Don't Break the Shadowbind! The Joys of Pizza.

Don't Break the Shadowbind! is our Wed-weekly column brought to you by Omoikitte. Endgame isn't just killing mobs and splitting up the drops, that is the easy part. Omoikitte will provide her insight on how to do the hard part: the administration and planning of events, deciding on how to divvy up the drops, and how to deal with that one whiny LS member that just won't shut up about their abjuration. Today, tantalising tastebuds mmmmmm.



I was strolling home the other day thinking about HOW good pizza is. Its so great it even gets a +1 in FFXI with Marinara Pizza +1, a pizza that provides vast amusement to myself as it is a fish pizza, or as I like to think of it a Tuna fish pizza which apparently most Americans seem to think is a travesty of a pizza, but personally I think is delicious.

Feeling hungry yet? The perfect pizza should have a light fluffy golden crust that is does not cling to the roof of your mouth and is infact crisp with olive oil to give it just the right amount of moisture without creating an overpowered flavour to enhance the topping.

This should be a lightly smeared tomato sauce to ensure the base doesn't dry out and to give your toppings something to adhere to in cooking, and what a wealth of toppings you can choose from. Whether you prefer simplicity itself in the margarita pizza of mere cheese, or extravagantly experiment with the heady delights of alternative flavours and tastes, onion, extra cheese, olives, anchovies to name but a few of the more traditional toppings.

When we went to the Fan Fest in Hollywood, CA this year, Ring, Iz and I ate out at the California Pizza Kitchen which as a pizza chain I very much enjoy when I am in the states. The pizzas are cooked to perfection and they offer a large selection of more avant garde flavours and options to whet your appetite to a fine edge. An even better option would be to go with many people and order selections and share, then everyone can dip into an assault of giddy heights on the tastebuds.

It used to be a while back, that you could buy ready frozen bases from the supermarkets here, and you could then add on your own toppings, I used to LOVE doing this. A small pot of tomato sauce usually reserved for eating with pasta, a tin of sweetcorn and half a block of cheese. It was gooey, it was overload but it was soooooooo yummy, unfortunately the business of selling their own "home made" pizzas took over and the bases vanished from the shelves, I suppose I could make them myself but that is a fairly intimidating prospect.

The best way to cook a pizza at home, whether frozen or fresh made is on one of those aerated baking trays, that lets the base cook without just being sat on a circle of heat, much better flavour and less chance of drying out the base, which is so easy to do with frozen pizza. Mostly frozen pizzas fall down on the base preparation, but if you hunt around you can find some that can be nearly as nice as that fresh out of the oven feel in a pizzaria.

At this point I am sure you are wondering what does this have to do with end game, leadership, linkshells or any/all of the above. Other than possibly as a menu guide to what the typical gamer eats when engrossed in that fight against X monster. However in reality it has nothing at ALL to do with FFXI, or end game, or linkshells or membership problems or and of the other minutae that build up around running an end game ls.

THAT IS THE POINT! Let go, remember life isn't only about your linkshell, relax your grip and keep perspective, you will enjoy it and so will your membership.

<strong>Don't Break the Shadowbind!</strong> <em>is our Wed-weekly column brought to you by Omoikitte. Endgame isn't just killing mobs and splitting up the drops, that is the easy part. Omoikitte will provide her insight on how to do the hard part: the administration and planning of events, deciding on how to divvy up the drops, and how to deal with that one whiny LS member that just won't shut up about their abjuration. Today, tantalising tastebuds mmmmmm.</em><br /><br /><a href="http://www.pizzahutpizza.com/menu/_images/3_pan_pizzas.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.pizzahutpizza.com/menu/_images/3_pan_pizzas.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 362px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 365px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" /></a><br /><br />I was strolling home the other day thinking about HOW good pizza is. Its so great it even gets a +1 in FFXI with Marinara Pizza +1, a pizza that provides vast amusement to myself as it is a fish pizza, or as I like to think of it a <em><span style="color:#3366ff;">Tuna</span></em> fish pizza which apparently most Americans seem to think is a travesty of a pizza, but personally I think is delicious.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />Feeling hungry yet? The perfect pizza should have a light fluffy golden crust that is does not cling to the roof of your mouth and is infact crisp with olive oil to give it just the right amount of moisture without creating an overpowered flavour to enhance the topping.<br /><br />This should be a lightly smeared tomato sauce to ensure the base doesn't dry out and to give your toppings something to adhere to in cooking, and what a wealth of toppings you can choose from. Whether you prefer simplicity itself in the margarita pizza of mere cheese, or extravagantly experiment with the heady delights of alternative flavours and tastes, onion, extra cheese, olives, anchovies to name but a few of the more traditional toppings.<br /><br />When we went to the Fan Fest in Hollywood, CA this year, Ring, Iz and I ate out at the California Pizza Kitchen which as a pizza chain I very much enjoy when I am in the states. The pizzas are cooked to perfection and they offer a large selection of more avant garde flavours and options to whet your appetite to a fine edge. An even better option would be to go with many people and order selections and share, then everyone can dip into an assault of giddy heights on the tastebuds.<br /><br />It used to be a while back, that you could buy ready frozen bases from the supermarkets here, and you could then add on your own toppings, I used to <strong><span style="color:#ff0000;">LOVE</span> </strong>doing this. A small pot of tomato sauce usually reserved for eating with pasta, a tin of sweetcorn and half a block of cheese. It was gooey, it was overload but it was soooooooo yummy, unfortunately the business of selling their own "home made" pizzas took over and the bases vanished from the shelves, I suppose I could make them myself but that is a fairly intimidating prospect.<br /><br />The best way to cook a pizza at home, whether frozen or fresh made is on one of those aerated baking trays, that lets the base cook without just being sat on a circle of heat, much better flavour and less chance of drying out the base, which is so easy to do with frozen pizza. Mostly frozen pizzas fall down on the base preparation, but if you hunt around you can find some that can be nearly as nice as that fresh out of the oven feel in a pizzaria.<br /><br />At this point I am sure you are wondering what does this have to do with end game, leadership, linkshells or any/all of the above. Other than possibly as a menu guide to what the typical gamer eats when engrossed in that fight against X monster. However in reality it has nothing at ALL to do with FFXI, or end game, or linkshells or membership problems or and of the other minutae that build up around running an end game ls.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#9999ff;">THAT IS THE POINT!</span></strong> Let go, remember life isn't only about your linkshell, relax your grip and keep perspective, you will enjoy it and so will your membership.<br /><br /></span>

