This week’s Ottawhat includes our interview with Pablo Juarez. He spent the last 15 months in Australia and had a ton of great stories about his travel adventures!
Category: Blog
Ottawhat 87 | Pablo Juarez (January 14)
Losing Weight, When You’re Lazy (January 13)
“Play to your strengths” is the advice given to Harry Potter during the Triwizard Tournament, and it’s invaluable insight is applicable not just to facing dragons in a magical school.
When I set out to improve my health last summer, I knew it would take more than some kind of amazing burst of willpower. I was going to have to change some of my habits, and try to control my worst impulses, like the one to eat an entire pizza in one sitting. I didn’t buy any expensive supplements or go on a strict nutrition plan. I didn’t count calories, or even consider any individual food as being off limits.
What I did end up doing, starting in July of 2015, was make a commitment to eating less, and to exercising more. In making that commitment, I had a few things I liked doing built-in to my schedule to jump start my new diet and lifestyle. The biggest thing I did was to start biking to and from work every day, about 7 km each direction, unless it was pouring rain.
Really, the only other major change I made was to purchase Soylent, the food replacement I’ve talked about to death here, and eat only that at work. I know that I tend to eat when I’m bored, and so I would bring snacks to work and eat them throughout the day, even if I wasn’t particularly hungry. By replacing that snack food with Soylent, which fills me up but which I did not crave, I was able to consume a lot less calories during the day.
Since food wasn’t around, I didn’t feel any strong urge to eat, and if I did, Soylent would be there to fill me up. I started losing around two pounds a week on average, but I started to notice a pattern developing. During the week, I would lose about 4-6 pounds, and then Friday through Sunday, I would gain back about 2-4 of that. My weight loss came in cycles, because as I mentioned, I have no willpower, and so I wasn’t afraid to have a few slices of pizza when hanging out with friends.
The secret to weight loss: math, patterns, and patience. After a couple of months of this pattern, where I would bike 4-5 times per week, play sports, and walk, my appetite, my waistline, and my stomach all shrank substantially. And through all of this, I never really had any strong cravings for food that I didn’t satisfy. When I did snack, I was less likely to indulge as much, mainly because I just wasn’t as hungry.
That’s not to say I didn’t get hungry. Another important part of this lifestyle was learning that it’s OK to be hungry sometimes without eating. I started treating hydration more seriously, and my hunger lessened in kind. In total, from the end of August (after my honeymoon) to the beginning of December, I lost about 35 pounds.
If you look in detail at my progress, weighing myself every single day from August 20, 2015 to January 13, 2016, I have lost a total of 98 pounds in the 89 days I lost weight. On the remaining days, I gained a total of 64 pounds over 57 days. In that time, I’ve learned that eating a bunch of snack food, or just too much in general, like I did on many of those 57 “gain” days, is absolutely not worth the work I put in on the 89 “loss” days
I am currently better, but far from perfect, at deciding when I’ve had enough. I still enjoy cookies, candy, pizza, delivery, chips, cheese, meat, etc., but I know a lot better how my body is going to react to those foods, and how much I eat will affect me.
Now, it’s the middle of winter, and I can’t bike all over the place (also, my bike was stolen back in October đ ), but I am doing exercise where I can to keep up with food, and managing my intake better.
With the tracking system I’ve set up for myself, which I talk about here, I know that I can aim to weigh less today than I did yesterday, and less this week than I did the last, and I will be able to lose weight. It’s all about finding what works for you, and playing to your strengths. Stay healthy đ
If you want to get a copy of the spreadsheet I’ve been using, let me know and I can make a clean copy available for download. I have been using the wireless Withings scale to track my weight and body fat percentage, if you want to check it out, I would strongly recommend it (full disclosure: if you use that link, I do get a commission) and it’s been a big help to me. I have also been using the Withings Health Mate app, which is free, and IFTTT to make keeping track of my weight in a spreadsheet unbelievably simple.
You can do it, it’s all a matter of finding your own path.
Future Chat 84 | Angosticism for the Win? (January 12)
On the show this week, we went really in-depth talking about new elements and particles that have recently been discovered, only the very best of CES, and NFC’s future in Canada, where we already tap to pay for almost everything.
A healthy dose of skepticism (January 11)
Today, I got to be a real journalist (or pundit, I guess, depending on your perspective). I got to read a report from a source, think about it critically, and comment on it. And I turned out to be right in the end.
On Saturday, there was a report in the Telegraph saying Apple was being asked to make a tool to let iOS users export their data so that they could switch away from iOS. It seemed like a pretty dumb story (and has now been confirmed false), so I thought about it. You can read the full piece over on MobileSyrup.
