Another book for the year~!

When one puts in effort and stay committed to a certain task, there is really a lot that one can achieve.
I may not be doing so well in the learning aspect of my life in building up app development skills, but I have been consistently reading up on nonfictional books.

Here's the latest one that I have finished!

by Tim Harford

As per the title suggests, it lets the reader understands about how the principles of economics play out in the things around us. It allows me to appreciate more on the effects that one party has on the entire system which are inter-connected, within and between industries and countries. The world is a complex one, but the theories of economics can help us to understand this complexity a bit better to foretell the consequences or benefits of certain course of actions.

It emphasizes greatly that the world works best in a free trade market as it allows humans to freely communicate and convey information which will work out in a win-win situation. Yet, there are certain restrictions that have to be in place that prohibit a completely free trade situation.

The book also helps me to understand a bit on why Mao's idealistic country didn't come through, and how Deng managed to push China's economy (and probably save millions of people from starving) into greater heights. I'm sure Dearest would appreciate that I have some knowledge of China's history, because she's so passionate about them. haha...

Another small accomplishment

because of work, for the past 2 - 3 weeks I didn't work on my Java learning skills to allow me to rest while I was travelling on train. So I took up reading as a habit, and within a week, I finished another book!

This time, it was "David and Goliath" by Malcolm Gladwell.

The main gist of the book was to ask people to critically assess whether an obvious advantage or disadvantage, is really what it is thought to be.

Small accomplishment!

I just finished reading the following book~!

But what's the big deal with finishing a book?
Isn't there a lot of people who reads book?

Well, for me, it's a tough habit to keep at.
Reading usually makes me fall asleep faster than anything.
It's a surprise I managed to go through hundreds of pages of psychology textbooks by riding on my adrenaline.

So, first book completed ever since I started this blog!
Small celebration. Yeah!

This book was meant to give me insights on how to focus in my everyday life.
But instead, I got more from it.
It talks attention in the psychological and biological aspects, about being mindful, what does a leader needs, about looking at the bigger picture such as global and futuristic issues.
I'm not so good in giving a book review, but it's not bad.

Making time for those who matters

Even when I'm caught up with work, and have been doing OT for the past few work days... I would still make time for my family. Especially when today's my sister's birthday, and it would be the first time her partner and my partner gather around a table to have a private dinner.

I like that I put them on my priority list.
And I'm glad that my Dearest put them on her priority list as well. =)

It's just a gentle note to self.

Make time for those who matters...

Here's a video that I saw on Facebook which I found quite apt for this day.

Who would you most like to have dinner with? The answers from these kids had me tearing up!From Masterfoods in Australia....
Posted by Marcus Leshock on Thursday, February 18, 2016

Spartan Race - Aftermath

The past week has been rather busy with troubleshooting my desktop, and therefore I wasn't able to take time out to write out this post.
So even though I'm a bit tired, I felt like finishing up this post tonight before I rest for the week ahead of me.

Last Tuesday, I took leave to go to Sim Lim Square to do a diagnosis on the desktop from a very nice guy called Nigel (owner of PC Care & Solutions) who managed to drill down my issue to the Motherboard or Power Supply Unit (PSU) in a matter of minutes.
So if you're having problems with your desktop, can probably visit him for help.
Best of all, he did it for free~!

Apart from dealing with the desktop, I have also been resting my tired body from the... SPARTAN RACE!!!
Yes! I have conquered the Spartan Race on 15 Nov 2015!

AROO~! AROO~! AROO~!

It was quite a challenging and fun race for me. My timing was 1:34:17, could do better.
Was resting quite a lot and making myself comfortable before each obstacle. haha...
To note down this rather memorable achievement, below are 3 aspects of the race that I felt made it challenging for me.

1) The LONG run...

I'm not a strong runner, so long distance running is a bit tough for me.

Seeing that it was a Spartan Race Sprint, of which the description on the website said it would be a 3+ mile run with obstacles, I thought the race would be around 5 km only (3 miles = 4.8 km).

What I didn't expect was when I ran past the board which said "6 KM", and I'm still nowhere near the finishing line. -_-"

During the run from Nicoll highway to the floating platform, I kept asking myself... "Where the HELL is that turn-around point?!#$^*&"

In the end, I estimated the total distance to be around 7 km, which is something I didn't really train for. 

On hindsight, 3+ mile oculd also mean 3.9 miles (which is 6.8 km).

Next time I should probably train towards the upper limit, instead of just being optimistic.

2) Monkey Bars

Monkey bars is something I'm used to playing back in primary school days, and also when I was in the army.

Overcoming the Monkey bars back then wasn't that challenging, even with full uniform, helmet, webbing, magazine, boots, and a SAR21 rifle on my back.

But in this race, in just my running attire, I actually failed. 

Here's the actual depiction of what the Monkey bars station was like during the race.

It wasn't just 'bars'; it was a lot more than that!
The set-up wasn't the conventional type that I used to have in army.
It consisted of bars that are not stationary, rings, and hanging ropes with a knot at the end.
And worst of all, as I climbed through the obstacle, the next handle was a bit higher than the one before.

I think I managed to get to the 5th handle, before I looked at the next one and decided that the next handle was too high for me; I did not have the strength to do it.
I just dropped down.
I tried a second time (although I think it wasn't allowed), and failed at the 3rd handle this time, while injuring my right shoulder (which is still recovering from my Switzerland trip in July).

