Cav's Place

Other protests and events took place since the last one I wrote a report for, but I neither attended nor followed closely enough to be able to write anything meaningful about any of those, only glancing at a few things about the short march from the Government to PSD’s headquarters that took place on November 12, when the gendarmes made the protesters stay on the sidewalk, saying they were too few to use the road, even though it seems that traffic was stopped anyway.
So I’ll leave the period in between aside otherwise and get right to what happened on November 26, when dozens of NGOs and civic groups, as well as unions and other organizations, joined the call to oppose the Government and the ruling coalition’s plans to change laws that have to do with the justice system, as well as the changes to the tax system and to the regulations that govern the activity of NGOs, and the troubling rhetoric steering into Anti-Europeanism and possibly also causing some concern for NATO allies. The fact that unions and activists supported each other is particularly notable, as the regular activists tend to deeply distrust union leaders and union members have previously removed such known protesters from their events when they meant to attend in order to show their support, for example when the protest had to do with education or the medical system.

The call was to gather in Victory Square, in front of the Government, from 6 PM, with nothing else listed before noon on the day of the protest itself, when a message appeared with a map of the planned march, going to University Square, then taking a slightly different route from there to Constitution Square in order to get directly to the Ministry of Justice first, only passing through Constitution Square after that in order to reach the Constitutional Court, then going all around to finish the march in front of the Chamber of Deputies entrance without turning around on the spot. At 6.5 km, it was hardly a long march compared to those from 2013, but this year people got used to either stay in one place or march directly from the Government to the Parliament and then stop there, so following a number of complaints the plan was changed on even shorter notice, a new route involving turning around at the Constitutional Court, passing through Constitution Square a second time and getting to the Chamber of Deputies entrance that way being posted less than 30 minutes before 6 PM.
I for one didn’t even notice this change until I checked the event page again now, since I was already on the way at the time, and either way this new plan wasn’t exactly followed either, plus that some continued to complain about the very fact that there was to be a march, wanting to stay in Victory Square instead. In fact, while I was close to the head of the column and didn’t notice this either at the time, I learned when I got back and checked the news that some, around 1000 or even 2000 people according to some reports, chose to remain in Victory Square when the rest started marching. But most, around 10000 people according to reports, began to slowly move around 7:20 PM and at the scheduled time of 7:30 PM the march clearly started.

Unlike three weeks ago, however, that didn’t go smoothly, and protesters and gendarmes share the blame for it. It would have been entirely possible to march on only one side of the road, as it happened then as well, yet the protesters kept trying to push through and block both, while at the same time the gendarmes could have either tried to stop them with only a normal cordon or given up faster when they realized that a significant number of people were determined to get through. But instead the mounted gendarmes were grouped at the front of the column and used to try to hold people to one side of the road, the horses understandably getting agitated and the situation being close to escalating. Worse, one activist who actually works at a horse shelter that she says also cares for some retired horses previously used by the Gendarmerie stated that she only saw one gendarme who handled his horse properly, the actions of the others agitating them even more.
Fortunately, soon enough the gendarmes did realize that nothing good will come of that strategy and all the mounted ones rode away, the others allowing people to use both sides of the road. Personally, I quite like to see the mounted ones around, or more exactly like to see the horses, but once that decision was made to use them to form a cordon and try to hold increasingly angry people back, it was clear that they couldn’t be used anymore that evening, a significant risk of injury for both horses and protesters existing otherwise and such an event being almost certain to lead to the protest turning violent. Also, while I’m not sure they would have managed it without the use of some force, if they really wanted to keep people from blocking both sides of the road, they’d have definitely had a much better chance of doing it by keeping the horses away from the places where people were determined to push through in the first place.

Either way, once that was over, the march continued smoothly, the head of the column reaching Romana Square around 7:50 PM and University Square just before 8:15 PM, the numbers continuing to grow during this time. Estimates were of 25000 to 30000 in the end, some stating that the total was probably around 30000 but the peak maybe around 25000, and it’s not quite clear when that was reached, because there was some confusion even after University Square, and then a whole lot after reaching Constitution Square, so only a few thousand stopped in front of the Ministry of Justice and not that many more eventually, in scattered groups, made their way over to the planned end point, in front of the Chamber of Deputies entrance. But, as I said, things went well until University Square, where there was a stop, people being asked to hold a moment of silence and then sing the anthem, as it usually happens.

