The Audio Blog of Steven Sirski

Longest day of the year which means... the year is half over! Stephen King, writing and reading. Word count inspiration or warning? Cycling in Inner Mongolia (not Mongolia the country) Chinese blogs continue, have to redo the coffee vid. Website updated! Show notes tracks n vidz up on stevensirski.com. Have a good one!

Continues to be a good time for cold beer as the humidity has spiked... you basically sit and sweat all day. Programmed the fans to go on and off at night. Beer, smokes, exercise or what gets you through tech trouble shooting? 4K monitor not playing nicely with the other tech. Two a day workouts continue 618 'shopping festival' Reading some easy-ish Chinese books from a series calles The Long Inte...

太牛了！Very cow! Means awesome or sarcastically not awesome. Any connection with the word cowabunga? Reading in Chinese! A book about Wu Jun who came up with a coffee company here in China, though I'm not very familiar with the name. I want to like After Effects, it's just not very user friendly. Tried to rotoscope something and got everything except the content aware fill which did not do its jo...

Getting tired of training or just need to change things up? What else would I do with my time, right? More mandatory testing but travel restrictions are being eased. Still too expensive to go anywhere. Fengtai is released! But others are locked up. New vlog up: I read a beer can. Good practice but it did take some prep. The Stand: I can see why Stephen King is regarded as a very good writer! Descr...

Residence permit! That's why we go to the PSB! Not for the work visa! Very active day in that I did get my two workouts in + the bike journey to and from the PSB. Somewhere around 1500 calories burned, but then by night time I am hungry! More lockdowns, but this smells more of some sort of hit against the bar scene in Beijing than anything else. Or have things just been lost already? Prime Ministe...

Bianlifeng chicken! Don't get to have this very often any more! Michael Jackson's Thriller - full album, what do you think? It's almost 40 ywara old! 7 of the 9 tracks were singles with the famous Thriller track coming out last. Good album, solid pop songs. May You Make Your Movie updated, only a few remaining! Insta and YouTube updated. Website up to date, thinking I might get someone to code the...

Busy weekend getting vids up and finally finishing one that took a while. Hail stones and thunderstorms, first this year! Beijing does not grt hail very often. MORE testing, lockdowns, etc. SLV continues, neglected to post yesterday so posted this morning buuuut internet connection isnt so good for some reason. Need to focus on pronunciation while continuing with vocab Work permit renewed, next PS...

SLV language check in once again, I should have started this earlier! Michio Kaku on Joe Ro - Types of civilizations YouTube shorts, you ever watch those? Or is this just them trying to copy TikTok or Insta? Lockdowns again! After Effects still causing me issues! Show notes tracks n vidz up on stevensirski.com Have a good weekend!

HSK 5 test prep begins! July 16th is the test date! A liiiittttllee bit nervous! New challenge to myself: post a new video everyday until test day. Can it be done? How much of an improvement will I see? Will I be able to yak on like I do in English? Lockdowns again? Why? Someone got the bug in a club and now they're all closed. Gotta keep those NATs current if you want to enter stores! Booted from...

Another animation done! This time with coffee beans! Word has it that a neighbour is being ousted because... the landlord is selling! That, to me, is a sign of at least a change of direction. Stonk market is appreciating and investors' money is going up! Was out with some folks last night and of all things... met a lady who graduated from my university one year later than I did. Why was she there?...

Seems to be a bit more life out now in the city, I guess people are happy to be out. Passport picked up, now the rest has to be done. And now visa and work permit and contract renewals begin. My real fear is updating WeChat and Alipay. If those dont work then life will be 麻烦了 (troublesome). MYMYM2022 nearing completion as finally got to animating one of the vids. Still dont like After Effects a...

Beijing is open! Allowed to dine out again and restrictions are being lifted all over the place! Yey! Happy Jubilee Day! The Queen of England has been in charge for 70+ years! Can you imagine doing the same job for 70 years? Reading The Stand by Stephen King. I like his writing style. Surprised he didnt get any flack for some of the words he uses in his books. New vid up for MYMYM2022. A few more...

What is that feeling called when you wake up but can barely move? Not sore, but like your muscles are ultimately relaxed? Sleep intertia? Yea, tough to get out of bed this morning but still managed the two workouts today. Pizza is a good recovery food, right? Dragon Boat Festival, have yet to eat zongzi, some went to Chaoyang Park but I think you need proof of vaccination. Uploaded a few more vids...

