S5E50 A Stormy Week: Reflecting on Goals and Adventures; Chris Abraham discusses storms, rowing challenges, and life's latest adventures in Season 5, Episode 50 of The Chris Abraham Show

Episode 181 of 455 · · 14:40 · Season 5, Episode 50

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In Season 5, Episode 50 of The Chris Abraham Show, Chris takes his listeners on a winding journey through a week filled with unexpected encounters, weather challenges, and reflections on personal growth.

The episode begins with Chris reminiscing about a meeting with a South Sudanese restaurant manager and predicting possible rain. This foreshadows the looming weather issues, as he recounts a day when the local library, known for staying open during heat warnings, had to close early due to the threat of thunderstorms and tornadoes.

The weather becomes a backdrop as Chris delves into his rowing challenge, known as "the dog days of summer." This four-week challenge requires him to row 100,000 meters, with the distance increasing each week. Despite initially lagging, Chris shares his triumph in completing the first week and plans to continue the challenge, aiming for a daily habit of 10,000 meters.

He takes listeners into his internal struggles, describing a "hot kinetic war" between his ego, ID, and superego, and reflects on his own shortcomings in fulfilling promises. This leads to a discussion about his rowing setup, the purchase of a superstructure for his ergometer, and a candid admission about the state of his apartment. Despite the mess, Chris's enthusiasm for getting back into full-body strength is palpable.

Not one to limit himself to just rowing, Chris also talks about his walking routines and a shift in his backpack's weight. He then shares his plans to start suspension training, all of which are interrupted by his contemplation about the world ending due to severe weather. This humorous aside leads to a discussion of his evening activities, including eating chicken, rowing, and critiquing the latest season of "Mandalorian."

The episode takes another turn as Chris picks up breakfast from Bob and Eden's Diner, promising to make it a one-meal-a-day adventure. During his walk, he delves into the technical side of his podcasting experience, praising Adobe's AI audio fixing and Audacity's capabilities in producing studio-quality sound. Despite the loud urban environment, Chris's excitement over this technology shines through.

However, the noise also leads him to ponder the livability of his surroundings. He paints a vivid picture of the area's noise levels, mentioning various vehicles and constructions, and concludes that living in such a bustling area would be maddening.

The conversation returns to his rowing challenge, with Chris expressing his determination not to procrastinate, contrasting his current mindset with his last-minute college habits. He reflects on how his life might have been different if he had been diagnosed with ADHD and aphantasia earlier, musing on the "unfair advantages" he could have received.

Finally, Chris wraps up the episode by pondering the future of The Chris Abraham Show, considering whether a season should consist of 50 or 100 episodes, and promising a poll for listener input. With a warm farewell and a Bon Appétit, he signs off.

This episode of The Chris Abraham Show is a rich tapestry of thoughts and experiences, offering a multifaceted glimpse into Chris's life. The blend of personal insights, critiques of popular culture, discussions of health and fitness, technological musings, and contemplation of urban living creates an engaging and varied experience for listeners. Whether you're interested in rowing challenges, TV show reviews, or reflections on modern living, Chris covers it all in his unique and engaging style, drawing listeners into his world and leaving them eagerly awaiting the next episode.

Transcript

Read the full transcript (1,488 words, machine made)

This is the Chris Abraham Show. Hey there. It's season five, episode 40, I think. And if it's not, then I'm going to make it episode 40 because I have the power of control over time and space with regards to my podcast. Yesterday was a bust, but I did spend hours with a beautiful South Sudanese former barista, currently restaurant manager at at Fresh Harvest or whatever that restaurant is and looks like it's going to rain today.

But yesterday, even the library which is supposed to close at 8:00, even that son of a bitch closed at 4:00 or before 4 because there was like threat of crazy tropical storms and not tropical storms, crazy thunderstorms. And the end is nigh kind of tornadoes and everything. Like literally the library, which prides itself on staying open during heat warnings and stuff just so that it can take care of, you know, hot people even. They completely wimped out and closed early and put up signs and and I went home and did I do anything? I ate some chicken and then I got onto the erg.

That's right, I had committed both here and on Fun slow and on chrisabraham.com. I committed to doing to getting back on the rowing machine and doing the dog days of summer challenge and what that requires is it's a four weeks challenge that results in 100,000 meters. Rd. the first week is 10,000 meters, the second week is 20,000 meters, the third week is 30,000 meters and the final week is 40,000 meters. So yesterday was the end of the first week.

So I'm like, damn, I've got 7000 meters left and I just wasn't into it. So I did it though, got it done, did like 10,124 meters in the week, which usually I do in a day, but this day at the last week has been kind of Hibiji Gibbs, you B GB. So I finished it. Now I am going to make sure that I spend at least half an hour or an hour every evening slow rowing so that I can easily knock the 20,000 meters out of the way and then the 30 and then the 40 and hopefully it'll again turn into a 10,000 meters a day habit. Which I promised myself.

