The Feng Shui of junk car removal

Your junker is worth a bundle

Services that remover your junk car for a fee are laughing all the way to the bank. Instead of giving you money for your old vehicle you're paying them to take it off your hand. They not only get your money, they also get to sell your car for parts. Doubling down on their money when you could easily lay your hands om some of that money yourself. Just give family car buyers a call and they will pay you money for your junk car. They will even pick it up off your lot. Now that's surely a service we can get used to, isn't it? Plus they'll give you a fair deal on that old junker.

Getting rid of clutter

There's an old Chinese proverb that sais: "The car that clutters up your driveway could be blocking your new mercedes."

Allright, I admit it, that saying isn't really that old, but the old Chinese art of Feng Shui does say something like this. It sais that all the stuff in your life that is not currently of use to you clutters up your life and it disrupts the flow of things. If you throw a brick in the water, the water will flow around it. However enough bricks in the water can change the course of the water.

Chi, or energy, is like water. For your life to work you need to have the chi, the energy, moving freely through your life, through your home and garden, through your driveway and everything in it. Dead plants, flowers that are wilting and rusty car carcasses are serious disruptions of chi and having those around means you're blocking chi and interrupting the flow of energy through your life.

According to the Chinese this can block the flow of money, health, relationships: pretty much everything that is important to you in your life can be disrupted by having too much clutter. There's whole theories about what chi is being disrupted based on the placement of large amounts of clutter in your house. I've had one experience of this that was quite shocking.

Chi disruption in relationship corner

In the layout of my house the bedroom is on the right when seen from the entry. This is generally the place where Feng Shui starts to watch, the entryway. The upper right hand, where my bedroom sits, is the relationship quadrant of the ancient Feng Shui interpretations. In my case, my bedroom was a mess. I didn't have enough closet space for all my things and in the upper right hand (from the entrance again) side I had a large amount of clutter: magazines and books, some incense, an old key, a bunch of stuff that I could just throw right out. Again, according to the Feng Shui book I read back then, this was the relationship spot of my bedroom.

And honey, did my relationships at the time match that corner. I was breaking up and falling apart over a woman that I adored who, I thought, was just like me in so many ways that it was scary. So I indulged in the Feng Shui book and thinking nothing might come of it except maybe a cleaner bedroom, I started to clear out the clutter. Lo and behold: shortly thereafter I met a wonderful person and we're together to this day.

Coincidence? Maybe so, who knows? But I've made sure to keep the upper right hand side of my bedroom tidy ever since. Certainly something to think about when you're considering cleaning up your place. You may actually make room for something good to enter your life.

Selling the car yourself?

You could of course try to pawn it off to someone yourself. Put an add in the paper or on the world wide web trying to sell your car for the best price ever. And let's be honest: sometimes this get's you a few extra bucks, over and above what thewww.familycarbuyers.com folks would pay you. However, don't be mistaken about the kind of hassle involved in selling a used car. It's never the first person that come to look that buys your car, so you have to show the car to a few people, they're going to ask all kinds of silly questions and you're either going to have to lie about the broken airconditioning or they are going to try to get the car for less than you want for it.

So if you enjoy haggling over the price, assuring prospective buyers that you're selling a gem rather than a lemon and are if you willing to have their disappointment on your conscience afterwards for a few dollars more, sure, sell your car yourself. If none of that applies to you, perhaps family car buyers is the way to go.

The sustainability of the vacuum elevator

The idea is simple enough

Years ago, in my local bank, I've already seen an elevator of the vacuum type. It wasn't a freight or people elevator, but rather it was meant to send pieces of paper from one place in the bank to the next. The medium was air. It was a contraption with see through plastic tubing and ingenious little egg-shaped containers that had rubber around the sides. The teller would put the paper (usually cheques or money) inside the little container, open a little door in the tubing, shove the thing in and press a button. Air then streamed into the tubing and pushed the little nestegg along the tubing. Possibly a vacuum was created along the other side of the tubing as well, i'm not clear on that.

