Life in Japan

Keen readers will recall a post I made long ago describing what my average day was like thus far in Japan. Less keen readers can get a refresher here:

http://japanadventuretimepartygo.blogspot.com/2006/10/that-was-fast.html

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I had an ambitious idea for a post. Behold my ambitions, excusing Google video's automatic quality downgrade:



Warning: Long, rambling, run-on sentences ahead.

Okay, so obviously this is very much an extension of that post I made so long ago. It occured to me that I should really have something like this to show everyone when I got home, but that it would be better to get video from the middle of my stay, as opposed to the end, when everything is all weird and bittersweet. So, over a period of 4 days or so last week, I set out with my digital camera and it's miserable video-taking abilities. Eventually, with footage obtained to a satisfactory, I put everything into iMovie, which comes packed-in with my computer.

I would now like to take the time to express my extreme hatred towards iMovie. What has made Apple so successful, aside from a little thing called the iPod*, is the incredible ease-of-use of it's software for the average computer user. iMovie is part of a suite of programs that are supposed to be one of the Big Reasons To Own A Mac. Unfortunately, this program, and it's sibling, iPhoto, sucks a lot. It is slow, limited, a bit confusing, and generally nowhere near as user-friendly as it should be. Obviously, it shouldn't compare in terms of abilities to Adobe Premier or other professional-level programs, but I at least expected it to be like Pinnacle, only more functional. Instead, the amount of detail you are allowed to edit at is limited, the editing features are themselves far to limited, not to mention hard to find and implement, any edits ruin sound, forcing you to extract the sound to another track, which means you cannot put something else, such as narration or effects, in the same spot. and the program is in general really not convenient for anything other than just lining up clips together as if just transfering a home video tape to computer and that's it.

In the previous paragraph, I mentioned that I figured iMovie would at least be at Pinnacle's level. Pinnacle is the program I used to put together my Meaning of Life project, and those who have seen it know that I really put a lot of time in it and strove for a high level of quality. Pinnacle is intended for the amateur user, like iMovie, only it is way easier to use and figure out, and has more and better features all around. The one big issue is that it crashes all the time (iMovie only crashed once on me), which lengthed my already 100+ hours of time spent on my Meaning of Life video probably by 25%. This crashing was incredibly annoying, but the usability of the program makes it far more desirable than my new enemy, iMovie.

While we're on the topic of the Meaning of Life project, I'm sure there are those who watch this most recent creation of mine, and find it definitely inferior to my Meaning of Life project (or Julian's, if you happened to see that masterpiece which he and I put together using Pinnacle on my computer. In fact, the beginning of this video shamelessly rips off Julian's, and while that was unintentional seeing as the scene was almost totally improvised, I should give credit where it's due), and this makes perfect sense, since I spent way, way, way less time on this (only a few hours of my spare time on the computer), made it with a crap program, and generally took it less seriously.

That said, it ended being about 4 times longer than I originally envisioned, and much more poorly paced. That said, I like this pacing better, since it just sort of adds to the madness, and ultimately the whole video is much more entertaining and simultaneously more insightful than playing "Yattsuke Shigoto," the first and last song in the video, through it's entirety, accompanied by a barrage of footage.

If you are awesome, you will agree that all of the music in the video was amazing. That's because it was all taken from the album "Karuki Zamen Kuri no Hana" by Sheena Ringo (translation is roughly "chlorinated lime, semen, chestnut flowers"), a CD which you are likely to hear a lot if you are around, since it is amazing and has introduced me to a whole new side of music that I did not know I could like. The songs that appear on the video, in order are:

(Japanese Characters - roman characters - translation)

やっつけ仕事 - Yattsuke Shigoto - A Damned Job
とりこし苦労 - Torikoshi Kurou - Over-Anxiety
おこのみで - Okonomi de - As You Like It
とりこし苦労 - Torikoshi Kurou - Over-Anxiety
意識 - Ishiki - Consciousness
ポルターガイスト - Polutaagaisuto - Poltergeist
やっつけ仕事 - Yattsuke Shigoto - A Damned Job

It is also worth notiing that Yattsuke Shigoto is officially my theme song, and it follows me around wherever I go, whether you can hear it or not. It's certainly not the most musically stimulating song -- in fact it's just downright ridiculous -- but it's also the most upbeat, catchy, hilarious- and- happy-sounding song of all time ever, and it's impossible to listen to without at least giggling to yourself a little. Ironically, it's about how much the daily work grind sucks.

So yeah, I hope you enjoyed it, and if the quality of Google Video's version is just too awful and you for some reason desire to see a "better" version, there is a nicer-looking version that I will be keeping on my computer. I will likely burn it to a DVD, too, just to see if iDVD works any better than iMovie does.



*Okay, using a footnote like this is directly ripping off the style of Nick's extra-secret blog, but since 98% of you have never and will never read it, on account of it being extra-secret, I will use it. So, take that, or something. Anyways, the topic at hand is the iPod. It is a fine product, no? So fine, that people have been pining and speculating that it will one day be reborn as the iPhone. Well, that day appers to be nigh. It was recently leaked, from someone who has been totally accurate with his leaked Apple information in the past, that Apple is indeed planning an iPhone that will be supported by all major cell phone carriers, featuring a supposedly awesome operating system that is super easy-to-use, plus a flip-out keyboard, and two batteries, one for the phone, one for the music. All this in two models, a 4GB and an 8GB. Sounds pretty awesome, if you ask me, and I have no doubt that it will sell like umbrellas in the rain.

Here's the head-scratcher, though: It's being released in January. WTF? January is one of the slowest sales months of the year, on account of knowing having any money or needing anything after the holiday season. Why not release it one month earlier, in time for the holiday rush? This totally baffles me. Apple has not released a major upgrade to the iPod this year, meaning demand will not be as high for the product, plus Microsoft has just released their own mp3 player, the Zune. While this is brings basically nothing new that the iPod can't already do, it's supported by Microsoft and it's bottomless bank account, so it will be getting substantial attention, whether you like it or not, and it is "new," which is as good enough a reason as any for many casual consumers to pick it up. What's going on Apple? You don't have to let this happen...