Adam Rippon (0:00)

Hi, everyone. It's Adam. Let's just get right into the podcast. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the podcast by Adam Rippon. I am Adam Rippon. I do suspect that you may have thought, hey, what the hell? Where is that 10th episode? When are you gonna do another episode? It's been a few weeks. I know that I do have some explaining to do, and I will explain myself. I have no problem doing that in this public space, in this public forum. No problem. In fact, I'll do it right now, actually. So my explanation is this. I got what medical experts would call the flu. And I remember having gotten the flu one other time before. Okay? And I'll tell you about that experience. The year was 2013, okay? That's the last time I got the flu. And I remember thinking to myself, wow, I've never been this sick before. I just couldn't stay awake. I just slept for, like, days, Right? Like, I remember that. That was 2013. Well, time is a healer, because I have not looked fondly upon that time in 2013 when I got the flu. In fact, I remember thinking, wow, I was so weak to get the flu. Like, why wasn't I stronger? Why wasn't my body creating the antibodies to defeat and ultimately destroy the flu from even entering, sort of my vessel? And it took about, you know, 12 years to get to where I am right now because the flu really did, well, say, kick my ass to the point where I was down for the count. Really didn't know when I would be kind of making a triumphant return. But it took about two weeks for me to get better. But as you can hear and see, wow, what a two weeks it's been for me. It's good to be back for the tenth episode. I know I'm treating the tenth episode like it's, like, my hundredth episode. And we're, like, number one in the ranks when truly we couldn't be much lower in the ranks. And it's just the 10th. But you gotta start somewhere, and I'm proud to start here. There is also another reason of why I've been on sort of a sabbatical, because I've been thinking of, like, what do I do? How do I address this? Do I wait? Do I. Whatever you might be thinking, what the are you even talking about? Well, let me tell you. So when I started this podcast, my goal was to do five, 10 episodes and just see if I could get into the rhythm of it. See if I liked doing a podcast on my own. And the answer is, I do. And I have enjoyed putting this together, albeit it's definitely grown and evolved since the first episode, which, if I listen back to it, does give me a headache with all of the sound effects. But we live and we learn, and sometimes we get a migraine too, along the way. Sometimes that's how you have to find out that you're using too many video game sound effects. And the only way to find that out is to actually use them and hear them and hear the pinging of the bells over and over and over again, which is why I'm. The sound effects have been a bit silent up until this point. Now, let me just get back to what I'm talking about. So I said I wanted to do the 10 episodes, just see where we are. Well, now that this is the 10th episode, I feel like now is a good time. So in the past few weeks, I've been working and talking with Podcast One, and so we are moving, and the podcast is now going to have a new home at the Podcast One network. And I'm super excited. I think it's going to be great. I've been working on just sort of like polishing it up. Now it's like a real team, you know. Now it's not just going to be me in this room having a complete and total mental breakdown for about an hour that I can edit and whittle down to about 40 minutes, sometimes, sometimes even 20, because sometimes it does get really sort of completely chaotic. Now somebody will be there to keep me on track. Maybe we'll even start to bring people on. But it's growing, and this is a really great next step. I'm super excited. I think it's going to be great. This is exactly what I was hoping would be the next step, that, you know, we would go somewhere, that we would go somewhere. We would be something. And we're gonna do it, guys. We're. We're actually doing it. And so it might be a few weeks until we come out with another episode, which would be sort of like the 11th episode. And I would say, you know what, that the first 10 episodes are sort of like a time capsule, right? It's not the. It's the end of the beginning. Right? That's sort of what it is. It's the end of the beginning. And it was a trial period that I was doing on myself that you guys joined with me, and I'm so grateful and I'm so honored that you were along for the ride of the first 10. And we'll always remember that. Not much to Say, just, you know, reminiscing on the voicemails that we've had. I think we'll work. We'll keep those. I think that's a favorite part. Part of it, you know, not much is going to change. Cut to. Everything sounds