..::Scourge!

Hop on the Social Media Bandwagon

2010-03-08T16:52:00.002+05:30

A friend spoke to me over the weekend about creating a social media (SM) application like Facebook as a product for Sri Lanka. I've been meaning to write about the trend towards creating SM apps and then hoping they'll boom like Facebook. Unfortunately the harsh truth is that its not going to happen. By 2010 Facebook has managed to pass MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, Orkut, hi5 and everyone else out there. Although the facts are clear, there are plenty of entrepreneurs creating SM apps that are similar to Facebook and trying to make money off it. The obvious issue is that for a SM site to be successful, loads of people need to register, like it enough to sign in everyday and have things to do when they've signed in. So, should you create your own SM app or jump on Facebook and get your stuff done.

There is no point in creating just another SM app. If you want to create an app that involves social networking, target a niche or bring something revolutionary to the table. Facebook has grabbed the market with their clean and simple interface and ever evolving set of features. Another reason you don't want to create just another SM app is because people are already on Facebook and Twitter and maybe MySpace, they aren't going to manage anymore SM sites.

So what's my advice as someone who works with Facebook, Google and Yahoo on a daily basis? It is to use the hardwork that Facebook has done over the years to your advantage. Since they've managed to get all the people in the world to use their application, use this fact to your advantage; use the pages, advertising, marketplace, groups and everything else to sell your stuff. I'll come up with some suggestions in the near future on how you can use Facebook to your advantage.

Online ordering in Sri Lanka?

2009-12-28T09:49:00.002+05:30

Simple online ordering for food is finally here. Sit in the comfort of your home or the convenience of your office and have food from your favorite restaurant delivered to your doorstep.

It was recently launched and is almost out of beta. The product works fine and I've ordered delicious Harpo's Pizzas on several occasions and it works. There are many more restaurants in the pipe line including Pilawoos.

The app is fast and smooth, payments work fine, although HSBC/Global Payments spent very little time on their interface, the thing works like a charm. Best part about FastOrder is that you can pay online or pay when you have it delivered or pick it up. Payment problems solved ne?

Ubuntu 9.04 -- Jaunty Jackalope

2009-09-15T13:49:00.007+05:30

Finally made the switch and I love it. So far. The user experience is pretty cool and damn smooth. Best of all it comes with everything, drivers, apps you name it. Installing stuff is a breeze, once you figure out how it's done.

Forgive the initial enthusiasm and the n00b comments about the OS. This is the first time I am seriously using an OS other than Windows. I installed 8.04 before and had some issues with the system crashing when I play some music or watch a video. Youtube and stuff works but I couldn't watch a Youtube video and play another audio track... you get the drift; little issues like that.

The only downside so far is that I cannot access Office 2007. Well I can after installing wain... but you know, I'm lazy and I'd like to have it running, just like everything else. Open office is good for everyday stuff, but not so good for fancy stuff, especially for creating cool presentations.

The Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope version is great and so far the advantages far outweigh the issues and big up for the developers who create a system like this and then give it away for free. wow!

Do you like to fetish?

2009-07-13T14:32:00.003+05:30

I recently wrote about a friend's girlfriend who got random messages from boys on Facebook. Well ICT is certainly changing the way boys in Sri Lanka do things. A friend of mind shared with me a random stranger's skype pick-up line: The conversation is below. My friend played along just to have a laugh, afterall it's not everyday that a stranger asks you whether you like to fetish.

[1:25:05 PM] Random Boy says: Hi, Do u like to fetish?

[1:56:22 PM] Skurj's Friend says: what did you have in mind?

[1:57:44 PM] Random Boy says: fetish

[1:57:58 PM] Random Boy says: i like ladies with makeup,highheels,stockings..etc

[1:59:22 PM] Skurj's Friend says: i like too. do you wear makeup, high-heels stockings etc?

[1:59:36 PM] Random Boy says: i m a male

[1:59:54 PM] Random Boy says: i like to see females with those

[1:59:59 PM] Random Boy says: get me fired

[2:00:57 PM] Random Boy says: sorry i m so straight

[2:01:04 PM] Random Boy says: i m searching a lady who likes fetish

[2:02:19 PM] Skurj's Friend says: but i'm also straight. i like males who wear highheels, stockings, makeup etc

[2:02:24 PM] Skurj's Friend says: will you wear for me?

[2:02:46 PM] Random Boy says: ohh sorry i mnot taht kind :)

[2:03:29 PM] Skurj's Friend says: shame

[2:03:48 PM] Random Boy says: about?

[2:03:57 PM] Skurj's Friend says: you not wearing all of the above

[2:04:06 PM] Random Boy says: he he

[2:04:15 PM] Random Boy says: ladies wearings

So what's the deal? Must be the economy, lack of jobs and maara frustration. Must also be the heat. Haven't seen much rain recently no? So, errm, who among you would like "fetish" with me?? hmm?

SEO, SMM, SEM and all these new Acronyms

2009-07-07T11:16:00.005+05:30

"Here, Kumara, we need to work on a new strategy. I recently read that we must do SEO and Social Media and also some Search engine marketing if we are to stay in the game. So do that ok? I want results. NOW!" Is a line, or something similar to a line that's heard in many offices around the world and Sri Lanka is no different. There's a plethora of articles, news releases about SEO, SMM and SEM being mandatory for an organisations survival and imperative to achieve a competative advantage. So spend your entire IT budget on SEO, SEM and SMM. It might be wise for you to do some research yourself before handing over a contract to some "reputed" organization to do these things for you.

A few things about SEO, SEM and SMM that might be useful to you, if you are trying to implement these strategies are:

a) SEO is FREE.
SEO means Search Engine Optimization. This means you create your site in order to maximize it's presence on people's search terms. There is no point in adding all the keywords under the sun, becuase at the end of the day, you want qualified traffic, not random people visiting a site that they don't want to see. These visitors will demote your listing on Google etc., if they don't think you are relevant. The first thing to do is to get your house in order. Add title tags, meta tags, meta content that is meaningful and not a list of keywords. Search spiders today are smart enough to see through these age old tactics. Add h1 and h2 tags to important headings in your content without simply making them bold. Spiders recognize these things and map words within the Header tags to keywords.

Try to keep your site upto date and loaded with meaningful and fresh content. One way to do this is by maintianing a blog under your domain and ideally have someone update relavant, fresh content about three times a week. Don't add rubbish and spam links. Link to important sites and if your content is good enough you'd get links back automatically. Speaking of blogs and links, comment on other blogs within the same business/interest domain. This will also give you links back and create visibility.

These are the first steps any SEO guy or company would tell you. Read. Search the internet and read up on these things. No one really knows what the hell SEO is about. It's all practice, reading and testing. So go read up about SEO and you'll be a pro in no time. Try not to fall in to traps set by organizations telling you that they can get your site to number 1 on Google within a month. Even you can do it, simply type the name of your company and you'll be number 1 on google or any other search engine.

b) SMM is not MAGIC
Social media marketing is NEW. Mostly due to this whole Facebook, MySpace, Twitter craze. SMM isn't going to magically increase your traffic or sales. It will however create buzz and awareness. There isn't a concrete method yet to calculate your ROI on SMM so don't be too hasty to hire an organization that specializes in Social Media Marketing yet. Like using your company blog, you can create a twitter account and start following people who have the same type of interest as you do and keep tweeting once or twice a day. Keep it human and don't simply put product or service updates. People get bored of reading that. Also include links of news or other stories that you may find useful. You can use Facebook pages, Profiles and Groups to create awareness as well. I shall save that for another post. Again the best thing to do is to read up on SMM yourself, before you go spending your hard earned money on someone who will pretty much do the same things that you would.

c) SEM ain't a key to millions of $
Most people assume that SEM is the key to gaining unbelievable amounts in terms of sales volume. Afterall it does give you access to the whole world and a click is only $0.25 or so right? What's there to lose?I'll tell you, you could lose your entire company. SEM requires 24/7 monitoring, lowering and increasing your bid. Slacking off here will leave you with a massive bill and if you earn your money in Rupees, you are pretty much done for. If you are going to invest in SEM, it might be worth hiring an in-house guy with some experience. But I wouldn't reccomend outsourcing it. You need to have control over your ads and your bids. Google and Yahoo aren't the only things. There are many more. So it maybe wise to do some research and split your ad budget accordingly.

I'll have more on this stuff soon, along with a few links and such so that you guys can gain some knowledge. It's great fun and very active, so if you are an online marketing kinda guy, it maybe helpful.

Irony

2009-06-30T12:00:00.002+05:30

First click on the image and check out the big one. Read the text. If you can't read sinhala, too bad cause I don't have time to translate. Basically, it talks about the slaughter of cattle for meat and how cruel it is etc, and how we should refrain from eating beef. WTF? these are the same people who had no issues about slaughtering human beings. I personally know people who said "Kill em all. Carpet bomb the whole north, they are all tigers anyway". Same jokers say that salughter of a living being is a sin. They swear by saying "we promise not to kill a living being". So errm... yeah! Besides steak is yum! Beef curry is awesome.

Also, fish and chicken are also living beings so errm, I'm not sure how you come up with the theory that eating cows is more sinful or sinful as opposed to eating chicken, fish, pork or mutton.

I don't get it. I also don't get how you can be so concerned about cows and not at all concerned about a human life! It's just beyond me.

Say NO to private medical schools

2009-06-18T10:31:00.002+05:30

I don’t get Sri Lankan Universities. Have you seen the posters around town about private medical schools? WTF? Would it not be better to have the people who can afford it go to a private school in Sri Lanka than to have them go abroad and stay and work there? Would it not be better provide smart kids with a zest for medicine the opportunity to pursue their dreams without having to shell out over Rs. 2 mil a year on tuition fees alone?

Then there’s the point about these jokers leaving the country. I recently caused a bit of chaos with a twitter update that called people who take advantage of free education and go abroad to work WANKERS! Most people thought I was referring to public schools that also provide free education. Unfortunately that too falls under the same theme, but those folks who left the country after high-school to work or study did so because of the lack of options in the motherland. When I did tweet this, I was referring to the jokers who go to university here and then fuckoff to work in other countries. I’m ashamed to say that I personally know a few people who graduate from med-school this year, who plan to leave the country to work in hospitals elsewhere. They’ve been in medical college for the past seven or eight years. I pay taxes, and since of late income tax and the works, so I like to think that some of my money paid for these buggers’ education. So I would expect some return for it. I certainly did not pay for them to study here and serve other fellows abroad, you dig?

If someone paid for your education it is your duty to serve that person at least for a period of time. It’s the right thing to do. I do understand that the wages suck and after eight years of hard work, you wanna make some money. Why not make a scene about that? Why not paste posters raising this issue? Why not campaign for higher wages instead of campaigning for NO PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES?

There are a lot of smart kids who don’t ace their Advanced Level exams for various reasons. Just because you didn’t get 3 A’s it doesn’t mean you can’t have a university education. What are they afraid of? That the guys who are smarter and have more common sense than them will go places if they get a university degree from a private university?

What pisses me off the most is the losers who take advantage of the free education (university) and then piss off to serve somewhere else. If that’s what you are going to do, then shut the fuck up about private universities. It’s the government’s duty to ensure the standards for education are met. Other than that private universities should be allowed. At least these folks will hang around and do some work unlike the two-bit-two-faced-ball-less-cocksuckers who eat free and don’t even pay for dessert.

Dialog Sigh!

2009-06-01T10:07:00.004+05:30

Is Dialog Telekom in a panic or have the hired the wrong people for the wrong positions? What mess they seem to be making. The re-branding is a real sham and that bloody website is utter cock. Who on earth makes such a huge transformation almost overnight? You honestly expect your customers to adapt to your new flow so soon? Doesn't the person in charge know that it's gonna take while for customers to get used to the new site? And who on earth was the architect? Try finding something specific like the price of a phone or tariffs. The whole site is a mess.

Then there's the aspect of customer services, which is absolutely horrible. They've changed their policy on barring phone lines for not paying the bill. Apparently, if you don't pay your bill consistently, as soon as it is over Rs. 500 they're gonna disconnect your line. This maybe true because my mom's phone was disconnected when her outstanding was Rs. 900 on package with a credit limit of Rs. 15K. She didn't bother paying because the outstanding amount was only 900. Anyway, the bill was paid and it took over 48hrs for the line to be re-connected. When customer services was contacted regarding the line not being connected, 24hrs after having paid the bill, the conversation went a little something like this:

Me: The phone number is 777 xxx xxx
CS: Thanks. Ok sir there is an outstanding of Rs. 970.
Me: Yes. But the credit limit is like 15K
CS: Yes, sir but this outstanding has not been paid.
Me: Yes. That's why it's outstanding. And it's 900 on a 15K account, why do I wanna pay now?
CS: That's the new policy sir.
Me: What's the new policy?
CS: You have to pay the bill. [really? wasn't that the policy all along?]
Me: [sigh] ok fine. Now why isn't it connected yet?
CS: Take about 2 hours for the line to be connected sir.
Me: Really, 2 hours ah? So how come this line is not connected yet?
CS: Once you pay the bill, if the line is disconnected, you have to wait for 2 hours.
Me: So what does your system say? Have I paid or not?
CS: I'm checking that now. [pause] yes sir you have paid.
Me: Does it say when I paid?
CS: Sir, now since you have paid it'll take 2 hours to connect.
Me: [Losing my cool]. Listen buddy, I paid yesterday. Doesn't your system indicate that? So it's a lot more than 2 hours. So please shut up about the 2 hours. I don't care about your 2 hours, can you just connect the line.
CS: oh sorry sir, in that case I will put a note on the system for the line to be connected immediately.
Me: Why do you have to put a note ... [giveup] never mind. bye.
CS: Thank you for calling dialog.... [beeep] [fuck!]

This is the shit. I mean who are these people? Aren't these calls monitored? Then I noticed on their website a listing for Dialog BPO. Are you kidding me? Who in their right mind would entrust their customer services to these jokers? I mean would you pay to have your hard earned customers call monkey's like this to solve their problems. Really? I know what you're thinking, you are thinking this was just one fool who fucked up the reputation of the whole company. I say NO this is not the first time for me and it's happened to a lot of people. And I doubt it was this same 2-hours-joker who answered the phone all those times. I also have this other issue, about someone fraudulently purchasing a connection under my name. Which sucks balls and the lady who's handling my complaint is retarded. I will write about that soon. That takes the cake. It's hilarious.

Is it really over?

2009-05-18T18:49:00.000+05:30

I haven't seen this many Sri Lankan flags on the street in a long
time; in fact I don't think I've ever seen this many flags in a day.
All good. People are cheering the victory won by the government
forces, the reclamation of land and the death of the rebel leader. it
is unfortunate that the method used to achieve this milestone wasn't
entirely right. Many innocents lost their lives, many human rights
were violated and quite a bit of crime committed by the state. Yet its
done. Fin. Or is it?

In my opinion it isn't. This is merely the fall of one of the most
ruthless terrorist groups in the world. But the core issue of granting
equal rights to all minorities and treating each other with respect
and dignity is yet an issue. Many people today still identify tamil
people as tamil tigers. Tamil people are people just like you and I
and deserve the same rights that we enjoy. I hope this day marks the
beginning of a new era; an era that signifies rights to all Sri Lankan
people no matter what their surname is.

I hope the people of this country realize that this war was not ended
by fighting fair or according to the way a responsible state should
conduct itself. And I hope they learn from this and ensure that they
don't indulge in stupid supremacist, racist ways that induce a
minority to take up arms and demand a separate state like in 1983,
when one man said "enough is enough".

I hope the Sri Lankan people will finally mature, apologise to the
people that they have caused so much hurt to and learn to accept each
other as people of Sri Lanka. We boast of 2550 years of civilization
and a country that follows the path of Buddha, so how about we walk
the walk from now on?

P.S. I'm on my way home and listening to the radio and their petty
blame games and an eye for an eye attitude doesn't give me much hope.
When will they grow up?

--
Sent from my mobile device

Finding a mate on Facebook

2009-04-01T23:44:00.005+05:30

Times have changed from when you had to go out, hangout at places where chics hangout and try to pick up a girl. In Sri Lanka this usually meant bus stops, tuition classes and shopping malls. Nothing said I love you like passing a chit to a nice girl in a tuition class asking her out or walking up to random girls at the bus stop and asking her whether she'd like to be in a relationship or hanging out at a shopping mall and asking out girls who walk by. It stuns me how bold our youth can be. I remember the time when I went for one biology tuition class and the boys used to either pass chits or simply walk up to a girl and get down to business. No hey, how you doing? or wanna grab a coffee after class? or hey what's up?. It's straight to oya mata kamathida? or oya maath ekka yaalu wenna kamathida?. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Sinhalese terms, it means do you like me? and would you like to be my girlfriend. I never had the balls to do this. Probably why I'm still single. Anyway, the point of this post is that a friend of mine shared with me a few messages his girlfriend got on Facebook. Unlike back in the day when you had to sit and write chits and make sure it gets to the right girl or walk up to girl and ask her to be your girlfriend, facebook and other social media have made things much easier. This was too hilarious for me to keep to myself, so I just had to do what's right and share.

Message 1:
Subject: Boy friend
Message: Iam [name].Mage school eka ananda college.Iam in grade 13.Mama oyage photo eka dakka.Oya hari beautiful.Oya kamatida math ekka yalu wenawata.

Like my boss says re: email campaigns, you gotta drive the benefit to the recipient in the subject line. Looks like this dude is way ahead of his time.

Message 2:
Subject: Hi
Message: i want to know about u more i am [name] and busness man in Ampara i Am live in Kandy Waththegama so i like to know u plz [phone number] or [email address] and i alredy finish my BCS Digree in regarding IT so if interested for it i think i can help u my company name "[company name]" it s inports computer from Singupore for Eastern Province in Sri LAnka Kalmunai, Ampara, Batty,SAmmanthurai , like that area .

There was another message, which said something like I really really really want to be your boyfriend. I can't remember it and she has deleted it. I just remember the three reallys.

It really isn't much fun being a guy. I've never gotten messages this funny. Ever. So what's the deal, do you have to get straight down to business or do you have to do as normal people do and have coffee and dinner and tea and movies etc? Seen only in Sri Lanka methinks...

Btw, these messages are totally real and have been copy-pasted word for word. The names, phone numbers and email addys have been removed. Even I'm not that cruel.

Burying your own business

2009-03-11T09:52:00.004+05:30

Don't people learn? Ever? One of the organizations I've worked closely with have run themselves in to the ground. It's not a huge conglomerate or a fortune 500 company, which is why it shouldn't have ended this way. Why? Global economic downturn? NO. Local intellectual downturn, thats why. When will people understand that spending thousands of dollars on online advertising and spending thousands more on "test" campaigns will result in running out of money? It happened in a big way when the dot com bubble burst. Few survived and many jobs were lost, many dreams shattered. Why the hell do we still do the same? WHY? Because people still haven't learned to think for themselves and weigh the pros and cons. People also seemingly want to get rich quick and the internet like any other method of doing business is no different; there's no get rich quick policy; unless of course you are Mark Zuckerberg (thats the guy behind Facebook). What happened? Let me tell you.

They launched a site last year. Although they've been doing business for a while, it's the first time they brought their presence online. The concept was great and provided a brilliant product. It was great. What was needed was some awareness, user experiences, some tweaks and it would have made millions in the next three years or so. There's the problem, they couldn't wait three years. They thought that if you spend ~~about twenty thousand dollars~~ a lot of money a month on online advertising alone you'll achieve a whole bunch of sales and become millionaires in three months. Not true. Online advertising is not magic. Not even with Google. It just doesn't work that way. Content, trust, reputation all these come in to play and simply telling people that its out there with money that you don't have isn't going to make a difference either. You need to work with what you have look at lesser margins, hard work and smart advertising will get you there in a few years. You gotta plan ahead and make sure you have money to operate, pay salaries and be in business. What to do? People reap what they sow. Any aspiring organizations trying to make it big on the net, regardless of how good your product or service is, ad spending isn't going to make it a star or a cash cow. Work hard and smart to build your brand. Work with smaller margins initially and spend what you can on ads. Ads don't magically drive buyers to your site. Don't expect big conversions at the start simply because you pay for it.

My next issue is to do with Airtel. Good job on getting their services going and getting their foot in the door. However, one thing they probably missed out is the opportunity to provide better customer service than the existing providers. Airtel's staff at customer service is unfortunately quite incompetent. Maybe I am being too tough with a new company, but the thing is that I've heard they provide an excellent service in India, and my expectation was for them to at least get the basics right. Give me a decent telephone connection. The fact that they issued faulty SIMs at the start is an unforgivable error. One does not enter an already saturated market and issue faulty SIMs. If you are going to talk about simple plans you better freakin' provide a simple plan. I shifted to Airtel for two reason's a) because I can't get a SIM from Dialog until the so-called investigation is complete. b) I'm tired of the shitty customer service I got with them. Even when I bought my phone the sales guy issued the bill in his name, instead of mine. WTF?

