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Showing posts from 2013

9 Facebook habits that annoy the fish out of me

But who am I to judge how other should behave on facebook. 1. Duplicate facebook accounts, and adding me from both. 2. Everybody knows that game request annoy us. So does invitations for facebook pages. 3. Asking to like their photos. I mean get real. How pathetic is that. 4. Tagging on images that are not photos. And doing it a lot. 5. Asking to like photos for charity so that facebook will pay for them. Rubbish. 6. Changing your name to some rubbish is so freaking ridiculous. On top of that having a picture of a cat as the profile pic. Anooying. 7. Adding me to looong, irrelevant chat conversations and filling my inbox. 8. Sending friend requests without profile pictures. 9. Telling others how to behave on facebook. :P I mean, seriously.

Living with Pain by Venerable Visuddacara

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by Venerable Visuddhacara "Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart to conquer it." - Tagore Pain is a fact of life and the sooner we learn to live with the better. It has often been said that Buddhism is a pessimistic religion because it harps on the fact of suffering. It has also been pointed out that Buddhism is not pessimistic but realistic. Refusing to acknowledge pain in our lives does not make the pain go away. Like it or not, all of us have to succumb to old age, disease and death, that is if our life is not suddenly cut off at an early age. It has also been said that Buddhism is in fact optimistic in that Buddha precribes a way out of the vicious cycle of birth and death and suffering. So there is hope for all of us. We need not despair. We can work towards liberation. Buddhism is actually a teaching of liberation. It harps on suffering only because it has to wake us up from out pathetic ignorance of the unsatisfa

Meditation and Bipolar

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As I see it, meditation creates an equilibrium in our mind. Our mind is on a rapid flux. It fluctuates from moods such as anger, depression to bright happiness that prevents us from seeing what's happening around us. Due to these moods we take wrong decisions, make mis-judgements. In Anapanasati (breathing) meditation, we focus our mind on the breath gradually. First we start by experiences the sensory inputs (what we see, feel, hear, thoughts, perceptions, feelings) as they are. We are aware of what's happening around us. Then we focus on our breath, gradually creating an equilibrium. The more we are exposed to this equilibrium, we develop a mind that leans towards the equilibrium. It stays there even after we get up from the cushion. Thats the difference with meditation. It creates a permanent effect, unlike meth, although makes you "happy", leaves you with cruel side-effects. Whatever the biological factors that cause bipolar disorder, our mind also pla

Thumbs Down - Kandy Railway Station

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Fort-Kandy railway journey is a must to have. I have had the exotic opportunity to experience the joyous journey yesterday. Unfortunately, I won't be talking about that today. The bad impression made by the Sri Lankan railway rose upon the joy of the train ride. The station itself was so messy. It looked as if they have done nothing to improve it after the departure of the British rulers who established the Sri Lankan railway. Station was dilapidated and messy. It was not clean. The newly imported coaches shone brightly in the unmended platform. It took such a long time for me to figure out the train schedule. Station had several boards displaying the train schedule. I did not know which one was updated and which one was accurate. Someone was seen dialing down the clocks in the blackboard by hand. How modern that it? Even that was messy. It was quite hard to figure out the times, whether the train or express or fast? etc. I was in queue waiting to get a 4 PM train ticke

Buddhist Approach to Stubbornness in Children

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By Venerable Panyananda Bhikkhu from his book Love Your Children The Right Way  DEAR PARENTS, Please listen to me again about this important matter. Several days ago, a lady came to see me at the temple. She said she had only one son but he was trouble for her. I asked her how. She told me that her son was very stubborn. He did not listen to her at all and always acted as he pleased. Any time she disagreed with him there would be big trouble. When he became angry he would break things, which were close to him at the time. I listened and could not help feel pity on her and on that boy as well. Mothers always have problems with stubborn children. If the children cannot be cured, the stubbornness will become a bad habit. When they grow up they may become hotheaded and cruel. I knew another boy. When he was young he would always be angry at something. When he became angry he would hit his head against the wall every time. The parents had to help each other hold him and talk to

Life after death?

