On Life, Death and the bits in between

It's been a while and, by Mahinda, things have changed! I'm one of the many who share the feelings of optimism and hope for the Motherland. The one thing I never dreamed was that the downfall of the regime would be democracy itself. A coup, an assassination or an invasion seemed far more probable to me, which is kind of sad but true.

Truth be told this post by Cerno inspired me to put finger to keyboard. I know I don't really have any readers anymore but what the hell I figured, let's think of something to write.

And then bang, it hit me, like a bat out of Belgium; an event, well a couple of events, that make me a bit teary to think of even now and I thought I'd tell you about them.

So my Dad has been in hospital lately, In terms of being alive, Cancer and all, it's fair to say he's hanging in there. I think it would be inaccurate to portray him as one of those stoic fighting chaps, the sort you see in films and on TV, but he's still with us.

And he's been in hospital for the last week or so, due out either today or tomorrow. There I was visiting him a few days ago, he's in a chest ward and there's an old Irish chap called John in the bed next to him. Over the last week we've got to know the wife and family of John, as one does in this type of scenario.

As I arrived in the ward the curtains were drawn around John's bed and there were lots of goings on; Doctors, Nurses and family. There was a bit of a hush in the ward also, the kind of atmosphere that you feel and know isn't good. It was weird, knowing something was happening yet talking to my Dad in relatively normal everyday how are you type tones.

But, as I was talking to Dad I heard a voice from John's curtained off section and realised it was a Priest giving him the Last Rites, something I'd only ever heard on Father Ted before, yet I recognised instantly. I felt sad for John and his family and sad at the lack of dignity for what I assumed would follow in a few minutes; the curtain being drawn back and the removal of his body.

I was right. Some minutes later the curtain was drawn back. I glanced casually, trying to be unobtrusive, only to see smiles and laughter all round. Something was clearly not wrong.

John was lying there not dead. By "not dead" I mean he was alive. Totally. He was smiling, laughing, chatting, snoozing and doing all the things that the other dwarves do. His wife turned to me and said rather happily that they thought they were losing him, that he'd given them a "bit of a scare" but something had changed and all was fine and dandy. I was so moved I even touched her arm in that sympathetic happy for you very British way. Evidently it had been a very close shave.

I carried on with talking about things with the Old Man, then left, as one does, feeling somewhat joyous and happy.

As I walked to the lift a young couple did the same. The husband (I assumed he was the husband but for all I know they might have been unmarried, that kind of thing is common here) was carrying a brand spanking new born baby in one of those car seat things.

I said some nice words and they both told me that the little boy was one day old and they were taking him home for the first time. It took me back to when my Girls were born, the hopes I had, the feelings of joy and responsibility, of promise and all those indescribable emotions that only parents can relate to.

Rather more poignantly it also made me think of John, of hospitals and the Circle of Life, which of course brings up thoughts of The Lion King.

One minute I'm witnessing an old chap almost finishing his life, with his grown up children, his wife and his grandchildren there, the next I see a one day old baby going home for the first time. Who knows what that child might achieve in his life, what will happen to him, what he'll make happen?

Big stuff I reckon.

Still Here Cerno!

Thanks for remembering me Cerno. And I am still around, just resting. I even started to write a post yesterday, my first one in months, then abandoned it as I froze. Not literally of course. Well it was literally, in that it pertains to writing, but not literally in a hot vs cold sort of way.

I miss the old Sri Lankan blogging days too, the blogs of interest, written with wit, sarcasm, intelligence and drugs (hello Java!). But times change and blogs seems to be left for the conscientiously dedicated sorts, the specialists and the professionals like Indi.

Lots of things have been going on in the RD life since we last met. A, the eldest daughter, is about to begin University in Sept and is just about to finish her gap year. K is halfway through her A levels and currently on "holiday" in Malia, that place where The Inbetweeners film was set. If I remember correctly they were probably about ten and twelve when you first encountered them.

The post divorce father's life is one of continual surprise and evolution and I think it's reached a certain level of balance. The hardest thing for me is not being involved in day to day events and happenings in the girls' lives. As teenagers they of course don't do conversations unless they're by text or messaging on their devices with friends, so I don't get to 'soak up' that knowledge about them that I probably would if we lived together. But it's my bed I know, so I'm just telling you how it is.

Today is the thirtieth anniversary of Black Monday and it's fitting to write some words. Groundviews has published a special feature which is almost compulsory reading.

My relationship with the Motherland continues to evolve. Love, hate and everything in between those two extremes continue to feature heavily in that relationship. Above all I remain glad that Sri Lanka is such a big part of my life.

Oh I finally had that tattoo done as well. Here it is:

With apologies if I put you off your lunch!

 

Posted with Blogsy

An Old Fashioned Blog Post

The Old Boy Cerno sent me a Tweet yesterday, well a message thing on Twitter at least. It linked to the first page of a blog and the page had some words that made me think:

"I blog because it’s as old fashioned and romantic as writing letters and using a typewriter and I hope I can chronicle my writing journey and tell you all about it, if you choose to listen"

Well for fuck's sake I ask you. Or tell you. Is that how the kids see blogging these days? As old fashioned and romantic?

I still like the idea of churning out a post every now and again, I still want to regale you with boring stories about everyday happenings in my life, tales of A and K, of C and moi. 

So I should. 

But coming back after an absence is harder than I'd imagined. It's cold, it's wintery and it's Christmassy here in London. We've got decorations up in every high street, Father Christmas' in every other shop and THAT Coca Cola ad on TV every few minutes. It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas and I like it. 

And The Auf is back blogging too, though he's made up some new name. It sounds a bit weird. Someone called "Riza". Ha ha, how mad is that?

Yours sincerely

RD

So RD, Are You Still Blogging?

I visited some old friends the other day. I don't mean that they're very old in terms of age, just that I've known them for a long time, like probably longer than you are old.

We chatted about all things Sri Lankan, about the fact that the things that are generally good for the country; hotel prices rising, cost of living going up (debatable), more tourists everywhere etc, are not necessarily good for the individual, yet that is progress. At least it is according to most people.

And then J said to me "Are you still blogging?", which was a major surprise of a question.

Why, I hear you ask. Well firstly because I was totally unaware that J knew about my blog. My memory can be weird, so frankly I can't be sure when or if I'd ever told J about it, but at that point I'd hadn't realised she knew. So, and sorry if I'm rambling incoherently here, she had been happily sitting in the venn diagram circle containing people who are unaware of my blog until asking the question.

But, you know me. I'm used to reacting quickly, like a bloke with a super agile and highly trained what's it called. Brain, that's it. And within minutes, a mere thirty or so, I'd regained my composure and looked calm and collected, albeit in a not being able to think of an answer sort of way.

Then I realised that I had to think of my answer.

"Are you still blogging?" The question echoed around my head. Had it been flung at me a few months, perhaps even weeks ago, my answer would have been an emphatic and resounding yes. But these days I'm just not sure.

The Lankanosphere has changed and morphed into a very different beast to the one it was a few years ago. The new Kottu is great, I really like what Indi and his team of Neeks have done to it, but the blogs, apart from the old favourites like LD and Cerno, just don't interest me. I'm not making judgements or criticising, it's just that not many of them grab my attention. Are they good blogs? Largely yes, they are, just not for me.

And most people these days would rather whack out a little Tweet or put something up on Facebook than take the time to write out a nicely thought out blog post, one with proper words and sentences.

But I quite like the thought of being one of the last men standing. Blogging seems to have shifted its position in the cyberworld, from something that everyone was doing because, well, because everyone was doing it, to something that is now only done by the specialists and real enthusiasts.

My answer to the question?

Yes, I'm still blogging.

I just need to think about some things to write about now.

Lately In The Political Lankanosphere....

If all has gone according to plan you'll be able to look at my mindmap above and see the structure of this post. It might be on the left though, I haven't decided yet.

It's a complicated mindmap, there are links, lines and bubbles all over the shop and even I, who sometimes can read my own handwriting, find it hard to get to grips with.

The crux of the matter is that the Lankanosphere has suddenly launched itself into a round of politics and political posts, the likes of which we haven't seen for some time.

To quote Jack Point

"After a very long sojourn, politics seems to have returned to the local blogosphere. What is more interesting is that it has sparked some reasonable debate, something that has been missing for a long time. "

Where and when did it all start? My thoughts are that a lot of it was catalysed by both The Killing Fields and Sangakkara's Cowdrey lecture. I'm uncertain how things began in the Sri Lankan blogosphere, but certainly the first post that caught my attention, very probably yours, was this one, by Indi. Entitled "The War Is Over. Tell Your Friends" it created lots of feeling.

