Cav's Place

To start with Sunday, I attended the Victory Square protest again, leaving after the first round of the day’s ski jumping and therefore missing the first part of the second, since none of the recordings I caught that night or the next day included it. Not that much of anything happened in the Square early enough to justify leaving when I did, but leaving after the competition would have meant ending up there at around the same time as a week before and that didn’t seem right, considering the difference in conditions. So I pretty much wandered around, took some pictures, eventually managed to ask for one of the badges that were being handed out, and accepted a blue sheet of paper even though I had no intention of participating in the flag moment. Hid that under my jacket and went just past the edge of the crowd when the moment came, then got back inside to look for a few more picture opportunities before it was actually over, gave the sheet of paper back and took a cup of hot tea from those still offering that a bit later, and eventually made my way away around 9:40 PM, 9:45 PM when I actually got in the metro station.

Still on the topic of protests, also attended the one for forests that took place Tuesday for a little while. Managed to get there just a couple of minutes past 5 PM, but only saw one person waiting in that spot and a couple more in the area, seeming to wait for more to gather before revealing their purpose for being there. So I kept walking and circled around after reaching the corner, eventually sitting on a bench after getting back and only joining the small group after a few more had gathered and the others had as well. Again took pictures, albeit just a few, but otherwise pretty much listened to what the gendarmes who showed up after we moved to the sidewalk said and tried to get a few words in, since there was no actual conflict with them at the time but I seemed to be the only one there with some experience regarding such things, and then left at 6 PM, when the time for talks seemed over and other gendarmes came to start carding the participants. Since two others had left just before me, I caught up to them on the way to the metro station, listened to their conversation and also somehow managed to say a few things before leaving.
Those protests became daily from that point, but I didn’t attend another and now, considering the chosen focus, I’m not keen on attending the other one scheduled for Sunday either. Was sort of considering going to this one for forests again then instead, but I just made it clear a bit ago in a comment I posted that I have serious issues with the other participants, so that’s pretty much out of the question. I feel completely uncomfortable around them and being in conflict with the other participants, even without either side actually saying it while there, is not what you want when just a few attend and you can’t get lost in the crowd. I mean, albeit truly dedicated to the cause of forests, I knew the organizers were from a group of nationalists that also promote and genuinely believe in various conspiracy theories, and that they now also associated with those who staged the counter-protest on Sunday, but was thinking I’ll be there for the cause and hope they’ll do the same, yet the messages that keep being posted since are exactly on the line that’s unfortunately expected from them, throwing accusations at those who participate in other protests or just don’t see things just the way they do, promoting those conspiracy theories and so on.

To finally move on to something else, after having issues but still being playable at first, since the stuttering graphics meant that many frames were skipped between those that were displayed and not that the game was slow, Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic stopped working completely Monday. Had last played a little after eating Saturday night, didn’t try again Sunday, and then when I tried to start it Monday, I just got a black screen with the regular mouse cursor visible. The process also uses about half the amount of RAM it did when it worked and usually, though not every time, takes up very little of the CPU, while when it worked it took up a full core. Don’t recall changing any settings, whether the game’s or the system’s, or doing anything else which may have in any way caused this, so I’m at a loss. One solution would be to simply reboot and see what happens, of course, as I was saying there may be a chance that may solve the other issue as well, and as of Tuesday I actually need to do that for another reason as well, but with the uptime I have I just don’t want to until after this month’s patch Tuesday if there’s any way to still avoid it.
Unfortunately, that other reason I mentioned is that Emsisoft decided to update on Tuesday, the delayed branch being moved to another version as well, and that happened while I wasn’t at the computer and, whether the update actually required a reboot or it skipped properly restarting just the software because I wasn’t there to accept the prompt before it timed out, the update wasn’t actually applied and now a restart is required for it. There’s no warning to say I have limited protection or need to restart and it otherwise appears to still be active, but automatic updating doesn’t function anymore, which is the normal behavior when a program update is pending. It still seems to update definitions when I do a manual update though, and support said it should still do that for a while if I really want to delay, so I’m hoping I don’t actually have reduced protection and plan to wait… And say again and again that I hate updates and absolutely can’t stand forced ones. Been pestering the poor guy for program updates to be separated from definitions updates and the user to be allowed to delay those until they’re ready for them all along and he again said he definitely passed on the suggestion, but it’s not like that’ll get anywhere, is it?

