For my take on the what’s in your bag assignment I’m doing in from the perspective of my character Cleo Barrow, a bank robber. I could’ve gone into detail and included her favorite lipstick which makes her look super sassy, but she doesn’t care enough to touch up her make up through the day, or I could’ve put in a gun which she used to rob the bank, but really she’d keep that strapped to he side. I think Cleo would want to travel as light as possible and would only carry whatever she’d just stolen. So here is what’s in her bag.

I decided to do the “empty your bag” assignment from the perspective of my noir character, Jim Sardic.  I observed my backpack’s contents as an investigator would who is looking for the person who owns it and is going through his stuff.  It seemed like a fitting prompt for noir themed investigation.

The contents of Jason Nemeth’s backpack lay splayed out in front of me.  He had been missing for about a week.  His friends contacted me yesterday about his disappearance, saying he had been talking about checking out the Puncture for quite a while now.  One day he went out, and never came back.  They called the cops, and the boys in blue took their statements and put their friend on the ever-growing watchlist of “disappeared individuals”.  I won’t hold my breath though.  I guess Nemeth’s friends had the same thought, because a few days later they gave me a call too.  He’s student here in the city, 21 years old.  It’ll be a real shame if an outsider got him.

Nemeth’s housemates invited me into their small home they’re renting for school.  I took a look around in his room, and almost immediately spotted his backpack.  That’s a good place to start.  I upturned it on his bed, hoping to find some clue to his whereabouts.  Then I quickly jotted down the contents in my little case notebook.

• A book – Foundation by Isaac Asimov
• Some pencils (mechanical) and pens
• Acrylic paint – three tubes – red, blue, and black
• A tube of toothpaste
• A single notebook – green – contains notes from various classes, and doodles.  Didn’t see any personal notes.
• A passport – very recently ordered
• Gloves – leather
• Flashcards – contains notes for a computer science class
• Glue stick
• Scotch Tape reel
• Sharpie marker
• Laptop – Asus

A lot of this stuff is usual enough. Pens and pencils, the notebook, flashcards, it looks like a pretty typical college student’s backpack.  There are also some things in here that are a little more ambiguous; the paint, tape, and glue could be for some art class, or something else.  Hard to say.  The passport is an oddity though.  Who keeps a passport in their backpack?  I picked it up and flipped through the pages.  It was brand new, the issue date was only a month ago, so I wasn’t surprised to see the book was blank.  It’s odd, but it doesn’t give me much to go on.  What’s even stranger is the laptop; electronics haven’t worked in the city for years, since the Puncture opened.  Why would this kid have a laptop in the first place, and then keep it on him all the time?  There isn’t even a power cable in the backpack.  Picking up the technological relic, I opened it and pushed the power button.  Sure enough, nothing happened.  I grunted as I dropped it back onto the bed.  I checked out the rest of the room but didn’t find anything useful for finding where he could have gone.  Walking down the stairs, I couldn’t help but think this was already looking like an outsider abduction.  Or hell, maybe Nemeth actually entered the Puncture on his own volition.  It’s tough to get to it since the government keeps it guarded, but it can be done.  People have entered it before.  I’ll interview his friends; they may have something for me to work with.  And then the hunt is on.

For my last character assignment of the week, I am doing the “What’s in your bag?” assignment worth three points. Jack Spencer is all business, but he does have a soft side. This can be seen from the photo of his late mother poking out of his Italian leather wallet. This photo is kept in his wallet so she is with him at all times. Also in Spence’s bag are his iPhone 6 plus, hand sanitizer, files on the upcoming merger, a silver pen, and his MacBook. The silver pen on top of the file folder is the one Spence used when him and Sebastian first signed their business contract together. Hand sanitizer is carried with him everywhere out of habit from when he was taking care of his mother in her last few months of life. His phone, files, and computer are carried at all times because he is never really off the clock.

Here is a link to the original assignment:

http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/whats-in-your-bag/

This week, we were required to complete the “What’s in your bag” assignment that was submitted by Jim Groom. We are supposed to do this assignment for our character dossier.

The assignment: “What are the essentials in your bag that get you through the day? Take a picture of the items and detail each of them with a description.” This assignment is worth 3 points.

I sat down and thought about what Shirley Mayfield may have in her bag. I figured that she would have a lot because she likes to always be prepared.

I gathered all of the items and set them up so that I could see them all laid out.

Shirley Mayfield’s bag would have…

• A planner so that she is always prepared for events and important dates!
• Black gloves for driving or for cold weather. You can’t have cold hands!
• An aqua scarf so that she can accessorize on a whim if need be. Aqua is her favorite color and always brings out her beautiful eye color.
• Perfume in case she needs an extra spritz throughout the day.
• A round brush in case her hair needs to be fixed throughout the day. You can’t have messy hair!
• Sunglasses to block out the sun of course!
• Multiple lipsticks in case she wants to switch it up or needs a touch up throughout the day.
• A wallet because you can’t go anywhere without that!
• Keys because they are essential.

Shirley always makes sure that she is prepared. Having the essentials is crucial for Shirley to have a good day!

I enjoyed doing this assignment because it made me think more complexly on how Shirley would go about her everyday life. I think that is fun giving my character more dimensions!

This Visual Assignment is the What’s In Your Bag? (3 stars) Assignment required for our characters.

Below is Edie’s Waz’s Bag

The items that fell out are:

• duct tape
• sunglasses
• a bag of tissues
• $20 bill
• black ink pen
• a bracelet, an earring
• various credit cards and IDs
• hand sanitizer
• lip balm
• gum
• leather gloves (okay maybe they’re knit  mittens, but use your imagination)
• a bag of pills
• car keys
• condoms
• a knife

We all know you can at any point find some interesting things in a woman’s purse, and the larger the bag, the more there’s room for. Edie doesn’t always burden herself with the weight or inconvenience of a large bag, but when she does, she means business. I would say each thing she carries has its purpose but sometimes thats not how things happen. Another thing I should point out, is not everything in there is always hers. Now, I know you may think thats a cop out for the baggie of white pills, but I wasn’t talking about that, or even the different IDs. No, those both have legitimate (at least she says their legitimate) reasons for being in her purse. What I’m talking about it the earring. The long, dangling earring with the small silver balls and cascading tassel of chains is not hers. But why would a woman carry around an earring thats not hers? It couldn’t be a friend’s, right? I mean she spends most, if not all, of her time around the men in her bar… The rest, the rest is hers. The small, worn black leather gloves, are hers. The plain black and darkly tinted sunglasses are hers. The silver medallion bracelet with a smudge on it is hers. The duct tape roll thats running out is hers. The mostly used black ink pen, the new bottle of twilight scented hand sanitizer, the cheap lip balm, the baggie of clean tissues, the Trident mint gum, the Saturn car keys, the Trojan condoms, the crinkled $20, and the small, sharp, folding knife are all hers. So whose earring is it?