The Audio Blog of Steven Sirski

Tomorrow’s the solstice! Shortest day of the year and I’ll be in… Melbourne? Run in and done! 8.73km in 59.48. Took some convincing to get out but had to get it done. Laundry day n all. Sydney’s nice, people are big here. Lots of drinking downtown, gf was surprised to see people having beers at lunch time. You wouldn’t see that in China. Tried McDonald’s today. Double Big Mac, triple cheeseburger,...

Martin Place, not MacQuarie Place! That’s what I was trying to think of yesterday. Up early cause… another guy was leaving. And he came in late, too. The life of a hostelite. Went for a run, 5.68km in 41.54, just to the Royal Botanical Gardens and back. Always surprised at how many other people can be out at that time. These people seemed much more fit than the people who were out running at 2pm....

Walk around the city, what did we see? Australian Stock Exchange? ALL DIGITAL! Talk with the only “business man” in the district: was at a sandwich shop across the street and doing some work. He usually works remote but had to come into the city centre for a dentist appointment. Talked a little about what he did (something with sales), sales he would rather work with the Mom and Pop shops than the...

Hello Sydney! How was the flight? Mostly uneventful, except for one guy sneezing during the evening which woke me up from my sit up slumber. How’s the city? Sydney Harbour Bridge, Opera House, The Rocks. Expensive, $16 for a pint, $9 for a middy. SIM card bought at the airport, $25 for 60 GBs, bought TWO so I could swap them out. Talking to people and what’s the word? Swiss lady and then Leo the B...

From Shanghai Pudong! Happy Father’s Day! Guess I forgot to wish this on Friday. Off to Australia! AND TWENTY DOLLARS FOR A VISA?!? WTF did THIS happen? Are we excited yet? Well, will be meeting up with some family and a former colleague! SLV podcast recorded, so doing this one now. Will edit other pcast on the plane, this one right away. Will be trying to post as much as possible, want to try vlo...

It’s Friday the 13th! Chinese classes over! First livestream done in a long time. Workouts in: 7.06 km in 47.19, then afternoon run n pull ups x five rounds of 20 pull ups, 40 push ups, 60 squats, plus lunges n all with a 6kg vest. Kinda hot out there today. Off to Australia! Why are we not excited?! One thing at a time, but… time to rebrand? Or just change focus? Donate to the show! PayPal link b...

Getting hot and humid! But still nice enough. Hard to walk through the sunny parts of the street. Catching up on some of the backlog (prepping podcast clips for the Language Vlog). Listening to SaaStr and YCombinator podcasts Transcribing Chinese classes, putting that into Google NotebookLM, creating a review podcast. Uses familiar words, repeats them, and gives extra study materials. AI isn’t goi...

Visa and permit secured! Gotta to check into the police station. Wonder what they will say. Workout in, a bit slow on the run, but some fun with the slam ball work… had a crew with me. 6.5 km done in 41.31, slam ball for 30 minutes or so. China oil and energy stocks a moving, what does this mean? Company office for 2350 RMB, worth it? Chinese classes continue, not as nervous before class, but I st...

That’s why I don’t record earlier… I get busy doing other stuff. What if I recorded BEFORE dinner? About that company, costs, and animation, what’s going on? Got a few more automations going today.  Still no progress on the digital products, but possibly on the services. New SLV podcast out! Episode 44! How is Chinese class going? Wanted to try out iTalki Plus but… teachers aren’t using the platfo...

What a day! What a weekend! Back in Shuangjing, out of Changping! Setting up, to move on out! Learning new things (animation), re-learning old things (Chinese). Workout in! May need to split these up! 7.00 kms in 47.47. Four rounds of skips, jumps, push ups and pistol squats. Then mace bells and steel clubs for 45 minutes. And new episode of the language vlog recorded, if this was a typical Monday...

All over! Grades are in and done! Is this what it feels like? How do you leave campus? Just walk out or? Workout in! 105 pull ups + push ups, + squats + lunges + farmers’ carriers. Then 7.01 km run in 47.04. Was a bit dehydrated after. Hotel for dinner, 138RMB for a BBQ roast! Free flow drinks! Hadn’t really eaten much all day so sure piled up. Evening walk, how nice! Time to pack! No more creakin...

Nearing the end! What was it like for the other teachers? TIRED! One more class to go! (Tomorrow morning.) How ceremonious should it all be? SLV Podcast out! YouTube views jumping… but engagement down. Why? A call to Vietnam? Could it be? How and why? Not sure how much I want to bounce around, but… why not? Donate to the show! PayPal link below! https://www.paypal.me/stevensirski?locale.x=en_CA **...

