Catch All

10 Kens Famous for Their Tattoo Art

November 27, 2015 by Kenney Myers

More and more people are jumping on the tattoo bandwagon it seems. Several of my friends have recently gotten their first ink and they are all in their 40’s. However, while tattoos may be increasingly common, talented tattoo artists certainly aren’t a dime a dozen. These ten have more in common than just their names; they’re also well respected tattooists who’ve made their mark on many a human canvas.

Ken Cameron – With more than twenty years of experience under his belt, Ken Cameron is one of the most popular flash designers in North America. His flash sheets hang in more than five thousand shops across the continent, meaning that people who have never even met Ken are wearing his designs. He does travel the convention circuit quite heavily, so keep an eye out for him at a stop near you.
Ken Broken – Ken Broken is the owner and primary artist at New York’s famed Fiction Tattoo shop, with more than a decade of experience inking skin. He specializes in realistic portraiture, black and gray work and custom designs with a futuristic flavor.
Ken Dean – Ken Dean, of Pino Bros. Ink in Cambridge, Massachusetts is a tattoo artist whose work adorns Ivy Leaguers and street punks alike. He’s been working within the industry since 1987, tattooing everyone from Avril Lavigne and Kelly Osbourne to Paul Bostaph of Slayer and Jerry Montano of Danzig. As one of the premier tattooists to the stars, this is one Ken whose canvases are as famous as his work.
Krooked Ken – When it comes to famous Kens in the tattoo game, you can’t miss the world famous Krooked Ken. Working since 1994 and specializing in traditional tattoos with bold color and heavy shading, Krooked Ken is one of the most popular artists in the Maryland area. Find him at Black Anchor Tattoo for a bit of permanent retro flair.
Ken Deft – Ken Deft is a tattooist at Orlando’s famous Black Chapel Tattoo Studio. Specializing in modern tattoos with bold, bright colors, Ken Deft is one of the the Orlando area’s most sought-after artists.
Kenny Buck – A Chicago native, Kenny Buck is a neo-traditional new school artist who specializes in bold lines an bright colors. His flash is wildly popular, which means that you may be familiar with his work even if you’ve never heard his name. An acclaimed tattooist since 2001, Kenny Buck is one of the most well-known artists in the Carpentersville, Illinois area.
Ken Hoffa – Not only a famous tattoo artist, Ken Hoffa is also an illustrator and painter whose work has been met with acclaim. His grasp of color application is impressive, but his work in portraiture is what sets him above other tattooists in his area.
Kenneth Bryan – The lead tattooist and owner of Intimate Body Art Studios in Pennsylvania, Kenneth Bryan is an award-winning artist who’s wildly popular on the tattoo convention circuit. His work has been featured in Tattoo Magazine, International Tattoo Art Magazine and Tabu.
Ken Jago – An international award winner, this Sault St. Marie tattooist has more than twenty-five years of experience who provides exceptional custom work for his clients. From cover-ups to brand new pieces, Ken Jago is an accomplished artist whose clientèle is comprised largely of dedicated regulars.
Ken Fisher – With a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art from Cornell College, Ken Fisher is one of Oregon’s leading tattooists. His work can be found in Tattoo Flash Magazine, Tattoo Savage Magazine, and Skin and Ink Magazine. His work is heavily influenced by classic design but retains elements of new school style, coming together to form a look that’s uniquely Ken Fisher’s.

Tips for Teaching Kids How to Care for Pets

November 25, 2015 by Kenney Myers

If you are going to be working as a nanny in a home with pets, it’s important that you are able to instruct the children on how to interact with pets properly. Playful behaviors that often seem natural or harmless to children can sometimes end up injuring the pet, or worse, the child. As such, it is advisable to have some basic guidelines and wisdom that you can use to ensure that the children who are in your care behave smartly around animals. Here are a few tips to remember:

Know What Is Age Appropriate
It’s important to understand how much you can reasonably expect to teach young children and to what extent they are likely to listen to you. If you are caring for pets that are somewhat fragile — like a bird or a gerbil — or somewhat dangerous – like an untrained and aggressive dog – it may not be enough to simply give young children the proper instructions and demonstrations for handling the pet. The child’s and animal’s well-being are key, and if you fear that the child’s or pet’s safety may be in danger, you should keep the kids away from the pet until they’re old enough to have a safe hands-on experience.

