“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day.” — Albert Einstein, 1955
Some of the people I look up to the most are grown-up babies. Well, every adult is, but these people’s character is the physical manifestation of the same thing found on a cat’s autopsy notes. I wanted to represent true intelligence as a product of curiosity and drive through a culturally recognizable image. Einstein’s famous tongue-out picture is one of the more relevant images of genius while ice cream is associated with youth. Through merging the photos, the intense relationship between curiosity and success is suggested.
As I created my combo-photo, I difficult challenges were two-fold. First, the image of Einstein was only available in black an white and the colorized versions looked terrible. Consequently, I had to figure out a way to alter a second photo to be monochrome. I achieved this through the mac’s photo editor where you can copy and image in Greyscale (mac version of black and white). Second, Einstein’s tongue is uniquely contorted and finding a child attacking an ice cream cone at a 19.55 degree angle was time consuming.
As I liveblog Going Home, I’m referencing the instructions for the post here. I’m starting the game now, and instantly love the color’s being used. I need to squint, turn up my brightness and lean in for most of the room, yet the colorful “outside” is vivid, live and interesting. I can’t look at the glare for longer than a few seconds without scouring my eyes or tearing up.
Well I just got through the door and it was frustrating. Despite one of the first things I checked was the duck, I didn’t check under it and instead inspected the duck profusely. After deciding there wasn’t anything of importance, I spent a long time around the rest of the room. I spent an embarrassing amount of time inspecting the nutrition information on a fictional soda can before re-checking the drawer.
I really enjoy the expanse of space and ability to alter the perception through lights. I’m not sure if it’s my computer or the game’s intention, but my walking rate is painfully slow. Eventually, I decide the downstairs isn’t too interesting and head upstairs.
I want to note the importance of the score and sounds in this game. The sudden crackling of thunder builds up tension and makes me feel like a jump scare is coming.
The song that Sam has in her drawer besides the cassette player is pretty horrible, I might add. It reminds me of a teenager rebelling against their parents for having to mow the lawn on a Sunday morning. I’m not criticizing; trust me, I’ve been there plus some.
Trying to figure out combinations for Sam’s locker. Trying stuff related to the 1990’s because she seems to be into it. Maybe something to do with Aliens due to her posters; Area 51? 0051 doesn’t work.
I can’t get in and the slowness of movement is killing me.
Moving through the hallways and bathrooms upstairs. I’m really enjoying how difficult it is to parse out what’s important. When I inspect an element I have to go through the process of deciding whether or not it hold’s some unknown information. Some of the items seem to be in clear sight while other’s are hidden. As not all important items are hidden I can’t skip over anything. This feels very boring however. I wonder if that’s the point.
I’ve stopped playing the game after about an hour and a half. I finished by making my way back downstairs and inspecting more elements carefully. Not too helpful I don’t understand the point. For a while I was super engaged but after a while I just felt disengaged.
The opening sequence is very interesting. In particular, I felt like the lack of exposition dumping enables the player to feel connected to the protagonist. Both are in the unknown and the information I garnered brought me closer and feel more involved. I loved the little details like the boarding pass, name-tag on the luggage, and creaking of the floor. The game establishes itself through the player’s curiosity rather than through a traditional method of narration or storytelling. In fact, the nonlinear nature of Gone Home seems to challenge the all-action games. Gone Home seems to push back on the popular wave of games, movies, and books–modern entertainment, more generally–being action packed and lacking a distinct connection to reality. The build your own story aspects to Gone Home make each time a person plays the game unique to the individual. In a time where media is catered to the population, I appreciate Gone Home’s sentiment; I just wish it wasn’t as much of a slog to get through.
As far as predictions for where Gone Home will end; I feel like similar to Depression Quest, there’s no true end. Rather, you find yourself completely immersed in a world where there are never any true answers. You won’t know where the family went, but you might know each family members ambitions, secrets, and affairs.
Textbooks (Calculus and CS): The two classes that genuinely require textbook reading this semester. I always have them with me so I can supplement lectures with reading. I’ve always done best when I learn a topic or concept in two different teaching styles as it forces me to think through a topic from different stances.
HeadPhones (Wired and Wireless): I love music and listen to music constantly. Through the Spotify year in review analysis, I listened to over 62 days of music in 2019. I haven’t yet decided if I want to listen to more or less music this year.
Calculator: I like to write 58008 and flip the calculator upside down. I can also put all the notes and dates from my History classes and use it during tests. I haven’t figured out why I get so many weird looks, maybe I have a bad poker face.
Notebooks and Planner: I don’t really use the planner. It’s mainly there for the appearance of having some form of organization. In reality, my desk is always a mess and my backpack normally pokes into my back due to the books not being inserted the same way. One of my new year resolutions is to plan out my week each Sunday night.
Quest Bar: A staple for any bag, athlete, or health-minded individual. Easy nutrition for on-the-go people with things to do and mountains to climb. Get your own at: Questnutrition.com. Wait did the instructions want us to advertise or not?
