Would you believe it? Just posted on the wrong blog. sheesh. Like stepping outa the bathroom and walking into the living room... naked. Someone elses living room at that! Please don't tell me anyone noticed. < sheepish >

urped by gumz @ 9:40 PM

Isn't everything these days. Well at least I know I'm not to blame. I was born with it. short genes. I'm mildly amused by that. Heh, was depressed just a moment back. Mildly amused at the fact that I'm mildly amused. Notice that the recursion has no base condition. woohoo.....i'll be happy till I segfault. Ecstatic!

urped by gumz @ 9:39 PM

Woohooo!!! Hurrah for Poya days. Bliss bliss bliss. Who or whatever was responsible for attaching significance to full moon days has my eternal gratitude. I plan to make tomorrow Movie Day - Van Helsing, Irobot here I come.

urped by gumz @ 4:36 PM

That last post was not me. I read this post and comment thread and was driven to blog my own thoughts. After having done so, I see that I have completely missed the point.Oh well...

On another front, being deprived of Christina's company for the whole of last week gave me an opportunity to see the world through the windscreen of a tuk-tuk and through the shutters of a bus. The world looked different!

From a 3-wheeler the world somehow looks bigger nastier, waiting to put you in the deepest muck it can come up with. The world is full of details; you see finer details such as mini-skirt clad legs sticking out of other tuk-tuks, number plates of cars, roadkill, etc. From a bus, the world looks puny, less detailed, you see crowds and buildings; still see those mini clad legs though, but you know what i mean.

Does our mode of transport determine how we see the world around us?

urped by gumz @ 5:48 PM

Most introverts would like to think themselves independent of the rest of the world, loners; that they are the sole authors of their own horror story. But the twisted way of the world is such that everyone interacts with someone. And each interaction influences who you are. The sum total of all our interactions, with our families, friends, colleagues, girlfriends, wives etc.. defines us. Is there any difference between 'me' and the sum total of projections of myself to the world at large?

I've often complained that people do not allow me to be myself, complained that I'm forced to make too many compromises, forced to participate in activities and conversations that are simply not me. To be myself; what does that mean? Is there a 'me' to talk of? What is the sound of one hand clapping? (Why am i reminded of Bart Simpson?)

But there is clarity in loneliness, surrounded by only ones own thoughts; When things become clear, when one separates the worthy from the unworthy. But this clarity is ephemeral, it lasts only as long as the next movie, the next visit to Boolan, the next party or even just the next day at work.

Is there an aspect to ourselves that is truly 'personal', or do we just have a pseudo-personality which is the result of our interactions with other random pseudo-personalities? Are we more like electric monopoles or magnetic dipoles?

urped by gumz @ 5:18 PM

There's this novice pitter, everything about him is Deja Vue; appearance, mannerisms, even the conversations. A case of time flowing backwards? An echo of the future... I'm reminded of Arthur C.'s Childhoods End.

urped by gumz @ 5:06 PM

The first thing that schnookazoid managers have to realize is that management would not be necessary if
a. people were reasonable
b. people were responsible
c. people had common sense

Any so called manager attempting to solve a problem by appealing to any one of the above, deserves to be imprisoned in a cage filled with rabid licentious ducks.

urped by gumz @ 11:11 AM

H.G. Wells, War of the Worlds: 204 pages. Starts to get exciting around page 172 and peters out around 180. So unlike science fiction, but still packs enough of that somethang to pull you up by the ear and remind you that it's the eldest of the eldar.

There is such a thing as a right time for reading a book. Sometimes this can be rationalized: I remember, that i put off reading the LOTR trilogy for almost 2.5 years after reading the Silmallirion. The reason being that i wanted to read it in chronological order, and back in those days the Hobbit was darn difficult to come by.

But with WOTW, it was more a gut feeling; it was never the right time. Disappointment over not being able to buy Volume 1 of the Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth (this book has been eluding me for half a decade now) and the gnawing realization that I haven't indulged in light reading for way too long coupled with the utter lack of anything worthwhile reading at the new expographics joint helped purge the gut feeling and suddenly it was the right time.

