My Karapincha

IIHE to celebrate Software Freedom Day 2011

2011-09-14T21:57:00.000-07:00

IIHE's team of ICT students: Club ICT have made arrangements to celebrate The Software Freedom Day, on Saturday the 17th, at the university premises.

According to the organizers, the event will comprise of four major lecture sessions. The lectures are to cover the following areas:

Why Free and Open Source software and Why people should care about it
Install GNU / Linux with a demonstration done via Hanthana Linux
Making use of Linux in a productive way

These lectures are to be delivered by well-regarded personalities in the industry such as Mr. Buddhika Siddhisena, Mr. Suchetha Wijenayake and Mr. Gaveen Prabhasara.

The organizers will also be opening up an on location Open Source Game Zone on Saturday coupled with many more interesting stuff to be discussed, shared and learnt.

The Software Freedom Day (SFD) is a worldwide event organized by the Software Freedom International (SFI). SFD Wiki has already registered three organizers in Sri Lanka.

Club ICT of IIHE, with the utmost mission of "Gathering hands to win the IT Revolution" would be spearheading such an event in the country, with a vast array of activities organized in assisting those who are interested, especially the newbies in Open Source Software, Linux, Linux based apps and many more.

Interestingly, this would be the first ever project organized and executed by the ICT students at IIHE.

The event is scheduled to kick off at 10:00 hours tomorrow (17) following the registration of the participants, which will start at 09:00 hours.

You also can RSVP to the event by visiting the official website of Club ICT here: http://www.clubict.org/

Their Facebook Event page: https://www.facebook.com/clubict

Check-in at Foursquare: http://4sq.com/mQ8A5K

Contact the organizers via Jude on 0773 798 470 for more details

THE ENTRANCE IS FREE!!!

Some TV shows are realistically humanitarian!

2011-09-02T07:17:00.000-07:00

Emmanuel Kelly auditioning
at X Factor
Pic Courtesy:
Channel 7 Supplied

TGIF! Yeah.. and I'm more than happy that I didn't worry myself too much, even I was told to come home via the most hectic bus routes. Simply, I managed to catch the bus :) and that "Langama" bus was awesome which made me to tweet couple of times, with the hashtag #langamarox.

As soon as I got home, I had this article to put up about the SSC Open Badminton C'ships. As usual, I opened my word doc, parallely signing into my gmail and FB. Saw a link on one of my friend's wall, with no thumbnail, but something triggered me to click on that.

I was redirected to a Facebook video, one of those uploaded by an artist based in the Middle East. An 'X-Factor' video clip, showing a guy named Emmanuel Kelly, who's just another victim of these bloody wars, specifically at Iraqi blood sheds.

Emmanuel, who's a guy with limb deficiencies today, sings 'Imagine' at 'X Factor' Australian auditions.

No point in me explaining about him, this video got everything. This video is not owned by me, and I never wanted to upload 'my own version' to YouTube, coz Emmanuel Kelly X Factor is such a trending term on the premium video hosting / sharing site.

Emmanuel, not only made the audience cry, neither he made Ronan Keating, Spice Girl Mel Brown, Natalie Bassingthwaighte and Guy Sebastian desperately feel sad about him, while on stage.

He made his adopted mother, the lovely woman, who is overwhelmed by her 'love towards two limbless youths', a proud human being. If you happen to read the top couple of comments under this YouTube clip, you would come across this comment "I wish the judges would have brought his mom on stage too so that she could have gotten the applause that she so rightfully deserved as well", and who, in this world, would disagree with this comment?

I was turned by the visual which shows Emmanuel's family when he was introducing them to the judges, and more importantly, by the reaction of Ahmed, Emmanuel's brother, as he hears Emmanuel mentioning his name.

X Factor producers have made the show much attractive using Emmanuel's real story and leaving a message to this planet Earth.

And that message, was earlier harmonized by Sir John Lennon, the great.

Let the world get this simple fact...

Emmanuel, THIS IS FOR YOU brother.. ALL THE BEST IN YOUR WORK!

The insane 'senior citizens' and social discipline

2011-08-28T11:44:00.000-07:00

The Common room, or "Students' area" in my uni (as branded by the students themselves, lecturers and even the minor staff), accommodates all the half-broken computer chairs, tables, the legendary Table Tennis gear and some tennis balls with bats.

Also, this got a wooden floor for those dance geeks who are willing to move themselves into the tunes of Salsa, Jive, ChaCha or whatever they call it. The maroon colour sofa which lies on a corner of this wooden floor, does add some colour to the whole brown spread and most probably gathers guys and girls in numbers. Then, the gossiping, stories, conspiracies and what not are slowly shot at each other :)

At one such instance, our former Students' Union President came up with a staggering experience he underwent inside a bus. It was stamped in my mind for some time and was infact thinking of blogging about this sooner i made it to my laptop, but for some reason I had forgotten it. (see I just now remembered that two people are expecting some emails from me since this morning)

So, the former President sat among us and started telling what he came across, on his way home, the previous day.

The guy who had got into a 163 bus (heading towards Battaramulla) had been standing for sometime, just around the middle of the bus. 163 / 183 buses gallingly keep on waiting in that bus halt, just beside William's Grinding Mills, until the next bus comes and hoots at the back of it. A school girl, of age 12-14 has been standing next to him. Suddenly he feels that this particular school girl, trying to get closer to him. Twice and thrice she has been moving her shoulder part on the guy's abs and that's where he had stepped back to see what the eff was wrong with her.

He was amazed to see what exactly had been going on with the girl. When he took a step back, he saw an old guy, (he assumes he's over his 60's), who has been standing on the other side of the girl, rubbing her breast and tummy area. At that point only he had realized, all her shoulder moments were some sorta 'signaling' with a plea "please save me".

The next 30 seconds saw some dashing punches going across the face of that old 'sex maniac'. "Two punches to his eyes, he went down, I just stopped there, there onwards the others who were in the bus took a good care of him. Just can't imagine what kinda feeling he had had for getting kicked by mature women, in his face" the guy tells with an angry face.

Job well done for saving that child, but the hook is not hammering that old 'mofo' or otherwise.

Take this scenario: it was inside a bus, the time was some minutes passed 2 pm, in BROAD DAYLIGHT, a somewhat busy environment, STILL an under-aged female citizen, of Sri Lanka, who's in her school uniform, is abused (Sexually?).

Yet, she was not in a position to defend her self and sadly that old 'mofo' was able to touch her. What might have been the situation if she had to undergo the same in a lonely place?

Her reaction to such type of situations may have affected by certain happenings at her home, previous experiences she had underwent, etc. She may have held up in a shock over this unpleasant experience. She might have felt "a man who's around my grandfather's age, is touching me in an awkward way".

