Cav's Place

This is a strange choice, to add a preview of the first actual book in the series consisting of its first no less than seven chapters, out of 40, after a very short story. It makes it difficult to decide what to comment on, but I’ll go with the whole package just as it is and say it doesn’t have much going for it. The writing’s all right, I guess, but the short story doesn’t actually seem to say much, generating more confusion than anything else, and that preview actually needs to be this long to get to the first possibly interesting bit. For six and a half chapters, there’s nothing there but some silly teen drama, and I’d actually emphasize the “silly” part, with a trace of past tragedy and just a few hints of something a bit more interesting. And those hints may be too little, too much, or simply pointless either way, since the reader already knows what the main character is, whether from the end of the short story or simply from the description.

Rating: 2/5

Read this translated in Romanian and extremely quickly, in about one hour, as part of a World Book Day event I took part in, so I very likely missed a fair number of details. But I can quite certainly say that the book lacks many details as well, being so awfully short, pretty much rushing through the part between the word starting to get out and the real trouble, and ending with a rather confusing scene in which not much is explained. At first I thought the confusion was my fault, as I read those final pages in even more of a rush, while pacing behind other people and after hitting my head hard on a low ceiling, but I looked for the book again the next day, read that part again more carefully, and while I did notice a couple of things I had missed the first time, the overall impression was the same.
Still, the only thing that actually bothered me was how “lucky” the much older man was, even more so since the author is an old man, so I’m not saying it’s bad otherwise, but just that there’s not much there. It’s very light fantasy, has just one location, pretty much covers just one event over a brief period of time, and doesn’t linger that much over anything. In terms of atmosphere, it does deliver to a fair extent, and I guess it will appeal more to those looking for something like a modern fairy tale. Did expect to see actual poetry though, seeing as the main character writes, yet that wasn’t included even when it was supposedly recited.

Rating: 3/5

Since I wrote about the night before in last Sunday’s post, I’ll start directly with the morning of April 14, when I rushed to eat, including making myself some salad, finish getting ready and go out the door. Didn’t even have time to take a shit or floss, as I only left around 6:55 AM even so, running most of the way to the metro station, having the train get there quickly, and even so only reaching the parking lot where we had to be before 7:30 AM at 7:25 AM or so. Admittedly, we actually left at 7:38 AM, but if I’d have reached the metro station just a little later, having to wait for the next train, it could have been a problem.

On the bus, the guy who sat next to me introduced himself and tried to start a conversation, but I obviously wasn’t interested, especially since he started by asking what I did for a living. Hearing about what had happened in Syria on the brief 8 AM news at the radio station we could hear on the bus did give me even more of an excuse to just ignore him, as I actually got on-line on my phone for the first time in order to read the articles about this on The Guardian, since I hadn’t checked anything that morning and therefore had no idea about any of it until then. And after that I pretty much just looked out the window, also taking a few pictures, not included in those I posted, those being from the event itself, of trees with all branches cut off completely, and which also seemed to grow a rather odd system of branches when allowed to. No idea what kind of trees those are, but saw a lot of them like that…

Either way, we got there at 9:25 AM, were offered a sandwich as breakfast, watched as each team leader explained, and showed, what to do, and then went to our designated areas. Or, more exactly, in case of the team I was in, we first went to the wrong area, the sign there being of a color that was close to ours but apparently not the same, and then finally found the right one. It’s possible that I had something to do with that mistake, since I had wandered around a little after getting there, trying to see where we’ll have to go, and spotted that sign but not the other one, so when the team leader was wondering where we had to go I said out loud where I thought our area was and, while I’m not sure he heard or cared, possibly simply meaning to start looking from one end, he headed that way.

We were supposed to work in teams of two, one digging and another planting, and that guy from the bus asked directly which one of us will dig, taking the fact that we’ll be a team as a given. However, once we started working I looked around and spotted the girl who had sat in front of us struggling on her own, so I quickly walked to her and told her she could join us and make a team of three if she was left without one, and she did just that, at first all three of us taking turns, since we started with the row right next to the road at the top of the area and the ground there was very hard. After that, the two of them ended up working separately while I moved between them to help, but quickly ended up helping her more.
After the guy ended up struggling to plant a tree on his own before I noticed, saying he called after me but I didn’t seem to hear when I asked why he was doing that when I was there, he ended up moving away, I guess working separately at one point and eventually taking a long break starting around noon, according to what he said when I found him again later. He had also brought a tree he wanted to plant there, being allowed to do so, and a bunch of seeds, which he wasn’t allowed to plant as well, which fact seemed to dishearten him quite a lot. But what did he expect? We were there to plant certain trees in a certain way, according to a plan made according to the needs of the area, not for him to create his own orchard!

