- When you are spending hours on twitter and you are feeling as if you are contributing to the world positively.
- When you are on facebook half your lifetime and thinking that you are using it as an information tool.
- When you had spent more than 4 hours on chat on a day and thinking that you spent only 30 minutes and believe that you had done work for the rest of the 3.5 hours.
- When you cannot resist from reading a chat message as soon as it blinks on the task bar.
- When you go home, the first thing that you do it to take out the computer and switch it on before even having a change and search to see who is online to start a chat!
- When you can play a game and forget both breakfast and lunch
The worst state is to be addicted and live in denial, a better step would be to accept and try to get out of it. Interesting reading material here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_addiction_disorder about this.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Killing in the name of god
As a Hindu I feel shamed at the sight of seeing animal sacrifice being practiced under the hood of Hinduism. Last year when I saw the pictures of how the slaughter was being done I cringed in shame. From the little I know about Hinduism one of the sects, called Shaktham, has a tradition of such practice but sacrifice as long as I know is not in vedas (but even if a line in Veda is to be interpreted as sacrifice the concept goes against the larger understanding of the religion), but since its an old religion we have a situation where a common man cannot make out which part is religion and which part is culture.
We are at a position where stupendous stupidities in the form of superstitions get passed from one generation to the other and these foolish cultures and traditions are portrayed as Hinduism. By doing this, these idiots are doing harm and nothing good to either themselves or the religion. Hinduism, for me, is the religion which promotes ahimsa and respect for all life, it promotes but doesn't force the concept of vegetarianism. Its a classic oxymoron of these 'followers' who tries to interpret the same religion to be promoting vegetarianism on one hand and then speaks about sacrifice. It doesn't make sense or logic. For goodness sake I beg from these people to stop perverting the name of the religion. As a start For GODS' sake, ban all animal abuse activities happening at places of worship.
We are at a position where stupendous stupidities in the form of superstitions get passed from one generation to the other and these foolish cultures and traditions are portrayed as Hinduism. By doing this, these idiots are doing harm and nothing good to either themselves or the religion. Hinduism, for me, is the religion which promotes ahimsa and respect for all life, it promotes but doesn't force the concept of vegetarianism. Its a classic oxymoron of these 'followers' who tries to interpret the same religion to be promoting vegetarianism on one hand and then speaks about sacrifice. It doesn't make sense or logic. For goodness sake I beg from these people to stop perverting the name of the religion. As a start For GODS' sake, ban all animal abuse activities happening at places of worship.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Campaign to discipline
On certain days I take an early morning walk along the beach, walking while the breeze pushes you and then spending a few minutes in contemplation while starring at the horizon is a blissful feeling. I can hear those friends of mine, who are screaming - "Dude you are an introvert" ;)
But the issue is not about the walk or starring, it about the issue which irritates me each time I take this walk. While I am amazed at the gift mother nature has given to us in the form of the beautiful beaches, what hurts me is the stupidity with which we destroy them. If you observe around any seat on the strip of beach between Bambalapitiya and Wellawatta you would be surprised to see the amount polythene, food items and at times even syringes strewn around it. It hurts so much, I at times feel like wearing a glove myself and picking what ever I can and put it aside.
Beaches are not something that every country is blessed with, but since we have it we take it for granted. We don't see the value of it. Most importantly we as Sri Lankan's lack discipline. We would beat our chests and call our selves patriots or would boil up when something is said about our race or religion, we would be up in arms saying that westerners are all out to destroy us, but in reality we have self inflicted wounds due to our lack of discipline.
If you have an inch of concern for your own place of living do your little bit to keep it clean, you can put your dirt in a dust bin, teach the children to do it and most importantly do it ourselves. Practice this at least in places which are ultimate gifts of mother nature, which other countrymen dream of and yearn for at least as a once in a life time visiting place.
I see an importance for a campaign - not the once which are done as a fashion on a one off day or a politically motivated one. This can be a starting point to infuse discipline in to the minds of people. Ideas on this our welcome. I will do what ever little I can do to help this.
But the issue is not about the walk or starring, it about the issue which irritates me each time I take this walk. While I am amazed at the gift mother nature has given to us in the form of the beautiful beaches, what hurts me is the stupidity with which we destroy them. If you observe around any seat on the strip of beach between Bambalapitiya and Wellawatta you would be surprised to see the amount polythene, food items and at times even syringes strewn around it. It hurts so much, I at times feel like wearing a glove myself and picking what ever I can and put it aside.
Beaches are not something that every country is blessed with, but since we have it we take it for granted. We don't see the value of it. Most importantly we as Sri Lankan's lack discipline. We would beat our chests and call our selves patriots or would boil up when something is said about our race or religion, we would be up in arms saying that westerners are all out to destroy us, but in reality we have self inflicted wounds due to our lack of discipline.
If you have an inch of concern for your own place of living do your little bit to keep it clean, you can put your dirt in a dust bin, teach the children to do it and most importantly do it ourselves. Practice this at least in places which are ultimate gifts of mother nature, which other countrymen dream of and yearn for at least as a once in a life time visiting place.
