sunscreen and the meaning of lif

randy pausch, the guy who gave that "the last lecture" series, died yesterday. he was 47. in case you lived on mars these past few months and have not heard of randy, his lecture both in text form and video can be seen here;


which made me remember that sunscreen song. remember that? this is the original article it was based on;

Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young
A newspaper column by Mary Schmich, published by the Chicago Tribune on 01 June 1997.

Inside every adult lurks a graduation speaker dying to get out, some world-weary pundit eager to pontificate on life to young people who'd rather be Rollerblading. Most of us, alas, will never be invited to sow our words of wisdom among an audience of caps and gowns, but there's no reason we can't entertain ourselves by composing a Guide to Life for Graduates.

I encourage anyone over 26 to try this and thank you for indulging my attempt.Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97:

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.

You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't.

Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on.

Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel. Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

this 'n that

"animus facessere anima audere"

"the will to do, the soul to dare."

pearls.....

from an email doing the rounds.

1. expecting the world to treat u fairly coz u r a good person is like expecting the lion not to attack u coz u r a vegetarian. think about it.

2. if beauty isn't measured by outer appearance and what clothes we wear, but what we are inside. try going out naked tomorrow and see the admiration! at least you would have a good reason to keep your clothes on now!!

3. don't walk as if you rule the world, walk as if you don't care who rules the world! that's called attitude...! keep on rocking!

4. every lady hopes that her daughter will marry a better man than she did and is convinced that her son will never find a wife as good as his father did!!!

5. he was a good man. he never smoked, drank & had no affair. when hedied, the insurance company refused the claim. they said, he who never lived, cannot die!

6. only 20 percent girls have brains, rest have boyfriends!

7. all desirable things in life are either illegal, banned, expensive or married to someone else!

8. 10% of road accidents are due to drunken driving. which makes it a logical statement that 90% of accidents are due to driving without drinking!

moi

from a speech to the toastmasters club on 9th july 2008

In the wee hours of the morning in the middle of a hot August in 1959, up in Kandy, an elephant in the Kandy perahara, ran amok. 8 people died and scores were injured. Some were gored by the enraged pachyderm whilst many others were trampled during the ensuing human stampede. The incident is relevant not only because of the ensuing human tragedy but also because at the precise moment in time, in the Kandy hospital kicking and squalling, a child was born. That child was me and ever since then I have had a most peculiar relationship with elephants. The relationship is straight line and one dimensional. They see me. They get enraged. They charge. My friends tell me that this is not altogether unusual.

I have an early recollection of being taken to the Dehiwela zoo and standing near the elephant enclosure. An enormous trunk comes out of no where and swipes me flat. Elephants in the enclosure seem agitated. The incident was not connected with those at my birth and I survived my formative years without further trauma and no contact with the beasts as I was never taken to the zoo again. Then, in the early ‘80’s, I was posted to Trincomalee as branch manager to Aitken Spence Insurance where I had started my working carrier. I used to travel to Colombo for meetings on a little Yahama RS 125 motorcycle. One morning I was peacefully putt putting past a place called the Yakka Wangua on the Kantalai - Harbarana road, when out of the morning mist an elephant burst out of the thick jungle and ran madly after me. The encounters thereafter came thick and fast.

Handapanagala; and together with some friends we had gone down to the tank one evening to watch elephants. We were standing on a rock near the water and watching a herd in the distance, when from the nearby jungle another troop of the beasts approached. Two males erupted from the group and hurtled towards our group making us hurriedly scramble up the rock for safety. We were stuck there until well after night fell and had to be extricated by some other visitors. At Yala every time I visited with family or friends we had a close encounters with the animals whilst at Udawalawe the beasts appeared even more irritated. A couple of years ago at the park with some visiting cousins we sped round a track and were slap bang in the middle of a large herd. 5 of the animals immediately rushed the jeep trumpeting angrily. We were only saved by the tracker who leaned out of vehicle and shouted something at the animals. They stopped reluctantly, almost at the bonnet of our vehicle and stood shoulder to shoulder not allowing us to pass for a number of hours. Once again, we had to be rescued by a passing vehicle. More recently on a trip to Trinco with some cousins, we stopped at Habarana for an evening trip into the surrounding jungle. After a rather boring drive in the tall lemon grass we headed back to the Harbarana town when out of the gloom trumpeting madly – you guessed it – an elephant charged our jeep. I swear to you it looked the same as the one which charged my bike all those years ago.