Some time before the lunch break, which started at 1 PM, there didn’t seem to be anything left to do in our area and the team leader said we’ll go help others when I asked him what happens next, me and the girl also ending up working separately for a bit after that. I helped another woman I saw struggling on her own, went away again, dug and planted a tree on my own, found my teammate and helped her again a bit, the order of these things no longer being quite clear in my mind, and eventually went down to the tents to grab a bottle of water, which I drank on the spot. Then grabbed two more, to bring to my teammates as well, handing the girl one but ending up keeping the one I meant to give the guy, since when I went back to him as he was just standing at the top of the area, I saw he already had one he had just opened then. Since I didn’t drink again, eventually ended up bringing that bottle all the way back with me.

Then we were given lunch, and while my teammates went together and stayed together, appearing to be getting along quite well when I heard them talking, both before and after, I just found a spot at a table and ate there quietly, finding them again after I was done. They had chosen to just sit on the ground, at the bottom of the area we were planting trees on, along with plenty of others who didn’t use the tables, and the guy did mention that I had abandoned them then, but I pretty much just ignored that and simply sat next to them as they continued to talk, until the break was over and we were told that the area next to the tents was the last one left to work on. And since all of us were there and we were clearly going to finish quickly, the organizers didn’t even wait for us to do so, starting to call people one by one to get their certificates for participating in the event.
Some did stay around there for that, to be there when their name was called, but I actually even left my teammates yet again after planting I think just a couple of trees at the bottom of the area together, instead walking to the top to find whether any spots had been missed and planting a second tree on my own when I did so. Was actually still working on that when my name was called, so I stopped and went down, having to look for my certificate in two stacks until I found it, since the person who was searching for those for volunteers who weren’t there right when their name was called said he couldn’t find it even though it had been called likely less than a minute before I arrived. But I got it eventually, then went back to finish planting my tree, and by the time I was done there didn’t seem to be any spot that somebody else wasn’t at least working on, so I more or less wandered around a little longer, until we were told to get ready to leave. And we left there at 3:15 PM, getting back to that parking lot at 4:55 PM, with me spending most of the time in between filming the towns and villages we were passing through.

One problem I had as a result of that day was that I got badly sunburned. My ears and the sides of my face were affected as well, but the real issue was the back of my neck. Only really noticed when I was sitting next to my teammates at the end of the lunch break, and turned my cap around to try to protect that area a little after that point, then also tried to protect it a little with my hand while on the bus, on the way back, but the damage was already done and it was stinging badly. Let some cold water flow on that area as soon as I got back here, then tried not to touch it until I actually showered later, wondering how was I going to sleep with it like that. But by the time I went to sleep that morning, the stinging had lessened enough to allow me to do that, at least while I was careful to just gently put my head on the pillow and not move until I fell asleep.
That wasn’t the only problem though, the other being that my boots didn’t last. It would seem that the guy dad took them to in order to have them repaired only glued the front part of the bottoms back, even though if that was coming loose it should have been pretty clear that the glue was failing everywhere. So the back part of both was starting to come loose as I was running to the metro station in the morning, and only got worse as I was working. The left one wasn’t quite so bad, the heel being loose but the rest, what that guy did, seeming to hold on just fine, so there didn’t seem to be any danger of it all falling off, but the right one was just getting worse over the course of the day, only an area at the front still holding by the end, making me search for some of the discarded plastic “ropes” used to tie saplings together and do my best to tie the part coming loose, so I won’t lose it completely. The guy actually made a comment about his own boots likely being too good to be used for such activities as we were sitting there at the end of the lunch break, probably trying to figure out how to ask about mine, and I said I had “technical difficulties” with mine, which had been glued together and were falling apart. But at least they didn’t fall apart completely.