I see an importance for a campaign - not the once which are done as a fashion on a one off day or a politically motivated one. This can be a starting point to infuse discipline in to the minds of people. Ideas on this our welcome. I will do what ever little I can do to help this.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
9/11
Ten years back on the 11th of September 2001 I can remember being called by my mother to come and watch the breaking news on TV. I was thinking it was some local news item, but to the utter shock the images shown on TV were from US and the images of the planes crashing into the twin towers. Although at that time I was a teen who had lived in a country where mass scale man made destruction happened from time to time, the magnitude of this was shocking and for me up to then US was all above this sort of destruction so it took a long time to digest the images I saw. While watching on TV, I could feel the pain of the people who were going through that.
Since then I had watched in surprise how this single event has had a sort of butterfly effect on the world and its equilibrium. The butterfly effects had spread and effected everything and anything and touched and even taken many more lives. Everything and everyone, from Kabul to Karachi, from New York to Nandikkal, from Baghdad to Bombay, from London to Libya has had felt the effects. The economy of world, the power of the world, the world opinion, the word terror and a lot more things has changed drastically in the post 9/11 world. I guess its the single most incident which has had the biggest impact on the world during the last 15 years.
Since then I had watched in surprise how this single event has had a sort of butterfly effect on the world and its equilibrium. The butterfly effects had spread and effected everything and anything and touched and even taken many more lives. Everything and everyone, from Kabul to Karachi, from New York to Nandikkal, from Baghdad to Bombay, from London to Libya has had felt the effects. The economy of world, the power of the world, the world opinion, the word terror and a lot more things has changed drastically in the post 9/11 world. I guess its the single most incident which has had the biggest impact on the world during the last 15 years.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
When an elephant charges you
Our guide shouted, don't worry he is a coward he wouldn't get any closer, I tried to steady myself but my hand was shaking so the pictures are not clear :(
Friday, September 9, 2011
Fooling people using Google social search
Sometime back a 'friend' of mine told me that when he searched for MySQL on Google my blog posts appeared in the first page. Poor dude, he had immediately assumed that I was so good at MySQL and hence the posts appear at the top. I was a bit amused, how come on the first page?!
Out of curiosity I searched today to check and this was the result.
Out of curiosity I searched today to check and this was the result.
Bingo! This happens when you are logged in to gmail. It internally co-relates the public posts done by your friends, public followers on twitter and most importantly your gmail contacts too and starts showing them as part of the search results. Seems as if making public posts have an added advantage to become a fake expert on something :P
reference
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Re-learning to greet
I was in unbearable stomach pain and walked into consult a doctor while in Kenya. As soon as I went I said "Hi Doctor, I had been having a stomach pain from morning", the doctor paused, smiled and said "Good Morning, I am Dr. so and so and nice to meet you and may I know your good name please". I was caught completely off guard, I cringed in shame at my own behavior. It just clicked to me how important was it to greet the person properly in that culture.
The real reason I cringed was since I realized how over the years I had stopped practicing the good habits that was thought at school while I was a child. We were trained to greet people with a big smile and a big salutation of Good Morning/Afternoon or Evening. The rule was that we had to greet people loud and clear. It always gave you a pleasant start to the day, it was an additional boost of energy. Unfortunately over the years it has all eroded and I had become a typical Sri Lankan.
I always realize how unpleasant I had become when I travel abroad. It might be at a lift, bus, office, train, restaurant or at a super market they greet you warmly. In Singapore its almost a sin to get in to the bus without greeting the bus driver. Where as here I would probably seldom would have even seen the face of the driver or even the conductor. After thinking about this yesterday night today I woke up and decided I am going to start the day by being pleasant and greet who ever I come across. So I started off from home and got in to the bus, greeted the bus conductor with a big smile and said "good morning". He turned and said, "mahathaya maru salli deela issarata yanna" ( Sir, give change and go to the front ), I gave him 20/= he said " eka parak kiwwa nae, maru salli nae, issarata yanna " ( I told you once, I don't have change so now move on the front ) and then I never got the balance. Although I failed today I am planning to try this again tomorrow and see, what will be the reaction.
The real reason I cringed was since I realized how over the years I had stopped practicing the good habits that was thought at school while I was a child. We were trained to greet people with a big smile and a big salutation of Good Morning/Afternoon or Evening. The rule was that we had to greet people loud and clear. It always gave you a pleasant start to the day, it was an additional boost of energy. Unfortunately over the years it has all eroded and I had become a typical Sri Lankan.
I always realize how unpleasant I had become when I travel abroad. It might be at a lift, bus, office, train, restaurant or at a super market they greet you warmly. In Singapore its almost a sin to get in to the bus without greeting the bus driver. Where as here I would probably seldom would have even seen the face of the driver or even the conductor. After thinking about this yesterday night today I woke up and decided I am going to start the day by being pleasant and greet who ever I come across. So I started off from home and got in to the bus, greeted the bus conductor with a big smile and said "good morning". He turned and said, "mahathaya maru salli deela issarata yanna" ( Sir, give change and go to the front ), I gave him 20/= he said " eka parak kiwwa nae, maru salli nae, issarata yanna " ( I told you once, I don't have change so now move on the front ) and then I never got the balance. Although I failed today I am planning to try this again tomorrow and see, what will be the reaction.
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