Category: Junior Literary

Heyyy, welcome back to chats with Lydia with sprinkle a chaos, it’s been a while since I’ve written a blog with fall break and workshop week. So were finally back at it with a little update on everything going on since I’ve been at MSA! The weather is dropping I had to actually wear a jacket Monday morning it’s been a while since I have had to do that and I’m so thankful it makes it really feel like fall. I looked out the window, and the trees were blowing it is just so pretty so admiring this change. Now let me update you on my life it’s a wild one.

I am involved in so much its crazy, but I love it. I do band which is so much as itself I have many long rehearsals, Friday night football games, band competition and pep rallies. I love band it takes so much of my day, but it flies by so fast because of how much I enjoy doing it and the people in it. I am also a part of a FCA, Rise, and MSA Wonders Club. There are so many clubs here and I am so grateful for that because I actually don’t know what I would do if I was not busy.

If you ask me the best part of the year I would probably say “band.” Band is one of my favorite things ever; during fall break I got to drive up to Brookhaven every day for rehearsal and had a football game that Friday and a band competition that Saturday in Pearl MS, and last Saturday we had the opportunity to go to the coast for anther band competition. So, it has kept me busy for sure, but its apart of me I’ve been in band since sixth grade from Covid band. When we were all percussion living in Germany to now getting to the flute in Brookhaven MS. 

Theres also so much more! I found a church here in Brookhaven that I really enjoy going to, so I go to First Baptist Brookhaven every Wednesday in free and every Sunday we are here. There are so many sweet people there, and a great community. This week I’m also attaining the Go Tell America Crusade at King Field Sunday-Wednesday I am really enjoying it they are having different speaking and a worship band so many people got saved Monday night and I’m so excited to see how God will work though the rest of the event. Also Wednesday they did give away free pizza to students and did a car giveaway.

There is so much that has happened it the past few months I can’t believe it I also found a coffee shop that I love! I go there and do my schoolwork, my bible study and etc. it is such a great environment, and the workers are so sweet, the establishment is called Wild Fox highly recommend it if you haven’t already and my favorite restaurant is Torella Soup such good food and again the workers are so nice!

There still so much that I haven’t exported as I’m still getting settled and the year has just come to a start, but I’m excited to see what this chapter has to bring! Have a great week and see y’all next week with my next adventure.

What is a vampire? In modern day, a vampire is a spooky ghost story creature. Something that you dress up as for Halloween or see slapped on the front of a goody bag. Once, vampires were much more than that. They were real for many people.

Imagine you are in the early 1600’s, and your wife tragically passes away on your wedding night. For weeks after, you hear her calling your name from outside your window, and she shows up in your dreams. Not only that but your cattle start showing up bled dry. You suspect your late wife of being a vampire, so you dig her up to find that she is undecomposed, with a fresh stain of blood on her lips. The pastor wants to burn her on a steak, but you still love her, so you beg them not to. You finally come to the agreement to put an iron nail through her heart, and stuff her with garlic. That night, she shows up in your dream. She says, “You’ve freed me, but you’ve cursed yourself.”

This is one of the very stories that flooded Europe, making people go as far as setting burial rituals in place for the dead. The specific type of vampire that is used for this speculation are Strigois.

In my opinion, Strigois are the most interesting type of vampires in folklore. A few of the way that you are sure to be cursed to be a Strigoi are as follows: 

• Leading a life of sin.
• Being cursed by a witch.
• Dying without being married.
• Being the seventh child. 
• Being killed by execution. 
• Being born with a caul atop your head. 

Now while vampires are obviously fictional, (…) It’s cool to think that once it was an actual worry of villagers that they would be eaten by a bloodthirsty vampire. It’s kind of like how the new generation is going to be like, “What?  Yall went through a whole 3-ish year pandemic, but the whole time y’all made TikTok’s and played Roblox?” 

While I was researching for this blog, I found a case that really stood out to me. This is the Mercy Brown Case of 1884. This is mostly all proven to be true, which really shows the power of fear. 

Mercy Brown 1884. She was a lively young woman, who was freshly married as well as the other story. Her cause of death, tuberculosis. At this time, there was no cure for tuberculosis, meaning 80% of all affected passed away. 

Well soon after this, her family slowly began getting killed off. The village went on to warn her husband, telling him old stories of vampires and witches. After a while, he decided to get all of the dead family members exhumed from their graves. In each grave, bones, yet in hers, a completely fresh corpse. In her heart and lungs, there was blood, usual for buried bodies that are fresh in the winter for that time. 

At the end, they burned her liver and heart, mixed the ashes with water, and made the husband drink it. Obviously, this did not cure him, and he passed away a few months later. 

