The Audio Blog of Steven Sirski

Ukrainian oil, that was never talked about before but the timeline fits. War continues. March Motion coming to a close, simplifying quite a few projects so I can get them done. Chinese progressing. Richard Sears, Chinese etymology, researches the evolution of Chinese characters (hanziyuan.net). Double workouts and calorie counting, is this sustainable? Podcast numbers... I don't track! They distra...

Cold! Allergies! Whyyyyyyy!? March Motion and the basics of sole computer graphics. Made some vids, will post later. New DJI drone... $45,000! Sweet looking thing, plus a portable dock for on-the-go inspections. Should I become a pilot? Or at least learn how to fly? Might be a useful skill in the years ahead. Chinese.... HSK 5 prep continues with writing out the characters and... posting them on Y...

Omincron reappears, shutting down schools and businesses once again. Chinese class... taking a break? Mission accomplished me thinks n so now I want to directly focus on HSK5 test prep rather than try to do two separate textbooks at the same time. Can I double down on test prep in time to pass the thing in one go? Chinese taxes done, MUCH SIMPLER than Canadian taxes! March Motion continues with so...

Russian classes - tongue twisters На дворе - трава, на траве - дрова. Не руби дрова на траве дрова! Do tongue twisters help with pronunciation? We sure depend on them in class! Synthesia - AI avatar! Was playing around with that during the day. How can I build, develop and deploy? Are teachers being made redundant or are they being forced to change their skillsets? Show notes n tracks up on steven...

Too much news! Is this like the Trump years in office wherein the media only fixated on one thing? Stocks keep going up... or at least in the Canadian energy sector. Sanctions on Russia mean up go the Canadian oil stocks. Sleeping faster - types of sleep patterns = Uberman sleep schedule. Perfect for parents? Two hours of core sleep + specific naps throughout the day. And I made cookies from a pac...

Omicron hits, shut downs increase. Plane crash on Monday doesn't look good, first in over a decade. Some things are out of our control so appreciate the small things in life. Be grateful. Despite all of our technology, we are rather fragile. Working on some automation for Android to help me with studying Russian pronunciation in the morning and being sure to do my Chinese characters. Marcg Motion...

Real Chinese: every new page is a new disappointmentf Russian class: Teacher: as a child I wondered how families could endure a war, now I know from experience. Yes, I continue to study Russian. I suspect there will be more expats aftet this and it's also not a language going away. It does make me wonder how a people can actually defeat an army. Are the Russian people really against this war if th...

Plane crash in China... first in over ten years. Sad to hear. Creative thought: How fast can I do this? Snow here, snow gone! Vid up on Youtube Omicron is still here and causing trouble Pre-recording some episodes or segments? Comedy night in Beijing March Motion and Pixelmator - title sequences and animation Linkedin... worth it? Show notes and tracks up on stevensirski.com Stay safe out there an...

All about studying Chinese and the difference between HSK and 'street speak' learning. What do people do with their time if they're not studying a language? What if someone offered you the money or a scholarship, would you do it? March Motion continues with a 20min tutorial that took three hours to complete! Snow... in March! Actual snow! Weekend is here, stop bombing Ukraine! Show notes n tracks...

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Never did have a beer sadly, but I did have chocolate. Snow on the ground and it's a bit cold outside. Productive day as I managed to get some recordings done in the morning and then failed again to get my Automator to do what I want it to do. But... I DID get Episode #29 of my podcast done and up! Interpreter, translator and teacher Qian Wang joined me on the podcast to d...

Homeworking application in, now I believe it's beneficial for me. Isn't that how brainwashing works? Make the subject think they are the ones benefiting? Uploaded a few new vids for March Motion that I've been working on. Tomorrow no work so I'll have some more time to get things done. THE VIRUS is back and it seems to be hitting hard. Lockdowns and fears are rising that it could spread. How can t...

Damn generator! When it's quiet it's like dead quiet, nap-time quiet. This is what I miss. Putin's power struggle, does he care? People say he's evil, I'd say he looks rather composed and his critics are not. But he is bombing his critics, so... Time. It's important. The older I get the more I realize just how much time is important and that I'd pay to preserve it. Make things simple. Chinese home...

