Monthly Archives: March 2003

Archive Journal Entry: 20030311 Continued

This morning was painful. I went to return my rental to Budget. On the way to the airport, there was an accident which slowed traffic to a crawl. And I forgot to fill up the gas which cost $25. Then on the way back, there was another accident which fully stopped traffic for about 40 minutes!!! Suffice it to say I didn’t get in to work as early as I would have liked.

This evening was great tho. I had my second Ruhi study circle session. Afterwards, the facilitator and I had a great conversation about “Breath not the sins of others so long as thou art thyself a sinner.” (Baha’u’llah). We discussed how this doesn’t mean that one cannot talk about other people, only that one cannot discuss a person’s faults. As well, this quote doesn’t give any sort of exceptions regarding children, spouses, siblings, or even when you are telling a person directly about their faults. All of it is prohibited! Perhaps there are exceptions specifically made elsewhere in the Baha’i writings… if anyone knows of them, please let me know!

Now I’m back home building more of my Ikea furniture 🙂

By the way, anyone have experience with any of these Arabic-language products? Yet again, let me know!

Archive Journal Entry: 20030311

Today (actually yesterday since it is 1:00am) I had a very large day. Melanie and I woke up at 5:30am to do the Baha’i fast together. We made two kinds of maki sushi, one with crab meat and one with canned tuna meat. Both rolls had avocado and cucumber. Then we said some prayers together and I went to the airport. At the airport I met a nice young man in line at customs. He works in the automotive industry as a project manager. My flight was good and then I went to get a rental car. I ended up with an Nissan Xterra. It’s okay, but it feels a little wobbly on bumps. You will see in a few moments why I got a rental (since I ususally don’t). I went to my apartment. This was my first time driving myself and it went very well – I remembered all the right turns etc. that I had only viewed as a passenger in cabs. I went in to work right away (which meant 12:30). Work went very well. It was a productive day and I felt like things went well with my manager and one of the people on the business side of the organization. I left early though. I walked to the grocery store and got my dinner. I also stopped at Business Depot and bought a wireless keyboard and mouse which I am using at this moment (Logitech). I came home, ate blueberry pancakes and felt the worse for it – serves me right! After eating I finally got to my big thing for the day: I took the SUV and went to Ikea!!! At Ikea I purchased a large number of things including a desk, futon sofa/bed, dinner table and chairs, office chair, lamp, side tables, cushions, clothes hangers, cutlery (12 place settings), and some energy efficient light bulbs. Getting it all into the SUV and then up to my apartment was quite a task! So far I have built the desk, the lamp, the office chair and the dinner table. I have also unwrapped the futon mattress and I will sleep on it tonight 🙂 Good-night!

Archive Journal Entry: 20030308

There is an extremely interesting article up on kuro5hin called Temporal Symbolism in Human Communication. I recommend it particularly to any writers and to those interested in the Baha’i principle of an international auxiliary language.

Thanks to those who emailed me about language learning materials (namely, Ross… do you have a homepage I can link to?)!!!

This past Christmas/New Year’s break, while visiting my family in Fort McMurray, my dad had an insight about my character. He noticed how much I enjoy food. He noted that, in essense, this pleasure is a very sensual delight. Finally, he suggested that if I was concerned about how much I was eating, I might try including more of the arts in my life. So. I have made a small effort in that regard. Particularly with music. I have started to listen to music a little more, I have set up my piano and I regularly sit down at it, and I have started composing with buzz. In the meantime, I have continued to think on this insight. It turns out that it is a little more dark an issue than just a natural inclination to the sensual… I believe I use food as psychological respite, similar in perhaps a small way to the drinking of an alcoholic. Now due to my fantastic metabolism, I am not having a serious weight problem. Nevertheless, I realized that I “use” food when I am lonely or otherwise feeling down. It is something that I turn to instead of to a real solution. At the very least, I should seriously consider saying more prayers. And writing here helps too 🙂

My mom got me a great present for my birthday. I forgot to mention it because it was sent by mail and arrived quite late. She got me “The Idiot” (US$, CA$) by Dostoevsky (google search). I’m now serveral chapters into it and enjoying it very much. The main significance of this work to me is that it is the source of my name. The main character, Prince Mishkin, is the one after whom I am named.

Last Tuesday night I started with a Ruhi book 1 study circle in Jersey City. I am quite happy about it. I last did book 1 back in 1993 or so in a retreat with four other young guys. We became known as the Five Boy Institute. Alexei, Sky Glabush, Dean Kalyan and Cory April were the other attendees. There were three notable aspects of that winter weekend retreat at a cabin. The first, that the water, or some food was bad and we all ended up with multiple trips to the outhouse the one night we stayed over. The second, we didn’t really know how to use the enormous wood-burning stove and we ended up with an indoor temperature of somewhere around 45C (113F). And finally, we had one seriously spiritual weekend with many rounds of the “Fire Tablet” and serious study of the writings.

Archive Journal Entry: 20030306

Gack. Long time no write. Here’s a few quick notes:

Went to Sudbury for a night to visit with Mom, Rob and Cal. Helped them get a phone jack working so they could get internet. Lots of gifts exchanged. Justice got really sick with a cold. Drove back with Alexei. Melanie and I talked about her starting an education business related to homeschooling.

Here’s some misc links: persisting objects, synthetic sapphire, and systems programming in c.

This week I have worked really hard. It is 5:30 am and I just finished at the office! I have a demo tomorrow afternoon and a plane to catch in the evening so I’ve still got lots to do before the “day” is done.