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

salut tlm, je suis rendu à Drummondville, chez les Lachance… je relaxe un peu et je prends des nouvelles… Gabie s’en vient dîner dans un petit bout… par après, Nicole et moi s’en vont à Odanak recontrer des gens… une journée mouvementée! attendez davantage de nouvelles plus tard…

hi everybody… I’m in Drummondville, hanging out with the Lachances (a Baha’i family here, and good friends of mine)… resting and catching up with news… we’re having lunch in a bit, and soon I’ll be off to visit the Odanak native reserve with Nicole… a busy day! look for more updates later…

Just about the best conference I’ve ever been to. Many thanks to the organizers and all the brave and dear souls who put together the program and made it happen. It was a seriously high-quality event. Um, it being Unravel the Mysteries, this past weekend in Mississauga. The conference has been happening for the past five years or so, but this is the first year I’ve been able to attend. I was originally skeptical about it, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the conference was deeply permeated with a sense of spiritual purpose (rather than being the mere ‘marriage conference’ some people were jokingly making it out to be).

I attended sessions by Hoda Ghadirian (”Growing with Suffering”), Tahirih Naylor (”A Spiritual Impetus to Global Forces”), and Rayhan and Taban Behin (”Humility and Submission to the Will of God”). Hoda’s talk was moving, deeply coherent and full of wisdom; drawing on research and insights given by the Authenticity Project, she related her personal and professional experience to the writings of the Baha’i Faith to explain what makes suffering and what purpose it has in our life. Tahirih spoke on her experience working with the External Affairs wing of the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Canada, and gave us an overall picture of how the Baha’i community works to bring spiritual impetus to the work of the United Nations and various organizations of civil society. Finally, Rayhan and Taban helped us explore the concepts of humility, service and submission to the Will of God. I was part of a group that discussed it in terms of material wealth - i.e. how to make money without letting it get to your head, and how to apply the Baha’i principle of the elimination of extremes of wealth and poverty.

The arts programs were stellar; you can tell that they really went out of their way to find excellent performers, and ones who could put forth their emotions and express spiritual concepts. They got a wide variety of arts involved too - visual arts, music, dance, storytelling… not just the usual same-old same-old. big ups to Geneviève Cyr, Adam Crossley, and Andrea McLean for being intensely phat. Also mad ups to Naysun Alae-Carew for his Chinese dance (Naysun is aka ’shaolin sammy’ from the Ottawa Wildfire performance).

All in all, the best, most impressive and most moving part of the conference was the commemoration of the Ascension of Baha’u'llah, held at 3:30 AM on Sunday morning. Every time I attempt to put into words the beauty of this commemoration, I hang my head and my tongue is stilled, because mortal words and phrases cannot express something so clearly Divine. That may sound trite, but about all I can say is that it was really, really special - dignified, moving, touching, respectful, imaginative, beautiful. Just beautiful.

Pictures from the conference are gradually going up all over the Internet- check out Martin’s website regularly to see them as they come up. As for my photos? You’ll see a bunch of them popping up on my photoblog - check the sidebar to your left for some thumbnails. I may also put together a photo-journal page on this site (but I’m lazy so be warned ;).

And with that, I’m off to Drummondville. Talk to you guys later. May the Air Force be with you.

so, if anybody asks, I’ll be away at the Unravel the Mysteries forum this weekend, unravelling the mysteries. I’ll be sharing a room with the dangerous combo of Martin, Vafa, Misagh and Kamran. Together, we’re kind of like a group of superheroes, except our super power is stuff like cracking jokes and doing Ruhi books and giving firesides and supporting core activities. And squealing tires. Then I’ll be out for the rest of next week visiting Drummondville, Victoriaville, and Trois-Rivières, doing a little catching up with some people, a little travel-teaching with others, and so on. I’ll be checking my email whenever I have access to a computer, but I may be less present overall until June 5th, when I’ll be coming back from Trois-Rivières. Hopefully I won’t bring back any mouse-related viruses (or any paper-related stench).

