Seasons Greeting

Happy holidays everyone. Hope you have a great Christmas and an even more awesome new year!

This is my all time favorite Christmas song. It's a beautiful song written and performed by a brilliant artist. Hope you enjoy.

Cheers!

The Story of Christmas...

for the digital age  :)

Enjoy!

Santa and I Know It! (LMFAO - Sexy and I Know It PARODY!) Key of Awesome

Awesome :D :D :D



They've got some other awesome parodies. Check them out.

Santa Clause Diaries

Well, it’s that time of the year again. Christmas. Bah. There is too much stuff left to do, and it's less than two weeks till the big day. Can you believe that some toys are still on the production line. Those elves are pulling triple shifts but there is still some left. On top of it all Rudolph is sick. Alcohol withdrawal syndrome. I'm keeping him in isolation till Christmas. After that he can drown in a vat 100% proof alcohol for all I care. I'm not going through the same shit as last year. Serves me right for letting a drunkard lead the sleigh. Oh lord, my stress levels are off the chart. I'm fucking too old for this crap. 

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m still a big fan of Christmas. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing the smile on a child's face when they see their presents on Christmas morning.  It’s just that Christmas doesn’t have the same meaning anymore for people. 

Today, Christmas has been hijacked by commercialism. This is not necessarily a bad thing. After all, consumerism keeps economies running smoothly. Recession is not a fun thing either. However there should be a limit to everything. It's just that people are too focused on the gifts and the parties. Hey, I'm not against those. I am the big daddy of gift giving am I not? And my new year's eve parties are killer. If you are sober at the end of it, then there is something wrong with you. Anyway, my point is that don't be selfish when too many people are suffering around the world. Give up the me, myself and I thinking and think about how you can make the day brighter for someone else. 

I admit, you can't change the world by yourself. I've been trying all these years. However, you can start close to home. Come on, do you really need to buy the latest gadget that will be obsolete in a month or two? or that extra pair of shoes that you'll wear only once? That money can help a less fortunate person to spend a week or two without going hungry. Why not give that money to a worthwhile charity so that they can help those truly deserving.  

Sometimes the best gifts are not about the highest monetary value. It can be even free. Give the gift of yourself. Spend time with your family, especially your parents and grand parents. They may drive you crazy, but you are here because of them, so go spend sometime with them this Christmas. There are many people, especially seniors who are alone because they don't have anyone. I bet they would love nothing better than to have somebody to spend Christmas with. We get too caught up in the hype and forget about the important things in life. 

Don't get me started on the kids these days. They are are too spoiled. No, that's not right. Half the kids in the world are spoiled because they have too much stuff, while the other half doesn't know what the word means because they are more worried about staying alive till the next day. The disparity between these two situations is too painful. The below video is somewhat of an example. OK, may be the parents are a bit mean, but it shows expectations of kids these days. Believe me, the naughty list keeps getting longer while the nice list is getting shorter and shorter each year. I've been tempted to chuck it all out and just leave pieces of coal on all stockings, but the missus was against it. You kids are lucky she talked me out of it, bless her kind heart. 

This world is not a fair world, but people can change it. Show your children that Christmas is not about the toys that they get. Teach them to be selfless and to share their good fortune with those less fortunate than them. 

The religious aspect aside, Christmas should be about love, caring, and sharing. Those are not just for Christmas, but should be practiced each and everyday. Make the world a better place people. You owe it to your kids and grand kids. If this world ever survives that long. 

Hmmm, I must be getting sentimental in my old age, or may be its just the stress. I can't wait for this season to be over and start my vacation. The missus and I are heading for Bora Bora this time. Nice little romantic escape, if you know what I mean (wink, wink) Ho Ho Ho.

I best be getting back to work. 

Merry Christmas to all.

Peace! \m/

The Old Painting

This is another attempt at a short story. :) All characters are are fictional and any resemblance to a person or persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

“Look honey, he looks just like you, but with a little grey hair” Jessica called over her husband Tony to look at the portrait that hung in the main hall of “Kaluwella Wallawwa”. As Tony walked into the room, he felt a bit unnerved seeing the picture. There was a strong resemblance alright, but he felt that there was something more in the face. Sinister was first word that came into his mind, but he felt bad thinking like that about his ancestor. After all, who was he to judge a man he had never met based upon a picture.

                                                                                                                    

“It just goes to show that you married into a good gene pool of handsome men” Tony joked as he gave his wife a hug. “Come on, let’s explore and see what else we can find”.

