My first tandem sky dive experience

Never thought jumping out of an air plane at 11000 feet would be this much fun. What a rush!

Video quality is a bit low because I had to convert it to a lesser quality to upload it to youtube.

Friendly Basketball Match

We (WSO2) played a friendly Basketball match against some of my friends at Colombo University. We played the match on 24th Thursday at British School's outdoor Basketball court. This was the second time that we met in a friendly match. Last year the Colombo University guys won the match and this time around we won the match.

When comparing our performance against our previous encounter, our team has improved a lot.

Since we had 2 games in 2 consecutive years, we are planning to take this ahead and have this friendly Basketball match as an annual event.

I should like to thank my junior match mates at Colombo University for coming there to play a match during a University vacation and the crowd for coming there to cheer us.

WSO2 Basketball finals 2010

QUALIFYING MATCHES

The 3rd annual WSO2 Basketball tournament was held over the month of October. We had 4 teams and 6 qualifying matches leading up to the finals. Wild Boars and Legions were the teams with the leading scores and they were chosen to be in the finals. When comparing with last 2 years, this time around every team had a balanced set of players. It can be seen by results of the preliminary round matches, where 3 teams had won 2 out of 3 matches they faced. Therefore, we had to choose the finalists by getting the accumulated scores of each team.

THE TEAMS
The Legions were led by our CEO, Dr. Sanjiva Weerawarna and the Wild Boars were led by our VP of Engineering, Samisa Abeysinghe.

====================================================
Legions              |         Wild Boars       |
====================================================
Amal Rangana            |Amila Suriyarachchi       |
Chamara Silva           |Asanka Abeysinghe (VC)    |
Chanaka Jayasena        |Asela Pathberiya          |
Danushka Menikkumbura   |Deependra Ariyadewa       |
Flora Ariyapala         |Dimuthu Leelarathne       |
Gayani Rajanayake       |Hasmin Abdul Cader        |
Isuru Suriarachchi      |Heshan Suriyarachchi      |
Janath Sivayoganathan   |Milinda Lakmal Pathirage  |
Kalpani Wanigaratne     |Nandika Jayawardana       |
Mahesh Marcus           |Rajika Kumasiri           |
Sanjiva Weerawarana (C) |Samisa Abeysinghe (C)     |
Srinath Perera          |Sumedha Rubasinghe        |
Tharindu Mathew         |Udeshika Ratnavira        |
Thilina Buddika         |Thilanga Pitigala         |
Waruna Ranasinghe       |Anjana Fernando           |
Miyuru Daminda          |Yasith Nakandana          |
Kasun Indrasiri         |Lavi De Silva             |
Gayani Marasinghe       |Sanjaya Vithanagama       |
Pavithra Madurangi      |Denis Perera              |
Arjuna Samaraweera      |Shammi Jayasinghe         |
Asiri Rathnayake        |P.K.A. Thilini Ishaka     |
Eshara Kalpanie Fonseka |Kathiravelu Pradeeban     |
Janaka Ranabahu         |Udayanga Wickramasinghe   |
Sarasi Madushika        |Pradeep Fernando          |
Nirdesha Munasinghe     |Hasini Gunasinghe         |
Charith Wickramarachchi |Hasini Yatawatte          |
Dinusha Dilrukshi       |Sanjeewa Mallalgoda       |
Manisha Ellaperuma      |                          |
Meeyoni Fernando        |                          |
====================================================

THE FINAL
It was a rain hit final and we played in our usual outdoor Basketball court - the car-park ;). Eventhough it was raining we could see the crowd standing around the court and cheering for their favourites.

The Legions started playing very aggressively from the word go and they were determind to not let the Championship slip away from them. Wildboars on the other hand was equal to the task and did not want to repeat the 2009 finals (in which WBs became runners up). It was an evenly contested match and The Legions were leading at half time whisle. Although they were leading, the Wild Boars were not too far behind (I can't recall the half-time score).

Then we started the second half. In the second half Wild Boars caught up to Legions score. I remember a point where the scores were levelled at 36-all. From this point onwards, non of the two teams didn't let the other take the lead for more than 2 points. It was showing the symptoms of going for an extra time ending.

