Tag Archives: change

My Hometown (but I spent most my lifetime being outside it)

  By Halfey Halphstein | March 20, 2011 - 5:41 pm |
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I was born in a small town in Malaysia named "Sri Aman". The word "Sri" literally means "glory" while the word "Aman" means "peace". So "Sri Aman" means "the glorious and peaceful town". I'm not sure about the "glorious" part but if you ask me, the town is really "peaceful" because it is silent and not crowded, though to most people the silence that they feel inside the town may resulting the lonely feeling. At least that's quite true to me who have been spending more than half of my life growing up somewhere else.

Class Trip to Batang Ai

Sri Aman is located somewhere in the state of Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo (a.k.a. East Malaysia). It is used to be known as "Simanggang" but changed it's name to "Sri Aman" after the decline of Sarawak branch of Malaysian Communist Party, of which the leader of the Sarawak branch of that party surrendered in Simanggang. It is one of the oldest town in Sarawak, probably the second oldest in the entire state of Sarawak, for it being recognized as the second division in Sarawak after Kuching (The Cat City). Too bad Sri Aman seems to be neglected by the country's administrations thus it got itself "The Sleeping Town" moniker. As a person who was born in that town I can't help but feel bad about it but there's not much I can do to make a change.



Anyways I ave to admit that Sri Aman has very little potential to become a developed city in the near future. Natural resources is a scarce; not to mention that most part of it are still unsurveyed and unexplored. Sometimes I feel like to blame the state's management too for ripping off many of Sri Aman's potential area for tourism by splitting it into smaller divisions. I may be complain too much but as a person who was born in that town I have the rights to do so. Just so you know I'm complaining because I love my hometown.

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Someone Who Deserves More Credit

  By Halfey Halphstein | January 2, 2011 - 10:33 pm |
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Do you watch anime? Or specifically do you watch OreImo? If you don't then stop reading right now. If you do then you have to agree with me for what I'm going to say afterward. I'm going to tell you who deserves more credit in that anime.

Ore no Imouto

For me Kyousuke Kousaka (Kirino's big brother) deserves more credit than Kirino herself. I know he's not manly enough to be someone's big brother but I have my respect for him trying to be manly in his own way. Try to change your view a bit and you'll notice that it is because of his uncompetitiveness that makes Kirino more "noticeable". I mean it would be harder to choose between them if Kyousuke was a bishounen-type guy who works as a teen model just like Kirino does. Not to mention that it's because of his sacrifices that gave way for Kirino to become who she is today.

Other than Kyousuke, I'd say Chuck Norris is another person that I think is "under-appreciated". Actually all the credits for everything should go to him. He is the only person where the statement "nobody's perfect" is invalid. He can do the roundhouse-kick without actually kicking a thing. In fact you have to be thankful to him because he haven't roundhouse-kicked you (yet).

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Three Countries I’d Like to Visit (and why)

  By Halfey Halphstein | January 1, 2011 - 11:28 pm |
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I'm not really a travel and adventurous type of a person but believe me deep within myself I still have some desire to visit foreign countries. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I hate my own country or I love some other country more but think of it like visiting your neighbors. Throughout my life I've been dreaming of visiting other countries, especially the European countries. However things changed as I grow up. As of now I've included Asian countries too.

CeBIT WEBCIETY I find it good.

The first country I'd like to visit someday is Germany. This has nothing to do with my dream of visiting European country but mainly because I'd like to pay a visit to the world's biggest IT trade show, CeBIT at Hanover. I'm a gadget freak and CeBIT is the mecca for all gadget freaks. I also would like to visit the Fraunhofer Institute, the birthplace of mp3. Yes, it's all about the technological stuff.

Next I'd like to visit Japan, particularly Akihabara, Tokyo, which is the mecca for anime otaku. Unlike Germany (where many people are fluent in English) visiting Japan would be a problem for me, especially when it comes to communication. Let's hope I'll have a good guide then. Anyways, for all the love I have for anime/manga/games/figma I should not let that to stop me. Although I can't imagine I'd be visiting Japan anytime soon I think I should start learning some Japanese now. It would be useful too even if I'd never visit Japan.

Last but not least, I'd like to visit Israel/Palestine/Iran (either one will do). No particular reason but strangely I'm so attached to those Middle-East countries. It's probably because my ancestors came from there. Yes, I'd like to track my ancestry line someday. Just hope that peace will come to the Holy Land soon.

