Cav's Place

After 21 years of existence, SETI@home will cease sending work units and enter “hibernation” on March 31. According to the announcement, “the web site and the message boards will continue to operate” and it is possible that work will be distributed again in the future, if “UC Berkeley astronomers will find uses for the huge computing capabilities of SETI@home for SETI or related areas like cosmology and pulsar research”. Also according to that announcement, the decision came as a result of “diminishing returns”, after having “analyzed all the data [they] need for now”, and the amount of work required “to manage the distributed processing of data” when they “need to focus on completing the back-end analysis of the results [they] already have, and writing this up in a scientific journal paper”. However, I’m far from the only one thinking that the recent database problems played a large part, and in the discussion you can see confirmations of that, as well as other factors, coming even from some of those directly involved.
In truth, those problems seem to be the only likely explanation for the timing. I mean, yes, the entire SETI program has been starved of funds for many years and, especially recently, SETI@home seemed to be severely lacking personnel as well, but while it all seemed to be hanging by a thread, they always seemed to do a good job of continuing to manage to hang on by that thread. And now there’s Breakthrough Listen as well, sending in new data, and there are also talks of using more telescopes for this, so it seems like, if anything, there would be even more data to analyze. And the recent funding drive seems to indicate that they had no intention of ending the project, and the recent increase in the maximum number of work units sent did seem to prove that there was actually even more work to do as well, and the fact that the value was first doubled and then reduced by a quarter, ending up 50% higher than it was before, as they were trying methods to mitigate the database problems, seems to be one more piece of evidence pointing to those problems as the real reason behind it all. But, of course, SETI@home has had serious problems like these before and got through them every time, and there are reports that money wouldn’t have really been a problem either, if only they’d have asked. As such, what it all adds up to is that those making these decisions probably just had enough, decided that they no longer care to put up with it, possibly in good part because of Nebula. It is, of course, possible that it all simply became too exhausting, and/or that personal matters weighed heavily in the decision, but ever since I first heard of Nebula I worried that SETI@home will stop being a priority and may eventually be scrapped.

As strange as it may sound, I find this simultaneously shocking and unsurprising. I mean, for the reasons stated above, I feared it and know I should have expected it, but at the same time I at the very least hoped that SETI@home will continue pretty much forever. It’s not that SETI’s the most worthy project my computer could work for, and I don’t believe it likely that this method could ever be the one to confirm the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial beings anyway, so that has little to nothing to do with finding alien radio signals or any other stated goals, and much to do with personal matters, mental links and how much I commit to something once I start it. I mean, any computer I used since the original SETI@home client was updated to handle proxy connections, since I was on one at the time, worked for SETI@home constantly ever since, with just a few quick dashes to climateprediction.net, MilkyWay@home and World Community Grid‘s Clean Energy Project – Phase 2 when SETI@home couldn’t generate work for a longer amount of time. And it was also something I got Andra somewhat interested in back in the day as well, though shortly after she left she told me that she did install BOINC there, but attached to multiple projects, and it’s likely that she lost interest in it altogether soon after.
So, yes, I feel quite committed to SETI@home. There was a plan to split the processing time equally between it and one other project when I’ll get a CPU with four cores, but when I had to give up on that plan, I dropped that idea as well. Not that I found anything that “spoke” to me in a similar manner when I did search, since I’d only willingly split the processing time in that manner with an environmental project and there are hardly any of those. The Clean Energy Project is now over as well, and something about how World Community Grid works bothers me anyway, so what I’d be looking for would be an environmental project that shows up on its own on the BOINC projects list, and it would seem that climateprediction.net remains the only one to fit that condition, and questionably at that. However, that bothered me for other reasons back in the day, as I’m also obviously only looking for something that I can fully trust to be safe and free of bugs, and that works pretty much exactly like SETI@home does, also allowing me to check what my computer’s doing in the same manner, which also means finishing multiple work units per day. In addition, because of the computer I have, it’s important for it to use a similarly low amount of RAM and not write too much to disk, and I must also be able to store enough work units for at least several days and know that I’ll be able to trust it to reliably send enough work to keep my computer busy all the time on its own for the foreseeable future.

In the end… I must thank the people who created and maintained SETI@home for these nearly 21 years. For me personally, it meant a whole lot more than “donating” computer time or searching for alien signals or any other actual science goal, stated or not. And, of course, for the world in general it mainly meant creating BOINC and making the entire concept of distributed computing known and interesting, leading to many of the other projects and contributing to much of their success. As such, it’s mainly out of that commitment to SETI@home that I definitely will attach to another BOINC project and continue in the same manner, something having to do with astronomy being an option unless or until I’ll find a suitable environmental one. At the moment, I guess that the two projects I briefly attached to before that still exist, climateprediction.net and MilkyWay@home, are the first options, but I’ll see what will actually happen in the end. It’s quite frustrating that I’ll fall a few tens of thousands short of reaching a total credit of 7.5 million for SETI@home by the time it’ll stop sending work though.