Tony still couldn’t believe that this magnificent property bordering the Kalu Ganga, belonged to them. On the day he got married, Tony got a nice surprise when his father gave the deed to this property as a wedding present. Tony’s grandfather Frederick was the last to inhabit the house, where he lived with his two caretakers. There was a rift between him and his only child who had left Sri Lanka and taken his family to Australia nearly thirty years ago. Frederick, who was a staunch patriot didn’t approve of his son’s abandonment of his motherland. In the end, Frederick decided to leave all of his properties to his first grandson Tony, to be given to him on the day he got married.

He was glad that they were able to make it to Sri Lanka on their first wedding anniversary. He had only been here once before. His father was never keen on bringing them to Sri Lanka. Tony was more excited because he had someone to share it with. Although a native of Sydney, Jessica has been enthralled by Sri Lanka and its beauty ever since he had met her.  He was looking forward to exploring the country of his ancestors, and to discover all it has to offer with his wife by his side.

As an architect, the old house inspired Tony. He always thought of houses as live entities, not just bricks, mortar and wood. Like fine wine, the more time a house stands the more character it acquires. This house was no exception. A typical manor house of colonial architecture, it was a single storey structure built around a big central courtyard. The courtyard itself was beautifully landscaped, with a large pond in the middle. The rear of the house opened up into a small pier leading into the river. An old wooden raft was still moored to it, waiting silently for the ferryman.

Tony felt like the luckiest man alive. He had a gorgeous wife who adored him, a great career and a comfortable life in Sydney, and now, this amazing piece of property in this land of his ancestors. Nothing could make it better. Things were too good to be true, and he should have never gotten too comfortable with it, because fate is a dirty old bastard with a sick sense of humour.

Every night was a night of passionate love making. Sometimes as he watched Jessica sleeping, Tony wondered if he could ever live his life without her by his side, and imagined how they would start a family and grow old together. He would drift into sleep with these thoughts swimming in his mind.

***

News alert from the local daily  newspaper

Tragedy at Kaluwella Wallawwa

People living close to the old mansion were woken that fateful Saturday morning to screams of dying woman. What they saw when they went to investigate is bound to give these people nightmares for years to come.

According to the initial coroner’s report, 3 mutilated bodies were found in the house, two in the kitchen and one in the master bedroom. The bodies in the kitchen were identified as Wimalasena and Kamla, the caretakers of the house, and the body in the master bedroom was identified as Jessica Fernando, newly arrived occupant and the wife of the accused. Though details are not still clearly, sometime during the night, the accused, Tony Fernando, had gone on a killing spree, hacking his poor wife to pieces and then turning the axe on the caretaker couple.  What prompted him to do this? Nobody knows. Tony Fernando was found sitting calmly by the dock, holding on to a portrait of his Great-Great-Grandfather, and mumbling incoherently.

Stay tuned for further details as the case unfolds.

Murderer Gets Life Sentence

The trial of the accused axe murderer Tony Fernando, famous for the Kalluwelle Wallawwa tragedy, was concluded today, with the jury finding him guilty of all charges. Normally this would carry a death sentence, but giving the extenuating circumstances of the case, and recommendations by the renowned psychiatrist Dr. Gamage, the prisoner was given a life sentence at the psychiatric wing of the prison, under solitary confinement. The prisoner will also be under the care of Dr. Gamage.

***

His head hurt as the bright fluorescent light hit his eyes. Little by little consciousness took over, clearing his disoriented mind, but the world didn’t make sense to him. He knew he had done some terrible things, but the man in the painting said that it must be done. You can’t trust anyone, except yourself, and the man in the painting, of course. The world may call him a monster, but the world doesn’t see itself as he sees it. They were all going to destroy him, but he got the upper hand and got them first. He knows the truth now, all thanks to the man in the painting. He will never be alone again.

Man and Violence

The 16 Days campaign carried out by the Women and Media Collective against gender based violence is a great initiative. Violence against women and children are a problem in Sri Lanka, but not one that is talked about much. Kudos to all the people who are working hard to provide solutions to this problem and help those who are victimized.


To me, violence of any kind is hard to understand. Why do we humans have a need for violence and aggression?  The violent acts of some are causing great pain and suffering for rest of the world. I came across this interesting essay called Violence and Aggression, while Googling. Its a simple and easy to understand article for the layman, which explains a lot about violence and anger.


As this article explains it, aggression is intentional, as is done to cause harm and pain to another person. This is not just physical harm, but it includes verbal and mental violence. Aggression stems form anger and the motives for it comes from what a person is feeling. According to a theory by psychologists Roy and Judy Eidelson, these feelings can be categorized into five groups.

