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December 20th. Today it was -45 degrees Celsius with the wind chill factor. This morning I was looking out the window and I saw this!!
December 6th. The other day I went to a friend's house to use the bathroom when I saw this! Good thing I had my trusty camera! Place bidding to find out who's house it was on the shoutbox, starting at $5.00. December 2nd. I just got an incredible poem across my desk that I'm gladly posting for your listening pleasure.
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November 20th. Orleans
November 9th. Sometimes dreams can come true. (with pictures)
November 7th. I was very happy with my fireside and in celebration decided to post it, in its entirety
here. It weighs in at 20 pages but is well formatted and documented so it makes a good read. Available on a webpage, PDF, or DOC. (Coming within
days...) November 5th. a few updates
November 2nd. Finally, proof from WebMD (& another) that I'll live a long life, plus a few unlikely US voting results: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 (last one is for Vaf). ► Pictures (5): 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | October 25th. A Few updates:
October 22nd. Yesterday marked the third full day I went with Dan and Milook to the Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health to a wood carving class. We were taught to make paddles and I got to engrave a quote of my choosing. Here is the paddle, a zoomed picture, and an explanation of the symbol used. Here is the quote:
October 22nd. All signs point to me moving out in November, perhaps to a 1-bedroom apartment in
Lees (see my view). I'm also leaning heavily
toward getting a PhD in Business from October 19th. If you are able to attend today, you will surely not want to miss the city-wide Birth of the Báb Celebration at the Hellenic Banquet Center (1315 Prince of Wales Dr.) Doors open at 7:00pm Program starts at 7:30pm (Bus routes 3 and 175 will take you there.) Last time we had a blast and the youth chilled afterwards. Pics are posted here! You may also be interested in this article from a newspaper in India regarding the significance of this Baha'i holy day.
October 1st. Every so often I will add a piece to this image until someone solves it. The reward? A chance to put a plug or shout out on my site!
After almost losing faith in humanity, Oliver correctly guessed what the object was. Click here for the answer. (Round 1 Guesses: Hair Brush,
Battery, Don't know, Knife, ME!, Towel, Zipper, The Writings)
September 27th. September 25th. For Baha'is especially, here is a very cool Flash animation produced by the Bahá'í Youth Committee for England. It really underscores the importance of our role in attending study circles. First made public on this site which promotes the 5YP.
September 18th. My fireside went very well. Here is an electronic version (Word - 50KB) of the handout. My 13-page notes need to be cleaned up before I feel comfortable sharing them. (My fear is that people will find out that I write down everything like, 'Hello my name is Martin, I'll be...') September 17th. Owing chiefly to ethnic barriers and to the want of want for the sport, I have never taken up surfing, let alone extreme surfing. After seeing this video on the Billabong Odyssey however... September 16th. September 15th. Announcement. September 11th. I'm not sure how many of you use AOLIM as MSN is the dominant instant message client for my web audience but if you have friends that you want to mess with try this AI Bot. It pretends to be a real person and lures its victims into a useless 10- minute conversation. Here are some examples I perpetrated.
September 9th. I couldn't stop laughing when my mom began chatting online and, entranced with the typical
acronym jargon, began completely making up her own on the fly! Please take time to think of interesting/crazy/silly,
family-friendly IM-style acronyms and post them in the shout box. ie. notes: 1. Shoutbox length restrictions removed for three days for this occasion. 2. All entries will be moved/copied to a separate page for archival. 3. Feel free to begin using these in your instant messages--if anyone asks refer them to MartinsQuest.com for clarification! September 5th. The voting for the new G-mail account is in! 22 Votes were accepted and
validated and the winner was....drum roll...Justin(#2)! However, in a bizarre twist, he procured a Gmail account in the interim which
invalidated
September 2nd. Some updates:
August
August 26th. A few of us are going to Montreal for the day. If you'd like to join us, and have a ride, meet at my house at 8:00am. Update: We had a great time, pictures will not be forthcoming on account of my lost camera. :( Don't worry however, Krispy Kreme more than compensated! As did the company of D, D, M, B, P, A, A, L, & L.
