The Audio Blog of Steven Sirski

Interesting Chinese 'class' today as I spent the morning watching a movie. The English title is 'Let the Bullets Fly', Chinese title is 让子弹飞, rang zi dan fei. But I didn't just watch it, I WATCHED IT INTENTLY in an effort to follow along and learn a few words. These are the words I picked out: 冤, 公平, 吹, 寡妇, 县长, 可怕, 诛心, 爽快, 麻子, 硬, 穷人, 土匪, 惊喜, 剿匪, 体面. The story itself...

Getting close to that day to mark going around the Sun! Talking about getting out of China, but is it easy to get back in?  //  Talking to former Chinese teacher of mine, she's currently in CAMBODIA and working ONLINE. Wasn't that my goal FIVE YEARS AGO?!?!?  //  Spent the morning studying Chinese, current study plan includes 20 minutes of character study, 15 minutes of intensive listening (at Tim...

Labour Day in Canada, just another work day in China. // Mid-Autumn Fest coming up, time to eat Moon Cakes. Starbucks' hit or miss attempts at the dessert. // Got a haircut, what's it like? A digression on getting a haircut in Beijing, China. // Have a great week! // stevensirski.com

End of August, school must be back, kids tryina hustle me to buy some popcorn while I'm on the run! // Deload week! I'm not even sure how to do one. // Looked at some practice HSK 5 test, they don't look as intimidating! // New vid up on YouBoob. // Received good news: nephew baptized. Received bad news: an Uncle passed away. Vichna pam'yat! Memory Eternal! // stevensirski.com *** ALLERGIES! WHHHY...

A free medical check up means this morning was spent navigating a Chinese hospital in broken English and Chinese! I can't remember how complete checkups are done in Canada, all in one place or all over the place? This hospital was very organized and had very little useless chatter. // Itse Friday, probably your end of week but I work tomorrow. Not too much going on these days! // Have a great week...

Out and about, met another guy who is working at the Universal Studios lot here in Beijing. Departure will be later this month. // Not much language studies done today as I had cleaners come over. The guy looked rather young, I guess I paid for training. // Cut short cause I gotta walk and dodge traffic! // stevensirski.com

A new month! Coming up to another spin around the sun! // Big news: Vaccinations are NOT required, but highly encouraged. More importantly, when is Universal Studios going to finally open its Beijing location? // Guessing my Chinese reading is at about a Grade 6 or 7 level since I'm able to read some types of comic books. Not that I read them that often. // Might have some busy weekends in Sept, w...

ALLERGIES! WHHHYYYYY?! Hay fever in Canada, but where I live in Beijing there is little chance of that! // Made a 3D well in Blender! // Focusing on HSK5 vocab every morning now. Aim to write the test early 2022 so gotta get those characters done. // Low months coming up, not least because I've got some vacay time coming up! // Hope Tuesday is going well for you! // stevensirski.com Just found out...

End of August, school must be back, kids tryina hustle me to buy some popcorn while I'm on the run! // Deload week! I'm not even sure how to do one. // Looked at some practice HSK 5 test, they don't look as intimidating! // New vid up on YouBoob. // Received good news: nephew baptized. Received bad news: an Uncle passed away. Vichna pam'yat! Memory Eternal! // stevensirski.com

End of the 82 mile / 132km bike ride! Never been done before by me! Dropped a couple of kilos of weight but also ate a few more Starbucks chocolate muffins! // No Russian class today but will hit the books again tomorrow. // Might try roasting another batch of coffee again. // Putting up time lapses of my bike rides. Will post soon! stevensirski.com

THE VIRUS has been tamed AGAIN! people without vaccinations won't be allowed in some places and other 'two code' requirements. What will this mean for the Olympics? And are the vaccines performance enhancing? // Riding bikes, talking health, eating, exercise, age.

