SSAB – November 1 2021
November! Several birthdays coming up.
Warming the pipes as the central heating is slowly warming up the buildings.
Time of year you never know what you’re stepping on, leaves or dog poop.
Sick. Head cold. Rest, grapefruit juice, orange juice, green tea,. Garlic! Gotta chew it! It burns and beer doesn’t
How was Halloween? Only one place I saw dressed up for the occasion. Is it called celebrate Halloween? Good question. Dunkin Donuts just opened a shop nearby and had donuts for the occasion. Didn’t see too many people buying them.
Disney World shut down! And now… reports of people not being allowed back into the city even if they have a green health code. Good thing we came back last week!
Show notes on stevensirski.com
Have a good one!
SSAB – November 2 2021
Feeling better. Chinese remedies vs the remedies I grew up with.
Chinese remedies would be hot water, rest, then a pharmacy visit. Strange as most people I meet every day would say go to the hospital. Conflicting solutions?
NaNoWriMo – You in? I might just try to write a couple thousand words a day just to get back into it. I’m more looking forward to December.
Show notes on stevensirski.com
Have a good one!
SSAB – November 3 2021
Passport renewal process, should be easy enough. Can apply to RETAIN my current passport while it’s being renewed… but I’ll have to pay $45 CAD for that ‘service’. Overall, doesn’t look too difficult and should be rather straight forward since the Embassy is in Beijing.
At least I can get a passport as Mainland Chinese citizens can’t unless they can prove a need for it. Leisure travel isn’t a valid need. No wonder, though, since China now has COVID cases in almost every province!
Keeping busy, and should be, from now until the end of January: NaNoWriMo, Drumming December and Jamuary. 90 days solid of creative output.
Breaking point?
Show notes on stevensirski.com
SSAB – November 4 2021
An extended disgression on learning Chinese, HSK 5 or 6, what do they really mean? 2500 characters or 5000 words, whatever! All that being said, should I be taking speaking lessons? $600 CAD for 30 classes. Commitment is not the issue, it’s… is it worth it?
Keeping creative, keeping the juices flowing. 1500 words a day NaNoWriMo. Get.it.done.
Show notes on stevensirski.com!
SSAB – November 5 2021
Foot is hurting on top, can’t be a sprain can it?
Forgot to press publish last night. NaNoWriMo2021, coming along.
Weekend is here… and I work!
Show notes on stevensirski.com!
Have a good end of week!
SSAB – November 8 2021
Beijing snow! Quite a bit. But now a lot of it’s already gone. If you want the good pics of the city under snow, you gotta go early.
Cooooold!
NFTs … for artists, are they worth it? My current understanding of the sphere: coinbase, Opensea, Mintbase, Foundation, Ethereum, copyright, piracy, modern copyright. But… blockchain tech as a method to disperse money to anyone who owns and everyone who publishes. That is to say, if someone buys a recorded track, then uploads it, both the creator and the originator can profit from its use.
How can I get involved?
Making movies in the modern day: can it be done online?
Soundtracked drone footage: stop complicating things!
Shows notes on stevensirski.com!
SSAB – November 9 2021
Been a while since I’ve been back to Canada!
Star Trek thinking… what if we are living not in a simulation but in the recorded memory of some thing that has done a reverse analysis of what led up to its current state? There’s your thought for the day!
Two days away from 双十一！What good is shopping for stuff anyway?
Bought a book… a REAL BOOK: J.P. Getty’s How to be Rich. Got it mainly for the inspiration.
NFTs part 2. What if the blockchain means you can’t share your music any more because everything is on the cloud but locked to your account? Aaaand… royalties for The People!
Show notes on stevensirski.com
Have a great day!
SSAB – November 10 2021
Did it even snow? Cause… it’s all gone now!
It’s Shuang Shi Yi Eve! Are you going to buy anything?
November, Movember, remember to get your pooper checked gentlemen! Movember doesn’t seem to be in the media much these days.
NaNoWriMo… printed out a rough draft. Eeech!
Show notes on stevensirski.com
SSAB – November 11 2021
Lest we forget. Have you tried to read In Flanders Fields out loud? With the recorder going? Try it. This here is my attempt. Cell phone in hand, Beijing, China, Ukrainian descendant, ESL teacher, Canadian passport holder. WIFI. Bluetooth. Cloud. Touching. Scary. Heart-wrenching. Let’s make a world for all people. Hate me if you have to.
Show notes on stevensirski.com
Vichnaya pam’yat.
SSAB – November 12 2021
Thinks & Thoughts and how long did it take me to go from concept to execution for my podcast and audio blog? Answer: a long time! Other ideas I’ve had, random yik yak, THE podcast, and this. How long can it go? Aaaand… how could I automate it to make my life easier? It’s all a learning experience.
Show notes on stevensirski.com
SSAB – November 15 2021
Chinese class on a Sunday morning? THREE HOURS?! But I think it’s what I need.
Former teacher from Wudaokao!
Only three or four students per class.
The book we’re using basically skips ahead by a book and a half. Will need to work on grammar.
Other students speak pretty well, can follow along but when the teacher speaks sometimes I lose the meaning.
HSK 5 by March of next year at the latest!
Podcast guests in the works!
Show notes on stevensirski.com
Have a good start of week!
SSAB – November 16 2021
Ever washed a wall? Should be easy but it was the one behind my bed so I had to move stuff. Overall, looks better.
Found the audio book version of 三体, Three Body Problem. People say it is a good book but that may be because President Obama commented on it. I found it a little confusing and boring. But will try to read along in Chinese!
