Odds and Ends

How crummy can the weather be? It was sunny in the morning. I go out and it starts to pour. I'm on me two wheeler and there's not even a place to get some shelter either. I am soaked. Finally finds a place, by which time I look like I've been dipped in a pool, wait for about half an hour till rains stops. Get’s pissed and drops what I’ve been planning to do and heads back to office. School is out, gets stuck in traffic. Now that I'm back in office, it's bloody sunny again. I'm sitting under a AC vent in wet clothes and hoping that'll get pneumonia so that this day can get better. A nice shower when I'm going home can make this a great day indeed. Yippee…

So might as well do something productive like putting up a blog post eh?



She'll be comming round the mountain when she comes...



so far far away...



Look at me, I'm soooo pretty...



Abode of the gods...



EARTHQUAKE!!!!



Watcha looking at punk? You wanna peice of me?



ROOOOOOAAARRRRR!!!



Put em up punk. I ma gonna rearrange your face for you!

Night Fishing

Last Saturday night I was nicely settled with a book when two of my buds, K and R called up saying they were going fishing and were picking me up too. So half and hour later I was in back of the K Mobile and heading towards our usual place.

The “Usual” place is a small park on the banks of a river, where there is an unfinished pavilion of sorts with steps leading down to the water. I say unfinished because I think the initial plan was to have a roof over the thing, but I guess they ran out of money before that. Now there are only some concrete pillars standing there. The place is cool, most of the time deserted at night, but with lights for illumination. This is where we normally end up when we want to throw back a few beers and just chill.

When I say river, it is not your clear-blue-water, can-drink-straight-out-of-it sort of river. It runs through a city so it’s basically brown in color, and while you can drink out of it, you’d better be prepared to stay inside the loo for a couple of days. However there’s plenty of fish in it. Whenever we are chilling out here, we see local fishermen out on boats, who catch loads of fish, and some even put lines from the bank and goes home with a bag load for dinner. So we thought we’d also try our luck at it.

I have gone fishing with my dad a couple of times when I was small, but never caught a thing, not even a malnourished sprat. The only things that got caught were some twigs. That kind of put me off the whole fishing experience. R on the other hand has some experience at it. So armed with some lines and hooks, no rods mind you, we tried our luck that night. For bait we used this Barnacle like critter with a conical shell that gets washed up on shore during low tide. I have no idea what they are called though. You have to crack the shells to get the critter out of it.

With hooks thus baited we cast out the lines and waited. We opened up a couple of beers and ate some munchies. After about ten minutes or so what do I see? My line has a bite on it. Reel it in and there is an unlucky bugger attached to it. My first ever fish, in a life time. Ok it wasn’t a big one, but a small fry the size of my finger, but hey it’s still a fish ain’t it? Oddly enough, before I could celebrate, it started to rain. You think maybe someone was trying to send us a message? Hmm I wonder…

Anyway when the rain settled down we continued with renewed excitement. Within another half hour or so R managed to catch two more. We thought we were in for a big haul. Unfortunately that never happened. After nearly five hours of standing in water, what do we have to show for it? Three measly fish no bigger than your fingers and a crab, which R found hiding in an old tire. The annoying part was that there were plenty of fish, some were even pecking at our legs and jumping out of the water, but they weren’t just taking the bait. They have gotten smart. I swear I could hear them laughing as we got out of the water. Darn critters…

After awhile we got fed up with it and around one o’clock Sunday morning, we headed back home. Ah but we are not deterred. We will be back, with a rod next time, and maybe try our luck from the bridge. You wait and see, we’ll get you yet…

What happened to the fish we caught? Well they weren’t even worth to make a soup out of it, so we gave them to a cat that hangs around the park. Lucky kitty had a right royal dinner that night. All three disappeared inside its tummy in less than a minute. As for the crab, he went back into the water, where he must be regaling his buddies with his adventures.

I learned a valuable lesson from this little expedition? Thank god for supermarkets :D. I don’t think I’ll be able to catch anything even if my life depended on it. There must be some kind of art to it, privy only to the fisher-folk or, everybody else except me…

Send Your Robot to Work

Got this in an email today, and I’m ordering one right now. It’s a solution for all our telecommuting woes…

=====

Man telecommutes by sending in a robot replacement


We've been warning of humankind's eventual obsolescence at the hands of our robot overlords as long as we can remember, so it's basically horrifying to see someone not only fail to heed our advice, but actively hasten our eventual extinction by replacing himself with a robot. Programmer Ivan Bowman works from home, but still maintains his presence in the office through the use of a bot he calls IvanAnywhere -- a clever play on his name and the name of his employer, iAnywhere. Basically a webcam-on-wheels, IvanAnywhere motors around the office, takes meetings, and even gives presentations, all while the real Ivan remains safely pantless in his home office. Actually, that sounds pretty smart -- anyone got a spare webcam?



=====

This is great idea for those who want to work from, but still need that office feeling and office colleagues around. You stay home and send in the robot to office, go to meetings and when you get bored chat up with friends, and you don’t have to deal with annoying bosses. As an additional plus point you can get a second job at office as the night watchmen. Send robo buddy to do the rounds at night while you lay in your bed. :D

Cheers

Riding the Rails

Ever since I was a little kid I loved trains and riding the rails. I know… I know it’s one of those boys and their toys stories, but what the heck! And no, I’m not a train fanatic either. It’s just that traveling by train is more fun than traveling by roads, especially in a bus. There’s something about those big diesel engines that is cool. The power generated is impressive, more than enough to tow several rail cars full of passengers through all kinds of terrain.

An average diesel engine weighs about 270, 000 pounds or 122, 470 kg. It can generate about 3,200 horsepower and the generator in turn converts this into about 4,700 amps of electricity. This electricity is used by the four drive motors to generate about 64,000 pounds of thrust, which can take a locomotive into speeds of up to 177 kph.

