Inspired History

2008 is here and I intend to get things underway. The first few things are going to be rather simple. The first project I’ve started is the Mirage Hobby Tarantula III missle boat in 1/400 scale. It’s a rather simple kit, but looks like it has good potential. My goal is to do a few updates and have the kit complete before the end of January.

The first review will be the book: H.M.S. Marlborough Will Enter Harbor, by Nicholis Monsarrat who is probably best known as author of The Cruel Sea. This is another ‘easy’ pick as the book isn’t even 150 pages, but it did inspire me when I first read it. The review should be posted by Sunday night.

It’s now over a year since I opened this domain, but not much progress.  However things have been happening and I intend for the new year to bring real content to the site.   Starting tomorrow there should be a plan for at least one upcoming review and one ongoing project, with a goal of completing 50 reviews and 12 projects by the end of the year.  (Since I haven’t really completed an involved modeling project in about 14 years this is a very aggressive goal for me.)

My other ‘major’ intention is to become involved in other modeling and history websites and forums.  I probably check a good dozen sites on almost a daily basis, but seldom visit the forums, and the last time I publicly posted was on RecModelScale probably about 6 or 7 years ago.   One of my first major posts will be an overview of my favorite sites and a search for others that I’ve overlooked.

I’m hoping for a productive new year, and wish you well in yours.

Mike

Problogger.net has prompted me to write another post.  I was hoping that I’d get motivated to put up some good relevant content; however the normal life commitments got in the way again.  But it does seem like a good time to do a quick self review of this site.

The good:  The blog inspiration did motivate me to take out a domain name and learn some useful skills in the past year.  I believe I do have a good draft of a plan to do some good with the blog/website.

The bad:  Next week it’ll be a year since I registered the domain, and there isn’t any real content regarding the intended purpose.  I spent 2 to 3X what I needed to on this project because of the lack effort.

Result: I do plan on continuing this site; my next goal is to outline my future plans and work on some good content.

Site Review: (from my perspective)

Content: D  (one useful post, not on topic, but I increased my fuel economy more than I thought possible)

Design: C- (Wordpress is more than good enough for what I’ve done.)

Potential:  B+  (I still believe there’s a great opportunity to contribute lots of value, I’m just going to have to focus more on it.)

Gasoline prices are up to around $3 a gallon again in the US, and the wacky boycott emails are making the rounds again. If you really want to make an impact on the pricing and demand, the only realistic ways are to reduce consumption by not driving or increase your fuel efficiency.

Here are 5 simple things that almost anyone can do to increase your mileage rates.

1. Remove unnecessary weight from your car/truck
2. Inflate tires to the maximum recommended pressure
3. Coast to red lights and stop signs
4. Accelerate slower than normal (ease up on the gas pedal)
5. Turn your engine off at any drive through window or long traffic lights

1. Check your trunk, back seat and glove compartment. I know I had about 20 lbs of stuff I didn’t need.

2. Most people drive with under-inflated tires which hurts mileage and wear.

3. Includes timing lights, opposite of racing to stop signs (which seems to be popular near me)

4. It surprised me when I was reading about the new EPA ratings, that the old mpg rates were based on slower acceleration than the average person uses. If you accelerate at the rate of a big rig instead of a race car you can greatly improve your mileage. One of the main reasons the new EPA ratings decrease is because of this change.

5. The crossover point for saving gas on this is only about 10-15 seconds for most cars, so it should be a no brainer at any kind of drive through window, but it seems like very few people do it.

Most recent inspiration for this article was cleanmpg.com which surprised me by showing most vehicles can better their EPA ratings. There are lots of interesting methods and ideas, many of them beyond what most people would consider practical. (Probably 50% of the methods could inspire road rage in the driver behind you.)

(I forgot to mention that this was also inpired by problogger.net !, it inspired me to write a post with content, even if it’s not on my originally intended subject matter)

Welcome to my blog. I took out the domain name almost 6 months ago, actually put a starter page up about 2 months ago, and a preliminary wordpress install a moth ago.

Now it’s time to get going.

Main goal: Add value. Teach (and learn) relevant history.

Sub goals: Increase productivity, increase financial knowledge and habits, personal improvement, and family activities.

Next: Content

Small Step.