Why have I decided on a career with computers?!

So now that I've gotten the assignments out of the way and recovered from the stress to some extent, I can finally rant about all the extra trouble I was put through thanks to the lovely thing called computer. It all began with the issue of Blu-ray region codes that I discussed [here] before. That was only the tip of the ice berg though...

I tried to get a move on with the coding side of my 3D Modelling assignment, but after compiling the codes Unreal Editor kept crashing every time I tried to open it. Not good. I did the usual trick to solving this problem, but still nothing. I nearly gave up when I noticed a curious fact - the code program did not seem to actually compile at all. After pressing compile nothing happened. I had no idea why it happened so I uninstalled and installed the program again and then installed some patch for it and still nada. The whole time I had this gut feeling that it had something to do with me having Windows 7. Good thing I got some help from a friend and was able to solve the problem by giving admin rights to the .exe file, as indeed, it was a Windows 7 caused problem. Someone could have warned me about this before hand. >:(

I was quite ready to rage at this point, when there was a knock on the door and a packet arrived. It was a present from my friend Max and contained Nana's Live Formula plus the most awesome card+message I had seen for a while. Phew, sanity saved - for now.

The next problem was Java... because it was Java. Well actually no, that was not the problem. The problem was that we were asked to do such complex things compared to the module last spring that I was quite lost to be fair. Nevertheless I was doing pretty well in putting something together... until... boom, some random java.lang error popped up and I could not run my game. At this point I have to say that Eclipse is quite a nice program in that sense that when there's an error it'll tell you the line it's at and even what the problem is exactly on that line. Well usually anyway. For this error, nothing. It had absolutely no idea what the damn problem was and I had to search through all the code manually for it. I had no recollection of doing anything else than inserting comments since my last compilation and those could hardly be the problem. This was really bad since the deadline was the next day and if my game could not be run then I'd be screwed. Again, just when I was about to give up I saw where the error was and it was a very silly one at that. Some values were creating an illogicality, which made the error pop up. Problem solved, though I would have appreciated Eclipse informing me the whereabouts of the problem, it was not a complex one after all and should have been easy to pinpoint!

Java presented many other problems to me as well, mainly such that bits of code did not work that were supposed to and so forth. I won't go into detail with those since I doubt it's of any interest to anyone and I don't particularly feel like recalling every little issue I had with that damn thing. >:(

After getting rid of Java I thought my problems would be long gone, but nope. 3D Studio Max decided to be a bitch next. I tried to make a model and animate it and after that import it in Unreal format so I could use it in my level... but nope, it did not let me import for some odd reason. I was advised to put textures on the model and turn the parts into editable polygons but after doing that, still nothing. I was ready to rage, but was still able to suppress it by just doing random useless alterations to the properties of the model, such as changing the bits to edit polys again, and boom it imported now. WHAT THE HELL?!

I decided to take a rage nap and throw my laptop out the window afterward, but while I was napping there was a knock on the door again. I went to open it all dazed and sleepy and was given a packet from Japan. MY UTADA SHIRT!! YES!! And Kuma notebook! YES!! And again, just like with my Nana Blu-rays before, it came with a free bonus poster. Must be a new trend to send me free posters with whatever I order, but that definitely works for me! The poster even kinda had her autograph on it.. so now, while lacking a better one, I can pretend I have her autograph, buahaha. Sanity and laptop saved - yet again.

There were many other issues that I had to deal with throughout the process of doing my assignments, such as my screen freezing with weird neon spots all over it, but I'm not gonna rant about them anymore... I just want to say that without these nice surprises I would probably have succumbed into eternal rage. So yeah, thank you Max and thank you KUMA POWER!!!

The hell is over, for now.