Cav's Place

I still think this year’s Eurovision Song Contest could and should have been handled differently. At first, I was even thinking that there could still be a competition, but I guess that’d have in truth been impossible, due to the different conditions, resources and, at this point, regulations in each country. But they could have made the shows with broadcasts from each country, the song being performed live, only resorting to recordings if the artists are unable to show up because they’re quarantined. In fact, a live performance could perhaps be arranged even then in some cases, if there are no symptoms that’d make it impossible to sing, it’s either a single person or they’re in quarantine together and they have the necessary equipment to sing and broadcast live in good quality. That wouldn’t have only been a way to keep going to some extent under the current circumstances, but also one to bring people and countries together at this time, which is what they claim this is all about.
However, they didn’t do any of that, canceling the competition and not replacing it with a show including such live performances either. There will be a show this evening, but since it doesn’t seem like it’ll be relevant from this point of view, I’m going to go ahead and just write this quick post before it airs, taking into account the songs as they were included in Tuesday’s and Thursday’s “Song Celebrations”. Obviously, since we’re talking of videos, some of them “proper” ones while others being recordings from the national selections, there can’t be any marks, as there’s no way to fairly compare, and even if there would be and I’d just take the songs into account, excluding any show value, we’re not talking of live performances during the actual competition. Therefore, I won’t have a classification either, but will nevertheless pick ten songs out of those which should have been in each semifinal and then try to add some comments about those I’d consider as the better ones out of what’d end up in that final of my choice, which would obviously also include the six that qualify directly.

Just taking the songs into account and without knowing how they’d have been performed live, my ten picks out of what should have been the first semifinal would be Belgium, Croatia, Ireland, Lithuania, Malta, North Macedonia, Norway, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden, while out of the second one they’d have been Albania, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Latvia, Moldova, Poland and Switzerland. When I first listened to the songs, I had nine picks out of each semifinal, with two songs from the first and three from the second competing for the tenth spot only because I had to pick ten, but now that I went through them again, I found myself quite clearly selecting ten from the first directly, but only eight from the second, though there were still three competing for the remaining spots, and I didn’t write down those first picks, considering them too unreliable since I hadn’t paid enough attention, so I don’t know what changed.

That makes for a final including Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom. Should probably also mention that, back when I went through all the songs after all the national selections finished, I made a playlist with those I thought I’ll want to listen to more, and those that are in the 26 I just listed and aren’t in that playlist are Georgia, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia and Switzerland, and I seem to remember initially adding North Macedonia and then removing it, while Germany is automatically qualified and Georgia and Latvia are those two I picked from the second semifinal just because I had to pick ten, meaning that for some reason I ended up with a better opinion of Ireland, Lithuania and Switzerland now than back then, though they’re not songs I’d normally care for, with a possible exception for the Swiss entry, which isn’t bad.
But this should be about my top picks, and I’ll say right away that Belgium and Bulgaria are at the top of my list. Poland also has a good entry, but there’s something that brings it down a little as well, possibly the fact that it sounds far too much like a typical Bond theme song. Belgium’s could be one as well, but it’s not quite so obvious, and simply better, which knocks Poland down even more clearly, being in direct competition. And speaking of direct competitions, there are, as always, quite a few ballads, but I’d say Slovenia has this edition’s best one, though that’s not enough for the top spot overall, especially since it’s not in English. If I’d also pick one with a male lead vocalist though, I’d be tempted to pick a non-English one as well, Croatia. France and Netherlands put up good challenges, but I’d say they’re somewhat different, softer, entries, especially in the case of Netherlands, which tends to make them compete with Bulgaria and Belgium and obviously lose. On the other hand, Denmark clearly has its own separate place, not facing any real challenge for the edition’s duet. And I’d say Sweden doesn’t face real competition for the edition’s vocal group song either, though it could have done with more voices.
It’s hard to pick more clearly when I do it like this. Since there are nine entries mentioned above, I first wanted to find a tenth as well, but keep alternating between a few and can’t really pick. Albania, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Norway, maybe even Romania? I guess this means I have a top 15, but to complete the top ten… Maybe Norway, if I’d have to pick, but I can’t really say. And it’s also hard to pick a clear top five, or top three, even without ranking them. Maybe Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Poland and Slovenia as top five? France would be number five in that case, and I’m uncertain about its position in that top at all, so I can perhaps pick a top four. But to select better between them… Now that I compare them like this while also taking all the songs into account, Bulgaria seems challenged from multiple directions and I’m tempted to go against what I said above and knock it down, out of the top two, maybe even as far down as number four. At the same time, maybe not, but the simple fact that I thought that would leave Belgium as a clearer number one, which I was tempted to say all along. Can’t really say more than that, but it doesn’t really matter anyway, so I’ll leave it like this.

