The Audio Blog of Steven Sirski

Listening to PT Barnum's "The Art of Getting Money". Known for his Barnum & Bailey circus that ran until 2017. USAmerican entrepreneur, in his introduction to this book he says alcohol and tobacco are two of the biggest problems that young people face, especially those who think themselves business savvy. Turns out he was a big smoker and boozer before a visit to Europe which changed his mind. Dua...

Joe Rogan reads TikTok's TOS: is it just a data mining app? Contrast Gary Veynarchuk's 'get on TikTok' and his claim that China will surpass the US within the next decade or so. You on it? Writing a book in 30 days by James Altechur -Could I write a book for ESL learners? Language learners? Given the big push towards audio, do you really want to hear everything? Or what about these services that o...

Ukraine hits Crimea... why they cant use the weapons to go further into Russia double workouts... TWO rounds of skip n ballz! Vocab review, it's all I do Sanya 80,000 tourists kept from leaving... there could be worse places I guess On travelling and tourism: since Tibet is closed, they have suggested alternative routes -would you rather travel on your own (no guide) or go on a packaged tour? New...

11 mile bike ride in the morning, get up n get it done Gotta use up Russian lessons Never seen anti-Russian sentiment so high before amongst the people I know. Foreign Affairs article. What would it take? 生闷气 (-悶氣) shēng mènqì - sulky -Are the Chinese people you know a little downtrodden? Sky miles are disappearing Metaverse for F1?! Pro sports?! NFTs are hockey players you create and train V...

Humidity hits 84%?! Internet problems... is it just me? Internet repair in Chinese! Thank goodness for translatation and multiple connection lines! Setting up some new channels for the podcast and possibly will keep the audio blog separate. Also thinking of how to spin off May You Make Your Movie into a separate project. Sanya hit by THE VIRUS! When will this end? And... turns out some universitie...

Nice and quiet today! No generator! Slow n twenty workout today, focused more on technique and going slow Early cause invites to go out More people leaving but staying in Beijing 'Because if you don't you'll have to update your resume' - a little quote or saying I came up with to motivate myself. Animations continue... animating bean makes it look like a ball sack some times. Show notes tracks n v...

Qixi day... another Valentine's Day in China Pelosi gone, internet a little bit better, but not much Half bike ride today, lots of mobility work. Humidity high, rainstorm finally to cool things down! Show notes tracks n vids on stevensirski.com Have a good one!

Humidity high! Affecting workout performance. Few more animations done, need to soundtrack. Leaving open the idea of using anything to animate, but I want to focus on animation this month. A guy I know wrote a few improvised songs for his kid so I used them as inspiration. China elections coming up, bet you didn't think they happen but yes, they do. Coincidentally, Evergrande executives forced to...

Reading some articles on Germany before the war... Foreign Affairs between 1931 and 1940. They saw what was happening. Have a few other articles I want to read on the subject as I find it fascinating and just a touch of a warning in some way. Just something to look out for. Cyncism is popular, but why don't people reject their passports? They choose to live somewhere else yet they hold on. Bike ri...

Humidity and connection issues! Knife Sharpener actually sings! Compound clarified with pesticide! New month! Civic holiday in Canada, Dauphin's CNUF and Folklorama kick off this week. Looks like it's in full swing, I've never seen another city put on a show for each culture in the city. Food, traditional clothing and dance, items for sale from that country. I don't think I ever went to the Chines...

A weekly wrap up of the topics discussed on this week's podcasts! July 25 to 29 2022.

End of month! Humidity hits! Tough waking up today, is skipping destroying me? Or was it the Nordic curls I tried yesterday? I feel those today! Haven't felt a strained muscle in a very long time! Quarter Murph done and another two miles and slow mo workout in the aft. Gold bounces! Crypto charges! If you're not publishing, do you exist? What do you think? August Animation? With work hitting full...

HUGE shout out to the coders n programmers that have created such cool tech! Trying to livestream from my.phone while using the recorder app AND overlaying show notes from another APP! Simply neat and impressice! More SLV vids up: walking and eatinf chocolate. Can't live stream from my phone cause I don't have enough subscribers on Youtube just yet. So go subscribe! :D August animation... have bee...