Salut la gang - cette fin de semaine je m’en vais à Toronto, et puis en revenant je vais passer une semaine dans le Centre-du-Québec et Mauricie… simplement pour retourner dans le coin et dire salut aux gens - et, si Dieu le veut, un cercle d’étude intensif du livre 1 de Ruhi à Trois-Rivières. Mon horaire a l’air un peu comme ça pour la semaine prochaine:

J’ai hâte de vous revoir… ah oui et la gang de Sherbrooke… je ne vous ai pas oublié… ça ne sera pas pour cette fois-ci, par contre, mais vous êtes les prochains sur ma liste ;)

OMG. This is incredibly cheezy, but it’s sooooooooo funny. Cuke Skywalker joins the Organic Rebellion and fights Darth Tater to rid the galaxy of the evil influence of the Dark Side of the Farm (with help from Chewbroccoli, of course). Go check out Grocery Store Wars.

update: Youtube version, of course.

oh crap! (mouse crap, to be exact.)

Hantavirus hits Quebec

MONTREAL (CBC) - Health authorities are dealing with the province’s first case of the deadly hantavirus. A man from Nicolet contracted the disease in a forest area just north of Trois-Rivières last year.

I’m going by trois-rivières soon, too. I guess I’ll make sure not to breathe in any mouse poop.

Lacoursière says Quebecers shouldn’t be too concerned, because precautions can be taken. The disease is carried by mice, humans can only be infected when they breathe the virus in, usually through dust containing mouse feces.

hidey ho friends on this dark and cloudy day full of promise of whiplash and dangerous behaviour. this is your captain speaking, thank you for flying squished bugs airlines, you are on the flight from ottawa straight to heaven knows where, please note that we will not be stopping for potty breaks. please note that this is a non-smoking flight; anyone caught lighting up will be immediately and forcibly ejected. our movie tonight is Ishtar meets Jaws, and our in-flight menu is printed below. please buckle your seatbelts and prepare for massive and irresponsible turbulence. over and out, charlie.

• when does Loblaws restock (whenever they feel like it?)

• what happened at the doberman pass? (that’s for me to know and you to butt out)
• MacArthur Bowling lanes (this might help)
• comment preparer la pizza
• i mean photos of wwe smackdown on september 19 2002 (sorry, I didn’t hear you the first time)
• o people of baha
• crazy doberman eating self (…and I think we have a winner for this month’s wierdest search)
• compactor photoblog (hi, my name’s bud. I work at a compactor. here are photos.)
• tim hortons name of donat (doNUT! doNUT!!!!)
• silver refining pics
• big apple hostel blog
• u kick my dog (liar, did not)
• signification odanak (ça veut dire “au village”, ou simplement “village”)
• sky blog msp (don’t mix your search terms, it’s bad for you)
• paint bedroom in cat in the hat (sure!)
• that’s nice pizza (yes, it is)
• toyota car fumes seal
• martin reflection meeting Ottawa (he’s inimitable)
• naw ruz inshallah
• harriet’s magic hats (yay!)
• baha’i fast (and variations)
• ottawa lactose free pizza
• noodle pizza (eww)
• What is Ayyam-i-ha (here you go)
• “i got a haircut today” (so did I!)
• baha’i dating
• regles du tock (voir ici!)
• Hair Salon Blogs (hmmmmmm… try this one maybe?)
• celebration 162
• used mopeds in victoriaville
• It seems like everything important that we do, and you’re wearing white and I am wearing bleu (that ought to be a song lyric)
• laurent bakery phil
• love.persian blog
• holla back video by no doubt (dammit, you found my secret link!!!)
• heres a little story of a man named jed (heheheh)
• days importante the sahara desert (IshTAR!!)
• horse language
• all i want is a photo of a pizza (well FINE THEN)
• john paul II+vegetarianism (was he a vegetarian too?)
• every time i cough I get tired (you’ve got SARS)

The first Taráz and the first effulgence which hath dawned from the horizon of the Mother Book is that man should know his own self and recognize that which leadeth unto loftiness or lowliness, glory or abasement, wealth or poverty. (Bahá’u'lláh, Tarazát)

Knowledge Of Self is like life after death
With that you never worry about your last breath
Death comes, that’s how I’m livin, it’s the next days
The flesh goes underground, the book of life, flip the page
Yo they askin me how old, we livin the same age
I feel the rage of a million n***az locked inside a cage
At exactly which point do you start to realize
That life without knowledge is, death in disguise?
(Talib Kweli and Blackstar, K.O.S. (Determination))

Did you know there was a space storm over the weekend? A really big one. According to slashdot, it was A Significant Event. Apparently the whole world was covered with auroras. Someone needs to tell me next time something like that happens!