More on how diesels engine work

More on SL Railways

I guess trains are in my blood too. My grandfather was a station master and some of his relatives were engine drivers. So my father and uncle practically grew up on the tracks with the trains. During his career, my grandfather was posted in various stations all over the country and the family too traveled as the job took him. The best thing about that is that they got to experience a lot of wonderful things during these stints, traveling all across the country. My dad still talks about the stuff they used to do in the good old days. That’s probably where I get my love for traveling too.

Anyway I too recently became a member of the Train Gang. No they are not a bunch of train robbers. They are the people who commute to and from work in trains. It happened because we changed houses. We were living closer to Colombo and the new place is bit further, but I love the new place coz I grew up there and it’s a great neighborhood. A lot of people are commenting why we want to move further away from Colombo when all the other people are trying to get closer to Colombo and blah blah blah. That is the EXACT reason I want to get away from Colombo. I HATE COLOMBO!!! It’s crowded, noisy and dirty. Unfortunately all the jobs, especially in the IT sector are concentrated here. The day the whole islands get a high bandwidth, reliable broadband network, I’m going to pack up my things and set up home somewhere in the hill country and find a stay at home job. Ok that’s for another story…

As I was saying, since we moved, the only downside I can see is that I can’t walk to office anymore. I’ve had to join the ranks of the commuters. The problem is traveling on the roads in the morning is an absolute nightmare. Get caught to rush hour traffic and you spend more time idling than moving ahead. Add to that overcrowded buses, without any breathing space and you just feel like quitting your job and staying at home. One solution to all of that is to catch a train.

Now everybody can’t do this coz the rail network is not wide spread. If there’s no train station near to the start of your journey or end, your better off going by bus or private vehicle. Luckily for me, our new place and the office is closer to their respective train stations, so there’s no extra traveling involved, just a bit of walking.

The SL railways has always has a bad reputation as inefficient, always late and so on. However, at least the morning trains come and go on schedule. Whatever said about the state of the railway department, there are some plus points to consider.

• It’s Cheap – Ticket prices are about 40 – 50 % of bus fares
• Fast – Takes about half the time it takes to travel by bus (this is for short journeys. It goes the other way around for long journeys, especially the upcountry routes. )
• More spacious – Even if you have to travel standing, you can at least travel in comfort, without suffering like in busses.
• It’s a smooth ride – You have to stick to the rail tracks, so no need to worry about death defying antics of drivers, no sudden breaks to send you flying, and no high speed chases with other trains
• And the best thing is, as my friend Harshadewa puts it "No Traffic on Rail Road"!!!

Well here’s hoping for the expansion and development of the SL railways, so that we don’t’ have to suffer in the hands of the private bus operators.


"when the pistons keep on turning and go round and round
and the steel reels are cold and hard and the moutain ain t no down"
(Long Train Running – Doobie Brothers)

Glorified in Death…

I’m sure some of you out there would have wondered what your kith and kin will put on your gravestones when you’re dead and gone. Or for that matter whether they’ll even a put up a gravestone for you. Some people really don’t care about these things but for some it’s a very big deal. The ego maniacs want nothing better than to be immortalized in granite or marble. For them the bigger the gravestone the better they rest in peace.

The Russian city of Ekaterinburg is famed as the most mafia ridden city in the country and a visit to the local graveyard will shed some light on how far they take it. This is where all the Mafia men ultimately end up. However they don’t want to leave the world without making sure the rest of the people remember them. So what do they do? They get life sized marble sculptures of themselves as gravestones.

These life-like engravings or sculptures show them in their bad-ass posses, smoking, or showing off their tats or clutching the keys of their favorite ride. Some even go the extra mile to get a memorial for their favorite car they drove around in. One Father and son mob duo has two life size figures standing side by side, while in the middle a smaller engraving of their Volvo is placed. Some are even buried with their mobile phones, so they can keep in touch with their gangs. Talk about highly inflated egos.

No matter how bigger a memorial you put up for yourself after your dead, it doesn’t change the way you lived your life. Something some people will never understand…

Read More




(Pic. Source: The Mail on Sunday)

When the Black Gold Runs Out!

There was an interesting documentary on CNN several days ago, focusing on the worlds dependency on oil and petroleum energy and the consequences of an energy crisis. In this documentary they unfolded a hypothetical scenario set in year 2009, which leads to an energy crisis all over the world.

It all starts with a big hurricane hitting the American Oil country, Houston Texas. It causes severe damages throughout the city, worse than hurricane Katrina. Among the damaged are the big oil refineries which supply oil to America. This results in a total standstill in domestic oil production in USA, causing a shortage of gas.

Meanwhile Al Qaeda is planning the next big attack and knows that the best time to make the most damage is when America is already down. However they do not attack America directly, but hit the next best target that could virtually cripple the entire oil supply. They hijack a plane and crash it into the biggest oil refinery in Saudi Arabia, the worlds #1 supplier. All hell breaks loose from then onwards. It cripples the worlds oil supply, prices sky rocket and the world is plunged in to an energy war, where countries attack each other to get whatever oil they can.

Even though this is all an imaginary situation, it could be real. The world has too much dependency on fossil fuel energy. There may not be natural disasters, or terrorist may not attack, but oil is not a limitless resource. Oil companies are trying to find new untapped oil reservoirs, but it’s getting harder and harder to find. A day will come when it will run out. The problem is, even though the supply is going down the demand for it is increasing day by day.

There are a lot of people and environmental organizations working to change the situation, but what they can do is limited. This is mainly because world governments are lagging behind in giving their backing to these projects. The business of oil is too lucrative for them to give up.

