*Haven't things been silent since the 18th of May? Thank goodness, and hope it stays that way forever! :)
I guess people are out celebrating the end of the year. I sit hear, staring at my screen, as I have been throughout 2009. I was here when the war ended, I was here when our cricket team was shot at, when Obama was inaugurated and just hours after MJ had died... 2009 is the year that unlimited broadband changed my life, for better or for worse! :D
Like Kaiser said in his beautiful post, life has been good to me... 2009 will definitely look like a good year in the long run. I left school, almost couldn't finish my A/Ls. I started blogging, and got addicted to twitter. I visited the Eastern coast after half a dozen years, and felt for the first time that all of this country was going to be MY country from now on. I made the most important decision I've made so far in my life, and if the past 5 weeks are anything to go by, I've made a wise choice (I hope I didn't just jinx it! lol). I saw love in the most impossible places, and saw beauty (and Sri Pada) in the middle of a concrete jungle. I learned more staying home, than I had at school in the year before! All in all, a year that went well...
There are only 2 resolutions I have for 2010. The first is to appear to be less of a know-it-all. Coz I do know-it-all, but that doesn't mean other people need to know, yeah? ;P
The second, far more important, is to somehow help elect a government that would actually get rid of import duty on Chocolates, so that I could afford to eat some more Cadbury 'creamy cappuccino flavoured milk chocolate with coffee crisps'! lol ;)
So, that's it for now. I wish you all a Peaceful and Prosperous Happy New Year! May all your endeavours be fruitful! :)
With love,
the kid who knows too much
no, really! :P
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Who would've thought...
...that Tharanga and Dilshan would make such a good opening pair? (especially those who knew the 'back-story'...) ;)
...that the Pannipitiya flyover would get finished during our lifetime? And now, thanks to the election, looks like it finally will! :/
...that politicians would be so good at shooting themselves in the foot? WE ALL DID!!! :D Some golden quotes:
But in the midst of it all, I'm happier than I let show... isstrange! Must be my friends, I really don't appreciate them as much as I should! :)
Merry Christmas everyone!
...that the Pannipitiya flyover would get finished during our lifetime? And now, thanks to the election, looks like it finally will! :/
...that politicians would be so good at shooting themselves in the foot? WE ALL DID!!! :D Some golden quotes:
- "Gota ordered them to be shot" - Gen. S. F.
- "The President's Fund has paid for Sarath's daughters' education in the US, and still does" - Gota (Awesome!!! People are dying without medicine and you'd much rather spend OUR money on your little puppy?!)
- "The biggest threat to our nation's environment, which is terrorism, has been successfully eradicated" - King M. (O RLY??! I thought your own ministers cut down more acres of rainforest a month than the LTTE managed to down in 30 years!)
- "The General called us and asked what to do when Homeland Security wanted to interview him" - JVP (okaaaay, so you're saying that he would've told them everything had you told him to go ahead with it?)
But in the midst of it all, I'm happier than I let show... isstrange! Must be my friends, I really don't appreciate them as much as I should! :)
Merry Christmas everyone!
Friday, December 4, 2009
The worst kind of hypocrite...
...is the so-called committed socialist who stirs up all sorts of shit in our universities and ruin those kids' lives and their future, while sending off their own kids to good universities abroad and affording them the best possible education. Makes me sick to even think how some people can be so evil! :/
P.S. Thankfully this post has nothing to do with me, but it's rather something that I heard and wanted to share...
P.S. Thankfully this post has nothing to do with me, but it's rather something that I heard and wanted to share...
Sunday, November 29, 2009
This one's for Meg (uh oh!)
The title sounds shady right? That's coz this post is shady too, you'll get what I mean as you read along! ;)
So, Meg wrote this post about growing older but not making a huge life-changing contribution to the world, and PseudoRandom (as always) made a very very good point, about making small changes everyday instead of wanting to make a giant change. This reminded me of something that I had heard, oh, just this Friday. Something I wanted to blog about but couldn't fit into that useless last post of mine, so hear goes nothing...
We had a lecture Friday, by Mr. Niranjan De Silva, the CEO of Metropolitan Computers, not the MEP. I learned more in that 1½ hour lecture than I had learned in a whole while. He started off by giving us the bad news. Although Sri Lanka had the highest per capita degree, diploma and other certification holders in Asia, we were also the least productive country in this continent. Raman Roy, the father of BPO had come here and said that he could get anything that the Sri Lankan do done better and faster by the Indians. Anyway, he laid out 5S as a way that we could improve productivity. He also made the very valid point that not enough Sri Lankans have a vision, a dream of where they would be in 10-15 years time. And he said "If you don't know where you're going, then any road will take you there", and told us about stories of interviews in which highly qualified people didn't get the job because they were lacking a clear vision for themselves.
He mentioned that Japanese don't believe in depreciation (not to be confused with wear and tear). He had visited a Toyota factory that had brand new machines. Or so they looked, until he asked the manager. He was told that all the machines were about 20 years old! See, apparently the Japs clean the machines and do any necessary repairs before they leave at the end of their shift. And the machines have remained as good as new for 20-odd years.
Ok, now to the point. He talked about Kaizen, or continued improvement. See, making big changes with your life can be disruptive and too drastic. He talked about how making gradual, small, but continuous improvements can make a bigger development. Apparently when the Japanese engineers came here to build the Southern Expressway (yeah the one with all the collapsing bridges) our bigwigs asked them straight away for 'The Biggest Highway in Asia'. The Japanese were taken aback, and thought how could one of the poorest countries in Asia maintain such a mammoth facility. But they then laid out a plan with a small number of continuous improvements, for example filling up the pot-holes in the current Galle Road, which would decrease travel time to Galle by 15 minutes, creating a 2 lane highway first and then gradually expanding that to a 4 lane one, etc., and at the end of 6 years, Sri Lanka would have the biggest highway in this part of the world. Obviously, those plans were scrapped... ;)
Ok, in conclusion, make small, but continuous improvements. Remember the story of the little kid who was walking on the seashore, throwing starfish that had washed up and were dying back into the sea? And the man asked him why he was doing it, what kinda change would it make, that he wouldn't possibly be able to save more than a couple of them? Remember his answer?coz I sure don't err, I mean he threw another starfish into the sea and said 'I just changed the world for that one'...
P.S. He also mentioned that reading material relating to the industry you're in for an hour every single day, was equal to getting a degree every 7 years. So Meg, if you want to improve your Sinhala I'd recommend talking with someone exclusively in that language for an hour, or in the spirit of Kaizen start at about 15 minutes and gradually increase the duration... :) You can call me if you want someone to talk to... ;) There. See. Shady! lol :D
P.P.S. This post doesn't even remotely do justice to the amazing, captivating speaker that Mr. De Silva is... if any of you get the chance to see him live, I recommend that you take it! :)
So, Meg wrote this post about growing older but not making a huge life-changing contribution to the world, and PseudoRandom (as always) made a very very good point, about making small changes everyday instead of wanting to make a giant change. This reminded me of something that I had heard, oh, just this Friday. Something I wanted to blog about but couldn't fit into that useless last post of mine, so hear goes nothing...
We had a lecture Friday, by Mr. Niranjan De Silva, the CEO of Metropolitan Computers, not the MEP. I learned more in that 1½ hour lecture than I had learned in a whole while. He started off by giving us the bad news. Although Sri Lanka had the highest per capita degree, diploma and other certification holders in Asia, we were also the least productive country in this continent. Raman Roy, the father of BPO had come here and said that he could get anything that the Sri Lankan do done better and faster by the Indians. Anyway, he laid out 5S as a way that we could improve productivity. He also made the very valid point that not enough Sri Lankans have a vision, a dream of where they would be in 10-15 years time. And he said "If you don't know where you're going, then any road will take you there", and told us about stories of interviews in which highly qualified people didn't get the job because they were lacking a clear vision for themselves.
He mentioned that Japanese don't believe in depreciation (not to be confused with wear and tear). He had visited a Toyota factory that had brand new machines. Or so they looked, until he asked the manager. He was told that all the machines were about 20 years old! See, apparently the Japs clean the machines and do any necessary repairs before they leave at the end of their shift. And the machines have remained as good as new for 20-odd years.
Ok, now to the point. He talked about Kaizen, or continued improvement. See, making big changes with your life can be disruptive and too drastic. He talked about how making gradual, small, but continuous improvements can make a bigger development. Apparently when the Japanese engineers came here to build the Southern Expressway (yeah the one with all the collapsing bridges) our bigwigs asked them straight away for 'The Biggest Highway in Asia'. The Japanese were taken aback, and thought how could one of the poorest countries in Asia maintain such a mammoth facility. But they then laid out a plan with a small number of continuous improvements, for example filling up the pot-holes in the current Galle Road, which would decrease travel time to Galle by 15 minutes, creating a 2 lane highway first and then gradually expanding that to a 4 lane one, etc., and at the end of 6 years, Sri Lanka would have the biggest highway in this part of the world. Obviously, those plans were scrapped... ;)
Ok, in conclusion, make small, but continuous improvements. Remember the story of the little kid who was walking on the seashore, throwing starfish that had washed up and were dying back into the sea? And the man asked him why he was doing it, what kinda change would it make, that he wouldn't possibly be able to save more than a couple of them? Remember his answer?
