Pek Pongpaet

I’ve been meaning to post something like this for a while now. Of all the Youtube videos I’ve posted, the original Iron Gym video review I posted a year back has been the most popular by far. In an attempt to do more of what works as well as to document some of my workout here’s hopefully part 1 of what might be a series of videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=844VnQ31h5I

Ever since I saw this crazy video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFicccDgjUI
I’ve been obsessed with front lever pullups. I can’t do one yet, but I’m working up to that. My first goal was to be able to lift myself into that position. I’ve gotten that far and now need to work on holding that position with proper posture. As a martial artist I think it’s important to build core strength. Exercises like these are great for that.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Here’s a video clip of last week’s workout with Taylor and Don.

It’s so funny. I never posted anything during the peak of my wushu career. Well, I didn’t even have a blog then but that’s besides the fact. I was too busy practicing to be bothered with sharing what I did with the rest of the world. Now that I’m old and past my prime, it’s amusing that I share my wushu workouts so freely.

Partly it’s because I’m not getting any younger so I figure how I look now is going to be better than how I look in the future so if I’m going to post stuff, it might as well be now. Also, it’s good to be able to look back on this stuff. Not to mention that when you post stuff online, you have to step up your game.

Can anyone tell who’s staff intro I am using?

Popularity: 1% [?]

I’d like to share some of my training tips. Here’s an exercise/game/race that I came up with to help strengthen the body and help with wushu training. I have the kids do it in kids class and the adults seem to like it too. Not only does it help improve basics but also contains some upper body workout as wushu sometimes tends to be very lower body oriented.

The 5 Animals:

1. Seal Crawl. The Seal Crawl is the only exercise that needs any kind of special equipment. It is designed to use the upper body. All we need is a kicking shield which we put on the floor smooth side down. We lay our shins on it and make the legs limp like dead weight and use our upper body to move across the floor. If a kicking shield is not available, we can substitute this exercise with the bear crawl which is basically running on all fours.
2. Frog Jumps. Frog jumps are pretty common in wushu training. If you go to China, you will see that the professional teams do these to improve their jumps. Key here is to go all the way down and jump as far as possible. This is a lower body workout which gives our upper body a quick break before the next exercise.
3. Crab Walks. Crab walks develops speed and the upper body. It’s easier if we fall into the next step instead of lumbering slowly. Again, we alternate between upper body exercises and lower body.
4. Duck Walks. Duck walks are another set of exercises that develop the legs. We can have the arms behind the back but I prefer to have them help make the move more balanced and more natural. Make sure that the buttocks are low to the ground.
5. Spiderman Crawl. Ok, technically this is not an animal style. It’s a superhero mimicking an insect but it’s still a great exercise and very challenging. Crawl as if you were Spiderman crawling up a wall. The torso and hips must be low to the ground. Elbows and knees must not touch the ground. That is the challenging part and will really work the upper body and core strength.

The way I usually do this is to make it a game between 2 teams. Wushu class is usually divided into 2 rows anyways so each team is a row. It’s a relay race where everyone has to do each exercise and when the first person in a row is up again, they go to the next exercise. Before each race the teams agree to a “punishment” for the losing team. Usually it’s monkey jacks or push ups. I also try to level the playing field by pairing up people that are close in skill level or body ability. This also makes it more exciting.

I’m always looking to improve these conditioning exercises so any more “animals” tips are welcome.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Almost two weeks ago we picked up our newest member of the family. His name is Snuggles and he’s an 8-week old havanese puppy. He’s so tiny that I actually think he’s smaller than a subway sandwich. When Kim first found him she absolutely adored him and told me we had to have him. I don’t think words do him justice.

Here he is in the sink. In the beginning he was very needy. If he didn’t see us for any period of time he would start whimpering and crying. After not even 2 weeks, he’s shown a lot of improvement. Now he’s able to hang out by himself for a little bit. He figured out the puppy pad pretty quick but he’s also pooped and peed wherever he pleases. We got him these steps to help him up the couch and he figured those out right away although he didn’t like going down headfirst. He’s recently figured out how to go down sort of sideways.

I’ve never had a puppy or a dog before and I have to say they are a lot more work than I ever imagine. Stay tuned for more posts on Snuggles.

Popularity: unranked [?]

I’ve been thinking about 3D desktops, alternative user interfaces, and user experience for a while now. I keep a sketchbook that has illustrations of some of my ideas. When I saw the Apple patent filings for their 3D desktop ideas, I was delighted to see that some other folks have very similar ideas to mine.

I hate 3D for the sake of 3D. When I think of adding a new dimension to something as vital as your desktop, many questions come up like:
What benefits does adding another dimension mean to the user?
Am I making certain tasks harder when I add another dimension?
What problem am I solving?

Watch this quick video on some of the ideas I’ve been tossing around.

Multiple Desktops
The Mac OS spaces have never made sense to me. I never use it, not because i haven’t tried. I’d rather stick to my dual monitor. But when I am out and about with only the 1 screen, I still don’t use it. Here’s why – When I put something in another space, I just forget about it. It’s out of sight – and out of mind. I rather just have tons of apps on one screen and use Expose to sort it out.

Having a shoebox/diorama analogy of multiple desktops makes more sense to me since I can zoom out and see where my other spaces are. I have a sense of the spatial relationships of multiple desktops as well and that is key.

Cover Flow on the Desktop
I’m a big fan of Cover Flow even before it was integrated in all the Apple products – when it was somebody’s plugin for iTunes. That’s right – it wasn’t create by Apple. However having it confined within the iTunes application feels restrictive. Once you have a 3D desktop, why not make cover flow a full class citizen of that desktop?

Carousel to Navigate Apps
This is probably one of my weakest ideas and needs to be fleshed out. The basic premise is once you have a 3D Desktop, your apps should exist in 3D space. I’m not sure on the benefits of the Carousel myself, but I felt it was a cool UI.

Using Head Tracking to “look around”, by looking around
To me, this concept is what makes a 3D desktop really cool. The scenario is this: Say I’m downloading something, I can put that window on the desktop on the side of my main one. When I want to check on the progress of the download, instead of having to hit keys on the keyboard to find out, I just very naturally look around to see how it’s going. This is a very natural interaction that doesn’t have to be memorized or taught. This interaction therefore has a low cognitive cost. Instead of having to explicitly take action via keyboard commands by switching desktops to see the progress and switching back, possibly losing context, I quickly glance over and come back to my task.

There’s a lot more than can be explored. Right now, the “floor” of the desktop has not been considered. Also, I have some ideas around 3d folder navigation that I can dive into in the next episode of 3D Desktop concepts.

Popularity: 14% [?]