from Ernest Ortiz Writes Now

As writers, we collect, save, and apply information. So much so, we end up with physical and online clutter. Bookmarks are a great example.

If I go by Pareto principle (correct me if I’m wrong), about 20% of all the websites I save are the ones I go to all the time. And about 80% are those I’ve been there once and never come back. I’m a pack rat and deleting unused bookmarks can be painful.

I can’t believe how many bookmarks I’ve saved throughout the years. Many have broken links and there are websites I wonder why I saved them in the first place. I might as well take screenshots of the information on my phone and go back to them when I need them.

Anyway, I feel so much better deleting all the bookmarks I don’t need. One less thing to worry about (until I start collecting more).

#bookmark #cleaning

 
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from davepolaschek

Ingredients

  • 1 Box dairy-free yellow cake mix (Duncan Hines, for example) plus the ingredients it calls for.

Streusel Ingredients

  • ½ Cup cold vegan butter (I prefer coconut-oil based for desserts)
  • 1⅓ Cup general-purpose flour
  • ½ Cup white sugar

Rhubarb Ingredients

  • 2 Pounds (6 cups) chopped rhubarb (½ inch long pieces)
  • ⅓ Cup white sugar

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 350F.
  • Wash and chop rhubarb. Put in a large bowl and sprinkle with sugar. Let it sit while you prep everything else.
  • Mix cake batter according to instructions, but prepare a second pan. This will make two 8” square cakes very easily.
  • Mix streusel ingredients with a fork until crumbly.
  • Pour cake batter into pans.
  • Drain any liquid from the rhubarb (save it for something else!) and put rhubarb on top of batter.
  • Sprinkle streusel over the rhubarb.
  • Bake cakes for 3-5 minutes longer than the cake mix box calls for, until streusel is golden-brown and delicious.
  • Let cake cool.
  • Enjoy!

#recipe #dessert #rhubarb

 
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from davepolaschek

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds rhubarb (5-6C), chopped
  • 1 C sugar (or a little less)
  • 1 pint (500ml) heavy cream
  • 1 box yellow cake mix, made to directions

Directions

  • Make cake mix and put it in cake pan
  • Mix rhubarb and sugar well
  • Pour rhubarb mix over cake
  • Pour cream over top
  • Bake 45-60 minutes at 350F (longer if the rhubarb is frozen)

Notes

  • A 9x13 inch cake pan works. Smaller and you might have to make two cakes.
  • The time is highly variable. I had two different ovens, both with accurate thermostats, one of which finished this cake in 45 minutes very reliably, the other of which always took longer (55-60 minutes). No idea why.

#recipes #dessert #rhubarb

 
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from davepolaschek

This is one of my “pre-mise en place” recipes. Earlier in life, I didn't generally prep ingredients ahead of time, but rather prepped each as it was needed. This will work with some recipes (like this one), but in general, leads to chaos in the kitchen.

Ingredients

  • 1 Tbsp bacon grease
  • ½ sweet onion, diced
  • 1 large carrot, cut into coins (5-6mm, ¼ inch thick)
  • 2 medium yellow or red potatoes, cubed
  • 1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and cubed
  • 2 pork chops, 12-18mm, ½-¾ inch thick
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • ½ cup apple juice
  • 1 tsp Chinese five-spice
  • 1 tsp Wondra flour

Directions

  • Begin heating a cast-iron skillet to sauté temperature with bacon grease in it.
  • Dice the onion, and toss it in.
  • Slice the carrot into coins, toss them into the skillet and stir.
  • Cube a couple spuds. In they go. Stir.
  • Peel, core, and cube a large Granny Smith apple. Into the pan. Stir.
  • Unwrap and pat the pork-chops dry. Lightly season with salt and pepper.
  • Move vegetables to the edges of the pan, and put in the pork chops.
  • Put the veg on top of the chops.
  • Add apple juice.
  • Lid the skillet and lower the heat. Let simmer for 6 minutes.
  • Flip the pork-chops, add five-spice
  • Move veg back on top of chops, lid again. Simmer for 3-7 minutes, until meat is still just pink in the center.
  • Pull meat and veg from the pan, and make a pan-gravy with the juice using 1 tsp of Wondra flour.
  • Serve and enjoy!

Feeds: 2

Note that you can put the skillet on a grill if you want to cook this for tailgating. In that case, it's probably better to prep all the ingredients ahead of time.