With the technological advancement in computing, money became more and more obsolete, at least in it's paper and coin shape. Nowadays payments at my local bank can be done from anywhere with my smartphone and/ or computer and there's no need for a tubing system at the bank as for the most part, there's no more paper being shuffled around. I was surprised therefore, to see that in the US this system is still largely in place in drive through teller banking. A lot more of money transactions in the US are appearantly still in cash.

Anyway, the idea of shuttling little eggshapes with content in them though vacuumpowered tubing is in a nutshell the idea behind residential vacuum elevators. The residential elevator manufacturers make an inhome elevator a possibility for anyone who needs it. No longer the bulky seats that are hoisted up a flight of stairs, instead an elegant vertical tubing system that hardly takes up any inhome space at all.

Less materials, less dependence on fuels

The first way in which the vacuum elevators beat the classic staircase chair hoisting system as well as the traditional elevator for in home use is the use of lighter materials, less materials. Less bulk means less dependence upon materials that have to be produced and transported. This is of benefit for the environment but it also adds to the possibilities of putting an elevator in the home. The expensive alternatives are hard to install, difficult to realize and simply take up a lot of space, most notably the motor-house takes up a lot of space in the basement. (if you have a basement, if not, the installation of an elevator used to be nigh impossible.) But there's more: the actual shaft of the elevator, the counterweight mechanism, everything takes up space.

The alternative, a chair being hoisted alongside the staircase usually makes the staircase itself difficult to navigate for people actually taking the stairs. There's an unsightly aspect to it as well, a heavy chain pulling the chair upwards. And then there is the comfort, or rather the discomfort of the passenger to consider. If you're in a wheelchair, in order to go up the stairs you have to get yourself out of the wheelchair, into the seat, buckle up and frankly a ride in one of these is rather scary! Then upstairs you would need either another wheelchair or someone needs to bring you your wheelchair from down below. All in all a difficult and wearing process during which you lose you independence. Many people who live with the fact that they are in a wheelchair fiercely seek independence for as much as possible. Not to mention the cost of a nurse or other professional to get you from one floor to the next in your own home.

Much better than is the comfort of a vacuum elevator, which comes in different sizes, large enough to accomodate up to 4 people and certainly large enough to hold a wheelchair. It doesn't require any more space in the home than the actualy shape of the elevator (which is by nature round) and it's a see-through tubing that is both esthetically pleasing and space saving. In it you zoom up to the next floor (up to 4 floors) in comfort and style.

5 questions about the future of cars

Foreign cars

The American car industry has missed the whole point of last few decennia. Instead of going with the trend and building ever smaller cars. Cars that perform well but are smaller simply because not that much space is needed in general when you're just driving to work or the grocery store. The new type of car is smaller, more economical in terms of how they use their space ánd get's great mileage.

Instead of building what most customers want: something that will get them safely from A to Z and back without guzzling too much gasoline. Even if the customers appear to want the bigger cars, this is only so because there simply aren't that many small cars available to them. They aren't used to them being out on the street and even if they are there, they seems somewhat out of place with the big models. It takes a real man to choose a small car.

Not only is the performance of the smaller car great in terms of mileage, withimport performance parts their speed of acceleration just to name an item can be improved on dramatically.

Small is the new big

The same developments we've seen in personal computers is starting to happen for cars. Instead of the gazz guzzing machines of yesteryear, people are now more likely to invest in an electric car and thus save at least half on fuel, more if you couple it to your own solar panel units.

Any child can see that it takes more energy to more a huge object than it does to move a small object (assuming that both have a similar weight/size ratio) So if you have a huge car, like the Hummer or some of the other rather backward American type cars, you're burning more fuel. If there's only one of you in a Dodge Ram, you're using up more than your fair share (if there is such a thing as a fair share) of the earths powersupply.

Things could move rather fast if we allow technology to develop unhampered by vested interest from the oil company's. Telephone has seen a similar speedy development where we started with Alexandre Graham Bell, making those bulky plastic phones all the way down to the first mobile phones with which you couldn't call for hours, simply because your arm would get too tired. All the way to todays smartphone, that basically is a unit larger than the first 4 types of computers, with more memory and more possibilities than it's predecessors from 1980.

