Poddie Collaborative Story

'free to make up whatever stuff we like about Kunming.'

Chances are the reality is even stranger. Actually anyone interested, on Escape Pod (science fiction podcast) you will find a story called The Night Train - it features a less than charming underworld character called Boss Gui from the Kunming Toads. You won't learn much Chinese from the story but I did enjoy it nevertheless.

haha we haven't stepped out of the 机场 yet! Perhaps we never will ...

'make sure we don't step out of line'

You can step out of line as far as you like, mate. This is the city of possibilities. (Yes, I know I sound like the tourist bureau - actually I had dinner one night with an official from the bureau but may have missed my chance of going on the books.)

Thanks Bodawei! Sounds like you like my writing much better than I do. Hope you join us soon, yeah someone there who knows what he's talking about, though of course this is all for fun and we're free to make up whatever stuff we like about Kunming.

I'm looking forward to when you do have time mate, though I do know how caught up you are though, so no pressure. It's at least nice to know we have a resident of the place the story is set in to keep an eye on proceedings and make sure we don't step out of line, hehe.

yeah, I'm a big fan of direct speech and also love that direct silence. I love the way the direct silence was quoted too, hehe. Great stuff. :)

oh right, I thought you were referring to our Connie, but I did wonder why at the time. Haha, what a good memory you have to remember her saying that from that old lesson. liaobuqi. Very apt too then, hehe.

For any interested readers out there, this is where the name in that last bit came from.

00:54~

This story plot is independent of that episode though. I only borrowed the name, and the idea ...

没有啊～！你也参与参与吧！

真lijiang，你太谦虚了！

Not at all...I'm loving it. Buyongxie..it's my pleasure pengyou. :)

Apologies for the bad photos, bad writing, bad grammar and long delay. Thanks and cheers to Baba for posting these.

..and here's a closer look at a couple of those characters:

Actually, yeah, I think that's the go. After posting the pic, just under that if everyone could post their url, I could then repost them in a separate final draft thread. At least, until I think of an easier more efficient system. And it could tidy things up for this thread.

a bit like the final draft in the transcription group with just the story bits one after another

I do like that idea, it would be nice I think, when we're done, maybe with illustrations also (like pics of 昆明机场 or whatever else). I for one would be happy to give you the URLs for mine if I do any more myself. But yeah a separate comments thread might work too.

"In the interest of making the story easy to follow of course I think it's better if we only posted our contributions here and nothing else."....Zhen, I agree with you in principle, but you know, it's hard for us not to comment, hehe. I was going to say that I was thinking of posting another thread [with a link to it from this one] where it was a bit like the final draft in the transcription group with just the story bits one after another. I just realised though, that as they're photos and everyone has there own url's for where those photos are stored that may not be so easy to do. I might have to think about it and have another approach. Perhaps next time there could be a comments thread from the start, with comments for part 1, comments for part 2, deng deng. I'm sure there's a few ways to do it, but I'll leave it for the time being.

Yeah I know about the not using IE. It‘s just since installing the latest, IE9 that I've been having problems. Thanks for the offer, think I'll take you up on it.

Oh, just had another thought. If it's easier for you, you could email me the pic and I could post it for you [giving you full credit of course]. I'm heading out in an hour or so though, so if you decide to go that way and I don't get it soonish, it might not end up being posted till this evening. Just trying to help. There's no rush as far as I'm concerned.

Zhen, I use firefox and haven't had any problems with it. I have one of the IE's but I never use it. I use flickr to upload my pics to, and that's worked for me. Also, I just this morning posted a pic on another thread and it worked fine [ once again, in firefox]. I'm not sure what else to advise, but let us know if you're still having problems. Good luck. Looking forward to it. :)

Aiyo I‘ve finally finished only to discover that the problems I seemed to be having with posting on the site ever since installing IE9 recently are preventing me from posting the image of my writing. Nothing happens with clicking on the image icon in the tool bar.

Anyhow I’m sorry for the long delay. I won't be 预订ing again ...

Cheers Baba. In the interest of making the story easy to follow of course I think it's better if we only posted our contributions here and nothing else. But it's the first time, we can try stuff out and see what happens. （＾ｖ＾）

Just seen this now Zhen. No, of course go for it. Not against the rules. In fact a good idea....if you're just about to work on doing a contribution, good idea to claim a spot first, then work on it and post it. Can't wait to see your contribution, though I may have to wait till tonight some time as I'm about to go out.

whoa,thanks mate. that worked treat.