August 14th. I wonder what my mom would say if I told her that I wanted to do this?
August 10th. Somehow in the last few days I have managed to uncharacteristically offend at least 5 of my close friends. Five (5)!! So, I want to take this space to apologize to all of those who were affected by my shortsightedness and insensitivity. To restate my 'theory' on friendship, I would rather bring ruin on myself than jeopardize our most valuable friendships. (P, A, S, S, E)
Is this Tahirih? You decide...
August 4th. I like to think that my web audience is much smarter than the general public. Which box is darker 'A' or 'B' ?
click for answer
August 1st. Never heard of
beat boxing? Watch this 6 minute video of a young talent from
<blushing> Florida—home of everything good. Toward the
end he even does Rahzel's 'If your mother only knew!'
(WMV - 21MB - 6mins)
July 31st. With Ottawa now an 'A'
Cluster it is now propitious to initiate small-scale teaching
projects. Recently, as an individual initiative by one of
Ottawa's
youth, a consultation was called that set the
stage for Ottawa first Teaching Project aimed at youth and directed
toward our focus sector (9). See the three pictures we took.
1,
2,
3 and stay tuned
for a progress report.
July 19th. Back in Ottawa for 4
hours before I'm off with Payam to ROBSI. Here are some
pictures from the cruise
(1.7MB - Zip) to satiate your hunger and reward your loyalty for
visiting the site even in my absence. |
May 10th. There May 6th. Today Setareh celebrated her 18th Birthday with a small group of female friends. Six people however crashed this stylish dinner at the Blue Cactus restaurant and created chaos. Here are the exclusive pictures. As an unwitting crasher myself, I send my apologies.
May 6th.
May 6th.
You'll be happy to know that the paucity of posts is
related to the astronomical amount of work I'm currently
tackling. Plus, on top of that, in addition, Brian and
Afshun are here! . May 2nd. Here is the huge announcement as promised. note: Ottawa will never be the same. May 3rd. Interested in discovering new music? Enter a band into Music Plasma and see how popular they are (size) and who they are linked to (lines). very cool. May 2nd. In a tough battle of charades, our team went down 2-1 because of some alleged cheating on the other team. For the final and deciding round, each team submitted 4 items.
Ours:
Theirs: Our phrases were 18 times easier coming up 18 times more often in Google (31M to 1.7M). Which word would you rather have Oklahoma or Evangelical, Red Belly Salamander or Morphosyntactic Reduction? The other team clearly wanted to win by cheating so we let them. Us: MB, AH, PA, VH; Them: AH, CJ, JH, AR. April 30th. Today is my pedicure. Sarah HT is taking me to Amalfi Spa in the Rideau Centre at 1:50pm. Just can't wait to see the before and after pictures. ► Before/After Pictures (warning: graphic :)
April 28th. It is my job to point out flagrant lies and contradictions I see in the world around me. Arash (and others) just posted a picture that suggests some of our friends actually met G-Unit's Lloyd Banks. Using state-of-the-art technology I cleaned up the image and discovered who was actually in the picture!
April 23rd. So, I was recently amazed at the site Crush Calculator for semi-verifing 2 of the 3 (alleged) crushes I had. Using some fancy algorithms based on name phonetics it can predict the compatibility and more! Give it a whirl. April 28th. (anacronistic) The post above only sends your supplied crushes to my e-mail account. But don't worry, your secret is safe with me! :)
April 13th. Some updates:
April 12th. Today Armean, Rama, and I destroyed Payam, Vafa, and Kamyar in basketball. Five (5) straight victories against a team that had us beat in size and strength. Heart and effort were our tools for success as we dismantled these chronic under-achievers. Sector 1's record in these sector wars, 1-0. April 9th.
The North American public service campaign "Relax,
it's just a game" was designed to raise awareness
and promote discussion about the continuing problem posed by
adults (parents, coaches and fans), who put too much pressure on
young players involved in amateur hockey and other sports.
