right-\(^o^)/-matic: 2011

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.

I Hope I Never Lose... My Own Existence

Being exists is the greatest 'pleasure' I've ever had in my life. I can't imagine if I've never existed or I can't imagine if something like that is going to happen in the future. It's because I exists that I can witness and feel the existence of others. Likewise it's because I am exists that other people know me. In fact I don't mind if I'm dead as long as people remember that I'm once here.

Existence 1 Being turned into nothingness is what I fear the most. Losing life is still better than losing existence because with death at least I am still exists in a different form. I don't mind whether it's in a form of a decomposed corpse or a historical record, as long as there are people who knows I was here. If you want to know how do I define nothingness, imagine the moment before the Big Bang. If you think it's something impossible to imagine than you already know half about my greatest fear.

Friday, February 11

On Being in the Spotlight

Yes I've been on the stage several times. If I'm not mistaken it's more than 10 times, to say the least. Of course being on the stage just to receive some gifts or certificates does not count. The reason I being on the stage may be not that great like performing in a musical or something like that, but I can say I did performing something in front of the audience and receiving lots of applause for that. The following is about my experience from the first time performing on a stage to the most recent one.

Stage lights The first one was when I was still in kindergarten. Not much to say about that but I can say being exposed to stage performance since my earlier days does help in overcoming my nervousness and embarrassment standing in front of a crowd. During my teenage years I took part in school dramas, after encouragement by my big sisters who was a drama queen in her high school. During my college time I gave speeches several times on stage too because I was active in extra-curricular activities. And the most recent one is (last year) I performed in stage demonstration for wing chun kung fu.

Dude! I Love Slang (No, I'm not actually)

Dude! I hate slang. Though it's not at the same hate level as how I hate profanity, it's still annoying to me at least. It's not that I prefer talking in formal language all the time; in fact I use some slang too (like the much used "LOL") whenever I think it's appropriate. However I'm not the type who easily submit to made-up or trendy slang. For me, I think most people fell ("FAIL") victim to the usage of those kind of slang for the sake of being cool or want to be seen as keeping up to the trend.

Aussie slang - National Museum of Australia Just so you know, me hating slang is not because I see them as a cancer to the language. It's just that popular slang lost their charm once they become overused and trending. Some slang (meme) also annoying on its own because they're the made-up version (generated by internet culture like 4chan) instead of being derived from already existing words in certain languages. Slang like orz, herp derp, hurr durr, etc. are among the most hated ones to me (just to name a few). Profanity alone is enough to make this world so annoying, so I wish people won't add another annoying stuff like those slang to the world.

Dude! I Love Slang (No, I'm not actually)

Aussie slang - National Museum of Australia

Just so you know, me hating slang is not because I see them as a cancer to the language. It's just that popular slang lost their charm once they become overused and trending. Some slang (meme) also annoying on its own because they're the made-up version (generated by internet culture like 4chan) instead of being derived from already existing words in certain languages. Slang like orz, herp derp, hurr durr, etc. are among the most hated ones to me (just to name a few). Profanity alone is enough to make this world so annoying, so I wish people won't add another annoying stuff like those slang to the world.

via Posterize

Posted via email from halfey's posterous

Monday, January 17

Cirno: A Fictional Character I'd Like to Hang Out With

Previously I've wrote about how I'd like to bring Miku Hatsune to life. My bad that I forgot another reason I'd like to hang out with her is she's a software in a form of a girl! (only an otaku would understand what I mean). Even worse, I forgot to mention about Cirno in the same post. If Miku Hatsune is a green-haired girl, Cirno is the blue-haired one (of which both are my favorite colors). You don't know who Cirno is? Then die!

