Practice Session #45

Welcome to my show notes for this week’s session of Practice!

We record these sessions every Sunday. I try to publish the audio on the same day of recording, but once in a while, I may get delayed due to various reasons.

Also, I will usually have the AI-generated transcript and my initial notes published on the same day of recording as well. On Fridays, I’ll (try to) go back through and proof the transcript while I add all of my notes.

I’ll be utilizing this opportunity to clarify and elaborate on points that I may not have conveyed as well as I would’ve liked to. I’ll also provide links to further information and resources.

So, on Friday, I’ll intersperse all my notes with the transcription from the audio below (unless I don’t 🤷).

Intro.

[00:00]

CK: Alrighty. Ready? Here we go.

Heyo! I’m CK, and you’re listening to Practice. I’m your functional systems integrator, and this is my podcast where practice is not just the theme of the show, but the whole purpose behind it. What started out as a practice of podcasting, as well as speaking in general, has evolved into a practice of self-coaching and self-reflection while espousing half-thoughts and providing unsolicited advice.

As always, I’m fortunate to be joined by my Practice partner and partner in life: Pam.

Pam: Hey, that’s me.

CK: Pam is also my pattern awareness manager, and every Sunday we reflect on the past week and my progress with this practice, along with other lifestyle practices, as well as theories and ideas behind the virtues of practice itself.

We’re doing this on the fly, so don’t hold me responsible for what I say here. Make sure to check out my show notes where I’ll provide some fact-checking, self-psychoanalysis and commentary on things I could have done better. You may find this and more information about this project at ForcesOfEqual.com/Practice.

Catch up with the Anomaly and the Linchpin.

[01:20]

CK: We’re recording today on January 3rd, 2021, and this is our 45th practice session.

2021! Crazy. It’s a new year, first practice session of the new year and the quote for this week. I actually didn’t have one ready until, well, I didn’t have one ready at all until right before the session. And I generally tend to get my quotes from an app called stoic.

I think it’s called stoic app and that I’m not really sharing and they keep changing the app icon. So I’m not even sure if they know their own branding yet, but I really liked the app. I think it’s developed by an individual in there. Just doing it themselves. It’s their own little project. I’m not exactly certain, but that’s what it seems like.

But the app is really cool and it takes you through a lot of self-reflective processes and stoic philosophy, as well as Taoism. They have some ism stuff in there and also. Buddhism stuff. And the thing is I didn’t really pay much attention to the Buddhism part of it. You can kind of select which philosophies are more important to you.

And I just kind of neglected Buddhism, but I recently added that back in and I previously rejected it because it had like a religious aspect. And I wasn’t necessarily into the religious part of it, but I’ve been developing my perspective on religion as of late. And I’m seeing it more as a Avenue for self reflection.

And so in that sense, I’m more interested or getting more interested in some aspects of religion. And so I’ve always had some kind of connection with Buddhism. Of course it’s an Eastern religion and philosophy. And so I thought I’d had that back in. And so I started getting some quotes about Buddhism popping up and this one popped up today and it seemed to be perfect for the time.

So this one comes from Buddha and he goes like this. Let us rise up and be thankful for if we didn’t learn a lot, at least we learned a little and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick. And if we got sick, at least we didn’t die. So let us all be thankful. So I am definitely thankful that I’m alive. And pretty pertinent because we just got over COVID-19 and I think I am fully recovered. Now I’m a hundred percent recovered. As we discussed last week, I felt like I was pretty close to being a hundred percent. And I thought that by Monday I would have been a hundred percent and that’s kind of what I predicted through my self-reflection and calculations that I made.

And, uh, it’s pretty close, but I still had some lingering effects and lingering systems symptoms throughout the week. In terms of like congestion still have like a small percentage and maybe I still have like a percentage or two of congestion left. I still there’s a little bit like at night when I’m trying to go to bed, I feel a little bit more congested than usual.

And. I can feel that I’m not breathing is clearly as I usually do. So there’s still a little bit of that left, but otherwise I feel like I’m a hundred percent

Pam: And to be clear, that’s nasal congestion. Uh, neither of us had chest symptoms.