Breezers are nice, not sure I'd drink these too often. // Started my three days of cross-city cycling. Two more days to go. // Chinese vocab learning and looking for a way to study spoken Chinese in isolation. // Should Tuesday mornings become Chinese movie time? // Will take a break from Russian this week but I'm still thinking of taking one of the tests later in the year! // stevensirski.com

The Sound of The Knife Sharpener! 磨mo剪jian子zi来lai 锵qiang菜 cai刀dao // Zhongyuanjie this past weekend so lots of burnt offerings meant lots of smoke all over the city. // Roasted coffee beans over the weekend. // Trying to find a suitable Chinese grammar book. // Working on a website upgrade. No deadline on this. // stevensirski.com

Python programming FAIL! How DOES face detection work? // New YouTube videos are up, trying out short form to develop a habit of consistency. // Read Derek Sivers' book Anything You Want. He's the guy who founded CD Baby at the very beginning of the tech boom in the late 1990s. // Back to the books for HSK 5 as I'm now using Memrise to go through the necessary characters for this level. Let's get...

Looking into the Russian test, TORFL, how much, when, where? // Python learning and actually got something done! Was able to make a program that spit out a usable QR Code! Go ahead and scan it to see where it takes you! All I can day is... thankyou! // Close to the weekend, but every dat is a weekend now that THE VIRUS is raging. Beijing is still kind of in a bubble. // Working on Blender and thin...

Russian morning on Duolingo and HelloTalk. Are you learning or trying to pick up? // Python afternoon and all I got done was a package installation. That took three hours. // Blender modelling! // Thursday already! // stevensirski.com

BACK ON TWITTER, is this a good thing? Is the site even relevant any more? TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE (if it can even be called that). // AI movie editing IS possible, a couple of methods presented themselves today. Makes me wonder why I didn't figure it out sooner! // Trying out short form videos! // Hope you're having a good day! :D // stevensirski.com

Cottage cheese, macros, and maple syrup. // Next week, trying for 60 miles (80 km) on the bike. // Work cancellations means more time for study. Thinking... Xiaomi phone has some neat pre-built video clips, how can I make these myself? How can I code an AI-video editor for my phone on my own? // Keep thinking it's Wednesday but it's Tuesday. // Have a great day! // stevensirski.com

WALL STREET (English) SHUTS DOWN! Now getting sued! // QR codes and travel restrictions and NAT tests within 48 hours! // Are 'They' harvesting our DNA?! // Trip planning in September and October, will it even happen? // Gotta get going on that HSK 5! // stevensirski.com

Rode 48 miles or about 77 kms in the last two days! Never done that before! // Got home just in time for Russian class! // Want to try out one of the TORFL tests to gauge my current level! // Lockdowns are back! // Take a look at my Instagram @sirskisteven stories for some short vids I've posted! // Have a great weekend! // stevensirski.com

Is it Peak China? Doomsayers say what they will! // THE VIRUS is back and shutting things down. Work trips CANCELLED! // Let's talk about HOW to do things, not WHY THEY CAN'T BE DONE! // Cycling to and from work... 11 miles / 19 kms each way! FIRST TIME! // stevensirski.com

Lying down after dinner is a risky endeavor! Three hours later you WAKE UP and wonder... what happened? Thanks coffee martinis. // Olympics are over, China did well, can they do it again for the Winter Olympics? // Private school restrictions mean that THE GENERATOR is off! // THE VIRUS is back, lockdowns and restrictions everywhere! // Tracking macros, going to try... cottage cheese? // stevensir...

Done with the week! Productive! // Russian pronunciation is getting better, so says my teacher! Question: why does Russian have accented and unaccented О's but Ukrainian doesn't? We'll have to find out. // Finished the video soundtracks, sounds good! Same view, two perceptions! // People are leaving Beijing! Expat Exodus continues! // Have a great weekend! // stevensirski.com

Russian declensions, Starbucks muffins, timed readings, oh my! // Python Coffee Machine DONE! Tinder Bot? Why not? And how to deep fake a pic and scrape a website! // Working on soundtracks, the hardest part are the little tweaks. stevensirski.com

3.5 hours of Chinese study in one block of time, that's a first! // 45 minutes to install a plugin to convert Chinese characters to pinyin with tone marks. Went with Google Docs! // Python PyCharm, spent the day setting that up. // Next up, soundtracking some timelapses! // stevensirski.com