Play Make Write Think

Author: Jimmy

Podcast Reflection

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As the main producer of Episode 3 titled “Unity in Among Us and Quarantine,” I took responsibility leading the entire group in planning, making concrete schedule, writing a script, and audio editing. I enjoyed that as a group leader I got to work on something that I felt passionate about and be generous with my time. I shaped the majority of how this project looked and I also felt grateful that my teammates inspired and supported me when I needed them. I want to thank Elaine for helping me finalize a overall plan and Andy for bringing out some really interesting ideas. Most importantly, even though I announced a very urgent meeting in slack without any notes in advance, my dear group members always tried their best to come. They wanted this to be good. And I’m proud of the work that we’ve done.

We’re still early in the entire series, but we did draw some inspiration from episode 1. We found their conservational format to be very interesting, and initially we did not have any elements of back-and-forth conversations in our plan. We adapted to a reasonable amount of discussions and started asking questions to each other so that audiences would feel engaged throughout. We also added carefully chosen music pieces. And these music pieces were lined up in a designed order of keys (key signatures) that would offer a smooth transition to one’s hearing experience. Again, this was just a nice addition that hopefully would add a nice complement to our original voice.

Our primary goal is to: 1). declare our critical play 2). present how Among Us has become a successful game 3). answer what message the game teaches. Since the schedule is limited, we were not able to draw references from a lot of places. For example, there was no time for us to plan an interview, go do it with someone, then gather results, and write about them. I’d like to work on that as strong references would effectively add credibility to our own episode.

I found the making of this podcast series to be a very similar process than any other project that we do in our outside this class. It required planning, researching, gathering ideas, collaborating, encouraging each other, confronting new difficulties, and finding ways to solve problems. There was a similar pattern. Also, I’ve learned that as a group leader I was vocal and positive all the time. I enjoyed surrounding ourselves with positivity and encouraging teamwork. Love it! I learned a lot from both Elaine and Andy. And I couldn’t be more happy about what we did!

What’s in my bag

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“What’s in my bag?” photo taken by Jimmy

iPad: NotesPad

Macbook: handles all the mess

Mask: Mr. if you don’t have one you ain’t going nowhere

Lipstick/Vaseline: Fall is real dry

Cash: It just stays in my bag.

ID: always always

Airpods: Makes life better

Glasses: Backup pair

Pen: Imma writer. Period.

Well, this is the go-to bag and the go-to setup for any occasion that I would carry a bag. However, most of the time I don’t carry a bag with me. I feel like the picture above displays the common items I would take, and therefore I would agree that it represents me. The image itself is a very forefront and straightforward presentation of the items. And I’m a person of that kind of personality. I try to show all the parts clearly and separately in the photo. I want this image to be clean and concise, leaving its story and the interpretation work to its audiences. I choose to line up the two big pieces: the Mac and the iPad to the left. And then I balance the whole picture by putting my big backpack on the right, so neither the left nor the right both will be overpowering in size. In the middle, I have some classic small pieces for me, for examples, lipstick and vaseline, something I would definitely bring with me in this windy, dry fall season in Shanghai.

What’s challenging about this project is the photoshopping. It really took me a while to put these words on them. The photography needs to improve a little bit too, I believe. I totally agree that representing me in a catalog of the stuff in my bag is a kind of writing. It requires certain creativity and boldness for people show their personal items but not in an boring way. In fact, the curation of items is a really artsy way of writing.

Reflection post 9/20

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This is the reflection post of my player narrative essay. I spent a couple of hours on this one. And I corrected some mistakes that I made in my literacy narrative essay. I paid attention to develop a clear thesis and find some different points to support it. So instead of just laying it all out there, I first had a clearer overview of I was about to write for this essay. I think that helped me a lot during the writing process. And I hope the points can support the main thesis as I planned. Some possible room for improvements may include repetition of words and expressions, lack of clarification on some terms, etc.

Liveblogging Gone Home

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Now I’m playing “Gone Home”!

