Friday 23 March 2012

How Do I Save Money on Gas?


Part 1

This is a hot topic these days with gas prices nudging ever upwards and incomes tending to rise very slowly, if at all. Oil companies continue to make record profits but it isn’t just them that are responsible for the increased prices at the pump.  Our governments, God bless them, have determined that this is often the easiest and least controversial way to siphon more money out of our wallets and into their coffers.  Increasingly it’s under the guise of promoting public transit through a punitive transit tax with the supposed intent being to force more of us out of our cars and onto public transit irrespective of geography.
I’ve collected a number of tips that can come in handy when you are looking for ways to reduce your over all gas consumption.  There aren’t many of us who aren’t looking for the answer to the question ‘How do I save money on gas?’ I know that I certainly was and am and recently I undertook the most radical money saving strategy of all and moved significantly closer to my place of work.  My fuel bill went from about $25/day down to an average of about $5/day.  Now most of these tips won’t save you that kind of money but put together they will save you a surprising amount.
Delay, Defer and Delete – Plan your trips. And the first question you should ask yourself is this.  Do I really have to go? Do I really have to go right now?  It’s possible that the trip you planned can be combined with something else.  Hold off on buying eggs until you have to drop your daughter off for her piano lesson.  It can be amazing how many trips you can eliminate with a little planning.
Split the Cost  -  Carpooling can work well in some instances, esp. when you have three or more individuals  who can participate.  Ride share and car share programs such as zipcar.com in the U.S. and carsharing.ca for our Canadian friends are good resources to check out.
Smooth as Silk – Smooth driving pays, really, really well.  If you’re a closet drag racer that has to be the first one off the line then you can expect to pay for it. Starting slowly and allowing your speed to increase along with your RPMs will save you money every time. Punching the accelerator is like punching your wallet.  Ditto for the hard braking that inevitably follows now that you have sped up to get to the front of the pack.  Just not worth it under any circumstances.
Anticipation  -  Watch what’s going on in front of you. Way out in front of you. That way you can time lights and avoid heavy braking or even stopping.  Getting your car rolling from a stop uses a tremendous amount of fuel in comparison to keeping it rolling. Use traffic patterns to your advantage and pay attention to light patterns so you aren’t constantly hitting red lights. If you know that you always hit the same red light try varying your speed by going a bit slower. That leads us right to the next tip.
Slow Down – This applies to all drivers with perhaps the exception of Granny Goodwitch and the sanctimonious ones that I call the left lane lockers. I swear they used to be the hall monitors in school. They feel that they have been appointed by a higher power to ensure we don’t speed by driving at exactly the speed limit in the fast lane for no reason at all except to show they can. Ok my rant is over. Seriously though, there is a lot of money to be saved by leaving the house just ten minutes earlier. Then you won’t be under stress and driving aggressively or hard between lights. Almost all cars fuel efficiency drops off sharply around 50 mph (80kph for the canucks).  The trick is to get into the highest possible gear at the lowest rpm that the car runs comfortably at. Diesels shine at this because they operate far better than gasoline engines at low rpm.
Manual Transmission – If you’re going to get a car, consider getting a manual transmission but only if you are a very astute driver who understands cars and the physics of them quite well. It used to be a huge fuel advantage to drive a manual but most of the automatic transmissions in newer cars are very fuel efficient and have almost offset the advantage that manuals used to enjoy.  No matter what transmission you have you should be speeding up for oncoming hills whenever possible (don’t wait to get into the hill before accelerating) and easing off on the pedal as you come down the other side to avoid brake wear and losing inertia.
Rip off the Rack – if you have a rack on your vehicle and it isn’t being used, take it off.  It just adds to the drag on your car and causes you to burn more fuel.  If it’s a ski rack and the calendar says June, put it away until next season. Same thing with luggage and bicycle racks. Spoilers and air dams look good but they don’t have a purpose away from the race track and they add to the fuel consumption of your car.
Get a Gauge – Check the tire pressure on your car every few weeks.  Get yourself a good manual tire pressure gauge (every auto parts store has one) and use it when your car tires are cold before you have driven it for the day. Always inflate your tires to the upper end of the manufacturers recommended range.  Don’t overinflate as that can cause excessive tire wear and poorer traction and handling. Tire that are under inflated or those with uneven air pressure will rob you of fuel economy.
Read On – Make sure you read the second part of this article on How to Save Money on Gas.  There’s a lot of information here and almost all of it applies to most drivers.  Fuel prices are not going to come down so we have to do all we can to minimize the impact on our wallets. Happy Motoring!



