#lahiru samarasinghe

[lahirusamarasinghe]

May Favorites

Okey doke, well it’s the end of another month, which means that it’s time for another favorites post! I only have four things this month rather than the usual five, but I feel like I wrote more about each one to make up for that. So go ahead and keep reading to kind out what I liked this month! But you don’t have to, especially since I’m probably distracting you from the depressing memes both above and below my post on your dashboard.

1. Daylio 

Daylio is an app that helps you keep track of your mood. Now, if I were to read that last sentence, I’d probably think, “ugh, another daily app that I have to remember to use every day.” I have failed time and time again to keep consistent journals, so I understand hypothetical Lahiru’s sentiment. It might be difficult to hold yourself responsible to do something that’s techincally unnecessary on a daily basis just because of your own self-interest. But Daylio is so simple and quick to use while remaining actually effective that it doesn’t bring any extra burden into your life to use it. All you have to do each day is rate the way you’re feeling on a scale from “awful” to “rad” and then check off some of the things you were doing when you felt that way (see the screenshots above). The process takes seconds. All of these options and word choices can be edited to fit your own life, so you can truly make it your own. The best part is is that you can set a reminder on the app so that your phone reminds you to use the app each day, entirely removing responsibility to remember the app from you. I really like it because it’s interesting to see the trends between my activities and my mood. You can get it for free on the App Store.

2. Waitress

This is a musical that has been on Broadway and is currently scheduled for a tour this year. It’s about this waitress (surprise!) and baker named Jenna who works in this little diner in the south called “Joe’s Diner.” The show consists of Jenna dealing with everyday life while at work and an abusive husband with whom she gets pregnant at home. It’s an emotional journey of self-learning, self-hatred and, eventually, self-love that’s quite moving. But it isn’t the show itself that I’d like to write about for this post, it’s the music. All the songs in the show are written by Sara Bareilles, and I absolutely love them. They manage to have the typical theatrical feel of musical numbers that make it feel like the songs belong on a stage, while still maintaining the deep and touching feeling that we (or, at least, I) have come to associate with Sara Bareilles’ music. In fact, one of her songs that you might have heard on the radio a few years back, “She Used to Be Mine,”  is one of the climactic songs in the show. There are two main recordings of the show’s music, the Original Broadway Recording and What’s Inside, which is an album of songs from the show, but sung by Bareilles. I would definitely recommend trying both out.

3. Dan and Phil

If you are a fan of the Internet, then there is a high chance that you are also a fan of Dan Howell and Phil Lester. These two British YouTubers and roommates have very quickly taken over my life with all of the funny and feel-good content that they have made over the years. Dan is basically the personified version of the depressing end of the me_irl subreddiit, while Phil is a happy-go-lucky golden retriever of a human whose humor shines mainly through his childlike curiosity. While they do have their own individual channels (Dan’s can be found here, and Phil’s here), the best videos that either of them have produced are the ones that they have made together. The chemistry between these two friends are unlike anything I have ever seen, and I think that there’s something that people enjoy about seeing two people who care about each other get along so well. They’re also far more hilarious together, as chaos very easily arises from the fact that their personalities are basically the happy-sad theatre masks that every high school drama club tries to include in its logo. In fact, the Dan and Phil, or Phan, friendship is capable of such good content that they even have a gaming channel together: DanandPhilGames. Here, they play every sort of video game, from Halo to The Sims to online games like The Impossible Quiz. I am not a video game person by any means, but this channel is literally one of my most favorite things on the Internet, simply because these two do such a good job of making me laugh. They are very much worth your time.

4. Because of Winn-Dixie

Most people will recognize this as the title of a movie, but I’m actually writing about the book that the film is based on. I read it when I was a child, and again more recently, which is how it made it into this month’s favorites post. The book is about India Opal Buloni, a girl who just moved into the small town of Naomi, Florida with her father, a preacher. Here, she meets Winn-Dixie, a dog that changes India’s life. Thanks to Winn-Dixie, India finds friends in people she never would have talked to on her own, allowing this new town to feel like home after all. I absolutely love all the characters in this book, as they each have their own sentiments and baggage that allows them to form this group of people that didn’t know they needed each other. And even though it’s a children’s book, Kate DiCamillo, the author, manages to explore love and friendship and suffering in a way that I find really mature. Overall, it’s a feel-good book that I think you’ll be glad you took the time to read.

That’s all that i have for my favorites this month! I know they were kind of all over the place, but then again, when aren’t they, right? I really hope that you enjoyed at least one of these things, because I think they’re all wonderful. And if I managed to help someone discover something that they now find wonderful, it’ll totally make this post worth the time it took to write it. See you guys next week with another post! 

[fictionarypodcast]

21 - Don’t Listen 

Jack and Lahiru equally SUFFER in this episode. 

Love us or hate us? Contact us at @ifctionarypodcast on Facebook!

[tasksweekly]

[TASK 036: SRI LANKA]

Shout out to @kumahelps for inspiring this task! There’s a masterlist below compiled of over 90+ Sri Lankan faceclaims categorised by gender with their occupation and ethnicity denoted if there was a reliable source. If you want want an extra challenge use random.org to pick a random number! Of course everything listed below are just suggestions and you can pick whichever character or whichever project you desire.

Any questions can be sent here and all tutorials have been linked below the cut for ease of access! REMEMBER to tag your resources with #TASKSWEEKLY and we will reblog them onto the main! This task can be tagged with whatever you want but if you want us to see it please be sure that our tag is the first five tags!

THE TASK - scroll down for FC’s!