The main theme of it can be summed up in this quote:

"For a long time Sri Lanka was defined only within the war frame. Indeed, many local people/publications (like Groundviews) have trouble adjusting to a post-war mindset. They’re still all war all the time while the average Sri Lankan is like, ‘breakfast?’"

Indi then tried to prove his theory with some of those word cloud things, showing the most commonly used words on some websites, including Groundviews. A bit of a bitch fight between Indi and Sanjana threatened to break out but nothing came of it really. Disappointing. I'd quite like to see a proper physical fight break out. In fight between the two of them they're both so lacking in the Chuck Norris / James Bond / Sly Stallone stakes that I suspect they'd both lose. David Blacker would probably win without being in it or even being near the scene.

And lots of people, including me, took a different view to Indi. Some commented on Indi's blog, some wrote posts.

I wrote this little one and it generated a bit of discussion too. It seemed to annoy a lot of intelligent people, which wasn't my intention. DD threw all his toys out of his pram and left me staring at my monitor in disbelief with some of the things he said. I put it down to the fact that he must have had a particularly busy week dreaming about killing muggers. Muggers that is, who sound like Dick van Dyke trying to do cockney.

"Cor blimey guv'nor, I'm a cockney don't you know, now hand over yer frickin' wallet. I've got a chimney to sweep."

I do get frustrated when I see the diaspora being tarred with one brush, as I tried to explain in this later post. One of the ironies is that I was criticised for tarring people with one brush with what I said.

Then, with my apologies if I haven't got the chronology totally accurate, we had the great Indi vs Guru debate on Al Jazeera. It was a bit of a let down when Indi's connection got lost for an important chunk of the segment, but it was interesting. Many thought that, in the win / lose context it was billed, Guru emerged as the clear winner. I agree, yet feel disappointed that it had to be billed and presented in that context. Indi has said on too many platforms to link to that he was trying to reframe the context of the debate rather than engage in it.

A couple of now rare yet much welcomed voices entered the arena. First we had Electra, showing us that she's still around and lurking with intent. This post was a very specific response to Indi as well. When I first read it I thought that Electra has said some similar things to my thoughts, just with bags full of intelligence, eloquence and detailed knowledge that I don't possess. Sometimes I wish I wasn't so simple.

I smiled to myself at the fact that a load of comments have appeared on Electra's post advertising cheap made in China sportswear sites.

And Cerno chipped in his two cent's worth too. He says:

"All those clever arguments seem far removed in the un air-conditioned reality live by most Sri Lankans (I’m only partially air conditioned). The war and its political fault lines (both current and historical) seems far away from the grinding business of life."

Which I suppose is one of the key points that many people are trying to say; that while some go on about sanctions, inquiries, international bodies and punishment, many in Sri Lanka are trying to deal with some very harsh realities of daily life.

I know only too well about these day to day trials and tribulations. I was looking at the price of Dominic Sansoni's new bags in Barefoot only the other day and thinking that there must be a small percentage of the population who can't even afford basics like these.

There's an element to Cerno's post that I don't understand; it;s the bit when he talks about the irrelevance to the Sri Lankan blogsphere. I'm unsure if Cerno is saying that the Lankanosphere is pissing in the wind by talking politics or that us bloggers aren't interested in SL politics. If it's the former, then I see it differently, but I'll come to that at the end. If Alanis Morissette writes another song, perhaps calling it "Ironic two" she should bung this line in it:

"That Cerno, ooh ooh,

Could have the time ooh ooh,

to write a blog post, ooh ooh,

saying that he envies those who ooh ooh,

find the time to blog (big drum fill here)"

Jack Point, the most serious court jester to ever exist, put out this post which told us his thoughts on things. He was one of the many who reminded us of the evil, terror and despicable actions of the LTTE. For what it's worth I reckon these actions should be remembered by all, to help put things in perspective.

Groundviews published a bit of a round up of the state of play at the time, specifically on the "Sri Lankan identity and race relations" theme that has run consistently while everything else has been going on.

Meanwhile over on the all comments are closed blog owned by Rajiva Wijesinha, the man who makes my accent sound heavily Sri Lankan, things are carrying on as normal. His approach, of attempting to shatter the credibility into a zillion pieces of anyone or any institution that deigns to criticise the GoSL, continues.

Finally, let me tell you my current concluding thoughts. These are subject to change without notice.

Yes, the war is over. No, the memories and consequences of it are not and they need to be dealt with.

Talk, when constructive and positive, is good and needed. Someone told me the other day that my opinion, me saying things, won't change anything. I agree. But someone, somewhere will be the person with the millionth or billionth opinion, blog, comment or statement that just might break the camel's back and cause change.

Apologies for the long post, the jewellery shop's worth of links and the crazy jumble of fonts and quotes. One of these days I really must change over to Wordpress!

RD

I'll Show You Mine....

If you show me yours.

According to the Right Honourable Cerno we all have to put up our first blog post. If he says we have to do it, then that's what we do.

And a happy fourth blogoversary to the esteemed man.

So, here's mine.

Fuck me, I'm nearly five.

Come on then, let's see yours.

"Give me time - and we'll see what comes of this."

Lately In The Lankanosphere

Yes, it's back. It's been a long time since the last "lately" post in these parts, mostly because there just hasn't been much in the Lankan blogosphere that's caught my reading eye. Most of my regular reads have gone quiet or now prefer to splash out quick 140 character tweets or Facebook status updates, usually saying how much they hate Facebook's latest look, instead of sitting down and putting the effort in to write sntces + wrds tht arnt abbrvted.

Many of these former bloggers are so outrightly selfish that they concentrate on their own lives, never thinking about the enjoyment of us, their readers. And Kottu has morphed into more of an aggregator than it ever used to be. Say what you like about fixing the most read lists but there used to be a sense of interaction and community on Kottu that's no longer there. It's become like a band that have split up but get back together now and again to do a tour just for the money.

And then this week there was a shift in the Earth's vibrations, a sneeze in the Lankanosphere and my interest was captured.

First Java Jones whacked one out. Then he wrote a post. There are many blogging youngsters who are unaware of the legend that is Java Jones, of his widespread influence among many of us, not to mention that he's a cat only matched in coolness by TC. Or Huggy Bear, but he's not a cat. As a young up and coming blogger all those years ago I'd read Java's posts and wish I could write with his fluidity and sheer fucking sense of craziness. They tell me that copious amount of drug taking helps with this.

These days JJ has semi retired and spends most of his time living in the hill country. He blogs only occasionally and spends the majority of his time practicing the vuvuzela. He's one of only a handful of professional vuvuzela players in the world and is a first call session player for most of the world's top gigs. He'll deny it though, he's humble and bashful like that. You thought it was a saxaphone at the beginning of Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street didn't you? Well it's not, it's JJ, doing his vuvuzela thing.

His post is only a brief one, on his thoughts on the Wikileaks cable saga, but worth its weight in gold and it got my attention immediately. I urge you to check it out and comment demanding that he writes more.

Then Dramaqueen, usually as elusive as a huge big invisible and soundless monster who's decided to have a game of hide and seek, decided to spurt out not just one, but four posts, all in one day. Somewhere in there lurks a joke about four poster beds. I wish I was wittier, as you do probably. About me I mean, not about you. You probably think you're quite funny as it is.

The thing about DQ is that she's funny, in a slightly animal loving and sensitive way. I can imagine that an evening with her, involving drinking games and farting would be incredibly good fun, until the point that an innocent fellow cracked a joke about killing cats or breeding Christmas trees for commercial reasons. Then all hell would break loose and the farting would stop.

Grab yourself a few minutes and read her posts, my favourite is this one, the story of her first full body massage. (insert smutty joke here......) Any girl who can write about farting gets my vote every time.

DD also came out with a quickie. His blog isn't one I find easy on the eye, what with its various adverts blaring out at full volume all the time, but I'm always keen to read his perusings. The latest one is entitled the £600 haircut and it's about, well a £600 haircut. At first glance I saw the opening picture of him and assumed that he was showing us the "before the haircut" situation.

"Not a problem" I thought, a decent hairdresser should be able to tidy up that mess and do great things with it. I read on and, without giving too much away, I'll only say that I hope DD got a receipt!

Also catching the RD eye lately has been this new blog called I am. I've mentioned it before but it deserves another shout. It's an eye and earcatching combination of images and narrative, all about Sri Lanka's regional identities, told through the eyes of some highly thought provoking characters.

Dominic Sansoni himself told me the other day that it's much, much harder than it appears to put images and sound together and come up with something so special. I noticed that he was talking to his mouth was actually making the movements for the word before the one I was hearing. So it must be true then. Check it out and see for yourself.