So there you go, a few lessons for us to learn from. Crap ass shit in this crap ass global economy. Until we rectify this crisis, good luck with your jobs and keep partying.

Internet Explorer Experience!

2009-01-23T00:11:00.003+05:30

Damn this shit! Seriously. It sucks. And not in little bits or just annoying, it sucks a lot. It sucks balls. IE is probably the worst piece of software to come out of Microsoft. Who the fuck is on the IE dev team? The worst devs at Microsoft? How can you develop something as complex as Windows for over a decade and not be able to develop a browser that can show you a web page properly? Hmm?

Why the sudden browser-war rant? Well, since my laptop's hard drive crashed I've been using my dad's notebook in the nights to do my work. It doesn't have Firefox, but it does have Chrome, which is a saving grace. But the problem comes when I try to use iContact to send out the weekly newsletters. The application part of the iContact page is not supported in Chrome. So I have to use IE to create the email. There's some problem with the rich text formatting, not on the site, but when used with IE. It works fine in Firefox and I usually send the email out in a few minutes. But today it took me close to half an hour, why? Allow me to elaborate:

Open IE. Takes forever. Wait for it to load whatever cause no matter how many times you press ESC it doesn't quit. IE Loads. Go to iContact. Wait for the page to load. Log in. Wait some more. Wait for App to load. App loads. Copy and paste text for email (as I usually do). Format. Select Heading for the Headings. Body becomes heading too. Select the body bit and click on Normal. The body paragraph below it becomes formatted as a heading. Select that and click on Normal. Everything becomes formatted as a Heading. Select the body bits and make them normal. Phew. Looks good. Click on preview and there are like a million breaks between paragraphs. Go back and try to fix. Body bits become Heading. Fix. Heading bits also become body bits. Fix. Check preview. More breaks. Fix. And so on and so on and so on.............

I finally give up. Keep the formatting. To hell with the breaks. Send a test mail. Check mail, it looks fine. WTF? Seriously, WTF?

How do people who don't know about other browsers work? Are they OK with IE cause they haven't experienced Firefox or Opera or Chrome or Safari or anything else? Or do they get paid by the hour for the work they do? Cause when it comes to browsers, IE is still the most used. WHY? HOW?

People should have the option to select which browser they want with their operating system. Not be stuck with junk. Windows is a fine operating system, albeit a little crazy sometimes, but that's only cause we use the cheap pirated shit. But I've found that the genuine Windows XP is very good. Far better than vista at least for the moment. But IE? What's with IE? I have genuine Windows XP on my laptop and it comes with genuine IE which sucks big time.

And do you know that you can't even get rid of it even if you uninstall it? Uninstall it and then click on a link from a Microsoft application and it'll open in IE. Like say, hit the email icon in your MSN Messenger and see what it opens your mail in. You are stuck with this shit for life. It's like your freakin' mother in law. I hate it, and no small hate for IE. Must be a catholic conspiracy.

Interesting allegations by the military brother...

2009-01-19T23:41:00.004+05:30

Accusing someone of being a terrorist is no small joke my friends!

So this is how public officers in Sri Lanka conduct interviews on state run media. Wonder if that guy who's conducting the interview calls himself a journalist. Cause the secretary certainly made a bitch out of all of em.

So going back to the whole 2550 year civilization and being better than the west and all, can those in public office make claims like this, threaten people like this and scare the living daylights out of them and get away with it simply because they are the president's brother? What if the secretary of defense in the USA had come on national television and made such a claim? How would they have dealt with it? Kill them all?... hmm? The truth is sometimes not so nice. But we must learn to face the consequences of the decisions we make; that is being mature. This fellow in the video is behaving like a kid who's 12 and heard a your mom is so fat... joke for the first time.

It's sort of becoming disgusting now. Why can't someone say if you can capture Killi why can't you find the person who blew up a TV station? People have a right to speak, do they not? A right to ask questions do they not? Besides is this fellow forgetting who pays for his damned 56 cars and house and phone bills and everything else that he donates to his henchmen?

Perhaps he should take a bit of his own advice about using the brains....

From CNN

A land like no ther? Fo shizzle!

2009-01-15T10:53:00.005+05:30

I came across this post, while browsing around Kottu. It's been a long time since I read anyone's blog and this post sort of reiterated the fact that most Sri Lankan's lack the mental capacity to understand the situation in the country, people's opinions and are only able to take things literaly. Since those who disagree with the war and how it is carried out are being systematically wiped out, the sources alive would simply feed people like this.

Most of us, are either too frightened to step out and say what we have to say for fear that we'd be killed or arrested and jailed. The law of the country doesn't protect it's citizens, instead has been turned in to a handy tool for the politicians in power to use as they please. Even the Judiciary isn't taken seriously. The executive simply doesn't give a fuck.

The fact that people cannot go beyond the equation of Anti UPFA (whatever the party is called these days) = Pro UNP is sad. To quote the late Mr. Wickramatunga "there is no point in bowling to the fielding side". The fact that most of us bloggers, at least I, was not seriously blogging during the UNP regime does not mean that we or at least I am super supportive of everything they do. It is merely relative. During that time the economy was better and we were free-er; relatively. The peace accord may not have been ideal but the those terrorists were at least being half-civil.

What has been annoying me the most is the fact that Sri Lankans, as a people seem so immature and un-civilized. Although all we here is about the 2550 years of civilization, it doesn't seem to have done much in terms of liberal thinking and acceptance of all races and people. Then there's the whole other issue of not accepting gays and lesbians. For most people, the war is like a cricket match. How many LTTE cadres are dead today? What's the score?.... crackers, party.. woo! hoo! Most people also are of the view that when the air force bombs targets it kills only LTTE cadres. Using some magical force the bombs and bullets seem to find their way to LTTE cadres, no civilians are every killed. Looks like we have crazy friend or foe marking technology. Quite easy no? Just because the GoSL doesn't acknowledge the deaths of civilians due to the raids, does not mean that it does not happen. Just because the GoSL does not accurately state the number of SLA soldiers who were killed does not mean that it is not happening. Lets win the war yeah? But at what cost?

Lets not even get in to the lawlessness that prevails. Cops just sit around doing jack-all, wasting our money. Investigation-this, investigation-that but nothing ever comes out of these investigations. If you are someone's someone you get to do anything you want. If you are a commoner, you get busted and thrown in jail for being born to a minority race. Other than for arresting and harassing people, the cops don't do anything. When's the last time you saw someone being brought to justice for crimes he/she committed? hmm? Sakvithi took the people's retirement plans and fled the country... that's the end of that...Some assholes raped an eighty year old woman and took her money... that's the end of that... This is what you get when you have a puppet for an IGP, an army commander who thinks he's charged with protecting only the majority and a president who has too much power and very little common sense and intellect. It's not fair to just blame Ma-Hinder is it? Those brothers of he's are also evil, power hungry and couldn't care less about the people they ~~kill~~ govern. Oh yeah! and the dumbasses in the cabinet who also do jack-all. It's a close race between them and the cops. Just that the politicians have a much better lifestyle than the cops... sigh!

So where does this leave us? Our land? Paradise? A land like no other? It leaves us with a dirty war, an economy in the toilet and laws that apply only to people who have no "connections". What's so civilized about that?

A new year

2009-01-03T00:19:00.002+05:30

It's been a long, long time since I last posted. This is mostly due to the fact that I've been super busy with work and studies. The little bit of free time is spent with friends, mostly on a rooftop getting plastered, talking shop etc.

It's been a super year. Although the start of the year wasn't as good as I expected it to be an amazing bunch of friends have helped me make the best of it. I must say the second half of this year has been fabulous. I thought that last year was amazing, but hell we seem to keep raising the bar. It's wicked! Fingers crossed 09 will be one hell of a rocker. It all started in Hikkaduwa for most of the crew, but for me it had to be church and family. It's all good. Balancing family and friends with work isn't easy but I don't seem to be doing a half bad job of it.

My wishes to all of you in this new year and I hope it will bring lots of $$$, happiness and what-not along with, fingers crossed peace. I also hope that 09 will get you laid more and may it have many more nights where you don't remember a thing. Rock on!

So, they voted again huh?

2008-08-27T11:58:00.003+05:30

Bloody hell, they voted for those monkey's again. Gun Shot and One Shot seem to have gotten their fair share. In all fairness though, the UNP isn't something even I would vote for either... and not having an UNP to vote for means there's no one to vote for. Thus everyone votes for the war... Cause no one with half a brain likes the commies...

Anyway, fact is we voted for the war again. Then come the Flying Tigers and bomb Trinco in the liberated east... or is it? I dunno. Bad scene. Does anyone really know what's really going on with the war? Bout time we won and had a party no? Jaffna Beach Fest?

BTW, the law seems to have gone to pot; with the IGP not having the balls to arrest Merv and all. That's a first methinks. Did that judge who ordered the arrest get whacked already? Or is that still in the pipeline?

Then I picked this up from LLD and it kinda got me thinking. Not about how this woman claims Friends to be a White Supremacist show, about how lame the article/story is and how anal some people can be. a) it's a freakin' sitcom. b) The six are the show, hence they never leave the show. c) the show is about what happens to them and it's supposed to be funny. d) people aren't going to watch TV looking for reality... reality isn't really funny... d) people don't write looking to include all minorities etc., or whether it will be received well by people who have too much time on their hands. People write funny... nuff said. According to her analysis all the sinhala teledramas are sinhalese supremacist cause they rarely feature anyone not sinhala. oh.. and has this writer ever watched Seinfeld? Nuff said... again.

Errm! What else. Yes. Work. Lots of it. Keeping me busy.

Drink. Herbs. Smoke. Fly kites. Discussions on how to save paradise. Maara! I know.

Hikkaduwa beach fest | marathon | party | drunk

2008-08-07T10:08:00.004+05:30

So it happened, the long awaited Hikkaduwa Beach Fest. Just another reason to visit the city of vice and get pasted for, wait, 3 whole days. I got there Thursday night and don't remember much. From what I remember I had my head through the sunroof of the car yelling something. Then room. Box of Arrack... Drink. Herbs. Drink. Sleep. Woke up the next morning and went in search of breakfast. Ended up at Harmony. More herbs. Food. Herbs. Shower. Change. Back to drinking. I head out to the ATM, buy some smokes drive back to Harmony to try and take the piss out of B. I go there see some people I know. Didn't have time for chit-chat, so spoke to some people and went back to drinking. Most of that day was drinking and dancing. I really don't remember much.

Night fell and the Rave was rocking. Lots of people. lots and lots. Thousands of people. I danced. The sound was ultra loud and mad. I loved it. Met a lot of people I know. The whole of Colombo was there. What a fucking Party. Those dancing chicks from wherever were so damn hot. Man if I got my hands on them...

Sunrise. Shaah! Maara nice and calm. Walk to International, sit outside and indulge in some ultra fine herbs. Water. Walk to Harmony for a so called after party. The time is 6 am on Saturday. Sit in the comfort of Harmony, listening to Tribal House and watch Crazy and Daansaah play some sort of a mating game. They finally made out. Then I saw coke. I left. A DJ arrived. More Tribal, just louder. Booze arrives in the form of White Rum. Yum! Drink. Dance. Drink. Dance. Someone yells "Who da fucking Rockstar!!" She was. She has way too much energy. I go shower around 4pm. Come back. Get on a table and dance. WTF man! What a trip.

I lost track of time. I ended up in the room. Showered again. Went for the Rave. Too many people, too many boys. Hikkaduwa Cock Fest. Went to Vibrations where the crew was partying at. Rocked it. Drink. Herbs. Drink. Herbs. Dance. Sit. On the verge of passing out. I call it a night. It's fucking 5am on Sunday Morning. Try the rotti shops on the way to Ritas but they were being anal. I found a place that serves Hot Dogs, Burgers and Crest stuff. I ate about 10 Crest Drumsticks. Went to the room, showered, crashed!

Woke up minus hangover in the afternoon. Awesome! Ate. Herbs. Ate. Water. Herbs. Chill. Drive back.

I'm sure lots of other things happend. But thats all I remember. Too much shit that's bad for my body went in. Combine that with sleep deprevation and seriously dude, I honestly am lucky I still have a liver. I loved it. Did you?

Colombo traffic arrangements for SAARC

2008-07-22T10:47:00.003+05:30

Image taken from Daily Mirror

I'm sure most of you would have seen this either in the paper or on the online version. I'm also sure there are lots of Bloggers on Kottu who have already posted this. I would have checked but Kottu isn't loading. Anyway, here's the traffic plan for SAARC...

Roads are nice now no? Fancy!

Rising COL and the GoSL

2008-07-16T11:44:00.004+05:30

The COL is through the roof. You don't need some blogger to tell you that - you already know cause you spend Rs. 500 on lunch now. I like to party and that costs a fortune and it just seems like a waste. I caught a little bit of a talk show last night, featuring Bandula Gunawardena and Johnston Fernando. I joined the conversation while some guy was phoning in a question, which went a little something like this:

The fuel prices in the UK are 1.20 while the Pound is about Rs. 230 and the petrol in Sri Lanka is 157. This is what you say. But the per capita income in the UK is about 60,000 pounds while the per capita income in Sri lanka is only about 1,300 Pounds or something... (this is because Bandula has previously stated that the cost of petrol in the UK is higher than ours... simply based on the exchange rate)

The figures may not be completely accurate, but you kinda get the picture of what this guys is trying to say right? He also asked where the hell the rice from Burma is at...
The replies were hilarious. First the rice issue:

Rice is available at the warehouse on Kirimandala mawatha at Rs. 56 per Kg - wholesale. [Johnston interrupts and asks him how much the people can buy it for] It's Rs. 56 per Kg wholesale, we've brought it down to that. [J: yeah but, how much can the people buy it for? How much at the kade?] Well, max Rs. 60. People can buy Nadu for Rs. 60... Maximum. All the media people have spun this web of lies to antagonize the people...
[Moderator: What about the petrol issue?] Well that gentleman's rationale is all wrong. That was back in the 60's that people compared the per capita income of each country. Today we have an adjusted system where the purchasing power of each country's individuals are measured. Now, since we compare ourselves to Singapore all the time, let me take Singapore as an example (note: how he's dodged the GBP thing cause even with this new calculation he's gonna be screwed). In Singapore the per capita income is {some numbers} and in Sri Lanka {some more numbers}. That means Singapore is about 22 times higher than ours. Now if we calculate it using the adjustments, then Singapore is only 11 times higher than us. So you see, that gentleman's argumant is not valid.

Economics isn't my forte and I understand very little of it, as you can see. But I can understand that petrol at 157 in Sri Lanka is way more expensive than petrol at GBP 1.2o or whatever in the UK. I am sure even Peter Griffin can understand that! But who are these fellows trying to fool? Bandula screwed all his voters over by crossing over and now this?

There are a few fuel price reports here. I'm not sure about the per capita and income ranges and purchasing power etc... Also maybe someone with a little knowledge on economics can shed some light on how the GoSL is trying screw us with their big words and eat Nadu shit. Perhaps Komiya can tell us something.... That's if he's alive and still reading this.

Embedded Comment Form

2008-07-09T12:03:00.003+05:30

I just discovered this - embedded comment forms for Blogger. It's been 4 years since I've been using this platform and I even own an original blogger t-shirt. But one of the biggest problems with Blogger and getting a discussion running is the fucking comment form that they have. One option is a pop-up window that you have to wait for, which is annoying cause new browsers block pop-ups and you have to authorize and wait for the page to load .... get my drift? The other option is to open the comments section in an entirely different page. Having to click in order to post a comment is a little annoying for everyone. Besides all other platforms like WordPress, MovableType and Drupal provide easy commenting by locating the form at the bottom of the post. And now, finally after much complaining, the Blogger crew have implemented an embedded comment form that's displayed below the post. No more having to click to access comments. No more pop-ups and having to wait for them to load... So how do you enable this?

It's part of Blogger Draft and this post tells you how to do it. Go to http://draft.blogger.com and access your blog settings. Under comments select Embedded below post. Save it. And you are done. There's more technical stuff and other features that may or may not interest you in this post.

4 Years since I first posted....

2008-07-09T08:49:00.003+05:30

July 9th 08 is 4 years since I first posted a completely random post. I still remember setting up the blog and then wondering what the hell to write. After some thought I wrote that. I've gone through some of the older posts and it's pretty cool to have some of the insane memories documented and be able to relive those memories all over again. I now laugh at some of my writing and some of the shit that went down in my previous work place. I never thought this blog would actually go on for more than a few months. I figured that once the honeymoon period was over, I'd get tired and bored of it and simply start living life like everyone else. But...

I've met a bunch of new people through blogging. Some great, some not so great. I've had an opportunity or two with girls because of this blog. So happy birthday to Scourge... and let the good times keep rolling.

You always feel smarter after a few beers

2008-07-07T15:55:00.007+05:30

I know the image is a bit screwed. I tried to display the original here but it's not working. Just click the image to view it.

Good explanation innit? Let's head down to the pub for a pint this evening shall we?

Source: Via Email

11 Tips for getting over your ex-girlfriend

2008-07-04T13:46:00.006+05:30

She might be a bitch or she might be nice. But once it's over it's over. There's no point in trying to get back together and all that rubbish. There definitely are plenty of fish in the sea and the sooner you get over her the faster you can get to know the other fishies in the sea. Why am I writing this? I was browsing through Askmen.com and came across this article. Seemed interesting enough so I read through. I think it's true. Wish I had read this at the beginning of this year...

I thought I'd share this with you all, since all of us men have gone through this shit at some point in our lives and will go through it again. I've added a few local touches to the articles, which you may or may not find interesting. My two cents worth is highlighted in blue:

1- Take her off that pedestal

Don't idolize her and build her up into something great. She is nothing of the sort. So don't gaze lovingly at pictures of her. Don't jump to answer her e-mail or phone calls. And definitely don't go out of your way for her. She no longer deserves preferential treatment.

We almost always tend to look beyond the fucked up shit that she did and still think of her as special and all that jazz. But seriously, wtf right? Let her go. She ain't that great. If she was, she'd still be around...

2- Get closure

It's essential to definitively end any hopes of reconciliation between the two of you. And if you can't get that into your head, she owes you the courtesy of it crystal clear. She needs to tell you: "I never loved you. I don't love you now. We'll never get back together." After some prodding, she'll probably do it, just to get rid of you. It provides what therapists call "closure." And you can begin to heal.

Well easier said that done. Some don't have the courtesy to give you the closure and say fuck off this is the end. That bit takes time to sink in... So ladies, if you are reading this and break a guy's heart, have the decency to tell him in explicit terms that its OVER.

3- Don't contact her

After the relationship reaches finality, you have to break off contact or you will go mad. Don't beg or cry. Don't drunk-dial. Don't write her e-mail. Don't send packages or CDs. Don't dedicate a song to her on the radio. Get the picture? She will find you if she wants to. And even if you can talk your way back into her arms, it's only a temporary reprieve. She already knows you want her back, and she doesn't care. Take that as a sign.

Yup. Very true. DON'T.

4- Get negative feelings out on paper

Write her a letter pouring out your negative and weepy feelings, then disassociate them from yourself. Throw the letter away or burn it. But definitely don't send it to her. You will only regret it. She will show her friends and her new boyfriend. And they will all share a good laugh.

And try not to give her any positive feelings in writing too. Same shit, different side of the spectrum.

5- Avoid her friends & the places she hangs

Don't venture into her territory. You won't be welcome. Find new places to hang out for the first few months and make new friends, if necessary. If any of your friends insist on maintaining contact with her, you may have to shut them out, too -- at least temporarily. After some time has passed, you should go back to living normally, and that means hanging out at these places and reconnecting with mutual friends.

This helps. I know.

6- Throw away anything that reminds you of her

You don't have to burn it all, but definitely get pictures, gifts, clothing, letters, and e-mail out of your living area, or at least out of your line of vision. If that means giving away roughly half of your wardrobe to get rid of the memory of her, so be it. As a rule of thumb, if the object reminds you of your ex, discard it. This can save your sanity.

I say burn it if it helps. You may also want to give back all of her shit that you have. Try not to meet her to hand it over, just send it through a mutual friend or throw it over her gate...

7- Don't try to get your stuff back

Unless it's a diamond ring or something that's one-of-a-kind, you're better off not contacting her to get it back. DVDs, clothes, your extra toothbrush... just let 'em go. They're only possessions. Is it really worth the pain of being in her presence just to reclaim a pair of boxer shorts? Don't exchange your dignity for menial belongings.

Yup, gotta learn to let go of your stuff. No point worrying about it. Fuck it. Get new ones.

8- Hang out with your friends

Let your buddies give you a reality check on how your ex wasn't all that to begin with, and that there are more fish in the sea. A little male camaraderie can go a long way towards getting your head straight. We've all been detonated by a woman before and most of us will likely get detonated again.

Your friends always help. They always make you realize that the world hasn't ended.

