Jordan Keats

How To: Rock a Trade Show. Lessons Learned since Tectoria 2011

2011-12-09T13:16:00.001-08:00

Tectoria 2011 was a blast. We estimated there were over 2,000 teenagers from highschools all over Vancouver Island who stopped by our conference booth to enter our giveaway of two prize pack of iPhone accessories. There were at least three of team from north Studio and Q College at the booth from 9:00AM to 6:00PM . We gave out over $400 worth of candy, and got over 1000 entries into our giveaway.

While this may seem to be a successful strategy, there's a decent chance less than ten percent of those who entered our draw even knew what we were selling or who we were representing.

"A handful of candy for writing my name down on a piece of paper and taking a pamphlet. Sure!"

Two of the cardinal rules for tradeshow success are: a) avoid gimmicks and b) have a clear objective. We broke both. Gadgets wrapped in shiny plastic with ribbons, candy, and no other objective than to hand out pamphlets and drive traffic to our Facebook and Twitter pages. Why is that so wrong? Because you can't buy a website or pay for your tuition on Facebook or Twitter. Although there was someone from administration there who was making arrangements for appointments there was nowhere for the prospects to actually sign up or buy. Funny, seeing how we paid for the booth and were there to increase enrollment for the next intake at Q College and sell websites.

*Facepalm

I've been to tradeshow and conference training courses before (yeah, they exist), and tried some of the "con-hacks" like extra padding for the floor space; setting the table at the back of the booth, to draw people in, and limiting the amount of handouts in order to keep conversations going to seal a sale or a schedule a follow up appointment. All valid ideas. Useless... unless the design is in place for a sale to be made or a deposit be taken.

Out of all of the training and tips out there, THE most important thing to know about trade show displays, strategy and tactics, is to be prepared to make a sale, and have that sale be seen by others. Just like the one kid walking by and seeing the candy or the prizes, and then running to get their friends - If we had the facilities in place to register, and we may have been able to fill the computer and web design school for years to come.

There's a lot more tips and lessons, from Chad Leiffert and Bob Albright, such as, "how to: make people feel at home in your trade show booth" and "why you should avoid the color blue in your booth at all costs". Read what I wish had the day before yesterday here: http://www.midlanddisplay.com/trade-show-displays-booths-manufacturing.html

View the story "#ContentBC Conversation " on Storify]

#ContentBC Conversation with @BxMx @WikiBrands and @tantwy Storified

2011-12-06T15:19:00.001-08:00

Occupy Leaf Pile

2011-11-25T16:35:00.001-08:00

Photo: Floods Ground Planes in Bangkok

2011-10-27T10:42:00.001-07:00

Enlarge This Image

Bazuki Muhammad/Reuters

Airplanes sat idle on a flooded tarmac at Don Muang airport in Bangkok on Wednesday.

via nytimes.com

A friend of mine is in Thailand, North of Bangkok, filming an elephant being born. Expecting her back this week, but there may be a delay.

55 Examples of Beautifully Integrated Social Media Links in Web Design | Inspiration

2011-10-27T00:15:00.001-07:00

Daniel Marques

Jonas Eriksson

Creative Soapbox

Poolga

via webdesignledger.com

Nice to see creative ways of doing the same old thing. Innovation is cool.

52 more examples here: http://webdesignledger.com/inspiration/55-examples-of-beautifully-integrated-...

Know what's Fantastic? The Search Engine Interview with Tim Berners Lee - Thanks @Jessebrown

2011-10-15T19:36:00.001-07:00

via feeds.tvo.org

The inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners Lee, talks with Jesse about the future of data.

And, he asks a really tough question.

Subscribe to Search Engine at: http://www.tvo.org/searchengine

There is a sure chance Steve, my cat, will kill me.

2011-08-30T21:47:00.001-07:00

If your website's full of assholes, it's your fault - Anil Dash

2011-07-20T22:52:00.001-07:00

If you run a website, you need to follow these steps. if you don't, you're making the web, and the world, a worse place. And it's your fault. Put another way, take some goddamn responsibility for what you unleash on the world.

How many times have you seen a website say "We're not responsible for the content of our comments."? I know that when you webmasters put that up on your sites, you're trying to address your legal obligation. Well, let me tell you about your moral obligation: Hell yes, you are responsible. You absolutely are. When people are saying ruinously cruel things about each other, and you're the person who made it possible, it's 100% your fault. If you aren't willing to be a grown-up about that, then that's okay, but you're not ready to have a web business. Businesses that run cruise ships have to buy life preservers. Companies that sell alcohol have to keep it away from kids. And people who make communities on the web have to moderate them.

via dashes.com

Five tips for making the world a better place: http://dashes.com/anil/2011/07/if-your-websites-full-of-assholes-its-your-fau...

Did You Learn How to Debate On the Internet?

2011-07-07T08:45:00.001-07:00

Dilbert is the only part of the "Business Section" I claim to understand.

Love Turtles? Who Doesn't?

2011-07-07T07:36:00.001-07:00

This bookmark was uncovered while reducing my paper records to 25% in a spring clean.

Think it's from Gr. 1, back when I was a brianless zombie moron:

This video always cheers me up. Thanks Tosh.0:

Father's Day Post & Free Gift: The Easiest Way for a Son to Make His Dad Happy

2011-06-10T16:49:00.001-07:00

Father's Day is this weekend, and there is a quote form Kyle Beachy's book: the Slide, which is sums up the easiest way to make a Dad happy:

I want you to promise me one thing, Potter. No matter what happens, where any of this leads us. Promise to call me on the telephone. A father derives something huge and uplifting from a phone call from his son. You and I don't speak on the telephone often. We never have. But I can't stress enough, every single phone call will make me happy. I promise to be happy to hear from you, wherever you are, until the day I die. This is a promise I can make with the straightest of faces. Because the love I have for you eclipses anything you can fathom at your age.

The Slide is a fantastic book, one I have gone back to a number of times. Beachy writes with the emotion of Haruki Murakami, and the realistic voice of contemporary writers like Chad Kultgen.

We're all lucky to have more options for communicating with our loved ones than ever before. My Dad is the most loyal reader of my blog, and we have conversations via email all the time. However, when I call and hear the happiness in his voice over the telephone - that is a sound that cannot be convied over text.

Before the Slide was released, Beachy realeased a print and fold mini-book on featherproof.com called So Little Impression

Follow the link to go download and print a free copy for the Dad in your life: http://www.featherproof.com/Mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&.../lreading/little.pdf

Here's a tie-in to Serengeti Appreciation Year: I was introduced to this author by numerous mentions in a "rap" album by Serengeti called, Noodle Arm Whimsy.

"I may be a writer, but I'm no Kyle Beachy" - Serengeti

Thanks for reading and sharing,

Jordan

P.S. Hi Dad!

[Music] Don't Listen to Saturday Night by Friday Night #SAY

2011-05-17T08:29:00.001-07:00

"If you want to annoy a poet, explain his poetry" - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

∴ The only explanation I'll make about Friday Night's album: Saturday Night is: Don't buy it.

Don't buy it or listen to it on this jump, unless you've listened to Friday Night's first album: Friday Night (not the free remixed album, cheap-o). It's part two of a story. You won't understand the intro to the first track, and you'll hate the whole album. Which would be a shame, because of the fantastic tracks like Jaqui and The Longest Wave .

I love people who consider context overtone.

Soon see,
Jordan

The Jordache Look pt. 2

2011-05-12T11:59:00.000-07:00

via imgs.sfgate.com

Favorite Photo Ever!

The Jordache Look

2011-05-12T11:56:00.000-07:00

via tomama.blogs.com

Some fashions never go out of style.

CarrotMob descending on Fernwood Inn: March 28 #YYJ #business #sustainability via Village 900 Radio

2011-03-25T12:15:00.001-07:00

Carrotmob Victoria is BACK! Based on popular demand, great success and an unbelievable turnout during last year’s breakthrough Wanna Waffle Carrotmob, the Commerce Students’ Society is putting a bit of a spin on the traditional Carrotmob framework. In the works are not one but two Carrotmob events. The first, Monday, March 28th, is a promotional event being held at The Fernwood Inn. This event is to get the public excited and informed about Carrotmob, and introduces our possible prospects for the BIG CARROTMOB in May.
What does this mean? For one day, hundreds of consumers will be heading down to The Fernwood Inn to buy, buy, buy! In return, the owners have pledged a base of 75% of that WHOLE DAY’s revenue, which will be increased in relation to how much we beat their average Monday sales, to be put towards making environmentally friendly improvements to their establishment. There will be entertainment, great food, drinks, prizes and contests. THE MOB IS BACK, AND WITH YOUR HELP, IT WILL BE BIGGER THAN EVER!

via village900.blogspot.com

WHAT: Carrotmob kickoff event.

WHERE: The Fernwood Inn: 1302 Gladstone Avenue Victoria, BC

WHEN: Monday, March 28th 2010 6:00PM-10:00PM

WHY: To demonstrate to the business community that there is a market for socially and ecologically responsible business.

Why Do Most Memes Suck So Hard? #SAY

2011-03-23T11:57:00.001-07:00

Hey all,
It's been a couple of weeks, how have you been? Yesterday was my first day as a teacher's assistant for the Digital Communications course for the BA Professional Communications at Royal Roads University.

Yesterday in class, we were talking about viral videos - and why most memes suck so hard. We spent the majority of the day discussing aggregation, curation, and how to find the signal in the noise of all the data on the Internet. However, what happens when you follow the recommendations of evaluating all the posts that Postrank over 5 in your Google Reader - you lose touch with the grassroots of what people are actually talking about, or actually listening to.

The example we were following was of Rebecca Black. I thought this was the woman who was complaining about people talking in the library, but it turns out Black is attributed to a terrible song everyone is in love with - with over 35 million views on youtube.

Let me explain the "meme to 'relevant' rating level" with two examples:

Pitbull - I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) Official Video

I can't stand this song, and I hope you find it offensive on more than just an intellectual level. Regardless, this video has over 171.5 million views on youtube.

Here is a video with six thousand views:

"Flutes" by Serengeti. Video by A.M. OVERTONE

I'm not complaining, not a bit; however, what we learn about these two examples is that you can reach a far more general audience with appeals to sex, food, and fear, but if you want to share an intimate - intellectual or emotional - moment with your audience, above the common denominator: be prepared to be confused with your content and receive far less attention.

Keeping it real can go very wrong; but, soul-less songs, from sun-glassed stars, are simply forgettable. Emotions are everything -regardless of who recommends your music.

Thanks for reading, and if you comment - we can talk!

Jordan Keats

Panorama of 12th Floor Westend Vancouver on CleVR.com

Traveling between Kamloops and Vancouver #BC

2011-03-02T10:06:00.001-08:00

Having spent the last two weeks in Kamloops, working a desk job, and not updating this blog, here are the highlights of my trip:

1. Working in a kick-ass environment

There is nowhere as interesting as a counselling office. Amazing and lonely clients come in everyday and leave far better than they arrived. Your co-workers are people who dedicate their lives to helping others live theirs'. These guys are doing the right thing.

2. Experiencing winter

I never realized how much I missed the skin-crackingly dry cold of the Interior. When I arrived it was warm (3 degrees Celsius), with little snow and lots of muddy brown.

Three days later, it was minus thirty-five degrees celsius with wind chill. The lakes were frozen through and it hurt to breath because it was so cold. Hooray for Inside Culture!

3. Destroying a desk

Anyone who drives a desk twenty hours week knows what I'm talking about. The next best thin

g to trashing a bug-ridden photocopier is unceremoniously destroying a reception desk.

4. Kicking it with family

Celebrated my Step-Niece's 8th birthday at Red Robin. I had a gore-met burger; she and her sister had pogos (corndogs). She got a couple Playmobiles and creepy plastic animal toys with big eyes. I sang her a helium "Happy Birthday".