Ascension to the Throne does a few interesting things with the combat, and that’s even more important when the combat is pretty much the only aspect it has going for it. Well, that and the fact that it’s quite a power trip, which is good from where I’m standing, though those looking for a challenge will disagree. But I was talking about the interesting elements in combat, and the most obvious one is the fact that, while you can stack up to ten units of the same type in each slot, the units are displayed and treated individually, and this changes the tactics significantly.
The most obvious effect is the fact that each attacker dealing physical damage can only attack one target at a time. Then, the number of free hexes around each member of the target group determines the maximum number of potential melee attackers, offering ways to protect units. Ranged attackers don’t have this problem and their shots ignore obstacles, but each of them is still limited to shooting a single enemy unit at a time. In addition, while units can move and then perform a melee attack, and their movement range is even extended in order to allow striking any and all units in the target group if the normal movement range allows attacking at least one, they can’t both move and shoot, or cast a spell, in the same turn, and ranged attacks also can’t be performed if an enemy unit is right next to any unit from the group. Nevertheless, melee units that aren’t very fast may tend to become irrelevant rather quickly, though those that are very fast can be used to great effect, both for and against you. As for spells, the spell power and intelligence of all casters in a group is added together, but direct damage spells usually have a maximum number of units they can strike, the others in the target group being unaffected, while the power of other spell effects is divided by the number of units in the target group to determine the effect applied to each. This means it makes sense for magic resistance to reduce the power of the effects on each target, but it’s rather strange when armor acts in the same manner, reducing the total damage taken by each unit struck instead of the damage dealt by each attacker.
Your tactics need to take all of that into account, and what truly helps is that there’s no randomization, so you can truly calculate what will happen. There are no chances to hit, no damage ranges, and even the order of movement is set, the criteria used being, in order, speed, whether the unit is in the front row, and the exact position, counting from the top. If all are equal, your unit will move before the enemy’s, and there are actually a few battles that’d be unwinnable otherwise, seeing as it’s game over the moment the main character gets killed and the AI will usually prioritize doing so if possible. However, while not bad overall, said AI can easily be tricked into using spellcasters to attack other units, and I wonder if that isn’t actually intentional, considering the units faced late in the game.

As I already mentioned, while those looking for a challenge definitely won’t, another thing I enjoyed was the fact that the game is quite a power trip, and accepting some early pain, which isn’t really that much after the earliest stages, makes for even greater gains towards the end. Yes, in the beginning you will be searching for that next fight you can survive, and after a while there may be one battle that may dishearten you, which may lead to deciding to use a raft to get around it only to find that they only go one way and you’re stuck, too weak to either advance or fight your way back, but past that point it just keeps getting easier.
One thing to keep in mind is that, on top of the value of each skill point being equal to the level it was gained at, enhancing that feeling of power as the character improves more and more each time, the rewards also scale with level, so complete quests, use altars, open chests or do anything else that offers a reward as late as possible, leaving as many as you can afford for the very end if you want to end up with the best possible character. And you can also customize the benefits, each altar offering a choice of two attributes to raise, and some situations offering other choices, the only false choice being that offered by chests, as it’s never worth taking the money for yourself.
Even leaving all those rewards for the end, by actually buying the best units you can, swapping what you have for them if room is needed, you should usually avoid tricky situations, but it’s definitely possible to finish the game with few purchased units and little cannon fodder, keeping most of what you end up with around long after better options become available, creating a certain level of difficulty through your own choices and obtaining that feeling of sort of caring for the units, necessary for me to feel comfortable while playing. As a curiosity, the army I first finished the game with included a single purchased unit, the “mandatory” conqueror, the other six slots that are open at that point being filled with the one other more powerful named unit that may join and a handful of other units that join for free later in the game. It made for a difficult final battle and I died the first time, but it worked out on the second try, with a lot of care. And then, just to see what was possible, I reloaded the save from before that final series of battles and properly filled my army with a mix of powerful units, which made even those battles a joke.

Otherwise, a fair amount of attention was given to journal entries, and my complaints about the quality of the writing can’t really apply, since it’s supposed to be a journal, not a book, and it does look like one. But to return to the elements that ensure that the player is in control, another one is that, with the exception of a few scripted battles, you can see the enemies and they will turn to face you if you approach, but they will never attack on their own, and when you get close enough you’ll see a prompt asking whether you want to fight and listing the numbers and types of enemies, including how they’re grouped. Considering all these things, it’s not exactly necessary for it to autosave before each battle, but the fact that it does is another safety net for those who want it… And it may become necessary in order to continue in one or two places, due to bugs I’ll explain below. On the other hand, I’m not sure how to take the fact that units available to recruit completely replenish over the course of one day, so there’s no need to keep them alive if you can afford to replace them. But I can’t consider it a bad thing, since it doesn’t hurt those like me, who play defensively, and those playing aggressively will have one less thing to worry about.

