Cav's Place

This is such a short story that it feels odd to even rate, not to mention write something as well, but since it ended up on Goodreads and it actually does involve the characters from the Temeraire series, I guess I might as well.
One particularly nice thing about it is that it only involves dragons, so the human filth otherwise marring the series doesn’t get in the way here. Other than that, pretty funny while definitely staying in character and making sense, so it could have simply been a short scene in one of the books. That’s pretty much all I can say.

Rating: 3/5

It‘s just a short story, but since it’s on Goodreads I guess I might as well write a little comment, even if it doesn’t have anything to do with the Temeraire series other than the fact that it also involves a newly hatched dragon, the start of her relationship with the human she chose, and just a little bit of fighting. It even takes place in an entirely different period, during the time of the Roman Empire, and I must say I’d quite like that setting to be explored more in this sense.
That said, the dragon definitely is interesting and makes all the difference, reminding of a feeling that was at times lost later during the Temeraire series. On the other hand, the human elements, which in this case also include the captain, or more exactly the one who would be called the captain in the Temeraire series, definitely are still particularly annoying, humans being humans. Still, the story’s so short that there’s no time for that to be an actual problem.

Rating: 3/5

Earlier today I finished the Legions of the Damned campaign, so I have now completed the four Disciples campaigns. But with the Gold Edition including what is supposed to be something like an additional campaign formed of no less than 21 separate scenarios, so five more than the four original campaigns put together, since those have only four scenarios each, I may at least try that as well, if not the other scenarios too. Not sure if I’ll do it right away though.

Not much to say other than that and the fact that this week’s run was Monday, the reported highs not even reaching 30°C and it being quite cloudy as well. In those conditions, though there were quite a number of people in the park, I managed the first time under 49 minutes which wasn’t a record, 48:46. Wasn’t meant to be an attempt at a record either, the idea to try for one only rather vaguely going through my mind, I’d say over the second lap’s second and third sectors, but I didn’t start with that aim and the fact that I had to go around people or make my way through them a fair number of times would have always made it highly unlikely. And then there was a quite slow third sector of lap two which made it perfectly clear that it wasn’t going to happen, so I just set the targets from then on to ensure I’ll stay under 49 minutes at the end and if possible also under 47 minutes after the three laps, and I managed both. The sector times were 4:32, 5:07, 5:57, 4:31, 5:06, 6:03, 4:31, 5:10, 6:00 and 1:49, making for lap times of 15:36, 15:40 and 15:41. Yes, this means a new fastest third lap, which makes it even clearer that I couldn’t have possibly made any attempt at the record after the second lap.

As for reading, still didn’t start anything, though by that I mean no actual book, as I’m now going through a short story Tiel wrote, after she rather randomly sent me a message asking whether I’d want to. And by “going through” it, I mean having my mind in “edit mode” and picking on every tiny thing, so I barely covered six pages out of 20 since Monday. Definitely not the sort of thing I expected to be reading, but I guess it can count as something, even if at this point it’s becoming quite clear that I’ll end up two books behind at the end of the month, having only read six this year.
But speaking of short stories, I was also reminded of the Temeraire series by a post on Patook recently, so I guess I’ll be reading Vici and Feast or Famine these days as well, and I guess also post some very quick reviews, since they are listed on Goodreads and in some way part of the series after all. Will change my reading challenge for this year to 14 because of it, so it will still be a matter of reading 12 actual books, of course, but those quick reviews will count as posts here, so I’m hoping one of them will be this week’s second post and finally break this series of ten personal ones in a row.

At least according to Google Analytics, yesterday my site got no visits again. Of course, that means no visits other than the bots it automatically eliminates and any people with JavaScript turned off or who block Analytics specifically, which I can’t know about by using that, and it may also be a case of a glitch causing it to not record visits, but it’s no surprise if true, considering how few and far between non-personal posts have been for so long, for example this one being the ninth personal one in a row. Not that such posts were being read, the vast majority of visits still coming to the same old ones, but in fact I had noticed a reduction in those visits lately as well, which may indicate that they dropped lower in the search results. On the other hand, noticed a strange increase in the number of visits to the site front page, as in not straight to the blog or to something in that little and I guess no longer maintained fantasy art gallery that I sure meant to do a lot more with quite a long time ago. There were even days, or at least one recent day that I clearly remember, when such visits, simply to the front page and nothing else, were the only ones recorded. And yes, by this I mean direct visits and a few legitimate referrals, since I quickly react to not only filter referral spam from the reports but also completely block access from those sites once they show up.
Back to the day with no recorded visits, the last time that happened was July 6, 2015. Before that, as mentioned in a post written at that time as well, it hadn’t happened since October 30, 2010, so not long after launching this site in its current location. Also checked again now and confirmed that, and also have the full list of days with no recorded visits during that period of time early in this site’s “history”, before October 30, 2010. That list contains September 24 and October 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 13, 16, 20, 25, 26 and 28. So I can also add the fact that the last time I had two consecutive days with no recorded visits was on October 25 and 26, 2010. Wonder if that will change at some point as well. Seems somewhat unlikely in the relatively near future at least, but who knows.

