Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev.

It turned out that two years ago, GM recalled all 100% of the electric Chevy Volts produced, which is about 142,000, due to battery fires when charged to 100%. By the way, when this was discovered, the company asked not to fully charge and to park the cars outside. There’s a bit of confusion here – there’s a Volt and there’s a Bolt. The Volt is very popular—in fact, by the end of 2019, it was the best-selling plug-in hybrid in the US market. It seems the conversation was actually about the Bolt.

I also liked: “GM says the battery itself is safe, and is avoiding using the word ‘recall’ by calling this a ‘customer satisfaction campaign’ to ‘provide peace of mind to customers.’ This reminds me of something.

when a regular logo causes pain to a perfectionist 🙂

And here we are decorating the metro with lights.

The Electric Car Owner’s Weekdays

On one of my previous trips, I had already rented a Jeep Wrangler because, for some reason, I really wanted to. After experiencing what the death wobble is like in a car with 4000 miles on it, I crossed the Wrangler off my dream list as an unfit vehicle. Death wobble is when the car can start shaking violently and dangerously at speeds under 80 mph, and you can only stop the shaking by drastically reducing speed (to about 30-40 mph), which is additionally dangerous on highways. I faced such death wobbles unexpectedly and had to then drive strictly according to the signs, not exceeding 65 mph at all.

So, I decided to give it a second chance. The experiences were mixed. More precisely, they changed with each day. Briefly speaking, it is what the UAZ could have become, but only if you don’t let Germans and Japanese touch anything at the factory and try very hard to do well.

Among the positives – The “Sahara” version is an interesting constructor set: you can remove the doors, rear windows, the roof and turn it into a beach buggy. If only the body couldn’t be scratched, it would be priceless.

Among the negatives. The comparison with the UAZ is particularly noticeable in the sounds of the closing doors and the turn signal. The latter really caught my attention – it first bends under your finger, then clicks with a slight squeak. Yet, in almost all cars in this price range, this switch is never overlooked by manufacturers: it rightfully needs to be very pleasant and create a feeling of special attention to details, like what sounds it makes, its movement, etc., since you use it a hundred times a day.

Really missed the cruise control radars and lane-keeping features. Well, that’s electronics, and surely they are available in more expensive models.

The removable roof is quite inelegant. It takes up almost all the space in the trunk, and you still need to figure out how to lay the two halves so that they do not scratch each other. Not trivial.

But the most pleasant thing is that the death wobble is no more. And the car behaves relatively confidently at speeds above 80. Relatively – because I really don’t want to accelerate it unnecessarily. It drives, but somehow it’s tense.

In short, it’s feasible to buy it as a second car. The rough and rugged nature of the Wrangler overall is even a plus in certain use cases. As an off-road vehicle, it seems fine. Although neither this time, nor the last, was I able to properly test it in that capacity.

Many thanks to everyone who responded to my post and participated in Masha and Yehor’s fundraiser! In just five days, we raised $5,651. Is that a lot or a little? Honestly, at first, I didn’t even believe we would collect anything. We really didn’t expect such support! Both financially and morally. Thank you for the advice, for the kind words, and for sharing the post. So many ideas appeared, along with new hopes. Thanks to everyone I know personally and those I don’t know at all, but you joined in and helped! May it all come back to you threefold! The kids send their hearts, thanks, and beams of goodness!

Masha added reports on what the money was spent on. Over these five days, we bought two of the three necessary tickets to Istanbul for the Grand Prix ($2,372) and two of the three tickets for the Grand Prix in Budapest ($1,714).

We started working on the design and tailoring of the costumes (price unclear yet, but the scale is comparable).

In general, things have moved forward thanks to your support, making much possible. It’s too early to relax, as the most significant expenses are still ahead.

Actually, costumes are the hardest part. It’s not just about going online and buying them, like tickets or skates. It’s a whole project. Last year, Masha performed in a dress by Diana Davis. But this season’s short program theme is ’80s music. It’s unlikely that modern skaters have ’80s-style costumes lying around. So, we’re sewing our own thanks to you! To be honest, we haven’t even started on the costumes for the free skate program…

The photos in the comments show fittings and the creative process in full swing.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you, everyone!

And if you suddenly feel like helping, at least share the link among friends or just give the post a like so Facebook considers it interesting and shows it more often. For those in countries where GoFundMe is not available, you can contribute via a conventional savings card, PayPal (r.aliev.usa@gmail.com), and we will immediately deposit the money on GoFundMe on your behalf. Every dollar is important to us right now.

If you have a way to get corporate sponsorship, there’s much to tell and offer.

Somehow I ended up on the topic of note durations in French. And it really made me smile. Look, there is a whole note, its half, a quarter, an eighth, a sixteenth, etc. In American English and German, it couldn’t be simpler – whole (whole/ganze), half (half/halbe), quarter (quarter/viertel), eighth (eighth/achtelnote), etc. Italian, the language of music, has more complicated names – semibreve, minim, semiminim, crotchet, quaver…

But the French came up with the coolest idea of all. They simply looked at the notes and named them based on how they look. They have round (ronde), white (blanche), black (noire), hook (croche), double hook (double-croche)

https://youtu.be/Mde2q7GFCrw

A good conversation about philosophy and the meaning of things. However, in my view, Lex Fridman does not seem like a worthy interviewer for Harari. Mumbling, unclear, reading from a note, his eyes constantly looking downward, sometimes it’s hard to grasp the meaning of the question. Maybe I should listen to more of his interviews to understand why people like him..

The beginning and end of yesterday’s Joe Hisaishi concert at Wolf Trap. Joe Hisaishi is the composer of “Princess Mononoke,” “Spirited Away,” “My Neighbor Totoro,” “Kiki’s Delivery Service,” and many other works of Studio Ghibli (and beyond). At the concert, he played with the keyboard and symphony orchestra. There was also a lot of Japanese vocal performance. Even by the Washington Chorus. I can only imagine how they learned it..

We once bought the cheapest tickets a long time ago, on the lawn. But we were poorly prepared (other things were on our minds): we didn’t arrive early to claim good spots on the grass. It’s very convenient that you can bring almost anything with you, except dogs and guns. I brought a bottle of wine and almost finished it myself. Now I know that there’s hardly any alcohol in it. Before, it was unclear why just one glass a day felt odd. But overall, Roscato Rosso Dolce is a very tasty fruit punch.

In essence, we’ve launched a fundraiser, seeking additional funding for Masha and Yegor, her ice dancing partner. It seems we won’t get far on our own, yet we have big plans. This year, Masha is representing Georgia, and together with Yegor, they will be performing in several countries already this year. The link to the fundraiser is in the comments. Likes and shares are very helpful. If anyone has experience in drawing more attention to a fundraiser, or knows how to attract donations, I would greatly appreciate any advice. Much more details in Nadia’s original post.