What’s in my bag?

The Occasion

This is the work bag I take with me to my part-time job as a resident advisor in a private school in Winnipeg.

The Annotations

You may notice that the annotation is very neutral; well, I mean, I didn’t include any brand name in it. This is the power of language; you can manipulate it into showing the things you want people to see. In this case, I like the reader to see a laptop (a portable computer that I bring to work) rather than a Macbook pro. I would say it if I am a firm advocate for Apple‘s products like one of my best friends who got me into buying Apple products in the first place.

We are studying the text, so I included Simplified Chinese next to the English annotation of each item just for fun! Compared to how “text” in English is evolved from its Greek origins based on meaning, most of the Chinese characters (especially nouns) are developed from traditional inscriptions on oracle bones (may not be exact if something is found again with some written symbols on it earlier than 1300 BC) based on how the objects look (see the Chinese Character for the word Mountain).

The Time

Before we start exploring what is in my bag and what those items speak of me, I think it is important to recognize the date when this picture was taken.

[TODAY] SEPTEMBER 14th, 2021.

Globally, we are now in the second year after the pandemic started, and everything that used to be normal is not normal anymore, and vice versa.

How does this impact items in my bag?

1. I need to pack a mask in my bag as work requires. This is a medical mask provided by the school to use within the indoor area. I would not normally take a mask with me anywhere before the year 2020, and now it becomes a second nature to grab a mask when entering the building, and I always keep an extra in my bag just in case.
2. Sanitizers have become another essential for life, and now exist in every bag of mine. And yes, I have two here, one that can be spray on hand or anything, one gel hand sanitizer.
3. There are things that I would imagine to be here if COVID didn’t happen. For instance, baby stuff like a water bottle, some snacks and maybe a book. I would probably need to drop off my daughter at a daycare facility before I go to work, so there will be some daily essentials for her in my work bag too! She was born right before 2020, and she is still with me every day at home. It is excellent, but it will make the future time when she actually goes to daycare brutal, for ME! I will miss her so much, and I probably won’t survive a whole day without hearing any sound from her 🙁
4. If this is a bag from 15 or 25 years ago, hmm, probably the only item considered essential would be a water bottle or even not that, just scope water with hands and drink that way. Or, probably we don’t even have a bag considering there won’t be many things we own and need to carry to work 😉

The Items

What do they say about me?

1. Laptop, mouse, mouse pad, and wireless headset
   I am sitting in the common area for at least half of my shift, and I can do some work on my laptop during that time.
2. Blue light blocking glasses, lens wipes, and Eye Drop
   I had laser eye surgery about four years ago, and the eye drop was just artificial tears that my doctor says I should use whenever I feel my eyes are too dry. The blue light blocking glasses are for reading off the screen. I don’t really understand the technology behind it, but if I don’t wear it, three hours of screen time will ruin my eyesight for an entire day.
3. Notebook, 8-Colour Ball Pen, and Highlighter
   The text kingdom! I like to keep everything electronic, but I always bring a notebook and a pen with me. I would use the notebook for meetings, taking notes for study, and jot down little things I think of that I want to do. Then I transfer those into electronic format and save them to a local or cloud location. If it weren’t for this project, I wouldn’t even notice this before. Now think about it; I don’t honestly know the root reason for this. Maybe I had accidentally lost some valuable electronic notes before that “traumatized” me, so the notebook gives me a sense of security. Or maybe my handwriting was faster but messier, so I need to write things out first then organize them into my electronic notes? Well, good for the archeologist who will find my bag in the future. He/She would have an electronic version (hopefully, data can be easily recovered from my cellphone) and a handwritten version (messy but with more excellent archaeology value if the papers are still in good shape).
4. Cellphone and Phone Case
   These are probably the items that the archeologist would get most excited about.
   My cellphone, which I was holding in my hand at the moment when I took this picture. It has almost everything about me.
   • My photo album that has a lot of recent photos of my family and things I tried to sell on Kijiji 😉
   • My chat/message/email apps that have my conversations with family back home, friends and coworkers, and strangers from Kijiji.
   • Some notes that I saved on the phone (suppose the cloud version won’t be available anymore to the future archaeology) about what I am working on, what I plan to do.
   • All the apps together tell a story about me. I play Pokemon Go (not so much now, but I was crazy about it once if someone cares to check my login info) and Hayday (a farm game). I read novels, log my working hours, set calendar events, check the weather, use the map app, order takeout via multiple apps on my phone, etc.
   • The phone case holds all the stuff I need on the go. Just think about losing it and trying to retrieve all the things in it gives me a headache. It has my cards (debit and credit), driver’s licence, Manitoba Health Card, group benefit card, prescription (for refills), cash, and one old transaction record that I forgot to take out. It may not say much by itself other than I shop at Costco because one of the credit cards has my Costco membership number on it. However, you will find everything about me with the proper technology (and a determined spirit to violate all human rights I have) – my health records, income, spending pattern, and driving record; you name it!
5. Other Items
   Some of the items can be misleading, like the headphone case, the Minions. It belongs to my husband, and I just borrowed it once and never returned it (yeah, we all do that). I like the Minions too, but if I get to choose, I will probably pick a case with Hedwig from Harry Potter.
   Some do say me, like the funny USB cable and the hair tie. I do like cute things, and I have long hair.

Text and Technology

There is very minimal print text on these items, but you must have noticed how the cards in my phone case link to a lot of information that says everything about me. For example, the digital profile information you can get from the system if you are an employee in my bank, which I once wrote in text and passed on to the teller to input into the system.

There is also a name tag that is the perfect example of the formal information text contains. In this case, my name, well, not legal name but what my coworker addresses me with, and the place I work. It doesn’t contain my position or explain what I do, but with this name tag, anyone from the school can simply perform a search on the school’s internal site and find what I do, who I report to, and how long I have been here.

The batch number and expiration date behind the eye drops’ package were probably printed automatically when the eye drops were packed on the production line. I just noticed, it says 2021-04, so I probably should get new ones.

On the back of the power bank, there are many print texts, in both Chinese and English, because it was purchased in China. One of them is the capacity information, which you may want to pay special attention to if you plan to take one of these onto the plane.

To be Continued

You may have noticed that there are items in the bag and text on them I didn’t elaborate on.

What item or text or technology are you interested in hearing more about? Comment below!