D's Notebook

Month: March 2024 (Page 1 of 2)

March Media

March 31, 2024 /

I said last month that I needed to reset my YouTube algorithm so I was getting better recommendations. I think I’ve accomplished that, spending way too much time on the platform over the last six weeks. Now it is skewed to like 90% car stuff. Which I’m fine with, at the moment. That has caused me to add a new category for at least this month.

Otherwise, not a lot of long form programming in March. Blame basketball and spring break, but the real reason was watching those 8000 hours of car vids.

Movies, Shows, etc

The Tourist, season one
This was one of the strangest shows I’ve watched recently. Equal parts hilarious, bizarre, confusing, confounding, compelling, and off-beat, while always being super Australian. I think I liked it, but there were moments when I almost wanted to turn it off. I guess I’ll give season two a shot at some point.

B+

Griselda
This was promoted as an expansion of the Narcos world, another look at the Colombian-centered drug trade of the 1980s. That’s true to a certain extent, but Griselda suffers from that comparison.

It began well, but in the middle began to take a very strange path. By the final episode I was hoping it would be over. Shows like this, about drug lords, need something compelling about the bad guys to keep you interested. Griselda Blanco comes across as a pure psycho and gives the viewer no real reason to hope she somehow survives. So many of the characters, from Sofia Vergara in the title role to the police who chased her, seemed one-dimensional or cartoonish. That every Narcos season was so good made Griselda’s flaws even more disappointing.

C+

Renovation Aloha
Our home reno show of the month. This couple does amazing things with truly shitty homes in Hawaii. We couldn’t get over the cost of real estate out there. S and I also laughed at the height difference between the couple that hosts. Then we realized that’s kind of what we look like.

A-

Gold
Our first spring break movie, our housemates randomly picked this one night. Interesting story but not a great movie. Afterward I read the true events it was based on and decided that they adjusted the timeframe back a decade just so Matthew McConaughey could play a 1980s oilman.

B

Larry and Marge Go Large
Our second break movie. Our housemates had seen this before and insisted we watch it. Wonderfully charming and fun.

A-

Shorts, YouTubes, etc

Oberammergau Alpine Coaster 4k
Imst Alpine Coaster 4k
These look awesome. Since they are German-engineered I’m sure they’re perfectly safe.

Anakeesta’s NEW Hellbender Mountain Coaster in Gatlinburg Tennessee
Next I found this American version. I’m deep into Alpine coaster YouTube now.

Mountain Coaster Oeschinensee Kandersteg Switzerland
Finally – HOLY SHIT! – there’s this one, which basically looks like you’re going down a luge course without ice. This one has to crash occasionally, right?

Building a Dream Home on a Hidden Beach in New Zealand
If we ever buy property in New Zealand I’m going to look up this design team.

These 2 Italian dream homes will make you reconsider your life… Southern Italy, Gagliano del Capo
Or why not buy an existing property in southern Italy?

Our 1960 Mid-Century Glass Home Tour
Then you’ve got these fucking hipsters and their expensive-ass lighting.

DIRT Episode 6— Alaska
Somehow I missed this when it was released. Alaska seems pretty cool.

My Solo Trip to Hanoi, Vietnam
Vietnam looks awesome.

A Photography Trip Turns Prosperous
Photographing Old British Petrol Stations on Expired 4×5 Film
A Week in Thailand
With the weather improving, I’ve been feeling the urge to pick up a camera again. So adding some of my favorite photography YouTubers back into the stream.

How the Dutch SOLVED Street Design
Scratching my urban planning itch. They SOLVED that shit.

I wasted $1,000 on old junk at the Apple Store!
Some weird products on this list.

Glide with Josie Prendergast
Surfing videos are cool. Surfing videos featuring surfers who look like supermodels are even cooler. Don’t tell my wife or daughters.

Surfing With Whales
Travel + surfing = dopeness.

Being Different // Sony A7siii Canada Travel Film
I thought this was going to be a lead-in to a series. So it was refreshing to just be a seven minute video about this guy’s adventures.

Sick of second hand life? So was I.
There comes a time in life where you have to sort your sh*t
Short-form Beau Miles bullshit. “Netflix is gunna be knockin’ after this.” 😂

How He Stumbled Upon The US Government’s Nuclear Bunkers
This wasn’t as interesting as I hoped it would be.

The Paradox of an Infinite Universe
Science!

Here’s the Thing about the M3 Macbook Air…
I’ll save you some time: unless you’re a pro, always buy the cheapest model with the biggest storage.

Car Content

In addition to watching tons of videos from several core channels, mostly on the Out of Spec network, I also caught these.

NEW £80k VW ID Buzz EV Camper Van Overnight REVIEW
Good thing these aren’t available in the US yet or it might be top of my new car list.

Full Tour: Electrify America Flagship Indoor Charging Hub! The Nicest Public EV Station In America
A big issue with EV adoption is that many of the people who are most interested in them live/work in congested urban areas where there isn’t room for chargers, and apartments/condos often don’t allow Level 2 home chargers. This solution seems best suited for tech-savvy cities like San Fransisco.

How Tesla Became The Most Popular Car Brand In Norway
Interesting series of events.

Living with the Tesla Cybertruck So You Don’t Have To!
Sorry, this thing is incredibly dumb looking.

My First Look At The Audi Q6 e-tron! Tech Specs, Quick Tour, & First Drive
Then there’s this, which, HOLY SHIT IS IT SEXY!!! Maybe I’ll win the lottery before it’s time to buy my next-next car and I can afford an e-tron.

How far can electric cars REALLY go??
None of these are on my list of potential cars but I still was interested in the outcome.

Do We Regret Buying a Rivian R1S? 7 Months Later…
I hate how videos like this are titled to generate controversy. This is actually a very fair, honest, mostly positive accounting. The estimate they got for repairing some minor damage was indeed insane, though.

A Tour of the Rivian Plant | Go behind the scenes with founder RJ Scaringe
Kinda cool. I hope they make it.

This $40,000 Tesla Solar & Powerwall Setup Is The Ultimate Home Power Station
Not strictly about cars, but another step on where we should be headed as a society. If we ever build a house – something that seems pretty unlikely – I would 100% roll the cost of adding solar into the project. As it stands, though, we don’t have a spare 40K sitting around to add it to our current home. Unless C or L get full rides to college.