Though we cannot ascertain the real reason for such things to happen in particular, one thing is crystal clear. That is, some people, who are tagged as 'mature', 'well respected', 'elderly', 'senior citizens' are acting insanely.

What they got to understand is they cannot preach the youngsters to 'maintain discipline and act accordingly', while they themselves acting against these social disciplines.

At a time where social discipline is deteriorating at every millisecond, this could be food for thought.

A crisis-hit SLC, comes before press

2011-06-20T21:43:00.000-07:00

Sri Lanka Cricket’s Interim Committee members appeared before the media today (20). Sujeewa Rajapakse, Treasurer to the SLC, Nishantha Ranathunga, Secretary to the SLC, Eshana De Silva, Acting Chairman of the SLC and Ajith Jayasekara, the Chief Executive Officer of SLC were present at the head table.

In today’s media briefing, Secretary to the SLC (Sri Lanka Cricket), Mr. Nishantha Ranathunga revealed that it was none other than the Sri Lanka Cricket Interim Committee Chairman D. S. de Silva, who granted approval for the distribution of over 14 million Sri Lankan Rupees, among the staff of SLC, irrespective of their involvement at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.

Ranathunga was responding to a question raised by the journalists gathered at the media briefing which was held this afternoon at the SLC headquarters.

READ THE REST OF THE ENTRY

Hashan Tillakaratne continues his ‘Defensive mode’

2011-05-05T03:33:00.000-07:00

Hashan Tillakaratne, who was acclaimed as a defensive batsman in the then Sri Lankan batting line-up, is keeping onto his ‘signature batting style’ though he had retired from one-day cricket in 2003!

The cricketer turned politician of the opposition, Tillakaratne claimed that match-fixing had been rampant in Sri Lanka since 1992. He also said that he was determined to reveal the names of those who were involved in fixing and he would do it in the due course, at the most appropriate time.

Despite this startling revelation done by a former Sri Lankan skipper, many started pouring in comments, both in support of Tillakaratne’s attempt to expose those who were involved in this ‘criminal activity’ and against his approach, arguing it’s ‘fishy’ as to why he waited this long to make such a statement.

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ThePapare is recruiting passionate reporters!

2011-03-23T12:42:00.000-07:00

Sri Lanka's Number one sports website: ThePapare.com is at the verge of throwing out a campaign, in recruiting new reporters, writers, photographers, videographers, producers, production co-ordinators and aspiring marketers.

The campaign titled, "The Hunt is on for 'Paparites'" will go online, in the coming weekend and may be around next week. The main objective of the campaign would be to expand the number of reporters and personnel involved in carrying out its operations. The website would be seeking, any individual (despite the gender), who carry the passion for sport, with the ability of working effectively with given deadlines as a writer, reporter, photographer, etc.

Recruits would be categorized into four sections as the Crew, Part time reporters, Full time reporters and videographers, producers, production coordinators and marketers.

The website's focus has been vested upon promoting school's and club's sport, from Cricket, Rugby, Tennis, Rowing, Swimming, Water Polo, Boxing, Squash, Motor Sports, Badminton, to the action in the international circuits.

By initiating such campaigns, the website is looking forward, in becoming the 'driving force of the next generation media personnel'.

Those interested parties / individuals can get more details of the recruitments by calling 0777 322 493 or by emailing to editor@thepapare.com.

Tesco, to get advice from kids!

2011-03-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

'Tesco', has already planned to build up an advisory board, made up of school children, aged between nine years to 12 years, in helping with the supermarket chain's 'Tesco for Schools & Clubs programme'.

The said advisory board will include six 'young entrepreneurs', as they prove they have a talent in making decisions, and sensory vision towards the future.

Tesco had already planned to acknowledge each member of the said advisory board with 10,000 'Tesco for Schools & Clubs vouchers' for their respective school or club, a laptop and a digital camera.

According to Tesco executive director Lucy Neville-Rolfe, the super market chain's idea of 'recruiting' kids for such a venture is that the younger minds carry strong ideas and they should be given a chance to put those ideas into action.

This will obvioulsy regard the supermarket chain with means of gathering solid consumer insights, mainly over its strategy to use Club card and Tesco mums panel to drive the business.

Coke's touch on 'Teen love for music'

2011-03-23T11:46:00.000-07:00

World's number one Cola company, Coca Cola is yet again planning on revolutionizing its marketing communications strategies, as they touch upon their consumers' love for music! The company also uses its 'love for music' on par with its 'Open Happiness' campaign, that has strategically being launched in over 200 global markets.

Coke launched its 'Walls' TV advertisement, which features a brand new track called 'Can you feel it' by a band named 'One night only'. Interestingly, 'One night only' had made its debut entrance to world wide music industry via Coke's 'Walls' commercial.

'Walls' TV advert portrays, groups of teenagers, from varying nationalities, religions, cultures, etc grabbing a Coke, dancing to music, which says, "when i'm on my own, I can be who I want to".

In fact, Coke's touch on music, especially the concerned track representing the rock genre has been created to capture and cater the most demanding target audience for Coke: the teen market.

Coke has also built a platform to drive engagement to the campaign and the advert, where they have invited the concerned parties to film and upload to a microsite. The videos would be then edited to the tune of the track 'Can you feel it tonight'.

The 'Walls' campaign would be the beginning of a marketing push for the world's most valuable brand's music banner for the year 2011.

The '24hr Session'

The next big thing followed by the 'Walls' initiative is the '24hr session' where Coke is partnering with the popular band Maroon 5, in creating and producing a track in just 24 hours. Coke invites fans to engage with the band in creating and composing the song on the March 22 at 5pm (GMT), on which the songwriting event is scheduled to take place.

Fans can also interact with the band, critique and help them with lyrics, melodies or even with tunes via the interactive platform via www.coca-cola.com/music website, which invites fans to 'be a part of the biggest experiment in the rock history'.

The campaign has been exposed directly exposed to over 20 million fans in Coca Cola's Facebook fanpage during the past couple of weeks. The administrators have revealed that Coke's twitter account: @cocacola would be posting the latest happenings in the studio, updates and questions from the band.

It is also said, the online studio would comprise of cutting edge technology, entailing the fans to comment via a movement based projection system.