STEP 1: Decide on a FC you wish to create resources for! You can always do more than one but who are you starting with? There are links to masterlists you can use in order to find them and if you want help, just send us a message and we can pick one for you at random!

STEP 2: Pick what you want to create! You can obviously do more than one thing, but what do you want to start off with? Screencaps, RP icons, GIF packs, masterlists, PNG’s, fancasts, alternative FC’s - LITERALLY anything you desire!

STEP 3: Look back on tasks that we have created previously for tutorials on the thing you are creating unless you have whatever it is you are doing mastered - then of course feel free to just get on and do it. :)

STEP 4: Upload and tag with #TASKSWEEKLY! If you didn’t use your own screencaps/images make sure to credit where you got them from as we will not reblog packs which do not credit caps or original gifs from the original maker.

THINGS YOU CAN MAKE FOR THIS TASK -  examples are linked!

Stumped for ideas? Maybe make a masterlist or graphic of your favourite Sri Lankan faceclaims. A masterlist of names. Plot ideas or screencaps from a music video preformed by a Sri Lankan artist. Masterlist of quotes and lyrics that can be used for starters, thread titles or tags. Guides on Sri Lankan culture and customs.

Screencaps

RP icons [of all sizes]

Gif Pack [maybe gif icons if you wish]

PNG packs

Manips

Dash Icons

Character Aesthetics

PSD’s

XCF’s

Graphic Templates - can be chara header, promo, border or background PSD’s!

FC Masterlists - underused, with resources, without resources!

FC Help - could be related, family templates, alternatives.

Written Guides.

and whatever else you can think of / make!

MASTERLIST!

Note: If you’re using this masterlist for casting purposes please do further research before casting any of the following.

Ladies:

Iranganie Serasinghe (89) Sri Lankan - actress.

Maureen Hingert (80) Sri Lankan - actress, model & dancer.

Yolande Bavan (74) Sri Lankan - actress.

Yolande Bavan (74) Sri Lankan - actress & singer.

 Mignonne Fernando (73) Sri Lankan - singer. 

Nanda Malini (73) Sri Lankan - singer.

Malini Fonseka (69) Sri Lankan - actress.

Neela Wickramasinghe (66) Sri Lankan - singer & musician. 

Geetha Kumarasinghe (61) Sri Lankan - actress.

Chandralekha Perera (55) Sri Lankan - singer.

Vasanthi Chathurani (54)  Sri Lankan - actress.

Yashoda Wimaladharma (46) Sri Lankan - actress.

Dilhani Ekanayake (44) Sri Lankan - actress & model.

Nirosha Virajini (44) Sri Lankan - singer, musician & director.   

Sangeetha Weeraratne (43) Sri Lankan - actress.

Mathangi Arulpragasam (41) Tamil Sri Lankan - singer.

Damitha Abeyratne (41) Sri Lankan - actress.

Duleeka Marapana (41) Sri Lankan - actress.

Pooja Umashankar (35) Sri Lankan Sinhalese / ndian Kannadiga Brahmin - actress.

Sachini Ayendra Stanley (34) Sri Lankan - actress.

Aruni Rajapaksha (33) Sri Lankan - film actress, model & TV presenter.

Upeksha Swarnamali (32) Sri Lankan - model, actress & politician.

Nilukshi Fernando (32) Sri Lankan - actress.

Vithya Visvendra (32) Sri Lankan - makeup artist.

Linni Meister (31) Tamil Sri Lankan / German, Norwegian, possibly Scottish - model &singer.

Jacqueline Fernandez (31) Sri Lankan / of Malaysian descent - actress & model.

Gamya Wijayadasa (30) Sri Lankan - beauty pageant titleholder.

Anarkali Akarsha (29) Sri Lankan - actress, model, singer, TV Host & politician.

Gayesha Perera (29) Sri Lankan - actress, model & TV presenter.

Stephanie Siriwardhana (29) Sri Lankan / Lebanese - model.

Saheli Rochana Gamage (29) Sri Lankan - singer.   

Dinakshie Priyasad (27) Sri Lankan - actress & TV presenter.

Shalani Tharaka (26) Sri Lankan - actress, model & dancer.

Shanudrie Priyasad (19) Sri Lankan - actress, model & singer.

Yureni Noshika (?) Sri Lankan - actress.

Nita Fernando (?) Sri Lankan - actress.

Anoja Weerasinghe (?) Sri Lankan - actress.

Swarna Mallawarachchi (?) Sri Lankan - actress.

Menik Kurukulasuriya (?) Sri Lankan - actress.

Veena Jayakody (?) Sri Lankan - actress.

Thusitha Jayasundera (?) Sri Lankan - actress.

Muthu Tharanga (?) Sri Lankan - actress & fashion model.

Sarala Kariyawasam (?) Sri Lankan - actress.

Punya Heendeniya (?) Sri Lankan - actress.

Kanchana Mendis (?) Sri Lankan - actress.

Sheshadri Priyasad (?) Sri Lankan - actress.

Sriyani Amarasena (?) Sri Lankan - actress.

Poongothai Chandrahasan (?) Sri Lankan - actress.

Dulani Anuradha (?) Sri Lankan - actress & dancer.

Thushari Jayasekera (?) Sri Lankan-American - actress, performer & writer.

Thesara Jayawardane (?) Sri Lankan - actress, singer, dancer & TV presenter.

Mariazelle Goonetilleke (?) Sri Lankan - singer & musician.

Tharanga Goonetilleke (?) Sri Lankan - singer. 

Gresha Schuilling (?) Sri Lankan - singer.

