The Audio Blog of Steven Sirski

End of the month! And sluggish running! 6.45km run in 1 hr 2 min 56 sec, weighted vest, but no pull ups or anything. Literally just wanted to run. Is the end of the winter six-week cycle? More shortcuts! Categorized into Russian and Chinese - able to copy a word, run a shortcut, and it will feed that through ChatGPT to give me the grammatical break down and a couple of examples, read them out loud...

SUCCESS! MULTIPLE! :O :D Zapier automation to pull SLV YT descriptions and put them into a spreadsheet which is then emailed to me every weekend! SUCCESS! Zapier automation to pull SSAB transcriptions from a spreadsheet and put them into a different spreadsheet and then email me every weekend! AND… Was able to generate a newsletter from this spreadsheet for SLV, but NOT for SSAB - too much data! I...

So close, yet so far. These Shortcuts get about 90% of the way there and then stop. Currently trying to get Apple Notes and ChatGPT to talk to each other. Following a guy named Stephen Robles to find some better shortcuts. Was thinking I could automate podcast summaries for this and send that out through Substack. Jioazi from the gf, got the coin… can’t help but think that was planted there. Lol N...

新年快乐！过年快乐 or is it 过年好? 蛇年快乐！ And so on and so on! 除夕 evening in China, 春节 tomorrow, the Year of the Snake is upon us. New YT Short out: Happy New Year! So… is it appropriate to say Happy Lunar New Year? Or, do as the Chinese do and call it Chinese new Year? I guess the Ukrainians call their New Year “Malanka”. Realized something: these Apple Shortcuts - can I add multiple APP...

Beijing is sure quiet these days, hard to believe that it’s ever much more noisy. Looking at automations using Apple Shortcuts and Text Replacements. Text Replacement: System Settings > Keyboard > Text Replacements Had an idea: year in the life of an English teacher - on XiaoHongShu. Figuring I could then turn than into a book after while documenting my teaching journey once again. Workout i...

New podcast idea? China Business podcast? Reading audiobooks? Would you listen? What would you like to hear? Big day, changes on the way… possibly. My apologies for not getting the podcasts out earlier, my browser doesn’t keep the Podcasters for Spotify link open and alive so I have to reset my password every day. Work out in! 7.01km in 1 hr 20 min 41 sec. Slow on the pull ups, push ups and squats...

Last day in Harbin, well worth the trip but… winter should just be a vacation, not a lifestyle! Lol jkjk Morning meeting done n done, Starbucks first, and baozi. Not as cold as yesterday. Off to Snow sculpture festival. This is the one with massive snow carvings that LOOK as if they’ve been manufactured BUT in actual fact, I think they’re done by people. They had teams that each contributed a piec...

Another day, another journey. What was that noise so early in the morning? It snowed… so a guy was outside cleaning the sidewalk with a leaf blower. Off to a… polar exhibit today. I think we actually spent a little bit too much time there, but we took our time and saw allll of the performances… many of which consisted of Russian dancers. Harbin Polarland is dedicated to wintery animals, dolphins,...

Tried to find HongZhuan Breakfast Street, failed. We left too late but did find a semi-open snack street. A few of the stewards were smoking while cooking. Snow and Ice Festival: 哈尔滨冰雪大世界 Nice during the day, but then got really cold when the sun went down. Good thing there are several indoor mall/pavilions to go into. MUCH different than when I was there ten years ago! Posting vids to the...

Coldest day of the year! So they say for the lunar calendar. Off to Harbin! Smog city! Haven’t been here in ages. Just under five hours on the high speed train Goose meat for dinner… hardly anything of substance! Except one big leg. Craft German beer bar is still here, Zhongyang street a popping, it’s cold but not bad. LOTS of pictures with people I don’t know… add me to XiaoHongShu? Tomorrow, sno...

“Decades have passed since the last high-ranking Bangladeshi general visited Pakistan, and no Pakistani spymaster had ever met with a president of Tajikistan. Given the depth of their historical disagreements, the visits underscore the magnitude of the changes underway.” -Do you think what you do is important? But it’s important to you right now. https://geopoliticalfutures.com/china-and-strategic...

You know, for a $5000 system, I expected it to get around any AirDrop issues I could have. FKG thing doesn’t pass through some connections. New video up on the language vlog: Testing your Chinese shorthand comprehension. Took all day! Here’s a test: XSWL, nbcs, DDDD. People a moving! One off to Vietnam, another off to Shanghai! Same job though. Thinking, this business idea, what would be my exit s...

Online shopping: would you do it? That is, go online to sell? New affiliate marketing scheme? And AI-likenesses: will companies ask you to sign over your face and voice? That makes me look at the green card and business idea a little more seriously… Recorded a new walk n talk vlog about teaching ESL in China. Not sure how the industry is now, but it is still ticking along. Spring Festival, plans?...

