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

As farshid says, happy 78 days ’til Naw-Ruz! We’re having an open house at our place tonight for food and games, and my new webcam will be online, so you can see what’s going on in real-time (although we might not be upstairs all the time, so at times you might just see an empty room).

for those of you who will be party-hopping this new year’s, Catherine and I will be welcoming people for a small-scale potluck and games night on new year’s eve. we already have several games in the works, such as Tock and Axis & Allies (similar to Risk, but with less dice-rolling and more strategy involved). Those who wish to bring their own games to offer to the crowd are welcome to do so!

Doors open at 8 PM and the happiness goes until the wee hours of the morning (in true Ottawa fashion). For details, including how to get there by car and by bus, catch me on MSN or email me (using my address, or by using the “send me comments!” link above).

Pour ceux d’entre vous qui n’ont pas de plans fixes pour le nouvel an, ma soeur Catherine et moi accueilleront les gens chez nous pour un petit souper à la fortune du pot et une soirée de jeux, lors de la veillée du nouvel an. on a déjà plusieurs jeux en lice, dont Tock et Axis & Allies (comme Risk, mais avec moins de dés et plus de stratégie). Ceux qui veulent apporter leur propres jeux pour offrir aux gens sont les bienvenus!

Nos portes s’ouvrent à 20h00 et la joie continue jusqu’au petites heures du matin (comme on le fait si bien). Pour des détails, y compris comment s’y rendre par auto ou par bus, envoyez-moi un courriel ou un message par MSN.

I bet you thought I would never post some family photos! here’s a short montage from a trip we took to visit my brother and his family at Big Rideau Lake while he was trailer-sitting for his in-laws last summer. Sure, it’s not much, but more photos are in the works - including thanksgiving photos and photos from our trip to Magog in September. and yeah, yeah, I know, these were a long time in coming, so you don’t have to remind me ;)

P.S. to shams: Jupiter is featured.

are you looking for a new game to play? try Tock. some of you have played this game if you’ve been to my place. you might also have played it if you have relatives from Quebec. read up on it, and maybe next Christmas (or, for Bahá’ís, at Ayyam-i-Há) you’ll want to pick yourself up a copy!

If you’re like me and have absolutely nothing to do tonight, then come on down to Vafa’s place. He’s having an absolutely unplanned, impromptu 6-movie marathon after dinner (hence the short notice). We will also be taking some time to sit out in the park with BB guns trying to shoot down Santa Claus when he flies over Kanata.

so here we go: the dan jones birthday photos. the last-minute invitation for bowling at MacArthur’s Bowling Lanes turned out to be an enjoyable glow-in-the-dark free-for-all - and of course, dinner wasn’t bad, either.

argh. I was sick today. I guess it was a good day to get sick; it was pouring rain and overall very dreary. it was either food poisoning (bad curry) or a sort of 24-hour flu. whatever it was, it seems to have run its course for the most part - although I still can’t eat all that much solid food. man that sucks.

no work tomorrow. my family will probably be having a little get-together on the weekend, not so much to celebrate Christmas as to celebrate our time off. but to all those of you who celebrate Christmas, whether it be as a time for love, honour, and fellowship among men, or whether it be to celebrate the birth into this world of a Manifestation of God, well, Merry Christmas, and many more.

Today’s a festive day at work. For one thing, it appears that our external network connectivity is down. Huzzah! Of course, I can still blog, so it’s not entirely down, but goodness knows, we all need a little loss of network connectivity. It allows us time to look around us and take stock of where we are in life, to feel grateful for family and friends, and to take care of the little things like picking little slivers of skin out of the folds next to our fingernails, sweeping crumbs off our desks, and tossing out month-old post-it notes.

Anyway, besides that, today’s “Goodies Day” in Publishing. I brought over a bunch of Tim Horton’s goodies, such as cinnamon rolls, pecan butter tarts, and their specialty December donuts (named “Chocolate Snowflake”; they’re sprinkled with cocoa powder). Others brought cookies, frosted muffins, crab roll things — and not everyone’s here yet. I’m looking forward to it. I like goodies. Call me attached to the things of this world, but I do like and enjoy good food. Anyway, further to the goodies in Publishing today, IT is supposedly having its potluck lunch tomorrow. So pizza (and apple crisp, maybe) is in order for Thursday. Add to that the fact that my workload has been reduced to near-zero thanks to diligently slicing through the glut of requests that clogged my inbox last week, and I’d have to say that this week has been a pretty good week.