The half marathon should have taken place today, but instead I can’t even run through the park. Those in Sector 2 have just been opened again, but as far as I know the rest are still closed, and will probably remain closed until at least Friday, when we’ll no longer be under the state of emergency. And since everybody will go out just then in that case, I won’t, so at this point I’m thinking to not run at all next week, since it’d feel rather odd to run on the street again when there will only be a few days left, and when the route reaches one spot that’s just across the road from a park that would be open, but in which I wouldn’t want to go to run. But that would make the following week complicated, because I definitely want to “honor” the half marathon by covering that distance through the park as soon as possible, yet don’t want to just do it right away, without at least a 16 km run first, and doing a half marathon no more than a couple of days after 16 km would be a tall order, and skipping a week before that would make it even worse.

Speaking of running, this week’s run was Friday, when the alarm again rang at 11 AM. Woke up three times before then, however, and if the first two times I heard dad here and awake and didn’t need to pee, so I got right back to bed and actually managed to get back to sleep rather quickly, the third time was at 10:30 AM and it didn’t go so well. Decided to try to get a little more sleep, since I could still hold it too, but ended up lost in thoughts again, and the brief nap I likely did manage was plagued by nightmares, and I believe I was awake again before 11 AM, though I was too confused to be certain. But I had the usual stuff plus almonds, which has in fact been the normal thing for the days when I run for some time now, and two of those old oat biscuits, putting jam on one and honey on the other, and went out at 1:15 PM, wearing the running pants and the regular shoes, but also a regular t-shirt, and of course the mask. The reported temperature was around 19°C, but there were some clouds too.
The time was 49:33.27, with lap times of 12:29.54, 12:21.21, 12:15 (12:14.79) and 12:28 (12:27.73). I obviously didn’t try to put the mask on properly again, but it was probably still a bit better than it used to be before last time, and things didn’t look good at first, needing to push to just barely stay under 12:30 on the first lap. Admittedly, said lap included a brief stop when a few people, including one who had just parked his car on the sidewalk in that spot, caused a roadblock in front of this nearby shop, then another to allow a car to pass, and probably had to slow a little for another car as well. There was another brief stop for a car on lap two, and also a tiny bug got in my eye, and I slowed twice while trying, and failing, to remove it. There was some weaving as well, and maybe slowing a couple more times, but the one notable moment when I clearly had to slow was when I caught up to a worker a bit before the end of that narrow path through that nicer bit of the route and he was walking slowly and carrying something, so there was no room to pass right away. I believe that was on lap three, but I’m not sure anymore, so there’s a chance it was in fact also on lap two, or maybe even on four. That strikes me as much less likely, however, since I remember thinking on lap four that the only external problem was the wind, which had in fact rather suddenly picked up. My body wasn’t happy on that last lap though, at first my left ankle starting to bother me, followed by the right knee and hip, and if the hip just gave me a few warnings, the knee was quickly getting worse, requiring me to make an effort to manage it. And I was making an effort to keep pushing myself at that point anyway, since if I lost focus for a moment I noticed myself slowing down.

