The Audio Blog of Steven Sirski

Exam done! That looks like a lot of writing to be read. How long am I supposed to spend on each? Passport gotten! June 15th is expiry day! UH OH! Where else could I go? May have found a photo editor, which would help immensely. Carney is Prime Minister, the Liberals continue, but is he so liberal? Aaaand what’s South Africa like? Spoke with the colleagues today! Surprising! New ice cream shop on c...

Almost the end of the month! Already! Dessert party on the weekend, how was it? People are leaving, others are staying. Who and why? GOLD a falling, so is silver. Barrick Gold changing their name: Barrick Mining. Ticker will stay the same in Canada: ABX. John Paulson buying gold… MINES! https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/gold-prices-investing-alaska-mine-john-paulson-6952438a? New video up for...

End of week! Sunday classes? Moved. Online for the make up class. Students were happy. Spent the day typing out Russian declensions, all to be put into ElevenLabs. Workouts in! 4.20km in 26.39, then to the gym for 105 pull ups with a 5kg weight, 210 push ups, 315 squats, both with 5kg weight. Makes me think, what’s the longevity of this workout? Then back out for another 4.00 km in 24.59. Yes, 8 k...

A full day and yet what do you get done? The problem with working from home on your own…Early morning run, only 4km, but if I go, then I never end up doing my language studies. Spent the day trying to get some automations done and got a few of them to work.-Update Google Sheets when file is added to Google Drive-Schedule to Instagram-Update spreadsheet with podcast infoDid NOT get a computer-based...

And KERPLUNK goes GOLD! Canadian BANKS a popping! Chinese stonks a turning? New SLV episode up! Episode 37! Available on all fine podcasting networks, near and far! Thursday and Friday off, when do I make these up? Sunday? Or two weeks from now? Workout in, 7.33km in 44.25, then a full body workout with lighter weights but higher reps before my usual Wednesday lunch time meeting. Donate to the sho...

Breakfast pass denied! Or at least they told me to stop taking food. BOOO!GOLD UP, stocks mixed, COT… going down?!Had much of the day to myself today, very nice. Could get used to this. I’m a meme! Apparently they’ve cropped my face and put me into the WeChat emoji list. Not sure what to think of this. Reading and Listening exam done, kinda easy! Now, make up days? And Pope Francis has passed away...

Happy Easter! Done for another year. Exam tomorrow so no classes! Same with next week! But then I gotta mark. Lab leak theory published on US Govt websites, nothing surprising. Workouts in! 7.00 km done in 43.37. Then a lighter weight workout before breakfast. Off to the aviation museum this weekend! Big planes and lots of stuff, video in the works. Kinda got burned, but not much. Chinese stonks a...

It’s Holy Thursday, not Good Thursday. And today it’s Good Friday. Easter weekend. Markets closed. Not Greece, if not China, and Canada at some point, but, what if…?I think Astrill is dead. BUT, can’t access TikTok through Let’s Go VPN. Going with Lets GO VPN for a few months. Workouts in! Sluggish, but done. Maybe, is it the food that I’m eating? Lots of oil? Lots of rice. Never usually ate like...

Is it the heat and the change of weather that’s wearing me out? Taking afternoon naps again… first in a long time. Visa submitted! Now we wait! Pick up April 27th. Means I have three more months in China before I need a new visa. Will I get one??What if… I went to Greece? Or Korea? With the language vlog I could video the whole thing and document not just the travels but the people and language. T...

Run done but workout tampered… still feeling laggy. BARELY got to the gym, but that’s also because I was thinking of continuing to work on the language vlog. Preparing for exam week = no classes next Tuesday! Exam Tuesday night. SLV Episode 36 out! Newsletter count ticking higher, as are subscriptions to the YouTube channel. I see these memes of Trump by people around the world and I can’t help bu...

Should’ve recorded this earlier, but… had to lie down. Feeling rather tired. So had a a bit of a lay down after work. Is the Chinese market bottoming? Seems stocks have generally been going up, if only incrementally and lots of the companies I was following from late 2024 are now turning around once again after months of stagnation. Working on the language vlog podcast. Done the editing, now need...

Monday begins and back in the Changping! Full week this time? Workouts in! Morning run - 7km in 47min, then stretching, then mace bells and steel clubs. New language vlog out! Chinese progress check! Went to the Changping PSB! How was it? Very clean, new and… empty. And!… the university didn’t give me all the documents soooo gotta go back later on. Thinking… this is another reason I don’t really w...