Morning in Vana'diel: Pizza Is Bad for the Soul.

Morning in Vana'diel is your daily dose of FFXI and all things Vana'diel. Give us your thoughts on the interesting topics of the day! Is Pizza really all that it is cracked up to be? Is it just one more "must use" item? Does it take the fun out of figuring out what the best food really is?

Marinara Pizza +1 was my Godsend, it was so good that I did a "You are not your..." column about it. It still is really good, and for most places it is fantastic. Some might say that it is not that great because it doesn't have any additional STR on it like almost all Attack food, and even Sole Sushi has additional STR. But the amount of additional Attack it gives is still very good compared to the additional amount of accuracy. But this is all a technical discussion that I have already covered before.

Even though I think Marinara Pizza is a Godsend, it is also a curse in disguise. It takes the fun out of figuring out what kind of food I should use for different fights. Now, I just use Marinara Pizza for just about everything, because you are never quite capped on Accuracy on anything more difficult than Greater Colibri, and I have already gone over what I think about people that gear for Greater Colibri. The bonus accuracy more than makes up for the lost attack from true attack food in most cases.

When I am leveling I use Marinara Pizza, when I am in Dynamis I use Marinara Pizza, when I am in Einherjar I use Marinara Pizza, when I do events I use Marinara Pizza. When I am on RNG I use Pot-au-feu which is the RNG equivalent to Marinara Pizza. I used to carry around Coeurl Subs, Sole Sushi, Dorado Sushi, Carbonara and Mithakobs. I used to be semi-creative and use different foods for different events because I had different needs. And now I just have a stack of Pot-au-feu and about 10 wasted slots on Marinara Pizzas.

I need do get some of those Sbarro individual pizza containers or something. Someone needs to try out synthing two pizzas with a wind crystal... seriously, I need my Mog Satchel space back!

<a href="http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/ffxi/images/4/41/Marinara_Pizza_%2B1.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/ffxi/images/4/41/Marinara_Pizza_%2B1.png" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 366px; height: 104px;" /></a><span style="font-weight:bold;">Morning in Vana'diel</span><span style="font-style:italic;"> is your daily dose of FFXI and all things Vana'diel. Give us your thoughts on the interesting topics of the day! Is Pizza really all that it is cracked up to be? Is it just one more "must use" item? Does it take the fun out of figuring out what the best food really is?</span><br /><br />Marinara Pizza +1 was my Godsend, it was so good that I did a "You are not your..." column about it. It still is really good, and for most places it is fantastic. Some might say that it is not that great because it doesn't have any additional STR on it like almost all Attack food, and even Sole Sushi has additional STR. But the amount of additional Attack it gives is still very good compared to the additional amount of accuracy. But this is all a technical discussion that I have already covered before. <br /><br />Even though I think Marinara Pizza is a Godsend, it is also a curse in disguise. It takes the fun out of figuring out what kind of food I should use for different fights. Now, I just use Marinara Pizza for just about everything, because you are never quite capped on Accuracy on anything more difficult than Greater Colibri, and I have already gone over what I think about people that gear for Greater Colibri. The bonus accuracy more than makes up for the lost attack from true attack food in most cases. <br /><br />When I am leveling I use Marinara Pizza, when I am in Dynamis I use Marinara Pizza, when I am in Einherjar I use Marinara Pizza, when I do events I use Marinara Pizza. When I am on RNG I use <a href="http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Pot-au-feu_%2B1">Pot-au-feu</a> which is the RNG equivalent to Marinara Pizza. I used to carry around Coeurl Subs, Sole Sushi, Dorado Sushi, Carbonara and Mithakobs. I used to be semi-creative and use different foods for different events because I had different needs. And now I just have a stack of Pot-au-feu and about 10 wasted slots on Marinara Pizzas.<br /><br />I need do get some of those Sbarro individual pizza containers or something. Someone needs to try out synthing two pizzas with a wind crystal... seriously, I need my Mog Satchel space back!