Tag: sq2

I made my backpack unique if anyone ever noticed, but it carries only ordinary items. 

An insulated bottle for warm water. It has been through two winters in five years with me, on both sides of the ocean. A pack of fairly priced napkin from China, for scenarios it becomes necessary in. A clear pencil bag with writing utensils inside. An essentially empty wallet with a few cards and a decoration of luck inside. A calculator, which brings me more nightmares than correct numbers. A pack of gum, ready for sharing at any second. One glasses case with glasses and one without. One pair I wear and the other prepared for sight farther away, which also has magnetically attached sunglasses component. Nail clippers that has often been used at unexpected times. My keys and student ID that I paid $68,776 for this year. 

My phone. Shake well. Szechuan HOT Sauce with chicken nuggets remain forever in memories. Pickle Rick. 

“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.” The pagans chant around the fire. Some say the sight of Cthulhu causes insanity, because he possesses infinite knowledge. 

I should focus as a student does. I minimize the weight I carry in my bag, but ensure no necessities are left behind. I try to be organized.  

“Sie will es und so ist es fein/So war es und so wird es immer sein.” “Tiefe Wasser sind nicht still.” 

My office laptop’s Intel(R) HD Graphics 620 runs 60 fps programs at 10 fps—to my surprise that is sufficient to serve the basic purpose of those programs. Kojima Productions. Death Stranding. Did I ever finished watching that 11.5-hour-long cutscene movie? I should watch Metal Gear 5 as well. Deutsch. “I’m going off the rails like a crazy train—” “If you don’t catch me now, I can’t stop falling down… She keeps her Moet et Chandon/In her pretty cabinet…” Hail Hydra. I am not too fond of the Red Skull, but I prefer not to be transported to another planet as an offering either. “Eat the rude.” “How do you imagine he’s contacted me – personal ads? Writing notes of admiration on toilet paper?” Till when can I find another work as beautiful as Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal (2015)? “Hysteria when you’re near.” 

OCCUPIED. Ah, I should continue doing what students do. Mendel spoke German and he probably had peas for every meal. He might have tried the leaves, too, since he planted so many pea plants. An ion waves at his colleague, said goodbye, and hops away. 

No, SANITY. This is important, and a student I ought to be. My mind dwells in a place devoid of reality, but at this moment I look into it.

Citations:

I usually carry around these items. Although these things are mundane, let me explain why I have them in my bag.

Pen and Memo Notebook: I am currently working at Whitehead Biomedical Researching Building every weekday. There, I do simple tasks, such as washing contaminated tools, autoclaving, spotting C. Elegans on plates, and etc. However, these tasks are sometimes hard to remember, so I always have a pen and a memo notebook with me so that I can take notes. This is the reason why I always have a pen out of my pencil case. The biggest problem is that I cannot read my handwriting, especially when I scribble.

Clear Blue Case and Red “Composition” Notebook: As I said before, I work at the lab. I also have my own research, given by my instructor. In the beginning, I worried about starting my own research because I already forgot most of the concepts I learned in the Biology class that I took back in my Sophomore year. However, when I consulted about this research opportunity with my faculty advisor, he told me that people learn basic things by doing research. Therefore, I decided to carry out my research. As expected, I had no idea what I was doing with my research. I was frustrated about my ignorance, so I read many research papers and googled many words since last October. Some of those papers are printed and are kept in the clear blue case. I also found several ideas from my research, which are written in the red “composition” notebook, or a laboratory research notebook.

Blue Folder and Pencil Case: These are just ordinary items for classes. There is nothing special.

Wallet: This is a wallet I bought last summer in Japan. The bland of this wallet is called Hunting World. I do not really know whether this is a famous bland in the US, but this bland used to be very popular in Japan. The problem with recent wallets is that they do not have a coin pocket. However, I am used to a wallet with a coin pocket, so when I found this wallet, I bought it immediately. This was the most expensive item I bought last summer. Probably I am not going back to Japan for a while, so this wallet is somewhat important for me to remember Japan.

