Author: Jude Ryan

I know how hard it is to be in conversations where you feel like everyone knows something you don't. My aim is to explore, learn, and to share that learning with other people, along with a couple things to help those people who feel unheard, feel like there is someone who understands. I hope to either go into law, or become a college professor, hopefully someday not riddled with debt.

Remembrance: Packing Up

The day that I’m writing this, May 1st, marks the last go-home weekend of the year, meaning that I don’t have much time left to move out of my dorm room here at MSA. I hate packing. Like hate, hate it. For multiple reasons, I think. I’ve only had to pack up and move 4 times in my life before coming to MSA. Mostly, I hate it because it lifts up dust, which in turn aggravates my allergies, but also, I hate packing because it symbolizes things ending. Some people think of it as peaceful, a methodical collecting of things and appreciating them, but I don’t and I’m not sure I ever will. For me it’s always a hectic and depressing game of Tetris, which items will fit where and how many can I shove in boxes without breaking anything, while also thinking about leaving the space. It’s sad for me because I have to wash a space that has been mine for so long of me. I have to put everything away, wipe off all the dust, and turn out the lights at the end, which scares me a little, I’ll be honest. It also comes from a fear of change. If nothing changes then nothing can ever end. But one piece of advice that actually helped, although it almost made me cry, came from one of my seniors, Cooper Brumfield. He came in my room trying to trade food, even though I didn’t have anything. I had almost cried twice packing up my stuff a few moments earlier, and I told him that, but he asked if he could give me a piece of advice. I said sure, and to my surprise, Cooper quite literally closed the door. For a second, I’d thought he left, but he opened the door again and said “I’ll never see that exact version of you again. That’s the beauty of being alive is we’re always changing.” Spoken like a true literary, right? I’m not going to pretend that I’m not what people would call a crybaby, because I am, but I also have a problem with that term. Why should those who feel their emotions readily and in the fullest be shamed for it? So I guess I’m happy to be a crybaby, and boy did that make me cry a little. I know I’m most likely coming back next year, but I can’t help but mourn how it is now, and I know it’ll never be the same. The seniors that I’ve lived with and that have come to matter so much to me are leaving. But this isn’t all bad. They’re going off to do great things, and by this time next year I hope I will be too. I know it’s always going to end, but it never makes it any less sad. The fact that I feel like I’ve finally found a place I belong definitely makes this harder, because that place is changing and won’t ever be the same. Of course it’ll still look the same, but the energy is changing. Anyways, enough of my pouting. If any seniors are reading this, thank you for being here, and I’m going to miss you.

Much love,
Jude ♡♡♡

Starting a Small Business

This week, I’ve been starting a small business called Blue Moon Magnolia Crochet. This involves so much more preparation than I could’ve thought would go into it. I am a, hopefully, talented crocheter, and I spend so much time doing it that if I don’t sell my creations, I feel like I’m wasting my time. Now, I know that the danger in monetizing your hobbies is going through burnout, but I’m really hoping that won’t happen. Prepping for starting up my small business, I’ve run into a few roadblocks that I can’t pass without parental assistance, something that I’m not particularly fond of in my hyper-independence. First, I had to think of what my products would be, and I think I’ve got a few first ideas. I feel that doilies are the easiest to make, but there is a smaller market for those. I’ve been working out a few patterns for some of my first products, though, and I think they’ll turn out great. Technically, I could just use patterns from online to make my products, but I’m absolutely not doing that. I will be using a few patterns, along with giving credit to the original makers, but I felt that if I only used online patterns, then that would be a bit fraudulent, as none of my creativity would go into it and I’d just be recycling old ideas and passing them off as my own work. This requires a mix of using both patterns and my personal ideas, because coming up with absolutely everything on my own is a bit unfeasible as a busy high school student. The next part of setting up my business is finding out where I’m going to sell. Online selling seems like the first course of action, but it’s not so easy. I’d love to just set up a shop on Etsy, but because of their hefty fees taken out of the final price of my products, it becomes a bit of a tough spot. If I were to sell on Etsy, I’d have to raise my prices to cover the fees so that I could actually make a profit, and that feels unfair to the people buying my products. I’ve been looking through different online alternatives, and I’ve found some good ones, but the problem I’ve run into is that they either require a PayPal account, which I cannot sign up for being under 18, or they require another service that requires an adult to help me sign up. Since living at MSA prevents me from having ready access to my parents, I’ve had to turn away from online selling for now. The other option is to sell in person. I could have a building to sell my products in, but that costs upwards of thousands of dollars and I’d still run into the same problem I did with online selling. The only feasible option left is selling at farmers and makers markets and finding a way to take card payments. Since I have Venmo, that takes out some of the hassle with card payments, and of course, I’ll take cash. The other downside to markets like these, though, is setting up. I’d have to factor in all the invisible costs associated with selling at a market, like paying for a spot in the market, a physical table, decorations for said table, the gas to drive to the market, and possibly the cost of labor if I were to get someone else to help me. Granted, I could probably just pay my helper with pizza or a different treat. Then, I have to work all of my products and pricing out. My stepmother has shown me how to use spreadsheets to my advantage, which has been insanely helpful (thanks so much, Lisa). Once I have everything built, I have to focus on pricing. Since I’m not super fast, factoring in the time it took me to make a product becomes a slippery slope, so I’ve had to cut that part out of the equation. Then, I have to combine all of the things that it took me to make a finished product, such as the yarn or thread, labels, bags, and wrapping paper, depending on how I package my products. Spreadsheets have helped me so much with this, as I can simply create an equation to combine all of these components, and simply input how much I used of each, and then the spreadsheet will do all of the work for me. Then, I log all of the vendors that I got my components from, their prices when I bought them, and possible alternatives if those components are unavailable or discontinued. Once it all boils down, I have to work out how much I received from sales, and how much I spent on materials, then add these two numbers together to receive how much I’ve profited. If I am making less than I’m spending, I’ll probably either change my course, or I might just call it quits, as falling in the red is never a good sign for a business. I’m currently working on setting up social media profiles for my business, but I’ve only set up on Instagram, so far. So, if you’re excited to see my products, follow me on Instagram at @bluemoonmagnolia, Facebook coming soon!

