José Olé Nacho Bites

Saw these in the freezer section with the typical "NEW!" label on the box, so I grabbed a box.  I got the chicken and cheese variety.  Because Giant is the way it is, I don't know if there are any other varieties.

The directions are incredibly straightforward and bullshit-free, which was a pleasant surprise.  No "flip halfway through cooking", no "ensure internal temperature is 165°F", nothing.  Just the oven temperature, cooking time, and recommended cooling time before digging in.  Perfect.

I was initially a little worried that they'd stick to the baking sheet.  The directions don't say to grease the baking sheet first.  I popped them in without greasing it, to find that they ejaculate probably as much oil as the chicken at Popeyes, and thus the lack of greasing instruction isn't an issue.

They taste pretty much like you'd expect, since they're just corn tortilla with cheese, chicken, and bits of jalapeño peppers.  The jalapeños add just the right level of kick and aren't overpowering at all.

Overall, they're a bit oily, but pretty good.  Just keep a napkin around to wipe the oil off your fingers, and you'll be fine.

Twitter Bullshit

Well, Twitter officially retired v1 of their API today.  What does this mean for me?

It means that the Twitter client I've been using since switching away from the aging Adobe Air version of TweetDeck, the ever-interesting python/libwebkit client Hotot, stopped working because there hasn't been a public Windows release since the version I downloaded initially, even though the project has development from earlier this year.  I really don't know what a good Windows Twitter client is, everything I find is either mobile-only or no longer in active development.  I've had thoughts of writing my own for a while now, but I tend to balk on large development projects.

It also means that the Twitter widget I've been using on this blog broke.  That's more easily fixable.  In fact, I've already fixed it.  It looks a bit different and is way less configurable, but it's what we're stuck with unless I want to write my own.  Which I don't.

Edit: Twitter F5 re-enable script (weighs in at 58 characters):

onkeyup=function(e){if(e.keyCode==116)location.reload();};

Edit 2: Like most things, this doesn't work in Opera.  Even with "Enable User Javascript on HTTPS" turned on, it still refuses to even load the script.  If you use Opera, you suck.

Day of Racing: DVR Edition

I watched precisely zero of these races live, though the closest I got was starting the Indy 500 38 minutes late.

The F1 race was pretty exciting.  I personally was hoping for Adrian Sutil to somehow work his way up to 3rd so we could have an all-German podium.  Perez was pretty crazy at times throughout the race and ultimately paid the price for it.

At the Indy 500, things were initially crazy, with three cautions right off the bat, then everyone collectively calmed down and got on with it until just before the end when there were two more cautions, one of which happened because Graham Rahal hadn't yet crashed out.  I have a list of drivers that I'd like to see win, and while the actual winner was indeed among them, most of the rest had a decent race.  Fortunately for everyone involved it wasn't Will Power who won.  Stupid smug Australian.  Anyway.

I have less interest in the NASCAR race than the others, but I watch it anyway.  Unfortunately, despite rumors I'd heard and things I thought I'd heard people say, nobody actually attempted the 1100 this year.  Everything seemed normal for a while until the drive cable for one of FOX's cameras broke and got caught in Kyle Busch's car, then proceeded to wreck shit with everyone it hit.  Good guy NASCAR red flagged the race and gave people 15 minutes to repair the damage, then set the field in the order before it happened and set everyone racing again.

At 10PM, the local FOX HD channel promptly shit itself.

After a bit of WTFing I found the Shit-Definition version and tuned into that.  Skipping about a half hour because I was watching from a recording and was forced into the live broadcast.  After a yellow, things went to shit and there was a big crash and for some reason NASCAR threw another red flag.  I guess that's their policy as the race winds down or something.

Anyway, all the races were good.  Even though I missed a half hour or so of the NASCAR race.

How To Tell If You Left Your Headlights On By Accident

Which Sounds Cooler?

Defeat Cheapness With Equal Cheapness

I sequence broke like I said I would.  Grabbed everything that was remaining and went back.  Hit the boss with the Magic Rod three times, battle over.

LOL.

Anyway.

The 8th dungeon is quite the maze, but once you figure it out you can get right to the boss without issue.  After beating it, the game isn't over.  After all, you're collecting the eight instruments to wake the Wind Fish.  So then you go to the Wind Fish's egg in the mountains and play the Ballad of the Wind Fish on your ocarina.  All the instruments appear and you get the extended version, then the egg opens up.

Now, a long time ago, I'd heard that if you never looked up the proper sequence to go through in the maze inside the egg, it would be the same as the maze at the end of Zelda 1, i.e. North-West-South-West.  However, I avoided the library for the entire game and it spit me back out to the entrance after going North-West-South.

Read the book, got my (apparently random) order, and got to the final fight, which has a few different forms.  Nothing too difficult, you just have to swap weapons around (and for one form, try different tactics) until you figure out what damages it.

Once that's done, you get the cutscene and end credits.  The cutscene all but flat-out tells you that this entire game is a dream sequence.  If you think back, it all makes sense.  All the bosses are called Nightmares.

Also, the opening cutscene should be a clue.  You know, the one you see every time you start up the game.  Link is trying to sail through a storm, lightning hits his ship, Marin finds him washed up on the beach, and...  Wind Fish's egg.  Even the game's name suggests he's asleep.

I know nothing of the Zelda timeline, but... all the talk in the closing cutscene of "waking" and the wind fish, and the fact that Link was on a huge ocean and continues to be on a huge ocean after waking up, leads me to think that Wind Waker comes after this game in the timeline?  I dunno.

All I know is, I've beaten a Legend of Zelda game now.  Next up, Final Fantasy 4.

Cheapest Boss Battle Ever

I'm basically done with the 7th dungeon in Link's Awakening.  All except for its boss.  He has an attack pattern that's easily handled for a while, until he decides to flap his wings to create wind and blow you clear off the top of the tower you're fighting him on, which of course resets the battle.  I've tried using the Pegasus Boots, they aren't helping.

The worst part is, when he comes in to do it, you can't distinguish the wind attack from his dive-bomb attack until it starts up.  Sometimes I've tried to anticipate it and ended up dashing off of the tower under my own power.

Regardless, I have the Mirror Shield now, so I think before I go back to that battle I'm going to slightly sequence break.  Go into the 8th dungeon, and grab the last Piece of Heart, which will complete my 12th heart container (of 14 total), and the Magic Rod.  With the Magic Rod I can get the 60 arrows upgrade for the bow/arrows.  Then everything will be fully upgraded and I'll just be missing the heart containers from the 7th and 8th dungeons.