A Pair of Glasses: I found this pair of glasses last December. Well, technically, a burglar found it. Every weekend, I go back home so that I get a ride to Japanese Language School to teach mathematics. Last December, when I went back to my house, I was the first one to get into the house, followed by my mother. I just walked into the living room and then turned around to see the kitchen to find any food I could eat. But, I just saw a big mess there. I first suspected my parents to be very disorganized. But then that would be very strange because it was the place where all the important documents and cash were placed and they do not touch cabinets frequently. Just in case, I asked my mother whether they made a mess, and she was so confused about why I asked the question. Obviously, they were confused because they did not make the mess before leaving the house. Yes, the next person to be suspicious is Santa Claus; he tried to find a place to hide my Christmas present. But, I also suspected a burglar or burglars to be the one who made the mess. My mother also turned around to see the kitchen and was surprised. She asked me who made the mess, and I obviously do not know who made the big mess because I was at Emory forty minutes ago. Then, we immediately concluded that our house got burgled. We went out of the house with a rush because burglars might still be in the house and had weapons. Well, we did what we supposed to do, such as calling police officers. When they were investigating the crime, we were told to look for things we got stolen. So, the detective, my mother and I went around each room. It was time to check my room. We went to my room, and he asked me whether anything is stolen. I felt like nothing seemed to be stolen. I looked over my desk and there was an opened spectacle case covered with dust. Then, I told the detective that the burglar found my favorite glasses, which I could not find for two years.

Key strap and Keys: I have a key strap with two keys: one is for my dorm and the other one is for the lab locker. I use a key strap because I tend to forget bringing either key. Also, the design for my key strap is football because my brother used to play football at his university.

Tissue: I have an allergy and get nosebleed frequently.

Bag: I have a cute blue Kanken bag. I see many people toting around those small bags. But, the purpose of having a bag is to put items inside. For the sake of its role, I use this bigger bag.

I have seen many YouTubers showing what they have inside their bags, and it is hard to believe that I would do the same thing. Although I do not think this bag explained who I am, it is an interesting idea to describe myself by using my belongings. I place items so that the ones in the first row to be things that can distinguish myself from other students and the ones in the second row to be things that are common with other people. The challenge of this assignment was to recall what events caused me to have them with me. I believe that this is one type of writing because as I said before, this writing could be an amusing way to describe myself and might help readers to know my personality by looking at the items and reading the descriptions.

#sq2

Beloved Pencil Pouch

It had a matching pencil with it. Such fond memories come in as this was my birthday gift from an old friend.

Becoming an IPhone converter

I disliked IPhone for the longest time, but college soon came and IPhone’s simple interface became my savior. I am also an avid photo taker at events, so silly poses and photo editing is a fun and nostalgic way to bring friends together.

Tissues , Sanitizer, and Airborne Vitamins

Just in case, but in my case, I never get the sniffles (possession of monster immunity); The sweet pea sanitizer is starting to smell more like sanitizer than sweet pea.

Composition book

Another “just in case”, this holds my calendar if my phone or computer runs out of battery. I like to arrange it with doodles like those bullet journals people have nowadays.

Calculator

I am slowly starting to figure out that I may not need this in my 2nd semester classes, but it would bother me if I did not lug this around (I lugged it around the past 5-6 years).

Binder

Contains my notes, paper, and musical notations. Flimsy material is the lightest and the best; however, it is a bit odd to see Bach and Tchaikovsky mixing with my chem notes.

Textbooks

Roman Law? A great class and an amazing professor. The books? Additional back pain.

What’s my take on this?

The image only reflects my exterior side of handling things, often to the idea of simplicity and ease of use rather than personality. Thus, it only focuses on my working background. This image is certainly lacking on the edited and composition side. I wish I knew a better way to edit the photo and compose it, but taking photos of objects are more foreign to me than pictures of people. The parameters of lighting (brilliance and exposure) were raised, and the shadows were lowered. No appliance of brightness as the photo was too bright. No filters were used, and colors were only saturated by 5%. Things I would change is the angle, the reflection of light on the binder, and the color grading, but this was all used by an IPhone with limitations. Most objects were displayed with an exception to hygiene items. The most challenging was the photo taking. Lastly, the representation of oneself’s as a catalog of stuff is a type of writing. It requires a certain stance in representing one’s purpose, a tone, and a consideration to the audience. In this case, my audience in mind was other college students, the tone was comical, and the purpose was to be entertaining while painting a life-portrait. The means to compose a character requires explanation and evidence (photo). The medium was a blog, context was a written assignment, and design was of individual choice through photo editing and orientation of blog post. All these elements require careful thought. Therefore, this was a writing piece.

