Tag: weekly

  • What’s my weight again?

    What’s my weight again?

    Future Chat is on hiatus this week, while Mike schmoozes with Disney characters in Orlando, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot to announce this week!

    I’ve decided to take my health changes even more seriously, and give you real-time (daily) access to how my health changes are impacting my weight. I’ve never done anything like this before, and it might go terribly, but here we go…

    Click through the image (or here) to get straight to the live version!

    I’ve created a special page so if you’re interested in my weight loss progress, you can follow along. Feel free to leave best wishes, or heckle me if I eat way too much on a given weekend. Go check it out!

    It’s a big week for me and my friends, Ottawhat is launching a brand new initiative! We’re calling it Ottawhat News, and it involves us taking a look at the lighter side of news in and around Ottawa. I really hope you like it, and you can learn more here. You can also check out the first story, by our own Keegan On, below:

    Deer Shot in Greenbelt, Refuses to Cooperate with Police

    Also, don’t miss the new episode of Ottawhat:

    This week on the show, we spoke to Jessica Heuther from Ottawa Geek Market. She told us all about the event, going on during October 3rd and 4th at the Nepean Sportsplex. Jessica also works with Carnival Diablo, Canada’s only* carnival sideshow…
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  • How to make slow and steady progress

    How to make slow and steady progress

    People ask me from time to time these days: “Rob, do you think you will regret keeping people updated on your weight from week to week?”. To those people, I say “Maybe…but if it stops changing in a healthy direction, I’ll probably just stop talking about it.” For the time being though, my not so diet is going really well! Last weekend hit a small speedbump, but it seems to be back on track now.

    More importantly, riding my bike to work every day has made me FEEL a lot better!

    In addition to biking to and from work, I also did a 30 km bike ride on Saturday, followed by eating WAY too much on Sunday. Being active on a regular basis and not eating more than I need to has been extremely beneficial when it comes to feeling and looking better!

    Check out the shows we put up on UnwindMedia.com this week below:

    On this episode, we chatted with Mrigank Shail. He’s a doctor fresh out of med school who’s been all over the world studying and trying to better the world…
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    On this week’s show, we talk data plans, smartening your old appliances, and the next steps for Uber. Stay tuned for the after-show (1:35:00 or so), where…
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  • Milestones! Gains! Losses!

    Milestones! Gains! Losses!

    That’s a lot of views (I’m just one man)!

    It’s been far too long since I last wrote something on here, and given that a whole heck of a lot has happened in the last month! First up, around the time of the writing of this post, my blog is going to pass another base 10 milestone, racking up a total of 50000 views! This isn’t a big milestone, but I still consider myself as just getting started, so I’m pretty pleased with it.

    As well, in a follow up to my piece about weight loss/overall health, I’m pleased to announce that although my wedding and three-week vacation caused me to gain back a significant amount of the weight I had lost, as of today I will get back to a new all-time** low weight (**least I’ve weighed in over 2 years). I have been working really hard, and I wouldn’t have been able to get to where I am now without my bike, my Soylent, and the willpower to not go nuts eating snack foods. I’ve also effectively eliminated traditional meals from my diet, relying on snacking and smaller portions throughout the day, which has also been nice for me.

    During your wedding/honeymoon, you may experience mysterious weight gain paired with a complete loss of data.

    Finally, I went almost a month without recording a single podcast, but I’ve been back at work on them now (Ottawhat did have an episode every week while I was on my honeymoon though, so you’ll have to go and catch up on those). Last week on Ottawhat, we interviewed my beautiful new wife, Julia, and Mike and I have been getting into some great conversations on Future Chat. On Ottawhat this week, we talked to the owner and manager (2 people) of a local 1-screen cinema, the Mayfair. It was a really great conversation and you should go and check out their podcast too! Links to the episodes can be found below:

    This week on the show, we met with Josh and Mel from the Mayfair Theatre. These diehard movie buffs told us all about the origins of the theatre, why they…
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    On this week’s show, we agree non-Celiac gluten sensitivity probably isn’t a real thing, electric, self-driving cars will be all over our roads soon, and…
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  • New Polished Chrome

    New Polished Chrome

    That’s fancy!