Lucid Air: How to One-up Tesla!
I’ve ridden in a Lucid, and they are indeed awesome. I disagree with his critique of the Air’s looks.

The Vinfast VF8 is…. trying
One of the crazy things about the EV space is that there are some cars out there that are kind of crappy, yet still start in the $50K range. Boggles the mind.

Why Car Insurance Rates Are Skyrocketing In The U.S.
They leave out the most important part: the insurance industry is a scam.

Porsche Macan GTS v BMW X3 M40d v Tesla Model Y: DRAG RACE
I watched a lot of Car Wow videos three years ago, before and after I got my Audi. I’m glad they are showing up in my feed again.

Music/Podcasts

A final reminder that the magnificent 60 Songs That Explain The ‘90s pod came to an end in March. If you’ve never listened to it and love music, I can’t recommend it enough.

Friday Playlist

March 29, 2024 /

“Late March, Death March” – Frightened Rabbit
It’s about as late in March as you can get.

“3 Sisters” – Waxahatchee
Katie Crutchfield has done it again. Her new album, Tigers Blood, is stunning. Most of it drifts deeply into the alt-country sound, and I don’t mind one bit. There’s something pure and honest in her vocals that blasts right through all my normal reluctance to embrace that genre. Expect it to be at or near the top of every Best Of list at the end of the year. Obviously this is one of my favorite tracks on the album.

“Field Recordings” – Restorations
The other album I was waiting for that was released last week was Restorations’ latest. As with Waxahatchee above, this is the first track, and a great way to kick off an excellent album.

“Words” – Allison Lorenzen covering Low
Before Low’s Mimi Parker died last year, a tribute album to the band was already in the works. After her death, the album was dedicated to her memory. I was never super into Low, but I dig this song a lot. It has Low’s slowcore bones which being a little more accessible than a lot of their music was.

“Euphoria” – Boeckner
I missed the release of Dan Boeckner’s solo album but might need to check it out now that I’ve heard two great singles from it. This track features one-time Pearl Jam and Saturday Night Live drummer Matt Chamberlain.

“4316” – Isobel Campbell
A bright song for springtime.

“Good Friday” – Cowboy Junkies
“Easter” – Strand of Oaks
Happy spring holidays.

“Head Over Heels” – The Go Go’s
For all the impact that The Go Go’s had on music in the early Eighties, it’s easy to forget that they only had four real hits. This was the final big one, peaking at #11 and entering the chart at #36 this week in 1984.

Thursday Links

March 28, 2024 /

You take everything written about Apple with a grain of salt because of the company’s notorious secrecy, but even if this piece is only partially true, it is a fascinating look at their failed attempt to get into the car business.

How Apple Sank About $1 Billion a Year Into a Car It Never Built

And I liked this effort to find something good in Apple’s car program. Or any EV manufacturer, for that matter. Even if we all know it’s more money and market share than saving the planet.

A More Charitable Take on Apple’s Self-Driving Car Ambitions

OK, maybe my EV search is over!

Microlino electric bubble car review: urban delight

This is an interesting article about whether or not changing the clocks twice a year has a real effect on people and their health. It barely mentions one truth: the sun comes up really late in the winter no matter how we set our clocks.

The science behind why people hate Daylight Saving Time so much

This was written before Krazy Kim’s latest outburst.

Kim Mulkey is an asshole

As a counter, this woman is an absolute badass.

Jasmin Paris first woman to complete gruelling Barkley Marathons race

Rob Harvilla just completed his wonderful 60 Songs That Explain the ‘90s podcast, going well beyond 60 songs before he shut it down. I didn’t listen to them all, but the ones I did listen to were all great.

Here’s a full accounting of the songs he covered, broken down by genre, with links to their corresponding episode.

‘60 Songs That Explain the ’90s’: The Complete Collection

It’s been a good year for albums so far. Hurray For The Riff Raff’s The Past Is Still Alive is one of my favorites of the bunch.

Hurray for the Riff Raff has made the next great American road album

A semi-insider looks back on Lost In The Dream.

Bring It Home: The War on Drugs’ Lost in the Dream 10 Years Later

A cool visual presentation on how, and why, The Rolling Stones Greatest 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list has changed over the years.

WHAT MAKES AN ALBUM THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME?

Ten Years Being Lost In The Dream

March 27, 2024 /

I love honoring musical anniversaries, mostly by dropping songs with birthdays into my Friday Playlists.

I missed a big one while we were on spring break, one that demands more than just a song in a playlist.

March 18 was the tenth anniversary of the War on Drugs’ Lost In The Dream.

It is an album that has been a huge part of my life since the day it was released. It is certainly one of my two favorite albums of this century,[1] and should comfortably slot into my top ten favorite albums of all time list the next time I revisit that collection.

Over the past week I’ve listened to Lost In The Dream, front-to-back, at least three times. Everything about it still holds up.

At the time, Lost In The Dream was TWOD’s commercial breakthrough, as much as you could say that in 2014. It took a band that generated a lot of positive critical buzz with their previous album, Slave Ambient, and put them onto the front page of every music website in existence at the time. They transitioned from small clubs to larger ones, and within a few years were selling out Madison Square Garden.

I’ve written many times about Lost In The Dream, so it’s not worth going deep into it again. It remains an almost perfectly sequenced album. Starting with the twitchy, unsettled “Under the Pressure,” and ending with “In Reverse,” one of the truly great final tracks ever made. In between are two massive, Springsteen-esque songs written to be played endlessly (“Red Eyes,” “Burning”), the massive tent pole song in the middle that supports the weight of the entire album (“An Ocean in Between the Waves”), and the two gentler tracks that counter “Ocean” (“Eyes to the Wind,” “Lost in the Dream”). “Suffering” and “Disappearing” are the only B/B+ tracks on the album, and even then they fit into the perfect slots, giving the listener a slight respite from the heaviness of the rest of the album.

Adam Granduciel labored with the record for over a year, going through a destructive breakup, experiencing a crisis of confidence over his musical path, and reaching the point of near mental breakdown because of crippling anxiety about his life along the way. Songs were worked, reworked, and then reworked again. Months of work was scrapped, then reclaimed at the last minute. The agita of the project became part of its legend. I doubt Granduciel would want to go through that journey again, but the result was a confirmation of his talent and ambition.

