Its Istanbul not Constantinople

We were walking down the road Friday night and I started to explain something I had noticed to Judi,



See all these little shrines along the road? They are dedicated to the Buddha of Parking. You see if you leave the proper offering in the donation slot, you receive the karmic protection of the Buddha, up to the two-hour maximum. If you fail to leave the offering; the evil ones, Parking Enforcement, come and extort a higher offering for the evil city daemon that send them forth disguised as police officers. Failure to appease them enough times can be quite bad.



So, here and there is just another set of little windows into my world. I have found that my juggling skills seem to be of some help when typing on a laptop that is setting in my lap.



Days sometimes seem to slip into weeks and the schedule of late has been busy, but not all that interesting. Not that I am complaining, graveyards are full of people who would like to have my schedule problems. I have been doing a little writing and a lot of reading of late. I have been reading mostly things on Buddhism, some sci-fi and a little technical stuff. I have figured out some interesting things from my studies. I am not as bad of a Buddhist as I thought. The reason I thought I was bad was my liking to eat meat. Well, seems the prohibition is not against eating meat, but killing. So, if I do not kill it myself, it is not all that bad. I know it is killed for consumption, but not for me personally. It is not like I go out and pick a cow saying Yes, I will have the spotted one with barbeque sauce, thank you very much. Still, I know to an extent it is still a cop out, but then again I never said I was a devout Buddhist, just a bad one.



I have odd views on religion in general. I believe there is something of a higher power out there, but we have never been formally introduced to this point, so I refrain from using names like God. I look at Buddhism as more of a philosophy anyway; even the Buddha said he was not Divine. Good thing too, I just can see the Buddha in drag with bad eye makeup and fake boobs. If you do not know what I am talking about, go seek out John Waters and his films.



Dosent that sound like a bad garage band name? Buddha in Drag. SHUDDER



Anyway, gamming did not happen this week, so it kind of bummed me out a little bit. Judi and I decided to go out for coffee instead, around 10 pm. Ran into some friends we did not expect to see and had fun in general. Came home around 1230am and slept like hell.



Anyway, make sure you check out the links in the sidebar for some new ones. I added Ben and Jackie to the list. I really hope that Tom starts updating his blog again. As for Judi, well, I will not harp on her lack of blog updating here as she has to hear it from me in person.

If your ever looking for an interesting read try out Fortean Times



Till next time, be mindful and awake.