#recipe #mains #pork

 
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from Olhar Convexo

# AVISO: USO DE IA NO TEXTO #

Imagine um país em que, para dirigir um carro, não fosse necessário fazer prova no DETRAN.

Bastaria se matricular em uma autoescola qualquer, assistir às aulas — boas ou péssimas — cumprir presença e, ao final, sair habilitado a dirigir um caminhão de 8 eixos em via pública.

Soa absurdo?

Pois é exatamente assim que funciona a formação médica no Brasil hoje.

Um diploma que não garante competência

No modelo atual, concluir o curso de Medicina é suficiente para exercer a profissão.

Não há, após a graduação, nenhum exame nacional obrigatório que comprove se aquele recém-formado domina o mínimo necessário para cuidar de vidas humanas.

O diploma virou, na prática, um atestado de frequência — não de competência.

E isso não seria tão grave se todas as faculdades formassem médicos bem preparados.

Mas esse definitivamente não é o caso.

A explosão de faculdades e o colapso da formação prática

Nos últimos anos, o Brasil assistiu à abertura desenfreada de cursos de Medicina.

Muitos deles surgem sem estrutura adequada, sem hospital próprio, sem campo de prática suficiente e, em alguns casos, sem nem fazer convênios sólidos para garantir treinamento clínico real.

As ações judiciais

Há situações em que decisões judiciais autorizam cursos mesmo quando os requisitos mínimos não estão plenamente atendidos. O resultado é previsível: alunos se formam sem ter atendido pacientes em volume e complexidade suficientes para desenvolver raciocínio clínico seguro

O sistema finge que ensinou.

O diploma finge que certificou.

E a população paga o preço.

ENAMED: uma boa ideia… com o objetivo errado

Diante desse cenário, o governo criou o ENAMED. À primeira vista, parece um avanço. Afinal, trata-se de uma prova nacional aplicada aos formandos em Medicina.

Mas o problema está no detalhe — e ele é enorme.

O ENAMED não é um exame de habilitação profissional.

Ele funciona apenas como um instrumento de ranqueamento.

Na prática:

• A nota serve para disputar vagas de residência médica;

• Quem vai mal não sofre nenhuma consequência profissional;

• Quem não faz a prova continua apto a trabalhar normalmente;

• O diploma, sozinho, continua autorizando o exercício da Medicina.

Ou seja: a prova existe, mas não protege o paciente.

O que a Medicina brasileira realmente precisa é de um Exame de Proficiência Médica  um filtro nacional, obrigatório, objetivo e inegociável.

Algo simples no conceito, mas poderoso no efeito:

Só pode exercer Medicina quem provar que sabe o mínimo necessário para fazê-lo com segurança.

Esse exame teria três funções centrais.

1. Proteger o paciente

Antes de qualquer debate corporativo, ideológico ou político, a prioridade deveria ser óbvia: evitar que pessoas despreparadas atendam a população.

2. Responsabilizar as faculdades

Se uma faculdade formar dezenas de alunos e nenhum passar no exame, a conclusão será inevitável: o curso é ruim. E curso ruim não deve continuar funcionando.

3. Parar de culpar apenas o aluno

O discurso atual é confortável para o Estado:

“Se o aluno não sabe, a culpa é dele.”

O próprio governo autoriza a abertura das faculdades.

Se existe um título profissional que permite atuar sobre a vida de terceiros, o Estado tem a obrigação de garantir que esse título signifique algo concreto.

Cada coisa no seu lugar

O problema central da Medicina no Brasil hoje é a confusão de funções.

Universidade serve para ensinar

Prova de Proficiência serve para autorizar o exercício profissional.

Residência médica serve para formar especialistas.

Hoje, o país mistura tudo:

• Usa uma prova como ranking,

• Trata especialização como filtro de qualidade,

• E deixa o exercício básico da profissão sem nenhum controle real.

O resultado é um sistema frouxo, incoerente e perigoso.

Medicina não é presença em sala de aula.

E muito menos um experimento social feito às custas da população mais vulnerável.

Se advogados precisam provar que sabem advogar antes de trabalhar, é indefensável que médicos não precisem provar que sabem cuidar de vidas.

Chegou a hora de parar de fingir que o problema não existe.

De parar de proteger instituições ruins.

E de exigir, com todas as letras:

Só deve atender a população quem provar, de forma objetiva, que sabe o mínimo necessário para ser médico.

Qualquer coisa diferente disso não é descuido: É irresponsabilidade institucional.

