Cav's Place

To start with the bad, dad asked for the camera last week, I believe Thursday, and when he brought it back, Saturday, he said the screen wasn’t displaying anything when trying to take pictures anymore. That day had started a bit worryingly, with the UPS waking me up by clicking multiple times early in the morning again, but since now I can check I saw that it just reported the battery passing a self-test, so it seemed fine. The camera did not, on the other hand, since my initial assumption, that the batteries were simply very low, since that happened to me quite a few times as well but always under those circumstances, was proven wrong when I replaced the batteries and nothing changed.
Tried changing batteries a few more times, shaking it a bit, pressing a few buttons, obviously not including the correct one, and eventually concluded that some link between the sensor and the display had somehow failed. The fact that dad said he had given it to someone to take some pictures and got it back like that also led me to that conclusion, thinking that said other person had perhaps damaged it somehow. So I started looking and found an offer for another that I rushed to order Monday evening, after opening the old one and not finding anything I could do. Not that I took it apart too much, only removing the case, the screws I saw on the back and some of those on the front, and pulling away the display and the PCBs as much as I could without disconnecting anything, as at the time I didn’t even know that some of those strips could be disconnected. Must say that, for something that’s 11 and a half years old, it does look surprisingly nice inside, without dirt or rust that I could spot.
The problem is that some bits fell out when I opened it, and there’s nothing I can do about the two screw mounts that broke. It is possible that they were already broken though, so they weren’t holding the case before either, and I managed to put one back when I put it back together the last time, just to have it there where it should be, the screw just holding it in place. Not sure where the tiny washer that ended up falling when I first removed the back of the case came from though, and no way to make it stay in the place I think it may be from. On the other hand, Tuesday night I did finally find something showing me where the larger piece that fell after I first moved aside the PCBs was from and I opened the camera again Wednesday to put it back, so I believe everything should be fine inside. However, those broken screw mounts and the fact that clamps probably loosened a bit since I opened it likely mean that it’s less insulated now, so using it in the rain again will probably be an even worse idea than it was the few times I did it so far.
But the worst part about it all is that I didn’t need to do any of it! Somebody, possibly the person dad gave it to, had just pressed the button to turn off the display! It’s quite likely that it was done by accident, but dad didn’t know about it and, since I don’t turn off the display, it never crossed my mind that it was a possibility either. There’s a button that does that and there’s a clear label under it, but I just didn’t think to try to press it… Until I did so by accident, as I was trying the camera with the case still off, Tuesday, to see that it still worked before putting the case back on, and I couldn’t quite remember which button was which for a moment, as I was pressing them directly on the PCB. So I ended up accidentally pressing that button and the display suddenly worked again, making me feel like a stinking pile of shit for taking it apart and damaging it, or at least worsening some existing damage, out of sheer stupidity, when none of it was in any way necessary.
Did ask dad whether I should cancel the order under those circumstances, especially since the new camera is just some cheap “toy” that I won’t have much use for, but he told me to leave it, even if this strains the available funds to the limit, making me give everything I still had set aside while he also puts more than he intended to. It’d be funny if it wouldn’t be so annoying that when we thought this was broken he told me to look for one around 200 RON (about $50 or €43), when the cheapest ones I can find around here, on sale, are just under 350 RON. But I remember how frustrating it was to get him to buy this one back in 2006 too, when he was pointing to some that were about 350 RON in some offer and saying those are cameras too, what’s wrong with them, while I recall this one being 700 RON or so, including the memory card. Tuesday he actually kept trying to tell me that it’s impossible he’d have spent that much on a camera, it must have been around 300 RON, as he never would have spent much more and never will, saying he’ll see if he can still find the invoice for it to prove it, with me challenging him to do just that before I looked up archived sites of stores and found just this package, with this memory card included, for just under 650 RON (about $256 or €194 at the time, if the information I found is correct) in December of 2006. And we bought it no later than in September, so it could have been more then.
The thing is that this camera that I ordered seems to be just what he had occasionally been asking me to look for, a small and simple camera that will just be somewhat better than a cheap phone without requiring him to play with settings or learn much of anything. But, just like nearly all others still on the market, it doesn’t use regular batteries, so if its battery runs out when you’d still want to use it you’re out of luck, plus that the capacity of its battery will obviously degrade in a few years. And, from what I can see, it doesn’t allow manual control of the shutter speed, and pretty much all those pictures taken after dark, at protests or other events, plus the occasional ones I take of the night sky or out the window at night, were done with manual settings. Sure, I assume it will take significantly better pictures than this old one on automatic settings, but I doubt it’ll be good enough to be of much use to me in the dark, which is when I’ve been using this one more often than not. And of course that when I pointed this out to him he said we’ll get a better one for me later too if he’ll be left with this one I just ordered, but when I told him how much the one I was looking at costs he said that’s out of the question, yet at the same time kept saying it’s not anything to be concerned about and there’s no reason for me to be down because of it. The thing is that, while now it’s much more, I see that the SX540 was 799 RON (about $188 or €177 at the time, again if the information I found is correct) during at least one big sale in the past, but he had already made it clear that even that, or in fact even 700 RON, would be unacceptable.
But I guess a bigger issue is that I like this old camera. Sure, it has various issues, but in the nearly five years since dad pretty much gave it to me I learned to get along with it, and the fact that it uses regular batteries gives it a huge advantage over pretty much anything that’s available now. And it’s likely sturdier and more reliable than anything available now as well, as the fact that it still works after all this time proves. And yet I risked making it stop working, and likely caused some problems which will likely become noticeable sooner or later, for absolutely no reason whatsoever other than sheer stupidity. Mine.

