Canada Day – Camping with Family!

Hey guys, it’s your boy Ryan MacIntyre here again with another blog post!

For those of you that don’t know, this Wednesday was Canada Day and I went camping with my family for the week! When my family goes camping, we do it RIGHT.

We go all out with the campfire food and the outdoor activities  Some of my favourite parts of the trip were:

– Dylan, Jayden, and Jayden’s friend Kara came up for Canada Day, and we played Cards Against Humanity® (NSFW). It got pretty funny, but some of the cards were really bad!

– Some other games we played were bean bag toss, ladder toss, and Sorry®– On Canada Day, we had drinks while we watched the Blue Jays game and they WON 12-8!!

– Making Campfire Pizzas!! YUM

– On Friday night, we barbecued steaks from Eiserman Meats (Slave Lake) and they were AWESOME. I always love their steaks  I ate a whole 12oz steak!

–  My dad and I took Mom in to work for a bit on Friday, and then the power went out so it was the shortest workday ever for her! (too funny)

– On Sunday, we went fishing.

My brother and Jayden left their pug, Pablo, with us so he came fishing too!He saw his first fish ever and his buggy eyes bugged out even more!

We had a wonderful time camping in Slave Lake and I can’t wait to go back again soon!

If you have any funny/great camping stories, leave them in the comments below! I’d love to read them!

My Internship at RMHCNA

Hey guys, it’s your boy, Ryan MacIntyre here again!

Today I am writing about my experience at Ronald McDonald House Northern Alberta!

My internship there involves videography of day to day operations and fun trips that the house has. I get to be part of the organization in a big way and that makes me feel happy and pretty darn special!

The families that are there have kids that are sick in the Stollery Hospital and they have such a wonderful place to stay while that is happening. The meals there are delicious, the staff are so warm and inviting, and I get to be a fly on the wall with all of it.

The other day, my task was to record a video about the Magic Room.That is what they call the room that has lots of toys for the kids to pick out and play with. The children are welcome to pick out a toy on their birthday, to celebrate the end of a treatment, or just to brighten up their day a little more. It is a hoot and a half to see a kid excitedly picking out their favourite item in there!

The Magic Room video was really fun to record because I had lots of props to surround myself with while I spoke on camera.  I got to have fun and be a little more silly with it because of how fun and silly the room itself is. We were putting out a call for more donations to the room, specifically for teenagers, who tend to get neglected in the midst of all the emotional upheaval. There were TONS of baby toys and barbies and trucks, but I didn’t see many gift cards or fun passes to things around the city which seems like something I’d want if I were in there… Just saying 

So far in my time at RMHCNA, I have enjoyed everything. From the kids, to the amazing families, and the staff, and delicious food (volunteers go in to cook meals so families can focus on other things). The Ronald McDonald House is very nice and I hope I can work there for a long time to come. They appreciate my work and I appreciate theirs and it feels like a good place to be.

If you are ever interested in working or volunteering at RMHCNA, they LOVE to have more help and donations. Check out their website, and who knows, maybe you’ll make it into one of my videos!

http://rmhcna.org

Being A New YouTuber is Hard Work!

I recently started a YouTube channel and have posted two videos. One, an introduction to the channel, and the other, on a speech I did for my communications class.

The hardest part is the distractions, (from my mom mostly) and I get pretty anxious during the recordings. Usually, I calm down by talking to Emily, my friend, and discussing what I’m upset about.

Talking about your fears really helps you get over them.

I love when I record my video and make sure its good enough to be on YouTube (checkk itttttt!) and it is awesome because the world gets to see my personality and listen to my ideas. I’ve been getting a lot of support from my friends and family on social media and that really helps my confidence!

I would definitely suggest you check out my videos and even make your own if you want to, buddy!

Here are 5 tips I have for starting out on YouTube!

1. Eye Contact – keep your eyes on the camera!
2. Show confidence and show the world your skills!
3. Hard work, pride in your work (make sure it’s a finished product when you post it, no half-hearted editing!)
4. Keep a record of cool new video ideas in a journal or a list!
5. Don’t sweat the small stuff, keep going if you mess up. That’s what editing is for!

Here is a video I made recently. Hope you like it. Talk to you guys soon!

I’m Getting A Personal Trainer!

My thoughts on having a dietician and personal trainer:

Hey guys! It’s your boy Ryan MacIntyre here again, in this week’s blog, I want to tell you about my new improved diet plan.

On Wednesday, I went to see my dietician to talk about good points on how to lose weight. She told me to cut back on my junk food (of course) which made me a little upset because of how much I love my Boston Pizza,

But I’m okay with it, if it means I can look sexier with a little less pizza in my diet!

I’ve decided to make a chart of foods that I can eat throughout the day and I am someone who really loves a good list or chart. Everybody is different, and my way won’t work for everyone, but I’m really excited to keep you posted on how it all works out! Being Celiac makes my diet plan a little harder but there are lots of options now, (good to know!) like the Glutino pretzels I can’t  get enough of! YEAH BUD!