Men:

Albert Moses (79) Sri Lankan - actor.

Amarasiri Kalansuriya (76) Sri Lankan - actor.

Victor Rathnayake (75) Sri Lankan - musician.

Ravindra Randeniya (70) Sri Lankan - actor.

Jackson Anthony (68) Sri Lankan - actor.

Edward Jayakody (64) Sri Lankan - singer.

Bandu Samarasinghe (61) Sri Lankan - actor.

Rangana Premaratne (58) Sri Lankan - actor, producer & TV personality.

Rookantha Gunathilake (57) Sri Lankan - singer & song-writer.

Ranjan Ramanayake (56) Sri Lankan - actor.

Kamal Addararachchi (55) Sri Lankan - actor, singer & presenter.

Lucky Dias (54) Sri Lankan - actor & producer.

Jagath Wickramasinghe (50) Sri Lankan - musician.

Chitral Somapala (50) Sri Lankan - heavy metal vocalist.

Sanjit De Silva (40) Sri Lankan - actor.   

Roshan Ranawana (36) Sri Lankan - actor, singer & model.

Guy Sebastian (35) Sri Lankan Tamil, Portuguese, English - singer.

Kasun Kalhara (35) Sri Lankan - singer & musician.

Akalanka Ganegama (35) Sri Lankan - ODI cricketer, TV presenter, dancer, actor & singer.

Pubudu Chathuranga (34) Sri Lankan - actor & writer.

Saranga Disasekara (34) Sri Lankan - actor.

Lahiru Perera (33) Sri Lankan - singer.

Thusitha Laknath (33) Sri Lankan - actor.

Menaka Rajapakse (32) Sri Lankan - actor & model.

Shihan Mihiranga Bennet (32) Sri Lankan - singer, songwriter & composer. 

Hemal Ranasinghe (32) Sri Lankan - actor, model, dancer & TV presenter.

Siva Kaneswaran (28) Sri Lankan Tamil / Irish - singer.

Tariq Hisny (26) Sri Lankan - singer.

Dasun Madushan (21) Sri Lankan - singer.

Kumar Kaneswaran (?) Sri Lankan Tamil / Irish - singer.

Cyril Wickramage (?) Sri Lankan - actor.

Roshan Ravindra (?) Sri Lankan - actor.

Channa Perera (?) Sri Lankan - actor & director.

Roshan Pilapitiya (?) Sri Lankan - actor & singer.

Suminda Sirisena (?) Sri Lankan - actor.

Suresh Joachim (?) Sri Lankan Tamil - actor & producer.

Tennison Cooray (?) Sri Lankan - film and stage actor, screenplay writer & director.

Ajith Bandara (?) Sri Lankan - singer.

Nadeeka Guruge (?) Sinhalese - singer.

Trans:

N/A

Non-binary:

N/A

-C

[lahirusamarasinghe]

Creativity Yeah!

Holy hoot, it has been a long while since I have been on here.

I can easily say that my life has been fully turned on its head since the last time that I posted on here. I was working an office job, the same job that I am working now, but that was it. My whole life was either being at work, or not being at work. And it’s not like I had a problem with work. No, I’m lucky to have a job that’s constantly changing what it asks of me, so I’m rarely bored. The only problem was that it was all I had going for me.

Until this summer.

From June to September, I went back to the one thing that kept me sane throughout all of college, high school, and even middle school: theatre. I was a part of five different shows this past summer, which is much heavier dose of theatre than I had ever participated in during school (I was usually only in one show at a time). They were all so unique and so different from one another, so it’s pretty difficult to put any point of this summer above another. But what made this summer truly special was that of the five shows I had done, four of them were written and/or directed by one or more of my friends. In fact, I myself co-written and co-directed one of these shows, rather than being a part of the cast.

Now, the community theatre company that I have been working with is mostly targeted at high school students, college students at the oldest. This made me one of the “old people” there, so it was clear that my time there was coming to an end. But most of these shows weren’t a part of that theatre company. They were written, directed, and produced by organizations created by friends that were my age. We were making the shows ourselves. It was like we had spend so many years in the passenger seat, and then just decided one day, “you know what? Maybe I’ll give driving a shot.” And boy, did it work!

I guess where I’m trying to go with this is that this summer fully shifted my mindset to where I’m realizing that if I see something that I want to exist not existing, I can make it myself! And this inspiration has caused me to throw myself headfirst into about four different projects (some of which you may be hearing about soon!). And I’m loving every second of it. A year ago, I knew I wanted to write comedy, but I didn’t know how to go about making these projects a reality. But now I’ve learned that if you really want to make something, you just gotta do it.

I don’t know. I’m looking through this post, and it’s not making a lot of sense. But I really wanted to take a moment to write this all down.

Because I’m very happy.

[lahirusamarasinghe]

So, this is the first time that I’ve ever done something like this. I might do it more regularly, I might never do it again. But this is a video of me singing one of my favorite songs: Vienna by Billy Joel. I think it’s come up in a favorites post once, which doesn’t surprise me at all. I hope you enjoy it.

[lahirusamarasinghe]

My First Week Out of College

I took the last week off of writing here because I graduated last Friday, and I wanted to take time to celebrate and enjoy making it through my last year of school.

Which made this summer very different from most.

Typically, summer vacation was a time to relax. You could reconnect with your friends, do whatever you wanted, and enjoyed spending time with your family. But that wasn’t the case this time. That’s becacuse this time around, I wasn’t leaving school for the beginning of summer vacation. I was leaving school for the beginning of the rest of my life.

