Confounded Chores

Now that mum's away for the week ("Everybody needs a little time away..."), the bare household duties falls unto us as dad doesn't bother nor does he know how to go about it, since mum never enlightened him about where things are kept and such.

Wii're not going to bother much with the sweeping and mopping (if Wii ever get to it) since Wii can count on mum doing so once she gets home regardless of whether Wii have been doing it every alternate day or just the day before she comes home. Plus we've been all eating out so there's little mess.

However, clothes are a problem. Whatwith us going to the gym on average 3 times a week for our regular cardio classes Wii'll have sweaty clothes hanging out to dry, and after that require washing before it piles up over the week. Here lies the problem: mum's got a new washing machine.

Wii would be able to figure it out save for the fact that Wii don't know where she hid the frickin' manual. Given mum's household orderliness (friends can testify her standards when she stated our room was 'messy' and then they had a look) Wii'd expect the manual to be in a particular drawer. Some scrounging dug up the old clipboard to hold the Lesen Televisyen Dan Radio from the 80s, Nokia 5110 and 3310 user manuals and other kitchen accesory manuals...washing machine manual! For the old washing machine! No!!!

Okay. No need to panic. Wii've used washing machines before (gone are the days when all Wii did was insert 20p). This shouldn't be any different. The amount of clothings Wii're gonna wash, not much, half-load cukup. Should be able to figure out what to do. Okay, fill up the soap powder and softener first...

Aiyoh. Can't they just write the word 'softener' rather than draw symbol? Soapsud symbol can also mean soap powder right? Hantam lah. Right compartment, a 'I' symbol. Middle the soapsud symbol. Left compartment a 'II' symbol. If not wrong it's first wash, softener, second wash? Don't care already lah, it's almost 1am. Yes, Wii do laundry in the middle of the night rather than the bleak hot hours of the morning before work. Dump powder in 'I' and softener in the middle. Will check when the thing starts.

New washing machine is full of buttons. But at least it's written out what is what rather than the conventional washing machine symbols (no, soapsud one wasn't conventional). Oh well, let's put it at something that looks all right...

Time left: 3 hours. Oh goodness the old washing machine at least was only 2 hours...Wii know, Wii're doing something wrong in the first place for half-load to take 2-3 hours but Wii don't care already once it's in and it's started...

And instead of napping while the thing runs Wii're blogging about dinner. And replying on forums.

4am. Finally done. And as Wii get the clothes out, Wii notices the 'Quick 30' option on the dial. *Closes eyes, deep breathes* Wii don't know what the Quick 30 is anyway, best just leave it till next time...

And now that it's done, WHY ARE WII STILL HERE BLOGGING!?

When In Doubt For Dinner...

This week is one where Wii've been eating out on our own as mum has gone down to see her sister (while in our head the song goes, "Everybody needs a little time away..."). So each night is one of deciding what takes our fancy. Unfortunately, Wii weren't feeling up to having our usual Restoran OK TTDI, nor for char kuey teow at Little Penang, nor any other hawker food at SS2.

So when in doubt, go for pasta.

Tonight saw us once again mulling for food after Cardio Dance. Since Wii were at the Curve, Wii weren't in the mood to go elsewhere food-hunting and so decided to mooch about for pasta.

For the entire week Wii've been trying pasta at different places, each time sorely disappointed. Mage Cafe (ex-Settler's Cafe) has a new menu, so goodbye tasty carbonara, hello corn-filled carbonara. MySciFi Outpost Cineleisure's Creamy Fettuchine With Mushrooms was absolutely tasteless. ViVo is only so-so.

So our first stop, Marche. Already Wii'd done their all-you-can-eat Tuesdays but dining alone, Wii're not so keen. Plus it's Wednesday. Wii wasn't sure when they had their 'Pasta for RM9.90' day so Wii went to ask, only to find out it was on Thursday. Deciding that Wii'd enough of experimenting, Wii headed back to tried and tested Italiannies.

And to our delight, it's All-You-Can-Eat-Pasta for RM19.90++!!! Awesome, dinner is decided. Pasta buffet and bottomless ginger ale together with Dame Christie.