Much love,
Jude.

Deadstock and the Problem with the Textile Industry.

As we get nearer to Earth Day, I’ve been thinking about the fashion industry a lot more. One thing that I’ve been thinking about is deadstock. Deadstock is a term used for many kinds of fabric. Tulle and chiffon can be deadstock, as can leather. Deadstock fabric, by definition, is fabric from a textile mill or designer that has been either left over from a project or completely unused. Most of the time, deadstock can be thought of as the scraps left over from that pretty skirt you saw at Target the other day, but sometimes, designers leave over entire bolts of fabric that can’t be used for other projects. It can also be fabric intended for a specific project or buyer from textile mills that could have been unintentionally altered during the manufacturing process, which has now been rendered unable to be used by the buyer for said intended projects. Now, these scraps and mistake pieces of fabric would normally go to the trash, then into landfills where it would take centuries to break down if it were polyester or some other polymer-based textile, but, taking and selling them as deadstock pieces allow smaller designers to help out the environment by using these pieces to create a completely new garment, one with a completely unique vision, since no two scraps are ever the same. Using deadstock pieces, designers are able to reuse fabrics and keep larger producers from contributing to landfills. 

Polymers are normally classified in the textile industry as any natural or synthetic substance made from large molecules that are combined from several smaller units called monomers. Monomers have the ability to group together and form a long chain through a process called polymerization. Natural polymers can include starches and proteins, things you’d normally find in potatoes as that starchy white residue left over on your knife when you slice them up, or in meats and poultry as proteins. Synthetic polymers are composed of petroleum oil (which you can get from the fossils of ancient marine life or zooplankton, and is also sometimes called crude oil) which is manmade and comes from engineers and scientists who have to refine it before use. Petroleum oil is then turned into things like Teflon (which contains PFAS, dangerous chemicals for the human body when consumed), epoxy, polyethylene, and polyester. The most common polymers used in the textile industry are usually composed of nylon and polyester-based polymers. Things like wool, silk, cotton, and cashmere are natural products, while things like acetate, rayon, olefin, polyester, and nylon are synthetics. We’ve been using natural hair and textiles to make clothes for millenia, but with the introduction of animal cruelty programs like PETA (which I fully support, by the by) we have had to move to synthetics. The only thing with this switch, though, is while it takes away from animals being farmed for their furs or hides, it also creates a bigger problem for the environment as a whole. Synthetic fabrics are prized for their lower price point and their durability, but this durability comes as a problem. With synthetics being so durable, nature cannot break them down as easily as natural fabrics. This means that they accumulate in landfills and in nature, creating obstacles for local wildlife when they are dumped in unsanctioned areas. Now, this wouldn’t be a problem if we could just keeps the clothes we buy, but with the emergence of fast fashion trends, humans are buying and disposing of clothes at an alarming rate, increasing the amount being sent to landfills astronomically. If we were doing this with naturals, I don’t think it would be as big of a problem (it still would be a problem, don’t get me wrong), but that makes clothes less accessible and more expensive. There are some companies that have adopted recycling other polymers, like the plastic from water bottles, to create synthetic clothing, but this still poses a problem when the garment is disposed of, as it goes to the exact same place as that plastic bottle would’ve gone. Deadstock could possibly solve this problem. If designers and big brands began using deadstock fabrics and selling whatever scraps they use, there would be much less waste taking up space in landfills. Though, using deadstock is not at all a silver bullet. It still has to be paired with more eco-conscious initiatives on the part of the companies such as making less clothes altogether, and on the part of the consumer such as buying less clothes and reusing your preloved items. I know it sounds sickeningly optimistic, but I think we can genuinely make our home a much better place if we hold ourselves and large corporations more accountable when it comes to our fashion, even though it is largely on the corporations, as most of the time, they are the ones indiscriminantly dumping things around as if they expect some maid to come clean up after them. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my ramble about fashion this week.

