Looking back on just a few hours ago, I’m completely sick with my decision to work on LSU weekend. I mean, I’ve been at school all week; God knows I’ll be tired by Friday and am not going to want to do anything until we come back to campus Sunday. Not to mention, I’m going to be on the square in Oxford, working at a place that has a bar for people to watch the game. Anytime over the summer any of my coworkers brought up football season, you could see them all physically shudder. On a normal day at work, the restaurant would have four servers, a bartender, a busser, and a food runner. On football weekends? Two bartenders, five servers, two bussers, and two food runners. Complete hell.
Sure, the money’s good and all, but my feet are screaming at me an hour in. Now, personally, I’ve never worked for a football weekend—I only started working at the diner over the summer for some extra money. But on days when I couldn’t even wipe a table down before another was sitting? Oh, I hated it. The good news was that we only had about two days like that during the summer since all the college students were gone. Now everyone is back, and I heard that there have never been more people at and watching Ole Miss since it opened. I’m scared.
Literally, someone pray for me. I know there’s going to be a line out the door all day, and a line halfway around the square before we even open. I feel like that one TikTok meme of the girl crashing out in her car and crying. If I make around two hundred bucks that’d be great, but will it be worth it? Maybe, maybe not. At least I know better than to even think I’ll get anything close to a break Saturday. And after work? I’m crying in the car and sleeping in my bed until it’s time to come back to MSA.
In my bio, I clearly said I’d be ranting on here, and that’s exactly what I’m doing. Ranting about a weekend that will indeed not go down in the history books. There’s only like two upsides to this entire situation: I get to see my coworkers again after so long, and I get money. I miss my coworkers so much, but that’s a rant for another day. I’m just happy my mom will be there with me. Did I forget to mention we work together? Oh well. It’s not like we’ll have any time to see each other unless we’re shouting, “Behind you,” every five seconds in that cramped diner on our way to juggle five more tasks.
Hey guys! Today we are going to continue last week’s blog about the French revolution.
The Third Estate delegates went to their usual meeting hall just to find it was closed so they gathered in the indoor tennis court. In the tennis court the delegates pledged to remain together until they established a constitution for France. Around this time the political authority was shifting from the king and the estates towards a representative body (The National Assembly) that claimed to speak for the nation. The National Assembly’s actions adopted the idea that the citizens of the nation could be the source of political authority.
King Louis XVI got word of this and was shaking in his boots. He surrounded Paris with troops and many of the delegates thought he wanted to undo the progress that had been made. On July 14,1789, a crowd attacked the Bastille (a fortress-prison that symbolized royal authority). The attackers were also looking for weapons and gunpowder as violence increased. The Bastille held few prisoners, but its capture still had a symbolic importance. This event showed that ordinary people could directly influence the course of the Revolution. This later became France’s National Day.
In 1789, The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen were adopted. This became one of the Revolution’s most important statements of political ideals. The document attacked the divine rights of kings and recognized the rights of ordinary citizens to rule themselves. Rights such as natural rights, equality before law, popular sovereignty, and liberty.
The revolution became more radical when a war broke out between France and other European monarchies that feared revolutionary ideas and French expansion. When this war broke out the king attempted to flee France which damaged confidence in the monarchy and encouraged accusations of treason.
Food shortages and inflation continued to affect ordinary people, increasing pressure for stronger action.
During the height of the Revolution, the revolutionary leaders started to turn on one another. This caused a radical political party by the name of the Jacobins to seize power. The Jacobins feared that the revolution was about to fail so they proclaimed that democracy must be put on hold until the security of France was certain.
They created a twelve-man dictatorship called the Committee of Public Safety, which was led by a man named Maximilien Robespierre. The Committee of Public Safety called for a Reign of Terror in which they used extreme violence to solve the Republic’s crisis.
The national convention found King Louis XVI guilty of treason and voted for his immediate execution. Louis and his wife Marie Antoinette (Mrs. “Let them eat cake” herself) were killed by the guillotine and their children were imprisoned. Seventeen-thousand people were executed by guillotine during the Reign of Terror.
This week I’d like to talk about one of my all time favorite bands, Rain On Fridays. I actually only recently got into them (similar to The Backseat Lovers.)
My absolute favorite song by them is split between “Superglue Your Shoes” and “Baby’s Guitar” which are from the same album, “Mono Monday.”
Speaking of “Mono Monday,” I’ve been OBSESSED with this album ever since I got into their music. My absolute favorite thing about the album is that all the little doodles on the cover correspond to a song on the album. ALSO, the song “Slumber Party” repeatedly references friendship necklaces that are two halves of the heart, and the creators can be seen wearing these necklaces on the cover.
