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So I have been away for a while.  This is probably pretty much what to expect.  I have a lot of action here in the household this week, but I hope to get one more episode up by the end of next week maybe (probably a shorter one).  I am seriously considering scaling back the Chinese a bunch and shooting for shorter episodes.  What say you all?

On a related note, I log in periodically to check out how many people are listening to the show.  Basically, Libsyn will show you how many people listen in a given day, what website referred them here, how many were on iTunes, etc.  I think that the computer always shows one listen per day, although I don't understand why.  I must have a series of unique people showing up every day to listen to this show.  The last two days, my listenership has spiked to a WB Network-like 4 downloads per day.  Surely, I am a broadcasting tycoon. 

The Chinese lesson starts about 31 minutes in. 

This is my first experiment with music on the podcast -- check out the Seldon Plan's whole album, Making Circles, at Magnatune.com.  Thanks to that group for being openminded about podsafety and music.

There is a second strange attempt at humor involving foreign accents in this episode.  I also talk about the book "Everything is Illuminated" by Jonathon Safran Foer.

Chinese pinyin examples used: 
ma1  ma2  ma3  ma4
ma1  ma  qi2  ma3
shi4  shi2  qiu2  shi4
ni3  hao3
ni3 hao3 ma?
hen3  hao3
hai2  bu2  cuo4
bu2  hao3

Shout outs to:  Princess Remy, the anonymous farmer, the (ahem) MMD

Episode 2: with Erdos, Gnosticism, Xunzi, and more Chinese.

The Chinese lesson starts at around 25:00 and goes to about 47:00.  There is more content to follow, including the answer to the puzzle presented early in the cast.  Someone please tell me how to split my Mp3 into three "tracks" so that you can skip to or past the Chinese lesson!

Kudos to my boy Adam for his participation in the cast.

Look out for jellyfish.

www.wikipedia.org/PinYin

I am back "in studio" recording a second episode.  It probably won't be put out for another week, though, due to family commitments and travel.  Since Libsyn basically has it set up where I can't load more than about 45 more minutes of audio material until my first promotional month ends on June 19th (unless I pay to upgrade), I guess I have time to come up with a second episode.  Please have patience and thanks for hanging around.  Since we are now in iTunes, may I just suggest subscribing there or as an RSS feed and you'll get the episode right away when it is out?

In the meantime, I have a couple of things to put out there:

If anyone has any ideas about getting musical bumpers and themes for segments, let me know.  I'd take leads of people who can do it or advice on the subject.  I'll check out some forums, too, but I figured if anyone who actually listened to the show had an interest, I'd get them involved first.

Is anyone actually trying the Chinese lessons?  I'm committed to trying that idea for at least a month or two to see how it develops (and because it is good, free, podsafe content with actual street value!) but I have received some feedback that it might ultimately be better to at least split the cast into two feeds, one for Chinese and one for talk.

Have any feedback?  Email me at paintedpodcast@yahoo.com and let me know.  I'd be overjoyed to hear from you.

The Chinese alphabet from the lesson in episode one:
BO     PO    MO   FO   DE   TE  NE   LE  ZI    CI   SI    ZHI   CHI   SHI  RI    JI    QI    XI     GE   KE   HE   WO    YE

Podcast Episode 1: Painted into a corner.  The Chinese lesson starts around 26:30 into the show.  The first part is talk (all me).  There are about four minutes of closing shout-outs and music at the end.  Enjoy!  Email me at paintedpodcast {at} yahoo.com  P.S.  The show has nothing to do with Painting.  Or Corners.