CK: Yeah, definitely. I actually felt like maybe I. Was experiencing some respiratory symptoms because I do a lot of breathing exercises and I have a lot of breathing practices. So a lot of them, I do daily. And I think I have like three or four exercises that I do daily and then several others that I do whenever I need to, or whenever I feel like it.

So I’ve been kind of monitoring my breathing during these practices. And I did feel a little limited at some points and I felt like my breathing capacity wasn’t as full as it normally is. So that could have been due to the cold, like symptoms that I was experiencing. And of course, because of COVID-19, but now I feel okay.

And I actually got around to doing a third of a mile, little jug this morning and that felt okay. I actually aim for two, but I didn’t want to push it. And after the first one, I felt really good and I could feel that I was. Fatigued. I definitely could have done a second, but I felt really good. And I just want to stay in that feeling and not chance things.

And you know, it’s been a while since I’ve gone out for a run and I’m just getting over this illness, so left it at a third a mile and it felt great. And my breathing felt great. So everything feels good. I had a great morning routine session. And so my. First Sunday of the year and my first practice session in the year, it’s all coming along very well. And so, yeah, the quote is very pertinent because we were say quiz COVID-19 for the past week or two and we didn’t die. So definitely thankful. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So can you add to. Summarize any food I say,

Pam: Gotcha.

CK: summarize your week or your experience with COVID-19.

Pam: Yeah. Um, I am on day eight of not being able to taste or smell anything. And, um, it’s been a really interesting experience because I. I keep forgetting that I can’t smell. So I will smell things or I’ll think like, Oh, you know, I haven’t taken a shower in two days and I don’t stink. And then I realized that I absolutely do, and I just can’t smell it.

Um,

CK: I haven’t really noticed.

Pam: Luckily, um, cooking has been really difficult, um, because I can’t taste how I’m seasoning anything. So CK has been very patient with a couple of meals that were extremely salty and probably some that were not seasoned enough because I was erring on the side of caution.

CK: Yeah, it’s been all right. It’s still been good.

Pam: Um, I almost burned toast and bacon because I couldn’t smell them cooking. Um, and I’m really learning to rely on textures for food enjoyment since I can’t taste anything. So, um, and my, my tip for anyone, if you also lose your sense of taste is that you will still be able to sense saltiness and sweetness.

So extreme saltiness and extreme sweetness will both come through, even though you can’t taste the actual flavor of it. So if you really need something, um, honey will come through. So you could do like a cup of tea with honey in it, or there’s this brand called Prince of peace, which makes ginger candies that we.

Eat far too many of, and they also make crystallized ginger and honey, which you can just add hot water to. And the ginger in there is spicy enough that you can get a little sensation from that. And the honey is sweet enough that you can get a little sensation. So at least you can experience the taste of something.

CK: Yeah. We had a little interesting conversation this morning during our morning work. And it was about our senses and how we prioritize them and which ones that we, if we had to lose a sense, which one it would be. And so for Pam you’re. So I asked you if you would rather lose, or I asked you which sense you would want to lose if you had to lose one.

Pam: Yeah, I think I prioritize that I would lose sent first, like primarily that would be the first one that I would want to lose. And, um, part of that is because I have a super sniffer, I am ridiculously sensitive to smells. I’m constantly complaining about the garbage and people spelling bad and the neighbor’s cooking things.

And like, I it’s, it’s a problem for me. So it’s actually been nice to not smell anything for the last week. So, um, that’s been a little bit of a reprieve, so I would say. Scent would be the first one that I would want to lose and then taste and then hearing and then sight. I think that that was, those were my four and I excluded the sense of touch from my decision, because I couldn’t think of anything that would cause you to entirely lose all bodily sensation,

CK: Yeah. I’d have to, it’d be some kind of neurological dysfunction or something.

Pam: I’m sure there are people out there that have it, but it’s for the purposes of our game, which I feel a little bit bad calling it a game because there are people that legitimately have lost senses.

CK: Our thought experiment and it’s not

Pam: yeah, our, our thought experiment, um, this is in no way is meant to be like abelist or like. Saying anything about people who actually have lost senses. So anyway,

CK: so,

Pam: what did you pick? K?

CK: so I was actually actually, did I say anything about smell?

Pam: I don’t think so. You were really focused on site.

CK: Yeah, because you, well, you were focused on site too. Like that was the one thing that you really didn’t want to lose or couldn’t see yourself losing.