“Superglue Your Shoes” is the first song on the album “Mono Monday,” and is most likely my favorite song overall. I absolutely adore the guitar in the beginning and the sound of the drum sticks hitting the rim of the drums. It scratches such a nice itch in my brain. THE DRUMS DUDE. Oh my Lord the drums are so gorgeous and beautiful and every synonym under the sun. Not to mention the vocals from the lead singer. They’re just SO GOOD, dude. The whole song is just such an earworm. I’ll get it stuck in my head for days on end.
My favorite part of any song by them has got to be the chorus of “Baby’s Guitar,” the last song on “Mono Monday.” The repeated phrase “I thought you died in the backyard last night” accompanied but some of the most powerful drums I’ve heard in indie music gives me physical chills. I’m sure you all can tell that I’m a sucker for raspy vocals if you read my last blog and listened to my list, so it’s no surprise that this song is chock full of slight rasp. AND THEN THE OVERLAPPING VOCALS IN THE FINAL PART OF THE SONG PAIRED WITH THE SOFT GUITAR OMG IT’S JUST SO GOOD. This is genuinely one of my favorite songs to blast in class while writing (if you couldn’t tell.)
I was first introduced to them through their most recent album “Death To Affection” when my boyfriend showed me his favorite song on the album, “Something Strange.” I like that song, but it definitely isn’t my favorite.
I actually listen to all of their songs since they don’t have much, and I highly encourage you all to listen to all of their music since it isn’t a whole lot. Obviously, I get why you wouldn’t want to do that, so here’s a list of all my absolute favorites.
Superglue Your Shoes- Mono Monday (obviously)
Cola- Mono Monday
Slumber Party- Mono Monday
Baby’s Guitar- Mono Monday (duh)
Get Out (Interlude)- Death To Affection (goes better if you listen to Tough Luck, then this, but I’m not the biggest fan of Tough Luck)
Cry It Out- Death To Affection
We Are So Alike- Death To Affection
Hey Man- Hey Man (it’s a single)
Lincoln’s Licorice- Lincoln’s Licorice (also a single, as well as their most popular song)
Like I said before, I highly encourage listening to all of their songs since they only have two full albums and about 12 singles (and like 4 of those singles can be found on their albums as well.) However, I do fully understand not wanting to sit down and binge all of their music (even though that’s like my favorite thing in the world.)
I hope you all listen to my list and enjoy. Love you all <3 BYE–
Hello guys…. Honestly this blog is just gonna be how I’ve felt since moving to this school. Also, I wanna preface all of this with I LOVE my life and I love this school and all the opportunities I have but like also its kinda expected for me to be stressed out!!! And I want to vent some of that out!!!! And I’m sure at least some of you can relate to it
There is literally ALWAYS something to do. Everywhere. Theres always an assignment I could (should) be writing and if I’ve already written it I could be improving or revising before I submit it. Theres like 3 things to turn in while I’m writing this!!! Did I make my first blog about procrastination… maybe. Have I also not started my homework due by the end of the day…. also maybe. (editing rn I did finish that homework like an hour after writing this).
Even when I think I’ve finished my school work there’s something else to do. Miraculously my rooms always a mess and I NEVER have time to clean it other than cleaning night (yes I do I’m just lazy). Theres somehow always laundry to do no matter how recently I thought I did it, and I just love doing it so much I love it. Can you hear the sarcasm in my voice.
Yes I am being a little dramatic but I’m STRESSED, but in all honesty it isn’t as bad as I make it out to be. I enjoy the routine being here’s given me even if I do get a little burnt out by it. I know it isn’t the same as an actual college students life, but I think I am being prepared for it (I hope at least if its even worse I might not survive omgs.). I LOVE being kept busy, distraction helps SO much with being anxious or any other mental issues, so that’s helped me overall.
Having a somewhat flexible schedule is REALLY nice for me because I am so insanely unproductive without a schedule like its not even funny,, but also really strict schedules completely burn me out. Ik I’m just expanding on what I said about routines but I LOVE routines. Systems and organization are big things I need in my life.
Anyway to focus less ono the actual aspects of living my life, I’ve also been so much more hopeful for my future here!!!! I have actual friends here and they actually LIKE me (I hope so at least), and we hang out and stuff and I actually TALK to them. I kinda sound like a loser here but you gotta understand I’ve never really been good at making friends guys so it’s a weird thing for me when they’re not terrible and evil.
