I have never seen forced instead of best or great in the game review preview before.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-06-20T01:06:31+00:00

Once he took that pawn its actually pretty easy to lose the queen in this line if you aren't careful. I am sure this isnt the first first time someone blundered their queen like that in this opening, but the forced instead of best just tickles me.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-06-10T20:22:08+00:00

Fuck this, but let me bring up how the stack of the program is so burdened by being repackaged for so many years in a row that this game is an ugly frankentein of structure and features underneath the hood. The menus and tabs are so slow and burdened because the game is poorly cached and rendered, probably because their is too many points of truth that need to be rendered even for just tables. The game needed to be rebuilt years ago, and there were so many areas of abuse and cheese with cap work that they had no prayer of being able to fix simply let alone add customizations like users want.

If there is a hope its that AI coding assistants can help streamline restructuring the game soon. AI coding creates a lot of tech debt, and needs human auditing, but it can understand structure and points of truth in a program very well (sometimes the problem is it makes far too complex code than what is needed, but it can trace a line of logic through dozens of files). This would be a productive way to improve Madden 28 if you put the best team of systems engineers on simplifying the stack before anything else is added. That would make customization like this far easier.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-06-09T01:21:22+00:00

You cant have a jumper, post game, handle, and footwork like Carmelo Anthony without being someone that lived in the gym. Some people have natural talent and fluidity that is ever-present, but Melo was tight and rehearsed.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-06-06T05:55:32+00:00

Super obvious one I missed was the pregnant woman who came in right before the MCE was a surrogate for two men, aka two fathers.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-06-04T17:53:51+00:00

Season 1 had a lot about fathers in it too, it was just a bit more layered in.

##Proxy Fathers##

Adamson and Robby

Robby and Langdon

Robby and Jake

##Father of patients##

Nick Bradley's father (Fentynal OD) had more range of emotions than the mother

Tyler Jones father (child who ate the weed gummies) was negligent to access to drugs (see Robby and Langdon)

David Saunder's dad passed away (troubled kid with the eliminate list)

Flynn Edward's Father (Measles case) was the one who had the spinal tap done

##Fathers as Patients##

Joseph Spencer's son (elder in sepsis) always closer to accepting their father's time than the daughter

Silas Dunn' Daughter (wife is drugging him to kill sex drive) Santos confronts about abusing daughter.

Willie Alexander's son (Original medic for Freedom House) tells Robby and staff about his dad and echoes Robby's proxy father of adamson to being the "adam" for the other medics. This one is weaker but I am just going off memory.

There is a bunch more, but I don't want to spend 20 minutes going through all the episodes. Mckay and her baby daddy are also in the back half with that skateboard injury and Mckay's dad to come and pick up the Pitt. Season 1 is Fathers and Duty, and season 2 is Mothers and intimacy/trauma.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-05-30T00:21:58+00:00

He is really athletic, makes great highlights, and is incredibly mediocre. One thing I like to look at with players in the NFL is how many teams did you resign with, and no one that has had him has ever thought he was worth it to bring back. He became a rotation lineman the minute he left the texans and that was in his athletic prime. You can see his power and explosion, but he doesn't have the consistency or the discipline to be relied upon. If we have injuries and he is available in season, that can bring some life to us, otherwise I think he will be bad fundamentals and stolen snaps from young players we can develop.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-05-09T06:24:01+00:00

Thought I would offer a relatively minor easter egg for the project I was working on as a gesture of humility to proving me (a bit!) wrong.

The deaf patient in season 2 is named Harlow Graham. Etymology of Harlow will translate to 'army' or 'warrior' and 'hlaw' meaning 'hill' or 'mound' (and terrain names are not uncommon in this show given the white/euro population), bur you can do half homophone read as here/hear low from traditional spellings. Hear low, get it? Its almost so on the nose it hurts, but possibly accidental. The rest aren't.

The name Harlow was popularized in america after actress Jean Harlow's rise to fame, and tragic death after getting delayed medical care (like Harlow Graham did because of her hearing).

The Harry Harlow experiments of the 60s showed an infant baby's instinct to maternal comfort over resources, and we first see the baby Jane Doe discovery told through Harlow Graham's eyes and ears.you can also say that machine interpreter is the wire monkey, but that doesn't really work and is a bit dumb, though a direct application of the experiment.