'Walls' TV Commercial

Released: March 2011

Agency: Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam

Production company: Biscuit Filmworks

Country: Netherlands

Category: Non-Alcoholic drinks

“Walls” was shot five times with a locally relevant protagonist in each version (Europe/North America, India, Latin America, Africa, and Asia). The set was hand built and measured about the size of a football field. It was made up of around 20 bedrooms, each styled to be completely individual and reflective of teenagers’ bedrooms across the globe. An infinity set with Green Screens was created to allow creation of 3D model rooms beyond those physically built on set. Shoots took place on multiple sets at the same time. From the hero bedroom, to the kitchen, to the expansive joined up bedroom set. Three large rooms were needed just to contain the teenagers’ wardrobes, which included items from the Coca-Cola fashion label in Brazil.

Behind the scenes of 'Walls' commercial

Credit:

The Walls program was developed at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam by creative directors Eric Quennoy and Mark Bernath, copywriter Sean Vij and art director Matthew Jerrett.

Filming was shot by director Christopher Riggert via Biscuit Filmworks with director of photography Jan Velicky, producer Laure Stevens, executive producers Holly Vega, Shawn Lacy and Elissa Singstock.

Post production was done at The Mill Los Angeles. Editors were Russell Icke and Charlie Harvey via The Whitehouse Post.

LISTEN TO THE FULL TRACK: DO YOU FEEL IT TONIGHT by ONE NIGHT ONLY

Can You Feel It Tonight - One Night Only by audiochariya

Strong ‘Sri Lankan Pride’, washed away at Asian Games

2010-12-02T08:18:00.000-08:00

With much intensified hopes and expectations, a 109 strong Sri Lankan delegation flew to Guangzhou to take part in the 16th Asian Games on the 11th of November. The same number returned to the island with shattered hopes and neither a single medal nor record breaking performances, in their respective events.

The Sri Lankan delegation which took part in the Asian Games with 44 other Asian countries is wedged into this ‘sorry’ situation, perhaps acting as an eye-opener for the Sport Authorities in the island nation.

'Hope', 'Shattered Hopes', The Biggest 'Dilemma in Sri Lanka Cricket' and many more...

READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE

Beware of the following if you are a driver!

2010-10-24T09:01:00.000-07:00

If you are a regular online enthusiast, you may come across various characters, stuff and many interesting topics to discuss and share upon.

Now I'm gonna share one of those 'believable' set of information, I received via email, just two hours ago.

It is recommended to share this amongst your loved ones and spread the message whenever possible.

As received

Importance: High

Worth Passing On!

Sad, especially if you are inclined to 'help' people...

While driving on a rural end of the roadway on Thursday morning, I saw an infant car seat on the side of the road with a blanket draped over it. For whatever reason, I did not stop, even though I had all kinds of thoughts running through my head. But when I got to my destination, I called the Police and they were going to check it out.

But, this is what the Police advised even before they went out there to check....

"There are several things to be aware of ... gangs and thieves are now plotting different ways to get a person (mostly women)to stop their vehicle and get out of the car.

"There is a gang initiation reported by the local Police where gangs are placing a car seat by the road...with a fake baby in it...waiting for a woman, of course, to stop and check on the abandoned baby.

"Note that the location of this car seat is usually beside a wooded or grassy (field) area and the person -- woman -- will be dragged into the woods, beaten and raped, and usually left for dead. If it's a man, they're usually beaten and robbed and maybe left for dead, too.

DO NOT STOP FOR ANY REASON!!!

DIAL 118 or 119 AND REPORT WHAT YOU SAW, BUT DON'T EVEN SLOW DOWN.

"IF YOU ARE DRIVING AT NIGHT AND EGGS ARE THROWN AT YOUR WINDSCREEN, DO NOT STOP TO CHECK THE CAR, DO NOT OPERATE THE WIPER AND DO NOT SPRAY ANY WATER BECAUSE EGGS MIXED WITH WATER BECOME MILKY AND BLOCK YOUR VISION UP TO 92.5%, AND YOU ARE THEN FORCED TO STOP BESIDE THE ROAD AND BECOME A VICTIM OF THESE CRIMINALS.

THIS IS A NEW TECHNIQUE USED BY GANGS, SO PLEASE INFORM YOUR FRIENDS AND RELATIVES.

THESE ARE DESPERATE TIMES AND THESE ARE UNSAVOURY INDIVIDUALS WHO WILL TAKE DESPERATE MEASURES TO GET WHAT THEY WANT."

When ‘Kandy Reds’ take on ‘Colombo Blues’, THE perfect showdown for this year’s rugby season

2010-07-31T10:27:00.000-07:00

The year 2010 started off by giving the incumbent president HE Mahinda Rajapakse a landslide victory over his former Army commander Gen. (Rtd.) Sarath Fonseka. At the aftermath of this Presidential Election came the General Election for which almost half of the registered voters, were boozed out and had almost forgotten to cast their votes! Then came the price hikes on oil prices, bread, gas, essential items, etc, those branded as ‘colloquial affairs’ for a typical Sri Lankan. Experts panels were appointed, Death fasts were laid down (and laid off), protests and ‘work to rule’ programs had been flooding the Sri Lankans’ mindsets, not allowing them to have a proper sleep, sometimes.

Amidst all these complicated issues. Our dear Murali said goodbye to the game through which he was made the golden factor of the Sri Lankan spin battalion, after adding just one more wicket which totaled upto 800 test wickets, a spot one should think harder of reaching.

Complications

Interestingly, this year’s rugby season is somewhat similar to the obscured scenario mentioned above, in the first para. The Peterites, who were accused, blamed and almost scraped through for allowing a sizeable number of players from other schools to join them and play for St. Peters College’s 1^st XV team.

Two Mahanama College Ruggerites were then suspended following an incident which had taken place in their match against St. Joseph’s College in the ‘Singer’ Under 20, division two Inter-Schools rugby encounter. The duo were slapped with a six month ban, by the SLRFU (Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union) following a decision arrived at, after receiving the match report from the match commissioner. The case in short: the match referee Rohan Nishantha had to stop the match eight minutes before the scheduled time, as the players of the St, Joseph’s team were assaulted while in grounds. The two players in concern, who had already been awarded with red cards, had then run into the grounds. This act is against the rule which describes, ‘a player who is already being offended cannot go into the play area at any condition’.

Then came the Finals of the Milo-Knockout tournament between Royal College and St. Peters College, which has ‘unofficially concluded’ due to a court case filed by the Isipathana College, who did not field their team for the semi final against St. Peters the previous weekend. “What’s the latest of the Milo Finals?” I asked one of my colleagues who has been engaged in photo shooting of the most thrilling season. “I have no idea machan”, he replied. He was fed up over the question. How many might have worried him with the same question? “Who cares of what happened?” he posted me a question. Seriously, does anyone care about it?

“BATTLE OF THE STARS”?