9- Exercise your newfound freedom

Freedom is always intoxicating. There's a world of activities you can partake in that you were never able to enjoy because your "other half" didn't approve. So indulge. Travel. Build a model ship. Go hiking. Play video games on your computer. Watch TV all weekend. Do anything you want. Why not start boxing? Ideally, you want to find an activity that allows you to release your anger and alleviate stress.

Pop some pills and get wasted. Don't call her though...

10- Remember the bad times

If you feel nostalgic, then think of all the times she was a bitch to you. That should do it. Remember the time she made you wait by the dressing room as she endlessly tried on clothing? Or the time she reminded you not too drink too much in front of your posse? Nobody wants that back.

Maybe this would work for some. I kinda try to forget the entire episode. Good times and bad. Why bother remembering anything eh?

11- Sleep with another girl

Nothing reminds you that you are a man quite like having a new woman in your bed. So take solace in the arms of another. Call it a rebound if you wish. Plenty of heartbroken guys go this route and for a very good reason -- it makes you feel better, even if it's only temporary. So go out there and feel better about yourself!

Proven time and again. This is the shit!

Bonus: Seduce somebody she's jealous of

Remember the hair stylist or the hot barmaid your ex scolded you for looking at? Well, now's your chance to make a move that will pay off in more ways than just sex. Just think, if your ex finds out you've been fishing in familiar waters, it will drive her to the point of hysteria. This can be quite gratifying.

Ha! Ha! Ha!... you know this is gonna work so well in Colombo, since everyone knows everyone.

According to Askmen.com, follow this advice and you should be sorted in no time.

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

2008-07-02T09:34:00.004+05:30

Finally got our asses to the movie theatre and watched Hulk. Although the movie in 2003 sucked, I heard a few good reviews of the film, plus the trailer got my attention.

The movie in general was good. Fast paced and involved some good acting. I like Edward Norton, especially after the Illusionist. And Liv Tyler is hot and I like her too. Not in the same way that I liked her in Armageddon, but in a bit of a more civilized way. Tim Roth did a good job as the villain. He was evil and just loved to piss the Hulk off. Besides none of that new-age-kid shit where everyone gets together to fight the real baddy. Well there's a bit of it when the General orders the gunner to help the Hulk kick some monster-Blonsky ass. But on the whole, the evil guys stay evil and the good guys stay good. I love the part where Stan Lee appears in the film for a breif moment, to grab a drink from the fridge, the very same drink that Bruce Banner's bloody fell in to. That's about it for him as far as acting goes.

The film had some crazy fight scenes where the Hulk simply dishes it out. Even 50 cals with armour piercing jackets can't penetrate the Hulk's skin. He's the man. Until of course Blonsky turns in to an fuugly dude and kicks Hulk's ass for a bit. But good always prevails. We like it like that and we wouldn't have it any other way. So as the Hulk is on the verge of getting pasted, he sees Liv and summons energy from his balls. Who wouldn't? I think I could too, given that Liv was staring at me like that.

The CG on the film is outstanding. The special effects are also exceptional. I liked the film. The villains keep getting better and the Hulk is almost beaten. It's fast. It's one of the better comic book films to come out in recent times. You'd love the twist at the end. Go watch the film and find out. It's worth it.

Tip: Look out for the brand name of the weapons in the movie. You'll realize the significance at the end.

Was going through the full list of Cast Members for the film and there is an Imali Perera starring as Female Faculty Member.... Yes, apparently born in Sri Lanka.

IMDB
Rotten Tomatoes

Bradby Weekend '08 - Kandy

2008-06-30T10:30:00.006+05:30

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

2008-06-25T10:29:00.000+05:30

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...

2008-06-19T09:10:00.014+05:30

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

2008-06-16T11:12:00.004+05:30

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

2008-06-13T08:48:00.016+05:30

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!

2008-06-09T12:38:00.004+05:30

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...

Firefox 3.0 sneak peak

2008-05-28T02:30:00.004+05:30

All you Firefox fans will be happy to know, if you already don't know that the team has released a test version of Firefox 3.0. This is apparently intended for developers and for the community who wish to provide feedback.

The site claims that it has added many new features to the new version including better memory management. Those of us who use Firefox on a daily basis know how much memory it takes up if you keep the browser open and use it for a few hours. I hope this is fixed. I just downloaded it and I guess I'll find out soon enough. Flock, with all its fancy features that we don't really use was a little crap cause it took some time to open and managed memory worse than Firefox did.

What I don't like at the moment with the new FF is the search bit in the address bar. If you type Google, all the addresses in history with the word Google show up in the drop down, including Gmail and all. Its a little cluttered because the logos and the interface are a tad big. But maybe I just need to get used to it and it'll be fine. A more comprehensive review will be up once I use this a bit more. In the meantime you can download it here and check it out for yourself.

Explosion in train - Dehiwala

2008-05-26T17:40:00.003+05:30

A bomb has exploded on a train near the Dehiwala train station. Lots of people are injured although they say only 5 are confirmed dead at the moment. Almost rush hour, train was packed... you can imagine the rest...

And I thought the train was the safest and fastest form of public transport... Bugger!

10 Things that make me happy...

2008-05-17T00:26:00.003+05:30

Seriously, I can't believe she tagged me and I feel bad about writing about things that make me happy when another fucking bomb went off. But as they say, life must go on.So here's the list of things that make me happy. Am not so sure about the order but hell...

10. Pr0n
9. Bicycle
8. Arrack
7. Pudding
6. Chocolate Milkshake from Commons
5. Pr0n
4. Camera
3. Music
2. Katrina Kaif
1. Internet

So there we have it. The list from the absolutely ~~can't be bothered~~ love tagging side of town. And do I have to tag someone now? Hmmm? Prabhakaran... Do it man.. and (drum-roll) number 1 is... suicide bombers.

Human rights...

2008-05-01T23:53:00.007+05:30

A series of unfortunate circumstances led to having a chat with a few guys who’d been arrested because they were suspected of being LTTE. The reason for being suspected was because they were Tamil. They had legit papers and were even engaged in legit employment, but a fun Saturday afternoon by the beach got them arrested. WTF? You would think that people in this country have rights. It doesn’t seem so, if you are Tamil and poor. Being arrested for no reason at all is a bitch. Living conditions inside the police stations are far from ideal. The stench emanating from the toilets is unbearable. But what can you do? You are poor and were unfortunately born to a family bearing the wrong kind of surname and speak the wrong language.

Cops in this country are probably the worst kind of scum. They like to hide behind their uniforms and flush all their insecurities down the throats of young boys who can’t do anything about it. They have no lawyers, no contacts with higher-ups and hence the ideal bunch of people to harass. Is it even wonder that we have a raging war going on? Our government proudly states that eradicating the LTTE will bring peace to our country. But for how long? If this is the way the enforcers of law are going to treat people of minority ethnic groups, then how soon before another war begins?

LTTE committing human rights violations is one thing. They are a terrorist group with a lust for blood. Sure they started off with a cause in mind, but that cause has now gone out a window. It’s more of an ego thing now. But the GOSL committing violations right here in Colombo is madness. While people like Mervyn Silva and his family get off the hook after assaulting people, innocent poor have to pay for being born to a minority race. When the international community accuses us of committing human rights violations the government ignores it or says that we don’t or blames it on the war. But right here in Colombo, those same people charged with protecting the peace and making sure the innocent are protected, violates their fundamental rights hiding behind the fucking emergency state. Cops are a bunch of sadistic, cowardly bastards. Not all I must confess, there are a few who really do care about their jobs. But most think that just because they wear a uniform, they can do anything.

So if you can’t live in your own country, go to the beach and chillout without having to worry about whether you are going to be arrested or not, wtf do you do? Join the LTTE and say lets bomb these assholes? No wonder there are so many who are willing to do this. You might as well take your life along with a few others without living in this shit hole and being harassed by a bunch of pukes dressed in khaki uniforms.

Also check out these two videos featuring an interview with the Governor of CBSL. Have a laugh but what a pathetic situation eh?

Staying logged in to Facebook

2008-04-23T18:45:00.002+05:30

Here's the newest facebook sensation, facebook chat. I think they launched it sometime this week. I saw this just today. A little status bar at the bottom of your facebook page displays your friends online, number of notifications and your chat status. It's almost un-noticeable until people start messaging you. It also keeps all your message windows minimized, in one neat little row. There are a few words about the whole chat thing on TechCrunch.

So here's a brand new way to keep you logged in to facebook even if you have nothing to do on the site. I guess this is neat cause it allows everyone who doesn't have Google Talk to chat with their friends. Also, since everyone, including the hardcore facebookers are getting tired of fighting each other, adding applications to their profile page, super poking and super walling people and inviting other people to add some stupid application or the other, this is the newest way to keep all these Web 2.0 enthusiasts logged in to facebook. Woe be on unto them should all the facebookers get tired of it and hit ibibo or something...

Imagine Cup: Sri Lanka Finals

2008-04-23T00:02:00.005+05:30

I decided to take the invite and drop in for the Microsoft Imagine Cup Sri Lanka finals for software design. I entered the Photography and Short Film competitions but didn't have time to work on the photography but did create a story board for the short film. We didn't get enough votes to make it to the global top 30 hence no chance of France '08.

The event was supposed to start at 1400hrs but it started around 1515hrs, in true Sri Lankan style. Of all the software design submissions in Sri Lanka a panel of judges chose six that they deemed to be the best. The theme for this year's competition was Technology for a Sustainable Environment. A tough topic but the six who were chosen had designed and developed a few applications. I had high hopes for this competition because it was a global event and in past years some of the contestants produced a few stunning apps. Sitting through the presentations it was one disappointment after another. Some of the apps were practical and quite user friendly, but they couldn't present for toffee. The basic principle of a viable and practical solution was also ignored in some cases. Some of the colleges/institutes/universities that made it to the Sri Lanka finals included Colombo and Moratuwa Universities and SLIIT.

This is a clear reminder of the standard and quality of education in our country. True, these two universities are the best we have and the graduates are proper genius', but the problem of a relevant and rounded education still seems a far cry. It's great that you can develop an idea but it also needs to be relevant, current and your ability to convey your idea and the benefits that it brings to the world is equally important. I am not saying that the apps presented were trash. I am just saying that they were below the expected quality for an event of this scale.

The event itself wasn't up to Microsoft standards. In all honesty had I managed this event I would have done several things differently; for an instance wasting time setting up the contestants laptops, props and other gear. A total waste of time. Sound. The entertainment acts, except for the Santhush and crew act. Food however was decent and the iced coffee was good.

I went for the event expecting our talent to shock me. Unfortunately it didn't happen. Perhaps its because I've got enough time to sit and watch too much Discovery and History channel. Whatever the reason, when it comes to representing Sri Lanka in a global competition we need to put more effort, planning and ideas in to it. On the positive side its a great way expose some of the great minds in this country. Its an awesome way of getting these guys out of their little caves so that the world can see what we can do. Its also one of the emerging ways of marketing that most Sri Lankan's aren't trying out i.e. every single person who decided to enter the competition here and overseas used Microsoft products and learned and figured out what they can do with these tools. Some would have never thought that it could be done. I know I discovered a few neat tricks that are possible with .NET that I never thought possible with Microsoft.

In conclusion, this is the way of the future, bring the talent out, tell the universities what the real world needs and help them to produce it. Bigger picture wise it's a good thing.

Random stuff

2008-04-21T23:58:00.002+05:30

Was taking a break and going through a few sites hoping to learn something while enjoying the unhealthy smoke from a cigarette. Here's a few that may make you wanna waste some time too.

Cool Photoshop tutorials - There are plenty that you can try out and waste time on.
Firefox shortcuts - Some Firefox shortcuts that may turn out to be absolutely useless and you may never use. But it makes you go aaaah! and nod your head in front of the computer.
Speaking of keyboards take a look at this Godaay! shit.... Would you really?

Plenty of issues have been running through my head, especially just before going to sleep. I know what you are thinking keep a pen and piece of paper by your bed man! I do. But I just can't be bothered turning the light on and writing things. Thinking is easier. You also forget in the morning and don't have to write a blog post about it. Some of the things that have hung around include equality (men, women, gay, straight, race whatever), the rising cost of living (which is bloody insane isn't it?) and the lack of fucking entertainment. How much of Sugar and RnB can you take?

Nuff rubbish. Later with a proper post that would piss a few people off...

Advertising... an art? an industry?

2008-04-07T22:00:00.003+05:30

Most of the drunken conversations these days seem to revolve around advertising. Talking politics has suddenly taken a back seat to advertising. Why? I think everyone is just sick and tired of talking about the pathetic situation here. We needed something new to talk about. Ads. As I briefly mentioned in my last post, the ads people blame the brand managers and the brand managers blame the ads people. So whose fault is it?

Let’s take the brand managers’ point of view first. The ads people seem to have developed a little world of their own it seems, that they think of themselves as artists, rather than a business organization. It’s given that the creative guys are artists in a way, but not so much that they can develop what they want and expect the client to accept it. Art on the other hand is something you create because you want to and there will always be a sect who will admire and appreciate it. Unfortunately, within the ad industry, this isn’t going to work because at the end of the day it is a business. Brand guys spend a lot of time and money researching the habits, tastes and appeal of their target audience. It’s their product/brand and they know best. At least most of the competent, good brand managers are experts about their product and the people who want to buy it. I can totally understand it when the ads people come up with a campaign that is not going to appeal to the target audience. To the brand manager, creativity and awesomeness of the ad is second to how his market will respond to the ad. Thus, most creative ads would be thrown in the bin due the fact that either target market wouldn’t understand it or they would just not like it.

Now, for the ads peoples’ side. Ads people put a lot of hard work in to creating the ads and the creative dudes who are passionate about their profession sometimes come up with a few stunners. Some of the ads that are really good get thrown in the bin because the brand manager doesn’t like it or doesn’t get it. This apparently happens regardless of whether the ad is appealing to the target market or not. I can understand the frustration and annoyance this will cause because of a tasteless brand manager. The ads people at the end of the day are the experts in their industry, or they should be. Managers should be humble enough to take a minute to listen to their reasoning and logic as well, without trashing a campaign because they can’t understand it. Good brand managers are a dying breed and I’d have to agree with that. I know only a handful of brands people and even they agree to this fact.

So what can be done? I think it’s high time the brands dudes and the ads dudes got together and worked things out. The ads dudes are good at what they do and the brands dudes are good at what they do; or so should the ideal situation be. However nothing is ideal and some aren’t good at anything. The brand guys need to get off their pedestals and listen to what the ads guys have to say. At the same time the ads guys need to realize that they aren’t always right. This also comes down to a bit of corporate blah blah. Ad agencies need to reinforce the fact that they are a business first and then whatever second. Thus the client is ultra important and whatever happens isn’t really personal. The corporate side of the brands should start treating the ads guys as suppliers and ensure that they are streamlined and if needed some tutorials and training so that the people working on those products are basically brand managers themselves.

What I’ve learned within the arguments that we’ve had that this is not something that is going to get better or get solved. If you are lucky you get a client or supplier who thinks like you, works like you and doesn’t take things personally. If you are lucky you tell him/her to fuck off and it’ll just be business. But I really don’t see that happening in Sri Lanka any time soon. Lots need to grow up and look at business as business. Until then...

A Lesson For all Local Advertisers

2008-03-23T14:51:00.002+05:30

Most individuals in the advertising industry in Sri Lanka complain that brand managers don't allow for creative campaigns. Most good brand managers complain that their agencies can't come up with good, creative campaigns. So how do we find the balance between the two? As in most cases in this country the wrong people have the wrong job. The talented are slaving their asses off doing something else because someone somewhere didn't allow them to get in to what they should be doing. Tough shit. I just saw this commercial while watching the Malaysian Grand Prix; actually a slightly different version.

Now isn't that a great example of what creative advertising can be? Excellent positioning, while retaining the status of the brand. And the creative aspect is through the roof don't you think? Good example for our guys huh?

Waste time on the net...

2008-03-04T19:41:00.004+05:30

We all love making fun of the Indian accent. Most of you may have already heard this, but it's hilarious even the second time around. Best listened to if you are stoned, you'll be laughing till morning.

Update>>>
Ok Sorry but I had to include this clip here as well. Hilarious ah!

Enjoy!

Right? Wrong? Left?

2008-02-10T00:06:00.000+05:30

A heated argument on the Wellawatta rail tracks as the smokers split up in to two groups, one that defends Mahinda and this stupid war, the other a bunch with a zest for life and peace. Smokes out and strolling back to the lobby the argument got quite fierce. The point of the Mahinda Supporters has been detailed here. A response via comments would have been too long and a little annoying. So here's my view...

The government has just 3 real options: Negotiations, War and granting an Elam Home Land. Honestly, granting an Elam Homeland would be the easiest. But as a responsible government we cannot allow this small island to be split up and the government has the responsibility to safeguard the rights of all people, hence this option gets thrown out the window automatically.

The Peep's rationale for the failed negotiations is that that the LTTE put forward too many demands before coming to the table. That they did. But as a responsible government it was their duty to come to a suitable compromise. NOT deny all options and say we are gonna smoke the shit out of you. Negotiations should have been used as a tool to weaken the fuckers. Not war. A shrewd bunch could have accomplished this, however I wouldn't expect people like Gota to be able to do such...

We are at war. People in favor of it say that it is a tool used to weaken the Tigers' positions and upon doing so we can get the buggers to come to the table. I disagree. Weakening them would only result in pushing them in to a corner. Push anyone in to a corner and they cease to use their heads. They start doing everything possible to hurt the other party. Push them to a corner and find bombs going off at the zoo, railway stations and the street. Kill innocents if you have to, just get the other guys to pull back. We can sit in our air conditioned rooms, the safety our our homes and say that we should bomb the shit out of them. Weaken them. In the meantime the LTTE leadership is sitting in their bunkers drawing up plans to weaken the GoSL. Who's going to win? Someone in the bunker says lets kill some civilians, that'll weaken them and since there isn't another choice it gets done. Who's going to win?

Bush said that taking out Sadaam would solve the problem. They hanged him. The war is still on and poor old American kids are losing their lives. It's the same with us no? We sit in the comfort of our homes and say fight that bloody war, fuck them, weaken them, smoke them out. But who's doing it? A band of young men who joined the army because they were born in to poor families. If those young men had parents who could afford a higher education for them, will they still be fighting the war? Why aren't we at the front taking it to the tigers?

I ask this, will all you pro-war people, including the monks go out there, pick up an AK and try to weaken the LTTE?

Independence '08

2008-02-03T21:35:00.000+05:30

This is not what the scene at the Fort Railway Station looked like this afternoon. Deserted, Army and Police officers all over and yellow tape sealing off the area. A day before we celebrate the 60th anniversary of independence; independence from the west. 60 years later, look what we have gotten ourselves in to. We have a bunch of retards running the country who couldn't care less about the people or their well being. Some fucking independence that is.

My parents started hinting today, after a long time that I should cut down on my roaming and stick around at home if it isn't important. Why? Because I have to go through Fort, Kollupitiya, Bambalapitiya, Wellawatta etc., on a daily basis and most of my travel in to town consists of walking or using public transport via high security zones or probable terrorist targets. But wait. I refuse to let the terrorists run my life. A bunch of lunatics who seem to have forgotten the cause they are supposed to defend. NO. I will not change my life, change they way I live and I refuse to let them run my life. I'll live it the way I want to, the way I have and no fucking terrorist is going to tell me how and when and where I should go in my own country.

Some may call this being stupid, ignorant, a death wish, suicide, flirting with death, trying to be brave etc. But seriously, think about it. Terrorism isn't about the destruction of buildings or the number of innocent people killed. As far as I am concerned those pukes seem to have achieved their goal; disruption of normal life in Colombo and the rest of the country. The people are terrorized. Objective successfully completed. So we have to suffer for hours in traffic (it ain't pretty when you are taking the bus) to allow our security forces to conduct a hap-hazard check of vehicles. Don't get me wrong, I admire them for what they do for our country and I am in no way blaming them for the dumbass checking they do. It is up to the higher ups to come up with a suitable protocol for checking vehicles and people entering the city and ensure terrorism doesn't creep in.

Let me explain: I carry my laptop, which is a ThinkPad R52 and anyone who knows about it knows that it's about half as thick as a claymore mine; okay maybe about quarter as thick. I put it in my backpack, which also contains a bunch of wires apart from the power cord for the laptop. On Thursday night, I took a threewheeler from Wellawatta and got stopped at about 6 checkpoints on the way. Only the guys at the checkpoint in fort checked my bag and inquired as to what the big black thing was. None of the other checkpoints even looked at my bag. If I was to carry a claymore or some other form of explosive, I could have blown up the Hilton, Lakehouse, something in Galleface or pretty much anything this side of Fort. Cool huh? I am all for checkpoints because we need to keep our little capital city safe. But checkpoints need to have a protocol for checking and they also need to treat all races the same. Doesn't matter if you are Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim. Check everyone. I am sure that there are enough people from all races who would carry bombs or assist the Tigers with their shit for the right price. I wouldn't and maybe you wouldn't. But I am sure there are some. So check us all for fucks sake.

