Intro... and I thought for a while what to put here about me. :) What do you wanna know? I am just a simple guy working in an IT Company handling Operations and Project Management. I'm also going through a torturous 16 months "express" double degree course at Kaplan APMI - Murdoch University. In this blog, you will basically find alot of nonsense from me. I like to complain and yes I complain alot but for things that are not right. If you know me well enough then you will know that I always complain for a reason :D otherwise I am just like any quiet guy next door starring at the laptop screen. This blog details my daily experiences as well as my training for my runs. I have taken an interest in running since last year and I am working towards completing a Marathon this year... Do feel free to comment or message me I will definitely reply and if you need to email me, feel free to drop your emails to terencetkp@gmail.com!     >> AH HUH! >> work? taking a toll on me .. >> long time no post hor! >> Lots of Fun in My Life but why is it back again? >> Part 2: Exams Results and Nike Human Race >> Part 1 of a Long Waited Entry: Singapore Bay Run a... >> its tough being a trainer >> Random Thoughts.. >> finally its over! >> Long Post Part 2!   >> November 2007 >> December 2007 >> January 2008 >> February 2008 >> March 2008 >> April 2008 >> May 2008 >> June 2008 >> July 2008 >> August 2008 >> September 2008 >> October 2008   >> SG Runners >> May My Run >> Bad Guys Win	Tuesday, April 29, 2008 //Start of a new Trimester soon went for a run today... completed the run in 46mins... yeah 4 minutes of improvement.. but think I won't have the time soon to run at this kinda pace at this kinda time.. Nowadays I have been going running at 6 plus to Pasir Ris and back but once I am back at work and school, it will be hard for me to go running for that distance... one of the reason being that the Pasir Ris Park Connector is extremely dark at night... so dark sometimes you can't see the roads clearly so its not advisable to run there at night.. similar to bedok reservoir.. later got those kinda dirty stuffs.. hee hee.. Anyway school's gonna start again on Monday. For this trimester, I am taking two units - Knowledge and Information Security and Software Architecture... but yeah for next trimester its gonna be alittle bit different now with the adoption of the deferment strategies by my class mates. We started BIS with a total cohort of 12 persons and it eventually dropped to 2 after 2 of my classmates deferred and switched course. Smart Move I must say... but for me I was hanging in there to complete the first trimester. Managed to complete it with lots of administrative problems though... but yeah not worth mentioning them in this post again and at that time the class size was already pretty small.. I still remembered one of the lecture had only 4 of us.. Then the second trimester came and this time round.. ahh more people cos most of them did not have anymore exemptions.. so yeah.. sounds cool.. but eventually the class size became small again when people stopped attending lectures and etc... and now trimester 3..most of my class mates are deferring the subject Knowledge and Information Security.. and its left with 3 to 4 of us for that class. I would very much like to defer with the rest but it would be pointless because I felt that 2 units should be manageable but not 3. As for the other unit Software Architecture... most of them will be taking so I will see be seeing them at least once a week ba.. but sign.. gonna miss their presense... no one to complain about Knowledge and Information Security with.. no one to chiong assignments with... :( I can say I am pretty close to most of my class mates and we all clicked pretty well maybe because its a small group of us. We even had a few outings already and it was quite funny and fun. Looking forward to something different in trimester 2... and hope all my class mates will persevere as we go through this compact and tough course together till the end. Its another very warm day... sigh I feel like bathing again. :( posted by Terence @ 10:04 PM| comments? (0)   //Examinations Saga: Kaplan APMI vs Murdoch BIS1 This is one of the most interesting post. Its titled the Examinations Saga... Kaplan APMI vs Murdoch BIS1 http://badguyswin.blogspot.com/2008/03/examination-dates-saga.html posted by Terence @ 12:07 AM| comments? (0)   Monday, April 28, 2008 //Additional Post - Service Standards? After speaking to my class mate about something.. I can't help but to blog about this. Although I can't say that I practice an excellent service standard to my own customers but I will try my very best to look into their problems and to acknowledge that they are important to me. However, it doesn't seems to be the case for my dear school.. especially with the service standard that was promised, I have yet to see it coming. We are already half way through the course and what I have experienced so far from the school is only lots and lots of unhappiness. If you promise a service standard of replying within 24 hours upon reciept of our emails.. then JOLLY WELL MAKE SURE YOUR PRACTICE IT. You don't talk one thing and do another thing. Its really very sad to see that our emails are being ignored. I don't care what's your replies gonna be like but at least acknowledged that you have received our emails and is looking into it.... not leaving it as it is and not bothering to reply us. THIS IS NOT THE SERVICE STANDARD THAT WAS PROMISED TO US. For the