Cav's Place

Before reading this, meant to write a full review intended to somewhat cover the entire series, also thinking this was the end of it. But… No. And it’s not the end anyway, though most of the time I sure hoped it would be, just to get it over with. Yes, I’d say the writing itself remains the strongest point, not counting a number of typos, but even that seems less notable than before. It’s possible that I disliked the content too much to care though, since for the first three quarters of the book, the only parts I thought were written about as well as I’ve gotten to expect from the author were Sireth and Ursa’s sections, which were also the only ones I didn’t exactly dislike in terms of content.
Sadly, even those sections consisted of court intrigue, scheming and what I tend to call human filth, yet this kind of filth was much more present everywhere else and there’s little that could save those other sections. Admittedly, it’s a subjective point of view, my first complaint being the obviously postapocalyptic setting, with the typical elements of the genre much more present than before, yet even Shar and Setse’s sections left me cold, and in general I didn’t get much of a feeling of adventure, sense of exploration, reasons to care for the characters, their relationships and development. All of that should be present, considering the events, but I just didn’t feel it anymore.
Things do quite suddenly seem to click into place nearly three quarters of the way in, even if that’s still a postapocalyptic place that I remain very much put off by, and it is quite a ride for a while, but it still didn’t quite strike me as truly meeting even the standards set by the previous books, and it’s definitely not enough to change the impression left by the rest. It may be just me, of course, but I was searching for what I got to expect to like from the author and can say I found only traces of it here.

Rating: 3/5

I included eight bands in the previous post in this series, so was thinking I had a real chance to get to a total of 15 this year even if I won’t manage three posts, but that’s not going to happen. In fact, considered just including four in this one, since I’m in a hurry and just had the first three in mind and the fourth caught my eye rather quickly after glancing through a few names on my list, since I’ve been listening to a couple of their songs a fair bit relatively recently, but hadn’t yet checked that previous post at the time, so spent some more time looking for something else and decided to just go with one with a potential connection with the fourth, even though neither should really be in these posts. If I’d have remembered having eight in that previous post, I’d have definitely stopped at four in this one, making for a total of 12, 13 bothering me a bit. But now that I selected it, might as well…

The most recent band I stumbled into is Silent Tales, which seems to have recently returned to activity after a long break, at least in terms of releases, since I see albums in 2003, 2006 and 2018, with this latest one also being posted on their YouTube channel, the only other actual song posted there being Raven Circle, from the same album. Other than that, there’s an instrumental posted in 2013 that doesn’t seem to be from any album and could find one more, from their first album, but that seems to be it, so no idea what their older stuff really sounded like. But this recent album isn’t bad at least, and you can just listen to all of it and pick what you like, if anything. Personally find at least Thought and the Memory, Eternal River and When the Star Falls to be quite good.

Next is Dead of Night, a band I had apparently first stumbled into quite a few years ago, ending up one of the hundreds thrown on the list and probably never listened to again, but a post reminded me of them recently and I found that they split up, so I’m not sure how right it is to include them here, but I will nevertheless. You can even download a number of their songs by following the link in a post made shortly after they split up, and I’m quite sure the original version of The Highwayman was the song that initially made me consider them interesting, and despite being one of their oldest this was also the one I saw posted again recently. Still, with those free downloads not including anything from their last album, I guess I should pick something to share from that one too, and after a quick glance through what’s readily available on their YouTube channel, guess I’ll go with For I Am Music. Quite a different sound though, and I care for it much less than I do about their earlier stuff, especially when it comes to the instrumental bits.

And the third band I originally had in mind for this post is Solborn, and you can just listen to their album, and at the time I’m writing this seven of the nine tracks are on their YouTube channel too. If the two bands listed above are the most recent I stumbled into that seemed in some way interesting and the older find that I was most recently reminded of, I can say that this is the most recent find that rather impressed me. The sound quality and mixing could be better, but most songs are good, though they may take a while to actually get going, and I’ll point that out by actually suggesting Beast of Oblivion, which includes growls, and say that I liked it overall in spite of that. Other than that, take your pick, but I guess my second one will be the one non-instrumental song that’s not yet on their YouTube channel, Pale Blue.

Next would be a, shall we say, middleweight, Beast in Black. One bad consequence of that is that they have their songs posted on Deezer, which requires logging on in order to listen, but at least they are somewhere. The band was apparently created by the guy kicked out of Battle Beast, who sure seems to have landed on his feet. Male-fronted bands are unusual in these posts of mine, and this isn’t even the sort of sound I’d be tempted to say I like even with male vocals, but found myself quite stuck on Blind and Frozen and Ghost in the Rain for a while. And that should be enough, but since they did just recently release a new song, which should be from their next album, I’ll link to Sweet True Lies as well, to have songs from different albums here.

And the fifth band will be The Dark Element, whose vocalist you may remember was in Nightwish. And now that I looked it up, I see that the band is actually made up of her and most of a supergroup called Cain’s Offering. Still say her voice doesn’t quite fit the genre, but for anyone interested, they do seem to have managed to get something interesting enough out of it. I’ll just pick from the official uploads, even though other songs may be better, so I’ll link to the two videos released at the moment, The Ghost and the Reaper and My Sweet Mystery. Then again, the lyric video for Someone You Used to Know also claims to be official, despite being on a different channel, and I already broke the previous rule of two songs, if at all possible from two different albums, more than once in this post, so I’ll add this too, because it’s a different sort of song, and I’d say it suits her better.

