a script for your slicer to be placed in a specific spot, and your pc must have Python installed (on Windows, in a terminal, type “python3 -v” to see if it is installed; then follow instructions) along with supporting libraries (“pip3 install Pillow” if needed; I think this might only be needed for Prusa Slicer). The final step to view thumbnail jpgs is to change your filament color in Cura! If it is black (like the Pro PLA I was using from 3D Fuel) it will look like it is not rendering anything!

While I still am struggling with elephant foot and getting my calibration cubes to be strictly dimensional, this Professional Firmware got me printing fewer leveling passes with fewer problems overall. I level once a session now instead of after every print. I'll update if I get those last few issues handled. Wish me luck!

A Milestone in London

Work took me across the sea to London in 2014. I had lived in big Asian cities and driven through American metropolises. But this was my first Old World capital. I had a whole week of wandering around Shoreditch with Pokémon Go as my only tour guide where I took in the Calvinist Chapel and Kings Cross Station. I ate hand pies for breakfast and doner at midnight. I had a new job and a new relationship. London was a clean break. The last day was set aside for sightseeing, so I took the Tube to Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery and finished at the British Museum. One stone among the many pilfered artifacts yanked me back to the past. A solitary stela about the same height as me was covered with three different scripts: Greek, Demotic, and Hieroglyphic. I had found myself in front of the Rosetta Stone, and I began to cry.

Despite repeated efforts from societies ancient and modern, scholars could not translate the scripts that were common on documents stuffed into sarcophagi or painted on temple walls. Adventurers traveling to Egypt brought mummies back home where some were ground up for pigment. Some were ground up for ingestion in quack medicine. And some survived to go on display. One of these came through Nauvoo, Illinois in 1839, and Joseph Smith, the frontier prophet of the growing Mormon church, bought them and the funerary documents that were found alongside for display in his hotel cum manor. These he claimed he could translate by the gift and power of God, and he pulled a tale of Abraham in Egypt from the papyrus like a rabbit out of a hat.

Growing up Mormon means you already have a complicated relationship with the word "translation". Joseph Smith claimed The Book of Mormon was revealed to him in glowing script using a rock in a hat in a remote-viewing style dictation. He corrected the King James version of the Bible for his Joseph Smith Translation. And now he translated his Egyptian papers into a tale of stars and planets and the throne of God. Of course it was all bunk.

Scholars were beginning to demystify the ancient world for real. Discovered in 1799, the Rosetta Stone was assisting in the deciphering of Demotic and Heiroglyphics by Champollion in 1822. So before Joseph Smith spun his tales of a Abraham placed on the seat of Pharaoh, we had workable translations of every Egyptian document in his possession, and a clear picture of actual Egyptian culture. Academia would classify the Joseph Smith papyri as common funerary documents guaranteeing the resident of the sarcophagus or tomb an audience in heaven. But to Joseph, the hieroglyphs were full of mysterious multi-layered glyphs that we could only properly understand through his divine inspiration. He even worked in American racism, claiming figures drawn all in black were slaves of the court and not their real identity: gods attendant to Pharaoh and the deceased.

Joseph Smith died at the hands of a mob after it was revealed he assaulted the wives and teenage daughters of his followers. It should have been widely known by then that he just made it all up. His banner of fraud was taken up and moved to Salt Lake City under the guidance of Brigham Young. It persisted in my family even after one of my great-great-great-grandparents kicked her husband out when he brought home an additional wife. And it resurfaced even after my grandparents moved to Las Vegas in the 1960s to work at the Nevada Test Site. As the city expanded, they hosted cocktail parties and took up smoking. It seems this belief was a hard habit to break.

By the time I stood in front of the Rosetta Stone, I was still a few years away from formally cutting ties with the church through resignation. I was still mourning a loss of community that many Exmormons feel. My upbringing provided no solace in that moment, and a cult is a group you cannot leave with your dignity intact. I felt cheated. The worst part of extricating yourself from a church you've been in since birth is that you are trained not to blame the leadership or the people in the past that lead you to that point. You are taught to be blind to faults in the institution. And you have to fight to even want to see the truth.

Standing there, I reflected on the past of the stone and myself. Incomplete information let bad men exploit my ancestors. Any of Joseph Smith's translations are a transparent fraud under even the most passing scrutiny. But someone on the inside is taught not to see, and they extract faith-saving salt from the sea of doubt, so the fraud continues. I am of the mind that you need to be ready to leave or all outside efforts to make you do so will only result in retrenchment. For this reason, I will ask friends and family that are still in the church and ask me why I left, "If the church was not true [to its Word], would you want to know?" Because there are no magic words that can undo the conditioning.

It was a slow drip of water that wore down my barriers. I had experiences in childhood of an abusive mom and step-mom enabled by their partners and ignored by clergy when we asked for help. I saw friends and family abused by the church for missionary work which turned out to be a tool of personal indoctrination at the expense of others health and safety. And my time at BYU was further damaging to my faith in the church looking out for the well-being of members. There was no epiphany on the road to Damascus. I stayed home from church to help deal with newborn child care, and my first week back after 6 months away was a revelation. The people making excuses for Joseph Smith were aliens. I was done, and I couldn't get back in the grooves of the wagon trail anymore.

You see the issues more clearly once you step away, but you are automatically suspect by those still inside if they speak to you at all. You are treated as a Cassandra at best and a Judas at worst. You lose your community of built in friends. You lose family closeness if your parents or siblings are church members. And the self doubt that drove you to question the church turns toward you. Leaving doesn't magically make everything OK. Knowing the truth doesn't make your life perfect.

So I stood there in front of that ancient stone and felt.  What was on it was of little import these days. Old laws and decrees. But what it meant was loss and waste, and also rebirth and truth. It represented every could-have-been stretching back through time to people who were not ready to listen. Every choice that pulled me further in took another equally protracted period to step out. The stone waited after being written as the languages on it died. It chilled in the field waiting for Napoleon's troops. And it waited for the secrets of its inscriptions to unlock an ancient world. And a modern life like mine.

In The Message, Ta Nehisi Coates recalls his visit to Goree Island and being moved by it even though he knows its true significance is wildly overstated. I know the the Rosetta Stone is not a religious object, but, as I stood in front of it, it embodied my journey. I hold it as a symbol of healing and informing and freeing. And so I cried in the old city around stolen artifacts and portraits and empire. I cried and knew that I had deciphered this piece of my history. I mourned what I could no longer change while celebrating the life that I would now live.