Also I find I’ve been handling the work load better than I thought I would. Yes, it’s a lot, but I also though itd be so so much worse. And it finally clicked in my head that like.. this is a really good school!!! And colleges will recognize that!!! And I have a shot at a good college instead of having to settle for a community college!!! That’s something I’ve always been anxious about in my future so its nice that some of my worries are padded
That’s all for this week… I hope you can relate in SOME way and this isn’t just me yapping about myself for no reason, and I hope you have a good day!!!
As a child, I remember running around with other kids my age whom I barely knew when I lived in my old house. We rode on bikes, went to each other’s houses, and shared toys. My cousins and other family members came over frequently as well—almost every weekend. We’d have dinner, barbecue, or play games together. Being surrounded by loving people was the biggest highlight of my childhood.
But now that I’m freshly seventeen, I’ve been wondering why there’s been such a disconnect recently. Not just in my family, but in my friends’ and even strangers’ online. In my race, community has been a big part of our culture, yet it seems to be slowly dying.
For my blog, instead of becoming emotional and talking about how much I miss my childhood, I thought that I should highlight one of the biggest impacts in African American culture.
“The Ultimate Power of the People”
The Black Panther Party.
The Black Panther Party (BPP) was a militant organization founded in 1966 by two “radicals,” Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton. I’m sure you may not be familiar with those individuals or their group—but don’t worry, I’m here to enlighten you!! This is an incredibly difficult topic to cover. I’ll talk about the rise and fall of this organization as well as their achievements.
For context, the civil rights movement began in the 1940’s when laws were being passed to benefit people of color. Laws such as the Executive Order that desegregated defense jobs. Nobody really considered it a “movement” until Emmett Till’s murder in August of 1955. It sparked national outrage, and the country was divided for well over a decade. After that day, many historical accomplishments were made, and the Civil Rights Act was finally passed in 1964. Yet, things didn’t end there.
History may have advertised that the terrorist group, the Ku Klux Klan, may have died down after the Civil Rights Act was passed. I can assure you that is a lie. If anything, the white supremacists grew angrier and more violent. They bombed, lynched, and set fire to innocent African Americans, leaving them fearful for their lives during that period of what should’ve been celebration. None of them were really charged or punished for their actions because many of them controlled their communities, such as police officers and other individuals who were highly respected.
So how does this tie into my introduction?
Well, since many African Americans were displaced, other people decided to lend a helping hand. People like Newton and Seale. They founded their revolutionary group in 1966 to help those who suffered from discrimination and violence. The founding of the group lasted for decades, even all the way into the 21st century.
Malcolm X’s assassination was the catalyst for this group’s formation, as they realized they must take care of one another. Their original purpose was to protect black neighborhoods from police officers. Crazy right? The party opened up “survival programs” for healthcare, education, and food for the youth. In today’s world, many churches and after-school clubs continue to help out those in need as well as the youth by feeding and clothing them. The BPP’s efforts in their community of Oakland, California, made a positive impact.
Not only did they help their communities, but they also had an agenda to follow—“The “Ten-Point Program”— published on May 15, 1967. Their agenda can be simplified to wanting peace, freedom, justice, education, equal economic opportunities, good housing, and representation in law.
The end of the BPP was caused by their internal conflicts. The most notable was that the visions of Newton and Eldridge Cleaver didn’t align, which sparked animosity between them. The party became divided between community service and self-defense, or confrontation with the American government. Eventually, Newton expelled Cleaver—This was known as “the split”. Once gone, Cleaver made his own group called the Black Liberation Army (BLA). The split turned violent when members of the BPP and the BLA began murdering each other, a total of four deaths. This caused hundreds of members to resign from the BPP.
Speaking of violence, this led to the “Free Huey!” campaign. On October 28, 1967, a police officer named John Frey was shot to his death. One of the founders, Newton, was there when this murder occurred. He was known for being involved with violent crimes and was charged with first-degree murder and other felonious crimes for Frey’s murder. This sparked outrage in the leftist part of the United States. Eventually, he was released three years later.
The party formally ended in 1982 due to gender inequality and embezzlement of drugs. Their impacts—both negative and positive—still lasted for decades. Their boldness in exercising authority and kindness in taking care of the people in their race will be forever highlighted.
I’ve been getting back into old hobbies of mine that I’ve had since I was thirteen. I say this because I got back into playing Identity V (╥﹏╥) It feels that every year, around this time period, I get back to playing that stupid game. I mean it’s been helping me mentally I guess, but it just seems like I cannot escape this game no matter what I do. Though, I was able to meet someone within a few days of me getting back into IDV. Online friend, of course, and we just played ranked together with some other mutuals. Ranked is just as it sounds, a more competitive version of regular matches where the survivors can ban hunters (which causes the hunter player unable to play the banned characters) and vice versa. Though, the hunters are able to ban one more character compared to the survivors. Like the hunter bans three characters while the survivors can only ban two. Ranking with them has been alright. I’ve gotten on the top one-hundred leaderboard for my main (Cheerleader).
