Sup, doods. Who got Gourmet Ramen marching orders? Me. Rather than doing each to completion before doing the next, working all 3 at once by phase (in this case, wireframe). Let’s dance.

PSP2!Chelsea (yup, these are for seraphzero). “I solve debates with guns!” or something. This angle is a punk, of course, but at the same time badass.

Avatar Asuka, armor redesign “Zero” since she got rebuilt. If you can see it, there’s evidence that I was going to give her a double-saber instead but the positioning wasn’t going to work, so back to twin sabers or something. Flaming energy wings will have to wait until the end of the paint phase, though.

This one in the commission order is pretty much a wildcard, and I ended up not using any of the prompts. Instead… RT!Chelsea, munching on popcorn while lying around… somewhere. I’ve not yet determined the context– is she on a giant Poring beanbag, or on a bed, or some Prinny commandeered to be used as a pillow? And what’s she laughing at? Maybe something on the sphere-TV. It’s not as messy as the other two since it’s not done yet, I stopped to post screencaps since I’m starting to blink over here.

They all look teeny because the PSD file is 1600×1200. Har har har.

Finishing the last wireframe and inking all 3 tomorrow, hopefully with fewer distractions.

FYI for doods who buy Gourmet Ramen: you have the option of sitting on Blastoise via TightVNC (I have LogMeIn, but TightVNC is better for these) and barking directions at me via Skype. Useful if you have super-specific details or you just want to make sure everything is right the first time.

So… YAY VERIZON. At long last, they are getting the iPhone.
And I am totally getting one. Mother, too. (Evil Stepfather is a maybe… truthfully, with his crappy eyesight, an iPhone may be easier for him to handle than his tiny, clunky feature phone.)
Preordering on the 3rd, and I think mother wants to do a pickup rather than have ‘em shipped like our previous phones were. (I think last time, she and Evil Stepfather had issues activating theirs.) It looks like I may qualify for a discount under New Every Two, but I’m prepared to pay for mine… and I get to pay up front for a year’s worth of data, anyway.

HARDCORE bonus points if there is a White iPhone option available. Gotta match with ninja laptop Dinah and all…

The only sucky part is that I may lose my Angry Birds save files… unless I do a transfer from my iPod and hop the transferred version over to the iPhone. HM. Guess I’ll find out when that happens. :P

As a followup to the other Angry Birds post… it’s now on the new Mac App Store (as in, the one for OS X users, not iOS). Naturally, it’s been looted and plopped on Dinah, so even ninjas can pop the greedy pigs, too. Only the Wii/DS and Xbox have yet to been invaded by killer birds, but I imagine that will happen soon enough.

I’m packing the PC, PSP minis and now the Mac versions in addition to the iPod Touch. Sadly, there is no way to sync your progress between versions, so put such a notion out of your mind right now.

PC version is a wee bit unstable at the moment, though its crashiness can be mitigated greatly if you update your video drivers if you’re behind. Also, yes you can force windowed version by playing with its config.lua file in the program directory.

PSP minis, despite the name, can also be played on the PS3 if you so wish. I’ve yet to do that, opting instead to play on my PSP-3000. It autosaves right before you get your score, which is slightly annoying but tolerable. I don’t know if you see the same autosave screen when run on the PS3.

Mac version handles almost exactly the same as the PC version, as far as the whole “click and drag to shoot” thing goes. That said, if you’re playing on a MacBook with the touchpad, it’s just like playing on the iOS. Maybe it’s me, but the Mac version looks the best of the three… I wonder if its originating from the iOS (which, after all, is a fun size version of OS X) has anything to do with it…?

—

Also with the arrival of the Mac App Store? A possible, albeit temporary replacement for Painter. Autodesk’s Sketchbook apps aren’t new– they’ve been on Windows for awhile, and also the iOS, but with the opening of the App Store they’ve rolled out a Mac version, and in two flavors. There’s the free Sketchbook Express, and, for now, the $30 Pro version. While I am loathe to use anything other than Painter for my art posts (ew, Photoshop), it would be nice to have something to tide Dinah over until Painter 12 hits. I’ll play around with the Express version for now and loot the Pro version if I think it’ll be a nice fit.

I’ve had the iPod Touch version, which is awkward because of its size. (Really, drawing apps for the iOS are much better suited for the iPad, you have more space to work with in there.) But to run Sketchbook on something laptop-sized might be a much better experience.

Domino’s Pizza. A name I’ve not heard in a long time.
I remember it was the de facto pizza store here for much of my childhood, since I don’t think Papa Johns had started building stores around here until about… 12 years ago? Anyway, it used to be that we’d get deep dish sausage+pepperoni on mondays, ’cause that’s when Father was off work.

After I moved in with mother in ’98, Domino’s kinda fell off the map. It was mostly Papa Johns and Pizza Hut. A couple years ago, Evil Stepfather used to buy up Domino’s when they did their 5-5-5 deal but that didn’t last long.

