Portable Yoga

This week saw the release of a new app that actually appeared as a blip on the world's radar that my little company made. That's Happy Hips Yoga with Tania Frechette. When I looked up "yoga" in the app store on my new iPad last night, Tania's was the first thing that popped up. So cool!

In response to that, we immediately dropped the price of Yoga with Jamine and Louise's Hot Yoga to $1.99 to see if that price will move them a bit more. Sorry if you paid more - it's definitely worth it! - we're just trying to find the right spot where we can hold the pose and let the energy flow.
And of course, there's still the free app, if a buck 99 is too much to try.

More apps will be coming out as we can get the content from people and get all of the bugs fixed. It's been an interesting process and I'm definitely impressed with the products we've turned out. As I sit here in an apartment in Gatineau sitting on the floor with shag carpet listening to the click click of my programmer's keyboard, I reflect on how far we've come. It's been amazing to watch my dream become a reality!

I'm not a Graphic Designer

I'm a yoga teacher, not a graphic designer! And yet, I'm being called to at least do some draft work on the web site that will be used to help other yoga teachers create their own web sites and iPhone yoga apps! So I'm stretching into places I haven't stretched in a while.

Capital Yoga Publishing is getting off to a crawl. I've got a programmer here who's typing away furiously, doing something he calls "coding." It sounds like typing, but apparently it's not.

I'm taking care of the softer side of things like how it's going to look and feel until there's actual funding or enough revenue to hire someone who can really do the design part of the job. So if you haven't downloaded my app from iTunes yet, please click on the link at the top right of this page and buy the app! In the meantime, I'm really happy to be collaborating on something that's outside of yoga but still in line with my yoga world.

Another collaboration is happening and it is in the yoga world. Kat Mills and I are offering a Friday Night Special that will rock your world. Living Your Yoga will happen once a month on a Friday night from 7 - 9 at Rama Lotus. We'll be looking at the yamas and niyamas; find ways to incorporate them into our daily lives; do some postures; have a contemplative part; and get to connect with other people. The cost is $25 and the first one happens on April 23. So please come if you can.

So a Yogi Walks into a Bank...

(By the way, Tuesday's post got so much attention, I can't believe it. That was the most-read post ever of mine. Apparently when I let it rip, it seems to touch a nerve...today's post will be boring in comparison. And just to follow up about the chalk, nothing has happened to make things worse or better and none of us here seem to care, we'll still chalk in the back, we may do moderate chalk in the front, we'll take it to where it doesn't bother people we care about and we'll see how it goes. I'll let you know if anything else erupts!)

So today I'm shopping for a bank. I need to open a business account because Capital Yoga Publishing is at that point and needs to be all set up. I was thinking last night that this is a chance for a fresh start. Let's pick a bank that feels good. I thought I didn't want to go to the bank closest to me because it's up Rideau and it's not that nice walking up there, how about let's start with something more grand, like RBC on Sparks. Kat says I will walk in and know and that's a good way to pick a place - by how I feel when I walk in. I asked Hans which bank he thought was the nicest - what with him being Swiss and all I figure he'd know a good bank - he recommended the big RBC. My trainer said, "what about seeing what kind of stuff you get at which bank? Like account features." Hmm. I hadn't thought of that. I tweeted that I was looking for a bank and not one twit got back to me.

On the way to the RBC I saw the TD and I thought to myself, "I like TD. I'll check them out." Well they made me wait a bunch. I sat for a while and then I reached my limit and I headed over to RBC again. "I'll go and set this up there." When I made my way up to the second floor, "wow, this will do," it turns out no one could see me today. "What? I want to open an account and I need an appointment?" (Maybe that's why I was waiting a while at TD.) It turns out that it's a long appointment to open a business account and I'd need to come back tomorrow.

So I decided to head back to TD. On the way I ran into an old student and we got to talking about yoga and life and stuff and then I was feeling hungry and ready to go home. On the way I figured I'd stop in at the CIBC at Sussex and Rideau. "That's a powerful intersection. That might be a good place for my bank." They were very helpful in there, but there's no place to park so if I need the other investors to sign anything it's going to be a parking thing and they also didn't have any time today to help me open an account. But I made an appointment for tomorrow and left.

On the way home I got to thinking about the little bank on Rideau that I opened Remi's account at. I gave them a call. Sure enough, they have time to see me today at 4:30 to open up my business account. I cancelled my CIBC appointment and will get my stuff ready for this aft. It turns out I'll keep walking up Rideau Street to my local TD after all. So much for the tall buildings and fancy elevators and shiny signs. "There's no place like home, there's no place like home..."

You can call me President

I got a lot done today and it's not even half over yet. And what I did today didn't all happen today, it just sort of all coalesced today. And it's iPhone app-related, which is yoga related, which is why I'm telling you!

If you know me at all you know that I'm a yoga teacher/student and that I'm also a bit of a nerd/geek. Okay, I'm a lot of a nerd. I love my gadgets and sites and connections and doohickeys. It runs in my family and when my 11-year old called me from her cell on the school bus this morning to warn me that she had left her speech on the desk in the office and could I get it to her, it wasn't surprising that rather than getting in my car and driving it over, I picked it up and put it in the scanner, sending it to her teacher's email address.

The call from the school came that she needed it and when I told her that I'd emailed it to her teacher, she said he wasn't in today and could I send it to her. "Which email address? Oh, that one? K," was my reply. So that's who you're dealing with here.

What happened today is I incorporated Capital Yoga Publishing Corp, which is hopefully going to be the name of the company that is making the iPhone/iPod Touch app that I've been on about, in addition, some other things for yoga teachers. I say hopefully, because I only submitted my request and paid the money to incorporate, but the government's approval of the name and all of that is pending.

Once that happens, then my application for funding can proceed and I can put my new programmer guy to work, which he is excited to do. So it's underway. And I'm actually a bit excited about it now that I'm writing it out. Normally, these sorts of things just wash over me and I get all excited by guys and phone calls and ups and downs and all of that sort of drama. But I'm training myself to enjoy the pleasure of just having something go well that doesn't fit into my samskara grooves and is just something going well!

More will be shared when there's more to share. On another note, someone asked me recently if my Mandate is over because it seems I've gone all quiet about relationships and like maybe I'm tucked in someplace. I guess I'm just not blaring out that I'm still single and it bugs me sometimes and I'm not online dating, even though I have in the past and I may return to that. So I don't have a list of people I'm working through to have you vet for me as I may have done some years ago, posts which are probably hidden from this blog. And if you're like, "but what about all of those trips to Florida?" just know I have a good friend. Watch 500 Days of Summer and know I'm Tom in some ways, I'm just faster.

My daughter is at an adorable age that I want to continue to enjoy in peace, without the added drama of me purposely dating someone new. I'm getting some work done, probably in lieu of dating, but it's okay to be productive instead of seductive - hey - that's funny - it rhymes!

So there you have it. The full update.