Waterloo’s relentless forecheck kept the Hurricanes on their heals most of the night and this created many scoring chances for the Siskins in their 4-2 win over the Guelph Thursday night at The Sleeman Centre.

Guelph's Martin Kudla battles Waterloo's Kevin Henriques for the puck

Except for 10 minutes in the 2^nd period, the Siskins were aggressive in taking the play to the Hurricanes.  

If it wasn’t for the stellar goaltending by Chris McDougall who turned away 40 of 44 shots, the score of this game could have easily mirrored the score in their last outing when Waterloo beat Guelph 8-0.

In the opening period, Waterloo fired 24 shots at McDougall and jumped out to a 3-0 lead on goals by Scott Nagy, Ryan Dilks and Andrew Csumrik.

Tyson Theaker pulled the Hurricanes within 2 with a goal 17 seconds into the second period.

Waterloo’s Tony Blyde restored the Siskin’s 3 goal lead 2 and a half minutes later.

The score stayed 4-1 until Peter Soligo scored on shot from the point after Siskins goalie Will Sibley stopped Nic MacEachern and Mike McFarlane on a 2 on 0.

The Hurricanes pulled their goalie late in the game but couldn’t get another one past Sibley.

Final Score: Waterloo (now 18-5-0) 4, Guelph (now 8-16-2) 2

The Hurricanes take to the road for their next 2 games, Saturday in Cambridge and Sunday in Elmira.

Guelph’s next home game will be next Thursday December 3^rd against the league leading Brantford Golden Eagles. Game time is 7:45 pm.

I hope everyone’s having a delicious and safe Thanksgiving–I am thankful for so many things this year, but I thought I’d try and condense it quickly before I head off to eat dessert.

1. I’m thankful for my family and friends, and all of the people who make me laugh.

2. I’m thankful that I get to eat two Thanksgiving dinners every year, thus doubly filling my belly with every side dish and dessert known to mankind.

3. I’m thankful for leggings, since jeans after two Thanksgivings simply would not cut it. Sitting pants time.

4. I am thankful for country air, shaggy dogs, and fighting chickens in their coop to try and gather their eggs. These things simply don’t exist in Chicago.

5. I am thankful that my family is safe and healthy, even if we’re all spread out. Happy Thanksgiving everyone, I wish you lots of love and many pairs of leggings to get you through this evening.

The cost of homeownership in Canada became more expensive in the third quarter, according to a report by RBC Economics Research.

The bank says this hasn’t happened since the spring of 2008 and was due to a slight rise in mortgage rates and higher property values. The RBC index measures the proportion of pre-tax household income needed to service the costs of owning a home.

During the third quarter, the benchmark detached bungalow moved up by one per cent to 40.2 per cent and the standard townhouse rose by 0.7 per cent to 32.3 per cent.

The standard condo climbed by 0.5 per cent up to 27.6 per cent and a standard two-storey home increased 1.2 per cent to 45.8 per cent.

RBC says housing demand has outgrown supply, leading to a more competitive market and widespread increases in home values.

“With such strong momentum in the housing market and the cyclical low in mortgage rates behind us, it seems unlikely that affordability will improve in the near future,” said RBC senior economist Robert Hogue.

“The housing market still faces obstacles, as mortgages have become more difficult to handle for many Canadians amid challenging labour conditions. This is likely to persist until the economic recovery is well established and job creation is sustained next year.”

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Guelph Hurricanes announce that University of Guelph students will receive 1/2 price entry to this Thursday’s game vs. Waterloo Siskins.

The Hurricanes have several U of Guelph students on the team and this would be a great (and economical) way for students to support the team.

Location: The Sleeman Centre

Game Time: 7:45 pm

I attempt to get all my grocery needs in one monthly shop,  because I despise grocery shopping,    So I decided on IGA at Waterloo Sydney to pick up some milk.  The rest are ‘impulse’ buys or things I could recall on my list at home.  Truthfully only the tomatoes and cucumbers were on the list.  I really prefer the 3L bottles of milk as we go through a lot of milk.