Did mean to write this yesterday, but between sleeping so little, helping dad at least temporarily fix the new exhaust hood in its place and playing some more Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic, couldn’t manage it. Woke up very early, heard dad around, likely fell back to sleep for a bit, then woke up again around 8:30 AM and getting back to sleep didn’t seem likely. Probably did catch a few short naps over the next three hours or so, but with all the drilling from outside and the various other noises from above, I’m not even sure whether what I remember are dreams or just me imagining things, and when I finally gave up and got up I was feeling probably more exhausted than when I first woke up. Then tried to catch another nap in the evening, after helping dad and cleaning up a bit in the kitchen, but the noise he was making, in the kitchen or talking on the phone, kept waking me up, so I probably didn’t even get one more hour, put together…

Today somebody was supposed to come change the water meters, and water was supposed to be off in the building between 9 AM and 4 PM as a result, but apparently the guy didn’t show up, dad “intercepting” me when I got up to pee to tell me that, and point out that he woke up at 8 AM because of it and has to work tonight, and also saved water in large pots, on top of the three bottles we still had since Wednesday, only learning a bit before I woke up then, which was after 12 PM, that it was all for nothing. I went back to bed after that, waking up some two hours later, after dreaming that the guy did come after all and dad called me over quickly just as I was trying to change, so I just pulled my pajamas back on in a hurry to avoid leaving my room naked. But, of course, nobody was here then, dad also having to leave earlier, so I could make something to eat, check the usual stuff on-line and then try to get myself to finally write this. Cold water was off for a little while just as I was finishing in the kitchen, and then both hot and cold water had low pressure when I went to wash the dishes, after eating in my room, but I’m not sure what that was about, and it seems all right now.

Since I mentioned Wednesday, water was off then as well, I guess for the building’s meters to be changed and possibly for the system to allow reading the new ones remotely to be installed, no idea how that works. I had made tea Tuesday night and saved one bottle of water, and dad saved some more in the morning, but with it coming back a bit after 2 PM, I just used a little bit to wash my hands after peeing once and that was it, so we still had the rest now and I thought it was more than enough, but he saved a lot more and it was all for nothing anyway. Did wake up around 8:30 AM then, so washed some grapes while I still could and took them to my room, trying to get back to bed after that but failing to get back to sleep, so finally getting up a bit before 10 AM and mostly just playing more Shadow Magic. Also saw my phone off when I tried to check the time when I first woke up and remembered that the battery was getting low before and that I thought it odd when it was showing as being half full again the day before, but I shrugged it off and left it like that. Let’s see what it’ll do next, to see whether that was an odd momentary issue or it has some problem with displaying the correct charge.
Another issue experienced Wednesday was that I found myself logged out of Facebook and couldn’t log back on for a few hours, getting an error when I tried. Sorted itself out though, and when I did log back on it didn’t show up as a new login, so guess it was some odd glitch. What was much more of a problem that day, on the other hand, had to do with the water after all, but with the fact that hot water was off the entire day. It didn’t affect me too much that heating was off as well, but washing a sinkful of dishes, plus the cabbage and onion I ate that night, in ice cold water sure sucked. Couldn’t get the cold out of my body after that…

This week’s run was Tuesday. Woke up quite a few times that morning, but managed to get back to sleep, feeling at ease since I had an alarm set for 2 PM. When I woke up again just after 1 PM, meant to just rest a bit more, but actually think I drifted off again for a little bit, seeing 1:29 PM when I looked again and finally getting up at 1:43 PM. Ate somewhat differently and more than normal before a run, still couldn’t poop even though it felt I was about to after eating, and just managed to get out at 3:40 PM, which was the latest time I had planned, though the light was still usable at the end. The conditions weren’t bad though, with little wind and a reported temperature of 2°C, which was manageable quite fine with two t-shirts and the training shirt on. It does probably require energy to warm the air breathed in and the runny nose caused by the temperature is also a problem, but it still seems that it was way too hard to do a time that was too poor.
The time was 48:29, this being the worst for ten kilometers since June 12 and requiring everything to just, barely, stay under 48:30. Sector times were 4:14, 5:10, 5:52, 4:34, 5:02, 6:00, 4:41, 5:09, 6:00 and 1:47, making for lap times of 15:16, 15:36 and 15:50. That first sector was the fourth 4:14 I managed, the exact time I saw being 4:14.85, yet I again thought I was actually rather slow and also lost a bit of time as I needed to squeeze around a truck and some workers just after the bridge, so without that issue it could have marked the first time I got under 4:14. But obviously couldn’t keep that up in the least, with a rather slow sector two and times getting bad after that, with the exception of sector two of lap two. My left knee started acting up from the first lap, on a long left turn that’s on sector three, but then it seemed mostly fine until I reached that area again on lap two, after which it required more management, though overall it was somewhat less of a problem than it’s been lately. After that really bad sector one of lap three, I had to give it everything on the next two sectors and the times were still rather poor, leaving me needing to gain a fair bit on that final sector, so after getting myself up the stairs I pushed past the normal limits, allowing myself to breathe through my mouth most of the time, the runny nose making it hard to breathe through one nostril anyway.
Finally took a bath that evening, after not washing for five days, and I think I hadn’t washed my hair in eight days, though I’m not absolutely certain. Also made salad again Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night after not making any for four days before that, though I again didn’t make any since Wednesday and don’t want to do so tonight either, still meaning to save every little bit I can until I’ll know exactly how things stand with that payment. Was quite out cold until Monday evening because of that, but the fact that I’m not quite in that state since then doesn’t mean anything other than that I “suspended” it until I’ll know more… Just hope I won’t crash again before next Tuesday, since I asked dad to change the appointment I had at the dentist and he moved it then, after it was for this Tuesday at first.