If the Tiger's really wanted wreak havoc and bomb the city flat, I guess they could easily accomplish it. It's just a matter of intelligence. The higher ups in their AC offices need to start thinking and planning on defending the city if they are going to keep dropping bombs in the North. They also need to look at the bigger picture. Like I've said before, eradicating the LTTE isn't going to solve this problem. Mark my words, if another more modern organization were to fill the void of the LTTE, we are gonna be sooo fucked... I guess that's something we have to think about.

No More Personal...

2008-01-30T21:57:00.001+05:30

So, since this blog has become a personal to politics to personal to politics achcharu, I've decided to move the personal bit to another blog, which is here. Most of you already know who I am or know my real name, hence I don't give a fuck about the pseudonym anymore. In any case it was just to shield me from those pukes at work who had nothing better to do than to read skurj and try to figure out who he was. I've left that building and I don't care.

I know that some have gotten properly sick of the Oh! I got my ass-whipped again and a woman I fell in love with left me again..." babble. So the shit has been moved to C Life - The Story. Therefore, Skurj is only going to have my political two cents worth and how I think this whole conflict should be resolved etc., shit. If you like that, read this... If you fancy reading my personal stuff and having a laugh.. then go to >>>>

Another public service announcement brought to you by Skurj....

Sun, sea and sand - minus Marshmallow

2008-01-20T22:10:00.000+05:30

The beach in Unawatuna is possibly one of my favorite places. Not just because of it's beauty but for the sentimental value it holds for me. I hit the beach on Friday afternoon and nostalgia hit me like an angry grandmother with a broomstick. Walking through the restaurant at Happy Banana for the first time without Marshmallow was painful to say the least. I walked through the restaurant, slowly, marveling at the beauty of clear turquoise water gently lapping the shore. Something was missing, something important, something dear. Marshmallow. I missed her. Of the many times that I've visited this marvelous beach, it was the first without her. I missed her so much. Not even the cool, clear waters nor the stunning views of that wonderful bay could take away the blues. I missed her.

Putting the blues aside we opened a bottle of Old Reserve and I found that I was the only one interested in Arrack. I drank. She rolled. I drank some more and smoked some. I was buzzing. But soon Memories of Marshmallow found their way in to my blitzing mind. The annoying feeling that something was missing was ever present. I handed my phone to B and kept drinking. I passed out!

The trip was awesome. I absorbed some culture and history. Explored the Galle Fort on Scooter and had a superb time. But that feeling that something was missing never really left me. While I enjoyed a coffee shake at Pedler's Cafe, I couldn't help but miss my Marshmallow and all the wonderful things we could have done. As we entered Mambos in Hikkaduwa, I found myself looking for her (although I knew she wasn't there). After a while I gave up and concentrated on the booze and herbs. But that feeling never really went away. Every time I went back to glorious beaches of Unawatuna, my fond memories of us together just kept coming back. Torture within my mind. Bliss without!

As much as I missed her, I must confess that I had a blast. First trip of the year, simply rocked. It's the first time I hooked up with this crowd and they are quite a bunch. Hilarious, fun and always willing to have a disgusting, philosophical conversation that involved feces, armpit hair and a former president's eye socket. Awesome!

End of the day, I believe that I am slowly moving on. Herbs and brown colored liquids mixed together helps a lot. Therapeutic even. Accompany that with good friends, great company and a few laughs and you can't go wrong...

Where to?

2008-01-13T20:56:00.000+05:30

So, where to now? 07 has been a rocking year and I think I've finally come to terms with the fact that Marshmallow was never meant to be mine. With hindsight, it was too good to last, or rather too good to be true I guess. But who knows what the future holds, perhaps something may come of it... I certainly hope so. Life goes on. No point hoping. It'll happen if it should. After years, Marshmallow made me feel like I've never felt before. It was a strange feeling at first, a little scary especially since I didn't want to get hurt again. But what the hec right? You don't fall in love everyday and it, i suppose, is a risk worth taking. I am glad I did. The few months we shared was nothing less than amazing. However, as they say all good things had to come to an end. An amicable break-up if there was ever one. But it seems to have eroded our closeness and friendship and has left me wondering if falling in love was worth losing an awesome friend... I guess we shall find out pretty soon.

The country seems to be heading south too. No matter what the opinions of the people are and no matter what the people need and want, the people's representatives couldn't care less. Everyone seems to be blinded by this whole winning the war business. No one seems to remember or care what the crux of the matter is. If we remove the LTTE then we gain peace. We gain peace, fair-nuff, but do we eliminate the reason behind this whole issue? I think not. The oppressed will still be oppressed and it'll probably give rise to a more formidable opponent, born of the new generation, more educated and more experienced and more objective and more focused.

There's no money, I hear. The government has given priority to pensions and everybody else who wants to claim their ETFs and EPFs have to wait, until some money is available. Poor people are still poor and rich people are still rich. The middle class is getting ass raped and no one gives a shit. So where do we go from here? hmm?

I dunno. Does anyone know? I guess not. Oh! By the way, has anyone made plans just in case we manage to achieve peace? Then what? So many questions... so little answers...

'07 the year that was

2008-01-05T23:36:00.000+05:30

2007 has been more hectic and more exciting than I ever anticipated. It all started calm enough, as far as I remember, just like this year has begun. It's been a year of bombs, war, world-cup finals and sqaush balls, a Ferrari championship victory and much more. I rediscovered love, only to lose it again. I learned quite a few things and made quite a few new friends. Facebook. Writing and photography and web design for money, who would have thought. It's definitely been one of the greatest years ever. Lots of parties, booze and cigarettes. Lots of trips and a holiday postcard addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Scourge. Almost quitting smoking. No drugs though, this year has been a totally drug free year.

The second half of the year was amazing to say the least. It's been such a long time since I've fallen in love that it felt quite different. I couldn't even remember how awesome it feels to be in love with someone special. I also couldn't remember how much it hurts when it's taken away. I wish the year had ended differently, but wtf? I'm left with a bunch of awesome memories and a bag of lessons that I've learned. I also found out that some people just can't appreciate a good thing and women are more complicated than anything else on earth. I've learned that when there's nothing wrong in a relationship it's not really a good thing. Simple is not really ideal, for women that is. There has to be some sort of complication, otherwise they ain't happy.

End of the day, another year has passed and a whole load of experiences, mistakes and things to learn from. Another year has dawned and am sure there'll be a shit load of things to learn from, shit load of mistakes to make and a lot of new experiences. So all the best to everyone and hope 2008 rocks your world. Peace in the North and East and the Middle East and lesser alcohol and cigarette prices. More trips and more drunken-memoryless nights. More of everything and a little less pain and agony. Cheers!

Two is better than one...

2007-11-29T08:20:00.000+05:30

Two bombs went off in Colombo today. Douglas Devananda managed to escape another attempt on his life. Sixteen or so innocent civilians at the Nugegoda bus stop weren't so lucky. Doug's PR guy was also among the unfortunate. I don't know what to say. I heard a government guy say something to the effect of due to the progress the SLA is making in the north, the LTTE is left with only one way of retaliating. Therefore these kind of attacks are to be expected....blah blah blah. Right, tell that to the families of the people who died today.

This fucking war is killing innocent people in the North or killing innocents in the south. One way or the other innocent people are losing their lives, or in the case of the people in the north losing their lives and/or their homes. A friend of mine who knows a woman who lives in one of the border villages was telling me about an attack on the village a few days ago. Some people were shot dead and the others just ran and hid. Apparently it's day-to-day living for them. The JHU, JVP and other ~~fuckers~~ policy makers who wanted this stupid war are to blame for the loss of life today. No one else. The LTTE maybe responsible for the bombing. But that's what they do. That's who they are and that's what they want. The people in high places are directly responsible for allowing the terrorist organization to achieve what they want.

Its about time these fools, along with the public who support these fools to grow up. Its time we all woke up and realized that killing a few tigers and smashing a few of their bases is not going to win us this war. Call Ranil a poof, a pansy, but when the boy was running the show there were a lot less bombs going off. Rajapakse can put up as many posters or hoardings and plaster the whole of Colombo with Ali-Koti givisuma... posters, but it's not going to bring back the the innocent people who die because of his ego. He can tell the media that we are winning the war, tell us that 150 tiger cadres were killed today in an air-raid or even tell us that they managed to kill Prabha. But it still isn't going to make matters better. Like Gandhi said, there's no road to peace. Peace is the road.

It's high time something got done. Something in the form of peace. Not something in the form of war. Any idiot can go to war but it takes a lot for someone to really commit to peace. Am sure its nice to ride in fancy cars with lots of STF boys clearing the path for you. But it's not so nice when you are standing at a bus halt waiting to get home and you get blown to pieces. Its time the leftists, the Buddhist monks and the rest of the ignorant fools woke up to reality. This is not a war that we or the Tigers are going to win. Both parties will kill innocent people, while they try to get the other party to succumb to their point of view.

I would like to see the policy makers of this country to be put in a position where they are directly accountable for the decisions they make. We shall then see if they make the same kinda decisions or whether they'd be all out for peace. I'm positively sick and angry at what's going on. People tell me that I shouldn't care cause there's nothing I can do. At least am writing this post, in the hope that it will stir up something. I can't just sit around and watch these fuckers take the country I was born in and turn in to a cesspit. I shouldn't get worked up cause I can't do anything about it is a sorry excuse. I get worked up because I care. I care about those people who lost their lives today for no fault of theirs. They lost their lives because those idiots that we sent to parliament can't be bothered with anything beyond their benefits. I spit on such assholes who step up to take a man's vote and turn it in to a mockery; it's downright insulting. Its time this country woke up and all of us who care got together and did something. Something, anything. Anything to show that none of the people, party politics aside want this fucking war....

Is it the people?

2007-11-22T19:25:00.000+05:30

There’s been a lot of talk, especially by our politicians about how great things were when our little island was governed by Kings. We were self-sufficient, our technology was excellent, we built tanks and dams and Buddha statues (massive Buddha statues), we fought off invaders, and we were a civilized people. According to the Jay-Wee-Pee and other such parties of limited intelligence, the reason for the decline in our civilization is the fact that we sold out to those from the west and embraced their ways. How to fix? To go back to eating jackfruit and manioc and stuff like that. Go back to sewing paddy fields and having a king and traveling by bullock cart or elephant. I heard some professor on TV the other day state that homes of the past were self-sufficient unlike today, because they had a jackfruit tree, a coconut tree, a paddy field, some greens, some vegetables and so on in their gardens. They didn’t have to look further than their own garden for breakfast lunch and dinner. What he failed to mention was that these folks lived in a mud hut, slept on the floor, barely dressed, had little or no culture, were miserable, had no access to the rest of the world, didn’t know what happened in the next village and had never even heard of a radio. What’s so good about that life?

Our fools come up with cock-shit like this because we have done absolutely nothing since we got invaded by the Portuguese, the Dutch and then by the English. While part of our population sucked up to the invaders and embraced what they brought with them, the rest wanted them out, but had no clue what to do when they left. Portuguese left when the Dutch put some pressure on them and took over the island then the English kicked some Dutch ass and took over the island. We decided say some nasty things about the English and since India had worked their asses off at peace, we rode the wave and got our independence. Once we got it we didn’t know what the fuck to do with it. So the people suddenly realized that there were Tamils and that they might come next and decided to treat them like shit. So the shit started… blah blah blah and the LTTE was formed.

Since the Portuguese came we haven’t done anything by ourselves. So we know nothing. The closest history we poses as Sri Lankans is pre Portuguese invasion and that’s what those leftist fools are on about. Go back to those days. Fuck says it’s time to wake up. A lot of time has gone by and the rest of the world has been busy inventing technology, making life easier and fighting wars. We were chilling. Now we can’t suddenly want to go back to what is ours because that’s just too far away. It’s far easier for us to getup on a stage and yell like constipated monkeys stating the obvious. We can howl and cry that the west is here and there’s nothing of “ours” around anymore. Its easier than sitting and working out a proper plan on how to make things happen with a little more Sri Lanka in the mix.

So where then is the problem? We Sri Lankans have become a people who like to bitch about things but do nothing about it. Starting from the politicians right down to the little kids it’s a case of we don’t have this and we don’t have that. When we drive we bitch about the fact that Sri Lankan’s don’t have discipline even when crossing the roads, but when we are pedestrians, we J-walk all the time. As a nation we have no direction. We vote for anyone who promises to give us a quick solution to our problem. Although our records show 80 or 90 percent literacy rate (joke), the people seldom act like they are literate. Corruption is rampant in the public sector and it is now an accepted practice. We all sit and blame the politicians for being a bunch of assholes. But we are the same people who elected them in to that position. So that makes us even bigger assholes. If we all thought for a moment, considered the policies that were put forward and weighed in the pros and the cons and the past performances of the candidates before we voted, the country situation may have been different. So it’s to do with the people mostly. Besides none of us can be bothered with getting off our asses and telling the government to stop fucking with the press or stop taking our money or get on the street and properly fucking protest together because some of us are too posh to be seen at a protest and the rest just can’t be bothered. Think about it...

Since I last posted

2007-11-19T20:35:00.000+05:30

I don't post anything for a month and look what's happened to the country. Insane no? Mahinder is partying away, two years in power and he's managed to satisfy a lot of parliamentarians with posts that are totally irrelevant. What the hec? Who cares? Not like he's spending his money giving all these fat bastards what they want no?

So we get our asses kicked in Anuradhapura and the whole country is bitching about it. A week later while I was sunning myself in Unawatuna, Thamilselvam gets whacked. Now the whole country is rejoicing cause we are winning the war. Now that the war is being won, our friend Mahinder is spending more of our money throwing a party to commemorate two years in power, yay!

I would think that since we are winning the war and all that, security checks and road closures to allow parliamentarians to get to work will be less. Besides since we are winning, there's no risk of any of those fools getting their heads blown off right? Even if we weren't winning the war, I doubt that even Prabha would want to waste time and money blowing any of them.

The day they were presenting the budget I was stuck in Borella for an hour and a half because the retards were going to work. WTF? go a little late, like at 10 or something? Not like they've got anything important to do in there anyway no? But Noooo... inconvenience the whole of Colombo and close the main roads so all fifty of their cars and burn through to the parliament. Is this what you fools voted for?

I hope the buggers who voted for Mahinder are happy. Why shouldn't they be? We are winning the war, Mervyn is running amok and the whole country in general is going to pot. Hoooray!

Nuff politics. Wanna know what I've been up to? Nothing interesting, apart from a few trips to the beach etc., with Marshmallow of course. Got work and studies up to my eye balls. The rest of the time I try to spend with Marshmallow, not that she's got much time to spare either. Things seem to be working out fine-ly. Partying has been a little dull, basically due to the fact that I earn enough money to pay my bills and go out about twice a month. This is also due to the fact that we have a fool who has no knowledge of economics running the country. So basically my life has gone from watching TV and lazing around to working, studying and spending time with the girlfriend. Ack! need to inject some excitement in there. December looks busy and looks like its going the put a gigantic hole in my wallet. Oh! well, guess it'll be fun... lots and lots of fuuun

I just discovered Flock

2007-10-14T17:08:00.000+05:30

I hate Internet Explorer with a passion. Why? Well because it doesn't do what you want it to do. Instead it does what it wants and takes it's own time loading the pages. Most of the computers in the lab only have internet explorer and students don't have rights to install anything. Was checking random computers for a possibility of Firefox when I came across Flock. Flock is a browser that supports web 2.0. What? Well it's got built in tools for uploading photos, blogging, media bar, feeds and a web clipboard. So what right?

I just started using it and it has the capability of loading pages just a tad faster than Firefox. There's no big difference but there is a difference. The interface is also quite neat and funky. I likes. It works on the same engine as Firefox methinks, but has a few nifty tune-ups of its own. They've also given it the tag line "social web browser". Makes life easier for those of us who love to upload photos, download shit and in general waste time on the internet. Besides the pages seem to load faster and you can import all your bookmarks, cookies and whatever from Firefox.

Check out the web clipboard, it's super cool for those of us who pick up scraps of this and that off web pages. It allows you to drag and drop images etc., from websites that you are browsing on to a pane on the right hand side of your browser. You can use the copied stuff later even after you have exited the said page; it's kinda like a garbage can. The Flock home page that loads when you start the browser is also way cool. It lists all your favorite sites, most visited and latest news. Kinda like the personalized Google home page.

Try it out. You got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Personally...

2007-09-13T18:13:00.000+05:30

It's been a while since I wrote about my personal life. Apart from getting drunk and passing out or coming home at 9 am and heading straight for the toilet and throwing up, a lots been happening. Between working, studying and getting to know marshmallow life hasn't given me time for blogging; rather my mind hasn't been in one place to put my thoughts together. So, marshmallow and I have been doing things together for about two months now and things are going somewhat great. She's working and am not and that's a little crap since I don't get to see her as often as I would like to. WTF right? Beats being single man!

My life has largely been reduced to a lot of reading, namely Terry Pratchett's Discworld Series, which I find rather interesting and pretty hilarious at the same time. I also read a book called Monsoons & Potholes by Manuka Wijesinghe that was hilarious to start with but ended with a rather serious note about the current situation in the country. Good read. My entertainment has been reduced to Watching a lot of TV. Mostly History, NatGeo and Discovery but lots of Star World and AXN too. I've found that I don't have much to talk about, at least things that interest most people. I could go on about the history of Enzo Ferrari or Ferdinand Porsche or how Bill Gates cracked his deal with IBM for his DOS. But who the hell is interested in those things?

So I hear that Mervyn's little fellow got him self in a bit of soup again. I sincerely hope he gets what he deserves or his father decides that the bugger is too much of an embarrassment to the Dutugamunu ancestry and sends him to another country or to the Army. I prefer the Army actually, he'll get to play with guns and fight real people who can really fight back and throw bombs at him and shit. That would be much more fun for this bugger methinks. On the other hand maybe we could all get together and offer him drugs/Aston Martin/Helicopter/M16 in exchange for inflicting some pain on Jay-raj yesno?

And I still miss my paychecks. Dearly...

Who's duty?

2007-08-22T15:40:00.000+05:30

The fact that we, the Sri Lankan public voted for a bunch fools who have no idea how to manage a seven-eleven let alone a country is becoming irritatingly more obvious. I was reading the papers today and the front page said Billions in public funds for MPs vehicles. Right below that story… ok not right below that story but below that story at the bottom of the page was another headline that read Marking of A/L answer scripts disrupted. Now why would the marking of A/L answer scripts be disrupted? Terrorists? Threats? Political influence that pissed the teachers off? Floods? Tsunami? WW III? Not really, just that the teachers are a little pissed about not getting their salary anomalies sorted out and decided to stage a strike. Yes they didn’t get the money that they were promised.

So teachers don’t get paid what they should be paid and I don’t think they were entirely wrong in going on strike. Just take a look at the prices of shit and anyone could understand the why they wanna get every penny that’s owed to them. The treasury said that they’ve pretty much run out of money paying duty on the MPs vehicles. Duty free means the MPs get their cars duty free but the government has to bear the duty. The paper says that the treasury paid something like 13 million rupees on duty per car for the cars that the JHU MPs got. Funny thing no? JHU MPs buying fancy, posh cars when they said that they were entering politics to do away with this nonsense and actually be a peoples rep in the house. Who are they kidding then? Now that the treasury has paid all this duty for the cars imported by the MPs they don’t have the money to do anything else. The MPs also have issues that we don’t understand. Like when they first bought that X5, the old Land Rover chase and lead cars couldn’t keep up. To counter this problem they had to buy Range Rover Sports for themselves and a couple of X5s that could carry the official and unofficial security detail. It had to be done, sorry public.

The fuck! People don’t have money, the government doesn’t have any money to pay for subsidies like electricity, essential items or fuel. Prices are skyrocketing and all the people’s reps can do is bloody buy fancy cars and spend billions of our money to pay the duty. Man, even a seven-eleven manager can understand what’s going on. Question is, can the Sri Lankan public…

Terrorized

2007-08-19T20:36:00.000+05:30

Last Friday, I was on my way in to the city, for a rather important rendezvous with my group to finalize and complete a project that is due tomorrow. To my dismay I encountered heavy traffic in Kiribathgoda. I moved about five hundred meters within an hour. It was about an hour before news arrived via vehicles travelling in the opposite direction that the traffic lasted up to the Kelaniya bridge where they were conducting security checks, on all vehicles. I was never going to be able to make it Wellawatta at any time, hence I turned back after spending an hour and a half going no where and being pissed at the government and the LTTE. The terrorists are calling the shots again and telling me where I can go and when. I’ve always been told by parents and loved ones that I shouldn’t go here and there because there might be a bomb or something and I might lose my life. I’ve never changed my plans because of some threat, not to be a hero or whatever but simply because I don’t want my life to be governed by some stupid terrorist group.