Groundviews has gone to the shops and got itself a sexy new look for the festive season. I must admit that I can't figure out if the logo is new or if it's always been there, but I wonder if Sanjana, at the merest hint of a rights violation, rushes into a phone box, does a spin and emerges with a T shirt with the GV logo on, some extra fast slippers and his pants on the outside. Actually, as I think on it I realise that's how he was dressed last time I met him anyway. Presumably he must have been rushing to an emergency.

This post by Michael Meyler tells us Suddhas about the word "goday". I just wish I was able to pronounce it correctly without you guys looking puzzled and then laughing at me once you realise what I'm attempting to say. The esteemed Mr Meyler tells us that the nearest word to "goday" in contemporary English s the word "naff".

With the utmost respect to him I disagree. I reckon it's "chav" or "chavvy". Just ask the Auf, he'll back me on this. And talking of the Auf I've heard it on good authority that there may be a little bit of Auf love in the air. I won't tell you who's involved but let's just say that myself and Pseudorandom are currently busily writing our speeches.

The Indi.ca channel has been particularly busy of late. He points out in this post that the noughties is almost over. The fact had escaped me until I read it. Bloody hell, that's another decade gone. In my life it's fair to say that it was a pretty big one, how was it for you?

Rajaratarala, him with all the As, published this post, all about eggs, chickens and the possibility of them being imported for the festive season. Clearly it's a chicken egg situation. That's all I have to say on the matter.

That's pretty much it for now. If you want more you know where to look. It's ever so slightly awash with posts on how to make your blog look like a Christmas tree, film reviews or out of focus pictures taken on someone's mobile of Murali dancing at a party but, once you filter through all of that stuff, there are some gems to be found.

As they say in France, this isn't goodbye, just bonjour.

RD

Three Wicked Things

They're different, but here are three random phrases that I've read in recent weeks that have stuck with me.

"Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity." - Charles Mingus.

"It's sort of like the fort railway station suddenly becoming an exclusive members only club." - Cerno

"You wouldn't know subtlety if it punched you in the face." - Someone on Twitter who I can't recall.

Words can be very beautiful, particularly if they're put in the right order.

Lately Auf Das Lankanosphere...

Ja, fur zis veek ve vill in another language talk. And ze language is Cherman. Das idea vas gut ja?

Except for the fact that my German has now been exhausted. By that, I don't mean that I have a cute German girl under my desk who's now totally knackered. No, I mean I've run out of German phrases, words and umlauts and things. It's probably because I failed my German 'O' level all those years ago and, on top of that, I don't know if the Lankanosphere's male or female.

The past weeks in the Kottu world have been a hive of all sorts of activity and have certainly made for interesting reading. Even as I start this has the smell of a long post. I'd suggest that you grab yourself a cup of something, sit down, get comfortable and prepare for a longish read. Like a good asian family it's all relative and it's not a long read compared to one of Bill Shakespeare's shortest works or the average length of a Sittingnut comment.

The first thing is that the sad passing of Mohan Ariyaratne has caused many bloggers to tell of their feelings and thoughts, whether happy, sad or both. I didn't know him well, to me he was the chap at Barefoot who looked after many things, music in particular.

I don't think he knew my name but he'd always acknowledge me and we'd have a little chat, often about music. I once gave him a CD of my band with me drumming and, to my surprise, he put it on at Barefoot. It made me smile like a cheshire cat to get played there and I'd like to thank him for that.

Indi's post has got a really atmospheric and poignant picture, Dom's post is a beautifully crafted black and white portrait as only he can make with a poem to accompany and Electra's post is written in her uniquely thought provoking style. Java gives us all a bit of background and history in his particularly esoteric way.

It's been a couple of weeks but there was the perplexing story of the Lankan blogger who went and got himself arrested. Perplexing because things were hazy, facts were unclear and simply that perplexing is a word I haven't used for a while. It's unclear who the chap was, though a name has been bandied about, and exactly why and what charges have been brought, if any.

Indi tell us about it here and Aladdin, the slippered Lothario gives us some more detail here. As a blogger I find it a bit worrying, though any arrest on my person is more likely to be from the fashion Police (metrosexual division) than from a political squad.

Rajaratarala, yes him with all the As in his name, has decided to go into acting. Word has it that he's been seen busily auditioning for the latest Gillette commercial, involving a sarong clad sword wielding fiend and lots of shaving gel. He tells us a bit more about it on his captivating blog. It seems he also ran over a bloke in a garage, then pretended the chap was working under his vehicle without the aid of a jack.

Life in Taprobane is the name of the blog, Serendib Isle is the name of the blogger and Lebanon is the name of the Country, though not the Serendib one. Our S Isle has been perving travelling across Lebanon, telling us about his observations and ruminations and falling in love left, right and centre. The posts are good reading and made me want to see the place. Check them out. As an aside I wonder what they call lesbians in Lebanon.

Cerno kicked out two little nuggets that couldn't be more different yet share one thing; brilliance. Firstly we have this one about domestic bliss at home with the Cernos. It made all of us go all gushy and gooey and I even heard a rumour that it had prompted David Blacker to rush out and watch a batch of romantic comedies while eating a large bar of Swiss chocolate.

Secondly is his post on the People's republic of Dehiwala. I think he may have put the apostrophe in the wrong place but, other than that, it's an example of comedic and satirical writing at its best. I think, in reality I don't know what satirical means. As Obama would say, check it. The scariest place in the world must be inside Cerno's head. Well, after Belgium of course.

That girl, the Drama Queen, is back. If I tell you that this post mentions porn, fellatio, a Sri Lankan mother, Hi!! magazine and lines like "because only hookers dress like mums and go to Galle Face Green" I think you'll be interested. You'll laugh and laugh like a demented hyena in an interview for a million pounds a year job at the canned laughter factory. Which is to say, rather a lot. And Dinidu, Fellatio's not a Shakespearean character either. Or an Italian midfielder.

Our Gyppo has been on form lately too. This gem about her thoughts on the war, her attempts to understand and make sense of it certainly hit a home run with me, probably with many others too. Like I said in a comment I left, if more people displayed honesty like this instead of claiming to know all the answers the world would be a better place.

JapSach's gone underground, we know not why, we know not for how long nor how deep. But does anyone else ever has the strange thing happen when you read his blog? It's a thing where my internet browser keeps opening tabs for his blog. I have to do all sorts of task management things to get out of it and it only ever happens on his blog, though not all the time.

Talking of going underground, where on Earth is Kalusudda? The last we heard was July 1st when he published this post. Since then there's been nothing, no comments, no posts and no sightings. Give us a shout out KS, I for one hope you're okay and roaming around in your academic way.

To round off let's just mention the surplus of blogoversaries that has been doing the rounds. Everywhere I turn, every blog I read, every breath you take, I'll be... oops, sorry I went all Sting for a moment there. What I meant to say was that there are blogoversaries galore at the moment.

Gutterflower has passed the two year point. We like her.

Drama Queen's previously mentioned post, which I'll previously mention again, was her one hundredth, so congrats and all. She wins a night out with her Mother for that.

Then that hard hitting, courageous and ground breaking blog, the one that's helped formulate so many people's opinions and has tackled many key issues hit a nice clean one thousand posts. It's quite an achievement indeed.

Did I mention Groundviews?

That hit its thousandth post too. Nice one.

Well I'll be off then.

A merry weekend to you all. I'm going to see Muse tonight avec A and K. Can't wait.

RD

Lately In The Lankanosphere....

There are times when I read the Lankan blogs and think that there's a desperate need for a "lately" purely because of a huge volume of posts that I find highly stimulating or interesting.

Frankly this isn't one of those times. All of you see me after class. There has however, been some good sparkly stuff floating around, bits and pieces from the expected bloggers and quirky stuff from the less expected, perhaps the ones that I usually don't read. Here are some of the best bits.

Darwin, who has become a bit of a Godmother of the Lankanosphere, by hovering away in the background, not posting that often and then writing gems when she does, has given us this thought provoker. The best words are those used by Darwin. They go like this

"Seriously. This is the cheesiest, creepiest, weirdest engagement announcement I have ever come across."

And she's right. Check it out. I commented, saying that there was something cute about it. The more I think about it the less cute it feels. I feel sorry for the husband to be, but perhaps they deserve each other.

Blogaversary wishes have been winging their way across to the land of the rising Sun for JapSach, who's celebrating a year of writing his blog. I remember the days when he was young and unknown. My how he's grooown! I left a comment on one of his posts, to say that I'm a bit envious of his adventures in Japan and he thought I was being sarcastic. I wasn't. I really enjoy reading his blog and of his discoveries and adventures, thundering typhoons included.

