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• As much as I love my beloved 2014 Nissan Leaf, I’m starting to explore my options. I love not having a car payment, paying for gas, oil changes, and other maintenance, or worrying about belts or hoses. I’m also trying to weigh my wants vs my needs. I work from home, and the furthest I drive each week is 11 miles to play trivia. But, with the colder weather, my Leaf’s full charge shows 65 miles, which is really closer to 55 miles. Range anxiety is weighing in, and I think I’d like to explore being able to do more social activities, like in the downtown Dallas and Fort Worth areas.
• I looked at buying a newer model Leaf, but some folks on Reddit encouraged me to look at the Chevy Bolt. To my surprise, for the same price range ($17-$21k) and model years (2021-2023), I can get an extra 100-mile range with the Bolt. Not to mention, Nissan is in dire straights, and some think it may not even survive 2025. However, Nissan replaced the Leaf with the ARIYA, and I really like how the interior and the climate control buttons are integrated into the dash panel. It’s fancy and futuristic. I doubt I’ll go with it since its range is about 215 miles when I can get closer to 250 miles and more affordability from the Bolts. And, it fits my simple lifestyle.
  
  
• More than likely, I plan on turning my Leaf in. I’ve been offered $1,000 – $1,200. There’s a part of me that would love to keep it as a first car for my 14-year-old. It would be a great first car for a kid who only needs to the school, practice, and allher friends that live by. But, she’s not too fond of the Leaf and taking what she said in context, her and her brother’s vehicles will be taken care of by their very wealthy grandparents.  So, as much as I’d like to provide my kids with their first car, I think I better take advantage of focusing on what’s best for Team Keith.
• One dealership in Plano had three Bolts. One was a larger model, almost like an SUV, and the other two were smaller and very similar to my Leaf. Before I start to get attached to a make and model, the biggest thing to me is how comfortable I am in the driver’s seat, leg room, line of sight, and other similar factors. So, I arranged a visit to the dealership.
• I’m still looking at electric vehicles (EVs) because I want to take advantage of end-of-year federal tax credits. Not to mention, I have no idea what the new administration is going to do when it comes to EVs. Trump has expressed a huge dislike for EVs and any federal tax credits related to them. However, since he’s now close to Mr. EV Elon Musk, who I think holds a lot of influence on him and his team, things can change. So, I can only go with what I know now. Qualifying used EV purchases can fetch taxpayers a credit of up to $4,000, limited to 30% of the car’s purchase price. A new EV can fetch taxpayers a credit of up to $7,500.
• After arriving home from the dealership, I did more research. Upon closer inspection, the dealership included the potential tax credits for used EVs in the price. Which, I don’t qualify because I exceed the annual income threshold, which I think is $75,000. However, that left the larger Bolt, a 2023 model with only 13,000 miles. I thought I could be eligible for the $7,500 credit, basically a third of the online price. But it looks like I won’t qualify for that one either. Even if the car qualifies as a new EV car for a financial institution because of the year and low miles, it will still be considered used, and I still wouldn’t qualify since at least one person or company was the initial buyer. But of all the stuff that bothered me, when I looked at their first offer, they added a “Dealership Fee” of $2,599, which came out of nowhere. The interest rates they were offering were in the six-percentage area. The salesperson returned, talked to his manager, and was willing to take $500 off the car and go down a whole percentage point. Then, for the first time in my life, I stood up, said, “I’m out,” and walked out the door. They tried to tell me that’s the best rate I can get anywhere else. Then I showed them what Navy Federal was offering for new and used vehicles in the high four-percent area. They told me there was no way I’d be getting a better interest rate. And the one thing that really ticked me off, they added a “Dealership Service Fee.” They told me it’s a list of several fees climbed together and make up for market changes. I didn’t like that, and that certainly wasn’t transparent pricing.
• The dealership later called to talk numbers, and as they don’t use any messaging system to show their price and terms. They want customers to consider this portion, and they promised me they had met my demands of a loan in the low to mid 5% range and for the price I wanted.
• I always prefer to work with USAA regarding this sort of stuff, so I decided to try Navy Federal Credit Union since they have better rates and my father’s Navy and Army service would allow me in. After eating lunch with a friend on Saturday, I drove to the nearest Navy Federal Credit Union branch. In less than 20, maybe 25 minutes of time, I was approved for membership, printed and handed my new debit card, and approved for a new car loan with a very competitive interest rate, but still not what I could get when I owned a house or become indebted by divorce attorney fees. To prove my father was a service member, I had his DD214 pulled up on my phone, but through the process, they never verified if I actually qualified as a member. Either way, in and out in less than 20 minutes with a new debit card I could immediately use was impressive.
• The dealership called again, the sales manager, and asked what would it take to get me in that car. I told him more for my trade-in and to waive that sticker shot fee of $2,599. But with all the rain and the SEC championship about to start, I wasn’t going anywhere for the rest of the evening.
• Georgia, wow, one heck of a team. I’m still glad to see that the Longhorns have a chance to win it all. But if it happens, I hope they play Georgia one more time to make it feel more legit.
• Made me laugh.
  