Apparently the city was a total mess on Friday morning/afternoon. People missed appointments, meetings, important functions etc. People were stuck in traffic, in busses, cars and three-wheelers. People with air conditioning were somewhat better off than the others. People without were boiling in the hot sun, cursing everyone from God to the president's mother. As far as the LTTE is concerned its mission is accomplished. Any LTTE fellows who were planning on carrying bombs or IED’s in to the city would have turned back and gone back to wherever they came from. Terrorists don’t need to blow up buildings, kill people or blow up cars and buses. Causing chaos, terrorizing people and bringing the city to a standstill is enough to show the incompetence of the government and score a point for their terrorizing cause. As long as people can’t live free, can’t live without having to stop and produce ID, license blah blah at least once a day, not being able to get a place on time because of traffic or because roads are closed, that is enough of a victory for the terrorists. They’ve won haven’t they?

One only needs to watch a few talk shows featuring the peoples’ elected representatives to know that we are most certainly doomed. What do they talk about? About seventeen people crossing over to the government, car permits and how the other party has cheated the people more than they have. I am sick of this bickering and nothing being done about the situation in the country. The government keeps relying on their personal computer network that generates positive reports of the country's progress and keeps telling the people via the government controlled media that everything is fine. “Everything is fine, just umm! Maybe you could do with a little less milk, gas and petrol. You are already are a little fat so high prices are good for you cause if you can’t afford it, you can’t have it. We are taking your money and eating our hearts out, look how fat we are. We are doing you a favor. Walk, its good exercise you know?”

Everyone else has to hand it to the LTTE and live their lives in fear. Where’s the democracy we were promised? Where’s the freedom? Why is everyone so quiet with regard to the promises they made? I want answers but there’s no one to answer me.

For country and people...

2007-08-06T07:56:00.000+05:30

Politics in Sri Lanka is a fascinating thing. Watching a discussion last night on Derana, I wondered as to why anyone with half a brain would cast their votes for these assholes and let them run our country, make decisions on behalf of us; decisions that affect ‘us’ and not them. The topic of the discussion was “is switching sides for the benefit of the public?” It all started off decent enough until one of the dudes, Mithrapala, got offended and started butting in to the other guy’s time. All hell broke lose and it all became a little hilarious when Mithrapala said that the COL is down and the country is heading up, instead of the obvious down.

Was thinking to myself and wondered if the politicians and Cabral have like a special computer or a report they refer to when they make statements like that. Development is on the rise, hospitals are coming up, roads are being done up, new roads are being added to the system, schools are coming up, COL is going down and we’ve had an eight percent growth in the past two years or something, on par with India and China. My theory is that someone insanely devious is behind all of this and is playing a practical joke on the elected representatives. Mahinda is living it up, speaking from behind a bloody bullet proof glass and getting all the people rattled up. Makes me want to rent a M40 from somewhere and blow the bugger to pieces, bulletproof glass and all. It’s about time they all got over this Thoppigala business. Good that we managed to gain the ground, not good that we spent millions on a stupid party where all the heroes watched a live telecast from Thoppigala. The Tigers got all their shit together and ran to wherever they came from and didn’t leave much for our boys. Nothing much to party about anyway, should have donated the money to the boys and girls who hung their asses out to get to the place. But NO the president had to make a pompous affair of the whole thing. As if ‘he’ bloody gained that ground. Pfft!

So as for government and public reps that fatten their asses with our money and then 10% off some donations, here’s where their priorities currently lie:

a) Buy as many people as you can in to your party, so that you can scream at the other fellows across the parliament louder.

b) Gain access to special reports and the computer network that delivers favorable results all the time, every time, no matter how bad the country’s situation is.

c) Get Mervin to whack/harass/annoy a few people.

d) Get Mervin to show up on TV and entertain the public.

e) Get Jayaraj to come up with some insane arguments to spice up parliamentary sessions.

f) Devise some sort of mechanism to deal with Mangala and Sripati.

g) Take the piss out of anyone who has half brain and get personal with them. Try to get them to cross over by promising them a ministry and some good benefits. Then get a drink somewhere and laugh your ass off.
h) Lie to the public. Screw them over and do whatever to get their money.

i) Come up with new ways to pilfer money from donations/taxes/wherever possible.

What about the war?

War? Oh! Shit. Forgot about that. Umm! Well those buggers will keep trying to bomb us so that shouldn’t be a problem right? Solution? Why? Without a war how will we explain this economic situation to anyone? You stupid or something? And Hamilton won in Hungary! Good show no?

Kudu - June in review

2007-07-02T23:09:00.000+05:30

Image Stolen from Yacht Boy

June has been one crazy month. I can't remember the last time I drank this much; probably back in the day when I had a job. It all started on the day before Bradby when I met up with Stu, Steve and Mel. Then Jane and some other plastic surgery birds showed up and Indi and Wenu and whole load of other people showed up at Cheers. More beers, more beers, more beers. I hadn't drunk so much beer in all my life. Steve, Mel and I headed for R&B and had more beer. I woke up a few hours later to get ready to head for Kandy for more drinks and found out that someone had stuck a jack-hammer in my head. I swore not to drink so much beer ever again.

By the time we got to Kandy I was thirsty again and Cargills was the first place we hit. Old Reserve, coke, bites the lot. Parked the car and filled the bottle, half coke, half arrack. Yum! We spent the night at a friends place, which was unbelievably beautiful, overlooking the Victoria Lake and I would have drunk close to a bottle. That in part was thanks to my friends who indulged in herbal substances and left me to drink by myself.

The next weekend came and it was time to meet up with Stu for one last night of getting pissed before he left. Again, Cheers, but this time it was one round of beer and a whole heap of arrack. Broke as I am I bought a bottle at R&B... Needed an entire day to recover from that night.

Next weekend was Bradby second leg. Parents weren't home for the weekend so a friend and I got smashed at my place. On Saturday about 5 of us finished close to six bottles. Crawled home at about 7 am. Damn!

Last Thursday I helped a friend out with some work, taking some pics for a brochure. Finished the stuff and headed out to a bar. Unbeknownst us we finished two and a half bottles of Arrack. came home on two feet, but pissed out of my mind.

So all in all, its been one hell of a drunken month that has left me broke to the core and much due credit on my cards. Wonder what the month of July holds for me........

Reverse...

2007-06-18T18:24:00.000+05:30

Religion is something that I try to avoid talking about. Each one is entitled to their opinion and no one should try to shove their beliefs on others. So just in case anyone is wondering, I am not trying to belittle any religion or endorse another.

Saturday, June 16th, around 7pm local time, I hop a bus heading towards the city. The radio on the bus is playing a sermon conducted by a Buddhist priest. His sermon is on the environment and how we should care more about it. He starts with an analogy from the time of the Great Buddha (Siduhath Kumaru) and how he treated the environment around him. As the sermon progresses attention is slowly diverted toward the society we live in today. Suddenly, he breaks out in to a total anti-west rant. He starts going on about how countries in the west try to come and tell us how to control our waste, although they are the ones who are causing global warming. True enough right? Then he claims that the Americans and other western nations come here, posing as environmentalists and members of the green revolution and steal our plants and herbs. Then they genetically modify them and sell them back to us. Ok, so far it isn't ridiculous right?

He then starts about how we as nation never needed advice on waste management and keeping out environment clean. He said that we've always had a neat environment and that we've always lived as part of the eco-system and not tried to destroy it. Then he brings up the example of batteries. He says that the lead in batteries causes cancer in people. He then said that westerners brought concrete here whereas we used to live in mud huts, which were cool (temperature wise) and weren't harmful to the environment. But today we have fast food, cellophane and other things that aren't bio degradable, all brought here by western countries. we must stop this and put an end to this absurd invasion...

I had to get off although I would have loved to listen to the rest. I was wondering whether it would have been better for him to tell people what they should do NOW, instead of tell people that they should go back to living in mud huts and not eat yoghurt. If you listened to him and you weren't exposed to the modern world you would believe him. He was damn convincing on every count. You would also totally trash every white man/woman you saw on the street cause they were here to steal our shit. This is the kind of mentality that's dragging our country down. This is the kinda teachings that lead to being completely bankrupt. Why can't these people, people who have gained the respect of the masses talk sense? Like what we can do NOW to keep our environment clean. Levy the government to get help from somewhere to setup recycling plants etc. Then gather the people and tell them how to use it the explain the consequences of not using it.

But no, fuck that, just go live in mud huts and stop using batteries.

Bringing back me!

2007-06-14T04:15:00.000+05:30

It’s been a little rough since I told one of my bestest friends how I feel about her. It seemed like the logical and genuine thing to do at the time. No point letting her dangle not knowing how I feel about her right? With hindsight, I understand that buried feelings are better left buried. After unearthing those feelings, which I buried in her best interest, I felt attached and wanting something I shouldn’t want to have. One thing led to another and I became possessive and jealous of some gender confused, aliceband wearing fairy.

Taking a little time to lie in bed and think about things as clearly as I could, I seem to have figured out where I went wrong. Besides I am not sure why I felt shitty cause it’s not like I am gonna have something with her. It must be the fact that she’s always been available and now suddenly her new friend(s) seem to take up most of her time. Not that it matters but it does feel a little weird. But that is how humans are. At least that’s how women are when it comes to me. So what? I got my mates and I was having a ball with my life before I decided to unearth these so called buried feelings. So there we have it, the crux of the matter. Buried feelings should fucking stay buried. Wish there was a shift+del key in our minds to completely rid us of some of the things we don’t wanna remember.

Now, upon identifying what the core of the problem was, I think I can move on and be a normal person again and not let gender confused fairies bother my excellent life. Besides I have better things to do, like trying to bring down this government and make a lot of money and buy an island. Much more important things than spending time thinking about someone who’s got new friends and has limited time for me no?

Ethnic Cleansing? Nope, just stupidity...

2007-06-08T08:32:00.000+05:30

What started off somewhere in 1983 or so as a fight to give Tamil people the right live in a land where they aren’t discriminated has eventually led to innocent Tamil people having no place to call home. The government which is sworn to protect the rights of its people has now evicted hundreds of Tamils for no “valid” reason. In my understanding of the constitution, any Sri Lankan has the right to travel and live in any part of the country. So why is the very same government that the people elected violating their constitutional rights? Oh! Wait, these people didn’t elect him did they? Boss made a deal to ensure they don’t.

The LTTE came about because the Tamil people were being harassed left, right and center and no one stood up for them; not the police, nor the politicians of that era. Some of the Marxist, racist movements of that day still prevail and to a certain extent still hold within themselves that all Sinhala nationalist fucking mentality. That mentality that is just NOT going to work. As a modern people who have access to world news etc., we should have learned our lesson from what took place in 1983 and in Africa and in Eastern Europe and in wherever else. More than 20 years down the line it seems a little stupid to be doing the same thing over again in the name of solving the conflict. In the scenario of chasing those poor people out of their rented lodges, the government said that it was in the name of national security and to protect the Tamil people. Look, if they really wanted to protect the Tamil people, they should have carried a few investigations properly and identified who’s terrorist and who’s not. Not simply evict some people who may legitimately be in those lodges for any number of reasons. Of course none of them are “valid”. They’ve left their homes in the north/east because of this stupid war and come to Colombo in search of some sort of security. Just because the intelligence teams and whoever else can’t do their jobs properly, it doesn’t mean that these poor people have to pay the price.

This war cannot be ended militarily. Even if the leaders and everyone involved was fully committed and uncorrupt, it would be extremely difficult. The only way is to bring about some sort of peaceful solution where both parties have to reach a compromise. We all know this, but why don’t those people who’ve been elected in to posts where the decisions are made know this? Why is it so hard for them to understand this? Just like Ravana says in this post, we need to get to the root of the problem. And the root is that the Tamil people are not protected by the government. They cannot look to the government to be safe and the LTTE is making full use of this situation. Aside from giving money to them to rig elections, we need not give them a chance to strengthen themselves in front of the masses. The Tamil people are also Sri Lankans and the government of Sri Lanka needs to recognize that and stop fucking around with their lives. The Rajapakse administration needs to start taking responsibility for their actions and start acting like a responsible government. Not like some African dictator who doesn’t give a damn whether 60% of the country is unemployed and 90% of the employed 40% earns less than a dollar a day.

Top Ten TV birds I'd like to get with...

2007-06-04T20:13:00.000+05:30

These are the top 10 birds on TV who I'd like to take home with me, get marooned on a desert island with or get locked in a jail cell with. There's no particular judging criteria cause, well, its my list and also its just the way I feel about them.

I start off with Dana Delany who stars in the hit series Kidnapped. Sure she's old and blah blah, but there's something about her that turns me on. I like the hair for one thing and although she's old she looks damn fit. So Dana is at number 10 cause she's old and I can't really figure out why I like her, but I certainly do like her.

The classic Baywatch Babe, big boobs, nice ass and wonderful legs; oh! how marvelous it is to watch her run. Carmen, as hot as she is, she's at number 9 because she's too stereotypical. Classical playboy bunny na? Apparently she's smart and has a black belt or something. Wouldn't wanna piss her off but sure as hell wouldn't miss the chance to beat her...

Heroes' Claire Bennett is probably the hottest bird on that show and she is HOT. So why is she at number 8? Well, she's a little freaky cause she doesn't get hurt/injured and heals real quick. Wonder if her hymen grows back too? hmmm!! And she wears that hideous cheerleader outfit and it looks dirty...

Robin Meade, now here's a reason to watch CNN the whole day. She's hot and you gotta love the hair... Its only the top half of her body that we get to see on CNN and that's why she's stuck at number 7.

She's the only reason I watched Lost after I lost interest in somewhere in the middle of season 1. Evangeline Lilly or Kate is the hottest of all the lost birds. I wish I got lost with her. We'd have such a great time and not want to go back to wherever we came from. I love the fact that although she's marooned on a deserted island, she's managed to work out a way to keep her eyebrows nicely plucked and her armpits shaved. Enterprising no?

Oh! boy! Cricket world cup all over again. I think I fell in love with Mandira Bedi during the world cup. She's hot, Indian and knows a thing or two about cricket. She's got the most beautiful complexion and by the looks of it very soft skin. Need I say more?

Kristen Bell, my number 4, that annoying girl from Veronica Mars who can't keep her nose out of other people's businesses. Apparently she's now in college and keeping up her rep for nosiness, in the new season. That aside she's cute, got some round bits and looks pretty damn good. I'd just love to go for dinner and then take her to my place...

Number 3 goes to Natasha Kaplinsky, the reason I used to watch Sky news back in the day when ETV used to broadcast it. Apparently she's not only beautiful but smart too. So guess there'd be some intellectual conversation before we get down and dirty. Wish we had news anchors like her...

Number 2 would have to go to Carmen Ejogo from Kidnapped. She's Nap's able partner who knows a thing or two about computers, at least that's how the character goes. She's British too, I mean in the Show and boy does that accent turn me on. Besides you gotta love the hair no?

The number 1 TV bird I'd like to get with is Elisha Cuthbert. She's luscious and has an amazing body. Her acting isn't bad but who cares when you look like that right? How I wish she was the girl next door...

So that's it. The 10 hottest birds from various TV shows...

2007-05-29T01:06:00.001+05:30

Had a drama filled weekend with parents up in the hills. It all started on Friday night when I had a few drinks with some friends at Buba. After quite a few drinks and discussions that varied from getting laid to politics to the corrupt actions of our dear president, we headed for R&B. I wanted to go to R&N cause I met this hot chic at Buba and she was going there. Got home at around 5.30 am and had to get ready to leave for the mountains with the parents.

After stopping for breakfast, I drove. Got copped for doing 77 kmh near Kuruvita. What to do? Stood in a queue of people traveling from Colombo who'd been copped and paid the fine. There's a Rs. 100 service fee that goes to the post office on top of the fine. Hell of a joke. Total damage of Rs. 1100. Went back and got my license. Drove up again. This time waited for a guy driving fast to get ahead of me and tagged along behind him. The views were spectacular. Blue skies, green mountains, like something out of a movie. They've done up the road and its wonderful to drive on. Some straights are so awesome, you can't help hitting 140 on them. A 4.5 km drive on a shitty narrow mountain road gets us to the place we were staying at. World's End Lodge. It truly is located at the end of the world. The rooms are alright, nothing to talk about. But leave your luggage inside and walk out the door and the most amazing view welcomes you. Apparently one can see Hambantota on clear day. The stunning view slaps you in the face and reminds you that you live in bloody paradise. Spent all of Saturday just chilling and lazing around.

Woke up early on Sunday morning hoping to take some photos or the rising sun. Unfortunately it was blocked by a massive mountain. Tough shit. After breakfast we took a hike up one of the mountains. The old people stopped half way and some of the kids decided to proceed further. As the path became a little steep and harder to navigate we decided to turn back. We shouted at two of the kids who were ahead but they didn't listen. We headed down the mountain. A little while later, although we shouted we didn't get a response. Fearing the worst I had to head up the mountain again to find the idiots. I couldn't. I gave the bad news to the parents of the idiots and suggested we go down to the Lodge and tell them to send someone who knows the area.

About two and a half hours later, the two retards show up, bruised, muddy and wet with no shoes on. The parents were all pissed and moody and annoyed. Apparently they've got lost and couldn't find their way back and crawled down the side of a waterfall hanging on to trees and vines and shit. With the parents trip killed, they all decided to leave on Sunday evening. Driving down was pretty easy since there was very little traffic and the roads were fantastic. Until of course the bolt that holds the rear stabilizer bar drops off and rear end of the car starts fish-tailing every time I come out of the bed. Thought it might be a suspension issue and take it slow for a while, before the swaying becomes a little worrying and handling becomes a bitch. Stop the car. Rear wheel is turned left. Take it out and check and there's a bolt is missing and the stabilizer bar is hanging free. FUCK! Dad hops in his friends car and heads out to Ratnapura in search of a bolt. In the meantime the car is on the jack on the side of the road. It starts to rain. I curse. We hook up a new bolt that almost doesn't fit and drive real slow back to Colombo. For the first time I stayed below the speed limit. Took like 7hrs to get home.

Tired as a dog, sent some texts, checked mail and went to sleep. Woke at about 3 ish in the afternoon. Chilled out and watched some TV. Heard about another Bomb in Ratmalana. Fucking hell. From paradise to fucking Bombs. What an anti climax.

Oh! And Mr. Cayenne drove past me on the way back escorted by a Mitsubishi L200 full of thugs. Suspension problems didn't allow me to keep up. Bugger must be feeling very important.

Stop complaining – you voted him in, not I.

2007-05-08T23:28:00.000+05:30

Bloody protesters. Its one thing to stand on the side of the road and make a fuss about things that the government is NOT giving you, but its insane to stand/sit in the middle of the road in fort and make a fuss about the same.

Needed to deposit some money and I wait till the last minute to head in to town. Took the bus from home and reached fort to find a massive traffic jam. Walked toward the railway station to find closed roads and diverted traffic. WTF? Walked past the railway station to what seemed like the center of attention and found a bunch of people sitting/standing in the middle of the road in front of the SLT office. Cops stop me and tell me that I can't walk that way. I tell them that I just need to get near Lakehouse and would appreciate if they could let me pass. No go. They point at the bunch and tell me that they are protesting. Protesting what? I don't know. Two anti-riot trucks with water cannons are parked in front of them. Some Buddhist monks standing amongst the crowds as well. Monks should just stay in their temples and guide people in the RIGHT direction no? I decide to cross the road via the railway station and appear on the other side. There's a queue of angry people, a few hundred meters long, waiting to get tickets. Fuck it. Check with cops again as to what the situation is and I get a negative response again. I walk all the way around the other side, past the port and come out on the far side of the protesting assholes. Its now 3.20 pm and the banks are closed. "Fuck these assholes, I hope they die of starvation", I curse.

Make my way to Cinnamon and call friend. Walk to Deli France, order a coffee and sit outside to enjoy some tobacco and watch passing cars. I see an awesome, but slightly ugly car...

A 4.5 liter V6, 340 BHP under the hood.
19" rims and the best tires money can buy
Color - white (Don't ask).
Built by a famous sports car manufacturer and is dubbed the fastest SUV on earth and costs the earth as well.
Driven by a clown, who happens to be the son of minister. The name (M. Silva).

Yes. A Porsche Cayenne. Driven by that ugly, stupid, unbelievable clownhead of a man/boy/it.

Its one thing if you've earned the money to buy one, but its another when you take the money earned by other people and drive around with garage number plates, looking like an utter wanker.

Ok so if I got this right, you lot voted for this bunch of brainless twats and then went and made matters worse by voting a power hungry lunatic to govern all. You lot voted in this bunch of hooligans to make the most vital decisions on behalf of us and then get out and stand in the middle of the road in the busiest city in the country and bring it to a screeching halt and inconvenience people with half a brain like me, who voted for the other guy, cause the pompous cunt you voted in isn't giving you what you want him to give you. Is that right?

Serves you lot right. I hope you marvel at the Porsche Cayennes and the VIP Range Rovers and wank yourself to death.