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How much is enough?

  By Halfey Halphstein | October 2, 2010 - 11:55 pm | ,
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[Ryuumaru] MM! - 01 [95EC299B].mkv_snapshot_07.32_[2010.10.02_23.21.00]

Recently I went into yet another argument with yet another stupid people who call himself a better anime fan simply because he compared himself to me and he happened to like more anime titles than I do while I happen to hate more anime titles then he does (let’s call him “Mr. Chump Change”). Yes, I’m easily dragged into something like this not because I don’t want to but more like other people don’t want to let me go or should I say they won’t satisfied until I agree to what they believe or approved of.

It all started with a simple conversation about me hating some anime titles. Then he asked me have I watched them long enough to hate? I simply answered him “how long I watched them is totally irrelevant to either I hate them or not”. Since he seems not satisfied with my brief answer I spilled things to him one by one as per dialogue below:

Me: I only watched the PV of the anime X. It looks horrible an I decided not to give a try at all.

Mr. Chump Change: You should have at least watch the actual episode, not just PV. That’s NOT ENOUGH for you to think it’s bad.

Me: Well, I did watch the first few minutes ep. 01 of anime B. It looks horrible and I decided to stop right away and don’t bother to watch until the credit rolls.

Mr. Chump Change: You should have at least watch the whole episode. What you did is NOT ENOUGH for you to justify it as bad.

Me: Then I did watch this anime C for a few episodes. The story is so plain and dull and I dropped the series.

Mr. Chump Change: You should have at least watch the entire series to give a fair judgment. Watching the series halfway is NOT ENOUGH to say it’s bad.

Me: However I did watch the first season of anime D. It was a painful experience that I don’t care to watch the season 2.

Mr. Chump Change: You should complete both seasons. The season 1 alone is NOT ENOUGH for you to think it’s bad.

Because the conversation was going nowhere and this guy kept repeating the same thing again and again, I left him right after I gave him a few dozens of good punches at the centre of his face. Then I asked him this “then care to tell me how much is ENOUGH?” and left him bleeding from his nose. The point is there is no such thing as the exact amount to being ENOUGH, because what’s enough for me may not enough for other people or what’s enough for other people may be overkill for me. So there’s no point to justify other people by saying “you were not giving enough chance to it” when it comes to abstract things like this. Besides why must people care about I did it enough or not?

On my way back I met a stranger and asked him this, “I’ve read reviews and people’s reactions about anime E and most of them are negative, so I decided not to give it any chance at all. Do you think I’m doing it enough?” He replied “who knows?”. Yeah, nobody can tell, and people shouldn’t have been bothered with that in  the first place.

Why do we need a change?

  By Halfey Halphstein | July 25, 2010 - 3:59 pm | ,
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gandum

Or rather why do we need to change? Before I explain the rational of having the Gundam image above, I’ll try to answer the above question using physics mechanics, assuming that you’re can understand physics. Take proton and electron for example. They’re the result of a neutron divided into two asymmetrical particles, of which one of them carries positive and negative charge respectively. And there are times when those two combined and become neutron again. The process may also being repeated eternally. Why neutron can’t always remain neutron and why do proton and electron combine again after all that? Does going backward really a cool thing?

Believe it or not the answer is, because EVERYTHING tends to get boring over time. Even proton, electron and neutron are not spared. That being said, everything need a change, regardless they’re forward changes or backward changes. Backward changes do apply to people too. Just look around us, there are always people trying to revive the vintage and oldies pop culture, like oldies music and oldies fashion. I’m not talking about going backward but the point here is things should not always remain the same or we’d die from extreme boredom. Yes, boredom could be a good torture too, you know?

I remember sometime ago I had an argument with a few people about otakuism. They think otakuism should remain unpopular and in small niche forever or they’ll lose the ‘charm’. I beg to differ because we should not stick to one traditional (or should I say conservative?) definitions for everything, including otakuism. Know why many Gundam hardcore fans wanted to see Gundam in their classic design? Because they’ve grown bored of the newer Gundam design. So the same argument also applies to Gundam here where it used to have undergone forward changes and now they’re heading backward because that’s what the fans want it to be.

