Living in the Future

Tag: Writing

  • Day 2 Of My Soylent Adventure

    Day 2 Of My Soylent Adventure

    For some context, yesterday was the first day I tried the futuristic food product called Soylent. It is a food product, not a supplement, so you can survive off this stuff. You can check out my experiences on Day 1 right here, and below, you’ll find my thoughts and feelings, and calorie math about Day 2.

    9:30 PM Thurs.: I probably ate a little more today than I would have, but I have also been really active this week. I definitely feel like Soylent has helped my appetite quite a bit, but we’ll see what tomorrow brings. In 2 days, I got a little under half my calories from Soylent, and I have used a little under 1 pouch.

    See you tomorrow!


    2:45 PM Thurs.: Getting a little bit hungry again. I might be done for the day with Soylent, I’ll probably have some solid food when I get home. Nothing against the liquid diet in particular, but it is going to take some getting used to. We also have groceries at home that need eating, so I have to consider that.


    1:15 PM Thurs.: Lunch was good, although I think I need more water again. I’m definitely not hungry despite the relatively small calorie intake. One issue that seems to keep coming up in these 1.5 scoop batches is that I end up not being able to mix the powder in completely. I’m going to try to address this by mixing a little bit of hot water with the powder first, hopefully dissolving more before topping the mixture up with cold water, which they recommend to improve the taste. I haven’t had any of this stuff at home yet, but I think a blender would make this whole process a lot easier.

    Anyhow, now that I’m done with lunch I probably won’t be eating again for a while. I’ll leave you with some Soylent-related reading to do if you have any weird questions or concerns about the nutritional value. I’m not saying take their word for it, I’m just saying they’ve looked into many things and work with nutritional experts to formulate this food. Check it all out here: https://faq.soylent.com/hc/en-us/sections/200307055-About-Soylent


    12:15 PM Thurs.: I’m going to be having another ~1.5 scoops, bringing me to ~750 calories plus cereal for the day so far. It’s noon and I’ve had very little food today but I feel fine (other than being a little hungry). I would attribute this more to being very aware of what I’m eating and that I’m not eating very often than to Soylent in particular, but it’s still interesting. When you know “exactly” how many calories you’re ingesting, it’s a lot easier to look at food and think “that’s way too much”.


    11:15 AM Thurs.: Doing fine, I’m sure I can make it to lunch today. I decided I should answer of the questions everybody asks, “What is Soylent?”. I’m surprised you haven’t all already heard of it, but to answer the question, I’m just going to tell you what’s IN Soylent…this is from their website, and it tells you what you’ll get in every serving (2 scoops) of Soylent. Basically, it’s everything your body needs to sustain itself. See for yourself below, or on their website!

    Click to enlarge. Complete nutrition facts available here.

    10:00 AM Thurs.: About to go into a meeting, headache has subsided, so I guess the calories have helped 🙂 . Goooooooo Soylent!


    9:00 AM Thurs.: Downed an ice cold 1.5 scoops of delicious Soylent this morning. I think adding just a little more water will help me mix things up a little better, but I have also taken to just swishing some water around at the end of the “meal” to clean the bottle and get any bits that might be stuck to the bottom of the bottle.

    I’m a little concerned about hunger today because I still have a bit of a headache, and I don’t have any food with me. But I’m going to do my best to keep hydrated, we’ll see if I can last another 3 hours until lunch on only about 500 calories, but it will be tough.


    7:46 AM Thursday: It’s a lovely morning. I had some more cereal (another smaller portion today). I brought another pouch with me on the bike again, although I might not get to it because I still have quite a bit of pouch #1 from yesterday. I’m feeling pretty hungry already, but I think I’ll get to preparing my first portion around 8:30 again. This time, I’m going to put extra effort into getting it mixed up really well. I’m going to try to give you guys some interesting facts about Soylent throughout the day, so stay tuned for that!


  • Soylent Adventure: Day 1 (Wednesday)

    Soylent Adventure: Day 1 (Wednesday)

    Here’s Day 2!

    I’ll be doing this in live-blog format, keeping things updated throughout the day. The day starts at the bottom and new stuff will show up right below this sentence. Times are in EDT.

