Bradby Weekend '08 - Kandy

Bradby weekend began on Friday. Not that we were leaving for Kandy on Friday, just that the drinking was due to start on Friday. Rooftop's place, some herbs and Arrack while listening to the Black Hawk Down soundtrack, which I must say is awesome for when you are relaxed to the max. Another thing that helps is the Windows Media Player visualizations on a nice LCD widescreen. Trust me when I say that the aforementioned ingredients blend to make the perfect relaxing trip on a Friday.

We left Rooftop's place to attend a friend's I need to get pasted once more before I get married party. Rowing club. Nuff said.

Spoke to Lee on Saturday morning and it turned out that it was only the two of them that were traveling to Kandy. I hitched a ride to Kandy in their SUV, which is an awesome ride. The air conditioning in that is off the hook; it even has an individual control for the back. What more can I ask for. Reached Kandy and headed for KFC. Because I was starving and I had a craving for KFC. Went to the hotel, had a shower and waited for the boys to show up. Boys came, smoked some herbs and went for the match. Appalling. All they needed was to get the basics right - like holding on to the ball, passing it etc. If that had happened we could have crushed those Kandy boys. But no. We didn't. It was bad enough that we had a crappy team with indisciplined players on and off the field, the referee had to go call off a perfectly good try because he thought it was knocked forward. Shame. Technically this means that Royal won. That's for all the guys in the other school who don't understand the significance of the disallowed try.

After match, usual scene. Cargills booze joint. The beginning of the end was when the magician decided to by a bottle of Tequila. Yeah.. Camino Gold. The lethelest shit I've ever had. After drinking lots of Arrack, magician decides to open the bottle of Tequila. I called room service and asked for shot glasses. They said that they don't have. Meanwhile a round of shots off the lid of the bottle took everybody by storm. Almost everyone refused shot number 2, especially when they saw it coming in a normal water glass. Magician drinks half and passes the it around. Some take sips. I get left with about 100ml. I down it. This happens once, twice, three times. four times. OMG! I'm fucked. Err... @*#&(@$(@&*&$#&^$%^^. Shut down. Suicide by Tequila. That was it for me. I woke up in the morning to find that I'd gone to the toilet and puked and sat in a corner like a crack addict. This bit I don't remember. It seems like I properly passed out. Damned shame. The rest of the night had been lots of fun and I had to miss out.

Sunday breakfast. Drink. Drink. Drink. I stopped but four others drank drank drank till 6 in the evening. We left. I drove. Met a VIP motorcade on the way back. Followed. Saved us about an hour. That's the way to travel. I think I want one. I need people in a pickup truck in front of me, wearing a single white glove shoving people off the road. Or a Helicopter. Either is fine. So that was that. One of the best trips ever. One of the best Bradby trips ever at least. It keeps getting better. How is that possible? I have no idea. Oh, and BTW, four of our boys hit OTSC and showed the Kandy boys how to party. Kudos to them.

I think this post belongs in the personal blog, but WTF, it's an event. So...

Integrating Digg to Blogger

I'm sure most of you are aware on how to integrate a Digg This button to your website. However it did take me some time to figure out how to add the button in line with my posts. Hence, I thought I'd share this information with anyone who doesn't know or isn't aware of how to integrate the submit button in to their blogger posts.

Why Digg? A central location for web content where users can bookmark and Digg stories that they think are important. The shitty ones won't make it to the front page and the best ones will be dugg the most. Simple really.

The guys at digg have this to say about why you should put a digg button next to your original content.

The Digg This button is for website and blog publishers that want to encourage their audience to submit or digg their content on Digg. Join thousands of sites that have already added Digg This and seen their content exposed to the Digg community.

Simply copying and pasting the code that's given on the site doesn't allow the post content to wrap around it nicely. Instead it just sits at the top of your post, looking a little out of place. While browsing around on how to do this, I came across this blog that tells you how to do it.

Happy digging!

A cloth BMW...

I came across this piece of news while reading this blog. We've know about fiberglass and carbon fiber and sometimes even Kevlar being used for the body of the car. Main reasons being the reduction in weight, which translates in to going faster or saving fuel. Now add cloth to that list too. This Beemer is a concept, but an insane concept.




Is that cool or what? Imagine how light this car is going to be? And instead of honking at the hot chics on the street, you could wink at them with your headlamps. How cool is that!

There's a full story about this in the Daily Mail, 13 June 08.

Bradby Weekend '08 - Colombo

Image from The Voice of IRC
It's that time of the year again; summer holidays and Bradby. There's little significance to anyone who isn't a Royalist or a Trinitian. For those of us who are, it's another excuse to watch sports and indulge in some madness.

It all started on Friday when a few of us got together on a friend's rooftop to chillout with some beers and herbs. Long story short - I had too much beer, then some wine, then some Arrack, some herbs in between and passed out. Gave everyone a scare. I wanted to tell them that I was OK, but the words didn't make it out of my head. Saturday started around 9.30 am, when mother woke me up to find out whether I'm gonna have tea or not. I headed for SSC after lunch and met the boys outside and we walked to Royal. The match sucked-ass cause Royal played a stupid ass game. I wouldn't be sorry if they played well and got beaten. But they pretty much handed the game to the Trinitians. Crap. Feeling a little upset about the whole match, three of us headed to Sugathadasa to watch the Maldives Vs. India football game. We ended up in the Maldives tent, which was packed with Rasta looking guys and a few hot chics. One girl was stunning. Absolutely stunning! Those Maldivians are hardcore when it comes to football. They keep cheering non-stop. The women too. Just screaming their guts out. The atmosphere was brilliant and we ended up cheering the Maldives too. They won! Finally something going our way.