But there’s something good to write about too, and that’s this week’s run, which was Monday, and which marked a new record for 16 kilometers: 1:16:54, with sector times of 4:21, 4:59, 5:53, 4:26, 4:58, 5:52, 4:29, 5:04, 5:56, 4:32, 5:05, 5:54, 4:37, 5:04 and 5:44, making for lap times of 15:13, 15:16, 15:29, 15:31 and 15:25! That just smashed the previous record, improving it by 2:35, so there’s no point in even comparing sector or lap times. I must, however, point out that great time on the last sector, so sector three of lap five, which was managed not only right at the end, but also despite losing focus at some point and likely slowing down a bit. Without that moment, I might have even had a chance at a new second fastest sector time at a most unlikely moment.
The weather was very good Monday, so I couldn’t miss the opportunity. The forecast mentioned rain and storms the rest of the week, and that was indeed the case so far, but Monday the reported high was no more than 25°C, possibly even a bit less, and there were some occasional clouds as well, but there was no risk of rain and the wind wasn’t a problem, though I felt a few gusts a bit. With the forecast mentioning highs likely exceeding even 40°C between July and September, I doubt I’ll catch such a moment again too soon. And the fact that it was Monday afternoon meant there weren’t many people in the park either, though I did have to get around some, including a moment, I believe on sector one of lap five, when I had to just squeeze through in one spot. But I also lost a few seconds when I obviously slowed down a bit while checking that the stuff I had in my pockets was still there or rubbing a spot that had started to sting at one point and a muscle that hurt for a bit after I jumped over a puddle. I believe that was on sector three of lap three, so I was worried I’ll have quite a problem, but it didn’t bother me for long. And what’s interesting is that even my left knee, which has been hurting quite worryingly for quite some time and which I feared was going to get a fair bit worse after such a run, ended up feeling much better for the next couple of days instead.
I did aim for a new record, possibly by quite some margin, from the beginning, and had sector and lap targets in mind for 1:18, 1:18:30, 1:19 and 1:19:30, but saw that I beat even the best ones on the first two laps, so at that point I was wondering how it’ll go from there. Lap three was slower, but it was still good enough to allow me to think of something even better than 1:18, yet I still didn’t do so until I saw that lap four was going unexpectedly well as well, at which point I had just a passing thought of 1:17:30. Still didn’t think it likely, so quickly dismissed it as a target, but pushed nevertheless and at the end of that lap I found that I just needed a 16-minute lap five to just make that target. Still didn’t quite think I’ll manage it though, remembering those lost seconds and thinking I may just miss it because of them, and that 4:37 first sector wasn’t encouraging, the first sector target for a 16-minute lap being 4:35. But then I just gave it everything, aiming for a 5:10 second sector and actually managing 5:04. And that put that 1:17 target very suddenly and completely unexpectedly in my mind. It’d have taken a mighty final sector, highly unlikely at that point, but I didn’t let that discourage me and with the exception of that moment I mentioned above I just pushed every single step, trying to get as close to sprinting as I could at that point. And it sure was enough. Five seconds faster than it needed to be, in fact.