(Pre-game): The phone call is very intriguing to players. And looking back right now, I find the phone call from Katie to her Mom offers a smooth and attractive introduction to the game. Also it is covers the main background story effectively and without procrastination. The three beeps right after the end of the call are really loud, or should I say, they are meant to be loud in order to foreshadow some alerting signs. So far so good, great transition to the actual game. Loving it…

(At the front door): It is 1:15 am. I’m at the front door of my house. Now the game has established its setting; it’s done in a quick fashion. Visually it is dark around me. Outside the door, the light is so dim that I could barely see. In fact, weak light makes me anxious. The sound effect corresponds to the gloomy feeling as well, with the extra disturbing rain and thunderstorm…I hear heavy footsteps by myself, which makes me even more nervous. I don’t quite know what I’m supposed to do at first. I checked the front door and then some corners. I opened the doors of the cupboard, and I found a key. This should lead me to the main entrance of the building…I like the design of this game. A first person narrative always makes me feel more closely connected to the character. It also gives a better look of the computer screen than the third person narrative. Players’ visions are cleaner and larger. It gives me a feeling that I’m in a detecting/searching game, something like a breakout room but definitely some horror breakout room. Will I see some bodies or some crimes? I have no idea. Let’s get inside and search the house…

The Lost Eiffel

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This photo is a combination of Eiffel tower and an Egyptian pyramid. I googled the image of the pyramid and the Eiffel tower.

The moment I started this quest, I thought about putting together something that had the similar shape, or they just simply won’t fit together! Then I thought about the Eiffel tower, the icon and famous tourist attraction in Paris. And I combined it with the pyramid, which could serve as a base to the Eiffel tower. I feel like the Eiffel tower has such a sharp top that made it really hard for me to work from the top. So I chose the bottom. Some of the challenges that I faced was brainstorming and lacking photoshopping skills.

I named my final work The Lost Eiffel because “the lost” symbols everything about the ancient Egyptian culture. It seems mysterious, aged, and in our modern world still no one is able to accurately tell the myths of Egyptian pyramids. The title also captures the contrast of modern and ancient constructions. The Eiffel Tower is a relatively new building compared to the pyramid, as the Eiffel is lost in the grand basis of a pyramid.

Reflection Post

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Here’s the link to my literacy narrative. https://jimmyyichengwang.wordpress.com/my-change-big-change/

It was a little weird and also exciting to write this literacy narrative because it is barely two weeks into the progress of the semester. The freewriting exercise prepared me well for writing this narrative. I definitely became more comfortable.

Just like any other writing assignments that I do, I wish to share some truths about me with other people. This is what I enjoy doing: write what I believe, and believe what I write. At the end of the writing process, I felt like I got to know a little more about myself. And I’m glad that I explored an aspect of myself that I had no chance exploring in the past. I identified some of the key experiences that helped me grow as a writer. I think having a clearer view of my past enables me to better realize who I am and set goals for the future.

I want to highlight one sentence, “Now looking back to my first year experience at my high school, I feel like I was a nicer looking Frankenstein (I think I look better than Frankenstein) trying to wiggle my way through all of the weird, new, unknown things around me.” I love this one. It is interesting.

Avatar

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I photoshopped my own photo using the app MomentCam. I chose to photoshop my avatar like this because it both represents my personality and stands for some part of this class as well. And also, I think it is a fun photo. It has full contrast of colors, with red in the background and blue and brown in the foreground.

The little blue fox magician right next to me holds a knife in its hand, almost saying, “welcome to the show!” In my life, I enjoyed being on stages and throwing myself out there meeting all kinds of new people. I participated in a couple dramas and performances under the theatre lights in high school, and I believe these activities can show people who I am. I like to laugh, and I like to make people laugh, to entertain them, to make friends with them. When I was photoshopping this picture, I really enjoyed the curtain at the background because it connects to my past. I also love this avatar because in the picture the huge box with a spade sign on it to the left represents the challenges of this class. In the picture, I’m locked inside the box. It mirrors the breakout rooms that we often do in remote classes. The several knifes It specifically speaks to this first-year writing class because it pushes us to get out of our comfort zone, to deal with new challenges, and to always perform our best when we face the unknown.