1. Superiority - The belief that one is superior to another.
2. Injustice - The belief that one has a legitimate reason to be aggressive against another.
3. Vulnerability - The belief that one is one could be aggressively annihilated at the hands of another.
4. Distrust - The belief that another will not honor their promises or commitments.
5. Hopelessness - The belief that one cannot improve their condition.

There are two main ideas about where aggression comes from. One is that we humans are born with it, that it is hard coded into our gene, and that we learn how to control it fro social norms. The other believes that we are born as compassionate and  society makes us violent. However, according to Sigmund Freud, we are born with two instincts. 

  The instinct toward life is called Eros while the instinct toward death is called Thanatos. Freud believed that humans work by way of a 'hydraulic theory', where pressure builds up inside and must be released as aggression. To Freud, aggressive energy could be seen in everything from art to architecture. He theorized that society helps people to sublimate the instinct to be violent by giving them the desire to be creative and work hard. He called this theory sublimation.

My personal theory is that we are born with both violence and compassion, but our violent side is much more stronger than the compassionate side. The compassionate side is mostly suppressed, and we have to be taught to let go of that suppression and to let our compassionate side to come on top. It is part of our animal instinct for survival. The more aggressive you are, more chance of survival you have. I mean, nobody is going to mess with the angry dude now are they?

However, the social environment one is brought up does have a big impact on what kind of a person one turns out to be. If a child grows up in violence then that becomes the norm for that child. When the child grows up, he/she will act according to what they think is the norm. Similarly, if a child is brought up in a kind and compassionate environment where violence is frowned upon, then it can be expected that the when the child becomes and adult, he/she will act the same. It goes on like a cycle. Of course there can be exception to the norm. In a situation with violence, if the cycle can be broken, then the violence can be stopped. Social cultural norms and religion are not enough. Laws and  and a strong justice system are an important part of changing these behaviors. 

Unfortunately, males are more aggressive and violent. It's statistically proven. My guess it's a hangover from our cave man days. Me brave hunter, me kill animal kinda mentality. In today's "civilized" age, the question we have to ask is, whether it is really necessary? My answer is no, definitely not, but I guess it's very difficult to shake our roots. 

The normal perception is that men are stronger and women weaker. But should this be the case? Shouldn't it be that both sexes are equally stronger. With this perception, men tend to be violent towards women and children because there is a less chance of them fighting back. It's better than fighting with another man who will fight back, where chances are that you will not escape unscathed. Nobody wants to get hurt themselves, so naturally people will take their aggression out on someone weaker than them who will take it lying down. For men, women, children, animals, and even men who are less stronger than themselves are the most likely targets. They would never a pick a fight with someone stronger than they are, unless they have weapons and the other person is unarmed. They will go for it if they are certain the outcome is favorable to them.

I feel that in our culture and in Asian culture in general, children are taught to be seen and not heard. I'm not saying that children have to go head to head with adults, but if a child knows that an adult is doing something wrong, then they should be taught to speak up. Children should be encouraged to develop strong personalities who put value in truth and justice. In addition, the laws and the justice system should be upgraded to take swift action and to protect the victims and punish the wrongdoers. But more often than not, we see it working the other way around, where the criminals go unpunished and the victims are further victimized. 

Another thing that baffles me is that we tend to put a lot of stock in respecting our elders, our parent and especially our mothers, but then we turn around and harass women in society. How easily we forget that we are born of women, and we will not be alive if not for our mothers. The respect you show to your mother should and must be extended to all women. Why is it such a difficult thing to do. Where does the difference lie? I still haven't figured it out.

This world has turned me into a pessimist, and I believe that the evil in the world outweighs the good. Can you blame me when you take a look around the world we are living in?

Our generation and generations before us are totally fucked, for no better word. There is no hope for us. But there is hope for the younger generation, and generations yet to come. Hopefully we can teach them not to make the same mistakes as we did. To put kindness and compassion before violence. To put selflessness and sharing before greed and selfishness. Do I think that this Utopian society ever be a reality? No of course not. Don't be silly. We are who we are. We will never change. 


So, does this mean that I don't have any violent thoughts? Of course I do. It is part of who we are. But I make a conscious effort not to act out according to these. Do I succeed all the time. No, but I try not to fail. If everybody can do that, then we could be in a much better place.

I'm not a student of psychology, so I don't know anything about the subject matter. I might be completely wrong in what I have said, but these are just my own thoughts and ramblings. 


Cheers!