Zuckerberg on Rogan, LOTS of so-called “TikTok Refugees” on XiaoHongShu… will this be a problem for China? New Language Vlog podcast up! Have spent a LOT of time editing videos these days and think I’ve finally got a way to publish more with less work. Emerging markets ready to bounce? India, China, what else? Kathleen Peddicord “How to Buy Real Estate Overseas” was the book and author. DuZhi appa...

Is TikTok banned yet? Big movement to XiaoHongShu, or at least some comments about the platform being better than FB and Insta. Those other platforms won’t be going away any time soon, though, cause they can monetize, XHS doesn’t. Off to the Military Museum - not bad. Lots of big equipment, no cafe or many places to sit down. What did we learn? China got invaded a bunch of times. Spent most of the...

Trying out the mic with the QuickTime, but the Notes application won’t use the Shure MV7+ as input. How did it all sound yesterday? This new MacBook is rather bass-y. Workout in, but barely! 7.02km in 1 hr 6 min 56 sec. 54 pull ups total, double that for push ups, triple for squats. Felt rough the entire time… like just slow. No deadlifts as I had an idea… to go to Tianjin, but then I realized I h...

Have you stopped writing 2024 yet? Very quiet in Beijing these days. Are schools out already? Working on a cheat sheet for Mandarin, is it okay to teach Mandarin Chinese? New language vlog up: Time for a change? - All about considering a job change… but does that mean a change of country, too? Here’s the difference of jet lag: -in Canada, you fall asleep at 8pm but there’s no more real “business”...

Health check done! Aaaaand… fell asleep once I got home. Out to JingA and then to a small cafe Legitimate business idea, or just fantasy? Money matters and mid-lifers, what gives? How much do you need to know? Workout in… at midnight: 6.44kms + slam ball work (nice and quiet so I don’t wake up the neighbourhood!) Language Vlog Podcast getting listeners… far sooner than my other podcasts! Donate to...

Listening back to old tracks, how do they sound? Not bad. Tennis elbow! OW! Full on owie! Wow, Justin Trudeau gone from office! Should Canada merge with the US?! Health check tomorrow, how will it go? New vlog recorded for the SLV, running time of around 25 minutes. Need to get better at this. New laptop helps immensely. Stock market, how you doing? Donate to the show! PayPal link below! https://w...

New year, new week! New jet lag! Up early and off to Tiananmen Square… then the camera died. Bald and Bankrupt?! WTF? This guy posts a video every now and then and has MILLIONS of followers on YouTube, and a book on HOW TO make it on YouTube?! Wow. I must be doing something wrong. Managed to get some reading done this morning, 30 minutes of Russian, an hour of Chinese, both DuChinese and Wen Cheng...

Kinda quiet around town, why so early? Might have to re-evaluate the comments I made earlier about the pule being gone. Is it just the holiday season? But where did all the people go so soon? Up at 2.30 in the morning! Two hours later than yesterday. So, am I moving in two hour increments? Chinese Course by Email continues, adding video components to it. I can see that I have to stick with this so...

Well, back into it. Yey? Time to change up the workout routines? Travel seems to knock off that cycle count. Launched the Chinese Course by Email… and already see how it can be improved. First iteration, Steve, first iteration. Videos, conversations, stories, lots more can be added. Current status of jet lag: 8 pm zonkertown, 2 am wake up. Made dinner, shut off the element, fell asleep. Have not b...

Сію, сію, посіваю З Новим роком всіх вітаю! Щоб Вам весело жилося, Щоб задумане збулося, Щоб ніколи не хворіли, Щоб нічого не боліло, Щоб у праці все горіло Та й в кишені шелестіло! Щоб, як квіти, Ви цвіли Та сто років прожили! It’s a new year, new day! And back in the Beijing, eh?! PSA: Back up your harddrives! Not a good weekend for flying, my heart goes out to the families and friends in Azerba...

Skipped Monday cause… I was in the air, so will catch up this weekend. LOOOONG TRIP. Eleven hours from Vancouver this time, 5.50 departure from Winnipeg. It was hard to leave, very emotional. Watched 1917, last episode of Succession Season 1, first episode on Season 2, a few episodes of Season 1 from Big Bang Theory. Reticent to return cause changes are a foot. December Drumming done mostly. Plans...

Here’s the plan: pack, buy, take off. We’ll see if it works. Why am I so reticent to go back? Just found so many things to do here I guess! Took a look at a new MacBook Pro… sweet machines, could I make it work? Santa Lucia for pizza. Canadian energy looking to heat up the New Year as the Chinese stock market looks to be on the very brink of a break out. This is crazy! Santa Claus Rally under way?...