At first, I did not know how to make this avatar at all because I did not know where and how to start. I think the topic was very broad, and later I find out that if we use our creativity and boldness to get things started. This project could be fairly straightforward.

My Change, Big Change

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–Jimmy Wang

2020/02/05 this was the picture of me and my friends after I gave my senior chapel talk

It was the winter of 2015 that I decided that I would seek a change in my life. I had a video chat on a chilly night in November with Phoebe (or I think by then her name was Angela, and her name had always been Angela growing up), who was my middle school classmate, my best friend, and who took a big risk and went abroad. She applied to a American high school—Thatcher, in California—where according to her, everybody rode horses. It was almost bedtime in Shanghai, and a clear and bright Saturday morning in Cali. As we were talking, she went out to the nature. From the video camera, I could smell the freshness of the berries and cherries amongst the luxuriant foliage on the trees behind her. I asked Phoebe, “what trees are these?” “You gotta come here and we could figure it out. But there is one thing”, she said with a genuine pleasure, “I enjoy everything here. It is spiritual. It is free. It is nurturing.” And from that day I made a decision that impacted my entire life.

            Yes, if you’re still guessing, I was a Chinese student. I spent over 10 years, in Shanghai. I was at a top elite middle school, where we did classes from 7am-5pm. My English—uh, not so great—I would be fair: I think we all knew we sucked but we couldn’t do anything about it. And my decision on that November night brought me closer to proper writing, or to put it as the way I thought of this in 2015: how to write like an American.

            I joined TOEFL camps. And yes, that’s also true—the alleged Chinese training camps were all true. Alright, I admit it. However, I do not feel ashamed of it. Indeed, I enjoy thinking back on the history of my own growth and end up finding a TOEFL camp at the very first. I was bold. We learned how to make a statement, put some logic into our paragraphs, find some examples, etc. I believe my writing was probably rigid, dry, or any words that would make it not a good writing. I felt stressed during that time. However, TOEFL gave me a chance to explore knowledge at a small boarding school in Asheville, amongst the rugged North Carolinian mountains.

            I finally came to America in the fall of 2016. I want to stress that by going to a school in the U.S., my perspectives did not only change. Indeed, The way that I read and write jumped to another level. For example, before high school, I did not know about racism; I did not know about gender equality movement; I did not know about American presidential debates, etc. I was so restricted to the environment that I had been in—there was no other race (I used to only see Chinese people in my lives, and therefore I knew nothing about racism); there was also no one questioning the gender inequality. Great news: we don’t do political debates in China. Ha! Now looking back to my first year experience at my high school, I feel like I was a nicer looking Frankenstein (I think I look better than Frankenstein) trying to wiggle my way through all of the weird, new, unknown things around me. My change was big.

            Asheville School offered me a platform to succeed. Under my 1st year Ancient history teacher, I practiced critical thinking and writing analytical essays. I spent the next three in his advisory group, making a life-long relationship with who guided and inspired me. The following year, I was lucky to meet another inspiring teacher, Mr. G, who introduced me to the world of creative writing. I built myself into a more dedicated and skilled writer, and with the recommendation from Mr. G, I joined a summer writing workshop at Kenyon College. There I met famous poets and writers in person. I teamed up with students whose parents won the Pulitzer Price. Later, I took the president seat of creative writing club as a senior, publishing our writing and sharing our voices with the local community. We read our works publicly at a local bookstore. These were all the crazy things that I couldn’t had imagined doing. I’ve changed, and I could not tell you which specific experience changed me. But I cannot describe how happy I am to be the way I am after doing all of the above.

I’m grateful of Phoebe, of my past, of TOEFL, of Asheville School, of all of the things that made me, me. I’m Jimmy, and welcome to my blog.

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