I have no idea what this all means except that none of my family and friends will now come on holidays or trips with me where there is the remotest sniff of elephant. The only assumption that does make some logic is that, perhaps, I was a negative impact on elephants in some past existence.

In my life, elephantine issues are not restricted to encounters with the animals as I also have an unfortunate habit, like Don Quixote of old, of tilting at windmills. That is, taking on impossible issues. Two examples one from the distant past and one more recent will serve to illustrate my point.

In the late 70’s, the teaching staff in the college I was studying at, decided to go on strike. One of them, in their wisdom had assaulted the college Rector and had been thoroughly sacked and the others, in their wisdom, decided to take on the college and church authorities by striking. Not satisfied with that. this group of upstanding individuals went around from class to class, grade 1 right up to the AL’s classes asking them to walk out as well. They politely reminded the kids that they were in a position of power to decide on passing exams, university entrances etc. and it would be a healthy choice to support them. As senior prefects of the school, 5 of us decided that this was wrong any way you sliced it and decided to run the school ourselves. When the teachers did walk off one morning, the five of us divided the school into 5 broad areas and held the students in the classes. However, slowly as the day wore on one by one our colleagues found the task too difficult until by day end only two of us were left holding the fort, like Custer at his last stand. Subsequently, we had long serious meetings with the authorities, wrote lengthy reports, wrote protests to the Church authorities etc to no avail. The Church authorities transferred the Rector to another school, the teacher in question was reinstated and we resigned. My disdain of organized religion dates back to this period.

More recently, the professional association of which I am a council member was headed in a direction which was beneficial only to the larger more established members. Reasoning and lengthy meeting with them to take a more balanced view of the requirements of all members big and small were ignored. These were a group of people who are among the most powerful in the industry in which I earn a living. However, their actions were clearly self serving and a small group of us decided, after repeatedly failing to get them to see reason, to “un-elect” them at the Annual General Meeting of the association. This we successfully did and today the association’s activity is more in keeping with a democratic process than it used to be.


My life is peppered with these kind of issues which seem to charge out at me from the mist and fog of life. Most end with egg on my face but sometimes they succeed and then it seems to make all the other times worthwhile. I am resigned to and quite comfortable with this peculiar aspect of my character.

I am a Dutch Burger and the Dutch Burger Union in Colombo has about 171 regular members. That number is in decline. My particular ancestor landed in Colombo as an ensign on board a Dutch trading vessel in 1741. I am the last of my line left in Sri Lanka and when I die, the genealogical line in Sri Lanka, which I represent, dies out as well. My middle name sandwiched between two thorough Dutch names is “Lasantha” and I used to get kidded a lot by my cousins and friends about it. However, when I was old enough for such things to annoy me I asked my father about it. He told me that I was born during what was a mass exodus of burghers from Sri Lanka due to the polices and strategies of the political thinkers of the time. No one knew where we would be in the years ahead and times were uncertain but he wanted, he said, to gift me with a permanent connection to the country of my birth and which would, no matter what, be a part of me. I retain that fierce pride in being a Sri Lankan – and never mind the charging elephants, and these days the occasional tiger.

ajantha mendia - from "the mbb" of 30th june 2008

this one is on cricket. so those of you who prefer lacrosse, may want to hit the delete button now. was watching the asia cup match between sri lanka and parkistan yesterday. chasing sri lanka's healthy 302 parkistan were not doing too shabbily by the 22nd over at 100 odd for 2 when along with murali, jayawardene introduced the new "spinner" ajantha mendis. the two of them bowled in tandem and the match effectively ended for the parkistanis. it was a what spin bowling is all about.

mendis played cricket for kandalama and moratu maha vidyalya and then for army in division 2. but, according to his coach in the army he developed all kinds of variety to his bowling on his own. flippers, off spin, leg breaks, googlies, top spinners and something called a carrom ball - all in one over. watching murali and ajantha at the wicket was the perfect treat for a head colded sunday evening. brilliant stuff.

mendis is a future of sri lankan spin bowling and i would advise you lot to go watch him. the jayasuriya of spin bowling.

read more about him here;

yes two cents, you can leave that stephen king at home.

talking of jayasuriya, he slammed a 100 against the hapless bangladeshis' today ( sri lanka 282 for 5 in 42 overs at the moment). it is also his 39th birthday. only ( the great) boycott was slightly older when he scored a century in one day cricket. some people ( not me of course) say he ( boycott not jayasuriya) batted like me. and, i too am nearing 39.

ps. sri lanka won the asia cup by beating india in the finals on sunday. jayasuriya scored a scintillating century and ajantha mendis had 6 for 13!