Yet Another Personality Test

Came across this on IonStorm's blog and thought, why not give it a try?

Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion: You have low extroversion. You are quiet and reserved in most social situations. A low key, laid back lifestyle is important to you. You tend to bond slowly, over time, with one or two people. Conscientiousness: You have low conscientiousness. Impulsive and off the wall, you don't take life too seriously. Unfortunately, you sometimes end up regretting your snap decisions. Overall, you tend to lack focus, and it's difficult for you to get important things done. Agreeableness: You have medium agreeableness. You're generally a friendly and trusting person. But you also have a healthy dose of cynicism. You get along well with others, as long as they play fair. Neuroticism: You have medium neuroticism. You're generally cool and collected, but sometimes you do panic. Little worries or problems can consume you, draining your energy. Your life is pretty smooth, but there's a few emotional bumps you'd like to get rid of. Openness to experience: Your openness to new experiences is medium. You are generally broad minded when it come to new things. But if something crosses a moral line, there's no way you'll approve of it. You are suspicious of anything too wacky, though you do still consider creativity a virtue.

The Five Factor Personality Test

It's Too Early In The Morning For This...

...an alarm clock in the form of someone banging the back of my car on a heavily congested highway. It's a good thing Wii manage to catch up, and have the thing seen to. If Wii had a car horn that blares, "OOOOOIIIII!!!!!" Wii probably wouldn't even need to cut lanes, avoid oncoming motorcycles and chase the dude.

Twilight Sunday

Wii're starting to like this game more. But only in terms of flavour.

6 races out to gain rulership of the galaxy. 6 great leaders bent on galactic domination. Only one House will prevail. Your battle for Dune begins...NOW.

Damn. Anyways, the Races and their Great Leaders out to take the mantle of galactic rulers were:
The Federation of Sol, led by Commander-General Wolfx Blue.
The Xxcha Kingdom, advised by Counsel-Ambassador IonStorm Black.
The Universities of Jol-Nar, headed by Provost psike Red.
The Yssaril Tribe, dictated by Rogue aycee Greene.
The Emirates of Hacan, governed by Tradeschief Wong Golde.
The Mentak Coalition, directed by Captain Suraj Violet.

When the galaxy was created, the joint creators saw it fit to scatter resource-rich planets on one half of the galaxy and leave the other half serenely empty with a beautiful landscape. Goes to show that yin-yang affects things at a higher level than anyone expected. The Yssaril, being the most deprived saw it necessary that they maintain good relationships with their neighbours if they were to survive. With the Provost openly mulling on causing general trouble for everyone (and more for himself), the Yssaril Rogue knew their best hope laid with the Hacan. Fly Emirates.

As the races were about to explore the great unknown in search for habitable planets and resources, the Xxcha called for the election of the Minister of Travel, and gained the favour of the Sol to push competitions Jol-Nar and Yssaril aside in achieving the post. Now not only do the Xxcha have planets for picking as well as receive tithes whenever other races gain control of a neutral planet, it is clear that an alliance between the Sol and Xxcha are brewing.

Yssaril immediately opened up trade with the Hacan and the Universities, in a quick attempt to set up the Trade Coalition while denying the Xxcha further resources from their Sol allies. The greedy Mentak kept an eye over our trade goods, waiting to silently smuggle them off under our very noses. The Universities opted to keep everyone out of technological access in a bid to equalize the playing field.

Immediately, the Mentak, following their Manual of War (called the 'Zergling Rush'), made into Hacan space screaming war and spouting taunts of tearing the Hacan to pieces and feeding them to their women. To be feared, indeed, as the Mentak came into battle with their women and children! The Hacan, unfazed (how cool can these cats be?) by the Mentak blockade took the war back to them and wiped the fleet off from the history books. Thus started the War of Free Trade, with the Pirates (Mentak) believing in cheap prices and copied goods against the Merchants (Hacan) who charges exorbitant prices for their limited edition artifacts.

The Xxcha called for election (again), this time for the Minister of War. The races with enough political backing were the Xxcha and the Yssaril, and this time the allliances were transparent. The Xxcha turns out to be secretly governed by the Sol! The Trade Coalition needed to work hard at getting a fighting force up quickly - the Yssaril made a pact with the Hacan: the Yssaril will give Hacan the political backing it needs to be the Minister of War in exchange for truce and trade. Once elected, the Hacan were given a free Space Dock to further fuel their efforts against the Mentak.

