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I call this piece, Vampiro.

I made this a few years ago in my senior year of high school. He was part of a project where I had to draw a mask inspired by AJ Fosik. While I did incorporate elements of his work, I also incorporated elements of Italian Masquerade masks. The reason he's named Vampiro is because I had also watched Twilight for the first time and I modeled the creepy smile and eyes after Aro from the Volturi in the second movie (I'm totally a Volturi simp and I will stand by them to the end). That's also why I wanted to include something Italian in it.

I remember having a lot of fun making Vampiro because usually I'm not too creative unless it's for an assignment. For a while my mentality was, "If it's not for a grade then why do it?" Which is terrible now that I think back on it, but I've been able to sort of move past that. I mean, I still have trouble picking up the hobbies that I like daydreaming about, but I'm hoping that this summer can repair some of that.

So yeah, this is Vampiro. Feel free to say hi to him. Isn't he beautiful?

(By beautiful, I mean totally creepy).

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"Peter shrugged. "We were just talking about what it would feel like if we became actors."" ... "But Ms. Lucy was now moving her gaze of the lot of us... "The problem, as I see it, is that you've been told and not told... None of you will go to America, none of you will be film stars... Your lives are set out for you. You'll become adults, then before you're old, before you're even middle-aged, you'll start to donate your vital organs. That's what each of you was created to do... You were brought into this world for a purpose, and your futures, all of them, have been decided."

⏤ Never Let me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (Chapter 7, p. 33)

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The Project Playlist

I made this playlist with the intention that it start off sort of aggressive and loud. As you listen, the music gets less intense in nature. I see it as progressively calming myself down and focusing my mind on other things whenever I'm stressed out.

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I made this wallpaper for my laptop a few months ago. I call this piece "Liddycore."

This is just an amalgamation of the things that I love. So stuff like coffee, books, baking, the moon, and Komorebi. For the coffee picture, I could have chosen just any other picture, but I liked the fancy looking brewer being used here. It's somewhat similar to the brewing process I use when I make my coffee.

If you haven't listened to the song Maula Mere Maula, are you even living? It's a beautiful song by Roopkumar Rathod. The lyrics seem pretty simple in English, but it's all about the vibes with this one.

The "Ladies who inspire me everyday to be a better Liddy" is one that makes me laugh sometimes when I look at it. On the left, we have Dorothy Zbornak from Golden Girls. In the middle, we have Brianna Hanson from Grace and Frankie. To the right, we have Regina Mills A.K.A. The Evil Queen from Once Upon A Time.

So, the story behind that part is 1) Brianna says something similar to her mother when she's mad at. She says, "Hi, Mommy, who inspires me everyday to be a better Brianna." Which is funny because she's kind of self-centered and very blunt in the show. The other reason is that all these ladies have qualities I would like to embody- not the bad ones, though. They tend to be quick-witted, sarcastic, and intelligent. They have an air of sophistication and confidence in almost anything they do. That's why they inspire me everyday to be a better Liddy lol.

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Another playlist...

I made an extra playlist because I've been listening to these songs a lot lately and felt I should add them here too.

The lead singer, Talya G.A. Solan, has such a beautiful voice. When I first discovered this group a few years ago, I wasn't so sure about her voice, but in my old age I've come to appreciate it. In general, I just really enjoy the instrumentals of the music. This group specializes in Hebrew and Jewish music, even Ladino songs which are a mix of Hebrew and Spanish. Whenever I listen to their music, I always feel... mystical, I guess.

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"Why did we take your artwork? Why did we do that?... You said it was because you art would reveal what you were like. What you were like inside... Well you weren't far wrong about that. We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all."

⏤ Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (Chapter 22, p. 93)

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GREEK GREEK GREEK!!!

νύμφαι τ’ ἠΐθεοί τε πολύτλητοί τε γέροντες παρθενικαί τ’ ἀταλαὶ νεοπενθέα θυμὸν ἔχουσαι, πολλοὶ δ’ οὐτάμενοι χαλκήρεσιν ἐγχείῃσιν, ἄνδρες ἀρηΐφατοι, βεβροτωμένα τεύχε’ ἔχοντες· οἳ πολλοὶ περὶ βόθρον ἐφοίτων ἄλλοθεν ἄλλος θεσπεσίῃ ἰαχῇ· ἐμὲ δὲ χλωρὸν δέος ᾕρει. δὴ τότ’ ἔπειθ’ ἑτάροισιν ἐποτρύνας ἐκέλευσα μῆλα, τὰ δὴ κατέκειτ’ ἐσφαγμένα νηλέϊ χαλκῷ, δείραντας κατακῆαι, ἐπεύξασθαι δὲ θεοῖσιν, ἰφθίμῳ τ’ Ἀΐδῃ καὶ ἐπαινῇ Περσεφονείῃ·

-◦-Translation-◦-

Young brides and unmarried youths and old men, delicate maidens having sorrows still fresh in the soul, many struck with spears tipped with bronze, men slain in war, holding armor stained with gore. Many come and go from one place to another around the trench with a deafening cry. Pallid fear seized me. Then indeed, I commanded my companions, having urged the sheep, the sheep which were laid down to be slaughtered with a ruthless sword to burn (for a sacrifice). Once they flayed the sheep, (I commanded them) to pray to the gods: to Noble Hades and Dread Persephone.

⏤ So these are the lines that I was working on for half the quarter for my Greek class. I had to recite them from memory in Dactylic Hexameter in week 9, which was pretty fun. I've taken Latin and Greek and Greek is by far my favorite. It's very... fickle, especially compared to Latin, but it feels much more rewarding once you figure out what the Greek is trying to say. You don't know how many times I've yelled at my Greek homework like, "What is going on?!" Fun times.

