The Audio Blog of Steven Sirski

End of the month already? Did I drop the ball on MYMYM? How could I make up for this? Getting hot in here! Turn on all your fans! Looking ahead five years, what could reasonably happen? xAI looking for people to help build their ai tools, who do you trust more? Google, Facebook, or Elon? Russian class - how far do I go with this? And some good news in that one of my other teachers is getting marri...

P trap fixed! I think. Notion database created! What should I talk about on this week’s language vlog? How was Cantonese class? Sounds are sinking in… but I’m not practicing very much. Do I need to relearn how to learn a language? What skills should young people be working on? AUTOMATION! Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com Newsletter over at stevensirski.substack.com Language vlog on YouTu...

Money in, money out! Let’s all scream and shout! Long vid doing well and the comments continue from around the world! What will this week’s vid be? Should I do more “this is my life in China”? But I really don’t want to go too much down that road. How is automation going? Didn’t get a chance to work on creating that Notion database, but I think it’s a good idea. Worked on another long video, a col...

Last week of the month! Long vid on YouTube doing well, lots of talk about the social credit score system here in China… is it all Western propaganda? New taps all around! Chinese class done Looking at MORE automation.. auto-splicing of content? What about a Notion database? Lunch run done 6.44km in 39.08! US and European markets closed, but Canada is OPEN! Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.c...

Rethinking those morning classes! Knackered this morning! A walk arounds the neighbourhood, another long vid posted to the language vlog. Lunch time run done, slow going, but got it in. 6.45km in 1.03.09, plus all the pull ups, push ups, squats, lunges, and jumps, and duck walks but at half pace. FYI, TikTok works if you switch your SIM card to the second slot but keep it as your primary number. J...

Back hurting! What am I doing wrong? Sitting too much? Traditional Chinese character class, how was it? （太）陽 湯 燙 （機）場 手 雙 拿 手掌 左右 - the picture of a man A note on the iTalki whiteboard usage Prepping for Episode 2 of the Language Podcast, it’s a neat idea. New York has drones supporting the police service?? Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com, newsletter over at stevensirsk...

Knackered, woken up by a falling plant. Has Apple fallen behind? Is there marketing all splish no splash? CoPilot+ PC https://www.wsj.com/video/series/joanna-stern-personal-technology/ai-is-coming-to-gadgets-theres-one-you-may-actually-want/6ABF6807-D4D5-4FD9-85D3-0F7047DEF0C0 Watching flights zoom by, why? Saving on plastic bags ain’t gonna do jksht, and… while I’m here doing my thing, someone el...

Low altitude flights to be offered by 2027?! Cantonese… what were you going to say? Getting shtuff proofread, so hopefully will have a few more longer reads put out soon. Never done this before so no idea how it will all work. Morning Chinese class: did you know the word 我 is comprised of two Chinese characters 戈 (gē) which means “weapon”. So, the 我 character is actually about two fisting weapo...

20/2024! Wu Er Ling ainiyou pengyou!  Post-pandemic leave! Some people coming back, some people leaving, the great foreigner shuffle (within the circle I know) is on the move. Tried drinking again this weekend and… actually didn’t like it! Edeilweis sent a free four pack with the purchase of my 12 of Heineken Zero. Remember me saying that life would suck if I didn’t have beer or chocolate, well, w...

Friday up! End of week! Still work tomorrow… Getting HOT! Lunch time run: 7.01km in 1.04.03, full of pull ups, squats, lunges and drinking water! Should ai change this up? NEW PODCAST up on the language vlog, all about… well, an introduction to the podcast idea. Have look n listen and see what you think. And… Episode 44 is LIVE! Denny Goin returns once again to give us his view and learning from y...

Day off! No work out, body’s a bit sore from yesterday! Off to the cafe to work on… South Korea travel video, wondering… how much work would it be to soundtrack this? Cafe or stay at home? Gotta get out some times. Episode 44 is uploaded, will have this out tomorrow. Now to work on Episode 45. Compiling PDFs from South Korean trip and reading them over, wondering how I would make that into a publi...

Day off tomorrow! Am I tired? Blue Frog Haoshijie / Hujialou gone! Any other big changes around town? Babies! Does China really need more babies? The country has so many people than even if a fraction of them have children, it’s still sustainable for decades. The US only has a third of the size of population, Canada even less. Europe? Remembering that Korea only had 4G, not 5G like China… but Chin...

Re-settled in Beijing Happy Belated Mother’s Day! South Korea in retrospect: what do I think now? Could I have lived there? SHOULD I have lived there? Back to work, but it’s slow going so looks like I’ll have some time to get some other projects done. How is MYMYM2024 going? It’s not. BUT, in saying that, I have to acknowledge that my original intent was to simply get really good and fast at creat...

