The Audio Blog of Steven Sirski

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.

Ten ideas for music NFTs:

1. Music files mp3/wav,

2.MIDI files,

3. Project file,

4. The making of the project (video/audio + maybe a special thank you),

5. Images of the WAV form (like a film strip) that also contains a music file built-in,

6. USB of everything,

7. Blog post with screenshots (ebook?)

8. Meeting with maker + video n audio of the meet up

9. Jpeg poster of cover art (+wave form of soundscape?)

10. Cover art for the song itself

Show notes n tracks up on the website stevensirski.com

Have a good one!

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 absorbs into the body and does who knows what?

HSK 5 test most defo did not pass BUT this gives me a good jumping off point AND should kick me out of my complacency. Aiming for three hours a day of language use.

Went to JingA after and met a guy from Winnipeg! He's returning to Canada soon and so that makes two people from the city now going back. He actually recognized me because he saw me running around the neighbourhood with my camo weight vest. Ha!

Website updated. Along with Chinese studies thinking I might spend August focusing on animation. Bought some Chinese plasticine and was thinking of trying out more stop motion.

Show notes tracks n vids up on stevensirski.com

Have a good start of week!

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 gauge of 2-3 hours of study increases your grade by 1 point, then at the very least this test will give me an indication of how much more I need to do.

Finish the textbooks, finish the mock tests, finish the test prep book!

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.

Never did any practice tests cause... they're soooo loooong! My big issue is vocab (for reading and listening) and then grammar for the correct the sentences portion.

Looked at the HSK 6 books, they actually don't look as daunting as they once did.

KNIFE SHARPENER!

Half Murph again this morning:

2.08 mile run (time 20:45)

1.01 mile weighted run (10:31)

7 rounds: 5 or 6x pull up variations, 12x pushups, 20x squats (22:11)

1.06 mile weighted run (11:29)

Time: 44m 11s

That piano sound? A car backing up! I should have known this!

Ten ideas for languages to learn!

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

Have a good weekend!

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, remember to hydrate!

Watching Don Draper on Mad Men. Never really watched the show but a guy at work likes it.

Looked around at a few uni jobs, there are some in the area. Today's bike ride showed me how close some of them were! Did I mention the ten jobs I see foreigners doing here in Beijing?

1. ESL teacher (international schools)

2. voice over actors / voice talent

3. acting (low budget / commercial)

4. bartending

5. management (corporate)

6. beer brewer

7. filmmaker

8. stunt personnel / trainer

9. self defense training

10. Douyin personality (in Mandarin)

11. Copyeditor / proofreader

12. Journalist

Looking ahead, how often should you change jobs?

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

Have a good one!

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 more days, reading us tough and slow! Am I making progress?

Two workouts again, up early and out early. Wondering, could I use a white noise machine to wake myself up at an earlier time? Would sound better than some abrasive alarm going off.

I swear I heard a one note piano this morning...

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

Have a good day! Slava Ukrainii!

Omicron Variant Sub BA.5.2.??.!! Shanghai shanghai'ed!

Ten years from now, what will you have wished you did sooner? Are there still avenues left to explore here in China?

Living in China or leaving? How do different places compare? Family considerations, both old and new, environment, what else needs to be considered?

Ten places: Dubai, Abu Dhabi, France, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, Seoul or Busan South Korea, Tokyo Japan, Montreal?, Vancouver?, London?, Slovenia?!

Opportunity to study, now using Daily Zhongwen on YouTube for reading the HSK books for me! Test prep reading is tough!

Show notes n trcks up on stevensirski.com

Have a good one!

Vaccine mandates... rescinded! Some places? BA.5 IS THE MOST CONTAGIOUS EVER! Than what was before? But at least there is still no mandate and it is optional. This whole thing it actually looks as if China is scared / worried / concerned that this virus will have a disproportionate affect on their own people, for whatever reason. Is that the reason for the constant vigilance?

Test prep: working my way through the HSK test prep book that breaks down each section. I... am not doing well! I don't want to say this could be a practice run through as I am confident in my abilities but the points aren't lying.

2-3 hours to raise your score by a point. What is my goal? Just to pass. But what if (for whatever reason) I wanted to go back to university? What score do I need? 210+ it looks like!

Using home workout equipment or buying stuff, or going to the gym?

Ten ideas to workout at home with whatever you have

-washing detergent bottles (better handles, can be used like small steel clubs for controlled movement)

-water bottles (4, 5, 12 L bottles for kettlebell-like workouts)

-couch bed dips (triceps)

-push up variations (from normal to one-handed, spider / split pushups)

-stairs (load up those 12L water bottles and do a few flights)

-chair lift (chairs offer an off-of-center weight, pick it up, turn, put it down)

-squats (with water bottles or variations, split squats, water bottle over heard squats, normal squats)

-pistol squat prep off of a chair, do half until flexible and strong enough!)

-suitcase carry (load up a suitcase with those water bottles and carry on one side)

-floor cleaning ab or leg workout (can use the rags as a type of slider, keep the legs stationed and slide out on your arms, or keep the arms stationed and slide out the legs to the side or to the back)

This is all in addition to the normal burpees, pushups, sit ups and crunches you can do!

Website update with show notes tracks n vids! stevensirski.com

Have a good week!

Another ten percussion tracks, this time with Garageband! Have a listen at the end of this episode!

Joe Rogan on Lex Friedman's podcast, good talk esp if you're into the performing arts or want to hear about how Joe Rogan handled the attempted cancellation.

Reading through this HSK 5 test prep book, makes sense what they are saying and how they break down the questions. Didn't know there were 12 different types of sentences they could use for one of the written section! This makes things a little bit more manageable.

Will focus on doing a few practice tests this weekend in preparation.

Shinzo Abe shot and killed, assassinated! When was the last time that happened?

Show notes tracks n vids up on stevensirski.com!

Have a good weekend!

Ten percussion ideas!

VACCINE MANDATED... for some placee, but not all, and it's up to the BaoAn, those often grumpy guardsmen. BUT... since I don't really go anywhere, do I STILL need to get vaxxed? Need two shots, most Chinese people I know only got one... or none!

Get vaxxed? Get in line, the waiting list is LOOONG!

HSK 5 entrance ticket is now available! No mention of vaccination required, but negative NAT within 48 hours is required.

The more I read the easier it's getting so will need to keep this up somehow. Newspapers might still be too difficult.

Yangqing off limits now as TWO new cases somehow popped up. Show notes tracks n vids up on stevensirski.com. Enjoy the day :)