These stories are used mostly as cautionary tales even now. Kind of like the Boogeyman. I genuinely love learning about vampires, so I hope this blog wasn’t too boring for you guys. 

when I first watched this show, I was honestly half asleep but i locked in quickly I really don’t know why they canceled this show it was honestly so good especially with the major plot twist every episode had you on the edge of your seat 24/7 I would recommend this show to anyone above the age of 12. it has sum explicit scenes. honestly once you watch it you understand the reason for each of their actions in this post-apocalyptic world.  I knew it was about zombies from the cover page on Netflix but when I watched it reminded me that every show, book, movie is a whole world, and everything could have a story to it.

“Daybreak” follows a student josh wheeler on his journey through the journey of his world that was reborn by a nuclear warhead that made all adults turn into mindless zombies well not completely mindless they can talk but they only repeat the last words they said before death. josh wheeler has to avoid gangs of students that claimed each part of town as their territory, a demon dressed in black on a motorcycle kidnapping kids, a girl he babysits. all to rescue Sam a girl he liked before all this happened. The nuked was dropped during the night of a big football game against a rival team josh was texting sam they were supposed to meet at the game but unfortunately a nuke was dropped on them aka horrible first date, ever since josh has been constantly trying to find his way to her leaving stick notes and wall tags everywhere.  they epic journey begins when josh thinks he finds Sam being tortured in a cabinet by the golf club, so he attacks them cutting into one of their fingers with a samurai sword unsuccessfully he actually makes his way to the cabinet only to find the smart but evil girl he baby-sitter once or twice. sum how she pops out with a Russian flamethrower and blazes through their competition.  at some point we get to the pacifist samurai “Wesley fists” e helps them and they hide out in one of the safehouses josh has stored up. there found but have the weird idea to make water ballons filled with blood in order to attract the dead and make their escape.  they run into the black motorcycle guy or who they thought was him “eli ” a guy who wears fake everything even the motorcycle was fake it had training wheels!!!! 

that’s all I’m going to spoil!!!

how would you find your lover in a world like this?

are you prey or predator? 

what would you do if all the grown-ups around you turned into mindless flesh-eating zombies?

do you know sing language?

Roblox and TikTok are the only two things y’all would see me on for real, want to know why? Bet let me tell y’all how I feel about them. I’m going to start with Roblox, Roblox was something I would play with my little sisters when we wanted to spend time together. That’s the only reason I started to play. I would see how happy it made my sisters when we played. Now I just play it to play it and it reminds me of the times we had.

Games we played

There’s lots of different games on Roblox as y’all know, but the one we would always play was, Obbys, Tycoons and scary games. My favorite one would be the Obbys because of how competitive we are, we would trash talk each other, make them lose or we would just take their phone and throw it somewhere. The best part about playing the game with them would be seeing how they would just laugh at me when I fall or die on the game. 

TikTok

Now TikTok, Baby I don’t even know how to put it in words. I have been using TikTok for as long as I can remember. Even before TikTok I was using Dub smash like it was TikTok. People say that TikTok would make you do slow things (so true) or even say that it’s making 2000’s kids crazy (also true) but the thing is, TikTok has some good stuff to watch. You can even learn stuff by watching TikTok. 

I love how I can just get on TikTok and learn a new dance every once in a while. I even get my sisters to do TikTok with me when I am at home and it is so funny because they don’t have any type of rhythm when it comes to dancing. I feel like TikTok is also a way to have fun with family and friends at times. On top of that, if I want to find a new type of music I can just go to TikTok. 

TikTok and Roblox has always been something I did with my sisters or even my brothers sometimes, but now I use them a lot just to be on it and even use it to get close with friends. You can do a lot on these apps, and I feel like that’s good. I might even be on TikTok when I get older.

That’s my blog for this week thx for reading.!

My tiktok feed as of late has been speedpaints with nightcore in the background and comic dubs. I feel like I’ve fallen back into cringe fandom culture of when I was little. Honestly, it’s a fantastic feeling. School has been a little stressful, less this class and more the normal academic classes, so having something to wind down and feel like I’m seven again is so awesome!!

I’ve found that the cause of this is a newer show on Netflix called Haunted Hotel, and for an adult animated series on Netflix, it’s not that bad!! Some of the voice actors of note are Jimmi Simpson, Skyler Gisondo, and Will Forte all in the main cast!! If you don’t recognize those names, Simpson was in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Solar Opposites, and Westworld; Gisondo was in the most recent Superman, My Name is Earl, The Righteous Gemstones, Vacation, and Santa Clarita Diet; Forte was in The Last Man on Earth, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (1 and 2), Good Boys, Sweet Tooth, Gravity Falls, and a ton of other things. If you don’t recognize any of them then I highly recommend checking literally any of those things out. I’d go into the guest stars and the rest of the main cast but I need to zip my lips on that front.