  it just kept going pic.twitter.com/BS9Bg0EKl3

  — non aesthetic things (@PicturesFoIder) December 6, 2024

• Social media was not the place to be if you were looking for any sympathy for a health insurance company CEO who was murdered in cold blood.
• ERCOT says Texas ‘in a pattern’ for a deep freeze that could boost likelihood of winter grid outages
• Nissan may not survive 2025 – Nissan’s financial situation has taken a turn for the worse, and the Japanese automaker is now in dire straits with just 14 months to turn things around.
• Lance Armstrong’s Unknowing $100,000 Investment in Uber Saved His Family 9 Years Later
• Evil – Bullies sneak into hospital to take photos of girl, 12, they drove to attempt suicide
• Tesla Cybertruck Owner Says Carrying Hay Killed His Truck’s Air Suspension, Now His Cybertruck is Slowly Sinking into the Ground
  • A fault in the Cybertruck’s bed design allows debris to easily get trapped in the under-bed compartment. If moving hay, it blocks the air compressor intake, causing it to overheat. This affects the air suspension, which causes the truck to sink lopsided.
• This was trending on Twitter last night. He made news last year; this is how you pronounce his name – ka neigh ga. He had offers at Army, Air Force, and Navy. That was news to me; I didn’t think service academies offered athletic scholarships. I thought they were all walkons. But this is what I found out:

  All students at U.S. military academies receive full scholarships that cover tuition, room, and board, plus a monthly stipend. They also offer athletic scholarships for NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NAIA, and NJCAA. On average, 34% of all student-athletes receive athletic scholarships

  

• Today is Tommy Henderson’s birthday. He was probably my best friend in elementary school. I don’t think I’ve seen him since middle school. It’s funny the things that stick with you. You’re probably telling me I should contact him on Facebook. Well, I’m that one friend who doesn’t have a Facebook profile or account or whatever they are called.
• I saw something about Michael Jordan that led me to research how many games he won with a three-pointer buzzer-beater. Before I reveal the answer, let me first ask you a rhetorical question: how many game-winning buzzer-beaters did Michael Jordan have in his career? There isn’t one person in NBA history who has made more game-winners at the buzzer than Michael Jordan. According to Basketball Reference, Jordan made a total of nine game-winning buzzer-beaters in his Hall of Fame career, which is the most in NBA history. I thought that was a low number, and I would have guessed something in the teens. Kobe Bryant and Joe Johnson rank second with eight each, followed by LeBron James and Paul Piece with seven each. All nine of Jordan’s game-winning buzzer-beaters came outside of the paint, and only two of them were three-pointers.
• Jason Kelce was a proud Philadelphia Eagle. He now works for Monday Night Football and checks on tailgates before each game. He does a pretty cool thing, wearing a jersey honoring a former great of the home team. The next Monday night game is Dallas, so this will be interesting. I couldn’t find if he did the bit the last time the Cowboys hosted a Monday night game, which was last month against Houston. This Monday night, there’s a Simpsons tie-in; somehow, the game is going to be simulated as if it’s in Springfield. The NFL did it last year with a Toy Story theme with the Falcons and Jaguars.

ESPN, Disney, The Simpsons and the National Football League will premiere The Simpsons Funday Football on Monday, Dec. 9, an animated Monday Night Football game transformed in real-time into the iconic Simpsons world using Sony’s Beyond Sports Technology. Atoms Stadium in Springfield will host the fully immersive fan viewing experience featuring the Cincinnati Bengals at the Dallas Cowboys, ESPN’s Monday Night Football game that evening.

• College football has forever changed and you’ll be seeing more stuff like this in the future, like it or not: Shedeur Sanders Buys $200,000 Luxury Car for Colorado Offensive Lineman
• I thought the screenshots of the app were interesting: I tried an AI Death Clock that told me when I’ll die

The Death Clock app, available for download in Google and Apple stores, analyzes life choices users regularly make, their past habits, health conditions and family history of disease to ‘accurately’ determine when they will die.

Users are asked to put in a number of health markers like their cholesterol and blood-sugar levels, as well as their workout schedule, water intake, mental health and the current state of their romantic and plutonic relationships.