Much love,

Jude ★

Fashion Trends, What do they have to do with the economy?

Fashion has long had an influence on society. What people spend on beauty and fashion products can almost directly correlate to the state of the economy. These trends can sometimes be helpful indicators of economic growth and recession. I saw a video the other day talking about this same thing, and I decided to write my blog about it. 

Now, speaking specifically about economic growth, there is actually a documented phenomenon that indicates this. Economist George Taylor created the Hemline Index circa 1926 that said the shorter hemlines in fashion Trends are, the more the economy is growing (think flapper dresses of the 20’s and miniskirts of the 60’s) and vice versa, longer hemlines for the recession of an economy (pants and maxi skirts in the Great Depression). Even hair can indicate a recession, a hair trend from 2009 called “recession blonde.” Recession Blonde is a term coined for the grown out blonde color that comes from not going to the salon for a touch up. This can almost directly show that a person does not have enough money to maintain a near constant bottle blonde. Because, of course, when your bank account is low, you’re not going to waste your money on a touch up, are you? Unless looking blonde is an incredibly important thing to you, then I think it’s safe to say you wouldn’t be getting regular touch ups when you’re low on funds. 

Makeup especially can show a declining economy. The uptick in buying smaller things can show that not many people have the money for things other than small luxuries. The increase of lipstick purchases can also indicate a recession. During the Great Depression, women began buying more lipsticks, a product that was relatively cheap during the time. This phenomenon is aptly deemed the “Lipstick Effect.” It’s a sort of manifestation of something else called by economists the “income effect.” Basically, when a consumer’s income lowers, demand for more everyday items goes up. And since people can’t buy a trip to the Bahamas to soothe their economic distress, they go to cheaper places like the movie theater and chain fast food stores to forget about their money troubles for a bit. Just like this, people begin buying lipsticks, small luxuries that give you a feeling of beauty without a hefty price tag.

Now, as nice as this indicator is, it does come with a few problems for the economic-savvy consumer. One of these is, lipstick sales aren’t public domain, so consumers can’t have these statistics on demand. The BEA publishes a monthly statistic of “personal care items” purchased, but this often comes with a few months of lag time, so it’s difficult to get an accurate estimate for the consumer of if we’re heading to an economic recession.

I could go on talking about this for hours, but I don’t particularly have the attention span for it. I love the idea that beauty and fashion are so so intertwined with a country’s economy that they can be such a great indicator of a recession.

