Awesome kitty Kestine likes to rub his face on freaking EVERYTHING. Doorways, table legs, MY legs, box corners, and ninja laptop Dinah’s wifi parts.

In the case of the wireless-N card, it was just one facerub too many, because the fat purple end of the card snapped off and the card shut down. Thankfully Dinah didn’t freak and go all Blue Screen of Death, but her wireless-N card is now officially dead.

Oops.
I don’t blame Kestine enirely, though… old card is quite old (I think I got it a few months after I originally got Dinah) and it was starting to flake out. I’ve ordered a D-Link* Wireless-N card off Amazon (yay having enough rewards points to slash off half the price!) and also a Logitech lapdesk (combo cooler fan/speakers) because ninja laptop has been running VERY hot as of late.

For now I’ve fallen back on using the original onboard wireless-G… and remembered WHY I boosted Dinah to N in the first place. Wireless-G sucks! :P Actually, wireless sucks as a whole– mind you, this is coming from someone who loots podcasts left and right and at any given time is either running YouTube, Slingbox, Netflix, South Park or the TWiT Live stream– and I moved as much as my crap as I could over to wired mode earlier this year. Wireless-N is the closest to wired mode as I can get, and is the only form of wifi I’ll stick on a machine on this network ’cause I’m spoiled on my awesome gigabit ethernet that I use to pass things around inside the house network.

As for Kestine… well, he’s a bit frustrated that he can’t rub his face on Dinah for now. XD It’s funny that he goes specifically for her wifi stuff– the card and the corners of her monitor lid, which are supposedly where the wifi receiver bits are. I wonder if they emit some low-level EM wave that cats find interesting enough to facerub?

* = old router and wireless-N card were Linksys (obtained at the same time), new router is D-Link, which has been AWESOME thus far, so may as well go D-Link for the card too.

Bigger is still better: Pizza Wednesday, doods. The weekly tossup between Pizza Hut and Papa Johns is complicated a little more this time around; the former rolled out a new event pizza type (the Big Italy, yet another attempt at an extra large… dude, why can’t they bring back the Big New Yorker? THAT was awesome!), yet with the latter I’ve piled up enough rewards points to get a free pizza. Ordinarily free pizza would trump everything (because seriously, what’s better than free?), but when it comes to new/event rollouts, I gotta try it. It doesn’t help that I’m a wing addict. >_>;;;

Live from Azeroth: Yoshi now has as much of the t10 Mage armor (“Bloodmage’s Regalia”) as she’s going to get, and there’s nothing more I can pile up Frost emblems for… so any future emblems I’ll just convert into Primordial Saronites so I don’t need to kill my gold buying ‘em up to make the ICC craftables for my alts or guildies. :P Any future gear upgrades Yoshi will have to get through ICC, most likely in 25-man mode. (That said… while inferior to the Frozen Bonespike that Yoshi’s packing now, I want Halion, Staff of Forgotten Love since its essentially the WoW version of Planet’s Burden, Yoshi’s signature weapon everywhere else).

I will slug that Lich King in his noobish, ice cream-hoarding face, yes I will. >:D

While old man Phil would be next on the gear supply chain, I need to throw in Rei stat, to unlock the craftable leather/mail pants. I’ve, uh… lots of rogues/druids/hunters/shammies in the guild who could use those things and I’ve kept them waiting for quite awhile (with Robert on break, I’m the only in-house ICC crafter-dood, after all). And, of course, Rei can use ‘em too.

No Kon Do: BOOOOO. :( I liked Paranoia Agent (or, “what happens when Japan turns Law and Order into headmessy anime”) and Paprika (which I definitely need to revisit for the dub, hehehe I’m terrible). If you’ve no idea as to who this awesome dood was, do yourself a favor and watch either of the above. :O

Pizza Wednesday, doods. Ordinarily I’d raid Pizza Hut for their half-priced wings, but… whaaaat? Papa Johns has a new rewards program?

*SOLD*

I love this. You know how there used to be commercials about bankers literally competing (or rather, auditioning) for some dood’s business? I have this going on with my pizza overlords. After all this time, I still can’t choose if I absolutely prefer Pizza Hut or Papa Johns.