ThePapare.com, to which I call the ‘Online sports Engine’ had a flash banner on the top of its website last week, which said, “Battle of the Rivals”, “The All star Rugby Encounter” organized by the website, with the strategic partnership of SLRFU, the media representation of YES FM, and the backing of Dialog”. The information was sufficient for me to gather, kind of a ‘Collision’ that would erupt as a result of the above ‘Strategic Coalition’.

“BATTLE OF THE STARS” is the brainchild of ThePapare.com, which is THE platform for Sri Lankan schools’ ruggerites to take part in a breathtaking encounter, which is to be worked off among two teams formed from both Colombo and Kandy schools’ ruggerites. Interestingly, the organizers have already commenced the selection processes which are currently underway in several phases, in both Colombo and Kandy. The members for the two teams would be selected by the all new schools selection committee headed by Michael Jayasekera. The rest of the committee members are Tikiri Marambe, Chandrashan Perera, Pradeep Basnayake and Savantha de Saram.

The two teams will be representing their cities as “Colombo Blues’ and ‘Kandy Reds’. The logos of the two teams are as follows:

The event would be a great experience for all Sri Lankans and especially the rugby enthusiasts as the ‘best players’ from the schools from the Commercial capital and the hill country would be taking on each other at this encounter which is scheduled to be exhibited on August 7 (Saturday), 4.30 pm onwards at the CR & FC grounds.

Can the venue hold thousands of ardent rugby fans and spectators on the above date? For a fact I know, from the small school boy to the tuk tuk driver, the bus conductor, teacher, the sales guy, the bombai motai seller to every living being in the Hill capital are greatly passionate about the game and really do expect their players to perform well. Since the event is played in Colombo, the neighboring Los Colombus dudes and ‘dudettes’ would turn up!

The teams are to be announced next week’s Tuesday. This was revealed at the press conference which was held at SLRFU premises yesterday, to announce the media over the event. Vice president of the SLRFU Lasitha Guneratne at yesterday’s briefing had stated the event would be a great opportunity for all the schools, and its rugby players, together with the fans to unite in strengthening the country’s quality in Rugby.

At the meantime, this is a great opportunity for the players to show off their talents as the selectors would be eyeing upon them in selecting a stronger Sri Lankan squad for the upcoming Junior Asiad. The players chosen from Colombo: Colombo Blues would be trained under Sanath Martis, who is the coach for the Pete’s 1^st XV team. The Kandy Reds on the other hand would be coached under Nihal ‘Viper jnr.’ Guneratne.

What more can the Rugby fans expect? The cream of the schools’ rubgy players being trained under two of the most influential coaches in the country, ready to showcase THE RUGBY ENCOUNTER OF THE SEASON. I’m sure; this would take away all the hardships you have been experiencing throughout the season.

Wrapping up, an open invitation to all the readers:

Witness THE rugby encounter you have never witnessed before!!! Rally around the CR & FC grounds on August 7, 4.30 pm…

Cigarettes, Pork sausages, tight jeans, facials and POSON

2010-07-08T13:01:00.000-07:00

Almost after two months, I was thinking of writing a post on the 'much anticipated' Bradby Train & the Second Leg of the Bradby. However, thanks to the load of presentations, mid terms and assignments I not only missed the golden opportunity to get into the Bradby Train which was railed after 20+ years, but missed the Bradby at Bogambara.

Despite all these hardships, I managed to take my grandma to the temple on June 25 (Friday), marking the Poson day. The temple was a popular one among the pilgrims all around the island. On the way to the temple we had to buy the necessary stuff such as ‘handunkooru’ and ‘pahanthira’. (I seriously don’t know the English terms for these, I have heard some calling handunkooru’s as ‘some’ sticks).

There was this grocery which had a massive queue, mostly due to a 'Manioc dansala' being underway at its immediate next door.

With the greatest difficulty, I crept through the crowd and managed to stand at the 5^th place in the queue. There were three men and one woman infront of me.

“Gold leaf ekak denna” (Give me a Gold leaf), the guy at the front requested. The mudalali with no hesitation at all made the familiar tap at the edge of the stick and gave it to his ‘customer’.

The second guy, this time with a bit low tone, “mudalali, Bristol hatharak dennako” (Give me four Bristols). At this point, mudalali might have understood that the demand for ‘smoking sticks’ hadn’t sunken despite being THE Poson day.

I almost had two smokers infront of me. One guy and the woman are yet to make their purchases. The guy went first. “Coke buddy ekai Soda ekai” (One Coke buddy and a Soda). I was waiting to hear the woman’s pick! “Pork sausages thiyenawada?” (Do you have Pork sausages?) she asked. Unfortunately for her the grocery didn’t have enough stock I guess.

After she left, I purchased my needy stuff and drove towards the temple.

The temple was not that crowded as it was for Wesak. However there was seen an improvement in the number of tight jeans. Tight skirts (and the list goes towards the negative side). Interestingly and literally it was not the temple I saw four years ago. It had become a fashion den! Was amazed to see some women with facials, make ups and polished nails carrying pots of water and of course doing the cat walk towards the Bodhiya to pour the water.

In the mean time there was this small family I located, the mother and two daughters, sitting at a far corner and reading a pirith book. All three of them had curly hair, dressed in bright white and certainly are head turners. I was happy by the fact that they atleast knew how to dress and sit properly!

Lessons from “Langama”: Littering in Public, for kids!

2010-05-03T11:47:00.000-07:00

A ride in a “Langama” bus is always a thrilling, unmatched fun. I have reasons to count on the above statement as the 55 year old uncle who is living by my house recalls his memories as a school boy where they were given an old, red TATA bus as their school bus. However, a problem arises as to what extent this elated moments are being experienced by the present generations. We need to understand the broader perspective of the word ‘fun’ & badly need to appreciate the fact that the higher majority in our similar age groups fail to enjoy in public transportation.

Enough preaching: Needed to tell what I felt over the parental population in this country. Especially who are travelling with their kids in public carriages!

The mother was in her 30s. Her small boy was around seven/eight years old. These judgements were made by looking at the way they behaved, their appearances, etc. Both were dark. The mother’s hair implied of a low income family. The brownish, damaged hair with some grey substance on her head, wet sweat all over her face was telling me that she had been working somewhere for her daily wage. How I saw all these? Unlike other days, I had to get into the bus from the front and managed to sit three seats behind, where the mother and the kid was sitting.

The kid was seen eating some snack. Tipi-tip! Great. When we were small, we were warned not to eat those as they contain some bloody chemical (which I can’t remember right now).

The kid seems to have destroyed all the stuff inside the packet and at the next moment he poses a question at his mother. “Meka wisikarannanada?” (Shall I throw this off?) The mother gives the green light. The son, after receiving his mother’s consent, throws the empty polythene packaging to the road, while the bus was moving. The packet was caught unto the wind and displayed a number of circles in the air, which makes the kid cheerful.

