Sabahhhhh 1

Finally back from Sabah.

It's been amazingly wonderful at times, insanely painful at others, highly unproductive at some and very not-worth-it occasionally. But all in all it's been a great trip and an enjoyable one at that.

I sincerely hope certain things never become prominent, particularly of certain individuals and techniques >_>

Radius Hotel is an awesome place for cheap money. Centrepoint is a pretty good place to be.

Oh man, Malaysian arcades are so cheap. I don't get it. Why is a game of Pump it Up less than a quarter of the Singaporean price? Why do video games literally cost a quarter?

Well, at least thanks to that it was pretty awesome to play Fate/Unlimited Codes (Yeah wth Sabah got games that Singapore doesn't have, what's up with that) and on the topic of F/UC (yes I get that) why the hell is launching so impossible and why can't you airdash and why is the computer Berzerker so imba omg ._.

AND I STILL CAN'T PASS MR. LARPUS ON HARD WTH. sian

Ignoring the above arcade speech, the mountain climb was hard. Insanely hard. Mesilau isn't an easy route, but one heck of a scenic and beautiful one (at some points. Some are just painful) what with its waterfalls, rapids, mountainside views and what I personally regard as sky gardens. All said and done, even though it was a pain of a hike up to Laban Rata it was hella worth it. Pity I ain't got me a camera nor a facebook account so I ain't got the pics. =\

Summit climb however was a different case >_>. 8 deg. C at Laban Rata at 2.30am is not condusive weather for climbing up to the summit especially since the summit was 1km higher and probably 8deg colder. Figures, huh. In any case, Arjun's gloves are <3 though he couldn't climb up. You would've seen a wonderful view that I didn't, dude. =p

Bugger weather was so freezing at the summit top that I gave up waiting for sunrise and set down before that. Apparently it was quite a good view. Meh =\ Well, it was worse for others, of course. Ahem people who wore one layer of clothing to the top and wore shorts and didn't bring gloves and people who broke their slippers and people who broke their shoes and people who had to be brought down back to the summit checkpoint by porters ahemprasadahem.

I hate climbing uphill at 45 inclines with rope. Man, that was terrible. I also hate climbing downhill at 45 inclines with/out rope. Terrible as well.

After climbing down back to Laban Rata though we (arjun/wesley/john/teckjun/david) decided to head down asap and left around 9.50 (after much camwhoring on the generator in the highest sky garden). Thank god too, the rain started pretty soon after I reached the bottom checkpoint. So the only people who were dry were David, Arjun and I. Oh, and bloody independent koreans.

ON ANOTHER NOTE ABOUT THE KOREANS THEY ARE FREAKING SCARY AND FIT AND EVEN MORESO THAN J.LEE WTF. Begin Mesilau trail at 8am, and most people reach around 5-6pm. I reach around 4pm (Go me fastest non-scout non-Korean/independent dude muahaha) and the fit scouts (ie J.Lee, Shawn Nai, Basil (somehow), Clifford, etc) reach around 2.20pm AND BLOODY KOREANS REACH AT 1.40PM WTF. Oh god Koreans are scary people.

Yet another note on complaining and annoyingness WHAT IS UP WITH MESILAU WHY WAS IT CHOSEN WTH. Ok it was worth it in the end admittedly but curse you Azmi for choosing the route. AND CURSE YOU EVEN MORE FOR TURNING BACK 1KM INTO IT LOL. Good to know you care for people like Clement (Who gave up 500m in lolwut >_>)

A later post for the poring hot springs which we went to after climbing down the summit (I suppose very few people here play RO >_>).

Madness

Pycha: I know now why I am mad.

Achyp: What is it, Pycha? The mind? The soul?

Pycha: The ascent. It drives people to madness.

Apych: Indeed it does. Those striving for the top soon find themselves climbing mountains of corpses, crossing bridges of bones, and conquering bloodied heights.

Pyach: Then perhaps you should have said so to Achyp earlier.