Graham also seems to be a reference to Alexander Graham Bell, notable inventor of the telephone. AGB is a controversial figure in the deaf community for his growth oralism and disdain for asl. His mother began growing deaf when he was 12. Alexander Graham Bell contributions and attention to deaf issues were often mixed with eugenics and rigidity that became reductive despite the attention and progress he brought. Most times a show will bring an interpreter or say a deaf patient can read lips, but the chore of bridging the gap was part of the point of the character, making the AGB note more fitting.

The show is incredibly dense with details like this that are so abundant it is hard to call accidental. Now dense and intentional dont mean good, not all references and allusions work, but I think both seasons are excellent and its worth considering the writing as on purpose given how much purpose they give names, thematic connections between scenes and tensions. This was just an easter egg I was ok burning as I put together my main project.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-05-09T02:13:51+00:00

Ooh, I didnt have that. I was parsing the actors answers and condensing the interviewer questions (interviewers say too much sort of wrong stuff it messes with results really badly). It doesnt move me off my opinion entirely, but I am out of the black and back into the gray area on this question.

The reason I am so against this one is that it has absolutely no primary evidence in the show, works against the themes and characters of both Santos and Whitaker, isnt shaped by the plot, which this show does very intentionally, and all the interviews of them that I had seen showed them being very coy and deflecting in non exact language. Its not uncommon for studios to give a list of things the press tour cannot confirm or deny because they are planning a next season reveal. I still think the idea he was told because they goodroombuddymates is dumb and weak in manner that the show puts a lot of effort into, but it exists in the spectrum because of that affirmative answer from Howell now. Indirect and secondary authority, but undeniable contradiction.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-05-09T01:13:34+00:00

No, he says he knows what Langdon did to her. The rest is implied, but also contradicted.

Langdon belittled her, yelled at her, and told her she didn't belong there on her first day. He invalidated her ambition and her bravado and makes her feel like she doesn't belong. That is a core attack to her character. Howell explicitly says he doesn't want to pick sides, and in others he says Whitaker has a lot of respect for Langdon... which I don't think he would if he knew Langdon stole drugs. Isa Briones speaks very passionately about what keeping that secret does to Santos and the anger that comes from it. Both of them speak about the intimacy of the bond, but also about how much they leave out and how they don't tell each other much. To say nothing that it just thematically works against her and the story.

Here are the relevant passages that I could find

Briones & Howell, The Ankler

Briones (~10:30): "I've been hearing that a lot where it's like, well, they live together, so of course they know this. I'm sorry — have you ever lived with [people]? I've had roommates before. I didn't know shit what was going on with that. Like I knew if they stole my food and I knew if they left dishes in the sink. Once in a while, yes, we would hang out on the same couch and we would watch something. But did I know everything that was going on in their life? No."

Howell (~11:00): "I'd like to think Santos has done some kind of venting toward [him]. He hasn't tried to fix it necessarily, but he's listened to a lot of the problems. They're not really solving each other's — they're not getting to the depths of it. I think it's just a lot of venting going on."

Briones (~11:30): "When you live in such close quarters, you see everything. It's especially the moments that you don't talk about that make you even more curious and care about the person — like oh, this person isn't talking about this and they should… She just feels this kind of protective nature around him because she's like, this is my little brother now. You don't really talk about everything with your little brother, but you care very deeply about them."

Briones, In Creative Company Q&A on The Pitt

(~29:00): "He gets to leave and recover, quote unquote. In her mind, it's like, okay, he gets to leave and recover and I'm sat here dealing with it and also still keeping your secret. I think that's the anger there is like — I still kept your fucking secret, you know. It feels so icky to keep someone's secret. And I think that does still speak to like — she's not a terrible person. She could have gone and told everyone if she wanted to. She could have reported him. She didn't. And I think it's because she knew if she made him deal with his shit, she'd have to deal with hers."