If one day I realize that there is no life after death, I would commit suicide instantly. I am not depressed. I experience a fare share of depressive moments as everybody else. I experience extremely joyous moments as well. I am loved. I have people around me to love. But its still more filled with trying, troubles, pain, monotony, expectations, grief, separation. I undergo all those negative feelings to achieve those limited periods of joyous moments. A hot cup of tea is refreshingly delicious. But the feeling doesn't last for a long. We get bored. We might not have money to buy another cup. We buy an SUV, only to find that there is a better car in the market. We are always worried about the safety of the car. The bliss of sex last for a very short time. There are so many luxuries in the world that we cannot afford. We have all the luxuries but we are  still jealous of others. By committing suicide I can avoid all those. If there is no life after death, people will be forced/in

"No Ironing" Policy

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If the world, specially companies can adopt a "No ironing required" policy for their employees, it would be humongously beneficial. In several ways. First it would be earth friendly, thus making companies more ;), i mean genuinely sustainable. Ironing requires a hell of a lot of energy. My meter goes crazy when ironing. Ironing eats up time as well, reducing the efficiency of the employees, getting them late to come to work. No-ironing policy saves money by cutting of the electricity bill. (which is a hot issue for Sri Lankan middle-class these days). Ironing destroys fabrics sooner. The heat speeds up the decay. Ironed shirts becomes thinner and it washes out the color. Ironing is utterly useless. Ironed shirt doesn't make employees efficient or effective. It does not have any effect on the quality of the work. Its just for the show. I mean who are we kidding right? Gosh, some people even iron their underpants and wests. Nonsense. If you are wearing a coa

Aurudu Festival of the Mango Shades's Children

I had the opportunity to attend the annual Sinhala/Tamil New Year festival of my not three year old nephew's day care center. The daycare, which also runs a preschool as it's main business is the oldest and the most-heard place for the little children to get themselves ready for to step into the depressive, torturous school life where they are expected to survive the competition that promises them a high-paid government job. As the preschool was located in a small, confined area, the festival was held in the ground situated in the heart of the city. Nearing the ground, I heard the sounds of loud speakers announcing the games and the events. Bright colored vertical flags decorated the sides of the road that leads to the ground. The ground had six or seven canopies dedicated to the parents of the respective section (Baby Class, Upper, Lower etc. ). The purple canopy was reserved for the special guests. I found the nephew's grandmother (or thamma in his own words), who also

Boy-cott Sirasa News First

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DONT WATCH Sirasa News First has become a very unprofessional, biased channel. So ironical that they ask the viewer to decide what they report. Sirasa has already decided what viewers should decide. News is heavy with propaganda. Shameless media behaviour.   Only alternative at this point is Ada Derana. 