It was more than ten minutes before the crowd started moving out of University Square. Some, those who knew the evening’s plan and agreed with it, were trying to go right for a bit in order to get on Victoriei, others even wanted to stay in University Square, some may have just left for good at that point, but eventually people went straight ahead, following the usual route, though the column became quite loose. We got to Unirii Square around 8:40 PM and the head of the column was reaching Constitution Square just before 8:55 PM.
Once there, especially since, just like last time, we actually had to go all around instead of through the Square due to the preparations for the Christmas Fair, I assumed that people were at least going to stop at the Ministry of Justice first, but the large majority turned left instead of right and simply gathered in front of the Parliament, only a pretty small group being gathered with some difficulty in front of the Ministry. And then things got even more confused, with some, which seemed to include those with loudspeakers who had been trying to keep some trace of order until then, heading straight for the Chamber of Deputies entrance, and others going back to the Square, while I heard that some of those who were already there meant to keep going the other way, probably to the Constitutional Court. Since I just briefly went back at that point, to very quickly look for a few more signs to take pictures of before following that first group to the planned ending location, not sure if anyone actually got there, much less if anyone followed the first announced route to go all around.

As I mentioned before, those who reached the Chamber of Deputies entrance did so in scattered groups. In fact, quite a number of those who had stopped in front of the Ministry of Justice and then continued in that direction broke away either to return to Constitution Square or to leave for good before a more determined effort by some of those with loudspeakers managed to pull some more of those stopped in the Square in that direction, and even then a group seemed to just stop there at the intersection. So the protest ended in a rather unfortunate manner, but those who did get to that planned ending location wandered away slowly, so I see reports that there were still 2000 or so there, which seems to be a fair estimate based on what I saw as well, when people were asked to make light with their phones, or whatever other light sources they happened to have, just before 10 PM. Then there was another call to sing the anthem, which pretty much marked the end of the protest, and that was when I left as well, after having wandered away a few minutes earlier to have one last look around the corner and noticing the Square pretty much deserted already.

One last thing I want to mention is that, despite all the confusion and people disagreeing and going in different directions, plus that initial problem with the mounted gendarmes, I actually expected worse, mainly being concerned by all the groups announcing their participation, the unions most of all. But not only that they didn’t try to take control of the protest or otherwise convey the idea that it was organized by them, but I actually didn’t notice any obvious signs that they were even present. I heard of some reports on hostile media sources of people brought from surrounding cities and, if true, they may have been responsible for that, but there couldn’t have been any significant number and, again, they didn’t stand out in any way.
Otherwise, this time I didn’t see any reports of members of PNL participating, which is good. Members of USR were obviously present, but not drawing any attention to themselves, so I for one only noticed some of those I’ve known for years, activists who decided to join the party and definitely still have as much of a right to be there as those who didn’t make that choice, though I heard people mention that they recognized the party’s new president around as well. Former Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos was also present, same as three weeks ago, and that once again was controversial, but as long as he just walks calmly somewhere among a large column of people, I for one don’t care, even if the media seeks him out for interviews. The only thing that made me raise an eyebrow was a speech made in Victory Square, before the start of the march, by a journalist I guess known for lashing out at the ruling coalition and claiming to be an activist but largely seen as an example of what’s wrong with journalism, said speech also prompting messages posted by the groups attempting to more or less organize these protests, distancing themselves from him and repeating their request, made before the march as well, to avoid such speeches.

After Silverthorn, my expectations for A Darkness at Sethanon may have been quite low, but it hardly seems possible not to be surprised and amazed by it either way. The prologue sets the stage and, while the early chapters otherwise remind of the rather immature heroic fantasy from before and the supposed “surprises” are all too obvious, the story eventually transforms into an epic of great intensity and mind-boggling scope, dealing with the fate of the entire universe, touching upon the concept of other dimensions, and going all the way to the beginning of time and back. The pacing does vary due to the alternating points of view, but overall it becomes more and more alert and new elements, including actual surprises, keep being thrown at the reader as well. It would provide excellent material for a movie, or in fact for a few of them, and some scenes may even require this, being almost too much to be left to the reader’s imagination… Though, at the same time, some may be impossible to properly portray in a mere movie as well.
That said, there are many flaws, starting with an unexpected number of typos, especially considering the fact that the edition I read was printed decades after the initial release, plus that, at least in this edition, there are also two places where the space indicating a new scene is missing and said new scene starts so abruptly that I wonder whether at least its first paragraph may not be missing as well. Yet those are minor matters, far more important being the fact that too much is skipped, too many questions are left unanswered, too many things seem unexplained or to not quite add up not because the author is withholding information for later use, but because he doesn’t know it either. The book is far too short and, while they appear to have greatly improved by the time it was written, the author’s skills not sufficient to do justice to such an audaciously ambitious scope and setting… Then again, I’m not sure that anyone’s could ever be.

