Seems like only yesterday we were bidding adieu to the “rough” 2020 and its pandemic, yet here we are approaching the end of 2021 and it seems as if we’re hardly any better off. Trump is out of office and hardly in the news at all, though his name does pop up every now and then. China is still in the news quite a bit, but for different reasons, and never about the origins of the virus but how it has basically locked down the country. Flights in and out of the country are still quite hard to come by.
And then there’s the Christmas feeling again, just a little bit. Last year I bemoaned the fact that Christmas as an expat is hardly what it’s like back “home”, forgetting that different places have different ways of celebrating things. I did finally make good on my promise to myself to try to make some of the traditional foods I grew up with, notably kutya and perogies (potato and cheddar cheese), and then also throwing together some saurkraut, kubasa and perogies.
Christmas Food
Though the kutya was NOT at all what I was used to (China has banned the sale of poppy seeds, which is one of the three ingredients of many kutyas), the perogies turned out alright and the saurkraut was German, so it was good, too. The kubasa was decent, but I know I can find better here somewhere.
Kapusta & Perogies
But that’s at least one thing checked off of my list of things to do.
There was, however, no church service this year. The services might have actually happened but the city got really cold and windy and, since we’ve been working quite a bit, we were both quite tired. But that wasn’t the only reason. Each church we looked up on the map had a notification that read something along the lines of “Business is currently closed, we’ll notify you when we’re open again.” So, rather than venturing out into the cold only to find the place closed, we figured we’d just stay in.
Churches Closed
And then there was some success with Chinese as I finally wrote the HSK 4 test in May. I passed with a 67% total, but that’s because I wrote the test by hand instead of on computer. I think this contributed to me scoring very low in the writing section of the paper (scoring only 54% or so). It could also be that my grammar sucks.
HSK Test
The podcast continued with several new episodes, but there have been gaps in my shows. I didn’t realize when I started the podcast that it would require so much work. From setting up meetings, recording, post-production (minimal), design elements, exporting, posting, it does take time. I have streamlined my workflow quite a bit and I expect it can be further streamlined.
Podcast
That being the case, I did start another podcast but a much smaller, lesser-produced version. This is my daily audio blog in which I record a short monologue of sorts about the goings on of the day. I post once a day between Monday and Friday and has been a good way to keep me consistent. I post the episodes both here on my site and on Anchor.fm, which is the free podcast-making software put out by Spotify.
Daily Podcast / Audio Blog
This audio blog format has been really neat to explore because I am able to post sound clips, music tracks, and other elements before, during, and after the actual voice portion of the podcast. It allows some freedom to express more while not being as much of a commitment as a talking head video would. (But that is also an idea I’m thinking of.)
Month-Long Challenges
In other accomplishments for the year, I’ve managed to complete several month-long challenges I’ve put upon myself. In order, they were:
- Jamuary Song-A-Day Challenge – In which I wrote and published a different type of song each and every day throughout the month of January. Some sucked real bad, others were okay, and some were like “That’s actually pretty good!” You can listen to the whole thing on its dedicated page over here.
- May You Make Your Movie Video Challenge – This was my own creation and challenge to myself that was inspired by the Jamuary challenge. Instead of music, however, I wanted to create a video project each and every day throughout the month of May. It kinda worked but I soon realized how much more work video work can be compared to audio work. The full list is here.
- 100 Days of Code – Not even close to finishing this one! I think I tapped out somewhere around Day 30. I’ve continued to pick away at Python but I’ve realized along the way that I don’t really need to know every single thing about the langue. Instead, I’m aiming for enough proficiency that I can piece together elements that have already been made and then make them work for me. I have yet to do that, too, but it is a work in progress. I thought I could keep the same pace as with my other month-long challenges (or Chinese) but computer programming was a different beast that I was simply unfamiliar with. Next year!
- NaNoWriMo – Unpublished as it was more of a personal project than anything. Further, I was only aiming on creating a collection of short stories rather than a full length novel, as many try to do throughout the month. These short stories have been banging around my head for years and so I figured now was as good of time as any to at least try to get them down. I tried. I did. That’s the first draft. Revisions await.
- December Drumming – Another one of my own challenges that I came up with earlier in the year. I was contemplating a month of solid drum work in which I only focused on the drums and percussion. So far, as I’m writing this towards the end of December 2021, I’m a little behind in posting. The challenge has gone ahead, however, and will lead into next year’s Jamuary challenge. The track listing can be found here.
