The Audio Blog of Steven Sirski

Just watched the speeches! How were they?! King Charles is in the US! What do I think?! What do the Brits think?! Charles’ speech in Congress was steeped in history, but the speeches at the dinner were a lot more funny. “He got the Democrats to stand.” Historical references throughout! Did you get all of them? His comment about re-arranging the White House back in… 1814. And if not for the Brits,...

End of the month! Hope you got your taxes done! Live streams continue! Today… YouTube! Hope you enjoyed yesterday’s episode! All about how I got started teaching English! Was a bit of a mess BUT, did you see the album art? Well, did that ever take me down memory lane AND showing the gf what I look like without a beard! More stock talk. How many stocks can you really own? Another look at my spreads...

Relocation done and did! To China an expat goes… from Korea? This guy I knew back in South Korea has now moved his family to China. Is China the place to be or is it done? Guess I should tell the story of how and why I started teaching English overseas. It’s rather simple. Tiktok Live Studio now available for MacOS?! Content, Call to Actions, and Clients. Get going! And wondering, what if I just w...

Gotta get out more to take more album art pics! Someone stole my water bottle! AND SKIPPING ROPE! The gym is costing me more! WHY?! Listening in to some of my older podcasts (back when they were only 20 minutes long!) Lots are available on my website under the “Archives” section. Not sure you’ll like listening to those, not sure I’ll keep them up! (Fixed up the Notion database a little bit.) New f...

Windy and dusty! It’s that time of year where you need to run with a mask! Workout in! Legs and bench, not sure why my back is killing me so much. First time in a long time I haven’t gone to the gym! Broadcasting overseas and wondering what’s the difference between a platform stream and an in-person class. And Claude Cowork for the win! Building a B-Roll folder that can be used across my videos! B...

Low energy day, but got 44km done on the bike. Why? Out to Wudaokou to meet up with some former students. What’s the place like now? (Smoggy, for one.) Slowly getting hot and things are slowly slowing down! I SO wanted McDonalds today but every time I go I feel disappointed. So I made it myself. Came home and cooked up some bacon and eggs, toast and cheese and Vegemite = even better. Looks like I’...

Interview done and did! Should I stay or should I go? Enjoying this new recording routine cause I spend the night “Chinese-ing”. Chinese only! Watching Chinese at Dawn, Chloe Chinese Class and EasyTalk Chinese. Workout in! And run done from the Canadian embassy. What was I doing out there? Tried the Carolina Reaper Beef Jerky! Tingly! Sweating! But not deathly! And a little bit of a surprising sta...

Workout in! Slow going, but got it done! Accessory legs in the morning, afternoon run done, 6.44km in 55.04. SLOW! Been catching up with some people around the compound, one lady from Serbia isn’t working at the moment, her husband is a SCREENWRITER! Jobs are there, but far between. Global warming?? How’s that for Chinese class?! But why aren’t there any grandparents talking about how the climate...

What if I had a Substackcast? Waitaminute, Steve, if you don’t want to read your own stuff, why would others? Should’ve bought Microsoft! Chinese banks a hustling! I have a problem! Workouts in but my account is less than 50 RMB! Can’t scan in! What should I do? How are my Chinese language lessons going? Tim Cook steps down, John Ternus steps in. Twenty five years at the company?! Did I miss somet...

420! Snicker snicker! hee hee hee Off to the museum! First time in a long time! Crowds a go go and wow, sandstorm and catkins abound. 假装上班! jiǎzhuāng shàngbān is all the rage! Also known in the West as “quiet quitting”. Another new phrase: 脱下孔乙己的长衫 (removing the long gown of Kong Ji — a short story by Lu Xun).https://www.sinicapodcast.com/p/mockupation-phrase-of-the-weekhttps://cerclea...

Got humid in here, and only going to get worse! Workout in! Deadlifts, skips and pull ups! A bit different from other Fridays. Short run back to the apartment this morning. I guess I’m known as the workout guy as a lot of people have mentioned they haven’t seen me running around lately. Job posting for September, should I take it? And reading through some of the books I want to get rid of: The Sta...

Dangerous to lie down after dinner! Falling asleep and waking up early! Do you still hate Trump or have you forgiven him now that the market is up again? Niche vs newspaper? Which format wins? Specific topics or a variety of discussions? What’s my CTA?! And Bob Lazar has a new documentary out! He was on Rogan! Again! Is it time for disclosure or is this just a money grab?? Donate to the show! PayP...

She cries, and then she dies! How was that TV show (去有风的地方). Apparently it gets better from there. How was Chinese class? Is Chinese grammar easy? Sure… if you can read the sentence and understand the meaning. Workout in! Accessory leg day, then a run up the 3rd ring road to meet for coffee with a friend and former colleague. Bike ride back. And sold some books! Thanks Mom! Next, China. Dona...

