SSAB – June 1 2022
New month! New life!? Or same ol same ol? Language Vlog: stop being so pseudo academic! Vlog your language! Calling myself out. Getting things done and making sure I’ve covered as many bases as possible.
Show notes tracks n vidz up on stevensirski.com. Have a good one!
SSAB – June 2 2022
Hot n sweaty! Still don’t understand the electronic gate passes NAT sites fewered. Two workouts! Trying out the running with weight vest again. Dropped it by 2kg though so now only 11kg. 2 miles no vest 1 mile w vest 30 air squats 30 pushups 12 pulls ups 1 mile run + 2 pull ups Then spent most of the day working on… the Iron Man HUD! This was a neat one! Multiple layers and required some work but it got done! Dragon Boat this weekend as the cities open up. But for what? I think this is the holiday with the guy who drowned so that’s why they eat zongzi, or rice cakes in bamboo leaves.
Show notes tracks n vidz up on stevensirski.com! Enjoy the weekend!
SSAB – June 3 2022
What is that feeling called when you wake up but can barely move? Not sore, but like your muscles are ultimately relaxed? Sleep intertia? Yea, tough to get out of bed this morning but still managed the two workouts today. Pizza is a good recovery food, right? Dragon Boat Festival, have yet to eat zongzi, some went to Chaoyang Park but I think you need proof of vaccination. Uploaded a few more vids. Will get some more done tomorrow. Got one of those cell phone stands that all the cool kids have. Fleetwood Mac – Rumours -Did a test Discord run and ran into some issues of how best to stream audio. Thought I could use Quicktime to screen capture but it didn’t work.
Show notes tracks n vidz up on stevensirski.com. Have a good weekend!
SSAB – June 6 2022
Beijing is open! Allowed to dine out again and restrictions are being lifted all over the place! Yey! Happy Jubilee Day! The Queen of England has been in charge for 70+ years! Can you imagine doing the same job for 70 years? Reading The Stand by Stephen King. I like his writing style. Surprised he didnt get any flack for some of the words he uses in his books. New vid up for MYMYM2022. A few more to go. Want to try out some more animation, esp stop motion. Going to pick up the new passport tomorrow which means… visa, work permit and contract renewal. And… guess no more excuses for putting off that HSK test. Markets shoot higher as the govt scrutiny of Didi and other tech names is nearing completion. Website updated!
Show notes tracks n vidz up on stevensirski.com! Have a good one!
SSAB – June 7 2022
Seems to be a bit more life out now in the city, I guess people are happy to be out. Passport picked up, now the rest has to be done. And now visa and work permit and contract renewals begin. My real fear is updating WeChat and Alipay. If those dont work then life will be 麻烦了 (troublesome). MYMYM2022 nearing completion as finally got to animating one of the vids. Still dont like After Effects as it runs too slow. Zongzi made over the weekend. HSK test to be signed up for, next month is the target!
Show notes tracks n vidz up on stevensirski.com Have a good one!
SSAB – June 8 2022
Another animation done! This time with coffee beans! Word has it that a neighbour is being ousted because… the landlord is selling! That, to me, is a sign of at least a change of direction. Stonk market is appreciating and investors’ money is going up! Was out with some folks last night and of all things… met a lady who graduated from my university one year later than I did. Why was she there? Cause it was cheaper… but a little bit cold. An understatement! Double workout again tomorrow, though about taking supplements, CLA and or L-Carnitine but… are these sustainable?
Show notes tracks n vidz up on stevensirski.com Have a good one!
SSAB – June 9 2022
HSK 5 test prep begins! July 16th is the test date! A liiiittttllee bit nervous! New challenge to myself: post a new video everyday until test day. Can it be done? How much of an improvement will I see? Will I be able to yak on like I do in English? Lockdowns again? Why? Someone got the bug in a club and now they’re all closed. Gotta keep those NATs current if you want to enter stores! Booted from April Gourmet! The Stand, Stephen King, and cocaine. Do drugs help creativity? Eeee, tough to say, but it does beg the question: is there anyone who has become a household name that isnt or wasnt hopped up on something?
Show notes tracks n vidz up on stevensirski.com. Have a good one!
SSAB – June 10 2022
SLV language check in once again, I should have started this earlier! Michio Kaku on Joe Ro – Types of civilizations YouTube shorts, you ever watch those? Or is this just them trying to copy TikTok or Insta? Lockdowns again! After Effects still causing me issues!
Show notes tracks n vidz up on stevensirski.com Have a good weekend!
SSAB – June 13 2022
Busy weekend getting vids up and finally finishing one that took a while. Hail stones and thunderstorms, first this year! Beijing does not grt hail very often. MORE testing, lockdowns, etc. SLV continues, neglected to post yesterday so posted this morning buuuut internet connection isnt so good for some reason. Need to focus on pronunciation while continuing with vocab Work permit renewed, next PSB, I forget even why we go. Is this for the visa? lol!
Show notes tracks n vidz up on stevensirski.com Hope you had a great weekend!
SSAB – June 14 2022
Bianlifeng chicken! Don’t get to have this very often any more! Michael Jackson’s Thriller – full album, what do you think? It’s almost 40 ywara old! 7 of the 9 tracks were singles with the famous Thriller track coming out last. Good album, solid pop songs. May You Make Your Movie updated, only a few remaining! Insta and YouTube updated. Website up to date, thinking I might get someone to code the code I need to make this simpler. New SLV up again. Today was about vegetables in Chinese! Hope you had a good Tuesday!
Show notes tracks n vidz up on stevensirski.com!