Again the main point here is we need a change (in subjects we see) or we need to change (our own views on subjects we see). I see otakuism is still quite new that it don’t have the ‘classic’ counterpart so that only means one thing; to have forward changes. By ‘forward’ I mean now it’s time for otakuism to become a mainstream culture, just like most pop cultures in the past. Until the day we can really say something like “classical otakuism” only then we could think about reverting otakuism back to what it was. Oh, this article is about me and how I see things. If you disagree with anything you find in this article, then you are wrong.

(1/2 otaku see the other otaku as ‘fake’ otaku and think they should commit seppuku)

The World Would Be a Better Place If…

  By Halfey Halphstein | July 25, 2010 - 12:44 pm |
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So the question is “what we could do to make this world a better place?” eh? Then it doesn’t matter if it’s ‘we’ or just ‘me’ but I’m sure it’s about what everybody can do to make this world better. But I am pretty sure Hitler did thought about the same thing too, at least to make this place a better place to him if not for everybody, except that in the process he caused the death of millions of people. Who wouldn’t want this world to be better, right? (A small warning: Haters gonna hate this.)

no more hate

People always saying that in order to make this world a better place we should stop hating each other or stop bitching about things we hate or at least don’t give a damn about things we hate. The problem is that’s almost too impractical to do. I mean things we hate are everywhere. Even if we try to run away from them, chances are they will always chase you back to the point of no escape. So what can we do?

After giving it a not-so-deep thought, I think there is one thing we should consider doing. Instead of stop hating stuff, how about we get rid of all things that we hate for a change? Yeah, if you hate somebody, kill him. If you hate someone’s car, smash it. If you hate certain anime title, go all the way to Japan and destroy the studio. Or if you hate the world itself, how about nuking every single part of it and make the Earth disintegrated? Or perhaps you could just kill yourself so you won’t see anything you hate anymore? That’s just a few example of what we can do to eliminate things that make our world bad to us. What do you think?

Oh did I mention Hitler earlier?

(1/5 people hate me because they think I must not show my interest in things)

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Friend Numero Uno

  By Halfey Halphstein | July 25, 2010 - 5:40 am |
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Who don't have a best friend? Even I who seemingly spending most of my free time on the net also have a few of them. Yeah a few, because the other friends are either just colleagues or convenient/opportunist friends (only become friends when it's getting convenient and profitable) or even backup friends (people you know from your old school, previous workplace, etc). However I have yet to find a BFF (best friend forever) though maybe I won't find any because I might have looking for a perfect somebody without realizing it.

Baby in bunny suit and friend, pattern english/italiano

The first one I regarded as a best friend is a same age guy from my hometown. He name is Hasran and he's actually my distant cousin. We've been together since kindergarten until we're in grade 3. In grade 4, the school management changed their stance in class distribution. I happen to be in the "better grades" class while that friend of mine ended up in the "average grades" class. Take not that in local schools there's no such thing as floating class unlike in the US or some other countries so we remain separated until the homeroom ends. However we still walking home together and play soccer almost every evening (I used to play soccer a lot back then). Things are not always nice when we're further segregated until we're graduated from elementary school, and before I knew it, we already hardly see each other anymore. I entered a boarding school after that and since then we have completely lost contact with each other. Now we only meet each other during festival holidays since he's also working in other cities far from home, just like me.

In the boarding school, I met another same age guy. He is Joseph, from the same district as I am (our hometowns are in the same district). He's a nice guy who came from quite a poor family but he have good grades in almost all subject, especially history, but too bad he has problems with English (a common problem with people from suburban areas here). However he's a hardworking type and by the time we're in our final year, after almost 5 years struggling he became the top-10 student in our school and I'm also proud of him. We always thought of keeping in touch with each other but unlike me, he don't have any phone number for me to dial to. I think that's what gives him strength and spirit to study and yeah he managed to go to one of the best colleges in the country and graduated with a degree. I tried to visit him 5 years ago but he was not at home. However his parents told me he's now working at the other state far away from home and they gave me his phone number. Now I'm able to contact him though we still haven't see each other since we graduated from high school.