Kellogs Special K 360g  $3.79

Mrs Brunt’s waffles 6 pack 2 x @ $4.25 ea

2 x 2 L Daisy Lite milk @ $2.79 ea

De Costi fresh cooked peeled prawns 325g $12.01

Cucumber 525g @ $5.49 kg

Trussed tomatoes  @ $8.25 / kg = $5.26

It is absolutely annoying that the Waterloo Public Square board now no longer posts events, instead posts a link to the events. So that now even if you’re at the Square, you need somehow access the internet before finding out what’s going on.

How does this make any sense? Why not let passers-by know what’s going on, as they pass by, instead of letting them know about a link they will forget about within the next two seconds?! Anyways, if you do want to know things that are going on, here is the link.

I haven’t posted in a while because life has been crazy. Also, my internet situation at home has been non-existant due to the death of my first laptop. Also, I am moving to Uptown Waterloo in December (adding to the craziness). This is exciting as I will be within walking distance to many of the places I love in KW and I won’t have to deal with shady people living above me who own a large and noisy dog and insist on vacuuming at 11pm every night. I really hope to write about the crazy adventure that has been finding a place to live in KW. Hopefully I’ll find the time some point soon. In the meantime, the Wonders of Winter: A Festival of Lights, starts this Saturday in Waterloo Park. I don’t think I’ll go until there’s some snow, because it’s not the same without snow, but this is the one event that makes me feel like the snow, slush, shoveling, and slipping all over the ice are all worth it, because snow is pretty and magical.

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema. It is a yearly festival that has been going on for nine years. I have been going to university in Waterloo since last year, but I had never heard of this event.

Fortunately, this year I received an e-mail from my campus’s gaming oriented club informing me about this festival. And once I learned from their website that they would have a showing of the North American premiere for Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance, I knew I had to go.

Initially, I expected that most of the films that were to be shown would be Japanese. I was surprised when I found out that only 3 out of the 14 were Japanese anime films. They had films from many diverse countries countries including Ireland, Hungary, Australia, Sweden, Belgium and Serbia.

The theme of this year’s festival was Russian animation. Specifically, the focus of the event was on a select number of some of the oldest films in Russian animation which had their start in the Soviet Union. I even got to see the Soviet Union’s first animated feature film, The Lost Letter, which was made in 1945.

I also have to give a big kudos to the team who put this event together. They did an amazing job with the programme booklets, ticket system, and the overall aesthetic quality and organization of the festival. The staff was also very friendly and made me feel right at home. I had a great time and definitely plan on going next year.

Cohen Adair lays on the ice after a hard Hurricanes check. He would return to the game later.

A night after a 8-0 loss in Waterloo, the Guelph Hurricanes bounced back and posted a character win by beating  the slumping Stratford Cullitons 6-3.

“They showed a lot of character to come back after a tough loss last night. This club has a lot of heart and I am proud of them.” says Hurricanes Head Coach Jim MacEachern

The win moves Guelph’s record to 8-15-2 for 18pts., while the loss which was the 10th in a row for the Cullitons, moves Stratford’s record to 12-12-0 24pts..

Six Hurricanes players each collected 2 pts. (Luca Penzo, Dan Mohle, Martin Kudla, Mike McFarlane, Ken Rolph and Mike Iacocca) and Chris McDougall returned between the pipes to 28 of 31 shots.

• Although Chris McDougall’s rights were traded earlier this week from the Kitchener Rangers to the Peterborough Petes, he will remain playing with the Hurricanes for the time being.
• Also, I received word from the Hurricanes trainers that injured Kitchener Dutchmen defenceman Brant Nicolson was released from the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery. Last week he crashed into the boards and was carried off on a stretcher.

The Hurricanes next game is this coming Thursday as they seek revenge from the Waterloo Siskins at The Sleeman Centre. Please note the game time is 7:45pm.

Nicole + Jesse
Waterloo, Ontario
October 2009

More images on my Facebook Group and Flickr Photo Stream.

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Click here for a post I wrote on Waterloo’s employment levels for Waterloo-based rQ Magazine.

