crazy ideas: So, A Real Estate Blog Should Be About Real Estate, Huh? - 09/12/11 03:17 PM
But what about social networking? A few days ago I posted that (in my humble opinion) real estate blogs should be about real estate... not movie reviews, restaurant reviews, not recipes... Real estate. That is what the audience is tuning in for, give them what they want. I gave a few examples of what I see from my traffic patterns, and generally tried to support my opinion.
But, real estate agents that are marketing online (should) have a LOT more channels aside from their real estate blog. And I DO believe that there is a place in some of those other … (7 comments)
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crazy ideas: I'm Going to Post RE Blogging Heresey... - 09/11/11 09:14 PM
Image via Wikipedia I have been blogging about real estate since 2008... so over three years. I can say proudly that I have a few thousand posts. Of those, there are a lot that were NOT about real estate, but that appeared on my real estate blog. Some were about cars (I just started a car blog JUST for those posts). Others were about local news. Still others were about local businesses, entertainment venues, parks and recreational opportunities.
As long as I have been blogging, the mantra has been to "Be the source of information about EVERYTHING in the community".
But … (67 comments)
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crazy ideas: Dear Builder... I've NEVER heard... - 05/03/11 09:55 PM
Image via Wikipedia Dear Builder,
I've NEVER had a buyer client tell me that they thought the garage was too big. Granted, most of my buyers are "car people", so the deck is a bit stacked, but not all of them are. In fact, I've had clients with little interest in cars... and they still wanted a garage that was just a little bigger.
You see, lots of people use their garages for a lot of different things. Many of my clients like to build cars or weld something back together in their garage, but others just want to be able … (9 comments)
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crazy ideas: 53 Cool Concepts... Part XLI... - 02/06/11 11:32 AM
Image via Wikipedia If you aren't familiar with the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, it is Jeep's best performing off-roader. When it was introduced, it became an instant hit with the enthusiast community. The option list read like the first mods a Jeeper would want to order up:
Dana 44 axles front and rear Selectable, air-actuated locking axles 4:1 low range transfer case... heavy duty, too Heavy duty skid plates Bigger, more aggressive tires Nerf bars to protect the sides And then there is the Jeep Grand Cherokee. It has been Jeep's most luxurious vehicle since its introduction... and a pretty good performer … (2 comments)
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crazy ideas: 53 Cool Concepts... Part XL... - 01/30/11 11:09 AM
Image via Wikipedia A few years back, when the Miata nameplate was relatively new, someone got the bright idea to drop a 5.0L Ford V8 into one... and then they made a kit, the Monster Miata. But that just wouldn't do for a Concept Car...
But dropping a Mazda Rotary engine, from an RX8 would make sense...
The stock Miata MX-5 is powered by a 167hp I4 engine. It makes about 140 lb-ft of torque and redlines at 7200rpm. The RX-8 rotary, on the other hand, makes 232hp and 159 lb-ft torque and redlines at 9000rpm. More importantly, the rotary has … (1 comments)
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crazy ideas: 53 Cool Concepts... Part XXXIV - 12/19/10 08:01 PM
Image by camknows via Flickr Before you know it, Christmas will be here... and gone. So, since many of us still have trips to the store to help Santa deliver the goods, I thought it might be fun to hot rod Santa's Sleigh... Let's think about this for a minute. That sleigh HAS to be a pretty technologically advanced piece of hardware. It carries a MASSIVE amount of toys, is incredibly fast and has a planet-eating range.
Let's cover the load, first...
In order to keep the size and weight manageable, maybe we could install a cross dimensional portal in the … (3 comments)
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crazy ideas: Twitter Thursday with the Founding Fathers... - 12/16/10 09:38 PM
I guess we could call this Twitter Thursday...
I think that a lot of times we forget that the "Founding Fathers" were real people. they were also hanging out on the edge of technology for their time.
Thomas Jefferson could have REALLY used a Kindle. The guy was a reading machine. Not to mention that he was a genius...