Among the people who have taken up the cause is Sir Richard Branson. Recently he put up a US$ 25 million reward for a solution towards global warming. In addition to investing in ethanol plants and solar power, he has also started a new Venture called Virgin Fuel, to develop a formula for an ultra clean fuel that can power his airlines and vehicles. Other notable people like former US president Bill Clinton and Vice president Al Gore, Celebrities like Bono are trying to make a change in the world.

One of the best success stories about alternative fuel comes from, not the big powerhouses, but from Brazil. They have developed a successful system for developing ethanol fuel from sugar cane, the same stuff that put tingles in our sweet tooth. About half of the vehicles over there are now running on this sugar cane ethanol. They are known as flex-fuel cars, which can run on pure ethanol or an ethanol and gas combination. The best thing is that it’s cheaper than gas. The major automobile manufacturers are also investing more money for R & D into hybrid vehicles now.

So there are a lot of viable alternative fuels available, what’s needed is the imitative and the leadership from the world’s leaders.

The problem becomes more difficult when it comes to developing countries like SL. We just don’t have the resources to spend on research and development on these matters. Of course if we put an end to all corruption, we’d have enough left over, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon. However with the way the oil prices are going up here, we definitely need a new plan if we’re to keep things rolling on, otherwise we’ll probably face an energy crisis before long.

One option I see is to start a partnership with the Brazilians and set up sugar cane ethanol refineries here. This will open up new job opportunities to the people. Another benefit is that it can also help revive the sugar cane industry, which is now in ruins. Along with that we can allow incentives such as tax exemptions for hybrid cars that use ethanol. Maybe even our very own Micro cars can start building hybrids. These in turn can lead to opening up new markets in the South Asian region. All in all, it’s a win-win situation.

Only in the US of A

For the past few days America has been gripped by another tragedy. A tragedy so awful, that the whole world is paying attention on it. Forget about all the other problems in the world like Iraq and Global warming, this is more important, with American media giving it full coverage. People are crying out in anger at the injustice of it all. Experts are debating about the dire consequences of it all.

So what is this great tragedy? No it’s not another mad gunman on a shooting rampage. All the fuss is about a spoilt little rich girl, the (co called) princess of America, Paris Hilton, or as Anderson Cooper calls her, She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, going to jail. That is what all the drama is about.

The whole drama of it is like this. Sometime recently she got busted for violating the probation (yeah she was already on probation for an earlier offence), driving under the influence (of you know what) and driving with a suspended license. So the judge got mad and sentenced her to the slammer for 45 days. She started her jail sentence with a bang by partying the night before. So she’s in jail, and in about 2 or 3 days the sheriff decides to let her go home under house arrest, because jail doesn’t agree with her (Duh…it’s not supposed to agree with you). What a nice man!!! Rumors have it that Grandpa Hilton has been generous in the sheriff’s election campaign. The judge meanwhile gets more pissed by this and orders PH back into court and puts her in the slammer again. So now she’s spending time on the Hospital wing because apparently she’s sick. I think she’s been getting some pointers from our local politicians on “How to get the best of your jail-time”.

She’s then put out some statement saying how sorry she was, and not doing it again, that jail is like being in a cage (Duh…It is a cage), that she found God (Ok I didn’t know that God was lost and what was (S)he doing in jail?), that she was not dumb but acting like that all this time (shocked!!! Who would’ve guessed that it was an act, maybe she has some talent after all) and some other crap to get some sympathy votes.

I still don’t get what she is all about. She has no talent. She did “Simple Life” which I haven’t seen nor have no desire to see either. Put out an album, which died a natural death. She has no job, unless you call parting all night, getting drunk and appearing on self-made porn, a vocation. The only thing working for her is that she’s an heiress with tons of money. Man If I had half of that money I’d buy a big farm somewhere, invest the rest and live off the interest, but that’s just me. If I’d been her grandpa, I’d have cut off her cash flow a long time ago.

Yet this talent less, jobless, drunken, spoilt little rich girl is the sweetheart of America. They keep people like this on a pedestal and encourage them to do more stupid things. Why? I don’t know.

For those who has had enough of her here’s some good news

On other weird news, a judge in Washington is suing a dry cleaners for UD$ 54 million for misplacing his pants. It seems that he has suffered severe emotional damage by the loss of his pants. How emotionally attached can you get to a pair of pants. He was testifying in court and got so emotionally choked up talking about the pants that he had to leave the courtroom to have a cry. I have nothing more to say your honor.

As the great warrior Obelix might say “These Americans are Crazy”.

Just Some Random Thoughts

Life has taken a monotonous turn these days, mainly because of work I guess. Been stuck with a project for awhile and it gets really boring working on the same thing for a long time (at least for me).

Since my office is in the outskirts of Colombo don’t need to go into the city daily. (Thank god for that). The other great thing is that it’s walking distance from home. Yipeee. No overcrowded busses and traffic jams for me. I get an evil kinda pleasure seeing all those people stuck in traffic while I take a leisurely walk to office. I’m so used to it now that I try to avoid going to the city if I can. The only time that I would not mind going is on a Sunday, or a poya day, when everybody else is at home.


World weather is a bit wonky these days. The most recent weather disasters were the Cyclone in Oman and the Storm in eastern Aussie a few days ago. Cyclone Gonu which hit Oman is said to be the worst natural disaster to hit the state since they started keeping records in 1945. It has caused an estimated US$1 billion in damages and 49 people killed. 24 inches of rain has fallen and caused flooding in some areas. Floods in the middle of the desert are not something you hear often. Have some friends over there and the last time I checked they were OK. The storm in Eastern Aussie, billed as the worst in 30 years has left nine people dead.