How was Chinese class? What does HSK 5 really mean? Watching another YouTube channel In Chinese, this lady I guess used to live in UAE and taught Chinese to kids. Does all of her videos in comprehensible Chinese. Mentioned 去有风的地方 “Meet Yourself” TV show. Up and out in the morning, chest day today. No run. Recorded another component of the online course. Thinking of uploading allll of my trav...

Up early and out the door! Trying to get back into running in the morning. Leg day today. Yesterday did 7km “around the block”, today was 3km to the gym, 3.5km back. Is this sustainable? And when do I move? Did we go to BreadFest in Beijing? NO! 39 RMB for a ticket?? We could buy lots of bread on our own! Qingfeng Park for the flowers… boy was it peaceful. Sorting the books, which ones stay, which...

Up early and out the door! Jet lag hits! Out for a run, 7 km in 59.16, then off to the breakfast place for a small feed, and then the gym for an easy back day. Spent the day recording the basics of my course. One didn’t record the audio! Grrr! And it’s getting green out there! Catkins are here! Donate to the show! PayPal link below! https://www.paypal.me/stevensirski?locale.x=en_CA ***Show notes n...

Cold and rainy, but back at it and into the gym! Light workout to get back into the swing of things. Spent the day troubleshooting VPNs! The life in China! Do all those people on the socials proclaiming the advancements of China (especially on Threads) actually live in China? Or do they only post about it? Cause I tried ShadowRocket, LetsVPN, Mullvad, and ended up going back to Astrill. Also looke...

Made it to China! How is it? How was it? The flight! Productive, some bumps along the way. First food was good, breakfast not so good. Paid for in-flight internet and WELL WORTH IT! Paid with points… or I tried to. Contacted customer service and they ended up giving me a promo code for the flight! Free internet! Got some things done and research did. Vietnam, Canada, Argentina, and where else to d...

Here we are at YVR! Importing donuts to see how many survive the trip! How has it been so far? Mostly eventless, though no WIFI on the YWG to YVR flight. Pretzels were good. And free wine and beer on a domestic flight?! (Didn’t have anything.) Sorry about yesterday’s episode, I was falling asleep while posting it! Thirteen hours to Beijing, here we go! Donate to the show! PayPal link below! https:...

OMG I’m at YWG! On the way to Beijing, weee! Am I excited? I have a confession to make. How was security? How long will it take? And how was Easter? Did you go to liturgy? YES! 7.30 am! And stuff is going out the door! Donate to the show! PayPal link below! https://www.paypal.me/stevensirski?locale.x=en_CA ***Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com And on Notion: https://stevensirski.notion.sit...

Good day and Good Friday! Or Great Friday as they say in the Ukrainian-Greek Orthodox faith. First time here for Easter since before the pandemic. Off to Starbucks in the morning (using up my points), the city seems pretty open. Off to church for the afternoon service! Very different from when I was a kid.-All in English except for one song-New shroud-No clackers-Cross with thorns was there, but t...

Steve, where are you? Have you registered in China yet? Send me your new passport! I guess there’s an inspection going on in the run up to the Trump-Xi summit next month. Pysanka making done! First time in a long time! No workouts in, should I be watching what I eat? And tomorrow’s Good Friday, would you do a complete fast? Donate to the show! PayPal link below! https://www.paypal.me/stevensirski?...

New month! New day! April Fool’s! Not here! THREE HOURS to post a video to Youtube?! Posted yet another YouTube Short and it took just about THREE HOURS from script to screen to edit to publish to get it all done. Why? Had a dream I found my AirPods! In my jacket pocket of all things. Problem is… the jacket in the dream is currently in China. MAKE no more! The price of the coffee business. And we...

End of the month already and the last of the workouts! Where should I go next? What will I do?? Looking for a haircut! Where? When? With who? And what next? Success with Google Sheets! Easy translations! Just because something can be automated, does it mean it SHOULD be? Loza bie, from yesterday’s Ukrainian quote, loza is “vine” or “willow”, so old school Ukrainian. And Star Wars movie props sell...

«Не я б’ю — верба б’є, за тиждень Великдень.»(Ne ya b’yu — verba b’ye, za tyzhden Velykden.) (Mom says “lo za bie, ne ya biu, vid neni za tizden buda valekden”.) And so the saying goes for Palm Sunday. Lent is over, Holy Week is here, Easter is on Sunday. Friday is Good Friday (where the plastchanischya is brought out.) Steve, when are you going back?? (Tickets are even cheaper now!) OIL overbough...