Off on a Tangent ~ හිතුමතේ හී සර

Just imagine. No don't imagine. Life without Facebook? *shudders That's beyond imagination. Seriously though, Facebook is such an important part in my life that I'd be really pissed if someone decided to 'ban' it. I keep in touch with my friends and even some relatives through FB - esp since I'm halfway across the globe from most of them. And most importantly would banning anything solve anything? Evidently all this started because some crazy woman in US started a group on FB called 'Draw Muhammad Day' - which, understandably angered the Muslim community in Pakistan. But I really don't see the purpose of banning FB though. Demanding an apology from the demented woman - yes - but banning Facebook? I saw somewhere that the ban is only till 31st May, but that just makes it even mind boggling. Maybe governments just like banning this and banning that. I remember the Lankan gov going to such great lenghts to ban Da Vinci Code. The funny thing about that w...

Any fellow sisters out there doing engineering/computer sceince? Particulary post grads? PhDs to be more exact? Ah yep. See I'm sure you must have felt like that YOU are the sole representative of all women - especially when you're sitting at a lecture on Fourier transformation and everyone else in the room are guys. Seriously, what is with the ladies? Is it us? or is it the society? I don't know ... but it is pretty annoying. And it makes the rest of us feel spooked out.0 Like poor Celia for example (the comic strip on the left) Let me tell you this kind of thing can permanently scar you for life. Today for instance, I went to a conference in Melbourne (yes I go to conferences now - hence feeling very big and important), where the woman participants were (surprise surprise) around 5%. Seriously. Notice :image maybe subejected to copy right. Image from http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=55

Yesterday was utterly unproductive. *Sigh Spent hours fiddling with Word and Turnitin. Stupid Word. Kept reformatting my references when I used secondary citations. A secondary citation is when you cite something that was cited in a paper/article that you've read. As in [3, cited in 1]. Word kept auto formatting it to ' [3,1]'. Sheesh. This is why am such an avid Latex fan. I've decided to keep using Endnote to keep track of my references. I can always take the bibTex output when I start writing the Lit survey - so no worries of compatibility there. And I can also just import the citations from google scholar (most of the time) - which is really useful. So anyway around 3 pm yest, I kept hearing a voice in my head saying 'Need. Something. Sweet'...'Need. Something. Sweet'...'Need. Something. Sweet' Original idea of an ice cream was chucked aside as highly lunatic and dangerous because, really who eats ice cream when its 12 C? And moreover, who a...

Its almost a month since I've come to Melbourne. And a day and a month since I left Lanka. So far, I'm not complaining :) So anyway the first thing people here say when I say my name - my surname - that is - "Can you hear the drums?" At first I was like "Huh?" with this extremely confused look on my face, by which time they would explain about this . :D Of course silly me. One of the best things about Melbourne is that its so multi cultural. Frankly I think everyone should come to Melbourne - at least for a few days! - just for that multi cultural experience. Some people could really learn a thing or two on tolerance and ethnic diversity. Oh and the moon looks weird here. Bigger. I don't know why that is. Hmm The worst thing is the weather. Being autumn, its getting very windy and cold. Even though 14 C is not supposed to be that cold - somehow it is. Only good thing about it is that I treated myself to new (and my first!) boots :D I have used all three ...

This is my last night at home for a long time to come. One last time to listen to the wind rustling the huge Bo tree infront of our house...One last time to watch the crafty kingfisher catch a little fish in the lotus pond in the backyard. One last time to sit at Ammi's feet and have her oil my hair... Yes - I am leaving home - and high time too I think! Enough of being spoilt at home and being a pain to my uncomplaining parents! :D Even though I have dreamed of this day, it still feels surreal. Can this be happening? Part of me wants to break away, and have my own adventure - on my own terms. The other part of me wants to lock myself in my room and hide in my own little world. As the wise and omnipotent Tintin once said (in Blue Lotus I think) - there is a rainbow in my heart today. Rain falls because I am leaving the two people that I love most in the world for a long time - and yet the Sun shines because I'm about to pursue my dream in a new land. To cut a long story short -...

l finally resolved my accommodation problem today! Well, sort of. Thing is, I've been searching for a room/flat/townhouse in Melbourne. I'm going there to do my post grad research studies at La Trobe uni in a few days. So I finally found something I liked on the web - and knowing as internet content cannot fully be trusted, asked an auntie of mine there to check it out. So we talked today and apparently the room is quite nice. Its quite affordable most importantly, walking distance to uni, and its in a main road so I can take the bus quite easily. And its furnished and the rent includes bills as well. Yeah so a Yay! moment for me! Been having quite a few such moments this year - starting from the day I received news of my scholarship :) I've opted to share with a roommate, so now the only problem I have is what kind of roommate I might get. Hmm... I mean I don't want a roommate from hell. Currently there is noone else for that room, so I get to have it all to myself u...

ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාව කිව්ව ගමන් මතක් වෙන්නෙ කැන්ගරුන් ව. ලංකාවෙ අපිට නං කැන්ගරුවො දැකගන්න වෙන්නෙ සත්තු වත්තට ගියොත් විතරනෙ. හැබැයි ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාවෙ නම් ටිකක් නගරෙන් පිට ගියොත් පාර අයිනෙ කැන්ගරුවො පැන පැන යනව පේනව. සමහර වෙලාවට අධිවේගී මාර්ග අයිනෙ වාහන වලට හැපිල උන් මැරිලත් ඉන්නවා. ඉතින් මේ සටහන මම ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාවෙදි ගිය එළිමහන් සත්තු වත්තක හිටිය කැන්ගරු පවුලකට වෙච්චි දෙයක් ගැනයි. එළිමහන් කිව්වෙ, මේකෙ සත්තු කූඩු කරලම නැහැ. වැටවල් ගහලා ටිකක් ස්වභාවිකත්වයට ළං වෙන්න තියන තැනක්. සමහර සතුන් අල්ලන්න, කෑම දෙන්න එහෙම පුලුවන්. එක තැනක් තිබුනා - එතන කැන්ගරුවො එක්කල හිටිය 'එමු' කියල මහ විසාල කුරුල්ලො ජාතියකුත්. අනේ කැන්ගරුල නම් හරි අහිංසක පාටට හිටිය. අර කුරුල්ලො නම් මහ නාහෙට අහ්න්නෙ නැති උන් ටිකක වගෙයි. පහළ පිංතූර ටික බැලුවොත් පෙනෙයි මට එහෙම හිතුනෙ ඇයි කියල... මුලින් අපි ගියේ කැන්ගරු අම්ම ගාවට...චූටි පැටියටත් කෑම දුන්නට ඌ තාම කිරි බොන වයසෙද කොහෙද නිසා අම්ම විතරයි කෑවෙ. මේ තමයි කැන්ගරු තාත්තා. එයා ටිකකින් කෑම එක අත් (කකුල්?) දෙකෙන්ම අරන් කන්න ගත්තා. ඔන්න බලන්න දුෂ්ට එමූ කරන වැඩේ! පව් අසරණ කැන්ගරු :( එම...