Moving on, I realized I somehow forgot to mention something in the previous post and it’s probably weird enough to deserve a mention. I’m referring to a really fucked up dream I had when I napped during the afternoon on August 6, likely caused by how exhausted I was due to getting little sleep for some time. Don’t even know whether it was one dream or a series of dreams, nor whether I actually cried my eyes out in between or that was just part of the dream.
Specifically, I dreamed of watching a scene from a movie, which was also invented by my mind, then it appeared that I woke up and cried my eyes out, then I found myself lying there exhausted and wondering whether I had been crying my eyes out after a dream or had dreamed of crying my eyes out after a dream within a dream. Then, after waking up, I wondered whether that hadn’t also been a dream. I do know I dreamed about other things after that, but that doesn’t tell me whether I fell back to sleep or never woke up in the first place. So, in the most complicated scenario, we may be talking about dreaming of thinking about dreaming of crying over dreaming of a dreamed up movie scene, or more simply of a dream containing a dream containing a dream containing a dreamed up movie scene.
As for the movie scene in question, it was something about the Roman Empire, with Mel Gibson and Samuel L. Jackson among the actors and Morgan Freeman doing what you’d expect, namely the voice over. Remember a ship on a channel, about to pass under a bridge with mountains and cliffs on either side, and something said to a character about people getting what they deserve resulting in a deep and lengthy retort about how unfair life is and how hardly anything anyone gets or doesn’t get is deserved, be it good or bad, with examples. Nothing new of course, but it really struck me as powerful in the dream… Or the dream of a dream… Or the dream of a dream of a dream…

Otherwise, remembered when I woke up today that I meant to go to a free concert announced for last evening, in the park, and I somehow forgot all about it. Sure, wasn’t particularly keen, but after going out earlier anyway, to get a few things I needed before Monday with what little money I still had, thought I might as well check it out and then… It somehow completely slipped my mind at some point after I got back, so I ended up taking a nap when I should have been getting dressed again, waking up about half an hour after the announced start time and, as I already stated, not remembering it even then.

But at least I also finished the Mountain Clans campaign in Disciples today, and it sure seemed easy after that nasty Undead Hordes one. Not that the rest of that one’s final scenario wasn’t also easy after getting past that second, lesser, tricky moment I mentioned, which in fact only required me to temporarily abandon a city to the enemy, having my secondary hero and my banshee, which was also in the area, flee until my main hero could get back and wipe out the threat, which was the last notable one the enemy could send my way, the only problem after that being the final battle, which definitely required the use of everything I had and some strategy as well, the first, somewhat less careful, attempt resulting in my forces being wiped out.
Back to the Mountain Clans campaign, I could have easily finished it yesterday, after finishing the third scenario and starting the fourth and last one then as well. Unusually, this fourth scenario took me under 100 turns, 98 to be exact, to complete, and I could have finished it just before going to bed last night even after exploring and clearing out the entire map, which I wanted to do even after my main hero and his units had reached their maximum levels and he had already used all permanent potions, just in case some other interesting item would be hidden somewhere. But I left the final two battles for today because I wanted to still have time to read at least one more section of my story, which I barely managed even so.

To start with today, I did manage to run, but the fact that I skipped last week rather showed. Still managed to stay under 50 minutes, but only barely, the time being 49:55, and even that required pushing a fair bit. Sector times were 4:32, 5:19, 6:06, 4:35, 5:16, 6:00, 4:43, 5:16, 6:15 and 1:53, making for lap times of 15:57, 15:51 and 16:14. Maybe I held back just a little bit on the third lap’s third sector and also didn’t push as hard as I otherwise tend to on that final sector, but that was probably a matter of about ten seconds, if that.

But today actually started at exactly 8 AM. I know the time so clearly because, even before glancing at my watch, as soon as I opened my eyes I saw that my computer was busy with what I then realized was the daily local backup, which is scheduled at 8 AM and, according to the logs, took 14 seconds today. But what caused me to wake up became clear an instant later, when I realized somebody was knocking loudly on the door, actually appearing to use some wood or even metal object to do so. And after hearing similar loud knocks on neighbors’ doors and with dad out and my mother asleep and obviously not being bothered by the knocks, I carefully made my way to the door to try to listen and have a peek. Didn’t hear anything of what was said though, but after going to the toilet and then getting back there I thought I noticed two people in police uniforms, though I’m definitely not sure of that. Clearly heard a loud sound made by a neighbor when they likely explained what they wanted that seemed to be one you’d make when you finally understand something but are still somewhat surprised, and then they were allowed inside that apartment as well, after having likely been inside another while I was at the toilet. They didn’t knock here again though, so I eventually managed to get back to sleep… Only for that first rough awakening to take its toll around 11:30 AM, when I was once again roughly woken up, this time by a nasty cramp in my left leg.