He enjoys that moment screaming, ‘amme ara, araka piyambala giyaa mehema’ (Mother look, that went flying like this), and demonstrating how the packet behaved up in the air, using his two hands.

This seems to worry his mother. ‘hah hah, ke nogaha innawa wisikaraanam’ (Ok now shut your mouth and wait, if you had thrown it). She replied saying the above, in a low voice, looking at each of the two sides beside her using the tips of her eyes. She thought her last comments were too low in voice so that others hadn’t heard her.

‘After allowing her son and encouraging him to do the wrong act, she is trying to save her ass.’, this was what struck my mind at this exact point. Why would people tend to act like this? I started worrying myself. Is it because of her low education level? How can someone judge another by looking at his appearance or cloths? Well, that’s not an effective argument. I shared this with my batch mates and the lecturer the next day. She felt upset as her son exposed the little secret his she told him, to the whole bus. She knew it and that’s why she reacted like that. Finally I concluded!

If someone is to act positive towards the betterment of the society and others, he should be well guided and educated on the real aspects, from his childhoods of course. My lecturer charged me stating, “You could have stopped him doing that if you saw it”. Well ya, but I was three seats behind them and there were other ‘adults’ who saw this whole scene while sitting closer to them. (I’m not trying to save my ass)

The mother and the son got down from the second next halt from which she allowed him to throw the packet out. Littering, while you’re on the go! That’s interesting...

One man, against the parliament!

2010-04-24T00:13:00.000-07:00

I hardly go through my Reading list which appears at the bottom of my dashboard. As the number of blogs I follow falls less than the number of fingers in both hands, without much effort I could track certain stuff posted in those blogs.

Interestingly, when I scrolled down on my dashboard today, this particular blog post which carried an interesting title appeared and it was strong enough to catch my eyes and redirect me to the blog site! It was ‘Boondi’, a collective effort of a group of young troublemakers, who eventually holds a different insight in their work.

One of the contributors had come across this strange guy who had been standing in the Dehiwala junction on the day the parliament’s inaugural session took place (April 22).

This lonely attempt of yet another single Sri Lankan, evidently proves the perception of the countrymen towards its politicians. Ask yourself: What have they done since 1948?

So, is there a better way to address them?

Read the original article here:http://boondionline.blogspot.com/2010/04/blog-post_23.html

When 'soorya' moved from 'Meena to Mesha'...

2010-04-13T07:10:00.000-07:00

We Sri Lankans celebrated yet another New Year! For Sri Lankans, the traditional new year dawns, as 'the sun' makes the move from Meena rasi to mesha rasi, giving fresh thoughts, ideas full of prosperity, to the well being of the society.

This year too, having the above ‘prosperity’ part in the back of our minds, we Sri Lankans, all the Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers and other national and religious communities were preparing themselves to celebrate ‘the new era’.

Those who want to make political advantage, even from a single fart will obviously make this an opportunity to stressfully state, it is because of them, the Sri Lankans this time would celebrate the New Year in a country with no war and no terrorists.

The week before the ‘avurudhu’ week, I myself visited several fashion chains to get myself equipped with 'new clothes'. There were thousands of people, who were seeking new clothes, and I found it difficult to pick the designs and colors which I was expecting to own. I didn't go much far from where I stay, instead with the greatest difficulty satisfied myself with several outfits. One of my family members, who had visited Pelawatte area in the same week, was amazed by the way people had turned out to 'shop' at a fashion outlet in the area. The outlet situated in the heart of the Pelawatta junction had already attracted thousands and thousands, where the customers were seen seeking parking facilities in the neighboring by-roads. "People were selecting stuff as they had been totally naked throughout the year!", one wise guy had said after seeing this.

On the other hand, there are thousands and thousands of other people who satisfy themselves with a single 'cheeththa redda' or a 'baniyama'. They satisfy themselves, as that's what they could offer to acquire those. After all, they can't eat the cheeththas and baniyamas when they run out of their dry rations!

Also, I’m one of the thousand people who were curious to know, how the war hero (oops my bad, now he is a traitor, the biggest inhuman TRAITOR!) celebrated his avurudhu. I came across this blog post which one of my friends had shared on his Facebook wall.

http://thenewsmaster.blogspot.com/2010/04/kiribath-for-president-noodles-for.html

Poor one, he could have also had a piece of Kiribath if he hadn’t led the troops towards the victory…

'The Original Chinese?' or 'The Chinese Originals?'

2010-02-26T13:34:00.000-08:00

Developing a sensitive analysis for multiple production companies is initially difficult. But, if the person involved in the development process is concious and carries certain concentrative qualities, the process would be less burden. Still, its hard. (After all there is nothing we could get without tiring our asses and butts).

There were eight of us, inside the lab (as usual), concentrating on their individual parts with their left hands or right hands stuck on to their heads and thinking, just thinking. Our objective was to finish his off and get home asap.

Then entered the most wanted 'Che Boy', with his latest Nokia 5800 Music Express phone on his hand. The bugger is one real lucky fellow as he jumped off to this after using a BlackBerry!

Mind you, the Nokia 5800 Music Express is Nokia’s first touch screen phone and its just awesome with its glazing outfit.

A few seconds later entered 'Lahiru', one of the office boys, to check his FaceBook. As he sat down, he kept his phone in front of him. That was the first time I saw his phone. I immediately asked him, what was that phone. He responded, "Nokia 5800, express". It was not as glazing as the one Che boy owns. It has a dull black cover, with less quality on the screen and the resolution in camera at a satisfactory level. The importance is, IT GOT MASSIVE SPEAKERS!

He introduced it as the Chinese edition of the 5800 Music express.

I went to Che boy, who was sitting some chairs away and grabbed his phone, which appeared and of course the original 5800. Lahiru too gave his phone to me where I took these two pictures from a Samsung phone (Well the Samsung does not belong to me either!).

So folks, the above two pictures carry the Chinese version and the original version of Nokia 5800 Music Express, Nokia's first ever touch screen phone, from right to left, respectively.

"do you know what's worth fighting for?"

2010-02-15T18:03:00.000-08:00

War does not achieve any good, even with whatever good reasons to start one. (examples: religion, ideas)

In other words, there are no good reasons to wage a war.

But there are certain parties who remain with broken hearts, as others finish off, these types of "beggars' wounds". They feel like getting the utmost revenge out of them who had given a cure to the "wound".

