Roller Coaster

Just in time for Oktoberfest (or Septoberfest, if we were on Mars), a kit for turning those old CDs into coasters.

I used to use old CDs (such as demo or PR CDs given out at trade shows) as coasters--but that center hole used to cause trouble. Nice to know someone has solved that particular problem.

Back in the day, when CD burning wasn't quite as reliable as it is today, just walking heavily around a CD burner while it was chugging away was enough to render a CD coaster-worthy. Funny, kind of like DVD writing today...

CDs also make good mini-Frisbees. Back in the early 1990s, I took a multimedia course at NYU and worked on a project with a guy who worked for Atlantic Records. He gave me a bunch of promo CDs, one of which was Laura Branigan's Greatest Hits (you know, "Gloria"...and I think that's it, really). Not exactly my cup of tea. As a joke, I gave it to my friend Steven as a birthday gift. Some weeks later, he came over to my apartment and, after he left, I found it mingled into my CD collection. That meant war. So the next time I went over his apartment, I slipped it into his own CD collection. I forget how long we kept that up, until one day he and his wife threw a party and while they were in the kitchen, I put the disc into the CD player. As the strains of "Gloria" came out of the speakers, Steven charged out of the kitchen, pulled the disc from the player, and Frisbeed it out the window. Naturally, when he wasn't looking, I went out and retrieved it. It again got put on the player, again forcibly removed, and again Frisbeed out the window. It hit the ground at a strange angle and broke. At that point, a cab ran it over. Fun times.

Try that with an MP3.