The Audio Blog of Steven Sirski

Olympics officially underway but is China, is Beijing, really a winter sport place? Not much snow left on the ground but maybe they are trying to stimulate a new healthy lifestyle? Chinese studies continue, 49% on my practice test. Pinyin Wordle keeps me edutained. Looking to do a livestream of my tracks sometime soon as I've now uploaded all of the December Drumming and Jamuary tracks to Bandcamp...

Friday night, the night of the Olympic Opening Ceremony. Too bad all we can do is watch it on TV like the rest of the world! Though the sport-specific instructional videos are cute. Might take a wander up to the Olympic Park later in the week to see how it looks. Some Chinese done today but not much, focusing on vocab and idioms. Borrowed a book from my neighbour, Interior Chinatown, written like...

Thursday already?! Hope this isn't a hernia. Will get up to do my workout anyway if only at half power. Olympics have started, Chinese female skip speaks in Chinese but screams in English! They are a pretty good team. Spent the day mixing around December Drumming tracks, fixing the metatags associated with the track info. Spent some time going through the Russian grammar book written in Chinese, i...

An homage to a famous song about not wanting to work but to bang on the drum all day. Simple, but it's appropriate for this month's challenge! Show notes and tracks up on stevensirski.com

Back pain from the morning gains. Take care out there when swinging the kbells. Chinese studies for the day included vocab review, HSK test prep work and... the Chinese version of Wordle! Takes some time but it's a good review of the language and culture's idioms. Finished up December Drumming with Shchedryk, you can find that on my website. Jamuary done, and website updated. Hope you're having a...

First day of the Lunar New Year, the Year of the Tiger! Gong xi ni fa cai! Xin nian kuai le! Hu nian kuai le! Health wealth and prosperity in the new year of the Tiger! Busy day as I spent much of it updating the website. All of January's audio blogs are up and so are the tracks for Jamuary. Ninety days of creative output (NaNoWriMo, December Drumming, Jamuary) are over for now, next one starts in...

Last day of the Lunar New Year and the first day of the week! Is Beijing any different? What do you do for the Lunar New Year? End of the Ox Year and into the Tiger New Year which means... ? A week off and able to get some things done. Jiaozi done. Yuanbao done. Penzi done. Eating early and then onto the Gala tonight! Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com!

Out to the pub we go, or is it a watering hole? Pint house? Local brew bar? Anyway, night went on longer than expected but that was because we were just so smart! Ended the night with some fantastic Korean fried chicken doused in sauce! Automating work, automating life, how much can be done and using which tools? Read up on using Apple Automator and Apple Scripts, how can these work with Python? J...

Thinking about... how to automate myself as an ESL teacher? For all of the month-long challenges I've gone through, would it be possible to build a program to at least deal with the introductory back and forths for a language learner? Not just an English learner, but a language learner in general? What questions would you ask? How would you know when they've stopped speaking? How would you know wh...

Reading JP Getty's book again, what does it take to succeed? What is success? What habits do I need to form? A podcast for ESL learners to supplement class? An extra service to students? The job will end, it's not a matter of if, it's when and how prepared I will be for that. Jamuary continues with new tracks up and lining up podcast guests. Show notes and tracks up on stevensirski.com. Hope you'r...

Why do I even read these books?! End of the Universe? My descendents will have to make the jump? Yet all I'm worried about is my next paycheck. And reading some books I may never have an actual use for. This was inspired by Michio Kaku's The God Equation. Maybe I should have just had a beer instead? Bought a Russian grammar book... in Chinese. The idea is to study both at the same time. Eech. Chin...

Parts of Fengtai locked down, city-wide testing, Omicron has been found in the Olympic loop. How and why? Good thing my books arrived. Jamuary continues with the website updated. Looking forward to Finish February. Beijing has snow, is it even real if it doesn't stick to make snowballs? Snowman 2022 done. And... what if still China, but not Beijing? Where else would I go within China? Would I want...

