EV Data Update

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A few years ago, Kat got a Volkswagen ID.4. It’s our first electric vehicle of any kind. With the purchase came three years of free charing from Electrify America. Fun fact, Volkswagen created Electrify America as part of their settlement with the EPA around Dieselgate.

The CAA 2.0 liter partial settlement requires Volkswagen to invest $2 billion in ZEV charging infrastructure and in the promotion of ZEVs.  The ZEV investments required by the CAA 2.0 liter partial settlement are intended to address the fact that consumers purchased these illegal vehicles under the mistaken belief that such vehicles were lower-emitting than others. Electrify America, LLC, was created by Volkswagen Group of America to implement this requirement.

But, that’s not why I bothered starting to write today. Today we’re going to run some numbers!

In the three years that we had free charging:

  • 6388.43 kWh
  • 176 charging sessions
  • 25,854 miles driven

This, on average, gets us 144.44 miles per charge and about 4mi/kWh. If we had paid for this, assuming an average price of $0.50/kWh, that would be about $3,200. Not bad. Please keep in mind these numbers are all based on averages and some charges got fewer miles due to average speed (going fast is bad for EV mileage as well) , temperature (too hot is bad, too cold is bad), and did we do more uphill then downhill (going uphill is hard, thanks a lot, Gravity). On that last you you can reasonably argue that it all buffs out as we eventually return home, so we did as much downhill as uphill.

At the end of the day it costs, ignoring everything but electricity, $0.14/mi to use the ID.4. In comparison, my GTI costs $0.17/mi.

The Black Keys – Ohio Players

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I'm not the biggest Black Keys fan in the world, but I'm really digging their new album, Ohio Players. The first track is constantly in my head.

I can't tell if this is a Miller High Life commercial or a family vacation from one of my friends. While you're on YouTube, do not miss this hilarious video from the same album. Be sure to watch all the way to the end for the amazing cameo.

The 2023 NFL Betting Spread

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Overall

Underdogs beat the spread 126 times (46.3%)
Favorites covered the spread 140 times (51.5%)
There were 6 pushes (2.2%)
Last year was 144/118/9

A pie chart showing the percentage of favorites versus underdogs.

This is a pretty big swing from last season, where the underdogs beat 53.1% of the time.

Large Numbers

The largest spread this year was 16.5 in the Week 10 matchup between Dallas and the New York Giants. Dallas covered that spread. Dallas had the highest spread in 2022 as well.

Common Numbers

The 3 point spread roars back into top pick of Vegas and went 27-16 to the favorites. The adjacent spreads of 2.5 and 3.5 went 18-17 and 14-14 respectively.

Odd Numbers

Let’s face it, the underdogs had a rough year, but the one bright spot was at 5.5 where they managed a 13-9 showing. Well done, all you 5.5 underdogs! The 8.5 spread also had a 6-2 for the underdogs and the 7 spread was 7-3 for the favorites. Again…rough year to be the underdog.

Favorites

This won’t console any 49er fans, but they were favored in every single regular season game and covered the spread 11 times to take the crown. Dallas and Detroit tied for second with 10 covers as favorites.

Buffalo and Green Bay tied at 8 for failing to cover the spread. But what, where’s KC because we know they suck at beating the spread as favorites! They failed to cover 7 times, so…they were in the running and they were favorites 16 times. Woof.

Underdogs

Arizona, Chicago, and NYG tied for first at beating the spread as underdogs with 8 a piece.

Carolina, last years darling at beating the spread as an underdog, failed to cover 11 times. Ouch. The closest teams were Arizona and Tennessee with 9 failures. Yes, Arizona was the underdog for every regular season game, good catch.

Music in 2023

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Here’s the brain dump of what I added to my collection this year. Please note that not everything was released in 2023, it’s just the year I got it.

Vinyl

Digital

Some of these are still pre-release, but they show up in my list, so…

I also highly recommend jwz's 2023 music wrap-up.

The Long Run

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One of the things I picked up while participating in Fleet Feet running programs is the weekly long run. My weekday runs are between 4-6 miles, because I'm doing them before work and there is a limit to how early I will get up to exercise, and that limit is 5:30am.

Since I'm not training for anything in particular, it's not a big deal to me that I tripled my weekdays runs on my weekend long run. I'm sure for a training program that would be a big no-no, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I've made it to the end of the Upper Bidwell Park fire road 5 times now and this was the fastest of them all. Not bad for a guy in his 50s!

2023 Books

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I consume the majority of my books through audio, specifically Audible, some through Kindle, and then some dead tree versions. Don’t @ me, it’s what I do and if you don’t and use something else, that’s awesome. I’m truly happy for you.

So, here’s my 2023 books by medium.

Audible

Roadkill by Dennis E. Taylor. I didn’t finish it. In fact, I don’t think I get more than 50 “pages” in before giving up. I don’t know why, it just…didn’t work out.

The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz. Didn’t finish.

Buy-In by John P. Jitter, Lorne A. Whitehead. A really good, short read on how to not have your good idea killed by other people.

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. It was…fine. Fantasy isn’t my favorite genre, but I stuck with this one.

The Caledonian Gambit by Dan Moren. Didn’t finish.

SpecOps by Craig Alanson. An interesting sci-fi novel but I think the narrator isn’t my favorite.

Wool by Hugh Howey. I read this because I watched Silo. I think I live the TV version more, but I appreciate how much more detail the book was able to give. I don’t think I read the rest though.

Quit by Annie Duke. A solid advice book.

Slow Time Between Stars by John Scalzi. It’s just a short story, but I instabuy anything from Mr. Scalzi.

The Crux by Richard P. Rumelt. The follow-up to his quintessential book on strategy and well worth the read.

Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. You have a finite time to live, what are you doing with that time?

Paradise by Craig Alanson. The third book in his series. Haven’t finished it yet. Again, probably the narrator.

Starter Villain by John Scalzi. Absolutely hilarious, but again, I’ll buy anything from Scalzi.

Product Roadmaps Relaunched by C. Todd Lombardo, Bruce McCarthy, Evan Ryan, and Michael Connors. This book is fantastic and if you have to create roadmaps for software teams or projects, this is a must-read.

Wiring the Winning Organization by Gene Kim, Steve Spear. Even if you aren’t a manager, this is well worth the read and it’s based on a ton of research.

The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu. Still reading, hoping for good things.

Switch by Dan and Chip Heath. All about the science of changing behavior.

Kindle/Dead Tree

Product Operations by Melissa Perri, Denise Tilles. Haven’t started yet.

Tidy First? By Kent Beck. Haven’t started yet.

Implementing Service Level Objectives by Alex Hidalgo. Haven’t started yet.

Extreme Programming Explained by Kent Beck and Cynthia Andres. A good read, but also easy to put down when distracted.