exactly the same, but that's. That's part of the game. That's show business. That's the. That's the world we live in. Now, enough about the podcast and more about me having the flu. So the flu did drive me to a point that I have not been driven to since 2020. And that point is the point of getting onto my computer and opening up the Sims 4. Now, I haven't touched the Sims in five years, and I could tell because it would tell me your last login was like, I don't know. I don't remember what it said. I think it said September, something, 2020. I just want you to know, if you don't remember, 2020 was, I would say, a dark time, an uncertain time. How about that? An uncertain time where I felt, you know what I should do? I should simulate the life of something else at this point. And so that's what I did in 2020. And fast forward five years later, I'd have the flu, be down for the count for two weeks, and I'd think, you know what? It's time to simulate the life of someone and something else. Now, I don't know if you've ever played the Sims before, but it'll get you because you'll go in there going, hey, I'll just play this for maybe an hour, maybe two hours, and eight hours will go by and you'll go, my flu symptoms haven't gotten any better, and now my hands are cramped and. And I'm also in the middle of trying to do university classes and balancing five different relationships with other Sims in front of them, because I'm trying to get them all mad and jealous and to get into fist fights. And so, you know, it was chaotic and I was quite busy doing that. I was really busy. But I'd like to tell you about some of my Sims because I think it'll explain a lot of how I've been and the sort of state of mind I was in and am sort of, I'm still there, you know, the flu doesn't leave easy, is what they say. That is what they say. So without further ado, let me tell you about my first sim, whose name is Patsy Jupst. Now, I want you to know I did name them all myself, and you know, I just, I don't think it's clever when you go in with your typical sort of Smith, Williams, Black, Robinson, White, you know, like those last names, you gotta go in with a bit of creativity. And I always like to hit them with a sort of German sounding ish name with a twist. Because that is sort of the sim language to me is German with a twist. And I don't really know how to explain it, but like nothing would explain it better than me choosing, choosing and typing out, I want you to know, choosing the last name Jupsed for my sim. Who she is a single woman, young adult is the age that she was kind of created at. And her name is Patsy Jupst now. Patsy. Actually, before I start talking about Patsy, let me tell you about like my mentality. Every time I start like a new sim. I always tried to start them off in an honest way where they make an honest living, they make honest money and they are an honest person. And I really, really, really try to stick to that mentality of like, no, I'm gonna play by the rules and we're gonna live this life together. And you know, it always gets to me where I go, oh God, we gotta get out of this cheap apartment. We gotta get out of this cheap apartment. But it's all Patsy could afford, you know, it's all she could afford at the time. And obviously her aspiration is to be a pet owner and lover. So she's just in this tiny one bedroom apartment with a cat and a dog who honestly hate each other. Like they can't even be in the same room. And it's really tough. And it's not a really fun life because when the Sims aren't having fun, they need to do things that like bring their fun meter up. And Patsy really does enjoy to watch tv. She likes the comedies. She likes to watch a cooking network that brings her like skill up so that when she makes herself a side salad, her stove doesn't catch on fire. Which has happened because her cooking skill was so low at one point. So she watches the cooking channel, you know, she likes all that things. She likes all that things. Do you hear like my, my tone of voice now, the speech pattern? I have also, if you've never heard of anyone describing their like sims to you, I would say it also sounds like German with a twist because I'm sure it makes absolute no sense to you, but I'm begging you on my hands and knees, please just follow along. It will be worth it. At least it'll be Worth it to let me have this moment of explaining what I've done for like a week, because to me, it was worth it. And I got to tell you, my husband doesn't care at all about them, which doesn't feel great to not be supported by your family. Sort of like Patsy jupsed, you know, she wasn't supported by her family, which is why she is, you know, just kind of out there on her own adopting pets left and right. But I digress. So I have left out the part that Patsy is a renowned scientist and she, when