doberman pizza. a baha'i blog. doberman pizza. a baha'i blog. The personal blog of a Canadian Baha'i believer from Ottawa, full of spiritual contemplations, news, events and links. Articles
4th baha?i national convention, vietnam
2011-04-24 19:43:00 The Bahá’ís of Vietnam have just finished electing their new Spiritual Assembly at the National Convention in Phan Thiet, in the southern province of Binh Thuan. Quynh, Nu and Lam were there, along with 300 other Bahá’í friends. Quynh and Lam travelled on the overnight train from Da Nang, and friends came from as far ...
goggling google goggles
2011-04-02 20:09:00 I don’t often get excited about mobile apps (heck, I haven’t even downloaded Angry Birds yet) but as far as I’m concerned, this one is the best thing since sliced bread: Google Goggles, part of the official Google app. It’s a piece of image recognition software that uses pictures you take with your mobile camera ...
grief and the value of community
2011-03-22 04:49:00 This post is the fifth in a series on Vietnamese customs relating to death, from a personal and a Baha?i perspective. It’s been several months since Quynh’s father Hai passed away, and the one hundred days?the “t?t kh?c” (“end of tears”), marking a resumption of “normal” life after a loved one’s passing?have elapsed long since. ... More About: Community
heheh slight delay
2011-01-10 20:35:00 ok, so I said the last post on “Death and Life in Vietnam” would be up before the new year, but I’ve gotten a little sidetracked?not in the least by the arrival of the newest letter from the Universal House of Justice to the Conference of the Counsellors, which, along with the Ridván Message of ...
say a little prayer
2010-12-26 13:30:00 This post is the fourth in a series on Vietnamese customs relating to death, from a personal and a Baha?i perspective. On these, the coldest winter mornings when the roads are covered in snow and ice, I roll groggily out of my bed to get ready for work. Shower, brush teeth, shave. Get dressed in ... More About: Prayer
the life of a vietnamese son-in-law
2010-12-21 22:47:00 This post is the third in a series on Vietnamese customs relating to death, from a personal and a Baha?i perspective. Apart from the family memorial gatherings and the weekly devotional gatherings for Quynh’s father Hai, my time in Vietnam was rather quiet and uneventful. It rained heavily for a good part of my stay, ... More About: Life
taking care of the shrine
2010-12-18 21:52:00 This post is the second in a series on Vietnamese customs relating to death, from a personal and a Baha?i perspective. The gesture of offering incense is omnipresent throughout Asia, it seems. China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, India?anyone who’s Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist, Shinto?even some types of Christian?knows what it means to offer incense. “In North America, ... More About: Care , Shrine
travelling between life and death
2010-12-13 15:08:00 This post is the first in a series on Vietnamese customs relating to death, from a personal and a Baha?i perspective. Arriving in Da Nang on September 6th, i was just about two weeks too late to say goodbye to my father-in-law. I had only a vague idea of what had happened, pieced together from ... More About: Life , Travelling , Death , Life and Death
death and life in vietnam
2010-12-12 00:54:00 my recent trip to Vietnam to visit family after my father-in-law’s passing afforded me a lot of time to think. Even while I was still there, I knew I wanted to share with the world reflections on the experience of losing a loved one across cultures, from a personal and a Baha’i perspective. as it ... More About: Life , Death
baha?i centre in vanier newspaper
2010-12-03 22:34:00 Via @DASLucas on twitter, here’s the text of a nice little article about the Ottawa Baha’i Centre written by Ruby Pratka in a local newspaper, Perspectives Vanier (see the original front-page article in the PDF version of the paper). It begins by mentioning the Centre, which is located at the edge of Ottawa’s east-central Vanier ...
