Ahem. I was working on a page about influences/sources of Final Fantasy (disclosure: I earn a few pennies from the ads in the sidebar, plus commissions if anyone buys something through Amazon links on that page).
I was rehashing my observations about how Irvine and Laguna are actually cities in Orange County, California, where I live. (This mystery was solved when I discovered there used to be a localization branch of Squaresoft in Costa Mesa, which is on the other side of Irvine from Laguna Beach.)
I suddenly remembered: hey, wait a minute, Irvine is often called (since it used to be) Irvine Ranch!
Whence the cowboy. Or maybe that's why they used that name for a cowboy, since it was the closest ranch to a Squaresoft office. They may even have wined and dined visiting Squaresoft bigwigs by taking them on a trail ride.
Laguna is not actually plain old Laguna; it's Laguna Beach with annexes of Laguna Woods and Laguna Hills. Laguna Beach is a flaky artists' colony with a lot of good restaurants. Not really doofy in quite the way Laguna is goofy, but it works.
This entry was originally posted at http://auronlu.dreamwidth.org/188922.html, where it has