It's time to start rethinking the concept of large cars and discover the joys of thinking out of the box with cars.It's time to start being curious about the why of things.

Why four wheels?

Why four (or more) seats, if there's only one of you?

Why a new car every year or two?

Why fossil fuels if you can go electric?

Why doesn't my employer offer me an electric lease car?

Worries about performance?

Your motor won't have to move so much steel and glass if your vehicle becomes smaller. This means quite simply put that you save a bundle on fuel that way. If it only has to carry one person, why not go for a one person car? Time for the industry to sit up and pay attention: we want personalized vehicles.

We also want the option of personalizing the driving experience by putting inimport performance parts to enhance the speed and acceleration of the car. That way instead of having a shady, unecological alternative, you have a vehicle that makes hardly any noise, uses hardly any electricity (non if you hook it up to some solar panels).

Imported car parts for improved performance

Fuel injection and more

When your car starts to stutter when you start the engine up, consider tweaking it by ordering and installing a new improved model of fuel injection. The technology in these products hasn't stopped the day you bought the car and it's likely that the best there was available at the time of production of your vehicle wasn't the top of the line to begin with. Everyone knows that the cars that roll of the line are a compromise between performance and price and when you're a discerning customer who doesn't have the money to purchase the high class cars out there that don't make consessions to affordability, this means you're getting mediocre parts to begin with. However that's not where you need to stay!

Getting top of the line import performance parts is a way to improve the performance of your car and because you do all the work yourself it's a cheap and easy way to upgrade your car to a really high performance vehicle.

Tinkering is for classic cars

Let's face it: these days if you're really a tinkerer, not a full fledged auto mechanic, there's no fun in working on a car less than 20 years old. Ever since on board computers have taken over the honest mechanics "I'll listen to the sound of your engine and tell you where the problem is" is an anomaly. Most people can't tell the difference anymore and the onboard computer has warning signs for anything that is about to go wrong before it actually spirals out of control.

In Africa and south America, where we ship our "wrecks", they keep cars on the road for ever with a piece of chewing gum and a pair of nylons if need be and people work together as a team on figuring out what is wrong with the car and how to fix it. It seems as though there they still understand the need for reconstructive maintainance. Making sure it runs is priority number one. This is why so many of the vehicles you see out there have long since outlived their natural shelf-life and are reconstructed to accommodate far more than the normal payload for any automobile that's on the road today. You can see schoolbusses that we've declared unfit for travel on the road there, painted up in glorious gaudy colors and giving off a thick black smoke whenever they accelerate and they are filled to the brim with people and luggage, stuff they are taking to the market.

Imported parts for import cars

Yes, you can use all kinds of parts with all kinds of cars. It often takes a lot of tweaking and customizing, but in theory you can use parts from an old american car and use it in a Japanese or European vehicle. The warranty on those expires the moment you take it for a drive as they aren't used to each other and the computerized systems used these days speak many different languages, so in a modern car you are more likely to make it work if you're a computerfreak than you are if you're an automechanic.

So my advise is simple: buy import performance parts for imported cars athttp://www.velocityfactor.net/. Installation should be easy with the manuals that come with the product and you'll be driving around in no time flat.

Tools are always sharp with ceramic coating

Some tools don't wear

Many tools are just fine without any protection whatsover. They'll stay sharp almost forever and look as shiny as the day you bought them for years on end.

Those are the tools that rarely get used, that are just sitting pretty in your toolshed while you and your mates play poker and have a beer. For the rest of us, tools are something that get's used a lot and most tools, in particular anything with a sharp edge on it tends to be subject to a lot of wear and tear. Protecting these tools would mean a serious step forward in the enjoyment of the use of sharp tools.

Now there's some new technologies out there that can actually make this come true! It's called vapor deposition and it's a way of depositing a ultra thin coating of a hard material onto almost any surface. The process is a specialty of the folks down at Vergason and they cater to the needs of a variety of industries, from the medical to the molding industry. With their vacuum coating process they can coat pretty much anything without having to heat the objects very much which allows them to coat metal objects without having to be concerned about the shape or hardness of the material changing.