SUDDENLY Cirno merchandise

Cirno is a boss character in the bullet-hell shooter game "Touhou Project" who's also known as ⑨ due to her extreme stupidity. She's deemed to be the strongest in the game. She's perhaps the cutest and most adorable enemy in any game in the world. If I were given the chance to bring her to life, even just for a day, I'd like to "melt" or even "boil" her with my might. Well, she's an ice fairy after all ;P

Miku Hatsune: A Fictional Character I'd Like to Hang Out With (part I)

Actually Miku Hatsune is not the only fictional character I'd like to bring to life. There are others too, like Haruhi Suzumiya (because I want to turn her into my one-day sex slave), Kirino Kousaka (I'd like to train her into an obedient little sister for one day), etc. I admit that it's a hard decision to make. After giving it half-hearted thoughts, I decided to go with Miku Hatsune. Keep reading if you want to know why.

Hatsune Miku Dollfie

The first reason why I'd like to bring Miku Hatsune to life (even if it's just for one day) is because she's not from any existing anime/manga/games; I mean she's pure fictional with no stories or backgrounds associated with her.

Second, since she's not associated with any stories, that means she's free from any bad reputation and her personality is like a clean white paper for me to draw anything I like on it. That means I can she her personality to my liking.

Last but not least, she really can sing and dance, not to mention she has lotsa cool costumes too. And the most important part about her is, she's super cute!

Monday, January 10

The Best Movie of 2010 (um, I wonder is there any?)

I'm not a movie-type person. If you ask me, I'd proudly say that I'm an anime-type person. Although I may watch anime from time to time but the number is too small that I can't make any fair judgment to say this or that movie is the best or not. Even so I admit that there are movies that caught my attention. However, like always, it's just temporary and in the end, anime wins.

A possum and a movie camera 1943

Actually I was thinking about "what if I write about the best anime of 2010 instead". However, almost immediately I put my intention down because I did write about that a few weeks earlier, albeit not in details. Now back to where I left, as far as I can remember, I only watched less than 5 movies last year. And I still remember one that worth noting is Ip Man 2, a semi (partially fictional) autobiography movie about the legendary Kung Fu master named Ip Man.

I know it's not the best movie but from all that I've watched last year, it's the only movie that watched more than 5 times (I did bought the DVD too). I did write about this movie last year too. As a martial artist myself, this movie appears good to me and I'd recommend it to fellow martial artists as well. It's not a western movie though (it's Hong Kong) but well, I watched virtually no Hollywood flicks since year 2001 (with a few exceptions like The Lord of The Rings) and I have no problem to keep it like that.

"How I Fight Cabin Fever on Snow Days" - something that would never happen to me

Cabin fever is something that would never happen to me, at least in the near future. It also never happened to me in the past either. No, it's not because I'm "immune" of it, but because there's no such thing as snow or winter at my place here. Without printed or electronic, I'd never know how snow looks like. Well I can tell you my country is a place second closest to hell, if not the first, therefore there's no way I could see snow before my eyes unless move out to those snowy countries.

frozen light in a snow weekend, MANZANEDA ☃

Well, even if snow does fall over here, what would I do to fight cabin fever? Actually I think things would not be much different from what I'm doing right now on rainy days. I'd just stay at home, get online, play some games, do blogging, watch anime (important!), cooking, reading manga, etc. Actually as long as I have those things regardless it's raining or snowing outside, I'd stay entertained. I'm never get bored of those things, so no problem.

My Stress Level = ∞

Am I stressed out? Yes, I am, even right now. Just like how I'm easily get bored of everything and easily distracted by everything, I'm also the type who easily get stressed, even by a simple thing. For example, something as trivial as my personal pet peeve may resulting me having a prolonged stress. Also a "bad English day" (which happen almost everyday to me) may also rendering me having a stressful day as well.

31/365 - Stress.

I know having prolonged stress is not good not only to my mental health, but it may also affect my physical too. I've read somewhere that stress may lowered a person's immune system. So how do I get around my almost daily stress? Easy; watch anime.

Talking Versus Texting: My Preference

Actually it depends on the situation/setting. In my place here, texting is more economical as it's cheaper than talking over the phone. Not only that, with virtually everybody here possess at least one cellphone per person, everybody is able to text or receive texts. It's been a popular choice over here ever since cellphone services started booming nationwide in the late 90's. I can say it's probably the preferred method of communication by most cellphone owners here.

