New Year – Thanks and Sorry
This is the Sri Lankan New Year. I’ll be in Arugam Bay with my family till late Saturday. Since it is the end of the year I’d like to say a few thank yous, apologies, and regrets.
Thank Yous
I’d like to thank Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne for being the greatest person I’ve ever met.
I’d like to thank Krishna, Saman and Jeevan for all the work they did during the tsunami days. Sometimes it hurts when no one says thank you, so I’m saying it. You guys went without sleep for days and I remember. That goes for Bianca, Yamuna, Ravi, Nishantha, and all the IT kids. Everyone really. Everyone who worked tirelessly and namelessly, you are appreciated.
I’d like to thank Pragathi and Ashwin for their work on IT Times (which I’d originally titled iTimes). I flamed out on the management and walked, but those guys handled it and pushed the magazine through. It is on the stands now and I wish them the best of luck.
Apologies
I’d like to apologize to Sanjiva and Sahana for being a dick. I was pretty vicious in my criticism of Sahana, not here, but in comments and the Leisure Times (Sahana being a online tsunami data collection system). I wasn’t offering anything constructive and I’m sorry.
I’d like to apologize to LIRNEasia for crashing their servers. Twice. Tha says mistakes are part of innovation, but I have got to hold it down.
I’d like to apologize to everyone who I promised more than I could deliver. I would also like to apologize for being late like a crackhead with payments and articles and stuff.
Uh, I would also like to apologize to someone’s mom for sneaking out of your daughter’s bedroom at 6 in the morning and thinking you couldn’t see me. Someone tells me that I ran when you caught me, but I don’t remember that. That was a long time ago but I still feel like a dumbass.
While we’re on archival items, I’m sorry for fully scratching the shit out of your parents car, Sha.
I’m going to go ahead and issue a blanket apology to my parents and sisters.
Regrets
I’m a little hurt that one of the websites I worked hardest to build has kicked me off as admin. It was a labor of love for me and it hurts not seeing the control panel anymore. I hope you take good care of it.
I am so sorry that I spent the first day of the Tsunami at home, thinking it would pass.
That’s about all. Bonne Année and Subha Aluth Avuruddak Weva everyone.
I started off not really liking General Sarath Fonseka, him being part of the aggressive war effort. I didn’t support the war (largely cause I thought it would fail), and I thought Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Fonseka were gleefully stomping everything. Fonseka even came out and said “I strongly believe that this country belongs to the Sinhalese but there are minority communities and we treat them like our people,” in 2008 (
General Sarath Fonseka was arrested on a bunch of trumped up charges, but mainly for daring to threaten Mahinda in a Presidential election. Despite his poor health, Fonseka was arrested in February 2010 and sentence to three years. Word on the street now, however, is that he’ll be released soon. Like any day now. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has told 
I’ve been testing a lot of apps. A very interesting one is iPlayboy, from Playboy magazine. It’s bad porn but a good magazine, especially since you can read issues from its cultural heyday – the Mad Men era of the 60s.
I’m going to get back to blogging. I buy a shitload of stuff on my iPad. Not that I like spending money, and the exchange rate terrifies me, but it’s just so easy, and so good. For example, I’ve been reading comics again. Spiderman, and 
Apology accepted; no hard feelings. I hope you will find the time and energy to help shape Sahana in the future; we (LSF) nearly have the funding lined up to continue it as a proper open source project to try to develop it into a truly useful global resource.
Sanjiva.
Esema Weva!