Hot n sweaty! Still don't understand the electronic gate passes NAT sites fewered. Two workouts! Trying out the running with weight vest again. Dropped it by 2kg though so now only 11kg. 2 miles no vest 1 mile w vest 30 air squats 30 pushups 12 pulls ups 1 mile run + 2 pull ups Then spent most of the day working on... the Iron Man HUD! This was a neat one! Multiple layers and required some work bu...

New month! New life!? Or same ol same ol? Language Vlog: stop being so pseudo academic! Vlog your language! Calling myself out. Getting things done and making sure I've covered as many bases as possible. Show notes tracks n vidz up on stevensirski.com. Have a good one!

Beijing AND Shanghai opening up, right on schedule! Does that mean the generator will be on again at that school? The lights were on... Market turnaround? Looks like it as China reopens. Was it because the Western media chose monkeypox instead? A few new vids up for MYMYM2022, should be the end but have got a few left to do. Tried out some Discording, I see it's use but my connection isn't stable....

May You Make Your Movie - spent much of the weekend trying to finish up a few vids and only got through some. Will ppst soon. Got distracted! Old travel vidz! Old vlog attempts! Cringy! Beijing case numbers are down and I see a few places have opened again. Still no dining in but it is good weather for a cold Tsingdao. Listening parties? I've thought about this before and I'm not sure why I hadn't...

Workouts completed and yea, still need to work on hip mobility! Tried an online combat fitness class and, well, yea, had some difficulty. Still a decent workout though! Animation: difficult to grt through the mind but got it done. Three vids out: -Cereal Animation -Eye See Beijing -Glowing Space Force Will have more time this weekend too. Newly released e-pass for the compound, I thought things we...

Finished The God Equation... looks like we need to find out the Theory of Everything so we can skip universes. Can't help but think of the comedy in that. No compulsory NAT test but A LOT of subway stations are closed. Three Peaks and a Domed House formation, is that what we're seeing now? Or have seen take place? Coal companies are doing well in China, why? May You Make Your Movie final weekend!...

Just when you think the markets are bottoming... they fall further. Check Canadian energy. Beijing case numbers significantly down, compulsory testing today, but only one week till the June 1st deadline. Workouts paused today, back and left hip were stiff so decided to work on some mobility drills instead. Will try to back at it tomorrow morn. May You Make Your Movie, been working on a trilogy of...

First thunderstorm of the year. Curious: if the long-timers are moving with their wives n kids, does that mean the wives are hearing or seeing something that's not being said out loud? Beijing vs Shanghai might be heating up, thought numbers are down. Monkeypox? Will be a busy week trying to finish up all these vids but will be happy once it's done! #MayYouMakeYourMovie Two a day skill development...

Quiet...if I shut off all of the fans. Other than that, it's warm and getting humid! New episode of Language Vlog is in the works, spent the day editing it. New vids are in the works, Eye See Beijing. Appeared on another language web stream on the weekend. Hosted by former colleague Denny Goin, Hobbit English is available on Youtube and Facebook to stream. Talked about motivation to keep up the st...

Do you want to sweat or breathe smog? That's a summer in Beijing. Wu Er Ni! If you haven't sent your gf an wu er ni msg and 5.20, then you still have time. Some say this is the Chinese Valentine's Day but I thought that was March 11. Or when? I think this is really just the beginning of the summer shopping season and leading up to 618, which are lucky numbers in Chinese. Busy day with the two a da...

Chilled soda water tasting pretty good these days as the temperature rises. Possible topic for this week's language vlog: what does it take to become a translater or interpreter? Is it a reasonable goal to set to achieve as a language student? Workout routine: worth scheduling in advance? How much should I plan? Need to find a better method for these two a days. (Nutrient timing means eating withi...

Allergies in Beijing - a problem every spring and late autumn for some reason. What to do? Website updated - audio blog and May You Make Your Movie videos up for viewing and download! After Effects vs Apple Motion? Beatles album - Abbey Road: love it or hate it? Never listened to it before so Saturday was the first time and I got AN EAR FULL! Takes me back to my first issue of Modern Drummer magaz...