Teach a Gentle Hand
As an adult in a position of authority, it is your job to impart the proper ways to handle and touch animals to the children in your care. Your actions should serve as an example to them, and as such, you should go out of your way to demonstrate soft, gentle and well-calculated handling techniques. Whether you are dealing with a fragile parakeet or a sturdy Rottweiler, you should teach the children what is and is not appropriate. Fully explain the possible negative outcomes so that they understand just what can happen when you hit or assault a pet (it gets hurt, the child is hurt in return, everybody cries).

Teach a Calm Demeanor
Teaching children to be calm around pets is particularly important if there’s a possibility that the animal could lash out and injure someone. A calm disposition is essential around dogs. Children should be discouraged from making loud noises, jumping around or making erratic movements. You may want to discuss the way that human behaviors can make animals feel with the children in your care. (E.g., what seems fun and joyful to a child can feel threatening or confusing to a dog.) If you can convey that frantic actions and loud noises not only frighten their pet, but also make the animal more likely to become violent, this should help to keep their behavior in check.

Teach Children to Look For The Right Signs
Being able to read animal body language and other indicators is essential for avoiding situations in which an animal attacks or lashes out. Make sure that the children in your care understand what certain animal behaviors typically indicate. For instance, it’s all too easy for a child to hear a dog growling and mistakenly think that the sound is an indication of happiness, like a cat’s purr. Similarly, a young child could see a cat waving its tail and think the animal is happy rather than annoyed or in a state of aggression. (Differences between dogs and cats always make for good lessons.) Making sure that children are aware of each type of animal’s specific indicators will greatly reduce the likelihood of an undesirable incident, such as a bite or scratch.

Teach Children How to Interact With New Animals
If you’re out around town with the kids, chances are good you’re going to come across people walking their dogs. To cut down on risky incidents, it’s important to teach the children in your care how to interact with new animals. Children will often assume that the same type of behavior and familiarity that they engage in with their pet at home is appropriate for strange animals. The Animal League of America recommends that you always ask the owner before allowing children to approach an animal. Even so, you will want to explain to the kids that they should be especially gentle and respectful when meeting new animals. It’s also recommended that you specifically instruct children to avoid touching the eyes, ears, nose and mouth of unfamiliar animals.

By maintaining constant supervision and instructing children to care for pets in the right ways, you stand to minimize the incidence of harm to the children and pets. More than that, though, you will teach them valuable life skills that should help them to better navigate future interactions with animals and become responsible pet owners down the line.

Twitter Tips & Vernacular for Us Fortysomethings

November 24, 2015 by Kenney Myers

For those of us fortysomethings out there, we may just really be starting to leverage Twitter and one of the things that I know I have struggled with is the proper use of some of the abbreviations and Twitter slang. In order to provide myself with a quick reminder and to hopefully help others out, I prepared a quick list. If you know of anything that I missed that could help more people (including me), please add them via the comment section below.

Important Twitter slang/vernacular:

@reply (it’s like hitting an email reply button) – Here you substitute the reply with another username on twitter so @KenneyMyers for example if you wanted to reply to me. This is a simple way of responding to another twitter user in a way that will get back to them almost as if you are having a regular conversation.

ab/abt (about) – This is shorthand for about. Given we have only 140 characters to get our point across it can be really handy to use common abbreviations. There will be several throughout this twitter vocabulary list.

b/c (because) – I think some of the twitter abbreviations have been around forever. I remember using b/c for because a long, long time ago and it means the same when used in a tweet.

b4 (before) – Sometimes letter an number combinations are used to abbreviate like this one which means before (b4).

BFN (bye for now) – This is a way of ending a twitter conversation or just letting people know you have other things to do. It literally mean bye for now.