Rating: 4/5

Did start reading A Darkness at Sethanon on Monday and definitely plan to finish it and also write the quick review tomorrow, since there’s a protest Sunday evening that I want to attend. Having unions as the main organizers will be odd for me, but this time the activists I know are fully behind it as well and in fact there’s quite an unusual alliance of groups that would usually be at odds with each other but which now have a common enemy, so I’m somewhat wary but definitely want to at least have a look. So reading and posting Sunday evening probably won’t be an option, which means I’d sure like to read some 60 more pages today, so I won’t have to push tomorrow instead.

There’s really little to say otherwise, but I’ll start with Sunday, when my mother was brought back here by my cousin, to be here while dad went on a trip this week, which meant I had to give up on my hopes of actually getting some days alone… And also on the plan to make something I wanted to eat that Sunday, which I meant to do after dad said he’ll bring her Monday, before even that plan changed on short notice, as it often tends to happen when it comes to them. And she was also brought quite early on Sunday, so I was in the kitchen at the time, trying to at least make myself a salad and rushing to at least close the door when I heard the key, especially since my cousin briefly came up as well and brought at least what I understand is his adopted son along. Heard that his wife was with them as well, but I’m not sure whether she also came up and then quickly went back to the car or waited for them there, and either way during those few minutes I was fighting back panic caused by the fact that some other person was around. Wasn’t fighting back the rage caused by a child being here, of course, instead just mentally cursing and wishing them “nice” things because of it. Sure, at least they didn’t personally add to the population, but that doesn’t make it any less of a living representation of the world’s worst problem.

Other than that, Tuesday I went to buy a few things, checking out three hypermarkets again and getting just toothpaste from one, tofu and a small black radish from another and another black radish from the third. The radishes were just over a third cheaper at the second, but I somehow missed the fact that they had some from Romania on offer despite checking prices there first, then going to the third, then returning, so I ended up just grabbing one from the third, thinking to at least get something if I used the free bus they provide to cover part of the distance both ways, using the time to read a little more, since I had taken the book with me, then realizing I spent 0.18 RON (a little under $0.05 or €0.04) more by doing so. But I also found 0.13 RON (just over $0.03 or just under €0.03) in coins while there, so the difference was less. It could have been important though, since in the end I spent exactly 0.13 RON more than I had when I left, coming back with all of 0.03 RON, which were also found elsewhere.

As for this week’s run, that was yesterday, the time being 48:44, with intermediate times of 4:26, 5:14, 5:50, 4:29, 5:12, 5:57, 4:37, 5:09, 6:03 and 1:47, making for lap times of 15:30, 15:38 and 15:49. Good weather for this time of year, but the air did feel rather cold, so I had the training shirt on me as well again and, more notably, breathing took some more effort. But this also meant I watched my breathing from the beginning and managed to avoid those liver cramps this time around, and there were no difficult moments otherwise, even that worn right shoe rubbing the back of that foot less, so that wasn’t a problem either. Its effects on my socks are noticeable though, and I only have a few pairs of warmer ones, so ending up with them torn because of it will be a problem.

Other than finally cleaning my room a bit and changing the stuff on my bed yesterday, didn’t do much since the previous post. Didn’t even start A Darkness at Sethanon, so I definitely have to read that next week, to finally catch up and have 11 books read in the first 11 months of the year, leaving me to see what I’ll pick as the last one in December. Did poke at the sixth scenario from that “Divine Empire” series of scenarios in Disciples, some two months after dropping it after the fifth to try to get back to Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic, but it’s not going well and I already reloaded twice, after losing my main hero, the first time stupidly, the second time because I was in a situation I couldn’t get out of, so had to get back to an earlier save. Also went through just one more turn, and one more fight, in that Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic scenario, but there I’m at the end and in a clear position to win, so I’m more interested in trying to get the most experience and exploring the entire map first.
I guess I could also mention that I got back to using the Kone XTD after nearly a month of using the spare mouse and I didn’t notice more double clicks just yet. The issue does become far less noticeable when the temperature it’s lower and it just got colder now, so that may help me stick to it for a little longer, but without a way to somehow manage to open and fix it, this is at best a matter of delaying the inevitable. But the Kone AIMO was actually launched and they brag about microswitches lasting ten times as long as those on the Kone XTD, so I guess it will be an option when it’ll get to Romania as well, assuming the full price will be the same I’m seeing elsewhere in Europe and I’ll also be able to extend the warranty period to at least four years, even if, as I mentioned before, it doesn’t mark a return of that button above the wheel that I really want, retaining the number by having one at the base of the thumb area instead, has at best entirely pointless, and possibly detrimental if not completely turned off in every way, lighting as a major focus instead of something to be done away with already, and also uses the new software instead of this one I know causes no issues. I just really, really hope it’ll be much more reliable, and otherwise that it retains the shape and the functions, because the mouse is what I use the most if you think about it and I got really used to a good thing, the Kone XTD fitting me just about perfectly in every way, the only small complaint being that I can’t set buttons to start programs directly and have to first create keyboard shortcuts and then set the buttons to act as those shortcuts instead.