In college I met another guy who came from other state. His name is Azmy. We quickly became close friends and one thing that I will never forget is when I was injured in a traffic accident and unable to walk for a few weeks, he volunteered himself to wash my clothes, even my underwear. I almost cried on that time. However I didn't make it to the end in my college and ended my studies prematurely. For a couple of years we still contact each other via texts and phone (he rarely use email so we never use that method). Then a disaster struck and I've lost his number and he only knows one way method to contact me; via phone but that is no longer an option. I remember though when he said should he ever go to the state where I am now, he will try to look for me, and he told me that's a promise. I'm not sure of what he's doing right now but I do miss him a lot.

Now that I'm a working person and I have 2 of my colleagues that I could consider as best friends. One of them is 1 year older than me, Soong (but he's my junior in work) and another one is 1 year younger than me, Phil (but he's my senior in work). Those 2 however, unlike my previous best friends, are quite problematic to me. Soong is an atheist and always think his "religious views" is better while for Phil, I don't prefer his sexual orientation though (I mean he's a bi, and he live in the same house with me right now >_<). However when it comes to what it takes to be friends, those 2 can handle it perfectly and won't mix their "religious views" and sexual orientation with friendship, and that makes them undeniably are good friends.

One day I'd like to bring back together all of those who I've regarded as my best friends and introducing them to each other and when that time comes I hope all of us will get along well.

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Sometimes (many times) We Fight – Part II

  By Halfey Halphstein | July 25, 2010 - 12:44 am |
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And the fight continues…

Kangaroo fight

Mr. Chump Change: your [ very noticeable ] lack of dedication is what makes you far from being a touhou fan, and thus to call yourself a fan of touhou nevertheless is a hasty assumption, not just from the POV of them legit touhou fanboys, but also from the eyes of an outsider like myself as well. you too should have understood this very well.

Halfey: How could you say there are ‘legitimate’ and ‘illegitimate’ fans out there when all that we need is interest? Dedication? You mean I have to beg and steal and borrow or even break the bank just to show how much I’m dedicated? No, I don’t need that. They are interested to play the games then they are a fan. I’m interested in the design and derivative works then I’m also a fan too. It’s just that we show our love in different ways.

(Note: When Mr. Chump Change uses the [...] it literally means he is whispering or mind-talking or even using telepathy. Then Mr. Chump Change started to call me ‘sir’ out of spite.)

Mr. Chump Change: frankly sir, bandwidth limitation is not an issue here. even i who had to coup with the frequent un-stability of my ISP [ not to mention the time when i still haven't had internet installed to my room ] could obtain all those that i desired [ greatest example on this were the numerous eroges i've acquired from time to time ] by through of a well thought download management system. well its kinda like playing them RPG, there’s always a few ways to work around such obstacles as long as you had the dedication to penetrate through them :3

Halfey: I know what you’re trying to say is “work around it” but does that mean you’re implying that I must do things the same way you do so that you could accept my reasoning? My life is already divided into many small portions of which I have to dedicate my self to all of them fairly, and anime is just one of them, which happen to cover one of my many interests. So what you really need to hear from me is a reason right? Well, that won’t going to happen because whatever reason I’d state for that, regardless they’re strong or not, chances are you are not gonna buy them since they’re not in favor of your interest.

(Note: When Mr. Chump Change uses the “:3″ it literally means he is acting cutely no matter how meanie he is, though in this ‘fight’ he actually only act cutely and not being meanie.)

Mr. Chump Change: in regard to the second case of the argument above; the stated so-called ‘double standard’ exist because you aren’t making a solid sense in your stance, which will only lead to those who got irked to view you more as a drone in the bandwagon rather than a critic with a reason, thus their insistence to reject your views.

Halfey: What’s the point of arguing over points that are only valid to myself? For me, what I need in order to love or hate something is a reason, anything regardless they’re strong or weak. As long as I have reasons that’s enough. And why fuss over reasons that appear to be “strong” for me just because they appear weak to you? I don’t hurt anybody, not even myself over what I’ve chose to accept. And I don’t need you to accept my reasons either. It works for me and that’s all there is to it.

(And then another Mr. Chump Change jumped in (let’s call him Mr. Chump Change #2) though his words are mostly just repetation of Mr. Chump Change #1′s words. But I’m polite enough to welcome him since he’s my guess anyway.)