Hi mate,

You can right-click on the image, then chose "copy image location". The URL will be saved to your clipboard so you can just paste it where you want.

toianw,

Yoo-hoo mate. Do you happen to have the url of your handwriting pic handy about you?

哇，很清楚的汉字，很帅，很汉子的汉字，呵呵。还有我也很喜欢你的故事。。很有意思，而且很聪明的说法。

请注意。。微软Word算你用一百五十六词，所以你得编辑【删除】十六词，好吧。

【当然，我完全开玩笑朋友，哈哈。。。反正，其实只有一百三十六字，而且多少的字我感觉无所谓】

多谢你参加这个故事朋友 ：）

在昆明他们迷路了，还是迷途*？ 哈哈，我很喜欢你的故事！

* 迷途是当地的昆明电视台节目的名字`。

'basically about their quest'

Made me think of those ancient computer games with various 'Quests' in the title .. I wonder how much of my life I have wasted on computer games?

'Is it not possible to call a married woman by her birth name?'

Yes, of course that is the usual thing. But if you use the honorific 太太 you use the husband's family name regardless. So she is likely to be 王太太 as well as 李愿望, depending on what she feels like calling herself today.

Actually I do like your idea of solving it later; at least not de-constructing it here as I did this time; maybe a little bit of clarification from time to time.

"but if so it should be 王太太"

..yeah, I nearly went that way, but I like to vary up the characters, and I though married Chinese women often keep there family name. Is it not possible to call a married woman by her birth name?

Yes, you've got it all. I know those names aren't authentic but I wanted them to give a little hint at their character [which is basically about their quest]. xian1qi3...yeah, I wasn't too sure of this, but I was trying to use this to say "set out"..as in "they, immediately set off on their search for Shangri-La.

You didn't like the idea of not interpreting the handwriting till the end of the story? I thought it could lead to some amusing "chinese whispers' [ is the politically incorrect? ...if so, what's another term for the same effect? ]. But anyway, we can play it this way if you prefer.

haha, yeah, I thought you'd like the kunming jichang bit. Impressed that you spotted it so quickly, hehe

"your characters seem to be already pretty professional"

..not a whit, but talking of getting someone hooked, you have got me realising just how important it is to put pen to paper...it just feels different even to a writing tablet. I still love the writing tablet and skritter as great tools for learning the characters, but I think you've still got to put pen to paper. It's a whole new experience for me. Heck, I hardly even do it anymore in English except to sign my name. I've really gotta do this more till it comes more naturally.

新婚夫妇(newly married couple)王希望(man’s name?)和他的太太李愿望(his wife’s name? - but if so it should be 王太太)降落jiang4luo4(land)在昆明机场并立即li4ji2(immediately)掀起xian1qi3 (to raise)搜索sou1suo3(to search for)香格里拉为了他们的蜜月mi4yue4(honeymoon).

I’m a bit uncertain of our protagonists – Wang Xiwang and Li Yuanwang? Or have I got off to a bad start? I wondered if the 王 was a 主 but I can’t detect a 、 .. can you put me on the right path to paradise before I make a contribution (have to be later – I have to go out for a while.) Very promising start by the way - can't think of a better place to start a story.. :)

Ah, my eyes went immediately to 昆明机场 haha - I gotta hand it to you Baba you know how to get a guy hooked! And nice start - your characters seem to be already pretty professional.

I'll start by confirming the story intro.. 新婚夫妇(newly married couple) .... 蜜月(honeymoon). (I think I will take this to a Word doc and return shortly, not least because I am having trouble with sougou, it just suddenly decided not to work. Have it going again by going into Word and coming back.)

Hehe, yeah, now that the story has landed in Kunming, the ball is squarely in bodawei's court. What's he going to do with it? backhand? forehand?....or hopefully SMASH! He should be able to point us in the right direction on a road trip out of Kunming, don't you think?

[but of course anyone is welcome to jump in at any time, I just want to see if I'm serving up an ace to bodawei or not, or whether he will be able to return the serve].

Hi Baba, I was hoping for a collabo op too, a story is a great idea, ambitious but could be great fun, and funny. I would like to contribute, but third or fourth or even later rather than second ...

finally got it to work. Please see below. Also, please dajia join in !

Maybe we should start each of the 'only six stories in the whole of human history' and then people can contribute to whichever they like! Some people are into romance ('boy meets girl' some into adventure 'road trip'. Etc.

I would love to but, dammit, I have to work today! :)

yeah, go for it mate. Wanna kick start it?