” ~ wain~

Yes my first surgery.
My first major surgery.

This is a serious one. What doctor said is a sebaceous cyst. I had one behind my ear for more than a year, one on my forehand which is about half of the size of a pingpong ball for more than 3 moths, and one on my cheek for 2 months. They really came out from nowhere although they are not the first cysts i have. just these are ridiculously big and one happens to be on my forehead. Doctor said it is a genetic disease which nothing can cure beside removing it. But he suggested me to see a dermatologist.

so now i have 2 noticeable scars on my face. they are not the prettiest things I want to get, but at least i can lie about that they are from my official yakuza training. sigh~ hope the stitches hold and the wound heal fast.

What is professional?

professional is 101% perfect. the challenge, though, is not reaching that 101, but instead knowing when to stop, when to be satisfied with 95 or even 90.
I could spend 10 mins or 5 hours edting a 5 mins piece. And only I will notice the marginal difference.
How far can I go when I push myself that far? I feel pain stretching now.

Last 2 days of production. Hanging.

I proudly announce that we just formed my video production company today! 2 graduating Carleton College senior Chris Courneen and Wain Yee finally decided to devote ourselves of this meida world… With our hard work and talent, we will be the cameraman, editor and producers of any sort of productions. We work efficiently with MultiCam, Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, DVDStudioPro, Motion, LiveType, SoundTrack, and WebDesign. We are working on our logo and website http://MaskManProductions.com…
(Alright enough for the advertising… hehe… I m too excited… more will be coming next)

The first challenge we have is that we have a big postproduction that has to be finished in 2 weeks. Time is tight, and stress is high. I am learning how to maintain a balance between more efforts or less perfections, to best estimate how much time I should put into certain part. The technical challenges are easy (which I will write later).

The difficulty is not letting my passion drown myself.
Keeping myself on track.

Just a preview list of the projects of MASKMAN PRODUCTIONS in the next three months:

-Inside CoCo’s World DVD (2-disc special edition)
-The Colored Museum DVD
-Women in Black DVD
-Carleton College International Festival 2007 DVD
-youtube channel: United World College Cultural Days highlight

1:40am @my room. The second week is almost over, but technically that’s the first week that I have the real taste of my new schedule. I used to have all my classes on MWF but this term TTh will be my busy day. I underestimated a bit the amount of work I have and went on too relax at the beginning of the week. I need to re-adjust it.

One highlight of my classes that worth mentioning is the non-fiction production (aka documentary) class. Not only I am excited throughout the whole 2 hours lecture about different techniques, my brain keeps spinning for ideas after the class. And more ridiculously, during my economics class about developing countries, I was constantly thinking about framing, lighting, editing, color and audio while I was watching the UNHR video… I am thinking too much. I want to make a good film; I want to practice shooting a few hours a day; I want to develop speed editing and effectively story telling; I want to tell a good story; I want to make a good film. But at this point I want to do too much.

Yes, calm down again. I noticed today during lunch how fast I really ate and how restless I looked like. I decided to make myself tea. I made myself sit down, finish/(try to enjoy) it, before start multi-tasking again. It worked.

On the note of multi-tasking, I know maybe that’s one reason I like documentary: I have to constantly adjust framing, focus, iris, audio level, white balance, also keep an eye on the environments. That’s quite a awful lot of work at the same time.

11:53pm @Scoville. Got a lovely email from an old friend. There is a line: There’s always the pull to do something more immediate, more practical; but isn’t it right that the most abstract truth, and the most abstract rewards, are all, to the practical man, the most important?
My instant response was Yeah~ that’s what life should be! Totally agree! And that ease a lot my stressful no-plan-after-grad situation. But then the opposition seems to keep striking me back. It is not the fear that I would not get a job; it is simply the natural worry about uncertainties. As a senior we are all going through this transition period. Not many of us are determined (or lucky) enough to get a job at the moment. I mean I got a bachelor of ARTS degree, majoring computer SCIENCE from a liberal arts college. I m not educated to have a specific skill to work on any professionals. I do not have any clues what I am doing after grad, or should I?
I am spending so much time building the website and not actively looking or applying for jobs. Is that the right thing to do? I need to constantly telling myself I am doing fine.

Today’s feel good moment: talking with a good friend on phone. Yea. Simple as that.