It’s not that I don’t like Domino’s– I’ve never gotten a bad pizza from them, I just found their sauce a bit much for my liking. Papa Johns got it juuuuust right in that department. SO! After quite a long hiatus, and having heard about their “overhaul,” I figured I’d give them a go, see what’s happened. Robert still stands by it, therefore…

Tonight’s experiment: X-large Brooklyn-style w/ Pepperoni, Chicken Parmesan sandwich and cheese bread.
Took a bit for the driver to get here, I’ll give him a pass since I don’t think they’ve delivered here before. :P Oddly enough, he didn’t come to the door with the goods in a sleeve… huh. Did the dood have one but took the stuff out while he was in the car? But everything was still reasonably warm, so I guess it’s okay.

Domino’s runs the Show Us Your Pizza campaign, and while it looks like they won’t show the disasters, they do… they just get posted on Facebook</a> instead. ;P They’re not currently accepting submissions but I snapped pictures all the same. (side note: oh god I can’t wait until I can get an iPhone, waaaay better picture quality than this thing)

I should have taken this out of the box. It looked a little odd. Thankfully, any fears were assuaged when I ate it. Protip: Don’t try to eat it like a sandwich, even if you cut it in half… the chicken pieces and cheese are so heavy that they fall out. XD Well, I suppose if you wrap it up in the paper it could work, but the bread is a little floppy. It is quite nomtasty, like eating a cheese+chicken pizza on french bread.

Cheese bread. Again, looks a little odd, and NOTHING like as advertised on the website (where they look like actual breadsticks) but not a dealbreaker. Taste-wise, it resembles the cheese bread that Pizza hut makes. It’s good, though I prefer the Papa Johns version.

…this is Brooklyn-style? Looks more like ordinary hand-tossed. Oh well, pizza is pizza. Omnomnom~
…
I like to think I remember what the original Domino’s pizzas tasted like. And… if they indeed changed the recipe, I can’t tell. They’re still as sauce-happy as ever, I see. Not bad, but not the “OMG WE CHANGED AND NOW WE’RE AWESOME” as their overhaul campaign is pushing.

Overall, I give these doods a B+, the + for the sandwich being very good despite being awkward to pick up and looking strange. I’ll be sticking to Papa Johns and Pizza Hut for the foreseeable future, barring sudden craving for chicken parmesan sandwiches.

—

I think, doods, I can finally answer the long-standing question as to which pizza store I prefer. While there are many local pizza providers… they don’t offer online ordering that I know of (deal-breaker, given my issues with using phones as actual phones) and often cost much more than the major chains.

Papa Johns would have to take the gold. I’ve never had a bad order from them, and their pizzas are just that solid– just the right amount of cheese and toppings, and they play well even if cold or reheated. They also get win points for bundling in the garlic cups, though I wish they’d let you choose to drop the pepperonicini (sp?) in favor of a second garlic cup. Also? Best cheese bread EVAR. Omnomnom~

Costco and Pizza Hut tie for silver, for different but equal reasons. Costco’s pizza is extreme awesomeness on par with Papa Johns, the catch being that you don’t get much selection as far as toppings goes (either cheese or pepperoni), and don’t expect to find sides there at all. Pizza Hut is awesome if you want novelty/experimental crust types (stuffed crust, cheesy bites, etc.) and they have an insane selection of side items. Also, OMG WINGS. Garlic Parmesan? Yes please!

Dominos takes the bronze. They occupied a significant portion of my youth. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just… everyone else is better. If you like sauce, they certainly don’t disappoint! And their chicken parmesan sandwiches are quite nice. But otherwise, they’re just outmatched by the above three.

—

And now, I finally log into WoW. Holy crap I’m late. XD

Dinah had her coming out party today. Mother was, as usual, late in getting up (she’d been awake for awhile, but playing with her iPad), and I’d sensed an Android phone lurking on the house LAN. I thought that this was another secret acquisition (since she’d also looted an AppleTV and a new network printer to keep on the other side of the Puppy Border) and if she’d given up on waiting for the iPhone.

Nah, turns out the Android was just some visitor who decided to tap into Altima and borrow mah internets.

Mother is so stupidly amused by her iPad; she’s got a custom skin for it with one of the bulldogs (Baby Girl, the fatass white female), and she looted an iPhone-sized version for when those happen. I decided I may as well go for it: “iPad, bah, I got something better.” And then I went and got Dinah.

Short version of what happened after:

- Dinah is NOT a Galaxy Tab. WTF. They don’t come in white!
- Dinah is NOT a MacBook Air, either… she has an optical drive and 2 USB ports rather than 1, and I wanted something that could play WoW. (Which she does, and rather well!)
- The only thing I haven’t been able to put back on or otherwise replace on Dinah is Painter. There’s also Winamp, but in its place I use VLC. As for Painter… uh… the torrents clearly favor Windows. I’m just going to wait for 12 to hit and buy that; since v11 Corel has included installers for both Windows and Mac on the same media. >_>;
- Quote of the day: “She looks like someone painted her in Carnation milk.” HAH!
- Why yes, the Apple logo on the back DOES light up.
- No, I’m not getting a Kestine cover. I love my big orange bastard, but I’m not THAT crazy. :P

—

Pizza Wednesday. New– or rather, returning after a looooong hiatus– challenger? Domino’s. Been curious about their overhaul for awhile. Brooklyn-style pizza + chicken parmesan sammich… let’s see if it’s as nomtasty as they claim!