Health & Working Out
Last year I posted how I had upped my workout game quite a bit in 2020 in an effort to stave off getting big during the lockdowns and other restrictions during that year. Well, this year has seen more of the same though I added a weight vest and a steel club to the mix, while continuing to use kettlebells quite a bit. I use Instagram quite a bit for inspiration and to find workout ideas, though I’ve found I’ve been sticking to similar workouts on each day of the week: Monday is my “countdown” day, starting from 100 reps down to 10 reps; Wednesday is medicine ball day; Friday is weighted vest and club swing day.
More recently (within the last week), I’ve decided to move my workouts to the morning (starting somewhere between 545 and 600 am) in an effort to give me more time in the evening and so I don’t feel as much of a rush to flee the work place. This workout may sometimes replace my mobility workouts in the morning, though I still do those on most mornings. I’ve found mobility to be one of those things that if I don’t do it every morning I feel it throughout the day. Stretch every day folks!
I did track my food for a while, but stopped because I found I was mixing a lot of ingredients and wasn’t sure how to properly count all of the calories and whatevers. I did take note that my macros were WAAAY off and that I was consuming far too much fat, even if it was from healthy sources.
I stopped eating bacon every morning and don’t really miss it. There was no reason to do this other than I wanted to see how much it would change my body composition if I stopped (lost 2 kg or 4 lbs pretty quickly) and, though I already kind of knew this, I wasn’t sure what kind of ingredients or preservatives they use in this bacon but I’m sure it’s not meant to be consumed so often. So I stopped. I still have it every now and then just not as often. It’s also lowered my weekly food costs.
Going forward, I was thinking of joining a Crossfit gym if only for the challenge. I was also think about taking up kick boxing again, but these things are so needlessly expensive here in China that I feel it would almost be a waste.
Further, the only other thing I’m trying at the moment is restricted eating, popularly known as “intermittent fasting” but what is more traditionally known as “skipping a meal”. I chose to skip breakfast, so I “fast” / “not eat” for 16 hours starting at 7 pm in the evening to 11 am the next morning. I’m not too hard on myself for this and I have learned that you have to watch what you eat once you break your fast since consuming some foods (ie, a full breakfast or even an entire sweet potato) or too much (a burger and salad or fires), can spike your blood glucose and not only make you feel very tired, but can also put you at risk for Type 2 diabetes. Yikes! Doesn’t sound sustainable to me.
Work
The work force has been trimmed substantially and we continue to see people trickle out. This is only noticeable because no new faces are coming in, both because of a lack of hiring and because of the difficulty of getting into the country.
Further, it looks like there is an increasing push towards working from home, which is odd since I don’t really have a home. My employment and visa are tied to one company and now it seems that I’m paying their rent to do their job. This does make me wonder why I’d bother working here given all of the other restrictions of being in the country but I do take pause and consider how the rest of the world is dealing with the various outbreaks that keep happening. Either way, working from home may be a possibility in the very near future which won’t be entirely bad as I’ll be able to better use my time to study Chinese. Which brings me to my next big project…
Mandarin Chinese
With the completion of the HSK 4 the Hanban Institute (the folks who run the Standardized Mandarin Tests) have announced that there will be a substantial overhaul to the tiered structure of the HSK tests. Without going into too many details, it means the tests will be a little bit harder. However, since I’m already working on HSK 5 with the aim to write the test in the Spring of 2022, I should, in theory, not be too affected by this change. But I may be overconfident in that belief.
With the push towards home working I may have the time and ability to implement a three-a-day vocabulary workout which should, SHOULD, help in getting through the HSK 6 materials within the next year. But I say this without as yet finishing the HSK 5 books.
Overall
It’s been a busy year and I look forward to 2022, especially if it means I’ll see more progress in my language abilities. The “big” podcast is now done every now and then since it does take some effort to assemble but the “small” daily audio blog continues. Further, I’m looking to add a few more month-long challenges throughout the year as I’ve found it’s a good way to focus enough time and energy on something to actually see results.
All that being said, hope your New Year is healthy and prosperous for you as well. If there’s anything I can help you out with, let me know stevensirski [at] gmail [dot] com.