First dish: Penne alla oglio with beef bacon.

Second dish: Penne arrabiato with mussels.

And Wii didn't bring the iXus for the macro shots :(

Then our stomach gave up :( Still cannot fight otousan when it comes to buffets. The pasta was the best Wii've had in a while! Well, it's Italiannies after all, if they don't live up to the standard Wii would be sorely disappointed. lad was worried that, it being a buffet the quality would be substandard. No worries, the food is still good. The oil and herbs are still a delight to the senses.

If Wii weren't so lazy Wii would have also made Pizzeria Bella Italia one of our dinner destinations too, since their sauces are heavenly.

But Wii're lazy.

Metrovision

Given it's a slow start for a Monday and the new GroupX launches putting our regular timetable into slight disarray Wii thought that Wii'd do a movie tonight. And given the choices, Wii decided for some Thai comedy as that was the only show that no one else in our clique would probably be interested in...although for the other movies Wii'll have to wait to hear if the others decide to watch it during their 'spare' time in the afternoon while Wii're working, or if we're gonna watch it together as a group..

And for a comedy, it turned out very good (credit has to be given to them who did the subs as well, Wii don't think a good translated copy is in the market yet). In fact, the last time Wii really ended up laughing hard enough to rock chairs was during Keeping Mum.

The show did have some bits that would be of interest to people, to 'train' their eyes (O.o)

At the same time, it may also highlight to people some mannerisms that they might want to watch out for (although Wii think it's a bit too stereotyped), especially the group of metrosexuals sitting beside us.

Still, alongside Death Note: The Last Name these two movies made it tops for the first quarter of the year.

HUrrah, BodyJam 40 with Riyo and Kylie tommorrow!

...Meaning?

When your sister tells you that she had a dream where the family found out you were doing drugs and was about to be sent for rehabilitation, what can you make of it?

Whatmore she can quote, "See his face know already one."

Very tak beri muka.

Does it make you think that your sister is fishing for deep dark secrets, however?

It's Alive!

Right, Wii didn't realise that our 3.5" disk drive was somehow miraculously repaired since Wii've last used it - maybe when Wii Bodypumped our PC to Low Yat the fellow fixed it up for us.

Just so happen that, now that Wii've DOSBox giving life back to our old games, Wii decided to pop a disk into the drive and see what happens.

'Please insert a disk into drive A:'

Okay. Just like before. Try Disk 2 anyway? Why not.

*Buzz buzz buzz* - it's reading Disk 2! So Disk 1 was just corrupted?

Will now start installing the games or copying the disk contents into hard drive to burn off to CD now.

Kung Hei Fatt Choy 2007!

This greeting only out on Day 12. Aiks.

CNY Recap, 2007

2007?

1) Steamboat at home once again, once again stuffed ourselves silly with enough to make leftover noodles the next day. Uncle who showcased the N70 last year told us the story of how within some 2 weeks of being a proud owner of the N70, he dropped it in a coffeeshop and it went missing. Oh dear. Sis and us experimented with video calling (we could see ourselves in her camera haha) until she screamed to stop as her phone bill may skyrocket. Self-congratulations required: manage to play about with video calling while not revealing fact to parents that Wii have new phone *hush hush*. Not yet, at least.

2) This year our initial plan of watching a CNY movie was rather last-minute, which resulted in us going to 1U, commenting on the high population of ahbengs and ahlians, taking a look at the queue at the ticket counter, and going back home. Next day Wii made the smarter move of booking online. CNY movie for this year? The Protege. Good movie.

3) Different job now means Wii weren't so keen on taking the week off just like that (not part time anymore, got limit to off days) and since no one had a definite plan for visitations yet Wii didn't plan our leave early. All Wii knew was that Tuesday morning was Twilight CNY in Klang, Wii're waiting for our Imperial Chronicler to write the report write the report write the report Wii've uploaded the pics for you already sorry it took one week to upload them.