P.S. He also mentioned that reading material relating to the industry you're in for an hour every single day, was equal to getting a degree every 7 years. So Meg, if you want to improve your Sinhala I'd recommend talking with someone exclusively in that language for an hour, or in the spirit of Kaizen start at about 15 minutes and gradually increase the duration... :) You can call me if you want someone to talk to... ;) There. See. Shady! lol :D
P.P.S. This post doesn't even remotely do justice to the amazing, captivating speaker that Mr. De Silva is... if any of you get the chance to see him live, I recommend that you take it! :)
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Lilac skies and the end of November
Well, as I sit here writing this, I can't stop staring out the window at the beauty of the sky this evening... I'm home alone (again) and kinda bored, but relaxing after a hectic week. It's never easy to come out of a year of doing basically nothing, is it? ;) Couldn't be bothered watching the match, I mean an innings and 144 runs? gimmi a break! :/ Aaaanyways, I was planning to be all holiday-fying in December but by the look of things that doesn't seem like a possibility. This will be the first time since the O/Ls that I'll be working in December and it must be the first time ever that I'd be working the whole month. Well, better get used to it son! It's not like employed people get vacations anyway, is it? :)
Uni's been good, it's good to be around books and laptops and seniors who seem to have nothing but their presentations on their mind. Yikes, I'd be having to do those in an year too!!! But seriously, it feels good to be doing something productive again... :D
Ok, I'm going to end this by apologising to you peeps for this completely boring and pointless 'journal entry'...hopefully I have better stuff to write about *wink* next time! :)
Uni's been good, it's good to be around books and laptops and seniors who seem to have nothing but their presentations on their mind. Yikes, I'd be having to do those in an year too!!! But seriously, it feels good to be doing something productive again... :D
Ok, I'm going to end this by apologising to you peeps for this completely boring and pointless 'journal entry'...hopefully I have better stuff to write about *wink* next time! :)
Friday, November 20, 2009
You'll start writing a blog!
I know! The guy who can barely type a letter out in an hour at 16 will be writing posts, long ones sometimes... it's going to be an amazing experience, so I suggest that you start right away, and stick to your real name. When your friends find out, it'll be a lot less embarrassing than trying to explain 'Chavie'... :P Oh, and use Blogger, not Wordpress. Remember that 13-year-old web designer you killed with a shovel and buried in the garden? Well he's gonna have a whale of a time messing with the CSS! ;)
Love your friends, you know how lucky you are to have people like that. They've stuck with you through thick and thin and you could certainly appreciate them a bit more. And FFS, be good to your little cousin bro! You haven't got much time. In 2 years he'll leave for Ingerlaand and you won't get to see him for 2 more years. You know what a pain he can be at times, but remember that he loves you, that you're his one and only Aiya, and that he'd be the closest thing you'd ever have to a brother. So drop the attitude, stop ignoring him, and give him a big hug for me, kay?
Don't worry too much about your studies, you're going to ace all the exams. But please, please, PLEASE FFS, don't do Applied ICT! You can throw away this letter and not take a word of advice I give, but please if you love your parents and don't want them to go through all kinds of crap because of you, do chemistry or something instead. You'll thank me for it!
You're going to be a lot less religious in the years to come, but that doesn't mean you'll turn into a immoral bastard. But try not to stop observing Sil with Ammi, sitting on the ground all day might not be fun, but atleast try?
Music, I know you aren't into it right now, but by next year you won't be able to live without it! Don't listen to stuff just because your friends like it. Delete the hip hop off your HD, you're never going to like that stuff and there's no point listening to stuff that you don't like. Music for you would be about happiness, so listen to songs that make you feel warm inside. A tip if I may: Next time you go to Kandy, rip 'I Feel Fine' off your uncle's Beatles' CD, put it on your phone (yeah you're gonna get one of those soon, and use it for the next 3 years and counting!), listen to it 3 times in a row. You shall be hooked for life! :)
OK, computers! You'll get rid of that old Compaq dinosaur next year. Be sure to get atleast 1 gig of RAM on the new machine, or you won't be able to play CoD4 properly! And PLEASE get a router when you get your ADSL, you'll avoid countless nights trying to compile your modem driver on Ubuntu to no avail! Oh, and webcomics. Start reading xkcd and Questionable Content, you'll love them! What? URLs? Google can find you stuff OTHER than porn you know, so start using it!
Right then, go and get back to whatever you were doing while pretending to study for your O's... and no, you'll never learn to study, sorry! :)
With love,
Older (only by a couple of years) you.
Thanks Cadence for the tag! I tag Kirigalpoththa and Black... :)
Love your friends, you know how lucky you are to have people like that. They've stuck with you through thick and thin and you could certainly appreciate them a bit more. And FFS, be good to your little cousin bro! You haven't got much time. In 2 years he'll leave for Ingerlaand and you won't get to see him for 2 more years. You know what a pain he can be at times, but remember that he loves you, that you're his one and only Aiya, and that he'd be the closest thing you'd ever have to a brother. So drop the attitude, stop ignoring him, and give him a big hug for me, kay?
Don't worry too much about your studies, you're going to ace all the exams. But please, please, PLEASE FFS, don't do Applied ICT! You can throw away this letter and not take a word of advice I give, but please if you love your parents and don't want them to go through all kinds of crap because of you, do chemistry or something instead. You'll thank me for it!
You're going to be a lot less religious in the years to come, but that doesn't mean you'll turn into a immoral bastard. But try not to stop observing Sil with Ammi, sitting on the ground all day might not be fun, but atleast try?
Music, I know you aren't into it right now, but by next year you won't be able to live without it! Don't listen to stuff just because your friends like it. Delete the hip hop off your HD, you're never going to like that stuff and there's no point listening to stuff that you don't like. Music for you would be about happiness, so listen to songs that make you feel warm inside. A tip if I may: Next time you go to Kandy, rip 'I Feel Fine' off your uncle's Beatles' CD, put it on your phone (yeah you're gonna get one of those soon, and use it for the next 3 years and counting!), listen to it 3 times in a row. You shall be hooked for life! :)
OK, computers! You'll get rid of that old Compaq dinosaur next year. Be sure to get atleast 1 gig of RAM on the new machine, or you won't be able to play CoD4 properly! And PLEASE get a router when you get your ADSL, you'll avoid countless nights trying to compile your modem driver on Ubuntu to no avail! Oh, and webcomics. Start reading xkcd and Questionable Content, you'll love them! What? URLs? Google can find you stuff OTHER than porn you know, so start using it!
Right then, go and get back to whatever you were doing while pretending to study for your O's... and no, you'll never learn to study, sorry! :)
With love,
Older (only by a couple of years) you.
***
Thanks Cadence for the tag! I tag Kirigalpoththa and Black... :)
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
random post #60
One word that I wish was easier to say in Sinhala is 'cousin'. I mean, 'ඥාති සහෝදරයා' is too long and too formal, and 'නෑනා' makes me uncomfortable cos it always reminds me of cousins getting married and shiz... :/ I mean if there was a simpler, less-formal term, like say 'කසයියා' (I hear the thunder gods grumble in the distance!) errr! ok, ok, what about 'ඥායියා' then? :P no? but WAAAIIIII?! :(
The areas that I've highlighted in the picture above, near the Rukmale housing scheme, used to be two tall proud granite mountains, the closest there were to our house I think. The one in the bottom was strikingly beautiful, shaped like the head of an Elephant. But sadly, they're no more, since they've almost totally been blasted apart to make those small rock pieces used in road construction. Sad, I know! :(
***
***
This blogger will be beginning his new life at the university from next Monday! yay for the fact that it'll make me employable, boo for the fact that I can't sleep all day and not have any work to worry about! :( And this morning a wise wise friend of mine shared this gem on Facebook! :D
"The back rows [in class] produce the wise"
So, that's it for now. Will post again soon with any updates... :)
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Ummm
So, Sirasa is getting all excited and running the flashing lights and the urgent music. Breaking news alerts were rarely seen after the end of the war. It seems that the General wants to resign, and apparently run for the Presidency! :/
My sources deep within the political establishment have sent me a detailed report showing the reaction of the incumbent on hearing this news... I shall, at great personal peril, share this report with you! *gulp*
If you're one of those people who have no idea what internet memes are all about, consider yourself lucky! lol ;D
P.S. If my body turns up in the middle of some rubber estate in Avissawella, you'll know who to blame! ;)
My sources deep within the political establishment have sent me a detailed report showing the reaction of the incumbent on hearing this news... I shall, at great personal peril, share this report with you! *gulp*
If you're one of those people who have no idea what internet memes are all about, consider yourself lucky! lol ;D
P.S. If my body turns up in the middle of some rubber estate in Avissawella, you'll know who to blame! ;)
Monday, November 9, 2009
Happy Birthday Machan! :D
I remember downloading you over a dial-up that would max out at 33 kbps,
I remember the day I first installed you,
I remember carrying you around on a flash drive, spreading you like a virus,
I remember going to insane lengths to find out the admin password at school, just so I could install you!
and I DON'T remember how I survived before you, before tabbed browsing! :O
Happy Birthday Mr. Fox! :D
I remember the day I first installed you,
I remember carrying you around on a flash drive, spreading you like a virus,
I remember going to insane lengths to find out the admin password at school, just so I could install you!
and I DON'T remember how I survived before you, before tabbed browsing! :O
Happy Birthday Mr. Fox! :D
Image courtesy of TechRaga... hope he doesn't mind me stealing this! ;)
Friday, November 6, 2009
Ciphertext
Err, this exam I sat for about a week ago had a section based on cryptography... it was easy to crack, basically the order of the alphabet had been advanced by 2 or 3 letters (?) so that A became C and B became D and C became E and so on... so ACE would be spelt CEG... I dunno about the other guys, but me being the geek that I am had fun with that part! Too bad I could only complete 40-odd out of the total of 50 within the one hour time limit! ;) lol
Anyway, I've been using ciphers for a long time... this one is particularly easy to crack for anyone with basic knowledge of the Greek alphabet... except moi! I can't decipher most of the stuff I write down in this, and recently burned a diary that was entirely written in this code because I was convinced that anyone but the intended reader (me) could read it... :/ funny noh?