Apych: I thought he'd have known.

Achyp: ...the ascent, indeed. It turns you to a mindless vessel. A body of knowledge and thought. A lesser being. The answering machine, the mechanical being.

Pyach: Isn't it ironic, Pycha? That those aiming for the top merely become tools for those below. Is it altruism? Is it parasitism?

Pycha: It is reality. It is not a unique situation, nor will it be. I have witnessed this before in others, have I not?

Pycha, Pyach, Achyp, Apych: Indeed I have.

Pycha: It comes then without saying that such will happen to me too.

Pyach: Yet isn't it queer? Something strikes you apart from those who succeed.

Apych: Yes, perhaps it is not the ascent but the self.

Achyp: The mind, the soul.

Pycha: The goals. The ideologies have corrupted them both. It has been a foolish ideal to uphold; a foolish oath to keep.

Achyp: But the hope, Pycha. Does it still exist?

Pyach: The hope is neither a means nor an end. What purpose does it serve?

Apych: None but to send the self further into the wilderness. I thought you'd have known.

Pyach: It was rhetoric.

Apych: And it was sarcasm.

Achyp: The goals, though. What went wrong there?

Pycha: The goals themselves were wrong. But how? I am not sure. The mindset? The dedication? Yes, the dedication. The need for the ascent. It has driven us to madness.

Pycha, Pyach, Achyp, Apych: Indeed it has.

Pycha: Do you call it a pity?

Apych: Perhaps you'd rather call it a pittance.

Pycha, Pyach, Achyp, Apych: A pittance, indeed.

Exams

Chinese tomorrow.
Jap listening on friday.
Jap written next week.
Chem theory in two weeks.
Sabah in two weeks.
Returning from Sabah on three weeks.
Chem practical (if at all) in three weeks.
JLPT in 5 weeks.
Kendo grading in 6.
Christmas in 7.

And sadly Solomon Grundy doesn't die yet.

Damn it writing is harder than ever.

Spore

SPOREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE DAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Gid you have brought my productivity to ruin

Damnit why the hell is hard mode actually difficult I swear I'm doing something wrong here >_>

And it doesn't help that I needed Godwin to help me handle the creator after a while because I was laughing too hard

WHY NOW AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH JY I swear I should've heeded your damn advice >_>

Life is going to be severely unproductive at this rate gg

Addendum: WHAT THE HELL IS AN EPIC MOO MOO AND WHY DOES IT STOMP ON ME WHEN I TRY TO SOCIALIZE WITH OTHER SPECIES CURSE YOUR KIND DAMNIT

The Conversation at The End of The World

I looked at the world around me. It was all a blur; I'd just woken up from what seemed a very deep sleep. Only when my eyes focused on the environment around me did I realize how different everything was.

"What happened?" I say to myself. It's hard to take all this in when you barely wake up, and that's ignoring the fact that neither coffee nor water were anywhere in sight.

"Well, let's just say a lot, shall we? Though I'm quite surprised you actually woke up." I turned to my right. There, a lady sat on a white plastic chair, drinking tea with an English tea set - the few visible remnants of any civilization in the midst of the ruin. It was amazing how someone like that who would have seemed normal usually now seemed so alien in the current environment.

Who was this person? Obviously she's been awake longer than I have, or she'd be freaked out too. The ruin extends for miles; the place here gives a far-reaching view of the entire landscape. Has she been taking care of me all this time? How long have I been asleep?

"What's going on?" Precisely what I was thinking. "...is what you're probably thinking right now, isn't it." Right as hell about that. "Well, it's a long story. One that's hard to begin, too. And personally? I'm too lazy to answer all your questions, though I imagine you'd really need to have every one of them heard out. Well, I guess I haven't a choice, have I? Go ahead and ask me anything."

"Well, firstly then. Who're you?"

"Lazy to answer. Next." I stared at her. "What? I don't feel like answering that right now. Ask me something else."