You think Mother Nature is trying to tell us something with all this weird weather patterns? Or course she is, but the problem is we humans have a habit of not listening to her. Wait till she gets really pissed off one day and decides to kick us all out.

At least the world powers are taking note of global warming and decided to take necessary action during the recently concluded G8 summit, but of course GWB does not want to play fair and wants all the other to play according to his rules, like always. We’ll just have to wait and see if the world leaders are going to stop talking about it and actually do something.

Interesting things that has happened in history today: (courtesy of wikipedia)

1942 – Anne Frank started writing her diary, during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.
Here’s a really cool site, which is an interactive monument to her.

1964 – Former South African President Nelson Mandela was imprisoned by the Pretoria Supreme Court.

1979 – English channel crossing was done by a human powered aircraft named the Gossamer Albatross.

Where will it all end?

The big news on all media these days is the eviction of some Tamil people living in Colombo, who allegedly have no reason to be in Colombo. According to reports around 260 people have been sent home back to where they came from. Of course the government claims they volunteered, and the Tamil MP’s are saying that they were forced. Who to believe, you decide.

Daily News
Daily Mirror

Since when does a citizen of any country need to have a valid reason to travel to any part of the country and live there. I should have the right to pack up my things, move to Kandy, Anuradhapura or wherever and live the just because I want to. If I can’t live in Kandy just because I was born in Colombo then basically Kandy and Colombo becomes two independent states. The way these evictees are being treated is like they are illegal aliens from another country. So what is the government implying here?

I agree that the security of a country is paramount, but there should be a proper way of getting on about it. If they have suspicions about people, the best would be to detain them and carry out investigations, not pack them all of to where they came from. By carrying out a proper investigation, the security forces can be certain whether the individuals are a threat or not. With the actions carried out what happens is that the people subjected to this treatment gets more dissatisfied with the way things are going. Who is to say that an innocent individual who was sent back will now think twice about supporting the terrorist? What’s stopping him now from fighting for a separate state, since he knows that the government already treats him like a citizen of another country? These sorts of actions are only adding more fuel to the fire. What were the so called decision makers thinking? Now the LTTE has a free excuse to kick out Sinhalese people in the North and East. The government can’t say anything now because they are doing the same thing to the Tamils over here. They are handing the LTTE more excuses and more propaganda material, and digging themselves a deep hole.

I hate all that is politics and usually don’t bother with it. I know no matter what we say, the idiots at the top will go on doing what they do. However the situation now is becoming a bit scary. Some people are calling it ethnic cleansing, but I wont go that far. There are (still) no genocides and mass graves here, but if this keeps on going, that is where we’ll probably end up. That is a scary thought my friends. I just hope the ordinary folks of this country are smarter than those who are running it and will not let themselves get dragged into a situation where the country is racked with racial hatred, and race riots.

How Time Flies…

Is it just me or does anyone else think that time is going a bit too fast? Man it feels like a coupla week ago that I was getting wasted on the New Years Eve celebrations, but in reality 5 months have gone by. Where the hell did it all go? No wonder people are complaining they don’t have enough time to do their work.

The problem is that we have too much of things to do in our lives. So it seems to us that there is never enough time left to do them all. We are always busy busy busy, we don’t even realize that time is passing us by. The question is do we rally need to do all these things we do? I guess it’s the price you pay for living in a global, money driven world. You have to either keep up with the rat race or be left behind, which eventually means that you’re broke and homeless. It’s a dog eat dog world and either we join em or be left out. No wonder people are having nervous breakdowns, committing suicide or dying of stress related illnesses.

How did it all come to this?
I have no idea...Hopefully I'll get wasted tonight and the answers will mysteriously come to me in my drunken stupor.

Oh well enough of this tomfoolery, time to get back to work and join the rat race...

Cheers!

15th May 2007

Been very busy the past few weeks, so didn’t have time for any other thoughts except work. Didn’t even notice what the heck was going on in the world either. Now that most of the difficult parts are over can relax a bit (and the client is out of the country, so he’s off my back ).

Is it just me or is the weather acting a bit funny. I mean just a couple of weeks ago it was raining nonstop day and night, and now it’s scorching hot. It’s like the guy can make up his mind. Wouldn’t it be great if the weather worked according to a schedule? Daytime – Sunny but cool and night time 3 hours of rain. Then we’d know what to expect. Ah… but then again where is the fun in that?
Dear old Mother Nature works according to her own schedule and if you don’t like, then too bad for you.

Well there’s nothing much for me to say so I’ll just put some Interesting facts about the day courtesy of Wikipedia

15th May

1. Independence Day in Paraguay
2. Teachers Day Mexico and South Korea
3. Nakba Day in Palestine Communities
4. In 1602 Bartholomew Gosnold became the first European to discover Cape Cod.
5. in 1928 Cartoon characters Mickey and Minnie Mouse made their movie debut in Plane Crazy.
6. In 1934 Prime Minister Kārlis Ulmanis dissolved the Saeima and established an authoritarian rule in Latvia.
7. In 1990 Vincent van Gogh's Portrait of Dr. Gachet was sold for US$82.5 million, at the time the world's most-expensive painting.

Van Gogh’s picture was the most expensive at the time but today it has slipped down to Number 4. The painting by Jackson Pollock is the unconfirmed winner with a price tag of USD 140million.

No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock ($140,000,000?)


1. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Gustav Klimt ($135,000,000)
2. Garçon à la Pipe by Pablo Picasso ($104,100,000)
3. Dora Maar with Cat by Pablo Picasso ($95,200,000)
4. Portrait of Dr. Gachet by Vincent van Gogh ($82,500,000)
5. Bal Au Moulin de la Galette by Pierre-Auguste Renoir ($78,000,000)
6. Massacre of the Innocents by Peter Paul Rubens ($76,700,000)
7. Portrait de l'Artiste sans Barbe by Vincent van Gogh ($71,500,000)
8. Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier by Paul Cézanne ($60,500,000)
9. Femme aux Bras Croisés by Pablo Picasso ($55,000,000)
10. Irises by Vincent Van Gogh ($53,900,000)



Want to buy a painting?