The time that I usually spent enjoying my time at home I now had to spend trying to figure out how to get out. By which I mean get a job, find my own place, and leave the nest to become my own, independent, self-sufficient adult human being. Now, while I have take the first few steps into this process (applying and interviewing for jobs, etc.), it is hard not to feel the pressure every time someone’s parents ask you what you’re doing after college. Because I’m still in the process of finding it out myself.

I feel confident in my qualifications and the way my education has prepared me for my potential job, and everyone who I talk to says that it’ll bee fine and that it’ll work out. But every day that it isn’t fine and it doesn’t work out comes with a little gift-wrapped package of self-doubt. And I know I’m not the only one in this situation: plenty of people who I have graduated with feel the same way.

So here is my message to you guys: we got this. We’ve spent the last four years (or however long it took you) trying and trying and trying and it got us a college degree, which is a pretty big deal. Not only did we gain the technical knowledge that our classes taught us, but we learned a lot about ourselves and how the world around us works. Most importantly, we learned that giving up is the last thing we should do. Persevering got us this far, so there’s no reason for us to stop now.

This all reminds of a comic that I recently saw posted by one of my favorite tumblrs, Incidental Comics. I’ve pasted it below:

Good luck, everyone.

[lahirusamarasinghe]

5/6/17 - 10:32 pm

I spent the whole day telling myself to study for finals. Instead, I somehow managed to find an episode of Spongebob that I had never seen before.

I went out with the friends I live with to take group pictures with our graduation robes on. We were taking them in place of actual post-graduation pictures because not all of us graduate on the same day this week. It was a bizarre experience, pretending to have the excitement of having graduated, when those feelings wouldn’t come for another week, after we had taken our final exams. People were even saying “congratulations” to us, when we hadn’t even done anything worth congratulating yet. And the whole time I couldn’t help wondering what the point of all this was. The only reason we were taking these pictures was so that they could end up on Facebook in a week, when we actually graduate. It just sounds ridiculous, planning and faking for a post that no one is going to look at, that people are just going to click the “like” button on as the blindly scroll through their feed. I try to ask my friends about this, and they just say that it’s for the memories. But this doesn’t make sense either: because who ever looks back on these pictures? We’re always to busy creating new memories. Creating, not living. Forming them for the sake of showing them to others, not to look at them ourselves.

[lahirusamarasinghe]

April Favorites

Today’s the last day of April, and anyone who has been following this blog or has read the title of this post knows that this means that I am going to write about my favorite things for the month of April. I do this because it gives me a break from having to think too hard about what I have to write and because it’s a fun thing to do! Let’s go ahead and get started.

1. Bojack Horseman

(Before I go on to say anything, can we appreciate 

This first on my list is the Netflix show Bojack Horseman. The show is about the title character, a washed-up 90s tv star from a “Full House” type show who is trying to maintain his fame. The show takes place in Hollywoo (yes, I spelled that correctly), home to the stars in a world where humans and animals live in tandem, as if the animals were humans themselves. The show has a really dry sense of humor, and isn’t afraid to approach the dark side of life, which really helps develop Bojack as a full character. You learn that even though he has this life of fame and fortune and can basically get whatever he wants, whenever he wants, he isn’t necessarily always happy, and actually spends most of his life otherwise. I think that’s one of the things that I like about this show. The fact that this cartoon with talking, while intended as a comedy, can get depressing and sad an real at times, somehow makes it more realistic than a live-action comedy with human actors.

So if you’re into that, I’d definitely recommend checking it out!

2. Candles

Okay, look, I know that I’m late to the game. Candles have already become a thing, but until this school year, I was never really faced with a need for them! Allow me to explain: both of my roommates are Indian, and thus, they cook a lot of Indian food in the apartment. Now, the smell of Indian food is quite good, but only when it is attached to food, not when it is attached to a PERSON. Call me crazy, but I don’t feel the need to smell like whatever eccentric mixture of spices my roommates decided to use on their food today. So, I invested in candles! Leaving one lit (lol ayyyyyyyy......I’m sorry) for about an hour not only fills my room with whatever delightful scent I’ve chosen. I’ve used a variety of scents over the past year, but I’ve found that my favorite has been the vanilla-scented one. Not only does it smell like what I assume fairy farts smells like, but it’s so distinct that I can easily tell when I’ve left the candle on for long enough to complete eradicate the other smells in the room. Hint for college kids: I know that for a higher price you can get a huge variety of smells, but the dollar section of any Walgreens/CVS-type store has a solid collection as well, so I’d start there first.

3. Vienna by Billy Joel

Now, this may have been in a favorites post before, because this has been my favorite song of all time for quite a while now. I don’t particularly know what the song is about, but the lyrics are clearly very personal to Billy Joel, the legendary rock icon who sings the song. Somehow, his closeness to the song accompanied with its overall vibe makes it very relatable and meaningful, despite the mysterious lyrics. It’s soulful, sad, and hopeful, all at the same time, which is probably why its so effective at making me feel better whenever I listen to it. The original song sung by Joel can be listened to here, while an Ariana Grande cover (I can see your skepticism, but it’s good) can be found here. Additionally, a short cover of the song by Lennon Stella of Lennon and Maisy, who I wrote about in my VERY FIRST FAVORITES POST can be found here.

4. Moana

Okay, something else that I am late to the game for. Look, I loved this movie. And I haven’t had a chance to talk about it before so I’m going to talk about it now. This movie was all about embracing who you are and finding the strength in being that person. It’s about having something to believe in. It’s about loving where you come from. All the messages in this movie were so strong and important, and the fact that the main character was a strong, brown girl made it even more important to me. Children’s movies need diversity now more than ever, which is one of the things that makes this movie so significant. Not to mention that the animation and music in this movie were beautiful, too.

