Normally this becomes a moment of reflection.  What have I done right, what would I like to do better?  Am I getting what I wanted out of my blog?  What do I hope the next 200 will look like?

Firstly, I didn’t realize I was approaching 200 until I was drafting my December series and noted that my published blog count was surpassing 190.  Hmm, when do I expect to make 200?  Since I’d planned on a Christmas post, I pushed a couple of January posts to the right and here we are.

200 more posts will barely scratch my stash.  If I stick to 1 every 3 days or so it’ll be late 2024 when I hit that big milestone.  I will of course note 300 before I hit 400.  Let’s see how well I progress…

What’s right?

WordPress.  Migrating away from blogger has given me vastly improved structure and format.  Simply put, I can make my site appear as I always envisioned it.

Focus.  By documenting I’m able to keep track of the details.  Looking at a model from a few years ago I can guess the period by my style of building, but not see what my thoughts were at the time.  When the day comes that I can only review my life, I’ll have some good events here.

Improvements

More progress posts and closer together.  This means I have to stay focused on a model. My F-4J is stalled because I’ve agreed to build a review model.  That deadline is fast approaching and all other projects are on the back burner until that review is finished.  Well, okay, I’m still posting to my blog but these are all the kits from my past that I simply want to document.

Which gets to my next improvement — completing my history.  Um, partially anyway.  If it’s still on my shelf, I want to document it.  A stretch goal I’m considering is to add the kits I remember building but no longer have because they simply did not survive one of the many moves I made when I left home and joined the Navy.  Adding those would require I find the kit, build it and discuss my memories of the original.  A lot of poor kits in that effort so I’m currently on the fence as there are too many great models out there.

Photography.  I have a lot of photos I took with a legacy SLR and frankly I was quite good at one time. Lighting, exposure, and composition were all quite good.  But today with my DSLR or my phone I struggle.  Usually the lighting and exposure are off, and frankly I spend too much time away from my modeling bench and over at my Mac trying to improve my photos of models.  

Variation.  I need to vary the content more.  I’ve started that with my F-4J and an occasional thought post.  I also need to add more reviews, and some results of investigations I’ve done.  Plus more “how to”.  Yes, you can get some of that on youtube, but and maybe I can cross post there, but I’m not ready for that, yet.

Value

This is an outlet, one of many for my modeling.  The others are running the local Club, showing my work at Contests, and helping other modelers.  As an outlet, this blog does bring enjoyment, especially when I realize a picture truly shows off the model, or the post simply reads well.

A bigger question is whether I provide value to you, the reader? I’d like to know and if you would like to see more, tell me what that is.  It might be something I find interesting and can help me take my modeling to the next level.