5. Kicking it with family

The best thing about living a twenty minute drive from town is you are obliged to have a conversation and connection with your passenger. You have a captive audience for the entire ride, and if you're my father - it's your time to shine. In short, if you visit your parents, in the any rural part of your country, make sure you arrange your own transportation.

6. Leaving

Some say the best thing coming out of Kamloops is the highway, but my hometown is far better than when I left. They have all the same services as Victoria, but they are still barely in the Web 1.0 world. Forget ordering food from a smartphone, it's a nightmare. You can't find a menu for a business that has no website, but there's lots of Yelp & Urbanspoon spam reviews to frustrate you while browsing.

I caught an awesome drive to Vancouver from one of the smartest businessmen I have ever met, and four hours later I was in Richmond Centre Mall - one of the busiest places I have ever seen. No kidding, the entire population of Kamloops was in the Food Court of RCM.

Vancouver was slowed down by eight inches of snow - people on the street were way friendlier than they are here in Victoria most days. My two best friends and I took a snow-skateboard out around the alleys and side streets near Jervis and Davies:

Life is great when you're moving. Getting out of my pod was a great refresher, the future is looking good.

Blogger Panel Wordcamp: @Raincoaster, @Miss604, @MikeVardy. Moderated by @Lacouvee #wcv11

2011-01-22T16:33:00.001-08:00

Technology & Gov't Discussion Panel UVIC 2010

2011-01-22T13:50:00.001-08:00

A Colossal ROI for Using Twitter

2011-01-20T20:42:00.001-08:00

via plixi.com

Alexander Florov - Sketch of Colossus from the #X-Men

Thanks for the request via Twitter, Alex. This is a great portrayal of the warrior/ poet character of Colossus. He looks like he could destroy everything in his path, yet human enough to create art too. Great job.

Jordan

Colossus

2011-01-20T01:31:00.001-08:00

via groundkontrol.com

Grabbing.

So you want to be a journalist?

Friday Night Fever - Serengeti Appreciation Year #SAY

2011-01-14T15:06:00.001-08:00

In 2008, Breakfast Records released the album Friday Night, by the band Friday Night. The songs on Friday Night tell a wild story of a wild night, and the rise and fall of the characters of Dave and Umar. Friday Night could be compared to the Streets' album: A Grand Don't Come For Free or Prince Paul's: Prince Among Thieves; however, to compare this album with any previous record would be doing a disservice to the originality of Friday Night.

It's no big secret Serengeti is a fan of "A Grand Don't Come For Free". His song, Puppydog Love, from the album Don't Give Up, shares the first line with the Streets' song "Could Well Be In", and has the F word in it, but the two songs are much different. There are so many great songs by Geti beginning with a curse word, like "I Don't Know", and no radio edits. Here's to hoping people can see through the swears and notice these awesome songs, but I digress.

Friday Night tells the tongue-in-cheek story of Dave & Umar, as they embark on an ironic journey of consumption, arrogance, and luck. It's an exaggerated tale of American life and overindulgence. These guys do it up real big: Canadian Club Whiskey, transvestites, and overdoses. The Friday Night, is Serengeti, Hi-Fidel, Grilla & Ish. Grilla and Ish are the producers behind Breakfast Records.

Consider the irony and cultural critique while listening. Need I say more?

"You know all that shitty drug, money and sex-saturated radio and party Rap everybody likes so much? Well, Serengeti and Hi-Fidel made an album making fun of it and managed not only do it better than all the chumps on the radio, but make the shit sound good in the process. Oh, and they made the whole album a continuous story that's actually linear and compelling."
- Imageyenation's Best of 2008 A-Z

Buy & Listen to Friday Night here: http://fridaynight.bandcamp.com/album/friday-night

Then check out the the Friday Night Remix album for free here: http://fridaynight.bandcamp.com/album/friday-night-remixed

And wait for my post about Saturday Night in the coming weeks, here's a preview: I like it.

Thanks for reading,

Jordan

Posted via email from Jordan Keats is Pre-Posterous

Top 11: Cats & Saxophones.

2011-01-06T15:23:00.001-08:00

The strange attraction between cats and saxophones has been well documented throughout history. Did you know that ancient Egyptians considered both cats and saxophones as gods? Probably not, because I just made that fact up. Regardless, enjoy these pictures of well-fed, vaccinated, super predators and their favourite instrument: the Straight Pipe, a.k.a the Goofus.

Cats love Saxophone Cases too:

Still curious as a cat? Looking for more interesting material to put your head into? Check out Ken Burns' documentary: Jazz. It covers a hundred years of American jazz music, and is a must watch for any musician or music lover. Here's a few samples:

Duke Ellington Dreaming:

Wynton Marcalis on Why Jazz is Great:

Here's the Intro:

If you're still looking for entertainment, why not explore some other posts on this site. I'm quite proud of this one: The Lost Art of Television Watching http://t.co/yhDJ8Eu

One final note, I'm putting together a links page for this site. If you know of a cool site to add to that list, or would like your page there, add it in the comment section of this post.

Welcome to 2011, I hope you have a great year. Thanks for reading, sharing, and subscribing,

Jordan

Say Hi on Twitter

Posted via email from Jordan Keats is Pre-Posterous

Happy New Year: If I Could Be With You (For Just One Night)

2010-12-30T12:42:00.001-08:00

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2v5H7P9xmQ]

Melody: What is that song?

Boris: They played that song the first time I went out with Jessica.

Melody: Where did you go?

Boris: We went to a dance.

We were both students at the University of Chicago.

She had a high lQ and a low-cut dress.

Boy, they really don't write them like they used to.

Melody: Oh! That's a cliché.

Boris: Good, Melody. You caught it.

Melody: Well, you always get so mad when I do them.

Boris: Yeah, I shouldn't really. Sometimes a cliché is finally the best way to make one's point.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URjGV7Z473k&feature=related]

Much Later...

Crowd watching TV: Hey, hey, hold on! Hold on!
The balI's about to drop!
Come on!
Ten,
nine,
eight,
seven,
six,
five,
four,
three,
two,
one!

Happy new year!

Boris: I happen to hate New Year's celebrations.
Everybody desperate to have fun.
Trying to celebrate in some pathetic little way.

Celebrate what? A step closer to the grave?

That's why I can't say enough times,
whatever love you can get and give,

whatever happiness you can filch or provide,

every temporary measure of grace,
whatever works.

And don't kid yourself, it's by no means all up to your own human ingenuity.

A bigger part of your existence is luck than you'd like to admit.

Christ, you know the odds of your father's one sperm from the billions, finding the single egg that made you?

Don't think about it,
you'll have a panic attack.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1rgBGLRuK4&feature=related]

Happy New Year's to all my friends, family, readers, subscribers, and enemies. Wishing you all the best in 2011.

Rrr-reference: Whatever Works Words: http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/w/whatever-works-script-transcript...

Posted via email from Jordan Keats is Pre-Posterous

The Lost Art of Television Watching

2010-12-23T11:23:00.001-08:00

I remember exactly when it happened: two years ago. I sat down at my television set, and my loyal friend, the Talking Head, asked me to go somewhere else. "Don't just watch the programming, interact with the stars!" the Head said, "come to our website, and find out more". It's like they didn't want me to sit still and watch my "disasters a second" for my three-hour allowance a night.

It was a decade after the end of the show about nothing, networks started expecting us hard working folks to stop watching television and go to an "Internet" for bonus features and content. (that's right, "an" Internet). First, it was our books, our movies, and our music; now our cathartic experience inducing cathode rays are being turned into data. Major broadcasters are forgetting to program us, and expect us to explore content and give our opinion on their blogs.

Is nothing sacred?

I have no kids. No wife. No cottage. No personal charming story to appeal to your emotions, however another couch potato does: let's call him "Cricket".

Cricket is the owner and operator of a business. He has two children and a lovely wife, let's call her Carol. By the time he returns from work, showers, hangs out with his kids, and maybe stretches; he's physically exhausted. Then, the National News asks him to "Go Deeper", while we sits eating his dinner. Small children can't be blamed for getting heavier, but now his chill time is asking for more of him?

There is no more sitting back, tuning in, and uhm.... something else. Now, our reliable rubber ball, bouncing on our screens for years, wants us to catch it, turn it around and examine each error on every side; or worse yet have to learn how to juggle that ball with two others that magically appear out of a series of tubes.

Our meditation time in front of the good ol' talky box is under attack; like a small child asking questions while you're on a phone call, our focus is drawn away from the best content television has ever produced. We're expected to be tweeting (on Twitter.com) while watching, as if our discussions and peasant squabbling could have an affect on ratings.

If this were the Sixteenth Century, would we be talking with someone in a far off land, like Florida, about whether or not Iago would be able to get a handkerchief to Cassio and Desdemona? Would there be, "Behind the Blade: The Rise & Fall of Othello"?

Have no fear. You can't read or watch any content on the "Internet" without ads on the five-minute mark, or dissecting each paragraph you read. It's free, though. We pay in the time it takes to reach these extras, and we don't even get the full experience. Sure there is an option to recall and search the every piece of data anywhere, at any time, but: so what? Our time is stretched so far, it's like it isn't the most limited resource we all share.

As Bill Gates said, “Television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs”. However, in an age when more and more of us are working on our laptops from coffee shops, the last thing we want to do is reach for it while we are enjoying our time in front of the TV, ignoring the people we love. This Holiday season, resist the urge to update you're favorite scene from Chevy Chase's Holiday Vacation. Instead, keep the enjoyment of Home Alone in your house.

Jordan Keats lives in Victoria, BC, and wrote this while listening to Beck's Record Club, reading poems from Leonard Cohen's Book of Longing, and trying to focus on an article by David L. Ulin from the Los Angles Times Online about Reading from 2009. He's a Communications and New Media specialist with a love for coffee, and a lifelong dedication to Chen Style Taijiquan. He gives way too much of his spare time to: blog.jordankeats.com.

Nota Bene: After sending this article to dozens of newspapers, and receiving no response in return - I've decided I don't want anything to do with them either. What are THEIR qualifications for publication?

Say Hi on Twitter

Posted via email from Jordan Keats is Pre-Posterous

The Best Independent Technology Journalist of 2010: @JesseBrown of TVO's Search Engine

2010-12-22T11:25:00.001-08:00

Sick of:

Social Media Gurus?

Futurists drooling for the peaceful arrival of singularity?

Newspapers crying over losing control over our stories?

Well, @JesseBrown is none of the above. The show he hosts, TVO's Search Engine, will help you to understand technology and the culture of the Internet. Jesse Brown & Rick Nye are independent Canadian journalists who are discussing global questions about technology, copyright, and privacy. A few of Search Engine's featured guests are: Anthony Marco, @anthonymarco, a high school teacher and podcaster from Hamilton (Episode 63); Michael Geist, University of Ottawa Law Professor, and Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, @mgeist, (Episode 66); and Chris Parsons, a political science, privacy and surveillance expert, from the University of Victoria, @caparsons.

Search Engine's last eighty episodes are available through TVO podcasts, and Search Engine is still in the Top Ten Downloads at CBC.ca (but we don't link to them).

Thanks for reading, watching, and exploring,

Jordan,

Say Hi on Twitter

Posted via email from Jordan Keats is Pre-Posterous

Videos: Victoria Wing Chun Punch Club Open House & Demo - #MartialArts #yyj

2010-12-10T10:35:00.001-08:00

Punch Club 1 - Wing Chun & Staff Demo

Punch Club 2 - Sticks, Knives, & Tai Chi Demos

Posted via email from Jordan Keats is Pre-Posterous

Sharing is Caring: Reblog Vs. Retweets Continued.

2010-11-28T12:20:00.001-08:00

I'm happy to see some one else has picked up on the discussion we've been having on this blog about DM's for the last week. Since sharing is caring, here's the discussion:

Thanks to everyone for all the awesome comments this week,

Jordan.