When it comes to the negative aspects, I must unfortunately start with the bugs. Nothing that will break the game if you’re a little careful, and perhaps make use of an autosave in one or two places, if needed, but there are quite a number of them and the reason why you need to be a little careful is that the things that should happen at the end of a conversation may not happen completely if you click through it quickly. Since it’d be far from the only text bug, I don’t know if this was the reason why I couldn’t talk to Conrad’s blacksmith after he told me to do so in order to get better equipment, but it was quite clearly the reason why the game froze at one point, and missing out on rewards is even more likely if you hurry. And it is, of course, possible for events necessary for continuing to fail to trigger, so you’re better off waiting for any other text that may show up to clear before clicking to end the conversation, and waiting for the last line to go away on its own or, if it’s a longer piece, at least giving it several seconds before clicking, if there’s no other text.
Another problem is that the game crashed quite a number of times, and a crash meant that it appeared to freeze, a window with an error appearing but needing me to hit Alt+Tab in order to see it and have the game actually close, after I clicked to close that error. These crashes usually happened at the start of battles and they were far more likely when there were multiple battles chained together, even more so if the character gained a level between such battles, and actually taking advantage of the level up animation in order to use those new skill points and/or rearrange your army made the crash pretty much a certainty. There was one place where using the autosave made before the last battle in a chain was the only way to continue, but I otherwise avoided loading autosaves, being able to do so since it worked at the second or third attempt in all other cases. The reason why I avoided loading autosaves was that I was worried that they may be somehow damaged, especially if the game crashed at that point, but also because if you load any save during battle, you’ll be faced with the prompt about starting that battle, as if you’d have loaded the autosave made before it, but all other data will be loaded from the save file you actually chose, so something seemed too strange. Had no problems as a result of loading that autosave though, nor with any other save files.
Other bugs I noticed included the fact that the character “teleported” a few times while walking, a short distance from where he was. Or that, if you have the combat instructor join you before being thrown there by the magic barrier, you’ll still have that conversation, looking like the air is talking back to you, but if you have the pilgrim join you too soon, there’s no way to get the answer to your question, though you’re admittedly able to ask for help when you reach the correct NPC even if you haven’t been told to see him. So a potentially worse problem is that the journal became unreadable, all entries appearing blank, a few times, I believe the reason being that a journal entry was added in a conversation that also allowed me to learn new spells and I did so, though it’s also possible that it was just another result of clicking to end the conversation too quickly. No idea if this can be fixed later, as I noticed it immediately and reloaded my previous save.
Moving on to text bugs, I’m sure there are more, but let’s see… The journal entry after clearing the enemies around Steelberg says you received a ring protecting against magic, but it’s in fact one protecting against physical attacks. The entry for closing the portals says that endless undead came out before you focused on the mages, but you only fight mages. You’re told to recruit as many troops as you can in Giantsville, but there’s no way to recruit any. And a particularly notable one has to do with the Old Temple quest, which seems to be a case of an idea being discarded but the journal entry being written before that happened and not changed, since said entry states that, as a reward, the monk offered to perform a ritual allowing you to resurrect if you fall in battle, but he doesn’t say so in the conversation and if you try to talk to him again at the temple you can’t say anything, can just pass by.
I’ll end this section with quite a chain of issues towards the end. You’re supposed to enter alone, without your army, and the journal entry says that you should be able to deploy it at a caravanserai, but there’s nobody you can talk to if you go there and will in fact enter with your army just fine. All conversations and journal entries will still say that you’re alone though, excepting the few units you can recruit inside. This may actually cause problems with what you can recruit, and I know it does for the group you receive when you leave, which is lost if you don’t have free slots, as you’re not asked to make some room and then try again. In addition, while a group leaves those you can see before the start of the battle, opening the gates doesn’t seem to actually affect the enemies you face in the battle itself. As for getting your armor back before that battle, I’d sure like to know how, because you’re told to meet the guy in a certain place and there would seem to be a way to get around the guards, but they still saw me even if I hugged the wall. And not that it matters, but it seems that you won’t get the soldier clothes, so the first and weakest equipment set, back when you do talk to that guy again.

I’m not sure whether a couple of oddities having to do with active spell effects are also bugs or bad design choices, so I’m adding them separately. One is that choosing to wait will cause that turn to count as two for the active spell effects, so the duration will be reduced by one, and in case of those particular spells the damage or regeneration will be applied, both when the unit’s turn initially comes and when it’ll get the next chance to act, after choosing to wait. And the other is that I sometimes got the impression that the duration of the effects is counted more accurately than in turns, so an effect with one turn left may vanish before the unit’s next move.

Something that’s clearly a bad design choice is that healing works just like any other spell, the effect being divided equally between the units in the target group instead of healing those that need it as much as possible, or at least working as an attack, allowing one specific unit to be selected, the game determining which others any remaining power goes to, prioritizing those with lower health. But now that I mentioned how attacking works, I must emphasize what an unbelievably bad design choice that is. Units are treated as individuals, not stacks, but when a group attacks another group, or when a spell that can’t affect all the units in the target group is used, you can only choose the first specific unit to target, the game determining the others, focusing on those that can be killed if they exist. If you want to spread attacks differently, possibly to “soften” a group in order to kill more with a later attack, you can’t. And, while I’m at it, movement works the same way, with only a single hex being selected as the destination, the exact positioning of the units in the group in that area being determined by the game. In addition, while when you attack you can at least see the damage that will be dealt as you hover over the target group, in case of movement you can only click directly, the positioning of the units at the destination being shown after you do.

Past that, the story is generic, mainly only there to push you from one battle to the next. But the feeling of power and the battles themselves can probably do that well enough, so it’s the conversations with NPCs that I’d consider more of a negative aspect, as quite a number of times they’re laughable, and by that I don’t mean intentionally humorous. Wonder how much of that is a case of lost in translation though, the developers being Russian. And, while I’m at it, a conversation is the only way to interact with stores as well. An interface for learning spells is created by adding a little more information to the one for casting them, and that for recruiting troops is similarly created out of the army one, but you can only talk to shopkeepers and ask them to describe the items they sell, one at a time. Admittedly, this doesn’t take long, since each shopkeeper has at most two items to sell. And no, with the exception of one suit of armor, you can’t sell anything back.

It does look like the developers had very limited resources to work with, and that shows very clearly even in Oganthar, which is by far the most developed area, the later ones clearly being rushed. The different regions follow pretty much the same pattern, and while the buildings do look different, the other assets are reused everywhere. It’s strange that some locations seem to lack some of the standard NPCs without any explanation though. But I’d say that an even clearer sign of rushing is the walk to Suntown or Arthur’s Castle, and then all the way to the back of Gilbert’s Castle and that quest location. That’s the last part of “mainland” Oganthar you’ll reach, and you’ll have no events, quests, NPCs or battles during that long walk.
What makes the exploration aspect even worse is that you can’t really explore even what is there. What would be obvious access routes are permanently closed off, there are invisible walls everywhere, can’t climb anything, can’t jump at all… Yes, if there’s nothing relevant past those invisible walls or impassable tiny obstacles, being able to go there might have done little to improve the impression. However, I found one spot, in Annaroth, where I could break through the invisible wall and wander all over the mountains, which offered some interesting views, and also allowed me to actually go to a ruin that I guess was just placed there as a piece of scenery to be seen from below. No rewards, no battles, but I rather enjoyed simply being allowed to freely explore for a while.

The graphics and animations also indicate the low production value, and the very short draw distance for scenery objects and textures, and the fact that they just pop in when you get that close, is rather strange, but that’s not something that can bother me in itself. What did at times get on my nerves, on the other hand, was that constant clinking of armor while moving. The lack of a minimap was also occasionally frustrating, but the map can be used to get your bearings well enough. And I’ll also add here that certain elements that seem intended for Valkyrie, such as rings from shops and even an altar intended for a ranged attacker, are placed in the game and unusable, the hero stating that they’re useless for him, though Eneya does take one ring you find in a chest… And that’s also the only time when a named unit improves while in your army, the other improvements to those you need to have with you happening when they return after some time away, while the optional named units never improve at all.