But the main part of this post has to do with yesterday, when I went to an event organized by an environmental news site from here, after they took part in the Plastic Free July challenge. Also took some pictures and somewhat more of a description of the event itself, and also of the problem that pretty much defeated the entire purpose at the end while also yet again highlighting just how bad the situation is, can be found in the description of the album. With this being a personal post, here I’ll mainly focus on what I did there myself.
Was feeling rather awkward right away, since I had received a message in the morning from one of the organizers asking if I’ll be able to attend so they could give me one of their “plastic free survival kits”, which was quite a surprise, because they had said all along that the kits will be for the most active of those who had sent them materials depicting how they managed the challenge as well, which I obviously didn’t do, not having taken part in the first place. But later it became rather obvious that it had been a generic message, probably sent to those who had selected that they were “interested” in the event, because, as it was actually just explained to me today, they had decided just then, shortly before the event itself, to give up on the idea of judging the entries and instead just made a raffle that anyone who attended the event could freely enter. And no, I didn’t even enter.
That announcement regarding the raffle calmed me a bit, and all the children and, likely worse, the at least a few, and likely several, obviously pregnant women switched my mental state more towards anger than anxiety and embarrassment, but it wasn’t enough to allow me to actually push my way to the very popular stand where people could make a few cleaning products, deodorant or mosquito repellent out of the ingredients provided and then keep what they made. Did go there and stand around a few times, managed to persuade myself to quickly grab cards with the instructions for dishwashing detergent and mosquito repellent, but just put them back after quickly reading and gave up on any thoughts I might have had of making any attempt. Don’t think I’d have attempted the mosquito repellent anyway, as it seemed rather complicated, but the dishwashing detergent may have been an interesting experiment. In fact, it’d have been interesting to see it actually used there… Especially if that problem with the recipients for food and the cutlery wouldn’t have existed and there would have been enough reusable ones or, even better, if people would have been asked to bring their own.
But I got a bit ahead of myself, so let me just say that after persuading myself to at least ask for a lemonade, I then kept the cardboard cup while watching the discussion, thinking it may still be useful later. However, for some reason, probably in part because it had fallen over as I kept it between my feet on the grass and in part because everyone seemed to just throw them away without even using the recycling bins I could spot close to the area the event took place in, at the end of the discussion I wandered away for a bit in order to throw my cup in the proper bin before getting back to stand in line for food… And then to step out of the line for a bit to take those last few pictures before returning once again at the end, therefore letting several more people ahead of me.
That proved particularly relevant because the available reusable recipients and cutlery ran out before the person that was right in front of me, so I wasn’t the first unlucky one, but it was close enough. In itself, for that first course, that wasn’t a problem for me because I didn’t even know what it was when I stood in line, only learning then that it was cream soup, which is something I really don’t care for, so I didn’t mind just giving up on that and waiting until the corn on the cob started being served, or more exactly until people just started taking it despite the cook’s opinion that it wasn’t sufficiently boiled yet, which prompted the other person helping to take it out of the pots. If you ask me, it was probably boiled too much by then, in fact. It was also obviously very hot, and needing to just hold it in napkins due to the lack of anything to put it in definitely didn’t help, but I managed, and with just three napkins between it and my hand, though others took much more.
Then I wandered around a little more while eating the corn, trying to persuade myself to grab another cup from the lemonade stand, in the sense of just grabbing an empty cup, after someone suggested to use some of those for the food, since there were plenty left. Didn’t manage to do that though, but they were brought directly to the food stand, so when I went back I grabbed one and put some of the vegetable salad which had been brought forward in it, also grabbing one of the metal forks which had appeared. And then I meant to use that same cup for the vegetable hotchpotch, but I saw that it was being put in plastic bowls which had just been brought, along with plastic cutlery, and simply left on the stand for people to grab directly, therefore definitely contracting the entire message of the event.
Did consider asking to have some put straight from the pot in my cup, like some of those who had managed to get some of those reusable bowls were doing, but that’d have required interacting while this was simply a matter of grabbing something, so that’s what I did… After first dropping it and splashing some on the stand and also on my pants. Continued to use the fork though, and also kept the cup, though I didn’t use it again even if, with organizers having the interesting problem of having way too much food and actually trying to make those who were still there, as by then many had left, to take more, I actually took a second serving of hotchpotch as well, worsening the problem by just grabbing a different bowl, as they kept just being placed on the stand in that manner. Really burned my tongue with that though, and to some extent my throat as well, but I’m far from the only one who did that.
Managed to catch a large slice of bread when I ate the salad, but there was no more left by the time I grabbed hotchpotch, so did without. There definitely were melon pieces and round plums though, on top of a large pile of vegetables sliced only in half and left there in case anyone wanted more, but didn’t grab any of that, and while I want nothing to do with melon I guess I probably should have shamelessly grabbed several plums, taking some with me as well. But I did not, and eventually left, making sure to place that second cardboard cup in the proper bin as well on my way. On the other hand, while I left the metal fork in the sink, can’t recall what I did with that first plastic bowl, whether I left it on the stand or threw it in the garbage bag tied to it, as I know I did with the second, and of course also with the paper napkins.