In other news… Expect a layout shakeup on the main Ayarane Project main feed within the week. Still thumbing through layout candidates that I would, of course, be tweaking the ever-loving smoo out of. Also as part of the deal, I’ll be enabling commenting on the main feed; I’d disabled them so I could try and shunt everything into the LJ version but that doesn’t appear to be working and the FB version attracts its own chatter on occasion… so I may as well just open the floors on all sides. :P (Tip: You may want to register on Gravatar if you’re not already on there. Just saying~)

I’ve a full Ramen plate right now. Gourmet Ramen and Pundit Games Episode 5 (and I still need to do a back-posting of previous episodes that I held back), oh, and holidays are coming up, too… Halloween, and because I hate Thanksgiving, Snowschemes will once again be starting up in November.

That said, however… reading voice actor Twitter– specifically, that belonging to one Yuri Lowenthal– planted this seed of a nagging idea that I will eventually have to address for epic hilarity:

“If Final Fantasy 4 had Twitter”
(Doesn’t this sound like it could be a Conan O’Brien segment? XD)

Yeah, you chew on that. Think of the stupid-hilarity of Cecil tweeting about things like, oh, the infamous Spoony Bard thing, or Fusoya’s impossibly-long beard. This could potentially be as awful (and thus awesome) as that one time I drew Haruko and Velan as Beavis and Butthead.

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In other news, Papa Johns got massive awesome points yesterday for bringing back its “John’s Favorite” spec (basically an enhanced version of the sausage and pepperoni spec that I am so fond of). I don’t know if this is a temporary reinstatement or if, like their Chocolate pastries, this is permanent… but it is definitely squee-worthy all the same. :D

I like my pizza. I really, REALLY like pizza. It would be really tough to get me tired of it, and even if you did, it wouldn’t last long.

I will also admit that despite the Fontana/Rancho/Ontario area having a metric buttload of local/one-shot pizza houses, I’m guilty of most often going with the big guns… specifically, Papa Johns and Pizza Hut. (Online ordering ftw?)

Before you ask… no, I can’t answer concretely who makes my absolute favorite pie… each variation has something I like but there is no one “perfect” variant. I’ll just list the configurations:

Papa Johns:
- Permanent: Hand-tossed X-Large Sausage + Pepperoni + Extra Cheese
- Event: The most recent event config I really liked (and STILL wish was made permanent) was the “John’s Favorite,” which was a minor upgrade of the sausage + pepperoni config (it had extra spices and such). Dude, if this is the favored config of the guy who owns the chain, why ISN’T it permanent? o_O;
After this… waaaaaay back when the King Kong remakes came out, there was an event spec that had JINT pepperoni slices and sausage. (I think they advertised JINT sausage pieces but they were normal size.)

Extra win point for always bundling a garlic cup (though with anything bigger than medium, I almost always need at least two). If only I could opt-out of the pepperonici(sp?) and replace that with a second garlic cup. :P

Pizza Hut:
- Permanent: Hand-tossed Large Sausage + Pepperoni + Extra Cheese
- Event: Currently, the Stuffed Crust Pan w/ sausage + pepperoni. (Note: if you do go 2+ toppings with this one, do yourself a favor and just get extra cheese. For some reason if you do more than one topping, there’s less cheese in the main body, I think most of it gets funneled into the edge.)
I REALLY wish they would bring back the Big New Yorker– it wasn’t an event pizza, it was around for a really long time– and was stupidly huge for being a $10 pie.
I had their “Edge” event config… let me put it this way: It’s basically a giant Ritz cracker turned into a pizza. Not necessarily a bad thing, but very much unexpected.

Often has better single-pizza coupons. Also the sides… oh smoo, the sides… *keep reading*

The above two are the most frequent targets. Next we have the smaller fries…

Costco:
They only come in cheese or pepperoni (and I always get the latter). Surprisingly tasty, albeit slightly spicier than I’m used to. They’re also bigger than Xbox, literally!

Sbarro’s:
Given that AFAIK they only exist in malls around here, it’s very expensive (lawl food court inflation)… however, if I’m at the mall, this is more or less inevitable. There was one pie at Ontario Mills I had earlier this year while waiting for LensCrafters to make my glasses… it was more or less a giant calzone in pizza form, practically impossible to eat normally and for what I paid for it I could have bought at least two Papa Johns-brand X-larges, but I gotta give Sbarro’s a thumbs-up for it anyway. :P

Little Caesar’s:
It used to be that we’d avoid them because their pies tasted like cardboard (I’m pretty sure that was something father said) but they’ve gotten better. Not sure if this is global, but at least in the Cardenas marketplace node you can get a Pepperoni pizza for $5. Not bad if you’re craving pie and want it on the cheap. However, there is something I like far better than their pizza…

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But, just pizza by itself? Boring! Factor in sides and you’re REALLY going to have a hard time getting me to pin a favorite pizza house/chain. I’m only listing the ones I’ve actually had.