Luckily word was out for visitations on Khamis petang (evening? afternoon?) so Wii took the afternoon off. Picked lad before heading to the twins' place, but lad almost ignored us when Wii reminded him of KennySia's CNY videoclip of little girls going 'Hahahahahahahaha...' This year's visitation had quite a fair bit of retro gaming - taught the guys how DOSBox works, which led to Golden Axe and Gods and the hunt for old DOS games. Then it was over to ours (with a quick detour to Burger Kings) where the Dreamcast once again saw life - just so that esteban could play Power Stone 2 and the others had another spot of retro, Golden Axe to the end and Streets of Rage 2. Wii tried to persuade lad about the merits of Prince of Persia, to no avail.

Onwards to lad's place after that, since we've all on different occasion visited esteban while at the same time visiting his sis's Wii. That was before what was known as the Incident With The Power Serve. The day ended at lad's for dinner (thank you lad's mum! Very generous but so sorry Wii were all feeling full for reasons unknown) with word puzzles and fiddly fireworks.

3) Friday night was the Klangite annual CNY, this year there weren't many around since some went back outstation during the week. Left 5 of us only to play Blackjack (although ayheng brought Carcassonne, Coloretto, Bang! and Wii brought That's Life upon request as contingency). Good thing there was Absolut Peach to keep us company...so much so that Wii zonked out in the car upon reaching home. Mana tahu at 2am-3am the Heineken keg still alive, haiz.

Is that it, then? Still, the essentials are there - steamboat dinner, CNY movie with sis, visitations here and with Klangites, numerous oranges to eat, bak kwa to eat (and to hide from others), the horrendous feeling of going back to work once the long holidays are over...

CNY Recap, 2006

For 2006, Wii were already doing part-time instead of full-time, thus for the CNY week Wii took an entire week off with no qualms. Muahahaha finally holidays that are on the actual day itself!

1) Wii dragged lad, njapf and her friend around MidValley shopping for clothes, namely Wii were obsessed with getting a t-shirt with long sleeves meant to roll up to the elbows (to complicate matters more Wii wanted it in green). And on CNY Eve Wii managed to get a red SEED tee as well, which ended up with our sis and us wearing red at the dinner table, heh. Dinner was steamboat, and one uncle let us play with his N70.

2) Sis and us watched 'A Chinese Long Story' for our CNY movie, which because Wii had low expectations, turned out not too bad and rather funny (with bad special effects like 2D explosions).

3) The annual Klangite meetup at Vincent's had a big group, with old schoolmates from all classes. Dinner always saw us going back for the chicken and satay, and to finish it with fortune cookies. Usual gambling, Wii thinks Wii left rather early though...

4) Lad and us got into the mood of getting some Chinese garb to wear for CNY. And so we did, from a store in Midvalley. Cost somewhere about RM100? Anyways planned to wear them on the day we did our visitations.

5) Visitations itself started with us arriving late - Wii went for a haircut first, with the stylist using some darn blunt scissors that yanked our hair more than cut it. First visit was to SooJ's (her poh piahs are delish), meeting up with old batchmates Wii haven't seen for a couple of years now. Then over to Paddington's at The Curve for lunch and group photos. Note: the Treasure Box is too much for one person to handle. Fruits yes, but very very sweet.

After lunch we'd visited another friends' house, to admire her house, from the pond that went indoors to the kitchen to her room and bathroom...so much so that someone was suppose to offer up a flat-screen plasma telly as dowry to marry her! Wii spent most of the time sweating in our Chinese garb (surprisingly, while it looks light, it gets very hot despite staying in cool surroundings!) while playing with the putting lane that was set up in her hall.

The group split up after that, with us going onwards to esteban's place. Was it for the GameCube or some NDS-chat Wii can't remember, but what Wii do remember was that Wii noticed that esteban's house had this screen with an Asian motif - so Wii had otousan take pictures of us in Chinese garb using that as background.

Wii thanks Canon Photostitch for this piece of artwork titled 'VS Screen'.

Scene during the game, with colour palatte swapped characters a la Mortal Kombat.

Day ended at lad's, Wii think. Some other day saw us gambling at lad's neighbour, Puddy's, place, with esteban playing Electroplankton.