What’s more, after that run I wandered around the park for quite some time, picking cherry plums. Had taken two small plastic bags with me, which were one of the reasons why I was checking what I had in my pockets while running, yet somehow again “managed” to lose one. I have no idea how, but it seems to keep happening. Now I’m sure the second one was still in my pocket when I took the first one out and I had no reason to get a hand in that pocket again after that, and I obviously looked on the ground a lot even when picking from trees, since anything reasonably ripe and low enough to be picked directly pretty much already was, so I was mostly shaking trees and grabbing what was falling, before eventually just picking from what was already on the ground around that large tree I found. Yet, somehow, despite never taking it out and not seeing it on the ground at any point, it was no longer in my pocket when I got back.
Either way, all the wandering around didn’t result in much, finding quite a few trees with plenty of fruits but, as I said, others had already picked what could be picked from the ground and I didn’t shake any of them more than a few times, and climbing in any was out of the question, not only because I don’t know how to do that and I was worried about guards not being happy with it if they’d spot me trying, but because the trees themselves have pretty thin trunks that may well break even under my weight. Worse, the bag snagged on a tree as I was shaking it and one handle ended up torn, so it was somewhat difficult to hold and I was worried about it tearing completely, but just kept using it and it lasted long enough. Would have likely been better to get the other one out then, so I either wouldn’t have lost it or would have realized that I had already lost it at that point, possibly allowing me to go back and perhaps find it on the ground somewhere, but I didn’t do that.
Either way, eventually found a somewhat larger tree close to the bridge that had large fruits that were also low enough to be picked, but that was because the large majority were still green, so I just walked around it and picked only a few. That seemed to have attracted the attention of a little girl who was in the area and who walked up to me to ask whether I could pick “about four” for her too. So I did, just grabbing what I could from where I was, even if they were clearly still green. She dropped one of the four I gave her the first time though, but I asked if she wanted more and when she said yes I picked and gave her four more, filling her hands. Then just walked away, not even glancing back to see what she did after that.
Once past the bridge, I meant to go to an area where I had seen quite a few cherry plums with plenty of fruits on the side of the path around the lake, having made a mental note of them while running. But I moved again away from the path, searching the area between it and the road splitting the park, and before reaching the area I meant to reach I found a large tree with a lot of yellow cherry plums fallen all around it. I did have some concerns about picking fruit already on the ground, and had decided against doing so at first, but had changed my mind by then and had already picked a few from other spots, so I got down and started picking, looking for those that seemed to have fallen very recently and weren’t damaged. Was there for quite some time, in fact, and could have stayed even longer, but I needed to get back to make sure I won’t miss the start of the match, so I eventually stopped picking and ended up with just about 1.6 kg, most of that quantity having been picked from that spot. Did grab just a few more on the way back from a tree that’s just full of them, but that was it.

Since I mentioned picking fruit, I think the first time I did that this year was June 5, when after the storm I first went to this larger farmers’ market, then also to the other one, since all the apples found at the first one were too expensive. After finding the person with the cheap apples there and buying some, on the way back I picked ten cherry plums from a tree that’s in front of a clinic, eating them when I got back. Three actually seemed ripe, though the others weren’t, despite also being quite red.
Though it doesn’t count as picking, an apricot fell right in front of me from a tree on the street on June 19, so I grabbed it and ate it when I got back. But the next day I did actually pick again, cherry plums and just a few mulberries. May even be the first time I eat mulberries, and found them really tasty. Also somehow lost another small bag, which I thought I still had when I got back from Auchan that day but found that it wasn’t in my pocket anymore when I got to the farmers’ market after that. Either way, on the way back from there I just picked a few fruits from several trees on the street, not stopping long enough at any of them to try to get more, worried that somebody’ll say something, even if it’s such a waste to just let them spoil and fall and litter the streets and sidewalks instead of making use of them. And then I went to the other market as well, again for apples, and on the way back I picked a few more cherry plums, just a single one from a tree on the street and some more from that one in front of the clinic. Would have picked more from there, but some bugs fell on me as I pulled on a branch and after brushing off what I could I walked away, ending up bringing at least two spiders, or at least things that seemed to be some sort of spiders, with me, as I saw one on me and one on the floor after removing my t-shirt. Was also bitten in at least one spot, and possibly in two, on my neck. That itched a fair bit later, and while the swelling went down since then, now I feel like there’s something there, either some foreign object, like a thorn or a stinger, or a wart, and it hurts a bit. Hope it won’t cause problems…