Posted via email from Jordan Keats is Pre-Posterous

Thanks to 30 Friends For Proving Me Wrong: Reblogs Vs. Retweets Part 2

2010-11-26T18:11:00.001-08:00

This post is to give credit to those who took the time to retweet Wednesday's post. It made it to thirty. My faith in Twitter is restored. These are the generous people (accounts & businesses) who helped me spread the message to 183,466 accounts, equivalent to more than half the population of the Greater Victoria:

What did we learn?

Twitter is a like a badass radio station. Everyone's got their own channel and broadcasts whatever they want. The problem is the noise. We get so caught up with being the DJ we forget to take requests. Not every Dj can take every request, but some it makes the audience feel engaged if you take at least the good ones.

Of course a few people refused my request, but the majority of people who I asked did. For the last year and a half, I've been making an effort to help, promote, or collaborate with a lot of the people on this list.Take @RajinderYadav as an example. He was looking for information about toning his belly muscle, so I put him in touch with a fitness trainer friend @narinaanne. He was grateful for the hook up, so he helped me out. Otherwise, if I hadn't direct messaged my contacts that post would have gone unnoticed.

The people who were most likely to retweet were people who I reweet, talk to regularly, or share content for their specific consumption.

It may not be good for your mental health to pour our BackType analytics, but it is so easy to see who has done what with your link. Only one third of the retweets of the link were unsolicited, meaning not asked through a direct mention (DM), and five of those ten retweets were from business accounts. When these businesses mentioned this post, I thanked them in my Twitter feed. Having businesses push my material on Twitter is a sneaky way to get noticed in the public timeline. Instead of paying Kim Kardashin an obscene amout of money for a sponsored tweet, it might be a smart business move to go another route and retweet.

You reward someone for their hard work, and you get mentions in return.

As of today, I have yet to get a like or reblog on my Tumblr account, but who knows what will happen with that post in due time.

If you are looking for a list of people who make Twitter an awesome Social Network: look no further than the list above. Follow Them. My sincerest thanks for taking the time to click the Retweet button; I hope no one got hurt in the process.

These six songs go out to those who helped me reach my goal,

"Friends" - Flight of the Conchords

"Friends"- Ween

"Friends" - Whodini

"Deep Fried Frenz" - MF Doom

Jurassic 5 feat. Mya - Thin Line "A Lesson in Friendship"

Dionne Warwick & 'Friends'

Thanks to @scwink for that one.

Thank You All For Sharing & Playing Along,

Jordan

Reblogs Vs. Retweets

2010-11-24T13:27:00.001-08:00

Kicking it with a few friends the other day, my pal Tim asked, "What's the big deal about Tumblr?". Tim (@Howlabit) is a regular Twitter user, who tweets about Scotch, and the aesthetics of the ladies who serve it, but he has yet to try Tumblr as an alternative micro-blogging platform. I've managed to break my obsession with my Tumblog, but I'd been a regular poster for the majority of last year, so I tried to explain the difference to him.

I'm no Tumblr Celebrity, like Julia Segal or Bohemea. The majority of my meagre four hundred posts consists of reblogged photos of: the Beatles, SelleckWaterfallSandwich, and Zooey Deschanel. I even forgot about my account for a couple of months. When I checked into my dashboard the other day, this is what I saw:
Thirty people reblogged a Rob Sato photo I found online after seeing one of his shows in the gallery at the Giant Robot store in San Francisco. Big deal, right? Thirty reblogs. Many Tumblr Celebrities expect three hundred reblogs per post. However, I'm humbly surprised that one of my posts was reblogged more than the amount of people who follow my Tumblr account, and happy I could share Sato's awesome art with some folks who may not have heard of him before.

Recently, my Twitter account surpassed one thousand followers:

Again, big deal. Paul Pierce's account has over 1.6 million followers (more than three times the population of Boston), and he only follows twenty seven accounts back. Still, for me one thousand followers is a considerable Twitter milestone, and a significant audience to share with. However, with Twitter's amassing audience I've begun to doubt the hype of the "million person reaching" retweet. With the recent changes to the Twitter interface, retweets have been removed from your @mentions, and quarantined in their own tab. Combined with a new option to block retweets from specific users, and the option to turn off RTs completly with Hootsuite, the dream of having one tweet "go viral" is over.

In less than six hours, or one profile screen length without scrolling, a tweet from an account the size of mine has been lost in the noise. Unless one of the big time Twitter celebrities, like @jianghomeshi or @sharonhayes, sees your tweet, and retweets it - the only person who will read it is the archivist at the US Library of Congress (Lucky them!). Perhaps this is one of the reasons Jon Mayer quit Twitter for Tumblr?

Here are a few solutions to maximize your reach with Twitter Retweets:

1: Automate - Scheduling a few tweets with a third party service, like Hootsuite or (my favorite) Posterous, can help you reach different time zones, which can be helpful for those of us who live on the Pacific side of the continent. Change your text a little, space your second tweet more than six hours apart, and some bloke will be reading your article at Tea Time in London, UK, (or Ontario). Be careful though, this tactic can make you seem disingenuous if someone asks a question or sends you feedback through an @mention, and you take twelve hours to respond, or look like a spammer if you repeat the same tired blog post every hour for twelve hours.

2: Don't Expect - If you send an @mention to someone you mention in a blog post don't expect them to reply, but don't be surprised if they do. One of the most awesome parts about Twitter is it's ability to connect producers with people, and @mentions are faster to respond to than emails.

3: Leverage Influencers - Each tweet is assigned a unique URL, DM that puppy to someone who you know will Retweet you. Again, don't be a spammer and attempt this trick with every one of your boring tweets, but if you have something of value for the person you are sending to then hop to it, with respect. For more information on identifying influencers read Gary Lee from mBlast's: The Hype Over Influencers

For more information on Retweeting check out Ben Parr's How To: ReTweet on Twitter
& the update by Josh Catone: How To: Use The New Retweet Feature

Thanks for Reading, Reblogging and Retweeting: I'd love to be proven wrong!

Jordan

The End of Baby Blue

2010-10-24T20:01:00.001-07:00

On Saturday I scrapped my truck of eight years. It's the end of almost a decade of favours, chores, moving friends, and hauling junk. Even though I am no longer: "Chore-dan", aka your buddy with the truck, I hope we can still be friends.

Yilu Demonstration & Outtakes - Jordan Keats ((tag Tai Chi, Taijiquan, Chen Style Practical Method))

2010-10-07T14:58:00.001-07:00

Demonstration:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbBHOSB9vl0]

Outakes:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuQHvSa9jqk]

Music Post #11: Yoome: The Boredom of Me - A Depressing Distraction - Serengeti Appreciation Summer #music #hiphop

2010-09-22T18:25:00.001-07:00

Yoome's album - The Boredom of Me is one of the most depressing albums ever. It's "Shoe Gazer Hip Hop", or "Melodramatic Pop". Yoome's themes of divorce, awkwardness, and lost friendships,are best explained through the behind the scenes filming of the video for the song Amsterdam, and the videos for the album:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeNH8qqfTn4&feature=related]
.
http://www.youtube.com/user/TonyTrimmEnterprise#p/u/9/Lfj9RW-fE94
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/user/TonyTrimmEnterprise#p/u/9/Lfj9RW-fE94]

http://www.youtube.com/user/TonyTrimmEnterprise#p/u/5/2mk4UDiAkkY
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/user/TonyTrimmEnterprise#p/u/5/2mk4UDiAkkY]

Yoome is Renee Louise Carafice, Tony Trimm (JUNE) & Serengeti.

If you don't have all day to read this blog and watch these music videos, and ten minute long documentaries, at least have a laugh at this part of the documentary which introduces the character of Kenny Dennis. The Bolex:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f7r3b7IrBk]

Kenny Dennis is the ongoing blue-collar persona who appears on Geti's albums: Dennehy - Lights, Camera Action; Conversations with Kenny/ Legacy of Lee; and, as KDz on the Grimm Teachaz album There's a Situation on the Homefront. The character of Kenny makes Serengeti more accessible. He's a funny dude with everyday problems, and a massive mustache.

There is a new Yoome album said to be released this fall - Keep an eye on their MySpace for it. In the mean time buy Yoome on iTunes or from Audio8

Tai Chi Teaching & Personal Training – A Gift | Victoria Wellness Professionals

2010-09-22T17:35:00.001-07:00

Teachers – A Gift
by Jordan Keats

A few weeks ago Narina and I met for coffee at Demitasse bakery in Oak Bay. We’ve met a few times before, at tweetups, but we’ve never had a chance to talk. Over two strong Americanos we discussed ideas of fitness, leisure, and learning. Narina and I spoke at great length about the difficulties of finding a good teacher, for both Tai Chi and fitness training.

Whether training a martial art or working out for health and fitness, a good teacher can make practicing a chore or a pleasure. Personal trainers or teachers ride the razor’s edge between intimidation and motivation. Motivate a student, and they return for the challenge of learning more. Intimidate a learner, and they will leave feeling scared to return. Needless to say, it is difficult to find a good teacher.

It’s called for to treat students as individuals. Treat elders with patience, and youth with discipline; however, there are times you need to be patient with youth and emphasize increasing practice to elders. A good teacher will take each case as unique, and adjust appropriately. I’ve observed my Tai Chi teacher, Master Gordon Muir, will take me to the peak of frustration in order to teach a certain lesson. Turning frustration to a lesson is an amazing way to get a point across, but it can also leave a learner feeling confused if the lesson is never fully understood. There should always be an overarching message to “Know Your Limits”. A teacher has to gauge how far to push a student before motivation turns to intimidation.

Shang Lee, a blogger and fellow Chen Style Practitioner, translated a speech by Sun Zhonghua a 19th generation master of Chen Style Taijiquan and a 2nd generation master of Hunyuan Tai Ji, posted on Shang’s blog.

Master Sun lists five conditions you need to be a top Tai Ji master, and these conditions can be applied to being a top personal trainer as well:

1. Love the art
2. Have the time
3. Have moral and ethics
4. Able to learn and comprehend
5. Have a good teacher

These five factors are expansions on the Aristotelian rhetorical concepts of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos; however, Sun places special importance on two of these qualities: A teacher has to “have the goods” and “can teach”:

Have the goods:

“Having the goods” means having the real thing. You can’t listen to whoever who brands himself well, or have a large student following. You can’t even say that the person has the goods just because he is famous. To know whether a person has the goods, you need to understand the person from various sources and consciously observe the teacher. You first have to look at the lineage of teachers before him, but again, just because he’s on some famous lineage does not mean he has the goods. You still have to consciously observe. As choosing the right teacher is that important, you cannot take this exercise lightly. If not, you might end up learning all the wrong things again.

Can teach:

“Can teach” means the teacher is able to pass on his knowledge effectively to the students. This is a bit more than willing to teach, although willing to teach is a key criteria. Some who have the goods are unwilling to teach, hence misleading his students, and concurrently destroying his name and lineage. There are others who don’t have the goods, and yet imitate the masters as though he has the goods. He doesn’t even have the fake goods…

Before you sign up for the next class of combined Yoga/ Running/ Tai Chi & Weightlifting – “Now without impact or stretching!”, consider who your trainer is, how long they have learned for, and who they learned from. If you desire to be a martial arts teacher, or a personal trainer, identify your weaknesses and Know Your Own Limits. If you are not confident in the results of your training, wait until your skill matches the needs of your students.

Happy Training!

Jordan Keats is the co-founder of Outpost Communications, where he is the Director of Content and Audience Analysis, specializing in writing for new media and marketing strategy. Jordan is also an assistant instructor at the Victoria Chen Taiji Academy, and has trained with world class instructors such as Master Gordon Muir, and Master Chen Zhonghua. When not training Tai Chi, Jordan can be found drinking coffee around Victoria, attending tweetups, and volunteering at new media workshops like
Social Media Camp at the Victoria Conference Centre on October 3, 2010.

