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Category: Student Posts

It’s Basically All My Hobbies in a Bag, (+ Imagine My Xbox is There)

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Items that you see above:

⁃ Black Backpack

⁃ Cleats

⁃ Goalie Gloves

⁃ Water bottle

⁃ Slides

⁃ Apparently Glowsticks

Uno Cards (because why not)

Not surprisingly, this image is a reflection of who I am as a person and the qualities I embody. I don’t have a favorite color (well maybe I do who knows) but my favorite shade is black because it’s so dark and deep. Everytime I have something on that’s black I just feel powerful. Which is why it isn’t surprising when I try looking into my closet and all I see is black. I chose to grab this bag because it’s a bag I use very often. One, because it’s black, two because it’s the perfect size for anything. Representing myself through the items of my bag should count as a type of writing because the items you carry with you really do represent the type of person you are most times. It’s like The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. If you’ve ever read that book then you’d know what I’m talking about.

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.

What’s In My Backpack

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My backpack stuff

Backpack list:

  • Hand Sanitizer – clean hands because of pandemic
  • Shoe Cleaning Wipes – clean shoes of any accidental marks
  • Sunglasses with Case – sun protectant
  • Wallet – mans gotta eat and get into dorm
  • Earbuds – connect to phone for easy music
  • Lock – to lock my locker at the gym
  • Hat – in case my hair sucks
  • 4 in 1 Cable – easy cord for all my electronics
  • Laptop Cord – so I am able to charge my laptop
  • Portable Speaker – whenever I need a speaker
  • Face Wipes – clean face after sweating a lot
  • Calculator – to do the maths
  • Portable Charger – charge my things on the go
  • Headphones – connect to my laptop for noise cancelling bliss
  • Umbrella – rain
  • Water Bottle – stay hydrated
  • Pen – write things
  • Laptop Pen – write on my laptop
  • Face Mask – pandemic
  • 2x Chapstick – keep my lips from being dry
  • Eye Drops – in case someone’s eyes get dry, my eyes randomly getting irritatingly dry
  • Pocket Knife – why not
  • Laptop – to basically do everything electronically, like schoolwork
  • Personal Notebook (forgot to add) – keep track of to dos and take random notes

Creating my self-portrait by revealing my typical daily bag showed me what I carried about and what I have learned about through the years. I include numerous self-care items such as chapstick and eye drops because I have learned it is beneficial to have them with you. I realized that I am also stubborn about some unnecessary things by having earbuds and headphones in my bag and bringing a notebook despite having a phone that allows me to store as many notes as possible. Revealing what is in my bag portrays my tendency to keep clean and refreshed by having chapstick, hand sanitizer, face wipes, and shoe wipes. It also shows my favoritism towards specific items like my DoorDash face mask and New York Yankees hat. Additionally, I get to show my randomness by showcasing my laptop, which is covered in stickers; I have always wanted to do this, and having a new laptop for college was the perfect opportunity. The only choices I had to make to create this image were to include items in my gym bag and daily bag because I use both almost every day and organize my things to show them all correctly. Nothing was challenging in creating this image because I had all these items in my bag already, and I only had to get things that I was currently using. Cataloging the stuff in my bag is a form of writing; however, it is not as elegant as you would think. I think it is a form of writing because you have to put your voice into the hand either way; even though showing what is in your bag only allows you to express a fragment of yourself, I still consider it is writing because you can show who you are through what you think is essential to carry with you.

Whats in my Bag?

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Item 1: Folder

I do not really keep much stuff in this folder considering all my classes are online and I do not get physical paper.

Item 2: Notebooks

I write most of my notes in these two books. They are for chemistry in math. At this point I can not tell which one is which.

Item 3: Clarinet reeds

I keep my clarinet reeds in my backpack in case I need them. I keep them in a zip lock bag in order to preserve the humidity.

Item 4: Graphing calculator

I use this graphing calculator for my math class. I lost the normal cover for it, so I decided to get one with musical notes on it.

Item 5: Writing utensils

These should be in everyones bag. I tried to keep a small amount.

Item number 6: Fidget spinner

This has been in my bag ever since the fidget spinner phase, and I never really took it out.

Item number 7: Small Rubix Cube

I do not really know how to solve one, but I keep it in there in case anyone does.

My idea for organizing my items was simplicity. I keep a very organized bag, and I do not have any unnecessary items in there besides the fidget spinner and the Rubix cube, which I do not mind leaving in. I put those two items next to each other. I organized all the writing utensils in one pile and put the reeds sightly above it. My graphing calculator was neatly put under the utensils. I decided to put the orange folder inclined against the backpack because I did not want the picture to be too perfect, as I am not too perfect. The picture I created is simple and organized with a hint of disorderliness. To me what was challenging in this assignment was figuring out what aspect of myself I wanted to portray in the picture. I decided that the easiest one would be simplicity and neatness because those are traits you can also find in a bag. This assignment would represent writing. I believe anything that uses symbols to convey a message or idea can be considered meaningful writing, and that is what is being done in the assignment. We are explaining the meaningful placement of items, and what they represent.