Took the things I needed with me again, so went straight to this Kaufland and Carrefour after that, jogging much of the way. Got even more tiny bugs in my eyes and under the mask, one probably getting in my nose, before getting there, and when I went to the bathroom at Kaufland I saw two caught in my eyelashes on the left eye, but that one stuck in my right one since lap two of the run was actually on the eye itself, and it took me a while to remove it. Or I hope I did, though my eye continued to bother me a bit at least the rest of that day. Either way, went straight to the bakery area after going in, which was a good thing, since I found exactly four of the kind of bread I wanted, which was also discounted, and that was just how many I wanted. Then got a few other things and used the self-checkout without problems even if I just placed the bag with the bread on the scales, without removing them from it first. Also found National Geographic at that store next to Kaufland this time, and then went to Carrefour, mainly looking for the cabbage that was on sale. Didn’t get any though, since it didn’t look good enough to just keep until I’ll finish what I still have, so I just got a few other things and then got back on a route I never used before, getting around the park on the other side, getting back a bit after 4:30 PM. Only actually got behind the park after a while though, but on that short stretch of road, before getting around it, I counted six runners, and there were nine or ten I saw that day in total, since I believe the one I saw in front of the park, on the way to Kaufland, was the same one I saw here at the corner, as I was also running.

Just before leaving that day, I noticed that Avira had switched itself to the free edition, and after getting back I saw that it had indeed just happened, right after 1 PM. The relevant protection still seemed active though, so I stuck to my original plan… And that made me even more worried when I got back to the computer that night. Had cooked again, only left the kitchen at 3:30 AM and took the rest of the food to continue eating here, and when I checked my e-mail I noticed a notification, received a bit after 2 AM, that somebody had started the process of replacing all security information on my Microsoft account. The e-mail was legitimate, the only unusual things being that it was in Romanian, when my e-mail is set to be in English, and that it listed only the first two letters of my account name instead of the first two letters and @hotmail.com. Plus, of course, the obvious fact that the “somebody” was definitely not me!
Since when I tried to access the security information I got a message that Internet Explorer was no longer accepted due to not meeting the security requirements, I also considered the fact that this notification might be a way to force those who still use it to switch, and the other oddities about that notification also made me wonder whether it was in fact about some forgotten account I had on another Microsoft property, which was now being merged with the active one I use for e-mail. The fact that there was no unusual activity listed would perhaps also point towards those, shall we say, benign options, but the timing, just when my computer had been somewhat less protected, definitely brought worse possibilities to mind. And that got even worse when, while wondering why hadn’t I received any SMS about it as well, I noticed that my phone wasn’t working at all again. If I turned it off and back on, I could usually make a call, but as soon as it was supposed to receive something, either a message with my remaining credit or a code to sign in, it stopped working again, usually silently, and that didn’t change even though I tried several times. But there was little else I could do at the moment, so I just changed the password and finally got in bed at 5:20 AM.
Left my phone off during the night, and when I got up I put the SIM card in the old one, which also told me to check it at first. That makes me wonder whether the problem isn’t the card after all, and these old ones are just much better at dealing with a failing one, but after taking it out, blowing and rubbing, just in case, and putting it back in more carefully, it worked again, and right away I received a message with my remaining credit, with the time being from the previous night, so probably received after I had turned the old one off, which explained why it didn’t just get lost.