There's been a tag doing the rounds, one about five friends bloggers have made through their blogs. I was tagged by TMS in her post about it, for which I'm rather grateful. I thought about writing my own post and naming my five friends but I haven't. Why RD, but why? I hear you shouting. Well it's because I've made many friends and writing about a mere five would cause fights and bad feeling among the people left out. DD wouldn't be in the top five, that's the only certain thing! I reserve the right to write one of these posts at some time in the future though.

Lady Divine's post about the subject should probably win an award for meeting the most bloggers. I was omitted owing to a technicality; that we've never met, though that same technicality didn't prevent our LD including DD in the list. It's like she's like kinda met everyone like. Kinda.

St Fallen has contributed his piece on the matter here. I can't quite figure out who started it and where this particular tag is now but it's a good and enthralling one, seeing who's met who and exactly how much they love each other.

A Virile Nagalingam, a blogger who I often read but don't think I've ever mentioned has kicked out two contrasting and nifty posts. First came this one, about Indian food, though AVN makes us wonder if there is such a thing. He points out that so many are quick to label food that originates in the subcontinent as being "Indian" despite the fact that there are huge differences between the food from different areas of the country.

The average Brit does exactly the same thing. Here in Londinium an Indian restaurant is an Indian restaurant. There is little distinction made between a South Indian one compared to a Northern one, let alone between errm, well, you know. But are we wrong to generalise like this? The closer you get to a place the more specific the geography becomes no? In England it's fine for me to say my parents are from Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka I need to say my Dad's from Gampola. In Gampola I need to say where the house is. And on we go with that spiffing illustration.

Secondly from AVN comes this post. WTF, OMG and OMWTFG. I haven't a clue what he's talking about. At one point, late in the first paragraph I thought I understood something. I was wrong though. I finished reading and thought that I'd like to be able to write like that, then realised that I don't know if I'd like to write like that, because I can't figure it out. Cool. See if you can.

In the land of Indi.ca there have been some goings on. This tour of a handloom factory is an interesting couple of minutes, or coupla minutes as Indi would no doubt say. I guess it's not actually a handloom factory as such, they don't make handlooms there, but they weave and churn out sarongs and shirts. Check it out, if you're thinking of investing then buy the place too, you can you know.

Rajaratarala, that farmer geezer who everyone reads, is back with a couple of quick and readable posts. I like him, he's the sort of chap I'd love to have a drink and a chat with. But, to my Suddha vocals his name just has was too many vowels, well As, in it. I'd find it easier if he was called Roger or something similar. Either way, whether it's Roger or Rajaratarala, I think he's got most people on his side and wishing success in his direction.

On a slightly serious note this post, on Chitrangi's blog, intrigued me. It's a story alleging Police brutality in Sri Lanka. I don't think it's the first, nor methinks will it be the last. The bit that really grabbed me was when the fellow says this:

"They asked me why I had assaulted a woman. One of them dragged my shirt color and started to assault me using their hand and legs. I told them that the said woman is my wife. But they didn’t listen to me. They assaulted me further."

I don't condone the alleged violence by the Police, I don't know if it's true anyhow. But is the writer's defence, that it wasn't an assault because the woman concerned was his wife, for real? He doesn't tell us exactly what happened but it seems mad. By my standards assaulting people is wrong, whether they're married to you or not. Please have a read of this and tell me if you think I've misinterpreted the post.

Amila Salagado, the man who knows more about birds than Dominic Sansoni knows about tying sarongs, has been out and about with his sparkling new lens. So far the results have been disastrous, as you can see here with his abysmal failure to get a single bird in focus. Amila, I'll step in and offer to take the lens off your hand if things don't work out better. I'm kind like that you know. You can pay me when you've got the money.

As we come to the end of the journey, maybe not a journey but more a little stopover in the Lankanosphere, we get to the best bit. It's him, some people know him as Cerno, all I know is that the Stig worships him. I must warn you that things could go a bit oooer here, it's Sunday night, though you'll probably be reading this on Monday, and I've got Zombie by the Cranberries blasting out. It's on my "energetic" playlist and it's fanfuckingtastic, as I'm sure you know.

"In your head, in your head, they're still fighting" sing along now.

So anyway, Cerno wrote this post about elephant watching and his discomfort with it. It's an engaging one that puts across a view many wouldn't consider. In its own right it deserves a place in this "lately". But then, with that splash of inspiration only splashed about by people like Cerno he follows up with something even better, funnier and more mind blowing. I'd try to describe it and attempt to quote something from it but I'm not worthy and I might get trampled by a herd of angry elephants. Go and read it, click on the link and prepare to be unprepared.

If there was a fellow with a project to compile a book of great Sri Lankan blog posts, then these two MUST be in it.

Lastly we had the first edition of the Kottu Mag out with yesterday's Sunday Leader. I've seen it on Indi's blog but the cover I see on the Sunday Leader page consists of a link to Kottu itself, which I glance at once in a while anyway. I really like the cover, I think it's eyecatching, which is good. It's big, it's mainstream and it's positive. What will come of it, how it will be/has been received I don't know, only time will tell.

That concludes our stopover. The weeks begins and I wish you a good one, filled with all seven days and some smiling and laughing.

RD

Lankan Advertising - Bloggers Are The Answer

Talking about advertising in the Lankanosphere's a risky business. One wrong word and there'll be a gang of creatives chasing me down the street brandishing their MacBooks in a threatening manner. Hair dye and tattoos will be flying all over the place and it'll be the only time the many pairs of Nikes ever get a run.

Comparisons, like I believe a good buriyani should be, are fruitless. I know that people chuck raisins and all sorts on a proper buriyani but, as far as I'm concerned, fruit is for fruit salads and desserts. And I try not to compare so many things in Lanka with things in the UK, it serves no purpose and does no good. It's far better to try to accept things in each country as they are, with none of that getting hung up on why x might cost so much more in Serendib than it does in London yet y costs so much less.

Sometimes though, I just can't help it and the world of advertising is one such instance. I peer, gaze and observe the Sri Lankan above the line advertising with curiosity and interest. I wonder why, how and what makes the press, billboard and TV ads work there (here) compared to how they'd work in the UK. Is it unfairly patronising to say that the Brit consumer is more advanced in terms of his exposure and mindset towards advertising?

The great love God Jack Point wrote this post only the other day about some of the radio ads hitting the Serendipitious airwaves at the moment and I think many feel the same about ads on other Lankan media.

If it is patronising then I offer my apologies, but it is what I feel. It's also coupled with my feeling that the UK has one of, if not the most, innovative and imaginative ad industries in the world.

There are two distinct and segregated markets within Sri Lanka. For the sake of convenience I'll call them the rich and the poor.

The rich, that Colombo 7 international crowd, often educated overseas, well travelled and with more disposable income than the entire population of Monte Carlo, are well used to Western consumersim and advertising. When they have to they shop at Odel and wouldn't be seen dead in Majestic City unless it's to go to KFC.

There is one fellow, who used to live in Dehiwala but hasn't been seen for a few months, who makes up the entire Sri Lankan middle class. The rest of the people are the poorer and lower class chaps, the "man on the street" who the advertising on the street is aimed at.

Looking at the Lankan ads made me realise that, if the agencies have got it right, an assumption I'm happy to make but many might argue with, the man in the street is a sucker for the celebrity endorsment. Every other billboard seemed to feature the image of a cricketer beaming at me and waggling a chicken sausage temptingly. The next one would be the same cricketer swigging a bottle of Coke or any other soft drink you care to name, the next would be noodles, oodles of them.

In fact it's a surprise that Mahela and Sangakkara aren't a couple of fat blokes who permanently need a runner, what with the amount of Coke, chocolates and general crap they quite clearly eat all the time. A diet of all that rubbish is evidently not helping Mr Sangakkara at the moment, that's for sure.

In other places there's a smiling old bloke persuading us to buy a biscuit that he loves, or a harrassed housewife struggling to juggle the demands of a busy worklife with feeding a couple of insanely happy, smily and unmoody kids. Of course the answer to all her woes is chicken sausages, noodles and salad all washed down with Coke and chocolate. How ridiculous is that? I ask you, who eats salad these days?

You Lankans are yet to find out about the perils of salad, what with all the censorship and all but, in some parts of London, possession of salad is a serious offence. Some burger places try to hide it in between the burger and the bread but it's rare and discouraged.

But, criticisms aside, people are the attraction in Sri Lankan advertising, unless of course these ads don't work. So I reckon the time has come to get bloggers involved, to decide which bloggers would suit which products.

