Popularity & Paparazzi

It’s a common fact that with popularity comes le paparazzi. If you don’t believe me ask Princess Di (God rest her soul). So what has that got to do with me? Well it’s been a good 3-4 months since I launched my blog and lets just say that it’s catching up some visitors, making some ground, and basically has attracted more than a handful of loyal visitors some of whom who’ve taken the time to add my RSS Feed (Dont know how to, will do a post on that along with a review on Firefox 2.0) to their RSS readers, and some who just keep coming back “Old School” style (10 points to all of you coz you took the effort. Count on me to buy you Isso Wadei, when Galle Face re-opens).

So to cut a long story short, I’ve started getting hounded by le paparazzi of z bloggers! A.k.a Spam Comments. It was all cool for a while since they had “Good” things to say till y’day, I got this :

“Hey nice blog. Although it�s not what I was looking for. I am looking for info on Payday Loans or a Cash Advance so I can buy some Hoodia Diet Pills.. I found your blog very interesting“

I mean the NERVE… so anyways sadly, I had to implement the “Word Verification for Comments”. I know this is an absolute pain, coz I myself can’t seem to get it right the first time (yes.. I know I’m dumb.. thank god they don’t use them for IQ tests). So all in all, this would be to apologize for any inconvenience caused to you good folks out there.

There are some brilliant work-arounds to this, if any of them could be incorporated with Blogger, please let me know and you shall regarded as “The Man”.

Sri Lankans eat Humble Pie Dished out by the Chickens

The Story begins like this. Once upon a time (Ok this is not a fairy tale..) there was a sport/game called Cricket played (to how the sport is played I wont get in) in a paradise isle called Sri Lanka. Now this country has been marred by needless violence by an ongoing war for 2 decades between the Govt and Separatist rebels. But among all this violence bombs going off and all life still goes on. Ask anybody. So a Cricket tour was scheduled between the Countries Sri Lanka, India and South Africa. Unfortunately upon their arrival a bomb went off, and the S. Africans got all scared and decided to run back to their own country (with their tails between their legs). Once they got back to their safe haven (Pls compare Crime rates of both countries), Mark Boucher being called a Coward (depicted as a chicken in the local newspapers) turned around and said "Bring It On"... so there you have a quick sum up of the build up to Y'days match, although the teams might not have had the same animosity towards each other, we Sri Lankans were hoping to have a big Brag, after the South Africans were well and truly beaten by us.

http://www.cricket365.com/news/story_22114.shtml

Unfortunately that was not the case to be. :(

So I’m not going to give my comments on the match coz I am not the Expert, I’d leave Shanaka and the others to do that. But since I own this space, and I have the cover of the “title” of the blog, I thought I’d voice my opinion on some points. (Yes, I know you thought I was going to keep my mouth shut… I’m sorry)

1. Our “Pace” bowlers cant bowl for toffees.

Dilhara is not fitting in. He cant handle the new ball, he cant handle the old ball, in other words he cant handle any ball. Plus the no balls. I think the coach need to keep the dudes fancy high priced wrist watch on the bowling crease and get him to bowl.

Malinga’s talented, but he needs to brush up. Whats the point of bowling at 80 miles an hour, if it’s not directed properly. It makes it soo much easier to dispatch to the boundary, and the slingy action only takes like a few balls for talented batsman to get used to.

And some one teach these dudes how to bowl at the end of an innings. I am no Bob Woolmer or John Dyson or Tom Moody, but come on you need to bowl yorkers and maybe some bounces. Not in-between!

Notice I’ve left Vaas out, coz he’s Medium Pace, and he sticks to his job. He has his bad days, but most good days.

2. Middle Order Batting

Has been strengthened by the return of Marvan, but I feel Chamara Kapugedara still can find a slot, after all.

3. Lower Order Battling

Our lower order sucks at batting. Buggers like Murali have played a tons of matches just go and have a whack for the fun of it. I mean hell this is International cricket. Get the bugger to play normal cricket shots. The way he’s going now, is just pleasing the commentators and giving them a good laugh and maybe get an inside edge to run off to the third man boundary.

