Tag: Uncategorized

• MacBook Pro 15-inch (2019): I am one of the unfortunate 10% of people that has been cursed with what I would like to call the “left-handed syndrome”, because when it comes to writing in general, being left-handed sucks. If you’re writing in a spiral notebook, your handwriting will vary for every page. Your handwriting will be good on one page then turn to utter poop on the next. That’s because the left hand gets inhibited when you write on the right page from the cursed spiral. Also, whenever I write with an ink pen and even lead pencil, my left hand always touches the writing, smearing lines of words to a smeared glob. That’s why I try to do most of my schoolwork, especially notes, on my trusty MacBook. Also, I recommended the 15-inch over the 13-inch; you can just see more. The touch bar is optional though.
• Wallet: I try to carry my wallet in my backpack rather than my pocket to prevent losing it. There have been multiple times when I lost or was close to losing my wallet. Once, I left my wallet on an airplane and didn’t notice until I was at the baggage claim; I was able to fortunately find it later. Another time, I left my wallet on a bench, the same bench I always left it on, in my church and went somewhere. I had never got anything stolen in that church before; I was surprised to come back to the bench and not see the wallet. These events converted me to just enclose my wallet in my backpack front pouch so I never will lose it again.
• AirPods Pro: These bluetooth earbuds are a game changer. I used to carry the Bose SoundSport Wireless and the Beats Studio3 Wireless, the Bose earbuds for casual listening and the Beats over-ear headphones for studying as it had a noise-cancelling feature. The AirPods Pro has all the components that the aforementioned Bose and Beats have but better. The Airpods Pro are compact, easy to wear, extremely comfortable, and have extremely high quality audio. The Airpods Pro also has a really good noise-cancelling component, surprisingly similar to the Beats headphones. AirPods Pros are a must. I don’t think I can use anything else after wearing the Airpods Pros.
• Pencil case: I received this pencil case from a friend on my birthday after my friend saw that I lost my previous pencil case and I used a ziploc bag as my case for 2 straight weeks. It contains multiple mechanical pencils, pens, highlights, and white-out. I don’t know much about writing utensils, but I would recommend the Uni Jetstream ballpoint pens (0.5 mm). The sharp pen tip allows for responsive and accurate writing. Make sure it’s 0.5 mm! Anything wider is too thick…
• School stuff: Nothing special here. Just a couple notebooks and folders and for school things. Nothing more to talk about here other than the fact that I have been using the same folders/binders/notebooks since 9th grade because I am environmentally friendly, but mostly because I get too lazy to buy new school equipment.

*I carry my iPhone XS and, of course, mask in my pocket.

The things in my bag showcase what I would be carrying on the daily if I was attending on-campus. I usually don’t take a bag with me other than for academic-related purposes. The academic-purposed bag by no means represent me as person as I am not an academic intellectual. This assignment was easy because the backpack and the content inside I imagined to use in college is the exact same as the ones I used in high school. I consider this type of writing to be enjoyable because I am taking the everyday mundane objects I just blindly use but defining each thing with a purpose. 

For some background knowledge, the two blue smiles are magnets that were sold together, much like a salt and pepper shaker. When combined they make a sphere shape and this got me thinking about halves combining to make a whole. This led to my creation of the two smiles representing yin and yang. They are the two halves of the whole balance of good and bad, but we all know that we cant have good without some bad and vice versa. They smile upon us as we live our lives and serve as a reminder that we need to balance our lives to maintain a happy for ourselves and those around us.

Looking around the room to find something that means more than what meets the eye, I could not move past the compass that I found from the back of my drawer. My mind was flooding with memories of me wielding it to traverse the European streets. For my Sunday Sketch, I decided to go ahead with the compass, though it was a 3D object with just a ‘2D meaning’. Further, I used the process of reverse brainstorming. I worked my way backwards- filtering objects by shape first and then adding a meaning to them. The compass seemed to fit perfectly in a clock for the montage.

Well, it happens so that the clock ticked nine and the compass directed me towards a connection between the both of them. On a busy Monday, the clock guides our schedule. The compass takes on a similar role when we are travelling; it guides our route. If only it could permanently play that part, even during the Mondays.

Doing things the Polish way, we even give directions using the clock dial analogy. I might just conclude that we sometimes use them interchangeably.

Look at your 3 o’ clock to get that title.

I have a complete lack of artistic skills so when I usually draw something, I hate it to no end. Though, this sketch, taken from a meme I have seen where a plushie is holding a knife (original meme is in the caption), makes me laugh to no end. It’s Kirby–the cutest avatar known to man with a knife twice its size. I found it so amusing that I sent the sketch to my friends and family group chats without any context. I know that Kirby is actually pink, but I’m not in my actual home this semester, so my art tools were pretty limited. I had to make do with a purple sharpie when I couldn’t find a pink marker. It might seem like a vampire or devil Kirby now, but to me, it’s just Kirby having a rough time this year.

I’m not the most artistic person, no, I’m not an artistic person. But, this is my best attempt to a “sketch” of a guitar. As you can see it is an outline of a guitar with the ruler as its neck. The inspiration for this sketch is the previous assignment of combophoto where there was a guitar as a bridge. So, I thought it would be cool to incorporate the ruler in a guitar. Also, the ruler has these markings which are on the ruler have a similarity with the frets on the guitar neck.

