Believe it or not !

When I was in grade 10, I so often forgot to clean my school lunch box. On the following morning, I just leave the lunch box with the leftovers of the ex-meal, on my table & takes the fresh lunch box with me to the school. It's not me, but my mum washes it.

One day, since I got up late, I forgot to remove the lunch box from my school bag.I went to the school with two lunch boxes in my bag : One, with the ex-meal and the other one, fresh.

The school started as usual.Then, the interval bell rang. I washed my hands & took the lunch box out of the bag. Every thing was quite normal for, the lunch box was not transperant and it fitted perfectly as if was sealed. So, there was no way to smell. Then, I opened the lunch box..................Alas !!!!

The entire class room filled up with a terrible smell. I just wanted the ground to open up. My best friend yelled " Eyaaaa " ( Yak ! ) The whole class was staring at me. The girls looked horrified and, the boys were giggling.

That was the last time I forgot to clean my lunch box, I can tell you.

The Einstein Quiz

Yesterday's "Deduction" exercise reminded me one of the great puzzles of that kind. One of my friends gave this to me several years ago. For me, this puzzle is the best one I have ever tried. I am sure all of you will also enjoy it.

Einstein said that 98% of people in the world cannot solve the following puzzle. And Einstein was usually right (that's why he's Einstein...!)

Here is the Einstein Quiz:

Facts:

1. There are 5 houses in 5 different colors.

2. In each house lives a person with a different nationality.

3. These 5 owners drink a certain beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar and keep a certain pet.

4. No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar or drink the same drink.

5. Hints:

a. The Brit lives in a red house.

b. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.

c. The Dane drinks tea.

d. The green house is on the left of the white house.

e. The green house owner drinks coffee.

f. The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.

g. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.

h. The man living in the house right in the centre drinks milk.

i. The Norwegian lives in the first house.

j. The man who smokes Blend lives next to the one who keeps cats.

k. The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.

l. The owner who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.

m. The German smokes Prince.

n. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.

o. The man who smokes Blend has a neighbor who drinks water.

Question:

WHO KEEPS FISH?

Complaint

3rd April 2005

24, Hendon Road
Cambridge
CB 1 2EJ

Payment Department
Orange Mobiles
Park Street
Cambridge
CB4 9 DB

Dear Sir / Madam

I'm writing regarding the disconnection of my mobile number, referring to the complaint I made by the letter dated 29th March 2005 in response to your 'Final Demand' letter dated 28th March 2005, in which you have requested payment of a 769 Pounds bill.

It is unsatisfactory the you completely failed to respond to the above complaint and my new number was disconnected today.

As explained in the above complaint, on March 2nd my mobile phone was stolen and I reported the theft to the police and your company. Not only was I fully reassured by your representatives that I would not pay for any calls made after 3rd March, but you also sent me a new SIM card with a new number. I only made 3 calls between 1st and 3rd March which should come to no more than 3 Pounds. Under no circumstances am I prepared to pay any more than this amount since the reassurance given by your representatives.

At no time did anybody answer the phone even though I called your company several times after the very bad disconnection. While you are assuring the customer to provide the best service, ignorance of the customer like this is completely unacceptable and unethical.

I now expect you to reconnect the new number and to revise the bill for March with the charges for calls made after March 3rd removed with immediate effect. If no response is received within a period of 7 days (i.e. 10 April 2005), I will be forced to take the matter further with the regulatory bodies.

I look forward to a prompt response.


Ms. A Customer

24 Hendon Road,
Cambridge,
CB 1 2EJ.
3rd April 2005

Payment Department,
Orange Mobiles,
Park Street,
Cambridge,
CCB4 9DB.

Dear Sir,

This is with response to disconnection of my mobile connection (xxx-xxxxxx) and my reply letter dated 29th March 2005 for your letter of demand.

