Merill's meandering thoughts

Careers

2009-09-26T17:18:00.001+10:00

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

2009-08-14T16:43:00.001+10:00

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

2009-05-18T16:26:00.001+10:00

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

2009-05-01T14:17:00.001+10:00

This brought a smile to my face.

My Ideal Life

2009-04-30T09:12:00.001+10:00

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

2009-04-28T11:34:00.001+10:00

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

2009-04-20T08:46:00.001+10:00

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

2009-02-06T18:42:00.001+11:00

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

2009-01-28T08:41:00.001+11:00

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.

View Full Album

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

2009-01-22T09:28:00.001+11:00

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.

Went shooting

2008-12-11T09:11:00.001+11:00

So we went clay shooting yesterday with Adam Tyler (an Athen’s Olympic Bronze medalist and two time Commonwealth Gold medalist) showing us how it’s done.

After playing Counter Strike with the guys at office it felt good too hold a real live Beretta shot gun. Got four of the first five shots in the first round.

Here’s one where I hit the clay.

The Melbourne Unique World team!

Melbourne

2008-12-10T08:46:00.001+11:00

It’s been nearly four months since I moved to Melbourne and having been in Sydney six months prior, Melbourne was indeed a welcome change.

Although it’s very easy to forget how beautiful it is here. My favorite part of the daily commute is the ten minute walk through Fawkner Park (named after Melbourne’s co-founder).

Here’s a bird’s eye view of Fawkner park.

A few from today’s morning walk.

On sunny days we grab our lunch and head downstairs to have it at the park. It’s no wonder Melboune has consistently been at the top spot in the World’s Most Livable Cities list over the years.

Someone turns two

2008-12-07T08:46:00.001+11:00

It was Joshua’s 2nd birthday yesterday. All the kids had a blast at the local Playzone. Check out the rest of the pictures.

Rafael’s first steps

2008-12-03T11:25:00.001+11:00

Rafael took his first steps at home yesterday and unlike Joshua who had an audience to cheer his first step, Rafael had only his mamma to congratulate him.

I’ll try to get a video the next time he does it again. He’s a month ahead of when Joshua started walking.

Oh dear

2008-12-02T19:12:00.001+11:00

Oh Christmas Tree

2008-12-01T17:24:00.001+11:00

Looks like we weren’t the only people putting up the Christmas tree over the weekend. Nethmi seems to be having a whale of a time making up her own jingle.

In our case it wasn’t a jingle and we knew the tree wouldn’t last with our two rascals. So I get home today to find the tree missing all the decorations a two year old can reach.

And the culprit tired after a day’s work.

Breakfast with Joshua and Rafael

2008-11-29T09:50:00.003+11:00

When it comes to feeding we face a different problem to what I know most of my parent friends face.

Here’s a clip I took at breakfast today.

New shades

2008-11-29T08:32:00.001+11:00

I’ve been wearing the current pair for nearly three years now. The last pair I brought was when I was getting married. Since my insurance covered nearly 90% of the cost of a new pair I went ahead and got not one but two.

Most of the opticians here were offering a good deal where they gave a second pair free and even added tint on it for free. So I got a tinted pair for driving.

Something about the angle at which the sun rays fall in summer makes it very bright and the shades make a world of a difference.

So here’s a pic I took from my webcam.

Why another blog?

2008-11-29T07:53:00.000+11:00

I wanted a place to share stuff with my friends and family. I could have used merill.net but that is more of a techy blog and friends/family don't find that interesting likewise my colleagues at work and those who have subscribed won't find this interesting.