Anyway, I've been using ciphers for a long time... this one is particularly easy to crack for anyone with basic knowledge of the Greek alphabet... except moi! I can't decipher most of the stuff I write down in this, and recently burned a diary that was entirely written in this code because I was convinced that anyone but the intended reader (me) could read it... :/ funny noh?
A thousand apologies for murdering the Queens of England, Greece, and any others due to this! lol ;)
p.s. check out today's xkcd! I think it's brilliant! :D
Friday, October 30, 2009
...
If you aren't in it for the money,
If you aren't doing it to 'change the world',
If it's keeping you from people and things you love,
and doing stuff that'll truly give you contentment...
...then why are you doing it?
If you aren't doing it to 'change the world',
If it's keeping you from people and things you love,
and doing stuff that'll truly give you contentment...
...then why are you doing it?
Friday, October 23, 2009
A Day in the Life
Days when your internet access is limited are... strange! (to say the least) And since I've been downloading a 2GB file for the past two days my adventures across the tubes have been few and (waaay too) far between (not to mention painfully slow!). So I've been playing and trying to win this Crimson Skies mission, again and again and again... Everytime you shoot down all the planes you either get shot at the last minute or crash into a Zeppelin... woe! :(
And in the house is no longer a receptive place for life, all the junk that had accumulated during the last 16 years are being thrown out by the boatload, and yours truly feels like he might be the next to go! ;) The fact that I spilled half a bottle of Elephant House milk (yummy btw) in the car doesn't really help my fate either... My mom gave me the look after I started laughing at myself! :/
"The Look"
OK, my torrent's done downloading! I'm off to play some Sims 2 then... ;D (You see how I play the latest games na! Kinda like the dude here... lol)
Right then, going to finish this off by linking to this song I've been falling in love with... enjoy! :)
And in the house is no longer a receptive place for life, all the junk that had accumulated during the last 16 years are being thrown out by the boatload, and yours truly feels like he might be the next to go! ;) The fact that I spilled half a bottle of Elephant House milk (yummy btw) in the car doesn't really help my fate either... My mom gave me the look after I started laughing at myself! :/
"The Look"
OK, my torrent's done downloading! I'm off to play some Sims 2 then... ;D (You see how I play the latest games na! Kinda like the dude here... lol)
Right then, going to finish this off by linking to this song I've been falling in love with... enjoy! :)
Shut the doorP.S. Imagine the smell in the car in a coupla days! "you won't see our Davy again" indeed! lol ;)
Cut the light
Davy won't be home tonight
You can wait till the dawn rolls in
You won't see our Davy... again!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Last Night...
was horrid! The beautiful 'oooh I feel like running around naked in this' (ok a bit of an exaggeration so...) rains of August and September have passed, replaced by the 'I wanna fry your brain' electrical storms of October... I dunno if it was the divine chocolate biscuit pudding that I had had earlier in the night or whether the good break we had enjoyed from lightning (and exploding buses for that matter! hehe) had made me soft, but I felt as if my head was going to explode because of the thunder... I.Hate.Lightning!!! -_-
But the highlight of the whole night was seeing a Lifehacker article which said that Firefox 3.6 Beta would startup in under 3 seconds... but this was proven to be a dream when I woke up this morning and Firefox was PMSing on me again, and took like 5 minutes to start up! -_- Oh Mozilla! Do you not want me to use your amazing browser? :/
But the highlight of the whole night was seeing a Lifehacker article which said that Firefox 3.6 Beta would startup in under 3 seconds... but this was proven to be a dream when I woke up this morning and Firefox was PMSing on me again, and took like 5 minutes to start up! -_- Oh Mozilla! Do you not want me to use your amazing browser? :/
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Some recent photos
Hanthana, September 2009, taken from my cousin's backyard (you can see his roof to the left)
Sundown, taken at around 6.30
Looking outside on a sunny day...
Two lil squirrel kiddos who've made our watertank their playground! :D
Monkey business on the mango tree! ;)
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
The 'Cute' Beatle??? $^#%!!!
Also noteworthy is Papare Boy taking the "Which Tolkien character are you?" quiz and getting "Arwen"! pure hotness! ;D
So, in celebration of this glorious quiz result, I'm going to skip over Macca's good songs and post the most disturbing and distasteful song of them all... enjoy! :P
Monday, October 12, 2009
Pokerface
I've developed a brand new addiction to playing poker on Facebook... which is kinda strange, because back when I was in school (during the last two years of A/Ls) everyone was playing Facebook poker in the computer labs and real poker in the classrooms during off periods, and I wasn't! :S I was more interested in playing Counter Strike in the labs (we'd switch to the easier-to-conceal-behind-your-work Deluxe Pool when the teacher started breathing down our necks!) and wandering about around the school during off periods... man, those days were fun! :D
St. Fallen shared a cool and lightweight application called Screamer Radio that enables you to listen to a wide range of webcasts from radio stations around the world... what I like most about it is the ability to save the tracks onto your hard drive, something that I used to do by manually going through my Firefox cache, but is now only one click away! so we're basically using legal radio webcasts to illegally download music... niiiiice! lol ;)
My favourite station on it at the moment is Radio Luxembourg, which is the descendant of a famous station situated in Luxembourg that used to broadcast rock music to the UK back in the day... something like the offshore pirate stations in the movie 'The Boat That Rocked' I watched sometime back. That movie was good! The soundtrack was awesome! I'd definitely recommend it for lovers of '60s music! :)
St. Fallen shared a cool and lightweight application called Screamer Radio that enables you to listen to a wide range of webcasts from radio stations around the world... what I like most about it is the ability to save the tracks onto your hard drive, something that I used to do by manually going through my Firefox cache, but is now only one click away! so we're basically using legal radio webcasts to illegally download music... niiiiice! lol ;)
My favourite station on it at the moment is Radio Luxembourg, which is the descendant of a famous station situated in Luxembourg that used to broadcast rock music to the UK back in the day... something like the offshore pirate stations in the movie 'The Boat That Rocked' I watched sometime back. That movie was good! The soundtrack was awesome! I'd definitely recommend it for lovers of '60s music! :)
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Something for Sunday
Today was a hectic hectic day! The house is getting painted so mom wanted me to throw away all the useless exercise books I had piled up in my room, some dating from my pre-O/L days! O_o so, stacked them all up in a neat heap of books ready to be thrown out. Of course I found some stuff that COULDN'T just be thrown out, they had to be burnt! :S So some matches and half a bottle of paint thinner later, they were sufficiently charred to make their content unreadable. And so ends the lives of many of my glorious childhood doodles, maps, secret codes and battleplans to conquer the world... muhahahaha! >;)
Oh, and I stumbled upon this while on Facebook... :D
Oh, and I stumbled upon this while on Facebook... :D
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Republics without elections?
When I first came across the Wikipedia article about Demarchy (accidentally) I thought it was some sort of joke... I mean who would want important decisions (like who your representative to the legislature would be) left to random chance right? Here's a quick quote for those too lazy to click on that link:
Wrong! Life and death decisions are made by randomly selected people every single day, and this has been going on for quite a long period of time without major glitches.
I'm not going to go on about Demarchy, because it has never been implemented as a system of government, but what would your reaction be if there was a proposal to make your elected representative, well, not 'elected' anymore? :)
Demarchy or lottocracy is a political system run by randomly selected decision makers who have been selected by lot.Sounds absurd and untried right?
Wrong! Life and death decisions are made by randomly selected people every single day, and this has been going on for quite a long period of time without major glitches.
An example of demarchy in most democracies is the use of a jury of peers in criminal cases. The jury is normally a body of randomly selected citizens who decide the guilty or not guilty verdict, which is a prime example of demarchy.One of the things I found really interesting is that Demarchy effectively ends partisan politics, the single most despised thing about democracies (and also end the enormous wastage of funds that goes into election campaigns as well as the process of holding elections and counting votes).
I'm not going to go on about Demarchy, because it has never been implemented as a system of government, but what would your reaction be if there was a proposal to make your elected representative, well, not 'elected' anymore? :)
Friday, October 9, 2009
Warring Frontiers
I watched an interesting documentary on Channel News Asia called Warring Frontiers, which is actually a series, and the episode they showed today was about Vietnam, and how Vietnam's economy is growing 30 years after the end of the war. The rapid pace of development that's taking place is astounding, and what struck me the most is the resolve with which the Vietnamese people had stood up. An interesting fact that they mentioned was that Vietnam was the most bombed country in the history of warfare, with the U.S. dropping 7 million tons of bombs in its 11 year involvement in Vietnam. In comparison only 2 million tons of bombs were dropped in the whole of the 2nd World War! 77 Million litres of Agent Orange was sprayed by the U.S., resulting in horrible birth defects and other illnesses.
But today, all of that seems to be forgiven (but maybe not forgotten) and Vietnam and the U.S. have become close trading partners. The level of development reached in this short period is telling of the resilience of the Vietnamese people and how they overcame the immense adversity that the Vietnam war caused.
I just love documentaries! :P (and I've noticed that Channel News Asia is making better and better documentaries with each passing year!)
anyways, the reason I thought I'd sharing this whole thing is because it gives me hope that maybe someday Sri Lanka would be able to leave all of those bitter memories behind and become a better place to live in... :)
But today, all of that seems to be forgiven (but maybe not forgotten) and Vietnam and the U.S. have become close trading partners. The level of development reached in this short period is telling of the resilience of the Vietnamese people and how they overcame the immense adversity that the Vietnam war caused.
