Thamara Kandabada. Generalist. Tinkerer.
Life
The Universe
Everything Else
Stream
4K Blu-rays
70mm
AI
Alcohol
Ambition
Ancient Greece
Anger
Apple
Apple Music
Archiving
Art
Asia
Astro
Atheism
Audio
Audio Gear
Audio Quality
Authoritarianism
Automation
BFI
Belfast
Belief
Biopics
Birthdays
Blogging
Blu-rays
Bob Dylan
Book Reviews
Books
Boredom
Brand
Brazilian Cinema
Break
Bullying
Burnout
Business
CSS
Celebrations
China
Choices
Cinema
Colombo
Communism
Compassion
Corporate Culture
Cosmos
Couch to 5K
Creativity
Crowdsourcing
Customer Acquisition
Customer Feedback
Customer Service
Customers
Data Visualisation
David Bowie
Debt
Deezer
Deliveries
Design
Development
Diary
Digital Detox
Digital Footprint
Digital Garden
Diplomacy
Discovery
Distractions
Documentary
Documenting
Drinking
E-commerce
Economics
Education
Entitlement
Events
Excess
Executive Presidency
Exercise
Facts
Faith
Fake News
Film
Film Reviews
Filter Bubble
Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann
Focus
Free Will
Fulfilment
Gigs
Glasgow
Google Maps
Growing Up
Guitar
HTML
HWC
Habits
Hi-fi
Hobbies
Homer
Human Rights
Hustle Culture
IMAX
Independence
IndieWeb
Indonesia
JavaScript
Jeff Buckley
Journaling
Knowledge
LLMs
Learning
Lego
Leisure
Lessons
Letterboxd
Listening
Live Music
Local Guides
London
Management
Media
Meditation
Microformats
Middle East
Mindfulness
Museums
Music
Musical
My Startup Journey
Nagivation
Nationalism
Nature
Netflix
News
North Coast
Northern Ireland
Notifications
Office
Open Source
Open Web
Outdoors
PHP
Passion
Persistence
Personal Finance
Personal Website
Philosophy
Physical Media
Planning
Playlists
Podcasting
Podcasts
Politics
Poster
Posterity
Presidential Election
Productivity
Progress
Psychology
QFT
RSS
Race
Ragging
Ratings
Reading
Recommendations
Reconciliation
Recreation
Religion
Remembrance
Remote Working
Reviews
Running
Russia
Science
Scotland
Self Reflection
Sensationalism
Social Media
Society
Solar Eclipse
Soldiers
Song Exchange
South Asia
Space
Spirituality
Sri Lanka
Star Wars
Startups
Streaming
Streamlet
Success
TEDx
TV
TV Shows
Technology
Terrorism
The Cosmos
The Great Astro Migration of 2026
The Grind
Thoughts
Time
Travel
Typography
USA
Ukraine
United States
Universe
University
Vanity
Vibe-coding
Volunteering
Voting
Walking
War
Wealth
Web Apps
Web Design
Website
Weddings
Weeknotes
Word Games
WordPress
Wordle
Work
World Affairs
World Conference on Youth
Writing
Youth
iPhone
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2024
2025
2026
20 Mar 2014
Filed under Everything Else
Sovereign states, missing planes and the Cold War
Some thoughts on current news
27 Mar 2014
The "Big Brother-Little Brother" affair
On Russia and Ukraine
10 Apr 2014
The cost of being neighbours
On having an “Asian Giant” as a neighbour
3 Apr 2014
The thing about post-war diplomacy
On Resolution 25/1
17 Apr 2014
What is rational about the War on Terror?
On America’s role in the Middle East crisis
24 Apr 2014
Will debt be China’s undoing?
On the Chinese cconomy
24 May 2014
Back from utopian dreams to reality
An account of the ground realities at #WCY2014
31 May 2014
The Rich and The Poor
What the Communists forgot
8 Jun 2014
Can the SAARC ever come back?
