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This goofy looking guy’s name is George Williams:

He is on Japanese TV, and if you ever get a chance to see him, you will agree that he is the most annoying person on television ever. He’s not even American (after about 2 minutes of research, I found out he is half British and half Japanese), but he MUST be giving Americans a horrible horrible name in this country.

I’m going to make this as short as possible, but it is bound to be long, as it is a rant. This guy has pink hair, but apparently last week it was green. He overpronounces everything (which might not be totally bad, as he is on a show to teach people English), but the main problem is the way he moves and his facial expressions. It looks like with every word, he is forcing a pumpkin out of his crotch. His Japanese is actually good (probably he was raised here), but he pulls off the “douchebag foreigner” image 100%. He is going bald, dyes his hair a new color every week I suppose, and dresses like an old man on vacation, ie flowered shirts, khaki shorts, random accessories, etc.

I am embarrassed to watch this guy on TV, same as the other 2 or 3 “main” Americans on TV shows here. Another is a guy named Patrick. Not as bad, but still annoying as hell. Anyway, just needed to vent about this George Williams guy. His show is only 15 minutes, thank goodness, but he is annoying enough to irritate you for the entire next day. Ari and Mike agree with me on this. If I ever see this guy walking around the street, I will seriously consider kicking him in the groin and laughing. End of rant.

Let’s see….yesterday, Saturday, I did absolutely nothing. That is slightly overexaggerated, but not by much. I woke up around 9 or 10 and bummed around. Got my TV that I rented here at the dorm, and got that all plugged up (it’s only a 14 inch screen, but I can watch weird Japanese TV now). Actually, weird Japanese TV probably deserves it’s own blog post.

I decided to not go on the “Tokyo Tour” with the other IES kids and the e-pals (have I explained that these e-pals are Kanda students who are basically supposed to lead us around? We each got “assigned” to one a little bit before we left, and conversed via e-mail. Mine was at the airport the first day, but haven’t seen her since. I guess I’m just that great.) So, instead of going on the tour to places like Harajuku, where I’ve been several times, I decided that I would be better off on my own. And what did that amount to? Why, taking a nap in the afternoon that lasted until around 4 or 5PM! Bryan came back to the dorm, I had dinner here with him (first and only meal of the day), and that was about it. I fell asleep before 10 while watching バイオハザード (Resident Evil).

Sunday: Woke up today around 7, nearly in perfect time to watch Dekaranger and Kamen Rider Blade on TV. After that, slept for another hour. Finally showered and got out of the dorm by noon. I was really bored so I decided to go to Akihabara. And lucky me, by the time I had left it had started raining. Actually, despite the slight drizzle, it was nice. The weather was about 10 degrees F cooler than normal, which was a welcome change. Made my way to Akihabara, AKA dork’s paradise. Didn’t buy anything except for 2 little keychains which costs less than 300 yen. Spent a few hundred yen in arcades, which netted me an old-school Super Mario Bros hand towel. Yippie.

After a bunch of emails and cmails on the ol’ 携帯(cell phone), I coordinated a few people to get together for dinner. Note that I am seriously going to STOP using my phone as much as I have been, particularly in downloading stupid stuff (ie, Kamen Rider ringtones), as my bill is going to be ridiculous. I actually spend a good portion of the evening worrying about this. Here on Japanese cell phones, you get charged by the “packet,” some unknown, mysterious unit of data. I have no idea how many bytes or kilobytes a packet is composed of, but I DO know that I’ve transferred a buttload of them. Yarg…..

That was about all that happened of even remote interest to me this weekend. It’s about 10:30 now, I have to write a 6oo character paper for tomorrow (less than a page), and on top of that, I also have to wear a shirt and tie for tomorrow’s 入学式 (New Student Ceremony). Note that it’s even worse, since it’s not the big, all-school event that these things usually are. Japanese schools start the year in April, not September. So now is the beginning of the second semester at Kanda. So the only kids who are going to be here tomorrow are the foreign exchange kids. What fun is that?

So lately I seem to be watching VH1 every once in a while.  I think it started with the I Love the 90’s show (which definitely brings back a lot of memories).  Not a good channel really, but something to keep on in the background when you’re on the computer.

I came home tonight from a 5 hour study/laptop session at the library, and turned on VH1 since it actually had a show on that at least held my interest for the first few seconds.  Then it hit me (it’s occurred to me before, but even more now): all of VH1’s shows are the same!  I Love the [70’s, 80’s, 90’s], A to Z, The Fabulous Life of … , Biggest Celebrity Beefs, The Best Week Ever, countless others I probably missed and/or have never seen.  Each and every once of them is done in the same format, same style, same everything.  They’re decent shows if you watch them every once in a while, I suppose, but come on VH1… how boring and unimaginative can you get?  The setup for every one of these programs is identical: sit guests (usually celebrities of varying degrees) in front of a backdrop, have them talk, show random stock video clips and stock photos over this, throw in some graphics, and voila!: you have a VH1 show. 

I can understand the I Love the…’0s series being done in the same fashion, but to have an entire lineup of programs done in the same cookie-cutter format is pretty ridiculous.  Maybe in my beginnings as IUSTV’s programming director, I think about this kind of thing more than some people would.  But surely, if you sit and watch about 3 episodes on VH1, of “different” shows, you will quickly see how boring the format is.  I’m sure they have the same staff working on several of these shows.  They probably share the same small set (just swap out the background).  They probably even have the same team of people in charge of gathering video clips and images.  Who knows; the format is so boring and unoriginal that they might have a computer program doing a lot of their editing for them.

Maybe VH1’s main purpose as a channel isn’t to create innovative programming; if they’re just trying to take up time, they’re doing a good job.  If all of their shows weren’t so similar, they’d be great.  But the fact that they’re all done in the exact same format just takes a lot away from it.  And it’s not like they exactly have (m)any other (notable) shows to take away from this lack of originally that is their programming schedule.  Did I mention that they love to run 5 or more episodes of the same program in a row?  And that’s not on special occasion (like a marathon or something); that’s their normal scheduling habit.

I’m fairly certain that within a few years, IUSTV will have a good variety of programming.  And I can honestly say that our programming schedule will be more original and varied than VH1’s is right now.  Hell, it would be easy to make a “VH1-style” show for IUSTV right now, but I don’t really know if I should stoop that low.

Man I’m bored. Although it is nice having cable stations that I don’t get at IU. Just watched Unscrewed on TechTV, and next it’s time for some Iron Chef on the Food Network. Ah well. I suppose I will work a bit more on the website, then maybe sleep. Final Fantasy X-2 has been pretty good so far; a bit of a change from good ol’ X, though.