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, June 24, 2008 //finally there's a closure.. I told myself that I have to blog before 12 midnight today. Its to mark a final closure in a saga that has recently happened. No one gonna know what I am talking about because I did not told anyone, not even my best friend of 8 years what happened. Life has its ups and down and I'm currently at the down side of my life, having the difficulties to manage alot alot alot of things at work. I spoke to someone I respected today and he said that I am holding on too tight to almost everything and wanting to get everything done perfectly. He said I should learn to let go alittle.. and so I listened. He was absolutely right. I am holding on to too many things myself. I need to let something go to gain something else. I'm tired for today. Both mentally and physically. posted by Terence @ 11:30 PM| comments? (0)   //time management / f*cking pissed off / 6km Simei Run There are three parts to my blog entry today. I should start off with work and school work. I realised that its all about time management and for this trimester, I'd failed to manage my time properly. Blame it all on the lousy arrangement of lecturers? Maybe but not quite. I guess its about my own time management. Everything seems to clash with one another. It was good news that my company has managed to split up with our "parent" company. Its a reason to celebrate as we found our own "key", our very own freedom but in a sense, it also meant that we're going be independent on our own; no more Accounts and Administrative Support and being the manager of the newly set up BPO department, I have been tasked to over see the handling and taking over of all Accounts and HR matters from my ex parent company. I'm certainly more than happy to take up this challenge (partly because I have been involved in Admin ever since I was a clerk in SAF) but with a deadline like the end of this month, everything just seems to be in a rushed. I'm rushing like a mad dog trying to take over all the administrative files, HR policies and to understand the support and to question all my existing administrative staffs before the official deadline cuts off on the 30th of June 2008. At the same time, I have another role to play and that's Project Management for a few projects. One of it is having a User Acceptance Test this week and I am supposed to be stationed at my clients place from Wednesday to Friday for 3 full days of training with different groups of users and I am rushing my ass of to do up the training manual for the UAT. At the same time, I have the payroll and HR matters to worry about and my boss has just asked me for help to do up a small program for a customer. Its already driving me crazy and I find it hard to manage. I'm not sure what I have to do first and what to prioritise... and then there's the school work for ICT 265 Knowledge and Information Security. Last week there's a deadline for submission of Research Assignment 3 and as of today I have yet to start on it and there's already another submission due this Wednesday for Research Assignment 4! Not forgetting, there's also ICT 306 Software Architecture's Assignment 1 that has been pushed to this week due to the replacement of Malar with Dr Loo. Everything just seems to pack together without giving me any space to breathe.. (yes except my runs but the runs are meant to let me distress). I'm seriously starting to doubt if I'm really good at managing my own time. What have I been doing? Why is there so much work piled up for me to work on? Why can't I accomplish the tasks on time? I even went to the extend of writing an email to my lecturer in Australia for advice and what I had gotten back from him wasn't really very nice. I tried to explain my situation to him. If I had the choice I would really want to complete all my assignments on time! but right now I don't really have the chance to do so! and he told me that I can't use my work as an excuse. I'm not, I'm trying to explain my situation and if its not bad enough, the assignments are really time consuming. It's not that easy to locate articles in the Australian Context but of course, I don't have a right to argue my way back. I'm still a student afterall and all I can do is to deprive myself of some sleep, stay in office for lunch and try my best to work my ass off for all the outstanding things I have to do. (You must be wondering now.. wah u still got time to blog? Yes I want to blog because I need to vent my frustrations.) Secondly, I am extremely pissed off with a person. I am f*cking pissed off and I have never been so pissed off with anyone for this year. Stop taking me for granted. I have done all I could and I don't think I deserve this kind of fucking treatment from you. I'm an adult now and I want to settle things the matured way and so appreciate that you can follow suit. I'm pissed and I'm upset. It's hard to show it out and tell anyone about it but I'm seriously not feeling good. Lastly, due to my frustrations, I went for a run. It was a run from Tampines to Simei stretching a total of 6km. At the beginning of the run, I encountered abit of stiching problem but I slowed down and eventually got rid of it. I continued running and managed to finish the whole distance in 36 minutes. Though tired, I felt better after the run. Not so pissed but still pissed. Anyway here's the running route: That should be all for tonite. Time to work on the assignments. :( posted by Terence @ 12:19 AM| comments? (0)   Monday, June 23, 2008 //Eat + Shop, Eat + Shop Yes I was supposed to do my work after completing the earlier blog entry.. but I didn't. Instead I brought my mum out for a meal at Crystal Jade Restaurant. Afterwhich, we went to Tampines Mall to