——————————————————————————–

Share and Enjoy:

narina motivation, Victoria Wellness Professionals, workout

via blog.victoriawellness.com

Friday Night – Jacqui / video « GRANDGOOD

2010-09-21T08:48:00.001-07:00

via grandgood.com

Nassim Nicholas Taleb - What is a "Black Swan?"

2010-09-06T15:17:00.001-07:00

via youtube.com

"I Don't Believe in Anything - I'm Just Here For the Violence" - Banksy

2010-09-06T14:09:00.001-07:00

via zimzamzamosh.files.wordpress.com

banksy-violence.jpg (JPEG Image, 450x581 pixels)

2010-09-06T13:34:00.001-07:00

via zimzamzamosh.files.wordpress.com

Does this "Queen" have a King? What is the population of this "Cum Land"? #yyj #BC #BCFerries

2010-08-30T00:01:00.001-07:00

There is hilarity everywhere.

Music Post #10: Don't Give Up - Serengeti Appreciation Summer #music #hiphop

2010-08-20T11:54:00.001-07:00

If You Can Feel What I'm Feeling Then It's A Musical Masterpiece
If You Can Hear What I'm Dealing With Then That's Cool At Least
- MCA (From the song Pass the Mic by the Beastie Boys)

Serengeti and Polyphonic's first album, Don't Give Up, takes time to love. Impose Magazine said, "Serengeti & Polyphonic have created an album that will likely get better with age". The combination of Polyphonic's intense sounds with the unenthusiastic rhymes of Serengeti needs experiencing to be enjoyed. Listen to Eleven on headphones next time you are on a long boring drive. You're life will get instantly more interesting.

"Anyone who thinks they are avant garde is probably too stuck in intellect; music that lasts is usually not an experiment, but an experience" - Chris Dedrick

My initial impression of Don't Give Up was unfavorable. There were a few a enduring songs mixed with a bunch of weirdo music that I would always skip. However, each of these songs has come to find a moment where they fit. Sunrise, accompanying me on an early morning practice; Puppy Dog Love, when a relationship was good; and A Slew of Things Differently, when things weren't so good.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUmXcrZDfXA]

Serengeti & Polyphonic try to find all of the usuals of rap music on Don't Give Up, and purposefully go against them in varying degrees, from many different angles, turning more rap into music, and more music into rap - Audio 8

My roommate Rusto, the only person I know who listens to Geti (and reads these posts), told me about listening to Praha while walking through Prague finally getting it. To this day I still don't know what Waste of Time or Don't Fear the Mimes is about, but these songs make you feel the way the composer intends. I'll admit, you will feel like a bit of a weirdo listening to Don't Give Up, but normal is boring.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0JkbFWlQqs&feature=related]

Probably the most anti-commercial rap album since Fear Of A Black Planet. It’s about time - Tangible Sounds

Buy Don't Give Up from Audio 8 or on iTunes

Thanks for reading & sharing,

Jordan

JordanKeats.com

OutpostCommunication.com

Jordankeats.com
Outpostcommunication.com

Music Post #9: What if the Minimum Wage was $19 an Hour - Serengeti Appreciation Summer #music #hiphop

2010-08-05T18:15:00.001-07:00

I read a review when Serengeti's Noticeably Negro came out in 2007, and I can't find who wrote it or where I found it; regardless, the woman who wrote about the album called it "sophomoric", "misogynistic", and panned N.N. as nothing special or just another rap album. Regarding a line on the title track about liking girls with "big mountains", I agree with her. This is somewhat immature, but anyone familiar with Serengeti's whimsical work knows he has plenty of rhymes but follows little reason. These guys kick unadulterated raps, thoughts of whatever interests them. Young men think about beautiful women. Build a bridge: get over it.

Noticeably Neeg offers more insight on life than most music on the charts today. The song: Bubble Bath, talks about raising the minimum wage to nineteen dollars an hour, and what life would be like if so: "Maybe the Wellington's couldn't get that porcelain table" , and "Folks couldn't build a water skiing lake/ if the minimum wage was...", and the end of "peasant squabbling".

Download now or listen on posterous

14-serengeti-bubble_bath-ftd.mp3 (4039 KB)

Constance Burris, from BlogCritics.org, has a great review of N.N., and the song T.R.I.U.M.P.H., not to be confused with the Wu-Tang hit single of the same name. Burris notices how Noticeably Negro features gun shots, describes strip clubs, and buying porches, yet "doesn't glorify violence, sex or money". Burris points to some meaningful lines from the song T.R.I.U.M.P.H., but I take more meaning from these:

Do you always want to be worried about worries?/ No. Neither does no one. The answer is Fun. The answer is always doing things you said you'd do/ I read the Tao of Pooh on a beach in Malibu [...].

These words inspire me to fulfill more commitments, and enjoy myself when it's at all possible in the process. For example, embarking on my last trip to California when I could have brushed it off after hitting numerous roadblocks, and finishing this Serengeti Appreciation Summer project. Like Geti says about having a hit record, in this interview, I wish I could afford to write and teach tai chi full time too:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI7PGl4RYIQ&feature=related]

Other tracks you might like:

South
Bubbles Place
Cauc's Remix
Very Ill
Platinum Chains

Download Noticeably Negro by Serengeti on iTunes (It's most definetly available): http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/noticeably-negro/id207227881

Thanks for reading - leave some feedback!

JordanKeats.com
OutpostCommunication.com

Music Post #8: Always Reading Us - Serengeti Appreciation Summer #music #hiphop

2010-08-01T19:25:00.001-07:00

When I started Serengeti Appreciation Month it was as a distraction from planning my sister's wedding, and after the wedding I took an impromptu trip to California to teach tai chi and visit friends. The hardest part of blogging is not having a deadline, as well as not getting paid to do it; so, Serengeti Appreciation Month is turning into Serengeti Appreciation Summer.

The flexibility of this project suites the release of Serengeti and Hi-Fidel's album: Saturday Night. Which is expected to ship out "mid-summer". This gives me enough time to explain the rest of Geti's albums, and finish with a review of Saturday Night.

Geti released five albums in 2006: Dennehy, Gasoline Rainbows, Thunder Valley, Race Trading, and Noticeably Negro. Three of these I have already covered in past weeks. This post I'll focus on Race Trading, and next week: Noticeably Negro.

The theme of Race Trading, and Noticeably Negro, are both about issues dealing with race. From the first track of Race Trading, Afro, Geti raps about having a "fro" so big he can hide a can of mace inside. The title track, Race Trading, deals with interracial relationships, with such lines as "I want to be with someone from the same ape", and how his friends won't date outside their race.

Download now or listen on posterous

serengeti_-_race_trading_-_11_brad_and_jen.mp3 (1810 KB)

The skit: We've Been Dating for 112 Months, has a girl telling her boyfriend how her mom doesn't think "black people have emotions", when he asks to meet her parents. The final song on this album is Mexican Hands, with rhymes like "towels are folded by Mexican hands/ Los Lobos is a Mexican band", it addresses the contradiction in how Americans view the value immigrants bring to their country. This album's theme isn't race, it's about the contradictions in our actions, and our desire to define the world around us.

"I've got too many thoughts, moods, views, and stories/ and they change everyday so fuck a category" - Nico B, from the song Hiccova.

Race Trading is available free from Audio 8 Records: http://www.audio8.com/releases/A8014.html

Tracks from this album you might like:

Jim Duggin
Teenager
Race Trading Remix
America
Bees
Girlfriend

Thanks for helping me spread the word. Word.

http://mooseprints.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/tao-of-pooh.jpg

Serengeti Appreciation Month: Week 3: Part 1 - Dennehy, Taoism, and Debussy

2010-06-29T09:23:00.001-07:00

There's a track from Dennehy (Lights, Camera, Action), with enough meaning it deserves it's own post. The re-release of the original Dennehy has a few additional songs, and more interludes to connect the story line. Two of the worst songs, Derek & iPod, are shorter but all of the added songs make buying this re-released album worthwhile.

The other day at work I met a painter working at the same property where I garden. Homeboy was nodding his head while painting on a twenty foot ladder; bursting out "Yeah!", and "Ohhh!". I asked what he was listening to and he said the Roots covering J Dilla. Two of the greatest hip hop artists of this generation. I told him about Serengeti Appreciation Month, but I doubt he will be able to find this post. Regardless, I'll dedicate this song to him. From Dennehy (Lights, Camera, Action) - Here is - Go Paint:

Download now or listen on posterous

04_Go_Paint!.m4a (8454 KB)

The song that inspired this post is called: the Neeg. Out of all of Geti's songs, the Neeg is the most meaningful for me. The lines "With so much rushing, and so much discussion over nothing [...]", and "I went to sleep and missed all the hoopla, stunning facts of who's hot [...]", are so awesome it's almost insulting to explain why.

Download now or listen on posterous

15_the_neeg.mp3 (5329 KB)

These lines remind me of the book, the Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff, and the chapter: Bisy Backson. Rabbit goes to Christopher Robin's house, and finds a sign he reads as:

GON OUT

BACKSON

BISY  BACKSON

- C.R.

We all become path dependent to our regular routines. Hoff writes, "If you want to be healthy, relaxed, and contented, just watch what a Bisy Backson does and then do the opposite" (p. 94). Working too much makes you crazy. "The athletic sort of Backson - one of the many common varieties - is concerned with physical fitness, he says. But for some reason, he sees it as something that has to be pounded in from the outside, rather than built up from the inside. Therefore, he confuses exercise with work. He works when he works ,works when he exercises , and, more often than not, works when he plays . Work, work, work. All work and no play makes Backson a dull boy" (p. 94). Are we all working out for some imaginary idea of perfect health or immortality?

Oh, and does this sound familiar?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvFH_6DNRCY&feature=fvst]

"This is rap music, something you feel. Word up"

Music Post: Week Three of Serengeti Appreciation Month: Wishing for Whimsy Back #SAM

2010-06-24T09:39:00.001-07:00

Serengeti's other release from 2006 is Noodle Arm Whimsy. Whimsy is THE essential Serengeti album. It doesn't define the music Cohn is making today, but the vibe from this album is funny, interesting, and honest. Lots of skits and fantasy songs, like Tanning Season and Trophy Husband, and some songs to make you think, like Benji and Whimsy Cards. My roommate heard about this album on a MF DOOM forum, and was annoying the rest of the house by singing off-key to the hook of Seven Minutes:

Download now or listen on posterous

13_7_Minutes.mp3 (4882 KB)

Whimsy Cards is the only other song from Noodle Arm Whimsy without cursing. We've been listening to this song for five years, and I still have no idea what it's about.

"She wrote short stories about a monster in a jar. Whose always looked at as an allegory for being alone"

Download now or listen on posterous

09_Whimsy_Cards.mp3 (2335 KB)

This whole album is fun, and dude. There's even a reference to Spicoli:

Buy Noodle Arm Whimsy on iTunes

Tai Chi Post: Yang Style Taijiquan for the iPhone and iPad - Good Idea?

2010-06-23T21:01:00.001-07:00

Taijiquan
Developer: JoyiPhone
Price: $4.99
More info at Apple.com →

The Chinese martial arts, has a long history, while the Tai Chi Chuan is a Chinese martial arts in a wonderful work.

Martial arts can not only physical fitness, but also to train a person’s will.

Yang style Tai Chi Chuan is a genre of Tai Chi Chuan. It is created by Yang Lu Chan (1799-1872) and developed by his son-Yang Jian Hou (1839-1917), his grandson Yang Cheng-fu (1883-1936) and others based on the old frame of Chen style Tai Chi Chuan.