Didn’t really mean to write more about the payment issue in this post, leaving it for when I’ll finally know more, but since I mentioned it anyway, and the fact that I was quite out cold until then because of it, I’ll also mention that I even called the organizers Monday, and that didn’t help either. Woke up early the first time, checked whether I had any reply from them, checked again when I woke up again later, didn’t want to actually get up but couldn’t get back to bed either, kept wondering what to do, sent another message on Facebook, which was “seen” but still got me no reply… Just after 4 PM, sent a support message to ENDU as well, but didn’t even get a confirmation that it was received, which was also the case when I had sent another message a while back, for a small issue after creating my account. Worse, trying to log on to their support site failed, trying to create a new account resulted in it saying the e-mail is already in use, but when trying to recover my password, after entering the e-mail address, it said I was not authorized on that page and to contact a representative, so it’s all up in the air and the order remains incomplete.
After sending that message to ENDU, I went to the toilet and dad “intercepted” me, sounding pissed and saying the guy reading the meters on the heaters had been at the door and he couldn’t let him in because of me being like that, that being the first communication between us since I had told him what had happened with the payment. I somehow managed to make myself go to him in the living room after that, meaning to ask for a phone, since I couldn’t call off mine, but he just insisted that I need to read those meters so he can at least leave a note in the door if the guy will return, as that was supposedly the “emergency” then, so I had to first do that, then sit through the “talk” as he made me feel even worse by saying what I was and am supposed to do regarding this issue, and only then finally got to use one of his phones, though at least he was making some other food then and I grabbed some too, and made tea, after calling them, which I did just before 5 PM. Not that it helped in any way, as the woman who answered said she has no access to the support tickets, but that they will reply, just repeating that when I pointed out that I paid what the bank told me to, after showing them the e-mail I received, and there’s nothing else I can do about it anymore. And that’s how the situation remained, since I still have no reply even now, even though the five working days during which a registration with payment made through wire transfer should be confirmed ended yesterday.

Otherwise, still didn’t read anything, so really need to do that next week, but since Shadow Magic still starts I kept playing, finishing the third Syron scenario Saturday night, at 12:30 AM, so in the first minutes of December 2. That’s not the last one though, one final scenario remaining, and after I made a bad starting skill choice I immediately surrendered and restarted, but then had to restart again on Monday, since I was just getting crushed and was likely to soon lose anyway, and I had worked out better tactics, which made a huge difference. The fact that the enemy seemed more wary after that restart did help though, and it even left the Halfling ally alive for a long time, defeating the Dark Elf one first, and it has mostly left the Elf and Syron ones alone so far, and I’m on turn 125.
There are still bad moments, lost two cities quickly when the defenders of one just surrendered, this automatic surrender being a huge problem of this game, and those of the other one were killed trying to hold that first one, after rushing out and briefly regaining it, but managed to recover from that, even though it required rushing my heroes back underground after they had just finally managed to get to the surface, so I’m still basically just surviving. Did survive attempts at overwhelming attacks though, on three cities more or less at once, then three big ones on a single city, one after the other, more than a full party of lords plus two bone dragons… But now I’m getting teleportation gates everywhere and changing my defenders again, using a mix of powerful units from the different races, since I migrated my cities to all the good ones, to have all options available. Those will cost a fair bit to maintain, but the mixes I had so far risked surrendering when faced with such overwhelming forces, and there were losses too, very small compared to the enemy’s but it seems to just send ever greater armies every other turn or so while I needed more than that to recover even from losing a couple of units.
Looks like it’ll take a very long time to win this, since I’m still just defending, just surviving, but I should be getting good enough at that to finally allow myself to push forward at some point, and I hope that’ll be in time to allow me not just to finish the game this year, but to do so in between reading the two books I plan to also read this month… And I should be writing another “New Finds” post too, since I just recently realized I only posted one this year so far. Actually, I’d like to do that tomorrow, since I definitely need to write this week’s second post anyway, but I’m not sure whether I’ll manage it, so I may end up just throwing something on here quickly, just to be able to say there were two posts. In fact, that was something I had in mind when I didn’t initially mean to include the part about that payment here, to have something to easily write about tomorrow too, but now I guess that option is no longer available…

One thing I could still leave for later, but won’t, is an oddity on December 6, when I now see Google Analytics reporting no visits. That wouldn’t be odd in itself, in fact stranger being the fact that this was the first day with no visits after those four in less than two weeks, the last three of them in less than one week, but lately there have been quite a lot of spam visits, or “visits”, since they’re actually fake, and on that day I have nothing in the unfiltered view either, which makes me think that it may be a case of data loss. If I’d remember things well, I could perhaps even be sure of that, but Thursday night I remember it getting very late without me checking and can’t recall whether I did check just before going to bed or forgot. If I did check, I’d have definitely noticed it then, and I didn’t, only noticing that lack of visits yesterday, but since I’m not sure, I can’t be sure that something was lost either. Do seem to remember having already seen something on that date Wednesday night, but not sure which view that was in and whether it was just some spam or not, since some spam “visits” are cleared out automatically even from unfiltered views after a while and therefore having those vanish wouldn’t be a surprise. But unless something will show up again, which I guess is unlikely by now, I guess I’ll list it as another day with no visits.

