After some prodding by "matt":http://postsomnia.com/ and "ben":http://bencurtis.com/, I finally got my act together and extracted the "Acts as Draftable":http://svn.techno-weenie.net/projects/plugins/acts_as_draftable/ plugin from Mephisto. Use this plugin for adding lightweight drafts to your models.

Please do add notes to the "Plugin Stikipad":http://technoweenie.stikipad.com/plugins if you come up with any useful tips to share.