A digression on how Chinese characters are formed.
Learning about dictionary comprehension in Python. Could I just spend time learning how to better use the operating system I have now?
NaNoWriMo and writing prompts, are they even useful?
Show notes on stevensirski.com.
Have a good day!
SSAB – November 17 2021
Making a job for yourself, would you do it? How would you do it? What if I lost my job tomorrow, would I be able to keep earning an income and, if so, how would I go about ensuring that income?
These days can be busy, especially if I try to work on Chinese in between clients.
New Starbucks opening!
Show notes on stevensirski.com
Hope the week is going well!
SSAB – November 18 2021
Great ideas disappear, better ideas stick around.
AI in China… am I in the wrong profession?
Something in the air recently, might get some plants for the apartment.
Show notes on stevensirski.com… have a great day!
SSAB – November 19 2021
Hyperproductivity and today’s world. Are we always being busy and productive or just busy? Is this a bad thing? What would Thomas Edison think? And what was the chronological timeline of his invention of the light bulb? When did the idea first come to him and when was it fully realized, actualized, and deployed?
Doing your job yet saving something in the tank for after to get your own work done. Keeping that motivation, inspiration, drive, desire. Your company employs you to do a job that was the idea of another person. How would you want the people who work for you, who support your idea (if only for the paycheque) to work?
Filosophical Fridays… no, not a new trend. Just thinking.
And about those plants…
Show notes on stevensirski.com.
Have a good weekend!
SSAB – November 22 2021
NO TIME TO DIE… or is there? SPOILERS!….
New Bond movie, interesting transition. They did offer up a few clues, one that another agent will become 007, but not James Bond.
My idea: cloned or stored DNA via nanobot technology.
I just wanted him to be happy.
I guess if he came back, would he recognize his daughter?
Chinese class, need to better prepare. Not just homework but review and then prepare the next lesson. We can get through a chapter a week which means 12 more weeks until this book is done.
A lot more confident for sure as I’m able to hear in confined space how other people are using the language.
Show notes on stevensirski.com
Have a good start of week!
SSAB – November 23, 2021
Cool jobs… washing windows?
NaNoWriMo update, how many words can you write in a day? Made a title page, does that count?
Blog notes have gotten shorter, I know. Still looking for a way to automate some things.
Theta Alpha waves, ever tried listening to them? Apparently helps with focus, not sure how to test this.
Evolution of a drummer? Do you play the same music throughout your career or do you change it up drastically? Prepping for December Drumming.
Show notes up on stevensirski.com. Have a good day!
SSAB – November 24, 2021
Chinese studies, vocab, and the plan or idea to work from home in order to master the HSK 6 word list next year.
Beard oil? Is it even necessary? Do people even notice? I guess they do if I was asked if I was going to start using some (I don’t really care to).
And about those Theta Alpha waves, what are they and how do they work? Are they any useful?
Show notes on stevensirski.com, have a great day!
SSAB – November 25, 2021
Happy Thanksgiving Day to our USAmerican comrades! (Canada’s is in October… shorter growing season.)
Pies in Beijing… expensive? $50 CAD for a 9″ pie. Asked if I could eat the whole thing and get it for free… nope.
End of November… if you could do your hobby or creative idea as business, what would be the lame, boring, I don’t want to do this I’m just gonna put in the time thing that you need to do?
Show notes up on stevensirski.com. Have a good holiday!
SSAB – November 26, 2021
Vibrators are percussive instruments… and the forming of a muscle knot. Left calf muscle seems to be in the process of knotting hence the need for beating it with my muscle pounder.
It’s my Thursday night as I work tomorrow yet Saturday night will be spent prepping for Chinese class.
ESL industry for life or is there life after it? Same form, or different? What would change? If Apple ever holds a keynote with automatic translation, my job is pretty much gone. Sooo, what are some ideas going forward?
Show notes up on stevensirski.com, have a good weekend, hope you had a great week.
SSAB – November 29, 2021
Work week starts already?! Sunday afternoon lapsed into Sunday evening (as it always does) with a few bottles of wine. Not sure how often I want that to happen.
NaNoWriMo2021 is almost done, how has your first draft gone? I haven’t been writing as much mostly because I was aiming for a collection of short stories and I finished a lot of it last week so I’m happy with my accomplishments so far.
Preparation begins for December Drumming (or Drumming December), in which I’ll be recording some sort of drum or percussion element every single day throughout the month. This is a lead up to the Jamuary Song-A-Day challenge that will take place the first month of the new year.
Chinese class is intense but I am learning. Target date for the HSK 5 test is March which gives me about three or four months of preparation. Teacher read out a paragraph during class and I could understand most of it but couldn’t answer the questions just because I didn’t know the vocabulary.
New virus VARIANT, we’re on the OMICRON now! How many more to go?! Is this biowarfare or an example of how we could feed (good) drugs to the people? Ie, why does a virus have to be bad, could it be good?
Show notes up on stevensirski.com! Have a good start of week!
SSAB – November 30, 2021
Making asparagus with cheese and… sweet potatoes. Two separate meals. Asparagus part of dinner, sweet potatoes part of breakfast/lunch. Will try it out to see if this new time saver works or not.
Have you ever tried to eat a grilled sweet potato? They’re awesome but hard to peel.
Should’ve thought about the soil situation for my plants, apparently it won’t arrive until tomorrow. How do I take care of these things again?
NaNoWriMo done and dusted, congrats to those who finished their first drafts. I’m putting mine away for now.
Onto… December Drumming. Should be interesting to see if and how I can keep up this creative output. Hope you’re well!