With the early bird registration for next year’s half marathon opening awfully early and ending yesterday, I wanted to take advantage of the offer. Not that I was certain that I actually wanted to enter for quite a while, thinking that the only reason to do so anymore would be to aim to get under 1:45 and the issues with my legs making that even more unlikely than it would have been on its own, so I at least wanted to go to a doctor and know how I stand, but that didn’t happen yet and I just had to go for it. Should have happened, since dad had gotten the name and number of the leg doctor from the clinic our family doctor also works at, but since he was away most of last week, he said he’ll call him to schedule an appointment after he’ll get back, then Monday he forgot about it and Tuesday he said he couldn’t find his number anymore, and he still hadn’t found it Thursday, so I was out of time and had to just register and hope I’ll be fine by then, somehow.
Now I had told him, a month or so ago when we discussed it, that the registration was now done through ENDU and the payment was in Euros, but apparently that last part went right by him when he said he now has a card that can handle such payments, so it’ll be fine, because when I told him again now he said he can’t pay in anything but RON, he clearly remembers being asked about payments in other currencies and refusing the option. So we had a tense “conversation”, with him doing what he usually does, being aggressive and just repeating something until the other gives in, in this case calling the payment processor suspicious for not allowing regular payments from here by any method, and also first telling me he wanted to see all payment options, then stopping me from canceling the one already selected so it won’t mess something up. And, of course, I countered his aggressivity with mine and went through the options, getting back to wire transfer after he left, since it was the only one possible, the account being the one of the group from here that organizes the event, so not being an international transfer, even though the payment was still supposed to be in Euros. The thing is that the payment, if done through this method, was simply listed as 20.00 EUR, while for any other method it was 21.95 EUR, with the 1.95 EUR being fees.
Either way, I left that method selected and had already sent him the information, so he printed it out and took it with him when he went for a massage, but then called me to say he won’t reach the bank he has that card at that day, which also means not until Monday, since yesterday was a free day here as well, so no chance to enable, perhaps temporarily, the option to pay in foreign currencies and make that payment by card after all. And I guess doing the wire transfer then was quite out of the question, since he’d have had to reach a branch of their bank and, while quite a few are open later, those’d all be out of his way. The thing is that he could have still made that wire transfer yesterday, he even was at Auchan just a bit before I got back there and that’s where that branch is, that being one of those that were open yesterday as well, but I only saw that when I got there Thursday evening, after he had told me that he had already been told by them that they’ll be closed Friday, missing the fact that the notification didn’t apply to branches at hypermarkets or malls.
Not knowing that and being left with no other options, I shaved and waited for him to get back, then let him know I’ll go to their branch at Auchan before it closes, grabbed the printed information from him since he already had it, and ran off, fortunately the free bus getting here right on time, at 7:15 PM, though that did mean I waited for a while, since I was at the stop at 7:08 PM, in case it’ll be early. Had also taken the metro card to rush to the one at Cora if I’ll be too late, since that closes at 9 PM while the one at Auchan at 8 PM, but I was somehow the only person on that free bus that time around and the driver rather rushed, so I was waiting in line quite quickly and at 7:40 PM it was already my turn. That was where the things that worked ended though…
The first issue was that, when I asked to be told how much I’ll actually need to pay, in RON, I was told I’ll first need to buy Euros and then pay with that, and their exchange rate was 4.725 RON / EUR, while the official one was 4.656 and the three other places offering exchanges there, including the one right next to them, displayed a rate of 4.68, so I could have saved a little bit if I’d have exchanged the money first, if I’d have known that was needed. But that was a tiny issue, the next being some confusion for the cashier, who was probably new and at first asked me for a 5 RON fee on top of the amount due, which seemed very fine, being even lower than the 1.95 EUR which would have been added by the site for any other payment method. However, after exchanging the money, when she was actually making the transfer, she asked the other cashier what to do, they discussed it for a while, I heard something about a 3 EUR fee but that the payer isn’t concerned with that, and it all ended with her telling the other one: “Well, tell me; how was I supposed to know? Now I have to give him the money back.” And she did just that, returning the 5 RON and saying I pay no fee, which seemed even nicer.
Well, when things seem too good to be true, they usually are, and after it was all done and she handed me the receipt, she pointed out that a 3 EUR fee was applied, but paid by those I transferred the money to, so they actually received 17, but telling me that they should have clearly specified if I was required to cover it myself, as these fees are for businesses the money are paid to and they’re aware of them, so if the e-mail said 20 EUR, 20 EUR should normally be what I need to pay. Other than what I happened to catch from their conversation, they didn’t make me aware of that fee before completing the transfer, so no way to change things before it was completed, though yesterday I was told it could have been voided if I’d have said so on the spot and they could have changed it, adding the 3 EUR, if I’d have demanded it specifically. The thing is that, after wandering off and going inside Auchan at first, I did think that I really should demand that, or at least that it would make sense for the fee to be added to this as it is for the other methods as well, but the transaction was finished at 7:49 PM and by the time I rushed back I slammed into a locked door, seeing that it was exactly 8 PM when I checked the time.
Meant to leave after that, nothing else to do, but saw none of the buses that’d take me back here waiting to leave, and even though there was some time until the next one was supposed to come, I wondered if it hadn’t left early, since the one that drove me there had gone right to the station and then left with the next people as soon as I stepped off, even though it was quite a while before it was supposed to leave again. So I went back to Auchan and looked for bread, finding none in one place and just one bag left of another kind I was looking at, but enough of the other kind, with bags not torn, to cover this next period. There was an employee restocking the entire bread area, but she was moving slowly, apparently wasn’t going to get any more of the first kind out and the other two kinds were rather at the end of her list, so she hadn’t even gotten to them by the time I headed to the checkout, in time to catch the next free bus, so I just grabbed five of that other kind… Or did so on my second attempt, because when I was looking at them the first time some guy grabbed a bag of hot dog buns, which were also in that area, loudly announcing that it was the best kind of bread and asking whether I agreed and whether I recommended it, so I ran away and probably rather shut down for a while, since when I found myself back there it was already 8:30 PM and I can’t say I did much of anything in between.
Returning to the payment, the thing is that I had asked the organizers for some details before leaving, first sending a message on their Facebook page, then sending an e-mail after being told to do so, but that message to tell me to send an e-mail was the only reply I got so far. Even added another message to the support ticket opened after getting back, then one more after I got back yesterday, and also sent another message on Facebook before leaving yesterday, but there were no replies, even though the message sent on Facebook was apparently seen. So I thought I had screwed myself, not even having any chance to fix things anymore, and was quite out cold. Less so than I am now, though…