Learning from the European Union
3 Jul 2014
Why I’m proud of being Sri Lankan
My first post for UNICEF Voices of Youth Blogging Internship
19 Sept 2014
Colombo’s Golden Tale
A photo essay on the accelerated development in Colombo’s Seat Street
10 Oct 2014
Global power dynamics and the Third World
How the shifts in global political power affect us
15 Oct 2014
Volunteering in Sri Lanka
Are we doing it right?
22 Nov 2014
A virtuous “Common Candidate”?
My thoughts on the new Sri Lankan President
5 Dec 2014
The state of work in 2030
How to stay relevant in a world that favours automation
8 Jan 2015
Why I didn’t vote today
#PresPollSL
6 Jun 2015
The Great Divide, and my apathy
12 Jul 2015
Help a worthy cause this month
#RanaViruMeetUp
24 Aug 2015
TEDxColombo was worth it
My thoughts on the event
4 Feb 2016
The National Anthem
Is pluralism a myth?
19 Dec 2016
A year of podcasts
What my newest habit taught me
22 Jan 2017
Redefining ambition
How to escape the under-achievement trap
15 Jan 2017
The age of curation
Why your worldview is distorted, and what to do about it
29 Jan 2017
The future of work is not here yet
We still have a long way to go to create a perfect workplace
5 Feb 2017
What does a prison and a university have in common?
Lessons from a game-changing experiment
10 Mar 2017
Lessons from my first job
What I learned during 2 years in tech
18 Mar 2017
The biggest killer of our times
Misinformation can be our undoing
1 Mar 2017
Filed under The Universe
The perils of determinism
“If you could see your whole life from start to finish, would you change things?”
14 Apr 2017
A critique of meritocracy
Utopian dream or survivalist nightmare?
29 May 2017
Podcasts I’m listening to
May 2017 Update
18 May 2017
The cosmic perspective
An atheist’s quest for spirituality
27 May 2017
The joy of starting up for yourself
Documenting my startup journey
22 Jun 2017
I write for myself. Maybe you should, too.
I’ve been blogging since 2014. I haven’t had my ‘big break’ yet — and for good reason.
1 Jun 2017
In praise of meritocracy
Why I’m thankful to be a cog in the machine
9 Jun 2017
Selling convenience
5 Sept 2017
One-hundred days later
30 Sept 2017
Snippets from an incomplete journal
Welcome to my Monkey Mind
12 Sept 2017
The first 3 months: how we acquired customers
15 Oct 2017
Filed under Life
A challenge, for the next 30 days
Today, I took on a quite unexpected challenge, on a whim: a ‘Digital Detox’ of sorts.
17 Oct 2017
Listening to customers: the early stages
Meditating with Headspace
Because one challenge is not enough
1 Oct 2017
October is here
And I have news for you. I’m going to write to you more often, a newsletter of sorts.
Permission to vent?
Last week, I asked a question on Instagram. And you had a clear answer for it.
9 Oct 2017
Reality check
For 15 long years I dabbled in many things I ended up wanting nothing to do with. Now that I look back, those years were more valuable than I give them credit for.
7 Oct 2017
The importance of delight
30 Nov 2017
(De)clutter
Tidying up, just a little bit
11 Nov 2017
Diary, not book
Ignoring Guy Kawasaki
12 Nov 2017
Goodbye, Headspace. Hello, Oak.
An update: meditation, 21 days in
26 Dec 2017
Backlog
I’ve been away for a while. The last post I wrote on this blog was on the 30th November, that is, 26 days ago.
2 Jan 2018
226 days that mattered
24 Jan 2018
6 new podcasts
January 2018 update
19 Mar 2018
250/10
On journaling, and setting a low bar
16 Apr 2018
Avurudu deliveries
3 Apr 2018
Guarantees
21 Apr 2018
Trademarks
6 Jun 2018
Google Local Guides
An easy, almost effortless way to give back
22 Jul 2018
The self-made myth
No one is self-made. To call one that is a blatant dismissal of the work of many around them.
30 Aug 2018
Discounts
23 Aug 2018
The beauty of ignorance
Ignorance truly is bliss. Just not in the way you think.
