Category Archives: Events

The Secret World of Sharks and Rays Arrives at the Vancouver Aquarium

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Starting February 7th to April 30th the Vancouver Aquarium will dive into a new feature highlighting The Secret World of the Sharks and Rays. You’ll be introduced to some sharks that live in the BC coast as well as be introduced to some not so famous shark cousins including the Spotted Ratfish.

The feature will share with you what makes sharks such great hunters, why are they so fast, what conservation efforts are in place and introduce you to rays at live in fresh waters.

“Whether you’re curious about their hunting strategies or the human activities that put these creatures at peril, or if you’d simply like to be awed by their magnificence, The Secret World of Sharks and Rays has something for everyone,” says Clint Wright, senior vice-president and general manager of the Vancouver Aquarium.

During your visit you will discover the following sharks and rays:

  • Blacktip reef sharks
  • Whitespotted bambooshark
  • Southern Stingray
  • Whiprays
  • Zebra shark
  • Ocellated freshwater stingrays
  • Tiger stingrays
  • Xingu River rays
  • Blue-spotted fantail rays
  • Epaulette sharks
  • Tasseled wobbegong (strange lace faced beard)
  • Pacific spiny dogfish
  • Spotted ratfish

If you are lucky enough, make sure you watch the feeding of the Black Tip Reef, Zebra sharks and Whiprays in the Tropical Zone. The speed of these amazing creatures as they fed was amazing to watch. Their aquarium came to life!

The more I visit the Vancouver Aquarium, the more I’m amazed at the creatures who call our oceans their home. From jelly fishes, star fishes, whales, dolphins and coral the aquarium highlights them wonderfully.

Thank you to the Vancouver Aquarium for inviting us on a tour and Alex for being an amazing tour guide who shared his amazing knowledge of these fascinating creatures that are on display.

Day of L’Amore Approaching

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Photo by @evg_pilagova | #love #sweet Yikes, when did Valentine’s Day sneak up on me?

It’s hard to believe that tomorrow is the big day devoted to l’amore. Yeah I know that Valentine’s Day goodies have been out since Christmas ended, but I guess I haven’t been paying much attention to it since I’ve been out of work for the past month.

At any rate, I currently don’t have anything planned and I need to think of something fast. Normally we don’t do too much on Valentine’s Day except we make a point of celebrating at home and enjoying our company together. I’m not one for the big romantic dinner out, though I do enjoy our date nights throughout the year and this day, to most, is just another day.

Luckily I still have a full day to think about what I’m gonna do. I might pull off a surprise, or it might just be another day of just snuggling on the couch as we watch some good tv programming. Yeah I know, what a life :) .

How are you going to be spending the day? Do you have a special someone? Or are you like some people and just consider it a normal day?

Happy 2013!

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2012 was a year full of change and adjustments. My niece moved from Toronto to live with us as she studied to become a Certified Make-up Artist. I got to get reacquainted with her and see her as a young adult, while learning to live in a small one bedroom place with 2 other people. I also got a new position at work as the Internal Brand Ambassador of Marketwire. A new role that I’m enjoying everyday, even though it has its challenges since it’s a new role within the company.

And now a new year begins!

Normally people would be making new years resolutions and trying hard to keep up with them, but let’s face it over 92% of us will fail at keeping up with those resolutions. Though in theory they are made to help improve us!

I haven’t “officially” made any new years resolutions, I do have some goals I want to accomplish this year. I intend to keep them to myself at this time, but the goals I have are to improve me in my every day life and will be for the better. Baby steps is how I’m approaching them and I have some timelines for each goal I’ve set up.

So here is hoping that 2013 is a great year. I’m looking forward to the changes and challenges it will bring while at the same time continuing to help me grow as a person.

 

 

Last 10 Days of MOvember

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MOvember Day 19 Alright people, I’m a little depressed. No it’s not the weather that is getting me down (though the Vancouver November rain is a tough month to get by), but rather my terrible MOvember donations.

With only 10 day left in MOvember, my donations seemed to have stopped. I started off great on the first couple of days, but since then I’ve had no other donations. With this being my fourth year in participating in MOvember I’m discouraged that my campaigning is failing.Granted I haven’t been campaigning too hard as I didn’t want to bombard everyone with MOvember posts.

My goal was small this year. I was hoping to get at least $200 in donations, but as of right now I’m only at $60.