The Mentak was displeased with the turn of events and warped into Yssaril space to teach them a lesson, but despite their aggressive firepower, they revealed a major flaw in pirated products: lack of quality led to miscalculated aims and weak armour! Even their troops learned of this when they landed in an attempt at planetary takeover. It was evident that the Mentak suffered the BDR-syndrome (Bad Dice Rolls). The Mentak then vowed to visit the temples more often before waging war.

The Sol moved forward into Mecatol Rex untouched throughout all this, seeing no competition. Spies found the secret to their endless breeding when undercover on Mecatol Rex. A Solarian meeting a fellow Solarian of the opposite sex, will use the pick up line, "Do you want a Strategic Counter?" This is followed by a sudden breeding process which results in more Solarians! The other races were appalled when they learned of this but unfortunately have not researched any extermination methods.

The Universities continued carving out territory of their own while warily patrolling their borders for Xxchan invasion, who have already begun producing Dreadnoughts. Unfornately for them, their decision on locking everyone out from technology advances early on backfired as no one else decided to pursue knowledge as well, causing stagnation within the Universities. Only once the Yssaril gained a Tech Bubble allowing them to gain 2 technological advances did everyone quest for knowledge, and allowing both Universities and the Yssaril to bring forth their Deep Space Cannons into play. The Hacan's scientists had a breakthrough in War Sun manufacture (without requiring the Deep Space Cannon) but unfortunately was assassinated by the Sol.

On other objectives, Sols, once dug in on Mecatol Rex, begin persuing open intentions at Imperialism at a much further rate compared to Yssaril. The tame Yssarils were worried when Imperialism led to the early military growth of the other races, thus led them putting off chasing the Imperial seat until they were more sure of their standing. In terms of glorious achievements, both the Sol and Yssaril had numerous planets while the Universities of Jon-Nar were about to claim an advanced state of technology. The Xxchas, advised by the Commander-General, started making their way into Jol-Nar space to broaden their territories as well as to claim glory. Despite Deep Space Cannons and the Magen Defense Grid, the Jol-Nar must have purchased their tools and equipment from the Mentak as their faulty Deep Space Cannons did not stop the Xxchas from taking over their planets.

Time was closing down...while the Mentak called for a Diplomatic Treaty with the Hacan, the Hacan and Yssaril conferred, discovering a loophole that allowed the Hacan to saunter in into an unoccupied Mentak system, taking over 2 planets! We're not too sure if the Mentak have picked their jaws off the ground from that yet.

In the end, Imperial Eclipse (known as the 6 o'clock) descended unto the galaxy, wiping out both the Hacan and the Mentak by plague and ending the War of Free Trade. Just before annihilation, the Mentak could be heard praying to their mother-god, saying that they will be coming home to paradise soon as they were getting destroyed.

The Xxcha continued to press into the Universities homeworlds, where crippled Jol-Nar fighters could only buzz around like helpless mosquitoes against the Xxchan fleet, as the Universities never did manage to do enough research to give them a fighting chance. The Yssarils were too quiet in both combat and politics, but came out second in line for the throne. The Sol, having captured Mecatol Rex early on, continued to hold Mecatol Rex as the new Rex Imperium. A new dawn of martial rabbit law shall begin.

Edit: Read the Solarian's report within here.

Tame (But Complete) Weekend

It's a pleasant surprise when what turns out to be a simple weekend with only one activity planned per day turn into a full weekend.

From a cancelled trip to Genting First World on Friday (darn you specific Citibank/First World Stay-For-Sure T&C with its must-check-in-before-6pm T&C!), things took a turn for the better when jack208 texted to say that there was another boardgame meetup at Old Town Kopitiam. Baiting 'Nic to join in on the fun (also with the intent of obtaining a much-desired navigator to get us to Cheras with little risk of getting lost) took a bit of persuasive texting, but the Eurogames Evangelist has passion and made a few modifications to his initial plans, thus allowing him to partake of the night's boardgaming fun and still make it for his Gua Tempurung trip the following morning.

Dinner was at Luca's Pizza at Cineleisure Damansara, which served pizza that didn't stand out for their quality, but rather because they sold their pizzas not just as a whole 12" pizza but also in quarters at RM6.99. Once 'Nic showed up Wii were on our way.