The War on Drugs has made two excellent albums since Lost In The Dream. 2017’s A Deeper Understanding explored similar themes, both musically and lyrically, with the benefits that came from being signed to a major label. I Don’t Live Here Anymore, released in 2021, took the band on a new path. The sounds weren’t all that different. But rather than focusing on drifting between emotions, locations, and relationships, it was about accepting that you can be happy even when all of that other stuff is still hard work. It was also an album where Granduciel pared back his modern guitar hero histrionics in favor of making a truly collaborative album that allowed each member of the band to shine.

Both of those albums are awesome and I still listen to them often. But neither can match Lost In The Dream for its emotional impact. Even if he is still making great music – and hopefully has much more ahead in his career – Lost In The Dream was the apotheosis of everything that Granduciel believes in musically.

  1. Frightened Rabbit’s The Midnight Organ Fight being the other.  ↩

Jayhawk Talk: The End

March 26, 2024 /

I’m sure some of you are far more interested in my thoughts on Kansas Basketball than what we did over spring break. I’ve been ruminating on the topic since Saturday’s loss to Gonzaga. The result is a classic two-parter. Here, in part one, I’ll look back. Part two will look ahead.

I picked KU to lose to Gonzaga in both of my pools. I was not expecting a 21-point loss that featured a ridiculous 39–9 run by the Zags to open the second half, though. Seriously, 39–9?!?!?! That’s what happens when you have an injured, mentally washed, physically drained in March, I guess.

I was more impressed than disheartened or embarrassed. That was a hell of a run. I told my Purdue friends that they owed me a thank you for KU getting the Zags over-confident going into their Sweet 16 matchup. That was the one bonus: KU won’t be next on the Boilermaker Redemption Tour, and I can keep my 2–0 vs Purdue since I moved to Indiana streak intact.

No matter the final score, the result was basically clinched last Tuesday when Bill Self announced Kevin McCullar was out for the tournament. Even if Hunter Dickinson was totally healthy, it wasn’t very realistic to expect a very flawed Jayhawks roster to compete without their best player.

Of course, the McCullar announcement set off a whole level of “discourse” about the true nature of his injury, whether he was soft or not, and his motives.

Man, I have no idea.

I know NIL has changed college sports a lot. I want to continue to believe that a guy like McCullar would play if he could. His game was never the same after he was first injured in mid-January. All the offensive improvements he made last summer were gone. Defense, which had been his calling card his entire career, was compromised. We had six week’s evidence that he would take, and miss, too many shots, not be able to lock people down on D, and generally be a negative presence if he played in the NCAAs.

Still, I wouldn’t have minded if he was on the court simply because it was March and you never know.

Oh well. Nice career. He had a chance to be a Jayhawk legend but whatever he did to his knee in January blew that. Sadly he’s going to be remembered for the last part of his career instead of how hard he played the first year and a half of his time in Lawrence.

As for the rest of the team, I’ve been telling you for months that it was a team where the parts didn’t fit. And that was with McCullar. The mismatches got worse in his absence, with no true perimeter scoring threat.

Johnny Furphy made great strides in January and early February, but hit a freshman wall in mid-February and never fully recovered. He has a ton of potential. He makes moves that seem effortless and are tailored for the NBA. I fear that means he’s going to be in the draft in June, even if his body isn’t prepared. I hope he and his family see how he struggled against stronger defenders, how his shot disappeared when he got tired, and believe that another year in Lawrence will turn him into a lottery pick. Maybe being a top 20 pick is enough for them, though. I say it’s 25–75 he returns. His student visa limiting his NIL opportunities will likely play a big factor, although there are ways around that.

Dajuan Harris regressed in almost every way this year. I’m not sure why. Maybe he was covering too much for the lapses of others and that hurt his defense? I genuinely don’t understand how he missed so many layups. And I continue to be baffled how he hasn’t done a thing to change and improve his shot. We keep hearing how he knocks them down in practice. But his shot is so slow and low that unless he is wide open, he can’t even attempt it in a game. This was his fifth year of college. If he hasn’t revamped it by now, I have no faith that he will this summer, assuming he returns for his Covid year. He is a fantastic player when surrounded by scorers and capable defenders. He won a damn national championship as a sophomore when he had three NBA players around him. I expect Bill Self to fix that problem. It would be awesome if Harris spent the next eight months finding a legit jump shot.

KJ Adams took a ton of heat on the internet after KU’s loss. I felt bad for him. It wasn’t his fault. Dude saw that other than Dickinson nothing was working on offense and tried as hard as he could to make something happen, even if that meant attempting shots he shouldn’t be taking.

No one gives more effort than KJ. No one has a bigger heart than KJ. But he’s not a very good rebounder because he’s relatively small, he’s better suited to the perimeter than the lane on defense, and if he doesn’t have a clear path for a dunk his offensive game is severely limited. I love the dude, but KU needs someone bigger than 6’5” playing next to Dickinson or Flory Bidunga next year. KJ needs to be a super sub next season, the first guy off the bench for the 3–4–5 spots. He still plays 25+ minutes, but filling holes instead of as one of the featured five.

I expect Dickinson to come back. He won’t get drafted and he makes more at KU than he will going overseas. He averaged 18 and 11 this year with a flawed roster that didn’t give him much space to operate inside. I don’t get how some KU fans don’t want him back. Yes, his pick and roll defense is atrocious. But so was Udoka Azubuike’s and he improved his for his senior season. Hunter’s defense looked worse because everyone else other than Harris often had no idea where they were supposed to be on D. Put better defenders around him and KU is a much better team.

The defense was probably the most disheartening part of the Gonzaga loss. Self has never been afraid to throw a gimmick defense out when nothing else is working. That’s how he, famously, beat North Carolina in the 2012 Elite Eight, rolling out a triangle and two that shut the Tarheels down.

But he did nothing Saturday, to the chagrin of a lot of KU fans. He didn’t try anything because he didn’t trust most of his players to run any defense correctly. He looked maddest when (insert any KU player other than Harris here) made a terrible rotation or messed up a switch and left a Bulldog open for an easy dunk or unguarded 3. The collective defensive IQ of this team was as low as any team Self has had. And that was compounded by Dickinson’s immobility.