5. You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes

This is Pete Holmes. He is currently my favorite standup comedian. And he has a podcast in which he has deep and intense conversations with other comedians. What’s so great about this podcast is that there really aren’t any limits. Pete isn’t really afraid to take the conversation into uncomfortable places (aka “make it weird”). In doing so, we get a glimpse into the perspectives of these various comedians. More importantly, we get a glimpse into perspectives that may not match our own. The main three themes that Holmes tries to hit with his guest are comedy, love, and religion, three very multifaceted topics. Despite the depth reached in these conversations, there is always room saved for laughter. So if you love comedy, or thoughtful conversations, or jsut thinking in general, give this show a listen. You can find it here.

Well, that’s all I have for this month. It’s weird, I actually found this more time-consuming and difficult to write than some of my other posts. It’s probably because in previous posts, I usually have a train of thought to hitch a ride on while I write the post. Here, I was kind of coming up with things on the spot, since I didn’t have my favorites planned out (note for next time). But I hoped you enjoyed reading this, and that you found out about something that you might consider checking out.

Like candles, I heard they’re in now.

[lahirusamarasinghe]

I Don’t Care About Your Color Run

Tomorrow I’m going to be taking part in my school’s Holi celebration. I’m always pumped for this time of the year because the event is all about having fun and celebrating love and good and playfulness and getting covered in color. It’s kind of a great way to spring (pun intended) into the sunnier part of the year.

Unfortunately, this is also the part of the year during which people everywhere engage in one of the most casual cultural appropriations out there, other than Halloween.

Color runs.

For those of you who don’t know, color runs are events, typically as a fundraiser, that consists of its participants running some distance as their splattered with different colored paints of powders. It allows people to have fun, get covered in color, and take cute pictures for their Facebook profile, all while ignoring the culture from which this tradition originally came from.

Holi is a celebration of the potential of a successful spring harvest, the colors of the spring, and has religious significance in Hinduism as well. The color-throwing session is traditionally preceded with a ceremonial bonfire the night before, and are followed by family time with food.

Look, I get it, Holi looks awesome. You’re jealous of how fun and quirky the pictures that your Indian friends put online are. You want to have fun, too. But you don’t care to take part in any of the other traditions that come with Holi. Or to learn more about the cultural signicance and meaning that this holiday has with certain people. The solution? Just take the fun part of someone else’s culture, give it a different (and uncreative) name, and call it your own. 

What’s wrong with that?

Everything. Literally everything.

I think the only thing worse than blatant ignorance towards other people’s cultures is making money off of it, which is what typically happens at these color runs. Even if its for a good cause, it’s still disrespectful. 

What I don’t like is the fact that there isn’t any credit given to where the idea for color-throwing came from. In fact, it’s so bad that most of these people who take part in color runs don’t even know that Holi exists. The least you could do after stealing someone else’s tradition for your own entertainment is learn about where it came from.

So if I’m friends with you on Facebook, just know that I won’t be liking your pictures from your color runs, nor will I be accepting any invites you send me for your color runs. If I believe in the cause you’re raising money for, I’ll donate. But I don’t care to take part in yet another instance of America’s tradition of...well, stealing other people's traditions.

If you want to throw color, go to a Holi celebration. I’m sure they’d love to have you. There’s nothing wrong with celebrating and taking part in the cultures of others, as long as it’s respectful.

Oh, and if you’re a student group or a charity looking for a fun way to raise money, and are considering a color run, don’t. Find something else. Do a bake sale or something.

People love cookies.

[lahirusamarasinghe]

“Prom Doesn’t Matter” and other Bad Advice You’ve Given

If you’re in college, you’ve probably had someone in high school complain to you about the unfortunate drama that accompanies the life of a high-schooler. As an attempt to help them, you probably made some proud proclamation along the lines of “Oh, none of that will matter anyway.” But this is, by far, the dumbest way you could have approached this situation. And I feel like you, as the older person, should have already known that. But if you don’t, allow me to explain.

Now, as I write this, I am going to approach this topic using Prom, as this is the most relevant thing plaguing the minds of high-schoolers right now, but I feel like this can apply to any of the angst-driven situations that come up during high school.

First of all, “It doesn’t matter” is not advice. Not even a little bit. No conversation in which one person is consoling another has ever gone like this:

Person 1: Hey, I’m sad/upset/worried about _______.

Person 2: Don’t be. It totally doesn’t matter.

Person 1: Wow! You’re right! I completely forgot that emotions work exactly like clothes: once I realize I don’t need them, I can just get rid of them! Thanks :)

“It doesn’t matter” is just about the least helpful thing you could say to someone about something that they are concerned about. In fact, if this is your idea of advice, may I recommend that you rather turn to that high-schooler, look them in the eye, and say “I’m sorry, I’m too stupid and lack the necessary empathy to help you.”

Secondly, you’re right. But not completely. Look, most, if not all, high school drama will cease to matter a couple of years into the future, if not sooner. I know that, you know that, and, deep down, the high-schooler you’re talking to knows that, too. But guess what? THEY AREN’T A COUPLE YEARS INTO THE FUTURE YET. If life could be represented by the Yellow Brick Road, they’re the Dorothy that’s about to walk through the field of poppies, while we’re the Dorothy that’s already been to Emerald City and are now off trying to figure out how to destroy the Wicked Witch of the West. Sure, we’re facing much scarier things than a bunch of flowers that can make you sleepy, but the field of poppies is the most immediate obstacle that they’re facing right now. The fact that something won’t matter in the future doesn’t stop it from mattering now. So just try to help them through the poppies before freaking them out about the Witch.

