A bit more than a year ago, I created a website called Heart to Heart HD: http://hearttoheart.bahaiteaching.net/.

During the ensuing year, I’ve paid no attention to hits, visits, or other web-traffic statistics. But shortly after the site’s first birthday, I peeked — and was stunned to learn that it has evolved into one of the most-used, most-visited Baha’i sites on the Internet.

You can read all about it here:

http://garymatthews.com/2013/04/heart-to-heart-bahai-site-year-in-review/

And then, please leave your comments in the form provided. I’d love to hear from you.

Continue reading Heart to Heart: Year in Review

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There’s a “new” book from Stonehaven Press: ‘Abdu’l-Baha, Einstein and Ether by Gary Matthews. (That is, by yours truly.)

Please note the quotation marks. This volume isn’t technically new, but it’s a vastly expanded second edition with so much new material, and so much formatting improvement, that it might as well be new.

Read my introductory article here, at GaryMatthews.com. Or find ordering-and-purchasing information here, at StonehavenPress.com.

If you’re interested in the connections between science and religion, reason and revelation, then this book may well appeal to you. Designed for the general reader, it’s a popular, non-technical overview of quantum [...]

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Your online accounts are about to be hacked.

Again.

Once they are, the hijackers will be able to take over your computer, drain your bank accounts, run up charges on your credit card, buy Amazon goodies in your name, lock you out of your email and cloud storage, read your sensitive business and personal documents, and snarf those embarrassing photos.

If you’re lucky, the bad guys won’t do all that (though some of them will, and all will have that option). What they mostly will do — and I know, because they’re already doing it to my friends — is [...]

Continue reading Log-in Apocalypse?

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Dear friends and readers,

Happy Valentine’s Day to you all. You are one and all loved by at least one very Astonished Tamale! Here’s hoping every one of you also is loved deeply and intensely by someone you love just as much.

Speaking of astonishment:

We’re pleased to note that for the second year in a row, Knoxville Tennessee — home of The Astonished Tamale! — is America’s Most Romantic City. We know this because Amazon.com, the universally acknowledged authority on such things, says so in this press release.

Amazon figures this out by tracking “sales data of romance novels [...]

Continue reading Happy Valentine’s Day

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Several long-term projects coming to fruition:

Please take a look at the all-new Stonehaven Press website at stonehavenpress.com.

This site, the storefront for the publishing company Cheri and I own, has been in the works for a long time. Way overdue, but we haven’t had the time needed to bring it into being.

Also its companion site, GaryMatthews.com. My personal author site, where I’ll talk about my writing, my books, publishing, book design, web design, and other topics. That site does not replace this one — The Astonished Tamale! — which is more for general-interest topics.

For me, the most [...]

Continue reading New Websites

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As I write this, AIG — American International Group — is meeting to consider filing a lawsuit against America for…

That’s right. For bailing it out.

By loaning $182 billion to AIG, back at the start of the Obama administration.

Just so you know, here is what The Astonished Tamale! thinks of that:

As the above video demonstrates, the letters of “American International Group” transpose to spell:

Continue reading The Proposed AIG Lawsuit

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To my stark amazement, I love Windows 8. Let me count the ways.

But first — why am I weighing in?

Because various tech experts, including two I know, are recommending we skip this latest version of Microsoft’s operating system. At least (the advice goes) we should hold off till we’re forced into it by the purchase of a new PC.

I couldn’t disagree more. My advice: If you’re buying a PC, and you have a choice between Windows 7 or 8 — go with 8.

Here’s why: (a) Windows 8 is easy to master. (b) It’s substantially faster. (c) [...]

Continue reading The Windows 8 Great Debate

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“What’s going on with the Tamale?”

Thus inquired my friend Patricia, just last night. As a subscriber to this blog, she no doubt was puzzled at not having gotten any updates for the past four-and-and-half months. Okay, fasten your seat belts:

It was May 8-9 when Zabine Van Ness and I returned to Seattle from Hanoi, via Seoul, Korea. (See the previous article, Seoul Pancake.) I spent most of the next two weeks in Seattle as a guest of Zabine and her husband, Peter Van Ness, pictured at left.

A highlight of this visit was Seattle’s celebration of the [...]

