Careers

Looks like Joshua and Rafael have already started thinking about what they want to do in life.

If all else fails there’s always the option of becoming a street performer.

The younger brother though is going to follow in his father’s footsteps.

The Miniature Garden in Canberra

It’s been a long time since I posted anything here. Anyways we were in Canberra for about two months and spent a lot of time doing touristy things. One of the best visits was to the Cockington Green Gardens. The pictures don’t do much just but it’s one of those truly magical places.

The place is literally a large garden filled with miniature people, buildings, boat yards, trains…

Joshua went crazy with the trains as they had these buttons you could press to make the trains go around.

See the full album here.

 

 

The War is Over

Sri Lanka is finally rid of the terrorists, the war is over. I hope and pray that we have seen the end of senseless bloodshed.

Let's build a better, peaceful Sri Lanka.

Spontaneous

This brought a smile to my face.

My Ideal Life

I’m happy.

I’m blessed with a wonderful wife, adorable children, loving parents and siblings and true friends. To top it all off a close relationship with my creator.

Here’s my picture of how I can make this better. To make my life even more ideal I’d like to work from home and spend more time with my family. I saw this clip today and the Dervaes family is truly an inspiration. Here’s what they’ve achieved.

URBAN FARMING: Jules Dervaes and three of his adult children live on one-fifth of an acre in Pasadena, Calif., a block away from a multilane highway. On this tiny sliver of land, they manage to be mostly self-sufficient. “This is our form of protest,” says Dervaes, who is 60, “and this is our form of survival.”

The family harvests 6,000 pounds and more than 350 separate varieties of fruits, vegetables and edible flowers annually. They brew the biodiesel fuel that powers the family car. Solar panels on their roof reduce energy bills to as little as $12 a month. Goats, chickens, ducks and two rescued cats are in residence. Red wiggler worms turn the kitchen and garden waste into compost, which is then recycled back into the garden.

Dervaes’s father worked for Standard Oil, but his son took a markedly different path. Dervaes moved into his current Pasadena home in 1985 — temporarily, he thought. As the years passed and his hopes of relocating to the country were delayed, he “decided that he wanted to see how much we could grow here,” says his 33-year-old daughter, Anais.

The family generates cash for their limited expenses by selling produce to local restaurants. Though Dervaes and his children are accustomed to the neighbors’ strange looks at their crowded lot, the local chefs don’t seem to share the skepticism. “They’ll call me in the morning and pick the amount that I need for that night,” says Jim McCardy, who owns Marstons, a restaurant in Pasadena. “The flavor is just incredible.”

I wouldn’t go to their extreme but instead rely on my coding chops to bring in the dough. I love their simple living.

Living Simply:
- making use or do without
- bartering
- monthly shopping trips
- reduce, reuse & recycle
- second hand clothes
- salvage/thrift store
- consume less

Here’s a video that was featured in the New York Times.

Technorati Tags: simple living,frugal,recycle

Creativity and the education system

Having taught in a school myself, I’m wonderfully aware of how we kill creativity in children. Imara and I were talking yesterday about how creative and imaginative Joshua and Rafael are in making up their own games and keeping themselves entertained.

A cardboard box that we bought from the grocer has given them hours of imaginative play. It started out as a boat, transforms into a monster mask, prick a few holes and it’s a stage for a finger puppet show. I’m excited to see what it transforms into tomorrow.

Kitchen utensils (especially spoons) are even more fun. I was commenting to Imara that ones they go to school all this creativity will slowly get killed.

Today while browsing TED I came across the most popular presentation on the site where Ken Robinson confirms that view in Schools Kill Creativity.

It’s a sobering thought but I’m happy that we’re at least aware of it and we can do what's in our power to nurture it.

Technorati Tags: education,creativity

Shashee Driving

Shashee has given us many memorable driving moments. There was this one time where my car had a dent on one door and we were driving to a garage to get a quote. Madura, Ashan, Kavinda, Harsha and myself were in the car with Shashee driving.

Life just turned into slow motion for about two seconds or maybe it was a fraction of a second. We’re overtaking a speeding bus on the narrow Malabe road and right in front of us there is this big humongous truck hurtling towards us. I still can’t imaging to this day how Shashee managed to get us out of that tight hole.

Here’s one of his legendary parking abilities when we were at Matara for Bogoda’s wedding. Thusitha’s car is parked in front and in comes Shashee and parks with the two cars literally kissing each other.

Here are the pics of that Matara trip.

Ranaviru Fund

Let me start by saying that I don’t believe in war, I’m more in the camp of Gandhi and Mandela who showed that although difficult you can achieve what you want through peaceful means. In short I don’t support the LTTE neither do I believe in a government that spends billions of dollars bombing it’s own people.

And every war takes it’s toll on people, leaving them mutilated, suffering and traumatized for life. The Ranaviru Fund is an effort by a few friends, some of whom I know and trust, and tries to provide some relief to those suffering.

Apparently one of the biggest needs for the veterans are gel socks and is used by amputees to help reduce their pain when the amputated stump rubs against the artificial limb. Unfortunately they cost money and they instead have to do with regular cotton socks which are ineffective in reducing pain and also wear off easily.

This is where we can help. A single gel sock costs about $10 and for the cost of a typical meal we can help reduce someone’s pain for at least a year. So take 5 minutes of your time to visit http://www.ranavirufund.org/ and make at least a $10 donation through PayPal.

Australia Day BBQ

A few pictures from the Australia Day BBQ, it was quite sunny luckily there was a nice breeze to keep us cool in the shade.

Getting ready.. Josh is wondering what everyone is up to.

 

Yummy…

 

Let’s eat!

 

Chathu couldn’t stop laughing for no apparent reason..

 

Josh and the twins.

 

Couldn’t fit everyone into the bench at once.

 

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Joshua and Rafael can play as much video games as they like

Sorry about the long break from posts. Just after Christmas, Rafael came down with the chicken pox which wasn’t so bad. He had a few spots for a couple of days and then it subsided.

The new year started with Imara getting it and that was bad, she’s just now fully recovered from it. So all in all it kept the father very busy.

So hopefully things are going to be a little easier on the poor dad, oh and we have Imara’s mum come down for a year.

Anyways back to the point. Over the holidays I bought an XBox 360, I did want a WII but they were too expensive and the XBox was on sale. Joshua is just two and too young to play with it but he likes us to put on the fish game for him.

Coming from a Sri Lankan background and never having played much video games I had been debating with myself and Imara too had her doubts on the kids playing video games but this informed article on Video Games has laid that to rest. Video games are good for the kids.

In fact I might start playing more games as well as reading more books whenever I do find the time.