Future Texting

For me I prefer texting. It's not that I don't like to talk over the phone but like I said earlier, texting is cheaper. If you look it from a certain perspective, having a hi-tech cellphone/smartphone is pointless if you only use it for talking (it's not a fixed-line phone with less features to begin with so why not use its texting capabilities to its fullest because it can?). Well, you can say that I'm a person who only talks when I'm in a face-to-face setting. After all, texting allows me to construct proper words because with talking, although I can talk spontaneously, sometimes unplanned words may resulting me screwed up unknowingly, and I'd want to avoid that as much as I could.

My other reason is I'm so used with texting. My first experience with texting was with some early IM services during the dotcom boom. I'm also a person who writes more than I talk. Yes, writing gives me the flexibility to edit my words before relaying it to the people I'm communicating to. Besides writing (as well as reading) is what makes us different from illiterate people.

How I Stay Focused (though actually I can't)

I'm a person who is hard to stay focus. It's not always because I tend to get bored really quick but it's because I'm the type who easily distracted by virtually everything. For example, when in exam, I'd get distracted if somebody nearby dropped his/her pen. The bad part about me is I can stay focused for only a few minutes. And the worst part is, it takes time for me to regain my focus again.

Focus of Attention

Actually this is only happen since year 2001, as far as I can remember. Resulting from my reduced ability to stay focused, I was failed to study properly and consequently dropped out from college. I'm not sure what happened but it's probably have something to do with my brain condition. I don't think I did something that bring damages to my brain cells. However, I realized that I'm also having some sort of "false memory syndrome".

I've tried many things in order to keep myself focused longer. Some people suggested music. Believe me I've tried it with my favorite anime songs but I don't see any improvement at all. In some cases it makes my condition becomes worse. I guess this is something that I was born with (>_<)

Other than that, I've tried getting enough sleep. I've also tried having some caffeinated drink (though I actually drink coffee everyday, which happen to be one of my favorite drinks). Some psychologists also advised me to learn martial art to train my focus. Really they don't know I'm a trained martial artist to begin with. At this rate, being unable to focus already have some negative effects on my job performance.

Now the only thing I'm doing to train myself to stay focused to do daily prayer; lots of it. It was suggested by a religious old man I met sometime ago. So far I can tell that it helps a little. Maybe it's too early to either say it's work or it isn't. Anyways it's not a hard thing to do, and I can say I'm quite "enjoying" it too. Therefore I think I'm going to keep doing that for a while and see.

Friday, January 7

A Memorable Job Interview

The job interview I'm going to tell you here is not memorable because it's something that I can't forget. It's something that I HAVEN'T FORGET because it's still new and fresh in my mind. To tell you the truth since the 10 years I've only been to job interviews not more than 5 times. I'm worry about the small number because I believe it's necessary to have enough experience in job interviews. That said, it sometimes helps too if we failed at job interviews so that we'd know how to prepare our self better for the future job interview.

I hate this job

The most recent job interview that I had is for a position as an assistant customs officer. It is a moderately-paid job with pretty much the same amount of salary as my current job right now. One of the reasons why I chose to apply the job is because it would require me to be always on traveling (which means I'd get more traveling claim). Actually I've never expected to be shortlisted for the interview because as far as I can remember I submitted the application a couple of years ago. The result has yet to be announced though but I really hope I'd get that job because I feel like to resign from my current job as quickly as possible (yeah I hate it, really).

A Recent Epiphany

Have you ever had an "Aha!" moment? More specifically did such thing happened to you recently? What sparked it? I had mine too though it's not really recently (I can't really remember any recent "Aha!" moment that happened to me). Anyways it did happen.

Idea's Interrupted

For me that "Aha!" is a moment of I got an idea or vision of what I should do (from wikipedia, it's "a sudden realization or comprehension of the (larger) essence or meaning of something). In other words, some sort of a moment of discovery, but not really the "Eureka!" though. Since the beginning of the 2nd-half of last year I've been using both postpaid and prepaid internet at the same time. After a few months of using them I came to realize that it's more cost effective to use the prepaid internet over the ridiculously restrictive postpaid version. I feel bad though (sorta) because I didn't think of that earlier.