Mixed feelings. On the one hand, it's utter Crap. It's too simple to be called raw. There was no empathy at all with the fear factor. The plot is... what plot? It brings out more of the writer at war with himself than anything to do with interplanetary war. And Wells' way of describing, in minute detail, the layout of early 19th century London can get downright annoying.

But curiously, I'm not annoyed. The science fiction theme of humanity getting it's ass wupped was born in this book. You experience the progenitor of the light saber and phaser - the 'Martian Heat Ray'. The book also sets an initial standard for the incorporation of science into fiction; the art of choosing the marginally scientific elements(i.e. Heat Rays, Machine Locomotion, Bacterial Attacks) and not trying to justify it too much.

And there are the flashes of brilliance where Wells equates the human position to that of the lower animals and the position of those civilizations that were destroyed by the british empire; brave of him considering empire was in its heyday. He even explores human nature through the artilleryman and the curate and achieves moderate success. And there was much that I was unable to empathise with.

War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, scientific romance, imaginary war fiction; to me it will always be the father of modern science fiction.

urped by gumz @ 4:46 PM

I haven't been doing the tastebuds any favours recently. And they ain't getting lucky today either. So before i forget,
1. Chicken Teriyaki - HotShots
2. Teppanyaki - HotShots
3. Grape Juice - Mackies

Went to this awesome joint called Boolan about a week back,wanted to blog it ever since; more of this and I'd qualify to oust the Sloth. The Sloth ofcourse is a bit of a fraud, he's not as slothy as he'd like many of us believe.

The exotic 'diner,' Boolan, is situated infront of Hotel Nippon, Union Place. The 'diner' consists, as all diners do, of a kitchen and an eating area. What sets Boolan apart is that the kitchen is an illegal construction on the pavement while the eating area is...yes, you guessed it, the pavement itself.

The ritual of getting a table is a bit tricky if you travel by your own vehicle. You have to slow down at this bus halt joint and shout at the 'chef'and ask for a table. You must do this shouting very politely. If the chap answers in the affirmative, it's advisable to park some way off as right infront of Boolan is this blessed Bus Halt.

After that the experience can only be described as a mixture between adventure and romance.They have Nasi Goreng, Mee Goreng, Biriyani,Chapathi, Naan, Chicken(tandoori, fried), Prawn, Squid, Beef, Mutton, Baabath, Fried Fish; all the ingredients are nfront of you in semi cooked form, to salivate over while you place your order. The 'chef' chap is amazing, the guy has an elephantine memory.

There were four of us, We got ourselves a Nasi Goreng, Mee Goreng(beef), Deviled chicken, Deviled prawn, Fried Fish, & Naan. They give spoons but that's such a pansy way to eat such a gastronomic extravaganza; fingers all the way. It was a happy fourty five minutes on the dark pavement. The food is ultra-spicey while the chicken did honour to the word 'succulent', and they have coke to wash it down with;perfect. I almost forgot, even the vegies tasted like meat.

A bit of history & background: Boolan is the name of the proprietor(do not make fun of the name); he's the chap who appears as the bartender in that bitter lemon advert. The place was a thriving joint until about a year ago, when the police destroyed it because it was an illegal construction. Even now, there is the chance that you will be arrested for obstructing the pavement. Very recently, a grenade was thrown intothe place, so there is juuust the right amount of danger.

The place is awesome. If you haven't been to Boolan, you haven't tasted food. I think I'll go there now.

urped by gumz @ 8:00 PM

It's a very rare occassion when the pit officially allows me to goof off. So it was quite an ecstatic fellow who found himself being carted off to what he affectionately calls little utopia, expographics. And since the doctor called in and said that Christina is well enough to be taken home, the mood was postively bouyant.

They say that when you're happy the Gods laugh at you. Well, I should be glad they only giggled at me.

Saw a little old man nearly get run over. He was very old, not too sharp and had trouble walking. The pedestrain crossing light had just turned red and the lane had opened for traffic. The van managed to stop in time but not before startling him in the most horrific manner. I think the driver even shouted at him. It wasn't even his fault; he would have started crossing when the light was green and was just not quick enough to make it across in time. The van drove off leaving the old man looking tired, resigned,helpless... I don't know what that expression was.

