Good afternoon Grid connections listeners.
I just wanted to give you a bit of an update here So this is gonna be a little bit different than the normal episodes.
And so if you're here for an interview You can probably skip this week.
We'll have some great things coming next week But I just wanted to give a quick update on just some of the things happening on the podcast recent experience I had I'm just trying
to get some more feedback and share some other exciting updates about what I'm looking to do with the podcast
So if you're just looking for an interview, sorry, it's just gonna be me talking today, but tune back in next week.
So first off, of a life update.
As you may notice, what looks like a kind of nondescript blue room, I have recently moved, and so that kind of threw off this week's scheduling.
So next week, it is going to be the start of a couple new things, and I don't wanna get a...
of myself just yet because I want to make sure we can keep the cadence of doing it that often working.
But I think we'll be able to go up to more episodes per week.
But first, I just wanted to share, yeah, so I recently moved from Central Oregon, Bend, to the Columbia Gorge area, which is about two and a half hours north of Bend, still kind of
Oregon and Washington there.
And coincidentally, it's where both my wife and I grew up.
So we're excited to be back in this area.
It means I'll be a little bit closer to Portland and I think that'll unlock some interesting things coming up in regards to possibly doing partnerships with other teams,
possibly even car reviews and more in -person things.
So speaking of which, if anyone listening is going to be at the Electrify Expo later this month in San Francisco, technically Oakland, but the San Francisco Electrify Expo, I
believe the 24th and 25th,
later this month, I will actually be there and I would love yes 24th 25th and I would love to meet with anyone that does and is able to attend and can speak with in person I'm
actually gonna be there if you remember a couple episodes back we had DJ Burtwell on and he's since asked me to come on as an emcee for one of the Events that they host at the
electrify expo.
So I'm really excited about that and pretty honored to be here
Are to be there for that now as you may notice Yeah, everything looks a little Not quite up to the usual Polish and the audio I apologies if it's not quite the same.
I'm still getting my office set up I just I don't even fully move but I just did another run yesterday of stuff up from bend So hopefully by next week will be back and things will
look more situators and we're gonna be back to the normal quality of
audio and video that you guys are usually expecting.
So yeah, there's one personal change of the move, but yeah, I'm hoping to be at more events.
And recently, as I had Francie from the Unrespect podcast on, I'm hoping to do more work actually with not just their team, but others as well to kind of make sure we're
delivering that really engaging content.
So that brings me to one of the questions I have for you guys.
please reach out to us, whether it be on social, on even Twitter X, or on our YouTube and podcast page, some of what you would like to see.
What we're looking to do moving forward will be continue to do our one -on -one episodes where we have a subject matter expert come on and I get to talk with him and we learn
together more about his specific error, his or her specific error of the, whether it be.
the grid, electric vehicles, or that area of their expertise.
But one of the things that have been consistently popular and I really enjoy doing are kind when we do our panel episodes.
I'll continue to have John McElroy and Matt Teske along with Orin McDonald come on pretty regularly.
We're hoping that maybe you'll do it once a month, but given all of our schedules, I think it's realistic to at least expect quarterly to start and maybe we can do more great.
But that
I'm hoping to do more often with a few different guests.
So please let me know who you would like to have on just even as a normal one -to -one Guess which a lot of you listeners have been awesome at a lot of people have reached out
to me either directly the email or on Twitter about people who you'd like to have on and that's been a great way to get some more guests, but I would also welcome
hearing what kind of topics or technologies and specific people you'd like to have on as we start doing more of these panel interviews.
And I think that's gonna be a lot of fun.
So those are kind of the big updates from my side about what I'm looking to do with the podcast, where we're trying to take things.
And then I think one of the things I just really wanted to learn more about, and a lot of people have been great about this in the comments on the YouTube page.
But just learning more about what you guys want to see more of.
Do you want me to start doing car reviews?
I've had some people mention that in the past.
I may be able to partner with others to do that, do kind of electric vehicle focused reviews or kind of unique takes.
mean, obviously the Out of Specs Studios team has been awesome and doing a lot of those.
And I'm hoping it's going to work with them.
Maybe even some road trip testing in the future with them.
But just kind of curious if that different style of content is something that
the listeners would be interested in.
And then also, I just want to share some interesting things that have happened to me.
I had the opportunity to test drive the new Model 3 Performance and I was wildly impressed with it.
Not that I wasn't obviously a fan, I don't want to seem like a total fanboy of the Tesla stuff, but it was just an all around great vehicle and it just reminded me of honestly the
first time I ever got in like a BMW 3 Series.
Everything just felt great.
Everything just sounded good and really solid.
And it just seemed like the car took a step up.
And the performance Model 3, I kind of get it.
Some people think it looks a little simplistic or it's not that big of an evolution.