George Washington was a gifted leader and he wasn't afraid to employ battlefield technology as he found it. He recognized that the training that his soldiers could get from Baron von Steuben was beyond what he could provide... and the battle … (2 comments)
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crazy ideas: 53 Cool Concepts... Part XXXII... - 12/05/10 10:51 PM
Image via Wikipedia Gran Prix... and I'm not talking about Pontiacs, here.
The absolute beginnings of motorsport are rooted in Gran Prix (or Grand Prix) racing... and those roots date back to the 1890s, with the point to point road races, like Paris to Rouen. Shortly after that, circuit racing came into vogue, but there were still races like the Paris-Madrid, Targa Florio and the Mille Miglia.
GP racing was THE top of the pile until Formula 1 came along. And the coolest thing about GP racing was that the cars were basically road cars. The had two seats (and a … (1 comments)
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crazy ideas: Speaking of Custom v Catalog v Mass Produced... - 11/29/10 11:41 PM
Image via Wikipedia Yesterday, I wrote a post about Coach-Built cars of the 1920s and 1930s. As I was wring about those cars, and the Coach-Builder catalogs that grew out of them... and the mass-produced cars, I started thinking about the comparison with homes in the US. And there is an interesting comparison.
Back in the 1970s and 1980s, my grandparents had a wonderful lake property in northern Michigan. It was on Black Lake. It had been in the family (mostly) for generations. When I was very young, it had a couple of one room cabins that had been built in … (8 comments)
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crazy ideas: Buy a Toilet, Get back some Cash! - 06/06/10 11:41 PM
Right now there are several areas of North Georgia, including Gwinnett County, that are issuing rebates for 'water saver' toilets.
While this might not be terribly exciting, it is pretty cool... especially when combined with a deal at Costco on one of the listed toilets...
Image via Wikipedia The Duluth Costco has a dual flush (4L/6L) model available for $99.65, including tax. It is eligible for a $100 rebate. It isn't listed as being available on Coscto.com, but the store had 25+ toilets a couple of days ago. I do not know if they will be restocked, or when.
There are … (12 comments)
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crazy ideas: 53 Cool Concept Cars... Part IX - 06/06/10 11:39 PM
Image by alandberning via Flickr Sleepers... Sleepers are cool... and I'm not talking about the big cabs on 'over the road' trucks, I'm talking about cars that don't have an outward appearance of 'speed' but when the pedal hits the metal, they have the juice.
I've owned a couple of sleepers, and I'm wanting a car at the moment that is a 'quasi-sleeper'. Among the sleepers I've owned was a '65 Mustang. It wasn't exceptional to look at, with faded paint, missing emblems and wheels that weren't perfect. But, it also had an extra couple hundred horsepower under the hood and … (5 comments)
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crazy ideas: 53 Cool Concept Cars… Part VII - 05/30/10 10:51 PM
Image by Hugo90 via Flickr Gotta love a cool tow rig. After all, that is how the toys move great distances. At least trail toys… I know that a lot of street rod guys NEVER trailer their cars.
Currently, my tow rig is a 2000 Ford F-350. It has a 7.3L Powerstroke Turbo Diesel… Running empty this last week, I was getting 16.7mpg on the highway. That isn’t too bad considering the truck weighs about 7,500 pounds. Pulling a trailer with two Jeeps on it across the country to Moab, UT, it averages about 11.2mpg.
Diesels make great pullers. They … (0 comments)
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crazy ideas: Hyper Inflationary Real Estate Deals? - 05/10/10 10:58 PM
While wandering through the blogosphere, I happened across a couple of post about inflation and the possibility of the US spiralling into a hyper-inflationary mode because of the massive debt, stagnant national economy and continued world economic issues.
The theories have been around for a couple of years, and many of them point back to Germany (1923), Hungary (1946) or Argentina (1975-1991) as examples... and there are plenty of others.
I am not one that wanders around expecting worst case outcomes for the United States. There have been dire predictions before. In fact, I think every few years we get a … (12 comments)
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crazy ideas: They call it "Buschwacking"... - 04/25/10 11:45 PM
The series isn't called Busch Grand National anymore. It hasn't been for a few years... But the name has stuck to the controversy like sticky tires on a track...