It is with great disappointment about your unprofessional ignorance to my previous letter attached herewith, I am writing this letter to explain the situation that I face now. In that letter, I have clearly explained my situation earlier. Regrettably, I am compelled to repeat that I am not liable to pay for calls taken by a stolen SIM card after promptly notification to your agent and after being issued a new card.

Further, I am extremely disturbed to notice that not only did you ignore my reply letter but also you have deactivated my new connection today. It is glaringly obvious that it is your responsibility to disconnect a stolen SIM after you are noticed about it, which you have failed to do so.

I have been your customer since 1997 and have no history of delaying the payments or disconnections. Now I am suffering with disconnection of my mobile because I miss lots of important calls and giving very bad impression to my client with your automatic disconnection message.

Considering all the facts I mentioned above, if you don’t reconnect my new connection with immediate effect and send me a revised bill on or before 5^th April 2010, I have no choice but to discontinue the contract with your company, go in to the press and lodging a complain to Telecom Regulation Committee.

I look forward for a prompt and satisfactory reply from you.

Thank you,

Yours Faithfully,

Miss A. Customer

Blogging Creates a Boundless Platform for Writing

Hi everybody! I’m Neranja. Do forgive me for being too late to join the Emerald Blog which is becoming an increasingly interactive forum for writing.

Although I haven’t been able to contribute to EB until now, I’ve been a great fan of it. Many times I’ve seen that my friends have made really interesting posts. Those writings and, especially the way they put their thoughts in to written word, inspired me to place myself in the blogosphere as soon as possible.

It’s obvious that this is a great opportunity for us to help improve our writing in English, and since blogging is a very dynamic endeavor of social media in the online communications, I think it really builds up strong enthusiasm for writing in one’s mind rather than any traditional medium of communication. So, it’s a very sensible idea that our teacher, Mrs. Liz, selected this medium to teach us writing in English.

I’ve been learning English here at BC since last April, but to tell the truth, I had bad experience in the first term, because we were very unhappy with the way our former teacher taught, and most of my friends decided not to continue classes anymore. However, at the end of the term, I attended the Young Learner parents-teacher meetings as an interpreter. In that occasion, I met some very successful teachers, and owing to the inspiration they created in me, I decided to continue learning in Advanced Classes further. Now, I’m fully satisfied with our present teacher, and the teaching methods that she uses.

From now, I hope to work to be an avid blogger as many of my classmates, and I, however, assume that one of us won’t suffer from blogarrhoea because EB is going on and on.

Facebook-Good or Evil?!?!?!?

Facebook, the leading social networking site was found by Mark Zuckerberg. It launched in February 2004 that is operated and privately owned by Facebook but with more than 500 million active users in July 2010. The website's membership was initially limited to the students of Havard University but was later expanded to other universities. It first expanded to other university students then to high school students and finally to anyone aged 13 and over.

Facebook has met with some controversy. It has been blocked in countries like Pakistan, Syria, People's Republic of China Vietnam and Iran. It has also been blocked at many companies and places of work to discourage employees from wasting time using this service. Privacy has also been an issue. Despite of all these, in January 2009 compete.com study ranked Facebook as the most used social network.

Facebook allows you to find your old friends, keep in touch with your long distance relations and to interact with your friends. It helps to maintain a healthy relationship with your friends. Now instead of twice a year phone call covering up all the bases, you can get to know everything in real time. Many get- togethers have been organised through Facebook and there are many more features Facebook lend us. I don't have to tell you about those because almost everyone is using it so you'll know them already.

An example for the fact that Facebook unites people is the incident that happened in the U.S.A in June 2010. A US woman whose two children were reported missing 15 years ago had tracked them down using Facebook. The mother had come across her child's Facebook account and had identified her children. Facebook had reunited a family.

On the other hand, few months before this happened, an Australian girl was murdered. She had posted some information about her and posted that she's interested in helping animals. A guy who had introduced him as a social worker had contacted her and they had met and the girl was murdered. The friendship gained through Facebook is the reason for the death of that girl.

