- Walked the entire tourist-approved area of the great wall… my legs were sore for a good 4-5 days following.

- Jeff suggested I back down from fights too much. As a solution, I created an account on an online go server known for its crazy fighting and overplays: wbaduk.com Created a 2dan account a few days ago. So far my record is 30-13 and I was promoted to 4dan as of about five minutes ago. Not as impressive as it sounds since the dan ranks are weaker than on KGS, but it’s been great exposure to ridiculous fighting. (Btw, I would have played on TyGem but I can’t get the client working on Mac OSX)

- Doing well on the last two league tournaments with records of 4-0 and 3-1 among my peers.

- Probably playing 10-15 matches of go per day on average.

- Haven’t taken many photos (besides of food), but I have a few good videos of parks/the great wall that I’ll post on YT when I return to a country that can access the site.

Hope all my friends/family/readers are doing well!

Cheers from Beijing,

-Michael

Random updates:
- Still getting over the jetlag, and the food has been doing a number on my stomach these first few days, but things are stabilizing.
- The “room” I’ve been provided is an open area concealed by a curtain. At least I have no room mates as of yet. Also in my apartment are three teachers who are sharing a room across the hall from my curtain. There’s also a German guy down the hall who has his own room. Lucky guy!
- Waking up every morning with an hour of practice on life/death problems from a Japanesee 6dan book I brought from home. Progressing through a lot of these problems with momentum despite being weaker than 6dan. Excited with my progress so far.
- This Friday we’re headed to the Forbidden City if the weather permits.
- It’s very hot and humid.

Overall: I’m excited to have found a teacher who can provide thought provoking lessons for years to come. Jeff chewed out a couple of his long-term students in a passionate/tough-love way that works well for my learning style. It’s inspiring to see him in action.

For those interested, the go study program I’m enrolled in is 5 hours/day, 6 days/week for 2 months. The primary teachers are 9dan amateurs from Beijing University. Professional go teachers will be joining as well. You can read more about the program at www.experience-go.com

The program lets you choose whether you want to study 4, 5, or 6 days per week. It also lets you choose 1 or 2 months. I thought I’d be among the select few hardcore enough to choose the 6 days/week for 2-months option, but according to one of the coordinators that’s actually the option that most people chose. It sounds like I’ll be among good company with a similar love and intensity for go.

It sounds like they plan on taking us sight seeing for a couple days while we’re there, but I’ve honestly never been much of a tourist so don’t expect many photos.

Excerpt from Reuters:

Woo is not affiliated with any institution that is part of the official school system, but the 46-year-old math instructor is considered one of the best cram school tutors in education-obsessed South Korea, with his Web-based classes as well-known among test-taking teens as top-rated TV dramas.

“School teachers are concerned about creating moral people. We focus more on getting the students better grades in a short amount of time. That’s why we are needed and popular,” said Woo, who commands a salary higher than almost all of the top baseball players in the country’s professional league.

Woo is among a group of about a dozen instructors raking it in because they are thought to be the best at raising scores.

Reminds me of my ‘06 post ‘The Obsolete Classroom: Rethinking Education in the Information Age’

We’ve still got a long way to go before our education system is efficient, but it’s good to see strides being taken.

A Fistful Of Dollars: The Story of a Kiva.org Loan from Kieran Ball on Vimeo.

What will they need?

1) Affordable/ubiquitous internet access (ETA 2010, see my last post)
2) A device capable of streaming online video (MIT’s $100 laptops may not be cheap enough, but mobile phones are proliferating all over the developed world… throw Android into the equation and we’re gold.)
3) Free educational videos covering all topics from basic kindergarten/first grade math up through calculus, linear algebra, finance, physics, etc.: Khan Academy

Access to high quality education is no longer a luxury for the affluent. It’s exciting to imagine the world of opportunity that will open to the coming generations of children & entrepreneurs in the developing world as the playing field levels…

1) By late 2010 high-speed internet access will be cheap/affordable across most of Africa: http://www.o3bnetworks.com/press_quickstart.html?mod=2_1571_leftbox

2) Small pockets of people doing SMS messaging to inform farmers of fair market prices are helping to improve the income/economic efficiency of their regions:
http://whiteafrican.com/2008/12/01/tanzanian-farmers-and-their-sms-empowered-market-spy/

3) Ushahidi, an innovative African web startup that “Crowd Sources Crisis Information” has been hugely successful: http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2008/11/11/ushahidis-volunteers-rock/

Imagine a site that crowd-sources fair pricing information – the same info currently exchanged on a small/unorganized scale via SMS messaging. A site as simple as Twitter could be used with success today, but a site designed for the job that tracked pricing information simultaneously across thousands of products would bring market efficiency incredibly fast.

It’ll be amazing to see the explosive pace of innovation coming out of Africa in the next three years.

I know I’ve written about Kiva many times in the past, but today feels special because it marks my one hundredth loan… sometimes it blows my mind to think about the amazing impact we can make as individuals…

The ability to take $1,000 and have a volunteer team distribute it to 40 different entrepreneurs in developing countries all over the world. To think of the entrepreneurs who don’t have the collateral to take out loans alone, who form groups and hold each other accountable to succeed together. Once the 40 entrepreneurs pay back their first $0.62 each, it makes another $25 which can be re-loaned immediately… to think this entire operation was started only 3 years ago… to think of it’s explosive success… to think it’s all been made so simple that I can manage my 100 loans from the comfort of my home in less than 5 minutes per week… is there anything cooler on the planet?

I don’t know… but Kiva sure amazes me…

Anyway, if you’ve read this far then you probably deserve a reward. I’m giving away $250 in free Kiva gift certificates to the first ten people who request one in the comments section. I did this once in the past with good success. The only thing you have to promise is to loan the money through Kiva at least once before withdrawing it for yourself.

My hope, of course, is that you get addicted to Kiva as well. There’s no need to promise that, though. I expect it will happen naturally.

If you don’t mind, I’d also love to hear comments or see links to the business you decide to support. Thanks!

By the way, if you’re curious: my lender page.

1) Started a 2nd side business which put www.learnfromaninja.com on the backburner. The new business is secret for now. It’s more lucrative but less philanthropic. Social impact neutral. Once it’s up and rolling strong I’ll be able to focus more on LFaN without worrying about over-commercializing the lessons.

2) My 401k dropped 55% with the economic downtown and I couldn’t care less. How’s that for Buddhist non-attachment? That said, I’m investing more than ever now. FYI – Warren Buffet just moved 100% into U.S. stocks. Combine this with Obama’s win & the timing seems right for alternative energy.

3) Helping as a judge for Project 10 to the 100. What a great time to be alive!