Pam: Yeah.

CK: And for me, I wasn’t as worried about site. So I guess I’d be fine with losing smell.

And then I’d be fine with losing taste and then it’d be sight before hearing and touch, because I feel like, again, like Tim was saying, this is this w w we don’t want to. Minimize, you know, people who dealing with without some of these senses, but my thing is like, Oh, go ahead.

Pam: I was gonna say, not only so on the other side of it, so we don’t want to minimize it on one side, but we also, then on the other side, don’t want to say anything about what their experience is.

CK: Right. Right. Of course.

Pam: people live perfectly full and happy lives without sentences.

CK: Right, right. And that was kind of my thing with sight because I, right now I’m very much into music and audio and Sonics and podcast production, obviously. So I’m a lot more focused or I’m using my hearing a lot more lately. And of course, you know, getting a, you know, until all this music stuff and electronic music and sound design, uh, need my hearing for that.

And with sight, I’ve actually been kind of. Um, I been having a different relationship with my site lately, especially through my experience of the headless way and becoming a sear or kind of developing the aspect of the stage of the sphere in the headless way and how vision can be decoupled from sight.

So, yeah, I don’t know how much I want to get into this, but I’m much less attached to my vision. I mean, of course it’d be devastating for me to lose it.

Pam: Yeah, I think you’re underestimating how much losing your vision would affect what you do with your hearing, because all of the sound production that you’re doing requires you seeing your monitors.

CK: is very true. That is very true. Yes. So I may want to be, I want to, might want to rethink all that, but yeah, I guess, yeah, I don’t know. It’s a, it’s just a fun exercise, but yeah, it also goes into kind of. Showing you how grateful you should be to have all your senses. So I think, yeah, I think that’s the kind of the message, the home message at the end is that, you know, if you have all your senses, you, you should be grateful.

And I guess it goes along with our coat for the week, you know, at least we didn’t die. So let’s all be thankful. At least I didn’t lose my sight, Lucy sentence senses. Um, although Pam lost her sense of smell. But she’s still alive.

Pam: Slowly losing interest in food. And I think, uh, I just realized that I’m dehydrated yesterday. I had one glass of water because I’m not eating or like having the urge to. Drink things throughout the day. So I’m still having coffee because it’s just like my habit and it’s a warm beverage and it’s cold.

So I’m still drinking that. But I realized when I eat too, went to eat dinner that I hadn’t had a glass of water at all. So, and my throat feels like dry and cliquey. So I think I’m yeah.

CK: like water. I mean, it’s not the taste of it that,

Pam: No, but because I’m not eating as frequently, I’m not having water with my meals or cause I’m just kind of eating out of utility

CK: Yeah.

Pam: So

CK: So we generally drink sparkling water. Does that mouthfeel help much

Pam: absolutely. It definitely does. If I was drinking flat water, I think I would eat drinking.

CK: interesting. Interesting. Well, if any of our listeners want to play along and. Shoot us a message about what sense that they would be okay with losing or how they would prioritize their sentences.

Pam: Send us your reasoning.

CK: yeah. Shoot us over a note on Twitter. I am at CK disco and Pam’s at Pamela under scoreline and see if we can get a little more social.

Our progress with podcasting.

So moving on, let’s get to our progress with podcasting. And talk about that and our process with not bad advice. So that’s been going well, and I’m still kind of, not in my proper rhythm yet. Although this past week I’ve been getting more and more into the rhythm, but I been kind of slow to get into the rhythm because I was sick with COVID and it’s been holiday week.

So things are feeling a little different and. My schedule and routine is a little more, a little different. I’ve been lecturing a little more, but we’ve been rolling along, rolling right along with not bad advice and releasing our episodes on Wednesdays and everything’s coming out on time. And, uh, so for me right now, my big.

Issue, uh, or I don’t know issue, but my big, like, uh, the thing I’m focusing on is the audio quality. And that shouldn’t be a surprise because I’ve kind of been focusing on it for awhile with, even with this practice podcast and our progression with our audio quality has just been. Trending up. And it’s like from where we started to, where we are now is just really crazy to me.

