When I saw the prompt for this task I had flashbacks to a Jenna Marbles video where she tried to make a chair out of blue jeans based off of a 5-minute crafts guide. Instead of sewing, stuffing, and ruining 4 pairs of jeans, I just stuffed them with pillows, blankets, and random bits of clothing. Originally I was going to set up the pants in a corner to imitate the source material but I found out that was NOT going to happen without any sewing happening. And thus, the Jouch was born. It can serve as a regular chair, a couch to lay on, or even a big spoon for when quarantine gets the best of you (just pull the sleeves over you and hug ‘em).
Ever since i was little, whenever I would hear the name “Cookie Monster” my mind conjured a literal monster made of cookies rather than thinking of the blue energetic Muppet. Today, as I bit into my cookie for a late night dinner, it dawned on me that I could make my vision come true. Although my artistic abilities are lacking, I present to you, The Cookie Monster; they are an abomination that has come into existence as a manifestation of the developed world’s gluttony and will end the world in a wave of sugary chocolately doom.
About a week ago, I was binge-listening the 99% invisible podcast and came across an episode where they covered the architecture of the Guggenheim Museum. They described its white curves and spirals as another masterpiece by Frank Lloyd Wright and when I looked it up, I couldn’t help to think that it kinda looked like half an egg.
Coming up with an idea for this assignment was the easy part. The curves of both an egg and the Guggenheim were more difficult to crop together than I would like to admit. As someone who doesn’t own photoshop or has picture editing experience, I fumbled with how to make my idea appear on the screen. After spending an embarrassingly long amount of time trying to get the to curved shapes to fit together, I downloaded a shady editing software and watched a tutorial so I could clip out the museum itself. After several layers of background colors and duplicates of images, I now present to you the masterpiece that I dub, “The Eggenheim.” I’m more proud of that name than I probably should be but that tangle of poorly cut images and mismatched colors is my digital baby now.
LAPTOP BAG: A few days before I bought this bag I had just gotten my last check from my first summer job. I really thought I was all the and a box of chocolates because my bank account finally had 4 digits. I strutted down to Best Buy to make the most luxurious purchase of my life so far: $150 Airpods. A day or two later I started to realize I still had to pay hundreds of dollars for traveling to and from Emory. When the time came to buy school supplies, I picked out the cheapest laptop bag I could find. For 20 bucks I nabbed a plain, dull grey backpack that makes up for utility where it lacks in looks.
NOTEBOOKS: I seriously need to get checked for brain atrophy. I can’t remember anything. I can’t remember names, birthdays, personal stories that my friends/family tell me. It’s almost comical how many times I might try to tell you the same story. This is exactly why I have to keep all of my notebooks on me at all times. If I ever leave one out on my desk, it will not find its way back to my bag until I’m cursing myself in class the next day.
LOTION/COUGH DROPS/PAIN RELIEVERS: On the inside I am an old man who tries to keep a mini pharmacy on hand at all times.
SUPERBETTER: For English 101 silly
ANTI-DEPRESSANTS/SLEEPING PILLS: When I say I can’t remember anything, that includes taking my pills, so I bring them along.
LAPTOP & ACCESSORIES: Originally, I did not think I was going to have a laptop for college. After a misunderstanding between some students who matched to Emory through QuestBridge (including me) and the financial aid office, a number of us were unsure how we were going to afford a laptop for school. We thought that Emory was giving us a $2,000 stipend for laptops, but it was just a loan. Less than a month from move-in day, I just accepted that I would be using computers at the library for the school year. That is, until my aunt saved a 2013 ThinkPad from her dumpsters of the IT department she works in. The ol’ beast takes a minute or ten to get things booted up or processed but in the end she gets the job done. However, it can be difficult at times not to compare my own devices to my peer’s. For my very first college class, I remember feeling out of place as I sat in the front row with my bulky, whirring laptop while most of my classmates were behind me with their pristine Macbooks. I have learned to appreciate my laptop for its functionality but for much of my first semester it was a great source of imposter syndrome.
PENCILS/PENS: For taking notes and the occasional doodle when the lecturer is being repetitive.
HEADPHONES: Ever since our first assignment was to listen to 99% Invisible, I have been obsessed with podcasts. I was an occasional listener previously, but I fell face first into a rabbit hole. My best find has without a doubt been Critical Role, a Dungeons and Dragons podcast with voice actors playing through a years-long campaign. It is easy to feel immersed a world of tieflings, toad demons, little goblin girls, and much more when the players are balancing realistic role-play with hearty comradery. Each episode is between 3-5 hour long. I just started episode 11.
STEELERS YETI CUP: This is the big daddy of the lot. Literally. This cup belonged to my father who passed away in the middle of fall semester. One of the most difficult parts of the grieving process was that I couldn’t bring much back to Emory to remember him by. I’ve used this cup every day since I first recovered it from back home and I will never be caught dead without it nearby. My dad loved football and black unsweetened tea. He was never a materialistic man but he got the money together to get a custom-made Yeti cup with his favorite team on it. He used it nearly every single day to the point where the tea stains had to be bleached out of the inside of the cup. Sometimes when I’m holding it, I’ll get random memories of him like when he picked me up from school and wouldn’t stop going on and on about how amazing it was that the ice he put in before his shift at work was still frozen. Sometimes I get mental snapshots in my head of him sipping on his tea the same way I’ll be sipping water from the same cup. Is it healthy to always have my dad with me? I’m not sure but I’m sticking with him for as long as I can.
League of Legends has been my favorite game for roughly seven years. I can confidently say that I have poured thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands, of hours into this game. The main character I play in League is Orianna, a female android who uses a robotic hovering ball to deal damage. I think it would have been a missed opportunity not to mix Orianna with the sport I have played my entire life: bowling. Although, the outcome was a little more comical than I expected it to be. I believe my badge icon shows my taste in video games as well as what has been a major facet of my life so far.
To create this image, I looked up images of Orianna cosplays, a bowling ball, and a bowling jersey on Flickr. I grabbed the background image on the League of Legends website which has a fair use policy with their images. Then, I enlisted the help of my close friend who owns photoshop. Since my technological prowess is at a similar level to that of my grandma at times, I asked them to show me some basic skills in photoshop. After cutting out the bowling ball, I replaced Orianna’s ball with that image. Then I carefully placed the cut out jersey on top of her. Lastly, I pasted the background photo.