Papa Johns:
The Mario of side items. Decent across the board with a couple of high-performers. (Well, there’s no such thing as a BAD side for me.)
- Breadsticks: You get a sampler of dipping cups with these. I prefer the garlic and pizza sauce cups.
- Garlic Breadsticks: Dude, these are TASTY. Forget normal breadsticks and go with these, unless you have an aversion to garlic butter. Otherwise, OMNOMNOM. (No, really… I remember the first time I got these at brendala‘s house and we were both all “holy shit this wins so hard.” It was hilarious XD)
- Cheese Bread: Basically a small white pizza sliced into strips. Comes with garlic and pizza sauce cups. This is my second-favorite side overall.
- Chicken Strips: They’re okay, though the “skin” comes off somewhat easily. Comes with a ranch cup (yay!).
- Cinnapie: I’ve only had this once and because it was slightly burnt they gave it to me for free. :P I’ll have to get it again before I can really comment on it.
- Chocolate Streudels: Or, as the WoW nerd in me calls them, “Chocolate Mana Streudels.” XD (No, really, they look like the pastries from the second-tier version of the Mage abilities “Conjure Refreshment” or “Ritual of Refreshment,” except these have CHOCOLATE) I thought these were an event item and was sad to see them go away, but as of a couple weeks ago they’re back on the menu. Yay! Currently my favorite dessert-type side. Has an option to add MORE icing, but for me that isn’t necessary.

Pizza Hut:
They have a lot of extras, and most of them are awesome. :D
- Cheese Bread: They come in long strips, which makes them somewhat awkward to handle. Comes with a huge marinara cup, with more sauce than can be reasonably used with the cheese bread, so you can use the rest with the pizza crust. :P
- Cinna-sticks: Also comes in long strips. Very chewy! If you think cheese bread is awkward to handle, these are even worse, since they’re sticky. (Bring a knife.) Comes with an icing cup, which you would be very wise to heat up to soften it if you get this via delivery or if you don’t eat this side right away because it stiffens up FAST.
- Breadsticks: These actually function more like garlic breadsticks. I haven’t had these in a long time… I think they also come with a huge marinara cup.
- Pizza Rolls: I had these tonight. Imagine slightly-bigger Crescent rolls with cheese and pepperoni inside. You get a choice of either a marinara or ranch cup… I opted for ranch and will probably do so in the future.
- Mozzarella sticks: These only appear in nodes that have a Wingstreet. They’re… a little on the small end. Probably this is the only underperformer of the lot. Comes with a marinara cup.
- P’zone: Technically not considered a side item but I do anyway. Best side EVER. (Can you believe these used to be $10? EXTREME win for the price drop.) You’ve a choice of three specs: Pepperoni, “Meaty” and Supreme… because I’m a weeny, I go with the Pepperoni spec. You know those sponges that get bigger if you add water? In a twisted way, P’zones are kind of the same; once you take a bite, the flavor drastically increases. You gotta eat these fresh for maximum awesome. They come with a marinara cup, but I often find that I don’t need to use it for P’zones and use them with the normal pizza crust instead. Now, if Pizza Hut really wanted to be awesome, they would add a fourth spec that would let you configure the filling as you wish, so I can get sausage + pepperoni P’zones… :9~~

Little Caesar’s:
Remember how I said that they have something that’s better than their pizza? They make the best cheese bread, period. Ohgod. It’s almost EVIL cheese bread. For the love of all things tasty, eat this right away. @_@ This comes very close to P’zones as overall best side item, it’s that awesome.

So, yeah. Good luck trying to get me to pick a favorite provider now. :P

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Finally, I will share a weird habit I have with pizza…

If it has sausage on it, I’ll pluck off the sausage bits and eat them first. I don’t know why. I would think my love of breakfast sausage might factor into this somehow. Sometimes I’ll do this with pepperoni, too… but I ALWAYS do this with sausage. I swear it’s like candy.

This would probably explain why I’ve yet to order a sausage-only or double-sausage pizza… I’d pluck it naked, surely!

On that note, omnomnomnomnom.

If you give a smoo about Twitter…

*the butcher knife bounces away from the style editor*

But if twitter’s not your thing… alternatively, you can watch some Twitter birdy abuse:

Also, the pizzaman lol’d at my shirt. I love Thinkgeek so freaking much.