Esme Rylan
@esmerylan.northsky.social
This heart of mine's a glorified abscess.
She/her
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Esme Rylan
@esmerylan.northsky.social
· Sep 10
My comment on current events: I don't mourn Nazis.
Anyway: reached foraging level 88, so now I can get the arc limpet, but one of its two spawn areas is where One Eyed Vandy lurks, waiting to kill me again. Fortunately the spawn spots are spread out in a way that lets me completely avoid him! 😝
I just realized I made a factual error in this post: it's the Moderate Tempestae Strength Potion (that's the wind damage type/faction name). Oh well, everything else is correct and deleting it would break the thread.
So I've hit another one of those level imbalances in Brighter Shores: I reached alchemy level 66, which unlocks the Moderate Arborae Strength Potion. This requires softfuzz hogberries and arc limpet to make. These unlock at foraging level 86 and 88, respectively.
February 16, 2026 at 3:08 AM
Anyway: reached foraging level 88, so now I can get the arc limpet, but one of its two spawn areas is where One Eyed Vandy lurks, waiting to kill me again. Fortunately the spawn spots are spread out in a way that lets me completely avoid him! 😝
I just realized I made a factual error in this post: it's the Moderate Tempestae Strength Potion (that's the wind damage type/faction name). Oh well, everything else is correct and deleting it would break the thread.
So I've hit another one of those level imbalances in Brighter Shores: I reached alchemy level 66, which unlocks the Moderate Arborae Strength Potion. This requires softfuzz hogberries and arc limpet to make. These unlock at foraging level 86 and 88, respectively.
February 16, 2026 at 2:42 AM
I just realized I made a factual error in this post: it's the Moderate Tempestae Strength Potion (that's the wind damage type/faction name). Oh well, everything else is correct and deleting it would break the thread.
So I've hit another one of those level imbalances in Brighter Shores: I reached alchemy level 66, which unlocks the Moderate Arborae Strength Potion. This requires softfuzz hogberries and arc limpet to make. These unlock at foraging level 86 and 88, respectively.
February 16, 2026 at 1:56 AM
So I've hit another one of those level imbalances in Brighter Shores: I reached alchemy level 66, which unlocks the Moderate Arborae Strength Potion. This requires softfuzz hogberries and arc limpet to make. These unlock at foraging level 86 and 88, respectively.
There's a player in the potion shop in Brighter Shores who was level 6086 when I was playing earlier and has now reached 6100, that's some sicko dedication to grind out that many levels in one stretch that far into this game. I'm assuming he was logged on the entire time I was away.
February 16, 2026 at 1:02 AM
There's a player in the potion shop in Brighter Shores who was level 6086 when I was playing earlier and has now reached 6100, that's some sicko dedication to grind out that many levels in one stretch that far into this game. I'm assuming he was logged on the entire time I was away.
Reposted by Esme Rylan
If I were a Democrat concerned about winning elections and was hearing that a significant number of voters wouldn’t support Gavin Newsom in 2028, I would simply stop pushing Gavin Newsom in 2026.
look if you want to freak out about people not voting newsom if he's the nominee a week before the 2028 general election, I kinda get it (but don't say you weren't warned). doing it now though is just a weird attempt to strong arm people into supporting him in the primary.
I think most (not all) of the "I will never vote for Gavin Newsom" people are communists who are mad that Americans don't like communism and want to destroy the Democratic party out of revenge. They don't care how many elections Republicans win or how many trans people die as long as the Dems fall.
February 15, 2026 at 9:50 PM
If I were a Democrat concerned about winning elections and was hearing that a significant number of voters wouldn’t support Gavin Newsom in 2028, I would simply stop pushing Gavin Newsom in 2026.
Reposted by Esme Rylan
For this week’s Silent Sundays post I look at the production, critical reaction, and legacy of the first adaptation of Emily Brontë’s WUTHERING HEIGHTS, A.V. Bramble’s 1920 adaptation that is now considered lost.
Lost Silent Films: Wuthering Heights (1920)
Silent Sundays: It's All Forgotten Now
oldfilmsflicker.substack.com
February 15, 2026 at 7:12 PM
For this week’s Silent Sundays post I look at the production, critical reaction, and legacy of the first adaptation of Emily Brontë’s WUTHERING HEIGHTS, A.V. Bramble’s 1920 adaptation that is now considered lost.
Reposted by Esme Rylan
Like whatever nostalgia you have for McMillen’s games he’s just…like this! So! You can and should interrogate that more, imo!
February 15, 2026 at 5:58 PM
Like whatever nostalgia you have for McMillen’s games he’s just…like this! So! You can and should interrogate that more, imo!
