I’ve put away the whole online anonymity thing, and moved to my own domain. A portfolio of sorts.
I’m now at http://www.dinidudealwis.com
And yes, my name is Dinidu de Alwis.

Due to a persisting back problem, I’ve been looking at disposing the current laptop that I carry around, and buying a lighter ultra-portable notebook. The current Acer Aspire 5570 I have, manages to have decently good spec whilst maintaining quite an impressive (<2kg) weight.
For me, replacing the current notebook has both pros and cons. Replacing […]

I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. We are getting old. I’m hitting twenty-something now, and kids in buses call me uncle instead of Aiya. Us getting older means our parents and grandparents are getting older too. I’ve kind of been conditioned to death in a sense, cos my maternal grandmother has been really […]

Yesterday was an interesting day. I had two comments which didn’t contribute (positively or negatively) to the posts, but were personal attack hate comments. I was smart enough to figure out that replying to these was the last thing I should do.
After consulting Deane who is a veteran blogger, on what to do about this, […]

Dayan Jayatillake had an after-lunch chat recently with a couple of folks, where he moderated a panel discussion on the now defunct Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission. SLMM has apparently closed down their website also. Total “Pedurath akulang gedara yanawa“
Dayan was stern about the government’s position of “look, but don’t touch” position :
“Engagement, yes; permanent monitoring […]

After a short break, BoyToys is back with a new mobile. Readers might remember the Nokia 5610 and the N81 that I looked at a couple of weeks back. So here I am, with a spanking new, Nokia 5310. This was something I was eyeing for a while now. And a friend of mine bought […]

Three posts in one day. That’s a first for PBG, and it shows how bored I am.
It was pretty much the same yesterday. So I did a bit of rhyming and came up with this, which I sent to a couple of friends who might have work for me.
This is me being me, and checking […]

The Sri Lanka Youth Parliament is a youth led, youth run initiative, whose aim is to mobilize and create a network of young people to bring about positive and sustainable change to issues that affect youth and their communities in Sri Lanka .
The first step towards this endeavor was the ‘first sitting of the […]

Mahinda Samarasinghe made a breakthrough statement at the UN Human Rights Council on the 4th.
Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights, Mahinda Samarasinghe responding to the earlier statements made by a few countries on the situation in Sri Lanka strongly refuted the assertion that the situation has worsened.
He said “We regret one or two […]

Mahinda Samarasinghe made a breakthrough statement at the UN Human Rights Council on the 4th.
Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights, Mahinda Samarasinghe responding to the earlier statements made by a few countries on the situation in Sri Lanka strongly refuted the assertion that the situation has worsened.
He said “We regret one or two […]

Apparently there have been some issue with the creation of a mosque at Kadawatha Road down Dehiwala. Navigating on Balance blog had a backgrounder.
In Ramazan this year, some Muslims started a thakkiya (small mosque) on Kadawatha Road , Dehiwela and were conducting tharaweeh prayers. The mosque was operating on a very low key and causing […]

In it’s never ending stream of initiatives to combat the LTTE, the Government recently came up with the Civil Defence Force, or the Civil Arakshaka Balakaya. It’s something in the lines of semi-trained armed civilians.
This, whilst being in the lines of Civil Vigilance Committees, has the added (dis)advantage of being armed. This is what I […]

In it’s never ending stream of initiatives to combat the LTTE, the Government recently came up with the Civil Defence Force, or the Civil Arakshaka Balakaya. It’s something in the lines of semi-trained armed civilians.
This, whilst being in the lines of Civil Vigilance Committees, has the added (dis)advantage of being armed. This is what I […]

In it’s never ending stream of initiatives to combat the LTTE, the Government recently came up with the Civil Defence Force, or the Civil Arakshaka Balakaya. It’s something in the lines of semi-trained armed civilians.
This, whilst being in the lines of Civil Vigilance Committees, has the added (dis)advantage of being armed. This is what I […]

In it’s never ending stream of initiatives to combat the LTTE, the Government recently came up with the Civil Defence Force, or the Civil Arakshaka Balakaya. It’s something in the lines of semi-trained armed civilians.
This, whilst being in the lines of Civil Vigilance Committees, has the added (dis)advantage of being armed. This is what I […]