Which gets us to who to blame for this season. I still think if McCullar was completely healthy, KU had a run in them with the right matchups. They also might still have lost in the second round because of those defensive issues, the lack of consistent shooting, and the lack of depth.

All of that goes back to recruiting. Self has won some big battles in recent years. Getting Dickinson, McCullar, and Remy Martin in the transfer portal were huge. Same with getting Furphy and Gradey Dick out of high school.

But Nic Timberlake couldn’t figure things out until March, and even then was a disaster on defense.

Arterio Morris arrived in Lawrence with a domestic assault charge. Days after those charges were dropped, he was arrested and charged with rape, then dismissed from the team.[1]

Elmarko Jackson was a McDonald’s All American, but looked utterly unprepared for college level ball, often struggling to dribble and run at the same time.

Jamari McDowell was too inconsistent/raw to earn meaningful minutes.

Last year MJ Rice couldn’t stay on the court and left. Sadly he seems to have some serious mental issues and left the North Carolina State team twice this year to deal with them.

Ernest Udeh got rightly pissed when KU signed Dickinson and left for TCU. Zuby Ejiofor beat him to the punch, going to St. John’s after Self talked about getting another big man. Either of them would have given KU a lot more inside depth and better defense off the bench than Parker Braun provided.

Of the four freshmen who came to Lawrence in the fall of 2021, only two remain: Adams and Zach Clemence, who left, returned, redshirted this year, and many expect to leave this summer.

Martin was a huge part of KU’s 2022 national title team, but Joe Yesufu and Cam Martin were big misses that year.

In short, I think rather than being a boon for Self, who traditionally is an excellent “make up” recruiter, finding players late to fill holes, the transfer portal has suckered him to a disjointed recruiting strategy. Freshmen get pissed off and leave when they see older transfers coming in, which robs the program of the stability that the dominance of the last 20 years was built on. Those older guys have often struggled to fit in. Then, more often than not, Self and his staff have signed the wrong kids. It’s become a vicious cycle they need to get out of.

Not a great ending for the preseason number one team in the country. But not unexpected, either, after what we saw over the past four-plus months. When on, this team was very good, beating Kentucky, Tennessee, UConn, thrashing Houston, and destroying Texas. They also got waxed by Marquette and humiliated in the return game at Houston.

It was the nights when things were just a little off, though, that proved this team’s ceiling was lower than we thought. The loss at UCF seemed flukey at first. Then they blew a thoroughly winnable game to a bad West Virginia team because they couldn’t play simple defense. A healthy McCullar who doesn’t go 6–18 from the field and 2–5 from the line probably means they win in Manhattan and don’t blow the game against BYU. Pick off three of those and KU is tied with Iowa State for second in the Big 12, likely seeded as a #2 in the NCAAs, and perhaps still playing.

There’s been a lot of grousing amongst KU fans about this being the worst team of the Self era or whatever. I don’t think that’s fair. It was one of the least fun teams to watch, for sure, because, again, the parts didn’t fit and they rarely put together those stretches that blew games open KU is famous for. The season really came down to McCullar’s knee, a missed box-out here and there, or a bad three minutes on defense. Fix those and I’m still not sure this was a Final Four team. But our perception of the season would be much different.

I trust Bill Self to fix the issues. He’s going to have to recruit better and smarter than he has since the transfer portal and NIL changed the game, though, to get KU back where we Jayhawks fans expect it to be.

More about that in part two.

  1. Shout out to Illinois and Texas Tech for continuing to play their accused rapists, although Illinois tried to suspend theirs and was forced to play him by a federal court.  ↩

Spring Break Notes

March 25, 2024 /

What a fun week we had on Anna Maria Island, Florida for our spring break. Travel was mostly a breeze, with one exception we had terrific weather, and we were able to enjoy a relaxing week in the sun.

Alarms were set for 3:50 AM a week ago Saturday so we could be at the airport by 5:00. We made it comfortably and it was literally the easiest airport experience we’ve ever had this time of year. We spent maybe two minutes dropping our bags at the Southwest counter and there was one person in front of us in the TSA Pre line. Meanwhile the poor people flying United were in a line that was several hundred people long just to get checked in and drop bags.

Our flight down was direct to Sarasota and we arrived a few minutes early. My first stress of the week was getting our rental car. Two years ago we flew into Sarasota and the line was so long – people told us they had been in it for three hours and weren’t close to the front yet – that we gave up, Uber-ed to our house on Siesta Key, and came back two days later to get a car. This time there were three people in line when I arrived. Other than it taking the Budget worker a couple minutes to dig through his box of loose keys to find ours, it was a quick process to get out of the airport and into our van for the week.

From the airport we drove about 10 minutes to pick up M and her buddy A, who had spent the previous week in Sarasota with 10 UC friends. We hadn’t seen M since Christmas so that was fun. We got them, stopped for a bite at Panera, then headed to Anna Maria. Our house wasn’t available until 4:00. Luckily we have a friend from Indy who was visiting her mom on the island and they invited us to hang out with them. We changed and headed to the beach. The mom handed me a strong Jack and Coke. I took two sips and immediately decided I’d rather take a nap than get lit at 11 AM.

I snatched about 30 minutes of sleep as we baked in the hot sun.

We spent a few hours on the beach, ran a couple errands, and went to our house around 2:00. We were hoping it would open early but the cleaning crew was still working so we headed over to Pine Street to find some food. We went to Pizza Social, which was pretty solid. The only bummer was that two of C’s nemesis (nemesises?) walked in after us and sat at the next table. Awkward!

We were able to get into our house a little after 3:00. It was great. Private, heated, saltwater pool with a hot tub. Artificial turf putting green. Big kitchen. S and I left the girls to do the first big Publix run of the week. I maintain that Florida Publix the week of spring break are a logistics marvel. The place is jam packed from open-to-close on check-in days, yet you can always find plenty of food despite employees never clogging the aisles re-stocking. I don’t know how they do it. And then they get you checked out in record time. Props to the Publix folks.


Our house guests weren’t arriving until late Saturday. I tried to stay awake but passed out around 11. They got there sometime around midnight but I didn’t hear them. They are L’s godparents, K one of S’s best friends from high school and her husband, C, who teaches at CHS. Some of you may remember him as the person who officiated at our wedding in Indy.