NOTE: All of you who have the teensiest bit of brains/common sense and voted forthe other guy are NOT included in "YOU LOT".

Bloody hell

2007-04-29T05:14:00.000+05:30

WTF? Was watching the match at CH and suddenly the lights go out. The screens go up and everyone starts to settle down and watch the match under moonlight. Sri Lanka is scoring well with Sanga and Jayasuriaya when some dude comes near our table, crouches down, presumably to hear the other person on the phone better and exclaims "What? The tigers are bombing Colombo?" Everyone at our table is like wtf? this dude's just joking right?

With the lights out and Colombo in the dark, some paralights or whatever were fired in to the air and everyone thought it was part of the celebration, cause we were doing pretty well. Calm. And then the screens go out and everyone thinks that CH is gonna be bombed. Phone lines are congested. Texts roll in and phone calls come streaking in, some asking if I was OK and some asking what the score was, cause their lights were out.

Rumors.

Some passenger aircraft or SLAF aircraft flies over and everyone screams and scatters. I just plant my ass on the table and watch the plane. I watch too much discovery to know that a) those bullshit tiger planes can't fly that high and b) no one can drop bombs even half accurately from that altitude. Someone gets on the mic and tells everyone to leave.

Fuck! We head out to Pilla to grab a bite and have a lime. Call me insensitive but I grew up with this shit and I really can't be bothered having a panic attack at 2am on the day of the World Cup Final when the boys are playing. Pilla is Closed. Head to Bamaba and eat.

Got a cab and came home. One my way home it seemed that everything was back to normal. Some bread-man was on his bike on his way to deliver the bread to some shop. Some other buggers were hanging vesak decorations. Life goes on.

I check TamilNet and some smug LTTE spokesman is on about bombing the refineries and that their planes arrived safely at their base. Why can't we just take those crop-dusters apart? They also said that unindentified aircraft were seen on the radar. This is starting to piss me off now... I hope the boss had a good time in Barbados.

And we lost the fucking match!

My life in point form - part 1

2007-04-24T04:22:00.000+05:30

I am tired but am not falling asleep, instead my thoughts drifted in to my past and the following is a result of that. My life in point form

My first day at school smelled like egg sandwiches.
My grade 1 teacher promised us that we could play in the sandbox and although we eagerly waited for that day, it never came.
Grade 4 taught me that track events weren’t my forte. I came last and vowed never to run a race ever again.
Woo! Hoo! First in class. This means I get brand new text books for next year.
My own BMX. Christmas is so much fun.
Lego.
Grade 5 taught me that bombs are bloody loud and that they can come at the most convenient of times. The JOC bombing was my first experience of this war
Girls were not so bad after all.
How come there was always someone who owned a cooler pencil box, school bag or a pair of shoes?
Watching people making out on TV makes me feel good.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, GI Joe and X men.
Whoa! There are movies where people actually do it in front of a camera. This shit is way cool.
Super hero cards.
This Tin Tin fellow is super cool. And these blokes in beards whose names always end with an ‘X’ and love beating up the Romans and eat wild boar are super funny.
Girls’ lips are wet.
My first computer and Gorilla Bas
Exchange 3.5” diskettes with nude pics of girls.
Copying at the exams. The rush I tell you…
Books are very descriptive and a good one is a lot of fun. Sometimes more than movies.
The TIME magazine, Readers Digest and Newsweek.
My first day at cricket practice…
Shopping for cricket gear with my dad.
House matches – opened the bowling, took 2 wickets and scored 9 runs while batting.
Didn’t make the under 17 team.
Internet and Email. Wow! This is sooo cool.
My first day at rowing was intimidating.
Hey! I like that girl, but how do I go talk to her?
There’s porn on the internet! Yeeeh! Haa!
The rowing fellows are nice buggers.
Getting drunk for the first time.
Passing out for the first time.
Learning what happens when you drink too much the hard way.
It feels super awesome to win a race. But that feeling disappears too fast.
Morning runs and morning rowing.
Cycle parades. Jumping in to girls schools.
Getting in trouble for jumping in to girls’ schools.
The Big Match and the Bradby.
Cascades and Blue Elephant are places where hot chics hang out.
Spending hours on the phone, talking absolute rubbish with girls and then getting blasted for running up the phone bill.
Being able to punch someone in the face without thinking twice.
Being punched in the face and standing up to the guy makes you a hero.
A/L exams.
Kicking ass at probably THE most important race of my life.
My first job interview – When asked what I want to be in 15 years, telling the MD that I would want to be in his seat. I got the job.
Oooh! Girls think that guys who read books are cool.
Smoking.
Sex.
Wild parties.
Girlfriends.
Getting my heart broken – man did that suck or what?
Getting a better job.
Missing the old job.
Playing chess at work.
Askmen.com
Getting promoted.
Getting paid more.
Oh! Shit credit card payments.
Stop studying because work is too hard and is taking up too much time and energy.
More money, more time at work and more drinking.
“No strings attached sex”. Now that’s the way to go…
Older women.
Long distance relationship.
Nightmares.
Broke up again. Life sucks.
Single and happy…
My own laptop, iPod and Camera.
I think I like writing. Let me start a blog.
Life goes on…

End of part 1

The End Of An Era...

2007-04-22T21:04:00.000+05:30

Saturday the 21st of April marked the end of an era for the great cricketing legend Brian Lara. One of the worlds most talented batsmen ended his career with the last super 8 match against England. Too bad the man had to be run out in an unfortunate mix up of Yes and No. The icing on the cake came when England actually managed to achieve 300 runs in 49 something overs and that Michael Vaughan scored runs. The fact that Vaughan scored runs should be something significant in the world of cricket.

The other ending was of the Blue Elephant. The club that shaped most of our party lives. It used to be Cascades and Blue. The last of the Mohicans, so to speak shut down with a big bang last night. Everyone whose lives have been transformed by the Elephant was there dancing away to the beats played by DJ's on an era gone by. It was pretty awesome and brought back many memories of years past, when we got sloshed and left the place at 5 am. The fact that the place was packed after about a year of not having anyone in there...

All in all 21st April 2007 marked a day for retirement....

How to Draw a car in MS Paint

2007-04-21T01:58:00.000+05:30

MS Paint? Useless piece of shit, who uses it? Nothing you can do with it cause, err I dunno, cause there's nothing you can do with it...

Check this out...

Now what do you think about MS Paint huh?

Cat Meat - China

2007-04-18T00:56:00.000+05:30

NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED...

A friend of mine sent me this link yesterday and the email contained the following text:

after watching the video, forward it and make aware of whats happening to
animals in China.. they still eat tigers there!

Warning Explicit material! harsh treatment!

I watched the video and its about the mass killing of cats so that people can eat them later in restaurants or wherever. It's in China or Korea or some far eastern country like that. As all of us know, it is accepted and part of their culture to eat snakes and cats and dogs etc.

As harsh as it may seem to you and I and as cruel to the animals as it may seem, I hardly think it warrants emails and slogans and petitions. It is part of their culture and they like to eat cats. How would you feel if you got emails from the vegans saying that you should stop killing cows and stop killing chickens cause its damn cruel? You don't see the Indians making graphic videos in a slaughter house and making slogans like "They Still eat beef in Europe. Send it to everyone so that we can stop the slaughter of cattle." They treat cows as God in India. We just love them on a plate at the local steak house. It's the difference in culture and I believe that everyone should learn to respect that. Just cause cows and chickens and pigs aren't the most cute, cuddly and loveable, doesn't mean that they don't face the same shit as those cats and dogs do, they do. If you people have a problem with it, they should just stop eating meats altogether, but respect the wishes of other people and their cultures.

By the way, pigs have the worst time ever in the slaughter house...

Think about it before you forward another one of those emails.

Super 8 - Sri Lanka Vs. Australia - Updated

2007-04-16T19:12:00.000+05:30

Update...

So...we lost the match to Australia and everyone is blaming the selectors for not playing Vaas and Murali. The commentators, throughout the game were going on about how they do not understand why this was done and why Sri Lanka didn't play their A team in such an important match. This bloke Asanka left a comment on this post, which probably sums up the sentiments of half the Sri Lankan supporters. I have a few things to say about this too...

a) Whether Sri Lanka won this match and even if Australia lose to New Zealand, we won't meet them in the Semi's. The only time we'll meet the Aussie's again is in the Finals. So they don't play Vaas, who is in brilliant form and Murali, who is always in form, for the simple fact that the Aussies will face them at the finals, for the first time in this tournament. Save the best for the really important game.

b) Yes. It is strategic move and everyone should get their heads out of their asses and start seeing that. No, Sri Lanka didn't go in to Lose. They held back Vaas and Murali and the selected team went in to WIN. The batsmen failed and no one is talking about that. Regardless of the bowlers, we should have and could have easily posted a total of 240+

c) I strongly disagree with Ian Chappell's comments about this match being a possible fix. He mentioned that the ICC should look in to the Sri Lankan's decision and make sure that there's no foul play. Look, the team has the right to choose who plays and who doesn't. Doesn't mean that it's a bloody fix. Also, it must be smarting that Sri Lanka is thinking of the finals right now, while they are taking the world cup a game at a time. To give credit where it is due, the Aussies are a sound, well oiled machine. Beating them is no easy task. Right now, the only team that posses the skill and talent to do so are the Lankans. The Australians aren't a bunch of goats either. One match against Vaas and Murali may be enough for them to pickup on their techniques and come up with a formula to negate their attack. We took that advantage away. Tough shit... live with it.

d) This match was one of the biggest matches in the Super8. Why? the Aussies and the Lankans are the most formidable teams in the tournament. It's not our fault that everyone else is not as good.

e) Sri Lankans need to start having faith in our boys. I rarely meet people who say things like if we can only make 220, what makes you think X team can make more than that?. It really is a shame that the Sri Lankan fans are the first to put down the Sri Lankan team even before they've lost the match.

f) I think the Sri Lankans are beyond money. They have enough of it to last several life times. It's more about fame now. Besides it's great to see the Sri Lankans thinking big and thinking ahead. The kind of mentality we lack as a society. See the comment that was left, which I referred to earlier.

So, all in all, a pretty ordinary performance by the Lankan team. Again, the batting collapsed, we lost 7 wickets for about 60 runs. The lower middle order needs to get their act together. If not, facing an opponent like the Australians in a final, regardless of how good the bowling attack is, maybe futile. There's only so much any bunch of bowlers can defend. Besides, if Australia bats first, even the best bowlers in the whole world put together will have a trying task in restricting them to a poultry total. It's simply not going to happen. Hence, I believe the people should stop giving the administration so much shit over this loss, and focus on the real dilemma, THE BATTING.

------------------------------------------------>>>

While everyone is busy criticizing Tom Moody's and Mahela's decision to leave Vaas and Murali out of this all important game, I thought I might shed my two cents worth on the topic. Watching the two teams in the middle for the first couple of overs tells me that the Aussie's a tad worried and Jayasuriya and Tharanga are confident and playing quite comfortably. Whatever said and done the decision to leave out two of the best players in Sri Lanka have had its desired effects on the opposition.

Tactic: Since the Aussies would have watched a ton of videos of Vaas and Murali and would be all ready to bash them up, why not leave them out and fluster then Aussies a little bit.

I think it's a brilliant strategic move. If we get in excess of 240, Sri Lanka will definitely win this and leave a sour taste in the mouths of the Aussies, setting the psychological stage for when we meet them at the finals.

TMNT

2007-04-12T13:42:00.000+05:30

What? TMNT is the new generation reference to theTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Speaking of shortened forms, the characters are now referred to as Leo, Donnie, Raph and Mikey.

I loved the Turtles, although it wasn't the biggest or the best franchise ever. Anyway, I watched the cartoons and the movies and loved every minute of it. That same love for the Turtles drove me to watch the new CGI film. And was I dissappointed or what?

So in this day and age of critiques and more demanding movie goers, I imagined whoever who made this would make it good. But it sucked worse than any other sequel I've ever seen. The plot is absurd. It all starts with Leo in South America, evidently splinter told him to go down there and spend some time chilling out in the forest so that he can become a better leader. The other three are still hanging around in NYC watching TV and doing odd jobs. Donnie is tech support guy who works from home. Mikey does kids birthday parties dressed in a turtle costume and Raph dons disguise every night and chases down the criminals of NY. Splinter watches soaps all day.

The villain is not really the villain, cause he has a change of heart somewhere in the middle of the film and wants to be a good guy. Some 3000 year old stone statues are given life and they are supposed to catch 13 super ugly monsters who are walking around NYC. Crazy thing is, these monsters rarely do any damage to the city. The foot are also around but no shredder. Some new chic is leading the foot clan. No fancy underground machines either. April is now anorexic and has learned how to fight.

At the end of the film all the bad guys get together with the Turtles and defeat the super bad guys. And everything is over real quick and everyone is happy. All is well, peace has been restored.

What a waste of time and money. Now my nice memories of the Turtles are also scarred. I will never feel like they helped shape my life. TMNT my ~~fucking~~ ass..... Don't watch it. You might as well stay at home, order some pizza and listen to Ranjit Fernando's commentaries.

Possessive..

2007-04-12T00:05:00.000+05:30

I took about 3 minutes to puke all over my blog. What came out was an entangled mess of fish rotty and emotions. However, since watching some crap on youtube and wasting some time playing solitaire, I feel better. Hence, I've decided to clean up the puke from this blog and spare all of you.

So it's gone... and I've replaced the puke with this piece of rubbish.

BTW, read, vote and diss Ranjit Fernando because he's killing the worldcup trip that we are on...

Cricket....

2007-04-05T19:26:00.000+05:30

Nixon and Bopara almost screwed things up for Sri Lanka; but thankfully lacked the ~~balls~~ luck to turn their well played innings in to the win. Almost like the South Africa match, but the only difference being that this time we ended up on the winning side. So, what happened during the game? Scourge is going to put forth his 2 cents worth on the subject of cricket.

Pitch report: Botham claimed that the wicket would play well for batsmen as it was hard and somewhat dry, hence those winning the toss may want to bat first... he also said that the team winning the toss may want to field, as there may be some moisture that will help the fasties...

Sri Lanka in: Mahela, as usual lost the toss and were put in to bat by a confident Vaughan, who thought his bowling could take out the Sri Lankans. So we set off to a pretty good start and Sanath started to take apart the England attack. Not for long though, cause he got out. Tough shit right? Yes. Tough... now how many of you thought the match was over for us from then on? Well, it kinda was, since no one except Mahela really got it together. Tharanga made a valiant effort to play a long innings. I think it was important that he did so although most feel that 60-odd off 100-odd balls was not good. He needed to be there and play that anchor role, while Sanga or Mahela stuck it to the bowlers. That didn't really happen but, 230 against England is a good score on any pitch. What? if we can only make 230 what makes you think England can make 230 against people like Malinga, Sanath, Dilahara and Murali?

England seemed content with the score and their performance. I don't like them much, simply cause they think they are so good, but they aren't, just like those Indians. But to their credit they did field well and put pressure on our batsmen. Also, Jimmy and Freddy did a decent job with the ball. Right...

England Bats: Well, to me I think we should have applied a bit more pressure and got that important 3rd wicket earlier. Perhaps Murali should have bowled as soon as the 2nd wicket fell. Anyway, the delayed 3rd Power Play by Mahela was ingenious and those fools fell in to the trap like mice going for the cheese. The one mistake I thought Mahela made was when he used the spinners against Nixon and Bopara. The Man had Malinga, Dilhara, 2 overs from Vaas to play with. He should have used them cause Nixon seems to have spent a lot of time getting ready for the likes of Murali. Had we got one of those two out earlier, England would be crying.

Nevertheless, I guess everyone learns from their mistakes. England, I suppose are happy that they didn't get thrashed like they did the last time when they played us in England. We, I guess are happy that we just need to win 1 more match out of the next 3 to make it to the next round. Beat Australia and we make it to the top, which means we play the last team to make it to the Semi's. I think we can beat Australia, provided we bat first. If they bat first, Matty and Gilchrist may get going and post a 300+ total that would be intimidating. Not that we can't get it. Just that, if Sanath gets out early, everyone will think that its all over. So better, posting 250+ and letting the Aussies chase and take them apart, one by one. A lot depends on Vaas and Malinga in the first few overs of that match. Matty needs to go early, period. If not there may be trouble.

So my Semi finalists are: Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
My Finalists are: Sri Lanka and Australia/NZ...

And of course we win the world cup.

After thought: I think Botham and Atherton shouldn't be allowed in the commentary box together. They keep thinking aloud that England will win. A little biased don't you think? Hats off to Nasser, good, unbiased commentary.

After, after thought: All you Dialog TV viewers, isn't Mandira Super, Super hot...? ~~And Arjuna Super, Super fat?~~

Crisis...

2007-03-31T02:03:00.000+05:30

The biggest crisis am facing at the moment is that I don't have any cigarettes. It's 2am and I'm trying to get this project shit out of the way, but how can I concentrate when I don't have any cigarettes? Besides it's a Friday night and I should be out, drunk, off my face and dancing/acting like a retard. But am not and this combination of being at home on a Friday night and not having cigarettes is not working for me.

On the other hand I haven't had the time to express my opinion about the newly launched LTTE air wing. Good for them. The next time perhaps they can try aiming for some air planes or something. Wtf? Someone saw two unidentified aircraft on their radar and no one thought of offering a little meet and greet service by scrambling 1 or 2 Kfirs. Since we are a nation at war, that would be the logical thing to do right? You cannot simply let unidentified aircraft or seacraft or landcraft come in to the capital city without confirming their identity can you?

Those fools got cartoons for freaking air planes and they are taking the piss out of us. A blast from an SLAF aircraft cannon would sort those converted crop-dusters out. But no, we just strongly condemned this action... and hopefully Prabha will shit himself...

They somehow managed to get the aircraft in to the country, fly from the north, drop some bombs on our main air force base and bugger-off without so much as a scratch. Those fools might as well gone the rest of the distance and dropped a few on that buffalo's residence down Galle Road. The dudes manning the SAMs probably couldn't care less and another successful mission will be credited to the newly established air wing...

I need a smoke... badly...

Shutdown day - 2007

2007-03-23T01:04:00.000+05:30

Just a reminder to all you bloggers, surfers, internet addicts, graphics designers, 3D modelers, workaholics, number crunchers, geeks, hackers, money launderers, freaks, stalkers, rapists, government officials, students, jobless idiots, website owners, alcoholics, druggies, super heroes, Homer Simpson, homo-sexuals, sex addicts, terrorists and other uncategorized citizens of this world who are planning on sitting in front of their computers this weekend - SHUT THE DAMN THING DOWN.

Shutdown day 2007 is brought to you by Shutdownday.org.

Be a part of one of the biggest global experiments ever to take place on the internet. The idea behind the experiment is to find out how many people can go without a computer for one whole day, and what will happen if we all participate!

That's what they have to say. I just want everyone in Sri Lanka to shut down so that my downloads will become faster. Take a minute, log on to www.shutdownday.org and add your view/opinion.

Oh! yeah... almost forgot.. check out the video and find out alternate ways to use your computer. Video link. ( I would have embedded it, if Blogger allowed me to...)

Corruption - random useless post

2007-03-14T18:20:00.000+05:30

Dude, this story on CBS (Its a way old story, but I thought it would be nice to remember) is just crazy. Evidently the Pentagon doesn't know where they spent 2.3 trillion USD. Thats a lot of money right? Try converting that to LKR and see how many Elephant House hot dogs you can eat with that...

Corruption and politics is the bane of any third world country. A country like the US can afford 2.3 trillion missing dollars I guess, but can a country like Sri Lanka afford 2.3 million?

Whatever right? I saw some minister/deputy/whoever in a Porsche Cayenne the other day and two BMW X5s as chase and lead cars.... WTF?

Royal - Thomian chaos

2007-03-11T18:44:00.000+05:30

I hear on Saturday morning that Royal is doing really badly and the match should end before lunch. I curse. Wtf? I'm going only for a day and the match is supposed to end early cause the Royalists don't know how to hold a bat. Anyway, I get dropped outside SSC and tell the driver to go do whatever and stand outside the wrong gate and wait for Boycy. I soon realized that it was the wrong gate and start walking towards the right one. Text message and people walking out tell me the match is over. Fuck!

Bunch of friends and I walk in and decide to waste some time, grab a few beers and smoke some pot. Might as well yeah? So we drank a lot of beer and got high. We were hanging out on the ground when some joker or the other decided its time for a fight. Sporadic fighting erupts on the grounds in front of the grandstand. People get their noses broken before some dudes in uniforms and AKs show up. I drink some more beer.

Played some soccer on the grounds and went to swimming club for more drinks. Finished around 3 bottles of Arrack and went to Zanzi where it was empty. Then went to R&B but didn't go in, cause I had a late night Rendezvous with a friend...

Which superhero are you?