And I kind of agree with that.
Having said that, I think it finally looks how it should.
It's really clean, simple, but still aggressive.
And was just so much fun to drive.
Obviously,
It's kind of, as they say, happiness on demand.
You just push that pedal and it is just wild how quickly that thing starts moving.
But at the same time, I was really impressed with it.
Had always done the, I think all Teslas obviously had done really well with the acceleration and the Model 3 had been kind of one of their first vehicles to, Model S
obviously had some success with this, but just given its size and affluence.
I really just elevated it to being a really great all -around
car whether that be handling to daily driving, but there was still a little of the refinement things and I think just this recent test drive really impressed upon me how big
of a step up it was and If you are in the space Looking for a car definitely would recommend it would welcome talking with anyone offline about it.
I'm actually even thinking we have a model wise our daily and then we have
1987 Land Rover Defender, which yes, is still a work in progress.
should probably give an update on that soon.
I'm still waiting on some parts.
I'm trying to work with the Felton team.
And it's really, to be honest with you, it's not the end of the world that's taken this long.
There's been so many other things like this, maybe other stuff, and even financial things that we've been working on that delaying this a little bit has not been any means on them
either.
And I wish them so much.
I just want to say congrats them for all the stuff I've been seeing them post with the new factory they're building in the UK.
But needless to say, can't wait till I have the time and resources to properly update the Rover and do some of the conversion like I want to with the technology they're working on.
But it has kind of come to our attention since we're in the gorge and our Model Y has been the daily.
The Rover is still great, drives well, but kind of doing the
trips which are usually at least an hour from where we live into Portland especially with the weather and the gorge it just seems very likely we're going to need to get a second
car anyway and so I'm trying to figure out do I want to do a model 3 performance and have a fun daily or do I want to do something different altogether I'm open to other things but
at the price point and everything that you get I hate to say it but the model 3 is still just a really tempting product
just when it comes to the all -around package and then the performance for what you get for the money, I'm a really big fan of.
For a hot second, I kind of looked at maybe going with the Ionic 5 in or whatever it's called, their track version, but I just love the styling way more, even though you could
say the Ionic's a little more practical day to day because of the, it being a wagon style.
But even then, we already had the model.
I think this is primarily just gonna be a commuter car -ish anyway.
Commuter car slash fun car.
There are some other things still on the horizon that have yet to come out.
That could be fun, like the new Porsche electric Cayman essentially, or Boxster, but TBD on price.
They'll probably be on the higher side, probably worth whatever it comes out as, but might either be still too far out.
And maybe a little too sport oriented, it's definitely something I'm looking for.
I think longer term to get to having just a fun, two seater car in some ways that's what the defender is, technically at C3 right now, but, yeah, I think some, something more
sports car and then, replacing the longer term, the model Y maybe we'll see what the new one's like, but maybe something a little bit bigger, more of an SUV ish or
truck sort of thing but at the moment I think that's the goal is just to get a second car I'm leaning towards something more fun and commuter and maybe more ideal for a road trip
so I'm going a little bit back and forth between either a long -range model 3 or a model 3 performance and then just put on a square wheel setup and different tires to hopefully get
the range to more similar to what the long -range Y is.
I'd love to see
what that actual Delta is in range and see someone do a test on that.
But that's going to lead, been leaning towards just for around town and driving.
It still has plenty of range as it is and how fast it charges.
just seemed like such a fun vehicle.
It's just, I was pretty impressed with it going over bumps.
It's still so much, it's still pretty stiff, but it still handles and rides so much better than not just the previous Model 3, but even our Model 1.
And the sport and non sport modes you can kind of put it for the handling do make a difference But it was kind of funny because it did seem it felt like honestly that
sometimes when I had this It did overall feel good But I've got some bumps and it almost felt like it was smoother of those bumps than when it was in its Normal, it doesn't have
like a specific comfort one.
But the mode that seems to be the more comfortable of the two so
Those are some other personal and kind of podcast related updates.
If there's another car I should look at, please let me know.
But that was kind of why I kind of reached out and I'm looking to maybe talk to a couple of people about it, but at the moment, pretty heavily leaning to the Model 3 performance.
We'll see what happens there and we'll have updates soon.
Otherwise, yes, I think the main message is just please let me know what...
You guys would like to see on the podcast whether that be different types of guests, the topics.
I'm kind of working again with Francie of the Out of Spikes Studios to at least do another episode here pretty shortly on a couple of topics, just following up from some of the
comments and questions you guys had from those episodes.
So really excited to see and get that out there shortly.
And I think this will be kind of a new chapter of just getting more episodes out more frequently and having more of these panel episodes.
Please reach out and let us know.
With that, I will stop rambling and this is the Great Connections Podcast.
Until next week, signing off.