Reposted by Esme Rylan
"Every pop song sounds like Pachelbel's Canon" should tell you something important about constructing appealing music rather than diminishing it.
"The hero's journey" can provide a meaningful way to analyze a narrative but doesn't reduce a story.
We need to stop flattening human creativity
"The hero's journey" can provide a meaningful way to analyze a narrative but doesn't reduce a story.
We need to stop flattening human creativity
So many ideas became thought-terminating cliches to sound clever. Shallow "X is just Y" statements overtook meaningful comparisons. We reduce everything to a series of "tropes" without actually considering why those tropes exist or their cultural implications. It feels so tired and inhuman.
February 15, 2026 at 10:23 PM
"Every pop song sounds like Pachelbel's Canon" should tell you something important about constructing appealing music rather than diminishing it.
"The hero's journey" can provide a meaningful way to analyze a narrative but doesn't reduce a story.
We need to stop flattening human creativity
"The hero's journey" can provide a meaningful way to analyze a narrative but doesn't reduce a story.
We need to stop flattening human creativity
Wound up listening to the Rolling Stones' Undercover because of a video that showed up in my recommendations about "Too Much Blood", I'd never heard this record and I'd always been under the impression it was a terrible album... and it's not a terrible album. Cover art is awful but the music's fine.
February 15, 2026 at 9:47 PM
Wound up listening to the Rolling Stones' Undercover because of a video that showed up in my recommendations about "Too Much Blood", I'd never heard this record and I'd always been under the impression it was a terrible album... and it's not a terrible album. Cover art is awful but the music's fine.
Reposted by Esme Rylan
Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It’s always a matter of will not resources.
February 15, 2026 at 5:30 PM
Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It’s always a matter of will not resources.
Reposted by Esme Rylan
Emerald Fennell: "I just think Wurthering Heights would be better without all the icky gross human pain, right Charli XCX?"
Charli XCX hastily stashing away pads of paper with lyrics written on them: "Uh, yes Emerald, thank you for financing this album it will be exactly what you are expecting."
Charli XCX hastily stashing away pads of paper with lyrics written on them: "Uh, yes Emerald, thank you for financing this album it will be exactly what you are expecting."
February 15, 2026 at 3:08 PM
Emerald Fennell: "I just think Wurthering Heights would be better without all the icky gross human pain, right Charli XCX?"
Charli XCX hastily stashing away pads of paper with lyrics written on them: "Uh, yes Emerald, thank you for financing this album it will be exactly what you are expecting."
Charli XCX hastily stashing away pads of paper with lyrics written on them: "Uh, yes Emerald, thank you for financing this album it will be exactly what you are expecting."
Reposted by Esme Rylan
what if instead of the beach boys it was the beach birds and the song was called chirpin' USA and they were all birds and they were chirping. to the song
February 15, 2026 at 4:41 PM
what if instead of the beach boys it was the beach birds and the song was called chirpin' USA and they were all birds and they were chirping. to the song
Book World was one of the main reasons I used to subscribe to WaPo, haven't been a subscriber in a long time but this still fucking sucks.
From today's @washingtonpost.com front page:
"Abruptly terminated": harsh, contentious, negative
"Sunset": natural, pleasant, the circle of life
h/t @alecmac.bsky.social
"Abruptly terminated": harsh, contentious, negative
"Sunset": natural, pleasant, the circle of life
h/t @alecmac.bsky.social
February 15, 2026 at 4:42 PM
Book World was one of the main reasons I used to subscribe to WaPo, haven't been a subscriber in a long time but this still fucking sucks.
So I have actual data on this one: Vera Sola's "Blood Bond", 216 plays between Feb. 2024 and now. youtu.be/92buSoLGGMc?...
February 15, 2026 at 1:02 AM
So I have actual data on this one: Vera Sola's "Blood Bond", 216 plays between Feb. 2024 and now. youtu.be/92buSoLGGMc?...
"This map is a bit of a breather. You start with a Cyberdemon..." Sure, Vytaan, that sounds incredibly easy and relaxing. 😵💫
February 15, 2026 at 12:54 AM
"This map is a bit of a breather. You start with a Cyberdemon..." Sure, Vytaan, that sounds incredibly easy and relaxing. 😵💫
Thinking about future submissions for one of the leagues in Music League led me to revisit the Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie album from 2017, and I still feel that this is effectively the real final Fleetwood Mac album, if Say You Will counts then so does this. music.apple.com/us/album/lin...
Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie by Lindsey Buckingham & Christine McVie on Apple Music
Album · 2017 · 10 Songs
music.apple.com
February 15, 2026 at 12:22 AM
Thinking about future submissions for one of the leagues in Music League led me to revisit the Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie album from 2017, and I still feel that this is effectively the real final Fleetwood Mac album, if Say You Will counts then so does this. music.apple.com/us/album/lin...