Continue reading Where We Left Off

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Apologies to Rainn Wilson for the pun on his wacky, wonderful website. But facing a 13-hour layover in Seoul, Korea, I was ready to disclaim any further responsibility for anything.

Then Zabine and I got a clue: We remembered our Vietnamese home-stay host telling us of a terrific five-hour tour of Seoul we could take from the airport. Even if this tour hadn’t been a once-in-a-lifetime prize (and it was), we’d have seized it just to pass the time. (Do the math: Our 13-hour wait was sandwiched between a five-hour Hanoi-to-Seoul flight and a 10-hour Seoul-to-Seattle flight. Sleep, sorta-kinda included, [...]

Continue reading Seoul Pancake

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May 9, 2012 (Tuesday) – Most of the past week – another blur. Our official reason for being in Vietnam ended with last weekend’s celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Hanoi Baha’i community. Normally we would have headed for home immediately. Did I explain that the earliest return flight turned out to be more than a week later?

Highlights of the past week include taking out our host families to dinner at a wonderful Hanoi lakeside restaurant, La Tre Place (aka The Bamboo Restaurant); dinners at the homes of various Vietnamese friends; a water puppet show; and a breakfast [...]

Continue reading Vietnam Exit

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May 2, 2012 (Wednesday) – Still Wednesday: After our visit to the Ho Chi Minh Memorial, Zabine and I were taken to the home of a Vietnamese National Spiritual Assembly member (Duyen). Other Baha’is were gathering, and only after some time did we realize that the purpose was to pray in celebration of a Baha’i Holy Day: the 12th Day of Ridvan.

Following prayers, delicious tea and desserts were served. Among them was what appeared, at first glance to be – a Vietnamese tamale! Remembering the name of this web journal, I had to know more.

The [...]

Continue reading Ridvan – and a Hanoi Tamale(?)

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May 1-2, 2012 (Tuesday and Wednesday) – Tuesday, for me, was a blur. Part of the day I felt weak from what may have been heat exhaustion, or some bug, or adrenaline overdose. Who knows? I stayed home and slept it off while Zabine ran around Vietnam having adventures.

Felt great to unwind. But Wednesday morning, we again got into another busy day. One highlight was a visit to the Ho Chi Minh Memorial mausoleum. We were asked, however, not to take pictures of the building or its surroundings. But the adjacent buildings (including the late leader’s rather modest house, [...]

Continue reading Vietnam Wednesday

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April 30, 2012 (Monday) — Today we traveled to two neighboring villages in the Vietnamese countryside, conducting home visits with the believers who live there. Lunch, served at the home of a Baha’i friend, consisted of delicacies I didn’t even try to identify. All I know is that it was lavish and delicious.

As we were leaving the village, our driver, Binh (Hanoi’s Auxiliary Board member), had to dismount his car to move a motorcycle someone had left in the middle of the street. Speculation was that it had run out of gas — but why leave it there? Anyone [...]

Continue reading Vietnam Villages, Hanoi Hospitality

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One faithful reader complains of difficulty in picking out my friend Zabine from the group photos posted here. The reason is that Zabine and I, as seasoned world travelers, have learned to blend into a crowd of Vietnamese.

Here’s a picture of the two of us blending in. Zabine, you’ll notice, does it better than I do. It takes special skill to fly under the radar when you tower over the folks with whom you’re blending. Still, don’t you agree I could do worse?

Be that as it may, Zabine blends very well, height-wise. So long as she’s surrounded [...]

Continue reading Blending in in Vietnam

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For Zabine Maryam (Linkins) Van Ness, this has been a journey of 20 years. For me, it only felt like one.

We arrived Sunday morning at the hotel in Hanoi where the Baha’i community was gathering to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its founding. Stunning floral arrangements were everywhere. Many of these, I hear, were sent by the government, which recognized the Baha’i Faith here four years ago and with which the friends now have very good relations. Wishing to offer support, government officials were taken aback to discover that the Baha’is could not accept funding from outside sources. They [...]

Continue reading Hanoi: Baha’i 20th Anniversary

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April 29, 2012 (Sunday) – As I have explained, the stated reason Zabine Van Ness and I are in Vietnam is that the Hanoi Baha’i community, on the 20th anniversary of its founding, wanted to honor Zabine for her role in that seminal event.

