Life

Recognition for good customer service

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

I want to make a public statement about some good customer service I recently received.

I’ve studied with SouthNarc and really admire his approach, his knowledge, and his products. For the past some years I’ve wanted to pick up one of his Clinch Picks, but they were no longer being made.

Well, he’s been working on getting some production versions made, and they’ve finally become available through ccdefense.com. In fact, it’s been great that a lot of SouthNarc’s stuff is finally available again via ccdefense: be it the clinch pick, the clinch pick trainer, top popper, or his DVD’s. All good stuff.

So I previously ordered stuff from ccdefense and received it no problem. Then some weeks ago I decided to order some more stuff. Well, the stuff didn’t show up in a timely manner. When I contacted Will @ ccdefense, he looked into matters. We’re not sure what happened as the USPS said it was delivered, but I sure didn’t receive it. But Will didn’t leave things be. He said he would ask the Shivworks guys if he could just send me another order. Yesterday I received my order, plus one of Shivworks’ DVDs (I already had the DVD, but it was a nice gesture). I don’t know what happened to the first order, but if I ever receive it (I’ve had that happen — 2nd order gets sent out, and then a month later the original shows up), I will send it back. Updated: Will let me know he did get the package back from the Post Office; apparently the package got caught in a sorting machine and it destroyed the box. So that explains that.

I wanted to make this positive customer service experience known. It’s my understanding Will does this on the side, so he’s got other things in his life to deal with — this is not his primary focus in a day. But he went out of his way to remedy a problem that was probably my fault (due to how I sent payment through PayPal). There was no hassle, no problem, just a desire to make things right. Plus I got a little extra, which was totally unnecessary but very cool.

Will (and perhaps Craig too), thank you very much for your good customer service.

Learn to Read Korean in 15 minutes

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

I may be half-Korean, but my knowledge of Korean is pretty poor. The main reason is lack of exposure — I just don’t need nor use much Korean in a day, week, or month. Use it or lose it, y’know?

When I was studying a Korean martial art, I had actually brushed up on my Korean speaking and reading skills pretty well, but since that time, everything’s waned. Heck, if there’s any second speaking/reading (as opposed to programming) language I should know, it’d be Spanish, given the daily exposure I have to it.

Still, some time ago I came across this nifty little resource on How to Read Korean in 15 Minutes (and I always meant to blog about it, so finally here I am). The cool thing is Hangul is phonetic, so once you recognize the characters, sounding things out isn’t that difficult. Of course, to fully understand Korean is another matter, but I’ve found the ability to read and sound things out to be useful.

Story time.

Wife loves Korean pancakes (Pa-Jeon). My mom told me I needed to look for this flour/powder mix called “Buchim Garu” (that’s how you pronounce it). She told me over the phone, so I knew what the words sounded like, but I had no idea what it looked like. And of course, everything at the Korean grocery store will be written in Korean.

Enter the joy of the phonetic language!

I was in the store aisle that was obviously of the flowers and powder mixes. I picked up bags, looked at labels, and tried sounding things out (hopefully your browser/computer can show Korean)

부 (bu….)

부침 (bu… chim…)

부침가루 HA! Buchim Garu!

I was triumphant. 🙂

(Funny… Google Translate translates that as “fluctuations powder”. Heh. “Frying powder” is more correct, but I like fluctuations powder)

 

Pushing – walking a fine line

/ hsoi

In a prior article, I referenced an article written by Kathy Jackson. Kathy discusses her role as a self-defense instructor, and the gravity of that role. And while she might strive to make a fun class and work to see her students enjoy her teaching, she understands there’s something more she must do:

In order to fulfill my most important responsibility to my students, I have to risk pushing them beyond their comfort levels. And I have to do it in a way that will cause them to work harder rather than to shut down. If I’m not willing to take that risk for the sake of my students’ lives, I have no right to call myself a self-defense instructor.

We do this in classes at KR Training, varying the level of “push” depending upon the class. In a class like Basic Pistol 1, for some of the students they are pushing their comfort levels merely by attending class and picking up a gun for the first time, so we instructors don’t need to add push and pressure (just comfort and reassurance). In a class like Defensive Pistol Skills 1, we start to relay the gravity of carrying a gun and what self-defense actually involves, so we have students shoot on a timer and yes there’s some yelling by the instructors to raise the pressure levels (because someone trying to kill you is going to be a pressure-filled event!). Then you get to force-on-force classes, and those have a range of discomfort as well.