A bit later, I restored the system from the backup, getting it done before I lost courage again, but actually connected the external HDD before rebooting and made sure that it was seen in BIOS before starting from the recovery disk, which I’m not sure I ever did before, and the first thing I saw when it booted from that disk was a prompt to unlock the encrypted partition on the external HDD, which I definitely never saw before, the encrypted partitions just being inaccessible when I tried to recover. It also said that it detected problems that may prevent Windows from starting properly and wanted to fix them, but I just ignored everything and restored as planned. Thought about it later and realized I should have tried to figure out what problems it thought it discovered, but it was too late by then.
The LAN chipset was enabled again after restoring the system, so I quickly disabled it again, and that might have messed with the SSD’s software a bit, since I think it was trying to update. I knew an update was available, which I had ignored before, but when I could connect later, I installed it after all, in part to make sure there were no problems, and saw that it requires significantly more system resources. However, I had in fact connected once more even before that, briefly, because I received an SMS with a code to use to sign in to my Microsoft account! That was exactly three hours after putting the SIM in the old phone, and I guess it’s not impossible to have been one I had requested at night and which somehow found its way through then instead of just getting lost, but the time was the current one, so definitely seemed that somebody had just requested one, and I wanted to check to see whether I could spot any activity. Still didn’t, however, and I was left wondering what that was about, since I disconnected again quickly… Not so quickly as to prevent the time from updating, however, and since that backup was made before the daylight savings change, BOINC messed up again, causing my first failed MilkyWay@home task. Just one failed though, and I believe that was because that one completed before I noticed what happened and rebooted, the other one which had been running when the time changed continuing and validating.
The thing is that I didn’t make another clean backup last evening, before installing Trend Micro Antivirus+ at night, so I’ll need to use this one again later and I sure hope I’ll find some way to remember this issue and prevent even more failed tasks! But, as I said, started a new trial last night, though this is another one that’s clearly not an option. It killed explorer.exe and restarted it in an odd way while installing, the network icon being completely disabled, but it worked again after I killed and restarted it again myself, though I also rebooted after that for good measure. A strange thing is that I’m not seeing the Samsung Magician icon in the notification area anymore after that reboot, though it was there after I updated it, and the process is running. But this is about the new antivirus, and the first reason why it can’t be an option is that automatic updates can’t be disabled or even configured at all! I’m seeing registry entries, one listing one day and another three hours, which seem to match what I found when I searched, which seems to indicate that it checks daily for program updates and every three hours for definitions, and I’m also seeing a system task checking for something once every seven hours, but I’m blocked from editing those registry entries, so maybe I’ll try it in safe mode later and see what happens. Either way, I’m definitely noticing its performance impact, which is another reason why it can’t be an option, not that any was needed anymore.
But the main problem is what’s going on with that account, and whether somebody is actually trying to access it. Then again, if that’s happening, writing about it here is probably a bad idea, but at the same time it may count as evidence in case they’ll succeed and I’ll need to recover it. Still not seeing any unusual activity though, but I guess an attempt to gain access may be made without actually trying to sign in, using the forms. The fact that I reacted to that message and changed the password, twice in fact, and have been thoroughly checking everything since then, should probably alert anyone checking that request to the fact that it’s not from the account’s actual owner and said owner has been alerted and is trying to avoid losing it. But I’ve also been asking for more advice, and we’ll see what will happen. In case anyone, other than the possible hacker, is reading this and has any ideas that might help figure out exactly what’s happening or notices something unusual, or will notice something unusual apparently coming from me, do let me know…

