A few days ago, I was at the mall, in the pirate store. (What, your mall doesn't have a pirate store? Write and complain.) I picked up a big bag of plastic dubloons. As soon as I got home, I realized what this meant: Mario blocks! I decided to combine this with Fortune, Not Cookie, and write Mario-themed fortunes for the insides of the blocks.

I downloaded a .pdf of a cube template from the above website, and printed it out on cardstock, about two inches on a side.



Cut them out...



Folded along the lines, and on the tabs.



The tabs were a stroke of genius, they made it possible to tape the things together in a reasonably attractive manner even for someone as terribly clumsy as I.



I then wrote out ten Mario-themed fortunes, one for each block.



This picture was a real challenge to get, as it really required two hands to hold the block together and press against the tape from both sides. I fumbled through it.



And then once the block was mostly together, adding the goodies.



My first finished block!



Now to do the next nine...



They looked delightful in little rows. I expected a tiny Mario at any moment.



They also stacked surprisingly well.



Finally, I finished them all!



Now to release them into the wild. I had an errand to run by bus, so I decided that I would leave them mostly on buses and at bus stops. This was the first one:



A guy got on the bus, and moved it aside so he could sit. Not exactly the response I was hoping for, but oh well. I imagine someone else saw it afterward, and possibly decided to pick it up and open it.

One of my motivations for leaving them on buses was the weather -- it's rainy and generally crappy out. I left a couple in sheltered bus stops, hoping they wouldn't get too soggy.



The first gust of wind blew that one off the railing, but when I checked back after my errand, it was still on the ground, not getting too soggy.

All in all, I consider this quite a success (even if I couldn't get into the building where I was planning to do Information Insertion). I may well do it again, those little blocks are a blast to make, and I do still have more than a hundred coins...