New month! New day! April Fool’s! Not here!

THREE HOURS to post a video to Youtube?! Posted yet another YouTube Short and it took just about THREE HOURS from script to screen to edit to publish to get it all done. Why?

Had a dream I found my AirPods! In my jacket pocket of all things. Problem is… the jacket in the dream is currently in China.

MAKE no more! The price of the coffee business.

And we had Chinese food! How was it? 洽菊楼 (qià jú lóu) refers to “negotiation” or “harmony”, then “chrysanthemum”, and then lou is just “building”. The negotiating chrysanthemum building… Marigold. Front desk lady was a young white lady

Donate to the show! PayPal link below!

https://www.paypal.me/stevensirski?locale.x=en_CA

***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

And on Notion: https://stevensirski.notion.site/SSAB-The-Audio-Blog-of-Steven-Sirski-00acfe344e164bfab191d3cddf6952b2?pvs=4

Newsletter over at stevensirski.substack.com

Language vlog on http://www.youtube.com/@stevenslanguagevlog

Hope you have a great one!!

00:00 April First Check In

01:12 Epic April Fools Pranks

04:44 Moon Launch News

05:26 Three Hour Upload

08:30 Ukrainian Captions Struggle

14:17 Channel Plans And Views

15:37 AirPods Dream And Headache

19:00 Local Cafe Shuts Down

28:13 Marigold Chinese Food

33:00 What Counts As Chinese Food

39:46 Wrap Up And Links

End of the month already and the last of the workouts! Where should I go next? What will I do??

Looking for a haircut! Where? When? With who? And what next?

Success with Google Sheets! Easy translations! Just because something can be automated, does it mean it SHOULD be?

Loza bie, from yesterday’s Ukrainian quote, loza is “vine” or “willow”, so old school Ukrainian.

And Star Wars movie props sell for MILLIONS! What about my stuff?

https://roughcut.heyeddie.ai/p/sayonara-sora

Donate to the show! PayPal link below!

https://www.paypal.me/stevensirski?locale.x=en_CA

***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

And on Notion: https://stevensirski.notion.site/SSAB-The-Audio-Blog-of-Steven-Sirski-00acfe344e164bfab191d3cddf6952b2?pvs=4

Newsletter over at stevensirski.substack.com

Language vlog on http://www.youtube.com/@stevenslanguagevlog

Hope you have a great end of month!!

00:00 Cold Open Reset

00:24 Month End Reflections

02:28 Gym Membership Expired

03:07 China Return Visa Plan

05:52 Sugar Intake Worries

07:37 Stuff Value And Travel

11:07 Haircut Donation Dilemma

16:28 Choosing The New Look

20:58 Google Sheets Translation Win

27:19 Ukrainian Quote Explained

29:07 Star Wars Props And Hoarding

37:01 Decluttering And Wrap Up

«Не я б’ю — верба б’є, за тиждень Великдень.»

(Ne ya b’yu — verba b’ye, za tyzhden Velykden.)

(Mom says “lo za bie, ne ya biu, vid neni za tizden buda valekden”.)

And so the saying goes for Palm Sunday.

Lent is over, Holy Week is here, Easter is on Sunday. Friday is Good Friday (where the plastchanischya is brought out.) Steve, when are you going back?? (Tickets are even cheaper now!)

OIL overbought, GOLD oversold! Where’s the SPY? (Oversold) Time for a change? What about April 6th??

Workout in, I DID bench 175 lbs! Lost weight, too! Last week must’ve been a build up of sorts.

And girl guide cookies, $6 for a box half vanilla, half chocolate, 75 calories per.

Donate to the show! PayPal link below!

https://www.paypal.me/stevensirski?locale.x=en_CA

***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

And on Notion: https://stevensirski.notion.site/SSAB-The-Audio-Blog-of-Steven-Sirski-00acfe344e164bfab191d3cddf6952b2?pvs=4

Newsletter over at stevensirski.substack.com

Language vlog on http://www.youtube.com/@stevenslanguagevlog

Hope you have a great start of Holy Week!!

00:00 Roast and Market Check

01:13 Palm Sunday Origins

01:47 Church Routine and Cemetery Visits

02:49 Family Plots and Cemetery Talk

04:50 Pussy Willows Tradition

07:36 Why I Still Go to Church

08:03 Church Life in China

12:49 Holy Week Breakdown

15:35 Good Friday and Old Memories

18:44 Easter Morning and Church Changes

20:47 Calendars and Church Year

22:55 Cheaper Flights Back to Beijing

23:30 Booking the Flight Home

24:42 Family Dinner Fatigue

26:16 Why Return to China

27:34 Cheap Tickets and Moving Plans

28:30 Market Talk and RSI Signals

30:44 Gold Seasonality Outlook

31:14 Bench Press Progress

32:11 Weight Tracking Reality Check

36:08 Girl Guide Cookie Temptation

38:34 Pierogi Import Scheme

40:01 Wrap Up and Links

Off to the gym nice n early, hardly anyone there! Not feeling the strength but got it in anyway. Front desk lady changing jobs.