I just love documentaries! :P (and I've noticed that Channel News Asia is making better and better documentaries with each passing year!)
anyways, the reason I thought I'd sharing this whole thing is because it gives me hope that maybe someday Sri Lanka would be able to leave all of those bitter memories behind and become a better place to live in... :)
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Fukitol
I Need You is a song off The Beatles' fifth album, 'Help!'. Written by George Harrison it was prolly meant for Pattie Boyd, his (and Eric Clapton's! what was it with her and guitarists? lol) future wife whom he was trying to date (apparently unsuccessfully) at the time... good song I must say, they all look like they're freezing in that video though! ;) I can't also figure out what all the tanks/army dudes are sitting there doing! are they gonna bomb the fab four or something? O.o
So, one of my best friends knows about the blog now... wazzup Sai! :P :D
anyways, posting this coz I've kinda gone AWOL from the twittersphere and stuff... not to worry, I'm still alive and well... ;) *cue groans*
I was reading some of my older posts, and it occurred to me that this is not the first time I've found it hard to update my blog because I think too much, so I'm just gonna take my 'fukitol' pill and be normal again! :D
by the way, where have Harumi and MTC disappeared to? :S I totally miss you guys and your writing!
p.s. this better not get posted on the thread Sai! :P ;)
Friday, October 2, 2009
So, twitter!
So, the thing is you don't know you're hooked on twitter till you're waking up everyday and unwittingly checking twitter before proceeding with the rest of the days business... twitter can be useful in many ways, some of which have been highlighted in this article. Some of them are:
Getting Feedback: like you want to ask what the best phone in the 15-25k price range is, and someone (I'm willing to bet on Jerry) would instantly send a tweet your way giving you some info on the matter...
Direct traffic: using your twitter account to get more people to visit your latest blogpost or something... overdoing this is usually frowned upon (that doesn't stop *SOME* people though). Sharing links can also be listed under this category, so if you see a funny article or listen to a good song, you'd tweet the link and send peeps that way. Can also be used to rickroll someone! lol ;)
Read News: when a natural disaster happens, twitter knows first! when an important government announcement happens, twitter knows first! twitter users tweet from the ends of the world, so you know everything that's going on first hand...
Make New Friends: yeah, I can testify to the fact that your twitter buddies will prolly end up as real-world friends! :)
also something they haven't mentioned: twitter relieves stress! trust me on this, you get stuff like this sent at you, bam in the middle of a depressing day at work, and you just look at it and ROFL! instant stress reliever! :D
So, how do I get started?
First, follow people: Most bloggers and websites display the link to their twitter account prominently. Follow the likes of @cracked for ROFL tweets, @mashable for news on social networks and the internet, @cnnbrk for breaking news stories, @kottufeed for the latest posts from Kottu, and also follow our blogging community! Click on the reply button to send replies to any of their tweets that you find interesting, start a conversation! Retweet (which is basically repeat a tweet) any tweets that you feel you want to share! twitter is all about interaction, you have to actively tweet for it to be fun...
What Client Should I use?
Well, when I first started tweeting, I used their website mostly... and stuck with for ages, till I moved to my ever-faithful twitterfox (now called Echofon). I chose it over the other contender (TweetDeck) because it was lightweight and it sits neatly in the bottom corner of your Firefox window:
see, the little blue circle in the corner
The only major complain you'd hear from a Firefox user is the fact that it only updates every 3 minutes (which is waaay too slow in the twitter world) and that when you close your browser, twitter is gone too (minor concern since most people never close their browsers these days), and the most common complain you'd hear from users of other browsers is that they can't use it 'coz they don't use Firefox!well good for them! :P
Now we come to the stand-alone twitter applications: DestroyTwitter, TweetDeck (which I personally used and disliked) and Spaz are 3 that seem to be popular among our bloggers... Seesmic (which also has a desktop app) and Brizzly (still invitation only, but those aren't hard to come by) are 2 popular and easy-to-use web based clients, which means you can access them from anywhere and everywhere! I'd recomend Brizzly if you're already used to the twitter web interface and only looking for more functionality... You may also like to check out the recent Lifehacker poll on the most popular twitter clients.
Caution: Twitter is extremely addictive! Use with care! ;) :D
If you need any assistance feel free to send a tweet my way to @darthchavie! :)
(and no I didn't type this out at 2 in the morning, just trying out scheduled posts to see if it works! lol)
Getting Feedback: like you want to ask what the best phone in the 15-25k price range is, and someone (I'm willing to bet on Jerry) would instantly send a tweet your way giving you some info on the matter...
Direct traffic: using your twitter account to get more people to visit your latest blogpost or something... overdoing this is usually frowned upon (that doesn't stop *SOME* people though). Sharing links can also be listed under this category, so if you see a funny article or listen to a good song, you'd tweet the link and send peeps that way. Can also be used to rickroll someone! lol ;)
Read News: when a natural disaster happens, twitter knows first! when an important government announcement happens, twitter knows first! twitter users tweet from the ends of the world, so you know everything that's going on first hand...
Make New Friends: yeah, I can testify to the fact that your twitter buddies will prolly end up as real-world friends! :)
also something they haven't mentioned: twitter relieves stress! trust me on this, you get stuff like this sent at you, bam in the middle of a depressing day at work, and you just look at it and ROFL! instant stress reliever! :D
So, how do I get started?
First, follow people: Most bloggers and websites display the link to their twitter account prominently. Follow the likes of @cracked for ROFL tweets, @mashable for news on social networks and the internet, @cnnbrk for breaking news stories, @kottufeed for the latest posts from Kottu, and also follow our blogging community! Click on the reply button to send replies to any of their tweets that you find interesting, start a conversation! Retweet (which is basically repeat a tweet) any tweets that you feel you want to share! twitter is all about interaction, you have to actively tweet for it to be fun...
What Client Should I use?
Well, when I first started tweeting, I used their website mostly... and stuck with for ages, till I moved to my ever-faithful twitterfox (now called Echofon). I chose it over the other contender (TweetDeck) because it was lightweight and it sits neatly in the bottom corner of your Firefox window:
see, the little blue circle in the corner
The only major complain you'd hear from a Firefox user is the fact that it only updates every 3 minutes (which is waaay too slow in the twitter world) and that when you close your browser, twitter is gone too (minor concern since most people never close their browsers these days), and the most common complain you'd hear from users of other browsers is that they can't use it 'coz they don't use Firefox!
Now we come to the stand-alone twitter applications: DestroyTwitter, TweetDeck (which I personally used and disliked) and Spaz are 3 that seem to be popular among our bloggers... Seesmic (which also has a desktop app) and Brizzly (still invitation only, but those aren't hard to come by) are 2 popular and easy-to-use web based clients, which means you can access them from anywhere and everywhere! I'd recomend Brizzly if you're already used to the twitter web interface and only looking for more functionality... You may also like to check out the recent Lifehacker poll on the most popular twitter clients.
Caution: Twitter is extremely addictive! Use with care! ;) :D
If you need any assistance feel free to send a tweet my way to @darthchavie! :)
(and no I didn't type this out at 2 in the morning, just trying out scheduled posts to see if it works! lol)
Thursday, October 1, 2009
The New Post button...
...is just plain annoying, waiting there on the Dashboard, all big and blue, assuming that you've got something to write! :/
:D
I complained sometime back that I hadn't written anything properly for quite some time... it's just that I've never been a natural writer, writing always seems to stress me out and take waaaay too much effort (unless I have exams, coz then posts seem to flow into my mind fully formed and ready to be published! lol)
But I'm tired of seeing the same old posts on the top of the blog so here I am, clicking on that 'New Post' button! Very little blogworthy stuff have been happening on this end of the line, unless you want to read a boring post on washing the car or spraying hormones onto bananas... (ok that sounds a biiit wrong! lol)
I'm talking about boring stuff that I can blog about, but this post is turning out to be even more boring! :S I'll stop now, and leave you with my excuse for not blogging:
;)
:D
I complained sometime back that I hadn't written anything properly for quite some time... it's just that I've never been a natural writer, writing always seems to stress me out and take waaaay too much effort (unless I have exams, coz then posts seem to flow into my mind fully formed and ready to be published! lol)
But I'm tired of seeing the same old posts on the top of the blog so here I am, clicking on that 'New Post' button! Very little blogworthy stuff have been happening on this end of the line, unless you want to read a boring post on washing the car or spraying hormones onto bananas... (ok that sounds a biiit wrong! lol)
I'm talking about boring stuff that I can blog about, but this post is turning out to be even more boring! :S I'll stop now, and leave you with my excuse for not blogging:
;)
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Well Nibras, we meet again...
He, is back...
and using a small trick that I feared he might use, he's gone and created a fake 'Chavie' profile (http://www.blogger.com/profile/17930627408300739804)... Here's my real profile for comparison... he's been leaving comments under Indi's, Gadgetgirl's (under the name 'Purple Jangi') and David Blacker's names too...
so, if you get offensive comments under my name/DP on your blog, it's prolly him... forgive the fellow, he's just mentally unstable! :)
and using a small trick that I feared he might use, he's gone and created a fake 'Chavie' profile (http://www.blogger.com/profile/17930627408300739804)... Here's my real profile for comparison... he's been leaving comments under Indi's, Gadgetgirl's (under the name 'Purple Jangi') and David Blacker's names too...
so, if you get offensive comments under my name/DP on your blog, it's prolly him... forgive the fellow, he's just mentally unstable! :)
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Arugam Bay
We got up early Friday morning and headed to Rathnapura. Most of the family had arrived the day before and were loading up the bus...
we left Rathnapura at around 8.30, and took the upper route that would take us across Balangoda and a portion of the Haputhale climb, the majestic southern slopes of the central mountains...