first trimester, we had a feedback session with our program manager and his boss and we have already highlighted this issue. She promised us that it won't happen and that they will acknowledge their emails.. but HELLO THIS IS ALREADY THE START OF THE 3RD TRIMESTER and why is it still happening? What's the point of making us providing feedbacks when the feedback are not properly looked into? I may be wrong complaining now because my program manager may be busy with her work.. but I am afterall still your STUDENT and it is your responsibility to look into my NEEDS as my MANAGER.. regardless of class size. I still remember specifically that there's a question on the survey form that states something like "Our staff replies your email within 24hours". I guess that's bull shit.. and how can I give you my honest opinion when its not happening? Ever since the Class room and power plugs saga and our dear program manager missing in action... people seems to look at us from a different point of view each time i step into that bloody school. I get that look from their administrative staffs.. their program managers that makes me feel very very uncomfortable.. its like "oh shit oh shit its those complain kings again.. lets siam.." but hey think about it.. if you have done what you are supposed to do and deliver your promise... will I complain? or should I say.. WILL THE WHOLE CLASS COMPLAIN? I doubt so. The school is pretty reputable.. in the heart of the town area.. supported numerous tv programs.. and has made a reasonable name for itself as one that offers the best education... but how can I concentrate on my education when such things are occuring? All these service standards were promised during the "sales talk", orientation and introduction but what have I gotten so far? The environment is nice.. everything looks nice.. but yeah.. its just some gimmick to make you think that the school is damn good.. (see people like me got such a good impression of the school that I signed up for it..) After our initial feedback session.. things seems to improve "a little" but somehow it all gotten worst again when we were told that there were last minute changes made to our examinations dates and we will be taking two papers in the same day.. TWO OK! How can that be possible for a PART TIME student like me who is like doing a FULL TIME Student Work Load? Worst was when I called the boss of my program manager.. i got this pushy feeling and my class mate even got a rude reply from her. Yes we may be complaining alot but will all these complains and issues takes place if the school and its management had put in some effort to ensure that we are able to study in peace without worries? Sadly for the past two trimester, I have yet to study in peace... Sigh I shall end my post with a comment I saw from stomp on someone complaining about Nokia. The same thing happened to my best friend as well... "N relating to the article in Straits Times the other day... do we complain or whine? It is not that we DUN WAN TO COMPLAIN... just see what happened when we try to provide 'POSITIVE FEEDBACK'???? It turns to a DEAF EAR.... simply cannot be bothered... and guess with their service delivery process, which we can only evaluate at the end of purchases or using it, Nokia has certainly directed us to other make of mobile phones. All I wanted a SIMPLE appology and reason why the delievery of my phone was not as at wat it had been communicated.... I GOT NOTHING OUT OF IT... yet all I got is ... NOKIA is very BIG... I dunno.... u got ur phone back and so what do u wan now? And I give u a MISERABLE one month extended warranty... though the letter sae 6months....... " http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/singaporeseen/viewContent.jsp?id=18073 posted by Terence @ 11:32 PM| comments? (0)   //Feedback Session Sunday was spent having a feedback and discussion session with the Associate Dean from my university. Didn't know that he was coming to Singapore till one of my class mates saw a notice on his schedule and thus I quickly arranged for one after a brief discussion with my class mates. Went through the proper channel of asking my program manager to liase with him on the meet up but apparently she said that she can only arrange for something that is between 6pm to 7pm. How is that possible for my other class mates who are working? I then emailed him personally to ask and yeah he replied that he would like to see us on a Sunday.. and thus the few of us went down to his hotel to meet up with him. It was quite a valuable session i must say... reason being that most of our concerns finally get highlighted to him. Seems that things that we have feedbacked to the school never gets across to the university at all. Perhaps some filtering was done and this wasn't really good. Through the feedback we also knew quite alot of things that.. hmm.. some party doesnt want us to know.. but whatever it is.. it was great to have our concerns highlighted. With this feedback came the option of a deferment of one of the subjects. Our course runs in a trimester basis and thus it consists of 3 subjects in 12 weeks. Last trimester was pretty bad as the course work was just too much to handle.. and at times i really just felt like giving up... and thus the idea of deferment came about and some of my class mates are thinking of deferring one or two of the subjects. For my case I am not really affected because I am exempted from one of the subjects and will only be doing two units for the next trimester