"Fine, then. What happened to this place?"

"You mean the world, actually. Well, it's as you see it - complete desolation. Terrible stuff, really. This is what happens when people seek too much, you get what I mean?" I didn't get a single thing out of that. Seeking?

"Not really."

"Figures, you've been asleep rather long. Now where do I start?" she thought to herself for a while. "Ah, I got the word," and sipped on her tea. "Idealism."

"Still don't get it."

"Knew it. Ever thought of a world government? The ideal of uniting everything under the sky? Eliminating transnational war as we currently know it? Wonderful ideals, aren't they? That's what those superpowers thought. Ideals, they sure are. You know, you should get up and come over here. It helps to walk around instead of just sitting over there in your bed, yeah? Come on, there's a spare chair for you. Not many sit on these nowadays." It was suprisingly hard to walk, despite the short distance. I sat down on the chair opposite hers and rested my elbows on the table.

"Anyway, as I was saying. Ideals are good, aren't they? But the execution was terrible. Countries started arguing on who would make the World Committee. Soon enough there was war all around the world. Some countries got a bit too into it, and I suppose that's the way the cookie crumbles, huh. Though you'd be hard pressed to find any nowadays." I just sat there for a while. It was quite a bit to take in suddenly. All I remember was that the world wasn't like this. Then, she looked me in the face and asked me something instead.

"Before I continue, by the way, I need to ask you something. Do you remember who you are? It really has been quite some time since you woke up, after all."

I didn't. Why? Now I had questions about myself in addition to questions about her. Perhaps I'd just taken it for granted that I would've known everything about myself and never considered that I'd have my self disappearing along with the world.

"...unfortunately I don't. I'm not sure why either. Amnesia? That's my best guess. All I remember right now is that the world was completely different." She sighed.

"Good enough. If it helps, I know your name is Aleister. Should be, at least. I can't guarantee anything. How about a cup of tea? Can't say that it's as good as before, but I doubt you would remember trivial things like the taste of English tea." I helped myself to a cup. You wouldn't have needed any memory to know that tea probably tasted better in the past. It would've came as a natural guess, at least that was what I thought drinking it. She seemed to have grown an acquired taste for it, though. But why did it taste familiar?

"I'll trust you have a good reason to say that. The tea's fine as it is. The taste feels familiar, though. Can't say why."

"Good to know; I was hoping you'd like it. Well, now that my question's been answered, do you have any other questions for me?"

I had to ask this one. "How long have you been watching over me?"

"Lazy to answer. Next." Not the most sociable lady, is she.

"You're not the most sociable lady, are you?" Yes, I suppose I do like speaking my thoughts.

"You find a sociable person in such a time. Do you have any idea how long it has been since I've made any conversation with another person? Bear with me for now if I do like to keep to myself a bit." If? "I'm sorry though. Keep talking. It's been so long. Sometimes I think I'd go mute." Admittedly, she had a point. She continued, "You know, Aleister, what does it feel like to be at the end of the world? How should a conversation in this age and era go? I don't know, Aleister. It's just been so long. How's the day? Fine weather, isn't it? Whatcha going to do later? Anything new?"

"Ok, cut it out, Miss. It's freaky. I don't get any of this."

"Yet you're so calm already. You were probably those kind of people who would've been calm in any kind of situation, don't you think?"

"Perhaps."

"The kind that would get the world destroyed." What?

"That's a bit harsh, don't you think?"

"Perhaps. Do you want another cup of tea, Aleister? It's pretty good. Also, it's rather late right now, so if you don't feel like asking anything else or having any more tea I'll excuse myself and rest for the night. "

"I'll refrain from the tea, thank you very much. Could I ask one last question before you sleep, then?" Sure thing, she said. "What's your name? You don't need to tell me who you are exactly, but I at least need something to call you by, don't I?"

"...true." She looked at me for a while. "The name's Grace Mary Elizabeth. Just call me by any of them."

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This is going to be so insanely long. gg