Ryan Reynolds has a donut at Tims… why? It was good, but still just a donut. It’s like beer companies sponsoring sports matches.

Thinking, advertising for the new site… posters in the libraries??

Off to a talent show! Not sure I’d want to be back in junior high… nor work there! The audio rental guy was a grizzly old vet-looking dude tho. Piano, singing, guitar, magic trick, my niece played violin, two kids got sent to the office, no cell phones allowed for the students. And how do you give feedback to a kid? Is it better to be nice or realistic?

And what about returning to China, what VPN works now? Is Astrill dead?

Donate to the show! PayPal link below!

https://www.paypal.me/stevensirski?locale.x=en_CA

***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

And on Notion: https://stevensirski.notion.site/SSAB-The-Audio-Blog-of-Steven-Sirski-00acfe344e164bfab191d3cddf6952b2?pvs=4

Newsletter over at stevensirski.substack.com

Language vlog on http://www.youtube.com/@stevenslanguagevlog

Hope you have a great weekend!!

00:00 Morning Routine Setup

00:39 Podcast Identity Riff

02:36 Niece Talent Show Plans

04:30 Deload Week Training

07:01 Back Workout Details

08:00 Canada Prep and Online Pivot

10:15 Automating Test Prep Business

13:58 Monetizing and Call to Action

15:36 Gym Front Desk Automation

18:58 Ryan Reynolds Tim Hortons Donut

21:37 Celebrity Endorsements and Vice Ads

23:55 Junk Food Sponsorships

25:23 China vs Canada Diets

27:30 Offline Classes Comeback

30:13 Prepping VPNs and LLMs

33:41 Niece Talent Show Recap

38:37 Encouragement vs Realism

41:48 Wrap Up and Future Self

Bought shoes! Aren’t New Balance for old people? $25 for socks? No thanks! Can’t justify the cost, ever? $75 for shorts?? What if I just went to Decathlon? Winnipeg doesn’t have a Decathlon. Realllllyyy? But Uniqlo is about to open!

The Airpods… it’s like that airplane taking off feeling… as if your ears are about to pop but don’t.

Finished The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, thinking… what if I compiled some books, took a picture, asked ChatGPT or whatever to summarize each of them, and then have Veo 3 create a video based on each of them? Wouldn’t that sort of meet the requirements I had set out so many years ago??

Peptides! Collagen by another name? Should I get into the supplements business? China makes a lot of them!

https://www.wsj.com/health/rfk-jr-china-peptides-market-2ce249df

-Apparently some were banned in 2023, meaning “compounding pharmacies” can’t make them in the US

-many are made in China as injectables (ewww!)

-supplements aren’t as regulated

Donate to the show! PayPal link below!

https://www.paypal.me/stevensirski?locale.x=en_CA

***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

And on Notion: https://stevensirski.notion.site/SSAB-The-Audio-Blog-of-Steven-Sirski-00acfe344e164bfab191d3cddf6952b2?pvs=4

Newsletter over at stevensirski.substack.com

Language vlog on http://www.youtube.com/@stevenslanguagevlog

Have a good one!!

00:00 Daily Notes Kickoff

00:31 Podcast Longevity Update

02:36 Video Clips Workflow

06:23 What This Show Covers

07:52 Mom As Audience

11:01 Shoe Shopping Flashbacks

12:37 Finding The Right Fit

16:34 Sticker Shock Canada

19:30 Decathlon And Uniqlo Talk

20:46 Shoes and City Life

21:13 Hong Kong Checkout Chat

21:59 Library Encounter IELTS

23:47 AirPods Pressure Feeling

25:32 Tidying Books and Identity

30:40 AI as Creative Shortcut

33:19 Peptides Collagen and China

35:49 Supplements Business Idea

36:59 Aging Mind and Longevity

39:31 Online Fulfillment and Wrap Up

A new donation! Yey! Thank you! I’ll sending through a signed title card and a little digital package!

Bye bye Sora! Hardly knew ya!

“The ChatGPT maker and Walt Disney Co. are also winding down their partnership, which had centered on Sora, OpenAI said Tuesday. Disney had previously agreed to license iconic characters including Mickey Mouse and Cinderella to OpenAI for use on Sora and to take a US$1 billion stake in the startup. The deal was entirely in stock warrants rather than a cash licensing fee…”

-means they didn’t pay for anything, just the promissory notes that they COULD get their own shares sometime down the line.

-In contrast to options which only cover existing shares and don’t create anything new.