First of all I’m shocked by the fact that there are people willing to pay 140million Dollars for a painting. The absurdity of it is ghastly. It’s an abstract with lines of paint and looks like shit. Frankly I think a five year old can do a better job. A masterpiece by Leonardo Da Vinci or Michealangelo, I can understand, but this???

Secondly, I’m dropping everything and starting to paint. Damn, I wish I had paid more in art class during school…

Earth Day

This is the day when we all should celebrate this wonderful planet which we call home. Traditionally the UN celebrates Earth day on the vernal equinox which is around the 21st of March. It marks the precise moment when spring begins in the Northern Hemisphere and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. In the South-pole the sun sets, ending the six-month long day and in the North the sun rises, ending a six month long night. In 1970 an Earth Day was declared on the 22nd of April to make people notice the damage done to the environment by man and to do something to protect it. It is now celebrated all over the world.

Learn More

The sad but undeniable truth is that our planet is in trouble. Who is to blame for it? No one but us humans. As man evolved into the industrial age he began to disregard the natural world. In the early civilizations, which were based on agriculture, the people respected nature because they worked with it to sustain themselves. They relied on the earth for their daily existence. They understood that without nature they would also perish. As time progressed people discovered technology and brought on the industrial revolution. After that everything became about money and how to make more money. People moved from the farms into factories and their lifestyles changed. They lost the close relationship that their ancestors had with nature.
We all know what problems there are: pollution, global warming, rampant destruction and excessive use of natural resources are some of the major ones and which causes the most damage. These are real threats that can have drastic impact on our world. Still there are some people who insist on denying these truths. These are the people who are in the payrolls of the same organizations that are guilty of environmental damage. These spin doctors are trying to paint a picture that the planet is A-okay and the environmentalists are the one who are wrong. According to them, the so called environmental damage is just a figment of the environmentalist’s imagination. Why this blatant attempt to discredit the people who are trying to protect this planet? GREED pure greed.

I am not suggesting that we stop technological developments. Far from it coz I’m a big fan of technology. But they should be done in a manner which doesn’t harm the environment. Now more than ever technology should help to protect the world and save it from destruction. We could say that during the times of the industrial revolution, the people didn’t know better. They were unaware of what they were doing to the environment. But now we can’t make the same excuses because we know better. We now have the knowledge and the means to do something about it; the only thing necessary is the commitment to it.

Fortunately there are many people around the world committed to making this a better world. A few months back Sir Richard Branson offered a $25 million price money for the first scientists to come up with a way to extract green house gases from the atmosphere. Some pundits are criticizing him saying that his companies contribute to the problem and now he’s trying be the good guy. That is exactly what he is doing. He has realized this and that is why he is trying to come up with a solution. This is what is needed, for companies to realize the damage they are doing and to start to rectify them. In the meantime let us start in our homes.

Earth is a unique planet. It is the only planet that we know of that can sustain life. But if we don’t protect it now, more than likely it will become just another rock floating in space.

Hypocrisy and Double Standards

The biggest news during the last couple of days was the shooting incident at Virginia Tech University in the good Ole US of A. A crazed gunman, a student himself, had killer 32 fellow students and had committed suicide afterwards. If you don’t know about it, then you are definitely not living in this planet. If it had happened anywhere else in the world I would be shocked, but this is America. These kinds of incidents happen on a regular basis. High school students going on a rampage in their schools and killing students, employees shooting down the office and coworkers, these seems to be normal things in America.

Why these things happen I can’t say. There seems to a lot of nutcases loose over there and coupled with easy access to guns… well what else is there to say? A recipe for disaster. America is not the land of dreams everybody thinks it is. I recently saw on the Tyra Banks show that over 70% of Americans live from one paycheck to another. They have no savings at all, and if they loose the job they are out on the streets. They showed undercover cameras in places where homeless people live and it was not a pretty sight. I frankly think that our beggars in SL live a better life. At least our people care enough to give them some money. No wonder people are depressed and going on killing sprees. They must feel like that is the only way out. They have no hope and once hope is lost, it is the beginning of the end.

What I am cheesed off about is the way that the international media is behaving. It’s like that there is nothing else happening in the world but this. Tragedies don’t happen anywhere else but in America. Everyday people are not dying in Iraq from bombs and gunmen, people are not dying of violence in Palestine, Iran, Afghanistan etc. No mention about those people. Oh of course I forgot, they are not in America. The British PM has given a special new conference saying how shocked he is, but he’s never shocked by the violence in Iraq since him and his pal started it all. It’s confirmed that the gunman was of South Korean decent, so now what? Is it attack South Korea next?

Everybody has bees in their bonnets about the situation in SL. When the armed forces are defending against attacks, its violation of human rights, but when the terrorist attack, they are just playing around and having fun. The world is full of hypocrites who work on double standards. All these NGO’s who rise up and shout against supposed human rights violations in SL are keeping silent about Iraq and Afghanistan. Why? Because in those situations the human rights violations are done by the civilized world, i.e the same countries that hand out their paychecks. So of course they won’t go against the hand that feeds them now would they?

Things are unlikely to change in the near future. The powers that are will keep on dictating to those who are powerless. These hypocrites will apply their double standards to oppress those who can not stand against them and keep on helping their allies. Sadly this is how the world runs. The funny part is that they don’t even seem to notice their hypocrisy and are shocked to learn that the rest of the world hates them. It’s no wonder that terrorist organizations like Al Quida and Hamas are thriving.

