Cav's Place

Overall, I guess it is a suitable ending for the series, though at the same time it may also seem a little forced, especially after the series had dragged on at times in the past, and even in this book itself there’s chapter five, which reads exactly like something written in order to just keep writing and buy time until more actual inspiration will strike. But even if it was a case of the author realizing, or being told, that she had to end it, at least in terms of the actual outcome she did a decent enough job. Less so in terms of how it came about though, as that was particularly disappointing, but I can’t say more without spoilers. And speaking of what I can’t say more about without spoilers, it was also unpleasant that one other decision, taken not long before the end, was just presented directly, without anything about how it was actually reached, not even after the fact if the author wanted to surprise the reader at first.
Otherwise, still some nice dragons, still nasty and downright dreadful humans, but sadly many unpleasant dragons as well, for various reasons, albeit through little fault of their own in plenty of cases. And no other relationships between a dragon and their captain or companion to save the day except that between Laurence and Temeraire, though the “chemistry” and understanding between those two remains a beacon of hope when it is given a chance to shine among the filth. And they do get the, if I may say so, sedate ending they appear do deserve… Albeit very briefly…

Rating: 4/5

There was a first small sign Monday evening, a few more Tuesday evening, and by the time I woke up Wednesday it was quite clear I was coming down with something bad, and the fact that I went out after maybe some two and a half hours of sleep sure didn’t help. By that evening, it was clear that it was really bad, and yesterday I was just crushed. I can barely get out of bed, until earlier today I hadn’t even crapped in three days, and it’s been four since I showered, though I plan to try to take a bath now. And the fact that I banged my head hard in the kitchen again last night sure didn’t help either, and trying not to fall asleep quickly after that failed, as about one hour later I just couldn’t even sit anymore and crawling in bed and hoping to lie down but remain awake didn’t work, as I just fell right asleep.
Really don’t feel like I can just pull through this one, so, bar one little thing I accepted from dad back when I had one that lasted for weeks and something I took just to calm my sore throat during last year’s massive protests, I’m quite sure it’s the first time since back when I was still living with Andra when I’m taking some medicine and not just tea and lemons and pepper and such. Not that much and nothing strong yet, but I had to give in because this was clearly flu and a really bad one, as this year’s seems to be.
Details, links, corrections and anything else later, right now I’m content I managed to post something here, since otherwise I hardly was on the computer yesterday and today, not catching up on anything and so on. The plan would have been to finish League of Dragons today and have the quick review for that be today’s post, but I decided not to read now, leave those final chapters for tomorrow, and throw this on here now instead. Wasn’t sure I’d have managed to write any passable quick review in this state anyway, so hoping I’ll have a better chance tomorrow, if not even Sunday.

After first poking at it back in November, then dropping it and only picking it back up earlier this month, I finally finished the sixth of that series of “Divine Empire” scenarios in Disciples earlier this evening. Since I did so on turn 259, I was actually worried that something may happen when reaching turn 256, thinking of variable types, but there was no problem and I could just get it done. Now let’s see about the next, since if I do intend to finish all of these before considering the game completed and moving on, there are 15 more to go…

Speaking of games, yesterday I got Epic Pinball: The Complete Collection as my prize for entering and supporting a team in the “GOG Games”. It seems that a little over half of those who entered got games, so the chances were good but nothing was guaranteed, and the list of games that were to be given out wasn’t made available anywhere, as in not even in the news post or the forum thread about the event, which were for some reason deleted now. At least this was one of the games in the competition, albeit the oldest and cheapest one, so it made sense to be on the list, but I also saw some say they received games that weren’t played by the streamers.
Either way, I actually installed it and confirmed that I definitely played some version of it way back, as I clearly recall the first table, Android, and seem to recall Excalibur quite well as well, with Pot of Gold and Crash and Burn also seeming at least somewhat familiar, making me even more certain than I was that I did play Pack 1 at some point when I was little, somehow. At the same time, this means I played two pinball games back then, because quickly checking some videos pretty much confirmed that I did indeed play the other one I was considering while trying to figure out which one it was, namely Pinball Fantasies… Or at least that I clearly remember the second and third tables there, and the first seems quite familiar as well, even if I can’t say that the fourth also does.
Back to Epic Pinball, I guess I’ll keep it installed and poke at it a bit, on and off, at times just to be able to say I played something when I can’t get myself to, well, seriously play something. I also see that tables have rules and stages, so while the whole point is to have the highest score, at least in most cases there is a way to “complete” a table by reaching the last listed stage, meaning that if I do achieve that at some point, I’ll actually be able to list the game as completed. Highly doubt I’ll manage, or even really try, that, however, so another idea would be to list it as completed if I’ll reach a certain score on each table, and was thinking of 100 times the default “high score”. But since it’s just a silly thing I happened to receive and remember I probably played when I was a little kid, I’ll most probably just give up on it well before that too.