6) Vague memories of later visits to our pad, where Wii force-fed the visitors KennySia's YouTube of small girls going 'Hahahahahahahaha...' and Monty Phyton's Life of Brian.

CNY Recap, 2004-2005

*Wii've got to do this in instalments, to put the whole thing as one single entry will be too big for our liking.*

Gotta recap how Chinese New Year has been for us for the pass few years. See, even last year's CNY celebrations weren't blogged (and here Wii were stating that Wii would blog about things rather then let them fade...)

Don't remember much about CNY 2004 except that we may have visited Uncle JS's house. We did visit SooJ's house, us bunch of UH housemen. And Wii *thinks* Klangites did a visit up to our place. *Fuzzy memory* Oh yes, the family and uncles decided to do CNY Eve dinner at Chuai Heng (Wii thinks it's called) at 1U. First time Wii makan out for family dinner.

CNY 2005 Wii remembers a *bit* more, Wii had our Nok7710 then for a bit o' photo-taking. But a couple of things Wii do remember come near CNY that were work-related...

1) Some old aunty came to the store to have her blood glucose checked. It was an exceptionally busy morning/afternoon, and Wii were either the only pharmacist or with a colleague...whatever the case both of us had our hands full with the queue of people wanting meds and such. So when this aunty came by Wii asked her to take a seat, Wii might take some time before Wii could actually sit down and do a blood glucose test for her (whatmore in apologetic, low-vocabulary Cantonese). Wii thinks she waited near 15 minutes before Wii could attend to her. Anyways, after seeing to her, she gave us an angpow. Which lead to:

"No, no, cannot!"
"Yes, yes, must take!"
"Cannot la Aunty, Wii cannot receive gifts leh, nevermind la Aunty..."
"No, you take!"
"Like that Wii use your angpow pay for blood test ar Aunty-"
"No! Blood test I will pay also, this one you keep!"
"Okay..."

Ended up using the angpow to buy Mamee for the staff.

2) Our contract changed from a full-time staff to a part-time staff after some discussions with HR. So somehow for the CNY month, instead of banking in our pay straight they issued a cheque (Come to think of it, maybe all these time our pay was issued by cheque...). Anyways, while everyone else have received the CNY pay, allowing them to do the necessary shopping in preparation for the festive season. Us, on the other hand, have been looking at a dwindling account. A few calls led us to find out that they've sent in a cheque instead, its probably still being processed, it's gone to some other bank...Wii chased high and low for it while steadily getting more and more frantic (right, Wii can actually here in the background of our brain a voice saying, "That's because you don't have a savings!").

Since Wii'd joined this line of work, Wii have been very easygoing with working shifts, working weekends, missing social meetups, cranky customers, nonstop queues...but don't play with us when it comes to money, especially, our money. That was the first time in that line of work that Wii were angry with anyone (also, probably, the only time). So Wii were stuck, unable to shop, surrounded in 1 Utama by loads of stores...sob sob.

In the end our pay came in on CNY Eve, when all boutiques were on half day. Thankfully pay came in before lunch time, when Wii took the opportunity to rush off to Dockers to get ourselves a new shirt and pants. That was essentially it. Half-hour, one store, walk in walk out. Wii did feel two ways about it: after all, goes to show how men can shop quickly, on the other hand Wii missed out on the whole shopping experience of comparing merchandise, browsing etc. *sigh* There's always next time.

3) CNY dinner was steamboat at home, the family and our uncles.

4) Visitations were rather vague. Wii thinks Wii had angpows collected on behalf of us...Wii had the Dreamcast initially set up, Wii thinks it was playing 'Who Wants To Beat Up A Millionaire?'. Wii set up the DC because Wii had four controllers and the Klangites were coming up for a visit (after they visited everyone else in Klang without us). On the way up, 'Ward got us to head to 1U first to buy the boardgame Risk for him, where we ended up playing in our place first.

5) Annual Klang CNY at Vincent's still went on, asides from us trying to take pics at night with our Nok7710, Randall also took pics. Wii have proof.

Also, experimental drinks instead of the regular beer or shandy!