There would be quite a few things to say about this World Cup, one of the most important having to do with VAR, but this will just be a quick post, so I can’t get into that. Will just say that something like this should have been implemented a long time ago and so far this competition just proved yet again why, the decisions being correct whenever the referee went to watch the replay, possibly changing the initial, incorrect, call. Its use is still too restricted though, and even within the current limits it should be used more often, since there were still quite a few moments, including particularly important ones, when the referee did not check and therefore did not change an incorrect decision, the blame then obviously being shared between said referee and the video assistants.

But this little post is actually about all the goals scored so far in the competition, since the second round of the group stage just ended without any goalless matches. That means 32 matches in a row with at least one goal scored. More exactly, ten with a single goal, six with two, ten with three, two with four, one with five, one with six, and two with seven. So while 1-0 was still the most common score, with ten of the 32 matches finishing with it, 85 goals in 32 matches means an average of 2.65625 goals per match. And with exactly 16 matches with one or two goals and 16 with three or more, the median would be 2.5.
The opening match actually set the tone, Russia defeating Saudi Arabia 5-0, the outstanding 3-3 between Portugal and Spain following the next day. The average dropped somewhat over the following days, the next match with more than three goals being the first one of the second round, once again involving Russia, who defeated Egypt 3-1, but that doesn’t mean the matches weren’t still interesting. And the final days of the second round brought the two matches with the most goals, Belgium defeating Tunisia 5-2 yesterday and England defeating Panama 6-1 today. The 2-2 between Japan and Senegal, also today, should also be mentioned.
What’s more, ten of those goals were scored in injury time, with five more after minute 85. The opening match again set the tone, with Russia’s last two goals being scored in injury time, but those weren’t important goals. However, all the three matches played the next day were decided at the end, Uruguay defeating Egypt 1-0 thanks to a goal scored in minute 89, Iran defeating Morocco 1-0 thanks to an own goal scored in the fifth minute of injury time, and Portugal equalizing Spain thanks to a final goal scored in minute 88. Though it wasn’t quite at the end, the own goal that led to France defeating Australia 2-1 could also count, being scored in minute 81. Back to goals scored right at the end, England defeated Tunisia 2-1 thanks to one scored in the first minute of injury time. Poland’s goal in minute 86 of their match with Senegal didn’t help them though, as they lost 2-1. Another late goal that didn’t make a difference was the last one scored, in the first minute of injury time, by Croatia in their 3-0 defeat of Argentina, when they also scored their second goal relatively late, in minute 80. But both goals that helped Brazil defeat Costa Rica 2-0 were scored in injury time, in the first and seventh minute, respectively. And Switzerland’s last goal, which led to them defeating Serbia 2-1, was scored in minute 90. Then in that seven-goal match between Belgium and Tunisia, Belgium scored their last goal in minute 90 and Tunisia in the third minute of injury time. And South Korea also scored in the third minute of injury time, though it didn’t help them, as they lost 2-1 to Mexico. But the goal scored by Germany in the fifth minute of injury time definitely helped them, as thanks to it they defeated Sweden 2-1.

Teams will probably be more careful and calculated from this point forward, and in this third round some will no longer have much of a reason to care about the score, but the 32 matches played so far make it likely that the tournament will continue to be very interesting. And it would certainly be nice to get all the way to the end without a single goalless match. If you also consider the goals scored during the penalty shootout as goals scored in the match in question, that just means that there should be no goalless match in the 16 that make up the third round of the group stage, taking place over the next four days.

It’s three weeks since my last “generic” personal post, so there would be a whole lot to cover, minus the stuff about the UPS. But you won’t find that in this post, because I pretty much intend to keep doing what I’ve been doing lately, which is watching the World Cup matches and in between playing Ember a fair bit, and sometimes trying to catch a little sleep, since I definitely haven’t been getting much in the mornings. So I’ll just stick to quickly going over the three times I ran during this period, and also mention something about how I ended up getting Ember.