By the last 3 months of 2010, Ive completely stopped relying on the postpaid internet and decided to use prepaid version all the way. It saves me a lot of time and money. The best part about it is I can get unlimited bandwidth (as opposed to the postpaid internet which has the 5GB/mo traffic limit) albeit at a bit lower speed. However I've gotten used to it and I can enjoy my anime and online needs without having to worry about exhausting my monthly quota like I used to be. Now I can enjoy the internet with more peace of mind.

Things That Makes Me Smile Unknowingly (>_<)

I think smiling makes almost half of my daily expressions. I'm the type who easily smiled even from a simple thing. Well smiling is not a bad thing to begin with. However there are also times I'm smiling without realizing it. In fact I'd never knew about it without somebody telling me (>_<)

lolcat adaptation #1

Cats are one of a few things that makes me smiling unknowingly. Do you think it's strange? I love cats and always attracted to them whenever I see them, even if they're just "masterless" cats or stray/alley cats. Cats have strange effect to me. Not only they makes me smile but they also soothes my heart and reduces (or even cures) my stress especially after working all day.

The next thing that may make me smile unknowingly is cute thing; any cute things (that said, cats are cute, aren't they?). Cute things includes (female) anime characters, cute devices, cute gadget, babies, etc. Yes, I do smiling when watching anime just from the cuteness of the characters, as witnessed by my friends. I even put cute anime figurines in my room and my office desk, or bring along cute things with me everywhere I go. Even my PC/phone wallpaper uses image of cute anime girls (>_<)

If I Had One Hour in a Time Machine...

The idea of the existence of time machine is no longer cool to me. To be honest I found it stupid. The only cool side about it is if it was real. Alright, for now let's just pretend that it's real. And to put more challenge to the "simulated reality" let's limit it to 1 hour only.

Back to the Future DeLorean Time Machine

For that 1 hour I think I'd like to visit myself in 10 years ago. I'll advice him about the future as well as giving him warnings about what lies ahead of my life. I'm not the type who easily trust other people but if it's from myself, even it's from the "me" of the future I'm pretty I'd trust every single words. 1 hour should be more than enough for me to tell a few most important things in a summary. After all I wouldn't want to tell everything to the past me because doing so would be as if I'm controlling him.

Now lets put another condition; I must not meet my past self (I heard somewhere that doing so would resulting in some space-time disaster). In that case I think I might go back 1,400 years, and try to look for the greatest historical figure in Islam, Prophet Muhammad. Alright, that may sound ridiculous, but then again, the idea of having a time machine itself is ridiculous in the first place. And even if that is also impossible then I think I'd have no choice but to go to the future and utilize that 1 hour to observe the future tech trends. It would be useful for me to decide on what hi-tech toys I should buy next once I returned to the present time.

Tuesday, January 4

My Greatest Accomplishment of 2010

Since Q4 2009 I have plenty of "missions" planned for 2010. Some of them were "accomplished", some of them were dropped (halfway or canceled) and the rest were brought into 2011. Yes, I have many "accomplished missions" in 2010 alone, though the number is small if compared to my "failed missions". Some of them are just small things not worth talking about and some other are "really big things". Anyways for this post I'll choose what I think is the single most important thing I accomplished last year (2010).

Alive

That "single most important thing" is actually survived another year. 2010 has been the "unhealthiest" year for me. It's the year where had RSI on my right wrist, undergone a surgery, coughed blood, hospitalized, got in a road accident and stuff. I even thought "would I survive this year?". Thank goodness luck is still on my side and I managed to reach 2011 with me still breathing and alive.

It may not sound like a big thing to most people but for me it's important to stay alive, even if it's just for a year. Being alive itself is already the biggest pleasure I've ever had. Being thankful alone is not enough. Last year has taught me to appreciate life better. That said, I wish I will survive this year too.

