It has been in my to-do list since the beginning of this holiday. Now here it is, took me the whole day today!

I used Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 which came with my Sony VAIO this time. It’s got a lot more functions than the Ulead Video Studio I used to make my other videos before. Although other factors matter too, but making videos with a 2G RAM is an incomparable feeling to my old laptop with 512M RAM. One minus point is the video clips that I took with my Lumix are mov format, which I suspect may reduce the quality and not quite compatible with Windows applications. I have tried several export format but the best quality it came out is still reduced when upload to Youtube. I have upload a better wmv file, feel free to download it.

Making video is fun, but very time consuming, especially when it was my first time using Premiere Elements. As you can see, most of the videos were before the ceremony, partly because we were not allowed to take videos within the cathedral, but more because I wanted to enjoy the moments rather than being a cameraman. Two clips in the video were taken from the ceremony DVD, one is the hand shake with Bill Bryson, the other at the end of the video, when all of us gathered together because we were the last year DEAS students in Durham. I bought the DVD just because of that clip! Unfortunately it became blurred when compassed into the video.

Well, another video that I made. I enjoyed the process in which memorable moments flashed back. And I can choose those joyful moments to share with others.

But it’s the so far the most expensive one in my life!

After we graduated, the Department of East Asian Studies (DEAS) in Durham University was officially closed. However, no one expect those few individuals who decided to close it down would say it’s a sensible decision to close such an important department. It’s clearly a mistake, so I believe some day in future people will realise and do something about it. But while they are doing that (it might take a while), we need something to remain the existent of the department, also for students who graduated from it to look back in memory. So a website might be a good idea, I thought.

This idea has been in my mind for a long time. I talked about that with the teachers and the dean. They are very supportive. So with some sponsors from the department, I bought our domain DurhamDEAS.org and start working on it now. Yesterday I went to the department to collect some documents from the past newspaper about the closure of DEAS. The teachers had a campaign against the closure and I looked over the volume of the campaign archive, it was tremendous! I was shocked by that fact that even though letters from embassies, local MP, business bodies or individuals sent and went against the closure, the mind of those insensible people didn’t change.

Although I’m going to start working soon, but I will still spend some time in the weekend to build and maintain the website, simply because I love this department and I think it’s meaningful to do so. When you are alone aboard you will find some community to attach to, like sports team, colleges, societies. But to me, the department is the most important one.

I made a video in my first year when I was told about the closure. And now, I want to contribute more to keep it. Hopefully the day of reopening will come soon.

I have moved into a new house near Tesco in Gilesgate. It’s a very nice newly furbished house. I was lucky to find such a good accommodation for a short period. The landlord and house mates are nice and friendly too. Just got the Internet working. Life can be very quiet without Internet, but also can be very organised. Things have their pros and cons.

It’s going to be a very busy week. Tomorrow I’m going to help my teacher set up and testing some Karaoke equipments for the farewell party on 30th. And there will be BBQ on Wednesday, followed the graduation on Thursday! Oh btw, I think I’ve got a 2-1 degree, as I expected. Then working on Friday, and the department farewell party on the 30th. These are in my schedule, but there are a lot more might come up unexpectedly.

I will stay in this house over summer. Although I want to find a job down in London, but it just cost too much to live there before you have a job. It might be more sensible to just stay in Durham over summer while hunting for a job.

OK. Bed time! How come my life sounds so boring? Because of the way I write? Or because of the weather? Or because I stay in front of the PC too long? Anyway, tomorrow will be another good day! Nite~