The situation is similar to a story I heard at a sermon some time back: A hospital is cleaned by two cleaning ladies and is kept spot less. They work diligently at their jobs to keep the hospital as clean as possible. But their home however is the opposite. Full of garbage and unclean. My suggestion for the powers that are, try to clean your own houses first before you try to clean up other peoples houses. Sometimes you might find out that the other peoples houses are much more cleaner than yours in the first place

All of that said about the world, my sincere sympathies goes out to the families of the people killed in this incident and all the people who die everyday all around the world due to acts of violence. It is what their fate has in store for them. You can not cheat death; the only hope is to believe that death is not an end, but a beginning of a new journey.

23-01-2007

P.S.

Barely a week goes by and another shooting incident in America, this time out of all places, at NASA, by one of their engineers. The gunman goes into a building at the Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas and takes about three people hostage and later shoots one of them and then ends it all by killing himself. Police say that there was some dispute between the gunman and his victim. Since he only shot one person and himself, he didn’t get as much air time in the media unlike the Virginia Tech incident. I guess you should take out a minimum number of victims before you get prime time coverage in the media.

The undeniable truth is that human beings are violent by nature; it’s a throw back to our animal instincts. As the world became civilized, people began to suppress their violent behaviors and to use diplomacy to resolve issues. Sadly it seems as time progresses we are reverting once again back to our animal nature. The greed for money and power, coupled with poverty, stress and depression makes for an excellent recipe for disaster.

Suba Aluth Avuruddhak Wewa

Its great to wake up these days with the sweet melody of the "koha" singing by your window for he is the messenger who tells us all that the traditional Sinhalese and Tamil New Year is nigh.

According to the Sri Lankan culture the traditional Sinhala and Tamil New Year is celebrated during the month of April. Unlike the western New Year which is celebrated at the end of the calendar year on 31st of December, the Sinhala and Tamil New year is governed by astrology. This is the time according to astrology, when the sun moves from the House of Pisces (Meena Rashiya) to the house of Aries (Mesha Rashiya). It is also the season when harvesting ends, and for agricultural communities it’s a double celebration. It is basically a time for families to get together, say goodbye to the old year and greet the dawn of a new one in hopes that it will be more prosperous and joyous than the last one.

Check out Wikipedia for more details

Unfortunately in our family, we don’t follow strict traditions and rituals associated with the New Year. Main reason is that we are Christians and our ancestors were brought up and educated in the beliefs and values of the invaders. They have forgotten the traditional ways. On the other hand I don’t even follow Christian rituals either, either way I’m lost forever. Even if you don’t follow the astrological traditions, rituals and auspicious times, it’s a time we can all celebrate. It is a new beginning, a fresh start of the new and saying good bye to the old. For Buddhists it’s similar to Christmas or Thanksgiving. It’s a time for family.

The way I see it the New Year on 31st December has become a worldwide celebrations due to globalization. It’s a one big happy family and we have to stick to standard timekeeping. You can’t have one part of the world saying its 2007 while another one is saying its 1800 or something. Can you just imagine the havoc it would cause for global trading? Even though everyone celebrates the December New Year, people still celebrate their traditional New Years in grand style. These celebrations are necessary to keep the traditional cultures going, otherwise we’ll all be like clones.

More on Chinese New Year

with the season comes the shopping sprees. These days it's a menace to go on the streets, for they are chocker blocked with people. All are going on shopping sprees, buying new stuff, gifts for family and friends or just something to make your day, it's just plain mad shopping. The shops are like mad houses and sometimes you have to wait in queues to get into them. Once inside it’s another battle to actually see the merchandise and get what you want. That is why I never go shopping during the holiday season, no matter how much discounts I get. The situation is worsened by the fact that there is no space in our cities. Narrow pavements are taken over by hawkers, who build their temporary shop to the whole width of the pavement. There is no more space to walk and pedestrians are forced to walk on the road, with the threat of being run over by a vehicle. An all around pain in the neck.

In one hand we can’t put the blame wholly on these people either, because this is their livelihood and they are also trying to feed their families. The best solution is to build some kind of shopping mall, not a fancy one, but something low cost and give these people shop space for free. Then they’ll have a permanent place to sell their ware without being a nuisance to pedestrians. It’ll be convenient for the shoppers also, without having to walk on the roads, facing such hazards as dust, rain, mud splashes from vehicles and so on. They can also do their shopping in absolute comfort. I know it’s a totally utopian city that’ll never come about, but it’s nice to dream.

Well anyway, wish you all a

Happy and Prosperous New Year

Rain Oh Glorious Rain

Rain oh glorious rain
Bring down thy showers
Quench the thirst of this parched land
Revive it and return it to life!

After a long and extremely hot, dry spell, we are blessed with rain. The sun gods have been defeated and the Rain gods have won the day. It’s so refreshing to have rain drops falling on your head. I feel like dancing in the rain. Don’t worry I’m not losing it. It’s just that it feels great to be cooled down after that hot spell. Looking out through the window I see gloomy overcast skies, all ready to unleash its power. Cleanse away the dirt and sins of the people and bring in new life. By now you would’ve guessed that I’m not a big fan of the sun. The only downside is the lightning, which means electrical appliances have to be shut down at home. There is a high tendency that lightning will strike burn out something.

Saturday afternoon went for a sea bath with some friends and guess what? It started to rain. Man it was great. The sea was a bit rough and if you weren’t prepared, the waves would lift you off your feet and knock you to the ground. Got a few scrapes as a result of close encounters with the beach. I you haven’t done it, I suggest to try it out, unless of course your prone to catch a cold even by standing near the ice box. If so I suggest you stick to hot showers. I also had my fingers crossed and so far no sign of the sniffles. Lucky me.