    9:30 PM Wed.: OK, I’m home after a day of Soylent. I had approximately 2/3 of the first pouch over the course of the day, totalling about 1000-1300 calories if I had to estimate (I don’t actually know how much is left, it could be closer to 1/2). I had dinner and a beer out, along with my morning cereal as well, so I think I’m at about 2000 calories for the day, and I feel very full. If calorie calculators are even remotely accurate, I normally get about 3000 calories on a given day, so this would be a big drop. I’ll have to see if I can keep up this pace and hunger levels, but I’m hopeful.

    I’m not hungry right now, and though weight loss isn’t the primary goal of this experiment, I wouldn’t be opposed to getting out of the “overweight” designation on the BMI scale. That being said, preparation was SUPER simple, and with Nick’s amazing funnel suggestion this is an extremely sustainable amount of lunch prep.

    Anyhow, I will continue this story in a new post tomorrow, although I will probably provide fewer updates because I don’t feel the need to duplicate things I said today.

    Goodnight all, thanks for following my story!


    5:20 PM Wed.: I may update one more time before bed, but for now, I think I’m done with Soylent for the day. I feel fine, despite having eaten far fewer calories than I would have otherwise today. I’m going out for dinner to get the rest of my calories, but I don’t feel so hungry that I feel like I’ll need a huge dinner…soooooo tentative success…but we’ll see how I feel later tonight and tomorrow!


    4:00 PM Wed.: I feel much better having chugged half a bottle of water, and working through 1.5 more scoops. Headache has mostly subsided, and although I didn’t go all out in mixing this one (it would be very loud at work), it’s still quite good to taste. Still feels very different compared to my normal day, but it doesn’t stand out as bad.


    3:15 PM Wed.: Still really hungry. I’m going to be having more soon, probably 1-1.5 more scoops so I can last until 6:30 dinner. Trying to drink as much water as possible too.


    2:30 PM Wed.: I’m feeling hungry much earlier than I would have on a regular day, which makes complete sense because I’m having way less food than I normally do by 2 PM. I did some calculations to figure out calorie requirements for a person like me. If I can stick to ~2000 calories a day, I could lose 5-10 pounds in the next month. The important distinction is going to be working through my feelings of hunger that come up throughout the day even though I’m not hungry. I’m also going to focus on drinking lots of water this afternoon, because they recommend adding 1-2 extra litres of water per day to make up for water in your food.


    1:45 PM Wed.: I ended up having about 1.5 scoops of Soylent for lunch (about 375 calories), bringing my total for the day to 625 (plus a small bowl of healthy cereal). I am going to aim for another scoop at around 3:30 PM, which will leave me at about 1000 calories from Soylent today. This also gives me about 700-800 calories for dinner tonight to get to the recommended 2000 per day in total (although I think I probably go a little or a lot over that most days). Very happy with my level of hunger so far though.


    12:15 PM Wed.: Nick was so right. The make-shift funnel made this a completely mess-free process. Thanks Nick! Looking forward to a nutritious liquid lunch!

    Thank you Nick for the great suggestion, the funnel worked great and there’s NO mess.

    12:00 PM Wed.: Getting some grumblies as we approach noon. This will be the critical moment for the success of Day 1 I think, if Soylent can replace my regular lunch. I normally eat quite a bit over the course of a work-day, so it remains to be seen if those calories can be effectively replaced by a liquid. Still not perfectly clear on how I should get the powder into my bottle quickly and efficiently, but I’ll be trying +Nick Maddox‘s idea of a make-shift paper funnel this time. Wish me luck, I’ll report back after lunch!

    11:15 AM Wed.: Still not super hungry. I’m pretty happy with the way this is going so far. I’ll probably make somewhere between 1-2 servings around lunch time, but I’m pretty happy with how this has gone so far!


    10:30 AM Wed.: Check out the video below of the fun time I had mixing up some Soylent. I’m still going strong, not any hungrier than I was an hour ago.