Still, I did have another chance to fix things, since those branches of this bank that are in hypermarkets or malls were open yesterday as well, even if they closed earlier than they normally would, and I had seen that posted on the door when I got there, so could have just turned back Thursday and asked dad to go there yesterday anyway, even more so since he went to Auchan then anyway, not that I knew that then. But as it was, I just pretty much shut down and decided to get right back there the next day myself and see what could still be done, first hoping I’ll get a reply to either confirm that the payment was fine like that or to clearly say that it wasn’t, then going to ask those at the bank again when I failed to find any reply from the organizers.
Meant to take the free bus again, but was out five minutes early and waited for 12 minutes without it coming, so just walked almost all the way, seeing one bus get to the last stop before the destination just as I was getting there as well and, oddly enough, stopping because a few people were getting off there, so I ran in and used it for that final stop as well. Then first went to all three exchange offices that are there, asking for just three Euros, thinking I’ll get them at the better rate, one even listing 4.675 RON / EUR then, and insist on just sending that much, having any fee waived for this second transfer since it wasn’t my fault it was needed. However, that was the second thing that didn’t work as expected, since all said they didn’t have Euro coins, only being able to give bills, so starting at five EUR.
With nothing else to do, got to the bank, seeing just one cashier and not recognizing her as the one who had given the one who had worked with me the information about fees until she told me that she remembered me because she was there. The other one was also there, but in the back room, only coming out around the end of the conversation I had with her coworker and not saying anything, though her coworker told her who I was and why I had returned. And a conversation was all I got, since my determination to get them to remove that fee, even asking to see a manager or whoever I’d need to talk to, obviously evaporated as soon as I actually had to say anything, and the cashier repeated that firms should know those fees and the e-mail should have specified 23 EUR if I’d have had to cover the fee too, and either way, that transaction could have been voided if I’d have said so on the spot, but now it’s another day and it’d have to be a new transaction to cover the difference, so I’d need to pay 6 EUR to send that, which she agreed was messed up.
I did ask whether there was any way to have that fee waived a few times, but she said it can’t happen, because they’re checked a lot and it’ll be quickly noticed and they’d need to pay it themselves, which isn’t fair because her coworker did exactly what she was supposed to do. She also agreed that it wasn’t my fault either, also saying that people making such payments may not even know of such fees and it’s not their business to know about them, but said she couldn’t do anything and told me to contact the organizers, send them a picture of the receipt as proof that I sent 20 EUR, and see what they say. Also, when I said the offer expired that day and I may be left with the money spent, since there are no refunds, but also that the e-mail stated I had two business to pay, she said that, even if some branches are open, Friday wasn’t a business day and Saturday and Sunday definitely won’t be, so if I absolutely must cover the difference I should still be able to do so Monday, if not also even Tuesday, and should at least think it over until then. But, of course, if those I’m making the payment to won’t see it that way, the fact that she said so won’t help me any more than the fact that she said 20 EUR should be all I had to pay in the first place.
When I left, I was just in time to see the free bus I needed drive past the gate, so I had to stay at least a little longer and could have still turned back and paid the 6 EUR, perhaps after exchanging five at one of the other offices just to spite the bank, wasting 3 EUR but making sure I was covered, and maybe if it wasn’t needed I’d have gotten a voucher for those 3 EUR paid above the fee, to use next time. But I didn’t, instead waiting for the buses coming ten minutes later and deciding to take one instead of the other, thinking I’ll get back faster that way, only to see the other one drive past me before I got to the stop where I’d have gotten off it. But I wasn’t “processing” much of anything anymore at that point, just thinking that I could have just risked losing at most 6 EUR, and probably just three, but instead of that I risk losing all 20, since they clearly say there are no refunds and, in fact, in case of wire transfers specify again that anything paid that way for an order that’s not completed will not be returned, so unless it really is fine the way I did it, I’m fucked.
Didn’t want to tell dad what happened, just said first, Thursday, that we’d both get angry, then that I berate myself enough when he asked again last evening, but last night he insisted on e-mail, from work, starting to guess and guessing wrong and starting to offer other ideas that scared and annoyed me even worse, so I eventually told him, saying that from then on I won’t be checking my e-mail or reading any notes he’ll leave here, and will be running and hiding from him around the apartment so we won’t talk in any way. And also haven’t made salad for the past two nights, won’t tonight either, didn’t make the other thing I had originally planned to make last night either, and that’s how it’ll be from now on, because I need to recover this loss and I already planned to get as little as possible from now on and save all I can, so until I’ll know how things stand I must assume I lost everything and will need months to recover it under these circumstances, while if I’ll be told I need to pay that remaining amount and can do so Monday, and will therefore need to pay 6 EUR then, I’ll need to pretty much get nothing else over these next two weeks to recover that 3 EUR loss. If somehow it’ll be fine the way I did it, on the other hand, maybe I’ll get myself something sweet or who knows what… But I doubt that will be the case…