That “stated” reason is of course their reason – and a good reason it is indeed. But it isn’t Zabine’s reason for accepting the invitation. She came here with the hope that she could assist and empower the Vietnamese friends today, perhaps even more than she did in the past. “The celebration is about the last [...]

Continue reading Vietnam: Hanoi Beginnings

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April 29, 2012 (Sunday) – Simple acts of kindness are miraculously effective at bridging deep divides. Among the many miracle workers we have met in Hanoi are Michael Orona; his wife, Selena; and their three children.

These beautiful Baha’i souls made history at the 20th Anniversary celebration of the founding of the Hanoi Baha’i community. There’s still a lot more other news and photography in the pipeline, so please stay tuned. But I could not wait to post the video below. The stage performance it depicts took my breath away because, as I was recording it, its significance suddenly struck [...]

Continue reading Historic, Healing Heartsongs

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April 29, 2012 (Sunday) — Today is the big day of our trip, the reason we came: the 20th anniversary celebration of the founding of Hanoi’s Baha’i community.

I have a lot of notes and photos to document this milestone and will upload them Any Day Now. But while I’m organizing, please enjoy this video of the performance which opened the celebration. It’s a traditional Vietnamese “rice dance”, performed by a group of young women that includes Huyen, one of the two who guided Zabine and me during our second-day outing.

This video found its way onto YouTube minutes after [...]

Continue reading Vietnam Rice Dance

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One of my striking impressions of Vietnam is how colorful everything is. This is no coincidence, nor is it just a fact about tropical nature. It extends to human artifacts of all kinds. This seems to reflect a deep national and cultural attraction to beauty.

There are many other counties where this is far less true. Places where, despite sometimes stunning natural beauty, people seem otherwise content with relatively bland surroundings. Having visited and lived in some of those places, I never understood why. Perhaps that’s why I’m feeling so at home here.

The photos below are mostly from a [...]

Continue reading A Colorful Hanoi Drive

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April 28, 2012 (Saturday) – This morning, Zabine had a wonderful and completely unexpected encounter with Rosalie Huibonhua, a Baha’i Continental Counselor. Her areas of responsibility include China, Hong Kong, Vietnam and other Asian countries. She is here, of course, to attend the celebration of the Hanoi Baha’i community’s 20th anniversary.

We met her at the home of a member of the Vietnam Baha’i national governing body. Although it seemed like a chance meeting, I don’t really believe in luck.  Zabine and Rosalie, it turns out, share a common vision regarding social action and spiritual education. The Counselor instantly [...]

Continue reading Vietnam Day Three

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If you contemplate travel to Vietnam, you may want to brush up on how to stay connected with home. It is a lot easier than I expected.

You can make free phone calls to home. You can keep your smart-phone, computer, camera, and everything else fully charged. You can plug in.

First step, plugging in: Most modern electronics have dual-voltage power supplies. This applies to all Apple products, all the Android products I’ve checked, and the laptops I’ve checked. (You can verify the dual-voltage status by looking at the fine print on your power supply: It should say 100-220 volts [...]

Continue reading Vietnam Tech Notes

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Some representative photos from our second day in Vietnam.

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April 27, 2012 (Friday) – Having enjoyed our motorcycle ride, we were set for a busy day.

First, we sat in on a committee meeting at the home of a Baha’i friend, met many members of the Baha’i community, along with a visiting Counselor, George Saroya, from Indonesia. Lunch at an outdoor noodle cafe. Delicious food. Did I mention that I am not normally adventurous with unfamiliar cuisine? So far, however, I’ve enjoyed all kinds of new dishes I don’t recognize, can’t pronounce, and that taste unlike anything I recall. It’s turning out to be a treat, not a [...]

Continue reading Eat, Pray, Love, Shop (Vietnam Style)

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April 27, 2012 (Friday) – Our busy day started with an unexpected treat – motorcycle rides for Zabine and me. We knew that Baha’i friends were coming by to pick us up, and I suppose we expected a van or car or something. But the most normal mode of transport in Hanoi seems to be the motorcycle, so it was our time to be initiated.

Major streets in Hanoi are narrower than those in Ho Chi Minh City. There are good lane markings when there’s no construction going on – but there is a lot of construction.

Nevertheless, motorcycle [...]