Yang style Tai Chi Quan Jia stretch concise, structured, shenfa Chiang Kai-shek, action Hwasun, a mixture of ethereal calm; Lianfa from the Song into the soft, hardness and softness, forming a unique style.

The application procedure of 251 cases of diagrams and a detailed description, and clear videos of each actions, complete explanations of the authentic Yang style Taijiquan for each of all 85-style postures.

This application provides the Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and English version, will automatically match the language based on the user’s current settings .

If you encounter any problem with this application, please contact with joyipad@gmail.com.

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
http://appcrab.com/taijiquan/">
Taijiquan Screenshots

via appcrab.com

As much as I love my iPhone, I don't think I would ever practice a form with a phone or an iPad my hand. This may be helpful for learning the choreography of a form, but so much of learning Tai Chi is based on physical and tactile feedback. You can practice the wrong way, without corrections and feedback, and wreck your knees.

What do you think? Do Smart Phones and other emerging technologies have valuable potential for helping people learn Taiji, or will it promote a superficial and dangerous way of practicing?

Lets chat,
Jordan

Tai Chi Post: Yang Style Taijiquan for the iPhone and iPad - Good Idea?

2010-06-23T11:45:00.001-07:00

Taijiquan
Developer: JoyiPhone
Price: $4.99
More info at Apple.com →

The Chinese martial arts, has a long history, while the Tai Chi Chuan is a Chinese martial arts in a wonderful work.

Martial arts can not only physical fitness, but also to train a person’s will.

Yang style Tai Chi Chuan is a genre of Tai Chi Chuan. It is created by Yang Lu Chan (1799-1872) and developed by his son-Yang Jian Hou (1839-1917), his grandson Yang Cheng-fu (1883-1936) and others based on the old frame of Chen style Tai Chi Chuan.

Yang style Tai Chi Quan Jia stretch concise, structured, shenfa Chiang Kai-shek, action Hwasun, a mixture of ethereal calm; Lianfa from the Song into the soft, hardness and softness, forming a unique style.

The application procedure of 251 cases of diagrams and a detailed description, and clear videos of each actions, complete explanations of the authentic Yang style Taijiquan for each of all 85-style postures.

This application provides the Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and English version, will automatically match the language based on the user’s current settings .

If you encounter any problem with this application, please contact with joyipad@gmail.com.

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
http://appcrab.com/taijiquan/">
Taijiquan Screenshots

via appcrab.com

What do you think? Do Smart Phones and other emerging technologies have valuable potential for helping people learn Taiji, or will it promote a superficial and dangerous way of practicing?

Lets chat,
Jordan

Music Post: Week Two of Serengeti Appreciation Month: Free Interesting Music

2010-06-22T08:14:00.001-07:00

A quick post for the end of Week Two of Serengeti Appreciation Month. Serengeti's album: ThunderValley (2006). Available Free from Audio 8 records: http://audio8.com/releases/A8015.html It's odd but amazing musical storytelling. Two songs appearing in my Best of Serengeti playlist are Chocolate & Curse of the Polo. Chocolate is such a mind worm, it will creep into the back of your head in the next three days guaranteed:

Download now or listen on posterous

01_Chocolate.mp3 (2972 KB)

Other tracks of worth noting are Curse of the Polo, You Don't Love Me, and To Be Like You.

Download now or listen on posterous

10_Curse_of_the_Polo.mp3 (3992 KB)

"Live Jazz Rap for the Iconoclast"

http://jordankeats.com

Tai Chi Post: Always Wear Pants at Appropriate Level.

2010-06-15T23:14:00.001-07:00

There are no formal uniforms for practicing Taiji. Any loose pants will do; however, you should not feel the pants touching your legs or let them restrict your movement in any way. In Hong Junsheng's book, Chen Style Practical Method Taijiquan, Volume One: Theory, he writes "Light silk garment and soft belt/ The style of a gentleman/ Leisurely but prepared" (p. 72).

Last November, Taiji Traditions camp did some serious damage to my hip hop rep. During our afternoon workout, Master Chen Zhonghua said to me, "your pants are too low". I hiked my belt's level to my hip, but Master Chen still said, "too low". I hiked my belt buckle above my bellybutton, and my mobility increased tenfold.

There are no warm up stretches in Practical Method Taiji, and there are no uniforms. We rely on our preparedness for every situation. Don't be a lookin' like a fool. Keep your pants at the appropriate level:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5ahjK1Urjg]

jordankeats.com

Serengeti Month: Post Two: Part 3 - Did I say Four Posts? (tags Serengeti, Music, Chicago)

2010-06-11T08:27:00.001-07:00

Serengeti's album: "Dennehy", is the story of Kenny. A Fiero driving & O'Douls drinking "Superfan". Kenny loves Brian Dennehy, the Chicago Bears, and his wife Jules. This album was re-released as "Dennehy - Lights, Camera, Action", with more asides from Kenny, and a few new tracks. This album is a tribute to all things Chi-town, and since the Chicago Blackhawks won Lord Stanley's Cup the night before last, I'll make a preemptive entry to Serengeti Appreciation Month's Week 3 with the title track from Dennehy:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqrtoFWglMY]

Serengeti Month: Post Two: Continued....

2010-06-09T23:21:00.001-07:00

For some odd reason I was prevented from uploading this song to my last post. Here is the song Rich:

Download now or listen on posterous

12-serengeti-rich-ftd.mp3 (6961 KB)

After listening to Gasoline Rainbows at work today, I am less confident in how much this song represents the album. It's the opposite message of every other "rapper". The chorus, "Do I have to deal drugs?/ Do I have to be a thug?" is a phrase you will never hear again in rap music. Jewels, cars, and expensive liquor, are not interesting to me. I can't relate to those objects in my daily life, is there a positive message in this song?

Serengeti Month: Post Two: Experimental Musicians - Tom Waits, Serengeti & Rock

2010-06-09T00:47:00.001-07:00

Serengeti is like the Tom Waits of the 21st Century. They both make incomparable and experimental music; and rarely will you hear either of their musical creations outside of independent radio stations. Tom Waits has seen recent success, playing the Devil in the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, but he has produced a canon of 30 years of amazing music. One of many VHS tapes left behind in the rush to convert to DVD is Waits's spectacle performance: Big Time. Good luck finding Big Time on DVD at Blockbuster, but most of the material is from the album Frank's Wild Years, and you can find the entire concert on youtube:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_E--kl3CdU]

Serengeti's career reminds me of a scene, from Jim Jarmusch's film Coffee and Cigarettes, where Tom Waits and Iggy Pop meet for a coffee at Tom Waits's local coffee shop. Iggy says, "I didn't notice any of your songs on the jukebox" (4:40). Even though Tom Waits is popular in the restaurant, he's not popular enough to have one of his records on the jukebox:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6Mw6b1T50U&feature=related]

Combined, Serengeti and Waits have made the most interesting music in the last forty years, but enough about Tom Waits: he deserves his own month. Trying to define one of Geti's album is tough because you can't contextualize an album's theme with just one song. Comparing one album to another is even more difficult, because each has it's own concept, but to unfold this month chronologically here is a song from Serengeti's first album, Dirty Flamingo, Ms. Nipple Queen:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ImlpdfoXU8&feature=related]

Serengeti's second album, Gasoline Rainbows, featured a full rock band, and has held a permanent slot in my portable music device since sometime in 2005. It's real rock and roll, but like Waits' music, it's too real for T.V. or radio play. Here are two songs from Gasoline Rainbows:

Margot:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXXHPVcIZb0]

Rich:

To be continued...

P.S. There are three more songs from Gasoline Rainbow available from Synthesis Magazine's Serengeti Appriciation Week: http://synthesis.net/2007/05/21/serengeti-appreciation-week-day-one/

A #MitchMoment Brought to you by Mitch Hedberg

2010-06-09T00:27:00.001-07:00

When you're in Hollywood and you're a comedian, everybody wants you to do other things. All right, you're a stand-up comedian, can you write us a script? That's not fair. That's like if I worked hard to become a cook, and I'm a really good cook, they'd say, "OK, you're a cook. Can you farm?

via hubpages.com

Serengeti Month: Post One: Why June is Serengeti Month

2010-06-08T01:15:00.001-07:00

The inspiration for one of most recent posts: Playing Tai Chi in Subway Stations, was inspired by the trip to San Fransicso in February, my never-ending love for taiji, and my experience with the song: Playing in Subway Stations; by Chicago-based rapper David Cohn, aka Serengeti, and producer Polyphonic the Verbose, from the album: Teradactyl [sic]. Before I left Geti released a select few songs from Teradactyl on his myspace, and one song on youtube that I brushed off as too wierd - Playing in Subway Stations:

The live performance of this song didn't click with the Serengeti I had expected. Auto-tune? Singing? I disregarded the song and the video as some obscure experiment Serengeti is known to do. It wasn't until I heard the album version of Subway Stations, on the Amtrak back from California, when I gew to appriciate this song. I had to rinse my cup of expectation before filling it with the great song of Playing in Subway Stations,

Download now or listen on posterous

02_Playing_In_Subway_Stations.mp3 (6306 KB)

@DaveSerengeti has 58 followers on Twitter. Not that Twitter followers is any measure of success, but it took me four pages of a google search to find results for Serengeti, the musician. Africa's diverse Serengeti plains are one of the ten natural travel wonders of the world, the World Cup starting in South Africa, and the Chicago Blackhawks one game away from possibly winning the NHL Finals: Conditions are right to make four blog posts focusing on Serengeti the musician.

http://workshop.chenzhonghua.org/2007/12/life-without-a-trace/#more-2941

Life without a trace by Chen Zhonghua

2010-05-31T00:05:00.001-07:00

Good deeds leave no traces behind; Good advice contains no blame;and Righteous calculations come without thought.

The right closure needs no lock. Good ties cannot be undone even without a knot. Therefore, sages often save lives and not abandon them. They often save things and not discard them. This is called the transcendance of wisdom. Therefore, a nice person does not want to be a teacher. One should not treat a person without treating his abilities. Do not treasure your teacher. Do not love his abilities. Great is intelligence that appears to be confused. This is the wonder of wonders.
—Chapter 27, Laoze

In Chinese folklore, there is a saying, “When a person passes, he leaves only his reputation behind. When a wild goose passes, he leaves only his quack behind.” Men of all ages, past and present, love to leave behiind a “legacy” that they can brag about. These are usually human accomplishments that future generations use to judge their predecessors.

Because of this we have the Pyramid, the Great Wall, and other monuments to man. All these monuments are built on millions of lives simply for the sake of proving a grandious personal point. It is said that when Laoze was enlightened, he realized the futility of normal human life. He gave himself up to nature and went into the forest riding on a blue cow. He was riding it backward, intentionally not wanting to know where it was going. He never came back from the forest. His point was that he was conquered by nature, which is the entire idea of Daoism. Yet, “famed Daoists” of later generations all claim that “he is still living” since there is no proof of his death.

Is is possible for us humans to ever treasure life and nature, not just for monuments?

Related posts:
Taiji Essay by Glen Peters

Ireland workshop comments

David Rivera review of the Puerto Rico Workshop in 2009

December 31, 2007 0 Comments categories: Stories

via workshop.chenzhonghua.org

jordankeats.com
Outpostcommunication.com

How to Enhance Email Posting to Wordpress wIth Posterous

2010-05-24T23:34:00.001-07:00

Hello,
My name is Jordan Keats, and this is my amazing presentation about enhancing your email posts to your Wordpress blog. The beginning of the presentation will be concerning the technical aspects of using Posterous with Wordpress, and the second half will be applying what we've learned, followed by any questions you have. Thanks to Paul Holmes and the rest of the organizers, as well as the sponsors of WordCamp Victoria.
Wordpress already has a post by email feature, if you don't use this feature here is brief rundown: Go to 'My Blogs' and enable your post by email function. You are assigned a secret gibberish email address to send your message to, and then the message is posted to your Wordpress site. HTML tags need to be included in the email so your wordpress site can understand what type of file you are posting. This is elaborated upon in the 'Posting Video' section later on in this post, but video files need to identified as such, for example [youtube=http://...]. Uploading or attaching pictures to email posts, files such as .jpeg, .png, .gif, don't require HTML tags; pictures inserted by using a web address (URL) do not need to be tagged so the information is recognized either. Posting to wordpress by email saves time because you can upload, arrange, and attach media files without using space on wordpress's media library.