3rd baha?i national convention, vietnam
2010-11-24 19:21:00 A little behind, but as I mentioned a little while back, here’s an English translation of a Vietnam ese news article on the third National Baha’i Convention in Can Tho, Vietnam, on May 2, 2010. I’ve added my own explanatory footnotes below. The article is a little off on a few facts, but overall it’s pretty ...
though your heart is breaking
2010-10-05 11:36:00 traumatic things happen sometimes. shocking, distressing, heartbreaking and life-changing things. Quynh’s dear father, a humble, steadfast believer who tirelessly served the Cause of Baha’u'llah in Vietnam for forty years, passed away at the end of August. it was an accident; no warning, nothing. the family was devastated, and remains so, although with around six weeks worth of coming terms with the reality of what’s happened, wounds are slowly beginning to heal—perhaps tears act as a soothing balm in this case. I’ve been in Vietnam since September 5th, or around two weeks after his passing, most of that time in Da Nang with Quynh’s mother, who’s taken her husband’s death the hardest. Part of my time is taken up with remote work for the Conference Board (a very positive arrangement that’s been working marvelously so far), and the rest with hanging being a good Vietnamese son-in-law—preparing rice for lunch, taking out the garbage,... More About: Heart
wedding preparations
2010-09-16 11:24:00 I realize I’ve been pretty lax at blogging during the past little while; I blame the fact that so many eventful things have happened in that time. perhaps the most significant of these was my wedding—followers of this blog will remember that Quynh and I got engaged during my first trip to Vietnam; you may even have read the story. In the interest of saving some time while imparting some crucial information, I’ve collected a number of tweets relating to our wedding to share with you all. This installment covers the preparation for the wedding, beginning around December, all the way through to my arrival in Vietnam on February 20th. Check back for further installments and joyous reminiscing! just booked e-ticket from Ottawa to Vietnam for Next Feb-Apr. now to prepare for the rest of the wedding! 1:12 AM Dec 2nd, 2009 WOOHOO RED TAPE 11:10 PM Dec 8th, 2009 AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH LAWYERS O______________O 11:45 PM Dec 8th, 2009 WHAT THE HECK IS A STATEMENT IN-LIEU OF CERTIFICAT... More About: Wedding
Happy, uh, belated Canada Day …
2010-07-05 03:41:00 Happy, uh, belated Canada Day and non-belated 4th of July! share this page! » More About: Happy
RT @iranbahai 4th court date s…
2010-06-01 14:21:00 RT @iranbahai 4th court date set on #12June for 7 #Bahai leaders in Evin prison http://bit.ly/9IllJt #Bahairights #iranelection share this page! »
Weather in Ottawa: Cloudy, 35 …
2010-05-27 00:27:00 Weather in Ottawa: Cloudy , 35 degrees C. Weather in Saigon/HCMC: Cloudy, 33 degrees C. …WHAT. share this page! » More About: Weather
interview with a stranger
2010-04-19 10:01:00 Written on Feb. 25, 2010. The air here in Da Nang is cool this afternoon, and the shade inside the dusty, cream-coloured offices of the Justice Department is a welcome change from the hot sun outside. I tap my thoughts and reflections out onto an iPhone as I wait for Quynh to finish her interview upstairs. We’re scheduled to be married in just over a week, and this set of interviews is the last legal hurdle to jump for our union to be recognized by the state – at least, besides signing a bunch more documents in triplicate. I went under the scope first, and they brought in a translator to talk with me so they could make sense of my strange moon-language. The questions they asked were… bizarre. What’s her phone number? Her date of birth? Her email address? I guess I was expecting relevant questions, you know, like something besides what you’d put on a credit card application. But in retrospect, remembering what Quynh and I had discussed about the nature ... More About: Interview
Two new members elected to Uni…
2010-03-20 18:39:00 Two new members elected to Universal House of Justice (supreme Baha’i administrative body) – http://bit.ly/cvjPUw #bahai share this page! »
not so forbidding
2010-03-18 02:12:00 After the Great Wall (and the outlying Not-So-Great Wall, aka the Mediocre Wall) we decided we’d sleep in the next morning and catch the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City wasn’t so forbidden—they all let us in as long as we bought tickets. In fact, the only thing that was forbidden was going back in after you went out the back door. Attached is a photo of the brilliant commentary on the signage at the North Gate (tours go from south to north). All in all, we were amazed at how huge, er, how extreme the place was in all respects. We had a little game of “guess whether there’s another palace past this one”. I always lost, all the way to the end. The palaces kept on becoming more and more beautiful the further we went north—that is, the further we came to the emperor’s private dwelling—yet somehow, more and more lonely as well. You really get the feeling of being locked away in the proverbial ivory tower in there. I’m pretty sure there w...