walk around. She had wanted to buy some clothes for herself so that she can wear them for my sis-in-law's sister's wedding dinner.. but we ended up going to Fox Kids to buy clothes for Nikki and Miko.. then we went to Century Square but she found nothing there as well. We then took a bus to Ikea Tampines where I bought the office trays and a cushion for me to put on my chair. We then cross over to Giant next to look for my office supplies but sadly.. Though Giant is Gigantic.. it was pretty much of a disappointment when it comes to stationary suppliers. Didn't get much except some tibits for Miko to eat... and after which we waited for a cab to go home. I was pretty exhausted today but I told myself that I have to go out for a run and thus I left home around 9.45pm for a run. I tried a new route and basically its like a 9km route which I completed in 53minutes.. not bad le.. I had to slow down towards the last 1 - 2 km cos I was feeling abit strange and I didn't dare to push myself.. else I would have continued running till I hit 60minutes. Anyway the route is as follows: That should be all for tonite.. pretty thirsty and tired. Will slack awhile and will sleep le. Feels like a sad night when I was eating crab earlier on but never mind.. posted by Terence @ 12:45 AM| comments? (0)   Sunday, June 22, 2008 //new look + new beginning finally I have completed the changes and updates to my blog. It now has a brand new look and so a fresh new beginning for a new chapter in my life. :) 11th June marks a special date in my life as I have done something that I thought I would have never be able to accomplish.. but yes I have finally done it and I have let everything go. Though sad.. Though it seems to be something missing from my life, I guess it was time to move on and begin a new chapter in my life. It's ok that you don't understand what I am talking about as I have never told anyone about this thing before as well. Only a few close friends knew but then again its ok. That's just life. With this new update in my blog, it marks a new and fresh beginning in my life. I will be busy with work and studies as well as my training for my upcoming runs. I have set a goal for myself and that is to complete the 42.195km Marathon at the end of this year. I believe I can as long as I put in effort to train for it. Nothing is impossible, it's just us that makes it impossible. I have been busy with work lately that I don't even have the time to work on my school assignments. As my company has just recently splitted up from my Parent company, there are alot of operations issues such as HR and Accounts that requires me to take over and yes I'm in the midst of handling payroll now as well. Though there may seems to be alot of work, I believe once I streamline all the processes, everything will gradually improve. Don't forget, I was once a SAF Clerk handling dockets, in-processing, out-processing for close to 10 batches of recruits and thus I know I will slowly LIKE what I am doing now. :P I won't keep this post to long as I still have alot of things to do today. I hope I can accomplish everything soon! "Running is a lot like life. Only 10 percent of it is exciting. 90 percent of it is slog and drudge." posted by Terence @ 1:27 PM| comments? (0)   Tuesday, June 10, 2008 //Updates in Progress I am in the midst of doing up a new blog skin for the blog. The layout should be the same but I will be adopting a new theme all together and that explains the late night sleeping for today. I will be updating my training progress for my upcoming runs once I am done with the blog. Stay tuned! posted by Terence @ 2:38 AM| comments? (0)   Monday, June 9, 2008 //All Cleared to go! I have been lazy. Over the weekends I had wanted to redo my blog skin with something new.. but till today I have yet to come up with anything! Gosh! *slaps myself* I noticed that my last blog was like two weeks back and yeah I have been busy with work + studies. The research work required for Knowledge and Information Security is taking up too much of my time. Although its stated on the Unit Guide that I will require 3 hours every week to work on it.. I'm like spending 48 hours (2 days) to complete it. Anyway I'd wrote a very long email on behalf of the class to Mr Danny to report on Ms Malar's teaching style. I guess her style is not meant for Degree Program like ours. Its more like a Secondary School and Diploma kinda style. I won't talk so much about it as my class mate Jia Khang has already summarised everything in this entry: http://badguyswin.blogspot.com/2008/06/not-attending-classes-is-actually.html So after reading my email and Jia Khang's blog, I think the school has realized that there is a serious problem with her mode of teaching and they are now putting on hold the submission of assignments and to push back the examinations for Software Architecture. Hurray one less subject for now! They are also looking at changing the lecturer to our 5 Star Lecturer! Yeah! :P Besides that, I was busy with work lo. Have quite alot of things to coordinate and so yeah stayed late and stuffs in office to get them completed. On Friday, I went for a half day as I had a medical appointment at CGH Sports Clinic. Actually, I have made that appointment for me to attend the CGH Weight Loss Management Program. My existing doctor at CGH wrote me a referral and yeah so I made an appointment and went for it. Just a little history, prior to my runs.. I have weighed closed to 79 - 80 kg last year in September 2007.. but however as of present weight, I am 63, which means I have lost a total of 15 to 16kgs in a period of 6 months and my BMI is at 21.1. That's quite a achievement for me and some people might be thinking.. why the hell is he attending the weight loss program? The