Posterous takes posting via email to another level. There is no signup needed, all you need to do to set up an account is to send a post ready email to post@posterous.com. After sending your first email, you will be prompted to name a domain, for example you.posterous.com; Next, you add your other accounts posterous will autopost to, such as your wordpress, tumblr, or blogger blog, you can autopost to Twitter, Linkedin, Friendfeed and Facebook, and Posterous will upload your photos from your email to your Flickr and Picasa accounts. Posterous works like a hub, harmonizing and updating all of your accounts and internet activity from one location. This appeals to how I blog, because I have too many accounts to maintain, and with one email I can update them all. My business partner, Dave, described Posterous as "barfing on the internet", but I see it as a tool for creating a syndicated broadcast of my blog posts.

Emailing posterous@posterous.com will post to your Posterous site, from there you can approve your post before choosing which sites you auto post to. If you want to autopost to all of your connected sites, send your email to post@posterous.com, and in an instant Posterous will send your post to all of your sites. There are addresses for posting to each of your sites, and you can combine the sites you want to post to by adding "+" between your desired destinations name, for example blog+facebook@posterous.com. Here is a detailed list of how to pick where you want to post:

*Tip: If you have your Wordpress account set to auto-tweet, go to 'My Blog', and uncheck any sites in the 'Publicize' section. This will allow you to make sure your post is in order, and make any changes before you go public with your post.

*Tip: If you are using a Wordpress.org site, with a .com domain, go to your 'Settings' section in your Wordpress Dashboard, select 'Writing', and enable XML-RPC under the heading 'Remote Posting'.

Posting Pictures:

There are three ways to post pictures to Posterous:

Attach to Email: Posterous creates a gallery of your pictures, which is posted at the end of the post. There is a 25 Mb limit for attachments to gmail, the average picture is between 1600 and 2200 Kbs, the limit is around ten pictures when posting pictures as attachments.You can split and join pictures in your gallery in the web interface.

Upload to Web Interface: the media center in Posterous's web interface gives you 1 Gb of space, and more editing features. You can divide a gallery, add, and rearrange pictures to other galleries. Posterous added a 'rotate' feature, as well as 'drag & drop', so you can play with the order and appearance of your pictures.

Embed URLs: If you have a picture already online, or have found a picture posted on another website, you can cut the URL, you know... the text that begins with http://, and paste the address into your post. If you are taking pictures from other websites, give credit to the creator by either keeping the picture active as a hyperlink to the original site or adding a note after the post regarding where the picture came from. Take into consideration the size dimensions of the picture you are posting. Any image bigger than 300x300 will appear massive in your post. Oversized images can be edited from the web interface.

*Tip: If I want to post a single picture to a specific place in a post, I will upload the picture to Tumblr.com, and paste the stable Tumblr URL where I want it placed in the post. This will work from Flickr or Picasa as well.
Posting Video:
There are two ways to post video by email:

As an Email Attachment: This is the same procedure as adding pictures, upload your video clip as an attachment, and Posterous will resize them and add them at the beginning of the post. Posterous communicates with the destination page and resizes or formats the video as needed. Again, take into consideration the 25 Mb file size limit of Gmail, and the limited hosting space of Wordpress. You may want to purchase the space upgrade offered by Wordpress.

As a URL: Posterous is too smart, smarter than Wordpress for now at least. On Posterous you can cut and paste a URL from any video site, such as Youtube, Dailymotion, or Vimeo, and Posterous will recognize the where the video is from and embed it into your site with no worries. Embedding video to Wordpress using URLs from Youtube requires you to insert [youtube=http://..], Google video: [googlevideo=http://...], and Vimeo [vimeo http://...]. Additionally, you can specify the width and height of the video player at the end of the address with equal signs, like [youtube=http:... w=500&h=400], notice the space after the address, before the 'w='.

There is a technical bug when autoposting video URLs from Posterous to Wordpress. Wordpress needs [youtube=http://..] in order to recognize the URL, so when your post reaches Wordpress, and it does not have the identifying square brackets, it appears as a hyperlinked URL. The staff at Posterous said they are working to fix this, but for now I've been adding two URLs, one with the brackets and one without, and editing whichever does not appear correct. It's a bit of a pain, but Matt Mullenweg, the CEO of Wordpress, said the company will making some acquisitions this year, perhaps Posterous will be one of them.
Posting Audio:

       Posting audio files with Posterous is the same procedure as posting video, either add a mp3 as an email attachment, which appears at the bottom your post, or from a URL, which you can paste anywhere you want within your post. I found Posterous in search of a way to post audio files to facebook which were not already hosted as a link. Posterous is a great way to evade Tumblr's limit of only posting one audio file per day.
Adding Tags & Categories:

     Adding tags to Posterous is really easy to: In the subject line of your email, where Posterous takes your post's title from , add two round brackets followed by the word 'tag', a colon, followed by your tags, separated by a comma of course, and then closed with two brackts. For example: Title of My Awesome Blog Post ((tag: Awesome, Blog Post, Me))

This causes another Posterous to Wordpress error, your tags won't transfer to Wordpress via the subject line. To resolve this I've been using the Wordpress by email square bracket system, [tags Awesome, Blog Post, Me] [category My Awesomeness], at the end of my post. If you have a email signature, you don't want at the bottom of your post, everything after the pound sign end will be ignored. On wordpress you can do this too, but with square brackets end, I can't write the actual symbol, but it's in the shortcodes. I've been posting my tags and categories after the pound end, and then editing the brackets on Wordpress, and where ever else, after I post. Here is a full list of shortcodes that can be added when posting to Wordpress via email:

Say goodbye to gibberish codes, and start experimenting with the complementary features Posterous offers for Wordpress users. Your first few posts may not turn out as you'd like, but after a few tries you'll be posting to Posterous like a pro. There are lots of other features I didn't mention, like PicPosterous for IPhone, and the Open Beak 1.2 (formerly TwitterBerry) for the BlackBerry. Also, the Posterous bookmarklet allows you to pull photos, video, and text, from any site and add the selection to your Posterous page; similar to the 'Press This' bookmarklet for Wordpress. Keep in mind Stan Lee's famous saying: "with great power comes great responsibility". Posterous is so easy to use, you can easily autopost an error, and have it on all of your sites until someone else finds it. Happy posting!

Jordan Keats

See the full gallery on posterous

IPhone Photography of a Garden in Bloom

2010-05-22T17:08:00.001-07:00

Picture of Presentation at WordCamp #yyj

2010-05-22T02:49:00.001-07:00

Having a great time at WordCamp in Victoria, BC, Canada. Mostly listening to the talks for us bloggers. David is taking in the technical stream - yippee - we're divide-and-conquering.

Click to see the full gallery on Posterous:
http://iphone-hsig.posterous.com/wordcamp-yyj

via sunstarterri.posterous.com

Response to My Presentation on How to use Posterous with WordPress

2010-05-22T02:36:00.001-07:00

On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 9:29 PM, Garry Tan <help+garry@posterous.com> wrote:

Thank you so much for your hard work here. Much appreciated!
-g

How to Enhance Email Posting to Wordpress wIth Posterous

2010-05-15T11:11:00.001-07:00

Wordpress already has a post by email feature, if you don't use this feature here is brief rundown: Go to 'My Blogs' and enable your post by email function. You are assigned a secret gibberish email address to send your message to, and then the message is posted to your Wordpress site. HTML tags need to be included in the email so your wordpress site can understand what type of file you are posting. This is elaborated upon in the 'Posting Video' section later on in this post, but video files need to identified as such, for example [youtube=http://...]. Uploading or attaching pictures to email posts, files such as .jpeg, .png, .gif, don't require HTML tags; pictures inserted by using a web address (URL) do not need to be tagged so the information is recognized either. Posting to wordpress by email saves time because you can upload, arrange, and attach media files without using space on wordpress's media library.

Emailing posterous@posterous.com will post to your Posterous site, from there you can approve your post before choosing which sites you auto post to. If you want to autopost to all of your connected sites, send your email to post@posterous.com, and in an instant Posterous will send your post to all of your sites. There are addresses for posting to each of your sites, and you can combine the sites you want to post to by adding "+" between your desired destinations name, for example blog+facebook@posterous.com. Here is a detailed list of how to pick where you want to post:

Posting Pictures:

There are a few different ways to post pictures to Posterous:

Attach to Email: Posterous creates a gallery of your pictures, which is posted at the end of the post. There is a 25 Mb limit for attachments to gmail, the average picture is between 1600 and 2200 Kbs, the limit is around ten pictures when posting pictures as attachments.You can split and join pictures in your gallery in the web interface.

Upload to Web Interface: the media center in Posterous's web interface gives you 1 Gb of space, and more editing features. You can divide a gallery, add, and rearrange pictures to other galleries. Posterous added a 'rotate' feature, as well as 'drag & drop', so you can play with the order and appearance of your pictures.

Embed URLs: If you have a picture already online, or have found a picture posted on another website, you can cut the URL, you know... the text that begins with http://, and paste the address into your post. If you are taking pictures from other websites, give credit to the creator by either keeping the picture active as a hyperlink to the original site or adding a note after the post regarding where the picture came from. Take into consideration the size dimensions of the picture you are posting. Any image bigger than 300x300 will appear massive in your post. Oversized images can be edited from the web interface.

Posting Video:

There are two ways to post video by email:

As an Email Attachment: This is the same procedure as adding pictures, upload your video clip as an attachment, and Posterous will resize them and add them at the beginning of the post. Posterous communicates with the destination page and resizes or formats the video as needed. Again, take into consideration the 25 Mb file size limit of Gmail, and the limited hosting space of Wordpress. You may want to purchase the space upgrade offered by Wordpress.

As a URL: Posterous is too smart, smarter than Wordpress for now at least. On Posterous you can cut and paste a URL from any video site, such as Youtube, Dailymotion, or Vimeo, and Posterous will recognize the where the video is from and embed it into your site with no worries. Embedding video to Wordpress using URLs from Youtube requires you to insert [youtube=http://..], Google video: [googlevideo=http://...], and Vimeo [vimeo http://...]. Additionally, you can specify the width and height of the video player at the end of the address with equal signs, like [youtube=http:... w=500&h=400], notice the space after the address, before the 'w='.

Posting Audio:

Posting audio files with Posterous is the same procedure as posting video, either add a mp3 as an email attachment, which appears at the bottom your post, or from a URL, which you can paste anywhere you want within your post. I found Posterous in search of a way to post audio files to facebook which were not already hosted as a link. Posterous is a great way to evade Tumblr's limit of only posting one audio file per day.

