Sunday, February 28, 2010

Meet my friend Me-Shak!

He's new to the blogosphere, but he shoots with an eye for the perfect capture that many a photographer would dream about! Stay tuned to his blog for some amazing photographs from around the country in the coming weeks, together with prose written in his unique and witty style... :D

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

On the TRALE again

Ok, I'll start this post with a *facepalm* 'coz one of my very first posts was about last year's TRALE. I won't link to it, because it's embarrassing to even look at that thing! :O My connections to TRALE are vaguely interesting. I helped organize its predecessor event called "The Miniature Transportation Exhibition" in 2008. I was helping out with TRALE as well, but life happened and I had to leave school two months before it took place... And to add some spice to TRALE '09, the LTTE conducted an air raid on the first night of the event!

So anyway, if you guys are free this Friday, Saturday or Sunday, and have an interest in aviation and model railroads and vintage cars, head down to Mount Lavinia for a transportation exhibition like no other! And who knows, you might find a certain blogger lurking behind a Cessna or something! lol :)

TRALE 2010: From the 26th to the 28th of February, 9.00 AM to 10.00 PM, at the STC Small Club Grounds (the grounds right next to the Galle Road)

We now conclude the shameless advertising segment of tonight's newscast. And in other news, exams are finito tomorrow and the presentation I mentioned has been postponed! Could life get any better than this??? (no) :D

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

This post was in the pipeline for far too long

One of the first questions my friends at uni asked me when I joined was "So do you want to go abroad?". My answer usually is a no, unless I'm feeling particularly cynical. The reason is twofold: I hate the cold, and my skinny ass cannot take a cold shower on a warm April morning. The second is a sort of sense of duty, I guess.

The German adolescents after World War II blamed their parents for looking on silently while Hitler massacred 6 million innocents. Most segments of my own generation seem to feel the same towards our own parents, and how an unacceptable amount of bloodshed occurred under their watch. The parents have their typical Sri Lankan parent attitude about these kinds of questions, and avoid talking about these things as much as possible. They even have the nerve to talk about how good things were during our grandparents time! :/

But growing up, and slowly becoming aware of the real mechanics behind this illusion known as the Sri Lankan 'republic' and our supposedly 'democratic' society, we have to come to a conclusion that we always dreaded: We, and our parents before us, were pretty helpless. Nobody likes to accept that their parents were helpless. There's nothing in the world that Ammi and Thathi can't fix. But there is.

And I digress, as I always do. The ship has been wreaked under our 'rents watch. It is taking in water. But there's a lot of cargo in there to salvage, too numerous to be carried to safety. You face the great decision: Do you save what you can, abandon ship, and swim to certain safety? Or do you attempt what many would consider impossible, and try to repair the ship and save all the cargo? Do you escape with your memories of paradise, your photos, your mementoes? Or do you try to save paradise itself?

Edit: Of course there are a few wise/crazy fellows who jump into the stormy sea and swim to land, get resources from there, and leave the safety of said land and come back to repair the ship. Those are a truly brave/insane bunch, risking the lives they've built up and everything they have to save a sinking ship.

Please Note: I hope nobody takes this post the wrong way. This was not meant as an attack on people who may have chosen the first path. I have many good friends and people I love dearly who have chosen that path, and I still love them dearly and respect their choice. I am merely trying to justify insanity, the attempts of some many to swim against the hard current. I hope you, the reader, understands this...

:)

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Hello from Rathnapura

(...where no matter which band you tune your radio to, all you hear is Hudson Samarasinghe!)

I'm sorry I've been quiet for a while. Midterm exams are one week away (yikes!) and my first graded group presentation is scheduled for the week after. I can safely say that I haven't studied anything, and barely even went through the past papers... and I'm sitting here with all my study material at hand and writing this post instead. Procrastination ftw!

Since I don't seem to be in any kind of hurry to stop writing this and watch Amélie get down to studying, I'll continue on a completely unrelated topic. Neth FM (one of the few 'listenable' Sinhala radio station out there) has a programme on Saturday mornings called 'Sanchaare'. They were visiting Jaffna and Delft on this week's programme. There are apparently huge fields of green grass as far as the eye can see, where the wild ponies live. And on a clear day you can see Rameshwaram over the sea... I WANT TO GO! NAAAO!!! Hmmm, drop all these exam stuff and leave... now there's an idea! ;) lol

Will leave you with a few snaps of Rathnapura, taken between November '08 and last December. The only thing that has changed since is that the rubber trees are red and leafless, like they usually are in February... quite a sight! :)





Sri Pada (the rightmost peak out of the 3) as seen from Karawita

Tommy, our faithful farmdog (who talks! I kid you not!) :D

P.S. Tapping the infinite wisdom of the intertubes here: What is the most effective way to control stage fright? ;)

Monday, February 1, 2010

I can't sleep so...

Paparé Boy's post kinda spawned this...

Ian Wright has got to be my most favourite TV travel guy ever. The bugger's seriously insane, but in a good way. I grew up watching him wandering everywhere from the vast deserts of Northern Africa, to the freezing Tundra of Sibera. Lonely Planet (later called Globe Trekker) has a seriously special place in my childhood memories... :)

And talking of this show, who could ever forget the awesome theme music eh? :D



Back to being awake at 3 AM then... sigh! :(