1. You don't have to write a deep and insightful how-to on a technique. Instead, write some little thing you learned. These tips to yourself will quickly add up!
2. When writing a post, if you are stuck on what to say, take a break and see what others have written for ideas on how to phrase ideas.
3. Categories are important: try to really capture the subject you are writing about with good categories.
4. Don't have time to finish an entry? Save it as a draft and come back to it later.
5. Did you notice a spelling mistake in one of your posts? You can edit your own posts any time you like.
6. Months after writing about a given technique you might write about the same technique again, only better. Resist the temptation to delete your previous post. By keeping a record of what you understood in the past you can see how your understanding has evolved. Remember, this is not a how-to manual of Aikido, rather a diary of your progress.
7. Are you a new member? After you have written 2 entries in the journal you will be able to watch our locally-hosted videos. This is an incentive to get each member to contribute to our collective knowledge.
8. Don't know what to write about? Write about how you felt after class one night.
9. Don't know what to write about? Write about your first impressions of Aikido.
10. Don't know what to write about? Write about something you learned that physically makes sense.
11. Want to embed a video from YouTube in your journal entry? Click on 'Add New' then click on the little YouTube icon in the editor bar. Simply enter the URL of the video and click 'okay'. Write a comment about the video as well. Don't forget to check off the proper categories.
12. Want to write something private that only you can see? When you write a new post, click 'Edit' next to the word 'Visibility' on the right side of any post editor page. You can then click 'private' to hide your post.
13. Want to leave feedback about some page on the web site? There are some floating icons on the left side of the screen. One of them is 'feedback and contact'.
14. Do you use Facebook? You can share any page by clicking on the floating Facebook icon on the left side of the screen.
15. The 'Akurei' category: Write about mistakes you make, or have seen in videos. For example, did you move in a way so as to expose your groin or rib cage? We learn from mistakes, so please share them too. Any time you select 'akurei' as the category, your post will automatically not be shown to non-registered users, only to logged-in members.
16. Visit the 'Japanese' category to get insights on naming conventions.
17. Click on 'Videos' from the top menu to see our most recent videos.
18. Click on 'Latest Entries' from the top menu to see the most recent posts.
19. Our site has an RSS feed. Click on 'RSS' from the top menu to add our live feed to your browser's bookmarks. This is an easy way to check what new entries there are.
20. Do you have an idea for a new feature for this site? If so, please contact Eric.
21. You can leave private feedback for an author about his or her entry. These comments are private so no other member will be able to see them. For example, if you spot a spelling mistake, kindly let that author know. Try hard to not criticize because each member is kind in sharing his or her thoughts.
22. Don't know the name of a technique? Check out the dictionary page for pictures and pronunciation of Aikido terms.
23. Want to see our huge collection of photos? Click on the 'Photos' menu item at the top.
24. You can search for entries about Aikido techniques by starting poise, attack, defense technique, and type. Additionaly, you can filter posts by author. The name and meaning of each category is displayed on the main search page (with Japanese too), and it is shown again when you add a new entry to the journal.
25. Have nothing to do? Learn a new Aikido word in the dictionary page.
26. You can always update your old posts by adding videos or pictures at a later date.
27. In addition to writing about waza, you can write about your thoughts on some Aikido subject.
28. It is better to write something now than to forget everything.
29. You can save YouTube videos from their site! Get the FireFox web browser and get the add-on called DownloadHelper. After that, whenever you visit YouTube there will be a new icon next to each video. Click it to save videos to your computer.
30. Anything written to the 'akurei' category (example-of-a-mistake category) is hidden from search engines and restricted to member-view only. Feel free to write about mistakes you made or have seen.
31. While watching an Aikido video, on your keyboard press the PrtSc key then open MS Paint in Windows. Paste the screenshot into a new canvas, crop it, save it as a PNG, then insert it into your post. Now you have an easy way to show a picture of something you are writing about.
32. To add a YouTube video, simply click the 'YouTube' icon or button in any post edit window. You can add videos from other sites too.
33. Check out the testing page for quick search links to common testing techniques from several organizations.
34. You can easily upload, save and insert posts into your journal entries.
35. Leave a compliment to yourself. In the admin menu click 'Add Compliment' to write a private, positive booster to yourself. You can watch these build up too.
36. The changing backgrounds are peacful diversion. If you need more screen space, you can hide them by clicking the 'hide' link in the top menu bar. You can also unhide them later.

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