For starters I think the combined power and sheer wordiness of the Lankan blogging diaspora, yes me included, should write about ninety nine per cent of the tourist board's copy. Ask DD to write some prose to get Suddhas to Serendib. In fact, forget Small Miracle and Land Like No Other, let's use Suddhas to Serendib as the slogan. They won't know what it means until they've been anyhow.

And there are other products that are crying out for the endorsment of the more well known members of the Lankanosphere.

If you sell maps, or own a small search engine with lots of Gs and Os in the title then you need.......... Cerno to endorse your product, though many think that this has been going on for a while as it is.

There are vacancies that need your input. I'm thinking condoms, the extra large ones as well as the extra small. Who could step up to the challenge in the blogosphere?

Dodgy clothes, any suggestion?

For a small fee, perhaps a lifetime's supply or similar, I'd be willing to advertise Barefoot sarongs. I just thought I'd mention that one now.

Ladies' products of the, ahem, you know, feminine variety, who'd appeal to you women, who'd make you switch brands?

Drug awareness campaigns, who could be the figurehead, the person who'd make kids want a clean and drug free life?

Ideas would be most welcome.

Have a spiffing Monday and an even more fantastic week.

Kottu - The TV Series

On Indi's original post about the Kottu Mag a comment by David Blacker almost slipped by unnoticed. I say "almost" because I for one did notice it. It was like the tiniest flick in my mind, only this particular tiny flick was against a domino piece that was leaning against another, which was leaning against another, which was.... you get the picture.

DB said, and I'm taking a big risk here and reproducing without his written permission, which might result in him suing me, killing me or just shrugging his shoulders:

"The TV idea we talked about, which takes it into a different dimension, might be better."

Ooooh, ooooh, ooooh, I thought. A TV series, now we're really cooking, though it probably wouldn't be a cooking programme, this is when it gets truly adventurous and exciting.

And who would I choose to play the Lankan bloggers in this new series that's almost certainly on the cards?

Firstly, probably most importantly there's Indi himself. An ideas chap with energy and enthsiasm, youngish and with highly a suspicious sense of fashion about him. Yes, there can be no doubt that Tony Montana, as played by Al Pacino, would be perfect for the role. Indi likes to play that game, Risk, and it's only a few steps away from being like Tony Montana. It fits.

Next I thought about Dinidu. His youthful zest for life, his endearing naivety about things, which gets knocked out of us older people and we often wish it hadn't been, his intellect and warmth are things that would have to be portrayed by a skilled actor with sensitivity and care. At first I instantly thought of Leonardo DiCaprio, but I think his hair's not quite right for it. I settled on the now retired Rick Moranis. Perhaps the prospect of playing Mr de Alwis would tease him out of retirement.

Let's look at some women.

First there's the Queen of the Lankanosphere, The Missing Sandwich. There wasn't much thinking needed for her role. With her pink hair, her deep thinking and out of the box ideas, her quirkiness and drive I knew immediately who'd be perfect for this. Yes, Phoebe Buffay from Friends is the automatic and natural choice.

Next is our Gyppo, a bird who possesses a dangerous combination of looks and brain, rather like an Ostrich. And neither of them can fly, adding to the spookiness of the Ostrich / Gypsy connection. Who' d be able to fit the looks and brains mould, retaining the sense of youth and vim that G12 exudes. Ah yes, that Jessica Biel girl would slot in quite nicely, with a bit of work needed on her Lankan accent of course.

No episode of our new Kottu based soap would be complete without Lady Divine taking up a fair amount of on screen time. She'd be one of the main characters, liked by all and admired by many. I think there's a certain motherly tone to her, in the nicest possible way, and there's quirkiness in there too. If you've read her last two posts about growing up I'm sure you'll agree.

So continuing along the characters from Friends scenario started earlier the natural choice would be Monica Geller. Problems may arise if Chandler gets a part, but I haven't decided this yet.

Next we come to the very important role of Cerno. We need a wise and fatherly fellow to fill these big shoes. Someone a bit off the wall but with common sense, someone who can run with pack and also sprint ahead of it when he wants to. It needs to be a unique actor and Jean - Luc Picard, the best ever Captain of the USS Enterprise could, with a bit of coaching, be the man for the job.

David Blacker? Well I considered this for a nano second, maybe even less, and a certain Bruce Willis, once in the frame, was perfect. He's got the thinking man's hard man thing going on and he wouldn't have to shave his head either. I thought about Sly Stallone and Mickey Rourke for the key Blacker part but they both lacked the sophistication needed.

As for DD, well we need someone who's a little, ahem, more mature. We need a person who can portray DD with all his quirkiness and emotion. A thespian who used to have it and has still got it, you know what I mean. A chap who's continually changing with the times, evolving more quickly than those scary dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. Step up Jack Nicholson. Perfect.

And what about villains? There are only two that need to be included; Sittingnut and Voice In Colombo. After some thought and a few auditions I feel that they need to be portrayed by a double act, they go together, but not in a John Travolta and Olivia Newton John way. I've decided on Harry and Marv from the Home Alone films. Joe Pesci as Harry would play Sittingnut and Marv would be VIC.

St Fallen, the new hero and centre of the Kottu can be played by a young and rebellious type, someone who's dangerous, who women and gay men want to sleep with and other men want to be. James Dean, obviously back from the dead, is lined up for this.

As we near the end of my casting special post there are only three people left. The legend that is Java Jones, the legendess that is Naz Sansoni and the, well me.

Java's role is a crucial one. Played by an actor with presence and wisdom. He most probably wouldn't pop up in every episode but his appearances would be important, big and meaty. And Morgan Freeman, after some serious negotation has agreed to fill these rather large shoes.

For the role of Naz there were a few considerations but only one true possibility and that actress is Sharon Stone. She's got the mixture of maturity, style and sexiness and likes a dance or two. She can't work on Tuesdays though so we'll have to work around that.

I'm low profile in this production. Obviously my first thought for the actor to play me was Brad Pitt, but he's a little bit too out there and I felt as though he'd fail to portray the inner me, the sensitive RD that you all know. So I've settled on Johnny Depp, I figure he'd be able to do put across my foibles as well as my extreme intelligence. He's not perfect but I'm willing to compromise.

That's it. Apologies if I've missed anyone out, feel free to make any additions. I think I've done the hard bit now, all that's left is for someone to write the thing and film it. Easy.

Have a nice week all.

Lately In The Lankanosphere.....

My new tat is almost fully healed. It's not really to do with the Lankanosphere, I just wanted to tell you.

On the blog side things have been active, but active in a strangely new way. The old regulars are quiet, with just the fewest of exceptions. It's an interesting thing to observe some people come and go with their blogs while others come and stick around. Some don't even come but I haven't seen that many of them.

There have been a couple of interesting Groundviews things. The first was this interview of Tracy Holsinger with Sanjana, her of the theatre and stuff. I found it to be quite informative and entertaining and it makes a change from politics, meccano and other serious stuff normally on Groundviews.

It's not often I rant and rave, yet I feel a need to here. I tried to concentrate on the interview, honestly I tried my damndest, but I failed. Sanjana is a bloke with a brain about thirteen times the size of mine and he knows how to use it. I like him. Obviously he likes me. But those slippers!! Why??

I couldn't concentrate, I struggled to focus and I expected the fashion police to burst in at any moment and cart him off. I've figured out what had happened though. There he was, all smartly dressed and ready for the interview, about to go and sit down when he realised that he'd forgotten his Gucci loafers. In the rush he just had to grab what was around. And what was around was the slippers on his ninety six year old Uncle, there for the day to watch his nephew in action.

Next on Groundviews was this. It's a response to another article about post conflict Colombo society, but it seems to be much ado about nothing, not to be confused with much adoh about nothing. Having perused it with my expert eye I think the original article clearly talks about Colombo's upper eschelons, the moneyed types who eventually get arrested for some fraud then suddenly need medical treatment overseas. It's not about the everyday man or woman at all.

The article on Groundviews says this:

"The author needs to be reminded that next to every man is a woman who is his equal and his strength. Our women underwent immense hardships for Sri Lanka to win this war, but their war has not ended. For once, look up and notice who are organizing the aid drives for IDP’s now, who ensures that the entire family is fed and who will bare the sons that will lead our country into a brighter future."

It's mad and contradictory. Why? Because it's saying that women are the equal of men, that they are as strong. I agree, but then why say that it's their sons who'll lead the country into a brighter future? And, while I'm on a roll, "bare" should have been "bear". So thare. Yes, Girl RD is still around.