Apple wouldn’t make a product to let their customers switch to Android, even if the EU was pressuring them to do so for anti-trust reasons. And even if they were, it wouldn’t be in the manner described.
While a set of tools to allow iOS users to easily move their data to other platforms has seemingly obvious benefit, the actual implementation of such services are not straightforward. Itâs worth keeping in mind that if users have access to a laptop or desktop computer, it is already trivial to export contacts, or copy music and photos to a new device.
Contacts, music and photos are not the data keeping users on a given platform. Not to say there aren’t reasons to stick with what you have:
Perhaps the most overlooked part of this entire story is the fact that data like photos and contacts are not actually the biggest concern for locked-in users on either iOS or Android. Apps, especially those that cost users money, are the biggest reason many users will stay in the ecosystem theyâve invested in. If a service from either Apple or Google could import third-party application data or download and purchase history, then perhaps the reasoning behind this argument would be more compelling.
It’s a fun game to play, thinking and talking and writing about Apple, and other tech companies. But you have to take what you read with a grain of salt, and not believe everything you read. I’m not great at it, but I’m learning, and this was a really great experience for me.
What’s the best way to communicate effectively? (January 10)
I’ve talked a LOT about messaging services. I’ve had conversations about them with various people for years, and in person or on a variety of those messaging services themselves.
I take communication very seriously, so when a new application comes out that purports to change the world by making it easier to keep in touch with important people, I take note. It was clear to me from the moment I first got a cell phone that SMS (text messages) wasn’t the future of anything.
When I first got online in a real way, the people I needed to keep in touch with were all using MSN Messenger. It was a chat application that, considering the era, was pretty advanced and had a lot of users. In fact, there are probably many people who never stopped using that, then Windows Live Messenger, and then its modern equivalent, Skype (after Microsoft bought Skype).
I’ve moved through many chat platforms claiming to be the best new thing, and several of them were. Facebook Messenger started off very slowly, but is now used by around a billion people on a regular basis. I used Google Talk through a lot of my university career, and it was really great when all my friends were on our work computers using Gmail all day every day.
Google Hangouts was my go-to chat platform from its inception until the middle of last year, and I still use that application for video calls and keeping in touch with family. I also keep in contact with many people, including some I’ve never met in person, through Twitter.
I think the fundamental issue with keeping up to date on what the best communication platform is, is simple. I think that there actually is no BEST communications platform for all uses. Each one has unique features that set it apart from the others, and the success of all of them for you depend heavily on whether you know people that also use them.
I have been proselytizing Slack for a little over a year now as my favourite communication tool, and it’s an incredibly popular tool for keeping in contact with small to medium pockets of people, because it mimics the way groups actually communicate in the real world. You can centre conversations around topics, or include only subsets of users in a given Slack team, and I think compartmentalizing like that makes communication in Slack really efficient compared to other platforms.
I’m not saying Slack is the objective best communication platform for everybody to keep in touch with everybody else, because it isn’t. But for me, for most of the people I keep in touch with on a very regular basis, I can’t get over its incredible usefulness. Below are just a few of the ways I prefer Slack to many other messaging platforms.
1. You have a personal chat room. You can send messages to a helpful AI powered robot called Slackbot, or just use this chat thread to leave yourself messages or remind yourself of things. I use it all the time to keep track of things, and I find it incredibly useful to have one place I can throw text or ideas or links when I need to.
2. You can share links with people and Slack automatically provides searchable context. In comparison with Facebook Messenger, which will pop up and provide a picture and the title of the link you send, Slack with actually paste in text what is contained in the link, an image for context, and a short description of the page at the end of the link. It’s incredibly useful.
3. Slack can passively let you keep tabs on a conversation without being notified of every message. You can control which chats will be able to notify you and how the notification comes to you, to your phone, to your computer, etc.
4. You can tag people and other conversations in channels. I could let Mike know I needed his attention for something just by mentioning his name, and I could refer to the “cooking” channel in a conversation with my friends if I’d posted a recipe in there.
5. Perhaps the best thing you can do with Slack is integrate other services. You can paste links to a Google Document and it will automatically figure out which document you are referring to, and keep track of all Google Docs that have been posted in one place. You can set it up to forward Tweets from Twitter into a channel to keep tabs on a topic or a Twitter account any group might care about. It’s incredibly versatile and I have about 5-6 different services that all connect with Slack right now.
