👋🏼 Hi, I'm Jade.
I craft custom digital experiences for the web. From my first fan site on Geocities, to the user interfaces that launched Apple Music, I've always enjoyed working at the intersection of arts and technology.
This site serves to showcase my work experience, as well as to highlight travels and other adventures that I've partaken in over the years.
Thanks for visiting, and stay tuned, more content is on the way!
Going All In on Rivian
On September 29th, 2023, the Pennig family accepted delivery of our Rivian R1S Adventure Model. This marked the end of what was a more than two year journey from the time we first discovered the brand and placed our pre-order.
Now that we’ve completed our first month with the vehicle, I thought I’d write this post to highlight our journey so far, and the road ahead.
Discovering the Brand
It’s a little difficult to remember the exact moment where I first heard of Rivian, but I do remember watching Long Way Up on the recommendation of a coworker, and being captivated by the brand. It was fun to see their first two R1T pickups journey through the Americas to support Ewan and Charley’s electric motorcycle adventure.
As a fan of EVs from the early days of seeing Tesla Roadsters parked in the Apple parking lots, I was particularly excited to see EVs venture into a new and unique territory - off-road / adventure driving. To see this start-up produce such promising, powerful, capable, long-range adventure vehicles - well, my interest was piqued.
They also looked like a fresh and fun company, really focused on enabling people to enjoy nature.
Placing our Pre-Order
Around this time, my family was also starting to feel the limitations of having three kids, two of which needed car seats. We knew it was only a matter of time until we purchased a vehicle with a third row, and we had started to consider what that next vehicle should be.
We wanted something which would compliment our Tesla Model 3, and while our temptation to go all electric was strong, the market at the time was pretty slim - I can only think of the Tesla Model X being an all-electric option when we first started looking.
But when September 2021 rolled around, we made the decision to pre-order a Rivian R1S, completed our configuration, and put our initial $1,000 down.
Investing in the IPO
Not long after, we decided to look into the upcoming Rivian IPO. Both my husband and I were growing frustrated at Tesla being the only company excelling in the long-range EV market,