I think that’s why some people avoid training, or at least, particular types of training.

I know I’m victim of it. I’m human too. I like comfort. I like known. I don’t like getting my ass kicked, I don’t like the physical pain, I don’t like the ego bruising.

But we don’t get better unless we push ourselves. Heck, the only reason I can squat 300# now is because I pushed myself over my fears, over my discomfort, over my hate of squatting, over my fear of getting hurt, fear of not being able to get back up. I pushed myself, I got better.

Generally we shouldn’t take big leaps: someone that’s never done force-on-force before, even just verbal no-contact role-playing stuff, probably shouldn’t take SouthNarc’s ECQC as a first go. But if the thought of force-on-force is a little scary to you, I urge to to find a “101-level” type of FoF class (e.g. KR Training’s AT-2) and give it a try. I’ve never seen anyone come out of such a class not better for it.

So realize, when your teacher, coach, instructor, whatever pushes you, it’s an attempt to help you get better. If we go too far over the line, it’s not malicious; but do let us know so we can be mindful (because too far will just cause you to shut down and close off to learning). But don’t worry if you feel a little uncomfortable: we all did, we all do, we all will, and we all will grow from it.

Sometimes, you gotta be Dad first

/ hsoi

As the kids get older, it’s been fun to take them to various events to “expand their cultural horizons”.

I remember when I was a kid, my parents taking me to things like plays, musicals, orchestral concerts. True “high culture” stuff.

Me? I went with Daughter to see Orange Goblin and Holy Grail. 🙂  Oh sure, we’ll do some of the “high culture” stuff too, but I’m still going to do the things I enjoy, and that tends to be a little rough around the edges.

So, speaking of “high culture”….

I’ve wanted to see Gov’t Mule for some time. I’d call myself a casual fan overall, but I really love the passion and soul Warren Haynes puts into his singing, playing, and songwriting. I know they’re a band that you have to see live to truly appreciate, and finally I got the chance.

As a side note, I had never heard of opening act Vintage Trouble before buying tickets for this show. When I saw the bill, checked VT out, and Daughter and I became instant fans. Really good stuff. And their live show? Huge energy. Singer Ty Taylor knows how to command the stage and the audience. Do yourself a favor and check these guys out. Here are 3 tracks to check out: “Nobody Told Me” (the first song I heard, and it sold me), “Blues Hand Me Down“, and “Pelvis Pusher” (if this song doesn’t make you want to get up and boogie, I don’t know how to help you).

Anyways…

We figured it would be fun to take the whole family to see Gov’t Mule. I wanted to go, Daughter did, Wife did, and the boys… well, let’s just say they were good sports. 😉

We piled in the car, went downtown, had a great dinner, then into the show. Vintage Trouble tore it up, and being a live show in Austin… everyone around us was sparking up.

Then Gov’t Mule took the stage, and suddenly I found myself transported to Amsterdam.

I swear I’ve not seen and smelled so much pot smoke in my life.  I think even the trees were toking. 🙂

It was evident this wasn’t sitting well with the family. They’re just not around smoke at all (neither Wife nor I smoke, and with Austin’s indoor smoking ban, you just don’t get exposed much to any smoke). Plus, marijuana smoke is a lot more harsh than tobacco smoke, so young lungs just couldn’t take it. It was even a little much for me, but I deal with it because I’m wanting to see the show.

After a little bit, the kids were feeling bad, so we tried moving back to a more open spot. It was better (and tho further from the stage, it was elevated so you could see better), but still not great. I mean, we were near the entrance so no one was going to smoke pot there, but enough cigarettes against already irritated child airways and well….

Sometimes you gotta be Dad.

We left the show about half-way through.

*sigh*

Yeah I was disappointed, but the kids are of course more important. I’ll check the rest of the show out on muletracks later.

But there was some fun and good that came out of it.

The kids are now well-aware of what marijuana smells like. “Mom? I smell skunk…” Yes,  Youngest; that’s marijuana.

