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

today, I got an email from the Baha’i Institute Board of Québec, thanking me for the service I performed as area coordinator when I was pioneering in Drummondville. I printed it out and stuck it onto my blackboard/filing cabinet, along with the card full of love that the Spiritual Assembly of Drummondville sent me to express their thanks for the service I rendered to the Bahá’í community there. I’ll make that my gratitude wall - not just because people have been grateful towards me, but because I am so grateful to have rendered service, no matter how hard it may have seemed at the time.

In other news, my family and I are going out to Magog for the day tomorrow, to visit my uncle Ralph who’s been vacationing in Maine (I think, or Vermont - can’t remember which). I’m looking forward to it; it’s been two years since I’ve seen my aunt and uncle. These days we seem to meet in Quebec a whole lot. That’s funny.

God bless you all.

hey everybody. it’s a busy weekend for me and mine, and undoubtedly for you and yours too. tonight catherine and I are having a phat CABS potluck at our place, 6:30 PM until who knows when (last one we had went until ~11PM). come and chill, eat nice food, be together, and discuss blistering topics of vital import. maybe we’ll have a renaming competition to come up with a better name for our place than “Ghetto Lookout”. Any suggestions?

then on saturday it’s meetings with various people for me, related to children’s classes and — gasp! — work! Diana Cartwright and I are supposed to meet on Saturday to discuss the children’s classes we’ll be giving come September at her place (and hopefully I can finally get an idea of how to transfer my Ruhi Book 3 skills into practice). I’m also supposed to meet up with my mom, who has graphic design contracts coming out of her ears and might be ready to have me come in and help her out. That’s definitely a work in progress so please keep checking back for more news. It would be really great to start working again, even on a contract basis.

Also on Saturday, Andrew and Homa are getting married! Best wishes to the both of you guys… I’m really happy for you!! Hehehe. It puts the pressure on the rest of us of course… it’s the “all-my-friends-are-getting-married” syndrome. Of course, some of us are more heavily afflicted by this syndrome than others…

Then on Sunday, there’s another all-day session of Ruhi Book 5. That should be neat. Hopefully I won’t be too tired and I will be able to attend. It’s basically a sequel to Ruhi Book 3 — “Year 2″ of children’s classes.

Also interesting, my friend Jeremy from Trois-Rivières (originally from Goose Bay, Labrador) will be visiting family in Ottawa for the weekend, and hopefully we will be able to hook up. Jeremy, if you’re visiting my site, leave me a comment to let me know where I can call you (or call me if you still have my phone #).

I’ve been reading a book of Tahirih’s poetry recently. No, not Tahirih Naylor, but her namesake, Táhirih, renowned as a poetess, champion of women’s rights, and follower of The Báb and Bahá’u'llah. Her poems are very beautiful, very mystical, lyrical, and filled with spiritual power. They’re inspiring, too. Reading her poems is making me want to start writing poems again. Who knows, it might do me some good. I might post a few of them up on this blog every now and then, so keep your eyes open for that, too. If they take off, then perhaps we’ll organize a Beatnik Poetry Jam Session at our place sometime. You’ve been warned.

Aaaaand here are the pictures you’ve all been waiting for: the pictures from the Tristan Schuurman Junior Youth Teaching Project! I hope you like them. Remember, if you’d like higher-resolution copies of any of the photos, just send me a comment (with the link at the upper left of this page) and ask.

people really have interesting ways of finding this website. it’s been a little over a month since I last took stock of interesting search terms, and since then there have been some doozies, including:

• Is God doing the pizza place

• How long will I need to post my dobermans ears
• roxy’s cheesecake in times square
• working at Loblaws
• picture of doberman with a wheelchair (not in a wheelchair, I hope)
• peoples feeling about pizza
• how do i know when to pick cucumbers
• what in the hell do i want to do with my life
• pizza themed fiction (that’s what we call “niche literature”)
• got sick from your pizza
• Baha’i youth year of service stories
• do Bahais eat babies? (…speechless at this one)

that’s it for now… check back tomorrow for a major update!

P.S.: No, Baha’is don’t eat babies. Whoever told you they do was probably joking around with you (or was misinformed).

the wait is over, and now three (yes, count ‘em, three!) sets of photos have just gone up for all to see. first (and most tardy) are my Canada Day photos; second, photos from a traditional After-feast hang-out at Martin’s place; third, photos from the recent picnic hosted by Sector 9. Don’t miss that last one… the photos are phat!

Now Kamran can stop hassling me to put up the photos :P

Wow what a phat time we had over the weekend! the Tristan Schuurman Junior Youth Teaching Project was a success, that’s clear. Many many many photos were taken and will be put up over the next week. What’s more, I’ll be working on a wrap-up video of the teaching project — perhaps to present at the next reflection meeting?

Highlights of the project included Friday’s awesome dance workshop presentation by Oneworld, the Chelsea Dance Workshop (and also by members of Soulstorm, the Montreal Dance Workshop), the 3 seekers at the discussion/fireside on Saturday, the 3 seekers from Chelsea that were with us for two days, and the almost 50 youth and junior youth at The Coffee House on Sunday night. Several participants in the Project indicated their interest in taking part in junior youth study circles - nice!

More comments when I post up the photos - it’s pretty late and I need to sleep. I was up until 4 AM with Martin and co. on Sunday night/Monday morning (which is why I didn’t post an update on Monday).

Also, watch this space for news about my upcoming weekend-long trip back into Quebec!

Hey everybody,

Here’s the schedule of activities for the Tristan Schuurman Junior Youth Teaching Project, taking place this weekend in Sector 9. Come on out and join in the fun and fellowship!

