I suppose going paperless is easier for some than it is for others. As someone who has made their primary living building websites, I can attest that a paperless workflow is a fairly easy thing to achieve (at least until tax time rolls around).

I quit cold turkey, myself. I simply stopped pushing the print button. There was no need, really. I thought about what I was printing and found that there were generally 20 or more facilities for serving my needs in infinitely superior ways than paper could. And they were built right into my computer—a machine designed to make office work easier. The very machine upon which I would likely be using this printed information in the future.

I’ve been doing this paperless thing for quite a long time. I don’t have post-it notes. I don’t have note pads. I don’t have a pen—not a single pen. When I need to remember a date, it goes on my calendar. When I need to pick something up at the store, it goes on my todo list. When I need to take notes, they go in my project notes application. All of these things are available on my phone and available over the web, so I have them everywhere on every machine. Paper has a severe limitation, in that it can only be in one place at a given time.

There are actually still a few occasions when I have needed paper. Before I got my iPhone and GPS, I needed paper to print driving directions. Thankfully technology caught up to me there.

The remaining two voids that only paper can seem to fill are set lists and recipes. The Bottom Dwellers do have a handy-dandy iPhone friendly song list we can refer to in a pinch, but such a thing isn’t practical for general use on stage. As far as getting recipes into the kitchen, notebook computers are sensitive to messes and occupy too much counter space, and iPhones/iPods are too small and go to sleep far too quickly to be usable as a reference while cooking.

It is for these two reasons that the Eagleton household has purchased the fricken laser printer. Why friken laser? Because toner don’t run, man. You can splash meat juice, beer, sweat, etc. onto your prints, and the ink wont bleed. It is also cheaper than ink jet. It’s about $50 to refill our toner cartridge after 1,200 pages have printed. In the past, we have spent $50 to $80 per-refill on ink jet cartridges which are able to process far fewer prints per fill.

When all is said and done, I think this was a good purchase. After all, life isn’t about absolutes. Paper has it’s place, even in my life. This machine will help me look like less of a fool on stage, as well as help me eat better. At least until kitchen counters and stages incorporate surface displays ... With built in tuners, of course.