And I think they’ve all been cured of any desire to smoke pot. 🙂  It’s good when you don’t have to struggle later to pull up the weeds (pun intended), when the seeds don’t get sown in the first place.

A little each day

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Which is better? Practicing something for 1 day once a year? Or practicing something for 1 hour once a month? Or practicing 10 minutes each day?

Granted, this depends what we’re practicing, but for many things we do better if we do a little bit of it on a regular basis.

What makes some things tough for folks is thinking they have to do a lot of it often. Granted, if you’re totally in love with the thing you’re doing, if you are driven to some higher level (e.g. to be a world champion), that’s a different context. But for most of us regular schmoes, we just want to not suck at our chosen thing.

Yeah, you have those gym rats that spend 2 hours twice a day at the gym. It’s probably their social thing and that’s fine as far as it goes, but then their goal is probably social and not performance. I have appreciated the basics of Wendler 5/3/1 because it’s gotten me stronger than I’ve ever been, and it’s about doing more with less, e.g. the most basic template, Boring But Big, has you doing just 2 exercises (tho 1 is done in 2 different ways, so I suppose you could say 3 exercises) in a simple scheme, and you ought to be in and out of the gym in under an hour.

Champion pistol shooter, Ben Stoeger, promotes a dry fire practice routine around the notion of “15 minutes a day”. I recently started doing his 15 minute sessions, and some actually take less than 15 minutes. But you see the point that it’s about manageable chunks, not some massive session that you’ll dread and thus opt to never do. But it also needs a “per day” in order to progress. One 15 minute session once a year isn’t going to cut it.

PoliceOne even talks about how police officers can practice the skills of their trade in just 10 minutes a day. This could be things like dry fire practice, handcuffing skills, or even watching the news and visualizing your own response to reported situations.

The P1 article made a good point:

Do 10 minutes of training a day, every day you work the job.

Doesn’t sound like a lot, but it is.

Assuming you work a four-day week, and you do 10 minutes of training each day you work, you will have done 40 minutes of training per week. Easy math, right?

Assuming you have four weeks off (vacations, holidays, etc.), leaving you with 48 work weeks in a year, and you do the prescribed 10 daily minutes, you will have done 1,920 minutes of training annually.

That’s 32 hours of training.

Every year.

For FREE.

I hadn’t thought about that. I hadn’t looked at the math.

There are schools out there that you attend for a week. You take a week off work (taking the hit to your vacation time and paycheck). You spend thousands of dollars for tuition, travel, food, accommodations, whatever. You get a week of good training. It’s fun. I won’t discount the value of such things. But the above shows you can get a whole lot out of a little each day.

Tom Givens makes a point that you do far better with a little practice more often. That is, better to practice 15 minutes 2-3 times a week than to practice for 1-2 hours once a month. When skills are perishable (and most are, if you want to operate at any level above rudimentary), when skills are ones that must be called upon at any unexpected time, you do better when those skills are more fresh in your mind and body. If the last time you practiced was 3 days ago, that’s less “rot time” compared to 30 days ago; things will be fresher, you’ll perform better.

I’m not perfect about this, but it is something I strive for. And seeing the above math? That really hits it home. A little each day, and it really adds up.

Burnout

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

I’m trying to emerge from one of the worst burnouts that I can remember.

It happens. It’s the nature of the business I’m in… and I think it’s also the nature of me.

I try to live a balanced life, but by the time I figure out how to balance things, there’s something new in the mix that imbalances everything. And I have enough drive and dedication to things that sometimes I push too much, and it’s… well… too much.

I think to some extent I just have to accept that this is me and how I run. It does better sometimes to go with the flow instead of fighting the current.

It finally came to a head a couple weeks ago. I just cracked. Was really short-fused and couldn’t focus on anything. No motivation for work or other stuff. I made a long Labor Day weekend, taking 5 days to do nothing. And while I did some stuff, the main focus was on sleeping and eating. I slept a lot. Heck, I woke up on Sunday after about 9 hours of sleep, ate breakfast, then went back to bed for another 2 hours. I then took another nap later in the day. Yes, everything was shot. In fact, I think if I could take another week off of “life” I’d come out in really good shape.