Player Narrative Reflection

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In my player narrative, I sought to explain how games served as a starting point for my creative aspirations. There is a nod to how I believe games allowed me to forge my own sources of engagement with other people, and how that focus helped me become self-reliant.

I think I had the same results in terms of the success of the free-writing exercise, but I do think the activity itself was easier to complete because I had more concrete memories of playing games. I think the structure of my player narrative was entirely different from my literacy narrative. Instead of feeling a wariness and back & forth about my identity like I did when I wrote my literacy narrative, I felt motivated by my previous experiences with games. Each paragraph tried to build off this increased sense of creativity and fulfillment.

I learned it was alright to delete writing that draws away from the point of the essay. There was a paragraph, that I felt was really well written, about my limited but favorite experiences playing games with my family. Ultimately, it didn’t add anything to my thesis and created more confusion in my essay. Deleting the section was a difficult decision, but once I did, I felt that my essay flowed much more effectively.

Player Narrative Reflection

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The controlling idea of my narrative is that games are similar to our lifes, and learning how to play games are a way to improve our perspective. Through this narrative, I further understood my point of view toward games, and I shared my way of living in a medium that I can better organize my thoughts. Different from my literary narrative, I incorporated more description of my experience. Those are the pictures when I free-wrote about games or hockey. My structure starts with an introduction to “my game”, and then I described one experience out and reasoned another point with logic, followed with a conclusion. There isn’t many new ideas. All of the ideas came from the free-writing exercise, I simply rearranged into my essay.

Player Narrative Reflection

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I approached this assignment similar to the first one, but the difference was that this time I had a clear idea of what I wanted to write from the beginning. I have a very personal history with games, so it was not very hard to write about my experiences as a gamer. In my narrative I contrast the time in my life before and after I played my first videogame. Remembering my life before I was able to play games was tough, as a lot of it was pretty bleak. I worked a lot and had little to no fun. My only real escape was reading, and as I explained, it was not really enough. I distinctly remembered my first game because it really was an important time in my life. I honestly have mostly good memories from my time with cancer, mostly because that was the time games came into my life, and I grew a greater attraction with books. Being in a hospital bed for weeks really helps you focus on building on yourself, and that’s what I did. My first game, Super Scribblenauts, was the perfect first game for me. It allowed me to use my experiences with reading to help other characters by typing in words and making them come to life. In doing this I was able to grow as a person. In writing this narrative, I learned more about how games can help people grow by calling on my past experiences. 

Yono's Yak Yard 2020-09-20 23:13:59

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  • Computer: My connection to the outside world.
  • Phone case – representative of my phone and driver’s license. I used the phone to take the picture and I’m not adding my driver’s license because my picture looks bad. Also, it is illegal (?)
  • Blue big notebook: Math.
  • Green big notebook: Chemistry. I dislike opening this one.
  • Purple big notebook: Biology.
  • Blue small notebook: PACE.
  • Red small notebook: Writing
  • Pink small notebook: Health.
  • TI-84: Handy for calculations or to push random buttons when you have no idea how to solve a problem.
  • Pen and white-out: I don’t like to use Pencil since it feels slow, takes time to sharpen, and makes a screeching sound.
  • Blank sheets of paper: I do calculations on these.
  • Lined sheets of paper: I re-take notes on these.
  • Book: Extreme Economies by David Grann. I like it so far. I think I’d have this in my backpack, as something to do in free moments.
  • Expired Water Bottle: It just feels wrong to throw out (can you even throw out water? Doesn’t seem kosher).
  • Laminated Sheet of Paper: Somehow adds to the ambiance.

Since I am studying from home this semester, it felt weird to consider what I would have in my backpack, but these things all felt like they deserved a spot. I’m so much more than the sum of the significance of these things in my backpack, so I wouldn’t say its representative of anything more than my academic work. This assignment was challenging because I had to make decisions about what things represented me most: a backpack only has so much room, and this one is already quite heavy. To make this image, some choices I made were to write out a list of things I use in my daily routine, and then combining them all in a way that suggested organization, when really I’d be less deliberately organized with an actual backpack. I do not think that the picture is writing, but the list and paragraph definitely are. I think a catalog of my stuff can qualify as writing if it is written: a picture doesn’t feel like writing, I think.

Writer narrative reflection

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My main idea in the writer narrative involves my two most important experiences in my life being a player of games.

I found this exercise quite difficult at first. I didn’t know what to write about. I decided to start off broad, saying that games are everywhere in our lives. We can call any unconventional task a game if we want them to be. I then moved on write about the so-called games that are important to me, those that helped shape my identity as a player.

Through writing the player narrative, I learned that there are so many benefits to playing games. I also reflected on my experiences on a deeper level. I have always been playing games but rarely I took the time to think hard about it.

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