After a couple hours of perfect sun on Sunday, I braved the afternoon traffic to take M and A to the airport for their flight back to Cincinnati. It was 45 minutes to SRQ, but over twice that to get back. Not sure why the Anna Maria police and sheriff like to sit in the middle of the island giving people tickets for going 27 in a 25 and not monitor the lights coming onto the island making sure traffic doesn’t completely jammed up when they can’t account for the number of cars coming in. I sat at one intersection for three red lights without moving because the breaks in the cross traffic always came at the wrong times.

K and C’s daughter, a senior at Purdue, flew down to join us Sunday evening. Her friend joined us on Monday. They were fun, taking on the dads in corn hole a couple times. K is really into cards and taught me how to play euchre. I figure after nearly 21 years in Indiana I should learn how. Not sure I totally got it but I have the basics down now.

Monday was supposed to be rainy but after some morning sprinkles the clouds cleared out and it was another gorgeous day. Storms did move in that evening but we got a full day of sun in.

Tuesday it was much cooler – 58 when I woke up – and the highs were only in the mid–70s the next couple days. But in our wind-protected back yard, the sun was still summertime hot. It was great.

Thursday night bigger storms moved in. It was so windy it blew a screen door off the house. The rain was so loud I couldn’t hear the TV audio while watching the KU game. All that stretched into Friday which was the only day we didn’t get any sun.

We caught a couple sunsets on the northern tip of the island. We ate coconut shrimp and grouper nuggets on the pier while a big-ass pelican eyed our food and a dolphin patrolled beneath us. We had a great meal at the Sandbar and walked out just as the sun set. We had some good dinners at home. We had the obligatory lunch at the Indiana native owned Ugly Grouper.


I drove the girls down to Sarasota one day where they hooked up with friends who took them to Siesta Key. L got to hang out with two of her old travel ball buddies. Both girls either had friends over or ran around AMI with friends, too. There were a few too many junior boys around. But C being a teacher at CHS helped keep them on their best behavior.

Mostly we sat in the sun and drank and read and talked and laughed.

Saturday morning we had alarms set for 4:30 but I was awake at 4:00. Another easy process to drop bags and go through the TSA line. I was worried about our connection in Atlanta, which was a tight 40 minutes. But we landed early and even with the obligatory long ATL taxi to the game, arrived in plenty of time to claim our rightful A boarding group spots. Home on time, bags arrived, we stopped for lunch, and were back in our house right around 1:30 Saturday afternoon. It was a little weird traveling with just two kids. At one point L said “When it’s my senior year it will just be the three of us,” which kind of blew our minds.

Much better than our last time in Anna Maria, which was in 2021 when things were still wonky because of Covid. Our location was much better this time, too.

K and C flew home on Friday. I told them how two years ago we got stranded there during the KU-Villanova game and I was unable to watch because of the lack of TVs and flooded cell network. C sent me a picture from their gate, which showed him drinking a beer while watching NCAA games on newly installed TVs. I would have hated watching an NCAA game in a crowded airport. And things worked out ok that year anyway.

Now we’re on to whatever our next trips are. We are both considering what to do if we can squeeze a summer trip in, and about to start planing what C’s senior spring break will be next year.

Friday Playlist

March 15, 2024 /

“The Trap” – R.M.F.C.
If you read these posts closely, you know how I love to identify Australian groups by their common sound alone. I don’t know that these kids jumped out as Aussie to me right away. It leans a little more Southern Cali surf rock, although that sound does have a big influence the Australian sound I like so much.

“Neon River” – Pond
Let’s stay Down Under with the latest from these Aussie psych-rock heroes.

“Apollo” – Slow Fiction
I hear a lot of early 2000s alt rock in here, recalling bands like The Superjesus and Remy Zero.

“The Dreamer” – A Country Western
I was expecting a Country or Not track with a band name like this. Rather, this is solid post-grunge.

“Cabin Song” – Rett Smith, Jessica Lea Mayfield
A terrific, smoldering duet.

“Go All The Way” – The Raspberries
Raspberries lead singer Eric Carmen died last weekend. He was most famous for his three monster solo singles: 1975’s #2 “All By Myself,” 1987’s #4 “Hungry Eyes” from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, and 1988’s #3 “Make Me Lose Control.” This was his best song, though, one of the greatest power pop songs ever recorded. It made it to #5 in 1972. I never listened to the lyrics much before I read about his career. Apparently this was highly controversial with some radio programmers because they viewed it as being too suggestive. Much simpler times. Carmen became kind of a right wing nut job late in life, but his music, or at least this track, still holds up.

“Stop” – Jane’s Addiction
This week’s The Alternative Number Ones entry was this jam from September 1990. The history of Jane’s Addiction is fascinating. Tom Breihan does it right, and this is one of his best, and funniest pieces. I would say it’s worth a month’s subscription to Stereogum to read it. Support independent music journalism!

“Indianapolis” – Michigander
Usually when I leave town I include music about my destination. This time I’ll share a song about the place I’m leaving. We’re off to Florida for the next week. We may have drawn the short straw for weather – at the moment rain is forecast for several days – but even if we’re stuck inside I’m not sure there will be any blog posts next week.

“You Might Think” – The Cars

This was supposed to be about Weird Al Yankovic’s “Eat It,” but YouTube won’t let me embed that song, so I’ll switch to this, another monster hit from the spring of 1984. A fun song by a band that was never massive but everyone liked. A quirky video that featured a super model. That was the formula for a hit in 1984. This was one of the first videos to heavily use computer graphics, and won Video of the Year at the first MTV Video Music Awards. Cracking the Top 40 the week of March 24 at #39, it spend three weeks at #7.

Car Buying Notes

March 14, 2024 /

As promised, a second Car Buying post for the week. I’ve had to revamp this one several times, because my brain has been overloaded with info the past few days, and I’ve struggled to turn it into a coherent piece. Today’s mostly revolves around Ze Germans.

Why I Am Ditching Audi

I think I addressed this a bit in my first post, more about why I’m stepping down from my Audi in terms of finances. But I know the question is out there that goes along the lines of, “Your Audi was your favorite car ever. Why not just buy it when your lease ends and stick with it for a few more years?”