⏤ Anyway, these lines are from book 11 lines 37-48 of Homer's Odyssey. This happens when Odysseus has gotten to the underworld and is urging his companions to prepare the sheep for sacrifice so that he can get help from the long dead prophet, Tiresias, so that he can finally go home. (My biggest reason in picking these lines was because I got to say Hades and Persephone in Greek).

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(Left image: cover for the binder I'm using. Middle image: my entries so far. Right image: back of the binder.)

Astronomy is one of those hobbies I've always wanted to pursue, but never had the time to (mostly because of school). Lately I've been taking walks at night (I take a taser so I'm not completely unsafe) and I like to look up and look at the constellations. It's only recently that I've started to document what I've seen. I'm going to be pursuing this in the summer and my friend is going to let me borrow her telescope over the break which I'm very excited for. As soon as I get the telescope I could probably make my entries much more detailed. I'm currently using a stargazing app which allows me to see the constellations in the sky. I just use it to help me make them out and I get pretty excited when I can actually see a constellation in the sky.

The reason I like Astronomy, or star-gazing to be exact, is because I've always had a fascination for the twinkling lights in the sky. Anytime I look up at the sky, I always think of all those before me who saw the same stars. In the fall, I took CLA 50: Ancient Science, and one of the first things my professor lectured on was Babylonian Astronomy. For me, it really put into perspective how old this tradition of observing the night sky was. It just made me more eager to participate in it as well.

⏤ For that second entry: Brandon is actually my friend, Brendan (I misspell his name on purpose). We were competing in our Greek class on the weekly vocab quizzes (I won) and most of the Classics department knew about it. I found out that I beat him in the overall course by 0.09% which is why I just had to include it there.

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◦-Operation I'm a Human-◦

This blog serves as my own personal Gallery, sort of like the one found in the book, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I remembered a bit of one of our class discussions where someone casually mentioned how we're being overworked by the university, which I agreed with. I mean, we're not robots. We're humans with souls. We have interests outside of our academics. That's why I wanted to make this Gallery. In the time I've been here, I feel like I've forgotten what I like to do outside of classwork. And sometimes I feel that school/academics is all I was made for, sort of like how the Hailsham students don't tend to entertain careers (or are not allowed to entertain them) because it's just not in the cards for them. But I'm proving that wrong. So feast your eyes on my magnificent Gallery!

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Perfumes- Yamma Ensemble

אָבִיא לְךָ בְּשָׂמִים, יֵינוֹת כְּרָמִים, בְּיוֹם חַגִּי אָבִיא לְךָ חֶשְׁקִי, אֶת דָּם לִבִּי, חַיַּי, מוֹתִי אָשִׁיר לְךָ עַל טַל, יוֹרֵד מִמְרוֹם, בְּשַׁחַר יוֹם וּבְחֶדְוַת יָמַי, בֵּין עָנָנַי, יָצִיץ חֲלוֹם

avi lecha bsamim yenot kramim beyom chagi avi lecha cheshki et dam libi chayay moti ashir lecha al tal yored mimrom besachar yom u'vchedvat yamay bein ananay yatzitz chalom I will bring you perfumes, and vineyard wines on my most happy day. I will give you my desires, my heart's blood, my life until it slips away. I will sing to you a song of dew, coming from high above at dawn, and as I rejoice.

אֶשְׁמֹר לְךָ עָמֹוק, נִגּוּן מָתוֹק, וּנְדָרִים אֶשַּׁק לְדִמְעָתְךְ, לְשִׂמְחָתְךָ, אֶכְתוֹר זֵרִים וְאֵיךְ אֶהְיֶה שְׁלֵמָה, עַל אֲדָמָה, עַד שֶׁתָּשׁוּב חוֹפִים שֶׁל אַהֲבָה, תָּמִיד סוֹפְגִים בִּי, גַּל עָצוּב eshmor lecah amok nigun matok u'nedarim eshak le'dimatcha le'simchatcah echtor zerim ve'eich ehye shlema al adama ad shetashuv chofim al ahava tamid sofgim be gal atzvuv Deep within I shall save for you a sweet melody the promises I say. Your tears I will kiss and upon your joy a crown of flowers I shall lay. For how can I remain whole upon this earth until you are near again? Shores of love absorb me always as waves of melancholy appear.

אִם בָּא הַסַּעַר, נַחְמֹּק מִפָּנָיו שָׁמַעְתִּי לַיְלָה מַדְלִיק כּוֹכָבָיו פְּזוּרִים עַל מְרוֹמָיו im ba'hasaar, nachmok mipanav shamati layla madlik kochavav pzurim al meromav If the storm should come, we will run far. I have heard the night alight each star, scattered upon high where they are.

אָשִׁיר לְךָ עַל טַל, יוֹרֵד מִמְרוֹם, בְּשַׁחַר יוֹם וּבְחֶדְוַת יָמַי, בֵּין עָנָנַי, יָצִיץ חֲלוֹם ashir lecha al tal yored mimrom besachar yom u'vchedvat yamay bein ananay yatzitz chalom I will sing to you a song of dew, coming from high above at dawn, and as I rejoice.

I found this song around midnight when I was scrolling through some Hebrew music because it makes me feel at peace. I've liked this group for a few years now and when I found this song, I knew I had to share it here. Here I've put the Hebrew, the transliteration, and the english translation for maximum enjoyment.