    9:15 AM Wed.: I finished the half-serving I made (250 calories; 1 scoop). It was just fine. Headache has abated, though that may just be a coincidence. So far the worst thing about this process has been the small mess I made already and trying to figure out how to not have that happen again next time. I still feel a little hungry, but I think that’s pretty normal and just not something I’m used to with solid food.

    The finished product, a little messy but mostly alright.

    8:45 AM Wed.: This is messy. It took about 5 minutes from sitting with the stuff to a finished container. The scoop is larger than the mouth of the bottle I’m using, so it took a little spillage to get everything in. The taste is surprisingly reasonable. It’s hard to mix by hand though, at least without drawing a lot of attention to yourself. I took some video making it, I’ll try to put that up today.

    8:15 AM Wed.: Starting to get a little headache. I’ve started to notice that since I ate a smaller breakfast I’m hungrier than I would be otherwise.


    7:45 AM Wed.: I should mention now that I’m going out for dinner tonight, so I’m not relying on Soylent for ALL my calories on day 1, but it will still be a big part of my food intake today. I’m hoping I can have enough throughout the day so that I don’t have to have a huge meal at dinner.


    7:15 AM Wed.: I’m a little hungry, but I’m going to wait a little before I crack the first bag. I hope it tastes good enough that I can drink it through most of the day.


    6:30 AM Wednesday: I’m taking a bag (~ 1 day supply) of Soylent with me to work on my bike.


    6:00 AM Wednesday: I’m having a bowl of cereal (a small one) to start the day.


    Last Night: We’re off to a tough start. I’ve been so excited about this for so long that I’m already getting suggestions from Julia that I should marry Soylent instead. For the record, I don’t want to marry Soylent, but I am excited about the adventure!

  • My Bus Driver Rocks

    My Bus Driver Rocks

    Your typical, run-of-the-mill OC Transpo bus.

    I couldn’t start the day off right without telling this story. Obviously, everybody has bad experiences with bus drivers sometimes. This isn’t unique to Ottawa, or Canada. Sometimes you catch somebody in a bad mood, and there are probably drivers who revel in the fact that people get upset when they JUST miss their bus. I’m not saying all bus drivers are saints, and similarly, not all people are saints.

    All that said, I had a GREAT experience this morning with OC Transpo, and it’s all thanks to my friendly neighbourhood bus driver. I know a nice story to start your morning isn’t the best way to drive pageviews, but this is just something I have to commend. I catch the downtown-bound 12 every morning, rain or shine, at around 6:40 AM on Montreal Road. I’ve had a few bus drivers in the nearly 18 months I’ve taken this bus, and the latest one is there every weekday. Bus drivers are like offensive linemen, in that the best ones often get NO recognition for having done a perfect job.

    This driver is like this, and today he went just a little out of his way, but made me so grateful. Here’s the situation: every day I leave my house right around 6:35 AM to catch the bus. This particular morning, as I’m about 2 minutes away from the stop, I checked the map on the Transit app (which is great on Android and iOS by the way, you should check it out). It says that I have about 3 minutes, but it also showed the bus was way closer than it should normally be at that time. I like to think the bus was actually a couple of minutes earlier than it normally is, but it’s possible I was running just a tad late as well, but I digress. As I walk up to the intersection where I catch the bus (I have to cross Montreal Rd to get to the stop), I see the bus about 5 seconds from pulling up. This is a pretty long light; I’m not going to catch this bus.

    This isn’t the first time this has happened, so I immediately start thinking about checking when the other buses near me are coming so I can try to hop on one of those and make it to work without being more than a few minutes late. As I’m doing this though, I look over at the bus I’m in the process of missing, and he’s just sitting there with the doors open, waving me over. What?! That is awesome. It’s about 12 seconds before the light finally changes, and I hustle across the street and onto the bus. The bus driver absolutely did not have to do this, but I am so grateful that he did. He obviously knows his route and his passengers well, and he recognized me enough to be able to take that few seconds to let me get on his bus.

    I should mention that on Tuesdays I carry a travel suitcase with me to work, so I was towing about 40 pounds between my bag and that suitcase. This made my day start off so great, and I’m so happy to be able to share a great story with you about this man doing small things to make the world a better place.