For some reason I just now remembered I was looking at a hospital discharge summary for a new admission today and the last diagnosis it listed was "Super obesity" and somehow that just doesn't feel like an actual diagnosis, more like an extremely judgy doctor worked that into the text.
February 14, 2026 at 11:34 PM
For some reason I just now remembered I was looking at a hospital discharge summary for a new admission today and the last diagnosis it listed was "Super obesity" and somehow that just doesn't feel like an actual diagnosis, more like an extremely judgy doctor worked that into the text.
Guess who's visiting my island today? 😝
February 14, 2026 at 11:23 PM
Guess who's visiting my island today? 😝
Turning off the console entirely and restarting it has fixed the problem, so I guess it was something with using rest mode too much? But you're encouraged to use rest mode instead of turning it off! Why does nothing fucking work the way it's supposed to work?
PlayStation Store absolutely refuses to load anything on my PS5 right now, but Sony's status site claims all services are up and running and DownDetector's not showing any surge of outage reports, so is this just a problem with my console? Connection otherwise seems fine, Doom mod browser loads.
February 14, 2026 at 10:18 PM
Turning off the console entirely and restarting it has fixed the problem, so I guess it was something with using rest mode too much? But you're encouraged to use rest mode instead of turning it off! Why does nothing fucking work the way it's supposed to work?
Casting further doubt on this method: level 66 woodcutting unlocks bamboo, which can't be processed at the carpentry stations but is instead used in botany. Reaching level 70 carpentry lets you process juniper logs... but you can't cut those until woodcutting level 75!
I'm thinking there's got to be a method that gets around the woodcutting/carpentry level imbalances, i.e. cut and store the highest level logs available while boosting carpentry solely by converting knowledge points to XP. But I'm not sure KP progress is fast enough to make this viable.
February 14, 2026 at 8:25 PM
Casting further doubt on this method: level 66 woodcutting unlocks bamboo, which can't be processed at the carpentry stations but is instead used in botany. Reaching level 70 carpentry lets you process juniper logs... but you can't cut those until woodcutting level 75!
PlayStation Store absolutely refuses to load anything on my PS5 right now, but Sony's status site claims all services are up and running and DownDetector's not showing any surge of outage reports, so is this just a problem with my console? Connection otherwise seems fine, Doom mod browser loads.
February 14, 2026 at 8:04 PM
PlayStation Store absolutely refuses to load anything on my PS5 right now, but Sony's status site claims all services are up and running and DownDetector's not showing any surge of outage reports, so is this just a problem with my console? Connection otherwise seems fine, Doom mod browser loads.
Reposted by Esme Rylan
I really think the whole notion of “bearing witness” has gotten deeply twisted
“Witness” does not mean merely to observe firsthand. It means to carry truth and to testify to that truth in the pursuit of justice
You don’t need to traumatize yourself in order to know that atrocities are happening
“Witness” does not mean merely to observe firsthand. It means to carry truth and to testify to that truth in the pursuit of justice
You don’t need to traumatize yourself in order to know that atrocities are happening
genuinely i cannot believe that i have to say this but you do not need to - and absolutely should not - expose yourself to CSAM material in order to “witness” the crimes of the elite.
this does nothing except make vicarious trauma, moral injury, and potentially places you in legal jeopardy.
STOP
this does nothing except make vicarious trauma, moral injury, and potentially places you in legal jeopardy.
STOP
February 14, 2026 at 4:07 PM
I really think the whole notion of “bearing witness” has gotten deeply twisted
“Witness” does not mean merely to observe firsthand. It means to carry truth and to testify to that truth in the pursuit of justice
You don’t need to traumatize yourself in order to know that atrocities are happening
“Witness” does not mean merely to observe firsthand. It means to carry truth and to testify to that truth in the pursuit of justice
You don’t need to traumatize yourself in order to know that atrocities are happening
Anyway: I'm home from work. Neither of the family members who were supposed to come in to sign NOMNCs showed up so I left copies with the receptionist in case they were just running late. I'm not adjusting my schedule tomorrow, I'm coming in early like I prefer.
February 14, 2026 at 7:41 PM
Anyway: I'm home from work. Neither of the family members who were supposed to come in to sign NOMNCs showed up so I left copies with the receptionist in case they were just running late. I'm not adjusting my schedule tomorrow, I'm coming in early like I prefer.
How am I just now finding out that Vijay Iyer's on Bluesky AND his posts are mostly politics (in a good way)?
February 14, 2026 at 7:37 PM
How am I just now finding out that Vijay Iyer's on Bluesky AND his posts are mostly politics (in a good way)?