So this will be the second to last post I’ll be making about MOvember this year. And as such I encourage you to help me out in my donations. To help me out please donate to http://mobor.co/gusf.

To everyone that has donated this year, thank you so much! It truly means a lot to me.

On an up note, as of the posting of this, Canada has raised more than $19.5 million for prostate cancer research. Well done Canada!

The Day After Halloween

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Happy Halloween

Well it’s done for another year, Halloween has come and gone.

I hope everyone had an awesome few days while you celebrated as an adult and celebrated with your little ones. I saw some great costumes this year and it was great seeing parents also dressed up as they took their kids out around Yaletown last night.

Though my plan to become a human size Yoda never turned out, I was happy to just be at home snuggled on the couch while enjoying some awesome sweet potato soup that Russ made. I always say I’ll get dressed up for Halloween, but never do. Oh well there is always next year :)

There is one thing I’ll never get about Halloween here in Vancouver. It’s the only time when you can buy fireworks in this city. That’s right, you can’t buy any fireworks during Victoria Day or Canada day here. I don’t see where the logic of having fireworks when it’s fall and there are tons of dry leaves around, granted this year it rained and most of the leaves are a pile of wet mush. I still don’t get it.

Even this morning at 6am someone was letting some fireworks go. Really 6am?!

So how did you spend your Halloween weekend and day? Did you dress up? Did you give out treats to kids?

MOvember 2012 is Just Around the Corner

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It’s time to start thinking about MOvember again.

MOvember is a month long fundraising event where men from around the world get together to raise money and awareness for men’s prostate cancer. How do they do it? Well they grow a mustache or mo all month long. But this year it’s a little different, we are also raising awareness of mental health issues.

I’m proud to be participating in my fourth year of this great cause. Again this year I join our company’s team called the Marketwire Sysomos Staches. We are proud to be participating this year. Last year our company matched our donations and we raised over $11,000. This year we are striving to beat those numbers and we can only do it with your support. So please help support me this year by donating to me personally or our team.

I’ll be updating throughout November on my progress. As usual I can’t look at myself in the mirror the first few days as I go from having a goatee to being completely clean shaven. I’m nervous as hell, but I know it’s for a great cause!

Happy Father’s Day

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Today is the day we celebrate Fathers and it wouldn’t be a day without celebrating my dad. He’s part of who made me the man I am today. Without him and without his advice I wouldn’t be able to do what I do today. He’s taught me so much about life and family and he truly is a special man.

So dad I wish you an amazing Father’s Day. Love you dearly.

 

Kellogg’s National Breakfast Day

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One in 10 children in Canada live below the poverty line and will go to school without having a breakfast. Kellogg’s Canada wants you to share you breakfast for National Breakfast Day in support of this cause.

Today in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, representatives from Kellogg’s will be out handing single packages of Rice Krispies   to bring awareness for this cause.

A BOWL FOR YOU = A BOWL FOR A HUNGRY CANADIAN CHILD

For every specially marked box of Kellogg’s cereal, Kellogg’s will donate up to $25,000 to 2 of the largest national charities that help create breakfast programs for children – Breakfast for Learning and Breakfast Clubs of Canada.

Happy Leap Day

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Ahhhh February 29. You only come around once every 4 years and somehow you make it feel like it’s a day that you want us to remember. Especially today here in Vancouver when it’s snowing outside and just looking awful at the moment.

So why do we have you? What is the reason for having a Leap Day? Well it all has to do with earth’s orbit around the sun. You see it actually takes 365 days and 6 hours (give or take a few minutes) for one complete rotation. So after 4 years, we’ve accumlated approximately 24 hours which gives us one “full” day.

Now I used to know people that had their birthdays on February 29th back in Elementary school. Outside of the leap year, they would celebrate their birthday on February 28th, though I have heard some celebrate it on March 1st. I do know that they were more excited celebrating their birthday on the actual February 29th.

So to all celebrating your birthday today, Happy Leap Birthday. I hope you do something extra special today. To everyone else, go crazy today. After all who will remember this in 4 years? :)

Happy Valentine’s Day

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Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone. Whether you are sharing it with a special loved one, or just sharing your love to the world, have an amazing day! Remember to love yourself first and then you will be able to share your love back to others.

In honour of this day I give you a great song from Kylie Minogue that sums up how I feel today!