These are the items I have to carry around for every IHSA (Intercollegiate Horse Show Association) competitions almost every weekend between now and the end of March in my three bags. Horseback riding has been my hobby since I was in middle school and the relationship a human being can build with an animal has always been fascinating to me. Horses to me are gentle giants: their kicks can easily kill a full-grown man, but if I choose to approach them in the right way, or develop a bond with specific horses, they treat me as friends and families, and they agree to carry me on their back and listen to my orders. With that passion I was able to join some competitions on horse back riding, where I discovered the dressing attire is one of the most important criteria for joining a show. It is understandable that horse shows used to be performances to the upper class people, but with many decades of evolution, to me the sport showing the bond between the horse and people, ability to jump over obstacles and showing off the results of years of trainings, tears and sweat are more important than expensive clothes or uncomfortable shoes. Personally I would not prefer people turning the competition arena into a fashion show.

Choosing this picture and presenting my query of the whole competition atmosphere was intend to show my standpoint that the skins we are wearing do not represent the entire person. People could be dressing up fancy yet having rotting thoughts, or they could be dressing up not so nicely, but donating possessions to communities that need them more. So yes, representing myself through the catalogue in my bag is absolutely a type of writing, where I could express my thoughts through the redundancies I have to carry every weekend. That being said, coming up with the idea of the assignment wasn’t too hard, but putting together words that do not harm people who value dressing up and also question the necessity of bringing the whole wardrobe to a sports competition took me some thinking. The entire outfit is definitely not easily affordable to college students without the support of their family, but equestrian should be a fair play ground where interested people with any financial status should be able to pursue.

Here is a display of pretty much everything I have in my bag everyday. Believe it or not, I tried to be interesting and creative with it, but at the end of the day I still chose to go with what I actually have in my bag because why not.

As you can see, what I have in my bag are super common, or using my commentary, super mediocre. I will be explaining each item in the form of bullet points, which is, again, kind of mediocre.

• Pink Wallet: storage for all sorts of cards (ID, debit card, Costco card, etc) and barely any paper currency.
• Hello Kitty pocket: all quarters. I like having my quarters separated from other coins because I believe in the higher social status of quarters.
• Pencil pouch: storage for basic writing utensils. The tiny black plush hanging from the zipper is a visual representation of my favorite cat, Mica.
• Laptop: MacBook. I carry them around hoping that I can do work while waiting for incoming events such as lecture courses, but the reality is that I use them to watch YouTube videos during the wait.
• Charger: for my laptop, in case it runs out of battery while I work (or watch YouTube videos).
• Graphing calculator: I don’t even know why it’s there, I am not taking math or physics.
• Ear buds: two sets, one for my laptop and one for my phone. I can’t afford AirPods.
• Notebook: Nothing much, just a mediocre notebook.
• Glasses case: storage for my glasses because I have poor eye sight.
• Glass cleaning spray: I only use it once in a while. I suspect that it is expired.
• Napkins: ensure sanitization.
• Water Bottle: Hydrohomie. I believe in H2O–hydration is the key.
• Umbrella: no one knows the weather in Georgia, including the weather forecast.

Reflection: Nothing really surprises me when I emptied my bag for this assignment except for that bottle of spray since it’s been nearly five years and I’ve only used less than one tenth of the solution. When I look at the display of items, I think I’ve always have a clear understanding of what I have with me because they’re was almost no discrepancy between what I think was is my bag and what was actually in my bag. This assignment sort of reflect myself as an individual because some of the items demonstrates my daily-life habit. What I hope was that I can have something interesting, or at least unique to me that I carry around in my bag all the time.

In my bag there is;

• my laptop
• two one subject notebooks
• six pencils and one highlighter
• phone and computer charger
• charging block with multiple USB outlets
• pack of notecards
• two packs of bubblegum
• a christmas ornament of Michael Scott, specifically him as “Prison Mike”

Creating this self portrait is a reflection of myself in the sense it shows the student aspect of my life. The small number of materials I carry around during school days show how I prefer my work to be kept in one place. My inclusion of the christmas ornament was random, for I had no idea it was in my bag, but it shows my love for the show; The Office. I also prefer bubblegum to any kind of minty gum. To create the image I had little strategic efforts in my placement of the items. The image was taken at the library during completion of the rest of my homework so showing an authentic depiction of my studious character. This could be considered a type of self reflection or a piece one might put in a personal blog for others to get a sense of what the author is like given an everyday situation.