Finally, take a moment to think about what you’re doing by telling them that “Prom (or whatever it is) doesn’t matter.” We already established what you aren’t doing: helping them. But what you are doing is marginalizing their problems and bragging about the fact that you don’t have to face them anymore. You’re basically saying, “Wow, you still have to deal with that? Pshhh, I don’t.” And that’s...just a really mean thing to do. Yes, each of us made it through high school, but did it feel easy at the time? No, it was filled with angst, heartbreak, and emotional turmoil. And if it took us getting through it to realize that none of it ended up mattering, how can we possibly expect any different from them?

Nothing in this post is really relevant to me anymore, since I’m almost on my way out of college. But I’ve seen some of the younger college kids do this to high-schoolers thinking that their two seconds out of high school has filled them with some sort of profound wisdom. And while it probably has given you a new perspective, it’s more likely to help you than it is to help those you flaunt it to.

[lahirusamarasinghe]

Comedy, my frenemy.

Look at me, following through on something for once! Like I mentioned in the last post, these things might get a little journal-y, so if you don’t want to read more, you don’t have to! This post is about one of the hobbies that I’ve started and cultured over the past year: standup comedy.

Joining the comedy club was easily one of the best decisions of my senior year, other than living on campus, of course. Being a member of this club felt like what I assume it was like for Harry Potter to find out he was going to Hogwarts. He knew that he had some sort of weird power from the beginning, in the same way that I was aware of the fact that my sense of humor was one of my stronger personality traits. Comedy club was basically the Hogwarts of comedy, where you learned how to control and wield your newly discovered power. Now that I have a better idea of what it is like to write and perform your own jokes, it is one of my favorite things to do.

But it wasn’t like that for most of the year.

When I was in high school and middle school, I did a lot of theatre, and thus became quite familiar with performing. It became one of my most favorite things to do. Whenever I’d get off stage after a performance, I’d be filled with this rush of euphoria and excitement. I was doing something that was making me so happy that putting energy into it somehow made me even more energized than I was before. No matter how bad the show was, regardless of whether or not I absolutely botched up every scene, every performance I gave was accompanied with this rush, and this feeling soon became something that I associated with performing itself.

Unfortunately, this was where performing in musicals differed from performing standup. When our comedy club’s monthly showcase would roll around, rather than being excited about getting on stage, I would dread it. I would fear the idea of standing there, in front of countless strangers, microphone in hand. I would often see if there was a test or gregarious homework assignment I could use as an excuse to get out of performing at the showcase. Being onstage was the one thing that made me happy for years of adolescence, and now it was the one thing that I did not want to do at all. 

Not only that, the handful of times that I did end up forcing myself to perform were never followed by that post-show rush that I had grown accustomed to getting when doing theatre. I would walk offstage usually feeling nothing, and the few times I did feel something, it was just embarrassment. Something about standup just felt wrong: I could play all sorts of characters and even sing onstage without any problem, but when I’d go up to perform some jokes, my legs would shake so violently it was visible to the audience.

Now, there are a lot of reasons that this could be the case. Firstly, when you get onstage during a standup show, you are already doing something insane. You are wordlessly proclaiming to the audience, “Hey, I think I’m funny. Not only that, I think I’m so funny that I’ve prepared things to say that will make you laugh, and I don’t even know you.” This is such a cocky way to think, but it is something that you are admitting to the audience the moment they see you on stage. The next reason that comes to mind is the fact that you’re all alone onstage when you’re performing standup. And that loneliness is far from the camaraderie that typically flows through the cast of a musical. You are all by yourself, and have no one to play off of or even look at if any moment of your performance starts to go south. Finally, and most importantly, the material that you perform when you do standup is much more personal because you are the one who wrote it. Sometimes, when the performance of a musical isn’t good, people like to blame the musical itself, saying that it was poorly written or put together when it was being crafted as a work in the first place. It wasn’t the cast’s fault, it was the playwright’s. That excuse doesn’t work here, because the performer and the creator are the same person. Furthermore, I work hard on putting together the jokes that I actually decide to share onstage. So when the audience reacts in such a way that tells me that they don’t like my jokes, it feels as if they are trying to say that they don’t like me.

Now, I wish I could tell you that there was some sort of journey of self-discovery and that I learned the secret to loving standup. Maybe there was, and I did, and I’m just not aware of it yet. But, unexplainably, when I got offstage after my performance at our April showcase, which happened yesterday, I got my post-show rush. It was there! It felt like theatre! It felt like something I’d actually want to do again!

I would love to know what it is that changed. Maybe it was practice. I’ve been doing my best performances whenever my friends come to the show, so maybe it was some sort of satisfaction of proving to them that the time I’ve dedicated to comedy has been worth it. Maybe it’s their support carrying me through the show. But whatever it is, I’m glad it has happened.

I don’t entirely know what the purpose of this post is. I think it’s because I wanted to admit to myself that maybe I was trying to force a friendship between me and comedy all year, and that it’s taken until now for that friendship to actually form naturally. But I love standup now, and I hope it stays that way, because it’s starting to feel as right as being in Aladdin Jr felt in eighth grade.

