User:Chrisabraham

I am a dude who was born in Jersey City, lived in NYC until I was 6, moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, until college, when I moved to DC. I have lived in DC and Virginia since 1988 and have been online since 1983, doing web stuff since 1993, and a Wikipedian since 2005.

Business
I am a freelance communications strategies consultant who owns a little company called Gerris, named after the Genus of the water strider, Gerris. I could have called it Chris Abraham Consulting or something but I love the little water bugs because I was a college rower and own a racing shell and love sculling as often as possible. And, I always thought that the little pond skaters looked a lot like a single sculler rowing across the meniscus of the water, and I love the visual. I used to be a poet, a Perl and Python programmer, a LAMP system admin, and then, since 2003, an online marketer.

Disclosures
As part of my consulting, I have been a paid Wikipedia consultant and paid editor I have worked with Michael Doven, Elisabeth Leamy, Orkin, Chick-fil-A, and American Association for Clinical Chemistry for their online resource page Lab Tests Online. I have subsequently been let loose by these organizations for making such a mess of things. I guess I should have mentioned that these organization are no longer working with me, but that doesn't change the fact that my stink is on them and so I won't remove this for a while. I will add any other paid editing, paid consulting, or conflict of interests to this page as they happen. I want to do better on this so I am looking for a Wikipedian to

Rowing
I have rowed since college at GWU in DC and have rowed ever since, both on and off the water. Recently, I have been too heavy to row in my single scull so I have been rowing on my indoor rower, my erg, to try to keep fit and healthy and to lose enough weight to get back into my Hudson racing shell. Virtual rowing is a thing and highly competitive globally and I compete in a number of virtual online rowing competitions using the Concept2 rowing machine I have owned since maybe 2000. The last one I did was the 2015 Virtual Team Challenge. I was so excited that I created the page for it, though I don't know if it'll stick as there aren't a lot of 3rd party references to it, though there were 377 teams with 5,927 participants. The sort of rowing I do it called ultra-rowing or ultra-distance rowing, which valued combined accrued meters over time rather than speed or strength, just endurance.

Bicycling
I have been biking all my life, from BMX bikes in elementary school to my single speed bike now (not a fixie). I was a bike courier in college and competed on mountain bikes a little when the racing organization was called NORBA. Now, I ride to get places. My bike looks more like a Dutch bike like a city bike than a racing bike. My girlfriend's recently got me into Spinning so I love that but I am new.

Motorcycling
I promised my mom that I wouldn't ride a motorcycle while she was alive. She passed in 2012 so I have been riding since. I own a 1995 BMW K1100LT touring bike that I call Pōni. I ride it in all weather, though she's having a hard time starting in the severe cold of the Winter here in DC right now.

Cooking
I am not a picky eater but I am a pretty good cook. I am a sous chef at the homeless kitchen I volunteer at and my girlfriend and I cook together routinely.

Volunteering
I volunteer most Wednesday evenings at Miriam's Kitchen, a kitchen for DC's homeless, as a sous chef and as a dining room captain.

Blogging
I have been blogging since 1999. I blog about social media, politics, culture, communication, crisis management, and all sorts of other things.

Social Media and Online Communities
I was an early-adopter of the online world. From dial-up BBSes in the early 80s to The Well and The Meta Network in the 90s, to social media in the 2000s through now. I am on Twitter and all the rest of them. I am scared of reddit and I am trying to be less afraid of Wikipedia.

Teaching
Although I have taught creative writing and blogging in the past, I try to teach people how to do things as quickly as I learn them via webinars, screen-capture walk through videos, blog posts, lectures, and panel discussions.

Television
I watch too much TV on Hulu.

Movies
I watch too many movies on Netflix.

Traveling
I grew up in Hawaii and had adventurous parents. I have been to many places, though not Africa, the Middle East, Japan, China, or South America.

Photography
My dad was a professional photographer and I walked in his footsteps until 2003 when I left the world of professional photography. I was still using film. The only shooting I do compulsively is on my Android and iPhone.

Shooting sports
When I moved to Virginia from DC I took the opportunity to learn how to shoot guns, rifles, and shotguns. So, target shooting, trap, and skeet are things I really like to do as a hobby on a regular basis.