How I utilize my travel time

In the modern day almost all the people travel long distances to get to their workplace, school, or may be on vacations and so on. Have you ever wondered how much of your time is spent on travelling alone?

Well, in Sri Lanka, travelling even short distances takes a considerable amount of time. For example to get to my workplace by bus it takes around 1 ½ hours and to come back it takes nearly 2 hours. This is merely a 25 km ride. Doing a small calculation I found out that it is approximately 20% of my active day time.

When travelling I see that most of the people just do nothing while they are travelling. This article is about the way I utilize my travel time and if you agree with me you could also do the same or do something better.

So what activities could you do while travelling in the bus, train or even in Aero plane? I don’t travel at all by plane or by train. My usual method of public transport is by bus. And the following are the activities that I do while travelling in the bus.

1. Read a book
2. Sleep
3. Thinking about articles to write on

From what I see, handful of people sleeps, like I do while some listen to music or radio stations on the phone. But I hardly see people reading in the bus.

Sir Francis Bacon once said that “Reading maketh a full man”. In this age of information technology fewer people have an interest in reading. Even I, a software engineer by profession, (just started) am having a very hard time in reading. If I do get my hands on a good novel I can read it without much of a problem. But when it comes to text books and the newspapers it’s not easy to sit and read. But that is something that I should improve on.

When I tell people that I read in the bus, they tell me that it gives them a headache. It is not surprising that people get headaches because the roads in Sri Lanka aren’t the best in the world. Even in the city of Colombo you can find roads with pot holes right in the middle. Therefore it is not surprising people having headaches while reading in the bus. I also do get them from time to time but that doesn’t make me stop reading.

I have heard my mother telling me that in Japan people read newspapers while going in the bus. Since the text is in small columns, what they do is fold the paper as much as they can so that they can read it column wise and also not disturbing the person seated beside. She has also told me that in England, when the harry potter mania was at its peak she has seen people of various ages read it while travelling in the bus.

You might think that how come sleeping in the bus isn’t a waste of time. The profession I do involves in me looking at the monitor screen full 8 hours. And also when I go home most of the time I’m on the computer. This makes your eyes really tired and sleeping that hour in the bus makes a lot of difference. And on top of it when you wake up you feel refreshed. I mostly sleep on the way home, when it is too dark to read. Another thing that people say is what if you miss the stop? Over the years of travelling in the bus I have figured out that people have a sense of where they should wake up even while sleeping. For example, if I happen to fall asleep while going to work, I wake a halt or before the halt that I should get down. The fact that Sri Lankan buses travelling in extremely slow pace may also be one fact that I don’t miss the halt. But on the way home I get down at the bus station there it is perfectly ok to sleep to my heart’s content. But even so, I wake up before it stops at the station.

I should also mention that, some of the most creative ideas come when you travel. There are numerous incidents where people have come up with such ideas. One such incident that I can think of is where J.K. Rowling came up with her life changing idea of “Harry Potter”. It was when she was travelling from Manchester to London on the train (flowrider, 2008). May be you could also come up with an idea worth multi-millions. All you need is a creative mind and time to think. Travelling time is ideal for it.

Taking that into consideration, I also think about that what articles to write from time to time, while travelling. Most of them are just ideas, sometimes I write them but I don’t feel like putting them up for display.

So don’t waste precious travel time chatting nonsense with people, hanging on the phone chatting or staring outside aimlessly. Do something worthwhile.

Another major chapter of life comes to an end

In the wee hours of the 31^st May 2010, I got up because my mind was telling me to wake up. I had set the alarm to 6.30am but when I got up to see it was still 4.30am. If it was a regular day I would have said to myself “Oh! What the hell, I’ll go to sleep again”, but this was no ordinary day. It is day that the second biggest chapter of my life comes to an end.

I was to conduct a presentation about the Final Year Project I have done, and Viva to conclude it. I said to myself, “Why don’t you practice your presentation instead of going sleep like every other day”. That’s how the last day of my B.Sc (Hons) Software Engineering degree started.

After the usual “getting ready” war with my mum in the morning, I was there at IIT by 8am. I was the first to arrive at the lab as usual, and setup my laptop to start practicing my presentation again. My presentation and viva was scheduled at 2.30 in the afternoon so I had plenty of time in my hands to practice.

As the day went by fellow undergraduates trickled into the lab to setup their computers and start practicing their own speeches. Some had it all covered, confident about themselves about making it through this last day. Some were anxious to getting this done and over with. While others were there it see how things go and find out what are the probable questions that they ask so that it’ll assist them when their day of viva comes.