 
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from Shad0w's Echos

#blog

I have these fleeting thoughts constantly. How to say it. What to say. When to say. Should I put it on Reddit? Should I weave it into a story? Is it even worth telling anyone? So I figured I would just put here here on my page as a silent post for anyone curious to read.

Sometimes when I get heavy thoughts, I don’t think my life is worth anything. Before you go all in and think “oh someone needs to call someone” or “get therapy” then you truly don’t align with my wishes or mindset. You have things. You have a support system. You have community. You have something to integrate into.

My mental state socially is just totally wrecked. The unspoken cracks of post divorce male depression are probably widely documented but once you live it and experience it, it just hits hard. Daily, I deal with thoughts of what if or dreams of connections or just going into a world that is not cold or hostile or draining.

I live my life outside of my home in transactions. “Give money for xyz, pay for this, get this, work for someone” – I rarely see the world outside my home as something meaningful or even enriching. I see stress. I see a source of anxiety. I don’t see an happy ending.

In this void of negative thoughts, create. I world build. I go to totally different places in my mind when I write my stories. I try to escape without ending things.

Right now, my cat is looking out the window. A house cat. A silent cat. A strange cat. But she says the most profound things in her communication. She just wants me breathing. Pets, Cuddles, Playtime, food. – I am her world. I have other living creatures too. They depend on me as well. My mom is still alive. I have anchors to keep me here for now.

Outlive my mom, Outlive my pets, Then decide if I want to take a nap. I’m so tired.

If you read this, thanks for acknowledging I exist. I’ll be ok. No plans to nap right now.

 
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from The Poet Sky

Human I am hungry My food dish is not full Fill it so I may eat

Thank you, Human

Human I am thirsty My tiny fountain is not sufficient Turn on the big one so I may drink

Thank you, Human

Human You are dirty I do not care about your cleaning rituals Hold still so I may clean you

Thank you, Human

Human You are sad I will lay on you until you feel better Stay there so I may take care of you

Thank you, Human

A black and white cat nuzzling a white girl with glasses.

#Poetry #RileyPoem #Kindness

 
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from Semantic Distance

drafts 003 – january bullets

it's sometimes hard to collect all the thoughts i have and synthesize them in singular essay. as such, i started collected the random thoughts i have throughout the day. here's a couple from last month:

  • not to sound like every 25 year old ever but i’ve been thinking a lot about neuroplasticity a lot. it’s pretty rare that i lose my train of thought as i speak, as i’ve always tried my best to be exact with language even as a kid. it was to the point where i wouldn’t event start essays in my 8th grade languages arts class since i needed my introduction to be perfect. and ngl, this kinda followed me into adulthood as i get into writing consistently as a hobby, evidenced by my countless essays drafts i furiously wrote in a dream-like haze after reading for more than like ten minutes. i feel like there’s a metaphor there if you squint hard enough. i mostly find myself lacking the words in the middle of work meetings, looking to the side of the screen trying to connect the cerebral dots in my brain back again, making eye contact with megan on my katesye poster that is blue tacked above my desk.
  • my apartment is a two minute walk from a harris teeter (this is giving context i swear) and i wear the whole most horrific outfits of my life in there—like i know it dad would side eye me if i was stranger. it’s mostly bc that short of a walk doesn’t necessitate a full “outfit” to be worn. and by “outfit” i mean putting on jeans and a t-shirt i guess? it’s not like putting on those articles of clothing takes a ton of effort, but why do i need to try that hard before 9 AM. anyway, it makes me eternally grateful i don’t live by any of my coworkers. i would be absolutely stunned if i saw my manager saw me in the dairy aisle (she might be lactose intolerant idk her tea), staring directly at the banana socks i stole from my bf peeking through my all-black birkenstocks. that fr just sent a chill down my spine.
  • i’m being dead serious when i say this but why don’t more people use vsco?
  • ok this year i really need to learn spanish. not only because i have moots in south america (#iykyk), but because i simply can’t believe there are white people out there living in china speaking the language near perfectly with the people at food stands. like if they can do that, i should be able to order at a dominican restaurant without sounding like a toddler.
  • i’ve been obsessed with watching recaps of niche internet drama on youtube for the past couple of weeks now. the sheer volume of videos is so baffling to me as there’s countless beefs between creators i’ve never heard of that sometimes lasts months on end? like there’s feuds between those influencers you only see in those reels your gen x mom sends you. they’re truly living in a different reality and i applaud those youtubers for putting in the time to chronicle these events to me while i sit in my bed… sometimes high. why do i know what podcast ash trevino went on (sitting with her kids mind you) after she received allegations of not giving said kids a bed to sleep on? why do i also know that the host of that podcast recently released a course on “how to be an influencer” with an application that didn’t need any social media handles? let me stop.
  • i don’t know why i always scrape by surviving january. every year, without fail, i find myself counting down the days to february 1st. i think it started in high school when i was waiting on college app decisions for what felt like an eternity, desperately trying to be validated for the countless hours i spent studying for ap exams. it all felt like a blur. somehow simultaneously comforting yet foreboding? i just remember being really scared! it’s a new year of my life and it’s up to me to carve a path for myself. i don’t think i’ve ever shaken off that feeling and it’s kinda metastasizing in my psyche, praying to get found out.
  • trixie mattel is rupaul’s successor
  • i’ve been listening to my playlist from 2019 and i think south florida was patient 0 for that gen z aesthetic everyone posts on their pinterest boards. i get the association with la and emma chamberlain and that sort of side of the internet plastered with video thumbnails of rex orange county refracted by the discoloration of a jakarta filter—however comma—i think broward county is the real inspo. do you even know who traithalon is? right…
 