she goes to work, she does have a bad habit of using her freeze ray gun and freezing her co workers, which they don't like. But, you know, everyone has a vice. I want you to remember when I said that I like to start them with an honest living. And then somewhere along the lines, like I said, we got to get out of this tiny apartment. You know, our neighbor, we keep waking up in the middle of the night because our neighbors having these wild parties. And it's just. It's unbecoming of a young woman to live across the hall from a. A family that's having parties constantly. And her neighbor across the street, which, listen, it's to each their own. But her neighbor across the street is pregnant. So I don't really know why they're having all of these parties when, honestly, she should be resting. But that was sort of my last straw when, you know, her pregnant neighbor is up to the crack of dawn, you know, such a noisy noise, noise, noise coming out of that apartment. But it's because it's, you know, it was a cheap place. It was all we could afford until, yeah, you guessed it, I used a cheat code. Motherlode. I needed 50,000 simoleons quick. I don't care how, I don't care where. I'm not going to ask any questions. Just throw them in the bank. So I typed in that cheat code, which I said, motherlode, that throws 50,000 simoleons. But then I got so hungry with the power, I just kept hitting motherlode, enter, Motherlode, enter, Motherlode, enter. And before I knew it, I had a million simoleons in the bank. And I knew that we needed to just pack everything up and get the hell out of that apartment right away. And I grabbed her cell phone and I hit move household. And I didn't ask any questions. And we just. We got in the car and we went and we never look back. And then I said to myself, we have to build a big house. A really big house for the dog and for the cat who do hate each other. I want you to remember that. They absolutely hate each other. Any chance they get. They get into, like, WWE fucking fist fight that cat and the dog. It's awful. But whatever, Rich. Who cares? Who absolutely cares. I care. Which is why I tried to really make it work on. On the big house lot. But then I really get bored with the builds. You know, I just. I wish that the houses were built already. I know that there's a way, but I don't want to. Okay, let me explain. There's a way to download, like, beautiful homes that other people who play the Sims have already made. And they, like, upload them into, like, a place and you can download their creations and put them into your SIM world. I don't want to kind of go down that track, you know, I don't want to trek that track because I know it is over for me. I know I'll be going through that catalog, going too big, too small, too expensive. Like, I know I'm going to be doing that for hours on end. I'd rather just sort of like, just, you know, bore myself out of the Sims for another five years, which I'm getting very close to doing. Very, very close. So, you know, I'm in the middle of building this huge house, like, truly too big for Patsy and the two dogs. Well, I'm sorry. Patsy and the dog and her cat, whose names are sort of slipping my tongue, but it really doesn't matter. But, you know, I'm building this big house, and then before I know it, I see Patsy is so sad and she's not moving from the kitchen. I'm trying to figure out what's going wrong. The cat ran away. And that's when I thought, you know what? You have so much. And that cat and dog were just fighting. I just. I was really kind of fed up with her drama. So for the time being, I have sort of stepped. Stepped away. And I went, you know what? She needs to kind of figure this out on her own. And I kind of. I kind of, you know, I can't help her through this one. She's got to put her big girl pants on. I gave her the money. I helped her get out of there. And now she has to figure out the rest on her own because otherwise she'll never learn. She'll never learn. And that cat has to come back on its own, too. You can't chip a cat in the Sims, but they always do come back. I think I'm not. I've never had my Sims have pets. It seems like too much responsibility. I say, as in the real world, I have two dogs and I know how much responsibility that takes, so why would I. My Sims aren't reliable. You know, they're not reliable unless you tell them exactly what to do. That's the other thing. Unless you're telling them exactly what to do. It's like complete, utter bullshit that they. That they do. You know, you'll create a sim and you'll go, I want them to be a pop star. And then all of a sudden they'll go, I'm actually not interested in music. Well, I'm actually not interested in what you want to do, Patsy. And I appease them every once in a while because she's like, I think I like science. And then I, like, bring her