I like GreenDay, not only because they got tattoos all over their skins, they got sexy and 'tiny thighed' models in their videos, they use mastered video effects to add value to their videos. But they talk the truth. They sing the truth. They try their level best to make others understand it, using a powerful medium, and that's MUSIC!

Enjoy.... Sing while your watching. Sing for yourself, don't worry about your listeners, coz they won't give a shit as they don't get the meaning....

Do you know what's worth fighting for?
When it's not worth dying for?
Does it take your breath away
And you feel yourself suffocating?

Does the pain weigh out the pride?
And you look for a place to hide?
Did someone break your heart inside?
You're in ruins

One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms, give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky, you and I

When you're at the end of the road
And you lost all sense of control
And your thoughts have taken their toll
When your mind breaks the spirit of your soul

Your faith walks on broken glass
And the hangover doesn't pass
Nothing's ever built to last
You're in ruins

One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms, give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky, you and I

Did you try to live on your own
When you burned down the house and home?
Did you stand too close to the fire
Like a liar looking for forgiveness from a stone?

When it's time to live and let die
And you can't get another try
Something inside this heart has died
You're in ruins

One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms, give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky

One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms, give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky, you and I

"those are just red dye" she said

2010-02-12T05:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I got a chance to browse the web since the 6th of February. It was pretty irritating to stay away from the cyber network, BUT the exams and several subjects kept me out of the network.

So, yesterday, I started browsing several news websites (as usual), to learn about the issues that had broken out within the past couple of days. I had four of my friends around me, using their computers in the computer lab. Suddenly, the guy who was sitting on my right hand side grabbed my right shoulder and dragged me into his monitor. It was this picture on the right (Pic. 1) that appears along with this post. In the next second, the other two surrounded us and comments were flowing despite their political view point.

There was this one girl, who gave her insights about this picture. He said, "I think those are red colour dye on that man's neck"! Well I just turned to her, thinking she would tell something more, adding to her first comment.

At that point I understood how the Sri Lankans think on pictures appearing on what ever means. I was hurt. Not only me, you who know the real scene behind this would feel hurt about this comment. She made her comment, but no one would take her to CID. And I'm happy about that.

However, I got the picture on the extreme left, in which the same person appears with his wounded neck from Perambara (Pic taken: Amantha Perera). My prime objective of posting this item is to tell the world, this person who appears on the two pictures, is not the kind of those who apply dye for a packet of rice, a bottle of 'gal arakku' and another 500 bucks. It is the real pain that keeps on aching them at the bottom of their hearts.

I would right away email this post to my female friend so that she would take a look at the second picture on the extreme left, to which she hadn't got exposed. And I would also tell her, those are the blood dripping out as a rain of stones had hit his neck on the 11th. infront of the Aluthkade magistrate court.

'Kalaguna Selakeema'

2010-02-10T09:57:00.000-08:00

The posters do spread a message! Well, that's the whole idea behind pasting those papers and covering every possible inch of others' walls. Before the 26th of last month, the goats, the cows and others who loved to taste the ink of the print were having a great time. They were not worried of 'eating a candidate' appearing on any wall. No police guy was interested in removing the animal from doing that 'deshadrohi' activity. Now that the things have come to light. In fact, the things are getting darker and darker. Not only because of today's attack that took place in front of the Aluthkade Magistrate court, injuring around six people. Following are three major incidents that took place since 26th of January 2010 up to date.

HE the president left to Russia soon after attending the opening ceremony of the 'Deyata Kirula' exhibition in Pallekale, Kandy. He was awarded by a Honoris Causa Doctorate by the Peoples’ Friendship University (PFU), formally known as Patricia Lumumba University of Moscow in Russia on Saturday 6th February.

(The People’s Friendship University (PFU) was established by the former USSR government on 5th February 1960.)

1) It was back in 2003 that "Venerable Gangodawila Soma Thera of the Vajiraramaya Temple, Maharagama passed away in St. Petersburg, Russia on 12 December 2003 in his 56th year. He was in Russia to accept an honorary doctorate conferred by the Russian Government." The Jathika Hela Urumaya entered the parliament, using this incident as a shield of effect, which was followed by a presidential committee appointed by the current president in 2007, with 'no proper conclusion'. People, especially the Buddhist had the feeling that Russian government had something to do with this issue. This is what the Jathika Hela Urumaya said too. Wimal Weerawansa joined the clan by making the same allegations which captured the hearts of the Sinhala Buddhists at that time where JHU entered the General elections and subsequently supported the president. So, as a person who asked the people to pay gratitude (for the second term), who appears to be a hardcore Sinhala Buddhist, it is not ethical for 'him' to accept anything from a government institution that had killed Soma Thero, isn't it?

2) People did vote for Sarath Fonseka and they did to Mahinda Rajapakse too. (No comments on the final result as it will detour the reader). 'According to the issued results', the majority of the people had voted for Mahinda Rajapakse. But they hadn't expected him to treat Fonseka as he had already done.

Below appears an extract of Mrs. Anoma Fonseka's media briefing:

"As my husband has retired from the Army, he cannot be arrested by the military. Even if they are to make an arrest, an officer of a higher rank than he should have done the arrest and in a more decent manner. He was caught by his hands and legs carried, dragged and bundled into the vehicle. This is the way Manawadu (Major General Sumith Manawadu, was seen in action at General's office complex according to the eyewitnesses) treated my husband. When the officers were reluctant to take him this way, Manawadu has shouted at the other officers ‘moova aragena palayan’ (take this fellow away).

‘Is this the gift you are giving to my husband who destroyed the worst terrorist outfit in the world and saved the country for the good of all including you all and the future generation ?’, I wish to ask from the rulers. As long as he wore the uniform he never talked about politics. He respected the Army discipline to the utmost. This Manawadu, the officer also of the Army treated my husband more disdainfully than how he would treat an animal. Though he is of the Army he had not learnt discipline from my husband – he did not know how a senior officer should be treated. All these years I thought our Army was a disciplined lot."

(Now there is a back story as to why the person named Manawadu had played a major role in 'dragging Fonseka like an animal'. Mrs. Fonseka had stated the reason in a recent media briefing which i won't be posting here.)

At the aftermath of this 'military display', the joint opposition held a media briefing. According to Mano Ganeshan,

"This was not an arrest, but an abduction. I know about abductions more than anybody else. In Colombo so many Tamils were abducted. Our Presidential candidate who polled 42 lakhs votes at the Presidential elections,and whose victory was plundered by rigging was now abducted before our own eyes."

"I am an eye witness to this abduction. I even saw one officer assaulting the General; he hit him on the neck. He was dragged and taken like an animal . This is how the war hero whom the South population extolled was treated. The South population ate kiri bath with him a few months ago and celebrated his victory. But now, we can see how he is being degraded and insulted. This is the innate trait of these men."