Kimberley Swann, at 16 year old in the UK, was sacked from Ivell Marketing & Logistics for posting on her Facebook profile that her office administration job was boring. It was her first real office job, yes she was employed at a call centre before but this was her first office job. The company only found out after she allowed another employee to become a friend on Facebook. A post on Facebook has been the cause for losing the job.

Another incident which occurred very recently is the suicide of a 16 year Srilankan girl. This girl had had a relationship with a 19 year old Srilankan boy but who currently lives in UK. This relationship had started and had been maintained through Facebook. The guy had come to Srilanka on the 2nd of August and had visited the girl's house too. After returning to UK he had ignored this girl and it had ended up in a break up. The girl was hurt and was mentally affected. She had tried contacting him through mail and Facebook but he had ignored her. Being affected mentally the girl committed suicide.

These incidents arise the question, Is Facebook good or evil?.....

Its you and me who makes it good and evil. Facebook can be a very good social networking site until we know and be within the limits.

How to make use of Facebook???

Use Facebook as a distraction only on occasion.

Sometimes when you're sitting in your room working the whole day, you need a mental break. Taking a quick look at Facebook can be a good way to feel like you're connected to the outside world after being locked up doing whatever task you may be doing. However, don't forget that Facebook isn't the only way to break your mental block.

Don't overuse Facebook breaks.

It is all too easy for your five minute Facebook break to turn into a half hour to an hour Facebook "break". Don't let that happen; do whatever it takes to make sure your mental break doesn't turn into procrastination

Don't use Facebook to friend people you barely know and try to get in touch with them.

You friend people to start talking with them or viewing their information, or you just want more Facebook friends, this isn't the best way to use Facebook. It isn't quite evil until you start creeping on people.

Keep your informations private.

Let your informations visible and viewable only to your friends. Do not allow any one else view your profile or your photos.

Facebook will be of great help until you maintain the limits and be careful. So, think twice before you do anything. Use Facebook for your relaxation and to stay connected to your friends and relations. Look before you leap so that you won't get into problems like these.

A free hit on the game spirit!

A humiliating incident happened during the last cricket match between India and Sri Lanka played in Dambulla last Monday (16.08.2010). It happened just before the end of the match when India were one run away from the victory and in-form batsman Virendra Sehwag was on 99 not out. Sri Lankan off spinner Suraj Randiv delivered a no-ball deliberately to give the one run required to seal the Indian victory, by denying Sehwag’s century. Although Shewag sent the ball over the boundary rope for a six for that delivery, the runs were not counted according to the game rules and he remained at 99 not out at the end of play. The act by Randiv is a clear violation of the spirit of the game and never expected from a member of a team like Sri Lanka which won the 'ICC Spirit of the Game' award for two consecutive years.

After the incident, Randiv was suspended by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) for one match and punished by deducting his match fee. Tillakaratne Dilshan who was reported to have encouraged Randiv to bowl the no-ball was also punished. Captain Kumar Sangakkara has regretted the incident by pretending he was totally unaware of the incident and denied playing any role in it.

Unfortunately (or fortunately!), I couldn’t watch the live telecast of the last few overs of the match but I saw the incident via youtube. I observed that Sangaakkara was aware of what was going to happen just before delivering the last ball. He was shouting at the bowler but didn’t taket any action to stop it. The dialogue is clearly heard through the batsman’s end microphone. This shows he was not taking it in serious and didn’t oversee the gravity of the offence.

Interestingly, just before the last delivery, TEN Sports commentator Roshan Abeysinghe was talking about what would happen to Sehwag’s century if Randiv balled a no-ball. It seems Roshan - a long-term official of SLC and one of the three Sri Lankans working with the international team of commentators covering the series - also predicted the player’s intention correctly. Although it was correct, I rank this as a sloppy type of commentary and I don't think any of the renowned commentators should make such a negative comment on that kind of occasion. Simply it was not an expert’s comment! As a whole, does this incident indicate a sign of a new trend in Sri Lanka Cricket?

(Click here to see the incident with the commentary via youtube.)