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from Faucet Repair

20 January 2026

Starlight Way (working title): I've wanted to make an all-white painting for a while and have failed at past attempts, but it seems I may have finally found a way into one. Which in my head felt something like approaching the painting as a white Conté crayon drawing on toned paper. The nucleus of the image is based off of a 9 meter sculpture of a scaled model Qatar Airways Boeing 777-9 aircraft around Heathrow Terminal 4 near Starlight Way. The painting doesn't reflect that specific location visually, so there's maybe an angle in tying it to it through the title, but that may change. Think it will actually, doesn't need that. Maybe just Plane is better...it is. Anyway, the important part is what the paint is doing. The explorations of space, value, line, and yes—plane—that emerged. I think I can trace those elements back to two works I looked at a lot this week:

Phoebe Helander, Wire Form III (Divided Space) (2026) David Ostrowski, F (Jung, Brutal, Gutaussehend) (2012)

Each of these paintings address space/the picture plane/gravity/color in interesting ways, and while it's unwise to reach for these effects intentionally, I do think what subconsciously drew me to portraying the sculpture was related to these concerns via its position as an object unmooring from the ground while remaining fixed to it. And I think what resulted sits at the center of an axis that acknowledges multiple potential trains of thought without committing fully to any of them—emerging from/being pulled back into a place of origin, crossing/being stuck at a horizon, taking off/crashing, dissecting space/being absorbed by space, and additive line/subtractive line.

 
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from Faucet Repair

18 January 2026

Walked along the perimeter of the Walthamstow Wetlands on a path lined by a high sloping grassy bank/berm. Its crest sat in my sight just at the height of some of the taller buildings across the reservoir in Tottenham. Lots of ducks waddling around at the crest, which made for a fun effect—like they were using the tops of the buildings as stepping stones for their webbed feet. They may have actually been geese or some sort of geese hybrids, necks were pretty long. Maybe Canada Geese. In any case, it was gray paved path, big soft wall of dull green/yellow, wet black feet on buildings, gray-brown feathers, and gray-blue sky. To mind: Frank Walter: Untitled (1988, a green/blue/white/beige landscape), Richard Diebenkorn: Bridge (1961), Alex Katz: Untitled (Dog On The Beach) (2002). Flat wall waves of color. Compressed, stacked, arranged, brought forward. As I was walking, one duck/goose followed me for a couple minutes. It would waddle ahead of my gait, swivel its head to stare at me as I passed, and then waddle further ahead of me again. Until it stopped to snack on some grass, at which point it was no longer interested in me.

 
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from David Seekar

What Is Norco Used For? Benefits, Limitations, and Safety Considerations

Norco is a prescription pain medication commonly used to manage moderate to moderately severe pain when non-opioid treatments are not sufficient. It combines two active ingredients—hydrocodone (an opioid pain reliever) and acetaminophen (a non-opioid analgesic)—to provide effective short-term pain control under medical supervision.

What Is Norco Used For?

Norco is typically prescribed for acute pain situations, and the Norco Pill is commonly used to manage post-surgical pain following dental, orthopedic, or minor surgical procedures, as well as injury-related pain such as fractures, sprains, or trauma. It is also effective for severe dental pain and short-term flare-ups of pain when other treatments are not sufficient. Doctors usually recommend when alternatives like NSAIDs (such as ibuprofen or naproxen) or acetaminophen alone do not provide adequate pain relief.