But this post’s title mentions a small traffic spike, and that started on November 11, when I posted a comment on an article about the recent, and hardly surprising, WP-SpamShield mess. Since I had quite a bad experience with that developer myself, I included a link to my post about that mess in the comment I posted there and that attracted quite an unusual number of visits. Had noticed a couple of visits to that page just before that as well, probably due to searches prompted by these developments, but between October 12 and November 10, so in the 30 days before posting that comment, my site had a total of 123 visits and 163 pageviews, therefore averaging 4.1 visits and 5.43 pageviews per day, while between November 11 and 17, so in the week since posting that comment, I had 100 visits and 133 pageviews, therefore averaging 14.29 visits and 19 pageviews per day. The peak was on November 12, when I got 26 visits and 38 pageviews, with the next day following with 23 and 35, respectively.
Either way, it was mildly entertaining to see how others quickly got to the same conclusion I eventually did back then, quite nicely spelled out by someone in the comments of that post as “Talking to Scott Allen is like talking to a brick wall.” A brick wall that finds ways to assign blame to anyone and everyone else for any issue that may come up, mind you, while portraying himself as some sort of perfect programmer, with his work being perfect products that have only advantages and can’t possibly cause issues. Also, a brick wall accusing anyone who says differently of abuse and harassment, and then goes as far as blocking messages and even banning said, shall we say, detractors from accessing his site completely, as it happened to me. And, on that note, when I checked after posting that comment, and once again now, I saw that the ban is now an aggressive one, any attempt to access the site redirecting me to a file called 1000GB.zip, which I assume would do what the name implies if I’d somehow allow it to start downloading or opening. Since in that discussion there was a debate about the need for specific malicious intent in order to identify something as malware, I’d say that redirect would fit the bill, wouldn’t you?

Oh, forgot to mention something funny: The larger cutting board we had was badly cracked for some time and eventually broke for good while dad was using it, so yesterday he came with another one which he said my mother bought while they were somewhere together and then gave to him, saying it was for me. Well, it’s the smallest size available, according to the label, and I definitely wanted a significantly larger one if we had to replace it anyway, and also one made of a single piece, so it’ll last longer and also not be glued with who knows what, so that’s another “surprise” and “present” that whichever one of them actually bought should shove somewhere, but the text at the bottom of the label definitely deserves a picture. I mean, “High quality bamboo, special artwork, natural green, envirenmental proteetion and sanitation, People need bamboo for inhabitancy under the circmstance eating without meat”? Some automated translation tools would have done a better job there!

In the previous post, I mentioned that I was having a cold, but also that it wasn’t too bad at that moment. Well, it sure got bad right after, and that night, or more exactly Thursday morning, sure was nasty. Felt like I was having quite a fever, to the point that thoughts were starting to be rather fun, nose was full of crap and it was starting to get into my chest as well, and of course I ended up feeling weak and woozy and everything seemed to hurt. Took two pretty strong mint and eucalyptus candies before trying to get to bed, but those had pretty much no effect, so after somehow managing to nap a little before I first had to wake up to try to get the crap out, at 6:20 AM, there was hardly any sleep until quite late. Rather hard to persuade your body to relax into the state needed for sleep when you can’t breathe, after all.
Stayed in bed until 3 PM, at some quite early point folded my pillow and kept my arms under my head so it’ll be higher, pulled up the blinds at 9 AM as well, in case the light would help, but went to blow and spit crap out in the bathroom at 7:35 AM, 8:25 AM, 8:55 AM, 9:15 AM, 9:45 AM, 10:15 AM, 10:45 AM, 12 PM and 1:15 PM, for some reason had to pee each of those times as well, and maybe only napped for barely a few minutes again at some point between 6:20 AM and 7:35 AM, before going around 11 AM to ask dad whether he still had any Airwaves gum left which hadn’t been used as a cat toy. Know that has some effect, so was hoping it’ll work where those candies didn’t, and after he found some that did seem to be the case, but unfortunately neighbors started drilling just then, so it was only after 12 PM, maybe after 12:30 PM, that I managed to nap a little more.