Went out every day this week and today, since it’s after midnight, I’ll be going to the Botanical Garden, since the schedule is between 4 PM and 8 PM and it may be less physical work, and I may get away without using my boots, which I had to try to glue back now and didn’t manage to do much of anything for one of them. Then, Saturday, I’ll be going to plant trees again, the same NGO organizing the event and in the same location, just the corporate sponsor changing. Not sure how my boots will last then, but I’ll see once there. The bigger question is how I’ll last, but I want to do this, then I plan to stay calm until the half marathon, almost certainly not attending the big protest announced for the evening of May 12 either, and also hope I won’t get sick again, since yesterday and today plenty of people coughed around me and I’m feeling colder than I should be and seem to be starting to feel something in my throat again.
Either way, while still not short in any way, this will have to be a quick post, because I haven’t posted anything this week and I’m trying to throw something here before going to bed now. What the week’s second post will be, I’m not sure yet, but it’ll have to be Sunday and I quite doubt it’ll be the one that would now need to cover not only last Saturday but this Friday and Saturday as well. If I go all the way to Thursday in this one, there will be nothing to say in another “Sunday update”, so won’t be able to get out of it that way, but Sunday is Earth Day, so maybe I’ll just throw a few pointless lines about that and say I did it. Speaking of that, wonder if there will be any events which will make me think about going out yet again…

After winning that ticket to Untamed Romania, Monday I went to watch it, going to the theater in this other mall from the area, as I meant to go to that pharmacy that’s on the way and pick something up, and also see about another Paysafecard code, because I thought there may be something to get these days and I still have a little bit left on one I should use over the next couple of weeks in order to avoid losing that little amount. I was wrong about this last part, so I just bought it earlier than I should have, and also spent money I had a hard time sparing at the moment, but I’ll make do. And at least I also found a metro card on the way, with five trips still on it, so in case both me and dad will really need to use the metro at some point, one of us will have that without needing to buy one then. Bit surprised that it still works, since I just saw it on the pavement, but there it was…
As for the documentary, I guess it’s nice enough to look at. But there were a total of six people there, including me and a guy who only came ten minutes after it actually started, so 25 after the listed start time of 5:10 PM. I for one was at the theater around 4:20 PM and the woman who was there seemed rather surprised that I wanted to watch that when I asked her what to do if I had that free “ticket”. But she gave me the actual ticket and I could freely pick my seat, as none were reserved at that time, and when, after wandering around for a while, I went in, at 5:05 PM, I was the first one there, two women walking in before 5:10 PM and one other woman with a child coming during the trailers, the man who arrived later apparently also being with them.

Tuesday I ran, but before that there was a power failure just when I meant to leave. Saw that there had been a fire nearby in the morning, so maybe it had something to do with that, but I meant to leave at 4 PM and it’s a good thing I was just a little late, because I got back to my room just at that time and heard the UPS beeping, so I waited for a couple of minutes, realized the power wasn’t coming back right away, and turned off the computer. It did actually come back around 4:10 PM, just as I was about to go out the door, but didn’t turn the computer back on then, just in case it’ll fail again. Problem was that, when I did turn it back on, after getting back, it paused for a pretty long moment on the boot screen, with just the first couple of lines on the screen and 04 in the lower right corner. Seemed fine after that, but I wonder what that was all about.
But the run itself sure went well, and I can definitely, finally, say that I regained my speed, as the time was 47:39, with sector times of 4:19, 5:12, 5:50, 4:29, 4:59, 5:48, 4:22, 5:00, 5:50 and 1:50, making for lap times of 15:21, 15:16 and 15:12. So each lap was faster than the one before it too, meaning I could really push. Of course, the weather was good and there were pretty few people too, the only moment when one got in the way being when a cyclist was coming down a slope and couldn’t brake in time, so I had to quickly avoid her. Had two guys ask how many laps I’m doing, but just said, and showed, three in passing, not explaining any more, and not bothering to turn to make sure they heard when I said yes when they asked whether that meant “big ones”, before congratulating me. There was also an old woman that I keep seeing very slowly jogging, so I gave her a thumbs up when I passed her the second time, as she was coming from the opposite direction, and then smiled and nodded the third time, at which point she wanted to say something, reached out the hand she was holding a coat or something in and started saying something, but I just said I cared for my time in passing and rushed past.
Was worried I won’t be able to shower that evening, as at some point there was no hot water anymore, but I saw that it was a big problem, affecting a large part of the city, and they were saying they’ll fix it by midnight, which they did, and since I tend to shower around 12:30 AM when I’m not alone, to go straight to the kitchen after that, it didn’t actually affect me. And I also managed to finish the 11th “Divine Empire” scenario in Disciples that evening, so I finally got through more than half of them. Wonder if I’ll manage to finish all of them by the end of May. Doubt it, but I may give it a shot, depending on how it’ll go over the next couple of weeks.