How Norco Works ?

Norco’s effectiveness comes from the dual action of its active ingredients, which work together to provide Norco for pain relief in moderate to moderately severe pain conditions. Hydrocodone acts on opioid receptors in the brain and spinal cord to reduce the perception of pain, while acetaminophen enhances overall pain relief and helps reduce fever by acting on pain pathways in the central nervous system. Together, these components make Norco for pain more effective than either ingredient alone, often allowing lower doses of the opioid while still achieving adequate pain control.

Benefits of Norco

When used appropriately and for a limited time, Norco offers several benefits:

Effective pain relief for moderate to severe pain

Faster comfort and improved function during recovery from surgery or injury

Combination therapy that may reduce the need for higher opioid doses

Short-term symptom control, helping patients rest and heal

For many patients, these benefits can significantly improve quality of life during acute recovery periods.

Limitations of Norco

Despite its benefits, Norco has important limitations:

Not intended for long-term or chronic pain management

Tolerance can develop, meaning higher doses may be needed over time for the same effect

Dependence risk increases with prolonged or improper use

Side effects may limit tolerability in some patients

Because of these factors, healthcare providers usually prescribe Norco for the shortest duration possible and reassess pain frequently.

Safety Considerations

Using Norco safely is critical due to its opioid content.

Common side effects may include:

Drowsiness or sedation

Nausea or vomiting

Constipation

Dizziness or lightheadedness

Serious risks include:

Respiratory depression, especially at higher doses or when combined with alcohol or other sedatives

Opioid misuse, dependence, or addiction

Liver damage from excessive acetaminophen intake

 
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Anonymous

What Is Norco Used For? Benefits, Limitations, and Safety Considerations

Norco is a prescription pain medication commonly used to manage moderate to moderately severe pain when non-opioid treatments are not sufficient. It combines two active ingredients—hydrocodone (an opioid pain reliever) and acetaminophen (a non-opioid analgesic)—to provide effective short-term pain control under medical supervision.

What Is Norco Used For?

Norco is typically prescribed for acute pain situations, and the Norco Pill is commonly used to manage post-surgical pain following dental, orthopedic, or minor surgical procedures, as well as injury-related pain such as fractures, sprains, or trauma. It is also effective for severe dental pain and short-term flare-ups of pain when other treatments are not sufficient. Doctors usually recommend when alternatives like NSAIDs (such as ibuprofen or naproxen) or acetaminophen alone do not provide adequate pain relief.

How Norco Works ?

Norco’s effectiveness comes from the dual action of its active ingredients, which work together to provide Norco for pain relief in moderate to moderately severe pain conditions. Hydrocodone acts on opioid receptors in the brain and spinal cord to reduce the perception of pain, while acetaminophen enhances overall pain relief and helps reduce fever by acting on pain pathways in the central nervous system. Together, these components make Norco for pain more effective than either ingredient alone, often allowing lower doses of the opioid while still achieving adequate pain control.

Benefits of Norco

When used appropriately and for a limited time, Norco offers several benefits:

Effective pain relief for moderate to severe pain

Faster comfort and improved function during recovery from surgery or injury

Combination therapy that may reduce the need for higher opioid doses

Short-term symptom control, helping patients rest and heal

For many patients, these benefits can significantly improve quality of life during acute recovery periods.

Limitations of Norco

Despite its benefits, Norco has important limitations:

Not intended for long-term or chronic pain management

Tolerance can develop, meaning higher doses may be needed over time for the same effect

Dependence risk increases with prolonged or improper use

Side effects may limit tolerability in some patients

Because of these factors, healthcare providers usually prescribe Norco for the shortest duration possible and reassess pain frequently.

Safety Considerations

Using Norco safely is critical due to its opioid content.

Common side effects may include:

Drowsiness or sedation

Nausea or vomiting

Constipation

Dizziness or lightheadedness

Serious risks include:

Respiratory depression, especially at higher doses or when combined with alcohol or other sedatives

Opioid misuse, dependence, or addiction

Liver damage from excessive acetaminophen intake

 
Read more...

from Chris is Trying

Steam tells me that I've played The Long Dark for over 1200 hours over the last several years. I've jumped in & out of other games but TLD has been a consistent mainstay. I can't get away from it.

It's a survival game set in the eternal winter of a post-apocalyptic Canadian island (named Great Bear Island) where you're the only survivor, battling against the elements and the wildlife for as long as possible. The world is too cold for you to just walk around forever; shelter and warmth are critical otherwise you'll die in hours.