The name of the sketch is- “No rules”. A ruler sets a sort of perfect straight line, that you wouldn’t get while a free hand drawing, but an artist while drawing would never use a ruler, eh would not use a “rule” to draw a sketch. Similarly, there is not a set definition or set formula for what an artist plays on a guitar. My favorite guitarists are Kurt Cobain and Slash. They never had rules while playing the guitar, going above and beyond while playing it, with solos that gave me goosebumps whenever I had listened to their songs.

The first thing that came into my mind was the ring I wear. When I was a child I always had a fantasy that an alien was protecting me from any injury or mishap. The luckiness to have my joyfull childhood had been unbelievable for me who seen many of my peers going through unpleasant times. Yet, for me, I cannot find similar experience in my reminiscence. Therefore, I decided to recreate my alien friend, Momo, into my life with a physical medium, my ring. Since I do not have any talent or training on drawing, I simply replicated Momo’s past appearance from my head with a pen. The colors or details are vacant because they are also missing in my memory, and I would not want to be a blasphemer to my original belief. To me, Momo bacame more than a childhood fantasy, it is more like something that can make me overcome obstacles in my life.

Image: Drawn and taken by me

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a cricket league hosted in India, with the teams representing cities or states in the country. Although usually held in March/April of the year, it was postponed this year because of the coronavirus pandemic (no surprise there). More than 6 months into the lockdown, the IPL was an extremely welcome source of entertainment for a whole bunch of cricket-crazy Indians. Every night, my family and I watch the 4-hour-long match without fail. I’ve had to adjust my sleep schedule, dinner time, and homework and study timings, but I try not miss the match as far as possible. I enjoy watching cricket in general, but this daily ritual is even more special as it allows me to spend more time with my family, especially my grandparents– which I usually don’t. Since the IPL began a week back, I spend 25% of my waking hours watching that match. So, it’s not surprising that I chose to go with a cricket-themed idea for this post that I’m calling ‘No Cap On Family Time’.

The colours worn by the cricketer in my drawing resemble those of my favourite team– Royal Challengers Bangalore. The Challengers have consistently performed badly over the past 12 years since the first tournament was hosted, and so I get a lot of sympathy, confusion and even ridicule when I tell someone that I’m rooting for them. But, I like that they’re the underdogs– it makes every win extra special.

The Sprite bottle cap is the ball. The idea to use the bottle cap stemmed from the fact that I often (definitely more often than is good for my body) spend these family IPL-watching evenings, drinking Coke or Sprite, and eating ‘Chutney’ sandwich. So, although it appears to be very simple and unoriginal, I thought that the bottle cap seemed appropriate to use in this case.

Below are the items in the photo listed in order from left to right top to bottom with some comments.

Notebooks, Binders, Folders

These are notebooks, binders, and “folders” I use to take notes or complete schoolwork. Aside from notebooks for classes, I usually keep a personal notebook to write down reminders, ideas, or even doodle. The large white “folders” stacked on the bottom are actually mail packages. I write folders with quotation marks because I use them to sort loose leaf papers. I care little about the form objects are in as long as they get the job done.

Earphones

There are two Apple earbuds in the photo. I have two in my bag because I need one for my phone and another for my computer. The newer iPhones use the charging port for earbuds instead of the little round ones, and I prefer wired headphones over wireless, so I need to bring 2 around with me (I lost the converter).

Ethernet cable converter

Converts the ethernet cable plug to a USB plug so I can use it for my MacBook. The internet in my house in China basically isn’t usable when it’s wireless. I need the internet to be as fast and stable as it could get for me to connect to oversees webpages (most homework we have) or to use VPN.

Wallet

The usual. I have money, driver’s license, different cards, and bandages inside.

Laptop

2015 251GB MacBook pro. This computer has served me well ever since I was in seventh grade. It has gone through replacement of battery once so far and the current battery seems to be dying as well. It wasn’t included in the picture because I didn’t have it in my bag at the time, but I always bring my phone and computer charger with me.

Pencil and Pen

Pen and mechanical pencil. I only bring two of each usually. I have been using the same brand for all my years in high school.

Backpack

School bag. I would bring this around with me all the time if I were at school, but I only bring my phone and wallet when going out normally.

Digital Pen & Tablet

The Digital pen and Tablet are pretty useful for photo editing and playing games. I found this extra helpful now with online classes since I can use it to take notes or handwrite on documents.

            I feel like this photograph gives a nice but vague representation about who I am as a person. Through the items I have in my bag, people can infer some habits or thoughts I might usually have. For example, there are a lot of electronic devices and its “add ons” in my bag compared to paperback books and notes. People would probably know that I complete most of my work using my computer and/or my phone (it’s used to take the photo).  Another thing people may learn about me thorough this “portrait” is that I don’t like to play any sound from my devices out load for whatever reason from the two different earphones I bring. I say this is only a vague representation because people would not know why I don’t like to play sounds out loud or what specifically I use my devices for if I didn’t give an explanation.

            I think representing myself in a catalog of what’s in my bag is definitely a type of writing. In general, I feel like all forms of putting words together to express ideas are writing. While there are many ways people may decide to go complete this assignment, in the end it’s still putting words down to convey ideas and information.

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.