Back in the Beej! How was the last day in South Korea? Sorry for the delay, but I guess I was kind of exhausted. Early morning train, but then there are more?? Didn’t sleep much anyway because of all the other guests in the hotel room partying it up! Laughing, listening to music-ing, drinking, puking, it was all there! So we made sure to shuffle a bit louder when we got up. Getting a cab wasn’t to...

Last full day in South Korea! Off to lunch with the chinggu, met a couple of his coworkers who had been in the country for 15 and 20 years. Lunch was a Busan specialty.  Walk over to Haeundae. Can’t say it altogether an exciting walk, but it was nice and peaceful. Like, literally walking in slow motion, very nice compared to Beijing! Lots of cafes all over, the further away from Gwanganli the more...

How much do you reminisce before you just move on? Early-ish morning run around Gwanganli Beach, nothing really opens until 9 or 10 am so it was very quiet. But Busan seems to be much quieter overall than Beijing, but that may be an unfair assessment, Busan is just much smaller. HUGE coffee culture here, as that seems to have exploded in the last few years. Randy’s Donuts? Tried that for breakfast...

Down to Busan we go! How was the train? Nice, 2.5 hours from Seoul Station to Busan Station. FRIED CHICKEN on the way down!! Delicious! Namsan Tower for the morning, crawled up the walkway, then took the cable car back down. A rather noisy place as there were several kindergartens out on a field trip. Add to that the blaring music and it was a touch on the lively side.  Hey, how was your hotel? Sm...

Oh yea, forgot to mention… yesterday’s beers were non-alcoholic… even the gf was surprised haha! Cass Lite, Hite Zero and Heineken Zero! Not bad, and a far cry from what I used to drink here. They have rice wine, makoli, but I haven’t had any just yet.  How many cards do you read at a museum? Don’t blame TikTok or computers, pottery is to blame for our sedentary lifestyle! hahah So says one of the...

Annyeonghaseyo! Is that beer can opening? Why yes it is… Hite Zero! Cass Zero and Heineken Zero too! Back in the So of Ko and tbh, this is the first time I’ve actually travelled through the city.  Rainy and cold-ish, but not overbearing, ie, not so much that we didn’t want to move. As long as we kept moving, we were fine. And if there was no wind. Gyeongbokgung Palace (景福宫) for the day even as...

End of week, off to Seoul on Sunday. We’ll see you there. If not Google Drive, are there local solutions? QQ got taken out by Tencent, but their file transfer service seems to be restricted in file size. Google Podcasts gone! No taxes on stock market gains in Singapore?! Working on Episode 44, cleaning up the audio! Gotta start packing for South Korea! Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com ,...

Another Korean class in the morning! Should be spending my time conjugating verbs. South Korea in three days! Spent the day moving files around and updating the website… gotta be a way to automate this so it’s easier and faster. Google Drive and account location: once declared it can’t be changed. Any Chinese solutions? Lunch time workout in! Slow n steady, still 600 calories. What’s your stance o...

May the first be with you! New month! Lunch time workout in… what if I didn’t have a such a structured day job, how would I maintain this ability to workout at lunch time? I kinda get the sense that it might have to change if I did lose the structure of the job. Chinese markets are closed, except for gold, so your money is locked up until May 6th. And SkyRemit comes through! Flawless! Whew! MYMYM2...

End of the month! I guess I’m on vacation? Money remitted!  And GICs drop! 4.90%?!? Are we living in the age of always being on? -there is no retake Back is feeling a lot better! Why are there so many Lambourghinis all of a sudden? New toys! Mic arm, let’s see how this works. What was that new video about on your language channel? Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com , newsletter at stevensi...

Elon Musk is in town I have days off this week? Oh, right, yesterday was a work day, and next Saturday is too. Doesn’t matter, I’m off to South Korea on Sunday! Doing taxes, have you done yours? About that Canadian tax rate: it’s for values over $250,000 CAD. So, house owners. Lunch time run: shorter run for a longer HIIT. Oof, the back hurts! Careful with those kbell swings! Did you know? Beijing...

Paid and now to trade! Korean class tomorrow morning, I have NOT been working on verbs or vocab as much as I’d like to. Imagine a three week language sprint, how much time can you actually dedicate? Non alcoholic wine sucks: it’s expensive grape juice! Get Bickford’s instead and add some fizzy water to give it some sparkle. Lunch time workout: 6.08km in 1hr 1 min 02 sec, was running slow today for...