You've probably seen these types of instruments in the kitchen. Kitchen knifes that won't wear out, made with a ceramic edge. Ring a bell? Yes, these things actually do work and they do stay sharp for a long long time.

How do ceramic coatings work?

One of the cutting tools we're all familiar with that has a hard ceramic-like coating sit's right in your mouth. Yes, I am talking about teeth. We all know that the teeth are reasonably soft and boney on the inside and if it weren't for the thin layer of dental enemal on them we would all lose our teeth very early on in life. The thin layer of something hard protects them from harm and gives them that nice, clean bite.

In much the same way putting a ceramic coating on, let's say a sawblade, can keep it from becoming dull very fast. A necessary innovation in particular since cutting the new MDF type of materials (which is really hard pressed cardboard) can dull an ordinary sawblade in an awful hurry. Any housewife worth her salt can tell you that cutting paper or cardboard with a pair of scissors will make the scissors unfit to cut anything else with them. This is why people have special scissors for fabrics. These are not so much special scissors, but basically they are scissors which are never to be used for cutting paper. Cutting only fabric keeps them sharp for a long while.

What all can you get a ceramic coating on?

Anything that is sharp and meant to stay that way is in principle a good candidate for a ceramic coating like the ones they make at Vergason. This goes way beyond your toolshed and into the medical field as well. In addition the ceramic coatings are heat resistant and for want of a better word they "glide" better. You've all seen seamstresses cut through swatches of cloth hardly even moving the scissors? Well a good seamstress would simply love a ceramic coated scissor because it would "glide" through the material with very little friction. Because of these special qualities ceramic coatings are also useful in the injection molding industry.

Not only is it good for cutting through wood, cloth or paper (or MDF) but it is esspecially useful in cutting though tougher materials like metal. Used on drills, saws, taps and a myriad of other instruments it helps prevent damage to the tools and keeps things sharp and easy to work with.

How to let your old clunker go (and why)

Selling or giving away

These are difficult times and a bit of extra cash can go a long way. The financial crisis has been around long enough to clear out most of our savings and put our family finances past it's stretching point. To make ends meet we have to find ways of cashing in on stuff we've gathered over the years and that are perhaps less than useful in todays economy and that can be converted to cash, like that old clunker sitting in your driveway gathering rust. There's a lot of things that still hold value to others sitting around your home. Selling them to family car buyers can be a great way of simplifying your life and getting your clutter back in control.

One man's trash is another man's treasure

In Europe today the trend is to arrange things without money. Trading and giving away things is a good way of bypassing the flailing money system and it helps to recycle and reuse things. One of the more succesful sites in the Netherlands is “free stuff” where people can list things they are done with, like furniture that is no longer in use and people can come and pick this up for free. Doing it for free has the advantage that a things find their ways to peoples home. In spite of the crisis in money, people still own a lot of things and rather than paying for storage or for having it removed it's an easy and fun way to get to know people and lessening the pressure of garbage on our environment.

Recycling can be profitable as well. That old wreck that is cluttering up your driveway or garage can be sold a a profit. This way you can convert something that is a hindrance to you into something that can enhance your life, like cash. Selling your car can be done profitably at http://www.familycarbuyers.com/

Ask and you shall be given

There's also a trend, coupled with the free stuff initiatives that is called: “Ask for it”. People who dare to ask for what they need have a much greater chance of getting it than those who don't, is the simple filosofie behind the idea. There's a great many things that go from hand to hand because of people asking for it. And it's not all just junk either, I've seen people ask for Ipads and planetickets and get them, because someone had what they were looking for and didn't need it anymore.

Giving away stuff you're done with is also a way of contributing to a better standard of living for people who are down on their luck. In the past few months I've gotten a fat-boy from someone who no longer needed it and I've gotten rid of several cookbooks which I don't need because I allready know how to cook. I've gotten a wonderful stylish lamp and an end table from some nice people who didn't want it anymore and I've given away a bicycle that needed just a bit of repair, like new tires and a new lock.