A very good question. One I considered for a bit.

There are a few answers.

The first regards short term expenses. Beyond just buying the car and paying the associated taxes, the next ownership year would be an expensive one. The Q5 needs new tires. We just spent $300 to put a new tire on S’s Telluride. Multiply times four and I’m dropping $1200-ish on top of the purchase price.

Then the next scheduled maintenance for the Audi is a beast, with a whole swath of “required” tasks hitting at the 40,000 mile mark. I was quoted $1500 by the dealer, and that’s before any unexpected repairs or replacement parts. I would likely take it to an independent shop to reduce the cost a bit, but I don’t think that would knock more than a couple hundred bucks off the price.

Audis, like most German cars, aren’t known for aging affordably, either. Looking at cost of ownership curves online, once you get five years into ownership, you can count on dropping at least a grand each year on service and repairs.

Between tires, maintenance, taxes, and the lease buyout, I was in the ballpark of what it would cost to get into a new, non-electric car. It always seems smarter to start over rather than stick with a car with miles and wear-and-tear on it for the same price.

Then the EV market got flooded with incentives and they became an option, which totally changed my thinking on what my new car would be.

The second reason for not staying with the Audi is the normal annoyances that come with driving something every day for three years.

I’ve had the tailgate fixed three times. Do I trust it to keep working normally after it is out of warranty? Not really. I’m shocked it hasn’t glitched out again since its last repair.

My biggest issue with the car has been the transmission and the Auto Start/Stop function. The transmission is sluggish in low gears. When I’m backing out of the garage and changing directions, for example, it often seems bubbly and hesitant. It reminds me of cruising at idle speed in a boat and that weird, wet, gurgling sound I would hear when I first started our boat and backed it out of the dock. If you ever need to punch it to go from low speeds to high quickly, the car is hesitant as hell. The engine revs, trying to supply the asked for power, but the transmission just can’t move it to the axles fast enough.

The Auto Start/Stop is terrible on Audis. It will get you killed if you’re not careful. There have been so many times in the past three years when I was coasting into a roundabout or yield sign, the car decided to shut off the engine, then I needed power and it refused to reengage immediately. Your heart rate will crank up a few notches when you see a car coming right at you as you mash the gas pedal and nothing happens for a few seconds, then the engine reluctantly kicks in and gives you just enough power to avoid being smashed.

Contrast that with S’s old Jeep Grand Cherokee or current Telluride, where the engine supplies full power quickly.

Or compare to an EV, where the power is never truly cut and the car responds instantly.

Even if you turn Auto Start/Stop off – which must be done each time you re-start the car – the Audi struggles in those quick stop-and-go situations.

I’m all for saving gas and cutting emissions, but not at the expense of safety.

I’ve also found Audi’s drive-assist functions to be annoying. Adaptive Cruise Control is far too conservative. Lane assist is too aggressive. For 2021, Audi had a pretty good package of “self driving” functions. I was never confident enough to use them all at the same time.

Obviously these are super first world problems. I’m lucky to have an Audi in the first place, let alone be in a position to either keep it or replace it with something that might be less expensive but is still very nice. I’m sharing all this more to explain my car shopping than as true complaints.[1]

VW ID.4

I’ve written about the Volkswagen ID.4 a little already.

Kyle Conner, the main guy behind the Out Of Spec videos, is the biggest EV geek I’ve come across in my research. He owns and drives high end EVs on a daily basis. His videos are often about squeezing as much performance out of an EV as possible.

Where other reviewers are lukewarm about the ID.4, he absolutely loves them. He agrees they are quirky, not as exciting or technologically advanced as competitors, and have a few things that will drive you crazy. But, he counters, they perform just fine as a daily driver.

Last week I wondered how important it was to have a car that can leverage the Tesla charging network when I rarely take long trips, and when I do they are almost always to big cities with mature charging networks. And do I need 400 horsepower when that is mostly a party trick to use momentarily? The instant power of any EV will allow me to easily floor it to pass, merge, or momentarily avoid trouble.

Suddenly I was looking at ID.4s again. And there were still some great deals.

So I went and test drove one Monday.

I think Kyle’s assessment was perfect: it is indeed quirky, but it also a completely competent and enjoyable ride. The screen graphics seem 20 years old compared to a Tesla. There are some wild controls scattered through the cabin. The infotainment system is frustrating. The steering wheel buttons are easy to accidentally hit and, for example, turn on the steering wheel heater when you are making a right turn. It lacks some key functions that leverage the promise of electric motors.

It rides nicer than the Tesla Model Y, though. It has Apple CarPlay, supports SiriusXM, and has HomeLink integration. It manages an estimated 275 miles on a full charge, enough to get to Cincinnati and back without charging in ideal conditions. It comes with three years of free charging on the troublesome Electrify America network. For all of EA’s issues, the cities I will visit most often – Cincy and Louisville – feature EA chargers at the same locations as Tesla Superchargers, and these are often the best maintained and functioning EA spots.

For getting around town, which is 80% of my driving, it does the job just fine. With all the current incentives it comes in cheaper than the Tesla Model Y. Plus, VW Finance would waive my Audi turn-in fee since VW owns Audi, saving us another $500.

I got quotes from our insurance agent Tuesday. A Tesla Model Y would increase our premium by $400 a year. An ID.4 would decrease it by the same amount. So the ID.4 saves us almost a grand right there before you even get to sticker price, lease amount, and so on. Throw in the forgiven disposition fee and that’s nearly $1500 in savings.

Would it make more sense to go ahead and get a 2023 ID.4, despite their flaws and the fixes expected on the soon-to-arrive 2024 models, as the dealers try to push them off the lot?

For about 24 hours I thought the answer to that question was yes.

The big catch is I would have to buy one right now. With two payments still owed to Audi. There was only one on the lot that I liked, a gorgeous Silver Mist Pro S rear wheel drive with Cosmic interior, and I can’t imagine it will sit there for six more weeks.

The more I thought about it, though, the more it made sense to sit tight. Tesla prices are fluctuating again. They just went up, but many expect them to take another drop soon. For a couple grand less, the ID.4 makes sense. If they are priced equally, I think you have to go with Tesla. Once the updated 2024 VWs land, the trim level I would want will check in about $4000 higher than the Model Y. The software in current VWs is being eliminated and replaced with a new Android Auto system, likely in the 2025 models. Even on a lease, not sure how comfortable I am buying a car running software that is no longer in development.