As it is, I feel a lot better. And one thing that is most significant that I didn’t realize was an issue? I don’t feel stiff and creeky. I figured it was just being beat up from the weights. I do think it was that, but it was… silly. Trying to just kneel down then get back up? It was a chore. OK so squatting 295×2 isn’t huge numbers, but if I can squat more than my bodyweight, why is it difficult to kneel down and get back up? I guess because I was so shot. After all this time resting, I don’t feel stiff and creeky any more. I can just squat down, kneel down, get up, and it’s no problem.

Crazy.

But it taught me a lot, and gave me a lot of signs to look for in the future. Catch it before it gets bad, because a lot of these signs are new signs.

Sleep is key. I need more of it.

But food is another.

Trying to diet down, seeing how it hurt me, running counter to my true goals. I also believe the restriction on food contributed to things because I didn’t have what I needed to build myself back up. I’ve learned over the years to listen to my body. Sometimes I’ll get a massive craving for something, like fruit. Listen to it. Eat until body says that’s enough. and it’s never really a want to pig out and gorge. There’s a limit and eventually the body says it’s good.

As much as I hate to keep the belly flab, I think I need to just keep eating more. It makes sense. But I do think along with listening to my body more, I can do things to be cleaner and, if I stick to things more long-term, it should work out alright for me. I’ll get there, but it will take time.. perhaps a lot of time.

I’m going to eat well, 250g of protein a day I think is minimal, don’t sweat the fat (tho don’t be stupid about it), and moderate the carbs. For example, if I have a piece of whole fruit with breakfast, fine. But that’s probably all I need. If I can have a carbless lunch, great. Then if Wife makes something for dinner that has some carbs in it (e.g. rice), just roll with it. If I have a scoop of ice cream before bed, fine, just don’t do it every night. I think all the “artificial” program following I’ve done has been good because it’s taught me a lot and shown me a lot; learned a lot about my body. I’m finding my groove, and right now, it’s a shit-ton of protein and moderate everything else… where my body is nourished to the level it needs, and it will tell me.

So, to anyone I’ve ignored or snapped at in the past some weeks (or months), I apologize. I let a lot fall by the wayside because I was burned out but had to keep chugging on key things (e.g. day job). I was tapped out and didn’t see the signs, because a lot of them are new ones. There are no excuses, just asking your forgiveness and thanking you for your patience.

 

Shopping

/ hsoi

I’m burned out. Taking a couple days off work for a long weekend to help me recoup a bit.

Working on my backlog of things to do, and one is some online shopping.

Ordered some 7-round magazines for my M&P Shield from Botach Tactical. I’m fine with the smaller mags, since that’s the whole point of such a gun.

Ordered various Fox Labs OC sprays from CopsPlus. Wife needs to replace hers, and I’ve been wanting to have a can for my gym walks — had a couple potential 4-legged interactions during my gym walks where OC would have been welcome. Never used Fox Labs’ stuff before, but Tom Givens commented they’re the best, so let’s give it a try.

Ordered a lot of fish oil (Meg-3) and some caffeine capsules from TrueNutrition.com.

Wife wanted 30# of einkorn flour from JovialFoods. If you haven’t tried einkorn flour, and you’re not in a dietary mode that would prohibit it (e.g. celiac’s, paleo, etc.) give it a try. Wife reports the switch to it has helped her feel better (vs. “traditional” wheat flours you buy at the store), and I’ll vouch that it tastes really awesome. I’m still waiting for her to make that beer bread with the Moose Drool Brown Ale. The beer bread with that ale was awesome, and I imagine it will be even more awesome with the einkorn.

Wife is also out hitting the H.E.B. grocery store, and the Sprouts. I finally got to visit Sprouts a couple weeks ago; neat store, I like.