And it’s like, the difference is crazy. And. The amount that I can still improve our audio quality is still pretty crazy to me. But the interesting thing with not bad advice is that we’ve banked about 20 episodes. Yeah. And some of them, I think a five or eight of those are shorter, like little bite-sized episodes.

But nevertheless, we have about 20 banks before we even got the first one released. So the difference in audio call you between the first one and the later ones is very drastic in the raw audio, but fortunately I’ve been able to, to learn and experiment and become better with processing the audio. So.

The audio quality, like the poor audio quality that we recorded within the first episodes isn’t as noticeable because I’ve been able to edit and post-process it with everything that I’ve learned throughout creating this podcast with practice. So it’s been interesting, but you know, the really interesting part is like working with those.

First episodes with poor quality and contrasting that with like these episodes of practice. And also the later episodes would not bet advice because the fourth episode of not bad advice, we ended up recording that. And I think that was the first one we did with the SM seven B the Shure SM seven V. Mike for Pam.

And at that time, we were just using that straight into the zoom, I think.

Pam: or we are still

CK: I think we’re, I think we had it through the zoom recorder and we had the recorder connected to your laptop and we were recording through audacity or Ableton. Whereas now we’re recording directly to the zoom recorder and that’s it.

We’re just recording it on the card and. We also are using a fat head in line preempt with the Shure SM seven B now, so we can drive noise floor down and deal with the noise and all that electrical static and everything around that. But like the first time I wasn’t aware of all this stuff and the noise coming from the mic was.

It was unbearable. So we ended up rerecording that episode and that ended up being like our 19th recording. Whereas the original was like our fourth. And so as I was processing last weeks, we kind of got those sessions mixed up or I got them mixed up in because you know, there was a recording and there was an original recording.

And then. It actually ended up not being the next episode that we were going to publish anyway. So I ended up working on the rerecording with the really good audio quality. And then I had to work on go back to the fifth episode with the quality that we were recording left back then, you know, about 14, 15 episodes ago.

And. Like it was so much easier working with the newer recording than the older recording. So it was really interesting to be able to compare and contrast the difference of the recording quality and the whole process and all the growth that I’ve been through. So it was it’s, it’s just really nice or just really interesting to kind of go through the process and observe that.

And. Also realize and reflect on the progress that we’ve made and everything that I’ve learned and how much better things have gotten. So, yeah, it’s just, it’s been a really interesting process for me and I just, I really can’t wait until we get these better quality audio quality podcasts out, but at the same time, I’m.

Happy with how I’ve been able to process the previous audio and the old recording with that old quality that we’d been working with. So it’s kind of just a whole reflective experience where I’m glad that we got out, not bad advice and started publishing. And at first I always. Still anxious about releasing that audio in the quality that I was able to get it in. You know, it’s, it’s pretty good and I’m satisfied with it, but still it’s, it’s, you know, it’s not as good as the latest ones that we’ve recorded, but I know that I’m, uh, Hyper critical of my own stuff. And I’m also more aware and I’m listening for certain things. So I would imagine that general listeners aren’t as critical and probably can’t even hear what I’m talking about in terms of, you know, sub par audio quality.

So, yeah. So what about your experience so far, Pam?

Pam: It’s been really good. We’ve gotten some really good feedback. And I would say right now we get about 20 people a week that listened to it, which I think is fantastic. I mean, if five people listened to it out the gate, I would have been happy. So 20 is, is great. And, um, my mom actually has been listening, which I think is really sweet.

And, um, you know, she’s not our target audience. She’s 70 year old. Woman. And she messaged me yesterday and said that she really enjoyed the, how to deal with people episode, which has also been my favorite one that we’ve released so far. And she told me that since listening to that, she has been more, um, Present and attentive when communicating with people.

And like that makes me like tear up a little bit, just thinking about the fact that if, you know, if she is getting something out of it and we’re helping her in her interactions with other people are better because of it, then that’s the goal. That’s exactly what I want out of the show. And if she can benefit from it, like literally anyone can, so.

CK: Didn’t you also have another experience this past week where you were listening to the show yourself

Pam: Yeah, this happens every week, which, um, you know, before the episode goes out, I get really nervous and I think, Oh, this, you know, no one wants to hear me tell them how to live their lives. And I start to get really self critical and really down on the project. And then I listened to the episode, which is the hardest thing in the world, listening to that episode.

