The Audio Blog of Steven Sirski

Boxing Day! Did you buy anything? No. DID go to the Nutcracker with the nieces. There’s another job that eluded me: professional dancer. Did you know I used to Ukrainian dance? Went on a walk in the evening, am I feeling nostalgic about Winnipeg’s weather? Stopped by a hockey rink, haven’t been on one in ages. What if… not China? Scary question. Donate to the show! PayPal link below! https://www.p...

Boh Pre vichney! Бог предвічний народився, Прийшов днесь із небес, Щоб спасти люд свій весь, І утішився. Christmas Day done and did! What did you get? Church in the morning, 10am. Meeting some of the old faces. Old choir leader, and last Sunday met a former elementary school classmate! Nice day today, went out for a walk. Most things closed. Noticed, lots of pizza places and cannabis shops, do the...

Ikonostasis - THAT’S the word I was looking for yesterday! Tracking Santa… I did this last year 😂😂 Sviat Vechir - 12 dishes… not sure we did all of them. Pan Am closed at 11.30 am soooo off to Goodlife Fitness for a FREE “trial” introduction. What typically goes on for Ukrainian Christmas? Well, one change is the date of the event from January 7th to December 25th. Food, family, and church servi...

Christmas Eve eve! New SLV podcast out! Newsletter out too! Main Street, how is it? Everything except pharmacies and church-sponsored buildings were closed along the strip between Selkirk and Jarvis. Higgins used to be a hooker area. Barriers coming down downtown, how much did it cost?!? LOTS! Church, how is it? Booking tickets back, time for a change? Layoffs - does it matter? The companies menti...

Brother n and fam off to Argentina! Other family arriving and going! Everybody seems to have time off! Not too many shorts posted this week as I’ve been pre-occupied and… it’s difficult to coordinate across time zones. Workout in! Shoulders, rows, deadlifts, accessories, and… excite bike for 15 minutes. Sprint for seconds every minute on the minute. Had to get a Theraband rubber bar cause my elbow...

Super greens, are they worth it? Or just eat vegetables? Canada Post back to work! Any more strikes on the horizon? Walk around outside, up Wellington Crescent and down to Osborne Village. Monetization strategies: 1-webinars: intro to China, intro to teaching English? Intro to learning languages 2-English club online 3-vlogs, shorts, podcasts, language checks 4-ebooks: how to learn a language, how...

I think these workouts are keeping me sane. Today: squats, bench and accessories, didn’t try to push it too much. One lady there showed up with a nice grey outfit on… a change from her regular gym attire. Only 10 minutes on the stairs master because I spent 10 on the excite bike or whatever it is. Dreadful! Also working on a “trading stocks for foreigners in China” tutorial. Might be something peo...

The Phantom Train – Ed Huckeby Why is winter so cold? Because it’s in Decemburrrr! Why did Rudolf get in trouble for his high school report card? He went down in history. Would be nice to have two weeks off instead of just working all the time, day in and day out. What holidays would I have if I had my own business? Even still, this trip hasn’t been a “vacation”, it’s been rather busy! Bell MTS ta...

More snow, and an old building burned down: https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/century-old-manitoba-creamery-burns-down-in-major-fire-1.7145198 Tried Popeye’s chicken, not sure how often I’d have that. Language Vlog Podcast Episode 20 is out! And another donation! New language check video out, too! Looking at university positions in China: would I be better able to leverage my time and energy there, even...

Is the Friday the 13th?! It is! And ALMOST a full moon. Full workout in, added ten pounds to the deadlift to total 95+95+45‎ = 235. Thirty minutes on the stepper, but went mostly easy. Rows and shoulders as well. Feeling a bit of tennis elbow so had to pull back on the accessories, will have to get another band or something. Did some Chinese reading while on the warm up walk. Then Cantonese in the...

LinkedIn No Go - not the marketing scheme of old, will need to re-do some things. Canada video doing okay, but is it China for the win? Book buying: do I even need these? Do I have the time? I Heard There was a Secret Chord by Daniel J Levitin, A Short History of Canada by Desmond Morton, The Trunk by Kim Ryeo-Ryeong. Chinese stocks prepping a pop… again. Never mind stocks, how’s your Cantonese? T...

Where does a country’s central bank buy gold from? I mean, China didn’t allow the buying of gold for the last year then all of a sudden restarted just a month ago or so. McNally Robinson for lunch, do you still buy books?? Reading Crucial Conversations. Bought it years ago, never read it. Workout in! Squat did well, bench was done with dumbbells (got up to 65 lbs each hand) LinkedIn blocking my ms...