In the end, Ascension to the Throne is quite a power trip, and may be seen as a decent effort overall if the resources available to the developers were indeed the limiting factor. There are bugs, but nothing breaking the game, any quest or character development if you’re a little careful. The story is generic and exploration is severely restricted and not that interesting to begin with, but there’s enough content for this type of game and the gameplay is, after all, defined mainly by the battles and the feeling of increasing power. And Ascension to the Throne does a great job when it comes to the latter aspect, albeit too good of a job for those looking for a challenge. As for the former, there are some interesting concepts, even if part of the potential is wasted due to some bad design choices. Not a game you need to play by any stretch of the term, but definitely one you can play if you enjoy the genre.

The review for Ascension to the Throne should have been the week’s first post, but doubt I’d have managed to post it in time to avoid this becoming another Sunday update, so I’m writing the personal post first and then have to hope I’ll at least finish that by the end of the week. A problem is that, with the Arcabit Antivirus trial having ended Tuesday, the last update was made then and the plan was to first post that review, since I’ll likely check a few more things in the game by the time I’ll do so, and then restore from that backup, so I won’t have to still keep the game around for a day or two after that and then get rid of it again, so I keep delaying that, and moving on to another trial, as well. Then again, there’s also the fact that I’d want to be able to get on-line during the day when I’ll restore from that backup, and dad’s on vacation these days and also quite likely has the flu, so he’s been staying home. But at least the lack of updates means there shouldn’t be another one of those failures, as it happened one more time on Sunday, and that time the RAM wasn’t full.

Since I mentioned the flu, I caught it as well, and this is very clear this time around. That little thing I had last week was just a simple cold, but this is different. Throat’s not sore, and there’s not much in nose or chest, at least so far, though some crap to cough up was the first sign, Wednesday evening, and again after I woke up the next morning. But as of Thursday evening, there’s that feeling of having a bad fever, really bad in the morning. It was somewhat less bad by the time I eventually got up, but the fever is far from breaking, and I feel exhausted and my mind’s foggy, and it feels like I’ve been beaten. Seems similar to how I felt that time when dad was away and I wonder if those things I bought and took then would work just as well now… But I can’t get myself to ask him to go, nor to go myself, especially after he suggested regular medicine after I told him, and otherwise reacted just as I expected him to, unfortunately. And I did take one regular pill Thursday evening, though not the one he suggested later, on top of getting back to natural remedies, so let’s see how this will play out. At this point it does look like that plan of running a half marathon distance next week is out of the question, especially since I meant to do it Monday or Tuesday. But there may be a chance Thursday as well, depending on how the risk of rain will change by then, and I may also just do it slowly, only aiming to stay under two hours, or switch things around and do 16 km, also slowly, leaving the half marathon distance for later.

Speaking of running, this week’s run was Tuesday, when I got up when the alarm rang, at 2:30 PM, had the usual stuff, with a piece of pumpkin pie brought by dad some time ago as something sweet, and left at 4:30 PM, when the reported temperature was 16°C and it was sunny, so I just had an undershirt under the t-shirt and nothing else. It was windy when I woke up, but the forecast stated that it was going to die down around 5 PM and that seems to be what happened, since there was still some wind when I went out but it caused few problems as I ran. There were plenty of people though, and there was a moment on the first sector when the cycling lane was full of people and a cyclist coming from the opposite direction went around them on the same side I wanted to pass them on, so I had to stay behind them and slow down a lot to let him through. Otherwise, plenty of weaving and going the long way around, including going all around on the outside in turns, but no real roadblocks except on the final sector, as I was going up the stairs and a group was taking a picture there, so I had to first climb on those things for flowers that are next to the stairs to get behind them.
The time was 47:35.40, with sector times of 4:18.62, 5:02 (5:01.49), 5:51.30, 4:23.48, 5:05 (5:04.36), 5:51.63, 4:29 (4:28.64), 4:59 (4:58.92), 5:49.29 and 1:48 (1:47.67), making for lap times of 15:11.41, 15:19.47 and 15:17 (15:16.85). After sector two of lap two, I was getting worried that I’ll be slower than the previous time I ran ten kilometers, but the next sector was fine and then I just pushed on lap three, so it wasn’t a problem. There were a few moments when my right knee and hip gave me some warnings, but that didn’t last long.