It was clearly evident that there was no one to hang around Vaas and atleast bat out the innings. I mean we all knew after the dismissal of Jayewardene that it was pretty much over. The right thing to do (imo) would be to bat out the 50 overs, and have a go in the last two overs, just like the S. Africans did. After all we’ll be coming in on the net run rate, and if my math is correct that would be the no or runs you score against the no of runs your opponents scored. So it made every sense to bat out the overs and scrape every run possible.

There that’s all I can think of right now.. over and out…

Eid Mubarak

Yess.. Fasting is over and time for Feasting! Mmm smell of Biriyani and Wattalappan. This is to all those celebrating please remember the less fortunate (that would be me) and kindly invite me to your humble homes for the feast.

I hope the cleansing and purification of your souls went fine although I wonder whether it did any good to my friends (now they are all good souls.. mind you) but I bet they cant wait get back to their old routine. To keep away from the sight food and women is a hard life for anyone I should say.

BTW : Let me take this opportunity to say a belated “Happy Diwali” too, to those who celebrated it the other day.

Galle Harbour Under Attack

The LTTE terrorists have launched an attack at the Galle harbour and SL Navy camp Dakshina at 7.45 this morning.

Three explosions have occurred in this attack. Naval troops are retaliating the LTTE attack and the exchange of fire is still on.

Few casualties have also been reported and they were rushed to the teaching hospital in Karapitiya.

Reinforcement are been sent to the location.

More info will follow.

Source - www.defence.lk

Suicide bombing at Sri Lankan port

COLOMBO - Suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bombers Wednesday infiltrated the port of Galle in southern Sri Lanka and were attacking facilities there, defense spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told AFP.

"The attack is going on at the moment and we have no reports of any commercial shopping areas being attacked," Rambukwella said. "Obviously they have come to Galle on a suicide mission."

The spokesman said the military had sent gunboats into Galle -- a popular destination with foreign tourists -- to counter the attack by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The military also maintains a base in the area and ammunition depots in Galle harbor, which is also used by commercial shipping companies.

Details of the attack were sketchy, but residents in Galle, located 110 kilometers south of the capital Colombo, said at least 10 explosions were heard and there was also gunfire in the area.

Police used loudspeakers to ask residents to leave their homes.

The attack on Galle came two days after a huge suicide bombing against a naval convoy in Sri Lanka that killed at least 103 people and wounded 150 others. AFP

Source - http://uw.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=53548

As you can see there is no end in sight. Even though both parties are scheduled for peace talks on the 28th. I'd hate to predict more violence in the upcoming week. Even in Colombo....

UPDATE - L.B.O.

COLOMBO, Oct 18, 2006 (AFP) - Suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bombers Wednesday infiltrated the port of Galle in southern Sri Lanka and attacked naval facilities, defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told AFP.

Guerrillas in five boats broke into the habour and detonated powerful explosions, police said while reporting that two people were killed and 10 wounded in the early stages of the attack.

"The attack is going on at the moment," Rambukwella said. "Obviously they have come to Galle on a suicide mission."

He said there were no immediate reports of merchant shipping being attacked, but the naval facilities were under fire.

The spokesman said the military had sent gunboats into Galle -- a popular destination with foreign tourists -- to counter the attack by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)....

Pa-ster Po-sting

As fondly remembered by many of us (after one or more individuals over the annals of time have mispronounced or we call "CARD") also referred to as "Poster Pasting". Usually back in the day, this would be one of those things that every youngling would look forward to, a sign of becoming of age some would think.

Normally before an event, to popularize it many colourful and not so colourful posters would be designed and printed and then the daunting task of putting them up. Carried out during the wee hours of the night, close to the breaking of the dawn. Many a story can be told as it's doubtful than any such campaign has been completed "uneventfully".