I’ve been getting a lot of spam. Today I got a message entitled: “What Al-Quran says about: Devil / Satan”. It’s supposedly a live discussion over Internet hosted by some Quran-study group based in Pakistan. They offer a study session in Urdu. I think I’ll attend that one. Not.

Ok, time for work now. Here’s looking at you.

It seems that someone stole my mug at work. it wasn’t just an old whatever mug, this was a phat-looking insulated mug. I guess that’s why it got jacked. Carrying that thing around is like driving around in a souped-up BMW with $5,000 hubcaps. I mean, I looked all around for it, but the fact is, I remember leaving it on my desk when I left work on Friday, and Monday morning it was gone. Apparently this isn’t the first time someone’s had their mugs swiped here, either; one of the editors who used to work in the Publishing department reported having been robbed by a mug thief once. I just can’t understand why someone would want to steal mugs, though. Of all the things in life that you could steal, why a mug? Why not steal my computer? My chair? The TEAMWORK poster in back of my desk? Those TEAMWORK posters must go for a lot on the black market. “TEAMWORK IS THE ABILITY TO WORK TOGETHER TOWARD A COMMON VISION.” It even has the obligatory bad grammar/sentence fragment: “THE ABILITY TO DIRECT INDIVIDUAL ACCOMPLISHMENT TOWARD ORGANIZATIONAL OBJECTIVES.” That’s not a sentence. That’s just one big noun phrase. Business-speak is weird. Use good grammar. I want my mug back. :(

for all those of you who’ve been waiting for some pics to look at, wait no more. here’s a set of photos from Andisheh’s birthday. You can also find these by clicking on the ’scrapbook’ button above and choosing to browse the ottawa scrapbook.

today’s prayer-capades were a resounding success. in fact, we did so well that we DOUBLED our attendance compared to last time (from 2 to 4… ha). We enjoyed an inspiring program of devotions with a blazing fireplace and meditative music as backdrops, and most excellent snacks. and that was only the beginning. the actual skating was so phat it can scarcely be described. let’s just note that some of the participants had their first ever encounter with an automated skate sharpening machine, and stellar performances ensued on the ice that demonstrated real olympic potential. if you’re interested in attending, it’s going to happen weekly, from 1 to 4 PM. Prayers start at 1 PM, skating starts at 2 PM at Bernard-Grandmaître Arena, MacArthur Road. e-mail or message me for details.

Pictures from today’s event are, of course, forthcoming; I may elect to wait a few weeks before putting them all up, to get more diversity. to whet your appetite, though, here’s a sample.

QUICK NOTE - to follow up the phatness from last sunday aft, we are meeting up to do prayer-capades again, this Sunday afternoon at 1 PM, @ Catherine & Dan’s pad in sector 9. come get your skates on. come have cookies and hot chocolate and pray in front of the fire. come in droves. let your friends know. or, if you can’t come, tell somebody else to come. and if you can’t tell somebody else to come, then God bless you.

Today has been the most insanest week (that was for you, Catherine). Lots of work coming in all at once - I guess everyone wants to get their web updates in before the Christmas holidays. One positive side-effect of the holidays is the celebratory luncheons where they give you boxes of chocolates and stress balls with smiley faces on them.

Who’s going out on vacation during the holidays? All my family are close by this year, so I’m thinking I won’t be doing many great trips. I was considering going out and visiting friends in Quebec, but I think that might be too much of a strain for me right now. Of course, the very interesting Quebec Youth Conference is in the beginning of January, down in my old digs, and I am planning on showing up there. So, what are the rest of you doing during your holidays? Are you planning on celebrating Christmas? What sort of meaning does it have for you, if any? Is it just a pleasant family get-together? A hellish stress-out and money pit? Or does it have some sort of real, living spiritual significance for you? Do you love or hate Jimmy Stewart? Are you celebrating something else instead, like Kwanzaa, or Hanukkah or (as Farshid suggested recently) Chrismukkah?