6) Somewhere during our couple of days off, locum pharmacists took care of dispensing. However Wii had a call from the locum asking if Wii could come in and cover for a few hours as she wanted to send a family member off. Wii, in addition to being off, was sick (interestingly Wii were only sick when Wii were on holidays then). No way. End of story.

Let Them Eat Cake!

This is a thing of beauty...Wii like, Wii really do...

It's amazing how a gaming blog can lead to such wonderful cakes. Not just birthday cakes, but wedding cakes that go against the norm too!

Unlike Joyce the Fairy's blog where there's a birthday cake to make all boys wince...

Spam Spam Spam Spam

Lovely Spam, Wonderful Spam!

Ah it's a cute catapult webgame with funny references to the movie/musical. Love that bit against the Black Knight - each time you successfully hit him, asides from losing health he loses a limb!

BEAGLE dog LOST

Sunday saw this leaflet at home.

Having lost our own wog once already, Wii knows how others who've lost their family members feel. Unfortunately, the kind of assumptions as to how the wog got lost isn't so...optimistic at times. When our wee Princess got lost, the side gate wasn't locked (but latched), and no one was home. Wii has this sinking feeling that some no-good whoresons made away with her, Wii don't want to speculate too much on what happened after. It's too depressing.

Then Wii reads in the newspapers about foreign workers beating up a dog and calling it 'haram'. While the dog has been rescued, it lost its lower jaw. Damn sad.

And last night esteban tells us regarding the Ministry wanting to educate foreign workers as there were stories of foreign workers down near Johor who's been eating people's pets. Not another happy thought.

Wii're thinking not only these people needs to be deported, they need to be caned first and the company that hired them sued. Even with caning Wii think that's not enough.

Anyways. Wii find that this leaflet lacks a lot of information. Like, what name does the dog respond to? How old, how big, characteristic markings, where last seen, when last seen...anything that can further help distinguish your dog from others.

But if anyone is able to help, please do so yeah?

lying by myself

Why do insecurities surface when one is trying to sleep?

Is wishful thinking the furthest I will be able to achieve? Am I just a fool in denial, wasting years waiting? My winters waiting for spring just a warped dream?

Glued To The Box

Asides from finally having a hands-on at the Wii (courtesy of esteban), last night's yamcha had us talking about old PC games back in the good old '90s, when games really had an impact on us in more ways than one (nowadays good memorable games are few and far between...our Playstation forlornly cries out to us in loneliness as Wii've moved on to the Nintendo DS. When Wii need our Mortal Kombat/Street Fighter/Prince of Persia/Devil May Cry kick then you will see the light of day k?). So after talking about games we used to play the mood for DOS game-hunting was reawakened.

Wii always cursed our decision for not backing up all our old stuff onto 3.5" floppies (our first PC was a 386 with both 5.25" and 3.5" floppy drives and...can't remember now, some 10MB hard disk space?), instead leaving our games in both formats. Now when Wii look at the diskbox with the games Wii have no heart to throw them away, all they do now is take up shelf space and cause us loads of heartache.

Wii remembers our first hunt for old DOS games was in Glasgow three and a half years back (our first taste of 100MB/s internet speeds), and whatmore from this French Abandonware website. Unfortunately even then computer speeds and Windows weren't that friendly to DOS games anymore. Some of the simpler ones, e.g. Golden Axe and Prince of Persia 1 had no problem but others like Populous 1 and 2 were so speeded up that it was impossible to play unless you had a program like MoSlo. Another problem was sound. Like the Sony MP3 Walkman adverts put, Wii live in music (oh especially when Wii had a Soundblaster card installed). The Gods main menu sang, Mortal Kombatants shouted, the Prince of Persia screamed as he felled to his (many) deaths, the multitude of explosions and commentations in Dune 2 ("Construction Complete")...and background music. Wii remembers how, for some games, Wii would put our tape recorder by the speakers, push the door nearly shut, and record intros or background music or summat. Then the tapes will be in our Walkman, following us wherever Wii go.