The first run was on June 5, when the time was 47:54, with sector times of 4:20, 4:58, 5:48, 4:20, 4:57, 5:59, 4:30, 5:02, 6:07 and 1:53, making for lap times of 15:06, 15:16 and 15:39. It was rather hot, but there wasn’t much wind, just a few gusts bothering me a little, so the conditions were all right, and I managed to finish just in time to take advantage of them, a few drops of rain starting to fall as I was coming back from the park and quite a storm starting soon after that.
The next run on was June 12, when the time was exactly a minute slower, 48:54, with sector times of 4:31, 5:09, 6:00, 4:31, 5:02, 5:58, 4:34, 5:07, 6:03 and 1:59, making for lap times of 15:40, 15:31 and 15:44. Just managed to stay under 49 minutes, but that’s a poor time and I kept thinking to continue to 16 kilometers again, yet decided against it, fearing a really bad time over that distance, that bad final sector time proving such fears justified. A part of the reason for that poor performance may have been the lack of sleep, some eight hours over two days, and waking up early that day, at 9:45 AM, wanting to leave around 11 AM and finish around noon, to avoid the hottest part of the day. Also thought there won’t be water that morning, since a note was saying it’ll be off between 9 AM and 11 AM due to some work done at another apartment, so I had filled a bottle at night in order to have something to wash my hands with, but after going to the toilet in the morning I found that there was water, and it wasn’t brown either to say that it might have been turned back on early, so maybe it had only been turned off on the column with that apartment.
As for this week’s run, that was today and the time was a nice 47:39, with sector times of 4:17, 4:58, 5:43, 4:20, 4:50, 5:47, 4:33, 5:12, 6:06 and 1:53, making for lap times of 14:58, 14:57 and 15:51. And I know plenty of exact times as well, so while I’ll keep just taking the seconds into account when I list the times, I’ll mention here the exact times for those that are among the five fastest so far, those being the 5:43.21 third sector, on the first lap, the 4:50.78 second sector, on the second lap, and the 14:58.82 and, actually, 14:56.65 lap times, the faster one being the second. The third lap was slow though, and right from the beginning, so that was all I had, but considering how little I’ve been sleeping lately and waking up before 9:30 AM today, I’m very pleased with this. Did mean to go out around 11 AM and missed that target somewhat, but the conditions were all right, the heat being manageable and the few gusts of wind not bothering me much. It’s possible that the fact that I didn’t have either of the two t-shirts I’d normally wear while running available and ended up wearing the one from the first half marathon helped a little with the cooling. On the other hand, there were a number of people on the path, and a few of them slowed me a little bit, but it could have been a lot worse, since a triathlon is taking place in that park over the weekend and many participants were there now, practicing, seeming to get ready to swim, possibly after cycling. They took care not to block the path around the lake though, and so did the few reporters and supporters who were there.