Still, after pushing through that, feeling the fever go down and struggling to blow and spit out as much as I possibly could each time, struggling until all the muscles involved hurt and I felt quite lightheaded, I felt that I had made it through the worst of it. And that indeed proved to be the case, the rest of the day being less of a problem and managing to sleep in the morning. Woke up once, or more exactly woke up the first time, coughing and struggling to breathe, pretty much passed out an instant later, then probably mere moments later woke up again, still coughing and struggling to breathe, and could finally make my way to the bathroom and try to get as much out as possible. However, though at that moment there seemed to be a fair amount in my chest as well, once I got back to sleep I could stay asleep until the early afternoon and since then it’s been just a matter of making sure I keep clearing everything out, the situation improving rather rapidly.

There’s still something there, but it hasn’t been an issue for the past few days, so I could take advantage of the one day with good weather, which was actually Monday, and run. After that, I went to buy a few things Monday evening, since I was out of bread so that definitely couldn’t wait, and then went to two other hypermarkets for some more things yesterday. Nothing much to say about that, other than the fact that Monday evening I again tried to get plastic bottles and aluminum cans to the machine at that hypermarket, since quite a lot had gathered due to what dad used but I actually had a way to carry most of them without it being either difficult or too visible, but when I got there I saw the machine say it was full, so I simply dropped them off in the underground parking lot yet again.

As for Monday’s run, that was definitely the right moment, with a reported high of 20°C and the wind lessening later, so the fact that it was after 4 PM when I went out the door and a fair bit after 5 PM when I finished the run meant I only had a few gusts to deal with in the early part, even though it was getting rather dark at the end. Not quite dark enough to mean I couldn’t check the time on my stopwatch normally though, and even though the nice weather meant that there were quite a lot of people to find my way around, I definitely preferred that to yesterday’s wind, which felt like it was about to knock me off my feet when I went out then, or to the weather we’re getting as of today, which is more normal for this time of year, with highs below 10°C, a fair amount of wind and an increasing chance of rain as well.
As for the time, it was 48:43, so I still managed to stay under 49 minutes, which felt quite nice under the circumstances. Sector times were 4:21, 5:09, 5:55, 4:35, 5:02, 5:56, 4:36, 5:13, 6:03 and 1:53, making for lap times of 15:25, 15:33 and 15:52. Started rather fast, actually thinking that I felt that I was pushing hard enough for at least 4:25 on that first sector, so if it’ll be worse I’ll be in trouble, but it wasn’t and that mostly calmed me down, though that rather slow first sector of lap two got me a bit worried again, before the fast second one calmed me down again. And it should have been 48:42, but there were some women standing right at the park exit, on the side I finish on, and while I considered just steering myself maybe a meter to the left in order to get a clean finish, I decided against it, which meant that instead of finishing with what’s pretty much a jump, as I usually do, I had to slam on the brakes in order to be able to get around them, and under those circumstances I stopped the stopwatch at 48:43.01.
Either way, wasn’t sure how it’ll work out when I started and definitely didn’t want ten kilometers in more than 49 minutes just yet, before the weather gets nasty, so I was ready to either get back to seven this one time, in case I’d have finished two laps in a time which would have pretty much guaranteed under 35 minutes over that distance but would have been too much to stay under 49 for ten, or to struggle for a really hard 16, aiming to just stay under 1:25, if I’d have barely managed to cover the first two laps in about, and possibly slightly over, 32 minutes. Definitely dreaded that prospect, but I wasn’t going to allow myself to get back to seven and not even stay under 35 minutes over that distance, so 31:50 for two laps was absolutely the maximum time for that to be an option.
Fortunately, I didn’t need to resort to either of those options, though I still had some crap to try to breathe around, on top of the usual liver cramps and rib pain felt mainly at some point during the second lap, until I could work my way around them again. That was something I had to manage, but until lap three it wasn’t much of a problem. On lap three, however, I had to cough, and while the first time was fine, the second time, close to the end of the second sector, resulted in sharp pain in the lower right part of my abdomen, where there tends to be some dull pain most of the time when I move anyway, making me think it’s either something radiating from my hip or who knows what else. Worse, coughed a couple more times after that, with the same result, something feeling like it was about to give in that spot, so I had to adjust my breathing to try to avoid coughing again before the end. But I did it, so all’s well that ends well.