Difficulties

Today, as part of the program I am working at, we visited the Juravinksi Cancer Centre, in Hamilton. It was a tough day. We visited there two years ago as well, when I worked here, so I knew it would be a tough day.

Over the course of my increasingly medium length life, I have had many brushes with cancer. Anywhere from family members or friends surviving, to having scares involving loved ones. Topping it off was losing my grandmother to cancer a few years ago.

My grandmother, Betty was a life long smoker. She never got sick. She quit the day my nephew was born and got sick very soon after. The doctors did all they could but it wasn't enough. Betty died in February 13, 2010.

Betty was a fighter all her life and she fought until the very last day. My sister was pregnant when Gramma died and she insisted that she was going to live long enough to see that baby born. As hard as she fought, Betty Lou didn't make it. Elizabeth Louise was born the next September, named after my gramma.

For the last three years I've done all that I can to try prevent others from going through what my family went through, but the burden seems extra heavy on days like today...

Last Night: Lakers beat Six Nations

In a battle of the league's top two teams, the Peterborough Lakers beat the Six Nations Chiefs 11-9 in Major Series Lacrosse, last night. I didn't watch the game as it was an away contest (and I am working away from Peterborough), but the box score can be found here.

The Lakers won 14 of 22 faceoffs and out shot the Chiefs 44-35. Winning face-offs against Sid Smith is huge as he is one of the best in the game at the dot, but the lower shot differential tells me that Six Nations was taking it to Peterborough on loose balls and turn-overs; a concerning prospect if this were part of a seven game series. Full credit, though should go to the Lakers defense for holding off a dangerous offensive corp, not the least of which was keeping Cody Jamieson to 0 shots and just one assist.

John Grant has a 6 point night, again proving how valuable he is to this team.

Despite the concerning possession stats, a win is a win. Doing against a powerhouse team like the Chiefs only makes it sweeter. The Lakers play in Brampton tonight to finish up for the week.

The "Hard Open"

I'm going to be honest: I created this blog to help me get a job. The real inaugural post (think of it as a soft open), below, is the result of that. I got the job, so that's awesome.

This is actually my second foray into the world of being a public figure, online. I used to write for a website called Useless Yellow Box. It was run by my high school chums, Ken and Adam. I won the first ever Friend of the Month contest... by which I mean I was the first one to agree to write a piece for them. I think reviewed a Big Sugar album. Hilarious. That eventually turned into a semi-regular gig with me writing whatever I felt like writing. I was recently thinking about that and I went searching for the UYB. It's long gone (thanks, Homestead) but Ken has a tumblr or some such with the name. That started the itch, and here I am, writing this at 11:30 at night, in a residence room that I live in this month.

It's just now occurring to me that I was at one time somewhat cutting edge on this whole blogging thing. Now I'm about 10 years behind. That's really cool to think about... the cutting edge, not the being behind.

As for what to expect... I don't know. I could find a cool niche and become internet famous... or more likely this could be the second last post I ever make. I like lots of stuff and I like making my opinion known, so that seems like a recipe for internet success. I guess we'll have to see.

Some stuff about me. I'm 30. I'm married. She's way out of my league. I am a math teacher. No one can tell when I'm being sarcastic. I have no short term memory, but an excellent long term memory. Most things I think are only interesting to me. Finally, I'm an evidently bad writer, so this should be fun!