Buschwacking...
What it boils down to is that many of the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) regulars are also NASCAR Sprint Cup (NSCS) regulars. In fact, of the top 10 NNS drivers in the standings today, 7 are also racing in the NSCS. Four of the top five.
Why shouldn't they dominate the standings? Aside from not making it to several races each season because they are at different venues on the same … (7 comments)
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crazy ideas: KuBu said a Dirty Word... - 04/25/10 10:06 PM
Today was a NASCAR kind of day. My Friend Pat Johnson, of Rugged Ridge, had a spare ticket (provided by one of his customers, Jack Lancaster, owner of Tellico 4x4) for the race at Talladega Super Speedway. We did a fairly fast road trip/race day... On the way about 7:00 this morning and back home by 10:00 this evening.
But all of that is only to set a stage...
During the race, we were listening to the race communications between some drivers and crews. It is really fun to hear what is going on behind the scenes. It is also traditional … (0 comments)
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crazy ideas: 53 Cool Concept Cars... Part II - 04/25/10 09:27 PM
Image by Chad Horwedel via Flickr I am NOT a Corvette guy… that said, I love the 63-67 Vettes. I love the looks of both the convertible and the coupe… and the performance is pretty reasonable for the era. But of course, car guys want more performance. And as technology advances, more power gets squeezed out of the engines.
The performance of the current generation of Corvette has astounding performance. The ZR-1 can run with just about anything… even cars that cost 4 or 5 times as much. Ferraris and Lamborghinis have to watch the rear-view mirror for ZR-1s…
But … (2 comments)
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crazy ideas: 53 Cool Concept Cars... Part I - 04/18/10 10:34 PM
I couldn't help myself... I've been kicking this one around for a while now. Video Sunday has become kind of boring... video is everywhere... it isn't new anymore. But these cars aren't old... ok, some of them might be old, but they haven't been floating around. In fact, they may only exist in my head. It would be fun to be able to just build street rods, off-road rigs, resto-mods and concept cars all of the time. Not 'customer cars', fitting THEIR ideas and desires, but my own.
So I'm going to do it, if only in writing.
For my First … (0 comments)
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crazy ideas: A "Wayback"... Houses and FREE Cars... - 04/04/10 11:03 PM
A couple of years ago this week, I wrote about a (then) new marketing move I had been seeing. Both new home developers and owners of existing homes were offering free cars to buyers.
Image via Wikipedia From that time to this, I have seen this offer in a variety of ways… I’ve seen builders offer leases on expensive cars, like BMWs and Jaguars (both to agents and to buyers), or inclusion of less expensive cars, like Hondas and Toyotas. I have seen private sellers offer up new Fords, Toyotas and others… and even include used cars.
But… there is a … (1 comments)
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crazy ideas: Just Too Cool to Pass Up... - 03/31/10 10:17 AM
I ran across a story over on Jalopnik that is just too cool to NOT pass along. They often have fun stories for and about 'car people', but this one I think carries WELL beyond just auto enthusiasts, and has relevence to everyone.
Bill Caswell is a guy that just seems to find ways to do things that are impossible. Link
He REALLY wanted to go racing. So, in order to do it, he picked up a beater BMW off Craigslist, built it to FIA specs himself, and took it to Mexico to enter the FIA Rally Mexico.
He broke it. … (4 comments)
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crazy ideas: Google and T-Mobile... Fail - 02/17/10 09:56 PM
My wife WANTS a Nexus One. If you aren't familiar, that is the new Android phone from Google. It is seriously cool. It might be the smartest of the smartphones. (watch the Apple iPhone fans go nuts over that little comment)
That is where the problems start...
We have been T-Mobile customers for a long time. She is 10+ years... I came on about 6 years ago. And Google/T-Mobile seem to be putting up as many roadblocks as they can find to halt existing customers from getting the Nexus One. In fact, the way they are even handling new customers … (9 comments)
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