Continue reading Hanoi from the Handlebars

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April 25, 2012 (Wednesday) – We are now in Hanoi. Considering my many (mis)adventures with travel, domestic and foreign, the trip here was amazingly smooth and stress-free. Well, as stress-free as 18 or so hours on an airplane can be.

We landed in Seoul, Korea (Incheon Airport) right on schedule (okay, a couple of minutes late). The first thrill was discovering that our cell phones could connect to the airport’s free wifi hotspot. So I texted, then called, my beloved Cheri. Actually heard her voice (though what that voice was saying was that she couldn’t hear mine very well). Zabine [...]

Continue reading Vietnam Arrival

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April 24, 2012 — Zabine and I are in flight –Asiana Airlines– somewhere between Seattle and Seoul. We’ve travewled 1550 of our 5210-mile total;our altitude is 36,000 feet, ground speed 532 miles per hour, and current outside air temperature — a balmy minus-70 degrees F. (Guess if I get too hot, I can always go perch on the wing!)

Sense of time, utterly mixed up. Between Knoxville, my home, and Hanoi, our ultimate destination, the time difference is 12 hours. (But does Daylight Saving Time factor in, and how?) Twixt Seattle and Hanoi, 15 hours –at least that’s what the [...]

Continue reading Vietnam Journey Unfolding

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Good morning, April 22. I can’t believe I’m on my way to Vietnam.

The Vietnam trip has been in the works for several months, but I haven’t had the courage — till now — to write about it.

Please don’t get me wrong: I’m excited about this trip — upbeat, optimistic, incredibly happy. What I’m saying is that the whole thing has had a surreal sense of unreality. (But there’s something about looking down at the sky from above it that restores one’s sense of “this is really happening!”)

Another reason is that I honestly wasn’t sure, till a few [...]

Continue reading Visiting Vietnam

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Whew! It’s hard to believe it’s been more than a month since I posted my March 8 article on Heart to Heart. Sorry to be quiet for so long, but so much has happened:

I’ve ported my new presentation of the Heart to Heart program to its own, standalone web site: Heart to Heart HD. Even though this new site remains a work-in-progress, early feedback suggests that people are finding it highly attractive, engaging, and useful. You can visit it by clicking here, or on the slideshow graphic to the right.

The actual web address is: hearttoheart.bahaiteaching.net

This site went [...]

Continue reading New high-def “Heart to Heart” website

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The Astonished Tamale! is pleased to introduce a new service for its readers. We’re calling it Heart to Heart HD. You can test-drive it here. (Or simply click the “Heart to Heart HD” item on the black menu bar above.)

A bit of history:

Heart to Heart (without the HD) is an omnibus slideshow addressing more than 700 important and frequently asked questions about the Baha’i Faith. These are grouped into 18 major topics (or “tracks”), each constituting a slideshow in its own right. Each question is answered with direct quotes from Baha’i scriptures and authoritative texts, and — perhaps [...]

Continue reading Introducing Heart to Heart HD

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Did you know? You can greatly shorten the perceived duration of an aerobic workout by slightly increasing the length of songs you play while exercising.

Your Astonished Tamale! editor is pretty buzzed about this new Jedi mind trick. New to me, anyway — and it works like magic: Exercise time flies by so fast that a long, hard workout is over when it still feels as if it’s just getting started.

Here’s the scoop:

Being a long-time health-and-fitness buff doesn’t keep me from falling off the workout wagon. It happens more often than I’d like. So I climb back on [...]

Continue reading Making Workouts Feel Shorter

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Continue reading What Is an Astonished Tamale?

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Continue reading It Sings!

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Can America’s most geriatric city top our nation’s “hot to trot” list? Yes, we can!

Let’s contrast two hot-off-the-press news flashes:

ITEM ONE: It’s official: During the run-up to Valentine’s Day 2012, we learn that America’s most romantic city is Knoxville, Tennessee, home of the famous Astonished Tamale! (Also the University of Tennessee Lady Vols, manytime national champions under basketball’s amazing Coach Pat Summitt. Plus we used to play a little football.)

Our “most romantic” ranking is bestowed by Amazon.com, presumably the last word on such questions. Amazon’s Feb. 9 press release cites Knoxville’s purchases of romance novels, relationship books, [...]

Continue reading Knoxville: Lover’s Lane for the Prematurely Old?

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