Download ALL
(23MB) April 9th. What do you give an uncle for his birthday who already has everything? A Photoshop mockery of his favorite sport! April 8th. Newest quote:
April 4th. Shout box - Because of its high popularity, I have permanently added the shout box to my site (on left). Unfortunately I have already had to ban someone for inappropriate content. Guidelines: This message board should be
April 2nd. Live chat now available! With a lot of programming, patience, and help from Crafty Syntax, I setup my first live chat service. How it works: When you go to this page and I also happen to be viewing it, there will be sign on my body (above) that says, "Live Chat is Online." Just click that, enter your name, and begin speaking with me. This also allows me to see who is on my page and initiate conversations with them! Now if it has been a while between updates you can bug me about it.
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December 16th. Here
is a puzzle for all you smart people out there. 
just
began another set of neighborhood children's classes. When the younger group's teacher couldn't make it I was asked 8 minutes before the
starting time. The challenge was mine! I prepared a lil' somethin' somethin' and went off to meet a quartet of four-year olds.
.jpg)
November 13th. I decided to go ahead and post a provisional outline of my talk—realizing
that understanding the essence of Truth will take much more study and that releasing a tentative version is better than waiting ad infinitum
for absolute perfection. Notwithstanding, it is an excellent read. :) 
September 30th. BIG Announcement! Check out 
I have decided alone and unaided that I can no longer return
to live in Florida. I
lived there for 10 years, age 11-21, and indeed it was where I was introduced to 
yearning
September 10th. This video falls
squarely in the category of '
28th. With the Stanley Cup having gone missing recently I decided to
August 23rd. Cool article about 
August 17th. I had the most incredible experience today. Nágin, her friend, my
brothers, and I met for breakfast and then said dawn prayers (at noon) on the serene, 
August 1st. Let's start the month off with two
MartinsQuest.com exclusive pictures of the upcoming Batmobile.
Batman comes out summer 2005 but these pictures are available
now!
e. Unrequited love—plain
desperate aboveboard girl-chasing—turns you into a
salesperson, and what you are selling is something
she doesn't want, couldn't use, would never miss.
Unrequited love is deciding to be useless, and I
could never abide uselessness."
"Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible
to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave
somewhere, with a sign on it saying "End-of-the-World
Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH," the paint wouldn't even
have time to dry."
has been a stir among some of the Young Adults in the
Ottawa Community! Recently, about 30 of us attended the
Young Adults Forum in Toronto (7-9 May) where one of the
inspiring sessions was an open discussion with our dear
Counsellor Smith and his wife Meim Smith on marriage. On
the way back, the wisdom and experience shared lovingly
by the Counsellor and Meim sparked reflection and
enticing discussion among some of the "Young Adults".
With a thirst to continue in the same spirit, the
following devotion has been arranged for those in their
20s and 30s. 
A new 
aching
field...The number of core activities within these clusters has
increased at a seemingly exponential rate, and these 'portals
for entry by troops' have become the channels for most of the
new enrollments in Bahá’í communities. A high degree of
enthusiasm and a strong sense of ownership are also
characteristics of clusters ready to embark on an intensive
program of growth. Reflection meetings are well attended and
participation is lively."
April 28th. Many of you are soccer fans. Here are video
highlights of the 10 best goals of the
April 22nd. Many religions are waiting for a time
of peace when, as Isaiah 2:4 in the bible says, "...They shall
beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks..." Here are some 
April 15th. Insight. I knew I was getting
old when I was recently temped to ask my barber for a helicopter
pad just to fit in with the rest of my friends! 
Although
I am getting flak from my male friends I will be going
through with the pedicure—because if I am not at
the mercy of my web poll than what in this world is
worth my unquestioning allegiance? Details to come...
April 13th. A little known secret which I am
revealing for the first time ever exclusively on MatinsQuest is
that I am a Leaf's fan; not that I follow the team, or
even care about the sport as much as my blood bleeds Maple Blue.
I realized that nothing which is 3 hours a week for a few months, or
8 hours a day for a few days can be easy to schedule. The course's
ineluctable outcome of deep spiritual growth and training, however,
should amply compensate for the initial sacrifice of such a
commitment in time. Note: I chose to capitalize 'Life"
because of my understanding from this profound quote cited in
Ruhi Book 1:
Update: Within hours of having
this feature online I made friends with a
