Joes Map

I found several people talking about ways to custom skin maps from yahoo to match the site you are using them on. I love the Google and yahoo maps, but I am not a big fan of the standard colors that they are bordered with. Today I found that other people have had this issue as well, and there is a way to change the look of the yahoo maps for your site with flash 8.

Now I have flash 8, but I have used it very little. I’m not the artist I wish I was, and the first few flash tutorials had me wishing for a vacation in Siberia. I love what flash does, but the small time lines and scripting languages are just not my cup of tea. If anyone would like to draw up some flash maps that focus on a coffee theme, I’d love to have one!

I have helped many people choose new places to live and work, a real estate choice is a big decision to make. The first thing I do is make a list of the places that people travel most often. For many people it is the drive to and from work, the grocery store, etc. Some people have specific things they do often as well, if you travel to a particular country club, or golf course every weekend, jot that down.

When you are considering a new place to move, consider the travel distance and time it will take you to get from work to home, if you move 20 miles away, certainly you can find a new grocery store, but will you have to travel even further to get to your gym where you have a 3 year membership?

Consider these things, plot them out on a map, add up the gas, add up the time, and you may find that a pricier piece of real estate is actually saving you money and time.

I often use yahoo maps for distances like these.

The cost of gas will probably not get back to the 99 cents per gallon that I once remembered it being. It’s funny to me to see people complaining so much about money spent on gas when most people don’t do much to save money is their automobile fuel expenditures. It also surprises me that most people probably don’t really realize how much money we are all really spending on gas. I could go into detail about how much More percentage wise and pull some average figures, but I encourage you to simply add up how many gallons you use each week, and multiply that by how much gas is. Then take that figure and consider that gas was about a dollar per gallon not long ago. You look at how much more you are spending each year. Then take into account how many people are doing the same. That’s a lot of people spending a lot of money.

Of course you should also think about the delivery of goods at and services that we all use and how it is costing more to transport all of the food and supplies that we all use.

There are several good things we should all do in order to get better gas mileage and save on gas in general. Everyone should have their cars and trucks engines and exhaust systems checked out, tuned up and or fixed. There are real savings when it comes to having a well oil machine working for you rather than against your bank account. Small issues like new spark plugs, a replaced oxygen sensor and clean fuel and air filters can make a big different difference throughout the year. Also cost keep up with your tire pressure, especially when the temperature change, having the wrong air pressure in your tires costs you more money at the gas pump.

There are many more things most people can do to use less gasoline, I suggest people start finding ways to drive less, there are many ways to make this a reality. More on that in another post.

Traveling with other people, carpooling, even finding ways to save when you go on vacation will all make a big impact on the gasoline we consume. Also consider when you are looking for a new place to live, that real estate is often priced according to amenities nearby, sometimes it saves you more time and money ti live in a place that is a little more expensive with the monthly payment. If you travel a lot with your vehicle, living closer to the places you travel most makes the most sense.

Saving money saves life.