My friend is in hospital after an operation. She’s cheerful and well on her way to recovery, even sounding like her usual self on the phone. I went to visit today and I made a care package for her. The basket is recycled from the gift baskets we get at work, I got a couple of large pears, a punnet of strawberries and some cherries. Add to that is a package of Japanese Oreos, for the sole purpose of testing to see if the Japanese Oreos taste the same as regular Oreos. Photo quality is not good cos it was taken using my cellphone.

I guess it’s mm’s influence, but articles about religion catch my eye more nowadays. Or perhaps not, because I would have zoomed in on any article that tells us about monks in Wisconsin with a laser cartridge filling business.

Really.

I mean, think about how monasteries, any religion, and how they cover their expenses. Most do not receive any financial help from the government or the church. Donations, fund-raising events, tourism (selling souvenirs), farming, wine- and cheese-making are the activities that come to mind.

Looks like the monks have finally entered the 21st century and the wonders of e-commerce. Behold Laser Monks of the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank in Wisconsin. Founded in the late 1920s, their fund-raising efforts have included selling cheese gift boxes, farming, real estate development, they had even considered building a four star golf course.

That was, until Fr. Bernard McCoy, O. Cist., Steward of Temporal Affairs at the abbey, also CEO of Laser Monks, decided to look for print cartridges for their laser printers.

In my search for a toner cartridge, I was suddenly struck with how incredibly expensive this black dust and a few squirts of ink were. “There must be a better way,” I said to myself.

What started as a small business grossing $2000 in 2002 has grown into sales of $2.5 million in 2005, with expected sales to exceed $5 million in 2006. That’s phenomenal in any accountant’s books. They do very little advertising, but they don’t seem to need it, with international coverage in the likes of cnn money.

After expenses are deducted, the rest of the profits go toward charity and various programs.

The retail and services industry is so cut-throat that consumers will latch onto any gimmick or novelty that catch their fancy. A Catholic abbey selling cheap print cartridges (they recently expanded to office supplies) where profits go to charity? It appeals to anyone looking for a bargain and to get a sense that they’re “doing good.”

A little research, for a HP Q7560A (HP 3000 series), Laser Monks sell for $128.95 while both staples and HP sell for $134.99. The cheapest at pricescan.com is thenerds.net at $115.30 but for some reason I’m hesitant to buy automatically from the cheapest place.

If I had a printer, I’d buy from the monks too.

I no longer feel the need to apologise, in fact from this moment on I shall shout out my pride at being a long term Mac user even more loudly than before. Don't forget, I'm the person who once said, when asked if I have a PC emulator on my Powerbook, "eek I don't want to dirty my Mac."

At the end of a thoroughly wretched week of tragedy, when the death rate tonight stands at 87,000 and rising. Go to the homepages of apple and microsoft and see the difference. Apple has no apple products on their main page, just links to the aid agency sites. Contrast microsoft.com, where there is no mention of the earthquake and tsunami disaster, of what they are doing up there in Redmond.

Even amazon has enabled 1-Click for donations to Red Cross. Why am I such an apple geek? Need I say more?

mm's building is having a food drive for charity — they are collecting non-perishable food items, canned, dried, noodles, all sorts, and giving them to the needy. Somehow it feels better than donating money, I don't know anyone working in the non profit sector, so I can't tell which is better. We used to have similar food drives every Christmas at school, and we used to visit the pensioners at home too.

It's such a pity how being charitable has taken such a backseat role in modern day life. It's enough coping with politics and deadlines and traffic that we really do need to take a step back and ponder, what are we doing?

We went to 7.15am mass yesterday in remembrance of her sis. Yes we had to get up at the crack of dawn. But yes it was totally worth it, there was no question ever.

But what about all those other people who were there? They seemed to be there every morning, at least every time we go to this mass. They get up at the crack of dawn. They are the good sheep, the good Catholics. Why can't I? Her mum asked which church I go to and I had to embarrassedly answer I don't go. I wish I'd go more often, but I know for a certainty that this is all just talk.

Sometimes I wish I could chuck it all in and go work for a charity for a few months, kinda like the vso or msf. But I'm not sure if I'm tuff enuff to survive in those living conditions. Wishful thinking, again.