Q&A from Pek Pongpaet : (Radien and others from Mortal Kombat)
Webdeveloper by day, martial art’s major by night. Recently got an opportunity to ask him some (fun, laid back) questions! :
me: Does your martial arts ever collide negatively with your web developing? I find it hard myself to skew away from web developing as a hobby on the side after doing it as a job all day so I can tinker around. Like you, I’m a RIA fanatic (Flash though, not flex).
Pek: I’m an RIA dude myself. I find that the martial arts clears my mind after a stressful day at work which allows me to pursue web development as a hobby in the evenings after the martial arts. If I just went straight from my day job to coding back at home, I think I’d be pretty stressed out. The martial arts does a reboot if you know what I mean.
Me: That’s really awesome to hear. I find it ironic as my earlier years were coming home from school and playing Mortal Kombat before doing homework. Have you had any other involvements recently in the video game market? Do your co-workers tell you that you’ve done a fatality when a project is completed before a deadline?
Pek: I’ve been trying to get them to send me to E3 for years. The idea would be to have the people who actually do the moves get in costume and “do the moves” instead of having really buff models with no martial arts background parade around in costume.
The only involvement in the video game market other than this was another fighting game which has yet to see the light of day. I also made a Flash based Space Invaders to teach kids how to type – back in the day.
My martial arts exp comes in handy every time they want to do a company video. Invariably, someone always asks me to kick someone’s butt.
Me: I could see the discussed company to client conference room meeting now : “…This application in particular is excellent because, well, we have freakin’ RADIEN coding our apps”. * This is the part where you bust into the room, doing a torpedo across the conference table * I’d imagine those conversations however would get quite old.
But what made you get into the web developing scene from doing martial arts? I read before you were a java dev / certified microsoft SQL dude…or something?
Random but, from a RIA dev to RIA dev : How stoked are you about Flash CS5’s iPhone publishing functionality?
I don’t understand why you, of all people can’t get down to E3 to promote the series…almost doesn’t make sense other than those buff dudes touting their beach muscle. I would however argue, like you said, YOU actually DOING some of the moves would be far more impressive. Maybe even setting up a mini-stage so you have room or something. I can personally attest to actually wanting to see the moves done rather than some buff dude who just is there because he’s buff. I hope that makes sense.
Pek: It’s funny you mention that, but some of the biz dev guys get a kick out of showing my youtube vids to clients. “Check out this guy who’ll be working on your project…”
Martial Arts is and always will be a lifestyle hobby if you know what I mean. It just won’t feed me the way a day job working at a company would. However I would like to be able to do in and be involved in the community for the rest of my life if possible.
Yeah I was an MCSD and MCDBA in a past life, but I don’t touch MSFT stuff with a 10ft pole now.
I was at Adobe MAX and yes I’m stoked about CS5’s iPhone capabilities. Looking forward to it.
I don’t understand why or how these decisions get made, but I hope to be able to go down to E3 and do some stuff before I get too old. If I was an MK fan, I think I’d rather see and meet the guys who do the moves rather than a hired talent who’s going to get into costume just for that show and go on to do something else. So yes, I agree with you.
Thanks Pek for the laid back fun Q&A!