Author: Christopher

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Apple Advertisements, What Gives?

getamac

Are you confused?

So first there was the news that Justin Long was no longer making Apple commercials. Next, I had discovered that there were equally compelling commercials using the same schtick for Japan. Following this, I posted some borish comments on the topic. Then, I read another article today claiming that the long-man himself is denying it. Whatever, I’m so confused, and yet I don’t care. I still like the Japanese commercials better.

But in all this, I couldn’t help but wonder, what if this guy were in the Japanese commercials. Would he be confused? Would he brush it off? Would he try to talk to the hot Japanese camera girl again?

So to add to the confusion, here is a little ditty done I did with Final Cut Pro while taking a study break, just for each and every one of you. Enjoy.

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134 Free Academic Podcasts

A few months ago, I wrote a post on free education resources online. Today, I continue that post a bit as I ran across an interesting blog post that lists 134 Free Academic Podcasts. There are free courses on everything from Air Traffic Control to World Religions. Truly, this makes me wish I had more time to spend learning.

Unfortunately though, this list does not contain anything Japan-related lessons at this point but I will keep my eye out. In the meantime, here are my two favorite Japanese-related academic podcasts.

  • JapanesePod101.com – Free online audio lessons in Japanese. Highly recommended.
  • JapanConsidered.org – Brush up on your Japanese politics with this highly educational podcast from the University of South Carolina.

Enjoy!

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Japanese “Get a Mac” Ads

PCMAC

Nearly all white background, check. Smug hipster guy with a cool hair style, check. Hands in the pocket, check. Suit for the PC-guy, check. Unzipped sweatshirt, check. Kitschy piano vamp in the background, check.

Just as Apple is discontinuing the infamous cool Mac-guy versus unhip PC-guy, they are now using this same advertising slant in its Japanese marketing campaigns. The Japanese Apple videos are nearly identical, with the absence of Justin Long and John Hodgman.

I wish Apple would have quit while they were ahead with the success of this ad campaign. Over a dozen of these does seem to be a bit overbearing. People can quickly relate to the PC guy. “Hey, that guy cut me in line at Starbucks!” “Oh, its ok. He has a Mac.” I can’t say blame folks who feel this way as the repercussions of this brand-building exercise is being felt here.

Continue reading “Japanese “Get a Mac” Ads”

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Hikikomori Video

hikikomori

My del.icio.us crawling for videos of Japan picked up something interesting today – a well shot mini-documentary on the social-withdrawal phenomena of Hikikomori. I’m not adding this as a video podcast episode since this is not original material, but definitely check it out. Hikikomori video.

I have to agree with one of the skateboarder interviewees with the thought that, in some ways, everyone is otaku. I have plenty of friends who I would consider business-otaku. I think I am music-otaku, or perhaps even photography-otaku. If not for the great shots of Japan at night, the video is well worth the guy rocking out on drums at the end. Give it a watch if you are in mellow mood.

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138 Days Until Yoyogi Park

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Canon EOS 20d 1/60 f11.0 200ISO 43mm Photoshop

I spent the better part of today reading economics in the park and actually took out the 20D and started shooting with it again. It was such a beautiful day I couldn’t resist. I had my face towards the ground with my butt up in the air when I took this photo. Kids were laughing, but I didn’t mind since I think the photo came out great.

This shot is from a park is called Finlay park near downtown Columbia. It reminds me much of Yoyogi park south of Shinjuku, Tokyo. Very quite, very serene, and plenty of water and trees.

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Mixi Scandal

Got back from a little vacation and found a gem.

Again, I wanted to point out some excellent podcasting from Rich Pav and HerroFlomJapan commenting on the Mixi scandal (Mixi is somewhat like the Japanese version of Myspace.com) and the dilemma of Web 2.0 and social networking. Then, he puts the icing on the cake with some killer Japanese blues music. Please, go check it out this episode, if you know what’s good for you. ^_^

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Ajinomoto – Voices of Japan

I’m attempting to recover after a rough weekend of cruising to the Bahamas. I believe that I may have contracted something so I’m on the DL for the time being. Anyway, I ran across this which I thought was cute.

[gv data=”jnuULmbon14″][/gv]

This is an advert for Ajinomoto Stadium in Chofu, Tokyo. Other than being just a strange commercial, I thought it odd that there would be an advertisement for a stadium alone. Anyway, some great simple, funny speaking in there for those of you also learning Japanese. Enjoy!

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Nielsen Ratings for Video Games

Today Neilsen announced that it will begin reporting on market data for video game usage in mid-2007. With the constant bickering on who will with future market share between Microsoft’s Xbox, Sony’s PS3, and Nintendo’s Wii – I guess we will finally actually guess intelligently. What isn’t clear though is exactly how Nielsen plans on gathering this data.

Nielsen GamePlay Metrics will use a patented approach to harvest this existing information from current and next-generation video game consoles within these sample households. The new service will passively record the titles of games while capturing key demographic detail about players.

Interesting. Does this mean they will simply “listen” to what the user is playing? At any rate, this should be a huge tool for video game marketers, developers and, and platform producers all around. With the additional demographics on what gamers are actually playing, expect to see more boring Madden and FPS Racer titles as well. But alas, we all really know that 89% of NASCAR fans are really playing Hello Kitty Island Adventure.

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150 days until Ebi-Filets!

ebi

I decided to get back on the audio podcasting kick with this post. Probably extremely boring for those who already know me. Plus, this was recorded in the car so there is a bit of road noise. Driving goodness for those who are interested in why this podcast exists.

Show Notes:

  • Why Finding Japan, Why a podcast?
  • Ebi Filet and Japanese service

Links Mentioned:

My Odeo Channel (odeo/93eb918637d93569)

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Take That Trivia!

Drawing at Trivia

(click for full version)

Tonight we had some help down at trivia. The IMBAs held strong with second place, twice in a row. We made an amazing comeback, down nearly 7 points in the last round. Throughout the game, I was doodling on a piece of paper. Darrah has suggest I upload this as he though the guy with the gun captured the spirit of our IMBA program and upcoming round of finals quite eloquently.

The math is Darrah’s handiwork scoring us points for figuring out how many acres are in a square mile. I still can’t believe we got that one!

This next coming week will be filled with finishing up two more classes and preparing for finals. 69 days left until the end of the semester and 174 days left before I leave for 日本. がんばります！Push on!