Shakira's Body Anatomy

In an Internet forum, someone once said this about Shakira's that particular part that we, all men, dream about.

"I think the words epic, monumental and holy shit just about sums that particular part of her anatomy up!"

Ha!

And that's one thing my friend Milla can give her a serious competition, where she has a 50-50 chance of winning!

There you go Milla, I did write something about you, at last.

What's with Maalu Paan?

Somebody again searched for maalu paan and ended up here, like before!

But this time from Italy!

Maaaan, what's with maalu paan and these Sri Lankans?

:D

I couldn't come up with a title for this post...

OK Sabby's gone and done it again!

And despite this being a damn busy week, I still had to put up one of my own. How can I not? So I started writing this post like a few hours ago, and only just completed. Probably the longest I took to write one!

By the way, she wants us to answer just Yes/No, but I had to give some explanations. Otherwise people might think... err... you know what I mean...

Here we go.


(1) The Yes/No (and a bit more)

Have you...

Kissed any one of your Facebook friends?
Depends on the type of the kiss. Lip Kiss - NO.

Been arrested?
Very nearly. But yeah, I mean NO I haven't.

Kissed someone you didn't like?
NO! Gee... why would I?
If the question is reversed, hell, it'll be a long list! :P

Slept in until 5 PM?
Hell yeah! A little too often...

Fallen asleep at work/school?
Again, too often.... LOL. So it's a yes.
Btw, add University to that too.

Held a snake?
Yeah. What's the big deal?

Ran a red light?
No. At least not yet.

Been suspended from school?
Thank God, No. I was very good at not getting caught...

Totalled your car/motorbike in an accident?
No. But have been involved in accidents. Twice.

Been fired from a job?
No.

Sang karaoke?
Yes. In Japanese no less! :O

Done something you told yourself you wouldn't?
Maybe once or twice. So... Yes.

Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose?
ROFLMFAO!!! Yes!

Caught a snowflake on your tongue?
YEAH! Very recently. And I've got a photo of doing so too!

Kissed in the rain?
Umm... yeah. Tell you, it's not much enjoyable though...

Sang in the shower?
No not really. I suck so much at singing.

Sat on a rooftop?
What kind of a stupid question is that. But yeah, I have.

Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes on?
Nope.

Broken a bone?
Well, yeah but my finger. Does that count, really?

Shaved your head?
No and will never do. At least until the nature decides to...

Blacked out from drinking?
Sadly, yes.

Played a prank on someone?
Only yesterday I was telling a friend some of what I've done.
So, yeah!
Hey, it's a good idea for a blog post, isn't it.

Felt like killing someone?
Umm... sometimes.
Well, not really NO.

Made your girlfriend/boyfriend cry?
Amazingly, NOT even ONCE!

Had Mexican jumping beans for pets?
WTF? NO!

Been in a band?
No way!

Shot a gun?
Does home-made, jam-fruit firing ones count?

Tripped on mushrooms?
Again, WTF?

Donated Blood?
Once.

Eaten alligator meat?
Umm... can they be eaten?

Eaten cheesecake?
Who hasn't?

Still love someone you shouldn't?
Does Jessica Alba count?

Think about the future?
Have stopped doing it.

Believe in love?
Defa!


(2) The Booklist

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. Although that also means you are an uncivilised git, you will be part of the masses. Less than 6, be ashamed. Read anything above 20 and you are a star.

Instructions:
Look at the list and mark those you have read.

Red = Read it.
Green = Read it, remember it.
Blue = Own it, haven't read yet.
Orange = Reading these days.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (only the first one though)
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Withering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo


Hmm... fourteen... not bad I guess.
:)

Btw, Sabby, that's all...
For one, can't listen to songs now. For two, even if I could, no time anymore!
:D

I nominate...

... this piece, The Legend of Splendid Mendis, written by Damith, to Cerno's Top 100.


Why?
Because a) it's absofuckinglutely hilarious, b) when everybody else is analysing the Carrom ball and wondering how long it'll be before batsmen start to pick him, Damith puts his complete faith on the guy and set out to find the legendary stories surrounding the legend that is Splendid, c) it's so goddamn creative, d) and finally, Damith is my friend and I hope he'll nominate one of my posts too. Well, in fact that is the whole purpose of this, but shhhh... don't tell Cerno that.