Tea Bag: Another new years resolution was to spend less money at Kaldis and the Peet’s in the library.
Pencil Case: I can’t tell you what’s inside. Not drugs.
Thermal Temperature Maintaining Insulated Bottle: I keep the tea bag in here to make sure it stays warm. It’s just hard to get the air inside the bottle warm and maintain the temperature while I insert the tea bag. Thermodynamics outside the classroom is just as irritating as during class.
Melatonin: I have a really hard time falling asleep, and often go straight from the library to bed, so I carry melatonin with me so I can take it about thirty minutes before I leave the library. Not only does it help regulate my sleep schedule, but it allows me to put a physical barrier on how much time I spend in the library. I work better at night, but constantly struggle waking up in the morning due to late nights; this is my effort to create a more rigorous sleep and waking schedule.
Pencil: There was too much space in between my computer and the textbooks without it. In reality, I’m very against any pencil without a full eraser, which I made sure to represent. I don’t erase pencil, I simply cross it our with a blue or green pen, then continue.
Computer: A modern necessity. Note taking, coding, emails, and more is completed on a daily.
Books (How To Not Be Wrong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous): I generally have books which I’m reading ulterior to my classes. My father instilled a deep love for reading early on, and I pass time immersed in a book. I generally read two books simultaneously: one more STEM orientated and another which might be a novel or historical account. Though I would recommend How To Not Be Wrong to any math or science orientated person who feels like more recent courses have been taught in a less intuitive way. Recently, I struggled to stay engaged in my Math and Physics courses as they are seeming to be more arbitrary. This book is reinstalling an appreciation for the applications of statistical analysis and calculus.
Rubik’s Cube: I can’t solve it but it makes me seem like a quirky (in an endearing way) individual. I can currently solve the first layer and make a white cross, so that’s pretty cool.
Raybans Case. Also not drugs. Sunglasses.
Blue Power-aid Bottle: A lot of people had them at the beginning of the year so I thought it was a freshman thing. Now people keep asking me which sport I play. It’s quite fun to see which sports pass as genuine college Varsity sports. My favorite one which was accepted was Croquet but surprisingly Table Tennis was rejected. I’m looking forward to the next opportunity to try to get by as a D3 Cheese Roller.
Mac Adapter: I’m an avid Liverpool F.C fan and watch all the games on my roommate’ television through an HDMI adapter.
Nuun Electrolight Replacement: Okay fine a little bit of drugs. It’s a legal amount in Colombia so no biggie.
This was a very engaging activity for me as it required an analysis of how my stuff will be perceived by others. Through my process, I wrote the explanations for each individual item (besides the pencil) prior to organizing and snapping the photo. This forced me to rationalize why that item matters to me an whether or not it’s necessary to depict an accurate representation of myself. For example, I had a drawing notepad in my backpack. I generally love drawing, but had that due to drawing a lot over winter break. Using my first semester as a sample size, I won’t be drawing a lot while in college, and the rest of my bag depicts the college representation of myself.
Though my descriptions for some items were sarcastic, I feel my bag accurately represented who I am. I’m a naturally creative person who tries to not take anything serious until I have to, am passionate about it, or it’s of importance to another person. What was challenging is finding an appropriate balance of seriousness and sarcasm: though I could certainly write genuine or satirical descriptions of each item, I didn’t want to come off corny or hyper-somber. I certainly feel like this assignment is a useful and enjoying type of writing. While laying out and photographing the bag itself is not, I consider the writing a necessary explanation for the picture. Any form or conscious writing is not only a type of literature but also an exercise in synthesis.
I included these images in my digital avatar primarily to represent my jovial and thrill-seeking nature. I’ve always prided myself on spending a lot of time outside my comfort zone and consciously try to push myself to do activities which frighten me. Just over winter break, a good friend of mine mentioned he had been working on getting his skydiving license. Half joking, I told him we should go together and give our parents anxiety for a few hours. A consequence of sarcasm is being taken seriously, and the next day I found myself in a small, low-horsepower plane as it unconvincingly accelerated into the sky. Though I wished to say I hurdled myself off the plane with ease, peering down 13,000 feet towards the ground paralyzed me with insecurity. The next minute was one of the best of my life and instilled a now-undying appreciation for the ground. In addition, it made me recognize how relatively small I am as well as appreciate the other small people that make my life feel massive. I didn’t want to include too many other people in my avatar as it is a representation of myself. However, I made sure to include my lil’ pupper, Banjo, whom I believe (and hope) will not be mistaken for myself. He’s a little Australian Cattle Dog whose obsession with fetch, or any object that can serve as a proxy for a ball, can drive anyone crazy.
While creating my avatar, the biggest problems I faced were deciding which images to select and being distracted by how horrible people look while skydiving. I will certainly take away a gratitude for green screen and photo-editing. In addition, I think this side quest helped me analyze how I would like to appear to others. Especially in the age of social media, I would like to be a smarter curator of my digital image. In addition, I’d like to recognize that people are different than they appear on social media and to not rush to judgements.