The next day I was up at 10:25 AM and went out 30 minutes later, checking the nearby Mega Image for something dad had put on the list to buy and take to my mother, and then coming right back without anything, since I didn’t care to spend that much for those things even if it’d have been from his money. Then I left again at 11:15 AM and walked first to this Carrefour, getting a code for my prepaid phone card before going in. Not using it yet, but I’ll lose the number at some point next month unless I recharge, and with what’s happening with the exchange rate, I got it out of the way now… And actually spent what I should have spent, €7 plus VAT at the day’s rate being 40.05 RON while the listed price was 40.57 RON, but I gave the guy a 50 RON bill and he gave me a 10 RON one back as change, never asking for even a 0.50 RON coin or anything, and I didn’t have one anyway.
After that, went into Carrefour and got another one of those large bags of oranges, two expiring bio (organic) yogurts, two bags of cat litter and some of those things for my mother, after dad sent me an SMS while I was there to tell me to get some of their brand, since I had left a note asking about that. Have a woman to thank for not losing most of my money when I checked that message though, since they fell out of my pocket and went under a shelf without me noticing, but she did and pointed it out to me.
Put all of that in a cabinet at Kaufland and got the yogurt I wanted from there, as that two for one offer I should have found when I went to Auchan was now there. However, there weren’t packs of two yogurts, as the picture on Auchan’s site had shown back then, but you simply picked up an even number of yogurts of that kind and you got a 50% discount at checkout, so I wonder if that’d have been the case at Auchan as well, and I’d have been able to buy them for a bit less. But there was nothing like that listed there, so I’d have had no way to know, while here it was spelled out on the price label, so I knew what to do. Either way, also got a pack of those things for my mother of their brand as well, just in case, and some black radishes, and then used the self-checkout… With a guy who seemed to be unable to wait behind me. Actually he was behind the person who was behind me, but immediately asked to step forward for just a moment and set his two items down on a broken machine, then kept commenting that the machines weren’t available, that some employees were “playing” with one, though they were obviously trying to fix a problem and in the end did so, kept urging me to step forward, since I was leaving some space, so I won’t breathe down the neck of the person using a machine ahead of me… When the guy using the machine those employees had just fixed was paying, he urged me forward again and when I still didn’t move, waiting for the guy to actually finish and bag his purchases, he asked whether I really didn’t want to buy, at which point I finally told him that I don’t like being rushed, so I won’t rush others either, and he reacted with some shocked and frustrated expressions.
But I finally did my business after that, without problems, then picked up everything from the cabinet… And it took me 40 minutes to walk back here, carrying all of that, and not having a backpack to get some weight off my arms either. And I guess that was too long, since dad wasn’t here anymore when I arrived. But he had told me to buy those things, and there was no note, so I assumed he was just quickly buying something else and will be back, so I left him a note and then rushed to a nearby bakery, to get a couple of things that were on sale, one for myself and the other for him to take to my mother as well. Even ate after that, not getting on-line right away, though I did get to my room to change and noticed that I had apparently left the monitor on when I left. Either way, the point was that I fully expected him to be back, but he had actually already left, so I was left with all those things, and while the rest can be taken there later, what I bought from that bakery couldn’t be kept that long, so I ended up eating the second one as well the next day…

Took a six-hour break from writing at this point, spending most of it in bed after taking my temperature and seeing 38.3°C, which likely meant that in the morning I had around 39°C, considering how I felt. But I do need to post this tonight, so I’ll move on to Thursday, when I again had no visits recorded in either view. Woke up early again, at 10 AM, with the alarm, and went out at 11:20 AM, to attend an event at the Ministry of Economy, demanding a climate strategy, eliminating coal by 2030, coming up with a calendar to phase out other fossil fuels as well from the energy mix and reducing emissions overall. It was supposed to start at noon and I got there just on time, but I was pretty much the only one other than those from Declic, who organized it, and reporters, though another man showed up a few minutes later and then one more came as the globe was set up and we were holding the signs for some pictures. Since they knew me and this last guy, that other man seemed to really be the only participant who just decided to attend after seeing the event announced somewhere, and after approaching me at first and exchanging a few words, noticing that I was also standing aside at that time, he stood back, not actually getting involved, which makes perfect sense under the circumstances.
The problem was the wind, same as it was during the previous event they organized there that I attended, as this time they had a burning globe to set up and their initial attempt had apparently resulted in it toppling and some wires coming loose. So they were searching for a more sheltered location and weren’t allowed to set it up in the parking lot or at the entrance, eventually being allowed to place it on a tiny patch of grass in the corner of that area, the building offering a bit of shelter. After I went to get her when the others were calling for her during those discussions, Olga had already asked me to follow her to help, but in the end I didn’t help with the globe too much, the artist doing much of the work, obviously knowing what he was doing and also being taller. But then Olga handed me a banner and asked whether I wanted to hold it, and I couldn’t exactly refuse, so I ended up being the focus of the pictures, the reporters hurrying to catch something, as around 12:10 PM, before being allowed to set up the globe on the grass, they were already saying that they’ll have to leave soon, at 12:30 PM at the latest. It was also somewhat awkward when another Declic member, one I can’t say I recognized but who seemed to be coordinating this specific event, said that the banner was the wrong one, misspelled, and handed me the correct one, causing the reporters to have to start over. But at least nobody tried to ask me anything, and after asking that other guy to help and hold the lower corner, since the wind was blowing the banner away otherwise, I just stood there until they started gathering the things, as the delegation was getting ready to go inside for talks, which was scheduled to happen at 12:30 PM. The reporters left at that point, since the representative said they won’t be allowed inside, and a bit later I did as well.

The wind had picked up even more at that point, and rain was coming as well, but I managed to get to the metro station before it did, getting off at Unirii and checking out that Mega Image first, though I didn’t get anything. When I got back outside, it was wet, but didn’t seem to be raining just then, as I walked to that Carrefour and got a few things, including some more bread. Asked for half a kilogram and the woman who was there first fumbled with the gloves, then cut 890 grams, asking if that was fine, and when I said it’s hardly half a kilogram she said she was asking me if the size was all right, since she doesn’t know how much it’d weigh. So I told her to take some of it off, and at that point she dropped the knife, asked her coworkers whether they had another, and when they said they didn’t she went with that one in the back, returning after a bit, wiping it on a rag which she just threw on some boxes, so I have no idea how clean that was in the end. And then I paid at the checkouts that are upstairs, but that exit just goes to the parking lot, a sign telling pedestrians to use the one downstairs, but I had my products already, so I wasn’t sure what to do, the guard asking what I was searching for when he saw me looking around in confusion. But then he asked whether I had the receipt and told me to just go downstairs with it, and when I did so the other guard who was there just had a quick look on the receipt and in my bags and let me go. It really was raining by then though, and even harder by the time I reached the metro station here, so the walk back wasn’t exactly comfortable.

I already said how I felt after that, but another thing that happened that night was that I got The Quest Deluxe Edition from The Community Giveaway on the GOG.com forums. I did that before going to bed at night, so when it was already February 28, but I had asked for it before going to bed the night before and received the message with the code during the day. And at least the donor wasn’t that same guy this time around, so it felt a little bit less embarrassing. This edition isn’t on MobyGames yet though, so I also added it that night, though I was rushing and don’t think I included all the links in the notes, and now I’m rushing even more, so I’m not checking.