The Kottu stats indicate the Thekillromeoproject is the author of this month's most read post. It's about David Blacker wearing womens' clothes I think. I find it a bit hard to make sense of but it's getting hits.

Talking of David Blacker there's also this captivating interview with Dayan Jayatilleka. It's rather good, specifically because the questions are unusual and the answers are interesting. Check it out.

For me food has very much been flavour of the month. I've been watching a programme here called "Rick Stein's Far Eastern Odyssey". You'll be surprised to know that it features Rick Stein, a celebrity chef. Well last week's episode was almost entirely in Lanka. We were shown Galle, Colombo, Geoffrey Dobbs' place and other bits and pieces. It made me pine and has prompted me to look at a few Lankan related foodie blogs.

One of them is this one called mommythecook. It's written by a lady who's Lankan and lives in the US. It's not entirely about Lankan cooking but has a mixture of tales about recipes, food and life in general, all told from the point of view of someone who very obviously has that passion for Sri Lanka.

My other mouthwatering discovery is rice and curry, the blog not the food. It's written by an American Lankan called Skiz or S.H Fernando Jr to give him his proper moniker and it's a little bit special. There are recipes galore, all of Sri Lankan dishes and the photography and the prose are positively eye catching. There's also youtubes of a programme called No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain that our blogger was heavily involved in. Check this link for more.

Both the blogs are currently conspicuous by their absence from the Kottu blog roll, something I think the esteemed janitor might want to change. Incidentally the Kottu blog roll is also conspicuous by its absence from the front page of Kottu as it's now got its own link and page.

Continuing with the food theme Mr S has written this provocative little gem on some of Colombo's street eating joints. I quite like it when he writes about the lighter side of things, it adds a certain amount of shade to his blog that the rest of us are simply less able to do on our own ones.

All of these foodie blogs and posts have reminded me very much of how we diasporic types cling to our food as a means of staying connected to our heritage and country. I guess when you live in Lanka you don't think so much about the food, you just eat it and enjoy. For the rest of us it's a tangible link to Serendib. It's even got me thinking that I might add a food blog section to the links here on LLD.

Excuse the length of this one Missus, I've just noticed that there's a lot more to cover and I've already written a hell of a lot. If you're the type who's going to leave one of those comments about my blog being boring them you might want to do it now, exit and go and play solitaire or something.

I was interested on the link on this mini post by Dominic Sansoni. It leads us to an article in the New York Times lamenting the decline of photojournalism as a business, at least in its known form. I do wonder about this, the way in which modern technology, mobile phone, laptops, the internet and the way we're all so connected so quickly has impacted the professionals who gave us the news in the past.

Photojournalism, if it dies, won't be the last or the first industry to be killed off by technology and progress. Or on the other hand, if it does indeed die, will it be because it failed to change and adapt to the things going on in the world of communication?

Did I mention holidays? They're all at it. DD is off browsing in gun shops, eating burgers and driving on the wrong side of the road, which could easily be a normal day in many less salubrious parts of London but is in fact happening in the grand ole US of A. You can see some of his not quite good enough to become my photo of the moment pictures here.

JapSach has just returned from his little sojourn to Italy and you can see some very beautiful photographs of his adventures here.

Penultimately we come to everyone's favourite Gypsy, that Bohemian one. I'm aware that I go on about her but it's because I think she writes well. Every time she publishes a post I'm one of the many who reads it and thinks. That's a gift, as is one of those things wrapped up in colourful paper on your birthday.

She wrote a little postet about things. In a "you had to be there" way I can only say that you have to read it. It reminded me that the war may be over, but it's not over.

And finally we come to the Lankanosphere's blogger of the moment, Saintfallen. As I write this he's currently occupying three of this week's top ten Kottu posts as well as one of the top five for the month. I won't link to one specific post, just to his blog in general. Go and have a look if you aren't one of his regulars already. It's the variety of his posts and the depth in his blog that grabbed me, there's something fresh about his approach. He reminds me of a much younger Cerno.

Oh, and really finally, the master himself has got a brand spanking new theme, all spangly and glittery. As he says himself, check it out.

That's it from me, I bid you all a fine week out there in Lanka, the US, Australia or wherever you are.

RD

Cerno's Cernometer, Cars and Carbs

The master's post here got me thinking. One of the things I thought about was whether his thing in his car that tells him what speed he's driving at should actually be called a "Cernometer". I chuckled inwardly and quietly to myself at that one, I must tell you.

The other thing was about Sri Lankans and carbohydrates, rice in particular. We love 'em don't we. Give any of us a plate of something centred around rice or noodly things and our eyes light up and our tongues hang out like one of those boys at Majestic City when they see a female under twenty five.

Here in England some people, when confronted with anything like an Indian restaurant menu or a situation in which they need to eat Asian food, will actually opt for more curry than rice, sometimes these Suddas will even NOT have rice. Honestly I've seen this happen and it never ceases to astound me. We eat rice and curry, they eat curry and rice, maybe just curry.

I've been to restaurants with friends and they've tried to order one portion of rice to share. With me??!! At this point I have to put my foot down. A rice portion in an Indian restaurant here usually contains about a third of the amount of rice in the average Lankan bath packet. You can see my quandary and occasionally I even have to order an additional portion just for myself.

We love rice and we're proud of it.

But, as with many things, a Sri Lankan's love of rice, his eagerness for string hoppers, hoppers and his cravings for Kottu (except NB who hates kottu of course) come at a price.

Rice, as well as other carb based foods, absorb moisture and water once eaten. That's why we eat rice until we're full and then, an hour or so later, feel more uncomfortable and even more full, though we thought we were full to the brim earlier. That rice absorbs all the moisture in our stomachs, it's like the silica gel of the food world, and expands in our stomach.

Then, after a lifetime of this continual behaviour, we end up looking like we're fourteen months pregnant and chaps like Cerno write posts about it. Sadly exercise alone doesn't change things. I'm told it's a mixture of diet and exercise that gets rid of the pregnant look. I'm also told that in some countries it's all the rage.

I went to see Bruno the other night, the film that they're all raving about. It was hilarious in a cover your face and hide in shame sort of way. One of the scenes involved a severely depressed Bruno committing "carbicide". He told us that, prior to that moment, he hadn't touched a carb for fifteen years.

At that point I thought to myself that he would have been no good as a Sri Lankan man then.

Pah!

Happy Monday all.

Lately In The Lankanosphere.....

After some time since I've even felt like writing one of these things have started to pick up in the Lankanosphere, that Kottu world we all know and love. Many of our favourite Sri Lankan bloggers have been mysteriously quiet and seemingly replaced by a bunch of wannabes, all trying their best to be controversial and getting lots of positive comments from anonymous readers.

'tis a weird phenomenon this, though I'm not sure if there is such a thing as a phenomenon that isn't weird. I reckon most of us get negative, downright nasty and bitchy comments from people who hide behind anonymity, then we get intelligent and eloquent ones, though often disagreeing with our opinions, from people who are prepared to give their identity, even it's their blogging identity.

A select few blogs seem to get nice comments, those that agree with their opinions and offer words of praise from anons. Why on earth is this? I really can't figure it out.

But in the space of the last week some of the old favourites have kicked out a few little gems. My intention is to tell you about the ones I've spotted, read and liked. This could be a damn long post, one of those ones that you'll get quite bored with, perhaps not even making it to the end. I apologise for that, but needs must and whatnot.

The first and most eye catching post has been this one by the Gyppo, G12 or simply The Temptress as she probably should be known from now on. The furore surrounding the issue has even spread over to Groundviews, where only the most serious things are to be found. Support for G12's views has sprung up all over the place and, according to the recipient of our Gyppo's letter, support isn't the only thing that may have sprung up.

The serious message in these things is actually about people taking responsibility for their actions, not blaming their behaviours on the way someone is dressed/looked at them/blinked in the sunlight etc. On the other hand if "temptation" in young boys and priests means that they'll rush home, lock their bedroom door and do some serious monkey spanking then that's quite normal isn't it?

Both the Sachs have been chucking stuff out into the blogospheric world. Firstly JapSach has celebrated the milestone of getting 10,000 hits so congratulations to him over in the land of the rising sun. On the subject of blogoversaries (copyright Cerno 2008) Kalusudda has also hit the one year mark with his blog and many have wished him on this auspicious occasion. He's off sailing at the moment and the members of the Lankanosphere are holding our collective breath waiting for his safe return.

The cynical Sach has been bravely battling exams, illness and road closures. There's barely anything I can add to that except a get well soon or a good luck. Or both. I guess the biggest incentive for her to get better is the thought that the Poet fellow might come over and nurse her if she gets any worse, with his "special" thermometer.

