The Audio Blog of Steven Sirski

Is it the Spring solstice? Spent the evening trying to automate! Again! Steve when will you give up?!?! Got some things done and couldn’t do other things. Tried out Zapier and connected a bunch of APPs to it, Google Sheets, Descript, YouTube, etc. Managed to get YouTube titles etc pulled into a spreadsheet that updates automatically so now I have a record of all of the videos I uploaded to my lang...

Russian class done! Talking about doing pull ups, work outs and… push ups to a song?  Which song? Bring Sally Up which is based on Moby’s 1996 song “Flower”. Why am I only hearing about this now? Cause I found a David Goggins clips of him doing the challenge… and struggling. Apparently the song has roots in a song sung by slaves: Green Sally up, Green Sally down, last one squat gotta tear the grou...

100 pull ups done! Lunch time workout done! Episode 44… some disappointing news… it won’t happen. Riverside.fm didn’t record the whole thing so, out of the three-hour conversation, I only have 35 minutes! Very disappointing! Lined up a bunch of Apple Motion tutorials and ideas and I’m thinking I might just sit down and bang through these all at once. That way I can check off doing the project, lea...

Beginning of the week! Does it ever end?! Where will you be in another year?? How are those pull ups doing? 101 on Saturday, 55 or so on Sunday, at 75 right now I think. Lunchtime run: 6.47km in 35.18. Tubestation pizza tastes like what I remember Domino’s to be like. Looking for other Chinese teachers, more speaking and writing practice! Will let you know how it goes! Went to the National Art Gal...

Beware the Ides of March! Newsletter prepped for the weekend, text only, will send these out when they’re ready. Working on a music track for SLV Is YouTube the new TV publication schedule? Russian class done - working on ovat' verbs = usually borrowed words from another language. No workout after work but did do a 4.97 km ruck type slow run indoors in 47.17 min. A bit smoggy so didn’t want to go...

Podcasting tip: brush your teeth beforehand, and use mouth wash before an interview. You’ll feel better. Smog in, spring warmth in! Winter jackets out! Another Russian class done! Sounding better, but still rough on the declensions. Spent some time making memes for TikTok, do you have to be on every platform? I wanted to learn how to do these things, to see if they’d even be fun to do. Some are, b...

Her did I tell you about the apartment debacle?! Shut down, scolded, removed and then refurbished! Spring is here with grass and all! Newsletter in the works! Thinking… no pictures in the email, will post those onto the website. Another Russian class done! All the fun talking about life in China. Learning more conjugations and parts of speech, so doing better. Could you live without parts of the i...

Lunch time workout done! Full on like they used to be! Wondering, what if I DID add a morning jog to the mix? Could I ALSO study Chinese at the same time? How is Chinese going? No classes scheduled, but I am using Du Chinese for reading every morning, so far so good. How is Russian going? Another class today. This is an easier language to pick up given its proximity to other European languages. Fu...

Finally! Time stamps done and done for the podcast! Only took three years! Head on over to Youtube and you can see the chapter breaks. Next, I’ll get them done on Spotify. Episode 44… where are you?!?!?! In the works! Successfully did NOT workout after work today, why? We’ll see if this new schedule works: -MWF: lunchtime run + short intense workout -TTh: lunchtime weights -F: heavy workout to end...

Friday end of week! Still work tomorrow!  Happy International Women’s Day!  How did Goggins do it: record audiobooks, author books, work out, ultras, etc.? And when does he do laundry? AI tech a go go: Canva, DALL-E, and others all jumping in and I’d say it is getting a little bit better. Again, this isn’t ground-breaking art here, but neither were meme-quotes, gifs, or even posters, yet they all...

Internet issues… it’s times like these… we have to remind ourselves that this can happen anywhere. Posting to the Language Vlog… working on another vid for that channel. STVSKRSKI, March Motion and looking ahead to… trying After Effects again? What about DaVinci Resolve?  Gold a moving, how are them stonks? Warmer temperatures on the horizon! Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com Have a good...

Workouts in! How’s the hip? 6.46km in 51.08, a 7.45 avg pace. Slam ball work done too. Newsletter out! Ditan Park temple fair, and will make this into a video. Work a slowing, time to get some other things done. This time … 1, 3, 25 years ago today! Bilboard Top 40 Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com Have a good one!☝️  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/st...

Feeling better, but not healed! Up at 5m cause of the hip, or is that a groin pull?! March Motion in the works, what’s the reason for this again? To learn how to create composite graphics. It’s okay if it takes time, but it still needs to be done. Newsletter in the works! Should have that out tonight, all about Ditan Park Temple Fair. Will get the Goggins challenge written up and done soon. Thinki...