Old Town Kopitiam turned out to be quite a happening place, filled full with peeps all the way till closing time. Wii had a table upstairs to fit the 6 of us nicely, plus it was a good view of the upstairs crowd. A small concern Wii had for a while when playing our games was having a waiter come up to us and ask, "Er, cannot gamble here one ya..." but unfortunately that didn't happen. Not that Wii were gambling, but Wii were having paper money passed around, it was a Chinese-dominated hangout spot, Wii were having fun...some people get jealous because of this you know.

Wii didn't realise that 1856 (a railroad game with lots of things to watch about, from stock-market manipulating to building up your railroad company to dumping debt-infested companies to others...) was the event of the night at OTK, and it didn't help reading 'Nic's blog earlier about their previous game. But the brain, survival skills intact, decided on the strategy Wii would follow in order to survive the game with a happy experience. Tame investing while Wii learn the other intricacies of the game. More can be read here, courtesy of jack208, who has written it with full flavour (as how any boardgame should be). As it was, being deathly afraid of what terrors jack208 and 'Nic may pull on us, Wii weren't just tame, Wii were very tame!

The night ended for us near 2am, when OTK finally closed up for the night. Then it was home, upload the pics taken and work on editing mp3s to put as tunes on our L'Amour. After sending 'Nic off at 6.30am it was bedtime...until 2pm that is. Afternoon was seen clicking away playing ".A" as tevets was back and wanted his fix. Lad, on the other hand, was sick of the game but unfortunately his selling skills was not up to convincing tevets to try something new.

Sat night continued with Lad, NJAPF and her housemates, psike and tevets with more boardgames! This time Wii did Balderdash and Cranium. Balderdash turns out to be very fun as what happens is all players take an attempt to 'convince' (read: bull$hit) other players into believing that his or her answer is the real deal to a rather obscure question. Answers were very convincing, some where bizzare, all feasible. The one snag Wii find with the game is that, after a few plays, you'll definitely know the correct answers to most of the stuff as bizzare trivia tend to stick in the brain. Cranium saw NJAPF, Lad and housemate-Cheryl teaming up against tevets, psike and us. Games went well, with no one able to guess the Sideshows (bewildered puppeteering of an arm-flapping tevets for example), everyone save tevets being afraid of getting the Datahead category, no one able to do the Humdingerz category due to the fact of not knowing the songs...good fun.

Sunday saw another full day as what was supposed to be just an afternoon of Twilight Imperium 3 was slotted into second place as an Wii had promised breakfast with Lad, NJAPF and Lemon beforehand - he had a free makan voucher for dim sum buffet at MidValley. Food was surprisingly good (how wrong can you go with dim sum?) but their egg tarts were absolutely good: one bite and it melts in your mouth! At 12.30 and stuffed-full, Wii left MidValley and scraped out of the jam of incoming traffic into MidValley, rushed off to pick psike and head for our TI3 game.

TI3 saw Wolfie, friends Wong, IonStorm, Suraj, psike and us battling it out to become the ruler of the galaxy. This time around the galaxy was built proper (unlike our last game) but amazingly our home planet was still located far far in destitute space. Can't say that our people, the sneaky Yssaril won't have lovely romantic landscapes to look at...

The diplomatic Xxxcha, a turtle race once held in thrall by the tyrannical Barony of Letnev, was led by IonStorm, a puppet leader controlled by Wolfie, who led the Federation of Sol (rabbits, the lot of them). Suraj, the Random Rampager, was felled by bad dice rolls against both Tradeschief Wong of the Hacan and Tame aycee of the Yssaril. Provost psike of the Jol-Nar eyed his neighbours the Xxcha warily as he may have to contend with both Xxxcha and Sol should territories be contested...

Wii'll post up a report on that separately.

Sunday ended with another session of ".A" at AsiaCafe in Subang where Wii acted as feeder *sigh*. Although there's loads of food options, tastewise it failed to please although the place looks to be quite a good hangout spot with the variety of food and the ambience. Being back in Taylor's territory made us feel somewhat old too, looking at all the kids about...

Now to get our sleep back into sync with the weekdays...sob.

Guess The Lyrics 1

Into
The Wonderful
Into
The Wonderful
Into
The Wonderful
Into
The Wonderful...

