posted
I don't know why AOL thinks that there is any way possible that I would even think about joining their rancorous, reprobate, repugnant, repulsive, revolting company, but for some strange reason they keep on sending me AOL Installation CD's.
I've tried to come up for some uses, but the quantity that I'm receiving is far too much for my feeble mind to come up with ideas for. So far they serve as coasters, surfaces to write down messages, and frisbees. Anyone have any other suggestions?
Posts: 2756 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
I got a DVD in the mail from Barbie's "My Scene" line of consumerist mind-numbing trash. It was addressed to "The hip little girl at [666 damnation ave.] Salt Lake City [blah blah blah] :shudder:
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
If you send the disks back to AOL, supposedly they will accept them. Also, when you collect enough disks, it might be worth it to send them to Green Disk, which will recycle them.
Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sep 2003
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I have heard that when you mark things return to sender the sender has to pay...not sure if it is true or not...but when the democratic party sends me crap in the mail I love sending it back anyway.
I have not tried it with AOL CDs though. They don't fit in the mailboxes at my apartment complex so the postman just leads them against the wall by the mailboxes...no one bothers picking them up. After a while they tend to disappear though. My guess is someone throws them away after a while.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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posted
AOL, if they get the disc back, will recycle them. There is a specific address, too if you call and ask.
If they are addressed to a specific person, call AOL and ask them to stop. If they say "Resident" or something like that, it's the post offices fault and you should talk to them.
posted
Oh by the way, if you could do something artistic with the disc, that would be the most constructive use of it. Good furniture, and people will get a good chuckle out of it when they come by. See if you could get them to melt, so you can shape them.
Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
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I don't know...melting might be dangerous...you might release some chemicals into the air that you don't want to breath
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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My brother has a welded copper tubing Christmas tree in his living room with junk CDs slid onto the "branches." It's really quite lovely. For a while there he was getting demo discs from all sorts of obscure artists. It's a hoot to read the titles on the discs.
Posts: 2655 | Registered: Feb 2004
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I at least reclaim the DVD case. But I threw away the disc. It was actually addressed to "The super hip girl living at...." It was full of posters and other crud.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I just called AOL and the customer Rep was from Utah. I thought it might be you, but he said he didn't know any Nathans.
Posts: 43 | Registered: Nov 2003
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I just moved into my new place this weekend, and this thread just gave me an idea. I own an ungoogly amount of aol installation CDs. BAM! With the permission of my roomate of course, I think I will hang them all on the bathroom wall.
Posts: 1015 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
I find it so odd that people think this worthy of note. I also own several guns. I think there's a huge cultural disconnect about this (between north and south, or maybe it's rural and urban, cultures.) Guns are tools/toys just like a car or riding lawnmower or power saw. It's extremely strange to me that people think of them as having some meaning or something. All my life nearly everyone I know has owned guns. Kids learn gun safety from an early age. It doesn't have any character implications whatsoever, less even than a riding lawnmower. Posts: 2843 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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Oops, didn't mean to derail this highspeed fluff thread onto gun issues. <laughs>
I think the AOL cds would make great body ornamentation, because of the whole diffraction grating thing. Especially if peeled like an orange into long spiral curlicues, they would make wonderful hair decorations or earrings. If punched into smaller discs with a hole puncher they would make nice sequins for a high tech evening gown. If put through a shredder they'd make good grass for filling easter baskets.
Posts: 2843 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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Ak, I found your post very interesting. It's really a cultural thing. See...in my country (Brazil). It's almost impossible for a civilian to own a gun (even collectors have a hard time) legally. As it is, I knew few people who owned one. My grandpa was one of them (he sold his .38 some years ago). People thought he was some kind of paranoic crackpot because he owned a gun. Over here it's not viewed as a toy, but as a very dangerous thing that should be avoided unless its an integral part of your work (as a policeman, as a soldier, etc.)
But I do understand its different in the U.S. </irony> After all, after watching "Bowling for Collumbine", I know EVERYTHING about the luuuv americans have for their weapons. </irony>
Seriously, though...every country (State, Region, City, etc.) has its ways.