Adding Tags & Categories:

     Adding tags to Posterous is really easy to: In the subject line of your email, where Posterous takes your post's title from , add two round brackets followed by the word 'tag', a colon, followed by your tags, separated by a comma of course, and then closed with two brackts. For example: Title of My Awesome Blog Post ((tag: Awesome, Blog Post, Me))

jordankeats.com
Outpostcommunication.com

Playing Tai Chi in Subway Stations

2010-05-14T12:04:00.001-07:00

In February, I went to train in Oakland, CA, with Nathan Heintz. Nate crashed at my house while he was in BC for Taiji Traditions Camp, in November (2009) at Shawnigan Lake, and I went to California so he could return the favour. Leaving Canada during the winter is awesome, and going to train in the Californian sun sounded like a good idea. The trip from Victoria, BC, to Lake Merritt, California, on Amtrak took forty hours on one ferry and one train seat. At least they had terrible coffee:

One morning, while Nate and I were practicing on the lake shore, we saw a guy wearing weights on his wrists and ankles doing what looked like a bagua walk along the path. He went to the lakeside and did what looked to be Capoeira stretches. Nate and I were drilling jibengong (foundational exercises) and warming up with push hands. 'Wrist Weights' finished stretching and interrupted us as we pushed. He claimed to have forty years of training, and experience in combat. He was missing one of his front teeth, so at least it looked like he had been in some scraps. After forcing his opinion of what we were doing wrong on us, I asked 'Wrist Weights' for his name, he said: "Yi-Chuan". I shook his hand and said, "Each-one-Teach-one".

Nate explained to me that Yi-Chuan has an affinity to the three internal martial arts, Bagua Zhang, Hsing-I Chuan, and Taijiquan (Tia Chi). Yiquan is a fighting art that was developed by a practitioner of Xingyi. Nathan said, "there are no forms, and the majority of the curriculum is Zhang Zhuang and single-movement exercises similar to Jibengong in the Practical Method of Chen Taijiquan. I don't know what Yi Chuan is, and won't claim to know because I have never practiced the art, but Nate used to practice and explains the difference as "Xingyiquan = form mind fist. Yiquan = mind fist. Xingyi is Yiquan without the form".

Joseph, pronounced "Yoseph", aka 'wrist wieghts', taught us a few things. When we asked who his sifu (teacher) is, he said "Allah". He gave me some good feedback on stance adjustments for forms, but Joseph kept repeating one idea to Nate: "You're too tense. You aren't listening. Empty your cup".

Accepting an instructor's teachings is the biggest roadblock to learning. You need to empty your cup so someone else can fill it up. When we say, "empty your cup" it means to accept everything you know is wrong, or at least insufficient, because too often confidence gets in the way of fully understanding the lesson at hand.

Three recent articles,one by Master Chen Zhonghua, and another by Chris Bennett aka @ChrisChats, and one by Nathan Heintz provides detail to the concept of emptying your cup and leaning. Bennett writes: "I did not understand that a simple move in Tai Chi often requires a depth of understanding which can be only achieved through years of thought, discussion and practice. This understanding is like going on a journey of: simplicity -> complication -> new found simplicity".

The journey of taijiquan takes a learner through the process of physical understanding through experience. It starts with memorizing the choreography of the postures and forms, then correcting the postures, combined with the physical conditioning of muscles and joints.After memorizing the choreography of the form, many people rush into adding speed and strength. Number Eleven of Master Hong Junsheng's Three Character Canons, in his book Chen Style Practical Method Volume One: Theory, says: "Follow the rules/ Seek progress/ Don't rush/ Without knowing".

Nathan said: "Sometimes your cup just fills up, and then you're "full of it". Sometimes someone needs to empty your cup for you. They tilt you over on the ground, and some of it spills out. Sometimes your cup needs to crack or break to empty out. Sometimes you just need to listen, or you need to sit down and stop working so hard, so you can slow down and relax, and realize that your job is actually much harder than you thought it was. To understand that what you've been doing had its place, and was not in vain. That all of that work got you here, where you are now. But that now there's something different on the table. Something more fundamental. Something more correct. Another piece".

Master Chen posted a quote to his posterous from another famous Chinese Master, " I say to my students, the first day I tell you to relax; a month later I tell you to relax; a year later I tell you to relax; ten years later I tell you to relax; and a dozen years later I still tell you to relax. Why? Because after a while, your gongfu has improved so you must relax more and deeper. This is called the flavor of taijiquan. What is the function of taijiquan movements? It is to increase internal energy [...]". Many people practicing taiji will doubt there is any more they can relax and continue training with strength. These people never get to the next stages in learning taiji.

It is reassuring when you encounter people who practice other internal martial arts, like Hsing-I, and see the similarities to the relaxed manner we use in practice and application. Soon after Joseph parted ways with us, another person stopped to ask about our practice, wondering if Nathan teaches push hands. While we were practicing that evening the same guy who inquired about push hands, Stephen, stopped by and demonstrated his Chen Family form. This was one of the rare moments on my trip I actually took some pictures; here are a few:

Walking through the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station in Oakland, California, Nathan told me about a violin virtuoso who played for an hour in a subway station and was completely ignored. Through a google search I found the article, Pearls Before Breakfast, written for the Washington Post by Gene Weingarten. Only one person recognized Joshua Bell and his violin, worth $3.5 million. More than a thousand people walked by, and wrote off a master performing their art because they were rushing to work. Stacy Furukawa, the sole person who recognized Bell from a free concert he put on three weeks earlier, said "Joshua Bell was standing there playing at rush hour, and people were not stopping, and not even looking, and some were flipping quarters at him! Quarters! I wouldn't do that to anybody. I was thinking, Omigosh, what kind of a city do I live in that this could happen?". For some obvious reason, I'm not surprised this could happen in any city, even in Washington, D.C.

Playing In Subway Stations by Serengeti & Polyphonic
Download now or listen on posterous

02 Playing In Subway Stations.mp3 (6306 KB)

The Victoria Taiji Academy's drop-in classes are held in a gym at University Canada West, but us 'die-hards' train outdoors for most of the winter; In late Spring, we move to our full-time outdoor location in Beacon Hill Park. Victoria is a tourist destination, and Beacon Hill is one of the busiest parks in the summer. Thousands of tourist come to 'Mile Zero', where the Trans-Canada highway begins (or ends), and where Terry Fox began his Marathon of Hope. Point is, people come from all over the world to take pictures of a statue right beside where we practice, but they pass us by.

Compared to the story of Joshua Bell, playing a multi-million dollar violin in a DC subway station, Nathan and I had two people stop and recognize we were practicing traditional taijiquan. We were playing our priceless art in public, and even though the San Francisco Bay Area has ten times the population of Victoria BC, only two people stopped to inquire. A few martial artists jogging by gave us the fist over hand martial arts salute, but in a stressful year of intensive study at Royal Roads University, only one of fifty able bodied & stressed out people in my cohort ever inquired about taijiquan, or attended a tai chi class; even though I always announce our taiji academy's events, demonstrations and open houses. Everyone already seems to know everything about tai chi.

With this blog, and with my other upcoming projects, I aim to provide simple explanations of my experience learning tai chi, and to share them with anyone who cares. Thanks for reading, subscribing, and commenting,

Jordan

Posting Pictures With Posterous Web Interface

2010-05-12T23:58:00.001-07:00

Posting Pictures Inline With Gmail Part 2 - Actually Posting Inline

2010-05-11T23:20:00.001-07:00

Posting Pictures Inline With Gmail

2010-05-11T22:44:00.001-07:00

Damn the 20MB Limit!

Testing PicPosterous

2010-05-11T01:03:00.001-07:00

What Mint Taught Me About Getting Kicked in the Head

2010-04-14T20:17:00.001-07:00

I took a sick day today - I laid in bed sweating and coughing, until forcing my feverish bones out of bed to make some chicken noodle soup. After eating, I brought my laptop into bed and caught up on reading Twitter, Google Reader, and Netvibes feeds. A blog post by Victoria radio DJ: Jeremy Baker, regarding Pink Shirt Day and music bullies got me thinking about the times I've been bullied in my past.

Jeremy is a witty guy. From his post, it seems he got pushed around a lot in middle-school, and his playing of a "TON of Dungeons & Dragons" didn't help him escape getting bullied. My D&D phase didn't last long, but going through high school I was definitely a spectacled collector geek. Comics, cards, and points programs, let's just say I thought my rat-tail hairdo and was pretty awesome.

One afternoon, I was walking with two friends by the bus hub at Thompson Park Mall in Kamloops, B.C.. There was one of my skater friends, I knew from snowboarding, sitting at the bus stop and we exchanged waves as we walked past. Before the three of us made it to the entrance of the mall, three guys who had been hanging out with my skater friend suspiciously came jogging up saying they wanted to talk to me. My two friends kept walking towards the mall while the three dudes proceeded to pressure me into giving them all of the money in my wallet, including my bus fare home.

These dudes were real bullies. They knocked the hat off my head, and as I bent over to grab it one of them kicked me in the head three times. The first kick took the glasses off my face, so I'm lucky the second two kicks didn't keep driving the frames into my face. The three guys bravely ran away, and I took my bleeding nose and lips to the bathroom inside the mall.

Since getting jumped, I became more concerned with my surroundings, and learned some people can be dicks to you for reasons beyond your control. I heard later that the kid who kicked was getting beaten at home on a regular basis, so in an odd way I feel sorry for him getting bullied himself.

After reading Jeremy's blog post, I went into the back yard and picked some mint to put in boiling water: my favorite remedy for relieving coughs.. With my head with a towel, breathing in hot menthol, I thought about getting bullied and how events like this have affected my life.

Mint thrives when it is picked on, if you want a mint plant to grow stronger: cut it down to the ground. If there is any benefit to being bullied, experiencing helplessness teaches people to become stronger. Getting kicked in the head has motivated me to learn how to defend myself, and to teach others how to defend themselves from bullies. Thanks for reading & stay safe.

Jordan

Please Comment, Tweet, & Subscribe

Wordcamp Victoria - May 15 2009

2010-04-08T01:03:00.001-07:00

Wordcamp Victoria - May 15 2009

2010-04-08T00:11:00.001-07:00

Would You Eat A Scorpion?

2010-03-21T20:52:00.001-07:00

Pincers, body armor, a barbed-tail filled with paralyzing poison, second only to spiders: scorpions have to be the creepiest arachnid.

We never worry about scorpions in Canada. Maybe when we escape to Arizona or Central America, during the famous Canadian winter, thoughts of poisonous night crawlers never cross our minds. My friend's grandparents are "snow birds", retirees who fly South for the winter. We used to stay in their trailer, in Mesa, Arizona, during spring break from high school. We would go out onto the golf course at night with black lights, and freak out at all of the scorpions illuminated on the golf course, because scorpions glow under UV light.

In Costa Rica, my friend put her hand behind her pillow, and a scorpion stung her hand underneath. Jennifer panicked, and ran to the front desk of her hotel for First Aid, because her lips were going numb. The staff laughed at her worries. They knew the local scorpions are harmless to fully-grown healthy humans. Since she told me this story, I've taken a second guess before I put my arm under my pillow anywhere south of the 49th Parallel.

I've never considered scorpions anything more than a pest; however, in China scorpions are a culinary delicacy, and have said to cure blood cancer and tumors.

In most Asian markets and traditional pharmacies you will find worms, bees, snakes, scorpions. In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) a scorpion is considered an earth animal. Ground animals, and insects, dig through soil and ingest the garbage within. In TCM, the idea is that by ingesting insects you can root out the garbage in the systems of our bodies. Dried scorpion (Quan Xie) is considered a herb that when consumed targets the liver meridian and is said to relieve headaches and calm seizures (For more info: http://tcm.health-info.org/Herbology.Materia.Medica/quanxie-properties.htm & http://tcmtreatment.com/herbs/00-quanxie.htm).

The only three Mandarin words I remember are: "Jiu", (酒; pinyin: jiǔ) the word for alcoholic beverage, "Pijiu" (啤酒 Pinyin: Píjǐu) the word for "beer", and Baijiu (白酒; pinyin: báijiǔ) means white liquor and is made from distilled grain. On Daqingshan Mountain, in China's Shandong Province, we were served fried scorpions and treated to a tincture of baijiu, ginseng, goji berries, and scorpion. Imagine drinking lightning mixed with sweet dirt. The fried scorpions tasted like "Chicken Popcorn" from KFC: only crunchier. However; this tincture, which was referred to as "Jiu", is rumored to kill any tumors or cancer growing inside you.