First and foremost, my backpack always includes my most necessary resource throughout the day: water. In my insulated metal bottle, water never fails to stay cold and always refreshes me when I need it. Next, I have my laptop, and the case to hold it. Whether I’m making music or taking notes, I constantly need my laptop and it’s probably the most used item in the bag. Since I use my laptop so often, I also need to carry around my charger just in case. Also, since my music files take up so much storage, I keep most of them on an external drive (top left of image) in my bag. I usually only keep one notebook in my bag since my classes are spread apart and I can just go back to my dorm if I need another subject’s notebook. I also do this to avoid making my bag irritatingly heavy. Next, I carry my glasses (and case) since I’m nearsighted and need them when I’m reading in my classes. I also always keep my beloved TI-84 calculator in my bag since my schedule is so Math/Science heavy. Finally, I keep both a pen and pencil in my bag since teachers sometimes strictly prefer one or the other. The extra eraser is also a necessity since the erasers on pencils run out so quickly and seem run out at the most inopportune times.

My backpack is actually a pretty accurate representation of myself. I try to be as efficient as possible with everything, and I think my bag depicts that. I don’t carry anything except for my bare necessities, efficiently using the space in my bag. For instance, I only carry one notebook at a time, and only carry miscellaneous items if I need to use them on a daily basis. It isn’t obvious, but I think the biggest giveaway that it’s my bag is the external hard drive. These days, people usually use the cloud (Google Drive or DropBox) to store and share files, but it usually caps out at around 5 gigabytes of storage. I use a 1 terabyte hard drive since I have to store many Logic Pro files which require about a gigabyte each. Making my backpack stand out was challenging because the contents in the average school bag are pretty standard. I had to think a little extra about certain things I carried, and why the average Emory student’s backpack would look different. Depicting myself through the contents of my backpack felt like I was completing an autobiographical piece of writing. In autobiographies, authors sometimes discuss their stories and thoughts to convey something about themselves to the reader. I believe that sometimes they want the reader to feel like they’re in the authors shoes, understanding what it’s like to live like the author. My writing serves the same purpose; it tells the reader a little about myself, and what the average day in my shoes would require them to have.

Here is a list of the items I carry around in my backpack on a daily basis:

• Apple MacBook Air – Use to type notes, access presentations, and write papers. I also use it to keep up with news, sports scores, and play games between classes.
• Apple AirPods Pro – Very comfortable to wear while listening to music around campus and the noise cancelling feature really helps me focus when reading or studying.
• Wallet – Holds my EmoryCard and money I may need throughout the day.
• Room Key – Never want to be locked out of the room!
• Water Bottle – Always good to have when I get thirsty in class.
• Pack of Gum – Helps me stay focused and refreshed in class.
• Hand sanitizer and tissues – Trying to stay as healthy as possible as germs are always spreading around Emory.
• Pencil Case – Carry around pencils, pens, highlighters, and erasers.
• Folder and notebook – Carry around five different notebooks and folders for the five classes I am taking this semester.
• Calculator – I am taking managerial accounting this semester, so it’s always helpful to have a calculator for questions in class.
• Textbook – I am taking classes with lots of reading this semester. Always good to carry around to try and get work done between classes.

The image of my belongings in my backpack is a good representation of my academic life here at Emory University. I use everything in my backpack on a daily basis and all of my possessions are helpful to me throughout the day. One of my favorite things to do is use technology and I use it plenty throughout my day to read, write, and do research. In order to create this image, I had to make many choices. First, I had to decide where to layout everything and my backpack. I chose my dorm room because I tend to do most of my homework in my room and it’s where I pack up my backpack everyday before I go to class. I did not have anything in my backpack that I had to leave out of the picture, but I evaluated all of my items to assure myself that nothing was embarrassing. I also had to decide on the angle and lighting of my iPhone camera for the picture.

The most challenging part of this assignment was choosing how to arrange my items in front of my backpack. I tried to put my most important things in the middle surrounded by the things I don’t use or need as much. I believe that representing myself in a catalog of the stuff in my bag is a type of writing because I was able to show things that represent me as a student. I was able to give people a glimpse into the type of person I am and the things I use to be successful. I provided a description of each of my items which proves that this image can be turned into writing in a catalog. I enjoyed this assignment and I truly believe it is a good self-portrait of me.

Ever since I was little, I have been interested in the art of mathematics. One of the factors that I really love about this field is visible but complex patterns, like the image above. Therefore, I decided to draw something that everyone might think of it as an art piece. However, I had difficulty in selecting graphs because there are many interesting patterns. I end up choosing two graphs (x,y)=(cos(4\theta),cos(3\theta)) and (x,y)=(cos(3\theta),cos(4\theta)), which are simple symmetrical parametric equations. I picked them because they look like a flower. #sq1