The wind! The wind! Where is that wind? 大风day yet… is it all that bad? Workouts in, two parts:  -60 pull ups push ups n squats, holding 5kg plates or weights -then a bike ride from HuiXinXiJieNanKou to Shuangjing about one hour -30 more pull ups with the weight vest, push ups and squats Got a new video recorded on the vlog, should have that up soon. Need to finish up Harbin! Markets bouncing, GO...

Rally! Then a fall! This is a traders’ market for sure! A pause on tariffs! Ninety days of relief puts us into July: another bad time for the market. China should import more! The point seems to be that China has built a walled-off country within which it EXPORTS to the world, but doesn’t really bring anything in, ie IMPORTS, like the US does. Is this protectionist or just a smart move? Or is it M...

Oh the visa registration… all through WeChat or use the browser? Markets still pulling back. Remember Benny Lewis, Fluent in 3 Months guy? Heard a podcast with him. He’s gone through some life changes Having trouble with the BLCU course, will I finish it in time? Morning run done, and a workout to boot! 7km done in about 50 minutes Legs and chest today in the gym. And given all of the technology t...

Anyone else notice the VPNs get troublesome around 9.30pm? Futures bouncing! Good time to trade? Or time to get out? SLV podcast recorded, let the editing begin. iShowSpeed meets Da Zang Wei, the Rainbow Unicorn song guy. And MORE TARIFFS! Ok, so you tax / put a surcharge on something coming into the country. So why would a country “retaliate” if they were trying to beat the trade war? Truth Socia...

Market route continues, when will it end? Chinese stocks also slammed. When to sell? -drop through the 10-day moving average, 2% with substantial volume https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/when-to-sell-stocks-clues-5d49d60d?mod=itp_wsj,djemITP_h Sell half or go to cash, but live to trade another day. New schedule begins, no more Monday 9pm finish, but now a 2pm start. Got some things done this week...

iShowSpeed goes to Hong Kong… interesting camera angles. Interview done! Look for it on the vlog soon. Back in Shuangjing, windy and a sandstorm? Workout in! Busy day!  Up at six,  out for a run,  back to stretch,  to the gym for the 100 pull ups with 5 kg,  then breakfast,  then off to DongZhiMen to meet up for a vlog recording. No languages done today. MARKETS SLAMMED! AGAIN! Donate to the show!...

Let the weekend begin! Welp, no double bottom just yet as MARKETS SLAMMED! AAPL drops by $20, OIL crushed, US markets DOWN, CAD UP. Dollarama UP with a PERFECT cup with handle formation! Should’ve been watching… but how do you know? US taking aim at Quebec and its Bill 96: trademarks, contracts, and work all in French! One of the provinces that has always been very proud of its culture and heritag...

What did Google do? ANOTHER AI model? NotebookLM, let’s have a listen. Run done in the morning SLV Podcast Episode 34 is up and out! Last couple of 9pm finish times as next week the schedule changes. What type of bike should I get? SHOULD I get one? Thinking… old job apparently has placements in Canada, too. COULD open a business here in China for the visa, then move between Canada and China for m...

Beginning of April! Liberation Day tomorrow, or is it a delayed prank? GOLD still popping! But energy lagging, something has got to give. Double bottom on the S&P500?  Heat is off and it is a bit cold inside but warm outside. Remember those Chinese courses I signed up for? Yea, gotta finish those. Spent the morning working on one of those. Spent the evening working on Episode 34 of the Languag...

End of the month and a shortened week! Getting tired of all this running around. Who is iShowSpeed (Darren Jason Watkins Jr.) and why is he here? 陽光彩虹小白馬  Scott Payne and going undercover, first full Joe Rogan podcast I’ve listened to since Trump. Markets roiling, what’s going on? Who knows! Slow start to the day, but still got the workouts in. Is my lack of motivation this schedule and rou...

End of week, Steve, do you do any marking? Hotel seems kinda dead. I guess people go home on the weekends, or at least not here.  Markets getting hit. Why? Who knows! Workout in, 8 minutes per kilometre? Have I not been running the correct distances all these years? 105 pull ups 210 push ups 315 squats -Did some with 5 kg plates, rest were body weight. Did some video editing - change of direction...

Not liking this working till after 9 pm, making me think what next semester would be like. COLD outside. STILL. Language bots are working alright, need some refining. The goal is to build up something that can be sent each and every day, is topical, appropriately graded for a particular level, and to be cheap to implement. I might create a website that tracks all of them, or maybe just the better...

Got the NeZha pins! Very understanding customer service. Workout in! Legs and chest + a 40 minute run… on the treadmill. Have I really been running 6.44 kms for the last few years or was that all a lie? Post-workout brunch AND took dinner to go! Some colleagues used to HATE when people did this from a breakfast buffet! Language podcast up! Episode 33! Paid into my Canadian bank account but… how do...