The view below was simply amazing!
(stitched two images together for this one so excuse the rather crappy blending! click for larger image)
Passed Diyaluma, which was pretty dried up because it's not raining on the eastern slopes these days...
...and a few dusty elephants at Lahugala, which was quite extraordinary given the drought in the area!
and by sundown, we had arrived at the eastern coastline! After months of dreaming about the it after reading Kirigalpothta's and The Unsilent's posts, finally made it there! :D
On the following two days, we were treated to the wondrous sunrise on the eastern coast!
We did make a small excursion to Panama and Kumana, but nothing much came out of that except a pretty long journey time. I later regretted not visiting Komari instead...
The waves at A-Bay were pretty amazing! I had never experienced such powerful waves before, we all had a whale of a time getting struck down by waves and getting dragged back to sea! :D (it sounds pretty un-fun and dangerous, but seriously, it was the most fun I've ever had at a beach! lol) :D
On our way back we passed through Udawalawe, where we spotted about a dozen Elephants on the fence living off what the tourists were feeding them...
we left Rathnapura at around 8.30, and took the upper route that would take us across Balangoda and a portion of the Haputhale climb, the majestic southern slopes of the central mountains...
The view below was simply amazing!
(stitched two images together for this one so excuse the rather crappy blending! click for larger image)
Passed Diyaluma, which was pretty dried up because it's not raining on the eastern slopes these days...
...and a few dusty elephants at Lahugala, which was quite extraordinary given the drought in the area!
and by sundown, we had arrived at the eastern coastline! After months of dreaming about the it after reading Kirigalpothta's and The Unsilent's posts, finally made it there! :D
On the following two days, we were treated to the wondrous sunrise on the eastern coast!
We did make a small excursion to Panama and Kumana, but nothing much came out of that except a pretty long journey time. I later regretted not visiting Komari instead...
The waves at A-Bay were pretty amazing! I had never experienced such powerful waves before, we all had a whale of a time getting struck down by waves and getting dragged back to sea! :D (it sounds pretty un-fun and dangerous, but seriously, it was the most fun I've ever had at a beach! lol) :D
On our way back we passed through Udawalawe, where we spotted about a dozen Elephants on the fence living off what the tourists were feeding them...
We also visited the Elephant Orphanage, but couldn't stay for long because it was getting late and we had quite a bit to go to get back to Rathnapura and then Colombo. We did witness this cute little baby getting smacked in the rear for being a bit early for dinner though... (reminded me of that unfortunate incident at the Maligawa...)
We made it to Rathnapura at around 8.30 and immediately commenced our journey home! made it back in 1 hour 45, which is the fastest I've been from Rathnapura to home! :D
so now you know why I went missing for a while! ;)
so now you know why I went missing for a while! ;)
Monday, September 7, 2009
Love is...
going places, experiencing the sights and sounds! :)
opening the door to find that friend you've been missing so much standing there, grinning from ear to ear...
putting every bit of effort in you into something and getting it to work like it should...
spending time with the family, when very little is spoken, but the silence conveys so much more... :)
coming back from a break to discover that you're tagged, re-tagged and tagged again! Thank you Su, Sig and GG! :D
ok, now I'm in Kottucatchupy mode, so will write about what I was upto later! ;)
opening the door to find that friend you've been missing so much standing there, grinning from ear to ear...
putting every bit of effort in you into something and getting it to work like it should...
spending time with the family, when very little is spoken, but the silence conveys so much more... :)
coming back from a break to discover that you're tagged, re-tagged and tagged again! Thank you Su, Sig and GG! :D
ok, now I'm in Kottucatchupy mode, so will write about what I was upto later! ;)
Thursday, August 27, 2009
ABC tag
Ok, I didn't plan to write another post so quick but was pleasantly surprised that Harumi had decided to tagged me... thanks Harumi! :)The Tag
1. A – Available/Single? are they both the same? :S I am 'single and loving it!'... ;)
2. B – Best friend? that Fascist/Communist/Monarchist buddy of mine that I talked about on twitter... lol ;)
3. C – Cake or Pie? Chocolate Cake! :D
4. D – Drink of choice? I guess right now, It'd be Pineapple Juice! ;)
5. E – Essential item you use every day? haha need I answer this? the PC by far man! :D
6. F – Favorite color? Dark Blue and Sea Green
7. G – Gummy Bears Or Worms? haven't eaten either, I think! :D
8. H – Hometown? Colombo
9. I – Indulgence? Gaming? :D
10. J – January or February? hahaha August man! Kite season!!! :D
11. K – Kids & their names? it sure as hell ain't gonna be 'Albus Severus'! lol ;)
12. L – Life is incomplete without? my parents! :)
13. M – Marriage date? the day I give up my freedom! NOOOOOOOOO!!! :(
14. N – Number of siblings? nada! only child... :)
15. O – Oranges or Apples? (pine)apples? :D Avocados!!!
16. P – Phobias/Fears? heights and snakes... :|
17. Q – Quote for today? "Live and Let Live!" :)
18. R – Reason to smile? I dunno, I like smiling! I smile a lot! :S
19. S – Season? Rainy season? KITE SEASON!!! YAY! :D
29. T – Tag 3 People? open tag, as always! :)
21. U – Unknown fact about me? I was a monarchist too when I was 13! :O
22. V – Vegetable you don't like? Broccoli! *pukes*
23. W – Worst habit? my (slight?) evilness! :(
24. X – X-rays you've had? once... :|
25. Y – Your favorite food? Gotukola and Wattakka? :D
26. Z – Zodiac sign? Aquarius (and according to mom it justifies my laziness! lol) ;)
The Rules
1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share the ABCs of you.
4. Tag 3 people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let the 3 tagged people know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
6. Do not tag the same person repeatedly but try to tag different people, so that there is a big network of bloggers doing this tag.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
random post #59
random post #57 can be found here
random post #58 can be found here
I didn't have much to write about recently, well I did, but I chose not to on the blog, since the whole thing is kinda a fluid situation. Once it resolves itself (peacefully I hope! lol) I'd be really happy about it and then forget about it really fast as well! :D
Ok, I know that paragraph didn't make any sense but I'll keep it anyways for future reference... ;)
since this is a random post, it doesn't really have any topic, but looking at the last random post, I dunno, I feel like it's gotta have one, so here goes:
Blogger is finally growing up!
My favorite blogging service turned 10 just 3 days ago, and it's rolling out some impressive stuff to celebrate its birthday. Already we've seen hubbub (an impressive new feature that will turn your RSS feeds into real time streams! or in non-geek language: deliver your blogposts to your blog's readers lightning fast!), one click sharing of your favorite posts on Google Reader via blogger or twitter, and a new label cloud feature, but non of them have been as impressive as I anticipated. Plus, my flash based moving tag cloud (does anyone over at Wordpress.com have this? no? hoo hoo! :D lol) makes the label cloud redundant...
So here are my bets on what they're going to roll out in the next few weeks (or rather what I want to see them roll out!) -
A complete list of suggested improvements can be seen here.
This was a useless post, but I'm going to publish it anyway! ;)
Footnote: just found out that the people who first created Blogger at Pyra Labs, went on to create Twitter... interesting! :)
random post #58 can be found here
I didn't have much to write about recently, well I did, but I chose not to on the blog, since the whole thing is kinda a fluid situation. Once it resolves itself (peacefully I hope! lol) I'd be really happy about it and then forget about it really fast as well! :D
Ok, I know that paragraph didn't make any sense but I'll keep it anyways for future reference... ;)
since this is a random post, it doesn't really have any topic, but looking at the last random post, I dunno, I feel like it's gotta have one, so here goes:
Blogger is finally growing up!
My favorite blogging service turned 10 just 3 days ago, and it's rolling out some impressive stuff to celebrate its birthday. Already we've seen hubbub (an impressive new feature that will turn your RSS feeds into real time streams! or in non-geek language: deliver your blogposts to your blog's readers lightning fast!), one click sharing of your favorite posts on Google Reader via blogger or twitter, and a new label cloud feature, but non of them have been as impressive as I anticipated. Plus, my flash based moving tag cloud (does anyone over at Wordpress.com have this? no? hoo hoo! :D lol) makes the label cloud redundant...
So here are my bets on what they're going to roll out in the next few weeks (or rather what I want to see them roll out!) -
- static pages (w00t! w00t!)
- better (ok ok Wordpress-style then) comment moderation (not that I'm going to use it! I don't delete comments... EVER! - unless they're spam)
- nested comments
- aand greater Google Analytics incorporation (something like a traffic info gadget...)
A complete list of suggested improvements can be seen here.
This was a useless post, but I'm going to publish it anyway! ;)
Footnote: just found out that the people who first created Blogger at Pyra Labs, went on to create Twitter... interesting! :)
Saturday, August 15, 2009
I dunno what to call this...
OK, I just woke up early morning and this was twirling in my head and I just had to put it out there:
dude let's overthrow the government!
OK, now I know that your either laughing, closing this tab (DOOOOON'T!!!) or calling the Army HQ to tell them about a possible Coup attempt or something... :S ok I really don't wanna be dragged away in a white van so I'd keep this short and in-(or un-?)subversive as possible...