You'll initially get by with lightweight clothing, racing between man-made shelters where you can eat packaged snacks and canned goods to avoid starvation, but eventually you'll need to embrace what's available from Mother Nature; spending more time hunting & gathering, and upgrading your clothing using natural hides from the animals you've killed along the way. In the Long Dark, the only goal is to survive as long as possible, and since permadeath is enabled, one major mistake might end your run forever.

500 days is often seen as the 'finale' of any Long Dark run; if you're able to survive that long then you can essentially survive forever, and it's an achievement that is taken fairly seriously in the TLD community. If you've done that, you've practically mastered the game.

The Long Dark 500 days - Camp Office, Mystery Lake

The difficulty level of your TLD run is the main way you can set the tone of how you play: changing it drastically changes the amount of hostile wildlife, the type of loot you can find and the harshness of the environmental conditions – which can either make your life in Great Bear frantic & uncertain or peaceful & straightforward. But regardless of play style, ticking off 500 days in any difficulty still shows a level of perseverance and determination.

There's no denying that the game mechanics can get repetitive after the first 100-200 days; there's only so much you can do in a cold, harsh, mostly-lifeless game world, so most experienced TLD players end up defining their own goals. Kill every single bear & moose spawn in the world. Fill up the jerry cans you find with oil generated from cooking the fish you've caught.

With no goal but to survive, you really do have to choose your own adventure. What's always grabbed me about TLD is the mindfulness of just living in the game world draws out in people. The 'cosy' atmosphere of setting up your base with chairs and rugs while a blizzard rages outside will work for some players, while others will crank up the custom difficulty settings to truly test their skill. You can get seriously attached to your run, especially if you have the intent of playing it without an end date in mind. This game often generates the most heartfelt writing I've seen about a computer game, simply paying homage to a game world that dominated their lives for several hundred hours or more through their personal memories (give this and this a read if you like).


Roleplaying and execution

As for me, I've enjoyed the quasi-cosplaying element of a lone survivor, journalling his thoughts using the in-game note function every few days when he has a chance to collect his thoughts. The solitude element of the Long Dark is hard to avoid; there is hardly any dialogue apart from the occasional complaint of being too cold/hungry/thirsty/tired (although if you want, the Wintermute story mode has plenty of characters to interact with) – and I've found that the journaling aspect is a reasonable way for a lonely survivor to avoid going completely insane.

I almost exclusively play on the Interloper difficulty, which was the hardest difficulty until mid-2024 when the brutal Misery mode was released. On Interloper, loot in general is hard to find, most high-end clothing and food items don't exist at all, and the overall temperature of the game world gets colder over time, affecting how far you can travel without freezing and requiring you to craft good clothing as a high priority.

The Long Dark 500 days - Blackrock Prison, Blackrock

Nobody would be advised to play on Interloper when starting to play The Long Dark, of course. The world of Great Bear Island is formidable at first, and the variety of regions with their unique challenges mean that if you're unprepared in the slightest your run is over. At the very least, you need to learn the region maps to a general extent if you're going to attempt the harder difficulty levels – at the very least knowing where the main shelters are (and the best paths between them), knowing where to find forges & workbenches, and where certain types of wildlife can be found.

I also enjoy 'loper because of the urgency to execute on a regular basis, otherwise your game run is over. Interloper forces you into forward planning; you need to kill that deer otherwise there's no decent food source in easy access. You need to gather more wood otherwise this fire will die out and you'll freeze too much and then you'll die before getting to the next cave. You need to carefully avoid this bear seeing you, because your arrows are all broken and if it mauls you, you're done for. And so on and so forth.

So yes, the game is completely out to get you (that's the point) but if you put some preparation into what you're doing, you'll stand a good chance. You'll learn what kind of contingency plans work for you, such as carrying a few pieces of coal so you can always warm up with a fire in the toughest conditions, or always having an emergency stim (or two) to get out of a tough situation with timberwolves or a rampaging moose. It's all manageable, at the cost of your precious inventory space.


My 500 day run – the first days

Every TLD run is a hugely personal journey, and many players love sharing key moments & experiences of their survival (or lack of). I've relied on my in-game journaling, and some select screenshots to recall my time during my current run and selected some of my favourite moments of the run.