Posts: 1785 | Registered: Oct 2003
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Another great use for AOL disks would be as skeets in skeet shooting tournaments. I bet they fly beautifully. <Goes off to design a machine for throwing cds into the air.>
Some of the various handy uses for guns in country life, besides shooting food to eat. Humanely executing dying animals, rabid dogs, etc. as in the book Old Yeller. Shooting mistletoe down from the tops of tall trees for use in Christmas decorations. As signals to someone working a mile or more away. Firing a gun 3 times in a row (like any thing done in threes) can mean "help". Setting off a blasting cap to ignite dynamite to reshape a watercourse, for example. (Dynamite is also extremely useful.) Though I would definitely do this with wires and electricity instead. Shooting a poisonous snake that's trying to board your boat.
<laughs> My brother once emptied the clip of his pistol at an aggressive water moccasin, trying to hit it to keep it from climbing aboard. His friend later claimed it was a bulletproof snake, and said the bullets were ricocheting everywhere (not that my brother just couldn't hit the thing). My brother countered that his friend was laughing so hard he was shaking the boat, throwing off his aim. Yeah, that was it.
Read Faulkner's short story collection "Go Down Moses" to get some idea of the cultural context in which we view guns in my area. The idea of being without a gun is pretty foreign. It's something one needs. To not have one just because people can be killed with them seems strange to us. People can also be killed with cars and chainsaws and machetes. We think of guns in the same way others think of these tools, perhaps.
[ August 04, 2004, 10:19 AM: Message edited by: ak ]
Posts: 2843 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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For what it's worth, if I lived in a fictional world where there was no stigma for owning a firearm, there's a pretty good chance that I wouldn't own one at all. But the mere fact that there are people trying to keep me from owning one makes me really want to stick it to them.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Porteiro: there are pressure over there to get rid of guns? I thought owning guns were normal in the U.S.
Posts: 1785 | Registered: Oct 2003
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Ed - yes and no. There are people who protest firearms and in certain areas, civilian ownership of handguns and other weapons is just strange and bizarre. You might take a look at an earlier thread in which several posters commented on why they do or don't own weapons and why.
By comparison, PSI grew up with them and can't imagine not having one.
You have the Anti-gun lobby which tends to be liberal, the pro-gun lobby which tends to be conservative and a number of moderates stuck in the middle.
However, I've spoken with a number of people from abroad who have similar conceptions about America. Probably comes from the fact the only news you hear about us involves guns at some point.
Which is not a criticism of your awareness of us (US? ), but rather a cynical observation of news agencies in general. If it bleeds, it leads.
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Eduardo -- a lot of it depends on where you live. But there are a lot of people that assume that if you own a firearm you are either an inbred redneck (which I am) or a right-wing nutjob (which I'm trying to become ).
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It means that, if I visit your home someday, I have to use a Republican Party pin and a bulletproof vest? Posts: 1785 | Registered: Oct 2003
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CDs are really cool in a microwave. As are marshmellows. And grapes (you cut the grape in half until it's only being help by the skin on one side. Put it in juicy side down, turn up the heat and watch the sparks fly!)
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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I always put the AOL cds (and messed-up-in-burning cds) on my dorm room wall near the Christmas lights I put up. The reflections were awesome. I always wanted to hang them on fishing line from the ceiling, but apparently hanging stuff from dorm room ceilings is forbidden. Oh well, maybe in my new apartment.
Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
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posted
Go Down Moses, by William Faulkner. This is a great short story collection with lots of great hunting stories in it.
The story of the bulletproof water moccasin isn't in there, though (just to clarify). That actually happened to my brother. Or, since he's a bit of a storyteller too, I should probably say instead that something a bit like that must have happened to prompt him and his friend to tell that story.
Edit to warn you guys that Faulkner's way of telling a story is sort of weird, even though it's exactly right for his material. You get used to it very quickly and come to appreciate it. If you just want to read Faulkner, though, allow me to recommend "The Reivers" (hilarious), "The Unvanquished" (perhaps my favorite), and "Intruder in the Dust" (second favorite).
[ August 05, 2004, 12:50 AM: Message edited by: ak ]
Posts: 2843 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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posted
I just wanted to mention that there is a way you can get carrots to burst into flames in the microwave. I won't share how, though.
Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Why would you taunt us with that, then, Nathan, if you aren't going to give up the goods? I really need to know this information. Spill it! Posts: 2843 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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I smell a lawsuit of some angry parents when their 15 year old sets the house on fire, by way of flaming carrots. Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
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