Yesterday I cleaned my room somewhat more thoroughly, also rearranging some things, getting rid of a few, and changing my sheets and flipping my mattress over. Then, at night, while dad was working in the living room, I also cooked a little, and when I got back on the computer, before he went to bed and I reconnected, I blocked all of Avira‘s processes from connecting, since the Avira Antivirus Pro trial should expire today, I don’t know exactly when and it keeps connecting on its own. At first, it still said it was going to expire in one day, but when I checked again before going to bed I got conflicting information, some apparently indicating that I was on the free edition and some that the Pro still had a license that was expiring soon, and the situation seems to continue at the moment, nothing seeming to have changed in the Antivirus interface. And the CPU use I see when I execute programs, open files or visit sites would indicate that it’s still doing something, so I’ll leave it for a while longer, albeit without updates. It’ll be unpleasant if it’ll disable itself tonight, since if I didn’t do it today, I doubt I’ll get myself to move on to something else, possibly also restoring from the backup before doing so, before at least Saturday, but at the moment I’m trying to just write this and leave worrying too much about that for later.

Monday I went out, though I hadn’t planned to do so. Dad was supposed to go to my grandmother’s to bring them some things and take the cats to have their shots, but after I got up and he finished a long call, he said he wasn’t going to go then anymore, and he won’t just go to Kaufland either. The initial plan was to go there on the way, and I had told him that they had 30% off all pet products that day, which was something we couldn’t miss, but since he wasn’t going to go anymore, I had to. Hadn’t shaved, hadn’t clipped my fingernails, and it was also raining a little, but I just ate an apple and a slice of cozonac, didn’t even take a shit, grabbed the last regular mask, or at least the last one dad claimed he didn’t wear, not wanting my beard to damage mine even more, and went right out a bit after 3:10 PM. Was considering going to the Kaufland at Vitan, since the stocks are better there, and then also to the Carrefour from the park on the way back, for bread, since I was more likely to find unsliced one there, but it was late, so I just went to these other ones… And my concerns about stocks were confirmed.
At Kaufland, could only find the cans for Micky and the treats for Liza, and while I knew that they don’t sell the cans for Rocky or Liza’s food, nor the large bags of the other kind, they should have the medium bags, and there was an area on the shelf with that label there, but it was empty. Even spent some time around the entrance to the storage area, until an employee came out, to ask whether they had any more, but she said they didn’t. Could get one large bag of it from Carrefour though, since it was discounted there as well, even if the discount was lower. Should have purchased the olives from there too, but when I noticed that they were on sale at Kaufland I just grabbed some, knowing that my mother tends to ask for olives now and then and Kaufland usually has the cheapest ones anyway, but then I saw that same kind for even less at Carrefour. What I didn’t see there, on the other hand, was that kind of bread that wasn’t sliced, and even asked an employee and she said they didn’t have it unsliced, so I just got that bag of cat food and an expiring thing… And then scratched a finger quite badly with a fingernail after I got out, as I was quickly switching the bags from one hand to the other to grab my cap before the wind blew it away. Was passing by Kaufland then and considered going up to wash or disinfect the spot, but I decided against it and got back here at 5:30 PM. Meant to cook then, but dad announced that he was going to make pancakes, so the cooking was left for the next day, as I already mentioned… And also only showered at night, not right after getting back. But at least I had pancakes, I guess…

Speaking of dad and cooking, Thursday I had another crash, caused just by that, or more specifically by the mess and filth he leaves behind. The bathroom also pretty much needs to be bathed in something against mold, but that was about the kitchen, since I just try to clean the specific spots I use before I use them, but the rest is quite nauseating and trying to clean it would be an exercise in futility. When I got there Wednesday night and started cleaning after him, I was starting to feel nauseous, which I told him when he cheerily came there to finish eating while I was doing that. He genuinely didn’t seem to know what filth I was referring to, or why would it matter when I pointed it out, and when he meant to start cooking while I was there on Thursday and I told him to watch what he’ll soil, he cheerily said he’ll soil everything. That prompted me to stare at him for a moment and then say that, if he’s a pig, he should keep in mind that there are others living in the pigsty as well. He left the kitchen then, rather angrily throwing that I can’t take a joke over his shoulder, and that messed me up even more… Then again, the thought of him trying to clean up after himself, which did happen that time, did so as well, considering what that means for him.
Crawled in bed around 7:15 PM that evening and only crawled back out at 10 PM, but slept less than one hour during that time, just feeling that I couldn’t handle the situation anymore. Heard that he was trying to wash things and put them back and, as I already said, that made it even worse, knowing that I’ll have even more work to do when I’ll get there, as he’ll splash water everywhere and use huge amounts of stuff to supposedly “wash” things but still leave them even visibly dirty, leave the sponges soaked and thrown in various places, set the things to dry where the water will just pool around them and likely drip down on the kitchen cabinet, and also likely put them back in while still wet. Still, went to the kitchen about half an hour after getting out of bed and did spend almost one hour cleaning up after his attempt to clean up, but expected worse, so I guess he at least made a bit of an effort that one time. Unfortunately, the effort was to clean up a bit less badly than before, leaving a bit less “damage” for me to “fix”, and not to avoid using and soiling so many things in the first place, or at least to learn how to properly clean up. But I guess that’d go completely against his mindset of not caring about “things” and not being economical, apparently because he sees that as a sign of poverty and refuses to feel or act poor.

As it tends to happen when I’m in such a state, the computer seemed to have some issues that night as well. Had finally unplugged the old network cables from the UPS that day, but that shouldn’t have affected this one, yet when I plugged it back in at night, it kept saying that I was disconnected or it just didn’t work despite not displaying any problem. Had also noticed some brief moments when it seemed to stop working after I started disabling my LAN chipset instead of unplugging the cable from the router, so I won’t need to go there to connect and disconnect anymore, but after noticing those brief moments I had decided to unplug the cable from my computer instead, to see how that changed things, and it obviously made it much worse. It all seemed to work well again after I plugged the cable coming from the router into the UPS, putting the one coming from the UPS back in use to get the signal to the computer, and I didn’t unplug any cable again since then, getting back to disabling the chipset when I wanted to disconnect, which didn’t seem to cause any more issues… Until today, since I noticed another one of those brief moments when it didn’t seem to work when I spent a little time on-line before dad woke up. It may not be a real issue, or it may not be caused by my computer, but at the same time it very well may be, and I was supposed to stop sharing the connection, one way or another, in March, and it’s already May… And now, as if I wasn’t worried about enough things already, I checked the router’s information again and I’m seeing 305 errors for my connection, and there used to only be eight. It is possible that they appeared while I was cleaning yesterday, if I touched the cables while vacuuming or dusting, but I’ll need to keep an eye on it…