4x4x48 done and done! 56 miles ~90.12kms all told. Why the difference? How did it go? What did I end up eating, sleeping, stretching, running? Any walking? Some articles on completing an ultra: Preparing for running an ultramarathon and how it's different from running a marathon: https://runnersconnect.net/ultra-marathon-guide-learn-maximize-performance/ On recovery: https://runnersconnect.net/ult...

It begins! Busy weekend! 4x4x48 all weekend, started at 7.30am cause I had to work at 8.20. The schedule: Friday AM81 Friday lunch 122 Friday aft work43 Friday evening84 Friday night 125 Sat morn46 Sat morn87 Sat lunch time128 Sat after work49 Saturday eve810 Saturday night1211 Sun morn412 Sun morn813 (Sun lunch1214) The food: muesli, oats, milks, dried sweet potatoes, fruit juice, Biscotti crunch...

It’s the leap day of the leap year! Time to celebrate with… going to bed early! New vids up on the Language Vlog: a Chinese check in! A mistake-laced video talking about my current progress which, sadly, although better, I think I was talking about the same things last year at this time! Early to sleep to get a start on tomorrow! Carbs stocked, beverages, food all stocked and ready! Am I doing any...

Feeling better! Though still stuffy. No workout but I did work. Got paid, is this any different than how companies operate? Sixty or ninety days in arrears? What’s it like to move to Beijing? Good question. What do I remember of my first move? And the 4x4x48 is coming up, are you ready? Am I ready? Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com Have a good one and stay healthy out there! --- Send in a...

I feel like sh!t! Covid? Seasonal flu? Knocked me out. Still got Chinese class done, but little else. What was the Great People’s Hall like? Qianmen for those little dough pancakes doused in garlic and butter. And a pound of Little White Rabbit candies. Very hard to chew! Workouts in! But an indoor run today as the smog was a little high AND I saw a news report about a dry lake bed from a lithium...

I saw Mao. What was it like? Bought some medals. Annual visit to Tiananmen Square, plus a stop at the first KFC in Beijing. Class cancelled as a result of a sore throat Again! Show to be continued because of a sore throat... Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com Have a good start of week! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/stevensirski/message

End of week! These days fly by! Newsletter in the works! All about Ditan. Got an appointment this weekend but we’ll see if it goes through! Plane tickets expensive! How else to get around? Kazakh Russian class again, Chinese on deck for tomorrow! Gotta use up those packages! Workouts in! How was that morning run? It didn’t. Lunch time tho it did get done: 6.51km in 58.12. All the pull ups etc. Aft...

Gearing up for March Motion, but Simon Ubsdell is quitting Patreon! He’s like the Apple Motion guru! AI programs a go go! Just search on Taobao for how many different programs there are. This is what I was thinking of using to create a feature length movie. But… still need a story! Now, free or pay? How much would you spend? Kazakh Russian class done! Back to basics! Tomorrow’s workout… what will...

Kazakhstani Russian class done! Rough AF! How was the run this morning? 6.56km in 49.00. Was quite slippery and stopped to take pictures too! After work weight workout cause… Shot some B-Roll at lunch time. Debating the use of all these shots. STVSKRSKI tracks are up, I wonder if I could do live sets? Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com I gotta get this thing automated already! Have a good...

We got snow?! Now I know what they mean that Beijing is a dry city. First SLV video posted in a long time! A longer video reviews my 2023 and what I expect to do in 2024. Chinese class again… gotta use up the package. Same with Russian. Newsletter in the works, how can I make this easier on myself? What if I just copy + pasted from the transcript of my audio blog and then only sometimes created a...

Recording early cause… new routine?? Chinese stock market how is it? Is the Spring break really over?! Where did my time go?? First Chinese class in a long time! Easy to talk, but understanding is still about 85-90%. Then why do I struggle so much in understanding others? Workouts in! Time for a change? Lunch time weights for 40 min and an after work run of 6.5 km in 40.09, about a 6.00 pace. What...

Knackered! Was that a week off? Ditan Park for the win ! Big Spring Festival Temple Fair. Took a lot of footage that we haven’t had for years. Lots of foods tried. Little pancakes called 炸灌肠 zha guan chang, chuaer, fake ice cream, Beijing traditional ice cream, etc. Got me thinking… what do I do with all of this footage? Remember I was thinking about starting a new-ish vlog channel? I think I m...