The Audio Blog of Steven Sirski

Re-settled in Beijing Happy Belated Mother’s Day! South Korea in retrospect: what do I think now? Could I have lived there? SHOULD I have lived there? Back to work, but it’s slow going so looks like I’ll have some time to get some other projects done. How is MYMYM2024 going? It’s not. BUT, in saying that, I have to acknowledge that my original intent was to simply get really good and fast at creat...

Back in the Beej! How was the last day in South Korea? Sorry for the delay, but I guess I was kind of exhausted. Early morning train, but then there are more?? Didn’t sleep much anyway because of all the other guests in the hotel room partying it up! Laughing, listening to music-ing, drinking, puking, it was all there! So we made sure to shuffle a bit louder when we got up. Getting a cab wasn’t to...

Last full day in South Korea! Off to lunch with the chinggu, met a couple of his coworkers who had been in the country for 15 and 20 years. Lunch was a Busan specialty.  Walk over to Haeundae. Can’t say it altogether an exciting walk, but it was nice and peaceful. Like, literally walking in slow motion, very nice compared to Beijing! Lots of cafes all over, the further away from Gwanganli the more...

How much do you reminisce before you just move on? Early-ish morning run around Gwanganli Beach, nothing really opens until 9 or 10 am so it was very quiet. But Busan seems to be much quieter overall than Beijing, but that may be an unfair assessment, Busan is just much smaller. HUGE coffee culture here, as that seems to have exploded in the last few years. Randy’s Donuts? Tried that for breakfast...

Down to Busan we go! How was the train? Nice, 2.5 hours from Seoul Station to Busan Station. FRIED CHICKEN on the way down!! Delicious! Namsan Tower for the morning, crawled up the walkway, then took the cable car back down. A rather noisy place as there were several kindergartens out on a field trip. Add to that the blaring music and it was a touch on the lively side.  Hey, how was your hotel? Sm...

Oh yea, forgot to mention… yesterday’s beers were non-alcoholic… even the gf was surprised haha! Cass Lite, Hite Zero and Heineken Zero! Not bad, and a far cry from what I used to drink here. They have rice wine, makoli, but I haven’t had any just yet.  How many cards do you read at a museum? Don’t blame TikTok or computers, pottery is to blame for our sedentary lifestyle! hahah So says one of the...

Annyeonghaseyo! Is that beer can opening? Why yes it is… Hite Zero! Cass Zero and Heineken Zero too! Back in the So of Ko and tbh, this is the first time I’ve actually travelled through the city.  Rainy and cold-ish, but not overbearing, ie, not so much that we didn’t want to move. As long as we kept moving, we were fine. And if there was no wind. Gyeongbokgung Palace (景福宫) for the day even as...

End of week, off to Seoul on Sunday. We’ll see you there. If not Google Drive, are there local solutions? QQ got taken out by Tencent, but their file transfer service seems to be restricted in file size. Google Podcasts gone! No taxes on stock market gains in Singapore?! Working on Episode 44, cleaning up the audio! Gotta start packing for South Korea! Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com ,...

Another Korean class in the morning! Should be spending my time conjugating verbs. South Korea in three days! Spent the day moving files around and updating the website… gotta be a way to automate this so it’s easier and faster. Google Drive and account location: once declared it can’t be changed. Any Chinese solutions? Lunch time workout in! Slow n steady, still 600 calories. What’s your stance o...

May the first be with you! New month! Lunch time workout in… what if I didn’t have a such a structured day job, how would I maintain this ability to workout at lunch time? I kinda get the sense that it might have to change if I did lose the structure of the job. Chinese markets are closed, except for gold, so your money is locked up until May 6th. And SkyRemit comes through! Flawless! Whew! MYMYM2...

End of the month! I guess I’m on vacation? Money remitted!  And GICs drop! 4.90%?!? Are we living in the age of always being on? -there is no retake Back is feeling a lot better! Why are there so many Lambourghinis all of a sudden? New toys! Mic arm, let’s see how this works. What was that new video about on your language channel? Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com , newsletter at stevensi...

Elon Musk is in town I have days off this week? Oh, right, yesterday was a work day, and next Saturday is too. Doesn’t matter, I’m off to South Korea on Sunday! Doing taxes, have you done yours? About that Canadian tax rate: it’s for values over $250,000 CAD. So, house owners. Lunch time run: shorter run for a longer HIIT. Oof, the back hurts! Careful with those kbell swings! Did you know? Beijing...

