I'm back -- !
fudawei
September 02, 2007, 05:34 AM posted in General DiscussionApologies to anyone who tried to get ahold of me over the last several weeks; I've been distracted. My mother passed away after a couple weeks of hospice care.
Trying to get back into the swing of things; get back into a routine. Getting back into a rhythm after a short hiatus might be a great blog topic for Ken.
I noticed that Praxis trimmed their Language fora back a bit. Kind of a bummer that they dropped Russian before I got a chance to really play with it. (What happened? Hank have too much on his plate?)
Anything else startlingly new that I should know about? Not quite caught up on the message base yet.
MexicoBob
September 05, 2007, 02:16 PMFuDaWei, Forget about Russian. Let's get some more action going over at SpanishSense. I wondered where you had been. My Ma died about a year ago at 92 and I still miss her every day so I really can feel your loss. Like my Ma always said, however, "Onward ever, backward NEVER!"
AuntySue
September 02, 2007, 07:17 AMIt's great to see you back, mate! We can keep you busy, if that helps a little bit. I don't know if you saw the unveiling of the Grammar section. There's a lot still missing, but it's out there and it's being filled in all the time. Then there's the new Dictionary, which is wonderful and addictive, so don't go there unless you have half an hour to spare or a lot of will power. Again, that's changed many times in response to our comments. And most recently, there's the new home page, home as in what you get after logging in. Any lessons in your feed, and any lessons bookmarked, will appear on your page. The calendar is no more, so anything you had in the calendar just got added into your feed. The News and QingWen podcasts aren't coming through the feeds at the moment, something we've discovered recently and they're working to get them back in. Go to the lesson archive and take the Extra tab to find them. It's always worth checking your personal feed page after a break. I think you'll be ok in this case, but you never know when something new gets snuck in there and you need to tick the box to get it. Frank's run off making films somewhere for a couple of weeks, so you could leave a comment on his blog to make him feel more guilty when he returns. :-) An updated version of the Chinesepod Forum Toolbar for Firefox came out recently, but I guess you know all about that! ;-) We've got a few interesting new members on the Forum lately, both students and Chinese people, who are jumping right in which is nice to see. I know you'll be interested to find posts there about a new Palm app release and also the upcoming Beta of PlecoDict and its desktop version, plus the usual chat, language help, cpod news and comments, people talking about planned trips to China soon, some there already, crazy ideas and funny cultural anecdotes, and even stranger things like a little Mac/unix tutorial and a whole bunch of recent posts from theABC that don't mention food once, I hope he hasn't lost his apetite! Jump right in, and we'll catch ya.
fudawei
September 02, 2007, 08:11 AMWow ... thanx, Sue. Brought me up to speed in a few deft paragraphs. Gonna take a bit to digest, but I heartily appreciate the update!
John
September 02, 2007, 08:19 AMGood to see you're back, FDW!
wei1xiao4
September 02, 2007, 11:19 AMSorry about your mother. A parent's passing takes time to heal from. We're glad you are back!
goulnik
September 02, 2007, 06:52 AMthat's right Ken, this uh, agora (central forum+ blog + feedback combo) seems to have taken the discussion away from the forum lately
bazza
September 02, 2007, 09:36 PMMy condolences for your loss, and welcome back.
eileen
September 03, 2007, 02:01 AMHi Fu Da Wei, My condolences as well. Glad to have you back though! :-) AuntySue, Amazing recap! Hehe... Doc Alice's right, its nice to have a recap of it all. You even mentioned a few ones that I accidentally forgot about. :-)
trevelyan
September 03, 2007, 04:54 AMAs with everyone else, I'm sorry to hear about your mother, but it's nice to see you back.
praxislanguage
September 03, 2007, 05:28 AMi'm
TaiPan
September 05, 2007, 07:56 AMFu, Sorry to hear that. I hope you're well. Your humor has been missed in these parts. Glad you're back.
azerdocmom
September 02, 2007, 05:06 PMHi FDW, welcome back! My sincere condolences for your recent loss. Losing a beloved parent is a thoroughly consuming affair; it also jiggles our perspective on life a bit. I hope that you are holding up and keeping good memories of her all around you, in honor of her. My dad passed away 3 years ago. (His picture is included in my YouTube lesson.) I think of him all the time. Aunty Sue, thanks for the concise update. I've been here for the changes, but it's so nice to get a summary of them: )
kencarroll
September 02, 2007, 06:42 AMFDW, Welcome back. Really sorry to hear about your mother. Not sure what I'd say about getting back into the swing of things, except, there's lots to review, so just wade into wherever looks interesting. I haven't been blogging much lately but I'm thinking a lot about mobile learning, social networking (in a learning context) and how ChinesePod should organize input going forward. I may be bouncing some of thsoe ideas foir the Big Brain.