Right... livestreaming can have connectivity issues. Sprints... still... eeech, BUT, I've noticed that doing sprints of skipping has been cutting down on fat. Like, noticeably! There's something beautiful about hearing the rain... but can you sleep with it always there? HSK flashcards continue... SLV videos continue and an idea for a TikTok channel! Show notes tracks n vids up on stevensirski.com!...

Flash card HSK - slowly going through the several decks I have have: physical, Ankidroid x3, and Memrise. New vids up on SLV, tongue twisters! Are they actually useful for teaching ESL? SpaceLab, ever been? Neat but food is only 还可以. A report from Slovenia and... Georgia! Live streaming... did I just eliminate my evenings out?! Is there another way I could do this to give me some flexibility? S...

Trying to broadcast while recording, thinking of setting up a new channel on YouTube Downloaded THREE DECKS of flashcards on Anki PLUS Memrise, we're hitting those characters hard! Thinking... if I don't get an apartment renewal contract, I may be forced to move which would mean... uni job? Are they still available? Been posting a few English vids on my language vlog, some tips on learning languag...

Rain! Unexpected but that will cool things down. Another bike ride this morning, 10 miles / 16 kms, plus a one mile run after. Afternoon workout was a run and kbells... then I ripped a callous off. Ow. DRUGS! Shrooms, pot, kava etc., do we need them? What about alcohol or caffeine or tobacco? What about music? Why do so many musicians partake in these substances? Indigenous cultures around the wor...

That generator is still on! Gold looks good! Is it a replacement for cash? Zhengzhou bank runs and red QR Codes! What about crypto?! Episode 31 in the books! Recorded and now onto editing. GoPro battery swollen and stuck... required some finaggling with a knife but got it out. Battery still works but it's a pain to get it out and I wonder if it's safe. Noodle place gone! Shut down as of yesterday....

Another going away party! And a few words from someone who has been in the country for over nine years. What do you want to accomplish in that country? Why do you want to go? When do you know that it is time to leave? Would you swim in Liangma River? HSK prep continues, eech buuut... I'm the only one left in the country from my former Chinese class! The others have left! Podcast episodes in the wo...

Hot and did not sleep well! Another bike ride this morning and a skip n ballz workout in the aft. New SLV up, took a while to get rendered, not sure why. Podcast lineup in the works! NFTs: airplane tickets as collectibles?! If the airlines can garner another 10% profit... they will. How to make an NFT? How to open a wallet? Which currency to use? Ethereum seems to be the on that comes up a lot. Te...

On vacation! Relaxing!... Except for all the noise! Generators and air conditioners running all the time! Aiya! Hot AF as we are now into the 伏天 fu tian, the three sets of hottest times of the year. Ten days each for a grand total of 30 more days of this! +34 pretty much all the time and hardly a wind. Stay hydrated! How much sun is bad for the skin? And hasn't SPF even come under scrutiny as it...

HSK 失败了！ #FAIL Or at least not very good. Didn't freeze or anything but simply was not prepared enough. Areas to work on: reading speed at HSK 5 level which means more practice dense. These texts are dense and the answers aren't always easy to see... at least in my impression. Vocab! Much more work on this. Words forgotten: 失败, 休息, 提高, 胳膊 (arm), wrist, keyboard 键盘. If going by the ga...

Friday night! Night before HSK 5 test! Still not really nervous, more just want it over with! Almost done with the second go through of the textbook, will probably need one more go through to finish them up. Then the workbook practice tests. Spent the day listening to all of the texts and reviewing vocab. Will continue to focus on vocab review and practice some writing before the test tomorrow. Ne...

Dual workouts in, mostly cardio. One hour bike in the morning, run and skip in the aft. Gotta get those legs moving if you want skipping to count. Five or whatever hours of Chinese studies. Went from Chapter 18-30 in the second book with a glance at vocab, grammar and collocations. Tomorrow hope to go through the rest of the book and do a couple of practice tests. Half Murph tomorrow again, rememb...

Joe Ro saying the govt saying alien aircraft could be real sounds fishy while it's navy pilots seeing these craft in airspace reserved for military.... hmmm now that you put it that way... Webb telescope and it's latest picture of deep space! Russia makes bullets, Ukraine doesn't. Remember media saying Russian troops were retreating? Or were they letting the separatists take up the fight? Three mo...