It's Pi Day! 3.14 bla bla bla. Got pie? Paralympics are over, good thing we didn't try to go see the fireworks... there were none! Russia courts China to get involved, I don't think China wants to. Accusations of Neo-Ns in Ukraine, need to look up Banderista's, followers of Stephen Bandera. This is a skew of historical events and not a broad belief within Ukraine itself. Read Sergy Plokhii's Gates...

NFTs... the modern way of affiliate marketing? But how does it trickle down? How does it work? How can teachers or working people take advantage of this new form of 'contract'? Artists are one thing, but what about the rest of us? Did the Russians make scads of cash prior to this war? Paralympics end this weekend. Warming up in Beijing. Have a good weekend. Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.c...

How do you wind down for bed? A day of reading ELT terminology: grmmar, grammaring, order of acquisition, PPP, TTT. What about studying grammar? How do you help a student's grammar ability? What I'm learning from MY language teachers. Beijing getting warmer, China leading the way in the Paralympics, which ends on Sunday. Russia still bombing Ukraine, is this just the first wave? Show notes n track...

Updated website Morning spent looking at the ESL landscape, ran some numbers, did some thinking. If not here, then where? If not Beijing, then where? Reading Latin... cause why not? Tiktok, snap, and other 'new media', how many do we need? Talked an old friend who decided to situate himself near... Russia. Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com. Have a good middle week!

Last day! Packed up and airplane ready! Will we or will we NOT be allowed to take alcohol on the airplane even if it's in our checked luggage? I say yes! She says no! We'll see... Museum day, Chengdu, Sichuan, and Dufu? Should be easy enough. 城里人 - city people 冒险 - adventure 拖鞋 -slippers Chengdu Museum: downtown, BUSY! FULL of families! Most likely meant for kids anyway. Pretty big, five fl...

Alcohol is not a reward! Beer or donuts? How does the body metabolize ethanol, carbs, proteins, fats? Happy International Women's Day! (Isn't every day?! Can't say that!) And all this going on in Ukraine reminds me of literally the first day I stepped into Ukraine: the people actually took it seriously. Contrast with Valentine's Day. Russian news showing flowers being delivered to women. Ukrainian...

4x4x48 done! Ran over half of the lengths. Time for recovery. Lessons learned and why this challege? Read 'real Chinese' this morning. Difficult but more applicable than vocab lists. Updated website, SSAB n March Motion. Why this pcast? Looking ahead to Adobe After Effects in April. Thoughts about war in Ukraine. Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com Have a good one!

Initial thoughts after finishing this year's 4x4x48 Goggin's challenge. Learned a little bit more about pre and post run care, esp the order in which things should be done. Happy with the results as I ran just over half of the lengths, 8/12, which is two more than last year. Would I do this agaijln next year? It is very demanding and takes the whole weekend. Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski....

The generator is off. It's quiet. Paralympics starts, caught the end. 4x4x48 starts today. Four miles every four hours for forty eight hours. My goal is to run every leg this year. Last year I only ran half and walked the rest. The two rounds I'm concerned about are the trip to work and then at lunch time. I figure if I nail those then the rest should fall into place. March Motion continues. Creat...

They left the generator on! Ukraine and Russia. 17 days sooo March 15th it'll be over? There's no going back. Bridges are damaged, Ukraine is now literally cut off from Russia. Did Bitcoin finance this? Is Putin shorting the market? Spent most of the morning recovering from last night! But still productive. No Chinese today, just wasn't focused on it. Studied some of the DELTA material. Apparently...

After six pints, we solved the world's problems and got smarter as the night went not. Did we? Podcasting and sustainability (of creation). Ukrainian history, reading up on it. March Motion continues. And... met the owner of the local pub who I had heard about before, asked if he would be on my podcast and he said yes. Turns out he's Canadian! Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com. Have a goo...

March Motion begins! Wish it was under better circumstances but there's little I can do. For the next month I'll be working my way through Apple Motion, a video FX program for Mac. I'll post progress pics n vids on Instagram and YouTube. Ukraine War continues, Putin says he'll stop when... what? But he started it! How can this be Ukraine's fault?! Commodities moving. Two Sessions starts Friday......

Last day of the month! Went by quickly, Olympics, Ukraine, war, what else is new? Apparently I tore a ligament in my hip, but it’s been this way for years?! Eeeee, time to rehab this thing! March Motion… eech, have a blog post I have yet to put up but I like the idea of the challenge so I think I’ll go along with it. This won’t be as big as May You Make Your Movie in that a lot of Motion is used f...