Hey, it's 5:45 am and i've been awake for about 3 hours now. Oh how i love jet lag. There will be posts regarding Japan soon but right now i am trying to get on some kind of normal schedule and my body is just saying "Fuck You! You have cooped me up in planes for 24 hours and now you want your old schedule back? Again, fuck you."
Also, i haven't loaded any of my pictures yet and i have lots of interesting things to discuss that could benefit from pictures. i very scientifically recorded all aspects of my trip with pictures, to an extent that would irritate most if forced to view them all, but individual pictures with accompanying stories will work out great.
As i digress from my original intent of this early morn jet lagged entry i will now write of frustration. Not so much of my screwed up schedule frustration (although i kind of have), not of my returning American frustration (the Japanese where SO incredibly polite, respectful, and kind), but of my political frustration.
i'm not going to go on about how completely irrelevant McCain is. If you can't run an email program i do not want you running my country. Nor about how the world is betting all our hope on Obama. We've gone so long without positive actions that all we have left is hope and we seem to be putting all our chip down for this spin of the wheel. i'm too much of a curmudgeon to believe all that much in him, especially after things we've seen of him so far, but the toughest of times can turn regular men into heroes. That's were we are right now and i know Mc doesn't have it in him so i'm hoping the other guy can come through for all of us.
No, instead i am writing of my overwhelming frustration with how absolutely useless cable news channels have become. Between staying on a military base which only carried FOX and now being stuck awake (did i mention jet lag?) flipping through paid programming, infomercials, and all news channels at a time in the morning i didn't previously even know existed i have figured a bit out about these channels.
Do you remember when the M in MTV stood for music? Yes, there are many children today that have no knowledge of the meaning behind those call letters but those of us who are old enough remember when MTV played nothing but music. Sure we may have had to sit through "Pour Some Sugar On Me" twice in one hour but they were true to their name and played music.
When we wanted to SEE music, we knew where to flip. Somewhere along the way, however, the people down at MTV realized that they could get a significant increase in viewers if they played shows instead. It was probably around the time the first season of "The Real World" wrapped up. More views means more advertising dollars. Turn to MTV now and you know how that evolution has progressed. Lots of people have made lots of money and they have become quite a force branching out in many directions including the film world.
MTV losing the music, premium movie channels making television series (Sex in the City, Weeds, etc) this has all been done in the name of upping viewers. i know i'm taking the long way around here but the trip is justified in the name of my conclusion.
Somewhere along the way the cable news channels realized that giving ego driven chatter-boxes their own shows was not only easier than hunting down actual news, but also brought in more viewers. They all jumped on board and now news is as hard to find as music videos on MTV. We are all left using the internet to locate both.
i kid you not, i actually saw a stock photo of a tire gauge full screen on one of the news channels. Are you fucking kidding me? Why the fuck are they talking about this? First, you have to be a complete idiot if in 2008 you did not know that keeping your tire pressure correct helps with gas mileage... although most people watching these channels ARE, in fact, idiots. Second and everything else-ly, we are at war (much of the reason i actually went to Japan), we are facing a changing environment which could leave us as a species behind, our economy is in a depression (no matter what the president wants to call it) and cable election coverage includes a stock photo of a tire gauge?
It was even one of those old chrome ones where a white stick with increment markings on it gets blown out by the air pressure. It's fucking 2008, you didn't have a picture of a digital one? Did you blow all your budget on talking heads and now your graphics department is left with 1980's stock photos? Does anyone in the studio know about Google images? i bet if you went down to the dollar store (or 100 yen store as they call it in Japan) you could find a digital tire gauge.
Aw fuck it. After all that ranting i'm still not tired, there's still no music on MTV, and there's still no news on cable. Maybe it's time to get productive and transfer my photos from the camera to the computer. What meal should i be eating right now? i guess cereal works no matter what time of the day it is.
Sayonara...
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