But as I told you before, I'm in a constant active hot kinetic war between I don't even know what my ego does.

My ego is busy trying to be ego less, but my ID and my superego are in constant hot war with each other.

And usually I make promises, not six weeks but sometimes six months earlier than I start following through with them. So the ERG has just been sitting there. I even bought an entire superstructure for the ERG so that I could affix my mini iPad onto the onto the stand so that I could have a even a bigger display. But none of that has happened and the apartment is a mess. The apartment is catastrophic. Everything is grotesque, but all that has driven me to being outside all the time in active denial of the catastroph. So I am really excited about becoming full body strong again. I feel like the kind of exercise that the Earth gives you is completely and utterly different than the kind of exercise that walking and rucking does.

I'm not stopping walking. I walk everywhere I go. Like I said, I did take the 30 pound plate out of my bag, so it's really nice. It's really comfortable. I had intended yesterday between or after leaving the library.

I had expected and wanted to go to Walter Reed Park to start my suspension, training, workout and all that. But and I could have done right, like instead of just leaving the library and coming home, I could have left the library and gone to Starbucks and stayed there till 8:30. But I fell for the. I fell for the grand conspiracy that the that the world was going to end under the hail of hail and under the gods thunderstorms and all that kind of stuff. And last thing I wanted to do was be stuck in Starbucks during an extreme long, like, radio worthy kind of Hellfire that was going to be promised.

So I went home. I noodled around the TVA little bit. I ate chicken and I urged and I saw some really like the latest, the latest season of like Mandalorians suck. All those doofuses at the Mandalorian camp and all the doofus time with with Gogu Gorgu, the baby Yoga and it's slow and bad pacing. And also that, like Invasion series sucks and Obi 1 sucks and Mando not Mando. Aldor on Andor Andor sucks and they all suck. So this morning I've got to watch the latest episode, the semifinal of Detective Bake Off or Project Investigative Baking. I don't know what it's called, but it's it's really good. It's on Hulu and now I'm picking up breakfast from Bob and Edith's Diner, and I'm going to make it 1 meal a day because this is definitely not strict carnivore. So I'm going to hit pause and I will be back once I retrieve the food.

All right, so got the food. Now I'm crossing the street over to the Starbucks side of the road.

Thank goddess that Adobe invented a I audio fixing because honestly, after I run it through that and then run it through normalizing compressor, you know, using Audacity, Audacity, it sounds like I'm recording in a frickin studio and it's incredible. So I'm not even ever worried about background noise anymore. The truth is is though, as my twin sister Linda Going told me that the louder the background noise gets, the louder I scream. And the louder I scream, the more frenetic I sound when, or frantic or mad I sound when everything is normalized. That's because I'm screaming over St. construction and everything.

So I it basically puts me into like a Alex Jones frame of voice. So listen, you can. There's a there's like a diesel truck that he sends it.

I don't even know. It's really loud. I don't even know if you guys can hear that after the magic of Adobe A I It's completely cacophonous. Man, I would never want to live on this road because I love always having windows open. And to be honest, now that I've been recording, like when I'm not recording these things my my my body naturally filters out background noise.

So I don't even know how loud it is, you know, normally. But when I'm sensitive recording, I hear every diesel truck. So good Lord, these beautiful executive apartments like Penrose Square and so forth seem like they're awesome. But could you imagine with the with the V8 kids and with the ricers and the motorcyclists and the Harley guys and the No Pipes gang and the glass packs and all the diesel trucks and delivery trucks and construction, Would you imagine living in this building? And I would never open the windows?

It'd be impossible. It would create a kind, if you will, of a PTSD, right? It's completely maddening and I wouldn't like that. Anyway, Tonight I am going to, I'm almost to where I'm going to eat. So tonight I am going to get as many comfortable and easy meters as I can into the pot so that when the next seven days will have passed I won't have to do a lot of last minute catch up.

Although waiting till the last minute to do all the work and then staying up all night is how I defined my entire college career. And it was so stupid and so unnecessary. And from little did I know that like with the ADHD plus the A Fantasia plus the S dam completely undiagnosed ever I if I had known all that well, nothing would be different. But I totally would take advantage of the unfair advantages that those things would have brought me, like more time taking the tests and all kinds of other relatively unfair benefits. On that note, I will close off season five, episode 40, and I think I'm going to run it till 50 and then I'll move on to season six. I think that seasons are not based on years, they're based on.

Should it be 50 episodes or 100 episodes? To all the people who do not listen to me, please let me know. I will. If I remember, I will put a poll on the on the podcasts. Take care, I love you and I'll talk to you soon.

Bon appetit. Thank you for listening to The Chris Abraham Show. Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. Until next time.