28 Aug 2018
Wander
On meditation and purpose
6 Sept 2018
It’s the little things
1 Sept 2018
No more (delivery) sorrow
9 Sept 2018
The Bad Take
We launched a podcast!
3 Oct 2018
Hit record
How ‘The Bad Take’ gets made
6 Dec 2018
A new reason to write
From mindless scrolling to mindful writing
1 Dec 2018
Stop.
And do nothing.
5 Dec 2018
The stories we tell
31 Dec 2018
To the year that flew by
Reflections on 2018
11 Jan 2019
Cool turkey
Getting off the digital bandwagon, slowly
12 Jan 2019
(De)clutter: an update
In 2019, I want to read more. I tweaked my iPhone setup for exactly that.
22 Jan 2019
Expectations
28 Jan 2019
The death of intimacy
What weddings are, and not
15 Jan 2019
The unhustle
Work hard, play easy
4 Jan 2019
What’s your number?
A short review of Yudhanjaya Wijeratne’s Numbercaste
3 Feb 2019
Flip the Switch
On anger
23 Feb 2019
Through Java to Bali
23 days in Indonesia
17 Apr 2019
Pick one
On favourites
25 Aug 2019
Gladiators
On TV debates
19 Aug 2019
On saviours
A few thoughts following the announcement of the SLPP candidate
21 Aug 2019
The stages of atheism
My journey into unbelief
To protest is to progress
My thoughts on the candidacy of Anura Kumara Dissanayake
22 Aug 2019
Writing on Twitter
Putting the blogging back in microblogging
11 Sept 2019
The Netflix Effect
So many things to consume, so little time
18 Nov 2019
Poison
On being a teetotaller
4 Jan 2020
Beginnings
5 Sept 2020
Six weeks with Last.fm
Tracking my listening habits has confirmed what I already knew
25 Mar 2021
Apple Music vs Spotify
A head-to-head comparison in audio quality
20 Mar 2021
Little Dot MKII
My impressions after two weeks of use
22 Mar 2021
Moving In
Introducing: the microblog
14 Mar 2021
What’s good on Netflix - March 2021
I’ve been enjoying these shows and movies on Netflix lately
26 Apr 2021
Active vs Passive Listening
A tip for enhancing your listening experience
25 Apr 2021
All The Madmen
A tribute to David Bowie’s underrated ode to insanity
3 Apr 2021
Monthly Music Update: March 2021
My top streamed songs from the past month — in playlist format
17 May 2021
Apple Music Hifi
A few observations on Apple’s big announcement today
1 May 2021
Deezer Discoveries: April 2021
Fairport Convention, The Libertines, and Grace Slick & The Great Society
2 May 2021
Monthly Music Update: April 2021
5 Aug 2021
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
4K UHD Blu-ray impressions
2 Aug 2021
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
13 Jan 2022
A Wordle hack
Want to maximise your chances of getting the Wordle right? Try this.
31 Dec 2024
Don’t Look Back (1967)
A short review
26 Jan 2025
A Complete Unknown (2025)
An incomplete review
9 Feb 2026
Armoured Transport
Ready to be deployed at an ice planet nearby
16 Feb 2026
Some thoughts swirling around in my head after watching the new documentary
7 Feb 2026
Memory
A note on my favourite film genre
12 Feb 2026
New Year, New Website
A “quick” update that took a while
21 Mar 2026
Leaving a digital footprint
4 Mar 2026
Building a physical media showcase with Lovable
How I vibe-coded a simple catalogue app
12 Mar 2026
David Byrne at the O2 Apollo
A long weekend well spent
20 Mar 2026
Duodecennium
Looking back at 12 years on the internet
23 Mar 2026
More archiving: Gigs
Keeping a diary of performances I’ve witnessed
13 Apr 2026
A data visualiser for Finances 2
My second vibe-coding project
19 Apr 2026
A forgotten art
23 Apr 2026
Catharsis through film
Some thoughts on two recent Brazilian cinema outings
1 Apr 2026
Validation
This silly Wordle “hack” I came up with has gone places
8 May 2026
A decent start
18 May 2026
Couch to 5K: Week 4
Getting used to longer running intervals
28 May 2026
Couch to 5K: Week 5
Making steady progress
2 May 2026
“Gardening” update: May 2026
Finding joy in web design
25 May 2026
Letterboxd tag hierarchy
How I organise my film diary
16 May 2026
Location and weather in /now
Another pre-gig dispatch
27 May 2026
Spring/summer reading list
Picking up an old habit again
23 May 2026
The first 100 films of 2026
A film diary update
11 May 2026
The Gobbins Cliff Walk
A dramatic coastal walk with killer views
15 May 2026
Hello SSG
14 May 2026
Typeface makeover
A serif with personality
31 May 2026
Waiting for Big Thief
Aka, you can write anywhere
2 Jun 2026
A weekend in Scotland
Among nature, music, and art
21 Jun 2026
Birthday
It’s like any other day
7 Jun 2026
Couch to 5K: Week 6
Can I call myself a runner now?