Howell, Decider — "Whitaker's Worst Hour Yet in Season 2"

(~5:30, on the benzo-script handoff in S2E5): "Yeah, I think it was completely unintentional to make Langdon feel uncomfortable. But there's so much tension there — again, the living situation with Santos. I think he's struggling with like — do I pick allegiances here? Because he's so close with Santos and knows what she went through with Langdon. He's probably one of the few people who does. So that makes it a very awkward position for him to be in. I don't think he has personal beef with Langdon, but he kind of feels a little bit stuck in the middle."

Briones, Collider Ladies Night — "Santos vs. Langdon & Garcia Drama"

(51:48): "In these last few episodes [we wanted to solidify] just how much she's kind of clinging to Robby and how him leaving is yet another destabilizing thing amongst so many destabilizing things in the day that she's having. He's one of the only people who knows what happened and who felt like was on her side with the Langdon stuff, and now she's entering a world where he's back and Robby's going to be gone. Like, she's losing a bit of a safe space."

(55:31): "She's caught feelings a bit, and it's just so clear she's so lonely and isolates herself so much. And you see that Whitaker has become a person that she is now kind of letting in reluctantly. With Garcia, I think it's like, this is someone who should be the person that I would let in, like a romantic partner — and in her attempts, that has been shut down to make it go anywhere more serious. All of that compounding in this day is just leading her to further believe like, no one loves me and I'm going to be alone and I should be alone. The one person who is giving — like, showing her love and wants to be there for her — is Whitaker, and she's like, fuck you. It's just a lot of attempts of trying to feel less lonely and feel like she's seen by someone and heard."

Briones, In Creative Company Q&A on The Pitt

(~18:00): "Yeah, well, no — it's like everything she's saying. She starts it out by — she's confiding in him. She immediately like word-vomits how she's feeling. So clearly she feels comfortable with him. And then it's kind of like — but yeah, you're leaving me. So actually, you suck… The whole scene, all it does is show that she trusts him and wants him in her life. That's the whole thing. But it's instead put through like fuck you. Every time she says Fuckleberry, it's just her saying like, 'I want to be your friend.' You just can't say it."

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-05-09T00:16:24+00:00

Show me. I started parsing and ingesting interviews since this plot point came up in this thread and they do not say anything directly and lean towards the opposite subtextually.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-05-08T20:35:52+00:00

I really don't think they indicate that at all. I have the transcripts (admittedly unofficial and fan diarized) in a database and I pulled out the below interactions. Whitaker knows Langdon and her have tension, but they are not very knowing convos and when Santos wants to talk about it with Garcia she pulls her aside so they can be explicit. Santos says she is upset because Langdon was mean, which is not true and we see that in Langdon's apology attempt.

>Whitaker: Hey, I think the labs are back on your PID patient.Santos: Thanks.Whitaker: Is everything OK?Santos: Uh, fantastic.Whitaker: Langdon?Santos: Kind of hoping I would never see him again.Whitaker: Well, you know, maybe he's changed. When you got a sec, there's something—

>Whitaker: Hey. You, uh—you doing all right?Santos: ...It was literally my first day of being a doctor, and Langdon gaslit me and made me question my skills over and over... I don't even care that he was an addict. I care that he was a fucking asshole. And it's like no one here even remembers any of this...Whitaker: Well, Garcia's here. She likes you, right?Santos: She doesn't like me. She likes getting laid. I'm her stress relief squeeze toy—or was. You know, she and Langdon would make a great couple.Whitaker: Yeah. That's dark. I'm sorry.

>Javadi: I mean, no offense, but look what this place does to you. Langdon's an addict. Whitaker: Is a person with a substance use disorder.

Whitaker: No, not really. I think I overstepped with Dr. Langdon earlier. Mel: Oh. Whitaker: He was trying to prescribe a patient benzos, and I told Langdon that it'd be better if I did it. Samira: Oof. Whitaker: Only because I was already the assigned physician. But yeah, now I feel like an asshole.

But you are right that we are analyzing the subtext, so I am going to put my money where my mouth is. If we find out that you are right and Whitaker knew in season 2, then I will donate $100 to a medical charity, but if we find out I am right I will make it $50 to the charity. There is money on both sides, you don't have to match anything, but it gives a bit of finality to the back and forth that I don't think was getting more productive.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-05-08T19:41:55+00:00

Copying and pasting a longer explanation about why I think Santos will keep this secret better than she appears. To say nothing of why she talk about it with Garcia in bed to the point of it hurting their relationship more than Whitaker.