2007-03-09T19:44:00.001+05:30

The layout gets completely fucked. Its to do with blogger publishing :(
You are Iron Man

Iron Man		100%
Superman		80%
Green Lantern		75%
Supergirl		70%
Spider-Man		60%
Hulk		60%
Wonder Woman		55%
The Flash		55%
Robin		45%
Catwoman		45%
Batman		40%

Inventor. Businessman. Genius.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...

Its big match time

2007-03-08T18:49:00.000+05:30

Photo stolen from Indi's collection...
More commonly known as the Roy-Tho, the annual clash between the two leading schools in Colombo is on again. Royal College and St. Thomas' College have been battling it out for 128 years I believe. Now, I've been to most of the matches, most often not to watch the cricket but to take a break from life and simply get wasted for 3 days at a stretch. Yes, wasted as in freaking pass out, 3 days at a stretch.

Since I started working, it hasn't been too easy to get 2 working days off to go get wasted. Hence since of late I've been attending the match for only 2 days (if lucky) or just 1 day. That was when I was working. This year I planned to do it the Royal way get hammered 3 days in a row. However, to my dismay, my sadistic lecturer has organized 2 presentations on Thursday (today) and Friday at 3 fucking pm. Ah-huh! Which means I can't get wasted 3 days at a stretch even when am not working. As you can see am not too happy about it. However since these freaking presentations make up 30% of my finals, I best get my PowerPoint skills together and do some work. Nevertheless, it still makes me very, very angry.

A good friend of mine and a fellow Royalist has taken the time to write a few things about this Good Spirited Game. Have a read, there may be a few things you can learn from it.

Babel

2007-03-04T21:34:00.000+05:30

Babel, by definition means a confusion of voices and other sounds. Watching the movie, one may conclude that Babel is a fitting title of this film. Set in 3 countries, Mexico, Japan and Morocco, the film swings from one location to the other, staging the simultaneous happenings across time zones. With brilliant acting and awesomely shot, the film captures the emotional distress of 3 separate people in 3 locations around the world, all linked together by a Winchester .270 calibre hunting riffle that was handed to a Moroccan guide by a Japanese hunting enthusiast who wished to thank his guide.

The rifle is purchased by a shepherd in Morocco and he entrusts it to his two sons, that they may shoot the jackals that roam the mountains killing their goats. The boys play around with the rifle and no one is surprised when Cate Blanchett is shot in the neck with a .270 bullet, while traveling on a tour bus with her husband, Bradd Pitt. In the meantime, the nanny for Brad's and Cate's kids needs to go back to Mexico to attend her son's wedding. Since she cannot find anyone to take care of the two kids she takes them along to Mexico. In Japan a girl playing volleyball match is thrown out of the game for disputing the judges decision. I may be deaf but am not blind she states before leaving the court.

The deaf girl is the daughter of a Japanese widower who used to be a hunter. This section of the film focuses on the life and insecurities that a deaf person has to endure. A particularly interesting bit was when the ex induced girls goes to a night club with her friends. The film portrays the mute ambiance of the club as the girl looks around in awe at the gyrating, sweaty bodies of intoxicated youth, the lights and lasers, but no sound. The experience of deaf person in a night club.

The film is expertly shot and as in Iñárritu's other films such as 21 Grams, will not be a disappointment. The ending is a sombre emotional one, as opposed to a Hollywood stereotype ending, where everyone is happy and the world is suddenly a better place because Bradd Pitt put his ass on the line and saved the day. I say again, Brilliant.

Rotten Tomatoes
Babel - Wikipedia
IMDB

No Internet access for 2 days...

2007-03-01T17:33:00.000+05:30

Its only been about 2 weeks since I got ADSL and I hardly think its fair for them have a system issue at this point. On Tuesday afternoon I discovered that I couldn't browse, although the DSL router indicated that it was connected. I figured a link failure and a maximum down time of an hour before I could resume downloading movies and wasting time. Needless to say I waited, patiently. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't watch TV since my parents house floor has been ripped apart to make way for tiles and that meant cable being disconnected and relocated to a less dusty place. No home theater too, because all that had to be put in boxed and kept in safe places, away from dust and huge hammers and crow-bars. So I end up with an equation like this...

No internet + No Cable = Nothing to do

So I started to water the lawn, which is a little smaller than a cricket ground. Since we don't have a sprinkler that works anymore (dog thought it was a water-spraying-toy-bone) I had to spray the water using the movement of my arms and it most certainly would have looked like I was masterbating my ass off and coming to glory for anyone who dared to look from behind. Once I'd accomplished that I found myself having nothing to do again. I read a book. Finished it and had nothing to do. I called SLT.

Me: Hello!
Customer Service Rep: Ayubowan SLT....
Me: I'm calling to check up on my ADSL connection, which isn't working at the moment.
CSR: Ah! Yerrs, can you browse?
Me: No. That is why am calling you
CSR: Ah! ok, can you check if the phone line is connected
Me: [aren't we bright...] I've checked everything. The router indicates that it is connected, but I can't connect to the internet. Is there something wrong?
CSR: Well, sir, I actually dawn't knaw, I'll haaw to check...
Me: Can you check and do something about it please?
CSR: Sure. Sure. No problem at oll. If there is a problem they will fix it within the 1 or 2 hours. No problem.
Me: What do you mean if there is a problem?
CSR: Sir, we haaw not been tald anything and there might not be a problem no?
Me: Well, it was working fine this morning and I've checked everything at this end the router indicates that it is connected to you, so there must be a problem. Please look in to this and please fix it.
CSR: Ok. Ok. Sir, I will tell the ingineers department to look ok?
Me: Ok. Thanks.

I hung up. WTF? So I wait a while and call them again.

Me: Hello?
CSR: Ayubowan SLT.
Me: [were you sleeping?] I called before regarding an issue with ADSL, I can't connect to the internet, although my router is connected to you...
CSR: Yes. We haaw got lots of complains regarding this. The ingineers are fixing the problem. It is a big problem...
Me: I know it is a big problem. How long do you think it'll take?
CSR: We haaw not been tald that. But it might take 1 to 2 hours.
Me: Ok. Thanks.

It took two days to fix. Dunno what the issue was, but I didn't want to call SLT Help Desk cause no one tells them anything. Poor buggers cause they have to sit and answer the phones, most often with customers who are pissed off, or in my case who have nothing to do. Thus I left the poor CSRs alone, to live in their little world, where no one at the company tells them anything...

YouTube - Why I got fired from Apple Computer

2007-02-26T23:19:00.000+05:30

Was just wasting time looking around YouTube and came across this hilarious video. The clip is about this dude who recited his poem at the Apple Computer talent show and got fired as a result. The poem itself is quite funny... Check it out...and make sure you turn on the sound

The Illusionist

2007-02-24T19:53:00.000+05:30

The Illusionist, starring Edward Norton, Jessica Biel and Paul Giamatti is mystery, romance, drama and thriller all rolled in to one entertaining movie. Set in turn of the century Vienna, the story revolves around a magician who appears to have supernatural abilities. Eisenheim the Illusionist and his unique tricks along with audience speculation and rumors becomes a famed illusionist. Every thing is flowing smoothly as he accomplishes his illusions with success and reads rave reviews in the news about his work. His manager is basking in the glory of packed houses and lots of money. Until, the crowned prince of the Austrian Empire is present on one night and suggests his soon-to-be-wife as a volunteer for one of the tricks. As fate would have it, the soon-to-be princess Sophie von Teschen (played by Jessica Biel) is Eisenheim’s childhood love. Sophie sneaks out one night and Eisenheim performs a different kind of magic in bed with her. Later, laying naked, side by side the two of them decide to runaway. Although it sounds simple, the plan to runaway is more complicated than we think.

Norton does a marvelous job playing the famed magician in love. However, I can’t say the same for Biel. Memories of Blade Trinity sort-of tainted my image of her being a princess. She looks much better in leather, wielding guns and kicking vampire butts. That aside, she seems rather out of place, as if she doesn’t quite fit in to that kind of character. On the other hand Paul Giamatti does wonderfully well as the corrupt police chief of Vienna who is close to the prince and invariably finds himself doing his dirty work. A late change of heart brings him to question the prince’s motives, triggered by the murder of Sophie on the night before the planned getaway with Eisenheim.

As the chief carry’s on his investigation of Sophie’s death, Eisenheim recovers from his state of mourning and gets the show back on the road, this time with the help of a few Chinese monks. The new illusionist truly does posses supernatural powers (or one is led to think) when he brings back people from the other side in preparation for final trick. The prince, letting his curiosity get the better of him, quite sure that he can unravel the trick, disguises himself as a normal citizen and makes his way to the show. On this night Eisenheim summons the spirit of Sophie. Everyone is excited and questions her as to who killed her. This pisses off the prince as speculation is causes the audience to point fingers at him.

Eisenheim’s arrest is ordered. He gets out of it. By now you are quite satisfied with the entertainment this movie has brought forth and you are wondering where the hell its going. After all the girl is dead and the only thing left for Eisenheim is to exact revenge on that bastard of a prince who killed her right? Wrong. The final 15 minutes of the movie throws you completely off guard to reveal the twist in the tale. I will not go in to detail and add a spoiler here. Rent/download/buy the DVD and watch for yourself. It truly is entertaining. Besides if you’ve already seen The Prestige you would know a thing or two about magic. But the tricks in this movie are completely out of the ordinary.

Rotten Tomatoes
IMDB
The Illusionist - Official Movie Site

Sri Lanka - Way ahead in safety

2007-02-22T15:53:00.000+05:30

Was reading an article on Wired about digital/electronic billboards being a cause of distraction to driver. According to research, if the billboards change their images at an interval greater than every 6 seconds, it is not a distraction for drivers. Either way the authorities are looking in to it although the advertising folk say that instruments inside the car are more of a distraction than those outside the car. Cell phones and TV's for an example.

This is why Sri Lanka has almost NO digital/electronic billboards. Cause we know that it can be hazardous to drivers. Especially to bus and trishaw drivers, who otherwise would be distracted by the billboards and swerve all over the road and may even be forced to overtake and cut in like maniacs. Lucky for us the people in charge of our ROAD SAFETY have thought things through....

Sri Lankan Bus Etiquette

2007-02-19T18:12:00.000+05:30

Bussing it around Colombo can be a harsh experience if you aren’t aware of the finer points of Sri Lankan public transport… Well that’s where I come in, inspired by years of bus travel and a particularly annoying, betel chewing geezah who tried to steal my seat, I shall now attempt to impart some useful advice on how to make your bus-trip a more pleasurable one for you and everyone else on the bus…

First, never offer to pay your fare unless specifically instructed to do so by the conductor.

The conductor will request the money by saying “take the money”, which implies that you must give him the money; do NOT under any circumstances take HIS money. Try not telling him your destination. Simply hand him the money and look the other way. Expecting him to know where you are headed will earn you brownie points.
Ensure you have your exact fare ready. If you do not you will have to withstand the deadly glare unleashed by his supreme-conductorness and hold your breath while he lectures you about carrying change money for your bus fare.

If you did not have exact change and you gave the conductor a 100 for a 6 rupee bus ticket, you will warned against doing it again in the most fierce way possible, making your 4th grade teacher sound like a wimp. If the above was the case, do not expect 94 rupees back. If you are given 90, take it, shut your mouth and look out the window. The bus-fare-instruction manual states that He who has been awarded the supreme responsibility of being conductor of a bus is under no obligation whatsoever to provide customers with exact change. The conductor is the sole authority in deciding how much should be given.

If you are seated behind the driver’s seat and a member of the clergy gets in, please rise and offer your seat; or pretend to be asleep. Some members of the clergy are simply sadistic and wait for a particularly full bus for them to get in, so that they can ask you to get out of your seat and make you look like a real sucker. Sleeping will not help in these sorts of instances.

If a pregnant woman gets in, try to offer your seat. Make sure you wait a few minutes for someone else to notice her and give her their seat. If that doesn’t happen and pretending to sleep is beyond your conscience, you may stay seated.
If a really old person boards the bus, do as above.

If there’s a hot girl sitting next to you, don’t try to start talking to her. The bus isn’t the best place to pick up girls. No matter how hot she might be.

If you are standing and there’s a girl with a big rear end standing in front of you, trying one’s best not to make physical contact in certain areas is considered polite, under normal circumstances. However, if the girl is aged between 16 and 30, men over 50 are allowed to do as they please and rub any part of their body against any part of the girl’s body. It is customary to do so. If you are over 50 and wearing a white sarong, you have the supreme right to do anything you wish.

If you are aboard and air conditioned bus and there are couples in the back seat making out, pull out your cell phone and pretend to make a call to someone. Place the phone to your ear and pretend to describe what the couples are doing to the person on the other end. For best results make it sound like you are watching a cricket match. For even better results flirt with the girl who’s making out…

If the bus is stopped at a check point and everyone has to disembark, do so as loud as possible and grunt and groan to make sure everyone knows that you are NOT HAPPY about the situation. Do NOT however try to use the situation to your advantage and chat up the girl next to you. When boarding the bus again, you will be given 3 seconds to find your seat and get to it. Failing to do so within the stipulated 3 seconds would render the seat public property and anyone will be able to sit in it. If you were standing, wait 3 seconds before sitting in someone else’s seat. If the previous occupant of the seat requests you to stand up, point at the person in front of you and say that he/she took your seat. Act utterly disgusted when the two people start cussing at you.

Get out of your seat well before the bus comes to your halt and stand on the foot board for at least 2 minutes, blocking people who want to jump off in traffic prior to the bus halt. This may earn you a few foul remarks, but know that you have done your bounden bus-duty for the day.

Happy tripping dudes.... and dudettes

Night at the museum

2007-02-11T21:00:00.000+05:30

Released on the 22 of December 2006, Night at the museum is another one of those movies that require a good dose of alcohol for it to be funny. Ben Stiller plays the role of a divorced dad who’s looking for a job. As a last resort he settles for a job as a night guard at the Museum of Natural History, New York. He’s given a set of instructions and a tour by 3 older and soon to be retired guards who warn him not to let anything in or out…. Not bothered with the warning or the instructions, Stiller falls asleep and wakes up to a museum full of live animals, dinosaurs and wax figures and manages to get pissed on by a monkey who steals his keys and rips the instructions to bits.

Starring Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Mickey Rooney, Dick Van Dyke and Bill Cobbs the film does get a little annoying cause Ben is in almost every scene. Neither hilarious nor boring, the film does harbor some educational value for the American kids with a few stories of history entangled in the story line. There’s quite a bit of CG involved in the making of this film that would look good if you watched the movie in the theatre or at least on a big screen TV with DTS. The coming alive of Teddy Roosevelt pretty much helps Ben Save the day and get the girl at the end of the film.

Nothing exquisite about this movie although using the following recipe might help you enjoy it more. A couple of bottles of Alcohol (Arrack in my case), kottu, cokes, cigarettes and some weed. Start film once high. The aforementioned ingredients help you laugh out loud at the otherwise lame jokes. If you aren’t getting high before watching this, I’d recommend Prestige or The Departed as a good watch.

Wikipedia – Night at the museum

Rotten Tomatoes – Night at the museum

Official Site - Night at the museum

Random rambling...

2007-02-08T12:00:00.001+05:30

It appears that SLT has gotten its act together and is in the process of wiring up most of the island for ADSL. Yes. I'll finally have ADSL at home. Word is that I'll be getting the service on the 10^th of this month. Although I've seen it on their website and I've heard it from the person at the teleshop, I won't believe it until I've downloaded some Vivid Entertainment. Anyway, in preparation for the impending invasion of broadband internet, I visited Unity Plaza to check out prices for a wireless router. Wondering around the maze of hardware shops, I came across a shop that sells bags (yeah! Like ladies handbags and shit)… the shop owner obviously didn't know about the whole "location, location, location" concept. Moving on, I walked in to a CD shop and started browsing around. You gotta love living in a third world country man, you get all the latest software at less than US $3 a DVD and less than US $ 1 for a CD. They've got Windows Vista, "Full and final edition" says the cover. For those of you who aren't privy to tech news, Vista was released last week and I believe this week in the UK (if I got it wrong, shoot me. I don't have broadband! yet). All right back to the point of this post, Microsoft office 2007. I'd heard about it before, saw it on the shelf, bought it.

Bloody hell, it is amazing to say the least. I've barely used it; just about 3 hours or so and I love it. There are some cool fonts in it. Okay! That's not why I love it. So far the best thing I've noticed about it is that everything is very well organized. No more long dropdown menus. Everything is just clean and cleverly categorized. There are some very neat features tucked in to the day to day stuff we use. Excel rocks with all the graphs, tables and formula making shit. You don't need to go right-clicking to do things anymore, cause its all listed up on the task pane. The layout of the traditional office document has been changed to make things easier for everyone to use. And now, just to show everyone how popular and wide spread blogging has become WinWord has incorporated a tool to publish posts directly from it. When you click new, you have the option of opening a Word Document or a new Blog post. You will also find that the annoying red line under the word blog doesn't appear anymore. The program has also integrated a few awesome spelling & grammar options, letting you specify your writing style etc., thus making sure those annoying green lines don't appear when you really don't want them to.

Please note that the above is not a review of this software (if you haven't already noted). It is merely the "I got a new toy to play with" excitement. I will probably do a proper review of it later and post it on the up coming TechSkurj blog. So I better get going and do something productive like think of how to boost that Porsche Boxter S I drive past everyday (I have to drive past the showroom and there's a Boxter S and Cayenne, both looking very pretty). By the way, I wish I could afford to buy this Office suite cause it looks like it has a few real support advantages. Well at least I paid for Win XP. Nevertheless living in Sri Lanka has its advantages when it comes to getting the latest stuff at an affordable price. By the way, I really wanted to get NFS carbon, but the packaging said it required 1GB of RAM, so I didn't want to disappoint myself… and did I tell you about the whole broadband thing….?

Explode the nation...

2007-02-06T21:17:00.000+05:30

“Dayata Kirula” loosely translated, a “Crown for the Nation”, is not only the tagline for the presidential campaign but is also the name for an exhibition that’s going on at the BMICH. I am not too sure what the aim of the exhibition is, but media reports claim that the president is involved in a big way. I was driving past the BMICH yesterday and noticed the hoards of people who were attending. As usual, most people from rural areas, probably the schools, hired busses to come to Colombo to see this grand exhibition.

Some of the people invited were disabled soldiers. Evidently they were asked to show up at the exhibition, where the president would attend and would be given an opportunity to voice their grievances. As it turned out no one was there to meet them and no discussion took place. They were simply left alone, a bunch of disabled soldiers to have a look at the exhibits, I suppose. Well, as you can imagine they were pissed. They had no intention of roaming around BMICH checking out the stuff on display, but simply wanted to have a chat with the president. One of the guys interviewed by Channel 1 MTV, I believe, said that they were very hurt by the treatment after being invited here to discuss issues. After all they did put their lives on the line to ensure the safety of everyone else and try to bring an end to the raging civil war, which by far is more than what any of our politicians have done for this country. In the meantime a state of the art facility for the rehabilitation of disabled soldiers opened in the United States of America. It was wholly financed by private donations. Something we might want to think about eh?

That was fuck-up number one, amongst others I presume. Fuck-up number two came when someone accidentally blew up something today. Yes. At the fucking exhibition. First, who the hell authorized live ammo at an exhibition in front of thousands of people? Second the guy who spoke on TV about it (obviously given a piece of paper and told to memorize it before speaking) said that it was a “small accident” and that they are terribly sorry about it. He also said that they are sorry for all the injuries and inconveniences caused. He went on to say “we have secured the area and found out the cause and it won’t happen again. Also, please do come over and enjoy the exhibition.”

Some of the stuff on display includes the captured LTTE stuff from Wakarei. Which is cool, I guess. Not so cool if they start blowing up. Nevertheless, I guess the exhibition and its theme and the fuck-ups are of course typical of the Mahinda Rajapakse government, where most things have been fucked up in real style. Good luck to all who are going to see the exhibition, just try not to have a “BLAST”...

One way traffic...

2007-02-02T19:38:00.000+05:30

“Driving in Colombo is a nightmare” seems the more popular opinion amongst those who drive around the city. While the uniflow traffic system is causing a few people headaches, it seems to be serving another few well. However, as I read in last Sunday’s paper (which incidentally highlighted all the bad points), is it the most effective method and does it serve the majority better or is it merely another headache to worry about.

The upside of the whole system seems to be that if you are traveling from the north of the city to the south or the other way around, traffic would be lighter and you’d get from Kollupitiya to Bamba in a jiffy. More room on the roads means less stress and not having to squeeze your car into tiny little notches while trying to gain a few illegal feet during traffic. Even rush-hour is quite pleasant although some traffic still prevails at the end of the one way street.

The downside appears to be the fact that one has to now take extremely inefficient routes to get from A to B within the city. Parking along the street is no longer an option, hence finding a spot to park, say, in Colombo 7 or on Duplication Road is a bit of a nightmare. It is quite a headache for those who use public transport to get in to and travel within the city and those who do use public transport heavily outnumber those who don’t. It sucks for the bus people for two reasons,
a) you don’t know which route which bus takes and you don’t know where the bus stop is at;
b) Getting out of the bus and crossing the road is simply a bitch.