Spiritual cleansing

Spiritually it's a good thing for the soul to clean out stuff that you don't need. A good practise in letting go, letting go of your attachment to stuff. There's a classic piece by American comedian George Carlin about stuff. Giving up our attachment to stuff is a very buddhist, new age, spiritual cleansing sorta thing which means that George was probably way ahead of his time on that point.

Some things have intrinsic value though and although giving stuff away is good for the soul, making money is also a concern. In particular getting some cash for your junk car can help meet the bills. There's a lot of components to a car that can and should be reused and selling your junker to www.familycarbuyers.com. They even come and pick it up at your home and give you a good price for it.

How to quite paying for gasoline, buying an electric car

A new car for the new year

If you're still driving an old vehicle that is drinking gasoline like water and perhaps even burning oil, pay attention! You're burning money and killing the environment! Time to sit down at the kitchen table and look over the options for a new car. Now I don't know your wallet so I don't know what kind of money you have to spend, but you can look at a few options for getting money as well. Selling your old car to family car buyers for instance, instead of trading it in, might be a good way to add some money to your pocket book.

There's many ways to go about buying a new car and many things to consider, so I'm going to focus on buying an electric car because I care about the environment. Now we all know that electric cars are better for the environment and get a lot better milage for your money, in particular if you go ahead and put some solar panels on your roof as well to recharge the battery with. Also recharging is offered in a growing number of places. If you're an average Joe, driving a maximum of 50 miles to work and maybe to the lake on the weekends, the average electric car will get you there and back on one charge.

Hybrids?

If you're not that average and have to drive long distances in your vehicle, a hybrid might be the way to go. This you can run on gasoline when necessary and on electricity when available. In addition running the car on gas allows you to recharge your batteries, in the smartest of cars they even store the energy you waste on braking. Also, the technology is relatively new so expect improvements to be made on your vehicle for some time, making our dependence on fossil fuels drop dramatically, with all the political advantages internationally.

If you have to go more than 50 but less than 100 miles to your place of employment (where you have to spend 8 hours earning your keep) you might want to talk to your employer about putting a recharging station in the parking lot. That way you can still use your car to go to work and back and half the electricity will be on your employers tab. With a little investment in solar panels this could work out very well for both of you. And 8 hours is ample time to recharge your batteries! This might eliminate the need for a hybrid and give you the option of buying a fully electric car.

Picture perfect: an electric car and solar panels

So let's make some calculations. Let's say you're driving 100 miles a day on average, going to work and back, etc. This means you drive a total of 36.500 miles yearly. Give or take a few miles, let's say it's 40.000 a year (for easy calculation)

Gasoline is $3,60 a gallon now, and more likely to become more expensive than less so, but for the sake of argument let's say it's going to be an average of $3,50. Your current family car, that old clunker you are going to sell tohttp://www.familycarbuyers.com get's about 20 miles to the gallon? You should be so lucky you say? We'll go with 20 MpG anyway...

This means you buy 2.000 gallons of gasoline each year. At $3,50 that means you're spending 7.000 dollars a year on gasoline alone! Average family, average use, average expenditure on a family car, am I right? Your situation may be a little or a lot different so you best do your own math on this one. If you have the money to invest in an electric car in combination with solar panels your average expenditure goes down to zero.

The electric car is free!

Buying an electric vehicle isn't cheap. However driving it is going to be a lot cheaper, up to zero expenditure in combination with solar panels (and a good deal with your boss for charging during the daytime). So how can you afford nót to buy the electric car?

What's the cost of a new electric car? You can purchase one round about 35.000 dollars, which would mean that if you had the money in cash you would start saving yourself 7.000 a year. The solar panels to feed your car would run about 7000 dollars as well. This means in only six years time you will have saved on fuel the full cost of a car and solar panel system. Put a different way: If you drive this car for 6 years it's essentially a free car.

If you have to get a car loan the interest on that is all you pay on top of what you would normally pay for gasoline alone. Selling your old car at family car buyers will give you a bit of capital and perhaps you have some savings so you won't need to loan the full amount. Interest is steep but remember, you'll be saving yourself 7000 a year (almost 600 a month) in gasoline cost.

Worth considering ain't it?