Jim on the Golden Gate San Francisco, California. September 2011.

Aaron and Mike September 11, 2011. San Francisco, California

A few pictures taken last weekend on West Cliff, Santa Cruz, California.

Jim’s Feet September 11, 2011. San Francisco, California

In this year’s garden I planted a bunch of stuff. It was going great this year, since I installed a drip system. Unfortunately while I was at burning man, the deer discovered how to hop... [read more]

On the Unicycle Tour of San Francisco. More pictures and details about the ride later. Freddy’s Deli

A few weeks before Burning Man, I made another Aerial Cube. This time I used 1.5″ tubing, and it turned out better than the first one. The previous cube was 1″ tubing, which was a... [read more]

Some more stuff! I forgot I had a few pictures on my iPhone. The temple burn: This was really cool. The temple was this massive fire, and the updraft would carry about 2’x2′ pieces of... [read more]

I hadn’t been to Burning Man in 5 years or so and really wanted to go back. Previously, I would camp with Pancake Playhouse (which was a total blast), but this year I thought I... [read more]

My friend Anita recently did an interview of me for her magazine type website called indoor boys. It’s apparently all about smart and sexy boys. Now I always have been a bit above average on... [read more]

Last weekend was an adventure in Tuolumne Meadows (by Yosemite, Ca, for those not around the area). It started out Thursday night; I saw the midnight showing of the final Harry Potter with a bunch... [read more]

Erika

I’m working on getting pictures of my car with other’s of its kind (but more modern, in general). Silver Leaf, at Apple. RAV 4 EV (in Santa Cruz, today). Ken Adelman’s car. Blue leaf, Cupertino.... [read more]

I saw a roue cyr wheel in a performance and thought, hey that looks cool! I bet I could make one, despite knowing nothing about them and not ever have touched one. Anyone who knows... [read more]

…with Girlventures!

The Elithion Lithiumate BMS uses a serial cable to talk to the computer. That’s kind of a pain to see additional information that the SOC display doesn’t tell me. It is also nice to see... [read more]

I got my charger back from Manzanita last thursday and put it in the car Friday night. They weren’t sure why it busted, but the bridge rectifier had to be replaced, and they did some... [read more]

A cool picture from my trip to Madagascar in 2009. Lemur Eating

I now have over 3000 miles on my car. Up till today, the only problems I have had have been with the IOTA DC-DC Converter. I’m supposed to have a replacement soon, as my IOTA... [read more]

Today when I went to grab my car at lunch I discovered that the Manzanita Micro PFC-30 charger wasn’t charging. I looked at it, and the BMS (Battery Management System) also wasn’t on. The BMS... [read more]

Yesterday I drove a 6 hour round trip drive to do a unicycle criterium (crit) race in Auburn, CA. It was the first time I’ve had to pump gas in several months, but it was... [read more]

The house project continues! I got some baby chickens last Saturday. I got 10 of them — various kinds. Baby chicken: I’m working on running water to the old barn, which will become the chicken... [read more]

Eka Boo Erika

I’m ditching my IOTA DLS-55 DC-DC converter. The inrush limiter I use (which replaced the AC bridge rectifier) eventually dries out and cracks, and then stops working. I got ~1000 miles on my last modification... [read more]

I never knew much about how I paid for electricity. I didn't know if we had certain hours that were peak or not. So, I called PG&E last week and they explained to me I was on the E1 rate. I told them I had an EV, and they suggested I go to E9 A or E9 B. They are listed here: http://pge.com/tariffs/ERS.SHTML#ERS

Like any good programmer, I decided to do my homework before blindly switching. It turns out that after I did the math, a PG&E representative told me they have a comparison spread sheet on their Plug-In Electric Vehicles page (here's a direct link to the excel spreadsheet). That page seems to lump a bunch of assumptions together about energy use, but I found that page to be quite accurate in its rough estimates.

(more after the jump...)

The loudest part of my car when I turned it on was two fans for the water cooling setup on the controller. Ideally, the controller should turn the fans on and off and that will... [read more]

A picture I took from the Dream Box show. Amazing! Tickets are still available for Friday (April 8th, 2011) and Sunday (April 10th – two shows, one early and another later).

I got something I had been dying to get. The bug now has DMV approval to use the carpool lane.

Fuzzy Protea Taken at the UCSC Arboretum, Feb 20th, 2011.