reason I had was for me to learn the right way of lossing weight (and maintaining it) without causing any harm or damage to my body. So I went for the appointment and the Dr was pretty shocked that I am sitting in the room. When she saw me outside the clinic, she thought I was there for sports related injury treatment but she didn't know I was there for the weight loss program. After speaking to her, she said I had exceeded the goals that the Weight Loss Center has set for its patients and said that I'm not suitable for the program. However after I told her that the reason why I want to go for the program was to allow myself to learn the right way of lossing weight and to eat right.. she said she can direct me for a consultation with the Dietician without going for the full program. (Save $$$) :P. She also said that I'm fine to go for my runs as long as I have taken my medication prior to my runs and so I'm all cleared to run AHM and I was discharged from the clinic on that day. I then met up with the Dietician who I gave a summary of what I have been eating for my breakfast, lunch and dinner. She said I needed a total of 1600 calories a day but from what I have been eating, I am only getting 1400 calories and so its still good. She then guided me on the right kind of food and gave me a meal plan that I can follow. I am gonna document it down here so that I will remember them. On a weekly basis: For my Breakfast, I can have - Weet Honey Crunch, Fruits Mix with Milk for 2 days - Tuna in Water, Mix with Low Fat Mayo and Celery for 3 days - Mee Fen from Hawker with Vegetables for 2 days - Coffee-o or teh-o, not good to drink normal coffee For my Lunch, I can have - My usual Porridge but can ask for Chicken or Fish Porridge instead of Pork Porridge - Cai Fun Porridge with Two Vegetables and One Meat - Mee Fen Soup or Yong Tau Hu Soup but don't drink the soup cos its high in Sodium. - 1 to 2 Slices of Fruits or Fruit Juice For my Dinner, I can have - Subway, Oven Toasted Chicken or Turkey Breast. My choices of Honey Mustard and Sweet Onion is fine as sauces. No Cheese and No Pickles as they are high in Sodium. - Abit of Rice with Fish Soup or Mee Fen Soup. For Fried Stuffs, generally I can limit myself to one to two times a week. I must also be taking more fruits and cereals that are high in fibre as I'm lack of those. And also because of my existing medical condition, I shouldn't be taking food that has a lot of sodium content, and thus no presevered vegetables and food like sour plum (OMG). I was also given a guide book on all the hawker food with their calories intake. :P Will be bringing it along with me everywhere I go. Generally my daily intake is ok as long as I know how to control myself, so I felt happy with the appointment as the money was well spent. I got to know the dos and donts. Ok Lastly I know this entry is pretty long winded but haha do bear with me. Last week I went for a 10km run around Tampines and Pasir Ris and I clocked in a timing of 57mins. It was quite an achievement for me as I have not been running two weeks before due to the bad cough that I am having. In actual fact, I am still having a little bit of the cough though (cough cough). Today I attended my first ever competitive run after so long. I registered for the Saucony Passion Run 2008 as my first race for this year. I have never participated in runs before and during my life in the army, I was always excused (cos I am PES E) from runs and so I never had the chance and yeah at that point of time, I wasn't so interested in running. Anyway I woke up early at 5am today to prepare myself for the run. Changed and etc and left home like 6am and reached the venue like 6.30am. The first wave of runners for 15km starts at that time. My run starts at 7.30am as I am on the 10km run and so I was there too early (Lesson Learnt). I deposited my bag and was initially wearing my nike top but decided to change to the event running top. Went by to the SgRunners booth to say hilo. Though I'm not sure who I was supposed to approach.. I managed to talk to Renoh and Ripley and a smile to FD. I then proceeded to one corner to do my warm up and shortly after, the MCs started calling out for people running in my wave. In the count of 3, 2, 1.. my first ever competitive run has begun. I slowly tried to use those people infront of me as pace setters and to tell myself to push hard and to overtake them if possible. Soon I saw 2km.. and I was like wth.. I run so long still 2km only? I felt demoralised but continued to push myself and then I saw the 5km mark and my watch was showing me a timing of 33-34minutes.. I was like how can that be? My usual runs of 5.2km clocked in at 28 minutes but never mind I persevered on and took a sip of water from one of the water point before continuing. Throughout the 10km run, I didn't stop at all and was pushing myself pretty hard and I could eventually see the end point but omg.. I have to run pass the end point to do another U-Turn and so I felt demoralised again as I had used up my maximum energy to dash for the end point :P. At the end of the run, I clocked in at 1hr 6mins. I collected my goodie bag and medal and headed for the SgRunners booth to continue to know more people. :). I waited for the event to be over before walking to the busstop to take a bus to Marine Parade. Dropped by the hawker to get some food for mum and her favourite tau kwa pok before taking a cab home. Slept till 5pm to eat some food and surf the SgRunners forum to realise that the actual distance covered was closed to 12km.. so HAHA I'm happy with my timing. Ok that should be all for today. I ought to sleep. Its a start of a new week and I have yet to check my emails for work since Friday. xD posted by Terence @ 12:44 AM| comments? (6)