Happy to say that there are some improvements on the Mount beach. Some good work has been done since the last time I went there. A row of trees has been planted near the fence line of the restaurants. Between the trees, concrete benches have been placed with litter bins next to them. Hat’s off to the people who came up with the idea. You’ve done a great job. The problem however is, how long will they last. How long till the litter bins are stolen and the trees uprooted. It happens because some people just don’t know how to respect public property. Let’s hope these improvements will stand the test of time. I think the restaurateurs along the beach should take up responsibility for them. If each look after the trees, benches and litter bins in front of their property, there’s no need for special maintenance or security. After all it’s in their best interest. If the beaches are clean then more people are likely to visit and the more business they will have. So buck up guys and make it your duty to maintain the beach.

On a sad note I must say the water is not that clean. Trash keeps coming in with the waves. As long as thoughtless morons keep emptying their garbage cans to the sea, it will be full of trash. They should be shot and hung. Change your ways people, change your ways.

Here’s to a few more days of gloomy weather. All hail the rain gods

Back in Business

After getting used to routine of going to work five days of the week, it’s really difficult to stay at home doing nothing. Boring as hell!!! The idiot box shows a lot of crap (I have to stick with the local channels since I don’t have cable.) Of course the cricket world cup is going on, but that’s at night so during the day there’s not much to do. Kept watching talk shows made for housewives and learned things that I have no need for. The other problem is the weather. It’s so damn hot that you feel like being inside an oven when you step outside. Curse the sun god!!! Bugger must be having dry spell or something.

Just when I thought my head was about to explode from extreme boredom, lo and behold I got a new job. Yippeee… someone upstairs must like me. Well It’s not a new job exactly, it’s the same one I had before I joined the company that went bust. So now I’m back in business.

As I mentioned before, it’s pretty hot in good old SL these days: 31C at the time of writing this and 66% humidity. On the other hand it’s ideal for the sun worshipers. I’ve said this before and say it again; SL is a very beautiful country. True that there are a lot of problems here, but if the people can change their attitudes a bit, I’m sure that we can solve these problems and make this country into what it should be like. Make it realize it’s true potential.

So in hopes of promoting tourism in SL and getting more people to, I’m proud to announce the launch of a new web site. Adez Tours. These guys are travel agents and will organize tours in Sri Lanka and help you discover. I’m extending and open invitation to all to visit our little paradise isle and enjoy to the fullest. Visit once and you’ll come back again and again. It is truly an Enchanted Island.

Jobless and Out on the Road

Well it’s a crappy…I mean really crappy time for me coz I am out of a job these days. ‘The Company’ I was working for (is still working for, since we’re not officially kicked out yet) is in trouble and they’ve decided to close down the LK production office, which means your’s truly and 65 other people are out on the road. Crappy is not the correct word for it…

Funny how things work out isn’t it? I mean here I was a week ago happily doing me job, dreaming about the future and planning things to do, and then suddenly BA-BOOM, shit falls on your head. Next thing you know you don’t have a job. The feeling is something similar to that of a man stuck in a deserted island with only one coconut tree and one morning he finds out that there are no more coconuts in that tree…terribly frustrating.

Well you can take the situation in two ways. Either think of it as a great opportunity to explore new horizons or as a hard luck case where nothings seems to go right. I like to take it in the first option. True that all can’t think like this. After all I’m young, single, free of any encumbrance, and luckily got some shillings saved over for a rainy day (to think that a few more days delay and I’d spent it on a bike…should be thankful I didn’t). But the worst affected are the people who are married and have kids and other responsibilities. They have to rely on their salaries to get through the month. For some it might be No salary No Food situation.

The employers should take responsibility for taking care of their employees. If the top management knows that the company is in trouble, then they should keep the employees duly informed. If the employees know the real situation of the company they can base their decision upon it. Who knows, maybe the employees might have brilliant ideas which can be helpful. To keep things to themselves and suddenly say that the company is in trouble and we’re kicking you next week is not the correct way. That’s the shitiest way to treat the people who worked their butt’s off to make them rich. Some of these guys were working 3 days straight to meet a project deadline. For what? Thanks for everything, we cant pay you, see ya’? Well that’s what happened.

So what am I up to these days? NOTHING. The office is till open (till lord knows when) so coming here to take the maximum use of the facilities till they last. Surfing the net for vacancies mostly, sent out some CV’s while at it, and hoping for a positive outcome. Updating the bloggie and just mindless surfing of all those site you never had time to visit. So far my situation is not desperate, but two months down the road it will be hell. Let’s keep the fingers crossed shall we.

As a great sage once said ‘Shit happens, all you can do is wipe it off and keep on walking’

So wish my self a happy job hunting…

Cheers and good luck to the other guys and gals @ office…

Love is in the air...

Hmmm… 14th of February… supposed to be an important date…
Let me see now…is it somebody’s birthday? …Nope
Some anniversary?...Not that either

oooohh yes it Valentines Day. The day of Loooove, Lovers and romance, celebrated all over the world with Chocolates, Red Roses and shiny pieces of jewllery. It’s another excuse of a day created by the corporate world to sell more stuff to gullible people and make more money. Ok…OK… By now you’ve probably guessed that I don’t have a single romantic bone in my body. Don’t blame me…blame genetics. Somewhere along the way some pieces of DNA have decided to go AWOL.

This is the day when Cupid has his work cut out for him. I wont be surprised if he take a vacation after today. The day when all the lovers make love…They exchange gifts, have romantic dinners and strive to make that special someone feel extra special. All this in the name of an obscure saint who’s life, death and connection to ‘Valentine’s’ day is shrouded in mystery. So who exactly was this guy who made an everlasting contribution to the world of romance? Without him Aphrodite, Venus and all the other goddesses and gods of love would have an off day. I suggest you read a bit more about the history of Valentine before you send your special someone a bunch of roses.

