A few minutes ago, Facebook started testing out a new structure for their website and offered users a chance to switch between the new and the old profiles. Whereas I was able to switch between structures, a contact in London was not given the option, so I assume FB must be testing in batches.

My first impressions were not very favourable, but that could just be due to my not being familiar with the layout. The new design is definitely more roomy and makes better use of the free space in the previous design, but it seems to have lost its sharpness, and clean cut lines.

The bar on the left that held short cuts to your applications is gone, and that seems to be a disadvantage. That bar was like your tool bar in photoshop, giving you quick access to all you need. At present that seems to be the biggest loss. The application bar just becomes a tab at the top of your screen.

On your profile, its just your feed, wall and friends. The applications and everything else gets relegated to tabs along the top of your profile.

The advantage is that it makes the blessed profile easier to download, which is much appreciated on some junk filled profiles, but i still miss the side bar.

I wonder what their other changes will be, but I do hope it doesn’t involve us having to do major reorganizing of our own profiles.

Have you ever had that kind of weekend where you are bored and stuck at home, where the only face you see is that of the take out guy, and all you have for company is the internet?

No?

You mean its just me? Damn..

Well when all else fails, there is always youtube.. I found this ventriloquist comedian called Jeff Dunham because of whom i nearly suffered a stroke cos I was laughing so hard. I don’t find comedians very funny, but this guy cracks me up. It’s all in the puppets! Here is Achmed the dead terrorist for you..

And then I happened across my new favourite band. They do Symphonic Metal, or Symphonic Rock if you want to nitpick.. Don’t you wonder why the leads are almost always women? Makes for wonderful sound though..

And then to start off another boring week in this awful humidity with crazed politicians, I read that Buddhist priests are performing funeral services for dogs.. It seems like they think animals are more in need of compassion than humans.

No this is not a story about Britney Spears and a drunk plastic surgeon. Instead it is about this nice old lady who is a relative of mine. She simply loves helping people, and, for more years than i have been alive, she has done whatever she can raising money for orphans, stitching them clothes, giving them food and gift hampers during Christmas. One day, she decided to stitch dresses for a bunch of girls at an orphanage and gave the caretaker a list of measurements she needed. When the list came back to her and she ran her eyes over it, she noticed that the bust measurements were slightly strange. Instead of the measurements you might expect, she saw numbers like ‘9′, ‘11′, and even the occasional ‘N/A’, which of course is strange for the most obvious of reasons. So she went to the caretaker and questioned her about the methods she used to measure the busts of the girls. Well, it seems that the caretaker in all confidence did measure the chest area, but in a most unorthodox way. She measured the circumference of the breast, instead of the bust area, which would explain the N/A for some of the girls.

To this day I wonder what type of dresses the girls thought they were going to get, and what a scene it would have been during that measuring session….

If there is one thing i believe about religion in general, its that people should have the freedom to practice it to the satisfaction of their conscience. This makes sense as long as one group’s practice of religion does not interfere with another group’s right of freedom. When religious freedom gets curtailed, I get real panicky about the state of a country. All religions have aspects and principles of righteousness, justice, and kindness in them, but sometimes people grab it and twist it and pervert it to cater to their own mixed values and malice.

I have admired the philosophy that is Buddhism for some time. The concept of temperance, of a middle path, of kindness and tolerance are all things i admire and try to follow myself in some form. I don’t kill, I don’t eat meat, I don’t drink; and yet these very traits are found strange in a country that should be upholding the principles of their ‘State’ religion. Instead, the ones who should be leading and guiding the people in their way of life are instead dirtying their hands in secular politics, playing power games, and of course beating up practitioners of other religions.

Tamils get the brunt of the bad feelings here in Sri Lanka, the Muslims their share, but the Christians are not far behind. Preachers have been beaten, churches damaged, worshipers abused, and threats tossed around for many years now. I personally know Sinhalese Christians who have been beaten up by gangs lead by monks solely for the crime of having worship in their homes, I know of buildings that have been burned for the same reason. On the 6th of this month, the Calvary Church at Thalahena was the latest victim of Buddhist violence. Four Buddhist monks led a mob into the church, vandalizing it and beating up the preachers and elders and threatening to burn the church down with the members in it. I wonder how much merit a dead preacher would get them? Normally I would try to write neutrally about religious issues, and try not to focus too much on the religion but rather on the issue. In this case however, the mob was LED by monks and there is no hiding the fact that this attack is religiously motivated. The violence here was premeditated and unworthy of what is principally a peaceful way of life. (Needless to say to say the police were reluctant to keep the peace in this situation)

What is as disturbing is the blatant display of hate by certain monks with no thought as to how they portray Buddhism to the world. At the Thalahena incident, the monks boasted of having attacked some 23 churches already and also stated that

..it was they who made the laws in the land and it would be they who would break the laws

One of the monks even admitted to having underworld connections.

Consider the words of the Ven. Thero of Bhodirajaramaya (during an interview regarding the Middeniya rally) when asked if the mob burned a picture of the Virgin Mary he said:

If The Sunday Leader wants a news story I could set fire to a cross with Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary’s photos and send it to your newspaper.

If religious leaders like the ones mentioned have no peace and tolerance in their heart how can we expect the public to learn proper precepts from them? They should either reanalyze their beliefs or start a whole new religion of violence altogether because at present there is not even a pretense of piety in the violence they commit.

I love music. I love listening to very many different types and instances of music ranging from classical instrumental to alternative rock, depending on how i feel at the moment. I had Four Seasons playing in my room at an age when most of my classmates were listening to Backstreet Boys and I used to attend Parikrama concerts instead of buying the latest Westlife cd (Gosh!). But for some reason, I was never able to get the hang of Jazz. I tried listening to it, kept it playing in my room while i was in high school, but it never did call my name.

Until now, that is.

About two months ago, I started listening to the Dave Koz radio show and the sound that came out of my speakers was like honey. When the sirens sang to Ulysses, I’ll bet you a sax that was no pop that he heard, baby!

Jazz is a mellow mature type of music, un-canned and handmade. Its flavour not only consists of its ingredients but also overtones of where it comes from. That probably explains why it took me so long to enjoy it: it requires a certain state of mind. Now if you’d visit me while I work, you probably hear strains of a trumpet hovering around my computer, or you’d hear a sax swimming around the rooms of my home on a quiet evening. Its wonderfully relaxing, and does not disturb my thought processes at all. Some of my first memories of Jazz were Kenny G, and later Dave Koz, but now you’d probably find other names on my play list (If you happen to grab my notebook away from me), names like Vandross, the lovely Sade, Chris Botti and George Benson. I have been jazzed, and it looks like there is no turning back. I suggest you try it, it’s quite addictive..