$thirtyfive/$/fourty$

i'm going to open this up with a promise. i am going to have Episode 3 "401" finished by the next time i post. it's been too long without finishing it and i feel like i'm just putting it off. i have ideas, i know what happens. i know who has to be where when and how they get there. i can make excuses, but the bottom line is it should be done right now and there's only one thing i can do about that.

i'd like to take a few minutes to talk about convocation. i don't know what i was expecting, but i can't even begin to display the mix of emotions from beginning to end of that ceremony. let me see if i can try to recall them in order;

8:30: getting cap and gown - looming boredom
8:45-9:15: lining up - the boredom sets in
9:20: preparation to enter - anticipation
9:25: pre-entry - nervous awe (i cured the nervousness by thinking of the final scene in 'Star Wars' when Han, Luke and Chewie get their medals)
9:27: entry - awe (loved the music)
9:29: pre-seating - relief (bottles of water!)
9:30-9:35: seating - back to awe
9:36: sitting - giddyness
9:40-9:42: Oh Canada! - surprisingly bone chillingly awesome, everyone just kinda mummed the words and the room vibrated
9:43-10:45 - speeches - blah blah blah BORED
10:46: pre-stage entry - complete and utter nervousness.
10:46-10:52: lineup for stage entry - kept telling myself "don't trip, don't trip, don't trip"
10:53: stage pre-entry - a complete mix of pride, relief, awe, and of course nervousness
10:54: stage entry - see above, minus nervousness
10:55-10:56: diplomacy - cucumber: as in; 'cool as a;'
10:57: stage exit - RELIEF
10:58-12:00 - BOREDOM (with the exception of friends)

that took longer than i expected, but i tried to be concise and comprehensive. did it work? either way, very impressive ceremony. not much i can say to describe it if you weren't there, but i know some of you were, so hope you liked it as much as i did. though i was bored through most of it, i appreciated the outstanding efforts of everyone involved, and if it wasn't quite redundant i'm sure i would have enjoyed the keynote speech. i'd also like to give a special shoutout to W.O. who won a very prestigious award and she should be very proud of herself. when all was said and done i rate the whole experience... $35 000 / $40 000.

everything else i had to talk about was show-related. one thing i like to avoid doing here is posting spoilers. but wait! i do have news. i'm going to bold this.

JULY 18th 2009: EPISODE THREE: '401' - STARRING CORN ON THE COB AND CHICKEN WINGS AS DINNER

be there or be square. you can get the de(tails)eets from me through dustin.dbell@gmail.com or through my facebook account, or twitter @eddietucker if you're following me there.

that is all. when you see me next, i'll not just be a graduate, i'll be a graduate with three out of six episodes in his breakout miniseries finished.

have a great week everyone!

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is the name of this post because it's the band that sings that ultra-emo 'Graduation' song - and that's what I'm doing Wednesday morning!

I am going to receive my Bachelor's of Arts in Mass Communication. The degree focuses on the relationship between the audience and the media, as well as a critical interpretation of all sorts of media from radio to the internet. I've spent the last four years of my life studying; film; law; history of media; economics; the audience; language; philosophy; ethics; nationalism; symbolism; foreign policy; literature; myth; religion; news media; advertising and the music industry. I spent every single moment learning about something I had a deeply vested interest in. I feel like I've come out of university with no specialized knowledge in anything, but with a very general and well-rounded sense of the world I live in.

I also met some of the greatest people a man could hope to meet. To all my friends, who are too many to name and too great to be insulted by an exclusion from any list - a toast. You turned a crappy cinderblock palace and a city far away into a home for me. Thank you all.

Along the way, the students of Carleton's Mass Communication program lost someone great. Paul Atallah, the professor of MCOM 1000, who welcomed first-year students to university like no other professor could, passed away in late 2008. I'd like to take a moment to express how influential Professor Atallah was in my university career and how much he will be missed by myself and countless others.

a moment

For today, I'll forget about every complaint I've had towards you, Carleton. It's been a privledge and an honour.

I can say that Soundtrack is without a doubt the product of the broad and generalized education I received at university. I've already listed the range of courses I took over my four years, but I can't begin to explain how influential every single one of them were on the show's development.

Though at times I feel I want to create something entertaining and commercially appealing, at others I feel I should strongly be incorporating in-depth themes and motifs to the narrative. Lidless and Soundtrack's rivalry is what drives a majority of the themes explored through the show. The miniseries only explores the origin of this rivalry and so I feel like I've lost an opportunity to explore a lot of the more in-depth issues I'd hope to address through the show. Though I feel story comes first - the true reason I hope for a full season after the miniseries is to explore these themes.

So I'll bid you all farewell. I hope you all have a great week and say goodbye to you as the last time, a university STUDENT!