14 Jun 2026
Couch to 5K: Week 7
25-minute running interval: conquered!
25 Jun 2026
Couch to 5K: Week 8
I'm almost there
8 Jun 2026
New writing setup
Hello markdown
9 Jun 2026
Styling the new website
A work in progress
26 Jun 2026
Waiting for Def Leppard
11 Jul 2026
Couch to 5K: Week 9
That's it, I'm a runner now!
13 Jul 2026
Gehenu Lamai
A gem of Sri Lankan cinema comes to Belfast
21 Jul 2026
My last post on WordPress
It's time for a new chapter
17 Jul 2026
No-JS mobile navigation menu
Adventures in janky CSS
16 Jul 2026
Filed under Stream
I've always wanted to add a section to the blog for short status-type posts. I didn't get around to experimenting with this on WordPress, but I have now built this in Astro. I'm calling this section of the blog "Stream", and each of these short posts a "Streamlet". I now need to find a way to make it as easy as possible to post these regularly.
19 Jul 2026
I asked my wife this morning to have a look at my Astro site and to give me some feedback. She said it was easy enough to navigate and that she liked the light mode colours. She didn't understand the purpose of the /Style page, but concurred she wouldn't be in the audience of people who would find that sort of thing interesting.
22 Jul 2026
Today at HWC Europe I shared my screen and showed everyone some snippets of this website. I particularly focused on my style page, the gigs layout and the posters layout. Even though the website is staged on a public URL and the source code is available on a public GitHub repo, I don't imagine anybody would have stumbled upon this as of yet. My website is quite basic compared to the cool things people do on the IndieWeb, but it felt good to share something I've made from scratch with limited technical knowledge.
4 Aug 2026
Beyond Couch to 5K
The next step in my running journey
15 Aug 2026
The moving image as a refuge from worldly cares
7 Aug 2026
Did I make this?
Can I take credit for something I prompted an LLM to make?
8 Aug 2026
Fleadh
Celebrating the culture, music, and dance of Ireland
14 Aug 2026
Guitar-ing
How, and why, I started playing guitar
3 Aug 2026
h-feed everywhere
Marking up my content collections
6 Aug 2026
Library
Knowledge is free
17 Aug 2026
Lookahead
Who would you rather be, The Beatles or The Rolling Stones?
12 Aug 2026
Mid-week-notes?
Eclipse, HWC, domains, and some random thoughts
10 Aug 2026
Nightrunning
Moments of self-reflection on the move
13 Aug 2026
No stars
On Letterboxd star ratings
5 Aug 2026
On the mics again
Is The Bad Take back? And some reflections on leaving an online footprint
16 Aug 2026
Road to 10K
Getting stronger and running longer
2 Aug 2026
RSS everywhere
New feed options for this website
1 Aug 2026
The Odyssey (2026): a review
My thoughts on Christopher Nolan's blockbuster adaptation of the Greek epic
11 Aug 2026
Web writers' forum
A helpful community for people who write on the web
9 Aug 2026
When in London
A weekend away