The teenagers would jump to say they'd bring the car at the meeting, and would be later begging their fathers to let them have the family car or pickup, if driver not provided they would first resort to naming a few senior "aiyas" that would be there with them.

"4am at the Parlour" or so meeting places and times are agreed upon but often the crew would over-sleep and set off a good hour later (if they’re lucky). Once they assemble they'd realize that they forgot a vital essential required for the glue commonly referred to as "Pappa", and be found waking up folks at the hostel or looking for 24hours stores to buy the Flour or "Piti". This would be overcome by many a youngster coaxing their mothers to make the beloved "Pappa" at home but would often not get either the mixture right or underestimate the volume required. For making “Pappa” is a fine Art, it has to be watery enough to be applied by paint brushes but sticky enough to put a up the Poster. Anyway if you don’t run out of "Pappa" then you have been "Icing" on the job for that is the first to run out.

Often we'd stop at "Rahumaniya" or "Pilla" asking for hot water and some spare flour if we didn't have any and make do, for the rest of the remaining posters.

It's a common occurrence that many other events would be taking place in close proximity to your event’s calendar date and so the requirement for publicity and the space on billboards share are common relation. Therefore you'd find the posters that you happily put up being covered by a thick wall of some other form on the way back home just after your campaign. There has been many a fellow who'd run out and carefully peel off the new layer of posters to reveal their own, and leave the other posters at the foot of the billboard.

Fun and games turn sour when it comes to the times of General Elections where, we have had many encounters with JVP dudes (in their white colored vans) rather unhappy to find their posters being under a sea of "Talent Search" or "Drama Comp" or some other sort of Posters.

In the middle of the night when all sorts of odd characters that are known to prowl the streets and when they too have indeed gone to their own beds (or whatever they call it) does creativity strike in the young minds! Yes, that is the only explanation for posters put up at an angle, upside down or even leaving gaps to create some sort of pattern.

AH.. those were the days when the campaign ran late, and you ended up pasting near L.C. or Metho (or some other Girl school.. didn't mean any discrimination) when people you know walk past you [most of the time pretending not to know those who are dressed in hacked old t-shirts and shorts (spare the Adidas and the Nikes from the "Pappa") covered in "pappa" (obviously after a fight with paint brushes or leaning on a billboard freshly glued) with paint brushes in their hands] to school, confused and amazed are some of the looks that parents give us dropping their younglings off to school, often muttering to their kin “Those are the Boys that Daddy/Thatti warned you about!”

The remnants of the trip are not forgotten by either the merry men (now coming of age) or their vehicle as often the interiors are stained with the horrible "pappa" where the bucket spilt taking a fast corner or where the "pappa" clad hand opened the door etc.

I also forgot to mention that the open roads in the middle of the night bring out the "Schumacher" in everybody and want to take a turn at driving (often their first). The few experienced individuals would show off their ability to "Wheel Spin" while the others would make a great effort to keep the vehicle straight for a good distance before they realize the Handbrake is still on.


AH.. the memories of the "Good Old" . These were easily 7-9 years ago and wonder whether it's possible now with all these checkpoints and heightened security. Anyways what inspired this post was the sight of a single guy pasting a poster on a Lazy Sunday morning around 11am. When I ventured closer, I realized he was putting up a Poster for a Stamp Exhibition at R.C. and turned out to be a familiar face. He'd come with his driver and the car was parked beside the bill board and the driver waiting for him. Hmm.. now where is the fun in that I thought to my self?

Attack in Habaraba - 67 killed

LTTE terrorists rammed the Naval convoy at Digampatana in Habarana with an explosive laden vehicle around 1.30p.m today (Monday the 16th of October).

A huge explosion has occurred causing severe destruction to both naval personnel and the civilians in the area.

According to the latest information available at least 67 people were killed and over 60 people suffered serious injuries in the explosion. However, the sources said that the death toll and the casualty figures could be increased further.