I think the reason I was so easily dragged into staying to watch the whole show was because of the family aspect. They actually like each other for the most part; you don’t really see that as often in shows that let families not hate each other (cough cough family guy cough cough rick and morty(danny I don’t want to hear it)). Don’t want to dog on every show, so I would like to say that I love Bob’s Burgers and it’s another show that I recommend. 

Along with 2016 fandom habits coming back, I’m also seeing a lot of people missing cosplaying and fandom culture of 2020 which I find VERY interesting. It’s only taken 5 years for people to start romanticizing it, but I get it. Simpler memories in a time like this is something nice to lean on.

I’m gonna guess that the thing bringing people back to 2020 is the announcement that Danganronpa 2 is having some kind of remake? Not sure, I wasn’t big into it when I was younger. However, all the cosplays I’m seeing being super colorful and overly decorated just scratches that nostalgic part of my brain along with the maximalist part. I know I dress pretty plain like all of the time, but if I had less shame and didn’t have sensory issues there would definitely be signs (one million beaded bracelets). 

This post started out me talking about how much I miss being in fourth grade and being cringe with no worries, but just went off the rails. I’m not mad about it though, covered a lot that hasn’t really gotten the space to talk about on its own!! Haunted Hotel is goated Will Forte you are such a beautiful man please please last man on earth come back pleaseeeeee. 

Since it’s been a minute since my last blog I thought I would do a little life recap of fall breck and last week.

Over fall break I went to my first concert. I have a list of bands/singers that I want to see live. Well I get to make the number one band off my list-Rainbow Kitten Suprise. They are/were at the top of my list due to how their music feels and is made. Their music is made to be listened to live. When i saw they were doing a show in Hattiesburg I was thrilled. My dad and I went, and it was really a great show, even the opener was amazing.

Jelani Aryeh was the opener for their tour, Thanks for coming, he toured with them and brought some musicians along with him, bennytheghost (a guitarist during the tour but he makes his own music as well), Trevor Zemtseff (a drummer for the tour), and a bass player, Cooper Holzman. They were amazingly talented and did an amazing job. Jelani’s music doesn’t really fit into just one genre but is a mix of indie rock, R&B, hip-hop, po, and sometimes post-punk. His songs are crafted in such a beautiful way, they feel almost ethereal and have a summer or travel feel. I got to meet him and get a picture as well as a signed shirt.

Jelani and his “band” were supper nice when people when meeting them as well. Some people were being really demanding of them and weren’t really in my opinion respecting them, but they were great and handled the crowd well. They have now been added to the very very very long list of musicians I listen too.

Rainbow Kitten Surprise was amazing as well. Their stage presence is so thought out, blocked, and colorful that it adds to the music. You really get to see the story of some of the songs. Their stage lights are mind blowing and were so beautiful; pictures don’t do it justice sadly. They are an alt rock indie band. RKS is made up of Ela Melo (lead vocals and writer), Darrick “Bozzy” Keller (guitar and backup vocals), Ethan Goodpaster (Electric guitar), and the great Jess Haney on drums. They played older and newer songs at this concert. 

I also went to camp this Saturday. I worked at a Christian summer camp this past summer and it was great. I loved it and can’t wait to go back. I made so many friends and was able to have such a great impact on so many kids lives. But anyways this past Saturday I got to go and help with concessions at a soccer tournament and then help with high ropes. High ropes is a tower which reaches about 30ft. up in the air. It is an obstacle course in the air basically. You are harnessed up and were helmets, so you are completely safe and it’s a great experience. It’s one of my favorite things to do at camp. 

My next blog will be back to normal and on topic. Here’s some extra pictures too. Until next blog <3

I can not express myself enough how much I love this book. I want to steal Homers mind and study it but sadly the man was way before our time back in BCE sooo….

What I love about the Odyssey so much is that there are lessons from every encounter Odysseus, the main protagonist of this story, learns and how much he’s willing to sacrifice and go to get back home to his wife Penelope and his son, Telemakus or in todays translation; Telemachus. 

Most of you may be familiar with he Musical adaptation by Jorge Rivera-Herrans and his commission of casts for all the amazing characters that in the Greek times were considered their gods that they worshipped and some of the men that Odysseus sailed with and who he was commissioned by. 

How many of you who are currently Reading this are familiar with the Trojan War? 

Do you remember the giant Horse? The Trojan Horse? 

Odysseus was the one who composed this idea and arranged for a sequence of events and if you’re a fan of the musical, you’ll recognize the horse on the cover of the album named: The Troy Saga. 

The main story follows with Telemachus wanting to know the whereabouts of Odysseus who hasn’t return after the war for some time. Suitors have come from the kingdom of Ithaka(Ithaca) for Penelope’s hand and the old kings spoils. 

