The Audio Blog of Steven Sirski

Drilling drilling drilling! Why is there always a drill? // Chinese reading progress, but how is my pronunciation? // Hitting a wall with Python! Or is it too many carbs for breakfast because of the Pop Tarts? Change of weather? // Nesting dictionaries, function outputs, and recursion! // Started watching Silicon Valley, thinking back to 2014! // Tickets to Chengdu: fly or ride? Four hours by plan...

More Chinese grammar practice! One, S V1 O VS T! Two, no 为! // Food battle in a comic book: to dip or not to dip. // Today's movie: 秋菊打官司, The Story of Qiuju. Words learned: 兽医，理，说法了，只准载货，笔〔筆〕代，调解，干部，新潮发屋（髮），差错，产科。 // Python Day 8 and 9: Hangman and nested lists. // Hope Thursday is good! // stevensirski.com

Tuna and pasta for dinner! Cheap! Easy! Quick! // Podcast Episode set up for this weekend! // Crushing Chinese studies early in the morning! Get it done! Put in the time! // Pythoning all day, Hangman, Ciphers, and more! // Hope Wednesday is good to you! // stevensirski.com

Officially Mid-Autumn! Got a good shot of the moon! // Moon cakes, anyone? // Nice day but stayed inside to study Python! Randomisation, loops, and FizzBuzz! // The difference between a programming language and a human language... // Continuing on with HSK 5 vocabulary building. If only I could do the same for the grammar structures! // Hope your Tuesday is going well! // stevensirski.com

USA publishes lots of books about future tech, what about in China? // Red room with posters all around it outlining the duties of a good Party Member. What does it take to join the Party? Could that ever exist in Canada? // Found a good podcast to listen to in Chinese, slow, relevant. // Saturday was the air defense siren, could barely hear it. (Sound clip at end of Episode.) // Tims changed the...

Sept 13, 2021 - Quiet weekend ends in musical madness!  // Full lamb served at Western Mahua, a famous Xinjiang Muslim-style restaurant in Beijing!  //  Found chocolate Moon Cakes!  //  So ends the weekend! So begins another spin!  Everyday is your birthday!  // Hope your weekend was great!  //  stevensirski.com ... Sept 14, 2021 - Python in Blender? Ga...

No language studies done today. // Last day of work for A MONTH! // Workout partner for today, and I'm asked why I study so much! Part of it was due to my upbringing. // A lot of plans for the next month, how many will get done? // Sound clip: The sound of evening falling in Beijing. // Have a great weekend! // stevensirski.com

48 hours to make a game? Four days to learn Python? How long should we spend before actually doing something?  //  Looked into the Unity game development program, uses C#. How much of this do I need to learn?  //  Watched 可可西里 or Mountain Patrol this morning. Not the most uplifting movie but I still recommend it. About a Beijing reporter going to Tibet to follow a volunteer group of patrolmen...

It's not an age thing, I'm just telling you you're old. - Thanks Steve!  // Cyberdogs, Cyberhorses, what's next??  //  Python not a bad choice to learn.  //  Why aren't more people here in China learning it? Am I in the midst of a career change and not even know it?  //  Makes me think of the BIG COMPANIES that have many divisions. Are we any different?  //  Tried some soundtracking,  have a liste...

Python in Blender? Game development? Unity and Unreal?! All free? A Chinese movie watch list! // Chinese movies: 周润发 / 天注定 / 南京！ 南京 / 孔雀 / 山河故人 / 万箭穿心 / 虎爸虎妈 / 可可西里 / 肖申克的救赎 / 鸟类迁徙 / 地久天长 / 千与千寻 / 李米的猜想 / 疯狂的石头 / 宁浩 / 你好李焕英 / 少年的你 / 无问西东 / 岁月神偷 / 盲山 // Have fun at work! // stevensirski.com

All of the music files and sound tracks from this week's Episodes all compiled into one place. Rain (Sept 6), Beat Mix (Sept 7), Morning Storm (Sept 9), First Test Beat and The State of the Drum (Sept 10). Enjoy!  //  stevensirski.com

Full week of Episodes from September 6th to 10th, 2021.  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 Getting close to that day to mark going around the Su...

Quiet weekend ends in musical madness!  // Full lamb served at Western Mahua, a famous Xinjiang Muslim-style restaurant in Beijing!  //  Found chocolate Moon Cakes!  //  So ends the weekend! So begins another spin!  Everyday is your birthday!  // Hope your weekend was great!  //  stevensirski.com

Another spin around the begins!  // Teacher's Day, so make to wish all of your teachers a happy day and a good start to the new school year!  //  Was able to get some Chinese character review in plus some Russian vocab and grammar. Took a look at the TORFL Elementary Test and, though it looks kind of easy, there were some key words I didn't know in such a "simple" test.  //  Afternoon was spent re...

THUNDERSTORM to start the day, still did morning walk and Chinese characters but GOT SOAKED! // Some Russian grammar practice and then prepped A1/2 practice test. // APP research for audio and video. Found some. // Time to vlog? // Got a massage gun! Good for some things. // Hope Thursday is well. Another spin around the sun about to start. // stevensirski.com

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