Cheers and have a nice day fellas!

Shane Warne Reads My Blog!

Someone, from New Mexico, arrived here Googling "horny cell phone forwards"!!!

Really, Shane?
Have you had enough of Aussie and English chicks? Is that why you're chasing them in New Mexico?

Old habits die hard, don't they?

Just a Thought...

Is it possible to hate the hatred???

Just wondering.

On a completely different note, this morning I saw someone had said on her FB that five weekdays is five days too many.

Ha! That cracked me up!

What kind of a Blogger are you?

You Are a Life Blogger!

Your blog is the story of your life - a living diary. If it happens, you blog it. And you make it as entertaining as possible. You may be guilty of over-sharing a bit on your blog, but you can't help it. Your life is truly an open book. Or in this case, an open blog!

What Kind of Blogger Are You?

My Brain Is...

... male.

Your Brain is 27% Female, 73% Male

You have a total boy brain Logical and detailed, you tend to look at the facts And while your emotions do sway you sometimes... You never like to get feelings too involved

What Gender Is Your Brain?

Phew, that's a relief! Otherwise I would have had to explain myself, like RD is going to...
:D

What's your idea of bravery?

Before I get to the topic, I need to take you off-course for a while and tell you something.

These days I'm reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and I can tell you with my whole heart that it is one one of the best novels I've ever read. Yeah I'm not even finished it - nearly there - but still I can recommend it to anybody. It's that good.

Now let me give you a little bit of background on that before citing a paragraph from it.

The novel is loosely based on the author's observations of her family and neighbors, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was 8 years old. Narrator's father, Atticus Finch, is portrayed as a man with high moral values and a role modal for any human being, simply put. In the story, there is a chapter in which I think that teach all of us a thousand lessons about life and bravery.

In the story, though the children haven't even reached their teens, the father, Atticus, is close to fifty - in other words an old man compared to his children's other friends' fathers. And the children - the boy, Jem and the girl Scout - often wondered why his father is so laid back and not active and adventures as other fathers. He never played any sports, never even raised his voice and had never shot a gun. But later they found out that he was the best shooter in the county in his younger days and that he never missed a shot in his life. But Atticus had given up the gun, seeing it is not worth it.

Later, there is a dying woman in their neighbourhood, Mrs. Dubose, who wasn't really liked by anyone. She was harsh, merciless and simply wasn't a soul to be with. But she was dying. She ways dying of some decease and the doctor had given her morphine so that she wouldn't suffer. But she had gotten addicted to it and couldn't really live without it. But at the end of her time, she wanted to get rid of the habit and die freely. Atticus, knowing this sends his son and daughter to her, to read to her at her bed for a full month. At the end she dies, but not before she successfully got rid of her habit. She dies freely. Children see her having fits but never realized what they were or what she has been doing.

So after her death, Atticus explains everything to the children, what she's been going through and at the end, he gives them - and by that to all of us - a valuable lesson that many of us never understand in our whole lifetimes. This is how it goes:

"I wanted you to see something about her - I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew."

Wasn't that simply brilliant?

Now let's get back to what I was going to say at the beginning. I'm a regular member of a couple of very well knows Sri Lankan Internet Forum and this incident happened on one of them. In a thread, a poster had posted some pictures of the recent bombings by the LTTE - where they killed all those Tamils - to show how brutal the LTTE is. I don't think there is any argument about that. It's a fact we all Sri Lankans pretty much know by experience. But, to drive your point home do you really need to post the unpleasant images of brutally killed innocent civilians of this country? Indeed you don't. This is something I always wondered about. Why almost ALL our newspapers publish the pictures of the dead without a second thought? Imagine the children, parents, siblings or friends of those who died having to see those images? There are so many bad things about Western Journalism, but one thing I respect the most is they don't do this kind of thing. Remember the WTC incident? Despite thousands of people dying, how many dead bodies did you see? None, right?

So, in reply to that thread I said so. That we don't need to post such unpleasant images to drive our point home. It's no better than the politicians using the war and crime to their advantage.