On Interloper, you get a random spawn – and only in the more challenging regions. However, I was lucky enough to spawn in Ash Canyon, the mountainous region in the north-east of Great Bear:

Needless to say, I was pretty lucky. Matches and a hammer on day 1 is a great start, and heading towards the backpack in the gold mine on day 2 (+5kg of permanent inventory space) was even better. When the cougar was introduced, in Ash Canyon it was placed outside the natural exit of the gold mine meaning that you couldn't easily grab the backpack and exit Ash Canyon efficiently unless you were prepared to kill a cougar, so grabbing it before it spawned on day 10 was a real blessing.

My path out of Ash Canyon was clear & known to me – zip down through Timberwolf Mountain then loot the plane crash, which has a good chance of clothing items lying around.

After this point, the run followed a fairly standard trajectory familiar to all experienced Long Dark players – get all of the various items to make a bow & some arrows, so you can defend yourself from predators and start killing big game for long-term food survival. To do that, you need a hammer to forge arrowheads, you need to cure some birch & maple saplings for the bow & arrow shafts (which can only be cut by using a hacksaw, or by forging a hatchet) and curing some guts from small game that will act as the bow's string.

As you go, you need to start curing hides so that you can craft better clothing to stay warm and better protected (remember, the game world is getting colder as you go), while at the same time you're running all over Great Bear looting all of the major spots and staying out of trouble.

It's at this point that you're incentivised to be as efficient as possible – how many places can you trek to and loot in a day, while also being in a good position to move on to the next region? It feels like you're constantly solving a 'Seven Bridges of Konigsburg' problem, so that you aren't wasting time, retracing your steps unnecessarily, and digging into the reserve food that you're carrying around.

The 7 bridges of Konigsburg, Prussia

You can easily spend 50-60 days traversing the entire game world, visiting all of the major regions. I ended up travelling through the more central regions of Mystery Lake and Pleasant Valley several times, and planned on 'loops' that visited a few regions, bringing back high-value loot to my home base in the Camp Office in Mystery Lake. The loops included:

  • Leaving via the Ravine and going to Coastal Highway & Desolation Point – always a favourite part of GBI given the high amount of loot and the beachcombing loot you find along the way
  • Heading through Forlorn Muskeg and on to Broken Railroad – not a high priority but the Muskeg includes a forge which you need to visit early on
  • Mountain Town & Hushed River Valley – plenty of houses to loot in the former, and guaranteed high value loot in the latter
  • Ash Canyon & Timberwolf Mountain – great for getting the technical backpack and also checking out the Summit, respectively

I left Bleak Inlet and Blackrock for later – you don't want to be fending off timberwolves without a bow & plenty of arrows.

Infact, it took me until day 81 to make my way into the fabled Bleak Inlet workshop, where I was able to use the milling machine and repair my tools:


Round 2, i.e. building up the bases

So what do you do once you've visited all of the regions, you've crafted some pretty good clothing and you're feeling pretty confident in moving around the world?

Well, you visit all those places again.

Instead of the Contiki-like whirlwind tour from the first 60-80 days, it was time to properly build up some bases with food, water and cured stuffs. It's a proper focus on hunting big game, while at the same time looting the out-of-the-way areas. If you're feeling particularly relaxed, you can use some of that charcoal and map out parts of the region you're spending time in.

All of those little trips become mini-holidays in a way – you work on the achievement of building up your stockpiles, spend 10 to 15 days hunting whatever comes around, and all the while the world of Great Bear puts a smile on your face in the oddest moments.

The bear on the tree

Day 100 was spent in the Deer Clearing area of Timberwolf Mountain:

The Long Dark 500 days - day 100 - bear 1

The Long Dark 500 days - day 100 - bear 2

Fun note: that fire underneath the bear kept me perfectly warm while I was on the tree branch harvesting it up!

The first cougar kill

I mixed up the base stockpiling with other mini-goals along the way, such as hunting a cougar for the first time, selecting the Wood Lot in Mystery Lake on day 149 as my first hunting ground:

The beachcombing boat

And I remember the confusion on my face when doing some casual beachcombing along the Crumbling Highway, and seeing an actual boat washed up on shore. And it was lootable!

The Long Dark 500 days - Crumbling Highway coastline, shipwrecked boat 1

The Long Dark 500 days - Crumbling Highway coastline, shipwrecked boat 2


A lot of people say that The Long Dark is all about the early game – the panicked rushing around of finding the best loot as fast as possible, making snap decisions of which part of the world to visit based on your capabilities, and balancing the risk-reward of battling the weather, your health, and the mere potential of finding the next critical item to help you on your journey.