I fight it all morning and I like, I don’t want to do it. Yeah. It’s really hard for me. And then I listened to it and by the end I’m like, it was so good. That advice is so good pumped and I’m, I’m more motivated and more excited. And like I’m getting myself pumped up with the advice that I’m getting. So by the end of listening to it, I’m super excited to promote it and, um, and really, um, excited about the project again.

So yeah, it’s really funny.

CK: That’s cool. Yeah. I’m grateful for the podcast and the fact that I’m able to produce it because. In doing so I have to listen to the podcast so many times and still I’m hearing the message over and over and again, and the message is good and it’s pertinent and it makes sense. And it’s, you know, well constructed and well laid out.

And so I get to listen to it repaired repetitively just through the process. And so, you know, just through the process, I get to listen to this advice and, you know, get that benefit as well. So

Pam: So, what I’m hearing is if I want you to do something, we have to record a podcast episode about

CK: that might be true.

Pam: like, uh, I don’t know. I don’t know if inception is the right word fall, like plant the idea in your head and get you to do it through producing the podcast.

The Weekly ForceCast.

CK: Yeah, you might have something there. So moving on, I’d like to actually introduce a new segment to the podcast new year, a new segment, and this is actually something. That I’ve been mulling about for awhile as its own standalone podcast, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself and do too many new things just yet.

There’s a lot of other things that I want to do. So I, I, I’m thinking I’ll just kind of roll this into practice for now. And this segment is going to be called the weekly force cast. And I didn’t say that wrong. It’s forced cast like the forces of equal and a play on forecast. And it’s the force cast because we are the forces of equal and it’s going to be about podcasting or podcast podcasts.

And I want to kind of talk about, or highlight a podcast that kind of. Stood out to me over the past week or that, you know, I think people would enjoy or benefit from. And of course, Pam, you can do the same. I know I’m kind of springing this on you

Pam: Yeah.

CK: as I do, but you know, we’re keeping it gentle and adapting on the fly.

And so for this week’s weekly forecast. The podcast. Um, I want to highlight is actually it’s one that I listened to pretty much every day and it’s called the daily stoic. And so this is very pertinent because I talk a lot about stoicism on this podcast, but the reason this podcast stood out to me, Today is because it actually has pretty terrible audio quality. Yeah. And I don’t like, uh, I don’t want to be too critical because it’s the material and the content is great, but that’s kind, kinda why I want to talk about this because I’ve been very. Critical about myself in how I’m producing our podcasts and the audio quality that comes out of them. And this podcast that I listened to every day and that I like, and I enjoy, and that I take a lot away from has terrible audio quality.

And to be fair, I can tell that they’ve been working on it lately, but. Yeah, the audio quality is not very good and it’s kind of surprising to me, but at the same time, it also shows that there’s, you know, of course I’ve talked before about the balance between form and function and the function of these podcasts is the content in what the content can deliver and what you can get out of the content.

And the form is. The quality of the delivery and you know, of course the audio quality, maybe the speech quality, et cetera. So I, with our podcasts, I’ve been very conscious about the form and how it comes off, but, and, you know, with practice, um, Much less worried about the content because it’s practicing.

And, you know, the point of it is for me to practice speaking and practice with the quality of the audio. But it’s just interesting to think about these other podcasts that I listened to. And I’m not as critical about the audio quality because the contents good. And it’s not going to stop me from listening.

To the material. So I just wanted to point that out and highlight the D daily stoic for this week’s weekly forced cast. And it’s a great podcast put out by Ryan holiday and. It comes out every day of the week. And during the week, it’s usually a short little excerpt, or it’s not next to her, but it’s a bit about stoicism and it may be a quote and a little explanation or commentary around the quote or something like that.

But it’s like three or four minutes long during the week. And then on the weekends, or occasionally he’ll do an interview with someone and base it around stoicism. Or on Sundays, I believe it’s a little bit more of an extended podcast, maybe 10 minutes or so long, 10 minutes or so. And it’s just kind of an expanded version of the weekly podcast.

And he goes into a little bit more of maybe the history or the philosophy and how that relates to modern times. So the daily stoic, I would highly recommend that podcast. Especially if you’re in a stoicism and or philosophy and want to better yourself. So I would recommend checking that out. So I know I surprised, or I sprung this on you pan, but do you have anything that pops up to you that stands out to you that you listened to this past week?