Don’t miss Theo Caldwell at Chapters Waterloo this Saturday, November 21st at 1pm as he reads from his first novel, Finn the half-Great.   After the reading, Theo will be available to sign copies.

“Finn the half-Great is a delightful read…The novel is a quest fantasy with moments of humour and high emotion, epic battles and daring deeds…. a rewarding reading experience.” – Quill & Quire

Chapters Waterloo
428 King Street North
Waterloo, ON

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Playtime Fitness. Fun, affordable, efficient and empowering! Now THAT’s smart!

My friend Vince Fazari passed away on March 25, 2004. It happened three months before his 22nd birthday, after a long and difficult battle with cancer.

In the end, his body failed but his spirit didn’t. He was always positive and upbeat, and when he found out he had three months left to live, he made the strongest effort he could to make the most of the time he had left.

One of the things he did in that time was write a goodbye message, of sorts, to his family and friends. He called it his “basic life philosophy”, and it sums up nicely the kind of person that he was. He posted it, along with a lot of other writings, to a website he kept on Geocities. Unfortunately, Geocities was recently shut down, so I don’t know how much – if any – of that writing still remains.

Luckily, I saved Vince’s goodbye message, and so I’m reprinting it here on my blog in both an effort not to lose it, and to share it with you. Whether or not you knew Vince, he was a wonderful person, and wherever he is right now, I bet he wishes the best for you.

My Basic Life Philosophy

Hi All,

Now a number of you have been asking these “What is you’re view on life”, “How do you cope”, etc… and so what you are about to read is basically an email concerning my some core aspects to my basic life philosophy. These ideas did not appear over night, nor were they the result of simply my recent cancer experiences. My life philosophy, quite frankly, has been forged by life itself. I have always explored, thought about and challenge life to its limits. I have had many ’successes’ AND many ‘failures’. But most importantly, I have learned how to get on with life.

Now as for my outlook on life… what I am about to write about concerns the matter of figuring out what things in life are worth stressing over…

Core to my general life philosophy is this:

If there is some situation in life that I feel ’sucks’ I always have AT LEAST 1 of 3 things I can do.

1. Change the situation
2. Accept the situation
3. Exit the situation

The simple realisation that I have at least one of these options available to me makes things a whole lot simpler. The situation can now be addressed in a straightforward manner. Of course, figuring out which of the three is possible / the best solution is the tricky part .

Take for example, “My job sucks”….

First, I can try to identify things in my job that I can change (improve relationships with boss & coworkers, ask for more meaningful tasks, proactively find better things to do at the company, etc…)

But there may come a point where I (a) can’t think of anything I can actually change, or (b) can identify things I ‘could’ change, but the effort required just isn’t worth it. As I mentioned in my earlier email, we can act and change many things in our lives, but our influence does have limits. When our attempts to change things face resistance, we encounter stress. With (b) we realise that not everything is worth the time or stress.

At this point, I look at the situation as ask myself, should I accept this “sucky job” or should I exit (i.e. quit)?

- There are many reasons to accept (some better than others)
- Perhaps the job market is really horrible, I need the money, I’m learning more here than I could anywhere else, I believe in what I am doing, I still get to serve fries to this cute girl who comes in every Tuesday etc.

But if I figure there’s no point in accepting the situation, the I’d quit! (why waste my time at a joint like this???)

Now this Change/Accept/Exit philosophy is very general and can work at all levels (from the smallest situation – say a small dilemma at work, to the ultimate situation of all – life itself).

For example, you can have a small problem at work which you decide you can’t change… but that doesn’t mean you have to quit your job (which could still be quite cool).

Anyway, my ultimatum that I decided long ago is this: that ONLY in the ultimate situation, life itself, will I NOT EXIT voluntarily (i.e. commit suicide).

Once I put things in this perspective, it simplifies things. What can I change, what can I get out of, and what do I have to accept.

There are some things that I have to accept. Accepting them might not always be easy. But in the end, accepting them brings peace of mind. And by looking at the three options, it more readily allows one to come to the conclusion about what must be accepted.