VW showed off the 2024 models a couple weeks ago, but there is zero guidance on when those will show up. If you go to VW’s website, it still allows you to spec a 2023 model then points you to existing inventory. There isn’t even a Coming Soon page showing the improvements in the ‘24s. The VW sales guy I met with – who was a very tall, very German guy, which seemed perfect – said they haven’t been told when to expect the new ones or when orders will open up.

I spent pretty much all of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday making lists, watching videos, reading reviews and message boards, and generally making myself crazy trying to figure out what the best path forward was.

Tesla Questions

My re-interest in the ID.4 was prompted not just from reevaluating what my driving needs are, but also because I have one serious concern about Tesla.

As I’ve mentioned before, Tesla has dropped radar/ultrasonic sensors, relying solely on cameras and “neural network” processing to control all the driver assist functions. This can cause phantom braking, when the camera thinks it sees something and slams on the brakes for no reason, among other issues.

That seems like a huge flaw to me. While I won’t be on the highway a ton, if I can’t trust the adaptive cruise control and, thus, can’t use it, the Teslas take a big step back. Tesla is constantly tweaking its software in attempts to make improvements. I’m not sure that a bunch of new code will ever replace sensors shooting energy out and making calculations based on the returns.

Then I read five bad things about the ID.4 and it seems dumb not to go with Tesla, even with their issues.

I’m glad spring break is coming up so I can stop thinking about cars for a few days.

Electrical

We had an electrician out Wednesday to run the line for a garage charger.

I don’t think I shared how crazy the process was to find someone to even give me a quote. I sent messages to seven or eight different services, and only got responses from two. The first company sent a guy out and gave me an estimate on the high end of what I expected based on my research. The second had me send them pictures of our electrical box, basement, and garage plus a video of where the line would run. They quoted me about 30% less. I went with the second folks. They were also on the official Tesla Approved list of businesses, so hopefully that means I can trust them.

The bummer of the project was that our garage wall is on the far north side of our house while our electrical box is in the basement on the far south side. That required running about 75 feet of wire. If our box had been directly below our garage, or even in the garage in an older home, we would have saved another 50%.

  1. There is a car YouTuber I’ve watched over the last month who, multiple times, has said a good problem to have is a “Third World Problem.” I mean, come on…  ↩

Car Buying Notes

March 12, 2024 /

I’m finding the titles of these posts to be cumbersome. Plus they overlap with my high school hoops post titles. So, going forward, I’m just using this generic title.

It’s been an eventful week on the EV front. Not just for me, but also in the news. For today’s post I figured I would knock out thoughts on some of those macro issues. As this is a pretty quiet week leading into spring break, I may have another car post this week to continue to clear out some of the topics I want to hit.

New Rivians

Rivian announced three new vehicles last week. The R2, which was expected, and the R3 and R3X, which were surprises. All are designed to make the brand more accessible, with prices starting in the high $40,000s compared to the $70,000+ the R1T and R1S check in at. The event made quite the buzz in the EV scene, as the vehicles all look awesome. So many of the people I follow in the EV space put down deposits immediately. If the timing was different, I might have done the same.

The big catch is that the R2 isn’t expected to hit the market until 2026, with the R3s to follow. Given how Rivian is hemorrhaging money at the moment, there is a question of whether the company will survive long enough to release these new models.

Below is the best summary of the event I watched. I had never heard CEO RJ Scaringe speak before. Why aren’t there more tech CEOs like him? He seems very chill and normal, not the usual freak show that so many of his contemporaries are. Or at least one of them. I liked how he sat back and let Marques Browlee do most of the talking, where other CEOs would have taken control of the conversation to make sure they got all their talking points in.

Blazers

After pulling their Blazer EVs from the market because of serious software issues, Chevy re-launched the line last week. Since I’m in the market I took a look and it blew me away that they start in the $60,000 range. SIXTY THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR A BLAZER!!!

Checking local inventory, most seem to land in the high–40s to mid–50s, but that is after the Federal tax incentive is applied. Not sure how that’s a winning strategy to make waves in the space when the Blazers’ competitors, most of which are much better reviewed, are dipping well into the $40s currently.

Ford Charging

Ford was the first manufacturer to gain access to the Tesla Supercharger network a week ago. It will take some time for adapters to be released to current Ford owners and their models to switch to native support of the Tesla plug, but this is a big first step to leveling the landscape in the fast public charging space. Hopefully it also forces Electrify America to get their shit together so they are a legitimate competitor to Tesla charging and we have some real competition in the market.

EVs in the Cold

I’ve had several people ask me why I would get an EV after what happened in Chicago and other northern cities during February’s cold snap.

That’s a very good question.

From everything I’ve read, the charging meltdown, which left dozens of EVs stranded without power and charging stations operating at limited capacity, primarily affected EV owners who are unable to charge at home. Which is much more common in big cities, where apartments/condos and parking difficulties make it almost impossible for people to do overnight charging at home.

I will have a home charger so am not too worried about bitter cold rendering my future EV useless. And if we had to take a long trip in super wintry weather, we would just take S’s car.

EVs are very much affected by cold weather. But so are traditional gas vehicles. When there’s a gas station every five miles we don’t register how bad our mileage can get when the temps dip and the winds blow. A few years ago I was driving my Suburban in a bitter storm and checked my fuel economy for grins. When I saw I was getting seven miles per gallon, I turned that screen off so I didn’t think about how fast I was ripping through my gas tank.

Sales People

I’ve been a little surprised that the Kia dealership I visited last month hasn’t hounded me more. They are known for being super aggressive, but other than a cursory follow-up email, I hadn’t heard much.

Until last week. When I got this crazy email. I’ll share the entire text so you can take it all in.

Hello again. Several days have passed since your visit to our dealership, and I want to let you know that our interest in earning your business has only grown since your visit. I would like to ask a favor of you, present me with a challenge that I would need to overcome for you to take home a 2024 Kia EV6. It can be anything: trade in value, price, terms, or perhaps a different vehicle that you were first considering.
Allow me the chance, and I will get the job done.

Yowsa.