Pam: Um, the only thing I think I really listened to that stands out this week is, um, just because of the time of the year, uh, there’s a podcast called the astrology podcast and they do a forecast for the year where they’ll give you kind of like auspicious dates, so pay attention to and things where, you know, it might be good if you’re starting a new business to launch it on a certain day or where there are kind of, um, important things happening that you can kind of live your life by throughout the year.

So you can look up your sign and they have on YouTube or as a podcast, and you can just get some guidance for the year ahead.

CK: Okay. That’s cool. What was it called again?

Pam: The astrology podcast,

CK: The astrology podcast, simple enough.

The Linchpinspo.

CK: And so that takes us right into the next segment. And this is another new segment that I’m introducing. And this one I warned Pam about, but

Pam: like half an hour ago.

CK: yeah, right before we started,

Pam: This was like a tornado warning. I was like, Oh, it’s coming. Okay.

CK: but it is related to what you were just talking about. So it’s very apt for this part of the podcast. And this is a, just a weekly, weekly, I don’t know, commentary on the stars or Taylor reading or whatever Pam wants to talk about. I haven’t really come up with the name for the segment or anything yet, but.

Pam: No, like CK said, he us, uh, just sprung this on me. So, um, what I’m thinking, my goal is going to be is to give you something that will be, um, applicable to the week ahead. So something either planetarily that is happening, that it’s affecting everyone, or if there’s nothing big going on, which usually there’s at least something.

Um, but if there’s nothing big going on or if I’m just not feeling it, then I will. Do a tarot card for the week to, um, give people some insight and inspiration of something to keep in mind. So this week, um, what we have is that, um, mercury moved into Capricorn on December 20th and we’ll be there until January 8th.

So it’s in effect all week. And mercury is, um, well in, in w it was mercury in Roman mythology and Hermes in Greek mythology. So it’s the same God that we’re talking about here. Um, so this was the, um, Only God that could travel between heaven, heavens and the underworld. So he was the messenger. He could bring information from anywhere to anywhere.

And he was the only God that was allowed to do that. And so, uh, mercury is the planet that gathers and disperses information. And it’s, so it’s the planet of communication, thoughts, and also commerce because commerce is exchange it’s information exchange. Even though there’s money and goods involved. It’s you’re exchanging information.

So it’s kind of, he’s the planet of exchanging everything. Okay. And Capricorn is the sign associated with ambition and long-term success. So you can think of like a goat climbing up a mountain. Like that’s Capricorn, it’s like slow and plotting and it’s going to get to the top. And it’s also what we call a Cardinal sign.

So it means like starting things. It’s really a good sign of, for, for starting new things. So with mercury in Capricorn for the rest of the week, I want you to pay attention to conversations that plant seeds that could grow into material success, consider new business ideas that seem to suddenly come out of nowhere.

And pay attention to information that seems fortuitous and coincidentally, when those things happen, when they, um, when you’re like, Oh, you know, I just had a conversation about someone with someone about that. And, and it like brings up a business idea, really pay attention to those things. They’re not accidents they’re coming up right now for a reason.

CK: okay. Sounds good. Thanks for that.

Pam: Cool.

Outtro.

CK: And so that brings us to the end of the session for the week. So I hope. The listeners enjoyed this new kind of sort of format. Let’s see how we can move forward. I liked it. I had fun with it and it gives me a little more direction every week in a little more organization.

So think, well, build on this moving forward. So of course I want to thank Pam for joining me as always. And thank you to the listeners for joining me. And Dan, where can people find you?

Pam: You can find me on Twitter, where I am at Pamela underscore land.

CK: And if you’re interested in taro readings, Pam writes up her daily readings every

Pam: I do, I do. It’s the reading that I do for myself, but I write it in a way that it can benefit anyone. So you can find those@pamelalund.me.

CK: And of course, make sure to check out that bad advice@forcesofvehicle.com slash advice. And you can find me on Twitter at CK disco. I’m getting a little more into social media here and there. So you’ll, you might be able to find me on there. And so, yeah. Thanks for listening. And I hope you come back next weekend.

Keep on practicing. To loo