If you live in the Chicago area or within, say, a couple hours’ distance of Chicago, why not participate in the Chicago Baha’i Youth Conference for youth and young adults? It’s happening May 20-22, 2005 at the University of Chicago campus, and registration costs a whopping ten bucks USD. Holy moly.

If you’ve got more expensive tastes in youth conferences, or you live within a couple hours of Toronto, then why not participate in the Unravel the Mysteries Young Adult Forum? It’s happening May 27-29, 2005 at the Novotel Hotel in Mississauga, and registration costs a measly $75 CDN ($60 USD). Hmmm.

Consider yourselves notified. Oh, and Martin is unofficially coordinating rides and rooms for the latter. Word.

today was national jam tasting day at work. i brought homemade jam, and we tasted it. on host pieces (square sheets of cracker-like substance used to make communion wafers - also called retailles d’hosties in french. that was good for a few laughs. (p.s.: several sheets of this stuff have been swiped by well-meaning francophones so far.) the jam was good - most people seemed to like the blueberry-cranberry variety. the mixed berry jam came in a close second and the cranberry jam won its own share of converts, too. heheheh. converts.

so my family and I celebrated Mothers’ Day by going out to see the tulips at the Canadian Tulip Festival. It was a beautiful day - bright sun, cool breeze, and lots of very pretty tulips all around. I got lost in the flowers and just took picture after picture. I screwed up the focus on some of them, but most of the close shots were fine. see some of them on my photoblog.

noticed recently: farshid is posting new updates to his website again, after a long hiatus. check out his pictures from the National Baha’i Convention in Montreal. also found on his website is a link to payamos’s blog (payam aka payou). also, if you’re a fan of Google Maps’s satellite feature, why not check out the Baha’i Temple in Wilmette, Illinois, or the Canadian Baha’i National Centre in Thornhill, Ontario?

lastly: for those of you interested in hunting (for or against it), you’ll be interested in this article about the… well, bizarre practice of computer-aided hunting. uhh. visit a web site and shoot an animal with your mouse? I could think of more fulfilling things to be doing with my time, like… collecting toenail clippings. now, while i’m not a big fan of hunting, I recognize that it has its place, particularly hunting out of necessity (i.e. gathering food, etc.) I have to admit I’m against hunting for sport; isn’t it rather crass and disrespectful to take the life of an animal just because you want its head on your wall? Furthermore, if you’re going to hunt and kill something, it’d be honourable to at least be there when you’re doing it, no? Or even to do as early Native American hunters did and say prayers of thanks to the animal’s spirit for yielding its life in the hunt. anyway. that was a rant. a rather blunt rant, too. sorry if I’ve offended anybody. I’ll be off now. I’m going to go kill something and eat it.

happy mothers’ day :)

It’s such a beautiful day today!!! it’s sunny, the sky is clear and blue. birds are singing everywhere. Catherine and I went for a walk this afternoon and I recorded a robin singing. Robins sing so sweetly. And they’re beautiful too. ahhh spring. hmm, did you know that we’re in the middle of the Baha’i month of Beauty? The Baha’i Calendar consists of 19 months of 19 days, all of which are named after attributes of God. We’re currently in the third month: The month of “Jamál”, the Arabic word for “Beauty”. There’s a whole song that we use to remember the names of the months.

That reminds me, I have to prepare for my time off at the end of this month. I’m taking a week off at the end of May, and I’ll be going to visit my peeps in Quebec. Holla back. It’s been a while since I’ve been back to visit, so this’ll be a well-deserved time to plug back in with my old friends up there.

Oyez, oyez: C’est exact, je vais retourner au Québec pour un bout vers la fin du mois de mai et début juin. J’aimerais bien passer voir tout le monde. C’est dommage que je n’aie pas plus de temps pour faire tout le grand tour… pour le moment j’ai l’intention de passer par Trois-Rivières, Victoriaville et Drummondville. Si je peux bien planifier tout mon temps, ça se peut que je passe aussi par Sherbrooke. En tout cas, si vous voulez arranger quelque chose, faites-moi signe et on se jasera ça. Ça me ferait trop plaisir de revoir autant de monde que possible!!!

The Baha’i World News Site has a wonderful story about the Bahá’í Temple under construction in Santiago, Chile. Check out the Temple site… nice view, huh? What’s really interesting is that the Chilean government has named the Temple as one of the few official private-sector projects commemorating Chile’s 200 years of independent nationhood. Way to go!