Six hours!

Last night after the roommate left for the evening I decided to organize my photos on the computer. (Just this past weekend I spent way too much time organizing the naughty pictures, only to remove them completely from the computer. I think i enjoy the idea of acquiring them much more than would be proportional for the amount of times I actually...um..."use them.")

So there I am last night, for six hours, going through all the pictures from my life for the past few years, everything from the beaches of Boracay, the parks of Siagon, the rice paddys of Luzon, the Ferris Wheel at Coney Island, Friends, Family, to dead mother's defective tomb stone, dueling piano bars, Zen retreats, and past and current lovers (um...only one current one). It is an interesting way to spend a night. It's good "alone time," at times sad, at times happy. It makes you keenly aware of the impermanence of life. That's a good thing.

After I finished, I began reading an autobiographical book about a Dutch guy who decides to travel to Japan and knock on the door of some random Zen Buddhist monastery and asked to be admitted to live, and to study and practice Zen for 3 years alongside the monks. He says in the beginning that he was searching for "...indifference of a higher order." I think that's a great descriptor of Zen. I'm 1/3 of the way through the book now and it's a really fascinating tale so far. It's not designed to be a religious text or even a call to conversion. It's just a story; an account. I like that. It's called The Empty Mirror by Van de Wetering.


So here's your moment of Zen. This is a picture I took on the Philippine island of Boracay last May. It is an advertisement in the window of a doctor's office. The text states:

Circumcision Package.
Including:
- Medication,
- Supplies.
-P1,000/head.
-P900/head for group of 2-5
-P800/head for group of more than 6

At the time, the conversion was about 40 Philippine Pesos (p40) to the Dollar. So if you want to purchase one circumcision, the cost is about $25 USD. If you have a group of six to circumcise, well then you save 20%! It's only $120 for the entire group (of heads, apparently).