As for today, stayed in bed until 4:20 PM, went to the toilet once during that time, while dad was away, then did rush to the toilet after getting up but he went out again while I was still there, so could make tea and grab something to eat too, then third time to the toilet while he was showering, fourth time while he was making something in the kitchen and he stayed there… Otherwise, checked a guide to figure out what I actually had to do to win that final Syron scenario on Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic, since the objectives aren’t clear enough and I had already defeated the enemies, so guess I’ll get that done now, though I don’t know whether I’ll manage it tonight or tomorrow. There is one more scenario after that though, and since it’s already choppy again, doubt I’ll manage to finish that as well before it’ll no longer start, so will have to rush to do it after the next reboot, probably after this month’s updates, if I want to finish, and review, another game by the end of the year. And I have to read two more books this month too, if I want to get to 12 actual books read this year as well, so should get on that too… Just hope there won’t be any issues with the computer at least, though I’m noticing a few double spaces again, including one as I was writing this post. Can’t quite be sure I’m not actually pressing twice by accident though, at least not yet, so I’ll wait and see, and either way this won’t stop me from finishing the game or reading. It’d be really frustrating though…

Last week’s run was Friday, the time being 48:16, with sector times of 4:17, 5:06, 5:53, 4:35, 5:11, 5:58, 4:28, 5:07, 5:52 and 1:49, making for lap times of 15:16, 15:44 and 15:27. Had set my alarm to 2 PM, but woke up around 1:45 PM, it was 1:54 PM when I got up and looked at the time and exactly two hours after that I was starting to run, wearing the training shirt as well and with the jacket tied around my waist, and a metro card with six trips left on it in the inside pocket of said jacket, after finding it in the park, on the way. Also wearing my gloves was a good idea, but that shirt worn over the t-shirt was a bit much, since the reported 3-4°C definitely sounded cold but I was already starting to feel hot from the first lap’s second sector. The much bigger problem was my left knee though, since it didn’t even last three kilometers, starting to hurt before the end of the first lap, and the pain again being this new kind, which worries me more. And, of course, trying to spare it resulted in bad liver cramps even during the second lap’s first sector, so I had to try to manage both issues, resulting in that bad second lap and a few other spots hurting a bit. Lap three wasn’t too bad though, there were times when the knee almost stopped hurting, though on the other hand there was some pain where I almost had that stress fracture. But I could do well at the end, also being helped a bit by a guy I saw ahead of me on lap three’s third sector. Thought I could catch him, but he was a bit faster, added a few more meters to the distance between us, but kept me pushing.
This week’s run was Monday, the time being 48:23, with sector times of 4:15, 5:11, 6:02, 4:28, 5:06, 6:02, 4:29, 5:07, 5:54 and 1:49, making for lap times of 15:28, 15:36 and 15:30. With a reported temperature of 5-6°C, was wondering what to wear, considering two t-shirts but eventually deciding to still take the training shirt, and the gloves, but wear no t-shirt underneath, which proved quite fine in the end. Also had some more things in a bag in the pocket of my pants, but that didn’t bother me. Left around 3:40 PM again, though it was 3:55 or 3:56 PM when I started running, my knee reminding me it still hadn’t recovered after the previous run even while I was doing the few little moves I do before a run, and only holding for about 1.5 km. Didn’t hurt that much though, I managed to keep it in check better, there were plenty of moments when it seemed almost fine, though it immediately let me know if I got less careful, and sparing it obviously became harder as soon as liver cramps started again, also quickly, since I can’t seem to manage to do whatever I’m doing after they start from the beginning, I guess mainly because I don’t know what exactly I’m doing then, just listening to my body and doing what it still allows me to. Either way, that very fast first sector, with an exact time of 4:15.72, actually felt slow to me, but then when I just let myself run normally on the next sector, neither pushing nor holding back, I ended up with a poor time, which was the case for the third sector as well. Tried pushing on lap two but fell shy of the 15:30 goal, so gave it what I could on lap three, though I can only say I pushed really hard on sector three, since I really needed to gain time by then, and it was enough.

Going back a bit, a plate broke in the microwave Thursday night, splitting pretty much down the middle, all the way from one side to the other. And I’m sure that had been in the microwave before, but then it just decided to break, the issue being that it was the one I put over the tea when I made it, so had to look for other options since then. Also, earlier that day, I accidentally pulled on my headphones’ cable while cleaning and they fell on the floor. They seem fine though, the glue still holding too, but when I wanted to test them a bit more I unplugged the cable from the computer and plugged it back in and it sure was hard to find the position in which that contact works again. Was actually getting worried, since after finally managing to find it, I had to go through that two more times, since when I was getting back on the computer I had no sound at all. I did find it quickly that second time though, and it hasn’t happened again since, so maybe that will be good enough for now, until I’ll next need to unplug them or touch that contact in some way, I guess.

Friday, after the run, I wanted to go to Auchan without pushing my knees even more, so rushed to catch the next free bus, got there seven minutes early, waited for over 15 minutes and eventually just came back, after again seeing what looked like one of their buses turn away on another street, seeming to confirm that they really do skip this area during rush hour. But I did have to go, at least for cat food, so after coming back up I grabbed the plastic bottles too and then just walked, not even seeing the next bus coming past me on the way, though it should have done so at some point even if it would have turned away there. Still, that at least allowed me to quickly go into the metro station on the way and test that found metro card, finding that it did indeed work… And so did the recycling machine, finally, though I just had a few bottles this time. But I got what I wanted and a new plate as well, not that we don’t have plenty or that it could replace that broken one when I make tea, but it seemed on sale and for some reason I’ve been wanting some opal stuff for a long time now, so it was an opportunity I guess.
Left the store in time for the bus which should have taken me closer to Kaufland faster, but someone said it had left early, so I took the other one which should have left at the same time, which was actually late, and went to the other Kaufland instead, though I accidentally got off the bus one stop too soon, when the only other person left also got off. Still, soon after getting off I found a 0.50 RON coin on the sidewalk, which meant that getting off sooner left me with enough to get a pretzel, which I ate on the way back. Was actually wondering what to do with the small amount I had left after getting what I meant to get from there, apparently being just in time to find one last package, with the plastic the bottles are in being torn but that not bothering me too much at the moment, when there was an announcement that their pretzels were on sale for just 0.01 RON less than what I had left, so I thought I might as well. That was just a little thing though, since that night I also made something and really stuffed myself.