As for Ember, the story actually starts back in 2013, when I won some codes for games up to $9.99 on GOG.com. Received and used the first two at the time, for Age of Wonders II: The Wizard’s Throne and Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic, but I remember that a third one was sent quite a long time later and I decided to keep it for some other time. So this was this code, which I had been just checking from time to time, making sure it was still valid, not finding anything I’d really want to use it for, especially since I have enough games now to last me for several years, considering how few I finish each year.
That wouldn’t have changed if I wouldn’t have been reminded of it and wouldn’t have realized how difficult it was going to be to use it after the mess with that MMLXXVII code, which was confirmed as just some sort of glitch. But the discussions about that made me try my code as well, seeing that the system isn’t designed for the use of such codes anymore, as there’s no way to sort, search or skip pages, you have to start from the beginning of an unsorted list of titles and flip through them, 15 per page, until you find what you’re looking for, the listing stops after 1000 entries even if over 1500 should be shown, and it’d be awfully difficult to get that far anyway because you have to do it within one hour, otherwise it times out and you have to start over, but flipping through pages too quickly will result in you getting temporarily locked out. The JSON data for each page can be pulled though, and while that also ends at page 67 and trying to get through pages too quickly will still get you locked out, you can continue from where you left off, which is how others managed to get the complete list of those first 1000 titles and how I could confirm that those I could be interested in were to be found on the same pages if using my code as well.
The thing is that I wasn’t going to use the code for a game costing less than $9.99 or for one that was available, and will likely be available again, at a high discount and doesn’t have regional prices above the base one, so I had few options, considering what’s on my wishlist. But what I found was that the code applies to the base price of the game, so I could actually use it for Ember even though it’s not only regionally priced and with some regions paying more than the base price, but actually includes Romania among those regions charged as if the EUR and the USD would be equal, so the price for me would have actually been well over $9.99. That we’re not using the Euro and definitely don’t have the standard of living of the Western European countries that get the same “treatment” doesn’t matter, of course. Not that it’s in any way fair to overcharge the people from those countries in this manner either.
Since I didn’t think it’d work that way, I hadn’t even checked back in March, when it was released there, but once I saw that it became the obvious choice, as I had some interest in it and this was exactly what I meant to use such a code for, so I’ll get a game that uses this typical regional pricing model without actually paying for it, as I’d never actually purchase such a game, being vehemently against the practice. Yet it was all the way on page 59 on the list of available titles and getting that far just didn’t seem possible, so that evening I sent a support message asking whether there was a solution to allow me to actually look through all the options and pick something myself, or if not if I could say what I want to use it for and just have the code be marked as used and given one for that specific game, or have it added to my account directly. However, didn’t say which code it was or what game I wanted to use it for then and hoped I won’t have to, being somewhat worried that, due to the pricing, they won’t allow it to be used for that game if they’d be made aware of the issue.
The next day, on June 13, I received a reply saying that the code had been invalidated, even though, again, I hadn’t said what it was, and was asked for the name of the game I wanted to use it for. But the code still worked, so I’m not sure what was invalidated, and while I did say what the code was and what I wanted to use it for in my reply, I had also managed to get to page 48 that day and thought I finally got the timing worked out well enough to allow me to get to page 59 on my own. So I waited for another reply for a few more hours, until what should have been the end of the work day for them, and then tried again, timing myself very carefully and just managing to get to page 59 in about 57 minutes, then selecting and successfully redeeming the game, sending another reply after that to let the support person know it was all sorted out.
Despite the World Cup matches taking up so much time and having other games I really should be finishing first, I installed and started Ember the next evening. The installation didn’t exactly go smoothly though, since Emsisoft Anti-Malware reported that the installer, or more exactly the file it unpacks in the temporary folder, was attempting to modify files suspiciously, the logs stating that the behavior blocker considered it to be some sort of ransomware. Told it to allow it once, so without creating a rule, and that proved to be the wrong choice when it looked it up again while it was installing and apparently decided to block it without actually prompting me again. I was just clicking in the part of the screen where the notification appeared, so that might have been the reason, but I definitely didn’t get any prompt and the installation just stopped, with EAM reporting that it had quarantined a malicious file but not showing that it actually had anything in quarantine. There was a small file in the Quarantine folder though, but when I asked support about it I learned that it was an incomplete file, probably a result of the installer deleting that temporary file when the process was killed and EAM not actually being able to move it. Either way, everything seemed fine after just running the installer again and telling EAM to create a rule for that file, and also for another that it claimed to be trying to “install invisibly” at the end.

Since I’m on the topic of gaming and this post got away from me anyway, before ending it I’ll jump back to June 4. That day actually ended worryingly, with my Internet access failing exactly when I got back to the computer after eating at night and in an odd manner, as I wasn’t receiving anything on TCP or UDP but could still ping IPs just fine, so until I saw that the issue was fixed in the morning I was worried that my access had been cut off for some reason, and while it wasn’t working I also heard the error sound when checking network properties once, saw consent.exe stuck running after that, and Task Manager ended up hanging once as well. But since I had nothing better to do that night, I installed Serpent in the Staglands, though I’m yet to actually start playing it, so far just starting it a couple of times without saving, just to make sure it works and confirm a couple of things before submitting an entry for it on MobyGames, as it wasn’t there yet.
Had ended up with Serpent in the Staglands that evening, as part of a trade which resulted in me also getting Sunless Sea, due to spending more than the equivalent of $5 during the GOG.com sale. I had been seriously considering purchasing Serpent in the Staglands then and was probably about to do so when I checked the GOG.com forums again and saw that someone from Germany who had posted about wanting to trade for some games that are regionally blocked there without saying exactly which ones had posted again, this time stating that the last two left were Quake II: Quad Damage and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault – War Chest. And when I checked the price of those two during the sale, I saw that they added up to €4.88, while Serpent in the Staglands was €4.89, which seemed like too much of a coincidence to pass up the chance to also do some good. So I sent a message asking whether that was an acceptable deal and we quickly made the trade, this also marking the first time I traded with someone there.