BR (best regards) – This is just a way to send someone your best regards. You might for instance tweet @KenneyMyers BR & good luck with your speaking gig in Dallas.

chk (check) – This is another abbreviation that has been around for a long time and literally means check.

clk (click) – If you want the other twitter user to click on a link you might use this abbreviation.

direct message (DM) – This is a direct message in twitter that is sent privately to the person you direct the message to. Use this feature if you want only one other twitter user to see a tweet.

EM/eml/EMA (email) – There are a lot of abbreviations for email including my favorite (because it is the shortest) EM.

F2F (face to face) – If you want to meet someone in person you would use F2F or if you are just describing a meeting that you already had in a tweet.

fab (fabulous) – This is a great way to say you really like something while just using 3 letters.

FAV (favorite) – This is referring to the fav action in twitter where you want people to fav your tweet and/or to let them know you did for them or someone else.

follower – This describes the people that are following your tweets on the network (they are your followers).

FF (follow friday or #followfriday) – FF is used when you want others to follow or favorite something else in your tweet.

Hash Tag (hashtag – #) – This almost deserves an entirely separate article but it in essence makes something more searchable and draws attention to that word (see more on hashtags below). So if you preface any word with a hashtag (#) it draws attention to it in the world of twitter.

IC (I see) – This is just letting someone know that you understand what thye are tweeting about.

IDK (I don’t know) – If you don’t know this abbreviation, you might want to give up now!

kk (kewl kewl – cool cool) – It’s just telling someone that you get what they are saying and/or you like it. BTW, I’ve dropped this a couple of times when talking/chatting with my teen kids and they are quick to tell me that nobody does that. Really? I beg to differ! kk?

MRT (modified retweet) – This is literally a modified retweet identifier.

NTS (note to self) – This is used when you are just wanting to use twitter to remind yourself of something on your home page (where you see your own tweets).

OH (overheard) – This is an efficient way to say that you overheard something (usually juicy).

PRT (please retweet) – Use this when you would like your followers to retweet this one.

RT (retweet) – This is when you retweet someone’s message. The functionality is built into the twitter client or you can just type RT @KenneyMyers cool post!

selfie (taking a picture of yourself) – Thanks to the iPhone’s ability to have a forward facing camera it is easier than ever to take a picture of yourself (a selfie).

TFTF (thanks for the follow) – This is just a quick way to thank another twitter user for following you.

TMB (tweet me back) – If you want another user to message you back through twitter then you can just tell them to TMB.

Tweet (a message on twitter) – This is literally a message on twitter and how people let their followers know something (they tweet it out).

twis (dis) – This is the way of saying you got dissed or dissing someone else on Twitter.

U (you) – This is just a quicker way of referring to someone else on Twitter.

wtv (whatever) – This means whatever in one context or another and allows for a much more efficient message.

yoyo (you are on your own) – Use this when you want to tell someone you disagree and/or that they are on their own for any reason.

Important Inforamation on Hashtags:

So I have seen these abused so many times it is crazy. I think one good source of hashtags is hashtags.org, that site will help you understand a bunch about the do’s and dont’s of using hashtags on Twitter. Basically, a hashtag in front of any word makes that word searchable inside of Twitter. Because people sometimes abuse hashtags to associate a tweet with a trending topic (even though it is really unrelated), Twitter came up with the following rules:

Here’s Twitter‘s official statement on hashtag abuse.

“The following behaviors and others like them could cause your account to be filtered from search, or even suspended:

Adding one or more topic/hashtag to an unrelated tweet in an attempt to gain attention in search.
Repeatedly tweeting the same topic/hashtag without adding value to the conversation in an attempt to get the topic trending/trending higher.
Tweeting about each trending topic in turn in order to drive traffic to your profile, especially when mixed with advertising.
Listing the trending topics in combination with a request to be followed.
Tweeting about a trending topic and posting a misleading link to something unrelated.”

In other words, don’t just put a hashtag in front of any word because you think it makes you kk (kewl kewl). It doesn’t work that way. If you use hashtags improperly you could find yourself suspended from Twitter in a heartbeat.

So hopefully you have learned one or two things from this article about how to properly use Twitter. If not, I can at least confirm that it has been helpful for this fortysomething to simply research these and refresh my diminishing memory. Happy twittering (okay, that’s not one of our vocabulary words, but that’s okay)!