My cutie baby Lily, Cheerleader, that I so graciously main and play as too much.
I’ll can probs show some clips I have been able to get during my two weeks of staring up playing again.
I’ve also gotten back into drawing, as I’ve said before. It’s a slow process, but I’m getting there. I might try to do anatomy studies and others so I can draw whatever pieces I want besides the usual bust up or headshot I do. I need to study hands especially even though I hate the thought of it.
The big three chudlings were drawn by me (˃𐃷˂) first one is Akaza from Demon Slayer, second is my OC (Original Character), and last one is Joseph Desaulniers from Identity V. I like how Akaza and Joseph have the same expression; I only just realized that when I uploaded the images.
It’s nice to go back to activities I’ve once did. Now, they can serve as a little stopping point whenever work gets too stressful. Maybe I can try to do other hobbies I put away in the past. What do you think about it? Do you have any hobbies that you’ve dabbled into once again? I’d love to know ٩(ˊᗜˋ)و ♡
Hey peeps!!!! I know we didn’t post last week, but I’m back with part 4 (I think). I really hope you like this series. If you don’t please tell me in the comments. No hate – I understand.
A little recap !!Spoilers!!: Elijah and Uncle Riche are making up (sort of) and are heading to leave. Then we are brought over to another scene with new characters, the hind and some stranger watching cameras. The cameras show Elijah and Uncle Riche, and the man watching is like ‘bruh’ before signalling to a girl to bring him “the boy.” After that we are brought back to Elijah and his uncle and find out Autunm was one of the hinds. She is kinda manipulating Elijah then ‘for some reason’ she yells “now” while holding Elijah back, a gun sound rings out, and Elijah is hit with something. Yeah that I hope sums it up well.
Elijah glances backwards before a blinding pain plagues his chest and an overbearing BANG! clogs his ears. His attention is hooked to the blood that spills from the bullet hole in his uncle’s head. His knees turn limp as they try to collapse to his uncle’s side, but Autumn catches hold of him before the dirt can. She pulls a rag from her cloak and presses it hard on Elijah’s chest.
“Ah!” He spits, the pressure making him draw sharp breaths between the pain. A gash now lives upon Elijah’s pecs, painting his body with vibrant reds as blood trickles out. Tears start to build in his eyes, falling one by one. “Please– let me hold him.”
“No.” Autumn replies. She passes him the rag before tugging on his collar to lead him away, yet Elijah isn’t ready to leave. He plants his feet down hard, stretching his shirt free and running back to Uncle Riche’s side. Dropping the towel, he gently hugs the still warm body, cradling it while salty tears mix with the deep puddle of red.
“WHY?!” Elijah shouts mournfully with tears of anger and sorrow falling faster and faster until they turn into steady streams. “Why Did You Kill Him?! Why?!” He lowers his voice barely to soften the pain this chest releases with each breath. While still holding his uncle, he moves his right hand back to the pit of exposed flesh pressing for a sliver of relief. “You’re not my Autumn. What did you do to her? Answer Me! Why Is This Happen–”
Elijah’s voice falls silent as the hind that shot Uncle Riche appears behind him slamming his pistol against his skull.
“HEY! Was that really necessary?” Autumn asks, moving over to pry the now unconscious Elijah free.
“You were taking too long. Let’s go.” A deep harsh voice replies, his shoulder colliding with Autumn’s.
* * *
Minutes, hours, or maybe it’s a new day? Elijah doesn’t know, but once he wakes up the sting of white welcomes him back. Everything around him is padded white and the lights begin to gnaw on his eyes. Beep…Beep… Beep… screams inside his ears. Elijah looks down; he is sprawled upon a gurney, each limb restrained against the metal arms. Tubes flow from his veins, pumping him with clearish liquids. Elijah moves, straightening his body and making a hateful sensation flood his nerves. Gazing at the source he sees the gash that Uncle Riche gave him sewn together.
Beneath the beeping of his monitor, a soft creak sings into the room followed by an authoritative voice saying, “Ah, so you’re finally awake, Elijah.”
Games’ stories can also be very vague or not even clear until you finish the game. Hollow Knight is a perfect example of this as most of the actual lore is deep within confusing lore tablets and NPC dialogue. But at the start of the game you literally throw yourself off a cliff and the story begins. I had to look up a video to fully understand the lore and even the people who spend hours deciphering video game writings like its hieroglyphics don’t know fully. The worst part about trying to understand it is that there is so much game that you can get lost about which specific group or what people it’s addressed to.