Wii've provided a clue somewhere :)

Succumbing to L'Amour

Love is in the air... everywhere you look around...
Love is in the air... in every sight and every sound...

And Wii don't know if Wii're being foolish... (no, no one answer that)
Don't know if Wii're being wise...
But it's something that Wii must believe in...
And it's that Wii miss tactile keypads!

How did the obsession for the Nok7390 started? With our dear sister discussing with us about her wanting to change her phone. Then during the start of the month her mobile carrier gave her a voucher for a phone upgrade at about a hundred bucks off, and she was asking us for our opinions. Somewhen then Wii were thinking of a short change from our Nok7710, as while it's a good phone unfortunately Wii needed some time off from scrawling with a stylus (no, Nintendo DS, you don't get off so easily) and the Nok7390 caught our eye.

Sis was all for the N-series, but Wii were all for clamshell at the moment (flashback to Glasgow days when our some of our batchmates, signing up with Vodafone and the likes, picked the Samsung clamshells...Wii were aversed to clamshells then as Wii viewed them as...fragile, plus Samsung, while colourful and tinkly, had no forms of connectivity save a USB cable).

So Nok7390 held out and was wedged deep within our brain, making its mark just like how our iPod Video 30G, Canon Ixus 55, Nok7710, Nok7650 and Sony Net MD Walkman MZ-N707 did...help save us from this madmen.

Anyways, it feels good to be able to text using a keypad once again. Otousan asks, "So this is like a downgrade la for you?" Wii feels not (really), as it's a 3G phone capable of supporting a 2GB microSD card, it's able to do some things much better than our Nok7710 (think texting with one hand!). So Wii don't think of it as downgrade, its a sidegrade instead!

Anyways, Wii have to now take the time to personalize our new L'Amour to make it fully ours. Wii're keeping our mind open to the option of getting Maxis' MultiSim 1 Line, so both phones have a working sim card and still lead healthy normal (but shared) lives.

Slowly going over the hill

Now it's not as if Wii're past our prime, or that our 'market share' has gone down the drain (yes, yes, Wii've heard that guys' shares goes up as they grow older, girls' go down) but it's surprising how time really passes by (and rather quickly, that) even when you notice it.

And knowing how our memory is (still haven't gotten a post about Christmas 2006, whoops), Wii needs to either jot it down somewhere. But what to write? Thanks to our unofficial photographer (Wii've got to get another pendrive specifically to get stuff from you now otousan), our iXus, Blogspot and Flickr, photos of events are well marked down for perusal anytime Wii want to take a walk down Memory HTML Online.

Of course, pictures don't tell you the work and effort taken to put things into motion - logistics, getting people together now that we're all working in different sectors, gift-choosing with the associated 'damn-him-hope-he-hasn't-got-it-himself-yet' mindset*, the MMS-ing/emailing of birthday gifts to all parties involved, the surreptitious and not-too-subtle signing of the birthday card (something Wii love, the way its done), the guessing of where the birthday cake was bought (no really lad Wii wouldn't have minded a Bee's Confectionary chiffon cake haha), the male gusto of birthday song singing (that puts other tables, if not the waiters who have to sing it, to shame), camwhoring...

Does all this make the celebration special?

Nope. You guys do. The extended family that one gets to choose.

Here's to you guys joining us in going past the Golden Hill of 25. Until then be good or Uncle aycee will spank you all and won't give you treats.

*The entire meditation goes thus: 'damn-him-what-does-he-want-what-does-he-have-what-does-he-need-what-does-he-like-has-he-gotten-it-already-how-much-is-it-hope-he-likes-it-why-can't-he-just-say-what-he-wants-hope-he-hasn't-gotten-it-himself-yet' and is followed by a mandala of a black spiral made out of question marks. Not that it works for us, because ours is a variant where the 'he' can be replaced by the 'Wii'.

Rain Showers

Wondering why there are female Rain-impersonators.

Dancing like there's no tomorrow.

No qualms.

Getting wet.

People everywhere.

Shirts off.

Beer.

Amazingly, only 3 bottles of beer for the entire night.

Text proclaiming Wii're old.

Leaving early.

Damned bird shit for parking under the trees.

Heading home.

Shower (again).