FINAL WORKOUT
As the game progressed, I was getting the feeling that the game should be finished by now. So I asked Pumika who was near the stop clock, "how much time left?". She told me 30 seconds. I instantly thought of getting a timeout, but since we had the ball in our hand and we were attacking, I didnt want to take a timeout. (At that point if I took a timeout, it will inturn let the Legions know of the stop clock. Therefore, I opted not to take a timeout :) )

Asanka was controlling the ball at that time. I shouted at him "SHOOT! SHOOT!" (BTW, the scores were levelled at this point, 42-all). I don't know whether he heard my screms in the middle of the roar from the crowd. Anjana, Ude and I, was guarded by the defenders. Asanka, cleverly dribbled towards the baseline, which resulted in two defenders going towrds him to guard his move. That move, freed Samisa (the defender that should guard Samisa was now defending Asanka). Then Asanka passed the ball back to Samisa, who hit a long range 2 pointer to seal the win for the Wild Boars. That marked the end of a nail biting final. A final which I will remember for a long time. :)



Hats off to Legions for giving such a good game and in my book, both the teams were winners that night. They both fought hard to win the Championship. If you have a look back at the Legions past performances, this is a significant improvement from their side.

SCORE SHEETS

==============================================================
Date                     |    Teams                     |Score
==============================================================
Wednesday 6th 4.00 pm    | Cloud bots Vs. Titans        |31:53
Thursday 7th 4.00 pm     | Legion Vs. Wild Boars        |23:34
Tuesday 12th 4.00 pm     | Titans Vs. Wild Boars        |33:28
Thursday 14th 4.00 pm    | Cloud bots Vs. Legion        |22:54
Tuesday 19th 4.00 pm     | Cloud bots Vs. Wild Boars    |34:61
Thursday 21st 4.00 pm    | Titans Vs. Legion            |29:40
Tuesday 26th 4.00 pm     | Cloud bots Vs. Titans        |41:72
Thursday 28th 7.00 pm    | Wild Boars Vs. Legions       |44:42
==============================================================

OBSERVAIONS
Piyumika was the main person responsible for organizing this year's tournament. She had given attention to detail in organizing this very successful event which everyone enjoyed very much. I take this opportunity to thank (on behalf of all the players) Piyumika and her team for making this a memorable night. Specially the idea to bring in a face painter added color to the event :).

I take the this opportunity to thank the crowd (who came to cheer for us or against us) who supported the players throughout this tournament. If it wasn't for ya'll it wont be an entertaining tournament like this.

As Isuru pointed out the other day, we did not have any serious injuries (broken bones, torn muscles, etc:) ) during this tournament. That means we are starting to play real Basketball and we have moved away from playing the Rugby+Basketball [2] hybrid, that we were used to play :D.

I am finishing off this post with an extract from a Fort Minor song.

This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill
Fifteen percent concentrated power of will
Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain
And a hundred percent reason to remember the name

Related Posts
[1] - http://heshans.blogspot.com/2008/10/internship-wso2.html
[2] - http://heshans.blogspot.com/2009/10/basketball-wso2-how-to-survive.html

Pictures courtesy of Chinthana Wilmuna.

My 500LKR haircut

This incident took place on Monday. Although it is not that much of a significant incident I thought of writing a blogpost because of the funny nature of it. On Monday, I thought of getting a haircut. I was having a chat with my buddy Pandula before going to the Saloon. When I mentioned about the haircut, he asked "hey man, are you still going to that shitty place to get an haircut. You should increase your standard of living cos now that you are employed and ....." he went on preaching. In my defense this so called "shitty Saloon" was the one which I have been going to for the last 5 years after moving to Borella. Although it did not have many luxurious facilities, I could get a haircut+head massage for 140/= (including the 20/= tip).

After Pandula's comment I was a bit embarrassed and thought of going to a better Saloon. After going in I told the barber the way in which I need my hair to be trimmed. He did it. At the end of the haircut I asked the barber how much is for the haircut. He said 150/=. I thought "Somebody have to pay for these fancy lights and equipment" and said "ok cool". Then I told him to give me a head massage(a statement which I would regret later).

This bugger gave me a head massage for 20 minutes. Normally in my old place the barber would give it for 5 mins. I thought that this guy was having some short term memory loss in understanding time durations. After everything was done, I asked him how much for the haircut? He said 500/=. My first reaction was that I heard it wrong and I asked the same question again to get the same answer back. Then I asked "Damn.... you charged 350/= for a head massage?". Although I had 2000/= with me at that time; under any circumstance I would not pay for a haircut that much.

I told him "I am having 300/= with me right now and out of it I have to buy a dinner packet for 100/=. I can only give you 200/=." He had no other option but to accept my proposition. [IMO barber had another extreme option. He could have asked me to cut hair of the customers until he recovers my charge (just like people are asked to wash plates in "siwari", when they are unable to pay for the food that they have eaten :)). I guess he did not have faith in me - having a pair of scissors on my hand ]. Therefore I gave him 200/= and got myself out of that place. That was the last time that I would step on that place.

Ironically the Saloon's name was "Sayonara" :) meaning 'goodbye'. 'siy-oh-nah-rah' would be the best matching name that anybody could come up with, for a Saloon like that :D