April 30 was also another day with no visits recorded in either view, as was May 3. But May 3 is more notable because that’s when my computer finished the last SETI@home tasks. The last ones received so far, sure, but I doubt I’ll get any more from now on. Had actually squeezed a few more between those MilkyWay@home tasks that I had to go through those days because they were close to the deadline and reached that target credit of 7.5 million on April 29, then went through the remaining ones once those MilkyWay@home ones were done and completed those that still needed results first, and then left it to finish all the rest as well, which happened pretty much when I woke up, at 2:30 PM, on May 3. Could also connect and report them a little over one hour later, soon after I got on the computer, but made sure to hold off on the last one that was completed, so it’ll also be reported separately, a few minutes after the rest. Also noticed when I checked at that point that I was in the top 5% according to recent average credit, which only shows how many had finished everything quite some time ago, since my regular RAC wouldn’t have gotten me anywhere near the top 5% and the one I had at that time was around 70% of what it used to be. But, since I saved those pages as well, I’ll add the links to the information about this computer and its application details page here as well, so it won’t all get lost… Assuming these saved pages won’t somehow vanish, at least.

Otherwise, also read Ichor Well during this period, between April 29 and May 2, actually just leaving a little for that last day and finishing it when I woke up in the morning, managing to also write and post the quick review before dad woke up. Actually, just managed to finish the post for the Collection before disconnecting as well… And then, the next day, I downloaded and started the novelization of Planescape: Torment. Had started the Rhyss Hess one way back and then stopped, but for some reason found myself going through a few more scenes recently and decided to actually go for this “proper” one after all. And this is indeed a proper book, unlike that other one, and in fact I’ll go right back to reading now that I finished this.

Considering how short the included books, or at least the first two, are, I’m tempted to call Free-Wrench Collection: Volume 1 the real first book in the series, even if that makes the recapitulation at the start of Ichor Well rather tedious. Other than that, I still don’t like how such Kindle bundles work, the whole thing being a single file and a single library entry, but that’s Amazon‘s fault.

Quick reviews of the included books:
Free-Wrench – Rating: 3/5 [Note: Review of the stand-alone edition, in case there are any differences.]
Skykeep – Rating: 3/5
Ichor Well – Rating: 3/5

Rating: 3/5

Note: The review refers to the edition included in Free-Wrench Collection: Volume 1.

Somewhat to my surprise, Ichor Well is more like a proper book in terms of size, albeit at the low end of that range. The final chapter again delivers in terms of the action, while until then there’s space for more details and dialogues, a slower pace and more of a focus on the characters. In terms of this latter aspect, more nuances are added to the fug folk and a few are fleshed out a little more as individuals, though I’d say enough with the names, especially last names, that are variations of white or white objects already! On the other hand, not much is being done for the Wind Breaker’s crew, the only visible effort being to continue to develop Lil but even that failing to produce worthwhile results.
Another notable problem is that it often feels like the author is thinking with his fingers. Effort is being made, but the “guts” are showing, many of the thought processes going into worldbuilding and potential outcomes of the action seeming rather dumped on the page, often by putting them in the mouths of characters. The clear impression is that, by attempting something more ambitious, the limits of the author’s skill become far more obvious in every way.
Admittedly, Lucius is such a caricature of a villain that it’s hard to take anything seriously with him in the picture, and the fact that those points previously made about some of the things wrong in our world and the calls to fight against them are also lost in the details would also seem to indicate a story that’s not meant to be taken too seriously, at least not anymore. But, in that case, the pace is too slow and the real action too little, too late, leaving Ichor Well uncomfortably straddling between the simple adventure that Skykeep was and the much more ambitious work that at other times it seems to strive to be. I’d still call it the better book, but its flaws are harder to dismiss.

Rating: 3/5