Note-To-Self: Mother's Day Present

AAARGH! Some blogs are just dangerous to read if not mentally prepared: Will's blog has gotten us thinking about shopping, shopping, shopping and screw the credit limits.

Of course, it doesn't help when Wii have a perfectly good reason to go shopping as well: mum's birthday present.

And our sis and us are running low on ideas, whatmore whatwith Christmas just over and us banging our brains then thinking of prezzie ideas. So, the need to go shopping, or rather, walking around the shopping malls waiting for present ideas to hit us. Unfortunately this also means Wii would most likely be doing personal shopping at the same time as well (more often than not). Sigh.

Anyhoo. One and a half hour is sooo not enough time for perusing around our second home (1 Utama), and Wii only have 2 more days to shop for something for mum (it's not easy, it never is). Sis had suggested something along the lines of clothes from a particular boutique but Wii wouldn't know what particular item of clothing mum likes really. And it's a good thing that what Wii currently like in clothes are waaay out of our rational spending range and the clothes Wii need will take time to find (still, that hasn't stopped us looking).

The only gift idea that Wii've been throwing into the air since Christmas was to make a Pixart photo album for mum, but Sis wasn't too keen on the idea (saying it was too expensive). Now, it's a bit too late for that as it'll take about a week for the thing to get ready. Plus Wii'll have to initially scrounge around for a variety of photographs to scan in, look through the digital photos from the various recent trips, make the choices hoping that they'll be good ones and also arranging the layout.

Anyways, 2 more days of hectic shopping! And note-to-self: Pixart book for Mother's Day. End of story. Unless Sis has a better idea, of course.

Resolutions 2007

Well, Wii'd never been one to make New Year's Resolutions because first off, Wii aren't really an ambitious one to make lofty goals, Wii're happy with the way most things were, and Wii didn't see the point of making a resolution that Wii know Wii'd forget soon enough.

Of course, this one's not really a New Year's Resolution to begin with, it was actually one of the reasons Wii got our current printer.

So anyways, on with the Resolution (note singular).

"To Scan In All Printed Photographs Wii Have Into Digital Format, So That Wii Have Backups Somewhere."

In fact, while Wii are writing this Wii're scanning in the Desaru piccies! And the album is an assortment of IMU year piccies!

More to come up here and on Flickr!

Teh.Internets.Is.Slooow.

Bloody taking me a long time to get anywhere and the connections keep timing out. Hurry up and get those lines fixed and quake-proof!

"Cool Things To Put On Your Blog"

Your Gluttony Quotient: 58%

You definitely have your gluttonous moments. For you, eating is a true hobby. And while you do spend a lot on food, you can always make it back winning eating contests.

How Much Gluttony Do You Have?

Interesting site all right, but accurate? Mebbe Wii'll play around some more to find out.

He's Been Sick And Wii Didn't Know

More than just sick. He's not waking up at the moment, despite numerous calls. He's been a loyal companion for the last 6 years already. He fell sick before once, just before Wii went to Scotland, but thankfully he got better just in time.

Of course, once he'd hit the Big 5, Wii had to admit that he was getting...old. Well, he did started getting slow, his memory wasn't what it used to be, and he didn't really understand stuff like DVDs, but the both of us shared good times playing Heroes of Might and Magic III and Diablo II, listening to music, doing uni projects together until the wee hours of the morning, watching episodes of Sailormoon and Naruto together in James Blyth Court...

Wii're feeling quite sentimental and torn, because...while Wii know he's sick and it doesn't seem...fatal, Wii're wondering if he's worth saving.

Because it would cost more to send him to the doctors for medical treatment than to get a new, young companion altogether.

Will you get better?

iWant?

mrbrown's had us zipping straight into Apple's website with word that the iPhone is coming soon. Wii wanted to see how impressive the iPhone was gonna be, whether it would wow us like how the (third generation? easily put, click-wheel colour screen generation) iPod did.

Impressions? Measurements shows it to be about as big as our iPod, only half an inch longer! That's a plus. Aesthetically speaking, it's top-notch (on the webpage it's top-notch at least) whatwith a full 3.5inch screen (almost the whole front of it's the screen!), a handy size and how many buttons? Only the visible one in front (Wii sees the Hold button and the earphone jack on top)!