And guess what she did. Yes people, and ladies, this poster was a she. She labelled me as young (by that immature I suppose) and squeamish(by that, that I'm a pussy).

I felt nothing but sympathy for her.

I mean, it's not about being able to look at sick things that makes you a worth human. Of course I can look at those images without having to throw up. I have seen with my own eyes a man with his guts spilled out but didn't have any problem eating that night. But that doesn't mean that I enjoy that kind of sick things. There is no pleasure in seeing them dead, brutally murdered be them innocent civilians, Army personnel or even LTTE.

No, that's not my idea of bravery. For me, it is about having the courage, the will, the heart to do the right thing when everything is at stake....

The Missing Sandwich Found!

People, I hereby declare that I have found The Missing Sandwich. Officially.

She's been living here in Tokyo running a low profile company evading most of you, but not me. Ha!
I found you baby!

What Have I Missed?

It's been more than a damn week that I've been away from the Sri Lankan blogsphere. Gee... been up to a lot of things lately and honestly couldn't find much time even for a post or two.

First, I fucked up my blog.
The irony of it is, it happened because of the very cunning plan I had devised before in order to NOT fuck it up. You see, I have another so called "Test" blog. Being the intelligent lot you are, you must have guessed the purpose of it already. Yes you genius, I used it for testing purposes. Like if I wanted to change the theme, I'd first try it on that blog. So that day, I was trying out a few new themes. If you are a Blogger user, you know that all your blogs are listed one after another on your dashboard. If you aren't, now you know. So, I was trying those new themes on the Test blog as I said above, but absent-mindedly had changed the theme of this one instead. Of course they give warning messages before changing the theme, but really, does anybody out there take those warnings given by a computer seriously? And being the smart-ass I am, I was soooooo sure that I wouldn't ever make such a mistake, had never really bothered to save the theme before. Deservedly, ended up losing everything which was setup so nicely before. Learn from you mistakes they say. Phew. How many mistakes do you have to make before you learn?

Then, before even I had time to correct the things I went to this Snow Festival in a place called Sapporo. So, obviously it was called the Sapporo Snow Festival. You can find some info and photos here, here and here. It was simply AWESOME! There were ice/snow sculptures, some of which were like no less than fifty or sixty feet long and almost the same height. At night, with various colored lights put on, it was a sight to remember! There was also this Carnival sort of thing, where you could slide, roll, fight and pretty much everything else you can do with snow. Well, maybe not everything, but everything you could do in public. It was fun!

And then at night, we were all walking there, enjoying the atmosphere. The place was buzzing with excitement, there were many stalls, gift shops, all kinds of food to try out - simply fun at its max. Then, suddenly I had a crazy idea. OK that's the kinds of ideas I usually get, so nothing unusual there. There were, as I said before, so many gift shops and some of them even offered gift where you could buy them personalized. I wanted to send one to a friend, someone who's been with me all throughout the difficult times in the past, someone who I admire to the every last bit. So I bought the stuff, then postcards as well and looked for a place to write them. Too bad. Almost all the seats under a roof were taken. There were some tables and chairs out in the open, which were covered in pretty much 6-inch thick snow. But I wasn't going to be demoralized by such simple barriers. I managed to clear a part of a table and a chair, sat down and started to write the damn thing in a temperature close to -10 degrees Celsius. The only minor glitch in my plan was that you have to take your hand out of the glove to write, and it takes like only fifteen seconds to make it freeze in that temperature. Somehow I still managed to write it, being the courageous chap I am, though I'm not sure if anybody bar me will be able to read it.

Then came the major glitch.

I put the gifts in the boxes, and the postcards, and then started to write the address. Hey, wait, the address? Yes you smartypants, you need an address to send something unless of course you're God or something. Looking through my wallet, phone and iPod turned out to be useless, and I was left with only one option. Call the someone the gifts are for and ask for the address. Gee... what kind of gift-sending is that? But then again, something is better than nothing, I thought, and did it.

Yes people, I called and asked for the address, and the whole idea of a surprise was wasted. I still wonder why this kind of thing happen to me all the time. Do you guys as well do this kind of things?