So, while on the street experiencing Colombo 7 and the like, I managed to speak to a few people, just to see what they thought about the new system…

Three wheelers
“This is absolute shite. We have to now burn a lot of juice just to get from A to B, but when we give someone a fare they simply do not agree to pay it. It’s a little unfair don’t you think?” is what one of the tuk-tuk guys said. So do you think it is unfair? Lets see, for an example, you want to take a tuk-tuk from say, near the Wendt and get to Bagatale road, you would have to either go around to Thummulla or go around take Greenpath on to Duplication. But before, you just drove up Thurstain Road and turned right…

Pedestrians
“Crossing the roads are a little scary, cause you tend to look the wrong way… from habit” said one. “The biggest issue is not knowing where to get off on Duplication Road when you are going to a place on the Galle road. And the busses don’t have designated halts etc., they just stop in random places” said another. Is it better though, in terms of time saving and will you, over time get used to this system and when you do get used to this system, do you think it’ll make life easier? “No. I don’t think so. It has not addressed the core issue of making it easier for people to get around town” was one of the opinions in response to the said question. “Well, son, it seems that someone has finally taken the initiative to do something about the traffic situation in Colombo. I must say that there are issues with way the system has been implemented, no proper bus routes have been planned and overhead walkways have not been built” said an old gentleman who was taking a leisurely stroll on a Sunday evening.

Bus Drivers
The 154 dudes are seriously miffed about the whole uniflow system. Taking the 154 from Wellawatta the other day, I can understand why they are pissed. The bus route before the uniflow system was up Galle road to Bamba junc, then down bullers road to Thummulla and then the first right turn on Reid Av., back on to Bullers road and to Borella. Now, once the system is in place the buses have to go past Bamba junc and turn off on the road next to the Dasa building then drive down Duplication road and turn left near the HSBC building. Once they come to Thummulla they have to go down Thurstain road all the way up to the museum, turn right, then take the next right and turn right again at the Torinton roundabout. Then go down Reid Av., and turn left to get on to Bullers road. Fucked up? I think.

Motorists
The most common complaint most of the motorists have is that they cannot get from A to B in an efficient manner and once they do get to B they cannot park. As for the efficiency bit, I believe it is because the people are still thinking in terms of the previous traffic arrangement. However as for parking, it is a bitch. In favor of the new system most motorists claim that the ride is quite easy and you get from A to B faster instead of having to crawl through bumper to bumper traffic.

So where did the system go wrong? Well, for starters it doesn’t seem to have been totally thought through. What they missed seems to be the parking, pedestrians and proper bus routes that ensure easy access to a given location. Taking the bus routes as an example, if someone needed to get from Townhall to Commons, they’d have to take the 138 and get off near the library or SLTA/Glass house or get off on Reid Av. If not they take the 100 and get off near St. Anthony’s and walk up Inner Flower Road. That may be the shortest. Quite a bit of walking before you get to Commons... Getting across the roads is also a bit of a bitch because motorists scream down the now wider and free roads. Overhead walkways should be installed. They should have designated parking areas that allow you to park with minimum hassle within 100m of any given place and then walk. Like in London, where one can use the NCP car parks. It costs a lot but the fuss is less no?

Whatever said and done every new system has its flaws and practical issues that may not have been addressed before. At least they’ve managed to tackle the issue of traffic flow. That’s one hurdle out of the way and perhaps in the near future they will iron out the other issues or well, people will simply get used to dealing with the shit. There’s an interesting discussion on Indi’s blog about the traffic situation. I believe one should give the system a chance, a chance to work itself out and then try suggesting (I guess) a few creative means of solving the prevailing problems.

The Government Inspector has come.... watch your back

2007-01-26T13:00:00.000+05:30

The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol will be performed tonight at the Lionel Wendt form 7.30 pm onwards.

The Government Inspector is coming and that has everyone a little flustered. The mayor of the small provincial town, takes matters in to his hands as usual and commissions his subordinates to tidy up their departments. While this process has begun, news arrives that the suspect Government Inspector traveling incognito has been spotted at the inn. A classic case of mistaken identity, from then on turns in to an entertaining play of wit and drama.

Presented by the Old Royalists' Association of Dramatists, the cast comprises of Old Royalists. However, in this day and age where dressing in drag can get one in to a slight amount of trouble they've opted for two real girls to play the parts of the Mayor's wife and daughter. Those two characters are another story, so just come and see for yourselves.

Come watch as the Government Inspector comes in to town and rattles a few feathers...

Free water

2007-01-20T15:08:00.000+05:30

The three things that we take for granted in this country the most are water, electricity and gas(LPG). It's almost always available and everything goes to hell when the people at the place go on strike, like because they didn't get paid or something.

What's my point? Well, about a month ago the water meter at my place went bust. I complained to the Water Board and they said that they'll send someone over to fix it. Although I mentioned to the old lady that even though the meter was bust, water was running through, which meant we had FREE water. She assured me that if that's the case someone would be over really fast. It's now been a month and the water meter reader also came and I complained to him too, that the meter was broken and no one came to fix it. The man said that I need to go to the board and fill a form or he needed to lodge a complaint and only then would the people come to fix it. My question is why the hell couldn't the woman on the phone tell me that?

Now we've had free water for like a month and no one is coming over to fix the meter. If this is how much they care about making collections for the goods delivered, is there any wonder that they do not have the money to pay their staff? Such inefficient means of operating something as crucial as the water board certainly must take precedence over emissions issues caused by 2 stroke three wheelers on Mahinda's to-do list... right? Or is that plain wishful thinking?

The dashboard chaos theory....

2007-01-17T16:34:00.000+05:30

The Dashboard chaos theory…

Yesterday…

I ordered myself a large chocolate milkshake and sat myself down outside bit of Commons. I pulled out my notebook and logged in to blogger. It worked… Hmmmph! Oh! Well, at least they’ve fixed it… right?

Today...

Wrong… Today I try to log in to blogger to make a few changes to the template and what do I get? Some other blogger’s dashboard. Wow! This honestly can’t be happening right? I clear my cache, my cookies and everything else, but it doesn’t work. IE simply freezes, like its fucking constipated bear trying to take a shit in the morning. I take a moment to think, if it worked yesterday, why the hell can’t it work today. What am I doing differently than I did yesterday, hmmm???

Well, call me crazy but the only difference between my surfing yesterday and today is the ISP. SLTnet dial-up today and common’s wi-fi yesterday. The last time things got screwed up, I dialed using 1250. Perhaps it was that particular server that causes this problem. Long shot? Well kind-of, but wouldn’t hurt to try something else right?

Dial 2383838 and connect. Log in to blogger. Loading dashboard (Lets hope its my dashboard… Please let it be my dashboard). I see scourge and that’s all I need to see…

So, as to how and why the mix up happened I cannot confirm. But it appears that the source of the problem is the SLT 1250 server. They probably cache the pages on that machine or something and as soon as someone requests the www2.blogger.com/dashboard page, it simply serves up whatever is next in queue. Or something similar…. So what do we do about it? I really don’t know… For now I won’t use 1250 to blog…

Happy surfing y’all……

Dashboard chaos...

2007-01-16T13:28:00.000+05:30

some interesting thoughts hit me last evening and I wanted to post about it. I log in to my blogger account and wait for the dashboard to load. When it does, I see the dashboard of another user... WTF? yea... figuring it out to be some glitch, I log out and log in again... and again it loads the wrong dashboard.

I tried all the help stuff and searched google, and I find this other guy who is also having the same kinda problem. I log try clearing my cache and cookies, but that doesn't work either.... So the whole of yesterday I was someone else....

Between being terribly frustrated about my blog being missing and thinking of how fucked up it would be, not to ever be able to be Scourge again, I forgot what I wanted to post about.

Anyway, the traffic seems to be going the wrong way in the city and I don't have a job and TV schedules my day. Such is life... bloody hard I tell you...

Anton Balasingham Dies...

2006-12-15T19:20:00.000+05:30

The man dubbed as the "LTTE Theorition" has died of cancer. The LTTE has declared three days of mourning according to the BBC. Apparently the GOSL has not yet made any statements regarding this. However it is apparent that the LTTE is deeply saddened by their loss.

Balasingham lived in London, the capitol city of England, which is part of the UK, where the LTTE Terrorists are banned. Beats me. However, the man did play a vital role in terms of peace talks. Talks these days have ceased and the firing begun. It is probably a hard hit for Prabha who quite probably relied on this man for advise as well as a few contacts here and there to get things done.

All said and done, the death of Balasingham does make us think. No matter how strong you are, how long you've evaded justice, how long you've terrorized people and how long you've managed to waste colossal amounts of money on a vain war, the ultimate reality is that you will die someday. In the case of the civil war raging in this country, chances are that we will die without ever seeing the end of it.

The cause, however, recently has lost it's rudder and is now a barbaric killing machine that is even killing the same people it is supposed to protect. I would like to know what the GOSL would have to say about this and what there stand would be. Also, I hope that this tells Prabha that he too will die and that there is no point in fighting - that it is better for him to come to talks and be remembered as the man who did something for the Tamil people, rather than a barbaric terrorist who simply killed people behind the guise of the cause.

Rainbow Six - Tom Clancy

2006-12-13T19:17:00.000+05:30

Ryan resigned as the DDC after he managed to save the world from a nuclear war. Clark and Chavez got some badly needed training in the field as they bugged the airplane carrying the Japanese president and were also instrumental in arresting Ghosn and Qati who were responsible for the nuclear attack. Now, Jack Ryan gone, Ed and Mary Pat Foley at the helm of the CIA, John Clark and Domingo Chavez are about to get some serious practice in apprehending terrorists.

Rainbow six, I believe, is Clancy’s latest bestseller. John Clark is the chief of Rainbow Six, a covert group comprising of the best Special Forces men in NATO countries. Twenty men split in to two teams and one is headed by Chavez. The purpose of Rainbow Six is to prevent and impede terrorist operations around the world.

Except for a select few, the all human life is to be erased off the face of the earth, owing to a well financed bunch of environmentalists. Plan is to end the human race by infecting the people with a well tested virus called Shiva. Shiva is a modified strain of Ebola which would be launched at the Sidney Olympics and then carried to other countries by spectators supporting their athletes at the games. Once the plague is recognized the company would provide the world with an antidote, only that it is not an antidote but another form of the virus.

Extreme measures are taken by the Environmentalists to ensure that the project is a success. The Rainbow Six teams are always on the scene to thwart these extreme measures. Even the Rainbow teams are attacked with the help of some IRA fellows. End of the day, a Russian is responsible for informing Clark of the insane plan to wipe out humanity. The world is saved yet again.

Rainbow Six is an amazing read. A lot of research and detail, as one would expect from Clancy. In-depth details of equipment, procedures and the lives of the special-ops teams are brought to you in this monster book. The details make you wonder whether, given the right amount of cash and the right contacts if you could perhaps take over the world. Now that’s something important eh?

Life away from work...

2006-12-05T18:55:00.000+05:30

Its almost been a month since I quit my job. Life has slowed down considerably and I've been reading too many books. Things have still not become boring but life at the moment gives me a lot of freedom and gives me more options than I can hope for.

The LTTE celebrated the season in style with an attack on the Secretary of Defence. BMW got some free advertising for their Bullet Proof VIP vehicles. I was in Colombo just after the bombing and Sri Lanka seems to be so used to it that except for some extra traffic everything went as though nothing happened.

In the meantime, from this week on Cable seems to be online. Just seeing that green light on the decoder makes me happy. However, most of the cool channels (HBO, Cinemax, Cartoon Network, Discovery and Travel and Living etc.) are still offline . However AXN and NatGeo are far better than the all the teledramas I've watched in the past month - there are so many of them and the same people act in most so its just a mad confusion.

Was at this awesome party at Bed last Friday, where the music was just off the hook. By midnight the need for more booze presented itself, although we were quite pissed already and Bed had run out of all local alcohol except for Gin... Not.

I've had the chance to catch the Sri Lankan reality TV shows on MTV and Sirasa. I have to say that Super Star is way better than half-ass shit they call Mega Star. The people on it can't sing and I am not so sure what the judges are up to even though they are highly respected people in the industry. The host's name is Ryan... err.... ring a bell??? Idol? But the host is a girl... Also, it seems that people don't get eliminated according to the votes. The votes are used to determine the bottom 3 and the judges decide who goes... WTF?

May there be peace, less traffic and more garbage bins on the streets.... Over & out.

Skurj has left the building.

2006-11-11T17:57:00.000+05:30

Image from From www.sarbanesoxleysimplified.com

After 4 years and some months, I finally decided to quit and go back to the student life. The company I used to work for had a brilliant concept and a great vision. It was extreme in the sense that not that many Sri Lankan firms have achieved this much in the online industry. Either ways its been a great 4 years.

I've learned much at the company and made lots of friends. Some friends I've made are the best I have today. So I called all the boys from work and got completely slammed last night. Still trying to recover from the alcohol so I'm missing the Royal Thomian water polo match today and a possible night out with a friend.

So after four years I leave this place and to be honest I am sad and happy at the same time. Looking forward to some studying and partying. Also looking forward to doing some of things that I have been wanting to do but never had the time to do because I was always caught up at work.

Extreme Diet Coke and Mentos Experiments II - The Domino Effect

2006-11-09T09:46:00.001+05:30

Just when we thought that the Coke and Mentos slam-the-bottle-on-the-ground-and-make-it-fly experiment was cool, look what they went and did.

We've tried it with regular Coke and Mentos and it does blow the bottle and fizzes like crazy, but it doesn't fly. So we did some research and it appears that you need Diet Coke for it to work. We are getting some Diet Coke from Singapore to try it out - from Singapore because big bottles of Diet Coke ain't available in Sri Lanka. Lets see how it goes no?

Now, while we were busy acquiring a couple of bottles of Diet Coke, these guys went and used 250-something bottles and 1500-something Mentos and did some insane Dominos-effect fountain thing... Have a look...


The guys from EepyBird are back, with 251 bottles of Diet Coke and over 1,500 Mentos mints. In Experiment #137, they did a mint-powered version of the Bellagio fountains. This time, it's one giant Coke & Mentos chain reaction that has to be seen to be believed. Keywords: eepybird eepy bird mentos coke diet coke mentos experiment fountain soda science geyser experiments fountains geysers

Too much free time?

Don - The Film (Hindi)

2006-11-06T14:42:00.000+05:30

The Don - Hindi Film, was the second Hindi film I've ever watched and to me, someone who's not a fan of Hindi Movies, was awesome. Awesome in the sense that it was awesome for a Hindi movie. The plot was insane and you will definitely not expect such from a Hindi film. One good thing about it was NOT a love story per se, although there was a bit of it.

Starring Shahrukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal and Isha Koppikar. Most of the film is set in Malaysia, although it starts in Paris. The Don (Shahrukh Khan) does some fancy ass moves and gets his way out of a situation and makes the statement it is not difficult to catch Don, it is impossible! which he tends to repeat through out the move.

The Story... (warning spoiler ahead)

The Don is a super-well-trained-underworld hitman sorta fellow who does jobs for these two other guys employing high-tech toys, just like James Bond. So he pulls off a few jobs and he's got some heat and DCP De Silva is on his case trying to take him down. One fine day he crashes his car and DCP De Silva does take him down. Later, they realise the oppertunity to send one of theirs in place of the Don so that they can take out all the baddies. Then, somewhere in the middle, a guy, a geek, does a jewelery heist and nicks a diamond ring worth a million dollars. (This guy is not so relevant, but it all falls in to place later in the movie...)

Anyway, DCP De Silva finds another bloke on the street who looks exactly like the Don and makes the switch. The new Don (also Shahrukh) is trained and sent in to have all the baddies killed. He starts doing it and recovers a disk with all the Don's contacts on it and hands it over to DCP De Silva. All good right? Wrong.

The real Don, made a switch in the hospital and kills off the street bloke who's supposed to act like the Don. So the false Don is the real Don. He pulls off a few scams, and DCP De Silva reveals himself as Vardhaan, the baddest of the baddies and then he (Vardhaan/DCP De Silava) gets copped. But the real Don escapes along with a well-fit bird (Anita -- That girl in the pic there...) at his side... finishing the movie off by saying Its not difficult to catch Don.......

All in all, a good movie. The plot is good but some dumb visual effects and even dumber camera angles and really stupid car-chase footage kinda ruin it. However, hats off to Bollywood. They made a movie that can be watched and enjoyed (they still have full songs and dances in between). The girls are as hot as ever, I mean super-duper HOT. Isha and Priyanka are off the hook....

I'd say, take 3 hours off your busy schedule and watch the movie. At least you'd be part of Bollywood making history....

Blogger beta -- Template upgrade

2006-11-03T15:29:00.000+05:30

I upgraded to the new blogger templates. Well, there isn't anything new in the templates department, but it's now very easy to use and has some nice little features.

First of all, if you aren't too familiar with CSS, you don't have to go digging through the template code anymore, to personalize your blog. It has a neat interface that lets you add page elements such as, text, lists, link lists, picture, html/javaScript and adSense.

You also get drill-downs for the archives section. So now you can drill-down fro year, to month to posts in that month. Which makes navigating the blog so much easier.

I haven't had the time to take it apart, hence the standard template from blogger. Will be doing that and playing around in the next few weeks. I'll have some time on my hands since I quit my job...

More on the life of Scourge later. But for now, that's all....

Firefox 2.0 Beta 1 Released

2006-10-23T12:06:00.000+05:30

Firefox, the best browser up to date, at least to my taste released v2.0 beta1 sometime last week. While we were busy checking out news feeds through Google Reader on BBC, CNN and other Lanka news sites to figure out details of our very happening war against terrorism, the boys at Mozzila gave the world Firefox 2.0 to make browsing so much easier.

Check out Mozilla.org to find out details of the improvements. The best part is the inline spell checker for text boxes. So the next time you are typing out that post, you may not have that many spelling mistakes. The function underlines each misspelled word in red, just like MS WORD.

The browsing interface itself looks pretty neat and clean, with a few curves thrown in for good measure. Pages load smoother and much faster than IE (as always). Theres an inbuilt phishing protection thingy that will help you to not lose your identity. Dunno if it works though, am sure it does... Like all good applications, this too has a few known issues. Click the link and see if they will affect you. If not... Download it. Check it out and Take Back the bloody Web.

Blogger Beta

2006-10-22T12:04:00.000+05:30

Blogger has finally redone their good-ol' Blogger interface. It's still in Beta but they seem to have addressed some of the issues that we've been waiting for them to resolve.

I just upgraded (its free) to Blogger beta and it still looks almost the same, despite all the hype on the home page. First you need to sign in with your google username and password. Your old blogger user and password will be deleted. Some of the new features include the ability to add labels to your posts (like gmail), new templates scheme, which is based on layouts (you have to upgrade to this feature and lose all your edits/hacks but they save a copy of your old template, just in case you want to grab something off it. I still haven't switched over to the new template wizard.

Integrated adsense console allows you to easily apply and configure adsense on the blog and if you are using the layout template thingy, they say it'll be a lot easier. I'll let you know when I do change the layout scheme. Perhaps then my header image will show on IE.

Number of comments for each post are shown in the post management section. You can also change the dates and time of your post and allow or disallow comments and backlinks to each individual post. The Create Post window doesn't take forever to load.

The comments section is still the same old click-and-go-through-long-process to post a comment scheme.

This is all I got for the moment. For some reason I see a lot of new things coming in to play with blogger. Since they have all those google things that they can integrate, am sure they will and take over the world. Needless to say, we all hope they won't go evil.

Bradby Came and went

2006-09-30T19:59:00.000+05:30

For the first time our Bradby trip featured and AC bus, running hotwater, proper food, 1 bed per person and adequate booze and cigarettes. I like the direction we are heading in. Most of the guys are now working and hence I guess we are all in a position to afford these types of luxuries. The trip was great. Drank on the way to Kandy, took a swim before lunch and headed out to the match later on. Got our asses kicked by the Kandy boys. Post-match-drink-analysis of the match revealed that it wasn't the boys who had failed but bad tactics that determined the outcome of the match. Too bad I suppose... gotta wait for next year to see whether the errors have been fixed.

Apart from that life has been the same old mudane crap. Work is crazy. My life seems to revolve around it. I hardly have time to do anything else and even when I do have some time, I try to sleep, cause I get very little of that too.

So, Somawansa's sister was running a brothel. Good one... hilarious. Really. Icing on the cake. So Ramani Fernando for the beard trim, then off to Somawansa aunty's place to have a good shag. This is where our hard earned tax money is going...

Oh! The SLFP wanna join hands with the UNP. Bloody hell. Problems I can think of right now -- if it happens there won't be a proper opposition. I am fast losing faith in the way the UNP is operating. Now, if they join hands, what will happen to the UNP??? Does Ranil become Prime Minister? Is this what this whole thing is about? Ranil will be way better than that old codger in place at the moment, but...

Back to work...