Going to miss this air conditioning! Going to be a heat wave tomorrow. Workouts in! 7.02km in 45.27, nice and slow today. Then inside for weights, upper and lower. Thinking… is it better to eat in between workouts or just power through? I chose to eat some yogurt. Bought cakes and desserts for one class (the smaller one), the others, no.  Got all the grades sent out and mostly no complaints except...

Nineteen more days until the summer solstice, nineteen more days until the days start getting shorter. Too early? Three more days! Apparently I have to have class on Friday morning! Grades getting sent out. Episode 43 of the SLV podcast recorded, hope to have it out tomorrow. AI Agents, new tech, or just a fad? What about for teachers? Ma La Xiang Guo - what is it? Donate to the show! PayPal link...

It’s Dragon Boat Weekend! Back into Changping for the last time! Why do we even have classes this week?! Summer plans? A resurgence of COVID? Smokers didn’t COVID? Where’s the evidence of alcohol helping you do stuff? Saw the latest Mission: Impossible movie. Not bad. Long. Kinda sappy. And they finally gave me soap in the hotel again! Donate to the show! PayPal link below! https://www.paypal.me/s...

End of the month already and five months gone of the year. Insane. Most grading done, a few more changes to make. Visa renewal in process! Got a few videos done today, too! Workout in! Ooof! 7.03 km in 42.34, then tried to go into pull ups etc. got through 75 and the decided to go eat. Returned after breakfast to finish the last bit. Spent the afternoon updating spreadsheets and cycling around Cha...

And it’s over! Classes are over! Some students were asking about a writing test next week… I know nothing about it.  Trump Tariffs on pause, is that why Chinese stocks went up? Lost 200 RMB! Damn! It’s been there all semester! Why is it that that can affect me more than losing money in the stock market? Looking at houses in Canada, changed my “Maximum” monthly payment to “$2000” and was literally...

Classes nearing the end! Some interesting class presentations: -tea (white hair silver needles) -how to make your own LLM And glad to see one class is as dialled out for their classmates’ presentations as they are for me! Should get that residence permit renewal in! Forgot and have been busy! Workout in! 7.02km in 39.34 - 5.30 pace. Is the time savings worth the extra struggle? Then hit the weight...

Essays done, final exam done! Turns out the other teachers are leaving! Am I missing something?? Workout in! 5 km in the noontime in 34.28, then a 20-minute workout afterwards. Working on three months of content, so it can build upon itself AND an agentic workflow.  And a discussion on whether or not AI should be in the classroom. Donate to the show! PayPal link below! https://www.paypal.me/steven...

Beginning of the week, and end of the semester. Speaking presentations begin! What is vibe coding and why does anyone care? Projects piling up, how to sort through them all? Workout in! 6.44 km in 49.07. Four rounds of rope work, push ups, tuck jumps and assisted pistol squats (these are getting better!). Then inside for club and mace work. Work permit extended, do I even want to stay? What’s the...

End of classes! Now on to exams! Finally time to pause and think. Kinda. If Google Meet is taking out language teachers, then automation is the way to go. It’s the new teaching English. Power Automate, Zapier, Make, I guess I’m going to learn how to do them all. Workout in! 110 pull ups, 220 push ups, 330 squats with 5kg, then lunges, 20 kg plate farmers carries. 7.03 km run in 43.10. Ran faster (...

Google live translate! https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/google-meet-ai-translation-6a30c43a?mod=itp_wsj,djemITP_h Sheeeit! They found me! Or at least a few did. What are they watching? Are they the trolls? And it’s agreed that the Chinese internet is more toxic than the West! Do dead people have feelings? My Dad said he got some of the best sleep in class. Would you rather carry a backpack f...

Long day! Is COVID back? Workout in! 7.00km in 41.18. Did the last three kms in under five minutes caused I got passed by another runner. Not gonna let that happen… actually, wanted to see if I could keep pace. I did. Weights done, not lifting as heavy, but still moving. Canada energy retreating, and inflation not as bad as it has been - because of the drop in the price of oil! -unless of course y...

520! Send your kisses! Some students were sure dolled up. Lots of former students got married this past weekend. Essay breakdown! OMG! Where did they learn this?? High school?? Google Notebook LM is out! How is it? Same same as before. It was able to pull from YouTube and summarize everything but it also included the mouth smack… annoying.  New SLV podcast out! Looking at ways to make this easier....

Getting hot out there! Getting hard to walk across open streets. Winnipeg Jets are out! In overtime! Sad. ;( Mark Scheifele’s father passed away before the game, then he takes a penalty in the last thirty seconds of the game which carried over into overtime.  Then, with only thirty seconds left in the penalty, Dallas Stars scored.  Workouts in! 6.50 km in 38.37… not sure about that. Four rounds of...