The naval convoy comprising 15 buses were parked at the Diagmpatana rendezvous point at the time of the attack. Over 150 unarmed naval personnel who were going on leave were believed to be present at the location.

Hospital sources said five buses filled with the victims have reached the General hospital Dambulla. Those with critical injuries have immediately been air lifted to Colombo, Kurunegala and Kandy hospitals.

Source - http://defence.lk/

So is this the Start to Peace talks.. or is this what has been churning in the belly of those tigers?

Oliver at the Wendt

Saturday saw me hit the Wendt with my GF of course and some of her friends to witness the magic of the Workshop players in their rendition of Oliver. The twisted boy who doesnt seem to stray to the dark side (oops this is not Star Wars now is it) no matter how much he's exposed to it. Anyways I have yet to see the "theatrical production" of the book so this is a truly first for me. There fore my comments may be purely ignorant to just plain old stupid. :)

Upon arriving there was a sense of this is being a "Children's Play" dished out and murmur in the audience waiting outside for the door to be opened suggested it too. The no of kiddo's even in the balcony gave me un-easy feeling coz I was already getting a bad feeling of :

• Either it's going to be a children’s play that is of low caliber or
• Good adult play and the kids in the audience are going to ruin it with their constant nagging their mommies.
  

To my utter delight none of these were the case. Although the play had a majority of children involved in it, it was handled in a professional manner and the adult actors stole the show. The audience was pretty good apart from a kiddo crying for his mommy once in a while. (Wonder why these mommies cant keep their kiddo's with them instead of letting them sit alone and get scared)

So lets get on with the play, shall we? It was a musical as most would guess, and done very well I must say. The singing was beautiful to the ear, atleast most of it. They used clip on mic's, to their advantage in this case. It was obvious that they have rehearsed with them and got the sound levels balanced way before. Except for one occasion their wasn't any annoying feedback or mishandling of the mic's.

Actors(es) were pretty good in their portrayals. Nancy I would say stole the show. Fagin was great too, although his beard was a wee bit of a hindrance to his expressions (Or may be I'm just blind and my -2.25 glasses dont server their purpose anymore). Oliver was good but lacked clarity in his speech. Sikes was good too. However his appearance wasn’t as menacing as it could have been. I'd picture him with longer hair thick side-burns and maybe even some stubble on the face. The artful dodger's performance also needs some mentioning.

As always the production had some points they could improve, so let the critic in me do my business of pointing out in my opinion what could have been improved on.

The stage setting was nice, the props seemed to have been used well. There was a circular part of the platform that was on rollers and basically did a 360. The movement was fluid except for the noise it made. Maybe they could grease the wheels better. The problem was that the turning thingy was used a little too often. It worked well in some scenes like when Oliver runs away from the Funeral parlor and they use it to show both inside and out. But it was often turned with no purpose and felt more like "hey check out our new fancy gadget.."

Also it would have been nice if the curtain(I think it has finally given away, the runners weren't that cooperative the last time we used it) or the white screen they used was closed at the start as a sense of the magic was lost when you could see the stage before the production started in general house lights.

Playing the stage on two levels was nice, however it cut off the Balcony audience. I know we contribute only 200 bucks to the cause, but that doesn’t mean you should cut us off like that, as a fair proportion was played on the upper level. In such cases they should have brought the 2nd level a bit lower, so that it wouldn’t look like "headless" people singing.

On a side note : Those who are familiar with the Wendt staff, our beloved “Rupe” has had another fall, and most of the weight has gone on to the leg he broke the last time he had a nasty fall.

With regard to singing, some actors like Mr. Bumble had a tough time, I think he should have been relived of this heavy burden with all due respect to the actor. I hope this would be addressed. And that rather vulgar scene between the two, well with all the kids present hmm..

Finally correct me if I’m wrong but there was a part left out according to the book. But it’s understandable that you can fit in only soo much. Just haven’t seen the play before so wondering whether it was cut off by the Workshop players or is it the case originally.