Anyway, all in all it was really nice three days spent relaxing out there away from work - if you don't count the pain in the legs caused from walking in 25kg each boots... The down side is now I'm close to 50K Yen and two leaves less. That means, I have only six (yes, 6!) leaves left for the whole year. And still it's only February!
*Sigh*

Then, after that to compensate for the two leaves I took I had to work a bit longer everyday. Getting late to work every morning - as usual, I might add - didn't help either. So all in all was pretty much busy the whole week or so... And losing to India, very very pathetically always hurts too. Then Mahela decided to resign from the captaincy as well. Gee... how am I supposed to find time to blog as well?

So, anyway, slowly I managed to put things back in order - my blog that is, not the problems with Sri Lanka Cricket. And started visiting Kottu a bit too. Seems there has been another tagging stuff going around to find the hottest blogger! And none of you girls thought that I'm hot? Hmph! Wait till you see me. Ha!!! But I saw our good old Jerry in many people's hot list. Congrats mate!

Oh and one more thing. I have forgotten the blogs that I had in my blogroll, so if yours was in it too and not there anymore, please do let me know.

Cheers!

Desperate for Maalu Paan!

Somebody in Japan searched for "maalu paan" and ended up here.

Were you looking for a place to buy maalu paan in Japan? Or were you mearly trying to satisfy your desperation by at least looking at a picture? Whatever it is, I so know what you're going through my friend! Just hang in there buddy... :D


Edit:
Someone else, seeing this post sent me this link which teach you how to make maalu paan. If this someone thought I would make them, wishful thinking that is! Anyhow, I put it here, just in case the guy (or the girl) who searched for maalu paan come here again so he/she can make them the next time.

Brain Teaser

I got this logic puzzle from an e-mail from a friend, and spent hours thinking of an answer. It really made me wanna look for an answer. So thought I'd put it here as well.

Imagine you are in a room with three switches. The lamps (bulbs) corresponding to each of them are inside a nearby room. If you are allowed to enter the room with the lamps only once, given that you can turn on/off the switches as you wish, how would you find which switch turns which lamp on/off?

Note that when you are outside the room with the lamps there is no way you could know if the lamps are on or off, and you are allowed to enter that room only once.

Actually, there is a quite simple and logical answer to this. Who could find it?

Starbucks and Sanga

Oh no no don't worry, he didn't switch to Starbuck also! In fact I wanted to talk about that as well, but let's keep that aside for a moment.

First about Starbucks. I love it! I love it soooo very much. Simply put, I'm a die hard fan. Well OK I wouldn't die if Starbucks goes bankrupt, not that they will ever. But you just get the drift right. When I first came here, I wasn't much of a coffee fan, but I did enjoy the odd coffee. But since I came here tried a lot of coffee, well basically because there are a lot of coffee everywhere I go. And Starbucks is like the undisputed king of them all. It has this amazing flavor to it - well it has many - that makes you feel like addicted to it. There's nothing like enjoying a Starbucks in a cold evening, preferably with a book too.

So this evening I went to see a friend and was on my way back home. There is a Starbucks nearby, so naturally I had to go there. Now, there are a couple of flavors I enjoy a lot, that I buy a lot. But today I felt like trying something else just for the sake of it. So I looked at the menu card and decided on one, just by looking at. Why I said by looking at, because all the menus are in Japanese, and it takes me approximately one and a half hours to read a menu card. Instead I went for the other option and ordered one by looking at it trusting my intuition. Paid the bill and went to collect the coffee.

And the goddamn coffee turned out to be an ICE COFFEE!!!

Laughing at my intuition, I drank the goddamn thing outside the shop - all the seats inside were taken - in a weather with the temperature close to zero degrees.

Now about Sanga.

I'm sick of people bitching about him turning to AirTel. Or rather, about him advertising AirTel. I mean what the fuck? For fucks sake he's just making some bucks. It's not like he's going door to door and asking people to switch to AirTel is it? In the past few days I got like hundred emails bitching about him switching to it from Hutch. There's no rule saying he can just represent only one company for his whole life. He's making some money while he can and there's nothing wrong with that. How many others, in fact, have represented more than one brand? Why all the fuss now?

I know there are a lot of people in the Sri Lankan blogsphere that related to advertising field.

What do you guys think?