Rabbit Tails & Meatballs

Why Usagimaru? Why rabbit tails and meatballs?

I don't think anyone really knows, so I'll share this today. Nothing special, really.

So back then when I first got my PS2, the first game I got with it was dot hack. And in the second installment of this series(mutation), was this character called Nuke Usagimaru. I could stop here and you might guess that I took and used the name from there, but why exactly?

Usagimaru was a pretty interesting character. He was trying to be a stand-up comedian, and that's exactly how you get to meet him in the game. He was looking for an audience, and despite his rather lame jokes, which promptly caused everyone watching to leave, Kite(the main character) stayed behind and followed him all the way to the lowest level of the dungeon. "Tis' an actor's job to perform, even with just one audience member!", he chirps enthusiatically, before running off to the basement.

It is there that you save his life and he, out of gratitude, gives you his member address, effectively joining your list of available party members.

What I like about him is that he's a Long Arm(the name of the class which wields spears), and you don't get many in the game. The only other one is Gardenia, who is pretty cold and aloof, and while she goes get some interesting conversations I don't like her all too much. Well not only that, his hair is awesome.

So, not long later I got the game Final Fantasy XI Online(it's years back now), and I was deciding on a name to use for my newly created character. I wanted something unique, yet not too farfetched that I can't connect with. (Yeah, I get really picky when it comes to giving names.)

You already know the answer - I settled for Usagimaru.

Usagi means "rabbit" in Japanese. Maru means "circle". But when placed in a name it means "male". Simply put Usagimaru means "male rabbit".

In my early days of FFXI I met this very nice guy called Axl. He's American, but was living in Japan at the time. It was he who told me that Usagimaru could mean "rabbit tail" or "meatball" in Japanese slang. I guess it isn't that difficult to infer why.

So there you go, Usagimaru, rabbit tails and meatballs.

P.S. I realize I got a bit carried away when talking about who the hell Usagimaru is. I could've cut to the chase, but I figured the background information might be interesting to anyone who actually bothers.

Distant Worlds

Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy was simply awesome.

Considering this is the first time ever in my life to attend a Final Fantasy concert, it isn't an exaggeration to say that I nearly had tears of joy.

When they started playing the opening piece "Liberi Fatali" I couldn't help but smile. I was in so much awe.

The performance was great, despite a few audible mistakes and the lack of "oomph" in certain pieces, I feel. And in my opnion the soloist for Distant Worlds didn't really manage to capture the essence of the song and project more emotion. I guess I had really high expectations for the song, since it is from Final Fantasy XI, after all.

Probably the best thing was that Nobuo Uematsu was just sitting a few rows in front of me. It was so spectacular when he graced us with his presence.

I didn't manage to get the CD or the artbook there, but what I did manage to get was a T-shirt, and both Nobuo Uematsu's and Arnie Roth's autographs! It was a pity that I was so stunned at the moment that I forgot to shake Uematsu-san's hand. All I did was say ありがとうございます！He responded likewise. It was absolutely awesome to recieve the autographed booklet directly from possibly the greatest composer in video game music.

I can die happy now. Well almost, hahaha.

Panic

The logic for my image transfer project is more or less established, but I simply cannot get the application to run properly. It keeps causing a panic, if that's what they call it.

Come Tuesday is already my diploma recital exam. Thursday would be the final presentation for our project. I cannot express how stressed out I am at this point. And I know with too much stress I start to panic. I can't do things properly.

I think I was going crazy just staring at the screen trying to solve the logic error. I have pinpointed the exact cause of the problem, but I simply do not know how to solve it.

Probably the worst thing ever in programming is that you know the error but you can't solve it. It quite clearly exemplifies "so near, yet so far", to an extent.

Fuck programming, I tell you. Fuck programming.

I swear I am never going to do this in the future.