Saturday, I had just gotten back in bed after peeing when dad called, the time I saw being 9:54 AM, telling me he had been called to be told the exhaust hood we had ordered was going to be delivered in 15 minutes, and it was exactly 15 minutes later when the intercom rang, so I had plenty of time to change clothes and be ready. Then, after he also got back, I finished the book… And fell asleep with it next to me, under the blanket, dad waking me up suddenly when he felt the need to tell me the kitchen light had burned out, which for some reason resulted in me being left with blurry vision out of my left eye for about one hour, until it could finally focus properly again. As for the light, I found another 25W CFL on the balcony, but it gave a lot less light than the old one, and the next day I noticed multiple cracks in the plastic, just after the glass coils go in it, so I wonder if that’s the reason, if indeed those existed from the beginning and didn’t appear when I unscrewed it in order to try others as well, and how far those cracks go, whether it releases any dangerous substances. Either way, after another nap, I finally got myself to write the quick review for the book as well, though that was anything but quick, taking me quite a while to cut down my notes, which had over 500 words and didn’t include the bit about the last chapter and what I added after it, to the 350 words which are my limit for “quick reviews”. If I’d have cleaned up those notes a little, I guess I could have turned them into a passable full review, but didn’t feel I could, or in fact should, write a “proper” review for that.

As for Sunday, finished the second Syron scenario on Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic, and in the evening ordered a LED bulb to replace that one in the kitchen. However, that one was listed as producing 1350 lm and using 15W, while a 25W CFL should normally produce 1500 lm and I had also seen a pack of two LEDs listed as producing 1521 and consuming 12.5W, so I guess these Philips CorePro ones, though they weren’t listed as CorePro on the site I ordered from, and they worked out as costing less per unit than that other one. So, when I saw that dad had left more than enough money for those, though I had just told him how much that single one would have been, I decided to order those as well, intending to cancel the other order if dad won’t have anything against it, leaving him a note to let him know.

Monday, I actually first woke up just after 9 AM, and when I saw the time and that I had messages I assumed that I had gotten notifications that I could pick up the light bulbs just then and that woke me up, since there didn’t seem to be any other particular reason, but later noticed that the messages had been sent close to one hour earlier, so it couldn’t have been that. Either way, went to pee so that won’t wake me up later, checked to make sure I could still cancel the order for that single light bulb, then got back to bed. It was really hard to get back to sleep though, the fact that dad woke up soon after that definitely not helping, and I was also getting annoyed as I heard him “wash” the stuff left in the sink, knowing he’ll make a mess, water everywhere, use too much stuff, and not clean things properly anyway, leaving me to struggle with dried stuff left on them. In the end, almost certainly took me over one hour to fall asleep again, maybe closer to an hour and a half.
When I woke up again, at 12:30 PM, I found no reply from dad to my note, so assumed he had nothing against that second order and canceled the first one, then spent a bit more time in bed before actually getting up for good. After that, washed the stuff better in the kitchen, got even more annoyed, and meant to write big messages for him, telling him again to either just let me deal with things or, when he wants to do something I usually do, do it right, explaining what “doing it right” implies when it comes to stuff in the kitchen, and put them on the furniture, threatening to write or even scratch directly on the furniture or window, or both, if he’ll take them down or ignore them when written like that. However, I then glanced at the money still left there, above even what was needed for those two light bulbs, which I had meant to leave, and decided I’ll “tax” him for the trouble, at first thinking I’ll just take 1 RON more and get myself a pretzel but then deciding I’ll take all of it, perhaps get myself something costing a bit more, and use the rest for another look through that farmers’ market, since I hadn’t been back there in a while.
After the run, which I wrote about above, there was still enough light for me to stop on a bench and write down the times on the rest of the little piece of paper I had written the order number on, using the pen I had also taken, though I had that in my jacket’s inside pocket, while everything else was in that bag in the pocket of my pants, so I’ll feel it all there and not worry about losing any of it, not that there’d be any real way for anything to slip out of my jacket’s inside pocket as it’s rolled up and tied around my waist. Then, even though I hadn’t shaved in a while, went directly to pick up the light bulbs, that being why I had taken everything with me.
Since I just had that one small bag with me and wanted to have a look through the market, couldn’t put the light bulbs in it and they wouldn’t fit inside any pocket while still inside their packaging, so opened it up, put one in each of the pockets of my training shirt and the packaging in the inside pocket of my jacket, looking for a proper place to throw away the plastic… Which I didn’t find before deciding to first have a look inside the Carrefour Market that’s right next to the farmers’ market, spotting some pastry that looked interesting but deciding against getting that one just then since it was the last one left and the listed schedule stated they should bake more soon, so I could come back if I won’t find something else. So, finding nothing else I wanted either, I meant to leave, being stopped at the exit by the alarm, which obviously prompted the guard to ask what I had in my pockets. She mainly seemed interested in my jacket’s pocket, bulging due to that plastic packaging, and even seemed a bit surprised when I pulled one of the light bulbs out of my shirt’s pocket, then barely glancing at the back of the invoice I gave her to prove I had just purchased them from elsewhere, only opening it when I told her to really check, all the while still keeping her eyes on my jacket’s pocket and asking what I had there again after that bit was done. When I pulled out that crumpled packaging and showed it to her, she quickly waved me away.
Checked the farmers’ market too after that, but that was also just a waste of time, since even though it was over one hour before the listed closing time and the forecast listed strong wind and rain starting the next afternoon, followed by highs below freezing until next week, just a few were still selling things and even those were getting ready to leave, and none of them had anything I found interesting anyway. So I crossed the road and went to the actual Carrefour from that area, finally finding a bin for plastic and this time leaving the light bulbs and even the pen in one of their cabinets, since they don’t require a coin there, and wandered around for about one hour. Did get a big pastry from there, not asking whether they’ll make more even though only two of that kind were left at the time and the other one looked a bit strange, then eventually decided on a few other things, making sure it all added up to almost exactly what I had on me. Even managed to fit the other things in that little bag, just carrying the bag with the pastry separately and putting the light bulbs back in my pockets.
Once back, I changed that light bulb in the kitchen with one of the new ones, getting worried when it didn’t work at first. Tightened it more and it worked then, but that fixture from the kitchen does tend to have this issue, the contact apparently not working, at least with some bulbs, unless they’re screwed on very tightly, using an amount of force which may well cause cracks, and perhaps not even then, so I’m wondering whether this doesn’t cause them to burn out sooner too, in case that contact still isn’t quite right even when they do work. But for the moment it seems fine, so I then ate something, even making a salad, since dad wasn’t back yet, leaving the pastry for the next day. The hot water was an issue when I showered at night, but I could manage, even if it was just warm and made me feel a bit chilly at times.