This will be a quick post, so let me start directly with May 30, when our Constitutional Court decided that our President can’t reject the Minister of Justice’s request to dismiss the Chief Prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) the way he did. That was quite unexpected, and certain to anger many activists and protesters, so of course there were immediate calls for a protest from many directions and people started gathering in Victory Square that evening, the event being set to start at 4 PM, though few showed up before 6 PM. However, the expectations that this will end up being another large protest and likely the beginning of another series of massive ones were proven wrong, as only about 2000 people were present at the peak, even though many stayed for quite a while, a report mentioning about 200 left at 11 PM. But those reports are all I have, since I didn’t go, and I just glanced over a couple of them anyway.
Despite the disappointing turnout, the calls for protests continued… Or they continued for one more day, since after only about 500 showed up the next evening they more or less died down. Actually had a look that next evening, but got there around 8:30 PM and left minutes later, seeing that nothing relevant was going to happen. And nothing particularly relevant happened since then as far as this issue is concerned, so I think most are still waiting to see what the President will actually do, since he said he’ll take his time to analyze the situation, almost certainly looking for loopholes, and there’s no time limit set anywhere, though the ruling coalition is obviously putting pressure and threatening to suspend him if he doesn’t act soon.

While that issue ended up somewhat on hold, another suddenly, and I’d say even more unexpectedly, appeared on June 6, when our Government requested to have the Rosia Montana file put on hold only weeks ahead of the vote which was widely expected to result in it being added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. Activists and protesters obviously reacted immediately, a petition which has by now gathered over 40000 signatures was created, a few other ways to get involved were suggested as well, and of course there were calls for a protest, scheduled on June 8, at the University Square fountain, the “traditional” location for protests back in 2013, when this issue can be said to have marked the reawakening of activism and civic engagement in Romania.
Unfortunately, at most 500 people, maybe only about 400, answered those calls. I was one of them, getting there a little before the scheduled start time of 6 PM, then wandering away for a bit, until something could actually happen, since there were only a few others present at that time. Even when the known activists called people forward, many stayed back and kept chatting, but that was happening back then as well, and in general the whole thing felt like one of those protests from back then. Almost all of the activists who were present and leading or trying to organize things then were there, even though some had pretty much stayed away from the other recent protests. Alex made another of his speeches to get things going, Claudiu led the chants and shouts, which were the same ones from back then, Petruta also helped at one point, signs and banners from back then were brought as well, as you can also see in the pictures I took… One new thing was that somebody brought a basket of cherries, with a sign saying they’re free and not sprayed with anything, and there actually were some left even when things were dying down. I for one left at 8:55 PM, the protest being for all practical purposes over by then.
The Rosia Montana matter was also the first issue listed in the description of the event created for June 10, starting from 6 PM. That was supposed to be another one of the regular weekend protests, but some of the known activists and groups which had been more or less staying away lately got more involved once again due to this, and I for one certainly hoped that this will be reflected in what will actually happen in Victory Square. So I got there at 6:05 PM, only saw a few people, wandered away for a bit, got back when some more had gathered, but after it could be said that the protest actually started, a little before 7 PM, Rosia Montana was hardly mentioned and, as you can also see in the pictures I took, there were only a few banners and signs about it, most of them brought by known activists from the “old guard”, if I may use the term. I’d say there were about 3000 participants at the peak, though that otherwise seems to be the high end of the estimates, the media mentioning 2000 or even just “over 1000”. But whatever the numbers were at the peak, quite a few had already left before 9 PM, when people were again asked to turn on lights and sing the anthem, and I also left immediately after that moment, having waited specifically for it despite having been bothered by shouts specifically in support of Kovesi and the President heard before that and picked up by many of those present.