into the science field and then she starts complaining and she's like, I don't like being around people. Well, so it's like, what? What do you want? You know? She sounds like a Gen Z er. Anyway, I'll tell you about another sim. It's really. It's good. It's really fun for me. So just hear me out. This sim, who I named Jornathan Bratson, because you gotta give it a twist, you know, Jonathan is in Jornathan. Jonathan Bratson. Now, I kind of did the random stuff when creating him because I just didn't have a lot of time to. I'm also like an impatient sort of SIM player because I'm not. Like, their eyes should be further in. They need a longer chin. It's just like, I don't have time for that. Like, I need them to apply to university or I need them to sort of, like, get a job as a mascot. Like, we need to, like, hup, too. Like, get to it. And so I just sort of like, let the sim program take the reins on this next one. And I just didn't like that he was an alien. And when I say that, I don't mean that in the sense of, like, illegal alien. I mean that in the sense of, like, extraterrestrial. So, like, unless he was, like, in a disguise, he did look green and had, like, glowing arms and legs. And I just, you know, I really wasn't into it because I am a Sims purist. I want it to be exactly like real life. How one day someone will just write, motherlode, enter, Motherlode, enter and you're a millionaire. Like, that is sort of like real life. Being an alien is not real life. And So I just lost interest in Jornathan. So he's in sort of like a one bedroom trailer park situation kind of in the middle of nowhere. I actually don't remember where. Where he is living right now. It doesn't really matter. So then I had to create a new sim and a new life, and that's when I created Donder Costello. Donder Costello is sort of my pride and joy because I think I nailed this one and I think it did a really good job. And he just. He was always so motivated to do everything, you know, like, he was motivated to go to the gym, which I like because sometimes I'm not. But Donder was Donder Costello. He was motivated to learn more about cooking. He had an interest in writing. He loved being around the other Sims. Like, like I said, I like to start them. Honest. Honest living. He. He was making an honest living. And when we needed to go to the gym, I wasn't buying a treadmill. We were just going to the gym and we joined clubs. He joined like a gym club. And he loved it there. He loved it there so much. And I kind of was letting him do his own thing in the gym when he ran into this guy named Corey Nyhouse. Now, Corey seemed kind of cute and fun, and they just were hitting it off. And I went, okay, now it's time for Donder to make the move. I said, go flirt, flirt a little bit, maybe tell a risque joke. And he did. And it's kind of going off flawlessly. And they are at the gym just chatting and talking. And finally Donder asks Corey on a date. He says yes right away. Now they hit it off on this date. And I go, you know what? Donder's been so good and he's being promoted in his athletic career so quickly that I think he deserves this. He deserves, like a relationship. And I think it'll be fun because I can kind of let Dunder do his own thing. Because once they get into a relationship and they like, move into the other house, you can control the other sim. Who would be Corey Nighhouse? And I'm like, Corey seems nice and they're never getting in a tiff. And the. The love relationship bar is going all the way up, and the relationship bar is going all the way up. It's just like. It just seems like it's like working. So they have an amazing date. It goes so well, you would not even believe it. And so Donder asks Corey to move in. He says yes. And I'm really excited until I learn Corey is sort of God. He's like a stick in the mud. So they meet at the gym. I want you to know that. They meet at the gym. And so Donder pulls a few strings to get Corey into his gym club. Well, we get Corey into the gym club, and it's not maybe one or two meetups where Corey decides he doesn't like working out. Okay, then what were you doing at the gym in the first place, Corey? You know, what were you doing there? Because I met you at the gym. It's not like I told you to go there. And I had to pull a few strings to get you into this club. So that kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Now, the next thing was, you know, Donder is so motivated on his own that I can kind of, like, let him go. But I said, you know what? I'm gonna spend some time with Corey Nyhouse. We're gonna get this train back on the tracks. We're gonna pull it together. Because I. I haven't given up faith on Corey Nyhouse. Well, it was an uphill battle, you know, because Corey doesn't want to work out, which is a passion of Donder's. So I. I'm like, how do we. How do