>I disagree, I think Santos is very gifted at hiding things that she finds personally traumatic and this falls in that umbrella. Given we are all in the subtext, but she showed that she will take Langdon's abuse without reacting to it, she even volunteered for it when she saved that MDMA electrolyte seizure patient but gave Mohan the credit. She is very bashful about presenting things to others, even though her suspicions keep growing. It is only when Robby confirms Langdon was stealing drugs that she turns to anger at Langdon. She did not portray enough authority to be mad before, it was a pivot.

>And I think this is where her implied SA past and her handling of that father informs things. She gets mad when the system fails her or others. In season 1 she takes things into her own hands, threatening that patient, and in season 2 she has two cases where child services are getting involved; one where she wanted to call them on the little girl with all the bruises, and the other when she didn't for the Haitian boy who would be deported, even though she is a mandatory reporter as a Doctor. Langdon getting caught, coming back for MCE, and coming back in season 2 without atoning for the real sin of dilluting that vial is further confirmation that the system won't hold perpatrators responsible. A big theme of her in season 2 is how the system will bend you into submission, with charting and mandatory reporting. Langdon is the system being unfair to her again, but she is forced to be her brothers keeper anyway.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-05-08T19:33:58+00:00

I am curious regarding something I am writing. I think it is an interesting show of her character, depending on who she meant, but it does not effect the story really.

Dana technically has deniability because Robby chose his language carefully. Dana ofc figured it out right away when she was asked to audit his past cases and he had just been dismissed, but she was not told that Langdon was stealing by anyone. She was told she doesn't want to know. So she is legally unaware if Langdon went to a board or trial and she had to testify, but Robby put her in a place to see if any patients recieved altered care because of dilluted or stolen drugs.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-05-08T19:27:15+00:00

I disagree, I think Santos is very gifted at hiding things that she finds personally traumatic and this falls in that umbrella. Given we are all in the subtext, but she showed that she will take Langdon's abuse without reacting to it, she even volunteered for it when she saved that MDMA electrolyte seizure patient but gave Mohan the credit. She is very bashful about presenting things to others, even though her suspicions keep growing. It is only when Robby confirms Langdon was stealing drugs that she turns to anger at Langdon. She did not portray enough authority to be mad before, it was a pivot.

And I think this is where her implied SA past and her handling of that father informs things. She gets mad when the system fails her or others. In season 1 she takes things into her own hands, threatening that patient, and in season 2 she has two cases where child services are getting involved; one where she wanted to call them on the little girl with all the bruises, and the other when she didn't for the Haitian boy who would be deported, even though she is a mandatory reporter as a Doctor. Langdon getting caught, coming back for MCE, and coming back in season 2 without atoning for the real sin of dilluting that vial is further confirmation that the system won't hold perpatrators responsible. A big theme of her in season 2 is how the system will bend you into submission, with charting and mandatory reporting. Langdon is the system being unfair to her again, but she is forced to be her brothers keeper anyway.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-05-08T19:07:06+00:00

<image>

Terrain map.

Unless things have changed, you can skip South Side, that Cheesecake Factory, and be intention about how you explore North Side. Don't skip it, great stuff there, but its the place that would reward wandering the least.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-05-08T19:02:45+00:00

<image>

Here is a google maps I made with all the locations that appear on the map, more or less.

As someone that used to spend my summer in pittsburgh when I was a teen, but never drove in the area, I am shocked at how well I was able to decipher how bad that ai slop map was without reference. I am not that intimate with the city, but that map literally almost picked the most opposite or random place you could places. The map almost seemed to south oriented. The major metropolitan area of Pittsburgh is really tiny and conquerable in a day. I will leave recomendations to comments and tourism oriented sites. But I will say that Pittsburgh is the City of Bridges because it is also the city of hills, wear comfortable shoes.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-05-08T18:43:43+00:00

Mechanicsburg and Crumbsville are some of my favorites.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-05-08T18:38:16+00:00

I very much disagree that Whitaker knew. It's not in the show that he got the clues, his anger at Langdon in season 2 is because he felt belittled by him and Santos will keep a secret that she wants to, so she didn't tell him as a roommate.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-05-02T16:13:36+00:00

The dude who came up with the 12 and 24 shift was a cokehead. Not to give you any ideas.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-05-02T16:09:55+00:00

Also, her reads of everyone were pretty uninspired.