I did nothing to help; true I was on the other side of the road travelling in the opposite direction and he was almost on the pavement and there would have been other people to help, but... He was elderly, he was probably someone's father. He deserved better. The driver should not have shouted at him. I should have helped. He shouldn't have been out there alone in the first place.

During a casual conversation a friend once said 'If you are an elderly person in Sri Lanka and if you do not have good children who would take care of you, you're pretty much screwed'.

Little utopia drove the dark thoughts away somewhat. However, I couldn't get my hands on this book that I had my heart set on and it turns out that I can't take Christina home today. But these really aren't problems are they?

urped by gumz @ 4:50 PM

Everyone seems to have had the compulsion to take this Personality Disorder Test and publish it in their blogs. Got me thinking as to how similar/different we all were and whether i could quantify it. Soooooo, What I did was, made a simple vector space model with the Personality Disorder Test Result as the representative vector and the scores as the coefficients. Then I did a simple distance measure and voila......

The numbers represent an angle between 0-90 degrees. For example the angle between Me and Ed is 25.01. And the angle between Loki & Reg is 17.87. That could be interpreted as Loki & Reg have more screwedupness in common than Me and Ed, see.

oh, dunno if this is a done blogger thing. Will take off if instructed to do so. Thimal old chap where's your vector?

urped by gumz @ 5:15 PM

Well, taking a quiz burns less joules than writing a post I guess.



This test is so bogus. Ridiculous really. C'mon, Ed is way more messed up than I. You just have to compare our blogs to know that!

urped by gumz @ 5:52 PM

Quiescent Person + Considerable physical activity = Abject misery

All my internal organs have been rearranged. I'm sure I have a ruptured splean. Whoever started this glorification of physical fitness thingy should be hung, drawn and quartered! Dammit, even my fingers hurt.

Man(and Woman) needs to reap the benefits of evolution. Physical fitness is for hunter gatherers. sheesh.

urped by gumz @ 4:53 PM

It transpires that, YesFM is conducting a screaming competition(Some sing along karaoke thing).The prize money is a 100,000 smackers.

wife: Gosh, these guys are going to give away 100k to some idiot who cannot sing for a toffee, and mumbles some lyrics. (the wife is an avid native classical music fan).

stupid me: so? ( This was such a bad idea )

w: so? <incensed demeanor > No one, offers Amaradeva or Nanda Malini that kind of money! not to mention all those 60's 70's singers, real singers, who aren't exactly well off! No one gives them that kind of money!!!

sm: Well, there are much finer people than that, who are even less appreciated. (Notice that I really don't know when to keep my mouth shut).

w: ....


well, never mind the rest of the conversation. Needless to say, I had stepped onto quicksand.

Now, the finer people that I was thinking of were, people like Prof. Sarath Kotagama & Prof. Epasinghe. Academics are treated so poorly in this country of ours. And these are people who have made a difference in the world, who've contributed to the betterment of humanity and nature. I feel unworthy(corny as it sounds) to even describe the minor parts of their work that I can actually begin to comprehend.

A case in point. Amaradeva, won the Magsaysay Award(for the uninitiated - it's a big thing, o.k.) sometime back. The whole country was thrilled. Felicitations and parties all around. I guess no one really knows that Prof. Kotagama won the Magsaysay Award some years back; no parties, no felicitations, no appreciation.

I don't want to take anything away from Amaradeva(I like him btw), nor do I want to take away the fun and merry making that the YesFM thing will surely bring to the public at large; they are entitled to their share of fun. It is probably silly and unjustifiable, but, I am saddened nevertheless.

The last episode of Sex and the City had a reference to The
Way We Were. Complex Curly haired people are dumped by their lovers in favour of simpler straight haired partners. And the Complex Curly haired ones are ok with this. The relevance of this to the rest of the post is anyone's guess...

urped by gumz @ 9:10 PM