Wednesday I went to buy things, again going to three hypermarkets and two farmers’ markets just for a few things. First meant to do this Friday, before seeing the Botanical Garden event and deciding to go, and then Thursday, before learning of the event I went to this evening, so that’s how it ended up being Wednesday. And it started pretty badly, as I was thinking of leaving around 1:30 PM but wanted to take the recyclables too, not including the plastic bottles and the few cans, and there was this plastic crate dad wanted to throw away but had put away on the balcony when I last took them out, so I forgot about it until then… And then I wanted to break it in order to just put the pieces in the same bag I put the rest of the plastic and metal in, but this didn’t go well, as it was really hard to actually tear apart and when something did break pieces ended up flying all over the kitchen, since that’s where I was doing it. In the end, I only left around 2:30 PM, after gathering all the pieces I could find, some in places I didn’t expect, and vacuuming and even quickly washing the kitchen floor, trying to get the plastic dust off it too. And I still couldn’t break it properly, so had to carry a part of it separately, though I could at least sort of hang what was left of it from a finger. Found one more small piece of it after coming back, in the thing we put dishes to dry in, but nothing else since, so maybe that really was the only one I had missed at first.
About the purchases, first checked prices at the other hypermarkets, passed through the first farmers’ market, not seeing that person I want to buy apples from, and eventually got to Auchan to buy bread, yogurt and some tea. Then took the free bus they provide to the second farmers’ market and got a few vegetables and some apples from there. Not good apples though, and not cheaper either. I’m quite sure I saw better ones at least at the same price, if not even cheaper, but with the person selling them calling after me when she noticed me looking I didn’t get back, ending up trying to pick from those sold by another, who rushed to ask how many I wanted and grabbing some herself, those she grabbed obviously being way worse than those I was picking. She did give me one more than the quantity I paid for, actually seeing that she had exactly that quantity and then just adding one more, but I may have to throw away a fair bit of most of them. They are still tasty though, and I guess you can say I prevented some food waste…
Got back after that, and since dad still wasn’t back I ate too, then went back out relatively late, wanting to see if there were any interesting evening discounts in Kaufland, as those apply I think after 8 PM, mainly to vegetables that spoil quickly. Met dad on the way, as he was finally coming back, but there were no such interesting discounts at Kaufland, though I did buy a few things. And before that I also bought one thing from Carrefour, which I realized was a problem after I got back with it, the plastic container it had been put in having large holes on both top and bottom. Didn’t notice it there since it had been placed in a plastic bag as well, and in fact didn’t notice the hole on the bottom until I was starting to move the stuff to a jar, but the holes are very smooth, so not tears, and the bag should have prevented the food from coming into contact with anything before I moved it at least. But that definitely was troubling and I did send an e-mail to complain, to which they replied to ask for more details, so let’s see what happens next.

Thursday I tried to glue the bottoms of my boots back, after the back parts came loose last Saturday. The right one seemed in danger of falling off completely, the left less so, but oddly enough it was the right one that I seem to have managed to fix to some extent, while the left just looks nasty, with a lot of visible glue and that heel still loose. And despite trying to keep my nose away from the glue as much as I could, I still ended up lightheaded and nauseous because of it. So that required a fair bit of effort, trying to hold the parts pressed together actually being quite exhausting, and now I’ll still have to be very careful if I want to still get any use out of those boots this Saturday as well, and I won’t be wearing them to the Botanical Garden now, and the work they say we’ll do there may not require boots in itself, though right now it started raining quite heavily, so not sure how much mud we’ll have to deal with.
Had to rush that a bit, as I still had to shave and then went to a viewing of “Portavoce“, which was supposed to start at 7 PM. I left a few minutes after 6 PM, to give myself time to find the spot, as it was in a university hall, but I was at the university entrance before 6:40 PM and thought I noticed where I should go right away, so I just spent a few more minutes wandering around and then slowly made my way up, as I still had to wait even then. The organizers got there and started the final preparations a couple of minutes before 7 PM and started speaking some 15 minutes later, but the movie itself only started at 7:40 PM and lasted just under one hour. The event didn’t end then though, as they took questions after that, until 9:40 PM, though I guess some lingered even after that, the one activist I knew who was there, and who was also actually a guest, posting only at 10:18 PM that she had just left. Did expect more of the known activists, but I guess they had gathered some time ago, when the movie was shown as part of One World Romania, when many of them were posting about it, while this was mainly for students, considering the location and that it was part of a series of such events taking place there and organized by that guy.

I’d have written a personal post on a Sunday either way, but the plan was to write about planting trees yesterday and leave the other stuff for next week, so it wouldn’t really have been what I mean by the “Sunday updates” I mean to avoid. But between needing to interact with people and being around so many all that time yesterday, being just exhausted after the work and so little sleep, and the computer issues which continue, I’m quite a mess. More so than usual, I mean. So I pretty much just sat here, watched a couple of things, didn’t even continue that 11th “Divine Empire” scenario in Disciples that I started Friday, even though I’d say that’d have been a “safe” thing to do on the computer, and I’m only getting around to throwing a quick post here now.