So I assume everybody's watched at least one movie about America's "War of Independence" right? It was one of those grassroots movements where people of all castes and creeds and professions (from the fancypants New York lawyer to the farmer from Virginia) got together, took their muskets along and overthrew the colonial government. After they did that, they wrote the most perfect constitution in recorded history... how perfect you ask? it has been amended only 27 times in the USA's 233 year existence. (in comparison ours, which is only 32 years old, has been amended 17 times already!)
Now let me get to the point. The people who wrote that document were the same that had fought in the war. And they were basically everyday people, who understood the problems that everyday people go through. That's why the constitution was begun with a "We the people" not "We the Barons" or "We the Noblemen" or stuff like that... And that's why the constitution itself provides Americans with freedom from government and basic rights that nobody can take away from them. It emphasizes "Individual Freedom" over "Government Intervention" and that instills that "I don't want the government messing with me!" attitude that ordinary Americans have, and makes America the "Land of the free", the world's most Libertarian country...
Now compare the situation here. We were basically a feudal society till 1505 (1815 in the Kandyan Provinces) and when the colonial powers took over they continued with that excising framework of control... basically why fix something that's been working for like 2000 years right? And when they gave us Independence in 1948, they gave it to a bunch of Elitist Noblemen. Who's the biggest savior of the peasants? Bandaranaike? oh didn't you know, he was like the richest and most powerful of them all! and the man who wrote (or should I say enacted?) our present constitution (which gives downright dictatorial powers to the Executive President I should add) was a part of that government that got us independence in 1948... man! like how cool is that??!
Now that you've got the background, here's what we're missing out on: citizens who give a damn about their rights, and who'd take it up with the government if they thought that their freedoms and way of life were at threat. And what have we got in this country? peasants who just go "Keep your head down son and the government will fix everything someday"! I hate it! I want a proactive citizenry who'd have tea parties and demonstrations, who'd ask tough questions from their Senators at their local town halls! I want a freaking government that UNDERSTANDS that it's only in power as long as the people consent to it and is hence kept in check. Is this all too much to ask for?
Yeah, you may go ahead and dial the Army now... :P
dude let's overthrow the government!
OK, now I know that your either laughing, closing this tab (DOOOOON'T!!!) or calling the Army HQ to tell them about a possible Coup attempt or something... :S ok I really don't wanna be dragged away in a white van so I'd keep this short and in-(or un-?)subversive as possible...
So I assume everybody's watched at least one movie about America's "War of Independence" right? It was one of those grassroots movements where people of all castes and creeds and professions (from the fancypants New York lawyer to the farmer from Virginia) got together, took their muskets along and overthrew the colonial government. After they did that, they wrote the most perfect constitution in recorded history... how perfect you ask? it has been amended only 27 times in the USA's 233 year existence. (in comparison ours, which is only 32 years old, has been amended 17 times already!)
Now let me get to the point. The people who wrote that document were the same that had fought in the war. And they were basically everyday people, who understood the problems that everyday people go through. That's why the constitution was begun with a "We the people" not "We the Barons" or "We the Noblemen" or stuff like that... And that's why the constitution itself provides Americans with freedom from government and basic rights that nobody can take away from them. It emphasizes "Individual Freedom" over "Government Intervention" and that instills that "I don't want the government messing with me!" attitude that ordinary Americans have, and makes America the "Land of the free", the world's most Libertarian country...
Now compare the situation here. We were basically a feudal society till 1505 (1815 in the Kandyan Provinces) and when the colonial powers took over they continued with that excising framework of control... basically why fix something that's been working for like 2000 years right? And when they gave us Independence in 1948, they gave it to a bunch of Elitist Noblemen. Who's the biggest savior of the peasants? Bandaranaike? oh didn't you know, he was like the richest and most powerful of them all! and the man who wrote (or should I say enacted?) our present constitution (which gives downright dictatorial powers to the Executive President I should add) was a part of that government that got us independence in 1948... man! like how cool is that??!
Now that you've got the background, here's what we're missing out on: citizens who give a damn about their rights, and who'd take it up with the government if they thought that their freedoms and way of life were at threat. And what have we got in this country? peasants who just go "Keep your head down son and the government will fix everything someday"! I hate it! I want a proactive citizenry who'd have tea parties and demonstrations, who'd ask tough questions from their Senators at their local town halls! I want a freaking government that UNDERSTANDS that it's only in power as long as the people consent to it and is hence kept in check. Is this all too much to ask for?
Yeah, you may go ahead and dial the Army now... :P
Friday, August 14, 2009
Assumption Song
this made me ROFLMA(?)O :D
also: 50th post! a big thank you out to everyone who kept me blogging by taking time to leave a comment! THAAAAAAAAAANKKKKK YOUUUUUUU!!!! :D
I also noticed that I haven't written a proper post (like about what's going on around here... not that anything interesting ever happens! lol) in almost a month... should do that again sometime... :)
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
twordle?
My favorite Twittebrity @Pseud0random tagged me and so here's the wordle of my tweets:
Interesting Stats:
So I'm going to take a leaf from 'Ze Book of Dili' and not tag anyone... coz it's way too much work to do the whole thing (tweetstats, then wordle, then screenshot, then upload) but if you think your up to the challenge, then consider it an open tag... ;)
Interesting Stats:
- I have 26 twooshes (tweets where all 140-characters have been used)
- My top five words are: lol, rt, good, hehe, haha. (I'm a happy fellow no?)
- My top five hashtags: #pakcricket, #t20, #xkcd, #internetbeatles, #stupidthingsido.
- I have tweeted exactly 2222 times in the month of July! :D
So I'm going to take a leaf from 'Ze Book of Dili' and not tag anyone... coz it's way too much work to do the whole thing (tweetstats, then wordle, then screenshot, then upload) but if you think your up to the challenge, then consider it an open tag... ;)
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
For Harumi
I almost forgot! :D sorry about the delay... :)
Taken at Thanthirimale Monastery, February 6, 2004
Taken at Thanthirimale Monastery, February 6, 2004
Friday, August 7, 2009
I will never love you more!
I like SoKo... something about her makes me want to... I dunno, it's complicated. She's cute!!! :D (and somehow reminds me of John Mayer! hmmph)
If you prefer the live video:
p.s. twitter should stop going down like this! curse the idiot behind these attacks! :@
If you prefer the live video:
I will never love you more than the drummer of flaming lips
I will never love you more than Woody Allan movies
I will never love you more than the White album of the Beatles
I will never love you more than God only knows
I will never love you more than DVD's night with my girlfriend
And we talk about stupid things like feelings and men
I will never love you more than my boyfriend when I was 14
Even if he's now an asshole, I will never love you more
And you say, you love me more than everything
And compared to me everything is nothing...
I will never love you more than meeting Paul McCartney
And we asked him to play a song on my Ukulele
I will never love you more than Scandinavian Tour
Which was more than paradise we shall remember it too
I will never love you more than dancing to Phil Spector
I will never love you more than my Casiotone keyboard
I will never love you more than Daniel Johnston himself
For me he's more than God, I will never love you more
And you say, you love me more than everything
And compared to me everything is nothing
Ohh this is sweet, I just wonder what it means
You say you love me more, than all the girls you have before
Even more than music, even more than yourself
Even more than everything, but it's just a lie
So I will never love you more, than anything
I will never love you more than singing in the shower
I will never love you more than my Mac computer
I will never love you more than having a daughter
I will never love you more than peanut butter
I will never love you more than kisses all day
I will never love you more than cuddles all night
I will never love you more than kissing girls lips when they're really pretty
I will never love you more
I will never love you more
p.s. twitter should stop going down like this! curse the idiot behind these attacks! :@
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Lunatic!
as some of you may know, my PC died. but stuff like that or the fact that I'm on Firefox 1.5 on this amazing machine aren't going to stop me from uploading crappy photos, is it? :D hehe
there, taken with my trusty Sony point-and-click held at the end of a refracting telescope... really sorry for the crappy image quality, the cam didn't focus properly... :(
p.s: I don't think I'll be able to comment for a while, hopefully my old machine is repaired by Friday... :/
there, taken with my trusty Sony point-and-click held at the end of a refracting telescope... really sorry for the crappy image quality, the cam didn't focus properly... :(
p.s: I don't think I'll be able to comment for a while, hopefully my old machine is repaired by Friday... :/
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
40 years ago...
we humans visited the moon. Each Apollo module carried computers having processing power much less than a modern PDA... but we made it, through sheer brilliance we made it...
Today, anyone with an average computer and an internet connection can go to the Moon or even Mars thorough Google Earth...
What happened to the manned space program in the last 40 years? We visited the Moon a couple of more times, docked a Russian space craft with an American one and put up Skylab, Mir, the ISS and various other space stations, and were generally stuck in lower-Earth orbit for 4 decades. Tsk Tsk Humans!
All this while the human race achieved immense leaps in the fields of computing, robotics and other sciences needed to make a journey possible... We created the shuttle, a spacecraft with unmatched capabilities, but never really used it to it's full potential. We sent dozens of very successful unmanned missions around the solar system (and in the case of Voyager, beyond the solar system as well!) and as I mentioned before, even a bored teenager sitting in front of a computer has more knowledge about Mars than NASA ever had of the Moon before the start of the Apollo program...
So what has kept our feet grounded on this matter? Is it Environmental concerns? I don't think so, coz every day millions of people start their day by polluting the environment with their car engines... Is it safety concerns? not really! (although there's a possibility that a solar flare can fry the astronauts like omelets inside the spacecraft... hik hik) Is it a lack of technology? Most certainly not!