The superstition behind the healing properties of scorpion venom healing is now gaining ground as a legitimate alternative medicine in the West. National Geographic News, NBC and ABC, have reported on the potential for use of scorpion venom in "painting" brain tumors, and as a nanopartical for passing through the blood-brain barrier so drugs can act on tumors. Also, a patent filed by Jinghai Zhang, Runlin Ma, Siling Wang, Yanfeng Liu, Chunfu Wu, claims that a peptide found in the venom from a black scorpion can be used an analgesic and anti-tumor drug. The method Zhang, Ma, Wang, Liu, and Wu, use to extract the active peptide is by diluting the scorpion in either distilled water, a basic or an acidic formula. Alcohol, such as baijiu, is a basic solution.

So, would you eat a scorpion, or drink alcohol infused with scorpion venom?

If you were diagnosed with a serious health dilemma would you try this alternative treatment, or would you be suspicious of taking a treatment based on superstition?

Please comment, retweet, and share.

Posted via email from jordankeats's posterous

DJ Champion: the Led Zeppelin of Dance

2010-03-19T01:25:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, March 7, 2010, I went to see DJ Champion at Sugar Nightclub, here in Victoria. House music is not my first choice for listening, but I can wash some serious dishes to it. Drop some sweet vocals and get five guitarists to create a wall of sound and you have: "the best dance party in Victoria", according to Sara P., a local radio DJ from the Zone (91.3 FM). A friend described the band as being: "the Led Zeppelin of House music".

The best part of the night was a guy who was either a body builder or a mixed martial artist asking me in a thick Eastern European accent, "Do you think they will play the song I'm So Big?". I said, 'Of course, it is one of their big hits". He was so anxious he went to to the bar to get a pen and a piece of paper. He walked past me and flashed a sign reading SO BIG.

DJ Champion and the G-Strings played I'm so Big for their encore. Buddy was so pumped for this song, it was the best part of my night. Training is hard, and can mess with your mind. Any music that can get you through the pain of training is something worth celebrating. I was there for a friend's birthday party, and we all had an awesome time; but how happy this guy was hearing his favorite workout song added extra meaning to the music of DJ Champion.

Tai Cheers

2010-03-17T18:07:00.001-07:00

A few nights ago, as I was heading out to tai chi class, I found myself singing the theme song from the TV show: Cheers: "You want to go where you can know/ your troubles are all the same./ You want to go where everybody knows your name". Long before I ever tried a beer, I would watch this show with my Dad. I never really understood what those lines meant until I found a group activity I could stand to be involved in.

Where I grew up, playing hockey is mandatory. Every kid in Kamloops (BC) tries to become the next farm-town millionaire in the hockey big leagues. I remember the announcement of the draft on the PA in high school. Everyone cheered when so and so got drafted to this team, or that league, and who would disappear into a training camp that summer. I remember the names of those who were skipped, and watching their high hopes of being the next Trevor Linden fizzle. Those guys ended up in the arena stands with me, watching the home town hockey team (the Blazers), and hoping somebody on the ice gets hurt: to justify the game is something worth sacrificing for.

Despite having watched my classmates get auctioned off like cattle, I still participated in sports like: soccer, gymnastics, skateboarding, martial arts, and the non-political informal versions of hockey, baseball, and football. The chip on my shoulder has rounded off and I realize there is a lot to love about sports: training, teamwork, and competition.

One time in Tai Chi class, a guy I was working with on a partner drill said, "You guys are they only people I feel like I don't need to have a drink in my hand to feel comfortable with". Our group is a bunch of misfits, but we all share a common interest in our learning and practicing of our art. It doesn't matter who does what outside of the group, but while we are in the group we can always talk sport.

When we get together for practice or for class we know everyone there has their troubles, and these problems are the same. Sam Malone, Norm, Cliff Claven, and found their camaraderie at the pub with a glass of beer. Although, Tai Chi and beer do not mix, Tai Chi is a break from all your worries. Wouldn't you like to get away?

6 Months and 600 posts on Tumblr.com

2010-03-14T21:38:00.001-07:00

Sheesh, I can stop Tumbling to write about Tumblr, right? Alright. This should be easy. Just let me reblog this hilarious .gif, there we go.

Tumblr is a microblogging site, much like Twitter, but with far less limitations. It's name comes from those clickers doormen use to count room occupancy. The numbers roll over, and over, and over, with each click, as it is with Tumblelog posts: a stream of posts appearing ad infinitum. Tumblr is where you go to get sick of looking at beautiful art and people.

According to their motto, Tumblr is the easiest way to blog. Aside from photos, you can post videos, quotes, text, and formsprings. Uploading audio files is limited to one per day, but if you find a song that is externally hosted (with a url link) you can post as many as you want, which is far better than what facebook allows (none at all). It is invitational, you can block, and follow, accounts just like Twitter, but it is also geospecific; you can find people "Tumbling" in your city or next door. Tumblr's infinite scrolling feature, is another reason Tumblr is miles ahead of their competition.

Much of what you will find posted on Tumblr is Not Safe For Work (NSFW), "whatever-you-can-get-away-with" artistic posts, and crude but awesome humor. Interesting posts get reblogged, or liked, and quality posts rise to the top, because they are user regulated. In minutes, anyone can start a free Tumblr account and begin spreading whatever meme they choose. Some of my favorites: clientsfromhell.tumblr.com, youlooknicetoday.tumblr.com, and kungfugrippe.com

Have fun and happy tumbling!

Jordan

P.S. Although I am blogging about social media, I do have a job: http://outpostcommunication.com

Credit for the picture goes to sabino: http://jordankeats.tumblr.com/post/282436259/chichichi-via-sabino

One Year of Twitter

2010-02-12T13:40:00.001-08:00

Twitter is awesome and overwhelming. On March 4, 2009, I signed up - like millions of other people - to Twitter. Many of these millions of new users have since been attributed to spam, advertisers, and ghost users, however the amount of real people posting quality links has kept me happily using Twitter.

I use Twitter for two main reasons, networking with people in my discipline and city, and promoting valuable resources for my own niche community of martial arts enthusiasts (kinda dorky, I know). When I graduated University, and began figuring out how I would pay back my heaps of debt, a woman (Janice La Couvee) contacted me on Twitter asking me how she could help me. I was taken aback by her unsolicited offer, and we met for a coffee. Over a hot cup of java, Janice gave me access to her network. One of her contacts lead to a pretty awesome volunteer opportunity, with the Canadian College of Performing Arts, giving me some much needed real world, resume-worthy, experience.

I practice and teach an obscure martial art, Chen Style Practical Method Tai Chi, and our community is scattered across the world. Resources and conversations about this martial art are hard to find, and many of the people who train locally move away. Twitter has connected me with martial arts enthusiasts from around the world. Masters in Australia, America, and Europe, such as @chrischats, @TanDoaKungfu, and @masterboozer, share valuable information and experience via Twitter.

This fall, my twitter account was hacked. I clicked on a spam direct message disguised as link from an otherwise reliable user, and they spammed out 500 Direct Messages (DMs) to all of my Followers. The worst part, some people believed I would send them a poorly written tweet about weight loss programs. With a password change and few apologies everything turned out fine. Scams are part of internet life. Be careful of who you follow, and which links you click.

Twitter is an internet service with the ability to change lives. It's networking capabilities allow you to meet people from within your choice of communities and interests. From around the world and in your hometown, people are contributing, a.k.a. Tweeting, to their communities.

This year, I have met many local people from Twitter (tweeps) at local 'tweetups'. Together, we organized a social media charity function "Twestival", a social networking fundraiser supporting a local charity. We held a silent auction for donations from people and companies who use twitter. Although holding a twestival is a new name for an old idea, a group of local people - Twitter users - got together to raise funds for a non-profit.

Second only to real-time search, Twitter's best feature is its layout. Many people can't get over the limit of a 140 characters, but it's limited design makes information clear and concise. It feels like you are brainstorming with unlimited amounts of people, because it is invitational and you can choose which accounts you want to follow.

Twitter can be whatever you want it to be. If you like celebrities, there are tons on Twitter, if you like graphic design or photography there are plenty of resources and information for you. If you like cute animals, hockey, or UFC, you will find a community for that too.

The problem is managing all of these interesting people, and interesting articles. Twitter can be a time suck, and you don't need to subscribe to the noise all of the time. For a much better musing on how to manage the scale of your online socialization, read Wired Magazine's Clive Thompson in Praise of Online Obscurity, Tweet responsibly and have fun,

Find me on Twitter @Jordan_Keats

P.S. Although I am blogging about social media, I do have a real job: www.outpostcommunication.com

What Does Chen Style Taiji Look Like?‏

2009-11-23T17:40:00.001-08:00

One of many lectures by Master Chen Zhonghua, at Taiji Traditions
Camp, Shawnigan Lake, BC, was sparked by a question, "what makes Chen
Taiji 'Chen Taiji'?". Master Chen drew a diagram of the four prominent
characteristics of "Gong": “Fa”, to issue power or energy, “Hua”, to
neutralize the oncoming forces or energy,“Da”, to hit, and "Na", to
seize.
Master Hong Junsheng (1907-1996) the man who developed Chen Style
Practical Method Taiji, and one of Master Chen Zhonghua's teachers, is
world renowned for his abitity to issue power (Fa). His nickname is
"the Man with the Magic Hand", because of his ability to bounce
opponents away by issuing internal power through his hand. As far as
Taiji Legends go there is quite a lot of video and information about
Grandmaster Hong online.
Here is a video of his push-hands:

And a video of his Yi Lu form:

Master Tian Xiuchen (1917-1984) studied from Grandmaster Chen Fake
(pronounced Fah-kuh) for 15 years, and became his disciple. He is
known for his ability to nuetralize (Hua), but there is little
information about him online, if you know of any more info or students
of his please leave a comment.
Here is his Yilu form (Warning: turn your volume down):
Part 1:

Part 2:

Grandmaster Chen Zhaokui (1928-1981), the son of Grandmaster Chen
Fake, is known for his skill in neutralizing (Na) his opponenents.
Chen Zhaokui's students included the "four tigers" of CHen Village:
Chen Xiaowang, Zhu Tiancai, Wang Xian, and Chen Zhenglei. Master Chen
Zhaokui's only son: Chen Yu, is a prominent figure in Chen Style
Taiji, and is famous for his Qin Na (joint manipulation).
There is only one video clip of Chen Zhaokui, and it is eleven seconds
long:

But, there are many clips of Chen Yu:

Grandmaster Feng Zhiqeng (1928) is a living legend of Taiji, and
creator of the Chen Style Xinyi Hunyuan Taijiquan System. Feng
Zhiqiang life is nothing short of amazing. Orignally a Xinyi (Qigong/
health art) Master, a diciple of Grand Master Hu Yaozhen, he then
became a disciple of Chen Fake. He is known for his ability to hit
(Da), and I have felt a hit from his disciple, Master Chen Zhonghua,
and the force rattled my entire skeleton. He was once the training
partner for Chen Zhaokui. In his personal letter to Mr.
Wan Wende of Shanghai, Zhaokui wrote,
"I have a senior brother, his name is Feng Zhiqiang, he is extremely
intelligent and among our brothers, his kung fu is the best."
(Houcheng, Pan, A Standard for Martial Art- The Story of Grand Master
Feng Zhiqiang, English translation can be found here:
http://hunyuantaiji.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=27)
This is an example of his excellent Taiji power:

What does Chen Style Taiji look like? I'm not sure. As you can see
from these videos, it looks like many different styles, maybe even
different martial arts, but these teachers of Taiji represent today
what the Taiji Classics texts wrote of centuries ago. I am just
beginning on my Taiji journey, and my knowledge is little compared to
my teachers and Taiji brothers. I hope this post inspires interest and
dialogue for the art I have become so passionate about.
Comments are appreciated,
Jordan