One of my best friends was up first in 4LA lecture hall. I envied him a bit he’d got the better hall to conduct his presentation because it had the better projector, and also for the fact that he is the best bullshitter I know when it comes to presentations. So I stayed in the lecture hall to support him and listen to his great presentation. And as always he pulled out a brilliant presentation. But unfortunately for the rest of the people who was there to listen to the questions that the panel asks, we were chased out of the lecture hall so that they could ask the questions peacefully without any one listening to them.

Well, time went by and it was my time for the presentation. I should say that I was a bit worried, but with my usual stammering for words I finished my presentation without any big drama.

The questions asked in the Viva were a bit tough but I know I handled them well. Thus, concluded my last day of my degree program and coming out of the lab in which the presentation was held I felt relieved and free after a long time. All the months of hard work I put through came to an end and all that I could do now is hope for good marks.

Now, it’s time to face the real life, where you have to go to work to make a living and start a new chapter in life. Honestly though I looking forward for it. There some companies in my mind that would so love to work in. If I can get into one of those I would be very glad.

Thanks for reading this boring update of my life. Well, all the best for your future endeavors.

My Final Year Project Questioner

Hi,

I'm sorry I haven't posted a blog in a quite a while now. Well, now I'm in my final year of my B.Sc Degree in Software Engineering @ IIT which is affiliated with the university of westminster, UK. As for my final year project I have selected to do a project, which will enable the users to identify a lichen by just inserting an image of it on to the software tool. The once the image is processed by the software, the user will be informed about the name of the lichen and some small description about it. It will also have the feature, where users can input data like where the lichen was found and some basic information so that the user can keep track of the lichens that he has identified.

As for the current methods of lichen methods consume a lot of time and effort in identifying a lichen I have thought of automating this process. As at present I'm in the phase where I have to gather user requirements for the project. As there are not many lichenologists here in Sri Lanka, I have already made an online survey. I've already posted this link in a forum called the UBC Botanical Garden and center for plant research where people have started threads where they have posted images of lichens and asking experts in helping them to identify them.

As at now I'm not getting great many responses from it. So I thought of getting your help in this matter.

If you are a lichenologist, a student who is working on lichens, or person who is interested in identifying lichens please take 2 minutes in filling this questioner and help me in making this project a success. Please feel free to forward this link to any person who is interested in lichens so that they also can give feedback to improve this project.

Link to take the survey

I also thought of having a separate blog to keep log of my Final Year Project. I will be posting the link to that once I've created it.

Thanks.

8 Months have gone!

It’s the month of April and the date is 12th Sunday. Yes, the Sinhala and Tamil New Year is around the corner and I’m bored. So I thought of making this time a little productive by writing a status on how my placement @ IFS is going so far.

It’s like yesterday that I joined IFS as a total newbie to the co-operate world. Since that day I have done what I can for the foundation 1 JSF team. I tried my best to utilize every minute that I have for the betterment of the team. I can’t believe myself that it’s almost time to go back to IIT and study for the final year of my degree. 

And recently Nawavi a friend of mine who joined IFS as an employee @ the same time as me said that he patched a bug that I did to a German customer. I hope that particular customer will not send back a mail scolding him that the bug patch doesn’t work. 

It can sometimes be a bore doing the same thing over and over each day. Morning go to work, Work, and then come back home and eat sleep. And when that routine is being broken like today, it gets really bored doing almost nothing @ home. 

I just realized what I’ve just written…. Seems like I’m bored each day of the week! *confused smile* 

Well, these days work a bit hectic since I have come across a problem that is proving hard to solve. And on top of that I have 2 bugs to correct, which I have already corrected but I need to put them in to the code repository. Other than that I’m free as a bird. :)

Working in IFS is very enjoying because there is little or almost no stress (At least for me). And the lunch and tea time gives me the opportunity to ponder about the future and chit chat with friends. :O I'm gonna miss the free lunch! :)

Well, all in all life is going on fine here. Hope yours is too… 

Wishing you all a Happy Sinhala and Tamil New Year,

Mayura “podiman” Wijeyaratne.

Six months have passed @ IFS

I can’t believe that I have already worked for six months @ IFS. It seems like yesterday that I started my placement. I think that I feel like that because I have been working and working and if there isn’t any work I nudge them until they give me work and that maybe why I feel this way.

            Well, to be honest, at the moment I have nothing to do. The bug queue is almost empty and there are a couple cases but all waiting for answers from the customer. I’m in the 7^th floor and in the middle of the floor but a really good place (if you get what I mean ;) ). I have a couple of friends from the training days in my floor so I’m not all lonely J.

