Roman Edirisinghe

After a great spell of good vibes, I am cranky again.

Things that suck:

Last week, I posted an anecdote about wedgies. The aforementioned initiator of that conversation, Katie, sent me an email informing me that the term “wedgies” had been added to Webster’s Dictionary. May the ignorant finally see the light.
via JS Online

I also found some blogs that reference wedgies, including:

This one goes out to all the Napoleon Dynamite fans out there: a REAL Liger!!! | more | and another Liger

Compare with Napoleon’s liger sketch on various eBay items.

Also, check out the Preston, Idaho Gift Shop

And here is another site featuring audio clips from the movie, rated by the site author

I saw a moving flick last night, entitled Born Into Brothels. It was about the children of sex workers in Calcutta’s red light district. I cried.

You have got to see this. I’m simply too tired right now to post anything concrete.

More info via IMDb.com

Find out more about these children at the Kids With Cameras Web site

Check out reviews and responses here | here | here | here

Yesterday, I heard about the shooting in Brookfield. This is what happens when people take religion a bit too far. Is there actually any benefit to these paranoiac fundamentalists wandering around spreading their distorted views of the Gospel? What would Jesus say?

My opinion (which is based on experience) is that religious fundamentalists are essentially insane, or specifically obsessive-compulsive. They focus on their religious icons to the point where they are no longer aware of reality. Furthermore, they impose their views on everyone else, and create laws to enforce those views. Take our president, for example. The Brookfield gunman, Terry Ratzmann, had apparently been suffering from depression for years. What better way than Jesus to treat a clinical disorder?

via TheMilwaukeeChannel | more | more
via DailyTimes
via Reuters
via FoxNews

Thanks to a referral by my dear friend Tim, I just got finished with an anonymous online survey called, “In Your Face,” by National Geographic. It prompted me to view a series of faces and specify what emotion the individual was feeling. After I was done, the survey compared my answers to those of a policeman in the USA. Needless to say, I was better than a cop at determining a person’s state of mind by their facial expression. Scary. Next, I was prompted to describe the greatest fear, anger, sadness, and joy that could ever be felt by a human. For your amusement, I’ve listed my answers below.

Fear:
I have felt fear so deep and intense that I thought I had lost my mind. Which, in fact, I had. This is extremely difficult to put into words, as I was on an LSD experience. I was with a couple of close friends, along the shores of Lake Superior. I was making drip castles with sand by the lake, and feeling like I was about six years old, having a merry time. Suddenly, my friend came up to me and said something like, “You’d better get away, because I might really hurt you.” His voice had changed, and his eyes rolled back in his head, and he was shaking and convulsing. It seemed like he was possessed, and my reaction to this new stimulus was ampliefied by the LSD. I remember feeling like time had stopped, and my heart along with it. The child-like innocence I had felt just minutes earlier had disappeared. I felt threatened. My whole world was about to end. I didn’t feel safe. My quickening pulse reminded me that, no, my heart had never actually stopped, but was beating faster. I felt like a young child who was about to get abducted. By aliens, no less. Although, the LSD was very powerful, I somehow managed to stammer out his name, at which point he stopped and said, “What?” He then proceeded to pretend that nothing had ever happened, which terrified me even more. Needless to say, it was difficult for me to enjoy the rest of the experience. I couldn’t be sure if it was some practical joke. Later, in the car, I thought I heard him say to me in a low voice, “Yes, slave, I am your master.” I spent months dwelling on the event, and slowly drove a wedge between myself and my friends, family and my sanity. That was in 1992. Although I’ve felt fear at various junctures of my life, that event somehow ranks the highest as far as intensity. And on closer analysis of the fear, I realize that the fear was that of a child who had somehow been robbed of his/her innocence.

Moral of the story: the fear that children feel far surpasses that of what adults may ever experience.
Moral of the story 2: if you’re going to do LSD, make sure you trust the people implicitly.

Anger:
The most intense anger is one that is unstoppable, and continues rebirthing itself. It sees no boundaries, and will lead one to violent physical action and/or extremely harsh speech. One loses oneself completely, and emerges feeling completely spent.

Sadness:
Sadness can be so great that one cries all the time; never seeing sunshine when the sun is out; never seeing friends when they are sitting next to you, holding you; never knowing how to make the sadness stop. Tears will not suffice. Anger only clouds the sadness, and doesn’t make it go away.

Joy:
The greatest joy will lead one to peals of laughter, to tears, and to insurmountable heights of spirit.

Take the survey

My dear friend Meghan pointed out to me today that I am terrible at responding to emails. It’s true. I bitch constantly about people not anwering my phone calls, and I am guilty of a similar crime in the virtual realm! From this point forward, I am going to make a concerted effort to respond to every email I receive, even if it’s junk mail or a porn advertisement. OK, maybe not junk mail or porn, but real emails from real people. And I hope to respond with more than a sentence.

“Uchini hechima ga arimas” (Japanese for “Stroke my back with a loofa sponge”) – KT Rusch

…I went dancing after the Salt performance (which went really well, I must add). I met up with Holly and Dena at Club Timbuktu, a new venue that just opened up in Riverwest. I wasn’t really planning on staying out, much less dancing, so I never went home and changed out of my sweater and long underwear. When I got there, DJs Marcus Garvey, D.Soto, and Tom Noble were pumpin’ out some great Brazilian music. So I danced, danced and danced.
I saw Capoeira Steve and Regi there, among a throng of Milwaukee’s most beautiful women: who I would gladly list by name if I could make it fit Jamie, Ismene, Olivia, Annie, Angelique, Holly, Dena, Soni (who smelled sweet with fenugreek), Soni’s friend (I spaced your name) with an accent so funky I thought she was European, and last but not least Kate, who I had the biggest crush on 8+ years ago but was too afraid to tell (and subsequently offended by sleeping with another woman – forgive me Kate, it was the path of least resistance AND I was young and foolish. I didn’t expect her to call you and brag to you about it). Did I miss anyone? I probably did. Forgive me for omitting you. I am 31 and foolish.
Andy Noble, Franky and I had a great conversation about relationships and sex. I was in stitches. Brent Goodsell told me about the really rare funk recordings by a band formed in prison.
Steve & I went out to Ma Fischer’s afterwards, and I finally got to bed at around 4 am.
I woke up today wondering if I either gave myself a hernia or burst my appendix. Sort of. I’ll wait a couple hours and see if I go into toxic shock.

Asymptomatic has a great post referencing an online course in Japanese.
Antipixel also links to another site referencing free language courses at MIT.