Otherwise, the timed squats during this period were just 2:17 on February 23 and 2:16 the following day. On the other hand, on February 22 I finished The Way of Kings, then wrote the quick review in a file at night and just made a couple of small edits before posting it the next day. And on February 24 I finished Ascension to the Throne, which is why I mean to post the review this week as well, though at this point that’s starting to seem less likely and I may end up with just a quick Sunday update as the week’s second post, just to be able to say I have one. But, to return to finishing the game, I first did it with the weak army I had, just managing it after dying in the final battle the night before and then reloading the save from before all four of them when I tried again, but then I also wanted to see what was possible, so I went all around Airath to use the altars and open the chests, then went back to Oganthar to get a great army, and finished it one more time, that final series of battles becoming a joke at that point. Took a series of screenshots, the first three showing the army and character, with the effects of the rings also shown, as I went through those battles the first time, without using the skill points received in between, while the last two show the army and the character at the end of the second attempt, when I did use all skill points at the end, after the last battle, and had also used them after the first one, though not also after the third, when I had gained another level. The last image also shows the gold I had at the end of this final attempt, but considering the army purchased, I should have had more the first time, but I didn’t take a screenshot of that. Managed to submit the screenshots taken while playing on MobyGames while dad was in bed for a while in the evening.

This is a masterpiece of worldbuilding, proving Sanderson a grandmaster. Elements can be seen in his other works, possibly tried, experimented with, but here they all come together to create a complete world, different from what the reader would be familiar with. Philosophy, religion, ethics and, perhaps most of all, prejudice are also tackled. That requires many explanations, and they are provided, piece by piece, layer by layer, like in Shallan’s drawings, each passing adding more detail, showing rather than telling. The explanations follow the action, are part of it, and even the occasional piece that would elsewhere be seen as an information dump avoids that fate here. Even the slow pace, required for such an endeavor, actually serves to emphasize the thrilling moments even more, not that I saw any risk of getting bored either way. If anything, I just wanted to spend more time reading each day, and now I’m itching to move on to Words of Radiance.
Not that The Way of Kings is perfect, of course. While Sanderson makes this work surprisingly well and the characters themselves are, usually, worth supporting and cheering for, there are too few of them for an epic fantasy on such a scale, and Kaladin is quite clearly the main focus while some of the others get too little space, which also restricts the number of locations and events that can actually be presented. And leaving Dalinar’s arc completely out of part three, considering how it ended in part two, is an odd choice. But perhaps the one truly notable problem is that at times the reactions of others seem delayed, even time itself seems to stand still, to allow the arcs of the lead characters to follow a plan, including events being seen through certain eyes. And, to add an editing issue, details are hard to notice in the included sketches in the mass market paperback edition, and the handwriting is next to unreadable. But having such sketches included in such an edition at all is unusual in itself, and they do help with a few mental images even so.

Rating: 5/5

Writing this in pieces again, and off-line, and a bigger problem is that I might have caught something, so I should probably spend more time in bed instead of doing this. Did stay there for over three and a half hours Tuesday evening, since I also felt like I had a bit of a fever, on top of my throat being sore, which could have been caused by the previous day’s run. I’m also increasingly concerned that I’m developing some allergies, possibly to something I come in contact with in here, since my nose is better when I’m outside. Wondering if it’s simply dust, and Tuesday evening I also cleaned my room a little, but I don’t think that even that plus the run would explain having some crap to cough up as well starting the next day. Everything else was better Wednesday and Thursday though, yesterday there was less crap but I felt tired and weak, and today things seem quite fine from all points of view, so I also stopped taking what I had been taking these days, sticking to natural remedies but nevertheless taking some things. I sure hope I’ll be fine from now on and that this won’t mess up my running schedule, since said schedule includes a half marathon distance the week after the next.

Since I mentioned running, last week’s run was on February 13, and the time was 47:44.76, with sector times of 4:22.89, 5:01 (5:00.67), 5:48.36, 4:30 (4:29.42), 4:57 (4:56.74), 5:47.88, 4:32 (maybe 4:31.46), maybe 5:05.29, 5:53.03 and 1:49.02, making for lap times of 15:11.92, 15:14.04 and 15:30 (15:29.78). Couldn’t remember the exact time after sector one of lap three and only realized that I probably didn’t even really look at the hundredths as I was getting under the bridge, at the end of the next sector, and it was too dark there to look then, and right at that moment I couldn’t even remember what to press to get some light on my stopwatch, not that it’d have helped much. Seem to remember a four for tenths and something made me assume that it was 42, so I based the exact times for those two sectors on that, but I’m uncertain even of the tenths. But they’re poor times, so it doesn’t matter.
Got up at 2 PM, when it was quite windy, but the forecast was saying that it’ll get better after 5 PM, so I decided to stick to the plan, especially since it was unlikely to get better over the next few days. Had the usual stuff plus pumpkin, and honeycomb as something sweet, and went out at 4:40 PM, wearing the running shirt, with just the running t-shirt underneath, and the new tights, plus the jacket for the walk. The reported temperature was 10-11°C when I left and it was sunny, so in itself that would have allowed me to run wearing just the t-shirt, but the wind changed things, and I was also going to run until sunset, with the temperature likely to drop to about 6-7°C by then.
At least the wind did die down after a while, though the gusts in some parts of sector two and at least the first half of that long left turn in sector three kept being a problem, even if less of one on laps two and three. On lap one, the wind during the first part of that long turn almost made me feel like I wasn’t going anywhere. Other than that, there were some people, but only requiring weaving, going the long way around and calculating paths, without creating real roadblocks. Interestingly, while I expected the park to get more crowded later, it seemed the worst on lap one and sector one of lap two, getting better after that. Was worried about my pace all along, only taking it a bit easier on sector one of lap two, after pushing on sector three of lap one, but after that I just gave everything, even if I risked getting tired later and failing to stay under 48 minutes after all. But it worked out in the end, even if it was the slowest time over ten kilometers since November 7, and that one was also the only slower one since summer.
As for the tights, they did feel quite nice, in fact at times causing me to check that I was actually wearing something, since it felt like I didn’t have anything at least on my lower legs. A problem is getting them on and off, the lack of a zipper making it hard for the heel to pass, so they’ll likely get damaged in time because of that. And another thing is that the little inside pocket meant for keys means you need to dig inside after getting out and before getting back in. But those things aren’t relevant while running, so they seem like a good choice from that point of view, and they were quite cheap, after all.

