doberman pizza. a baha'i (bahai, bahá'í) blog.

it’s been raining in Ottawa since I got here, and all the snow has disappeared, except for small patches that are impossible to go sledding on. the temperature just seems to want to stay above zero. oh well… it happens. if I wanted snow I guess I could have stayed at home in Drummondville. but hey, I came to Ottawa to relax and be with my friends. I guess I could say, rediscover my friends — it’s been six months since I’ve seen them all in the flesh. I’ve had the chance to meet up with a lot of people who I haven’t seen in a long while, too. I’m real grateful for that! Yesterday evening I got the chance to have dinner with Phil and René Allard (and several other youth of course). what a bunch of great guys. lol. René lives in Montreal, tho I seem to show up in MTL so infrequently these days that we had to wait to come to Ottawa to meet up. oh well. after that, we stopped by Ayafor’s place at Lees and were witness to a couple of games of roake/shalem. aya is doing well; he moved across the street from the old apartment in the Citadel and is living with his cousin, working on his Masters’ right now. he still has that old tribble (little brown fuzzy thing) that I left behind when I moved out two years ago. that’s funny. I got real tired last night tho and couldn’t stick around as long as I would have liked to. that was a bummer. oh well - hopefully we’ll have more chances to hang out together. the 19-day feast is tonight, and it’s a city-wide feast. those are always wonderful :) then on wednesday (31st) there’s a CARDevotional going on at Martin’s place. that should be quite interesting. I’ll be looking forward to seeing how it goes — it’s apparently been quite successful, and it might be something we can take back to other areas.

I’m glad to be back. I’m glad to have this time to reflect and think about the good things around me and all the friends I’ve been blessed with. I’m thinking a lot about my future too. Many things have changed in my life in such a short span of time. that makes me even gladder to have the friends I have. It also makes me all the gladder to be Bahá’í. There is so much love, support and fellowship among the Bahá’ís. I’ve never regretted my decision to embrace Bahá’u'lláh’s Faith. I only hope and pray that I may be given strength and steadfastness to fulfill God’s will for my life.

Pray for the study circle of Ruhi Book 3 that’s started today in Victoriaville. The community there has taken such great leaps and bounds in the past few years and has gone through so many severe tests and trials. they will undoubtedly continue to receive untold blessings in the years to come. May God continually shower them with all of His love.

“Entrance into the Kingdom is through the love of God, through detachment, through holiness and chastity, through truthfulness, purity, steadfastness, faithfulness and the sacrifice of life.”

last night Vafa, Martin and his brother Brian, Homa, Catherine and I chilled with Andrew at his place at Lees, staying up til like 4:30 am playing Roake, a variant of a Persian version of Hearts. I was reduced to utter humiliation when I tried to show my skills at the Persian version only to find out that the rules to Roake were completely different. Oops. After a while I picked it up. Strange things happen to your mind when you stay up until four in the morning. Let’s just say that the most memorable part of the night ended up being Andrew’s plastic container full of salted cashews. Anyway Martin took many pictures so they should eventually go up on his website. check it out on his Brian Visits page. Oh yeah, his brother Brian is from Gainesville, Florida, and he’s chilling (literally) in Ottawa for a few weeks. He is a graduate in microbiology. Wow. Anyone with micro in their field of study is just automatically cool. Especially biology. I never took any biology courses so I naturally think anyone who understands it is the biggest genius the world has ever seen.

yooooo what’s going on today. well not much really. I’m at Catherine’s place, kind of relaxing, expecting a few calls… and relaxing. playing with the cat. messing around with the guitar. blogging. chilling. when it’s time to chill, you chill with a will. today is boxing day so I kind of wanted to stay away from the stores. Hahahahaha. Just chillin with friends, man. Friends. Gotta have friends. That’s what it’s all about. Can’t live without friends who won’t let you down, you gotta have friends.

yo. well we wanted to get some winter sports down but it doesn’t look like there’s much winter left. oh well. watch this space. why? i don’t know, just watch it. if you’re like me and there’s not whole lot on tv that you find interesting this christmas, then why not visit the following inspiring and hilarious websites, created by the Baha’i youth of the Ottawa area?

• Martinsquest.com - Martin’s quest to be the phattest punk on the net.

• Vafa.tk - Vafa’s quest to… well… put up lots of photos.
• CARDevotional.tk - The heavily publicized (and not recently updated) CARDevotional site.

Well, dinner’s up soon. hey I got a World Community Cookbook from Tamara, for Christmas (or my birthday - whichever). They look like pretty simple and nice recipes from all over the world. There’re lots of vegetarian recipes in it, and meaty recipes too.

I’m glad to be here, to be taking some time with my family and friends - some time that really counts. Heh. Vafa and I just played some Solitaire Showdown and he beat me by one point. Bah! Well maybe if we get the chance to go out tonight with Martin and co. to play some cards I can trounce him. MUAHAHA VENGEANCE!

Lesson of the day: Lâcher prise.

hey y’all. if you’re in ottawa and you want to have a blast (hopefully without breaking your neck), come with us to Green’s Creek! bring your sleds, krazy karpets, winter clothes (Martin excepted), and a heart full of joy and gladness and snow-related malice. more details will be posted soon, including exact date and time and place and stuff. as far as i know we are planning to have this go down over the weekend (possibly saturday, when temperatures are supposed to be back below freezing). so yo. watch this space.

hey folks

I ended up like this on sunday. except that my car was less rusted and there was less rubble and rocks lying around and more snow and ice. I wasn’t hurt, I’m in one piece, etc, etc. The insurance is kicking in slowly. more news as it comes.

tell you what, whoever wants more details can talk to me in person, I don’t actually feel much like blogging about it right now :P

anyway I’m back in ottawa now and just in the mood to relax and enjoy the company of friends.

peace in the middle east.

hey peepz

it mega-snowed again today (tho not as much as monday). this time I actually drove in to work, though the drive ended up being pretty awful. It’s not so bad now, though. There shouldn’t be a whole lot of trouble when I go back home (unless some crazy guy goes and digs up a water main).

today I’m feeling alright. I’ve been stressed lately and I am looking forward to having a nice vacation in Ottawa. My batteries need recharging. I am gonna have to think of some nice things to do, like go out skating on the Canal or something.

