DRIVEL COFFEE SHOP
paulinurus
August 02, 2009, 04:27 PM posted in General DiscussionHere's the place for all drivel loving poddies to hang out. Bring your jokes, photos, rants, praises and flames, debates, dibbles and dribbles here. And yes, try and use more Chinese than English so there is some saving grace in the chaos.
paulinurus
August 03, 2009, 03:47 PMHi Pete,
I was intrigued that you considered tv an invention as bad as the atom bomb, maybe a tongue in cheek expression? TV, its good and bad, just like the Internet (lots of good, but lots of bad too) is really up to the individuals (and parents of young kids) to make responsible choices. There four new cable channels here which I watch - EQUATOR all about travelling, OSIS - nature, TREASURE - art, and RUSH - extreme sports. Without EQUATOR I would not have seen and known about many obscure and off beat places and customs in China, such as the one about Arjin - Tibetan Secret Land.
zhenlijiang
August 03, 2009, 12:04 AMTal--我不好意思。 mi dispiace.
I don't know my Star Wars too well actually (would this be akin to confessing that I don't know my times table or something?) ... will study your kind suggestion for my comeback persona and promise to consider it well.
paulinurus
August 03, 2009, 04:02 AMHey raygo, I was in a hurry for an outing this afternoon (Sunday here) and unfortunately didn't save our Chinese dialogue on the dibble tool which I thought had the potential for a future screen play, maybe becoming even bigger than the Jersey Boys.
Too bad they were all deleted, but no worries bro, it's been said that raw talent rises above raw deletions :)
Zhen, imo, no need for multiple apologies my friend.... there were many coincidences that led us to think that there was a staging process in the introduction of the no drivel policy, especially the long delay in making the announcement and then the reply to the imposter at the time of the announcement.
But... that's all in the past... let's drivel!
Tal
August 03, 2009, 04:36 AMI posted this certain to be deleted post elsewhere, it's a partial swan song, so to make sure folk see it here it is again:
But I never drink coffee! How can anyone? (Don't worry, I'll be stopping by. For a minute or two.)
Yeah seems like the new policy is actually delete anything that isn't sanctioned by the "boss" - even when it does actually use language from the lesson and is trying to be creative and fun. Yeah, I get it now. Relax, you'll all be seeing a lot less of me on these boards from now on. 
Go ahead... delete in 1, 2, 3... 
bye bye
P.S. Good work pete, don't think that was even up for 5 minutes on the 算了吧 thread! Good luck working for CPod in the future, you'll need it!
pearltowerpete
August 03, 2009, 04:44 AMHi raygo,
CPod wouldn't be the same without you. On behalf of us here in the office, here's hoping you decide to stick around.
Don't let post-modernism get the better of you!
changye
August 03, 2009, 07:08 AMPlease allow me to repeat the phrase deleted together with some other comments in "Forget it" lesson thread.
我已经够烦了。 That's enough already.
zhenlijiang
August 03, 2009, 08:10 AMChangye please let me remind you this is Drivel Cafe, not a lesson thread.
And I was done.
Tal
August 02, 2009, 11:10 PM哈哈！Cheers dude! I was quite pleased with that Top Cat one. Star Wars in Chinese is a bit more challenging of course.
I'll have a few things to say about all this in due course, right now I'm 'bushed' - late night trying to persuade Matt not to delete every post in sight unless posted by him, zhenlijiang or putative new arrivals, and now up early again to feed a hungry baby! *sigh*
zhenlijiang
August 03, 2009, 09:41 AMChangye although I'm sure I deserve it, for once I'm finding your teacherly attitude a bit disagreeable--just being honest here. And if I'm misinterpreting you I'm sure you'll be kind enough set me straight, and I shall have to apologize yet again.
changye
August 03, 2009, 10:07 AMDon't worry, you're not misinterpreting me. I readly admit that I'm a bit teachery today. However, a teacherly attitude might be slightly better than a "detective-ly" attitude here in Chinesepod, a place people teach and learn languages. Just a joke.
zhenlijiang
August 03, 2009, 10:25 AMAlthough you and I are both Japanese we're not really in Japan here. I do think you know this but it's usually better (in the English-speaking world), if you're going to make a valid criticism, to make it very direct.
I am able to take this criticism well. I know I was 200 percent in the wrong.
On the other hand joking or making cute references is actually not helpful, as you will come across as mocking the other person.
But again, I suppose I deserve that. 我情愿坐牢
Tal
August 03, 2009, 11:45 AMWell, being a crass westerner, lacking all that Oriental indirectness and 'grace' you two are so good at, I'll just be blunt and say don't worry zhenlijiang. Actually it amuses me when changye purposely lets his mask of avuncular gentility slip to reveal the pompous ass beneath!