Monday, January 3

My Ancestors' Stories

My real name is Akmal Rizal Shah Putra Mahayuddin ibn Hariffin Shah Putra Jammalullail. If you look at it I'm pretty sure it'd be hard to guess my ancestry line. To tell you the truth, it's not that complicated, and I'm not from a royal family or something like that. In fact I have no relationship with any royal families in the world. However It's from my name that I learned about my family's ancestry.

Grandfather's school picture_0044

On my father's side things are a little plain and 'normal'. He was born in a local tribesman family. Although his parents were pagan he was raised as a Christian by some British missionaries. There's not much told to me verbally about his ancestors though. However, there's a tradition in his family that they have a written record about their ancestry line dated back to 300 years ago.

Now on my mother's part, things are a little more interesting. My great grandfather, Uzaid, was a Persian merchant who came here for business around a century ago. He was born to an Aryan (Iranian) father and an Israeli Jewish mother. He was married to a local Malay woman who then gave birth to my grandfather, Abdul Ghafar. He's the one who was responsible to give me such a long name (>_<)

Sunday, January 2

Someone Who Deserves More Credit

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).

What I Want to be Remembered For...

Let's accept it, every living thing will face death regardless we want it or not. Of course if there's a choice not to die I'd opt for that but that's just impossible. Having high interest in history myself, I've learned about many ways people would be remembered for. Some are good and some are bad. Now it's time for me to think about that too.

Small bronze statue of a medieval knight

Should I leave this world anytime in the future, I'd like to be remembered as somebody useful for the world. I want to be remembered for my contributions, even if it's only as big as a mustard seed. I don't mind if I left this world not as a rich or famous person. What I really want is I left as a person who bring happiness to somebody. If possible I'd like my name to be recognized as an exemplary historical figure in local history too (surely in a good way).

Well, of course everybody would like to be remembered in a good way. However, knowing my self are really into right now, I'm pretty sure people will remember me as somebody who spent (almost) 1/3 of my life for anime/manga/games/figma. For some people it's not a bad thing but not everybody thinks that way. Other than that, at this rate people might also remember me as a gadget freak who had spent more than half of my income for gadgets and tech magazines. I hope it's not a bad thing too ;P

Saturday, January 1

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

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.

What I'm Looking Forward to in 2011

This is not the first time I'm saying this. There were many things I was looking forward to do in 2010 but many of them didn't make it in the end. Some of them are dropped and the remaining will be brought to 2011, together with a few additions. Here I present you things that I'm looking forward in 2011. Keep reading.

Ore no Imouto

1. Finish my OreImo-parody artwork

I know it's been months already but I have very little time to spend with producing artwork these days. My health has been deteriorating lately and I'm not sure if I could finish it this year (2011). However I'll try my best and update about it from time to time. Just hope that I'll get myself a graphic tablet before the year ends.

2. Do blogging more often (brought from 2010)

I've been blogging since 2005. I admit that I had a few peak moments in blogging where I posted more than one article in a day. Some other times I was too lazy that I only post one article a month. This year I'm thinking of changing that and thanks to Plinky I think I'll make it happen this year.

Pages

Sunday, December 18

Thursday, December 15

Saturday, December 10

Sunday, December 4

Sunday, November 20

Tuesday, November 15

Sunday, November 13

Sunday, November 6

Thursday, November 3

Wednesday, November 2

Tuesday, November 1

Tuesday, October 25

Thursday, October 20

Monday, October 17

Sunday, October 16

Saturday, October 15

Sunday, October 9

Saturday, October 8

Friday, October 7

Wednesday, October 5

Tuesday, September 27

Sunday, September 25

Friday, September 16

Wednesday, September 14

Tuesday, September 13

Monday, September 12

Monday, September 5

Friday, September 2

Thursday, August 25

Wednesday, August 24

Tuesday, August 23

Monday, August 22

Sunday, August 21

Thursday, August 4

Thursday, July 21

Wednesday, July 20

Sunday, July 10

Thursday, July 7

Sunday, July 3

Wednesday, June 8

Friday, June 3

Monday, May 30

Sunday, May 29

Friday, May 20

Saturday, February 12