So what's basically keeping us from Mars is the lack of political will, and a president who's willing to put his money where his mouth is... Our generation certainly needs a bold Kennedy, and till that day comes, we'll all have to do with Google Earth!
note: any comments suggesting that the Moon landing was a hoax will be given the Patented Buzz Aldrin Conspiracy Theorist Treatment! lol ;)
Today, anyone with an average computer and an internet connection can go to the Moon or even Mars thorough Google Earth...
What happened to the manned space program in the last 40 years? We visited the Moon a couple of more times, docked a Russian space craft with an American one and put up Skylab, Mir, the ISS and various other space stations, and were generally stuck in lower-Earth orbit for 4 decades. Tsk Tsk Humans!
All this while the human race achieved immense leaps in the fields of computing, robotics and other sciences needed to make a journey possible... We created the shuttle, a spacecraft with unmatched capabilities, but never really used it to it's full potential. We sent dozens of very successful unmanned missions around the solar system (and in the case of Voyager, beyond the solar system as well!) and as I mentioned before, even a bored teenager sitting in front of a computer has more knowledge about Mars than NASA ever had of the Moon before the start of the Apollo program...
So what has kept our feet grounded on this matter? Is it Environmental concerns? I don't think so, coz every day millions of people start their day by polluting the environment with their car engines... Is it safety concerns? not really! (although there's a possibility that a solar flare can fry the astronauts like omelets inside the spacecraft... hik hik) Is it a lack of technology? Most certainly not!
So what's basically keeping us from Mars is the lack of political will, and a president who's willing to put his money where his mouth is... Our generation certainly needs a bold Kennedy, and till that day comes, we'll all have to do with Google Earth!
note: any comments suggesting that the Moon landing was a hoax will be given the Patented Buzz Aldrin Conspiracy Theorist Treatment! lol ;)
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Haiyooo
I was about to go out and get a haircut, but it just started raining and buses + rain are not my ideal combination at 9 in the morning... Buuuut, whatever.
I finished reading like 50% of Questionable Content (from 600-something to the latest) and I love it!!! You really don't know who's gonna grab Faye's boobs next do ya? ROFL! xD So, I've been kinda glued to the PC for the last 3 days and mum called me an addict and made a big fuss about it. And she leaves today and tells me to go get a haircut. In the rain! Now you get why I'm whining ya? :)
Watched the Star Trek movie yesterday and I think I'm gonna be a trekkie... Woohoo! :)
aaaaaaaaand Firefox 3.5 (the greatest browser ever btw) apparently has a big security hole so don't panic, just follow the instructions here to patch up for now... DO NOT UNINSTALL FIREFOX AS IT MAY BLOW UP YOUR COMPUTER!!!
bad joke? :S
I finished reading like 50% of Questionable Content (from 600-something to the latest) and I love it!!! You really don't know who's gonna grab Faye's boobs next do ya? ROFL! xD So, I've been kinda glued to the PC for the last 3 days and mum called me an addict and made a big fuss about it. And she leaves today and tells me to go get a haircut. In the rain! Now you get why I'm whining ya? :)
Watched the Star Trek movie yesterday and I think I'm gonna be a trekkie... Woohoo! :)
aaaaaaaaand Firefox 3.5 (the greatest browser ever btw) apparently has a big security hole so don't panic, just follow the instructions here to patch up for now... DO NOT UNINSTALL FIREFOX AS IT MAY BLOW UP YOUR COMPUTER!!!
bad joke? :S
Friday, July 10, 2009
Salt
A big tree, a few buildings, clustered around a dusty pitch. He walks, soaking in the salty breeze, under the hot Colombo sun. Deserted, utterly deserted, is the scene in front of him. He walks in, through the doorway of the furthest building. Takes some time to look at the plaques and the pictures, note the familiar salty grime on the tables. Take the stairs, their look out post, the warning centre. Things haven’t changed one bit, even the garbage can is exactly where it used to be, all those years ago. Garbage can! He remembers that failed recycling drive… Does anyone talk about recycling anymore? Do they really talk about the environment like they used to? Or are we all just worried about something that they say is going to come, and abusing that fear for their own gain? His moment of thought brings him up another flight of stairs, he now looks at a deserted hall, rows and rows of chairs, neatly arranged. “Hasn’t changed one bit” he thinks, looking at the stage that he was scared to climb back then… He walks out the double-doors, into the dirty balcony, and stares out at the ocean, gleaming like silver in the midday sun, and breathes in a lungful of wet, salty air…
WANT.TO.GO.BACK!
:(
P.S: just testing out Windows Live Writer… pretty cool shiz! :)
Monday, June 29, 2009
Night Rant? Oui!
MTV! If not for them showing Fox News (yes, I'm not a liberal pinhead, deal with it!), I'd just erase them off my TV channels forever! I mean, any little kid would know that the 6PM - 9PM belt is a very lucrative time period for any TV channel... and what do these guys show? Some Hindi baila! I mean, nothing against Hindi music, but a bloody English channel (one of only 3 that we have!) showing Hindi stuff during primetime?! I mean, can't they show repeats of the late night tucked away stuff atleast? Maybe I'll get to catch a few episodes of Jake in Progress or House... Is that too much to ask? :/
ETV is beyond redemption, I mean when there's no American Idol these guys just show the same bullshit every freaking week! and ARTtv seems to think that it's bloody CNN, showing all business programs and stuff...
Meh, this all started with these buggers and their stupid levy on foreign TV shows... has that stopped Mahagedara? Ah? Has it??!
If you told me 4 years ago that this was going to happen to English language channels, I would've laughed my ____ off!
I guess I'd start watching that stupid Swarnavahini-mahagedara-ripoff from tomorrow...
random post #58
random post #57 can be found here
So we went to Anuradhapura and came back within the space of 2 days... I believe Anuradhapura was the first city that had advertisements on road blocks... starting off with those earth-filled barrels with the "Siddhalepa" logo on them... one of my mom's old suddha bosses had once said that Sri Lanka is the only country in the world that he had seen sponsored checkpoints in... hmmm :)
So, I reprised my role as the family map-man, the guy who takes all the heat when he misreads a map and says "left" instead of "right" you know? I was like pretending to eat all the way upto Anuradhapura since I still have trouble with left right... hehe ;)
Ritigala
So on our way back, saw in the distance Mihinthale, and I thought it was Ritigala so... and Thathi tells me that it's not, and points at a large grey blob in the distance... So Ritigala... we meet again!
I remember how so many years ago, when we went to Anuradhapura, the family had decided to go to Ritigala... I had got into a fight with Ammi that day and I refused to go, opting instead to stay with my little cousin malla and my aunt... so they went! without me! and the little backstabber totally went to sleep (he was 2 years old or something... but still!) and so I was left jobless and sulking the whole day... hmph!
Last year we were passing Ritigala on the Maradankadawala-Habarana road... and it was freaking Ginormous!!! You couldn't believe that a mountain of that size could exist smack in the middle of the plains of the dry zone! It was truly surreal, and the fact that I missed out on such a beauty kinda dawned on me... :(
So Ritigala, mate... I shall climb you someday! and since they say you're a part of the Himalayas, that'd be as good as me climbing Everest! Someday mate, someday!
Footnote: I'm trying out a new Flickr account since my Picasa account kinda killed itself when I switched my Google account... :S why couldn't it be more supportive, like its sisters Analytica and Blogga... even Reada is so easy to set up... I dunno Picasa... you really broke my heart! :P (This Flickr account has since been deleted. The photos from the trip can be seen here)
Footnote 2: Thank goodness for Blogger autosaving the post... MAAAN! the power just went (so did my UPS!) and I was like *sheeeet* :D
Footnote 3: sorry for being a whiny self-pitying sorry ass in the last few days... I have realized that I'm just 18 and if I don't make mistakes now and learn from them, I'll end up making them when I really can't afford to... Really really sorry if I freaked you (yes YOU!!! over there on the corner mister!) out... :)
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The "I hope no one gets pissed" post
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
- attributed to Albert Einstein
I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to write this down... but here goes nothing!
I've discovered recently that I'm the same old naïve, clueless and immature 15-year old brat I was 3 years ago. I still remember just like yesterday how I, with my bestest bestest frenthos seated around the table, revealed my brilliant 'discovery'... This was almost exactly 3 years ago... Then a few months later, it broke my heart to tell them that it didn't work the way it was supposed to...
Now fast forward to about 2 years ago: School canteen, early morning. A skinny kid is surrounded by a bunch of peers, their eyes all filled with eagerness. He details the events of a fortnight ago, sensational events: he had made a life-altering 'discovery'... any bets on who the kid was? Nope, not Harry Potter... though the last book did come out around that time! ;)
So now, they say the 3rd time is the charm eh? Well not in my case.
One of my friends is going to Aussie for uni, so I'll be meeting my best friends tomorrow at a farewell party of sorts... Guess what kinda story the skinny kid surrounded by his friends will be telling them?
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
The End!
Exams are over!!! I'm feeling all sentimental about the last 2 and a half years... missing my friends and stuff... :)
So what DID I learn at the end of the day?
- Driving exams are all good and well, but getting your license doesn't mean your parents are going to let you drive... Sad but true, I spent more time at Werahera that day getting my license than I've spent driving since. It's pathetic, so pathetic that I think I've forgotten how to do the clutch-balance properly now... ARRRGH!!! :(
- You may grumble what a bunch of idiots the school administration is, but at the end of the day they do their job... You have to apply for exams yourself and go to a gazillion places and rasti-fy to understand what a load of work they save you from!
- Blogging is amazing!!! maybe even better than Facebook?! :D
- Wars are long and bloody affairs... At the end of the day there are no winners, everybody just loses! People lose their lives, their limbs, their belongings and their freedom, sorta like that line from Won't Get Fooled Again: "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!" We need to let those people go!!! (and if you haven't listened to that song: DO IT! one of the best songs ever IMHO!)