This week’s run was Monday, and I went for 16 kilometers, since I can say I started preparing for the half marathon. Meant to get up when I woke up at 1:40 PM, but crawled back under the blanket, thinking I’ll just stay there a little longer, and I’m quite sure I fell asleep again before the alarm rang, at 2 PM. So I got up then and left a few minutes after 4 PM. It was warm and sunny, with a reported temperature around 14°C at that time, the various sources I checked strangely listing anything between 12°C and 17°C. That obviously meant I ran with just the t-shirt on and an undershirt under it, and of course the tights, and didn’t even take the jacket for the walk, so it was a bit chilly on the way back, the temperature dropping by then, but it’d have been pointless to carry it all that way only for those few minutes. As for what I had, the usual stuff plus almonds and pumpkin, and two of those oat biscuits with jam as something sweet.
The primary target was only 1:18, thinking to try for 1:17 if after lap two it’ll look like I’ll manage it, but I actually ended up with a time of 1:16:17, with sector times of 4:23, 5:05, 5:48, 4:20, 4:58, 5:44, 4:26, 5:01, 5:48, 4:28, 5:04, 5:51, 4:29, 5:00 and 5:52, making for lap times of 15:16, 15:02, 15:15, 15:23 and 15:21, again making a point of not even trying to memorize exact times. Meant to just stay under 15:20 on lap one, and had to push on sector three to manage that, after being rather slow on the first two sectors, but then lap two went well, and after lap three I started thinking of 1:16:30, so I pushed on lap four and got the time I wanted to feel quite safe, despite getting rather tired at that point. The thing is that I think I could have continued to a half marathon distance and get a new record, but that wasn’t the plan and it’d have gotten dark as well, so now it remains to be seen what I’ll manage the week after the next, assuming I’ll even be able to run then.
Something felt odd on my left leg as I started running, possibly the sock not being arranged properly under the tights, or the tights not sitting well over the sock, and I rather hopped around a few times, trying to fix that, so I lost a bit of time on the first sector because of that. And those movements likely caused my left hip to bother me early on as well, and while it got better after a while, on sector three of lap three I noticed that pretty much every joint, with the exception of my right ankle, had started giving me some warnings, though most also got better after a while. Otherwise, there was some wind, not too bad but enough to be a bit of an issue in some places, and mainly on that long left turn. And there were also a fair number of people, and on top of needing to weave and go the long way around, there were two more notable issues on sector one of lap three, first ending up doing the funny dance for a moment, when two women were coming towards me while looking at the lake and the reaction one had when she noticed me as I got close caused that, and then actually needing to stop for a moment and get around a roadblock formed by a group that seemed to think that they owned the path. Bumped into them on sector one of laps four and five too, but the path was wider there and I could get through more easily. Other than that, did feel that nail jabbing the toe next to it again, and saw some blood there after I got back, but not too much and I couldn’t even see any on the sock this time around.

Only timed the squats on February 15, 2:13, and 16, 2:15. And another thing that happened twice during this period was Arcabit Antivirus messing up in that same manner, so I had to reboot to fix it. I wonder if it has to do with having little free RAM at the time of an update, since I thought I saw a pattern, but I don’t care to test it, and I’m thinking that just getting through this month with it may be more trouble than it’s worth anyway. Doing a quick scan after that second failure also caused Comodo Firewall to be busy for a while, granting permissions for access to quite a number of other system files, so I wonder what it did there. But this trial will expire in a few days, so next week I’ll need to restore from that backup, hoping it’ll work without problems, and then see what to do next.

Getting back to the beginning of the period covered by this post, February 10 was the day of deliveries. The guy bringing me back my phone woke me up when he called at 12:30 PM, saying he’ll be here in ten to 15 minutes but only coming after half an hour. Saw a call and three messages on the phone, so I guess they tested it, not that such a test is relevant when the problem seems to appear entirely randomly and may take weeks to reappear, even if at other times it affects it as soon as it’s turned on. But the bigger problem with that test of theirs is that the most recent message was incomplete, so something was wrong as they finished testing, even if what was missing was the end of the message, while when I ended up receiving incomplete messages instead of losing them completely it was the beginning that was missing. But it’s been working so far, so it remains to be seen what will happen next.
After that, that delivery from Carrefour should have arrived between 3 PM and 5 PM, but the guy only called at 4:50 PM and got here 20 minutes later. And then he did ask whether I wanted to give him the bag back, but I was moving to check that the right kind of cat food was in there at that time, so I understood his question as referring to what I was doing at that moment, saying that I was just looking, and he understood my answer as the final one and left. And the bags say to give them back on the bottom, and I remember reading something about them asking for that, albeit leaving it as the customer’s choice in the end, in order to reduce waste, and I did mean to give the bag back for that reason, but I just got confused, had to interact with someone and my brain just wanted to get rid of him as fast as possible, so when he turned to leave I locked the door and then needed a moment to be able to think again, at which point it was a done deal.