10 Kens With Famously Funny Tweets on Twitter

November 23, 2015 by Kenney Myers

In the Twitterverse, it’s all about how many followers you have. Some of the most successful people on Twitter use humor as a way to keep their followers engaged. However, before you start thinking you’re going to become the next famous Twitter comedian, you should know that it’s not as easy as it sounds. With only 140 characters or less to work with, you need to keep your tweets short and succinct, while leaving enough room for the punch-line. These 10 Kens have mastered the art, so make sure to check them out for your daily does of Twitter comedy gold.

Kenny Hamilton – Justin Bieber’s former bodyguard and now road manager, Kenny Hamilton, had this to say recently on Twitter; “Last time KobeBryant took 8 months off he was in the womb!” Obviously, Kenny’s talents stretch beyond being the hired muscle for young Bieber, as when he’s not posting funny tweets, he’s the right-hand man to the world’s most famous pop star.
Ken Jennings – If it’s not good enough that he’s the recipient of the longest winning streak on Jeopardy and is a successful writer, Ken Jennings, it seems, has a sense of humor too. He often posts gems like this for his adoring followers: “Look you can spell yeah as “ya” in texts & emails if you want. Just like I can forever imagine you talking in Swedish Chef voice if I want.”
Ken Rogerson – Comedian Ken Rogerson is a keen observer of life, and often shares the funnier side of the news on his Twitter account. When a 73-year-old woman was caught selling marijuana, Ken couldn’t resist having a dig with this gem: “73 yr old woman busted for selling pot. Mommy says smoking is bad for your health Grandma. Why are you laughing?”
Ken Freedman – DJ Ken Freedman is a professional cynic, which is clearly evident from this tweet: “Keep your friends close, and keep your enemies locked inside the walk-in freezer.”
Ken Baker – Who better to ask for a critique of dairy treats than Ken Baker, fashion writer for ENews? Baker often shares his views on fame, fashion and weight loss via his Twitter account. However, he took time out to enjoy the finer things in life, with this profound observation; “This whipped cream would be a lot edgier if it were called “whooped” cream.”
Ken Anderson – You can always trust a pro-wrestler to court controversy. Ken Anderson is constantly on hand to provoke a reaction, but the wink at the end is to let you know that he’s really not such a heel. Or is he? “It’s so freakin cold in the Midwest right now that I just saw a gaggle of liberals walking with their hands in their OWN pockets! 😉 ba dump.” No actual liberals were body-slammed in the writing of this tweet.
Ken Davis – Comedian Ken Davis has some valuable advice for his followers. “I learned a life changing lesson today. Do not keep your earplugs in the same pocket as your vitamins.” If that left a bad taste in your mouth, don’t worry, Ken’s act is strictly tongue in cheek.
Ken Garr – They make you laugh and brighten up your day, but comedians are also on hand to provide product and service reviews in 140 characters or less. Ken Garr shares his appraisal of Frontier Airlines with his Twitter followers: “I think they call it frontier airlines because they used these planes to settle the frontier.”
Ken McGraw – If you ever find that you can’t quite articulate what you’re feeling, take a page out of Ken McGraw’s book. He certainly has a way with words, as is evident in this hilarious self-evaluation; “If my self-esteem had a sound…It would be the last slurp of a strawberry milkshake on a Saturday night.”
deKenstruction – He does voice overs, is self-effacing and is an all-round funny guy. So don’t take this tweet from deKenstruction too seriously. “The amount of time it takes you to turn off the garbage disposal once it’s obvious that you’re grinding a fork is all the IQ test I need.”

27 Blogs with Tips for Getting the Most Out of Running

November 21, 2015 by Kenney Myers

Because all you really need is a good pair of running shoes and a road, running is the preferred cardio choice for many. Not only does it strengthen your heart, but it also torches calories, aids in weight loss and, according to webMD.com, a regular running routine can help fight heart disease. Running also releases endorphins, which can help combat depression. Many people swear by running as a stress reliever, and use the time spent pounding the pavement to work out problems and think things through. The benefits you get from running are impressive, and these 27 blog posts will help you get started on a running regimen or improve what you are already doing.