we do this? Well, I'm thinking he can be career driven, so he's. He's going to start a small business. So he starts a small business. And that's when I learned he doesn't like being around strangers. Of course, how are you supposed to greet your customers, Corey, when you don't like being around str? So he gets uneasy every two hours at his small business, like, come on, get with it. And I think, you know what? He's trying his best, so I'm not going to be too tough on him. And I'm going to tell Corey to ask Donder out on a date. So I do, and they go out on a date. And like I said, Donder is my pride and joy, right? Like, he's my pride and joy. My favorite sim that I have right now. And I loved Patsy Jups. I really did. But she is in the thick of it right now, and I need her to kind of deal with her own stuff before I get back to helping her. So at this moment in time, it's Donder Costello or nothing. And I am only sort of mentoring Corey for the sake of Donder. Like I said, my favorite Simon. And so I say, you know what? Let's go out on a date, Corey. Ask Donder out. Donder loves it. They go on a Date. And Donder has sort of been flirting with this idea of getting more into like mischief, which is sort of a trait that they can have. And you know, the game did ask me, do you want to accept that Donder likes mischief? I said, yeah, why not? He seems a bit mischievous. So let's accept it. Let's accept the reality that we're in and then let's move forward from there because I think it's nice to have a vice. Like I said, Patsy jupsed her vice was going into work and freezing all her co workers. Like I said, they didn't love it. And so I think mischief could be a better vice. Now it was my mistake because I should not have accepted the fact that Donder likes mischief. I should have never should have entertained the idea. But I did entertain the idea and it's sort of my fault because what happened next did freak me out. I'll say it. It really did freak me out. What happened was he told a joke to Corey that he laughed himself to death. From now you might be wondering, what do you mean he laughed himself to death? Well, I mean that he laughed so hard that he keeled over. And then the Grim Reaper came into the karaoke bar that they were in and dragged that body out. Well, I'm panicking, obviously, so you can have the ghosts stay there. So I'm at this point thinking, how do we come back from this? Like, how do I get Dunder to be back not only in the workforce but in the living realm? And so I figure out that I need to buy a new expansion pack, which is some romantic whatever or something, but basically I need to buy this expansion pack. So now I'm investing into the Sims, which I did five years ago. And it's just sort of here I am back again, spending money to the EA game franchise. Whatever. I pay $10 because I need this wishing well from this sort of whatever. So to me it's. It's money well spent, okay? Because I get the wishing well and I'm able to wish myself back alive. So Donders back. That was a close one. And again here we get to the non sort of honest living because I go, you know what? To celebrate like, you only live once. And sometimes in the Sims you only live twice. I say, you know what? Let's just pretend that they win the lottery, Donder and Corey. And so I go. Motherlode enter. 50,000 simoleons kind of pop into the bank account. Motherlode enter. We're at 100. Motherlode enter. 150 motherlode, enter 200. And I just kind of kept going and going and going. $2.5 million later, I go, let's get the hell out of this small shanty. Because at this point, Corey was trying to sort of run the small business out of the home, which really wasn't kind of working out. But he also did buy a nice little area of where the small business could be. He's terrible with decorating. The place really looks awful. So I said, I'm gonna build a huge home that's half a house, half a small business. And that's kind of where I left them, because I, like I said, don't really love the builds. And I get bored so quickly. And, you know, I just have expensive taste. I just kind of scroll look for the most expensive thing. Like, I don't have good taste on the Sims, just expensive taste. Where I go, it's 12,000 get. Could be the ugliest thing in the world. I just, like, don't care. But that's why I can't have the money. Like, that's why I should never do the cheat. But, you know, you live and you learn. As I've said on this podcast, even in this episode, in the 10th episode. The 10th episode. Can you believe it? I can't believe it. Now, enough about the Sims. But in this sabbatical, I've missed a few things, and I'm gonna. I'll touch lightly on the things that I remember. One of the things I remember was that we shot. Not we, Jeff Bezos shot Katy Perry and a group of women into space. And I know a lot of people