The Audio Blog of Steven Sirski

By Steven SirskiSociety & Culture Places & Travel

The Audio Blog of Steven Sirski episodes

February 10, 2022 SSAB - February 9 2022
At a comedy show, recorded podcast Episode 28, look for that next week. Met some other expats who don't teach, some good stories. Small success with Automator getting a calendar event to then open up a webpage so I'd be forced to at least look at some Russian studies each day. Why don't I host my podcast on Spotify? I'll tell you why... Show notes and tracks up on stevensirski.com. Have a good one!
15 min
February 08, 2022 SSAB - February 8 2022
TCM places are closed so no go for acupuncture atm. The other place needed a recent negative NAT result. Guess I'm home-remedying this back ache. Olympics, is it too warm already? Lots of people seem to be falling and crashing. Livestreaming and music, which is the best platform? Bandcamp, Single Music, Mandolin or the old favs of YouTube and Facebook? Are NFTs really worth it? Next Episode of the podcast in the works, look for that soon! Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com, have a good week!
21 min
February 07, 2022 SSAB - February 7 2022
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. Stay warm out there! Show notes n tracks on stevensirski.com.
16 min
February 04, 2022 SSAB - February 4 2022
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 a screenplay. Reviews have been mixed. Re-formatted Jamuary tracks with proper metatags, should have those uploaded soon. Also finally recorded Oct 17 Episode which marked the end of my ChongQing and Chengdu trip last year. Ordered pizza for the Opening Ceremony tonight, so will watch that. Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com! Enjoy the show!
22 min
February 03, 2022 SSAB - February 3 2022
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, it helps a little bit. Website updated, show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com!
20 min
February 03, 2022 SSAB - December 26 2021
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
2 min
February 02, 2022 SSAB - February 2 2022
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 good week so far! Olympics starting up. Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com.
24 min
February 02, 2022 SSAB - December 25 2021
Today's track is Shchedryk which is more commonly known as "Carol of the Bells", but the two differ in that the original was about a little bird while the adaption hearkens the ringing of church bells. Shchedryk was written by Mykola Leontovych way back in 1916 but was adapted into what we know as the Christmas carol in 1936. Carol of the Bells is copyrighted but Shchedryk itself doesn't seem to be. The original was actually based on a traditional Ukrainian folk song which Leontovych adapted to the music we know now. It's an attractive melody and one that inspires the Christmas season. Here is an inspired, drum-derivative of the song. Show notes and tracks up on stevensirski.com. Thanks for listening and have a great Christmas!
2 min
February 01, 2022 SSAB - February 1 2022
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 March. Was watching Saving Private Ryan on Monday, not exactly a festive movie, especially not the opening scene. Chinese studies today: 9/31 or 29%, but I was falling asleep. May have to split up my studies and practice tests so I don't get bored as easily. Show notes and tracks up on stevensirski.com. Hope you're having a good week so far!
22 min
February 01, 2022 SSAB - January 31 2022
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!
29 min