Mr. Chump Change #2: I doubt you’re a Touhou fan, regarding the ‘answer’ that was given by you state that ‘lack of interest’, ‘waste bandwidth’ etc. This is not what a true fan should say after claiming he/she as a fan…

Halfey: Do I need to follow your guide on “becoming a TRUE Touhou fan”? Oh well whatever I’m saying or claiming about myself is only about myself and does not concern you, so you don’t have to tell me “you’re not a true fan” because whatever you’re gonna say is not valid to me, just as in the case where my claim appears to be invalid to you. Again it’s all about myself, I don’t hurt anybody, not even myself over what I’ve chose to accept. And I don’t need you to accept my reasons either. It works for me and that’s all there is to it. Love is about how we appreciate what we have no matter how much we have things we love in our hand, not about how we show them or we’d steal to have everything we love. In short, just because you don’t or can’t see doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

Mr. Chump Change #2: oh dammit.. i gtg

Halfey: Thanks for coming.

There might be another Mr. Chump Change will come soon, even the female ones (a.k.a. Miss Chump Change). Until then I have have to get prepared for more assault.

(54/97 ‘true’ Touhou fans killed themselves out of rage after they learned about my interest in Touhou.)

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The Worst Teacher(s) I Ever Had

  By Halfey Halphstein | July 22, 2010 - 10:00 pm |
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Every single of us are most likely having at least one teacher we despised the most. The are many reasons contributed to this, either because the teacher is stupid or because you're the one being the asshole and complaining because that teacher of yours took disciplinary actions on you. It doesn't matter here so let me be straight to the point; despicable people do exists, regardless you're teacher or not, and that's because WE ARE PEOPLE.

Leraar met gezag / Teacher with authority

Most of my teachers in elementary school are not good teachers. Yeah, I know they're just doing the job for their living but it's not that I'm not being thankful to them. Hey, if they did criticized me as a teacher so what about if I criticize their work now as a human? Alright, before any of you out there giving me the "not all teachers are like that" crap, please take note that I don't buy any politically-correct statement like that.

I did said many of my "bad teachers" are from my elementary school but there are also teachers from my hi-school are equally assholes. I remember a few times they changed their stance on students informal attire too often to the extent that even Chuck Norris would roundhouse-kicked them out to another dimension. Yea, we do welcome rules and regulations in our school but what's the meaning of having school rules if they are being used by those kind of teachers to 'legally' bully their students.

"BUT HALFEY TEACHERS DOING THAT FOR OUR SAKE" that's rubbish. If they really want to teach their students about the good things then don't let students to have bad impression on them by manipulating and interpreting school rules as they please. We don't need that kind of teachers. Seriously.

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Sometimes (many times) We Fight

  By Halfey Halphstein | July 22, 2010 - 10:00 pm |
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This is a fictional argument that is actually fictional. I did say 'fictional' but I'll let you use your brain to decide whether it's true or not but before that please do your judgment on argument because you might not buying all of my words. I don't need you to judge on the subject but rather do your judgment on who's being more positive and who's being more negative.

K-ON! Charms

Mr. Chump Change: So you said you like Touhou Project?

Halfey: I do, and I like them as they are.

Mr. Chump Change: Have you played any Touhou Project games then?

Halfey: I haven't due to my lack of interest in bullet-hell shooting games, almost as much as how I'm interested in any shooting games (particularly FPS titles). Besides getting the game is not an easy thing to begin with, though I admit that I like the 'story' inside'.

Mr. Chump Change: I thought you're a bittorrent user? And shouldn't a real Touhou fan would get those games without fail?

Halfey: On what account you're doubting the sincerity of my interest on them? Yes I use bittorrent a lot but it doesn't mean I have to dedicate all my bandwidth only for them and forgetting my interest in anime instead.

The argument went nowhere. Then comes another argument.

Mr. Chump Change: Why do you hate K-ON?

Halfey: Because I feel like to hate it, that's all.

Mr. Chump Change: Don't try to give a vague answer like that.

Halfey: Alright, if you need a 'proper' answer then what if I tell you that I hate it because it has not 'proper' story?

Mr. Chump Change: Doesn't sound like a good reason to hate it.

Halfey: Huh? Why must it's you who decide what's "the good reason" and "the bad reason" for hating K-ON? Does that implying that you'll think it's alright if I have "good reasons" to hate it?

Mr. Chump Change: Because you're being irrational.

Halfey: Irrational? Come on. If people "don't need a reason to love something" then why must I "need a reason to hate something" too? Why the double standard?

Again, the argument went nowhere.

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