But of course, Wii've played the games countless times enough to actually be able to play the music in our head. But these things go hand-in-hand for the full blast of nostalgic experience. Okay, maybe just for us because Wii had it all from the start. If Wii never had music initially when playing all those games Wii probably wouldn't miss it so much.

But Wii digress (slightly).

The thing is, some old DOS games seemeth 'lost' to us because, while it's available online for download (yay thanks Lost Treasures France and Underdogs and countless others) it's also either too fast, has compatibility issues, has no music, or has (shudder) EMS/XMS problems. And when that happens and when Wii play it, part of our soul dies along as part of the game dies. Is our childhood fated to fade away forever? C'mon, this is PC stuff (albeit Prehistorik Cavemen-era PC stuff) but in our current tech-savvy world surely there are means of reviving, or making some space for DOS games to remain alive?

Enter the DOSBox (current version 0.65). This heavensent program emulates DOS (with working sound, read, WORKING SOUND) such that MoSLo and VMDSound can now take a rest. Better yet for us, DOSBox emulates games as if it's running on old PC processors, so Wii actually managed to play Mortal Kombat I as if Wii played it on our 386!!! For most people, some games will be so painfully SLOW but what's that compared to being transported some 15 years or more back into the past to a part of your childhood that you love?

While Wii can't claim to have played many DOS titles (even then Wii enjoy replaying what Wii have, it whiles a good time away) but at least now Wii can revisit them without pain anymore. Now if you'll excuse us, Wii've got 12 tribes of Lemmings to guide, Populations to lead into Armageddon, a Persian Prince to navigate out of mazes, so that he can play BattleChess 4000 with us, all while being Alone In The Dark...

Oh, if someone, anyone has a copy of The Secret of Monkey Island 2, tell us! This is another big hole in our soul!

Wii Believe

Wii have seen.
Wii have touched.
Wii believe...

That it's still too expensive in Malaysia!
*cries*

Secret Diaries

Over dinner one day Wii heard about secret diaries being mentioned. A quick search and Wii found the website.

Oh, let's make it easy. Wii thinks Wii'll actually copy off the entire text for personal keeps, in case the website disappears. It's a good laugh.

The Secret Diary of Aragorn Son of Arathorn

The Very Secret Diary of Frodo Baggins

The Very Secret Diary of Samwise Gamgee

Boromir's Secret Diary

Legolas' Secret Diary

Gandalf's Secret Diary

Pippin's Secret Diary

Saruman's Secret Diary

The Secret Diary of Gimli Son of Gloin

Merry's Secret Diary

Ringwraith No. 5's Secret Diary

Gollum's Secret Diary

Arwen's Secret Diary

Elrond's Secret Diary

Sauron's Secret Diary

The Very Secret Diary of Aragorn Son of Arathorn, Part II

The Very Secret Diary of Theoden

The Very Secret Diary of Legolas Son of His Father, Part II

*edit: Wii've found the original author's website wot wrote 'em all here.

Singleton's Suffrance

Valentine's Day has had it's rather blunt reminders every year, why should this year be an exception?

For the past couple of years our dear gym has been reminding everyone to come for Group X classes - making each class a sort of Valentine-themed class for singletons. It makes staying at home and eating comfort food very appealing.

This year, though, the gym decided against that tactic and instead had just a Valentine's Bodystep class (come dressed in pink/red top to win prizes!) where you could show up alone or with your partner. At least it doesn't seem to single out the singletons.

Anyways. This year's reminders still retained their sharp jabs, starting with the Hitz.FM Morning Crew's JJ and Rudy: "Today is Single's Appreciation Day!"

You guys didn't have to make it sound like it's something sad.

And in the evening, our good instructor, in jest, poked, "So those of you who are here now all tak laku one yeah."

Heh. Yes, the life of the bachelor-for-life is fun, but you don't have to glaringly point out that Wii belong in Singleton society.

Now maybe to find a BBC production of Pride and Prejudice and hunt for the wet shirt scene Bridget Jones keep talking about.

Wii've Just Gone Blind

Ohourgoodnessohourgoodnessohourgoodness!!!

