Setting Up My New Close-Up Rehearsal Space

Posted on April 10, 2010 by Aaron Jones

Close-up Rehearsal

I am currently setting up my new close-up rehearsal space. I have mentioned before in other blog postings and my Magic AudioBoos about having a set rehearsal space. Well it is time I set up a new space for myself t get the best out of my practice and rehearsal time. I set up my video camera so that I can record myself then watch it back, to check my performances. As I have mentioned before, I practice moves, then routines, then rehearse my full show in full dress. This way I can find any problems with prop management in my suites, settings etc. It’s also important to always set regular rehearsal and practice times. It a part of your job as a performer to do this and should be a part of your regular magic work day. Once you set your rehearsal space, and time when you will rehearse you will start to get in the proper mind set to work through your show in a structured way, which will show when you perform in the real world and make your show look a lot more professional. the last think you want to do is just put a bunch of tricks together in a string with no reason and perform them. Make sure you spend the time and put them together as a complete show.

Aaron

A Change To My Note Taking

Posted on April 4, 2010 by Aaron Jones

Evernote For iPhone

In August of lat year I blogged about how I take and keep notes on my magic here. I still use the the systems I blogged about but recently I have been using Evernote for a lot of my note taking, show development, planning, and brainstorming. The reasons I like Evernote are that my notes can be stored as different notebooks and these documents can hold pictures and sound files as well. They are also synced between my MacBookPro, my iPhone, and my account on the Evernote site. This way I always have access to my notes and have backups of them. Using Evernote has been great for me and has helped a lot in keeping my projects organized. Evernote as well now works for the iPad, which I can imagine will be good for working on my show like a electronic clip board. Evernote is free they also have a paid account if you use a higher volume of files. For me it has been a great system and I highly recommend it if you are into keeping notes and plans electronically.

Aaron

Managing Your Internet Information

Posted on February 13, 2010 by Aaron Jones

MobileRSS

If you are like me and read a lot of Internet sites keeping track of them all can be hard. Living in Japan the Internet is my primary source for English related content on magic, technology and news and I follow a lot of websites. So it has always been a challenge for me to organize how I go through all the content I keep track of. The system I use now has saved me a lot of time and kept me up to date on all the information I enjoy reading. Over the years I have tried various RSS readers but now I just use Google Reader. I can make folders to keep track of subjects, and also I am able to easily share any articles I find on twitter etc. It is like my own newspaper custom made for me everyday. You can also follow other people who have google reader set up and easily read any interesting articles that they share. I like the star feature where I can star the ones I want to keep and go back to them anytime I want very easily. Along with the regular Google Reader I use mobileRSS on my iPhone to keep updated when I am not at home. Once I read an article from mobileRSS it marks it as read on Google Reader as well. It also has all of the great sharing features of the Google version. Combining both of these has been great for me. I am able to keep track of all the sites I like and I like a lot so this keeps me organized and informed. I also like to share cools stuff as well. You can see my shared articles form Google Reader here. If you have any other great ways that you use to keep track of your favourite sites please let me know!

Aaron

Magic Audioboo Using Dead Time

Posted on August 29, 2009 by Aaron Jones

This episoede of my Magic AudioBoo is how to use Dead Time. Please enjoy!

The Useful iPhone Apps I use!

Posted on August 29, 2009 by Aaron Jones

One of my iPhone Screens

This post is not about magic but is kind of related to my magic work. If you are like me, then you may spend a lot of time away from home and your computer. Keeping connected to the social world as well as keeping up with work while out an be difficult. To solve this in the past year I have been using my iPhone to take advantage of dead time to keep up with my work, and fun while I am not around. I am a fan of using dead time to be productive. So here is a list of the iPhone apps I use in no particular order to keep productive and connected.

Facebook App
To keep connected to my magic and non magic social world I use the Facebook app. With it I can keep in contact with my friends when not at home as well as share my own experiences. Good thing about this app is that it is free. Can be downloaded at the app store here.

Twitbird Pro
I love Twitter. I don’t use twitter just to send messages and read about friends, but I use it to find local information as well as I read news and other updates. It is also a way to send out information on stuff I see and find. I have my Twitter connected to Fabebook, Friendfeed, as my website. So I use it as a way to connect to all these services. I have used many Twitter apps but I love Twitbird Pro. It allows me to make lists of my followers to I can easy check what one group of people in my interest sphere is doing. It also as a bunch of other great features you would think would only be on a desktop Twitter program. Twitbird Pro is here.

WordPress
I love this WordPress app. I can update my website blogs and pages from it. You can also post pictures to your posts from it. It allows you to connect to more than one WordPress site. So this is perfect for me to update this English blog as well as my Japanese version. I use it when I’m in a hotel at night to update or while traveling by trains. This great app can be found here.

Documents
This program allows you to edit, create and read, word and excel files plus others. It also connects to Google Docs so you can download and upload files you create or need to edit on the iPhone. This is a great way to keep up with work during dead time when you have free time in places like waiting for trains, planes etc. This app is here.

There are many more apps that I use along with some of the magic apps I use. I will introduce some other apps I use in a future blog posting. If you have some great app recommendations please let me know in the comments!
Aaron

Early Mornings

Posted on August 16, 2009 by Aaron Jones

From today during the week I will get out of bed at 6:00am. Today I did it. The reason you may ask. Well it is to get extra time to be productive. I enjoy my sleep, but I want to start to use my time more wisely. I hope I can continue with this so that I can get more productivity out of my day. I’m blogging from my iPhone so please forgive any mistakes I missed in this blog.
Aaron