Yesterday morning I woke up just about crying, though of course I still couldn’t quite manage to actually cry, and almost unable to breathe. Was curled in a ball, absolutely terrified, the final straw, the part of the dream that made me wake up in such a state, being that I was being forced to go back to school, though there had been scary shit going on before that too, almost like my mind was taking it step by step in terrorizing me that morning. Been a while since I woke up like that, or since a dream really scared me, but that was really bad, and I’m not even sure whether I wasn’t aware that it was just a dream, which would be quite unusual, or the very idea was so terrifying that it didn’t even matter. I mean, that also hasn’t happened in quite a while, fortunately, but if I dream of my biggest fear, being aware that it’s just a dream doesn’t make much of a difference.
On a different note, later dad got the old exhaust hood out, along with the cabinet it was in, and as I was helping with that I “managed” to have the part of that hood that pulls out pinch the skin on my right hand, and with neither of us having hands available to pull that thing out and release it at the moment, I had to just pull my hand away, tearing a little bit of skin away. Once that was done, we tried to figure out how to place the new one there, finding that it’ll be quite a lot of trouble to keep that cabinet. It would take a few changes even if we’d put it at the same height, and dad wanted to do that at first while I wanted to follow the instructions and place it a fair bit higher, but now he wants to place it higher and I’d go with placing it just as the old one was instead, to make things simpler, because placing it higher and keeping that cabinet as well would require a fair bit of work on it and I doubt it even could be done, at least if we want to do it well. We could also just put the hood there on its own and move the cabinet elsewhere, maybe just covering that bit at the back that was left exposed before, for the old hood, but the new hood’s optional cover is made so the exhaust can freely go out the back and we need it to go out on one side, so unless we’d leave the hood exposed, the exhaust would have to go over that cover and then back down to the hole in the wall, which definitely won’t help it get the steam out. So the better option remains to still leave at least a part of that cabinet there, to be able to leave the hood exposed inside it, but that will be quite a lot of trouble.
Either way, we got this one, and I insisted on it too, because the old one was extremely noisy and seemed to be pretty much useless for years, so we hardly ever even tried to use it for a long time, and the noise was pretty much the only effect I noticed the few times I did. However, with both of them out, I wanted to compare their power… And found that the new one, despite being listed as quite powerful, and definitely far above any others in its price range, doesn’t seem to suck much of anything. It blows a fair bit of air out, but not much seems to be happening under it. On the other hand, when we tested the old one as well, it not only seemed more powerful, but it wasn’t nearly as noisy as it used to be either. Noisier than the new one, definitely, but nothing like it was when we tried to use it while it was installed, leading to the conclusion that it was a matter of vibration. Admittedly, that old one just has glass and plastic at the front, that part that you pull out, and that plastic seems to have melted from the heat to some extent, one side hanging lower, but on top of that it may have simply been a matter of it no longer being fixed properly, which also means that if the new one won’t be fixed properly, it could become just as noisy, and still be less powerful… And when the old one didn’t seem to have much of an effect, that’s bad news. I mean, yes, that old one only actually sucked in air at the back and we usually cook on the front burners, but while the new one has filters over the entire surface, since it can’t retract that front part, it just has one motor, still at the back, in the middle, while the old one has two.
All of that made me consider even suggesting returning this new one and trying to just fix the old one, but I didn’t say it yet, and not sure whether I will at all. This new one is quiet enough to be usable at any hour, and maybe it will suck in air from the front as well, at least to some extent, plus that I’m quite sure it uses a lot less power, but if it won’t get the steam out well enough, it’ll still be a pointless expense and cause a lot of trouble if dad is to actually install it, and we won’t really know how well it does that until we do install it. On the other hand, considering the discounted price we bought it at, a powerful fan for the bathroom and the exhaust for it won’t be much cheaper, and this way we’re left with the old one, which I already suggested might be used for that. Thought we could just shove it in there, behind the window, after the work dad did, but it’s just a bit too big… Or too big at the moment, since dad said he recalled that the space in question was just the right size at first, but the tiles he put there obviously reduced it a little, so maybe it could work if they’d be removed. Will be tricky though, and it’s not certain that it’ll work there, and in that position, anyway, plus that it would often get used at night, after I take a shower or dad takes a bath, and it may be too noisy for that even without that vibration.