The app is backed by data from 1,200 international life expectancy studies that looked at 53 million participants, including information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

To my surprise, the reaper informed me I’ll live to the ripe old age of 101 and even went so far as to tell me how I will die – cancer, cardiovascular disease or another chronic condition – and provided a running countdown to my death day.

• Man, I’ve been busy lately and just haven’t had time to commit to blogging. Work-related stuff is taking up a lot of bandwidth, especially outside of normal working hours. Today, I’m just going to throw some stuff at the wall and see what sticks.
• I was expecting President Biden to go back on his word and pardon his son, Hunter. However, I didn’t expect it to happen last night. If anything, I would have thought he would have released the news on Black Friday when nobody pays attention to the news or his last days in office. I haven’t had a lot of time to think about it, but offhand, I think it’s a smart political move. If Republicans are in an uproar about the abuse of presidential pardons, they are about to take over the White House and Congress next month and do something about it. But they won’t, and it’s not all that different than Trump pardoning his son-in-law’s father in 2020, who will become our ambassador to France in the new administration.
• Punching a player with a helmet really isn’t that effective.
  

  The Notre Dame way pic.twitter.com/K7NcX7q7fc

  — Footballism (@FootbaIIism) November 30, 2024

• Stanford brings ex-star QB Andrew Luck ‘home’ as new GM

Luck, 35, has accepted a newly created role at Stanford, which will place him above the entire program and is a distinct evolution from the traditional college general manager role. The hire could loom as a harbinger for structural changes in college football front offices across the sport.

Luck’s role involves everything Stanford football touches, football-wise and business-wise. The football-specific duties will include managing the coaching staff, the player personnel staff, recruiting, roster management and the student-athlete experience.

This will be interesting to watch since college football has changed so much recently with NIL and conference changes. One thing the article failed to mention was how much his father’s background as an executive for pro and college football teams and conferences may have played. I’m still ticked he was robbed of the Heisman Trophy twice.

• The aftermath of divorce continues to make holidays challenging. With me, it’s not the relationship aspect; it’s the entire loss of family and seeing what my kids have to settle for.
• DaughterGeeding is a Stars fan, so I took her to a game. Since we don’t get to spend as much time together as I’d like, I splurged on tickets and took advantage of a Black Friday sale. Here are some pics. A lot of time I like to bring in my DSLR, but this time I only used my phone to snap pics.
   
• One thing I like to do during a game is track when a player gets on and off the ice. For those of you unfamiliar with the sport, they spend just about a minute on the ice before they go back to the bench. They expel that much energy and the game is very fluid. It was something hard for me to track, but the new video board does an exceptional job, as you can see at the bottom of the screen. When a player gets on the ice, their time is in white. After 30 seconds, it turns yellow and then red after 45 seconds. The longest I saw a play stay in was around a minute and 37 seconds. 
• Thirteen years in the SEC, and Texas A&M has yet to compete for an SEC championship. Texas punches its ticket in year one with a victory against the Aggies.
• Just a reminder that as much as aTm likes to tout that Kyle Field is an intimidating place to play and is some massive home-field advantage, the ESPN analysts beg to differ.
• As much as this state likes to brag about how great and storied this rivalry is, that is one crappy trophy to play for.
  
• There isn’t another school in the country as obsessed with someone else as A&M is with Texas. It’s such a little brother mentality. The last time the Aggies played the Horns, they lost by a last-second field goal on their home turf. They waited 13 years to get revenge and then got run over again on their home field. If you don’t think they got run over, look at the game stats. The Aggies didn’t even score on offense. Let’s not forget that the Aggies made it all the way to the baseball championship against Tennessee and lost, and then their baseball coach immediately left them for Austin. And three years ago, the A&M athletic director flew out to SEC Media Days to try to prevent Texas from joining the SEC.
• Arch Manning is doing things that hint he’s a legend in the making. On his first play as quarterback this season, he rushed for a touchdown, and on his first play against the Aggies, he rushed for a touchdown.
• An Aggie friend who has always been into high school and college bands, especially the Aggie band, sent me a text absolutely livid that the Longhorn band didn’t let the Aggie band finish playing their song when the Aggies marched onto the field, saying it was classless. I’m not sure what was behind it. It was a cruddy thing to do, but it sure did play into the whole rivalry/hatred thing. Of course, I could have followed up with this classless act by an Aggie at College Gameday. Here’s the backstory.It certainly pissed off the Texas players and provided extra motivation.
  

  A passionate Michael Taaffe speaks on the pregame sign.

  Longhorn Legend handling it the right way. pic.twitter.com/46LGykMcU6

  — CJ Vogel (@CJVogel_OTF) December 1, 2024