Next comes February 14, and I already wrote about the events I attended, so I won’t repeat those details here, but there are plenty of personal things to add that aren’t included in that post, starting with the fact that the alarm woke me up at 11:30 AM and I left a bit after 1:15 PM, again not taking any camera, since I didn’t intend to take any pictures. Did mean to take the mask from the previous march for clean air, but forgot, remembering it just after getting outside and deciding not to get back for it. Sort of considered taking the gloves as well and forgot those too, and obviously didn’t get back for them either. Then, as already stated, I reached the event in Cismigiu Park just before the announced start time of 2 PM, couldn’t get myself to fill one of those few remaining pledges before others did, was really put off by how “fluffy” the whole thing was and hesitantly followed the crowd at an increasing distance until they gathered in a circle close to the main entrance, when I rejoined the others who were hanging back. Then I followed them to the City Hall across the road and, despite not joining those sitting in a circle and singing there either, I stood around until just after 3:30 PM, being among the last of those outside that circle to leave, after just about all reporters and most other older adults.
Walked to Unirii from there, just managing to reach a toilet in that shopping center before pissing myself, then went to that Carrefour, checking some prices and wasting some more time inside, without buying anything at the time. Got back out when I thought they should be arriving in that area for the actual march, but didn’t remember the exact location listed, so I first looked in front of that shopping center, walking to the other side and then back, then crossed to and through the park, at which point I saw a Police car with the lights flashing on the other side, assuming that it was there for the march, which assumption was proven correct after I went that way and soon saw a few cars of the Gendarmerie next to it, and then heard the protesters across the road and recognized a few others who had left before me earlier going that way as well. Finally reached the group a few minutes after 5 PM and pretty much stood around, only weakly chanting a few times, until the march started, though I joined in the chanting a little more as we marched.
Shortly after we reached the Ministry, a woman I vaguely recognized from other protests asked me to take a picture of her, but wanted it in good light and with some sign visible behind her, so after I agreed she asked me to come with her until she found a spot she liked, then fumbled with her phone for a while, as it seemed set to record video and she seemed to be really rushing and failing to change that. I guess the reason for the rush became obvious pretty much the instant she handed me the phone, since it turned itself off and when I showed her that she seemed to have expected it, so I guess the battery was very low. At that point, she asked me to take the picture with my phone and then e-mail it to her, but I said my phone’s just a regular phone, which isn’t exactly accurate but it’s definitely not one that can take a picture after dark, and she walked away. After that, I stood in the crowd gathered around the representative who came out to speak to us, obviously not asking anything and making room for those who wanted to and the reporters, but otherwise staying close enough to listen. After he stepped away from that group and spent some more time answering some other questions some participants had, I alternated a few times between checking out what was happening in the main group and what was being discussed there.
Pretty much as soon as the end was called, at 7 PM, I left, walking to Izvor and taking the metro to the bigger Carrefour, peeing again and then buying quite a few things. It’s a good thing I had my backpack as well, to split the weight, as I first walked to that Kaufland as well, getting two packs of rice from there, and then took the metro back, and even just walking back here from the station wasn’t the easiest thing when I was carrying a good 20 kg, not counting clothes and the stuff in my pockets. Was back at 9:15 PM.

The next day dad pointed out that we were running out of one kind of cat food, so Sunday I left at 3 PM, taking the recyclables out as well, walked to one of those smaller pharmacies with low prices to get another nose spray… And then just missed the free bus to the Auchan at Vitan. Looked for it at the intersection where the park entrance is, since I reached it around the right time for it, but didn’t see it when I looked and didn’t check again when the light turned green, seeing it drive right past me as I crossed. Tried to run after it and would have caught it if it’d have stopped there, but it didn’t, nobody wanting to get off and nobody who was already waiting waving for it, so I missed it. That made me decide to have a look through that Carrefour first, just checking prices… And then I missed the free bus again when I got back out. Wondered which way to cross when I reached the intersection at the farmers’ market, looked, didn’t see it coming, so decided to give up on that idea and wait to cross straight ahead first, only to see it drive past me as I did so, meaning that if I’d have rushed to get across the road before that light turned red and I’d have seen it coming, I’d have likely had a chance to catch it there.
After walking the rest of the way, I got that cat food and some other stuff, but couldn’t find those packs of two yogurts of a certain good kind at the price of one that the site stated should have still been available at that location. Wanted to get some of those for this period, it was an obvious choice at that price, but as it was, just got another pack of that cheap kind… And then again just missed the free bus, rushing to get out a minute before it should have left but not seeing it even on the street, so it either left a few minutes early or didn’t come at all at that time. But at least there’s that other one, leaving ten minutes later and getting me to that intersection at the park entrance, so I took that one… And a few minutes later received an SMS from dad, asking me to buy one more thing if I still could. Obviously couldn’t anymore, so I just got back at 5:10 PM, finding dad struggling with some things and having forgotten the small kettle on the stove while doing so, having burned it as a result. He said we’ll throw it away, and I guess it couldn’t be completely saved anymore, with all that stuff burned so badly in it, but I nevertheless tried to get the worst of it off before putting it away and ended up scratching a finger in that stuff as I did so.

As for Tuesday, went out just before 2:15 PM, this time walking to Cora, after just happening to check their site and seeing some things I wanted. Also took the smaller plastic bottles, remembering that the machine there still listed the old reward and that I actually heard that amount being announced as the reward at the other location, but I don’t know whether that only applies to that other location or the announcement just hadn’t been changed since the rewards were reduced, because at this one the rewards are these lower ones, a sheet of paper stuck to the machine stating that, though the large text remains as it was. Worse, the machine “saw” seven of the 29 as glass, therefore giving no reward at all for them. Don’t know whether it identified what bottles they actually were and that was the way it was programmed to react when it was something it couldn’t actually accept or it took a while to actually get going properly, since it seemed to have a hard time pulling in the bottles at first, rejecting them completely the first few times, since one side of the system pulling them in wouldn’t move, but most of those bottles might well have been rejected if somebody’d have actually checked them directly, so I wasn’t too bothered and just got a few things and walked back, getting here just before 4:55 PM. Wasn’t feeling well at all by that point, but nevertheless, as I already mentioned, cleaned my room a little as well before crawling in bed and deciding to pretty much take the rest of the week to recover from whatever I had caught, hoping it’ll be enough.