Cav's Place

Had recently finally purchased Disciples I, Disciples II and Patrician III, now saw Disciples I even cheaper today, $0.89 instead of the $1.19 I bought it for, so took it as my cue to install it and give it a go, since I was actually considering it anyway, in particular due to the fact that it isn’t listed as being compatible with Windows 7 but people do say it does work, with occasional freezes or crashes, especially if you’re idle. And other than rundll32.exe being called, wanting to connect somewhere and me blocking the attempts, which resulted in a brief delay, it seemed to start just fine and as I completed the first scenario, which meant quitting and getting back a number of times, since I kept meaning to try to start writing this instead, there was no freeze or crash.
That didn’t last though, because after playing a little of the second scenario as well and quitting one more time, when I tried to get back it didn’t work anymore, and it caused my desktop and taskbar to freeze even though everything else worked, so explorer.exe was no longer responding. The matter was sorted out with no reboot, just logging off and back on after forcing both GOGLauncher.exe and rundll32.exe to close, though I did see a number of odd notifications and 20 errors about “Circular Kernel Context Logger” in system logs, but trying again resulted in the same scenario, and trying to log off directly, without forcing those processes to close first, resulted in me eventually needing to force logging off. The errors didn’t reappear though, but a warning about an unidentified USER32 event did. And I left it alone after that, having risked enough as it was.

So I guess I’m not rushing that much anymore, though I did also get back to Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic lately and played a few turns more after giving up on Disciples today. Plus, I will be going out tomorrow and want to shave this evening. Would have also wanted to nap a little, since I only slept some four or perhaps four and a half hours this morning, but the issues sure woke me up right now, considering how much anything wrong or apparently wrong regarding my computer scares me, so I guess that’s also out of the picture and I’ll see how I’ll manage tomorrow. Also running then is no longer an option, I’d say, but it wasn’t really one anyway, since the forecast says there should be significantly less wind on Wednesday without the temperature being significantly higher.

Speaking of running, I have two runs to put in this post, those being the one for last week and a second one for the week before, after being disappointed with the first one. Both were on Friday and, oddly enough, the time was 49:25 each time. Sector times were 4:39, 5:15, 6:07, 4:34, 5:06, 6:04, 4:39, 5:09, 6:08 and 1:44, making for lap times of 16:01, 15:44 and 15:56, two weeks ago, and 4:35, 5:15, 6:04, 4:30, 5:07, 6:07, 4:41, 5:20, 6:04 and 1:42, making for lap times of 15:54, 15:44 and 16:05, last week. Note that I covered the second lap in the same amount of time both times, and also the very good final sector times, last week’s actually matching the sector record. And I actually didn’t feel too well last week, my stomach having been bothered by something since Thursday evening and having to deal with gas and cramps, and I also didn’t eat what I usually do before running, so was thinking it’ll be quite an achievement to stay under 50 minutes, but I managed it quite well.

With that out of the way, I’ll get right back to July 5, when I was expecting to be alone in the evening, having been told the day before that it was probable, so I didn’t even make myself something to eat or even more tea after that run, waiting for my parents to leave first. But they didn’t, so I kept waiting for no reason, and then was up relatively early the next day for no reason as well, because a note on the kitchen table mentioned both being away between morning and evening for the next few days, dad coming back at night, which made me assume they will leave Thursday morning at least, but instead they only left in the afternoon. On top of that, my mother was apparently expecting an order to arrive, so when she asked whether I’ll be here to receive it and said it should arrive before 5 PM I said all right, my plans were already messed up anyway and I thought I’ll just manage to at least go where I meant to go if it will be some time before 5 PM at least.
Well, it was very little time before 5 PM, about 15 minutes to be exact, and my mother had also asked me to take some item of clothing out of the packaging and put it on a hanger, so I quickly did that, threw the plastic bag it had been in into the basket where I put plastic to be recycled, and ran out, since I wanted to go to a farmers’ market again, this time not the same one I had been getting a few things from recently, and as far as I knew this also closed at 6 PM. Didn’t even check the listed schedule when I got there, nor the next time I went for that matter, so I’m still not sure whether that’s actually the case, but I’d rather not leave it quite so late anymore anyway.
The main reason why I went there was that I wanted corn, so I got just two ears from someone who seemed to have really nice ones, plus a small quantity of apricots and a few cucumbers. And then I got back, boiled the corn and had corn on the cob for the first time in who knows how many years, eating one myself and leaving the other for dad in case he’ll also want some when he’ll get back. Since it was getting late by then and I didn’t know exactly when he was going to return, I left it at that for that day, delaying making myself something else for Friday.