Java's back with a little postlet on the subject of decriminalising marijuana, a genuinely interesting topic. There are few people who would present a case that a bit of a smoke now and again will actually do a person any long term harm whatsoever, but I do wonder if many can put forward a reasonable argument that enjoying it doesn't increase the temptation in people to try harder and harmful drugs. Either way it's good to see Mr Jones back with his idiosyncratic and stimulating words.

TMS became TMTMS for a while but has returned after Special Agent Cerno put out an APB. It seems she was holed up in Unawatuna, or Oonerwartooner, as it's correctly prounounced. She's more poetic and mysterious than ever before and can be seen in a play all about marriage, sexuality and love you know.

Lady Divine, her with the biggest blog roll ever (check it out) wrote a simple one line, one sentence post that got a bit of attention. It made me think, all about perception, different views and perspectives I guess. The comments made it clear that her blog is one of the most followed and popular in the Lankanosphere. We all love to know what's happen in the Divine life.

Cerno created one of his mini masterpieces, in which he cleverly uses acronyms and brain power to produce something that makes the average reader pause and wonder if it's true, before realising that it's about as fact based as a salesperson's weekly report. You can spell "weekly" as "weakly" if you want there, it's the same thing really.

Indi tells us in a quickie that there's this forthcoming lecture on Ravana and Ramayana. This PDF thing, published by Perera Hussein looks to be a good idea. I've found, whenever I'm due to hit the motherland, that there's a distinct lack of readily accessible information about forthcoming events in the metropolis. However, a whole lecture on Ravana, nice bloke and great writer though he is, seems a bit excessive. These days he hardly ever writes in his blog. And I can't find this Ramayana one even listed on Kottu.

I stumbled upon this newish blog, one that's all about attracting people to Sri Lanka. It's been around for some months from the looks of things but hasn't been updated very often. I really do hope that whoever writes it can get the momentum up and keep it going as it has the potential to do some very good things. I've chucked a link to it from my blog and will keep my fingers crossed, except when I'm drumming.

In a comment that I didn't publish because it contained so much insulting crap I was accused of being the writer of the blog. It's actually quite a compliment to have to defend myself against that kind of accusation but honestly, it's not me. So there. With knobs on.

This particular post about Barefoot caught my attention. It's also caused a few arguments on the old issue of Barefoot being for people who have money or are the Colombo elite and therefore not for the general people of Sri Lanka. This one, over at My Space (aka SOB), is one of the posts. My opinion on the matter is that the Foot can hardly be described as a place frequented by all and sundry but it's definitely become an instrinsic part of Colombo's cityscape. Which shops, institutions, or activities in any society or country are actually enjoyed by all anyway? Probably just sport and music in most, Tesco in the UK of course, but they don't have jazz on a Sunday afternoon.

In a visualt styley I must direct you to Sebastian Posingis' eye catching latest batch of photographs. The one called Sri Lankan Hills, a picture of, erm, Sri Lankan Hills, is only aptly described by one word; absofuckinglutelyfanfuckingtastic. I've spent far too much time staring at it, at the incredible array of shades and the timelessness of it. I bet he's got a really expensive camera. Maybe even one of those ones with lenses that come off and a built in flash. Yes, he really is that good.

And really lastly Kottu now has the top ten posts for the week displayed insted of the top five.

I think this is good news. I just don't know why.

Have a spiffing week all.

RD

Psst...Wanna Be My Next Of kin?

There I was, casually filling out a form the other day. Come to think of it now I can't remember what the form was. Ah yes, it was a piece of paper that needed filling out, that was it.

I came to a bit in which I had to write my next of kin. I faltered, I halted and I stumbled, rather like a really crap triple jumper. You see it's actually a good few years since I had to fill in a next of kin thing and I didn't know whose name to insert.

Next of kin in terms of money, estates and all that big stuff is all taken care of in my will. Next of kin in terms of who should be called if I get hit by that proverbial bus is another matter. For the record I should tell you that I think bus drivers get an unfair hard time on this issue. We talk endlessly about what would happen if we "get hit by a bus" and there's no need for it. Pilots, truck drivers and car drivers never get mentioned and I think that's wrong and harsh. I might start a campaign about it you know.

For almost twenty years I would have put my ex's name in the next of kin bit. Of course that isn't really an option now for all the obvious reasons. And putting C's name there is a seemingly logical choice, if it weren't for the fact that she's usually found in the depths of Singapore, hardly great for a quick dash to my bedside.

I then contemplated writing down A or K and promptly rejected either of those options. From what you know about K I'm sure you can totally understand this and, as for A, well she's at that huffy teenager phase and any request to her is usually met with lots of sighs and mutterings along the lines of

"God Dad (huff) you're ruining my (huff and sigh) life"

Then my mind strolled in the eternally dodgy direction of siblings and parents.

Parents, I thought to myself, would bring to the accident scene a whole set of potential problems. The first one being that my Dad, when arriving at the scene by car, would most likely cause several more accidents as he tried to park. This could be fortunate in one way, as the emergency services would already be there, but distinctly undesirable.

The second and biggest problem would be my Sri Lankan mother. Were I the age of Dinidu or one of you youngsters things would be okay, but I'm not. I dread the thought of the firemen going home in the evening and telling their families about the forty three year old bloke who'd fallen off his drum stool and almost broken a stick and the overly fussy and protective Lankan mother who turned up and tried to take charge.

Academic Bro was very carefully considered then rejected, mostly because of his geography, ironic as geography is his subject, but I mean the fact that he's usually not around. Music Biz bro was considered and rejected too.

So it was down to friends. My first thought was bandmembers. They got turned down. They're a good bunch and reliable but I had to think realistically. The fact is that they'd only be concerned if something happened to me on a gig day, maybe a band practice day. On top of that their major concern would be to ensure I was fit enough to play, perhaps to teach someone else the set if not. Frankly we don't gig enough for me to think that my life would be in safe hands with these fellows.

My mind meandered casually over to the area of the Sri Lankan blogosphere, the Lankanosphere as I've heard it called. Of course my first thought was David Blacker. He'd be a good next of kin I reckon. He's good in a fight, he likes cars and he can write about things afterwards too.

Then I thought of Cerno, another near perfect choice. He's innovative and imaginative and he can do things with Google Earth that makes James Bond look on with admiration and awe. He had to go on the shortlist. And most lists with Sri Lankans are short lists.

Java Jones sprung to mind also. A fellow who I feel I could rely on, who would always help a friend. Receiving the kiss of life from him has potential dangers though. Getting knocked over by that bus, receiving the kiss of life from Java and then waking up totally stoned has attractions, I'm just not sure on it.

Pradeep Jeganathan was considered and rejected quicker than you can say "fry the prawns for a minute or two with chilli powder, balsamic vinegar and vanilla custard." If I wanted someone to cook my body beautifully then take even better pictures of it, then publish an academic paper on the matter, he'd be in my top five choices. But I don't. These academic food loving photographing and blogging chaps are all the same you know.

Of course the reality is that the distance between London and Lanka makes all in Sri Lanka impractical. So I thought about DD of ViceunVersa. He lives in this neck of the woods and he'd understand the requirements. The kiss of life would be unpleasant, both for him and for me. That, in itself is probably enough to reject him. Women all over the world dream of receiving the kiss of life from DD, just not this one man. But it seems that he's, in the blogging way at least, has ceased to exist.

So vut to do?

Any takers?

Inheriting, Blogs, Cerno, Death And The Internet

Cerno is one of my favourite bloggers of all time.

I've frequently wondered why and have never come to a firm conclusion. There's the variety of flavours on his blog, from google Earth related posts to photographs of the graphics on Lankan buses and tri shaws. There's a sense of innovation about him that shines through his writing as well as the general feel and look of the Cernoblog.

He's funny too. Obviously not as funny as me, but he's up there with witticisms and little idiosyncratic lines that make me chuckle on a regular basis.

Perhaps the thing that's his biggest strength, is the way he so often inspires me. Not that he turns up at RD Towers and slaps me on the back in an American film sort of way and spurs me on when I'm feeling down and demotivated. To be honest Cerno's pretty crap at that sort of thing, he's never done it. Maybe if I gave him the address that might help him. I suspect not.

However, he does inspire me through his writing, as Cyndi Lauper said "girls just wanna have fun" "time after time".

His recent post here, about who will inherit our blogs when we die is one of the aforementioned inspirational ones. Oftentimes I have half formulated thoughts bouncing around in my head, but I only become consciously aware of them when I get the impetus from an outside source. That's what took place this time.