    Well, it’s finally here. The new look for UnwindMedia.com is ready to go, and you can go and take a look now! I am really happy with how it’s turned out, and it is now quite a bit easier to see information about the shows on the network.

    I’m getting married this weekend, and going on a honeymoon the week after, so if this blog goes dark for a few weeks, please don’t be surprised. Episode 67 of Future Chat is the last one until I get back in late August, but we are doing our best the next few days to prepare new episodes of Ottawhat? to come out while I’m gone. Hope you’re having a great summer!

    We spoke to fire dancer and actor Zoe Georgaras this week on the show. We learned how she got introduced to fire dancing, how fire safety and good insurance…
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    In this episode, we discuss the possible coming shortage of medical isotopes and decay rates, we learn a little about Nick’s work with gold, and we can’t…
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  • Website 2.0 is in Private Beta!

    Website 2.0 is in Private Beta!

    Unwindmedia.com 2.0 is almost upon us!

    As I mentioned yesterday on Facebook and Twitter, there’s a medium/big re-skin of UnwindMedia.com coming very soon. I’ve been researching podcast network websites and taking cues from some of my favourites, and there’s also some brand new custom code pulling strings behind the scene to make adding new shows and hosts much easier should that ever be a thing that needs to happen. These changes would also make moving websites much more straightforward, in case THAT is a thing that ever needs to happen.

    Below, you’ll find links to Future Chat and Ottawhat as always, and if you’ve been waiting patiently for Feedback: The Music (I know I have), we want to take some time to really get it right. Hopefully there will be more to share soon!

    On this episode, we sat down with Megan Honey, an up-and-coming standup comedian who will be competing this summer in a couple of comedy contests at Absol…
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    In this episode, we discussed T-Mobile’s new Uncarrier US-Canada-Mexico roaming plans, Sweden buying trash from Norway, and Mike doesn’t believe you could…
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  • Taylorette1989 is Over, and What is a Podcast?

    Taylorette1989 is Over, and What is a Podcast?

    #Taylorette1989 is done. No, we weren’t able to get Julia into Taylor’s inner circle (although this did happen), but I think both Julia and myself learned a lot about life, love, and what’s important to us in the last 6 months or so of trying. I’ll be writing a bit in the near future about my experiences trying to capture the attention of probably the most widely recognizable entity in the world at the moment.

    Pictured: 6 months of hard work and dedication, and we get some pixels hosted on taylorswift.com!

    There are a couple of really interesting secret things I had been doing for Taylorette that I’m excited to share in the coming weeks, but for now, I’m looking to the future. I have some big plans once the summer is done and all the wedding and honeymoon craziness is behind us. I miss making videos every week, and it’s obvious to me that I haven’t done enough to let my friends in on what I’m working on these days, so I’ll be trying to do more of that too.

    Another fun project that I think it might help me to talk about is sharing some of the things on the internet that entertain me on a regular basis. Most people I talk to bounce around viral videos and things that pop into their Facebook feeds, whereas I tend to follow the work of individuals and groups of creative people on the Internet, keeping track of what they’re up to on a regular basis. I’m excited to talk about those people and what I’m able to learn from them, and I hope you’ll enjoy it.

    I’m still going through my week’s supply of Soylent. As expected, it isn’t something I think I can realistically have to replace ALL of my meals. That being said, I do like it (minus the artificial sweetener) and I have been able to not bring lunch to work for the last 2 weeks and get along just fine.

    In the meantime, Ottawhat? and Future Chat continue to soldier on with their usual episodes, you can subscribe to them and listen to the latest episodes down below. It has come to my attention that even people who are close to me are not aware that Future Chat is a podcast. First of all, it seems like those people probably just don’t actually know what a podcast is (really any episodic video or audio conversation or documentary could be considered a podcast). Second of all, if it’s been a while, I would encourage you to check out one of these two shows, we have a lot of fun making them and really try hard to put together something anybody can enjoy.