Friday, Aug. 13th

• 7 pm: Icebreaker + Dance workshop + social. Dance workshop will come from Chelsea, and maybe even teach some of the dances! After the dance workshop performs (and throughout the project), there is an excellent opportunity to invite junior youth to join a study circle. Location: 40 Landry St.

Saturday, Aug. 14th

• 3 pm: Devotional program followed by a workshop. PLEASE LET THE JUNIOR YOUTH KNOW TO BRING SOMETHING ALONG TO EAT. WE WILL BE EATING DINNER TOGETHER. Location: Benoit-James residence. WE CAN MAYBE WALK AS A GROUP TO THE HOWDEN’S, DEPENDING ON THE LOCATION OF THIS EVENT.
• 7 pm: Open discussion/fireside: Junior youth will be facilitated in a discussion of their choice, allowing for opportunities to input Baha’i ideas. Location: Howden’s.

Sunday, Aug. 15th

• 12 noon: Picnic in Strathacona Park. Activities geared towards junior youth. Simple things like a good ol’ fashioned soccer game, etc. work really well. PLEASE LET THE JUNIOR YOUTH KNOW THAT MORE INFORMATION IS IN THE LAST NEWSLETTER, AND THAT THE PICNIC IS A POTLUCK.
• 7 pm: Coffeehouse at Catherine’s place. Opportunity for junior youth to showcase their talents and socialize. If we haven’t already had a chance, an excellent opportunity to invite junior youth and/or their parents to study circles.

Big ups to Kamran the karma man and to all the friends who helped to make today’s picnic in Sector 9 a resounding success. An estimated 50+ people showed up during the event, which was held starting at 11 AM in Vanier’s Riverain park (aka River Road park). Activities included volleyball, soccer, basketball, football, tug-of-war, jump-rope, and of course the ubiquitous card games. The atmosphere was completed by a trunkload of phat beats from around the world, and lots and lots (and lots) of food — corn, hot dogs and sausages, chicken, burgers, salad, Persian rice, and watermelon. Practically all the city’s sectors were represented, with Bahá’ís and their friends mingling, socializing and having an all-around excellent time. Two thumbs up to the Sector 9 picnic - let’s see if Sector 8 (Downtown Ottawa & Rockcliffe) can beat that next Sunday!

Photos from today will be up soon - in the meantime, here’s a b-ball picture (complete with kamran on a moped):

What’s next? Why, look out for the Tristan Schuurman Junior Youth Teaching Project next weekend, starting @ 7 PM on Friday night with an evening with the funny, engaging and wildly popular Chelsea Dance Workshop. Activities will all be taking place in Sector 9 (so, Vanier and area), and will also include a devotional meeting Sat. afternoon, a fireside chat and discussion group on Sat. evening, and The Coffeehouse on Sun. evening.

The project is run and planned by Ottawa Bahá’í youth, and is focused on junior youth — that is, youth of about 10-15 years of age. You won’t want to miss this - it’s the first initiative of this kind in Ottawa in recent memory, and certainly the first teaching initiative since the Ottawa cluster gained “A” status. This is a challenge to all the Bahá’í junior youth in Ottawa: We DARE you to come to the teaching project, to invite all your friends, to PACK our houses with people. We can fit in ALL of you. Go ahead, WE DARE YOU!

aaahhhh so that’s what was happening.

Several visitors have left comments to tell me what happened to make my website so popular in Australia. Apparently it was mentioned on a pop radio station based in Sydney (I think), during a weekly feature on interesting websites, particularly in relation to the pokéname generator. Which is why Australian search engines were suddenly drenched with a bunch of requests for “pizza sandwich” and other variations on the same theme. Well that was really cool to know. When I scribbled up the pokéname generator four years ago I never expected that it would be getting press all the way across the world, and on the radio no less. So Kudos to 2Day FM and The Hot Hits (6-9 PM, Sydney time). As we say around these parts, you’re money.

More later - I’m really tired right now. And people are gonna come wake me up early tomorrow, boo hoo :(

check out the camping photos, newly posted to the ottawa scrapbook. yeah yeah, so it took me a while, so sue me ;) but you certainly can’t miss these hilarious photos of Vafa the Meat Man or the Sparkler Follies. word.

So, yesterday, I biked over to Counsellor Masrour’s meeting with the Bahá’í community in Gatineau. Very cool, and very informative. The Counsellor is really very friendly and has a lot of amazing experiences to share from his travels in South America — Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile, etc. Basically last night was a consultation with the Bahá’ís of Gatineau about all sorts of things, from what they liked about the Five Year Plan, to how they should go about developing children’s classes, to what sort of role youth and junior youth should have in the life of the Bahá’í community, to how to be more inclusive to the general public and open up Bahá’í activities to the population of the world. He brought nothing but encouragement and love and showed a whole lot of wisdom and humility. Apparently he also had the chance to meet with the Spiritual Assembly in Gatineau (as well as those of Chelsea and La Pêche). What a great idea, and what an honour for them. If you haven’t heard yet, the Counsellor will also be coming to Ottawa tonight, to meet with the Bahá’í community in our very own Sector 9, at 40 Landry. Please, all of you, consider coming out, ESPECIALLY youth and junior youth. You WILL get a lot out of it! It starts at 7:30 PM (as usual).

In other news, a friend of mine, whom I met in Victoriaville during my year of service, is on vacation in Ottawa! I thought that was pretty cool. She’s from Romania, and she was posted at the Centre Emmaüs in Victoriaville for a pastoral exchange program when I joined the gospel choir. I haven’t seen her for like a year and a half.

OK, more later. Thanks for dropping by!