Some people may think that my current situation is particularly difficult to deal with. However, I usually find it fairly easy to act on the Change/Accept/Exit options with “bigger problems”, like those that I’ve been facing lately with regard to my health. (It usually is the smaller things that are tougher to decide if they can be changed…. and this is when all our internal stress gets generated.)

Now I honestly feel that tough relationship situations are some of the toughest situations to figure out:

Change things? you really can’t simply choose to change another person…

Accept things? you don’t want to just get walked over

Exit? do you really want to give up on the romance or deep relation with another person?

These are tough questions… I think for me, I’ve found that I’ve accepted a lot in some relationships… disappointments can occur, mistakes are made, misunderstanding happen… but I accept and forgive… and try to love and communicate to the best of my abilities. However, there is only so much I can do to influence another person and I really don’t want to *try everything* to influence another person, for they are their own person. At best, I think one can only “do unto the other, what that other would like done unto them”… we can advise, help in manners that are asked, and hope the person can grow, but not take things personally if things don’t change. Personally, I find in relationships, often the more one tries to directly change the other person, the worse the situation gets…

It is a slippery slope though. At what point does one stop accepting and simply exit? A very tough question. And of course this is why couples can sometime oscillate between the together and apart states. But I guess, if the relationship finally ends, then why should we burden ourselves with the past… accept it. It can’t be changed and we’ve already exited the situation. Perhaps we can analyze it and learn from it. But in the end, what’s done is done, and we just have to get on with our lives….

Again I generalise these notions to other aspects of life.

Take another C?A?E? situation

We’re outside and it starts pouring rain! We’re getting soaked!

1. We don’t have the ability “right now” to change the situation of “pouring rain” (our influence has its limits) – although science and technology may be making some progress in this field

2. We are getting wet. Is there something we can do about this?

Umbrella? aww shucks! it’s leaky! can we improvise something? doesn’t look like it.

Run for shelter? aww shucks! we’re in a big grass field now we could get mad! we could start crying “it’s not fair!” we could curse whatever god we choose… but for me, I don’t see much point.

…(I never try to let my feelings get the best of me. I’m of the opinion that feelings are there to help guide decisions & actions, but it is inevitably up to “me” and not my emotions to choose my response to any situation.)…

Or we could accept that we’re gonna get really wet, and make the best of things… you know, roll around in the mud, have some fun, perhaps set up an irrigation network or something… learn something from the situation so that next time it won’t be as bad for us (or others) – i.e. let’s build a shed so when it rains no one will get wet… lets make sure to carry a better umbrella when the skies are cloudy and dark… and perhaps one day, we’ll actually be able to figure out how to control the weather

But until then, all we can do is accept what we must. We’re gonna get soaked.

So, as I explained to some friends already, right now I’m getting soaked. And all I can do is this: Do my best at making the best of it.

Anyway, hope that gives you some insight into me and perhaps helps you out in someway.  I’d love to talk / chat / email / etc…but also understand that you’re all busy with your own lives. Hopefully we’ll be able to meet up again sometime in person. Until then…

Stay safe and have fun!

Vince =D

p.s…. hope this philosophy seems fairly straightforward to ya. And yeah, I didn’t develop this philosophy all by myself… over the years I’ve done my share of thinking AND reading AND living AND learning.

“God, grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
- Reinhold Niebuhr

“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy.”
- Albert Camus

On Saturday I will be working for the Lord Mayor show 2009 at Mercers Hall. At 10:53 the event starts with a one mile race where London’s best runners will represent their boroughs. At 11 the RAF will fly. At 3pm guided walks through the city will be offered. But  I am most excited for the fireworks that will start around 5pm between Blackfriars and Waterloo bridges. Half a million people will be expected. If the weather will be bad, don’t worry, you can watch it on the BBC.

there is such an allure to just tip toeing a few more steps

i have the work ethic of 100 oxen. seriously. for a decade now. 100h weeks.

but this week? this week i think i have found my waterloo.

and on something i would normally find so  fucking easy. i am now that broken down. that wrecked. i am almost beyond function. physical or mental. no one knows the story either. the truth of any of the matter.  and why should they. but there are days….there are days.

it would be easier to just not be

here

the crevasse has an allure