How’s the state of the site? Basically, if I can’t get this to work with the current tech, then it’s not going to happen. First, I need to AI-ify my site. Second, build an AI-first content creation machine.

What about those annual reports? Why do you have them and what are they good for?

Hey, did we talk about Meta’s takeover of Manus?

Donate to the show! PayPal link below!

https://www.paypal.me/stevensirski?locale.x=en_CA

***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

And on Notion: https://stevensirski.notion.site/SSAB-The-Audio-Blog-of-Steven-Sirski-00acfe344e164bfab191d3cddf6952b2?pvs=4

Newsletter over at stevensirski.substack.com

Language vlog on http://www.youtube.com/@stevenslanguagevlog

Hope you have a great one!!

00:00 Cold Open Banter

00:47 AirPods 4 First Impressions

02:12 Gym Test With ANC

03:42 Losing Headphones Cost Math

05:09 Engraving And Delivery Rant

06:07 New Donation Shoutout

07:43 Sora Shutdown News

09:52 Disney OpenAI Deal Breakdown

11:33 Warrants Vs Options Explained

17:24 State Of The AI Site

19:54 Automation Workflow Roadblocks

21:02 Automation Plugin Options

21:46 Launching Anywhere Worldwide

22:18 Monetization Pressure

22:56 Why ESL Is Broken

23:47 Building Duolingo Feel

24:28 Brand Or Standalone

25:35 Annual Reports Reality

32:11 Shareholder Rights Voting

33:07 Executive Pay Envy

34:43 Meta Buys Manus AI

37:04 China Tax And Control

39:05 Wrap Up And Donors

Failed at Gemini! Can’t analyze, transcribe, or tokenize! Hitting a wall of sorts.

OF owner Leo Radvinsky dead at 43!

Podcasters giving up! What about me? (Could I be one of the longest running podcasts? New tag line! One of Winnipeg’s LONGEST RUNNING PODCASTS! 1250 episodes so far!)

https://www.wsj.com/business/media/the-veteran-podcasters-hanging-up-their-headphones-0b1070e1

Why are they giving up? Not making money and the pressure to move into VIDEO has killed it for them.

Market bounces! This is the trick phase.

And why is gas going up when the US (and Canada???) have so much??

Donate to the show! PayPal link below!

https://www.paypal.me/stevensirski?locale.x=en_CA

***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

And on Notion: https://stevensirski.notion.site/SSAB-The-Audio-Blog-of-Steven-Sirski-00acfe344e164bfab191d3cddf6952b2?pvs=4

Newsletter over at stevensirski.substack.com

Language vlog on http://www.youtube.com/@stevenslanguagevlog

Hope you have a great one!!

00:00 Take Two Cold Open

00:36 New Tagline Quest

02:14 Why Podcasters Quit

04:24 Daily Streak Pride

05:30 Language Vlog Plans

06:18 Video Podcast Pressure

09:48 Why Create Content

12:03 Timestamping Your Life

13:42 Monetization Reality Check

17:37 Do It for Fun

19:44 Should You Podcast

20:43 Clip Posting Plans

21:10 Automation Workflow Setup

21:37 Gemini Versus Whisper

23:38 Audio Analysis Explained

26:05 Token Limits Roadblocks

26:29 Manual Bottlenecks Frustration

28:00 Starbucks Productivity Rant

28:56 OnlyFans Founder Dies

29:24 OnlyFans Money Math

32:53 Risks For Men And Privacy

35:27 Gas Prices And Politics

38:22 Market Bounce Trick Phase

38:26 RSI Oversold Basics

40:32 Don’t Panic Disclaimer

41:06 Wrap Up And Links

End of an era as Chuck Norris passes away! Did you read the comments?

Potholes all over the place! Where do our tax dollars go? Do I even owe tax in Canada?!

Gaining weight but is it all bad? Is it muscle gain or just fat? Thanks Reeses… and donuts… and cookies… and everything else.

Bought the Airpods!

Lost my nail clippers! Seventeen years!

No haircut just yet!

And Mom to the rescue! Joey’s Only fish and chips for dinner on Friday!

Donate to the show! PayPal link below!

https://www.paypal.me/stevensirski?locale.x=en_CA

***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

And on Notion: https://stevensirski.notion.site/SSAB-The-Audio-Blog-of-Steven-Sirski-00acfe344e164bfab191d3cddf6952b2?pvs=4

Newsletter over at stevensirski.substack.com

Language vlog on http://www.youtube.com/@stevenslanguagevlog

Hope you have a great start of week!!