I love Slack, and I would use it even if nobody else was around, but if you’re in a team or want to stay in touch with a group of people with more than one simple conversation, this is the way to do it. You’ll never derail a whole group of people with an off-topic remark again (or at least it’s a lot easier to avoid). Go try Slack at Slack.com. They have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and the web!
Remembering my first publication (January 9)
Facebook’s “On This Day” mostly serves to cause people to reminisce about the past and re-share posts from years past. For the most part, I do the same thing. Sometimes, though, it really provides some gems.
In this case, I was reminded that my first major academic publication (that I was first author on) was published 4 years ago this week! Thanks to incredible help from my supervisor, Dave Bryce, and the rest of his group, I managed to put together enough research results to finish my thesis and put out this paper.
It was a really great moment for me, and it reminded me just how far I’ve come in the last four years. I’m no longer working in Chemistry, but I still have great memories of doing lab work and research. It was also a really weird feeling when I went and clicked on the link, and would have had to pay $35 to ‘rent’ my results for 48 hours.The fact that all journals charge so much for access to published work just reminds me how far we still have to go with open access. I look forward to the day when all research can be equally accessed by everyone, it will enable research to move that much faster. You can still access the paper if you want, because my old supervisor Dave keeps a copy of all the papers he’s had published on his website, which is pretty cool.
Why are Cable and Internet bundles so confusing? (January 8)
Today on Fake It, I discuss my recent but continued disappointment with Bell and Rogers in creating cable and internet bundles that are for rational humans. Deceptive pricing, constant shuffling, and a minefield of potential options are enough to make anybody run screaming.
Ottawhat 86 | Brian Lee (January 7)
This week on Ottawhat, we had my very good friend Brian back on the show for a 2nd interview. I’ve spoken with him many times, on and off air, and it’s always an interesting conversation. If you’re curious what he’s been up to in his life for the last year or so, I encourage you to listen!
Applying for a Job (January 6)
Some days, you spend hours with your face right in front of a computer monitor, but at least there are ends-of-day like today that make it mostly worth it. I would love a job where my Chemistry, science and technology skills and knowledge are required, but my job search focus right now is in communications and media.
Below is why I think I would be a good candidate for a media/communications focused job. If you know somebody who is hiring that might be looking for somebody like me, please share this with them, I would REALLY appreciate it! Thanks!
This letter is in reference to the job posting at [REDACTED] for [REDACTED]. I am submitting this letter because I think that I, Rob Attrell, am an excellent candidate for the position. The combination of my experience and education will show that I have the requirements needed to excel in the role.
Going to university, I wasnât aware how important communications would end up being to me. I studied Chemistry at the University of Ottawa from 2006 to 2011, completing Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. On its own, that doesnât qualify me for the position, but it was a formative and necessary experience.
I learned many important skills during my studies and research that lend themselves to work in communications. First and foremost, my projects over the course of these degrees have given me a lifelong appreciation for the time and detail that goes into professional work. While preparing my Master’s thesis, I wrote and edited several major documents for both print and electronic media. That includes a textbook chapter, several academic papers, and two thesis documents. This work typically took many weeks or months of planning and working with colleagues to come up with a polished final product.
Of course, in addition to the tangible work done during my degree, there are many other important skills I learned and improved at while in graduate school. Time management, self-motivation, problem-solving, and multitasking were critical to my success in class and in the lab. To this day, I apply those same attributes in all of my work, both at NSERC in my last full-time position as a planning analyst in Corporate Planning and Policy, and with my extra-curricular and freelance activities. I am constantly adapting my skill-set and looking for new and interesting things to learn, and projects and problems to tackle.
For the last 4+ years, since the end of my degree, I have been devoting a whole lot of my free time to learning the principles of communications. I write regularly for my own interest on a personal blog, and I been creating more varied media like video and podcasts for the last 2 years as well. I am very involved in social media, and Iâm always quick to try out the newest social medium or technology. I have been studying and learning web design, user interface/experience principles, and programming to maintain all the sites Iâve been managing since 2011 as well.
I have spent a lot of time in the last few years working on strategies to gain traction in social media, as well as coming up with consistent branding and developing high-quality content. I also currently write freelance every weekday morning for a Canadian technology website called MobileSyrup, which enables me to keep up with technology and writing, while also working on ongoing projects and developing my skills.
Thank you.
Preparing Soylent for best results (January 5)
I have a serving of Soylent most days, and I’ve gotten the consistency of making it properly down pat. If you’re considering trying it out, or you have tried it and don’t like it, give this method a shot and let me know what you think. The taste may not be for everyone, but it’s been super beneficial for my health and I’ve never thought it tasted *bad*. Enjoy!