- In a classroom, it's always better to pretend that you're below average! The people you befriend in that situation don't like you because you're smart and they can copy off you, but because they genuinely like you. *feels all lovey dovey* :) plus, you'll never get blasted by the teacher for doing better than him, right? ;)
- The British Council will NEVER call you back. You should always call them and find out whatever you want. Simple fact, talking from experience! This applies to government departments as well, although calling one of those will be a waste of your money, time and good health, unless of course you use Upahara! hahaha ;D
- Never say never, there's always a way, but it might be wise to ask for help! (That is, unless you're at an exam! haha) :D
- The most docile and innocent looking creatures (no I'm not talking about squirrels here!) can turn on you, with such force that you wouldn't know what hit you! Never underestimate the power of words...
- Never forget your true friends, they help you out when everything seems lost!
- Twitter is addictive! stay off it... ;(
- There's good music out there, hidden away by the sands of time...
- The internet is just awesome, you can uncover all these said heaps of good music, hidden away by the sands of time™ :P :D
- Never pay for music, we're poor enough already! (Viva la Pirate Bay!) ;)
- Learn to play an instrument, it's an investment you're never going to regret. (That being said, I haven't learned anything yet! hahaha)
- January exams are always easier than June exams! Trust me on this one... :)
- Depend on xkcd for all your life's decisions! :P
- NEVER EVER DO EDEXCEL APPLIED ICT!!! YOUR TIME IS BETTER SPENT LEARNING HOW TO DRIVE EVEN THOUGH YOUR PARENTS DON'T LET YOU DRIVE ANYWAY! It's just the most pointless subject ever, you don't even get enough marks for the time and effort you put into it... If you're doing London exams, do Cambridge, which is much more recognized. If you're forced to do Edexcel do something worthwhile like Further Pure maths or Chemistry (even if you're planning to do something computer-related at Uni), at least you'll get some good marks... :)
- Oh, and don't listen to rock music before an exam, it keeps playing over and over in your head when you're in the hall doing the exam... and you feel like singing along! :S (happened yesterday! The Rolling Stones were playing a concert in Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium! lol) ;)
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
On Racism
I'm not trying to get hits here, nor am I trying to be a smartypants by asking a question that many would like to just shy away from and avoid. The first place I look, whenever I try to find stuff is Wikipedia, and they had linked to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, which defines racism as:
Now my question is this: If someone belonging to a certain race (let's say a Frenchman) says that his own race is somehow inferior and that all the ill traits and problems of his society are due to his race, does that make him a racist? I'm not pointing fingers or hinting or anything, the kiddo just wants to know, there's only so much that a Wikipedia article has and this just wasn't there... :)
1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2 : racial prejudice or discrimination
Now my question is this: If someone belonging to a certain race (let's say a Frenchman) says that his own race is somehow inferior and that all the ill traits and problems of his society are due to his race, does that make him a racist? I'm not pointing fingers or hinting or anything, the kiddo just wants to know, there's only so much that a Wikipedia article has and this just wasn't there... :)
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Design Changes for Summer 2009
Yes, I have an exam tomorrow...
Yes, I missed the match last night! :( Daaaaayummm!!!
Yes, I've been spending way too much time combining BTemplates' 2 Plus and Floral Concept themes into the one you see right now...
Yes, I love the fact that red, white and blue have become the main colours in the blog... Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité! :)
Yes, I've managed to make myself a twitter blogroll of sorts! I dreamt that up in my sleep last night... :S If you're not on it, then prolly means your account is protected... sorry!
Yes, I'M A BAD BAD BOY! Going off to study now... :(
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Moi ranting! lol
5 days to go
will be 4 in another 15 minutes or so
I've been taking midday naps for the last couple of days
Mom reckons I've become lazy and the keyboard has become almost a bodypart
She's right
I've been tweeting like there's no tomorrow and have generally been making an arse of myself on facebook...
remember facebook of yore? with the neat news feed and neat everything, before the attack of the apps?
man it's like anarchy down there now...
I miss old facebook
I miss going to school, having homework to do...
I miss getting up at 5 in the morning, I miss watching the rising sun illuminate the garden.
I miss my friends, I miss being told to get a haircut! :D
I feel useless...
Might deact my Twitter for a while... :(
watched an episode from season 1 of 7th heaven today
Jessica Biel... nuff said! lol
will be 4 in another 15 minutes or so
I've been taking midday naps for the last couple of days
Mom reckons I've become lazy and the keyboard has become almost a bodypart
She's right
I've been tweeting like there's no tomorrow and have generally been making an arse of myself on facebook...
remember facebook of yore? with the neat news feed and neat everything, before the attack of the apps?
man it's like anarchy down there now...
I miss old facebook
I miss going to school, having homework to do...
I miss getting up at 5 in the morning, I miss watching the rising sun illuminate the garden.
I miss my friends, I miss being told to get a haircut! :D
I feel useless...
Might deact my Twitter for a while... :(
watched an episode from season 1 of 7th heaven today
Jessica Biel... nuff said! lol
Saturday, May 30, 2009
The World Through CS:
What happened 2 weeks ago:
What's going on now:
I, for one, am disgusted at the West's repeated attempts to poke their noses into Sri Lanka's internal issues. They should instead try to help maybe?
* promised myself that I won't go into politics in this blog when I started, but what's happening now just disgusts me to the point that it warrants a blog post... not that it'll make any difference I guess... :(
Friday, May 29, 2009
I WAS FRAMED!!!
...or tagged more like, in the RD taggathing, by Serendib Isle and Kirigalpoththa! Thanks guys! :D
The rules are:
So my thoughts are:
My Tags
- You write five words to describe how you feel about recent events in Sri Lanka.
- You tag five bloggers.
- You sit back and relax.
So my thoughts are:
- Relief
- Sadness
- Regret
- Worry
- Hope
My Tags
- Gadgetgirl, the one who likes socks, the purple ones! :)
- Tulie, the raging cyclone
- Meg, the one who puppeteers
- The Single Couple, the one with the rabbit
- Fallen, the one who was canonized...
Thanks! :)
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Goings on
This morning, noticed to my horror that a gecko had been totally flattened by the door. Idiot that I am, told Ammi. We had a big argument as to who was going to clean up. Both of us refused to budge, which automatically meant that I was there 2 minutes later, with pan and brush in hand. The corpse fell after a bit, but the tail refused to budge, even after multiple strokes with the brush! It was so spectacular that I would've posted pics, IF I hadn't almost thrown up... (thankfully I had an empty stomach at the moment, my kidneys still hurt from the experience)
Stupid geckos!
- It tasted god-awful (well actually worse than I thought it'd be... lol)
- It didn't give me the desired effect, won't ever BUY it! (just like dragonfruit, so!)
- Mom would've been furious if she knew I drank that... *shivers in fear*
- Made me go all hyperactive (think insanely throwing paperballs right in front of sir's face) and made me say the f-word out loud (in the middle of a class mind you!) four times after I drank it! :S
wanna guess what it was?
Little did I know that a week later my computer sir would accuse me of "confusing everybody else" because all the other retards had decided to use MY database for their exams. of course, non of them had the guts to stand up and say that they had taken the database from me (with my consent, but that doesn't really matter does it?) and were simply asking me for technical assistance. So poor old me ended up "nakadi pusi"... My friend told me that he had never seen sir meltdown like that, he was pretty much shouting at me at the top of his voice for a good 15 minutes. I still have my doubts that it all had something to do with the paperball incident... lol! :D
This post is kinda retarded because it's 3 useless posts abridged into 1 useless post. The first part happened today, I'm still feeling all puke-y! :(
Friday, May 22, 2009
Murals
He was your average 5-year-old boy, turning the walls of his home into one giant canvas, much to his mother's displeasure. He drew what other 5-year-old boys drew: Techy stuff mostly... Dams and Power stations, Pylons and cables. One of his mother's cousins once remarked that the stairway wall had the whole Laxapana Complex sketched on it.
Among these carefree drawings, one curious sketch stood out. In the back wall near the fuse-box, hidden from view almost. A long straight road led to a tall building... a burning building. A side-road led to another building, which wasn't in flames. Seeing his parents puzzled looks, the boy explains, pointing at the building on the side-road: "That's where mama works!" with a look of innocent relief on his little face.
***
He remembers that sound... deafening, metallic, very very scary. Louder than the loudest thunder. The teacher was getting a bit nervous... "Madam, sounded like a train collision..." she tells the other teacher. They both stare out the window, at the railway tracks and the greenish Indian ocean. All they see is black smoke, menacing black smoke, rising from the distant Fort.
And just like that, school was over! Although school looked more like it was having the concert, because everyone's parents were there!! His parents put him into the back seat of their car, and till they got to Park road, his mother was constantly on the cellphone. "I can't get to him, the lines are all jammed..." she said to his father, lying the phone down. What a wierd combination of words? "Jam in the lines"? He chuckeled at the insanity, yet he chuckeled silently, to himself, a mental chuckle. There was something very very worrying about his mother's tone...
The first thing they do when they get home is switch on the TV. A dazed looking news presenter keeps mentioning a lorry and a bank. A fire leaps out the windows of a tall building. A couple of firefighters on a lift pull a man out a window. There's utter chaos, bodies, glass shards everywhere, people lying on the ground, bleeding like water fountains. The boy can't get the images out of his head. He wakes up suddenly that night, the burnt corpses won't go out of his head. He walks up to his parents bed, and cuddles up between his mother and father. No creepy corpse can get to him in his mother's warm arms.......
.hopefully.
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