The second part of my fitness-journey-to-sexy is my personal trainer. I am meeting with Ashley on Wednesday for the first time and I think that it will be awesome to meet her. I have had a personal trainer before at MacEwan University (my school), and

I love going beast-mode up in the gym and showing off the guns.

My main goal for this summer’s fitness is  to be sexy  to lose weight, feel confident, and scope out the ladies with my new, improved, sexy bod!

I can’t wait to share my ideas, successes, and goals more with you this summer!

Keep checking in for more! I’ll post again after my first training session!

Can Men Get Pedicures?

Heck yes they can!

I’m in heaven!

Hey guys, it’s your boy Ryan (Mac and Cheese) MacIntyre here again for a quick blog on my day today.

I got my first pedicure today and... It. Was. Awesome.

For those of you that don’t know what happens during a pedicure, here is a basic run down. They sit you in a chair and let you soak your feet for a while in a jet tub. Then, they rub your feet down with lots of different cuticle softening creams and lotions and scrape off any dead skin you’ve got going on (ew).

After they’ve finished scraping and scrubbing your tootsies, they trim your nails and cuticles to clean up the nail beds. They massage your feet and calves with lotion and let you soak them again. Finally, you have the option to get nail polish (yeah right) or just some shiny natural nails.

Not so scary! 

I would definitely get a pedicure again with my dad, and I would recommend getting one to anyone who is interested. The feeling of your feet afterwards is the BEST. Mine were SO SMOOTH!

It’s a relaxing experience and a great time to bond with your bros or girls while you sit. Taking care of yourself does not mean you are not manly, it means you’re a smart person!

I don’t have anything else to say about the experience than that, but I think that you should all go out and get one ASAP.

Talk to you soon!

My First Day Interning at 630 CHED!

Hey guys, it’s your main man, Ryan MacIntyre! 

For those of you that don’t know, I am doing a job-shadowing internship at 630 CHED this summer, twice a week!

My very first day was on Tuesday and I wanted to tell you all about it: the kinds of people I met, and the things I got to do!

It started out with my Educational Facilitator, Amanda; my FMS tutor, Emily; and I, signing in at the front desk. We got name tags that said “Special Visitor,” which make me laugh because I felt pretty special that day in general. Syd Smith met us downstairs and took us up to his office to wait for the Sport News guys to come meet us. Syd was funny and a totally cool guy, he talked with me about the Oilers players and the new season (no surprise I love to talk about the Oilers!), and we also talked about WWE, turns out he’s a fan too! We also talked about the CFL draft for the Edmonton Eskimos, and the Stanley cup playoffs!

We met up with Morley Scott and Dave Campbell, both sports dudes for 630 CHED and I instantly hit it off with both of them. Thos guys are awesome to work with and they have hilarious senses of humour like me  I’m so pumped to be learning from two guys with so much experience with Edmonton sports teams! I can’t wait for the next time we all work together!

Some awesome highlights from the day:

– meeting Bob Stauffer

– meeting Bryan Hall (Hallsy)

– meeting Bob Layton

– meeting Brenden Ullrich

– meeting Ryan Jesperson’s producer, Tricia Kindleman

– marking sound clips from Morley’s interview with Ed Hervey (manager of the Esks!)

– researching CFL draft picks and making predictions

– interviewing Morley Scott and Dave Campbell on their work experience, favourite teams and players, and thoughts on current sports news

I had an awesome first day of my job-shadow, the people at 630 CHED are my biggest heroes and I can’t wait to see them all again next week! Follow them on Twitter, they post great stuff all the time. 

See you guys next week! Keep cool!

Re: Mother’s Day 2015

Hey guys, it’s Ryan MacIntyre here again!

This past weekend was Mother’s Day weekend and also my Grandma’s 84th Birthday. So we had a busy one! For Grandma’s birthday, we had a BBQ and got together with our cousins and family to celebrate! I love having my grandma here, she is beautiful and she makes me chicken noodle soup which I LOVE.

For Mother’s Day I had a few surprises in store for my mom. My dad and I got my mom flowers, and then I surprised her with a video I made for her with my brothers. She cried so much when she saw it and I had only meant for her to see it, but she loved it and shared it on Facebook and overnight it went to 3.5K views! My family and friends thought the video was inspiring and joyful and it made them all cry! 

I loved hearing that people appreciated how much I love my mom and how wonderful she is. I had not expected to get the response I did, and I’m so excited to see where it goes from here!

For Mother’s day we also had brunch at my cousin’s restaurant, came back home for the BBQ, watched the Hockey game, and went to my Auntie Brenda’s house for supper (thanks Auntie, it was delicious!)

My mom made me whipped cream with brownies and I devoured it! (would have been better with Ketchup though)

I love having a day to celebrate my mom and I can’t wait for Father’s day to celebrate with my Dad!