[lahirusamarasinghe]

A Walk Through Downtown Minneapolis

Long time, no write, I know. But hey! At least I’m getting a post in during the first month of the new year! (Albeit on the last day, but....shut up)

A couple of days ago, I put on a coat and headed out on a walk. I hadn’t really a destination in mind, just a desire to spend some quality time with my brain. Just to think without having something in particular to think about, allowing my mind to wander as much as I did on this walk.

I found myself walking all the way into downtown Minneapolis, which is quite a trek for a walk in the winter. The concrete of the sidewalk thudded against the soles of my shoes with each step. The trees pointed their dead, creepy, decaying branches at me. The wind whisked away every breath I exhaled, taking a degree of my body temperature with it.

I then passed by a lady who screamed, “WHAT!? A DONKEY!?” into her phone. 

[lahirusamarasinghe]

I don’t want to talk about this election. It was disappointing and sad and a reality check as to the type of people in this country. But know this: if you feel scared or anxious about being who you are in a country that is capable of making a decision like this one, despite all of that, there are people that love you. I promise. No election can take that away. Find these people, and hold them close.

[lahirusamarasinghe]

A Review of Bad Moms (and totally not a review of The Accountant)

This past weekend, I saw the movie Bad Moms with a couple of friends of mine. Now, while I am no movie expert, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie so much to the point of wanting to write about it (I also saw The Accountant recently, but honestly it’s not worth writing about).

What I liked about Bad Moms was that it had a simple storyline that was easy to follow: mothers having trouble dealing with the stresses of being one. The fact that there was only one storyline to follow allowed you to sit back and laugh the whole time, making it a movie that could be enjoyed by anyone (unlike The Accountant, which had about five different stories, none of which were  well developed. It was almost as if the people who made the movie wanted to make sure you had no idea what was going on at any point. Basically, unless you were crazy or asleep, you spent the entire time in total confusion). The light-hearted tone of the movie kept you smiling the whole way through (I couldn’t keep count of the number of people who died in The Accountant, but it basically became so commonplace that it was more rare for someone to breathe, which, as a human, you know happens constantly).

The movie starred Mila Kunis, who's sassy acting allowed her to hilariously portray snappy mother Amy Mitchell (Anna Kendrick played main character’s love interest, and had the only enjoyable scenes in the movie because, well…it’s Anna Kendrick). The movie also starred Katherine Hahn and Kristen Bell, creating a trio of three very differing personalities whos clashing kept you laughing and asking for more (The Accountant starred some other people, too, and if they had made the movie as watchable as Anna Kendrick did, I might have bothered to look them up).

My favorite part of Bad Moms (something that does not exist with me and The Accountant) was the scene in which the mothers needed to go to the supermarket. The scene was shot in such a way that it felt more like a wild party scene, with quick cut-shots, and raging party music accompanying the total destruction of each aisle the moms ran through (blah blah The Accountant just killed a bunch of people while confusing the audience).

Overall, I’d recommend Bad Moms to anyone who wants to have a good time (and The Accountant to everyone else).

P.S. Okay, I admit there are definitely people who would enjoy The Accountant. I’m just definitely not one of them. I didn’t hate the movie nearly as much as it seemed from this post, but everything about spending the whole time confused and only liking the scenes with Anna Kendrick? Totally true.

[lahirusamarasinghe]

An In-Depth Analysis of “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

We’ve all heard the song. Most of us have even sang it at school. It’s just a nursery rhyme, right?

Wrong.

I wanted to figure out what this poem was really about. So I deconstructed it, verse by repetitive verse.

(This ended up taking a lot longer than I had thought, so click the link to read the rest of this. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt.)

Mary had a little lamb, Little lamb, little lamb. Mary had a little lamb, whose fleece was white as snow.

Classic intro material, really sets the stage. The song is about Mary, who has a little lamb. Although, I must say, I don’t understand why the lamb had to be mentioned four times, as the message is clear enough after the first time. A little more information about the characters would also have been appreciated: Who is Mary? What are her aspirations? The only information we have right now is that the lamb had “fleece as white as snow,” which is somewhat inferred by the image of sheep that we all already have in our heads.

And everywhere that Mary went, Mary went, Mary went, And everywhere that Mary went, The lamb was sure to go.

So now we have a bit more information about the nature of the relationship between Mary and her lamb. The lamb is clearly very loyal to Mary, or otherwise is a stalker. We’re going to need to keep going in order to gain some insight as to how Mary feels about her ovine escort.

He followed her to school one day, School one day, school one day. He followed her to school one day, Which was against the rule.

Now this, this is perplexing. Firstly, notice that the verse says “rule,” and not “rules.” Either this is some sort of old-timey phrasing that I am not aware of, or this school only has one rule, and it is against bringing sheep to school. Either way, having a lamb at school is against their policy, and I think that it’s fair to assume that Mary knows this. So why is Mary allowing the lamb to follow her? One theory is that Mary doesn’t know that there is a lamb following her, which points towards the aforementioned “stalker” idea. However, if she is aware that there is a lamb following her, she should have expected it to follow her to school as well, as its behavior in the second verse implies that wherever Mary goes, the lamb will follow. Thus, preventative measures should have been taken to make sure Mary didn’t accidentally break a rule by bringing the animal to school. But she didn’t take such measures. This brings me to my theory: this sheep? Not a good guy. But Mary is smart. She knows that this sheep is following her, but she can’t get rid of it by herself. So what does she do? She lures the lamb to a place where it isn’t allowed, so that the school can take care of the problem for her and banish the lamb forever. Good thinking, Mary, good thinking.

It made the children laugh and play, Laugh and play, laugh and play. It made the children laugh and play, To see a lamb at school.