The Odyssey is a cautionary tale of pride but many things about the Odyssey and more specifically Odysseus and most of them are towards his misfortunes with the witch goddess Circe and goddess Kalypso (Calypso) 

In order of events, Odysseus is trying to get home and takes pride in himself and disregards his mentors judgement, Athena, the goddess of wisdom. Bestowing upon himself that he didn’t need her and went against her judgment when confronting Polyphemus, the Cyclops and told the Cyclops his true name. (he had blinded the cyclops and told him his name was Nobody,) This caused Athena to leave and Odysseus was then alone without a guide and had only his own wits to guide him and his crew. He meets another god after a storm on the sea. The wind god Aeolus, who gives Odysseus the wind bag with the storm inside to sail home with clear skies, but he only ever told Odysseus. This outcome drives his crew to wonder what was inside the wind bag and greed overcame them, but it was Odysseus who didn’t tell them. If he had, maybe they wouldn’t have opened the wind bag. The wind sails them to the isle of Aeaea, where Circe is. This is where a lot of the hate comes from towards Odysseus. Circe upon their arrival turned his men into pigs, in order to get them back Hermes helps Odysseus with a magic root (moly) to overpower Circe. IN FEAR AND SUGGESTION Circe attempts to SEDUCE Odysseus who refuses to be corecorced. This infatuated her and drove her to have love for him. So to save his men, Odysseus committed to sleeping with her. 

Keep in mind, he’s trying to get home and has no feelings for this woman what so ever and in comfort of what Circe provides his crew afterwards for a year making them stay but not as prisoners, When Odysseus finally asked her to leave she directs him to the Underworld to see the dead prophet Tiresias. 

This is where I will stop for now, but let me explain Circes and Odysseus situation. 

Circle has a love for a man who can suddenly resist her magic, and he is a man trying to save his men and get home to his wife. WIFE. Odysseus is many things but it’s throughout the story of the Odyssey you will see he really only, truy, harbours love for his wife Penelope and son Telemachus. 

Since Odysseus had to engage in a night with Circe to save his men, he didn’t really have a choice to willingly sleep with her and she made them stay for a year to be comforted from war. 

Some key details that INDICATE what happens in the book are in the musical, hidden within lyrics but wont go overboard in full force telling what has happened. Think of Epic more as a pg-13 film where the Odyssey in a WHOLE with all little details included would be rated R. 

I’m going to end it here, but what do you think? Was Odysseus right for wanting to stay and save his men? 

Also, again, please not that Epic the musical is not entirely accurate in action but subtle hints to those who have read the book (And hopefully this blog) will understand in the lyrics. 

I will make a new blog about similar Lyrics and the out comes of the book and how they link. 

Hi everyone, welcome back to my blog. This week I wasn’t sure what to write about, so I’m just going to write whatever comes to mind first. Flowers. My favorite flower changes quite frequently, as does my favorite color, my favorite everything really. As of today, my favorite flower is a red rose, but about a month ago if someone asked me “what’s your favorite flower” I would have said a carnation, or a dahlia. I know my mom’s favorite flower is a hydrangea. For her birthday last year, I went on a manhunt- flower-hunt rather, trying to get her a hydrangea plant. I’m not quite sure if that plant is still with us, probably not. Plants die relatively fast in my household. Anyways, whoever is reading this, tell me what your favorite flower is, I’m curious…I’ve ran out of things to say about flowers.

Next topic! Cups, mugs to be specific. I love mugs, I should really start collecting those, but the problem with me collecting mugs is I’d have no place to put them. I also don’t really use mugs; I don’t drink coffee or anything someone would put in a mug that often. I prefer energy drinks. Okay new-new topic, Energy drinks! My favorite thing on the planet, not really, but one of the top five if I do say so myself… and I do. I mainly drink from three brands, but sometimes I’ll branch out and try something new. My top brand is Red Bull. Always and forever. Their sugar free drinks are the best. I had one this morning, I’ll have one tomorrow morning too. At number two, a very close number two, is Monster. I love a good sugar free monster. They are so delicious and amazing, I love them. Number three, Alani Nu. I used to drink one every single morning, and I do mean every single morning, but as I branched out and tried new things, Alani’s have moved down my favorite’s list. They’re good, just waiting for them to be great. Did you catch the reference? I bet you did.

This brings me to my final topic, Dance Moms! Dance Moms was such a good show, until the Zieglers left. That’s just my opinion! I love all the other girls (sort of…I’m looking at you Kendall, Kalani, mhm…) Early seasons of the show were the best seasons, and the new reboot…it’s not doing it for me. I didn’t even bother watching it, but I’ve seen clips, and from those clips everything looks very staged and just a big no. My favorites on the show are kind of all over the place. I will need a whole post dedicated to Dance Moms to get across my feelings. My feelings on Dance Moms are pretty impassioned.

Anyways, thank you for reading this week’s blog post. As always I hope you enjoyed reading me yap.