but for the rest they have three to go or four for some and so deferment is an ideal choice. Whether what to defer and how many to defer, I felt that that will be an individual case to case basis.... of how well he think he can handle. Its afterall just a university degree program... we shouldn't it affect our personal lives too much as well. As for today I had spent the whole afternoon checking email and evening going out to Ikea with my boss as he would like to get new furniture for the office... so yeah one day leave was spent.. doing all these... oh plus swimming as well.. I went for a swim and I am now really very pink and roasted.. :D Soon I will be tanned HAHA I hope! But the problem with the rashes is really getting on my nerves. I wonder how long I can tahan though. Am considering seeing a Poly Clinic doctor if there's a need to get a referral to NSC. Alright that should be all for today. Feeling kinda tired + hot... weather is just too crazy in singapore! posted by Terence @ 11:01 PM| comments? (0)   Saturday, April 26, 2008 //Gan Bei! 3.48am... I should be sleeping but ahh I'm still wide awake. Just came home from Movie + Dinner + Soya Beancurd with my class mates.. Was a very funny and relaxing one... especially Lian Ping.. pretty entertaining and random I must say.. After one week of piaing for my examinations.. guess its time to take a break. We went to watch Forbidden Kingdom... something that was due like last week but didn't have a chance. However that show isn't as good as I had expected it to be. Was listening to 933 and those people were like saying how nice it was.. but I find it pretty crappy.. because of the English Chinese thingy... Sun Wukong speaking in English.. and How the Jade Emperor and Empress flew backwards was just a joke to me... and of course that Ang Moh (Jason) telling Jackie Chan that he can't understand what he was saying and Jackie Chan replied back in ENGLISH "That's because you're listening!". Anyway for fans of Jackie Chan or Jet Li.. maybe you should still watch it to give your idol the support that they need. By the way, I just did another crazy thing.. I signed up for the Milk Run 2008 (http://www.milkrun.sg) for the 9.4km Competitors run. This is gonna be my second run for this year. The next one I am looking at participating is the Singapore Bay Run (http://www.safra.sg/singapore_bay_run.aspx?pageid=1433) and am thinking of attempting the 21km one.. that's my goal actually and I most definitely will sign up for it like tomorrow. The other race that I had already signed up was the Singapore Passion Run (www.singaporepassionrun.com). That's a 10km race though there's a 15km one available.. I thought its better to start off small first :). Anyway for those who are interested, I suggest you visiting www.sgrunners.com. It's one of the best running sites in Singapore that has most of the race and training information you need.. plus the people there are nice and friendly too! Alright so what's my agenda for the next few days? Tomorrow will be a spring cleaning day followed by some application conceptualization... and office email clearing day... On sunday I will be meeting the associate dean from my university to feedback about the current workload and stuffs... as for the other days I shall update accordingly again. Lastly.. the rashes is back.. as expected in the months of April and May... gosh I hope they will go away soon! Alright.. that should be all for now. posted by Terence @ 3:48 AM| comments? (0)   Tuesday, April 1, 2008 //new bag! Guess What! I was about to pen my updates for today when I saw a disgusting email coming in from XXXX Client... OMFG WHY U SO LATE HAVEN SLEEP! *SCARY*! Anyway ok back to normal.. I have been feeling tired for the past few days... was practically trying to chiong my research paper and managed to complete it yesterday at around 9pm plus... then continues a 2nd round of critique reading / writing for Strategic Sourcing.. so imagine for the past 48 hours yesterday... 85% of the time was spent sitting infront of the laptop typing and finding references. Slept only at 5am yesterday and woke up like 7.45am to rush to work (cos I on duty today). Then during lunch I have to rush finish the critique for Strategic Sourcing.. and by then I was already half-dead le. and also not forgetting on Saturday I did a 9km run to Pasir Ris - Loyang and just now a few hours ago I did a 5.2km run around tampines.. :P Jason wanted to go to Centrepoint to see something so asked if I wanna go with him and so I said ok. I know I still have two upcoming assignments to do but heng i went for the trip.. cos I saw this Levis Bag that I fell in love with at first sight :P (ok someone said to me in an sms that last month I said I must save and not spend le.. and yes yes i know but i really like the bag and its like 50% cheaper than the crumpler bag! :P) Now I'm in the midst of trying to do up a report for management meeting.. and then have a proposal to do for a customer before can spare some time to read through the project requirements for ICT 310 Operating Systems. Looks like I had underestimated this semester... its really so much tougher than last...and once again I duno I'm sway or what... I always have project launches that clash with my examinations! I still have two UAT papers to do by this week and two reviews to conduct for my customers and whole lot of stuffs to follow up on.. and what? FTP Project? zzzz why do I have to torture myself so much yar? posted by Terence @ 1:07 AM| comments? (0)