Anyway changye if you're trying to suggest I was in any way involved in this past weekend's witch hunt, you are mistaken. If you and other users could have actually seen all the posts that were made, I think you would been able to get through it without wrinkling your delicate nose, and might have even felt that the situation was actually resolved now, and that we had got back on a teaching and learning track as well. But our good product manager could not have that of course, he had to wade in as the Alpha Male, deleting every single word I tried to post, even when it was obviously related to the lesson content. As you should be able to tell from paulinurus' comments above, some of the posts involved creative interplay (using Chinese) beween active and interested users, (no need to worry about them of course if there's a potential newbie on hand in any shape or form ready to hand over some cash.)
paulinurus
August 03, 2009, 03:11 PMHi Guys,
It's a public holiday today for me, sun's shining, air's fresh, temp's about 24, and besides some gardening chores and few tv programs to watch (shhh.. don't mention to Pete that there are many channels these days that are not weapons of mass destruction) I have time to simply drivel.
Yes Tal, I thought you were mistreated yesterday. The irony is that throughout the whole thing when some of us were playing detectives, you in fact remained impartial and was simply joking on what personas Zhen may assume if reincarnated. After the first mass deletions, your subsequent dibble chinese dialogues were not only funny but also perfectly relevant to the 算了lesson topic and should not have been deleted. Perhaps as a consolation, I would refresh your memory that my posts were deleted even before the policy was in effect 哈哈 but looking back now, maybe quite appropriately. Deletions are sometimes appropriate and sometimes not, such as in your case which then only reflects poorly on the person rather than on you.
re Changye's remark, I have no problem with it...every one is entitled once in a while to say "I told you so" or to assume a parental role and scold a bit. So we played detective instead of learning, we went on a tangent, but so what.. no big deal, but remember it was triggered by his judgment to broadcast the new policy to someone who is clearly an imposter.
Zhen, 200% guilty means you have to come back twice, first as ? and then as ? . I am not Japanese so of course I wouldn't understand the Japanese culture but based on the circumstances that led you to play detective you're not even 100% guilty. It's the delay (from this week to many weeks) and all the apparent cloak and dagger stuff with mynash and other imposters that went on in implementing the new policy that made us play detective.
changye
August 03, 2009, 03:14 PMHi raygo (or tal_)
I'm very sorry. To tell you the truth, I completely thought that you deliberately posted them yesterday with ironic intent. Looks like I need to learn not to doubt other people's goodwill.
Also, I thank you for teaching me the convenient word "crass". It seems that declaring yourself "crass" can justify criticizing someone by use of "not so decent" words such as "ass" in a public place.
I learned a lot today.
paulinurus
August 03, 2009, 03:27 PMHi Changye,
Tal didn't deliberately post with malice after the first wipeout. He posted two cartoons and Chinese dialogues joking about "dibble" which was a subject that was created from my mistyping of "dribble" which was my involuntary reaction to the pic of Lukeskywalker.s mum, which was one of the persona Zhen could come back as should she decide to leave 'creepy Cpod'。I think he was trying with good intention to get the board back to normal, and maybe too fast after the first rampage, and was subsequently wiped out。。哈哈！
zhenlijiang
August 03, 2009, 03:32 PMChangye, please--'pompous ass' is not indecent, not such a bad term, and said by Tal tongue-in-cheek. It's a colloquial way of saying, well, pompous, though of course it doesn't mean you have to like being called that. Please ask Pete maybe, for his insights.
Criticism for what I did I will take. Paul--I don't want to say this again. I had no business accusing Matt, no excuse (even though I did have a good 'friend' cheering me on all the way, still no excuse).
I just didn't appreciate having someone walk all the way over here to Drivel Cafe, open the door and step inside just to say "Enough already" when I was already done emoting, as I said up there. I was done.
Hope that's clear.
Tal 反正，我哪儿不直接？
I am dismayed that you are being accused of anything, and understand why you're angry. You did not, as Paul points out, participate in our sleuthwork, you did not insinuate anything, you in fact kept at your efforts to make the mood there light, in fact contributed very witty and lesson-related posts--which no one can see now because they've been arbitrarily deleted. Again, I'm sorry. Because I made Matt upset enough to do that to you. (please--no one argue with this)
changye
August 03, 2009, 09:20 AMHi zhenlijiang
You are very right. And that is the reason I posted the drivel here.
paulinurus
August 02, 2009, 04:34 PMRaygo, too bad I couldn't reproduce Lukeskywalkers mum's pic.
I thought I saved some of the dialogues before they were savagely deleted, but somehow I lost them, or maybe not, somewhere in my computer.
raygo says
Officer Dibble: 诶，怎么回事TC? 听说你和你的没用的哥们儿在骗人呀！
TC：Dibble 警官，没事儿，没事儿，就算了吧！