My day job is a web developer, a career I’ve been in since I left the Army in 1998. In the course of that journey, I’ve seen many new technologies come in, a few go out, and many stick. Of course, the AI trend is here, and exploding. Depending on who you ask, it can be good, bad, or downright ugly.
I’ve not been enamored with the idea of AI, partially fueled by the documentaries of the past. Stuff like The Terminator series, The Matrix, I, Robot… those things. Part of it, of course, is self-preserving. It could potentially replace me. Or at least people think that.
Until stuff breaks and they need an experienced human.
Still… I figure it will serve me well professionally to learn to make use of AI for content analysis, structuring, etc. And what better place to test those tools than… my own blog?
One of the tests I performed was a traffic analysis. (For the nerds: Claude through MCP.) And it gave me some interesting insights. One of which I knew intuitively, but not numerically: The biggest traffic driver on this site are the “how to” type articles. So the AI suggested I look to do more of that, and offered topic suggestions. Which I may or may not do… 🙂
However, that sparked an idea – could the AI scour the site and generate an index of the most popular “How To” articles?
Turns out it could, sort of. It missed a lot, but it got me started. And when I find one it missed, I just say “Add this to post #xyz”. Simple enough. I think it missed some because I specified “most popular”, not “all”, in my initial prompt. (If you use AI you know how important prompting is.)
Introducing… The “How-To-Guides”
So here are the “How-To Guides“. It’s nothing new and exciting, really. Just a page of links. But it can be quite useful – I hope. And it pulls double duty – it gives Google and AI search agents something to really sink their teeth in.
Now, I’m not really too concerned about it generating a lot of traffic. It would be nice, but… I’m realistic. What I do hope is that it makes finding content easier that can be helpful to other modelers. It fits with the whole “big carport” approach I try to take to what it is I do, and more importantly, why.
What This Does NOT Mean
Now, because I do have my site hooked up with AI, I could automate every stitch of it. But there’s no way I’d do that. For one, I still enjoy writing. And two, I like the way I write. It’s conversational, I hope. A friend once was questioning my grammar on the blog. Because he knew me well, I said “read it as if it was me reading it out loud.” And he said “now I get it.” Writing, for me, is not so much conveying information as it is story telling.
Certainly not all of my blogs revolve around stories. When I was ONLY blogging, that was a big part of it. In many ways, at least for me, the modeling blog content was simply a vehicle for my own brand of reminiscing. That was the part I really cared about. In my view, the modeling stuff was secondary.
When I do use AI for something, I will state it. So you can be sure that what you’re reading is gen-yu-wine JonSense. It’s like nonsense, only… from me. 🤣
Difficulty Getting Ma. K Kits? Solved…
In the past, I’ve always ordered Maschinen Krieger kits by Wave and Kaiyodo from places like Hobby Link Japan. Because those companies don’t do large runs of their kits, when they release one, and that run sells out – they’re gone. At that point you either wait 5-7 years for another release, or buy it off Ebay – at greatly increased prices.
Thankfully, Lincoln Wright of Paint On Plastic has provided a solution. He also sells Ma.K kits, from Wave, Kaiyodo, AND Hasegawa. (More on Hasegawa in a minute.) And for a while he had been shipping them from his home in Australia, which added huge costs.
Now he’s moved his shipping “facility” to the US. So he’s able to ship to the US and most of the rest of the world from the US, which is cheaper. (He still ships domestically within Australia.) Now that he’s able to do that, I’ve seen his prices shift so that they are competitive (if not better) than buying from a source in Japan and having to pay a much higher shipping.
Plus, Linc has provided help and inspiration to many – including me – over the years. So I like to think this in some way pays that “forward”, even if in a small way. And I know who it’s helping – Linc, and his wife and daughter. They are a small family business, and I like to support that. (And no, he’s not paying me or even asking for this endorsement. He doesn’t even know I’m doing it. 🤪)
Certainly compare prices, that’s just smart shopping. But for me, even if it is a few bucks more, I like helping out small businesses. I would say check Hasegawa Ma. K kits closely with regards to pricing. They have a much greater production and distribution capacity, so often their kits can be found at very low prices. (Sometimes.)
And when you do visit Linc’s site, take a look at the many books, print and digital, that he offers. I have enjoyed every one of them!
Speaking of Ma.K Kits – I’m building the, uh… however you say it…
I’m working on a Wave 1/20th scale kit, called the Archelon. According to the Murder Robots of Death, otherwise known as AI, Archelon is a Greek word that means “ruler turtle” or “ruler of the turtles”. Apparently it was a really big turtle that lived in the old days.
Now, I love the kit. I am having a blast. But I am in a conundrum. Depending on the source, it is either pronounced “ARK-elon”, or “ARCH-elon”. And I know that no matter which version I use, someone will leave a comment telling me I’m wrong and correcting me.
So I’m dropping back to punt and just saying “Turtle”. When you watch the video, you may detect a note of irritation in my voice. I spent way too much time thinking about this, and it carried over. But I’m too lazy to redo the intro. 🤷♂️
Right now it may end up being a “one and done” video. I haven’t decided yet. I’m not detailing the steps too much, as everything I cover in this video will be something I’ve covered before, probably multiple times. So my focus is just enjoying the build.
And that is happening. I like the simplicity of the design. A man in an armored suit wearing what essentially looks like an oversized turtle helmet. Maybe I’ll name him “Tippy Turtle”… anyone remember that? 🤣
I may even confuse the Tubes of You algorithm and do two relatively short videos instead of my normal pace. Which is way, way, way longer than Mr. Al Gorithm likes. 🤪
Look for it in early June.
Happy day to you friends!
jon
Leave a Reply