Wii came across the live-action clip (Pretty Girl Sailor Moon) of Sailormoon's transformation scene. Nothing dirty, but ohmygoodness someone please take down and burn all traces of PGSM!!!

Just because Wii're blind doesn't mean our fingers don't know their way around the keyboard, mind. Save yourselves, don't ever go there. Now, how are Wii going to drive home, now that Wii cannot see?

Wii're Old

As our plans for the Marche dinner today was canceled, Wii were mulling on the idea of spending the now-free time doing more cardio (like Wii needed it). Choices choices choices: Curve for Bodyjam with Tracy, Axis for Combat with Crystal and Jam with Tony, or Manulife for Combat with Calvin and Jam with Kenny.

Somehow since Wii've been doing Calvin's classes a couple of times on Tuesday when Wii happened to miss Monday's class at The Curve, Wii opted for the Manulife option.

And now, our body is HURTING. Wii haven't done any back-to-back classes for a long time, and it shows. The last time Wii did back-to-back classes was during the quarterly launch at IOI Mall, for Bodyjam and Nike Bollywood Rockstar (Wii were too late for Bodycombat whatwith stupid traffic). Anyways, even then Wii had been doing the Bollywood tracks for a month beforehand so the moves weren't new and strenuous, but after the Launch Wii were feeling twinges already (and backaches the following day, all thanks to Bodyjam 38's Say Say Say by Hi-Tack).

Well, Wii did do 'Combat and 'Jam back-to-back before in Manulife, but the first time Wii only stayed for 4 songs in 'Jam before leaving (to rush for a movie), and the second time Kenny had to do the latest release again for the second block (damn sien already with the Dance4Life block) which Wii didn't bother pushing ourselves because a bit demotivated with Dance4Life by then.

So anyways Wii finished 'Combat, was out of breath and out of water and totally drenched in sweat, and like hero stayed for 'Jam. First song was Jamiroquai's Canned Heat which made us cringe, worrying that half the block would be the new block. Thankfully, it all went DIVA from there. Tracks that Wii've not heard for over half a year were played (didn't matter that they were diva songs with...erm...lots of performance by KH You and Kenny)! Geri Halliwell's 'Look At Me', Liberty X's 'Just A Little', Whitney Houston's 'I Will Always Love You'...Wii're only not sure of the name of the Latin tracks, but recognized the songs and moves.

Need to chill out and recover...

End of class Wii were hurting all over - went into Energy-Saving mode, that is, major hunchback and limp. Muscles don't hurt much this way when Wii goes Igor. Slightly regretted doing back-to-back classes, but nevertheless enjoyed 'Jam's replaying of old old single tracks. That was worth the pain.

Oh, the pain.

And Wii have Cardio Dance tomorrow, hope Wii've recovered by then.

Damn it, Wii're old. *Sob*

Love Songs, Part 4...

...As the deer panteth for the waters
So my soul longeth after thee...

...You alone are my strength, my shield
To you alone may my spirit yield...

Love Songs, Part 3...

...You are my strength when I am weak
You are the treasure that I seek
You are my all in all
Seeking you like a precious jewel
Lord to give up I'd be a fool
You are my all in all...

Love Songs, Part 2...

...I feel like I'm falling
Over and over in love with you
It's not just a feeling
But I know that he is real...

Love Songs, Part 1...

...I just want to be where you are
In your dwelling place forever
Take me to the place where you are
I just want to be with you...

...In your prescence
That's where I always want to be
I just want to be
I just want to be with you...

Happiness Is...

Getting a new book that puts away all other things, finishing it within the night before sleep, and rereading it again the next day.

Resolutions 2007 Part 2

Wii thought Wii could fit in an additional resolution for 2007, and also note it here so that Wii don't forget. First resolution is coming along, only to be hampered by hard disk constraints, but that's soon resolved once Wii burn them off onto CDs. This too isn't a new resolution, but rather it's something that Wii've been doing since Wii've first swapped over to iTunes. It's also something that Wii can do with our printer.

"To Have Album Art For Songs On Our iPod, Where Possible."