In it’s never ending stream of initiatives to combat the LTTE, the Government recently came up with the Civil Defence Force, or the Civil Arakshaka Balakaya. It’s something in the lines of semi-trained armed civilians.
This, whilst being in the lines of Civil Vigilance Committees, has the added (dis)advantage of being armed. This is what I […]

Finally today in the afternoon I managed to make this template I found work !.. I fixed it up for my test blog and during the week hope to have it up on this blog.. Ok too any ardent bloggers who will shrug and call me a loser.. it might be easy for Yo…

Finally today in the afternoon I managed to make this template I found work !.. I fixed it up for my test blog and during the week hope to have it up on this blog.. Ok too any ardent bloggers who will shrug and call me a loser.. it might be easy for Yo…

The reason for 2 week absence was due to the myriad of assignments I had to complete. Sad to say I still have not finished them.. It all comes back down to my being distracted easily..:P.. The IIT talent show Stage Craft 2008 was a blast. With B’n'S on…

I was on my way to office, which is located at Lorensz Road, and was coming in a bit early. So I got off Wellawatta Junction to get some DVDs, and was walking towards Lorensz Road, when I had a brainwave. I’m prone to having brain waves. Some are actully brilliant ideas which materialize beautifully, […]

Mahawewa is in the news today! This formerly unheard of township near Chilaw where I live in, was on the news today due to a 5kg Claymore mine being strapped to a transformer (Not the kind that gets up and walks, but the other Electricity Board kind).
Claymore mines are anti-personnel mines. They are designed to […]

(Naïve) Foreigners coming into our little Banana Republic notice the armed military presence on the roads, and come to two conclusions.

Sri Lanka is at war (truth)
Sri Lanka has an awesome military strength (far from the truth)

These two conclusions are also shared by the general public , and is fueling the pointless fighting in the North […]

First it was Shamzy, and then it was Ooorumiyaa. People have started accusing me of making the Mirror Magazine something of a Me, Myself and I kind of affair. I kind of write three columns (Godaya, BoyToys and PinkBoxingGloves), and last week was the only week where I had all three going on at the same […]

Tired of the same old look of my blog I decided to look around for new templates. Doing a simple google Search just netted me more of the same sort of templates I’m used to seeing. Feeling rather dejected I went to check my Entrecard account and was br…

It’s was supposed to be the second best thing since sliced bread (me being the first). Apple announced it in January 2007, sales began in the US in June the same year. Even hardcore Mac-haters like me were eagerly following it’s development. And now, I’ve got my hands on one.
In a nutshell, it’s a highly […]

Most of us do it. I did it once, closed it down, and I’ve started again now. Sometimes it an addiction, sometimes it’s a soapbox, sometimes it’s a result of “utter joblessness” (The Gutter Flower). It’s blogging. And now, the Sri Lankan Blogosphere seems to be getting a new bunch: Teen Bloggers. What makes them […]

It’s the reason why birth rates in November spike, roses cost an arm and a leg, men go bankrupt, chocolate shops are broken into, and the reason suicide rates reach the sky. And now it’s over, I’m going to do a post-mortem on V-Day.As most of you might have realized by now, Godaya is single. […]

God seems to be playing quite a role in world politics nowadays. First it was god telling Bush that he should attack Iraq. Marina Mahathir’s latest post talks about how pro-Islamic movements in Malaysia are demanding everything from rejecting Malaysia as secular state, to appointing senators to promote islam and the welfare of muslims.
And even […]

And it’s led by none other than Nalin de Silva. In the Daily News Midweek Review on the 13th of February, Nalin takes responsibility on behalf of the Veemansaka Parshadaya, an organization of which he is treasurer. And then he goes on the typical I’m-not-getting-laid-so-I’m-so-frustrated manner of bashing western society for everything that’s wrong with […]

Did a bit of a modding the blog today. Wanted to sort out my articles by columns, and this is the best way I can think of. Deane is supposed to do up my own .com site after he’s done the Beyond Borders website, but knowing him, that’s going to take some time. He’s one […]

For those of you out there who know me personally and know my financial status of being constantly broke, this is not about my personal level of poverty. Rather, this is a reflection of “poverty” as experienced by the masses.
One of my dreams came true last week, as I had the chance to attend a […]

Had an interesting lunch date today with a rather special friend of mine . who I was meeting for the first time. So wanting to do something out of the ordinary two of my friends and I went looking for soft toys on Galle road.. As expected this proved e…