Now that that's out of the way. Wii likes the way it's gonna be a Multitouch screen - that's handy if Wii ever do photo resizing on the iPhone. Other than that, using fingers for the screen is much more handier compared to using a stylus for the job, however, Wii needs reassurance that the screens is not gonna get scratched. One thing about text imput though...Wii're back into the QWERTY soft keyboard and Wii guess there'll be no writing input. At times Wii get sick of using the stylus to write already (and eyeing the Nok7390 because of this), plus Wii needs to use both hands and see the screen while Wii do so. With the QWERTY keyboard, would the buttons be big enough to press or do Wii resort to thumbnails? Yes, there be a predictive app to correct mistakes but hey, Wii wants to keep to the 160-letter cap at times yes?

Internet functions look good, at least there's WiFi 'cos GPRS is Expensive. But it's not a 3G phone :( Not that that matters much at the mo anyway, no one really uses video calls now do they? Connectivity-wise, still the big Ex stops us.

Wii gave up using our Nok7710 phone for a cam (unless it's bright out, or it doesn't require focusing much on something) as it's slightly grainy but more because it's SLOW, that job's gone to our iXus Ixus now. Only if Wii wants to do some picture editing or for MMS purposes then only the phonecam comes into play. It's a shame our Nok7710 can't do macros, else Wii'd be able to do more damage to other ppl via MMS when Wii have sinful sinful meals.

Another concern (that probably only matters to Nok7710 users like us) - program opening can be a bit sluggish. With the software update it's now slightly better but some programs still take a wee bit too long for our liking (near-instant, it ought to be), like for opening Word docs. Wii don't think PDA users have this issue.

Oh, while it's 4GB or 8GB of memory, it's non-removable. Neither's the battery. Our iPod's already used up 20GB, plus since it's a phone Wii'll be more concerned in preserving battery life.

All in all, Wii thinks it's somewhat like our Nok7710 (but so much more elegant) but that won't stop us slavering over it when it finally reaches MYhome shores. And Wii would wonder about the price tag - Wii'd splurged 400 quid for our Nok7710 when it first came out (Wii haven't the heart to look at the price now, 3 years down the road) and it has served us faithfully all this time. Wii don't have another 400 quid for phones, and Wii'd only get one that'll wow our socks off...Wii're still waiting for iPhone to do that.

Don't Laugh

'Twas just thinking back to the dayz when Wii watched more telly - especially when Wii had less entertainment (just books and the radio) and you know something? Jangan Ketawa rocks on my list as the top locally-produced entertainment series for the telly. Nothing else came close. The crossdressers Moon and Dee (and some Indian dude too, can't remember his name), Chin and others unfortunately unremembered provided barrels of laughs most of the time, all within local context making it easy to identify with.

Sadly the only scene Wii remembers is in one episode, there was a scene where someone (Wii thinks the Indian dude) was knocked down and started rolling downhill, only to appear in snippets between other scenes still rolling around nonstop (momentum power of knockdown infinite!?) at different places.

More Excitement of Magic

Now the minisite's given us more fun by guessing what card the artwork (for a timeshifted card?) referred to (like Damnation to Wrath Of God by Kev Walker).

With this 3 weeks as the preview weeks before the new expansion is launched, the eyecandies are yummy. So far Wii've found:

rk posts' new artwork opened our eyes...

It's Morphling, but our minds keep going back to Kabal of Mortal Kombat.

This artwork finally clicked where Wii'd seen it before...

Spirit Link, 9th Edition! And more Kev Walkers (btw his Dragons are awesome)! This one doesn't look out to be a timeshift Wii suspects.

Flavourwise, Wii likes Braids...

In her old mad self. Wiithinks not a timeshift too.

The 'Green Seal' pic and the 'Black Sliver' weren't timeshifted cards, Wii weren't interested in the 'White Crovax' nor in (Green?) Jedit Ojanen. But this pic has us wondering where Wii've seen it before. Wii knows Wii have somewhere.

Wii wonders of any chance of a timeshifted/alternative Rebecca Guay card, but Wii thinks the chances of that are very, very slim.

Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!!!

The music rocks, the game fun & addictive, the comics funny. Driven up the wall by the challenge of scoring BELOW average for each checkpoint so that Wii are able to view the 'X' (fail!) cutscenes instead of the 'O' (pass!) ones, as if Wii try to score to badly Wii might just lose the stage instead.