Snow again! But not too cold… but how would I know as I never did go outside today! First time touching the drums in over a year! Kinda sucked. Only hit the snare drum and tried out some rudiments. Steve, are you not going back to China? I guess I should get going… though I said the same thing about Canada. Automation for the win! Zapier AI can modify my text input and spit out a decently well-cra...

Snow, but not cold New language vlog podcast out! Episode 19! Should I start posting these videos too? New walk n talk vlog out on the language vlog: lots of comments about the decline of the West and the rise of the East (re: China). Do you believe that? Then why do so many people want to leave China?? Workout in: Snow removal Walk Weights Steps for 35 minutes Gold and Chinese stonks a poppin! Wh...

Happy St. Nick’s Day! Oy khto khto? Zapier for the win! FINALLY got the “AI” to modify the Youtube Description input into social media channel output! Only took a year and a half! BEAUTIFUL! Will save me some monies on Fiverr! Why the sudden shift? Cause Zapier now allows you to use AI by Zapier (which is just OpenAI) as part of their paid plans. I can avoid the API fees! Now… to do this podcast A...

Another microphone mishap! The thing just cut out in the middle of the recording? How was it otherwise? Certainly holding the microphone closer to my mouth. Cold, but no snow today. Should warm up this weekend. Would it be possible to make 30,000 rmb per month in the Chinese stonk market? Need capital, and don’t confuse a bull market for brains. Trying to find this book I bought years ago about bu...

STUFFED! East Indian food for dinner, omg. Red Top diner for lunch, big breakfast there. Workout in! Bench, squats, accessories. Bench, had to dial back the weight a little, but squat added another ten pounds to the bar. Sun dogs, ever seen them? All I know is that it’s cold when they are out. Dealing with stuff, got rid of an old fog machine, black light, and strobe light that have been sitting a...

Snowy, but nice. Stonks a poppin! Is that a China rally underway? New mic! How does it sound? Did some shopping today. Old books, what do you do with them? How many times do you move a book before you just get rid of it? December Drumming continues, May You Make Your Movie continues, soon launching a Chinese language course… lots to go on. How do I make this easier on myself? Donate to the show! P...

Welcome to December! Last month of the year! Beginning of December Drumming! Here we go! This is a lot easier than March Motion and even MYMYM. Will I still get those done? Tracks here: https://skrskimuzik.bandcamp.com/album/december-drumming-2024 Language vlog podcast out - all about the reality of being an expat. Will probably make a second, follow up video to this and post it later in the week....

It’s gotten COLD! Workout in! Shoulders, rows, deadlifts and… stairs! Thirty minutes of that! Add on some accessory work and a short run, done n done. Mall stabbing in Polo Park! One of the big malls here in Winnipeg. Portage Place Mall closing up shop… it hasn’t been good since it opened. Lots of theft and not a very safe area. Convo with one of the cousins: guns, travel, and the state of the cou...

I forgot to put the perogie instructions at the end of the episode on Tuesday. Will put it at the end of today’s and Tuesday’s. Canada post still on strike, the dock workers were on strike, anyone else? Done Russian classes for now! Working on an email drip campaign for the language vlog: language learning and learning basic Chinese. This would be the first draft of the books I was looking to crea...

Can I say I’m tired of the cold? Workout in! Having fun trying to calculate kg to lbs. Bench, squat, accessories + a 7.00 km run in 37.03. Did I actually run 7km or is my watch lying to me? Six laps to a mile, 3.6 laps to a km. Why is it abbreviated “lbs”? Apparently from the Latin “libra”… but where does the “s” come from? Some say “little beef stacks”, which I thought was an interesting answer....

Surprised at how many people talk about Trump! Russian class done! Two more to go. What’s my plan? Chinese books in the making, how so? AI and more? What would YOU have liked to know when you first wen to China? Looking into Facebook Ads, add in a VA doing Lead Gen and… maybe this could be a good way to build up a clientele? Don’t forget newsletter marketing. Bringing back some flour to China - ca...

Bank of China overseas withdrawal fee was 32.84 RMB for $400 CAD, 46.54 RMB for $660 CAD. Max withdrawals seem to be $1000 CAD. This is in addition to the $3.50 CAD ATM fee. Kinda expensive, innit? SLV newsletter out, podcast out. Freelancers sorted… had to draw up a proper ChatGPT prompt for them. Is this the new requirement for bosses? Or have I just been dialling it in and finally clued in to w...

My apologies for all the sniffles, I hope I got most edited out. Feeling better now. So Thanksgiving Day is next week, do you think Trump will pardon the turkey? Day with the fam, ran through a couple of my crazy ideas just to see if they sound crazy out loud. Not too bad. Finally went upstairs to my old room and got rid of a box of books! I probably have three or four more I could get rid of very...