I was at the Sri Lanka Press Institute the whole of last week, attending a workshop on advanced photo journalism conducted by Fojo. Since I’m a wannabe photographer, I was eagerly looking forward to this and the whole experience was worth it.
I’ve been into the arts of the lenses for just over two years now. […]

In my wondering around kollpity I came across this quaint little food place in Liberty Plaza. it was during the lunch after completing my regular tour of my the mobile phone shops , I found my self wanting for a bite to eat but short on cash as usual. …

Mithra Sree Karunanayake’s article on last week’s Sunday Divaina, attempts to explore one of the favorite topics of Sri Lanka’s neo-conservatives: Culture and International Schools .
Whilst most of the article is done in the typical International School bashing manner that one expects, Mithra makes a couple of valid points in his article.
He talks of the […]

A circus is nothing without its clowns . Chaps clad in bright and horribly clashing colors running around squirting water and squabbling animatedly using antic that would be considered rude in any other social context, all this is done for the amusemen…

When I started My blog it was just a whim that kept growing with time.. I never really thought about the world of opportunities that Open up too you when you join the ranks of bloggers out there. I do not profess to be a guru of blogging I have a long …

Godaya went to very Sri Lankan Home Coming last week.
First off, I think we are the only country in the world with the tradition of having a Home Coming. It’s one of those (grammatically wrong) Sri Lankan phrases which refer to a unique Sri Lankan practice. The roots of the said practice (as far as […]

Whichever way a person looks at it, Sri Lanka is in the middle of a fully fledged war. And in conflict situations, the invisible impact like emotional scars and disorder of day to day life can be longer lasting, and can run deeper than the visible impacts, such as loss of life and destruction of […]

Apparently, quite a bit of people do, including some Sri Lankans. Some people like Deane has e-stickers on their blogs. And I’ve seen a few posts regarding the election at different blogs.
I’m disappointed at the results of the primaries. I was hoping that either Kucinich or Thompson would go on for a bit more. They […]

MP Sripathi Sooriayaarachchi died today of a tragic car accident. The SUV he was traveling in ran off the road and hit a tree sideways, killing him and four others. You can read the Asian Tribune article on it here.
Ironically, he lost his Ministerial portfolio exactly one year ago, when he left the Mahinda-led government […]

I’m generally cynical of people who work for children, or child related causes. This has been fostered by years of observing people who work for, or claim to work for children.
People love working on child related issues, mainly for the feel good factor. The feel good factor, is a result of the feel-bad factor used […]

“Because sex education is rarely sexy,
And Erotica is rarely safe.
Putting the sexy back into safer sex.”
Ever heard of the Pleasure Project? One of the few organizations working on the “sexy” aspect of safer sex. I had the pleasure of being at one of their workshops last August, during the 8th ICAAP.
Those of us who actually […]

It’s been the subject of much controversy since the olden days. It has been associated with everything from undying romance to utter moral breakdown: pre-marital sex. We spoke to a couple of young people from various backgrounds and of varying ages, and asked them for their opinions on the matter. The responses, to say the […]

My much loved ex-boss used to say that nobody learned from Bush as much as Mahinda did, which to this day holds true. Bush marketed the war in such a way that he got almost everything he wanted. The same is true for dearest Mahinda Mama, but in his case the perks of the war […]

A retreat to simplicity and idyllic island paradise , a place where wonders abound and where kicking back and relaxing is an way off life. This was what our country was and should have been , as we sit at the eve of the dawning of our 60th year of inde…

All of us sooner or later wish that during the course of our day that we could have just one moment of peace , or one moment where there aren’t a thousand pressing matters that need your attention , basically were time stands still. I know that may s…

Nilma Dole in her article titled Menage a Trois on the Sunday Observer on the 20th of January, narrates the “true story” told to her by a macho man about one of his sexual escapades. This (not-so) brilliant attempt by Nilma at feature writing with a dash of erotica proves several things to me, including […]

Nilma Dole in her article titled Menage a Trois on the Sunday Observer on the 20th of January, narrates the “true story” told to her by a macho man about one of his sexual escapades. This (not-so) brilliant attempt by Nilma at feature writing with a dash of erotica proves several things to me, including […]

I think in a previous post I might have discussed the fact that I was planning on doing the SCJP exam last year.. Well I finally sat for it today… And I passed !.. The relief I felt at that Particular moment was so intense its some thing one can unde…