art – Adam's Auto Advice

Spring Cleaning: What to do with old Car Magazines?

Now that it is April, and hopefully getting warmer where you are, I am sure you have thought about Spring Cleaning. One issue I have noticed a lot of car guys and gearheads have is the perpetual problem old car and auto magazines lying around and stacking up. What are you supposed to do with all those old car magazines?

Spring is a time of rejuvenation and reflection and doing a little bit of Spring Cleaning is the perfect time to think about this issue facing many auto enthusiasts out there with stack of car magazines. The way I see it we have several different options for clearing our your car magainzes;

Keep ALL your Car Magazines

This is obviously what most of would like to do, keep all our precious car magazines! If you are going to do this you better make effort to buy magazine holders or racks and sort them properly. Does that really make sense though? No, not really. Also you know there will be complaints about keeping all the old car magazines in the house from your significant other. You probably have to make space for that new couch.

Only keep some of your Car Magazines

This requires you going through all your old car magazines and seeing which articles in certain issues are useful and important and which are not. This requires a bit of time and effort but all Spring Cleaning does. Something to think about is that a lot of the articles in printed magazines are available online nowadays. If you are like me and like having print books and magazines around this makes sense. zz9I guess I am old school even though I am young.)

Recycle the Magazines

If you don't think you need the magazines anymore, and they are not worth much, probably you should just recycle them. Please don't throw them in garbage! When I say Recycle I mean Recycle. It is better for you and the magazines as they will have second life as shiny new car magazines arriving in your mailbox.

Donate

Does your kids school or a community center need materials for craft projects? This way your old car magazines could be turned into art for more people to enjoy. There are also options like offering them on Craigslist or Freecycle to someone that does want or need them. If you live in Maryland or around here you could take them to the BookThing. I take a lot of my old magazines that are non car related to the Bookthing when I do my spring cleaning.

Sell

You could try your entrepreneurial spirit and try to make some bucks off those magazines. Your annual spring cleaning could you turn you a profit. Put those magazines on eBay or Craigslist and see who wants them. FYI – When I have tried this option I usually fail. Most people who are interested in those old magazines probably have them and are facing the some dilemma as you. Unless the car magazines you have are old, rare, and in good shape I doubt you will get much for them.

Bathroom

If you can't donate or sell your old car magazines and are planning to recycle them, why not use them in the bathroom first? Sounds funny, but it makes sense! You can read issues you didn't have time to read and get use out of them before you do number 3 and recycle the magazines. Just realize once a magazine is “flagged” that is past the point of no return.

Honestly, I wish I had better answers to this gearhead problem. For my Spring Cleaning I will going through my old issues of Automobile, MotorTrend, Car & Driver, and SportsCar (SCCA‘s magazine and newsletter)to see what I should do. I will say that I don't really like MotorTrend's editorial direction and most likely will recycle issues with bad writing. (Quite a lot of them actually.) I like Automobile and Car & Driver's articles so I will keep those to study. It's hard to know without looking at the magazines though. I might look at them and have to keep them all! 🙂

If you have a better solution, answer, or advice to this issue please leave a comment below and let the community know.

My Brooklyn Roadtrip – Part 1

Back in September I took a roadtrip with my brother Aaron to Brooklyn. He needed to transport paintings for an art show he was part of. It was very exciting for him as an artist since it was the first show he had in New-York. He's how it the roadtrip went.

We got going late around 10:45am or so. We rented a Uhaul the day before and got the paintings all packed and ready to go so we wouldn't have to worry about it in the morning. Aaron and I decided instead of spending money on tolls on I-95, we would avoid them. We set our GPS to “Avoid Tolls” and off we went. The nice thing about not driving along I-95 is that it's a little more scenic. You tend to see more interesting things, like a Hydro-Electric plant we passed along Route 1. One side of the dam was extremely high due to all the rain. The water was deep into the forest and we saw cops had blocked off a road leading down to that area.

Aaron was doing most of the driving, so my duties mainly were navigating (well making sure the GPS wasn't throwing us completely off track). For the most part not taking 95 up to New-York was working out well. Sure it was more slow going, but it gave us a chance to see little towns and places you would never have seen otherwise. Like a Harley-Davidson dealership, antiques stores, cows, and the countryside. Driving up 95 is kind of ugly, especially the Jersey turnpike.

Avoiding tolls surprising only took probably about 1 hour longer than if we had taken 95. Finding Gowanus Ballroom, where Aaron was showing his paintings was fairly straightforward, and dropping off the paintings didn't take long either. Gowanus Ballroom is an interesting place to show art. It is a metal fabrication shop, but they also use the space to display art. They move all the heavy metalworking material away for showing art, then back when they are done.

After we left Gowanus, we had to return the Uhaul truck. We went to the Uhaul center, which was a few blocks away, and then the attendant pointed out we had not filled the tank. I think it was a $50 surcharge to fill it, so we decided to find a gas station. We found this run down on nearby, and to my delight there were a few cool and interesting cars there.

After we returned the Uhaul truck we headed to the train station to go into the New York City to catch the Bolt Bus back to Baltimore. For $19 bucks 1-way, it is not a bad deal. Only thing is we didn't realize how long we had to wait to catch the train into the city, and that it took us about 30 minutes once on the train to get where we needed to go.

When we emerged from the dirtiness of the NY subway system, we had a little trouble finding the stop on 7th and West 33rd. Aaron kept trying to use his smartphone but it was not loading the map or something. It kept getting closer to 6 and our bus was leaving at 6:15pm. I was getting nervous and was saying “Let's just ask someone!” after trying to ask several people on the street who ignored me with a New-York attitude, I went into a Gap store. I asked a clerk folding clothes “Where is 7th and 33rd?” he pointed and said “That way!” We got to 7th and 33rd no problem. Smartphones are not all that!

When we got to the bus stop, it was in front of Sbarros. I hadn't eaten lunch and went in to get 2 pieces of cheese pizza. Aaron went to get some snacks at a convenience store close by. I think at that point it was around 6:10 or slightly later. There were tons of people waiting for different buses there. So many that they were blocking the sidewalk, so the bus moved down a block. Then we got on, and the bus left later than 6:15.

The buses are ok, but my expectations were higher from what I had heard. I thought my seat was a bit uncomfortable. I noticed that every other seat had a power plug, while I got stuck with a seat without one. The nice thing was the bus had Wi-Fi, so I checked my email. Then I attempted to sleep, but you are always in that half-awake mode on a bus. We stopped once in Delaware, then continued on to Baltimore. I think we got in around 11, and the bus drops you on Saint Pauls right near Penn Station. So it is easy to get a cab to where you need to go. We had a family member pick us up from the train station, then went home.

Blick’s Motor Scooter Sweepstakes

Yamaha Vino Classic (depicted scooter differs from actual prize)

Have you always dreamed of riding around on a scooter? Well you are in luck because the art retailer Dick Blick is running a sweepstakes to win a brand new 2011 Yamaha Vino Classic scooter and tastefully painted Nexx X6 helmet. For those interested there are 2 ways to enter the contest, either in a Dick Blick art store or online. This means you can enter the contest twice (by visiting a store and entering online). No purchase is necessary and anyone over 18 years old in the US are eligible to enter the sweepstakes. The sweepstakes ends on September 22nd. So you better hurry to enter!

Enter the sweepstakes at: http://blicksweeps.com/