There’s this british person telling me I’m lucky to have three feet of snow in my backyard and that I should go out in my sledge. I might just end up doing that ;)

peeeeeeeaaaaaaccccccce

Tempête de neige au Québec et au Nouveau-Brunswick

Snow plays havoc on highways

Une tempête de neige qui complique la circulation

L’Estrie ensevelie sous la neige

Course de motoneige au centre-ville de Montréal

And I’m sitting here safe at home, making oatmeal for breakfast. :9

aw HELL YEAH

this is so phat. I just keep getting extended. these people really seem to love me. I was chatting with my boss this morning after showing off the work I’ve been doing on the Access reports, and she asked me if I would be interested in coming back after the Christmas holidays for a MINIMUM of four weeks. WAAAAHAHAHAHAAAAA FREAK OUT

I’m happy, even though it’s raining. there are lessons in this.

hehe. I had dinner at France and Jessika’s place last night, after said dinner got bumped from Sunday night to Tuesday night. It was still a really great dinner, and it was fun to hang out with them. We played Battleship and I won (tho not by much).

I told France that I liked Christmas songs too much and that I was trying to make myself hate them by listening to nothing but Christmas songs all day long. So far, I’ve had mixed results. I’m starting to hate some of the songs, like for example the “Winter Wonderland” one, or “Au Royaume du Bonhomme Hiver” as the French translation is titled. But I still love a whole bunch of them. Anyway, France laughed when I told her this, and she said something really funny… it was to the effect that, I guess your wife and kids are gonna have to watch out when you start a family… you might love them so much that you decide to make yourself hate them. I mean, it’s true, it is kind of pointless to try and make yourself hate something if you really like it. It’s like one of those girly sentimental movies where the girl is trying to make herself hate the guy and she only ends up falling madly in love with him (or vice versa). Not that I watch girly sentimental movies. Except when I’m goaded into it by girls. Guys, you know what I mean… you gotta keep the peace with the ladies, right? So you gotta make some sacrifices sometimes. To keep the ladies happy. So, from time to time, I have witnessed the odd girly sentimental movie. Not that I’ve ever cried during a girly sentimental movie, though. Definitely not. Especially not Titanic. I’m just digging a hole deeper and deeper for myself, here, and I think I’ll stop.

“When a man turns his face to God he finds sunshine everywhere. All men are his brothers.” (Abdu’l-Baha, Paris Talks)

It’s very comforting to know that.

Hey, I’m twenty-four now. I have new duds. All a whole load of people called me up to sing me happy birthday yesterday. And same goes for today, everyone at work stopped to wish me a happy birthday and guess my age. Most, wait, no, all of them said I looked around 28. I laughed. I guess I’ve missed all the chances I’ll ever have to be carded.

Twenty-four is a big number. It’s the number of hours in a day, and a day can be pretty long. Twenty-four years is almost a quarter of a century. I’m not depressed about that. Well, not too depressed. ;) As long as I continue to progress towards God, it’s all good. Damn, that’s really what’s important.

It’s a quiet day at work today. I’ve been troubleshooting MS Access reports. Now for what’s left of the day I’ll be messing with report designs.

Apparently Misagh is Tom Selleck. Can anyone confirm this?

What day is it? Oh, it’s Friday. I’m so glad it’s Friday. I’m glad I don’t have to come in to work tomorrow. I’m tired and I need a break. I had a lot of things to do this week and didn’t get much sleep. It was one of those weeks. Come tonight, I’m just gonna take it easy, let myself get some rest, and go some good stuff for myself, like exercise, cleaning up my apartment, and so on. Mom and Dad should be coming down tomorrow morning, so that’ll be fun. and on Sunday, it’s my birthday, and I’ve been invited over for dinner at France and Jessika’s. And to top it all off, there’s a 3CJ meeting Sunday night. WOOHOO

Hey, I already got one birthday present. Gabrielle gave me her old computer, which she wasn’t using anymore. it’s a family hand-me-down; a Pentium. JUST Pentium. No 2, 3 or 4, or whatever. I don’t even remember what the processor speed is; it must be something like 64 MHz. I’ll look it up and let you know how heartbreakingly low the number is. No, seriously, I really love it. I’ve been wanting a wintel box for a while now, just so I can have some better compatibility with the rest of the people I know (and so that I can run Office without having to shell out to upgrade my G4 to OS X — although I should do that anyway).

So, Sunday I’ll be 24. the older I get, the more chance I have to look back and see just what a winding road I’ve gone down. It’s funny how you get to know some people sometimes and starting out they seem like the happiest, nicest, most fulfilled and well-adjusted people on the face of the planet, but when you get to know them real well you suddenly find out they’ve gone through the most excruciatingly painful tests in their lives. And the best part is, sometimes they’re not putting up a front. Sometimes they really are happy, well-adjusted and fulfilled, even though they’ve gone through what seems like hell to get there. Perhaps that’s because they know that doing their time in this life is better than doing it in the next.

I can’t say that my tests are finished in life; in fact, they’re still only starting. But I like the nature of these new tests. They tell me that I’ve been progressing, that I’ve been growing. Good for me. I’ll just keep on going, one day at a time, and see what else happens. Life is a pretty nutty thing isn’t it? Thanks, God.

For those of you who require more explanation: dig it.