It seems a little desperate, doesn’t it?

I’ve never seen a sales pitch like that, but it sure fits that dealer’s reputation. S and I laughed, then brainstormed “challenges” we could throw at him.

Do 100 pushups in a minute.
Take another $10,000 off the sales price.
Give me a straight answer about the electrical issues that Kia/Hyundai seem to have in their EVs.
Let me punch him square in the jaw.
Do a shot a minute until he passes out.

Or, my favorite: shut the fuck up.

I know car sales is a tough racket. You have to deal with casual shoppers who are just browsing, or are cross-shopping against the car they really want, who you have no chance of making a sale to. You have a-holes who will spend hours working you for every last cent on a deal. And you have your sales manager breathing down your neck about why a customer walked out the door without a deal in place.

Yet I’m constantly amazed by how many sales people do such a bad job of reading their customers or do weird shit like this. The “challenge” did make me laugh. Are there actually people who read that message and think, “You know what, I like the way this guy asked me for a challenge. I think I’ll buy a car from him!”?

My Buying Process

There has been some movement in my EV journey over the past few days. I won’t go into the details yet, as the situation remains fluid and I don’t want to share something that I end up backing away from in two days.

I did test drive a new vehicle on Monday, though. And may test drive something else today.

The electrician is coming tomorrow to run the 240 volt line to our garage for a level two charger.

I’m also waiting for some information from our insurance agent, which could make-or-break this whole undertaking.

Weekend Notes

March 11, 2024 /

In some ways it was a terrible weekend. In other ways it was a good one. The common theme was a lot of basketball.

Jayhawk Talk

I’m very glad that I didn’t see a minute of Houston destroying KU. I had this game chalked up as an L ever since KU easily beat the Cougars last month. A 30-point loss, though? I have to admit, that was unexpected.

It wasn’t a huge surprise that Kevin McCullar was ineffective then sat the entire second half. But Hunter Dickinson injuring his shoulder and leaving the game was not on my BINGO card for the day. I’m starting to think the Hoops Gods are punishing KU for not getting the hammer from the NCAA. Or perhaps for us Jayhawk fans for gloating when we didn’t get the hammer. This is shaping up to be a terrible March and lost season for my favorite team.

The Hoops Gods may also be preparing to punish me for talking shit to M every time KU beat Cincinnati in anything this year. If the Bearcats beat West Virginia Tuesday, they play the Jayhawks Wednesday. I’m assuming neither McCullar or Dickinson will play. Good grief.

The KU women also lost their Big 12 tournament game to Texas Saturday. Bad day for the Jayhawks.

HS Hoops

This didn’t really bother me too much, but Kokomo and future Jayhawk Flory Bidunga were playing in the regional round of the Indiana state tournament at the same time KU was losing to Houston. Flory had 20 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists, but #4 Kokomo lost to #1 Fishers by 14.

Time for him to get in the weight room so he’s ready to compete in the Big 12. Unless he can play next week?

Pacers

The Pacers have been in a bit of a funk lately, sandwiching great games with ones when something just seems off. Their offense, which was bound to regress, isn’t nearly as free-flowing and fun as it was the first three months of the season. Some folks are complaining that trading Buddy Hield messed up the team’s chemistry. While Pascal Siakam has been solid since coming over from Toronto, I wouldn’t say he’s been a dramatic game changer.

The biggest factor is that Tyrese Haliburton has been in a slump. His shooting has gone in the toilet lately, and his already mediocre defense has taken a step back. I wonder if he should have taken longer to come back from his late January hamstring injury, even if that meant missing All Star weekend action.

Anyway, adding to the bad of Saturday was the announcement that evening that Bennedict Mathurin will undergo shoulder surgery and miss the rest of the season. After a slow start to his second year, he had really picked it up lately. He isn’t the shooter Hield is, but he’s a far more complete player and the additional minutes seemed to do him wonders. Until he got hurt.

Blech.

Youth Hoops

Why did I miss the KU game? L had two days of “training camp” this weekend with her travel team. The sessions were way out in Plainfield, about 40 minutes from our house. Don’t ask me why they were out there, I have no idea.

After Saturday’s session we had a team dinner for our first hang as a new squad. Three of L’s teammates from the past two years are back, but the other four girls are new. It was nice to meet the parents and new co-coach. The kids seemed to have fun. L said she really likes everyone so far.

They also had two new girls work out with them both days. I’m not sure if they will officially join the team or not – there’s some intra-program politics involved – but they are both above six-feet tall, which is huge. Literally.

I talked to the head coach after Saturday’s workout and he said one of them has some skill and promise while the other is pretty raw. However, he said that raw girl got a ton of rebounds when they scrimmaged. I suggested he teach her how to throw outlet passes and tell her to just get every loose ball she sees. It would be kind of crazy if we went from no height the past two years, to three girls 5’10” or better this year.

L missed her CHS awards banquet last Monday because she came home from school sick. The team FaceTimed her in so she could participate virtually. She won the Rising Star award, given to the best underclassman. She didn’t seem to think it was all that cool but I thought it was a great way to cap off her first year of high school ball.

Spring Break

M is flying to Florida today for a week in Sarasota with a group of UC friends. She sent us a picture this morning as she walked onto the plane, so her early alarm and Uber to the airport worked ok. We trust her to make good decisions. Still, I have to admit I’m a little nervous. I never went on spring break as a college kid, but I’ve seen movies and heard stories.

We leave for Anna Maria next Saturday. Our trips overlap by one night, so after we land we are going to pick her and her St P’s/CHS buddy up and they will spend that night with us. We haven’t seen her since she went back for second semester, if you don’t count the weekly FaceTimes and calls.

My Stupid Brain

Saturday night I fell into a car research rabbit hole again. I’m an idiot. The issue with these spells is they get my brain cranked up, increase my pulse and blood pressure, and make me a little anxious.

I couldn’t relax and stay asleep so after a couple hours of tossing and turning, I got up to try to re-set my body. Unfortunately I waited too long to do it and I was sitting in my chair, wide awake, when the clock jumped from 2:00 to 3:00 as Daylight Saving Time arrived. Wonderful. I need to lock away all my devices two hours before bed until I actually have a new car.

The rabbit hole gave me more content for posts, though, so you, my loyal readers, are the big winners!

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