I personally don’t get the whole ‘Day of Love’ thing. It has become an overly commercialized event with corporate greed manipulating our little brain cells. As soon as the euphoria of the New Year ends the corporate world along with the media start saturating the atmosphere with thoughts of love, romance and Valentine’s day. They urge us to buy chocolates, roses, jewellery, take romantic dinners and what nots to show our girlfriend / boyfriend , spouse or significant other how much we love them. Of course the other person is also filled with certain ideas about how they should be treated on Valentines days and are expecting thee things to happen. If it doesn’t then, God help you. You’ll be on their bad books and will take a lot of work to get out of it 

However if you truly love someone, material things should not matter. It’s a matter of showing them how much they mean to you and how happy you are that they are a part of your life. Appreciating them for who they are and what they have done for you and what they will do for you. Showing your love should not be limited to one day, it should be shown everyday. It doesn’t matter if you get them a big bouquet of Roses, or expensive jewellery on Valentine’s Day if you treat them like shit the rest of the year. Don’t think that everything can be washed over by gifts on Valentine’s days.

So to all you lovers out there have a Very Happy Valentine’s Day and show that special someone how much you love them…

Love, Peace!

Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real.
Iris Murdoch (1919 - 1999)

Public Holidays

These are the days all working people in SL very eagerly wait for to get a break from their busy schedules. We probably hold the record for the highest amount of public holidays in any country. 25…yep that’s number of extra days we get to laze around and get paid for. Great isn’t it, nowhere but in good old SL.

My question is do we need all these holidays? I know some people might have drawn their daggers and ready to kill me for saying something so sacrilegious. Hold on to your horses for a minute and think about it. Well there’s a good side and a bad side to it. For one thing it does cause a bit of a headache when dealing with the international community. Even though you’re on holiday it doesn’t mean that they are. It maybe your clients, customers, suppliers or even your bosses, and they keep on working on these days. When you come back the next day your inbox is filled up with messages that it takes the whole day to go through them. There’s another day wasted. Even if we make our schedules and timelines to incorporate these holidays, it does have some kind of impact on productivity. And sometimes people do have to work on these days to accommodate other people involved. After all we are all ‘interconnected’ these days.

It’s true that most of the holidays are for religious reasons, but truthfully how many really spend the whole day doing religious observances. Couple of hour’s maybe, but some doesn’t even do that. I know there are some people who are religious and make use of these holidays in a religious manner and I offer my apologies to them. But most are quiet the opposite. The best we can expect is going out with friends or eat and sleep the whole day. A couch potatoes’ heaven. Some people have of course have found a loophole to get some more money out of their employers. They put off working during the normal days and come to work on holidays to catch up with it. Dedicated employees you might think, but far from it. They only come because they can claim overtime for it which means the companies are paying them twice. And they are not even doing extra work; it is work that could have been completed during the normal work days. But who has time for work when you have two hour lunch breaks, one hour tea breaks and hallway gossip sessions going on. So many things to do and so little time.

My idea is that these holidays be made optional except for the most important of the holidays. The others should be added to the holiday allowance given to employees. This way if someone wants to take a holiday on that day they can, otherwise they can take it some other day that’s convenient for them. This way they have more holidays to take when they really want it. Eventually they’ll be more productive instead of wasting their time on a holiday which they don’t need. For the truly religious they are more than welcome to take the holidays on these days. Otherwise you can accumulate all your holidays and take an extended vacation for about a month or so. Take a good long break and go somewhere far away. Does you a world of good.

Things maybe not like that in the real world but we can still enjoy the holiday. But let’s make it a point to do something useful and not waste it.

Woes of Public Transport

I was riding the bus the other day (like I’ve been doing everyday the whole of my life) and was wondering what utter chaos it is.

If you are among the unlucky masses, like yours truly, who doesn’t have their own private transportation devices such as a car, motorcycle or even a moped, the only means of getting around is to use the instruments of public transportation. In my case these are mostly buses and three-wheelers. After relying on these for all my life, it’s a sin not to write a few words about them.

First of all there are the busses. They provide as much comfort as riding an earthmover. Most of them are basically lorries with seats and railings stuck in. Well at least they have cushioned seats. Some use this neat little trick to load more passengers by setting the seats closer together. The idea being that they can put in more seats in the limited length of the bus. The more seats, the more passengers you can load up. The result of this is that nobody above four feet can sit on them without getting pains afterwards. If you have long legs you have to be a contortionist to get a ride sitting down. Your upper body looks straight on while you lower body is twisted and hanging out in the aisle. If you’re not lucky to get a seat then you’ll have to hang on to something and do a balancing act at the same time. All bus drivers have this wonderful talent of getting a bus stop without slowing down. 60 to 0 in 0 seconds. Unless your holding on tight you’ll be still going forward when the buses stops or have an intimate moment with the floor. It all becomes much more fun during rush hour. You get to ride cramped up with a whole bunch of strangers packed up like sardines in a tin. Errant elbows sticking you in sensitive places, stampedes on your foot, BO and other assorted smells…oh yes what fun it is. And the conductors are true magicians themselves. No matter how packed the bus is they still manage to load more passengers inside. They prefer to think of the bus as having an infinite amount of space. The four walls of the bus is just a trick of the mind you see, it’s all in the head of the passenger and the conductors know the truth. Of course people who are blind to this fact get the life squashed out of them. Oh well life goes on…

So until the day I get my own device of transportation (don’t see that happening anytime soon the way they are raising prices. Just when you think enough saved up the prices go up…oh well that’s entirely another story) I plan to get myself an armour suite and keep on riding the busses…

Cheers!!!