Circle of Life

This week has been hectic- My neighbor died, an elderly lady; one of my good friends got married, awesome party; my cousin sister gave birth to a baby girl, sweet little thing. All in one week. This does put life into perspective.

I suppose it happens everyday, every minute, every second, somewhere to someone.

When you look at the world from a distance, all seems fine. It's just another lonely planet. The closer you get, you start to see the chaos- the joy, the sorrow, the life and the death, the wars, and the peace, the truth and the lies, the sick and the healthy, the generous and the selfish, the brave and fearful, all trying to make or take something of value out of this circle of life.

:-)

How to provide 'Email Subscription' Feature to your Blog

There are those who prefer to email subscriptions vs Feeds via a Feed reader. To satisfy this type of audience you must include on your blog/Web page:

a) Email subscription Form

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

* Add email address and click 'Subscribe' to demonstrate how the form works.

b) or Email Subscription Link

Subscribe to Absolute Truth : Chatra Nakkawita by Email

* Click on above link to demonstrate how the link works.

You can do this by burning your blog or feed address via FeedBurner and then publicizing the newly generated feed for email subscriptions.

Here's a step by step guide to do just that, courtesy of BloggerTricks.com

IMPORTANT: Step 6 in this guide is now made easy by FeedBurner by providing one click facility to include either a single link subscription or a subscription form widget on your blog/Web page, without having to copy paste any code to a manually added HTML/JavaScript Google Gadget.

Rustic Cooking

Visiting a friend at the Jesuit House, Dalugama, Kelaniya last weekend I had the privilege of meeting his superior who was busy preparing a Rustic Roast Chicken for a special Easter dinner. Although I could not taste it, I heard it was delicious, something worth trying out.

Here's Google search engine's number 1 ranked Rustic Roast Chicken recipe you may want to try :


Taste Sensations: How To Make Rustic Roast Chicken

Here are some other rustic chicken dishes you should take a look at:

Rustic chicken with Pasta
Rustic chicken stew
Rustic chicken soup
Rustic chicken noodle soup with spinach
Rustic chicken salad with spring vegetables
Rustic chicken club

'If' by Rudyard Kipling

I was introduced to this poem in school, when we were still very young children, and required to by heart it for our elocution classes. I did not know at the time how practically this poem was going to help me in my adult life.

Read it today, read it tomorrow, read it in another month, months or years, it will have some new personal meaning to you.

In my opinion, believe this poem epitomizes the Buddhist philosophy of the path of moderation. In a world where extremism is a fashion, Rudyard Kipling reminds us to keep our feet well grounded, while we move through the snares of the world to achieve what we believe is true and is of value...

Here's If by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

How does a non-Google Account Holder Join a Google Group?

This simple guide will help invitees of the Ranaviru Support Google Group to sign-in and accept their invitations, especially those who do not hold a Google Account.

Getting Started - Sign in and Accept Invitation

1. Visit the Ranaviri Support Google Group [1]

2. Click on Sign-in [2]

3.1 If the e-mail address to which the invitation was sent is already a Google account then simply sign in using the box below

3.2 If the e-mail address to which the invitation was sent is NOT already a Google account then, you must enable it as a Google account by clicking on Create an acccount now [3].

This link will take you to a form which will require you to provide some information. Make sure you give the email address to which the invitation was sent to, at the field requesting 'Your current email address'. After submitting this form you will be taken to your new Google account (with access to all other Google services) where you will find Ranaviru Support Group under 'Groups'.

Update Membership & Profile

1. You can easily update your Google Group profile at http://groups.google.com/groups/profile?myprofile

2. Membership settings control email subscriptions, your nickname to this group etc. You can also remove yourself from the group here at your will. These settings can be updated at http://groups.google.com/group/ranaviru-support/subscribe

References

[1]http://groups.google.com/group/ranaviru-support

[2]https://www.google.com/groups/signin?cd=US&hl=en&ssip=g3&_done=http%3A%2F%2Fgroups.google.com%2Fgroup%2Franaviru-support

[3]https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount?hl=en&cd=US&service=groups2&followup=http%3A%2F%2Fgroups.google.com%2Fgroups%2Fauth%3F_done%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fgroups.google.com%252Fgroup%252Franaviru-support&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fgroups.google.com%2Fgroups%2Fauth%3F_done%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fgroups.google.com%252Fgroup%252Franaviru-support

Resources

[4] Do I need a Google Account to use Google Groups?

