It must be summer because the CDs are sparkling. Here at Logical Expressions, we develop software, so we have a subscription to the Microsoft Developer’s Network (MSDN) which means we get 10-30 CD-ROMs full of information every month. The bad news is that the CDs go out of date, so you end up with a whole pile of out-of-date CDs. Not to mention the zillions of Earthlink and AOL freebie CDs we constantly get in our mailbox. As a result of this plastic overload, I’m always on the lookout for things to do with old CDs. If, like me, you’re a recycler at heart, here are a few of the ideas I’ve come across so far.
- My favorite thing to do with old CDs is to hang them in my garden. They sparkle and keep the many hungry birds out of my berry patch. (One of our dogs likes to chase the sparkles across the lawn too — talk about cheap canine entertainment.)
- Make clocks out of them. You can buy the cheap quartz clock movements at any craft store. I made a couple and brought them to raffle at a computer fair. Someone apparently liked one so much that they stole it.
- Other crafts. If you do a search on "old CDs" and "craft" you’ll end up with a lot of hits. Everything from coasters to banners to elaborate Christmas decorations.
Today, a friend of mine e-mailed me to tell me about yet another CD idea. (She told me about her e-mail buddy who bought a 6 foot metal spiral from a garden center and threaded CDs onto it so he now has a CD spiral garden sculpture.)
In reading her e-mail I realized that a lot of people wouldn’t have any idea what she meant when she said, "BTW, I know how you like this stuff 🙂 LOL!" I started thinking how much of my correspondence is full of acronyms and emoticons. Acronyms are often used in e-mail to represent common phrases, such as BTW for "by the way" or LOL for "laugh out loud." Emoticons are the little sequence of characters like :-), which means a "smiley." Other emoticons include a letter enclosed in greater than and less than signs such as a g to represent a "grin" or an s to represent a "smile." If you get an e-mail with a bunch of acronyms and you wonder what exactly the writer is trying to say, go to www.netlingo.com for a great list of definitions. TTFN! (Ta Ta for Now)