Discs, Discs, and More Discs

Written by: Sapphire Faerie

Have you ever noticed that here lately... it seems like every dial-up internet company seems to just be throwing their discs at anyone that might be a prospective customer?

They come in the mail, they come with magazines, they come with your newspaper, they can be picked up free in popular superstore chains. They're everywhere.

Now, I'm an old lady, let's get that straight. I can remember when music first started being widely distributed in Compact Disc form rather than cassette tape. And at that point, CDs were few and far between. And expensive. And you certainly couldn't buy huge cases of blank CDs. And even if you could, what would you do with them? If you were to mention "burning" a CD to someone, it would surely conjure images of a melting and disfigured hunk of colourful melting plastic.

Anyway, back to reality. Now, these discs are everywhere, and we may as well find a use for them. And that's exactly what this article is about, finding uses for all of those excess discs.

Now, if any of you have seen photos of my bedroom, you might have noticed my ceiling. I've decorated it quite beautifully. Using CDs. Hanging sporatically from my ceiling are vertical lengths of three or four CDs strung together.

Personally, I only like the silver side of the CDs. Sometimes they have pretty labels, but more often than not, I'd rather not have to see how many hours of internet usage each disc provides. So, to remedy this, each CD you see is actually two CDs, held together label to label. You could use glue or tape or some other sort of adhesive to hold them together, but I just rely on the string.

I've used clear nylon string (fishing line) to hold them together. I cut a fairly long piece, and fold it in half to find the center. I tie a small loop in the center, this loop will later be used to attach the string to the ceiling.

I then take the first two CDs, and holding them together, label to label, I hold the loop at one edge of the CDs, and slip one end of the string through the center hole in the discs. I then tie this string tightly to the other end of the CD, so that the string has formed a tight loop around one half of the CD, from edge to center. I then repeat the process, pulling one half of the string around to the opposite edge and tying another knot. The two CDs should now be held tightly together.

I repeat the process for the next pair, tying them to the first two, and so on. Once I have about three or four pairs tied together, I use a simple pushpin to attach the entire strand to the cieling. You can also embellish the CDs using stickers, or as I prefer, glow-in-the-dark stars.

Example:

But that's only one thing that you can do with those discs. There are a lot more simple uses. One that comes in handy quite often, is to use a CD for a coaster. I'm actually not sure how effective they really are as coasters, but it looks cool anyway.

Discs can be used as frisbees. They don't seem to fly very far. Or maybe I'm just a really bad frisbee thrower. Probably the latter.

You can use a CD as a candle plate, just stick it underneath the candle to catch any messy wax drips that might occur.

You can add a few CDs to your Christmas tree. This works especially well if you use coloured lights on your tree. Simply balance the CD in the tree so that a single bulb pokes through the center hole. The light will reflect off the surface and make even more colours appear.

My favourite part about CDs is how wonderfully reflective they are. The ones on my ceiling catch light, and reflect neat patterns on the wall. But I've also been known to place CDs near lamps in just such a way that a gorgeous prism is reflected on some adjacent wall.

I haven't attempted it yet, but I've actually been thinking about covering the inside of my closet door with discs so that I can finally have a full length mirror.

Hmm, that's all for now, but I hope I've inspired you. And if you ever want to really burn a CD, next time you're at an outdoor bonfire of some sort, inbetween roasting marshmallows, just chuck a couple of discs into the fire. It's a pretty gorgeous sight.