About Emsisoft, the issue that causes it to invisibly disable at least the surf protection and behavior blocker modules repeated itself, but I had debug logging enabled for the past few days and last night I caught it when it happened, twice. Also caught a crash, though that seems to have only been of the interface, and I seem to remember some release notes mentioning something about such occasional crashes. So I sent those logs last night, among quite a series of e-mails I rather flooded the support guy with, even though the amount of detail in those things makes me feel like somebody sat here in my room and looked over my shoulder for the entire period covered, and the fact that they’re in plain text makes it even worse.
Didn’t get a reply yet, or at least there wasn’t one when I last checked my e-mail this evening, but let’s see what happens, because the issue repeated itself once today as well. I think that’s actually the first time it happened during the day, as so far I was noticing an odd pattern of it only happening at night, and it also broke another pattern I was noticing, having to do with what I had open. It maintained another one though, having to do with what it logs as having blocked just before it fails, and something the support guy mentioned in passing during our exchange so far actually made me suspect a potential cause having to do with that now that I thought about it, and I changed something which should make it not happen again if I’m right, but I really think I did my part in sorting this out either way. Now the ball’s in their court and sure hope they’ll fix it quickly, so I won’t have to worry about anything like this again!

Other than that, on top of the sunburn and the torn blister and the other spots that sting or are sore after yesterday, last night I also “managed” to burn my left upper arm as I was trying to iron some of my clothes. Had the iron close to me on the table, reached over it and my arm touched the tip. Moved away immediately, so it’s not a bad burn, but I’m left with a red area in the shape of that tip, stretched as my arm briefly moved over it, which stings a fair bit. Or it did until I put a bandage there after waking up today, as it hasn’t been that much of a problem after that. That torn blister on my right thumb does get in the way though, as it stings quite a lot. The sunburn on the back of my neck still bothers me a little as well if I try to turn my head, and would rather not touch that area if I can help it, but I initially feared I won’t even be able to put my head on the pillow last night and that wasn’t a problem. Taking a shower, earlier that night, wasn’t too nice though.

But at least I slept pretty well today. Being dehydrated as well as exhausted helped with that, as I didn’t wake up to go to the toilet at all, and didn’t even feel the need to go when I woke up at some point during the morning, probably due to dad making some noise, so I only got up around 1:45 PM. Actually thought it was later at first, but it’s good enough I guess, even if it was around 5:15 AM when I finally got in bed last night. Had only finished eating a little over half an hour before, after I rather lost track of time while taking that shower and then dad also asked me to translate a quick statement, and considering all the Emsisoft mess I was sorting out and the mood that put me in. Even left what I used in the sink, not washing right away, which I really don’t do.

Speaking of sleep, though I’ll otherwise leave aside the stuff related to planting trees now, I’ll add here that, seeing as I had to be at the meeting place at 7:30 AM and would have therefore needed to wake up no later than at 6 AM, I tried to sleep earlier instead. So it wasn’t even 9:30 PM when I first got in bed and maybe managed to get about half an hour of sleep, or up to half an hour, before getting up to go to the bathroom at about 10:20 PM. But that was the easy part, as before 11 PM I tend to be sleepy, while after that I usually “wake up” whether I nap or not. So after tossing and turning for a while when I got back in bed, I got up a few minutes after 11 PM and was at the computer until almost 12:30 AM, when I got back in bed… And tossed and turned for the next couple of hours, getting up to go to the toilet once again as well, a few minutes before 2 AM. It was likely almost 2:30 AM when I finally managed to fall asleep, and about 3:40 AM when I woke up again. So I got up at that point, as I hadn’t eaten or gotten ready that night, so I meant to get up no later than at 4 AM in order to have a chance to do it all.

But this ended up having over 1000 words again, plus that it’s getting close to midnight, so I’ll end it here. Hope to write the post about planting trees soon as well, but maybe not tomorrow, because I won a free ticket to Untamed Romania last week, valid only until Friday, and I’m thinking of using it tomorrow. Was thinking of going on a day when I’ll also go buy some things and there’s little reason to do that tomorrow, as I’m not out of anything yet, but I could still have a look, and maybe it’s better like this anyway, because when I’ll go buy things I’ll check out all the places again and therefore won’t be able to afford spending that time watching the film except perhaps after I’ll be done, dropping everything off first and then going back. So it couldn’t be something done “since I was there” either way.