            My work isn’t much hard any more, since I know where to look for the files now. I’m working on some GUI enhancement of an installer and waiting for it to get approved by the high ranked people. This is a really negligible little enhancement when you consider the product that we already have but I feel that I have done a good job on it.

            Prof. Alfred is supposed to come to IFS to see if I’m filling in the “log book” properly and to see how good is my work but he has still not come (good that he is late coming cuz if he comes and see me doing nothing and writing this, I might not get the degree ;) ).

            An assignment came today from IIT telling to write an essay on how well I’m following the PDP (personal development plan) I gave before coming for placement! Ya right…. I have followed that to the dot! I can’t even remember the stuff I had written in it! Will have to find it ASAP it should be some where in my comp or one of my pen drives (I have soo many pen drives. xD )

            Good that I bring ayya’s Zune to work because if not I’d be bored to death! Listening to TNL at the moment! TNL rox!

            Well, I dunno what else that I should be including into this note so I’ll stop here.

 Caio.

The Tales of the Beedle Bard

The author of the famous fantasy book series “Harry Potter” (J.K. Rowling) will be releasing a book that is mentioned in the last book in her series “The Deathly Hallows” called “The Tales of the Beedle Bard” to the general public.

This is a fictious book mentioned in the book was used as a plot device; it was given to Hermione Granger by Albus Dumbledore. This book is described as a popular book among the wizarding children, therefore Harry Potter and Hermione Granger didn’t know about the book but Ron Weasley knew about the tales since he was brought up by a wizarding family.

J.K. Rowling has included 5 short stories into this book but the only tale that was mentioned in the book “The Deathly Hallows” is the “Tale of the Three Brothers”. The other tales included in the book are

• The Wizard and the Hopping Pot
  
• The Fountain of Fair Fortune
  
• The Warlock's Hairy Heart
  
• Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump
  

First it was said that J.K Rowling will only be publishing 7 hand written books but later have decided to release it to the general public but all the earnings from it's sales will go towards charity.

From the 7 hand written books, one book (moonstone edition) was auctioned and was bought by Amazon.com for a whooping 1.95 million pounds ($ 3.98 million). The money earned by this auction was donated to The Children's Voice charity campaign. The other copies were handed out as a way of thanking to the people who were greatly involved in making the harry potter series a success.

Here are some pictures of the hand written book purchased by Amazon.com

Now for the great news for all the harry potter fans out there. The general public edition of the story book will be launched on the 4th of December 2008. Many of the news articles state the realease of this new book as “Christmas comes early for Harry Potter fans!” which is very true. I know that I will be very much longing until this is released world wide.

Sources: -
Pictures: - Amazon.com
Information: - Various sources in the internet.

Heroes Vol. 3:- 2 hour Premier

After like a life time, another season of Heroes started. It was a 2 hour special with 2 episodes being broadcasted back to back. Even though I’m bit disappointed about where the story line is headed I was really happy that a long standing question was answered brilliantly. That question was 

Does Sylar eat his victim’s brains to gain their power?

            This question was seen in every forum and because of that even in the TV series they did put this question. But as most of the people thought he does not eat the brains. He just sees how their brains work and learn the power from what he learns from the victim’s brain. 

Even though this big question was answered several other questions popped up in my mind. 

How did that Lindeman guy come into play again? He is just an image for Nathan? Is he actually alive? Was he the one that cured Nathan? 

            This actually reminded me of “Beautiful Mind” where only Dr. Nash can see his imaginary people (Obviously). 

Who is the Nikki Sanders’s double? Is she actually Nikki or somebody else? And if she is her other self how can she have the power to freeze people? 

            This might explained as the story goes on (I hope) 

What happened to the plague stricken future? Did it change due to Peter coming from the future and shooting Nathan? 

            I think he did change that future. (Butterfly effect that Peter’s mum was talking about) 

And oh the big surprise!

How on Earth, Sylar be a brother or may be even a half brother to Nathan and Peter???

Shocker! Hope they will clear this big question in the next few episodes! :)

For me this story is getting bad to worse… There are too many people with powers at the moment and also they brought back Clare’s biological mother back in to the picture (I was wondering what happened to her). And top of that Mohinder Suresh has got a power of his own now, but with some side effects. If he gets that formula right, there will be people with power popping up like mushrooms.

Anyways hope that the story writers won’t do that. I will be watching and waiting how the story is developed. 

Thanks for reading this post.