Thanks David. Morning workout pushed back to the afternoon. Still got it done. Friday night but it's a work night here. Lockdowns? Could they become a reality here in Beijing? That would suck but it's not impossible. Bought some books, Bill Bryson and Michio Kaku, both authors I've read for a while. Why don't I read more? I do spend most of my time studying Chinese! Why do I care about hyperspace?...

We're out and about in what may become a rare event in the very near future. Saw a play titled "Medea", based on the tragedy written by Euripides so many years ago, but now interpreted in a modern context and... in Chinese. Understanding? 10%. Good thing there were subtitles at the theatre. Spoke with the director, Donnie Fan, right after the performance to get his take on the one act play and fol...

Smoggy outside but was out for a run this morning at 620. Only ran a mile, no weight vest, want to test out a morning running routine in preparation for the 4x4x48 in March. Back to work tomorrow Medea, an interpretation, theatrical play tomorrow night. Going out? Is it even possible? Should have skipped Chinese homework today or at least worked on my other textbook, not the HSK materials. 6 out o...

Productive day! Mobility = hip stretches = sitting all day because... getting shtuff done! Chinese (four hours, 55% on my latest practice test), audio blog, JAMUARY tracks (17th, 18th) AND.... last but not least... a POEM. DAVID HARRISON HORTON let me read his poem out loud for the masses, his work "Above Below Beneath Over Under Underneath" is featured on today's Episode. I spent much of my day t...

Twitter Spaces, are they worth it? How many socials can you handle? Xiaomi 6 band vs Garmin HRM Pro, verdict? Peet's Coffee vs Starbucks vs local options of Wagas n Baker & Spice. Relaxing weekend of doing nothing! Didn't even go to Chinese class! Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com! Have a great start of week!

Food, fasting and figures. Still on the restricted eating schedule but have not been following any sort of nutrition restrictions (Hello, GuoBaoRiu). May change that up. Morning workout in and out, done in 50 minutes. Hardest thing is to deciding to do it and then get up and get it done. Beijing lockdown, Tianjin lockdown. Olympics not too far away. Jamuary continues. Got some time now to get some...

Forgot to record transcript! Thinking about Dunkeroos, Lucerne Ice Cream bars, and pizza pops lately. What happens if I leave my job here in Beijing? Do I have to leave the country right away or do I have some time to find another or get my stuff and get out? People are leaving for greener pastures, or at least not as caging. Beijing locking down, free to move about within the city but risky to le...

Down early, up early. Trying out transcription software. Had some success with the Python version two years ago but it had limited use, as do most freebies. Using Otter.ai as it has 6000 minutes free but it has to be done live and within the web browser. Not sure about the APP. Will try it out to see if it makes life easier. And with all this technology, have we left the past behind? Could we ever...

Website updated with latest upload from December Drumming. A little walk through of some inspirational drum beats. Jamuary continues... And Chinese for five hours. But I still don't feel like I accomplished anything. Did better on the practice tests though, scored 55%. Language learning and a lot more. Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com. Have a good day!

Russian class cancelled, will I get credit? Chinese class.. still having trouble understanding despite progress with vocab. Tech and teaching: will THE METAVERSE merge with teaching? How can I automate my teaching while still providing personalized service? This and more in today's audio offering. Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com, have a good start of week!

Have you ever found yourself with a collection of sound bits you've collected over the years as you've lived in a city? No? Well, some of us have. These here are some of the sounds I often hear while living and working in Beijing. Among them are a passenger announcement, cooling fans, knife sharpeners, people eating, and me trying to speak Chinese. Show notes and tracks up on my website stevensirs...

Missed yesterday cause I fell asleep so a weekend edition it is! Theatre techniques for language learning: put a pen in your mouth. Russian trial classes, interesting to try out a few different teachers to see their style and methodology. Another trial run on Monday. Chinese homework took forever but at least it's done. Sticking better now. New workout for the morning that doesn't rattle my head a...

Beat Boxin with Claps. Trying it out. As so many others on soc med seem to be publishing electronica and the like, I seem to fall back on Beat Boxin and Body Percussion. Maybe i's the easiest. I'll look to change it up going forward.