Well, once again my plans got messed up and I didn’t make anything Friday either, because dad left me some money on the table when he left and I decided to go and grab a few things after my run, so I won’t need to go back out right at the start of the next week anymore, when it was also going to be hotter. And since I went to the hypermarket I usually go to and there is a specific place to drop off plastic bags to be recycled there, I also took the bags that were in the basket, including the one from that item of clothing. Normally I tend to throw away bags, wrappings or other similar things, since I know they’re not exactly recycled as plastic and can even cause problems if thrown with it, but now that I went there anyway, I took them and dropped them off.
Speaking of that, also took the dozen or so plastic bottles and several aluminum cans which had gathered, obviously not because of me in any way, pressing them carefully in order to have them fit in a bag in a way that didn’t reveal what was in it, as I took the small bus they provide. Did that because I meant to try to put them in the bottle and can recycling machine that’s also there, as a significant number had gathered and I should have gotten a voucher worth about 1 RON for them, so meant to see how that worked… And found that it didn’t work, the machine not recognizing them when they were pressed like that, leaving me with nothing to do but to simply drop them off next to the recycling area, as there is no place for plastic or metal there, the machine being meant for that.

Since it was again getting rather late when I got back and I again didn’t know when dad was going to return, I delayed making anything else for Saturday, when something was supposed to happen at my grandmother’s, so I definitely expected both of them to stay there late… And they didn’t. Or dad didn’t, as he only brought my mother back Sunday. I hadn’t even made myself tea the night before, then had cleaned my room a little after waking up and hadn’t even started to do anything about food, or that tea, when I got a message that he was coming back, and I think he walked though the door at around 4:30 PM or so, when I was just taking to my room the tea and what I could quickly grab to eat.

My only chance left was Sunday, but it hardly seemed likely that they’ll be back late then, and they weren’t, so I didn’t make anything out of what I wanted to make during those days, being unable to plan anything. And then I ended up needing to boil myself a potato or two for two nights, which I believe were Monday and Tuesday, since I had made myself a salad and grabbed something after they got back on Sunday, as they had brought a pretty large quantity of tomatoes from somebody’s garden, all split and some of them partially rotten, and my mother was busy making some bottled tomato sauce and some tomato soup out of what could be saved out of the partially rotten and badly split ones before they got even worse, not getting around to anything I could also eat until later.
But to return to Sunday, after trying on the clothes she had ordered my mother seemed to be considering sending the one she had told me to put on a hanger back, because it didn’t fit her too well. However, in order to do that she needed the bag it had arrived in, since it had a code on it, and due to me rushing Thursday and then finding that I could make that unplanned trip to that hypermarket Friday, that bag wasn’t around anymore. Felt quite stupid about that, because I did notice the code and in that case it’s obvious that the bag should have been kept just for such a situation, but I was just acting, being in a hurry and having each day’s plans go right out the window, and for some reason it didn’t cross my mind until it was too late. Not sure what she ended up doing about it in the end…

To get to this week now, stayed in when it was hotter, but eventually did go back out Wednesday, back to that market for more corn, and a few more cucumbers, plus a pack of yogurt from the nearby hypermarket. It should have also been the last day when I should have gotten a scratch ticket and an entry into their draw, but the cashier only gave me a ticket, after asking whether she had given me one after giving me the receipt, and saying she keeps forgetting about them that day. Normally the ticket for the draw should have been printed along with the receipt, so no idea what happened, and of course I couldn’t get myself to ask. Not that it matters, but I was a bit surprised.
Either way, got five ears of corn Wednesday, from two different people and for less, and they were still all right, though not as nice or as big as the two I had bought the first time. And I boiled three of them that day, so it’ll be one for me and one for each of my parents, and left the other two for Friday, after running and then going back to the hypermarket I usually go to, because I was out of bread, and also wanted to try that machine again with the only two bottles which had gathered and weren’t pressed, so it worked, but I left the 0.10 RON for the old woman who was also there and wondering how to use it. Back to the corn, wasn’t sure how to split it then, but dad said he didn’t want any, so the matter sorted itself out. In between, Thursday, I went out again in the evening to take out the recyclables, minus bags, and check a few prices again, without getting anything.

This was supposed to be a quick post, wasn’t it? But isn’t that always the case? If I could only write other things at least the way I write about personal matters… But instead, the deadline for ending my struggle with my story is tomorrow, and I intend to stick to that plan. Meant to write during the day, to actually finish before midnight instead of writing right before going to bed, when it’s actually the next day already, as I do otherwise, but not sure how that will work out if I’ll also be going out and I do have a chapter to finish. Allowed it to drag on even more pointlessly than the whole thing does for so long lately, but now I have to actually find a way to throw together a few paragraphs that say something, and that will sure take a while, if I’ll even manage it at all. Not in the least bit certain that I will.