Much love,

Jude

Crochet: Remembrance Series

So, I have ADHD. My parents have known for a while, or at least entertained the possibility of me having it. My third grade teacher was the first one to mention it to my parents, but I think it kind of went to the back of their minds, as that teacher and I never got along. But, about a year ago, I got professionally diagnosed with ADHD. ADHD and ADD used to be thought of as different, but now they’re both under the same terms, differentiated as ADHD Hyperactive and ADHD Inattentive. I am the latter, and my parents knew something was off when my grades dropped drastically in about ninth grade and onwards. Now, I am intelligent (not to toot my own horn) but I barely got by with Cs and Ds, while also having high standardized test scores. My GPA was around a 2.5 something, and that was a problem. I got put on medication soon after, but during that small interim period of diagnosed and unmedicated, I picked up crochet! My aunt Peggy had crocheted for years, and those would always be her Christmas or birthday gifts, but she got tired of it and moved on to beading, and she makes some pretty insane stuff with it. She wanted to get rid of all of her yarn and called me and my mom over to take some of it. She had about 4 full trash bags of yarn, and I picked over it all happily. She gave me some crochet hooks and I got to work, teaching myself how to crochet using internet tutorials and patterns. Now, after almost a year of crocheting, I’ve gotten to be incredibly talented at it. I’ve done so many projects and it has helped me overcome my inattentive struggles by giving me something to do with my hands in class while I listened to my teachers. It keeps me from zoning out in a way that medication hasn’t been able to, to my knowledge. In my almost year long stint of crocheting, I’ve done lots of projects. My first one was a bag made out of granny squares, which I never really finished. It still works as a bag, but there’s no lining in it so I can’t really put anything small in it. My second project was a scarf-like wrap made out of a simple black yarn. I really liked it and I enjoyed making it, but I never really wear it because it’s always either too hot or too cold. My third finished project was a star-shaped swaddle I made for my cousin’s newborn, though I never sent it and now I’m sure he’s grown too big for it (sorry, Hannah!). My fourth and most recent project was a large triangle shawl, made with an ombre grey and stony blue yarn. This one, I try to wear often, though it’s not cold enough for it anymore. Right now, I’m working on a project with MSA’s Crochet Club as a whole which I’m incredibly excited for. My next article in the last edition of RISE will be about this. 

Much love,
Jude.

Punk Music is Political???

Okay, I admit, the title is a bit of clickbait because I’ve known for a while that punk music is political. Punk music has been used as an anti-establishment protest device since its inception, using heavy rock and lyrical call-outs to get its point across. Now, I’d like to preface this by saying, punk music in its entirety isn’t political, and punk isn’t the only political music, but punk started out political. 

Punk Rock had its start in the 1970s in small clubs in London, San Fran, New York, Boston, and LA, drawing inspiration from 50s rock and roll and 60s garage rock. Punk music has been anti-institution since inception, and has been used as a feminist device as well by the likes of Patti Smith and L7 (one of my favorite punk bands ever.) 

Patti Smith was an artist and poet who was very active during the beginning of punk, being one of the pillars of the community, she toured North America with her band The Patti Smith Group, influencing punk artists of later generations.

L7 was another punk band, though functioning in the latter 80s. they were one of the first all-female punk bands in the game. They have been staunchly political since their beginning and are to date one of my all-time favorite bands. They formed the Rock for Choice movement in the 90s, aimed at holding concerts over a ten year period to raise funding for the pro-abortion movement of the time.

The Slits were the first all female punk band (to my knowledge) and had one of the defining releases of the punk era. They were heavily inspired by Patti Smith and toured with many punk bands of the time. The Slits cycled through members, having a total of 15 members in their time.

Now, being a bit sick has left me with little energy, so this blog post didn’t turn out exactly how I wanted it to, but I hope you enjoyed and maybe give some of these artists a listen!

Much love,
Jude ♡

My Top songs by Hiatus Kaiyote

Over the past few weeks, I found that I was revisiting a band that I listened to a lot my sophomore year. Hiatus Kaiyote. Hiatus Kaiyote is a jazz/funk band from Melbourne, Australia. The Lead singer Nai Palm, born Naomi Saalfield, bassist Paul Bender, Simon Mavin playing keyboard, and drummer Perrin Moss, all comprise this wonderful band. Nai Palm and Paul Bender met after one of Palm’s solo shows and soon after duetted together and resultingly formed Hiatus Kaiyote. I’ve been listening to HK since about October 2023 and over that time I’ve gone through almost their entire discography.

Canopic Jar

Canopic Jar is one of my favorites because of the eerie melody and the poetic lyrics. It is the second track on an EP of the same name. The instrumentals of the song remind me of a suspenseful and almost… halloween-esque scene? That’s the best phrase I can think of to describe it. A Canopic Jar is a type of vessel used by ancient Egyptians to preserve their organs and by extension their souls for the afterlife. HK uses this idea of a canopic jar to symbolize preserving a relationship for another time, to come back to. This is shown by the lyric “I’ll keep your heart in canopic jar.”

Blood and Marrow

Blood and Marrow is the 12th track on HK’s album, Mood Valiant. Being the last track, it provides a dynamic ending to the album, moving through upbeat instrumentals and then tapering off at the end to provide a resounding finale to Mood Valiant. My favorite lyric from this song is “You could get through to the blood and marrow/ deeper than a cinder in snow.” Granted that lyric repeats plentifully but it doesn’t take away the meaning that this “you” can reach the singer’s deepest parts of themself.