There's the Japanese version (Osu! Tatake! Ouendan!) and the English version (Elite Beat Agents), both with 3 levels of difficulty to pass as so to unlock yet another level of difficulty plus bonus stages...

Osu!!!

Excitement Of Magic

They've done a whopper for the likes of us who enjoy the flavour of Magic: The Gathering. Maybe it's because Wii're also a MaRo fan, but the New Year's preview card completely bowled us over with jaws to the floor, and MaRo's preview today did it again. Of course, this only affects those who're familiar with M:tG to some level, 'cos it's old cards they're referring to.

First up, the New Year's preview, Damnation.

At first sight the jaw drops as the brain links it to Wrath Of God, Kev Walker artwork edition (who also did Damnation):

Damnation did a lot to excite us, not only from the artwork and mechanics but also from the card texture and text colour. Noticable because black's card texture, from the bubbly swampy look to the sudden cracked drought-ground look...

Today it's Groundbreaker:

Needed a bit of looking into abilities before Ball Lightning came to mind:

Wii are certainly waiting for more. It's a bit of a wonder, how this game still doesn't allow us to let go and move on to WoW.

Camland New Year!

To the other Klangites, the last Camland Getaway seems very recent - Wii however likes our holidays and wouldn't complain. It's a holiday away from the usual hustle and bustle, why bugger about it unless there was a previous horrendous experience? Anyways, Wii'd ended up at Camland again to celebrate the New Year's with the Klangites (a change from wrangling with the crowd in Bangsar or Bintang Walk).

The ride up Brinchang was jam-packed with cars, thus dampening the spirit to drive far for lunch and exploration. It was a good thing that food and shops were nearby, as our legs were still on the road to recovery from muscle strain and Wii weren't too happy entertaining the thought of heckloads of stairclimbing (thankfully Wii recovered soon enough for the jungle trekking).

Wii'd rented an apartment this time, as 'Ward was afraid Wii'd trash his apartment couldn't join us for the trip. Say hello to Honeymoon Villa Apartments, Brinchang.

Not as large as 'Wards' Parkview Apartments but still big nevertheless, with 3 bedrooms able to accomodate 4 peeps each and with their own attached bathrooms, Wii were all comfortably settled in. Asides from 'Ward, Randall has also flown off to the UK, yet bringing down the numbers. But this trips still saw us 10 peeps strong - 'Nic, Vincent, Jun, KE, Ee Lee, Ivan, Unker Ray, Larry, Lynn and us.

Rain was a bit of a hassle in Camland, keeping us indoors for a fair bit but that didn't mean Wii couldn't be entertained.

We Banged! each other...

Hunted Chameleons for their pelts...

And whenever a player got saboh-ed, we'll just say, "That's Life," with a big grin.

One of the highlights of this trip was the food galore - led by the Food God, Ivan. Wii'd already learnt our lesson about eating at any other available place - Wii had weird lunch where the fried rice was tasteless and the kuey teow tasted of pure pepper. So, crowded restaurant = good food. Come dinner Wii had steamboat at this place called Restoran Jew May Yen, which was fairly crowded but thankfully Wii'd managed to get a table.

After steamboat Wii then headed down to the pasarmalam for a bit of a look-see. It seems that chocolate-covered strawberries have also hit Cameron - there were 2-3 stalls selling them for RM2 per stick. Hmmm, isn't that the same price as that Wii get at The Curve? Shall check back next time. There was also home-made ice-cream - now those wasn't half bad, altho the blueberry-flavoured one Wii had was rather thick and Wii couldn't tell the difference from blueberry to strawberry after that.

Highlight 2 - New Year's Eve activities! Our old friend JD paid a visit, bringing his mates Jim Beam and Bicardi along to celebrate as well. Together we yam-seng'd 2007 in, only to be copied by some neighbouring apartment who cannot stick with the usual "HAPPY NEW YEAR!" instead. Memories were tested with the School Song and the School Rally, and even the ex-prefects had their song (what was it called again?). All in good boisterous mood.

After a while of drinking games, we'd decided to cut to the chase - just open the top card, count the number of peeps and the fella drinks! A very fast way of achieving highness. It's a shame Wii didn't take any videos - Wii has a replacement 'entertainer' now that Randall has gone, although this one's more expensive as he can outdrink the rest of us before Wii get to watch the show.