Well, since Wii've gotten our iPod, no Wii tell a lie, since Windows Media Player 9 + Broadband actually, Wii've grown familiar to having album art and organized details/ID3 tags on our songs. Details organizing became so much more easier when Wii installed iTunes, and with the help of Amazon album art became readily accessible (and under our control, unlike WMP9's automatic online info search which can lead to some songs being titled differently).

Then iTunes updated to iTunes 7, and with it came the Cover Flow view. What's Cover Flow? That's where all albums are placed horizontally a la Windows Vista Aero, where you can flip thru your collection for a specific album (basically it's like a Folders' view in Detail, sorted to Albums, but with plenty of eye-candy). But what fun is it to flip through empty squares filled with a large musical note (denoting an album art-less album)? Plus Apple's iPhone also uses Cover Flow (Wii likes it, but chances are won't get it).

Anyhow, at least for the iPod album art remains pretty much a bonus, but lets have everything as complete as possible, who knows the iPod software might be updated to have album art as well (ooo! Would sooo love that!)!

Not Today Dear, Wii Have A Headache...

What's worse than being sick? Being somewhere in the middle: not so sick as to require MC and bedrest, but sick enough to make you feel miserable at work. And what's worse is that when the medication doesn't really help anymore. So one ends up going throughout the wholeday rather in slow motion and dazed, which is very very unproductive.

Had checked with the doctor (like a friend says, pharmacists are people too...can fall sick, can't treat themselves) for a diagnosis, and all she was gonna prescribed us was some Ponstan. Not bacterial infection then? Fine, Wii'll stick to the medications Wii're currently taking (which was why she only added Ponstan to the list) of antihistamines, decongestants, lozenges, Vitamin C tablets and antipyretics/antiinflammatories.

Now, instead of hacking, sneezing, alternatingly burning and shivering and aching all over, Wii only hack at the itchy throat, sniffle, ache and walk about with half-slit eyes. Oh yes, Wii have the headache. A full cranial rhinitis ('cos instead of just the nose/forehead area, it's all over the skull). Sleep does little, as once Wii wakes up it all returns *sob*.

It's been going on for two weeks now, things coming to a peak the day before Thaipusam (yep, leading us to tell the Boardgame Cafe meetup group, "Not tonight dears, Wii have a headache..."). It got better, only to come back with a vengence after Wii suffered from 7AS (7am Syndrome). Bah.

7AS led us to think that this may be sleep-related, but sleeping the weekend in (7AS led us to wake up at 6pm btw) didn't do much to alleviate symptoms. Wii'll just have to tough it out.

Anyone care to give some TLC? Then again, being unwell makes us feel very off-the-network. Wii do feel like disappearing without any contact for a while too.

The Later Years...

It's a good joke. But the episodes take sooo long!

Look At Me!

First impressions of video calling:

YM: Can you see me?
Us: YM, all Wii can see is your nose. Anyways, Wii're driving, will call you back.

*Calls back once parked.*

Us: So, where are you? *Adjusts phone so that whole face can be seen.*
YM: KL Sentral. *Alternatively showing forehead, nose, chin, eyes, forehead, lips...*
Us: Oh. Going back already ya?
YM: Ya. Eh cannot hear you very well la. *Eyes, chin, full face, nose, forehead...*
Us: Like that la video call. Some more you in public place.
YM: Must use handsfree set la like this. *Nose, lips, chin...*
Us: You do that.
YM: Quite fast yah the video streaming? *Full face, eyebrows...*
Us: Good la.
YM: Ok la, talk to you next time.
Us: Yesh...you do that.

He Can't Remember...

Because he doesn't have enough hard disk space. Trust us to partition our 80GB HDD in the first place - but then at that time 2 year's back Wii never had the iPod or iXus, so stuff like MP3s and digital pics didn't really hog up all the space.

Now, with iTunes, Wii just can't find the energy to move all the music files over from one hard disk to another, and have iTunes relocate all the files (argh the amount of manual work redirecting each file), and minor camwhoring requires us to burn our photos to CD.

Burning the photos prove to be a simpler option, but it leads to our paranoid self asking, "What if the CD cannot work already?"

*Starts burning double backups.*

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.