This is what Canadians do with our rivers in the winter.

Ottawa Update 45

Yo,

After having written more articles in my four weeks at the Citizen than I did in the entire year before it, I’m finding my time at school is moving in slow motion these days. My assignments are not motivating me like they were a few short weeks ago and I’m now completely uninspired. The only reason I’m writing this Update is to entertain myself and or avoid the boredom as there is little to talk about.

That being said, my very first ‘journalist’ application has been submitted. The Citizen hires recent grads at full time salary for 16 weeks between May and September. I like to think that I’m the man for the job.

Unlike in years past, putting my resume together this time was kinda fun. I got a lot more swag than ever before and I know that I can do the job. In fact, I was kinda shocked about how good I can make myself look on paper. I have a ton of solid clippings, I’m much improved writing/computer skills wise and I’m oozing confidence. It all looks so good that I’m handing in another one this week.

The weather is cold, I’ve been burning the midnight oil on some other projects and I’m now gonna run and write something up that only my teacher is going to read. I hope you’re starting to see why I didn’t bother writing for so long.

Take care and I’ll see you next week.

Dan.

A little sumpthin’ I’ve been working on...

Ottawa Update 44

Yo,

Not tons going on here this week. School’s up and running, and all my classmates seem to have had a good Yuletide season...except for the few that didn’t make it back. I’m settled in and getting ready for the stretch run. What we’re looking at is eight weeks in class then a six week internship and after that I’ll be runnin’ solo and making millions in the journalism world.

The week went by fast and from what I can gather we seem to be heavy on the media side of things - radio, TV, media law, ‘new media’ (blogging, Twitter) and ‘long form journalism’ (books) - and light on the writing. For me that’s a good thing, as I’m sure there will be plenty of time for writing later on.

Since I will be heading out into the great big scary world shortly, I thought that it was time that I start to tweak the old resume so that some multinational corporation can snap me up as soon as I can convince them that I’ll earn them money. And what you see above here is my first step towards ensuring that happens with as little delay time as possible.

When I got the gig at the Citizen I knew that it came with a small sum of money and on my first day I got handed a grand total of 400 bucks in return for my four weeks service. I took that tidy sum and invested it into some music recording gear and I dug through the libraries for something to edit together and presto you have ‘A Day In The Life’.

I spent the better part of two weeks going through every Youtube Premiere Pro tutorial I could find, then applying whatever they talked about to the vid, then I deleted my first copy while I was trying to figure out why there was no memory left on my hard drive, then I spent another week redoing it, naming it properly and backing up everything until you have what you see here.

I know that it’s a little over the top with all the self promotion stuff, but I want future employers to walk away knowing my name, the stuff I can do and what software I can do it on, so forgive the excesses. There will be more to come so stay tuned to Dan TV.

Nothing else to write about, other than we got some snow, and it is cold, -29˚ today. Looking at the weather in Japan I see that it is 6˚ in Kawaguchi right now. While it is far colder here it is still way, way warmer in my house than in any of my old Japanese apartments, so I won’t complain.

Anyhoo, take care good night and happy watching,

Dan.

A multi-season shot of Algonquin College over 2011.

Ottawa Update 43

Well folks, aside from my continually deteriorating physical health, it has been a very good week for this old hombre.

I finished up at the Citizen on Thursday, after a very satisfying, but somewhat longish internship. My time there saw me get about 15 pieces published in the paper and I wrapped things up with a nice article that made the front cover. It would’ve been an ideal clipping for any budding journalist’s portfolio except that I spelt the subject’s name spelt wrong.

Sadly for slackers like me, thoroughness and accuracy are still an important component of journalism, so bonehead mistakes are likely not a good thing to be showing to any prospective employers.

During my time there there was a grand total of ten interns ‘working’ at the paper and so any leg up I thought I interning was going to give me over the competition might not be as good as I thought it might. It may also answer a few questions you may have about the quality of writing in City sections around the world.

But I digress, my terrible writing aside, the time spent there was a very positive experience for me. While I’ve always been more magazine focused, both for the slower pace and the glossy pictures. There is something about the fast pace and pressure of a daily. Besides the people there were great, very patient and fun.

So while I’m mentally sharp, physically I’m a train wreck. I did manage to bike the 13 km ride from my house to the Citizen every day including a couple of -28˚ deep freeze days. But for some reason I also had some of the worst back pain of my life. To the point where on New Year’s Eve I couldn’t straighten up, I guess I looked like an old Japanese lady, and for those of you who know what I’m talking about that’s not a good thing at all.

So with me I finishing at the paper on Thursday, Friday was spent sitting in doctor’s offices in a desperate attempt to see if I had any hope left. At this point I’ve arranged a battalion of tests and meeting with specialists and technicians. More to come on this in the upcoming weeks. Wish me luck.

As for the pic. This is something that I’ve really been focusing on lately the same scene in different conditions. It is kind of a spin off of time lapse stuff. I like the results here.

Other than that not much going on school starts again mañana so I’ll bid you good bye and take care till next time.

Dan.

Happy New Year!

Ottawa Update 42

Well folks I know that most of you hoped you’d never to see these two words written on this blog but, I’m back.

I spent the better part of the past week sweeping the floors, airing the joint out and cleaning out the cobwebs and it’s looking like a blog again and not an abandoned warehouse. So I think we’re finally ready to post an Update.

First let me say a big Happy New to all and since the world is gonna end at some point over the next 365 let’s all bust our asses to make it a good one. As for me my resolutions they’re fairly simple; the first is to kick even more ass than I usually do in all thing, the second is to stop littering and the third is to get back to blog once a week...or thereabouts. Wish me luck.

Since we last talked I’ve knocked off yet another semester of school, which I did pretty good in. I worked hard, learned a few new things and impressed a few of my teachers. And because they saw something in me (that’s new age type talk) I now find myself spending nearly every day of my four week Christmas vacation making a little journalism of my own at the Ottawa Citizen.

For those of you who don’t know, the Citizen is Ottawa’s most prestigious newspaper (unless of course I get a job at the Ottawa Sun after I graduate...then that will be Ottawa’s most prestigious newspaper.) So I’ve given up my holidays, my personal projects and my family time all to work my ass off writing about car accidents, local lottery winners and weather...for free.

I did go back to college under the impression that was a big fat paycheck waiting for me when I got out into the ‘real world’. I’ll go double check the brochure when I’m done this Update, but hey experience is priceless. And it has been a damn good experience for me.

I’m doing interviews, cutting video and writing fairly substantial pieces in a few hours now. Even a month ago that would have taken this old dawg two weeks to complete. It is amazing what we are capable of when it is go time. At this point I have gotten a front page story, a bunch of business section front pages and lots of tiny fillers. The best is having to call families and friends of the recently dead to get some quotes on someone’s passing. This job has toughened me up too.

While I’m just as broke as ever, I will walk away knowing that I’m good enough to be working at this level and am already looking beyond. Yeah, you National Geographic and you New Yorker and you Penthouse Forum I’ll be writing for all of you in the near future with the same gusto that I’m now putting into these random house fire briefs.

Anyways, 2011 has been an outstanding year as far as developing the skills and abilities I need to get some stuff done. And I’m figuring out more clearly what I’m gonna be doing with my new powers. At times while I was in the middle of 2011 I didn’t always see the development, but at this point I know I couldn’t have worked much harder than I did and that I’ve come a long ways and it was worth it. What more can you ask? Maybe for a paycheck, but that’ll come in time.

Take care all, stay inspired, keep learning and we’ll talk more often in the upcoming years,

Dan.