[5] Google Group Help Desk

The Happy Prince & Other Stories

Children love listening to stories. We all have our favorites from the past. Mine was 'The Happy Prince' by Oscar Wilde. My father had read a lot in his youth and was of in particular a fan of Russian literature, something he passed on to me. Any free time he had with my sister and I, I recall asking him to repeat the stories of The Happy Prince, The Selfish Giant, both by Oscar Wilde and The Russian folktale of Masha and the Bear.

No matter how many times I had heard it before, these stories could never exhaust me. In fact, they remind me why I believe what I do. As children these stories molded our thought patterns and our sense of morals and ethics.

Stories are seeds of lessons, morals and values of life that are sown in the hearts and minds of children that grow with them. I recently purchased the complete fairy tale collection of Hans Christan Anderson as a future investment. I confess that I am a sucker for books, and a trip to the book store means that it is going to take longer than anticipated and of course bad news for my wallet.

With no further ado let me bring to you THE HAPPY PRINCE:

High above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince. He was gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes he had two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby
glowed on his sword-hilt.

He was very much admired indeed. "He is as beautiful as a weathercock," remarked one of the Town Councillors who wished to gain a reputation for having artistic tastes; "only not quite so
useful," he added, fearing lest people should think him unpractical, which he really was not.

"Why can't you be like the Happy Prince?" asked a sensible mother of her little boy who was crying for the moon. "The Happy Prince never dreams of crying for anything.".... Read full story.

* Find other fairy tales of Oscar Wilde

This above all- to thine own self be true

In Act I, scene iii of Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the character of Polonius prepares his son Laertes for travel abroad with a speech (55-81) in which he directs the youth to commit a "few precepts to memory." Among these percepts is the now-familiar adage "neither a borrower nor a lender be" (75) and the dictum: "This above all: to thine own self be true,/And it must follow, as the night the day,/Thou cans't not be false to any man "(78-80).

Polonius’ Advice to Laertes
Hamlet I, Scene iii, 55-81

LORD POLONIUS:
Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame! 55
The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
And you are stay’d for. There; my blessing with thee!
And these few precepts in thy memory
See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act. 60
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch’d, unfledged comrade. Beware 65
Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
Bear’t that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, 70
But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be; 75
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man. 80
Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!



Watch Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet (1990) starring Mel Gibson.

View My Travels on Google Maps

You can now view my travels abroad on Google Maps


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Time Saving Truth from Falsehood and Envy

This is a faithful photographic reproduction of the original two-dimensional work of art, Time Saving Truth from Falsehood and Envy 1737, a painting by François Lemoyne (1688-1737), supposedly completed on the day before the artist committed suicide.

Source: Wikipedia Commons, Full Resolution: 780 × 966 pixels, file size: 197 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg

This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. This applies to the United States, Canada, the European Union and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years.

On Candid Camera? Not Quite

Check out photographs on Flickr of Charith & I taken by Hiranya Malwatta for a specific project. I believe we did not do too bad for first timers. Comments are nevertheless very interesting.

Good job by Hiranya akki!

I hate people...

I hate people who are liars, who seem to have issues of other people's success. I hate people who cannot be direct about their opinions and what they are feeling. I hate people who have nothing better to do, but gossip. I hate people who think little of what they do not know. I hate people who say one thing and do another, such hypocrites. I hate people who just cannot bear to listen. I hate people who are just full of themselves that they are blind to the rest of the world. I hate people who are manipulative for their own gain. I hate people who have a laugh over others' tragedies, yet pretend to be sympathetic. I hate people who think that words can fix it all. I hate people who think that there is only one road in life, the one they are taking.

I hate people who does not know the value or the beauty of nature. I hate people who does not care for or love children, sometimes even their own. I hate people who are not willing to learn and grow. I hate people, like politicians who pretend to be something they are not for the sake of popularity. I hate people with double standards. I hate people who quote the bible, but act like the devil. Hypocrites, I suppose they were their during the beginning of time and always will be. Sadly the world is full of them.