    If anybody knows management at OC Transpo, please pass this along to them. This bus driver is doing things right. It’s the #12 – Rideau Centre, and I get on at stop #8738 at around 6:38 AM on weekdays. I’m submitting this to OC Transpo customer feedback, but I don’t know if that actually gets read.

    Anyway, take the time out of your day to really show appreciation for people who do nice things for you. It’s worth it!

  • iOS 9 First Impressions (from the future)

    iOS 9 First Impressions (from the future)

    I’ve been writing part-time for MobileSyrup for a little over a month now, and since this piece is as topical as it will ever be, here is the writing sample I provided that got me started there.

    These are my predictions of what we can expect from Apple in the next version of their mobile operating system, iOS 9, written as if it has just been publicly released, in September 2015.

    As it stands, iOS 9 will be announced for the first time to developers next week, on June 8th in San Francisco, and you’ll know I’ll be watching intently! Without any further ado, here are my impressions of iOS 9!

    As we’ve come to expect in September, the final version of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 9, was released today. Last year’s release of iOS 8 gave users a whole new set of tools to quickly access information contained in their apps in a secure, controlled way, with keyboards, app extensions and today widgets. Developers and users were all very excited by this new and unexpected openness from Apple, while some feel that they could have gone further still.

    With iOS 9, Apple have opened up even more, making several changes that users have been frequently asking for in the last year. There has also been a focus on stability and security in iOS 9, and the platform feels a lot more consistent than it has since the release of iOS 8 one year ago. The larger iPhone sizes are also slowly changing the way we interact with iOS, and the interfaces of many apps are changing and improving to reflect that.

    Some of the biggest changes to iOS this year are designed to bring the newly released Apple Watch into closer step with the iPhone. A new overhaul of the contacts app will allow you to set a global VIP contact list for notifications, including integration with your Twitter and Facebook contacts. You will also be able to get public transit information through Apple Maps directly, meaning that your shiny new Apple Watch will be able to let you know when buses nearby will be arriving. The update also brings the ability to reply to messages directly from notifications in third-party applications, both on the iPhone and on the Apple Watch. Finally, the Beats Music service, purchased by Apple in 2014, is now built-in to the iPhone and Apple Watch, allowing you to stream professionally curated playlists that combine the music you have on your phone with music in the Beats Music catalogue. The update also brings the Beats Music collection into iTunes on your computer, and allows you to pick up your music where you left off on your computer when you’re heading out the door.

    Some of the other new features that are welcome additions to the platform include:

    • A system-wide low-power mode that will kick in automatically and disable background activity when your phone is running out of juice.
    • The ability to set non-Apple apps as default, including mail, web browsing, and camera apps from an approved list (and allowing users to remove default Apple apps from their home screens completely). Third-party apps will also now be able to work with Handoff more easily work, allowing you to quickly move between iOS devices and Macs, especially when using non-Apple apps.
    • Updates to the photos app that include an incognito mode and corresponding folder for pictures that you don’t wish to automatically upload to iCloud Photo Library or other cloud services. iOS 9 also includes a new API for photos that will simplify the auto-uploading process, sending your photos from iCloud directly to third-party applications like Dropbox and Google+, rather than uploading multiple copies from your phone.

    All of these changes are welcome additions to the platform, focused mainly on enabling users to complete simple or complex tasks in less time. All of this in turn saves battery life as well as using less of your monthly data allotment, something we can all get excited about. Several changes to iOS are designed to push quick interactions to the Apple Watch, which is also an important move. The value added by pairing your phone to an Apple Watch will likely continue to grow as the platform matures and more users and developers really start to see what the watch can do for them.

    There has been a lot of discussion in the last year about the decreasing stability of iOS, with some pundits suggesting Apple should slow down and make sure to get the details right with their software releases. This update really does seem to be the best of both worlds so far, with a slough of new features sure to impress new and old users alike, while the stability of the device in day-to-day use appears to be a return to expectations from a company with such high quality standards.