Paid and now to trade! Korean class tomorrow morning, I have NOT been working on verbs or vocab as much as I’d like to. Imagine a three week language sprint, how much time can you actually dedicate? Non alcoholic wine sucks: it’s expensive grape juice! Get Bickford’s instead and add some fizzy water to give it some sparkle. Lunch time workout: 6.08km in 1hr 1 min 02 sec, was running slow today for...

Busy day, still gotta get a long form video up on the vlog. Episode 45 done! Into the post studio we go. Korean class, neat way of teaching grammar bit by bit: 맥도날드는 어디에 있어요? 저는 핸드폰에 맥도날드 앱이 있어요. [앱] app [Can] vowel + -ㄹ 수 있다 final consonant + -을 수 있다 수 있어요/수 있었어요/수 있을 거예요 PSY does a concert every summer… forgot to mention this. Show notes n tracks...

Russian video takes off! PSY does a concert every summer?!? Last Korean class with this teacher. Tough going, what was I doing before class? Moving files around. Damn iPad and Skype! Workouts in! 6.57km in 41.36, followed by some slam ball work. Episode 45 to be recorded tomorrow! Will need to spend some time editing already! Show notes and tracks up on stevensirski.com , newsletter over at steven...

Standing desks: yay or nay? Then your legs still get sore. Russian class done, how was it? Made a video about it. Korean class in the morning, how was it? A realization that vocabulary trumps grammar! Hey, ChatGPT does spoken words now! How is it? And did I tell you about what happened on Instagram and why I don’t think TikTok is done for, regardless of the rhetoric out of the US? And apparently U...

First rain in a long time! New week!  How was Korean class? Using LingoDeer to go through a lot of the basics, follow my language vlog for progress updates, all in English, very little Korean. How was Chinese class? Still not as fluent as a kid. Workouts in! Saturday: clubs and a run, today: lunch time run 6.59km in 40.55 plus another 21 minutes of HIIT. Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com...

Oh, they were pacers! That’s why they were running so well! Oh, and it was two Kenyans and an Ethiopian. But now they’re saying it was fixed. Medals stripped, money taken back!  Canada raises its capital gains tax rate… 2/3s?! WTF! https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/ottawa-moves-to-raise-inclusion-rate-on-capital-gains-taxes-in-2024-budget-1.2059842?lid=9gc6wtfkihjl Still MORE internet issues, let’s not...

Welp, some dbag is in town causing all the plug up mess that is the internet these days. Fkg unbelievable. First Korean class in fifteen years! How bad was it? How much will actually be possible to learn? Taiwanese Mandarin class again, learned all about bopomofo keyboard, which I remember talking about many years ago. Teacher gave me some materials to work with, much appreciated. Interesting to s...

Why is it okay to put off exercise for a job, but not your business idea? The Steve’s English? How does that sound? Cherry blossoms are gone. So tough luck if you were thinking of visiting me with a side helping of seeing the spring flowers. Now they’re just trees. Korea booked! First time in fifteen years! Well, except last year’s stop over. now, how to learn Korean in three weeks? Russian class...

Steven, did you put the wrong date on yesterday’s show? Yes. Oops. Russian class done, hey why not add some Korean? How is Chinese going? Lunch time workout: should I just start training one muscle group per day six days a week? Seems to be the thing to do, how would I do that with kettlebells and maces? Or have I chosen the wrong instruments for this tune? Enjoying the newsletter? I don’t feel a...

What would you do if you couldn’t access the internet you need or want for 24 hours? What else would you fill your time with? What’s causing problems this time? GOLD reversed on Friday late in the trading day, what’s the outlook now? My big disappointment is that I did try to maneuver the market, sold early, and then watched the stocks take off during a seasonal upswing. I won’t let that happen ag...

Exit plan for the beard? Wow! GOLD STILL GOING! Oh, THAT’S why the assisted connection device isn’t working: Russian guy in town, followed by former leader of a Taiwanese political party. Tried out some Twitch streaming to see if I like performing live again. Not bad, not sure if it’s something I want to do regularly. The problem with streaming in China, well, see above issues. Lunch time workout...

Taiwanese class… done! A little bit more difficult to express than I thought it would be. Spent the HOUR chatting about the differences in Chineses.  Working on another longer vid for the language vlog, all about a walk around the neighbourhood. More automation! Things are coming together!  But what do you mean I have to pay for ChatGPT’s API access? WTF? Shouldn’t this sh.t be free?! Why, yes, yo...

Catkins! That’s what they’re called! Those little fluffs flying out! Nothing outside today though as it was raining during the lunch time run: 6.56km in 38 min and 15, a very speedy 5’44” pace per km. I’ve been doing hip flexor work lately so that seems to be paying off. Lots more automation work, so much so that it’s basically occupying my time. What I want to happen: -auto-transcribe podcasts, i...