Just a little peek into life… and I’m sure the NSA is minding all my credit card transactions and wondering something. 🙂

2013-08-28 training log

/ hsoi

Suck.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 23, week 1

  • Work Set – Bench Press (working max: 230#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x95
    • 1x5x110
    • 1x3x135
    • 1x5x145 (work)
    • 1x5x165
    • 1x8x190
  • Assistance – DB Incline Press
    • 4 x 10/10/8/5 x 55
  • Assistance – Pull-ups (superset between each pressing set)
    • 9 x 4 x BW (band-assisted)

Yesterday, after returning home from the day job office, something job-wise came down that ticked me off. It was pretty bad. I only slept about 3 hours. It’s still on my mind, bothering me greatly. Needless to say, my gym time was affected. It gave me a lot of drive… tho it was an angry drive. Some level of aggression is good, but not this sort. I did hit the weights hard, very powerful, very explosive, but I worked myself up… in the bad way. My rest periods weren’t their usual length… and then, during the 4th set of DB presses, when I used my legs/toes to “pop” the DB’s up to my shoulders, my left calf cramped up BAD. This happens to me every now and again, but this was pretty bad. Usually they fade quickly, so I kept going, but after the 5th rep it was just too painful. I threw the DB’s down and just sat there for a few minutes in pain while I tried to get my calf muscles to relax. When they finally did, I started walking around a little bit, trying to relax and stretch them out, then got dizzy and nauseous. This wasn’t good, and I just ended the session. My body is telling me to stop before I really hurt myself.

I can feel it. My shoulders do hurt because I wasn’t using any form… just powering through everything, trying to release some of my anger. My calf is still tight and sore as I type this.

So, it was what it was.

On the good side tho I can say that there’s something to take from the aggressiveness and being more explosive. Yeah, who knows… maybe part-2 of this “6 week cycle” will try adding in the more dynamic work. I guess if I can take something positive from this shit-tacular start to my day, then not all is lost.

Point, Counterpoint, but a good points

/ hsoi

I’m sure the CrossFit world is in a tizzy over Mark Rippetoe’s latest:

For casual exercisers, CrossFit-types and the like, the calculation is a bit different. The vomit I see on the internet – complete lumbar flexion, everything pressed out, everything intentionally rebounded from the floor, all done under the watchful eye of some moron saying “Nice!” – makes me of two minds.

Part of me hopes the fools hurt themselves badly (after all, orthopedic surgeons gotta eat too), and part of me hopes their incompetent, stupid-ass coaches all die in a great Job-like mass of infection (boils, abscessed hemorrhoids, lungs full of fluid, etc.).

It’s both an embarrassment to watch and a testament to the fact that apparently tens of thousands of people don’t know what the fuck they are doing, and have no apparent desire to learn.

But before you get too upset, consider Paul Carter’s recent comments. I don’t know if these are directly in response to Rip’s statements, but the timing was good:

Ok, I can’t stand the crossfit hate. I can’t. I’m so tired of seeing people bitch about it.

Crossfit has tons and tons and eons of women that ended up with hot asses from it. That alone means it has value. Lots of value. An overwhelming amount of value. Value for days. DAT VALUE!

Ok, that’s all. I think this Monster kicked in.

🙂

Frankly, they’re both right. And I think it’s worth looking deeper at Rip’s commentary before getting too upset about it.

But the real question here is this: what do you hope to accomplish by doing high-rep snatches, done either correctly or incorrectly? And in either case, is there a better alternative, and why?

His point is one of “why are you doing what you are doing”? What are you hoping to accomplish?

If you are just trying to exercise, fine. For most people, that’s enough. Part of the reason I quit studying Kuk Sool was because it was not taking me towards what I wanted to accomplish (self-defense). But I cannot deny the camaraderie/family was wonderful, nor that it helped me really get in good shape; my physical conditioning was the best it ever was. If you want social aspects, if you want just general better health, sure this is great stuff and thus good for a number of people. But if you want to know better self-defense, try something else.

So it really comes down to what do you want. Why are you doing what you are doing.

If you want a hot ass, then by all means keep CrossFitting. 🙂

If you want to get strong, if you want to get conditioned, Rip’s point is there are better means to accomplish that end.

I follow a Facebook page called “Awkward Gym Moments“. There’s often video posted of people performing activities at the gym that just make you wonder what they are doing. Some of these people are great, because they know what they are doing and don’t care what you think. But certainly there are enough activities going on that do make you scratch your head and wonder what’s going on. It makes you wonder, what are you trying to accomplish? What is your goal, and how is this going to get you there? It doesn’t have to be obvious to the dude surreptitiously videoing you, just so long as you are actually doing something positive towards accomplishing your goals.

This isn’t to put anything nor anyone down. This is about ensuring you have a goal and are working to meet it.