00:00 Chuck Norris Death Tease

00:32 Life Update Canada Winter

00:49 Booking Flights Back China

02:13 Chuck Norris Meme Tribute

05:52 Hero Archetypes Explained

06:57 Winnipeg Thaw And Drainage

11:02 Potholes And City Liability

12:21 Sidewalks Canada Vs China

13:46 Tax Residency Confusion

17:14 Canada Vs China Tax Math

18:43 Worldwide Income Rule China

20:08 Next Steps And Escape Plans

20:37 Taxes and Donations

20:56 Scale Shock Confession

22:30 Mini Eggs Math

23:43 Lifting vs Fat Gain

25:07 Travel Snacks Comparison

27:00 Does Weight Matter

27:57 Post ESL Ideas

29:04 AirPods Purchase Debate

30:47 Lost Nail Clippers Saga

34:47 Fish and Chips Friday

37:06 Wrap Up and Links

Thirty days! The expiry date has arrived! Is it off?! Is it off??!! The hair that is. And the beard? No. Not yet.

FOUR HOURS WASTED! Was it? Trying to move files from Wordpress to Google Drive… but where’s the AI? Gemini? Claude or OpenAI? how to make this work?

Workout in! Leg day-ish, complete with a decent 25-minute run.

Market route continues! When will it end?? From yesterday: GOLD getting CRUSHED! What happened to the safety trade? On patience and money making… it’s easy to say have patience, but there’s also time cost and opportunity cost. (And too late to sell GOLD as it’s a plunging… probably because of the USD. People run to cash. What about that Fed?)

And Mom’s not home for dinner… what should I do now?

Donate to the show! PayPal link below!

https://www.paypal.me/stevensirski?locale.x=en_CA

***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

And on Notion: https://stevensirski.notion.site/SSAB-The-Audio-Blog-of-Steven-Sirski-00acfe344e164bfab191d3cddf6952b2?pvs=4

Newsletter over at stevensirski.substack.com

Language vlog on http://www.youtube.com/@stevenslanguagevlog

Hope you have a great weekend!!

00:00 Morning Chaos Notes

00:34 Podcast Feedback Ads

03:55 Haircut Countdown

06:34 Donating Hair Plans

08:10 Beard Hair Makeover

12:46 Scar Beard Backstory

17:11 Eggs Starbucks Routine

19:09 AI Website Automation

21:14 WordPress Drive Roadblock

22:03 Gemini for Apps Script

23:20 AI Tools and Time Cost

24:03 Gym Recap and Smith Squats

26:06 Market Rout and RSI Setup

27:10 Oversold Signals and Double Dip

30:19 Fake Rally Psychology

34:37 Risk and Account Tax Basics

36:07 Buying the Dip and Avoiding Options

38:38 Money You Need and Opportunity Cost

41:28 Dinner Plans and Decluttering

43:43 Wrap Up and Links

Workout in sans supplements! But got some more at the store just in case. How much? Milk Thistle, zinc and magnesium were on sale. How do I even test for this stuff? Could these supplements just be placebos that enable me to THINK of doing something? And could that then lead me to DEVELOP the abilities, techniques and mindsets?

Went to the Apple Store to get my AirPods aaaaand… didn’t get anything! The girl who helped me was from China, we tried AirPods Pro 3 (with live translation from Chinese… it sucked), AirPods 4 with and without Noise Cancellation, Beats Buds and Beats Buds+ with Noise Cancellation. Why didn’t I buy? I wanted to get an engraving and they wouldn’t do it in store!

Stopped off at FamousWok for dinner… kinda like what it used to be.

GOLD getting CRUSHED! What happened to the safety trade? On patience and money making… it’s easy to say have patience, but there’s also time cost and opportunity cost.

(And too late to sell GOLD as it’s a plunging… probably because of the USD. People run to cash. What about that Fed?)

Donate to the show! PayPal link below!

https://www.paypal.me/stevensirski?locale.x=en_CA

***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

And on Notion: https://stevensirski.notion.site/SSAB-The-Audio-Blog-of-Steven-Sirski-00acfe344e164bfab191d3cddf6952b2?pvs=4

Newsletter over at stevensirski.substack.com

Language vlog on http://www.youtube.com/@stevenslanguagevlog

Hope you have a great one!!

00:00 Botched Intro Notes

00:41 Podcast Purpose Setup

02:19 AI Tech Job Shift

03:13 Market Pullback Patience

04:31 Top Supplements Stack

08:39 Resetting And Bloodwork

10:30 Lethargy Mindset Goggins

13:30 Cost Value Motivation

21:21 Supplement Warnings Advice

22:48 Workout Recap Echo Bike

23:49 AirPods Mall Run

24:55 Empty Malls vs Canada

26:03 Apple Store Reality Check

27:06 Shopping for New AirPods

27:51 Meeting a Chinese Staffer

29:02 Live Translation Fails

35:08 Case Design and Fit Issues

39:10 No Engraving In Store

41:20 Markets and War Headlines

42:22 Food Court Famous Wok

44:46 Wrap Up and Links