    This week, we sat down with training librarian and new mom Jessica Dubois. She told us all about her experiences with part-time online learning, her…
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    This week on the show, we discuss all the latest goings on around Pluto, the ramifications of the leap second, and how you might not get Windows 10 for a…
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  • East Meets West Returns Triumphantly, And Other Such Things

    East Meets West Returns Triumphantly, And Other Such Things

    On UnwindMedia.com this week, I finally managed to convince Nick to sit down with me for another East Meets West! Thank goodness beer exists to help make that happen! We also had great episodes of Future Chat and Ottawhat? as you’d expect, and those were no slouches either. I should note that in Future Chat, we spontaneously decided to do a moment of silence, which worked surprisingly well until Nick burst out laughing 5 seconds after.

    I spent a lot of time on this blog talking about Soylent, the food product that is literally just a powder you mix with water. I really like it except for the sweetener taste, but I won’t discuss that in any more detail now, you can find out exactly what I think so far here.

    Today on East Meets West, Nick and Rob discuss the NHL draft, polling for the fall’s federal election, the mass exodus of cabinet ministers and what that…
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    In this episode, we chatted with Jacques Breau. Jacques is a woodworker and a vinyl collector, and you can find him all over Ottawa this summer on his tru…
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    This week, the latest Falcon 9 launch is unsuccessful, Rob talks all about his week on Soylent, and we revisit mobile phone corner. We also try a moment o…
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  • Startups and Summertime (June 18-23)

    Startups and Summertime (June 18-23)

    Not a whole lots to say this week, except that my order of Soylent has made it to Ottawa, and is waiting for me at the Canada Post office by my house for pickup. I am excited to give it a try, and hope to write and talk about it a whole bunch very soon!

    Here are the shows on +Unwind Media this week, we had a very popular episode of Ottawhat where we talked about startups, and Nick missed +Future Chat but we had fun anyways! Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a show!

    This episode features our conversation with Franco Varriano. He helps organize and run networking events for young entrepreneurs all over the city. He’s w…
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    This week, storing electricity like plants do, we try DuckDuckGo, and no more trans fats. And, find out how Mike trying FlexDelivery has gone so far, and…
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  • Soylent, Apple Watch and #DistractinglySexy

    Soylent, Apple Watch and #DistractinglySexy

    The entire Unwind Media library is now available on SoundCloud. We did it! Anyhow, now that the transformation of all the shows is complete, a lot more time just opened up for interesting new things…who knows what this summer will bring?

    Today, I ordered a 7-day supply of Soylent from a California company called Rosa Labs. It’s a nutritional replacement with all the essential carbs, proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals a human needs to survive. It comes in a powder that you mix with water and consume over the course of a day. I’m not sure I’ll like it, but I’m really excited about what it will be like. I’ve been asked to document it, so I’ll definitely be trying this. It just recently started shipping to Canada.

    In a little sadder news, though Apple Watch is now available for in-store pickup, I won’t be getting one this summer. Real life wins again 🙁

    Anyhow, here are the shows from Unwind Media this week. I sincerely hope you enjoy them if you choose to listen! We had a great chat on Future Chat about the #DistractinglySexy hashtag and the sexism that seems to keep popping up in science. Subscribe if you do so you’ll be able to keep apprised of new episodes without this weekly post!

    This week, we spoke to Evan and Shane from Alpaca Party Productions. They do a weekly podcast and a web series called A Mouthful of Shane. We talked about…
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    This week, we talk sexiness in science labs, really old dinosaur blood cells, and so so much space news…
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  • Licensing Issues for Feedback…hmmm (Unwind Media | June 3 – 9)

    Licensing Issues for Feedback…hmmm (Unwind Media | June 3 – 9)

    This week, I finished moving Future Chat to SoundCloud, and by next week the entire Unwind Media back library will be over there!

    Feedback: The Music Volume I is nearing the date I said it would be out. I’m currently debating options for release, and trying to navigate doing it in as legal as way as possible, but without also spending too much money just to release it. Stay tuned, and if you know anything about this murky legal area or have released covers before, please do let me know!

    In this episode, we spoke to culinary nutrition expert Jenni Beharry. She’s trained in human geography, television broadcasting, and nutrition, and she’s…
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    In this episode, we talk about the newly discovered link between the brain and the immune system, give a look ahead to WWDC this week, and find out about…
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