This blogging / Facebook / email age has created a vastly different backdrop compared to that which existed for people of my parents' generation and everyone before that, going back to when man was invented.

We, as part of our everyday lives, continually create records, diaries and logs of the way we live our lives. As a kid I remember watching Blue Peter, a childrens' magazine type of twice weekly TV programme that is still running.

Every once in a while they'd bury a time capsule. The idea was that it would contain examples of and information about the way we currently live. In hundreds of years time someone would dig it up and make amazing discoveries about 20th century man. Like those ologists do these days when they dig up Roman stuff and learn knowledge and stuff.

These days it's all different. In hundreds of years time I don't think there'll even be people seeking to find out about how we lived, they'll know it all already. It's a total paradigm shift but I reckon the subject of history will cease to exist, except in terms of looking back beyond our current era.

Our histories will be there for all to see, unless we've opted out. We blog, we Facebook and we email and it's all out there. Perhaps we exist in a Utopic mindset in which we reckon that because everything's password protected we'll be secure. Well that's got to be rubbish hasn't it?

Our lives are an open blog, our thoughts are there on Facebook and Twitter and our, whatever the opposite of ancestors is, will have total access to it all. I like the thought of this.

Back in the day there were famous old diarists like Java Jones Samuel Pepys and Darwin (the scientist not the scientist). They were fellows who chose to write diaries compared with the rest of the populace who didn't, well many couldn't read or write let alone choose to diarise. They opted in.

They chose to record events in a structured way. Today we take a far less structured, and far more comprehensive approach but a huge proportion of the population does it. Of course many people, particularly in parts of Wales, don't have internet access or a computer, but again, give it a couple of hundred years and that will all change.

I rather like the somewhat egotistical thought that in hundreds of years there might be some very great granchildren of mine who'll be writing in this very blog. I hope that they'll have more structure to their posts and that Blogger will have added the sexy moving tag cloud into its options. But I do think it will be cool to have generations of RDs writing here. Maybe there'll be future generations of DDs writing too, saying GM2U and all.

Often I look at blogs, particularly those of the much younger bloggers, and wonder if they'll regret publishing what they have done when they're older. I think I'm quite safe in the knowledge that I won't regret publishing the posts I've written as I only came to blogging so late in life. All that angsty and angry change the world and shout at people stuff that I had in my twenties has been replaced by a desire to still change the world, just by having a beer and talking, by intelligent debate and mutual respect.

Maybe you'll find me (del) e(a)ting my words but I think I'll be quite proud of my blog when I get old (er). Even now I'm embarrassed when I look at my early posts and see how I've sort of developed a style of writing. I make no claims for my writing abilities now but I look back at those humble beginnings and they seem like the scribblings of a ten year old child writing about what he did on his weekend compared with one of today's posts.

I'm quite proud though. I hope that someone reading these scribblings from start to finish might get a picture of me and the things I've been through and will go through. I hope that they'll get a picture of me and be a little bit proud, farts and all.

One of my less formulated thoughts is about wills. I've had fleeting ideas about letting Academic Bro know my current passwords just in case, but he can't be trusted really. He'd probably ruin LLD within a few hours.

It's a cert though.

Our blogs, our Facebook accounts, our emails and anything else to do with our online presence will be there for all to see in time to come.

What legacy will you leave?

Lately In The Lankanosphere

Things have been busy, different, interesting, good, bad and downright ugly. Now that, as a film title, would have been a mouthful wouldn't it?

A friend asked me for some advice about something this week and one of the things I suggested was the use of mindmaps to help her. Now I can't explain mindmaps because I'm no good at that sort of thing, but I can tell you that the mindmap for this "lately" post is a complex and messy looking one that resembles a dismantled black string hopper, with some lumpy bits. If I ever have to make a choice in my life between mindmaps and string hoppers, as many chaps have to, it would be a tough one indeed.

This means that you might get a nice and meaty and interesting post with lots of good things about the Lankanosphere or you may receive a pile of disorganised words, with random links here there and everywhere and no real cohesion, structure or point. I think we both know that it's going to be more of the latter, not latte, that's coffee. But, either way it'll be a long one, so you may well be better off doing some work and reading this later.

The current situation in Lanka permeates into the Lankanosphere like sothi on that very same string hopper and that's about the only level of agreement anyone will get from all of us blogging types. It's natural that the Sri Lankan blogosphere reflects what's going on in Sri Lanka and it's therefore natural that the atmosphere is different to normal, whatever normal may be.

Indyana asked in this recent post why there are hardly any blogs being updated these days and I think, if she's talking about the Sri Lankan blogosphere, that it's simply because of what's happening in the Country, the fact is that it makes everything else pale into insignificance, and quite rightly too.

The bloggers writing about politics, war, peace and conflict are presenting a plethora of opinions and views. I think it's better if I don't tell you my judgement but just pass on the links and information on some that have caught my eye.

There's David Blacker with this rather splendid article he originally wrote for the Times of India. It's a response to the famous, or infamous, article written by Arundhati Roy that has attracted much comment and criticism by so many.

DD wrote this piece that revealed a side to him and his views many of us haven't seen before. It's thought provoking and one of the comments left there said something like:

"Why don't you go and help the IDPs instead of eating/drinking/shopping (delete as appropriate)?"

I've seen this kind of thinking a lot lately and I've pondered on it too. It seems to me that many are saying that it's far more important to give help and aid to the IDPs today and tomorrow than it is for people to plan and think about what's actually going to happen next week or next year.

My take on it is that balance is needed, that we must do both.

And talking of people helping today Indi has been involved with ACT Lanka in getting supplies and aid up to the Vanni. You can read about it here and here you can read about ACT Lanka, donate and learn more here. Please check it out.

On the far less serious side of things there's a bit of a party going on at a mystery address soon. It sounds like it will be fun and I'm looking forward to it, particularly that game Dinidu was talking about with the blindfold and the cucumber.

We have some music things to report too.

Cynical Sach and T have both put up posts showing the new video from Thriloka. I've heard so many great things about Thriloka, in particular about their young drummer, but have never been in Sri Lanka to witness one of their gigs. This video left me seriously impressed with the drummer, he grooves and plays with a feel that would be the envy of many. In comparison to this guy I'm such a bad drummer that I wouldn't even be allowed to envy him.

If that doesn't float your boat check out the Lily Allen video in Sach's post. There's something so quirky about it and it's one of those videos that makes the song so much better than it actually is.

Then, while we're on the subject of drummers, there's the new drummer in town. He's called Heshan and he's mad about music. I'll be reading him regularly, but I'm not sure this drum related blogging thing will catch on.

Talking of Sachs, which I was before, the almost Japanese one wrote a nice post here, on hypocrisy. He asks us what makes a hypocrite, a question that probably has no definitive answer but an infinite number of answers. He can also spell hypocrisy correctly, which gets my admiration as it's one of those words I always stumble over.

The Whackster's out and about and asking about blogstitution. He asks if we're all just prostitutes for attention, the only problem with his question is the extra T he put in the word "prostitute". I think we're all partly motivated by recognition, but how far up recognition is in each of our individual list of motivators is variable.

Cerno continues with his T100SLSLBP, but things are slowing down. You can keep it going by nominating posts and writing posts, if you can read and write of course.

The Right Honourable C also tells us that he's given up Linux and his fuel account at Shell. It's a strange lapse in concentration from him. I don't think anyone really cares about Linux as Charlie Brown isn't popular these days and we certainly don't care where he buys his fuel from.

On the positive side he did announce the good news that Unbound Urchin, that young guy who made such an impression in the Lankanosphere and then vanished quicker than you can say "can say" is back with more blogging. It seems that the chap has moved to London and I for one hope he'll continue to write on his blog.

Also, after the understandable turmoil it looks as though Jade has decided to return to the Lankanosphere, something that almost everyone will be pleased about. We like her, even though she sees ghosts and likes Travis. I see ghosts too. Only the other morning I saw one in my toilet. When I went to wipe there was no trace of it whatsoever. These things fascinate me you know.

What else?

Electra's back with some posts, this one I found particularly mindgrabbing.

The Gypsy wrote another of her poetry that isn't poetry type posts. Just read it.

I'll tell you a little secret about Gyppo if you promise not to tell anyone. She writes every single one of her posts in exactly two minutes and fourteen seconds. No more and no less. That gives you an idea of how clever she is. She told me this, so it must be true.

And I think I'll wrap up there.

Oh, I nearly forgot. Those blind chaps have got some new pictures up from India and the Maldives. They're good, in fact they're better than that, in a "I think I really should give up photography when people can be that good at it" sort of way.

Have a very nice weekend all.

RD