    As it was last year with the release of app extensions, the full nature of this update likely won’t be realized until third-party developers have the ability to take full advantage of the new features in their applications. Developers will also inevitably continue to refine their applications as use cases shift, and it will soon be required that interfaces purposefully adapt to larger phones and the usefulness of an accompanying Apple Watch.

    We will continue looking through the update and share anything else we come across in the coming days and weeks.

  • Sheldon Cooper and Brew Donkey (Unwind Media | May 28 – June 2)

    Sheldon Cooper and Brew Donkey (Unwind Media | May 28 – June 2)

    This week in Unwind Media, things calmed down just a little bit. I finished my first full month of professional writing for Mobile Syrup, which is just such an awesome sentence to have written!

    Future Chat has moved from it’s old home at www.futurechat.me, to a new home at UnwindMedia.com/FutureChat! It’s a lot cleaner, and easier to subscribe, so tell your friends! Stay tuned for a lot more cool stuff this summer!

    Ottawhat? #54 – Brad Campeau (Brew Donkey)
    In this episode, we met up with the founder of Brew Donkey, a beer delivery and local brewery tour company. We learned about why business school convinced…
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    Future Chat #60 – Some Sheldon Cooper‑esque Dialogue
    In this episode, we discuss our favourite new things from Google I/O, go deeper on bike lanes, and we determine Mike would be a terrible research dictator…
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  • SoundCloud, Writing, and #Taylorette1989 heats up. (Unwind Media; May 7-13)

    SoundCloud, Writing, and #Taylorette1989 heats up. (Unwind Media; May 7-13)

    This week we made a couple of substantial changes on Unwind Media, most notably we’re making the transition to hosting audio files on SoundCloud, as opposed to Archive.org. I’m pretty excited for that, and I even wrote a little bit about some of the neat tricks I am using now to get those files to work with podcast clients and on the podcast website while keeping the setup simple.

    I also wrote a little more for MobileSyrup, rather than linking to all of them, you can find those stories by using a custom Google Search (for ‘site:mobilesyrup.com “Rob Attrell” ‘)one of the hosts on Unwind Media and my cousin, +Mike Attrell, came up with to find things I’ve written.

    In other news, #Taylorette1989 is entering its next phase, as +Taylor Swift begins her world tour and gets ready to launch her latest music video. Look for more on that in the next week! As well, there’s a new episode of Feedback coming before the end of the week, so that means a fun conversation, AND 2 more cover tunes from Damien and BL in the next week or so! Stay tuned!

    Ottawhat? #51 – Mark Holst (Ottawa Academy of Martial Arts)
    On Ottawhat this week, we met former UFC fighter and Ottawa native Mark “Boots” Holst. He spoke to us about his experiences in the ring, teaching the new…
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    Future Chat #57 – What’s Slow About a Bear
    In this episode, Tesla goes gangbusters, it’s zeppelins vs. dirigibles, and trucks are driving themselves in Nevada. Get excited, because we’ll be deliver…
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  • I’m A Professional Writer? (Unwind Media; April 30 – May 6)

    I’m A Professional Writer? (Unwind Media; April 30 – May 6)

    Some huge news on Unwind Media this week; I got a new job! I’ve officially begun writing for a Canadian technology blog called MobileSyrup, and I’m having so much fun with it! I’m writing for them mostly during the evening and on weekends, starting off pretty slowly. I’ve wanted to write on a professional level for quite some time, and I’m really excited to get the opportunity!

    I discuss it a little on Future Chat this week (see below), and you can read my work from the last week here, here and most recently here. Ottawhat? this week was also a lot of fun, we interviewed Lilly Tran, a young woman who writes closed captioning for a cable TV porn station. I definitely did not know that was a thing, and we all learned a lot!

    Ottawhat? #50 – Lilly Tran
    In this episode, we spoke with Lilly Tran, a closed-captioner for adult films. We discussed some of the weird things Lilly’s heard around her relatively normal office…
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    Future Chat #56 – We Don’t Need A Biologist
    This week, Rob gets a new job, we discuss Microsoft’s Build conference (much to Nick’s chagrin), Tesla’s big new battery, and how a woolly mammoth burger…
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