Speaking of games received, after grabbing it when it was free on GOG.com earlier this month, I only actually downloaded Dungeons II two days ago, and pretty much right after the download completed, my computer appeared to briefly disconnect several times, the behavior only ending after I firmly pushed both ends the cable connecting it to the switch. The thing is that I did see that LED on the switch turning off then, so the connection was clearly lost, but I still can’t figure out whether that means the LAN chipset is turning itself off and back on or there’s something with the connection, and in this latter case whether it’s the cable or one of the ports, and if so which one. Do know that I’ve experienced this behavior before, but it was just happening once or twice and then settling down without me doing anything, so it is a reason for concern.
The thing is that it was also very cold in my room then, since I do keep the window open for 30 minutes per day even during these cold days and, while I had closed it some time before that happened that day, I hadn’t turned the heater on yet. And then yesterday it happened again, even sooner after closing the window, and interestingly also after downloading Epic Pinball. It happened fewer times then though, and it just stopped without me pushing the end of the cable that goes into the computer in again, so that was more like the behavior occasionally seen before. And all of it might have actually been caused by problems with the connection, likely due to the weather, since last evening I started losing Internet access, first very briefly, around 6:20 PM, then more and more until, some four hours later, the very brief moments, actually lasting mere seconds, where those when it worked. It got better after that though, and after 3 AM, when I got back here after eating, I didn’t notice any more problems of any kind, whether last night or today.
One possibility is that, whenever this happens, the LAN chipset is turning itself off and back on to try to see whether that fixes a problem it detects with the connection, whether it’s due to the cable not connecting properly here or caused by something farther down the line. But the odd thing is that, whether this happens on its own or I unplug the cable or turn off the switch, I get the same entry in event logs, and the first time it appears is on September 14, 2016, which is obviously not the first time I disconnected the computer. However, that’s when I noticed problems apparently caused by the LAN chipset as well, after installing those updates that had caused my computer to stop adjusting the fan speeds according to CPU temperature, and which led to me taking it to be checked and getting it back with just a BIOS update, though that did indeed seem to fix the obvious issues noticed then. But those updates quite certainly changed something, or likely broke something, and another reason why I’m saying this is that I just noticed one other odd entry in event logs, not seeming to be connected to this and also listed as just an information, but first appearing that day as well.

Otherwise, did run last week after all, Friday, and the time was 48:22, with sector times of 4:16, 5:12, 5:56, 4:31, 5:05, 5:58, 4:30, 5:12, 5:58 and 1:44, making for lap times of 15:24, 15:34 and 15:40. I again only meant to stay under 49 minutes, but after seeing that very fast first sector I thought it’d be too much of a pity to waste it, so I eventually pushed more and managed to stay under 48:30 again. This cold snap means I’m definitely skipping this week though, but since the week ends in March, it means I actually got through the calendar winter without my buffer reducing at all. Obviously, that’s mainly because we didn’t actually get a real winter here until now, but I also did go for 16 kilometers the one previous time when the conditions were too poor for a good time on ten.

Still about last Friday, since dad also got some bread for me that day, after running I just went to try to return the copy of Good Omens to the Library, since the last day was Monday and I definitely didn’t want to be going out again then. However, since I didn’t check the site before leaving, I didn’t see the message stating that the branch in question was going to close at 4 PM instead of 8 PM that day, so I got there around 7 PM and stopped in front of a closed gate. Fortunately I could return the book the next day, so didn’t have to go out so far this week after all, and that evening wasn’t a complete waste either because I made a detour on the way back and got the potatoes dad said he didn’t get himself, plus some discounted carrots. I was still unhappy about coming back with the book though, and also about dad spending way more on the cornmeal and mushrooms, and also a little more on the soap, that he got compared to the prices I had seen elsewhere.

Oh, I actually forgot to mention that I attended Sunday’s protest, but there’s the previous post for that and there’s little to say that wasn’t already included there. Could use the metro card, so left just before 6 PM and by 6:25 PM I was among those who had already gathered by then, and after that I pretty much wandered around, took some pictures and left at 8:15 PM, when it was clear that numbers were dropping even though some were only just arriving. So I was back well in time to watch the Romanian Eurovision final, and actually agreed with the winners, though there’s one other song, which didn’t even make it into the final, that I might have otherwise preferred.