Tips for Beginners

It’s important to know how to run properly when you are first getting started. Take it slow and don’t push yourself too much at the beginning. The last thing you want to do is get injured or be so sore that you quit running. If you are currently not exercising at all, you may want to start by walking and work your way up to a run. These and other tips are shared on these nine blog entries.

Tips to Improve

Most runners are continually looking for ways that they can improve as a runner, whether it’s increasing speed or distance, running a first race or improving your form. These nine blog articles are full of tips for improving your running.

Tips about What to Eat

Figuring out what to eat before, during and after a run is very dependent on how your body responds to different foods. There used to be a big push that encouraged runners to carb load the night before a big run so that they would have the fuel to make it through the entire run, but more recently there have been some changes to that recommendation. In reality, you need to be eating in a healthy way all of the time, and there is no need to drastically change what you eat the night before a big run. For more fueling information, read the next nine posts.

7 Strategies for Forgetful Folks

November 18, 2015 by Kenney Myers

From remembering where you put your keys to keeping a mental note of your grocery list without leaving an item out, it’s not always easy to remember the details of everyday life in such a hectic, fast-paced world. Some people tend to be more forgetful than others, though, potentially causing stress and anxiety when important tasks and items fall to the wayside. These seven pointers can help you remember details, both important and trivial, and get out of the stressful loop that is forgetfulness.

Get Organized – If your forgetfulness manifests itself through an inability to keep up with things, you may be suffering more from a lack of organization than a lack of memory. Find a home for your keys, wallet, phone and other important items, and put them back in that dedicated place every time you put them away. You may not remember that you tossed your keys on the kitchen table, your phone on the nightstand and left your wallet in yesterday’s pants because the items are so scattered. If they’re all in a dedicated place when you need them, you won’t find yourself scrambling to round them up on your way out the door.
Put Your Smartphone to Work for You – Set alarms to remind you of time-sensitive tasks, put calendar apps to good use, find a to-do list app that you like and get committed to using it. The mobile device in your pocket can be a powerful tool for keeping you on top of important events and due dates, and most people tend to sorely under-use these features. You can also install brain-training games and apps that actively improve brain function and short term memory while you’re waiting in line, in waiting rooms and using mass transit to commute to and from work.
Slow Your Multi-Tasking Roll – If you try to manage too many tasks, some things are sure to fall to the wayside. Try to slow down, and take on only the number of tasks you can easily accomplish at one time. You’ll probably find that, when you’re able to concentrate fully, the quality of your work and productivity improve right alongside your memory.
Take Notes and Make Lists – Some people find it easier to get everything done and keep track of everything they need to remember by taking notes of important events and making detailed to-do lists. In addition to having a written record of everything you need to do, you’ll also have the satisfaction of crossing each thing off of your list as it’s completed.
Set Up Triggers – Set yourself up for memory success by leaving trigger clues to remind you of the things you need to do. If you’re trying to remember to bring a change of clothes to work so you can hit the gym on your way home, set them on top of your briefcase. Leave a laundry basket in the kitchen so you will be reminded to move the wet clothes from the washing machine into the dryer while you’re prepping for dinner. Leaving this trail of breadcrumbs will keep visual reminders around you, helping you to remember what you’re doing and when it needs to be done.
Use Names After Introductions – Few things are as embarrassing in a social situation as forgetting the name of someone you’ve already been introduced to. Help your brain retain the names of people you meet by making a point of using their names soon after the introduction. Instead of saying, “Nice to meet you,” make a habit of saying, “Nice to meet you, Jane.” You’ll cement their name into your memory through speaking it out loud, reducing the likelihood of your forgetting it later.
Ask for Reminders – Asking friends and family members to remind you of important details not only gives you the help you need, but may even help you to remember the task yourself because you’ve made a point of acknowledging it and speaking it out loud. Don’t be afraid to ask your partner, children or friends to remind you of important dates, upcoming events or tasks you need to complete. Most people will be happy to help you, and you may find that you don’t need their assistance after all because you’ve made a point of acknowledging the situation.