In between, with the ruling coalition having their own massive event on June 9, most known activists and protesters wisely decided to stay away from the area that evening, even if some had a quick look on their way to, or from, Bucharest Pride, which took place that same day and started from Victory Square, where the ruling coalition’s supporters and all the others brought there to swell the numbers were already gathering at the time. The recent ruling of the European Court of Justice regarding the residency rights of same-sex spouses did offer some additional reasons to celebrate that day, though the fact that it specifically recognizes each country’s right to still ban same-sex marriage and only refers to the recognition of one particular right of those married elsewhere makes it look like a very small victory to me.

On June 11, Simona Halep returned to Romania and presented her Roland Garros trophy on the National Arena, the event being set to start at 8 PM. And I went, along with up to 20000 others, or around 15000 according to other estimates, the area that offered decent visibility being full by 7:30 PM and people being allowed not only in areas from which they couldn’t see much, but also to sit on the stairs or even to stand in front of the first row of seats. But the reason why I mention this in this post is that I saw an event created by one of the groups of activists, and they later revealed that the large banner which could easily be seen there had been made and brought by them, the font and colors being a subtle hint. That was much more reasonable than the picture posted by the old United We Save page, with the Save Rosia Montana logo on the trophy Simona was holding and a message asking her to help save it, which was something plenty of people, myself included, found inappropriate. But I’d say the crowd’s reaction to the presence of the Mayor of Bucharest on the stage was entirely appropriate. That started a bit of a mess though, and plenty of the comments posted on the Mayor’s page after that were quite awful, but at the same time… You reap what you sow.

Before ending this, I’ll return to the Rosia Montana matter and mention that on June 12 a few activists staged a brief flash mob in front of the Ministry of Culture, demanding the Minister’s resignation. Don’t know many other details about what actually happened, either there or in the Chamber of Deputies’ Culture Committee, where he had been called to answer questions about the situation on that same day, but he requested that the matter be discussed in the next meeting of the Supreme Council of National Defense (CSAT) and Wednesday the President approved the request. The next CSAT meeting will only take place on the 27th though, which may well be too late unless that request to put the file on hold will be withdrawn by then.

All these recent articles and posts about needing to talk about suicide or, worse, about “suicide prevention”, made me post an angry message on Facebook yesterday morning. Not anything I haven’t said many, many times before, but it seems it needs to be said time and time again, so let me just have another look over that message, clean it up a bit and post it here as well. Note that “cleaning it up” does not involve removing certain words that for some reason bother some people; those express the anger and the frustration felt and therefore have every reason to be there.

Keep your damned canned lines, and lies, to your own damned selves! Yes, I’m referring to “it gets better”, “it’s a permanent solution to a temporary problem”, “there’s so much to live for”, “life is wonderful”, “think of the suffering you’d leave behind”, and any other shitty justification of your fucking survival instinct and/or senseless optimism, or any other product of the brainwashing meant to make people accept the shit this society and all the assholes and morons who make and keep it as it is throw their way. Swallow any potential comments about selfishness or cowardice, or any guilt-tripping, and may you fucking choke on them! And speaking of selfishness, what does it make you when you’re trying to force those you claim to care about to continue suffering in this world and in this life as it is just so you won’t miss them?
Want to help? Want to “prevent”? Really? Then create a world, a society, where life will truly be worth living for those who care and feel and think things through, for those who don’t see the current one as worth living in, considering their views and desires, not yours. And if this is about a particular person, make that person’s life worth living, according to their views and desires, not yours. Listen to what they consider to be the problems, take away what ails or haunts them, give them what they’re missing. And if you can’t do that, shut the hell up! Instead, maybe just listen, maybe offer what comfort the person in question is willing to receive from you, if you can do that without spewing any of that fucking accursed shit!
And to return to the cowardice crap, there was a saying: He who thinks of suicide proves that he’s a coward; he who committed suicide proved that he was brave. The cowards are those who most of the time find few real reasons to live, and who at least occasionally have reasons to actually want to die, or at least to cease to exist, yet are still around. And even more so those who would find themselves in that situation if only they’d stop to really think about it, yet don’t even do that, instead accepting and adopting that brainwashing and that rationalization of the basic survival instinct. If you’d take a moment to run things through your own damned minds, maybe you’ll find that you’re the cowards. I know I am, and that cowardice isn’t a reason why I might end things, but the only reason why I’m still here.