Thursday evening, the Minister of Justice announced starting the procedure of removing Laura Codruta Kovesi, the chief prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), from office. As a result, there was first a quick reaction that I heard gathered around 1000 people in Victory Square that evening, some known activists and groups also promoting it and attending. That protest ended relatively late and people obviously continued to gather in Victory Square over the next two days as well, but the “proper” protest regarding this issue was scheduled again for Sunday evening, despite it marking the start of a cold snap.
According to the information posted, people were supposed to start gathering at 6 PM, but numbers were, unsurprisingly, low around 6:25 PM, when I got there. People kept coming though, and the estimates I see, of around 4000 at the peak, seem fair, but the total was significantly higher, as people kept arriving as others were leaving. Even at 8:15 PM, when I left, I walked past sizable groups going the other way. But at that point they could no longer make up for those leaving, so the numbers were dropping, and I see that they dropped quite quickly not long after that, the protest pretty much ending around 9 PM. While not the only reason, the weather definitely played an important part in that, even if there were past protests that took place under even worse conditions. It was snowing, but not too much, and the reported temperature was around -5°C, though there was quite a bit of wind, which made it feel at least a few degrees colder.
The main demand of the protest was the resignation of the Minister of Justice, and otherwise it was supposed to be a show of support for Kovesi and DNA. However, and I won’t be making many friends by saying this, I didn’t particularly care for that and didn’t even want to list the event’s name, requesting said resignation, as the title of the album with the pictures I took. On the one hand it doesn’t seem to me that much actually happened, the President being the one who’ll have the final say and he openly stated his support for Kovesi, plus that accepting her removal would be political suicide for him, whatever supporters he still has generally being quite adamant in their support for Kovesi and the DNA and increasingly bothered by his lack of willingness to more openly and directly fight the ruling coalition, especially after he immediately accepted their latest proposed Prime Minister. And on the other hand, while others range from questionable to just wrong to plain laughable, a few of the 20 reasons given for Kovesi’s removal seem fair to me, and at the very least require some serious investigations. Of course, that doesn’t change the fact that, I’d say quite unfortunately, she does seem to remain the flag bearer of the fight against PSD and their allies, which would make her removal without it at least being the result of a negotiation that’d also result in the removal of PSD’s president Liviu Dragnea, and maybe some other PSD and ALDE leaders as well, a victory for them and a loss for those of us fighting against them, but that doesn’t mean one has to turn a blind eye to the problems.
That said, the main reason why I wanted to go, other than simply to show up and see what will happen with my own eyes, getting a better feel of how things stand and where they may be heading, was to see whether there will be protesters bringing up what for me should be the main reason for protests these days. And I was pleased to see that the matter in question was actually on the very first signs I took note of. Not pleased to see that they had been brought by PER, with the party logo openly on those signs, but it wasn’t just them and, either way, at least they were very visible during that first part of the protest, before others got everything set up and drew more attention.

The issue I mention above actually appeared on Wednesday, so a day before the Minister of Justice’s statement, when the Senate approved a proposal allowing work for public utilities to take place in any forests, including those in protected areas or nature reserves, or cataloged as virgin or quasi-virgin. Yes, the Chamber of Deputies will actually decide, but this wasn’t just something waved through the Senate, but actually approved with a large majority, only USR and two PNL senators opposing and one PNL and one PSD senator abstaining, after also being approved by the Government and the Committees which reviewed it, and PSD members openly stated their support for it. So something definitely needs to be done about it, but if it initially seemed to prompt a strong reaction, the following day’s events sadly seem to have caused most activists to largely set the matter aside, at least for now.

While all of this was going on, USR Senator Mihai Gotiu posted a warning on Saturday, which was also shared by some groups and activists. In his post, he revealed that a proposal which would make obtaining benefits for someone other than yourself no longer count as corruption and also allow only material benefits to be taken into account for such charges had recently been submitted to the Senate. This proposal had been brought up before, but even PSD’s leaders seemed to realize that it was too much and stated that it was to be withdrawn. Now, however, it’s quite obvious that they weren’t actually thinking that it was too much, but only too soon, and mean to keep trying until they’ll slip it through, one way or another.

Another book picked up from the Library. Since the edition I got is British, from 1991, and has fewer pages than later British editions, I assume it doesn’t include what was added in the US edition, and probably also in later British editions. But I did see a part about Warlock there at the end and a few footnotes meant for a non-British audience, so I’m not entirely sure of that.
Either way, about the book itself, I could describe it as satire, if not quite a lampoon, using humor to tackle serious issues. And while it’s quite an achievement to be funny while tackling Armageddon, I’m not even referring to that, which in itself, along with all the Heaven and Hell and angels and demons business, is just another tool used for the same purpose. Or I guess each of these elements, along with others, can be seen as a tool used to enhance and flesh out each of the others.
In spite of all of that, and of the fact that it’s written well and I read it quickly and easily and agreed with plenty of the points made, even making a particular note about the alien encounter, and also about Adam’s initial reasons and the way things were developing at that moment… It just didn’t grab me. Maybe it was too funny to be taken as seriously as it seemed to want to be and too serious to be taken as humorously as it seemed to want to be, with each of these facets seeping too much into the other, or maybe it was that the style of humor didn’t work well enough for me to stand on its own, but in the end it’ll remain just another book read, unlikely to leave a lasting impression.

Rating: 3/5