have had a lot to say. I think that the criticism that the ladies are facing is pretty warranted, right? Except for Gayle King. Because to me, there is no amount of money that I wouldn't spend to see Gayle King get shot into space. I don't know why, but to me, it just is, like, yeah, you can't put a price tag on the amount of absolute unbridled joy that makes me feel. Katy Perry, on the other hand, yeah, I'm like, no, she should stay earthbound. But Gayle King. I'm like, no, let her go up. Like, she should go. She, like, didn't want to go in the first place. It's like, that's why she should go. Like, the semantics of it all, for me to just sell. Send Gayle King into space. Like, it makes sense and that I'm just sort of like, it's worth it. I'm good with that, like, I'm totally fine with, like, $10 million sending Gayle King to, you know, the atmosphere. Yeah, we should do that. We should do that once a year. Once a month. We should do once a month. It takes 11 minutes. I think we should send Gayle King to space once a month. Whatever. There's so much going on right now politically, that I think it could be the one thing that unites us is that, you know, get the other women out of there. You know, Katy Perry does not need to be promoting her album and tour. Like, that was crazy to me, but Gayle King just, like, it's crazy to me, but in the way where I'm like, I. Sorry. Like, yeah, like, the earth is burning and Gail is in space. Like that. It just. I'm okay with it. And I. I, like I said I can't explain it, and I don't want to, and I won't, but I'm just, like, completely fine with the idea of, like, no one else. Like, literally no one else except Gayle King. Am I okay with the other thing I'm, like, not okay with? And I think that, like, we should be able to send Gayle King up there and just be like, that's. You know, you host the morning show on CBS and you go to space once a month. Like, that should sort of. Like, we should just really kind of think about that and hear me out. Just, like, think about it. I think it's, like, not a horrible idea, but we should never call her an astronaut. You know, Like, I do feel like being an astronaut takes a lot of work, which I'm not saying she's not willing to do, but I think that, like, a real, and I say, like, in quotes, astronaut has done more to, like, prepare for the mission than maybe a Gayle King has done. Now, I, like, again, I don't want that to deter from the idea that I'm sort of pitching that we do send her once a month. Like, I. I do. I like that idea. Another thing I say is I would never, ever want to go to space. I have, like, no desire, absolutely,000% desire to go into space, to be on sort of like a space shuttle or craft. I just. I want nothing, nothing, nothing to do with it. And that is my official stance on going to space. Like, I don't. It's not for me. You know, it's, like, for other people, like Gail. It's for her. For sure. It's for her. I see it. I see it happening. And if you YouTube it, you can Watch it happening, but I see it happening more. I think we should think about it, everybody. I think we should think about sending Gayle King to space once a month, 12 times a year. Come on. Now. It'll be interesting to hear what this podcast sounds like with a team, with a producer. Will you get sort of 25 unfiltered minutes about the Sims? Maybe. But maybe they'll try to kind of put a gag order on that. Shut me up. I don't know it. I won't let it happen. I want you to know that. But it will be nice to have someone keep me on track, because sometimes I'll say this. I'm going to say something. I'm going to reveal something that is true. Sometimes when I am talking about something, I will forget what I'm talking about, but I've already backed myself into a corner, so I have to sort of finish the thought. And sometimes I get back to the original point, but other times, no, it's like I have truly lost the plot. And maybe you've noticed that, maybe you haven't. But now I want you to listen for it, okay? Just listen for it. Because it is the truth. It is the truth about what happens. And with that being said, I think that we should get into the voicemails now. These are going to be the voicemails of the last episode of the first 10 episodes. See, this is sort of like I'm losing track of what I was saying. This is the. Hold on, I'll get there. I'm not going to edit this out, by the way, because I want you to hear, like, why I need somebody in the room. Okay? These voicemails are going to be the voicemails of the last episode that I'm doing right now that I'm producing myself and editing myself. And, like, again, like, I just. I want you to know that now I'm saying. I said that. Why did I even say that? I don't. It doesn't matter. Basically, what I'm saying is we're gonna do the voicemails. Please leave your message after the tone.