Wednesday 21 March 2012

How Do I Find the Name of a Song That I Only Know a Few Lyrics To (Of)?


Doesn’t this start to bug you after awhile?  It sure does me.  I hear a song and I really like the melody or the lyrics but for one reason or another I can’t find the Name of The Song.  It could be that it’s already been announced by the DJ and he sure as heck isn’t going to repeat it. Sometimes it’s something far more nefarious and the songwriter instead of using the obvious lyrics for his song’s title has opted instead for some obscure lyrics found only once in the song.
I’ve done the ‘wait till the next break in the songs’ in the hope that they might just say what was just played but all too often that hasn’t happened.  And if you’re at all like I am, there are occasions when I’ve heard the name of a song once but cant for the life of me remember it again until the next time I happen to hear it. I find it frustrating and just one more little annoyance that feels so good once you overcome it.
What I’ve done here is to collect up an assortment of resources that I have found to be helpful, along with a few offbeat and unusual methods that may prove useful to you in your search for that elusive Name of a Song.  I hope that it turns out to be of some value and maybe even makes you smile. With each resource there is a short summary to help you weed through the ones most likely to be of benefit to you.
Bored.com   This is an interesting concept where you are given an opportunity to tap out the beat of your song on your keyboard and have potential names of songs suggested to you. There is even a short tutorial video on the site that walks you through the process.  If the system doesn’t know the name of your song you can teach it to the system for the benefit of others.  That could turn into a ‘you vs. the system’ kind of game which is the intent of the bored.com site.  They appear to be in a undeclared war on boredom, a laudable goal if ever I’ve seen one.
Lyrster.com   This site is one of the best especially if it is a fairly mainstream song.  I will also add that if it was recorded in the last fifty years and is more than a year old you will enjoy greater success in finding it as well. If the song you are looking for is of extreme vintage or an obscure screamo hit by the Bleeding Daisies then this may not be the best sight for you. And sorry I don’t have their latest album.
Elyrics.net   They proudly brag that they have the lyrics from 500,000 songs from 30,000 artists and once I figured out how to use the site properly I was truly impressed.  The key here is to use the drop-down selector on the search bar (where you type in your song lyrics).  Make sure that you set it to ‘text in song’ rather than the default which is ‘band name’.  A little more clarity on this site wouldn’t go amiss. As advertised, they do have a prodigious library of lyrics. This is my top choice and first site I go to now.
Lyrics.com   If you are looking for an exercise in extreme frustration may I humbly suggest this site.  Although it has a goodly amount of top 30 tunes you will be hard pressed to find correct answers to partial lyrics to a song.  If you already know the name of the song , then all is well but that sort of defeats the purpose don’t you think?  If you’re looking for other similar aggravations I would refer you to golfing and fly fishing on heavily treed stream banks/
www.midomi.com    Another unique approach is found on this site.  In order to provide the prompts for the search engine that will locate your song here you are asked to sing or hum about 10 seconds of your subject song.  Karaoke, except it’s on a whole new level.  In fact, if you feel so inclined you can have your voice recorded and then posted for all to hear. Clearly you would have to have musical talents that exceed mine in order to be in serious demand as a ‘star’.
Findmeatune.com    Another very disappointing site with a very restricted song base.   Also reliant upon other users of the site to provide the correct answer either right on your search or else on a message board.  I’ve tried a number of genres and songs of varying vintages but without significant success.
Namemytune.com   This site relies entirely upon the altruistic nature of others or perhaps they know that some smug know-it-alls can’t resist showing the rest of us how smart they are? The basic premise here is that you hum or sing into your microphone and your recording is posted.  People that hear your recording and think they know the correct song name and artist can email you the information.  It’s an interesting, although somewhat less exacting, method of finding out the name of a song. Of course you also have the option of listening to others recordings and returning the favour.  Hard to diss a site that at least recognizes the value of co-operation.
There are countless other sites besides these and you can always defer to another method that I have found to work well over the years. Just ask a friend that has a good appreciation and love of music.  It could be one more thing that you have in common.