first day in beijing
2010-03-17 15:12:00 from emails sent on march 15th. we are in our nice and simple accommodations at the hutong inn in beijing. it’s not very fancy but it is very interesting. needless to say it is enough for the time being. it’s cold here – there’s even snow covering the ground, and the roofs. Quynh is not impressed because we also have “white sand” in Da Nang. :P the train ride up from Guangzhou was long, but comfortable; we both managed to get a good sleep, despite our doorless, six-up bunk bed accommodations. the landscape was bleak and industrial for most of the time—not quite the China we’ve been accustomed to seeing in pictures. [... later ...] First day in Beijing is done; we went out to a hot pot restaurant, which Quynh recognized from having been to one in Malacca. It was pretty amazing. I thought it was filling, but Quynh insisted on going to pick up instant noodles afterwards. She jokes that she’s pregnant but I think she’s just Malaysi...
together in guangzhou
2010-03-11 10:19:00 Quynh and I checked in to Hotel Elan in Guangzhou around an hour ago, after paying a quick visit to a friend at work. We’ll be going out for dinner soon—supposedly to a nice noodle place (“yellow noodles”, to be precise) somewhere. The hotel is nice, small, and cute. A bit salty around the edges, but for the (low) price we’re paying, it’s actually quite a good place. We left Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) at 8:20 in the morning and got in to Guangzhou’s Baiyun airport at around 12:00 local time, for roughly 2h30 worth of flight time. Arriving was a bit confusing, what with very little English posted anywhere, but thanks to my previous experience coming to Guangzhou, we boarded a shuttle bus to the Guangzhou West railway station for only 16 yuan apiece and walked (with only light luggage) the rest of the way to our destination, saving us about 70-80 yuan over taking a taxi from the airport. China’s cold, compared to Ho Chi Minh City. And it&rsqu...
Traditional Vietnamese dancing…
2010-03-01 01:17:00 Traditional Vietnamese dancing in Hoi An: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1jQKScfU7 I #Vietnam #dance #nowplaying share this page! » More About: Dancing
wedding ceremony overview
2010-02-18 06:39:00 When Quynh and I broadcasted our engagement ceremony over the internet, we neglected to provide an explanation (or translation!) of what was happening, and most people felt a little lost watching the ceremony take place. “What are they doing? They’ve got rings… is this a wedding? I thought it was an engagement.” “There’s a lot of talking, and I can’t understand what they’re saying… when are they married?” To avoid that this time, here’s a brief overview of what we expect to happen during the wedding ceremony, that’ll be broadcast live as it happens, right here on doberman pizza (be sure to find your local time for the event so you don’t miss it—it’ll be 9 PM Eastern Time on March 5th, which is 9 AM on March 6th in Vietnam time). Wedding programme Introduction of the wedding ceremony’s program. “Cultural” Vietnamese ceremony Introduction of the two families. A representative f... More About: Ceremony
#Canada urges #Iran to “live u…
2010-02-16 17:06:00 #Canada urges #Iran to “live up to its commitments and obligations under domestic and international law” http://bit.ly/d9J1eq #BahaiRights share this page! » More About: Live
Trial of the Yaran: “The Jus…
2010-02-11 23:01:00 Trial of the Yaran: “The Justice of God” or Procedural Injustice? http://bit.ly/9HogwL #BahaiRights #Bahai #Iran #Iranelection <- WOW share this page! » More About: Trial
BIC: Allegations “have no basi…
2010-02-09 16:16:00 BIC: Allegations “have no basis…other than blatant religious persecution” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6dgSQNl69 U #Bahai share this page! »
going out for some exercise @ ?
2009-09-23 23:41:00 going out for some exercise @ STL Complex with zeta after juggling website updates all day. oh and missing my auntie ;_; where are uuuu? share this page! » More About: Exercise
Happy Eid to all my Muslim bro?
2009-09-20 02:35:00 Happy Eid to all my Muslim brothers and sisters ^_^ share this page! » More About: Happy
RT @elikamahony ?It is not eno?
More articles from this author:2009-09-18 17:35:00 RT @elikamahony ‘It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.’ ~ Martin Luther King share this page! » 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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