But the unique memories from Great Bear Island tend to come from later on – when your adventures become more of a meander, and the story unfolds in front of you when you least expect it. You also feel a lot more attuned to the wider world as hunting becomes your primary food source.

I'll share some other logs & screenshots of the rest of my 500 days journey in another post. For now, I hope you enjoy your own Long Dark run, and if you haven't gotten into it, maybe give the game a go yourself!

 
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from 下川友

昨日の自分は、体が割れそうだった。 ひび割れた自分の体から、過去の断片的な記憶が漂い始める。

机の上のものがどれも動かせなくなる時、それは新しいことを始めようとしていて、最初から手法を間違えていたのだ、と気づく瞬間がある。 このような時、そのような光景だけが、頭の中にぼんやりあり、実際にそこに置いてあった物体は白く塗り潰されていてよく思い出せない。 どのネジだったのかも分からない細かいパーツは、すべてポリ袋にまとめられ、自分が捨てたのではなく、勝手に処理されたものとして脳が判断する。

缶でも箱でも、そこにあればとりあえずそれを振ってみる、という自分は、もうとっくにいないのかもしれないと思った。 そもそも、振るべき缶や箱が目の前にない。 家にある箱はすべて、自分で買ってきて、自分で何かを入れたものばかりだ。 子どもの頃に目の前にあった箱は、文脈の分からない容器だったばっかりに、大きく振る事で、その存在を自分に近づけさせていた。

そうして、缶を振っていると、友人が少し遠くに見えてくる。 缶を振っていて、自分が学校へ向かっていることには気づいていなかった。 少し走れば追いつけるし、話したいこともきっとあったはずなのに、理由を並べても、俺は走らない。 歩く速度を変えないまま会えず、それでも話しかけるときの第一声だけは無意識に考えていて、結局その言葉は使われないまま、その文章はただ消失した。

そんな事を繰り返しただけ、ただ体だけが大人になっていく。 大学生になった自分は、英語に興味はないかと言ってきた大人に誘われて、特徴が全くない灰色のビルに入った。 何もテナントのない階で、シャツのおじさんが降りていったことだけは覚えている。 磁場が下から上へと体を走り抜けたとき、さっきの降りた階で、おじさんが自分のためだけになる何かをしたのだと思った。

目的もないまま家に帰った記憶もなく、次の場面では自分はパソコンを触っている。 目が乾くというのは、劇的な出来事からはほど遠いサインのひとつで、本当に一日中パソコンを眺めていただけだったのだと脳が決定づけた。

ポップな色合いの民族ラグの上にガラクタを置いておくと、元々持っていないはずなのに、高級な電子音楽機器を盗まれたような感覚がして、どこか寂しかった。 代わりにおもちゃのお金でも置かれていれば、それは目で楽しむエレクトロニカとして処理されて、星と星とが衝突したかと思えば、クレヨンで描かれた火花が体裁を保っていただろう。

料理実習で、授業の終わりに、人がある程度いるにも関わらず、部屋の6割ほどが大きな空洞を占めていた。 大きく空いたスペースは、これまでの人の会話をすべて吸収するような形で、お別れを静かに開催していた。 誰かが何かをしている、音が反響する関係で、そんな事しか分からなかった。

鳥を飼っていれば、飼い始めた当初のことは多分思い出せない。 自分とは別の、ただ色違いの自分みたいなやつが飼っている鳥なのだと、どこかで無意識に考えている。 お金に反射した光が当たれば、色違いの自分は消える、そんな感覚であり、隣町を見れば、いつも厚い層の雨雲でいっぱいだった。

ご飯が炊ける音がして、電源ボタンを連続で2回押された気がした。 豆腐を使えば味噌汁が二杯もできてしまうが、おかずが貧相なので困らない。

明日には体がボンドでくっついて、全て元に戻る事を祈る。

 
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We got the keys to the house, and it’s both amazing but also super overwhelming. There’s so much shit to be done, but I’m happy.

 
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from folgepaula

sure come over let's roll a joint and chill you can spread yourself over the couch pillows sure come over we can dream with eyes wide open and I can stare at you for hours while you breathe the air from my nose holding that trembling pause that sits between the lips to lips and we both feel that stupid organic electricity so much so that now you need to distract and start counting my freckles I hate when you do that until you try to connect the dots in the hope of revealing the image of some mythological being perhaps finding a map of a submerged treasure but all you will find and believe me when I say this all you will find are some random shapes that do not provide you any clues do not provide you any directions it only says yes I am here.

/oc25

 
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