Anyways that’s just me going at it. All in all I thoroughly enjoyed the production. 200 Bucks well spent!

Looong Weekend - Finally Comes to an End.

Why am I still talking about the long weekend on a Thursday? Well this post was due Wednesday morning the actual end to my extended long weekend, but unfortunately with extended holidays comes extended work as soon as you get back. So as you can guess I was a victim of that.

So getting to the weekend. It started off fine with some nice chilling and cleaning my room in patches. For the love of all I finally managed to unearth my bed and did most of the chilling on that. Everything seemed fine till I ate some form of indigestibles that just didn’t tally with my stomach on Saturday I believe and that was the beginning of the end as you may call it. I was ok in patches and managed to do the following during the weekend :

• Evening stroll on the Mt. Beach with my GF and her friends on Saturday
• Dropped in for Talent Search Semi's (man I tell you, that is the best way to feel "Old", be surrounded by teeny-boppers that you feel guilty to look at.
• Catch the motor-show. (My beloved Rangie was there. :( So sad to depart. And soo many MG's. )

Besides that, it was all suffering. I was shitting like a I don’t know what. "Diarrhea" they called it. Anyways I found the two days of Medical leave I got (I say these doctors should be made MD’s of our Companies, they dish out Medicals like it’s their own company) was put to use at the hands of the “Lord Of The Rings”. Yes, finally managed to do some proper reading being disturbed only by my bowels and my GF checking up on me. Finished Book 1 and a bit of Book 2 in the two days. Yippeee. I tell you the movie is nothing like it. Atleast the normal edition. Yet to get my hands on the SEE (Special Extended Edition). 4 DVD’s per movie I’m told.

It got me wondering whether it’s better to read the book first and be disgusted at the movie (like with Da Vinci Code) or Watch the Movie then read the book and realize that there’s a lot more. After all I managed to follow the movie with out the book although some said it would be difficult. Hmmmm... Off to work now!

Mid Week Humour

I've been sick.. and this was a cheerful welcome in my email. Thought I'd share it with you till I find time to conjure up a post.

Checkpoints Galore and a Claymore

The morning saw two Kudda’s (Druggies) finding a Claymore in their attempt to salvage metal off the rail tracks. Ironic isn’t it, with all the Police Patrols a Kudda has to go find (accidentally of course.. rumour is it that he actually started hammering at it till some other dude pointed out that it was actually more than 15 kilos of metal)

From where did I hear the breaking news? All the way from Australia I tell you. Technology has so freaking improved that I had to then switch on to the YesFM Online just in time to catch their hourly bulleting confirming this.

Anyways the Police not to be left out started a massive search operation on various roads entering the city, and basically any other placed that would cause a huge traffic jam and an inconvenience to the public. Yes I got caught to it on my way to Rathmalana and yes I tried many routes to avoid it but to no avail. Hence this post is in front of you. 

For the benefit of the reader I have attached a pic of a Claymore Mine(off Battlefield) so you too can identify these fancy metal objects dotted around the city on your next evening stroll.

How do you want to go?

Last night was a Chaar-Scene. One of my friends father had passed away in the morning and therefore spent the night at his house. Which means I missed LOST (on ART TV). One of my friends said he has the complete season and he’d give it to me. But it’s just not right. Having the entire collection with you doesn’t seem right. That would mean I’ll start watching episode after episode non-stop thereby killing the enthusiasm and that hunger to know what happens next week. True it gives you an easy way out without having to watch all those annoying Ads in the middle, but that’s just me. I’d love to have the collection however as a reference of some sort after I’ve watched the series.

Anyways, getting back to the funeral, the cause of death was Liver failure, some sort of cirrhosis. In other words he’s drunk him self to death, although he’d stopped 6 years ago it had let to many complications. I'm no doc, I'm just putting out what I heard. Anyways it got me thinking “is this the way to go?“

The classic joke would be :

I want to go, just like my grandfather in “silent slumber”, not like his passengers screaming.

Something to think about…