Years ago I decided that I wanted to learn how to pick locks. Ideally I would never need to utilize this skill, but one can never know, and it doesn't hurt to be prepared. I purchased a lock to practice on. The key you find below corresponds to this lock. I've never used this key, but I like to carry it around with me as a reminder to always be prepared.
Preparation.
Since I am known as a computer guy, I am often asked to assist with computer problems, usually without much of a heads-up. I carry the flash drive you see below around with me. It contains numerous software tools to assist with fixing computers.
Further Preparation.
I enjoy playing video games competitively. As a result, I am regularly challenged to put money on a game. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. In one particuluarly satisfying match I won a two dollar bill which I like to keep with me to remind me that while sometime I lose, sometimes I win.
Victory.
It is customary for Ashkenazi Jews to name their children after a relative who has passed away. I was named after an uncle who died in the Yom Kippur War. The 9mm bullet you see below was manufactured in one of same factories that provided this uncle with ammunition he used in said war. Living in the United States it is easy to forget this heritage; I wear the bullet to remind me of my namesake.
Heritage.
Heritage.
My primary hobby is programming. I simply enjoy creating intricate and useful things. While I generally prefer using a desktop, it restricts me to coding only when it is available. A laptop, on the other hand, I can take with me.
Creation.
Creation.
Using these images to create a single picture that - standing alone - says something about me proved to be very difficult for me. None of the items above - or really anything I carry on my person - says anything about me without the story behind them. I don't see how I could possibly tell someone anything about myself just by showing them, say, the image of my never-used key, beyond the fact that I carry a key around with me, just as a great number of other people do. It doesn't matter how I utilize things like size or orientation.
Since thinking about what I am unable to do wouldn't really get me anywhere, I decided to focus on what I could do that would actually say something unique about myself and ran from there. One way in which I am relatively unique is that I primarily use computers to create rather than (just) consume. I don't just watch youtube and post on facebook, but rather create software. My focus is not what I see on the screen but what I can do with the keyboard. Hence, the picture below.
I'm not sure it works. I tried numerous variations, none of which really stood out to me. In the end I decided to settle on this. The keyboard-in-the-screen should be recognizable to others, and since it is a bit odd, it will hopefully generate some thought as to why I did this. The picture is sufficiently simple
that there isn't anything else to focus on - the viewer has no choice but to think about exactly what I want them to think about.
It does not say anything about my self-taught lock picking skill, my competitive video game playing or my heritage. It hardly says anything at all. I'm not even sure it completely meets the requirements of the assignment, since it only utilizes one of my five items. I'd like to think, though, that it does say at least one thing: when the person who made that image looks at a computer, he sees the tools to create rather than consume.
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