ඇමතිතුමෙක් සිය පුත්‍රයාගේ ගුරුවරියට ලියූ ලිපියක්

ඇමතිතුමෙක් සිය පුත්‍රයාගේ ගුරුවරියට ලියූ ලිපියක් දයාබර ගුරුතුමිය වෙත, ලොව සියලු දෙනාම රජ වන්නේ යහපත් රාජ්‍ය පාලකයන් යටතේය, නුවණින් ඒ පාලකයන් සවිමත් කිරීම අදියුම් දෙන්නන්ගේ ශක්තියෙන් බව ලොවම දන්නා කරුණකි. එබැවින් යහපත් රාජ්‍ය පාලකයෙක් වන්නට සිටින මාගේ පුත්‍රයාට මේ තතු කියාදීම ඔබ සතු යුතුකමක් මෙන්ම එය ඔබට මතක් කිරීම මා සතු වගකීමකි. කුඩාකල පටන් රිදී හැන්ද මුවේ තබා පැමිණි රජ පැටියන්ට මහපොලවේ කර්කශ්ඨක බව උරුම නැති බව මාගේ පුත්‍රයාට කියාදෙන්න. අතට පයට දැසි දස්සන් ගෙදර සිට මිදුලට යාමටත් යාන වාහන ලැබෙන්නේ පෙර පිනෙන් සහ සිය පියාගේ මානව දයාව හා කැපවීම නිසාවෙන් බව ඔහුට කියා දෙන්න. කිසි විටක සාමාන්‍ය පන්තියේ මිතුරන් ආශ්‍රය නොකිරීමටත් හැකිතරම් ව්‍යාපාරික පන්තියේ හෝ රාජ්‍ය තාන්ත්‍රික මට්ටමේ නැතිනම් නමගිය අපරාධකාරයන් මට්ටමේ මිතුරන් පමණක් ආශ්‍රය කිරීමට ඔහුට මග පෙන්වන්න, එය අදටත් වඩා හෙටට ඔහුට මහා ශක්තියක් සහ පසුපසින් පැමිණෙන් බලමුළුවක් වනවා නියතය. මේ ආසනය ඔහුගේ දේපල බවත් මේ දිස්ත්‍රික්කය ඔහුගේ ඉලක්කය බවත් ඔහුට පෙන්වා දෙන්න, දේපල මතින් ඉල්ලක්ක වෙතට පිය මනින්නට ඉදිරියට එන කිසිඳු බාධකයකට එම ගමන
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I did not want these red lines. They are not really lines. They are spaces between the divs. Red is the color I set for the container div inside which other divs rest.  Unwanted spaces between the div tages totally confused me. They appeared on every browser. Made me think that I know nothing about HTML/CSS. Made me feel like an incompetant loser. I was frightened. Disillusioned. Frustrated. nuff said.  paragraph tag is the culprit.  Put this awesome little code in your CSS.  p { padding: 0; margin-top: 0; margin-right: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0; } TADA. Spooky spaces gone. 

Be a scientist at no cost :)

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I always wanted to be a scientist. Not in a particular field though. Like Gerald Durrel, I'm so curious about the animal biology. Same is true for plant life as well. I wanted to dissect dead animals living plants etc. I wanted to own a microscope so that I can see what the human eye cannot see. I wished if I had a expensive powerful telescope to see the space fileld with stars, planets and other unsolved mysteries. I played in my dad's chemistry lab using test-tube concoting various chemicals. Once I dipped a piece of Sodium in a tub of water and it exploded. It was so fun, but my father still had no clue. I realize that I dont really need those expensive tools to become a scientist. I have my own science lab. I have a mind that is unexplored, unwatched, unobserved. A mind that is full of potential. Mind is the least understood entity of human existence. Some believe that our brain is involved in thinking. But the story of the Oxford graduate with literally no brain, con

Why am I writing?

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My blog is 1. A pompous egoistic need to have a my presence on the world wide web. Most of the time I end up feeling disappointed by my awkward writing style. Still insecure about English grammar. It also sound very stupid when I read my past posts. Please don't read them. I did not write any of  them (according to quantum physics and Buddhist doctrine of Anicca).  2. Provides a timeline of my interests. 3. To have fans, follwers aka. to be famous. (I dont really care now)  4. To improve writing. You would see if you read my former posts. 5. To make political, social, religious criticism in the form of hints/remarks. 6. Shows that even though sometimes I'm so sure of what I say, that I can be wrong.  7. Joblessness and boredom. 

Love is not liking somebody.

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Quote taken from : www.goodreads.com

Windows XP bug that I love

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Pretty sure, Im not the only one who does this. When you make a square (to select the desktop icons) with yout mouse and press the menu-down button  (usually next to the windows key or Ctrl) before releasing the mouse-click the square imprints on the screen. :) Repeat the same and draw pics like the above, if you are jobless. The magic button You can draw on the Windows XP desktop.