Oh yes, must remember to stock up the pharmacy/first aid box before going on trips.

Next morning, Wii had Marvel Heroes set up for playtesting...except no one knew how to play the game. 'Nic was appointed rulesmiester and sent off to read up the rulebook while the game, all ready on the mahjong table, was put aside for later. Lunch saw us back at Jew May Yen for a 7-course lunch! Good food. KE and Ee Lee left us after lunch to head back to KL, bringing our numbers down to eight.

So Wii headed off for Highlight 3 - Jungle Trek: The Sam Poh Screw! Pray that you make it out alive!

Vincent prudently sat out of this one, leaving brave lads 'Nic, Ivan, Jun, Larry, Unker Ray and us. Unfortunately, Wii weren't clear about it being a jungle trek and thought that Wii were just off to see the temple. And so there we were, dressed in jeans and a polo-tee, equipped with wallet, phone and Ixus. The designated shorts and tee meant to be worn (and get dirtied) were left wailing in our backpack. Dressed like this spoilt things a bit for us as part of us were then now obsessed with trying to remain as clean as possible.

Still.

Last Camland Getaway regrets were that Wii had no pics of said experience - thankfully Wii had our Ixus with us this time. Now the only thing is to try and take shots that don't look shaky >:( A concern of ours regarding while we went trekking was that our legs would hamper progress. Miraculously Wii were bouncing along the trek all the way! Wii put it down to the trail being uneven, so that Wii didn't have to strain our already-tender muscles. Jungle Walk 2 was good - lots of slopes to climb, two streams to cross (the only bad experience for us was this bit, we were trying to avoid muddying the jeans and failed) and from Jungle Walk 3 out the Golf Course it was a clear easy trail. Interestingly enough some of the trees sprouted weird fruit - plastic-covered notices attempting to get the attention of a Japanese hiker who'd been hacking away with a big K-N-I-F-E and marking trees every 50 meters or summat (at this point Wii were muddy and didn't want to sacrifice our Ixus for the sake of a little camwhoring). Once out of the jungle it was the slow march back to the apartments, where, once in sight, led to the group of us racing back. Goodness. Much as Wii can bounce about in the jungle, our stamina still isn't good.

Comparing this trek to last Camland Getaway trek (Jungle Walk 5) this was deffy more fun and didn't take as long.

Dinnertime saw the Food God leading the eight of us against a 6-course meal led by Gen. Curry Fish Head. Justice was done. More games of Bang! (amidst cries of, "I'm the Vice! I'm the Vice! I'm the Vice!" and much kowtowing to Lynn, the Sheriff) and That's Life followed at night while the rulesmiester continued slogging through the manual.

Tuesday morning. Wii leaves today and so to minimize luggage the following mandate was put out: finish the junk food. Not very hard to carry out. After that, Wii'd killed time killing peeps in Pompeji, much to the chagrin of Marvel Heroes, which sat on the mahjong table all this time and was never played.

Was it time to go home? Nope. It was time for Highlight 4 - Gunung Brinchang. Up and up we go, to reach the top and climb the watchtower. The roads were narrow and steep, the scenery breathtaking at times, and Wii were supposed to be put to shame by the angmohs whom hiked all the way up rather than drive.

At our destination was another watchtower to climb - leading us to heaven.

Suggestions were then put out to trek or have a steamboat atop the watchtower (then again, it was nearly 3pm and Wii had not lunched). Wii just left in the end.

Next stop was the Sg Palas Boh Tea Centre, simply for a look-see, more photo opportunities and tea-buying. The Tea Centre is quite cozy and aesthetically pleasing.

It started raining as Wii left the Tea Centre, putting a damper on our plans to get fried food (from mushrooms to potato balls) at Kea Farm - just a quick stop for Unker Ray to get his Bharat Tea and the rest of us for snacks. Then began the long drive home.

Asides from the wee jam (and driving behind a groggy driver swerving all over the road) Wii made it back to KL by 8.30pm, stopping by Nando's for dinner. Extra Hot Peri-Peri 1/4 chickens, Peri Chips, free soup and Wii were happily stuffed.

So, for all the face-feeding Wii did, what was the damage? Weight before = 53.6kg. Weight after = 54kg. Wii loves the holidays.