In summary the story is basically this. One god gets screwed over by a new god. The new god makes a new and prosperous kingdom. The old god seeks revenge so starts a plague in dreams, and the new god finds ancient dark magic he probably shouldn’t be messing with, and tries to come up with a solution to the problem. He and his wife create hundreds of thousands of children in order to create a vessel to contain the plague. All the others fail until he creates the Hollow Knight, a being with “No mind to think. No will to break. No voice to cry suffering. Born of God and Void.” which in fact is not who you play as in the game. The player character is a vessel who had escaped the kingdom and is the true thing that the king wanted. Anyway, the king seals his son in a chamber and fills him with the plague, but not before having an emotional moment with the vessel, which ruins the whole point of the thing. Low and behold, the seal breaks and the kingdom falls into complete disarray. Then there’s you. The vessel or “Little Ghost” as your half sister calls you. Your mission is to take the place of the failing vessel and become the true hollow knight.
Now that was a lot, and that’s the summarized version. But sometimes games can have a very heavy story and it isn’t readily apparent. And when we are talking about games we have to focus on two very important aspects: everything before the player and everything during the player. Like movies, games will often reference things that happened that you, the player, weren’t present for. Hollow Knight and a game called Iron Lung are good examples of this as most of the story happened before you even turned on the game.
This leaves you to sift through old text and interpret what you think happened. Now, every game does have both of these time aspects; however, it depends on what the game makes more visible to the player that makes one more important than the other. Games like assassins creed have backstory and things that are prevalent throughout the games. However, the main story is following that character and his life, not figuring out how it all happened. Ok so now that im reading this, it’s hard to describe what I’m talking about. I just said all games have a past and present story but some games “dont”. It all basically comes down to the character. If you have a character who comes into a place after an event, like Hollow Knight or any Zelda game, then the main “story” is mostly in the past. If you have a character who comes in before or during an event, then the story is about that person’s life in the present and not whatever happened before it. Stuff that happened in the past might get references, but the main point is the present.
This is a lot and can be very confusing. As I’m writing this I’m asking myself if anything I’ve put on this paper sounds like I’m a sane person or not. But now that we’re done with story time we can now focus on one of my favorite aspects of any game. The music
The strangest thing about love is that almost everyone knows what it feels like, yet almost no one can explain what it is. Including me.
We use the word casually. We love our parents, our friends, our pets, our favorite books, even places we like to go. The same word carries all of these feelings, even though they are not identical. To love a person is different from loving a place, and loving a friend is different from loving someone romantically. Yet something connects them. Love seems to begin when something outside of ourselves becomes important enough to change us.
That may be exactly why love is so difficult to define. A definition gives something boundaries, while love seems to exist by crossing them. It makes another person’s happiness feel connected to our own. It makes their absence noticeable. It can even change the meaning of ordinary things simply because someone we love is attached to them.
Romantic love is perhaps the clearest example I can think of. A stranger can become part of the way someone imagines their future. Decisions that once belonged entirely to one person begin to include another. Where should I live? What should I sacrifice? What kind of life do I want? The questions remain personal, but the answers no longer belong entirely to you, because now you’re considering them aswell. This is why romantic love can seem irrational. It can make people hopeful without certainty and vulnerable without guarantees. We do not simply see the person we love. We begin to see the world with their existence included in it.
But romantic love is not the only kind capable of changing us. Friendship. It doesn’t always involve the same promises as romance, but it can still make another person’s happiness feel drastically important. Perhaps, then, romantic love is not necessarily deeper than friendship? They may simply be different ways of allowing another person to matter… Human beings like to categorize things because categories make uncertainty easier to handle. That’s a fact. We call one relationship friendship and another romance, as though feelings will always respect those boundaries. But they do not always. Friendship can become romance. Romance can become friendship. Some connections refuse either name. Maybe that is the uncomfortable truth about love: we want to understand it because understanding makes things feel more controllable But love is rarely controllable. To love is to admit that something has gained the power to hurt us by becoming important. Yet avoiding that vulnerability would also mean avoiding one of the things that makes relationships meaningful? So the question is not, “What kind of love is this?” Perhaps it is, “What has this love taught me to care about?” Love may be romantic, friendly, familial, or something that refuses a name. There may never be one definition capable of containing all of it. That is fitting, I think. Some things become less true when we reduce them to an explanation. Love may be one of them. We recognize it not because we can perfectly describe it, but because somehow, someway, another person, place, creature, or memory has ceased to be merely part of the world and has become part of our orbit.
