Woods of Somewhere

So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”

Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.

i have a file or folder on my pc that i want to share with other people. let's call it gayshit.mp3

unfortunately gayshit.mp3 is 750mb and im not paying for discord nitro so i need another way to send it

i put it into qbittorrent and it makes a torrent file. this is essentially a very small file that points to gayshit.mp3 so other computers can find it. kinda like a treasure map

i send this tiny file to my friend, who loads it into qbittorrent. their computer takes a moment to find mine over the vast expanse of cyberspace and then (as long as my pc is running and the file is still where it should be), it gets copied from my hard drive to theirs

this is the cool part: if somebody else loads that tiny file, they can download it from both of us. if i'm offline but my friend is on, the third person can still get it. this also means that if two people have separate halves of the file, they can download the other half from each other. as long as some combination of people have the pieces between them, they can all have the whole thing.

crucially this does not require a server!!! you can just upload the file to a few people and as long as they keep it, it's still accessible. as long as somebody, somewhere is still connected, it's available forever. the only way it goes away is if everybody disconnects from it.

Be inspired by : https://x.com/i/status/2012902801672728824

beyond that she’s literally so brimming with personality im beginning to wonder how anyone can miss or ignore it. it’s not often we’re given so much detail about a fictional character’s interests but ellie has so many that we know about. she loves comics and video games and astronomy and has a soft spot for animals, particularly horses. she laughs at stupid shit in such an endearing way that you can’t help but laugh with her. her interactions with sam and riley show she is sweet-natured and loving. she’s awkward and a bit of a dingbat when trying to navigate a crush which is so painfully relatable having once been a 14 year old girl myself it tugged on the heartstrings.

When the clicker appears, everything moves in a frenetic blur. Ellie's body locks up, her mind frozen as she stares in mute horror at the oncoming threat. Paralyzed by fear and already overwhelmed by the strange man's proximity, the poor girl can't even muster the strength to lift her weapon in self-defense in time. Her heart pounds a staccato rhythm, the sound deafening in her ears as the clicker bounds towards her. In her weakened, famished state, Ellie's survival instincts fail her. She remains rooted to the spot, a hapless victim, a sitting duck as the creature closes in. When suddenly, a deafening boom shatters the air—the man fires a gun at the clicker, the weapon Ellie didn't even know he still had on him. He saves her life.

I believe this scene is far more pivotal and sensitive than we perhaps realize. It perfectly captures Ellie's youth, naivety, fear and vulnerability. The girl is forced to crouch by a campfire with a complete stranger, having no choice but to trust him since her desperation to save the only person she's ever deeply cared about leaves her no other options. The tension is palpable and Ellie clutches her gun, thinking she has the upper hand after she coerced the man into handing it over, providing a fragile illusion of control in a terrifying situation.

But as David pulls out his gun, a chilling realization hits us—he's had complete control over her all along. At any moment, he could've drawn the pistol concealed at his waist and threatened or even killed her. But he chose not to. We know why. The man savors her fear, derives twisted pleasure from seeing her so defenseless and fragile. This dance of false friendship is all part of his sadistic game. He gets off on slowly manipulating her, chipping away at her defenses, playing her like a fiddle. Pulling the gun would've been too easy, too quick. That's not how he gets his thrills. He much prefers this deliciously dark mind game.

Ellie's mind races as the realization dawns on her—she had been so naive, so trusting. Her conversation with this man and the shocking discovery that he has been armed the entire time sends her thoughts spiraling. She berates herself for her failure, for not insisting that David prove he was truly unarmed. But in her innocence, it was simply too much for her young mind. Joel had always drilled into her the importance of not trusting others, yet here she is, on the brink of facing the danger alongside a complete stranger, allowing him into her personal space. The inner conflict of her actions and the harsh realities she's faced are undoubtedly swirling through her thoughts as she confronts the consequences of her misplaced trust.

I feel physically ill when I think about how close we came to losing Ellie. If not for David's timely intervention, I know she wouldn't have survived. But it goes beyond that—without those antibiotics, Joel would have succumbed too. He would have died consumed by self-loathing and regret. The poor man would have lamented his failure to protect the young girl. His mind would have been haunted with terrible thoughts of Ellie's fate—wondering if she was still out there somewhere, lost and alone, injured or killed because of him.