Speaking at the same media briefing UNP deputy leader Karu Jayasuriya stated:

"General Fonseka was acclaimed and applauded as the greatest war Hero locally by the President , his Govt. and even internationally . The Govt. called him the greatest patriot . But, now, how did he become a traitor? All because he chose to contest against the President against his wish at the last Presidential election. It is the consensus of all going by the atrocious actions of this Govt. that any person who opposes the Govt.'s despotism and misdeeds is a traitor . Hence, this great patriot and true National Hero has been reduced to the level of a traitor by Govt. machinations".

Well, sad to say, but he had failed to pay his gratitude for the second time. This time not a monk, but to the peoples' war hero.

3) As I mentioned earlier, it was not only the people who voted Sarath Fonseka who joined the Sathyagraha organized by the joint opposition which was staged today. There were a satisfactory number of unarmed MR supporters who were jointly protesting against the 'military arrest' of the former Army Commander and Chief of Defence Staff.

As they were attacked by the Police, there were another group of personnel who were throwing stones 'on behalf of the police'. Actually, the police were hiding behind them, when those set of thugs, armed with iron rods started attacking, both the MR supporters and SF supporters! The police were deployed to control the riots. The pictures clearly depict as to how they were doing their job!

So Mister, he requested the public to pay their gratitude towards him.

Well this is how, I think his way of paying gratitude to both the voters and non-voters of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.

World's most innovative school - Royal College

2009-11-06T13:03:00.000-08:00

Planning and implementing is two different fields that has to be molded separately. But there are living things who do these with great sense of achievement .

Founded in 1835, The Royal College has been an educational institute that has been carrying knowledge from various cultures, religions and people. It is this, so called unity that had placed Royal College ahead of the rest!

Sri Lanka's premier public school Royal College was selected as one of the best innovative schools in the world by Microsoft. This can be described as an achievement not by the school itself but an achievement for the whole nation. It is also significant that this happened in 2009, the year of ICT and English as declared by the Government of Sri Lanka. A local competition was organized by Microsoft Sri Lanka in co-ordination with the Education Ministry to select five most innovative schools in the country. Royal College along with four schools other were selected to represent Sri Lanka in the global competition.

Windows 7 multitouch: it's a gimmick (for now)

2009-10-16T00:32:00.000-07:00

It is said that the microsoft's developers have spent some time with Windows 7 Beta's new touch and multitouch features this week, and came away largely disappointed. According to them, It was not that they didn't work, at least on occasion, it was that they didn't really provide a comprehensive or pleasurable method for using a computer. The primary enhancements to the OS that really made touch usage possible include a taller taskbar, pinch to zoom and tap-and-drag scrolling. There was a fancy new onscreen keyboard that's actually usable, and those quick-swipe gestures from Vista remain for forward, back, copy, paste, undo and redo.

It sounds like a lot,ya true that what happened exactly when MS made the fuss about Vista! Interactions are inconsistent from program to program, including Microsoft applications, gestures seem to work when you don't want them, and don't work when you need them, and at least 50 percent of the OS is still too small to use with touch -- making the improvements to touchability of the rest of it slightly pointless. All that said, we really like the idea of a touchscreen desktop OS, at least in theory. "There are certain actions like messing with photos and casual browsing that seem to make sense for augmenting regular computer inputs with touch -- they've certainly been enhanced by multitouch trackpads of late -- but we're going to need more consistent implementations to really get into it OS-wide", they say. Of course, this is just a Beta, things could always get better, and third party support will, like with most things, make or break it.

We'll hope for the best, but we're not tossing our keyboard and mouse just yet.

The Colombo barriers

2009-10-10T11:27:00.000-07:00

PUBLIC SECURITY:

The Sri Lanka Army celebrated its 60th anniversary on the 2nd of October. The victory of defeating the world's deadliest terrorist organisation was then being celebrated on par with an exhibition and a display of armory at the BMICH.

I was driving down the Bauddaloka Mawatha to drop my little cousin brother to school. We were suddenly stopped by a posh policeman who was wearing shades at 7 a.m, facing the opposite direction where sun was shinning from. It was a temporary check point that had been set up by police to check the civilians who were to enter the vicinity of the BMICH. The exhibition had the fullest protection.

As I stopped the vehicle one policeman came infront of the car having his AK47 on his hands while one came to check my ID card. Two other policemen were on the otherside of the car and when i was about to hand over the ID to the above policeman, one of the two of the side where my bro was sitting told us to move on as there is a school child.

Out of four policemen, only one saw that there was a school child in the car! it is not that we are down as we were checked, but its the way it happened that matters. The police guy who was infront of the car was starring at us as we were caught in a terrorist activity.

One such incident was again experienced by couple of my friends in the Marine Drive last week. When they were stopped at the check point, a police guy had asked "ah nangila koheda yanne?" Hey girls, where are you going?. Shocked by this kind of underworld type question, the girls had answered as "we are going to our university". In fact the university is an affiliated center for a leading foreign University.

The wise police guy had then replied, "mehe ehema university ekak nehe". There's no such university around this area.

Astonished by the reply made by the "Kossa", the girls have said hard, "api hemadama yanne me pare, yanne ekama thanata, oya me paththe gena danne na kiyala apita karanna deyak ne. kohoma police karayek wunada danne na". We use this same route to travel our university everyday. Simply because you don't know about this place, we can't bother. Wonder how you became a Policeman.

The Wise police guy never had expected a bash like that. Though the LTTE is crushed, they keep on harassing the civilians in the country. Where will we be if this system continues?

Charit Tissera

Kissing in private and making it public

2009-10-08T23:06:00.000-07:00

It has been tragic and even awful to hear these kind of stories. Besides anyone can question what is wrong with our people. Some weeks ago all the porn sites that could be viewed by the Sri Lankan internet users were banned or blocked in simple terms. To gain any political advantage or not, it happened in that way.

The worry was uploading and sharing pictures and videos of Sri Lankan girls, with or without their consent.

A newspaper journalist attached to a weekend Sinhala newspaper came up with this issue first! Why?, Why? & Why? someone would do something "kunu" in this manner? That's what came into my mind at a glance. It is a proven fact that "porn" is a money making industry in the US and some other Asian countries such as China and Japan. Knowing these, were our people trying to mark up to the level of the world's largest debtor's status?

The problem in Sri Lankans as I see when it comes to nudity and pornography. They were and are not given proper education on "what people began to cover as they got mature". Instead, School children, teachers and parents all try to hide stuff like "what happens when a man and a woman gets together", "how does it happens" and all that jazz.

