Hi Jeff, My suggestion is that you'd better write down what you really want to say in English for this entry, so that we can correct it for you easily.

i really can't understand you .

"today has been good" -- that's what I guessed. ;) So you should change a dictionary maybe. for 过气 means "passe". And from what I've studied, Chinese-English dictionary is a bit helpless & confusing in learning Chinese grammar. You'd better use the whole Chinese dictionary ASAP. If possible, you should also understand a bit of the language deference from Sino-Tibetan to Indo-european. The deference is huge from the basic families.

Generally speaking, like learning English, at very first, we have to make sure what is the character of the Chinese word, a pro, adj, noun, adv or something else. Than put them together in a efficient way which is used to be in China, but it is a long journey. I make an example, 我需要帮助。( I + need + help), The structure of this sentence like this "pro+verb+noun. "It is hard to explain why they have to put in that way, Here we call it Chinede grammar. The quickest way is to communicate with Chinese people or repeat Chinese until you remember how that sentence be used in that situation. practice practice and practice.