SSAB – June 15 2022
Residence permit! That’s why we go to the PSB! Not for the work visa! Very active day in that I did get my two workouts in + the bike journey to and from the PSB. Somewhere around 1500 calories burned, but then by night time I am hungry! More lockdowns, but this smells more of some sort of hit against the bar scene in Beijing than anything else. Or have things just been lost already? Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau has COVID… again! And now the country has relaxed vaxx requirements. Markets getting crushed! But Chinese markets bounce! Rate hike on Wednesday? Chinese prep: could I spend every day just using Chinese?!
Show notes tracks n vids up on stevensirski.com Have a good week!
SSAB – June 16 2022
Getting tired of training or just need to change things up? What else would I do with my time, right? More mandatory testing but travel restrictions are being eased. Still too expensive to go anywhere. Fengtai is released! But others are locked up. New vlog up: I read a beer can. Good practice but it did take some prep. The Stand: I can see why Stephen King is regarded as a very good writer! Description!
Show notes tracks n vidz up on stevensirski.com. Have a good Thursday!
SSAB – June 17 2022
太牛了！Very cow! Means awesome or sarcastically not awesome. Any connection with the word cowabunga? Reading in Chinese! A book about Wu Jun who came up with a coffee company here in China, though I’m not very familiar with the name. I want to like After Effects, it’s just not very user friendly. Tried to rotoscope something and got everything except the content aware fill which did not do its job. Ended up severely reducing my expectations and… moving over to Apple Motion. Work tomorrow, NATs continue, rest day. Dual workouts: again, not sure what else I’d do during that period of time. Thinking of compiling a bit of an ebook to help spur creativity. Wouldn’t be a huge ordeal, but something to try out.
Show notes tracks n vids up on stevensirski.com
SSAB – June 20 2022
Continues to be a good time for cold beer as the humidity has spiked… you basically sit and sweat all day. Programmed the fans to go on and off at night. Beer, smokes, exercise or what gets you through tech trouble shooting? 4K monitor not playing nicely with the other tech. Two a day workouts continue 618 ‘shopping festival’ Reading some easy-ish Chinese books from a series called The Long Interview. Will need to focus on HKS 5 books soon.
Show notes tracks n vidz up on stevensirski.com. Have a great start of week!
SSAB – June 21 2022
Longest day of the year which means… the year is half over! Stephen King, writing and reading. Word count inspiration or warning? Cycling in Inner Mongolia (not Mongolia the country) Chinese blogs continue, have to redo the coffee vid. Website updated! Show notes tracks n vidz up on stevensirski.com. Have a good one!
SSAB – June 22 2022
Daily workouts, or new habits to take forward? No two a day today, humidity and mindset sapped my strength. Good workout this morn tho. Vids uploaded, MYMYM2022 – Sluggin it Real Time and another SLV in which I introduce different coffee making methods (second take). Oil plunges, as do markets. False flag? Watch daily charts as they are more detailed into how the markets move during these times. Work throughout the week! That’s a first in a long time!
Show notes tracks n vidz up on stevensirski.com Have a good day!
SSAB – June 23 2022
Rain cooling things down, looks like next week will all be rain. Life must be getting back to normal as construction sounds abound, inside, outside, and all around. Keeping busy with the language channel if you haven’t had a looksee just yet. Enjoying this Bill Bryson book The Body. It’s my night time read. Should be taking notes! Tech layoffs continue! Surprising given the big push towards AI and robotics. Where are they going? Show notes n stuff on the website stevensirski.com Have a good one!
SSAB – June 24 2022
Friday, but who’s counting? Work this weekend. Dual workouts done around work and NAT tests. When will this end? Working on pistol squats and one arm pushups Expat living, here or there, what matters? Taxes follow so how to accommodate?
Show notes tracks n vids up on stevensirski.com. Have a great weekend!
SSAB – June 27 2022
Sunburn! First of the year! Thunderstorms! Drink your water! Humidity will dehydrate you! And why do we feel so tired? Cicadas are out in full force now. Schools being let back in, in-house dining, too, but still no generator! Have decided to go ahead with the HSK5 test in July sooo… time to hardcore prep!
Show notes tracks n vids up on stevensirski.com. Have a good one!
SSAB – June 28 2022
Hydrate for the weather! Preparing for HSK and making language study part of the evening ritual. A trip down memory lane across Western China. Next VIRUS-like pandemic to be warded off by good health practices? Or are we just kidding ourselves?
Show notes tracks n vidz up on stevensirski.com. Have a good one!
SSAB – June 29 2022
Thunderstorm awakening! Still got the workouts in! Wages for ESL teachers go up… but they have to be in-country. And those who aren’t from the Sacred Seven ‘native English spealing countries (and passports)’, well, we’ll just offer you less. So… a move away from Beijing? Geez, could I even? The asterisk is gone! What means? No more travel restrictions. Flights are still expensive $7000 CAD to Winnipeg. HSK 5 prep, what else am I going to do in the evening?
Show notes tracks n vidz up on the site stevensirski.com Have a good hump day 😀
SSAB – June 30 2022
The fkg generator is back on! 太麻烦了(o﹏o) HSK 5 prep continues with looking at some collocations. 搭配 dāpèi is the word I was looking for yesterday. They make a whole lot more sense now then they did before. Lots of folks I know who have hit HSK 5 level or thereabouts all seem to say the same thing, ‘ I wouldn’t mind getting the 6’… yet none of them have… even though their Chinese is stellar. This does not bode well for me! Remember that flight plan I had in mind? Yea, it was through Hong Kong which needs a quarantine soooo… there goes that idea! Been thinking, I used to say it would be easier to cut calories than to increase expenditure. But my new workouts now seem to suggest something almost opposite. It is now easier to up my expenditure than reduce my calories any further simply because what I do eat (and drink), though is less, it seems to be more of a habit. So, how do I change this and do I want to? What happens if I stop working out so much? Back to reading Chinese!
Show notes tracks n vids up on my site stevensirski.com. Have a good one!