I can still remember, one of my buddies at school inviting me for a bet at thousand bucks in SLR. This was when I was in the third year (eight years old) and the bet was, him telling me a baby is born as a father and a mother getting together and me telling him "I don't believe in you".

When we grew up we got to know what's behind this "so called and protected secret in our society" and I still owes my friend the 1000 bucks. The point in the making is not that we should act as Westerners, but to fix our system.

Someone could blame J.R for introducing a bloody "open economy" and dieing off without suffering from it, instead us being suffered. If J.R was the only guy to do this he is such an asshole. But its not that. Coz people in Sri Lanka acts as "apita hariyanawanan echcharai".

Ms. Christina Caldera, appearing on Playboy, roaring as the first Sri Lankan to appear on that did make the Sri Lankan web media a hot news. Such mentality is now being grown and its being watered. Could the drastic impacts of these acts will end up one guy or girl's shooting incident in a university or a school?

Royal grabs Hayman's trophy!

2009-10-02T12:17:00.000-07:00

SPORTS: Water Polo;

Royal College gave no chance to the Thomains for any fight back as the Royal team started Scoring from the very 2nd minute of the game. Royal Scoring in every opportunity they got Trashed the Thomains to win the 2nd leg 7-4 and 15-11 on Aggregate.

Royal Led by Yahan Samarajeewa kept their promice and now Royal has won 5 back to back hayman and making 10-0 in terms on wins in legs!

Royal's most powerful threat to the Thomains, Royal Vice Captain poorna Kankanige walked away with the 'MOST VALUABLE PLAYER' award.

Wishes to the Team Royal on behalf of every Royalist!

FLOREAT

Well well well, have you ever heard of any "power play" in Water Polo? Ya I know what you're thinking, but its real! Introduced first at this year's Hayman's trophy and only being carried out by the two teams Royal and Thora.

Its not that the Royal team can change the field or vice versa, but its all about punching a buddy of the other team. Yes, after the referee blows the final whistle, one player is being attacked! I don't know what would the officials say over this. Will they stay idling until one guy gets a shot that would make him not to play again?

Four ways to keep what you study in your head

2009-09-07T20:52:00.000-07:00

EDUCATION : STUDYING TIPS;

Ever worry about those tests that require so much space in your memory? Do you worry about those subjects that have teachers who give the objective type of tests? Well, we cannot have ways to change these kinds of tests. But one could devise ways to ace these kinds of exams.

You might envy people who remember lots of things. You can have two persons who study the same subject, same number of pages, same number of hours, but when the results of the test comes, one gets a way higher grade than the other. Here are ways to improve your memory. These are sure to be of use to you and to others.

a) This may be tiring, but give more time to your reading rather than plain cramming.

If you give more time to reading the subject matter of the upcoming examination, you are sure to store more knowledge into your brain compared to just studying a night before or an hour before an exam. If you are not the type of person who easily uncovers the stored memory from the teacher's discussion, you should practice this.
If you read beforehand, you tend to be able to understand more of the subject. That is because when you are cramming, one is forcing in the hundreds of terms in the memory for a short amount of time.

b) Say what you are studying to yourself.

When studying, people usually read and keep saying things over and over again within the mind. Why don't you try saying it loudly? Saying what you are studying out loud after you read it helps because it is like discussing things to yourself. It is one way of knowing if you actually kept in mind anything you just read and another way of assessing if you understood anything.

c) Loosen up before studying so you can concentrate on your studying.

Nothing sticks to your head if it is too preoccupied with other things. You have to say, like Squidward Tentacles in Spongebob would say, "Empty your mind." You should take that suggestion so that you could concentrate on your studying.
The more space you have on that brain of yours, the more you are sure to remember. Instead of thinking about what you should say to your lover the next morning, you should worry about how you are going to answer those questions on the examination paper.

d) Do not overdo it! Sleep if you have to.

If you have a long set of chapters or notes to study, you do not have to force yourself to know every single detail to ace the exam. It would be wonderful if you are able to study everything, but if you are having a hard time, you should give yourself a break.

If you think about it, forcing something inside a container would not work. The things you were trying to force inside, let's say, a jar, would eventually pop out of it. So study, but respect your body.

Credit- homeschoolingcatalog.com

Michael Jackson's glove auctioned in Australia

2009-09-06T21:17:00.000-07:00

ENTERTAINMENT: Australia;

A bejeweled white glove Michael Jackson tossed to an Australian fan more than a decade ago sold at auction Sunday for 57,600 Australian dollars ($48,400), almost twice the estimated selling price.

Warwick Stone, a buyer for the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, beat out five other bidders for the late King of Pop's glove, said Charlotte Stanes, spokeswoman for the Melbourne auction houseBonhams and Goodman. The estimated selling price before the auction was AU$30,000.

"We are very happy with the result," Stanes said. "It's the first glove we know about in Australia. "Bonhams and Goodman said it was the first auction of a Michael Jackson glove since his death on June 25 this year at age 50.
Jackson visited Australia in 1996 as part of his HIStory world tour. While in Sydney, he attended the Australian premiere for the film "Ghosts," in which he had a starring role. At the end of the screening, he tossed the glove at audience member Bill Hibble, who has since died, said national head of collectables Giles Moon.

eBay reaches deal to sell Skype

2009-09-01T22:47:00.000-07:00

Online auction site eBay has agreed to sell the majority of internet phone company Skype for about $2bn (£1.2bn).

Skype is to be majority-owned by a group of private investors, including Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen and private equity firms.

EBay will keep a 35% stake in the firm, which it has been trying to sell for some time. It has said that Skype had "limited synergies" with it.

The deal values Skype at $2.75bn. EBay bought Skype for $2.6bn in 2005.

The new owners are Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures - which originally invested in Skype - as well as private equity firm Silver Lake and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

They will pay $1.9bn in cash, and give a $125m note to eBay, meaning that it promises to pay that amount on demand or at an agreed time.

For sale

Earlier this year, eBay had said that it planned to spin off Skype and list its shares in the first half of 2010, an announcement many took as a signal that the firm was for sale.

Ebay wrote down the value of the firm to $1.2bn a year after it was taken over.

Including payouts to Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, who founded Skype in 2003, eBay paid over $3bn for the company.

Skype's software lets computer and mobile phone users talk to each other for free and make cut-price calls to mobiles and landlines.

Unlike traditional mobile calls, which are transmitted over a cellular network, Skype turns your voice into data and sends it over the internet.

Since being acquired, the number of registered Skype users has risen to 405 million from 53 million, though free user-to-user calls still dominate the service.

The deal should be finalised by the last three months of the year.

credit BBC