Love Heart Cheat Code

Love Heart Cheat Code is the title track of HK’s most recent album, with the same name. Love Heart Cheat Code is like a musical poem, repeating lyrics in a sort of chant and an upward beat that doesn’t make it seem repetitive, at least to me. I find that I can’t stop thinking about this one line “Hotter than lava/ Slicker than lightning,” no matter how hard I try. I don’t know what it is about that line, but it’s like a worm in my brain.

Laputa

The song ‘Laputa’ is one of the more auditorily interesting songs to me, filled with deep imagery and a flowing beat, it pays tribute to the Ghibli film “Castle in the Sky.” In this film, there is a floating island named “Laputa.” This song provocatively illustrates a sort of longing for that island, or the idea of it.

Cinnamon Temple

Cinnamon Temple is one of my favorites because it blends many genres. This one feels very punk-inspired, and that draws me to it because I do listen to a good bit of punk music. My mom has told me that it sounds very chaotic, but I think that’s what makes me love it. I find that it’s very cathartic to move to the beat of this song. It is the 10th song on LHCC and begins the departure from Hiatus Kaiyote’s regular style into a more guitar-heavy and rock inspired vibe. This journey only really lasts for two songs, Cinnamon Temple and White Rabbit (which is a cover of another song of the same title by Jefferson Airplane), but I’d love to see HK take a deeper foray into this style.

Anyways, that’s my music rant! I plan to write many more of these, so stay tuned!

 

Much love,
Jude ♡

Wellness Culture. History Repeats Itself.

Wellness Culture is a huge part of our lives. From magazines at the counter of the grocery store, preaching about some nameless woman losing 15 pounds in only two weeks and how you can too, to ads on newspaper articles toting a new and “dietician recommended” weight loss pill with absolutely no side effects (which is untrue). Our society is rife with people claiming if you’re fat you’re ugly, and if you’re skinny you’re at the height of beauty. This has caused many health issues in women. Eating disorders, mainly, but also drug addiction. First it can cause people to take unhealthy or ineffective supplements, which can cause damage to your immune system.

“Wellness” was a term coined by the so-called father of the movement, Dr. Halbert L. Dunn. Dunn defined wellness as the seeking of not just good health, but the personal well-being and betterment. Dunn’s program of “wellness” is not governed by the rules of medicine that we have developed, but some kind of intangible standard that shifts and changes with the individual seeking it. This standard began with the “life reform” fad in nineteenth-century Europe.  One such European, Louis Kuhne, published a book in 1891 (yes it does go back that far) recounting his struggles with chronic pain and illness and spurning the medical establishment for his lack of improvement. In his book, Kuhne prescribed all sorts of phony, natural cures for seemingly every ailment. Hydrotherapy, cutting out salt and sugar, fresh air, and strict vegetarianism were just a few of these “cures.” He went on to open a clinic in his town of Leipzig, Germany and became successful peddling snake oil cures. Kuhne had absolutely no medical basis for any of these claims. He was a freaking carpenter, for Christ’s sake! He had no medical experience, no degree, no nothing, but still, his book became a famous best-seller. Now, Kuhne was not some sort of prodigy. He simply used the cultural zeitgeist of industrialization to manipulate people into buying into his holistic healing. Many Europeans saw the industrial complex as dehumanizing and damaging, and medicine of the time did not help, approaching patients from a strictly technical stance, rather than a personalized one, which many people craved. After 1874, Germany passed a law mandating the smallpox vaccine. Many anti-vaccination activists (I guess history does repeat itself, oh hello, 2020) protested that they were being “poisoned” by vaccines and moved heavily toward alternative medicine, which was readily available thanks to Peddler Kuhne and the ever-expanding health market. This doctrine morphed into something called “life-reform.” Groups of people believing in this new phenomenon – including Kuhne – played around with extreme veganism, nudism, open-air exercise, sunbathing, spas, and raw food diets. They subscribed to health magazines like Vegetarian Lookout and The Natural Doctor, spent time at resorts promising weight loss and better health, and disavowing white bread and other processed foods. “Life-reform” began as an admirable effort to lower inactivity and indulgences, morphed into a program that transformed the meaning of health from a lack of sickness into a lifestyle that paragoned self-restraint and moderation in every aspect of life. Good health became synonymous with self-fulfillment in the form of moderation, and a certain standard of beauty. It changed into something that made people incredibly body-conscious and anxious about how their bodies fit into the strict molds of society. Soon, health became a commodity, rather than a part of survival. Does all this sound familiar? I hope so, because here in the 2000s and beyond, “life-reform” morphed again into something called “wellness culture.” With the uprise of social media and instant connection across vast distances, wellness culture has been in the hands of anyone with the ability to open their phone and look at Instagram or TikTok. Those skinny women wearing beige yoga pants with a matching Stanley cup that has so much stuff strapped to it you can’t even hold it correctly? It’s a facade. Now, including the commodification of health, wellness culture has added more warts onto its ugly face. Overconsumption. See, you may think that the doctrine of moderation peddled to you by influencers is helping you to clear out your home, but it’s really just making way for new things to buy, linked on their Amazon Storefronts. They have propended supplements filled with meaningless leaves, objects for you to pay for that are completely bogus, and fasting yourself to the point of starvation and unhealthy weight loss. History really does repeat itself, from anti-vaxxers to fake supplements, we should all be more mindful of what we are feeding ourselves, brain and body.