As for the last part of this post’s title, that happened Wednesday evening. Went to buy a few things, again looking for the best options and prices despite the small number of products, so I first checked one hypermarket, then went to another and bought what I could from there, got back in time to see about half of the day’s ski jumping event, then left again to get what was left from the first one. Meant to hurry and it seemed to go well enough, but after picking up the items I wanted to look for one more little thing, so after struggling to carry the items in my hands until then I dropped them in a basket and wandered around for quite some time before eventually deciding to give up, no longer caring for the first tiny thing I had in mind and not finding the second.
Well, that’s when a problem appeared. I knew exactly how much the items cost, but the cashier told me a higher amount and I couldn’t get myself to complain on the spot, so I paid and then walked a few steps away to check the receipt, finding a regular small yogurt added before the pack I had actually bought. And those 0.90 RON (€0.20, $0.21) meant I no longer had the amount of money I wanted to have left for something else, so I somehow managed to turn around and ask why did she scan an extra yogurt, also noticing she seemed to be calling someone to correct something for the next customer as well. But instead of trying to fix it there, she told me to go to the customer reception desk with the receipt, so I went there, somehow managed to explain what the issue was, stating rather apologetically that it’s just to keep things fair, and the person immediately realized that one of the yogurts in the pack must have passed in front of the scanner while being positioned in such a way that the code accidentally scanned and gave me the little amount of money back, saying she doesn’t need to check to see that I don’t actually have a small yogurt on top of the pack. She did take the receipt though, not giving a correct one back.
The thing is that speaking the way I did was way too much for me, so I may have somehow managed it, but then I had to pay the price, first by having absolutely no idea where I had put the money I had left, as in not the little amount just given back. So I stopped on the way to the metro station and started checking every pocket, eventually sighing in relief when I found them in my jacket, between the folds of the unused bag I had also put in there. Then I got to the metro, noticing that the stop had caused me to just miss one train, waited for the next, struggled to keep my mind from shutting down long enough to be aware of reaching my stop… And failed, just barely clinging on to some shred of awareness for five stops but then apparently just blocking everything, probably after more people got on and a girl also sat next to me, so I had people on both sides. There was one more stop I was only barely aware of, thinking it must be the one right after the last one I remembered more clearly, but I guess that wasn’t the case, and either way I only actually snapped out of it after passing my stop and hearing the announcement for the next one. So I climbed off there and then waited to take the train back, not trusting myself to walk the additional distance in that state.

Just one more thing to add to this post, and that’s this week’s run, which was Tuesday, just before leaving for that protest. This was also the reason why I wasn’t at the computer when Emsisoft updated, though now I’m frustrated by the fact that I may have just gotten back to my room before that prompt vanished, assuming there was one asking for a program restart, so I could have accepted that and it might have worked if I’d have just turned on the monitor to notice. And I did consider it, wanting to check whether something new had been posted on the event page, but I really had to leave again right away if I wanted to get there on time, so just changed clothes in a hurry, went to the bathroom and left.
Either way, this marked the second time I ran the ten-kilometer route in under 50 minutes, the time being 49:38, so ten seconds slower than the record. Sector times were 4:25, 5:16, 6:05, 4:38, 5:10, 6:10, 4:42, 5:14, 6:05 and 1:53, making for lap times of 15:46, 15:58 and 16:01. That means the fastest third lap so far, but still just failing to keep three in a row under 16 minutes. Conditions were good though, warm enough to run with just t-shirt on, also marking the first time I wore the half marathon t-shirt since the actual race even though I was thinking at the time that it’ll become my running t-shirt in general. Went there wearing the upper part of the training suit as well though, so took it off before I started running and then held it in my hand, which might have slowed me just a little, but the people also enjoying the nice day had a greater impact. Still, I was on the limit, so I don’t know whether I could have beaten the record either way.