Oh well, 30 burpees it is~
At least this was the only time I did the burpees through the race (*pat on the back).

3) Bucket Brigade

This obstacle was the one I deemed the toughest of them all.

It wasn't like the Monkey bars whereby you can simply fail, do 30 burpees, and then move on.

This was a grueling 100+ metres of carrying a bucket full of stones, which I think is around 45 kg.

It was a torture for me!

Around 15 minutes of carrying this bucket, resting multiple times, dropping and lifting it up...

It took me great discipline to not 'accidentally spill' some of the stones during the obstacle (which a few of the runners did).

I was really using my 吃奶的力量!

But still, step by step, I completed this obstacle, along with the other obstacles.

Aftermath Thoughts 

It has been a short but fulfilling journey of training up towards this race.

I was training for a specific goal, and it felt great to work towards it.

Completing this race is nothing of a great achievement, but it does gives me a small sense of life fulfillment.

Therefore, in addition to labelling this event as an enhancement to my Physical Well-being, I also want to label it as an enhancement to my Lifestyle.

I would definitely recommend anyone to take part in it!

Enjoy the process of preparing yourself for the race, and enjoy the race itself by going at your own pace.

And if you have like-minded friends to form a team, even better!

Bonus GIF of me doing the Fire Jump in 'style' =p

Progress Update

It's been more than a week since my last post.
I figured I should sit my butt down in front of the computer to properly chart out my progress instead of scrolling through the never-ending pages of Facebook, or playing games on Steam, or viewing random Youtube videos, or ... seriously, there are tons of things that are more attention-grabbing and have short term gratification than typing out this post.
But still, in order to live my life, I should evaluate myself more often through blogging.

First of all, I have been quite satisfied with myself on being consistent with improving my physical well-being.
For the past 12 days ever since I have recovered from my recent cold, I have exercised for 9 days, and each time is around 30 to 45 min. Hurray~
It hasn't been easy for me to cater time to exercise; to put on my running shoes, get out of the house, and pant like a dog in view of others.
I would have to say the greatest motivation for me so far is the impending Spartan Race on 15 Nov.
I'm left with 1 more week to prep myself so I wouldn't die from running through all the obstacles.

Previously I was quite into working out at home using the Sworkit Lite mobile app due to the haze which restricts me to indoor activities.
However, the recent weather seemed to have cleared up the foggy sky!
Perhaps it is due to the increased in efforts (or the acceptance of efforts) to extinguish the fire.
Or, it could just be the wind.
No matter what, I'm grateful for the good weather to get my body sweating outdoors!

I felt that it is important for me to get my body conditioned to running some distance instead of just staying indoors and doing static exercises.
I have tried out 2 methods so far:

1) Running 2 km with a 5 kg body weight + arm strengthening exercises

I did this twice, and decided to drop this method.
Although carrying an extra 5 kg load sounds pretty mild, the weight pulled down my speed quite significantly.
It seemed to be good training.
But it caused my back to hurt a bit at the end of the 2 km run.
I figured that the 5 kg load is putting too much burden on my body to train efficiently.
So after 2 tries of this, I decided to give up on running with the 5 kg load.
I felt that the body weight vest would be utilized better when I'm doing static exercises at home.

2) (400m + 10 burpees) * 6

I came up with this routine to train my body in running short distances and also the prepare myself for the possible burpees that I would be doing during the Spartan race.
So far, this routine has been a good workout (i.e. I felt like dying, but not dead yet).
I would probably continue this for the week coming up to the race.

I don't think all these physical training is sufficient to prep myself well for the race.
But it's probably near the limits to what my body can take given the time constraints.

As for my self-guided Java Learning journey, it has been rather sporadic.
It was hard to build a routine of reading and practicing the materials taught in the book, most of the weekday nights I'm quite exhausted from work and exercise.
I did most of my learning on the train if I managed to find a seat while I'm travelling to or from work.
There are 16 Chapters in total, and I'm only at Chapter 3.
It's getting more sophisticated, but it's also getting more interesting =p
The experience of writing codes is rather similar to answering Mathematics problem sums.
Both are finding logical solutions to a problem, and there are also multiple ways of approaching the problem.
Sometimes, I also have to try certain things to see whether a certain approach would work.
Lots of trial and errors.
Feels like learning Mathematics all over again! Wee~!

In starting a habit of reading, I tried to force myself to read a book while I was waiting for dearest to get ready to chat at night.
I only managed to do it for 2 nights so far. haha..
Ya, reading is definitely not my thing.
Therefore, in order to keep to it, I have reduced my daily aim from 15min to 10min.
Hope that helps! >_<

I haven't been doing much micro time management.
That means I'm just doing all these activities on an ad-hoc basis without much planning before hand.
I probably should start doing more planning to ensure that these habits will follow through even when I'm hard-pressed for time.

On a side note, blogging is also become cumbersome because of the time I have to invest to writing this kind of long post (because I could have used the time to play games and watch Youtube videos).
Since it's a way of keeping track of my progress,  I should probably have a schedule for writing on my blog.
Therefore, I have decided to publish at least two blog posts per week; one on Wednesday, and one on the weekends (either Sat or Sun).

I also want to list down some of the topics that I would like to blog on in future so that I can remember them.
I will try to figure out how to put this list on the blog.

So far, so good.

Living my life.