Life is Strange: True Colors (Part 2 of Blog Post “Life is Strange”)

Continuing on my post from last week, this post is about the fourth installment in the Life is Strange series, True Colors.  WARNING: THIS POST WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE STORY!!!!!

In True Colors, players control Alexandra “Alex” Chen, a child previously stuck in the foster care system who has the gift of psychic empathy. Alex’s powers allow her to see and feel the emotions of other people, with those emotions presenting to Alex as an aura of colors in the air around a person. These abilities are viewed as a curse to Alex, as she gets lost in them, and feels the emotions as if they are her own. This has led her to view her powers as a curse. In the start of the game, Alex is fresh off a bus to Haven Springs, Colorado, where her brother, Gabe, lives. Gabe shows Alex around the town, introducing her to many residents. They town is mostly employed by a mining company, Typhon. Typhon is a prolific company, present in the entirety of the story and even before Gabe and Alex are even born. In the style of all the Life is Strange games, True Colors is set up in episodic style, though unlike other games it was released altogether on September 10th, 2021. Back to the game, Gabe leads Alex back to his apartment, which he gifts to her. They then meet Mac, an angry citizen who believes Gabe is in a relationship with Mac’s girlfriend, Riley. This is not true, as Riley is applying for a college, which Gabe is assisting her with. Mac attacks Gabe with Alex in the same room. Alex is soon “infected” by Mac’s anger and attacks Mac in animalistic fashion, driving him off. Afterwards, Alex explains to Gabe the nature of her powers. 

Later that night, Gabe, Alex, and another citizen, Ryan, search for a missing boy. The boy is found in an old Typhon mining facility, stuck on a rotting tree over a chasm. The boy believes that there is a monster hiding under the log, waiting to grab him. His fear makes him immovable. Alex climbs across the log slowly and attempts to coax the boy back to safety, but is unable to do so. She tunes into his fear, unlocking another facet of her powers, the ability to gently influence these emotions and use them to assist people through their trauma. When Alex taps into the boy’s fear, she begins to see through his eyes and views the “monster” in the chasm. She knows that the monster isn’t real, but the boy’s fear makes it seem tangible. Braving the boy’s fear, Alex leads him to safety. Gabe tries to rappel down to retrieve something, but blasts sound off. Earlier that night, they had told Typhon to stop blasting, but Typhon didn’t listen. They began blasting, causing the chasm to deteriorate and crush Gabe.

This is only a short summary of the first episode, so I implore you to play the full game, as it is a masterpiece.

 

Much love,
Jude ♡

Life is Strange

Over the summer, I did not have much to do. Being a teenager with no car and parents who work all day does not offer a thriving summer social life. So, like any teenager, I spent my time playing video games and watching TV. Two of my favorite games to play over the summer were Life is Strange, and Life is Strange: True Colors.

Life is Strange

Life is Strange began in January 2015, when Dontnod Entertainment released the first part of the game. Life is Strange was released in episodic form, spanning five releases. The story follows a girl named Max Caulfield who, during an altercation between two other characters, finds that she has gained the ability to rewind time. She goes on to use these powers to keep a girl from being shot via a fire alarm pressed at just the right time. Max realizes that the girl is her childhood best friend, Chloe, who she left behind when she moved to Seattle. In the following days, many irregular environmental phenomena and the recent disappearance of a local girl lead Max and Chloe to begin investigating both. I won’t spoil too much about the game though so that you will be able to play it through on your own! This game had so many good twists and turns that I just couldn’t get enough. My next blog will be about the fourth game in this series, Life is Strange: True Colors.

 

Much love!
Jude ♡