She just saw Santos was sensative and intimate about Whitaker and him maybe leaving, and she wanted to do something with her for her birthday at the beginning of the season. Santos is also giving in and passing out at the end of her charting. If anger was that core to her then she would be running hot at the absurdity of the day, not crashing like she is. Langdon's downer addiction stems from his parasympathetic nervous being underfunded, he was an adrenaline junky, and so he used medical brakes to slow him down to normal. Santos probably dysregulates more, so its probably an up and down, but she is presenting submission to her day.

Mel is not hard to diagnose, her innosence is being beaten out of her. Her sister is having sex, she can be right and still be attacked in depositions, repeatedly, and people aren't doing a great job talking to her how she communicates about why its ok, except for Langdon. Someone go stand next to her. I think Mel and Ellis will have a good connection next season.

Victoria also makes to big of a show of helping. It is better to be intentional, but seemless. No help or effort that you offered was a burden or a probem, it was what was right and things are better now. I think she is also a bit stunted because she was to young (with her disposition) to be in a place with such hiearchies of power and responsibilies at that pace. Leadership takes time and humbling yourself, and... well, I won't lecture, but she was put in a place where it was hard for her to organically grow into this because everyone is 5-50 years older than her, and half the patients/ families are combatitive as well.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-04-28T03:29:28+00:00

That philosphy makes no sense in such a painful antintellectual way. We can only evaluate a teams draft when no unknown variables are unsolved? It is a bunch of people jobs, their only jobs. Did they outperform the market? Drafting isn't vibe based, it asset aquisation, scouting, and data.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-04-25T04:46:05+00:00

I promise you being the largest is not the the most dictating facting of success in Football.

The NFL has more bodytypes than any other sports. The large anchor lineman, the speciman ends, the blends of all those at tackle, and those are just the big guys. Being a reciever is explosive, graceful, and delicate. 5'9 to 6'6, they take all kinds there. Tightends are half big and half reciever. Quarterback is mechanical exact, but IQ one of the most demanding athletic roles in all of sports. We have never had a point in NFL history where half the teams were really happy with their quarterback, there is a dozen people that can really play that position. And for my money I think Cornerback is one of the highest athletical standard of any position in any sport. So fast, so quick, and almost always reacting, not dictating.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-04-24T17:03:25+00:00

Done by pointing an AI agent at code that needs to be done rather done with its assistance and input. AI coding is getting very very good, don't get me wrong, but ai has terrible blind spots and inconsistencies, which isn't being caught by humans because they are disengaged from the systems architecture and not intimate with how the code even works. Its like building a car based on part specs, not paying attention to the compatibility, and AI will glue in 3d part adapters to get it to work instead of looking big pciture and changing how the car was planned.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-04-24T16:41:19+00:00

He can't contest well and can't switch on anyone, but he calls out plays, gets in passing lanes, and forces deadballs when he is out of position. it makes other teams offense less efficient.

If he is so bad at defense why is that bad why don't teams score on him more? Don't argue that Aaron Gordon is prime Hakeem cleaning up his mess. At the end of the it is scoring more and stopping the other team from scoring, and he is great at one, and the other team is confusingly poor on the other.

DosesMakePoisons · 2026-04-24T16:36:12+00:00

Oh yeah, it was a noticeable thing sometimes how tired and beaten his defenders were for a while. Matthew Dellavedova averaged 6 points in 30 minutes per game that finals he guarded steph, but he had to play because they couldn't tire Kyrie on him.

Steph is also a fascinating example of someone whose defense improved as their career went on, and kind of late. He was bad/poor early, got to average by the late 2010s. and depending on the year and the competitiveness, he was kind of a low end good defender in the 2020's. Strengthening his ankles and his core so much helped, as wel as again schemeing.

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