White horse was next on the list and we settled down with some drinks and toast. Around 11ish I realized that my eyes were smarting and we decided to head downstairs. The lights were out and everything was cleaned up. 11pm on a Saturday night at Horse. WTF? Then we were asked not to keep the bottle because they're closed and it's past 11pm. Double WTF? We sit in a dark corner and have a chat with the guy behind the bar. He tells us an amazing story. Friday the 13th, White Horse was open for business and it's the start of summer, hence all the little boys and girls who've gone off to uni are down. Horse is packed full of kids and whoever else; having a good time as usual. Cops walk in at 11pm. Tell the bar guys to shut it down cause they believe there's a -- get this -- a tiger (LTTE) in the bar (What? did he come to have one last pisser before blowing himself up?). A bus drives up and parks in front of the bar. Cops line everyone up and start checking their IDs. Some get loaded on to the bus, some are free to go. I guess all the diplomat's kids and the few people of legal drinking age were free to go. Everyone else got loaded on to the bus along with the bartenders and waiters. Some of the Tamil waiters, even though they had their ID, gramasevaka certificate and were registered at the police had to spend the night in jail because they were "suspicious persons". These events led to the bar closing at 11pm, at least the next day, until some strings are pulled and shit like that never happens. Bad for business you know? Also pisses me off because I pay taxes now and this kinda shit just doesn't fly! (Period!!!!)

We finish our drinks and tell them that we are ready to leave. They say we have to leave through the back door. OK. so we go upstairs and we are instructed to jump over a kitchen counter. Had we drunk as much as we usually do I doubt we'd have left the place. But we hadn't and we managed it and headed to Holiday Inn. Chilled at the Oasis bar for a bit and went for "Prescription" at Club Nuovo. The music was tripping. Elektro house. There were too many boys and not enough girls. There were very few good looking girls. We left. Zanziba was packed packed and overflowing. But we managed squeeze in and have a drink, another drink and another drink and another...

Left for Nuovo at about 5.30ish. Fewer people. Elektro House. More drinks. Dance. Waved arms and legs in weird fashion. Looked at watch - 7am. Call threewheeler guy. Got home! Crashed! Work up late in the afternoon.

Another one for the books. Another Bradby weekend in Colombo. A different one. A different year and different experience. Love it.

FreeQ - Its about choice and equality

Image stolen from Facebook event page.

Speaking to one of the organizers of the event, it appears that WSG is a lot more than just women. They help with a whole range of issues including gender discrimination and problems with sexual minorities. There seems to be a sense of hatred towards people who aren't like us. It's not for us to judge. Everyone has the right to choose.

Due to time constraints, I'll include some details from WSG:

The group has helped a number of women in the past few years, in particular, women who have had problems from their families and employment. In addition, the WSG has also supported women who have had legal problems due to their gender identity.

One of the main obstacles LBT women face is stigma and discrimination. To raise awareness in the community regarding these issues, the WSG conducts awareness raising workshops on sexual health, sexuality and sexual rights. The WSG also maintains links with many women's rights organizations and human rights organizations, both locally and internationally, so that we can work to pave the way for LGBT rights to be included in the overall human rights agenda.

So go support a worthy cause and help support the economic empowerment and social empowerment of women. It's also to create a society where women can live there lives free of violence and the threat of violence from families and society and enjoy a healthy life and contribute to society in a productive way.

Even if you aren't going to make it because it's the night of the biggest schools Rugby encounter, Call that number and see if you can contribute. Its a good cause. Why not help?


Facebook Event page is here. Check it out for more details.

More Cheese Required!

Found an interesting article this morning
on decision making and cheese. Read this article for the full story. The article basically states that high levels of the brain chemical serotonin helps people make decisions more rationally than those with a less amount of the chemical.

"Scientists have found that people with high levels of the brain chemical serotonin are more likely to succeed in delicate negotiations affecting their own interests. Serotonin is manufactured in the body from the amino acid, tryptophan, which is present in several foods – and cheese is a particularly good source."

While reading through the article I couldn't help but think of the number of Sri Lankan's who need more cheese. Have you ever asked anyone to decide on something? It can be something as simple as food, but they never make a decision. If you ask a friend what they want for dinner, they almost always say "anything machang". What are we supposed to do with that information? You don't want to buy what you like for him/her cause he/she may not like, although they said they'd have anything. My theory after reading this is to buy a cheese sandwich for them.

Is it our culture, the way we have been brought up? Is it because all our lives we grew up with people who are indecisive and who aren't entirely honest about their feelings. It's seldom we come a across a guy/girl who can instantly weigh the pros and cons of the situation and make a decision. I believe its the fact that we've been freaking spoon fed everything all our lives and never really had to make a decision, ever. Say we get people to weigh the pros and the cons and make a decision, if that decision blows up in their face, they rarely take ownership of it. When we make a decision, how often do we wonder what the probabilities of failure are or what the consequences are. Most often we do NOT. Bad scene.

So whether you got cheese or not, here are a few tips on making quick and rational decisions.
- Define the problem and break it down in to smaller pieces.
- Detach yourself from the problem when you analyze it (easier said than done, but once mastered, it changes everything).
- Leave emotions aside for the time being.
- Look for options. Look for alternate solutions that can be used instead of the obvious one. Decide on the best option in terms of money/time/amount of work etc.,
- What risks? What are the outcomes? How badly does it affect you?
- If it doesn't work, are you prepared to be accountable for it?

Well thats some of the things that I use to make my decisions. It's worked so far. I think the last question is a very important one. Are you willing to take responsibility in case of failure? If you've already thought this through, should you have made a bad decision, it will be easier for you to take responsibility for it.

What are your thoughts? Do tell...