you can pay us with old rags

I made a piñata for halloween. all you need:

one large balloon
about six layers of torn up newsprint
some flour
some water
two whole bowlfuls of diced white tissue paper
a smattering of black sharpie.
a few buttons
a length of string

toward this and any other possible future projects of mine, friend Carlos donated a very nice eight-inch stack of old newspapers. I could probably make four or five piñatas with that amount of paper. but who needs that many piñatas? instead, I shall probably save this stack of old newspaper next to my other boxes of paper, on the shelf next to my mirror. it will sit there, oozing potential, until I decide I have time to execute the next brilliant papier-mâché idea. (other than working on the crossword puzzles, papier-mâché is just about the best thing you can do with newspapers. and maybe, if you're really good at it, folding cool pirate-looking hats, too.)

paper. I love paper.

once upon a time I handed in my algebra assignments on astonishingly small fractions of notebook paper, just so I could save the rest of the page for doodling or writing notes to that kid that sat three seats ahead of me in chemistry. Mr Linn, who taught the majority of my high school math classes (and also physics), was very patient about this little eccentricity. it would have served me right if he'd lost half my assignments and taken away lots of points. lucky for me he was not the kind of man to do that sort of thing. he was the kind of man who wore neckties with fish on them and said 'holy mackerel' on a regular basis.

and to this day I remain so in love with the stuff, I collect blank paper, blank notebooks, blank notecards. I'm itching to use my employee discount at the bookstore solely for all the new journals I could add to that shelf beside the mirror. the six that are already sitting there won't last forever.

also, fieldnotes. a bit smaller than my regular style, but they're just so cute. and awesomely marketed. you can get them at greenwood space travel supply co. awesome. you can also buy bottled uncertainty, while you're there. who doesn't need a few ounces of that every once in a while?

paper that is not blank is not always as cool as paper that is, but we take what we can get. what with all the digitalization going on in the world, our dependence on paper is fading a little, but I hope we don't ever get rid of it completely.