Nice try, Lamb. These children may “laugh and play,” unable to see through your facade of innocence, but not me. You’ve been creeping on poor Mary for far too long. Your criminalistic days are numbered. Numbered, I say!

And so the teacher turned it out, Turned it out, turned it out. And so the teacher turned it out, But still it lingered near.

Justice has been served. As per Mary’s plot to rid the Lamb from her life, the rules (or rule, we still really don’t know) were enforced, and the sick stalker Lamb has been escorted from the premises. But let’s take a look at that last lyric. Mary might not be as safe as she thinks.

And waited patiently, patiently, patiently. And waited patiently, Till Mary did appear.

I hate this verse for a number of reasons. Firstly, it does not fit the rhythm of the rest of the song at all. The number of syllables in the first and third lines are all wrong. Second, when is this damn Lamb going to leave Mary alone? Give up, Lamb. Mary doesn’t want anything to do with you or your snow white fleece. Pick on someone your own species.

“Why does the lamb love Mary so, Mary so, Mary so? Why does the lame love Mary so?” The eager children cry.

This is a very good question. This is clearly the writer’s way of introducing the reason why the Lamb has spent so much time following Mary and I, for one, cannot wait to see what that is.

“Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know. Lamb, you know. Lamb, you know. Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know.” The teacher did reply.

Does she, though? She very clearly attempted to lead the lamb to its own demise, which can’t exactly be described as an act of “love.” The teacher really should talk to Mary about her side of the story before making any assumptions.

Unfortunately, this is where the writer decides to leave us. Did Mary get home from school safely? Did she, in fact, love the Lamb? What’s the Lamb’s real motive?

Looks like we’ll have to wait for the sequel.

[lahirusamarasinghe]

The 4 People in Every Group Chat.

Hello, and welcome to another month on this site. Glad to see you’ve made the trip.

As people who live in this day and age, we know all too well that the Internet has completely altered the way we live in this world. The lyrics to every Nicki Minaj song are just a Google away. The GPSs on our phones allow us to find the quickest route to a Loaded Potato Griller from Taco Bell, or what I like to call, “instant happiness.” And, most importantly, no matter where you are, or what you’re doing, you can access thousands of videos of cats being complete idiots thanks to YouTube. But there is one feature of the Internet that I don’t think I can handle anymore.

Group chats.

A lot of student groups now have group chats to plan events and other things they may be doing together. If you’re part of a group project, you may put together a group chat so you can throw new ideas around without physically meeting. I even have friends who have group chats for their families. Sites like Facebook and GroupMe have enabled us to keep in contact with any collection of people of your choosing.

Unfortunately, group chats have also enabled some people to bring out the worst in themselves. You know the ones. They’re the ones who make you regret ever joining the group chat every single time your phone goes off. Usually, these people fall into one of four categories. The following are the four people who always end up in your group chat (Note: I chose random names for all the people because anonymity blah blah you know how that works):

Henry: This is the person who is always sending random clickbait articles to the group chat. Thanks to him, everyone in the chat now knows “5 Signs That You’re Going to Die Alone” or “8 Celebrities Who Look Like Asparagus.” Chances are, Henry doesn’t actually have anything to contribute to the conversation, but really wants to feel like he does, so he tries to start conversations with whatever Buzzfeed throws at him.

Teddy and Betty: Now, in my opinion, these are the worst members of the group chat. Teddy and Betty are the two people who insist upon having private conversations in the group chat, resulting in your phone going off so many times it might actually start crying. If the group chat were titled “Gwen’s Birthday Surprise!” these two will be there, arguing about who makes the better cheesecake. Um, Teddy? Betty? No one cares. Make a new chat for the two of you, and figure out the superior cheesecake recipe there.

And when you’re done, could the winner make some for me?

Ben: These people are fairly new, and have evolved with the update to Facebook’s messaging feature. As a lot of you may know, you all have the option to send a thumbs-up emoji instead of a message when you’re in a Facebook chat. What’s new is that you can now change what that default emoji is, as well as change the names of all of the group members to various nicknames, and alter the colors that the chat bubbles appear in. You know, the stuff that matters. Well, Ben is the one who spends all of his free time messing with these settings. Which means that not only is your phone doing its best impression of a musical defibrillator, but none of these notifications even matter. At least Henry has the decency to give you the opportunity to learn about “6 Songs You Didn’t Know Were About Mickey Mouse.” Ben, it doesn’t matter that we can now all send camels to the group chat instead of a thumbs-up, we just want to plan this damn birthday party.

Maddie: Honestly, Maddie is not the worst person to be in a group chat with. The only problem is that you probably didn’t even know she was in the group chat. Maddie is what the Internet has called a “lurker.” Like all of the other people I’ve mentioned, Maddie has nothing to contribute to the chat. But you know what she does about it? Nothing. You see her read receipts, so you know she’s aware of what’s happening, but she doesn’t say anything unless she’s asked a question or she thinks it’s helpful. Everyone should try to be a Maddie. We need more Maddies.

Now, as annoying as all of these people may be, you kind of have to deal with them. Who knows why they act the way they do? After all, Henry’s just trying to be a part of something, so let’s give him a chance. And maybe Ben’s fussing with the chat settings is just his way of trying to make the group chat a little more enjoyable to be a part of. Not everyone can be as perfect as Maddie, so don’t expect them to be. Plus, at the end of the day, this group chat has allowed you to throw Gwen the perfect surprise party. So relax, set your phone to airplane mode if you have to, and let everyone enjoy the group chat in their own way.

Except for you, Teddy and Betty. Get outta here.