15 years since we met, since that first evening together and that first particularly awkward kiss that happened even though we had planned to go on that trip as just friends. Not since our first night together, since after that she did eventually go to the other bedroom, which my parents had cleared for her since she had said she didn’t want to sleep in the same bed with me before she had to, when we’ll actually go on the trip we had met for. Even said she was likely to make me sleep on the floor at the hotel if anything will make her not feel comfortable with it, but then she didn’t want to sleep apart on that first night, after the kiss, eventually going because my parents would have noticed and she had already put them through some trouble.
Won’t describe that kiss and the moments around it again because I did several times before, including ten years ago, when I’m sure it was fresher in my mind than now. But it feels like yesterday, the start and the end, and some major moments in between. The rest is getting increasingly muddy though… And what’s left but memories? If even those go away…
On the other hand, everything that happened since… Wouldn’t call it muddy, but… Unreal? A nightmare I keep waiting to wake up from. Close to 12 years which should have never happened, should have never been.

Went out today, got some things, but this won’t be a personal update. There will be one of those next week I guess, starting from last Wednesday, but it doesn’t matter. Though, regarding writing, and since previous July 12 posts mentioned it as well, I guess I can add here that I’m still sticking to the deadline I had set for myself to stop writing my story, and now that’s just days away. Had struggled to at least add something daily for so long, completely pointlessly for so long, that I have no idea how it’ll be to stop, but lately I’m barely adding a sentence or so per night, wanting to finish this chapter right on that last night, though it has dragged on too long as it is. Think it’s the longest yet because of it, but didn’t even bother to check. Maybe I will once it’s done, and maybe I’ll go over the whole thing from the beginning and keep working on it, or maybe I’ll try some short stories, or maybe I’ll write more on the blog again… Or maybe I’ll just stop. No idea…

Like last year, I’ve been commenting on articles about overpopulation on The Guardian, more of them this time, considering the studies that were released in time for World Population Day. Even got in a brief exchange with one other user, though I still see no point in that, especially since any comment just gets lost in the pile and probably only the other person involved in the discussion sees it, and a discussion on such a topic that’s not at least for the benefit of some audience won’t get anyone anywhere. But when the topic is what it is, and after I even managed to write a decent post on the matter yesterday, I guess a couple of replies weren’t so bad.

Other than that, should have installed this month’s Windows patches today, but after installing the one for Internet Explorer right away yesterday, I set the security-only bundle aside for at least one more day, not wanting to risk problems today, when my mental state, never stable to begin with, was already negatively affected anyway. So maybe I’ll see tomorrow whether I delayed any problems, which will likely mess me up completely, or just the stress. For today, just functioning in any way was quite enough. And I guess I did function, and interacted a bit, and probably didn’t give any signs to those I didn’t want to give them to.
As for those I did give them to, spelling out, didn’t even get a reply. Or, well, there was a brief one, to the image of Facebook reminding me, at the bottom of the list of posts on this date, that 15 years ago I had started a relationship. Nothing else to what I said after, or from the other person. Not sure what it could have been anyway. But I had to send something somewhere, and the two people from here I’m still in some contact with after having started talking to them more recently, though that “more recently” means about a year and a half ago for the first one and I wouldn’t exactly say we’re still actively talking in either case, seemed like the ones I could send it to. Had said it fewer times before, I have few expectations, and there’s less to lose if it goes bad because of it.

While I’m still waiting for World Overpopulation Day and this year’s World Population Day official theme and statement stick to the same old obviously necessary but so far from being sufficient as to hardly be even worth mentioning when it comes to solving the overpopulation problem measures regarding access to voluntary family planning methods, emphasizing their economic benefits and their role in empowering women, a study was released that raises alarm and doesn’t shy away from using strong language, showing that the sixth mass extinction is under way.
Of course, the timing of the release is no coincidence, as the study, the full text of which being readily available, points to human overpopulation as the main culprit. While overconsumption, especially by the rich, is listed as the second major cause and the one about which the most could be done humanely and in a relatively short amount of time, the study’s authors even call other measures “band aids”. And that is indeed what they are, as human overpopulation is the world’s worst problem and the one that needs to be solved before we’ll have a real chance to actually solve any other major environmental or social problems, and anything we do before the population gets back down below a sustainable limit only serves to buy time at an ever increasing cost. And those costs are felt first by the other species we should be sharing this planet with, then by the marginalized, the poor, even the children who are thrown into this world through no fault or choice of their own, while benefits are obtained by the parents who do make that choice and the society, including authorities and economic actors, that allows and even encourages them to do so, and the wealthy and the privileged maintain and even continue to improve their standard of living until there will be nobody else left to pay the price.

But I’ve been saying that for too long. Or perhaps not, when compared to one of the study’s authors, Paul Ehrlich, who has been raising the alarm about overpopulation since the 1960s and has obviously mostly been at best ignored, if not ridiculed and attacked because of it, all this time. But even now, at the age of 85, he remains firm and blunt about it, and so he should be, though I would definitely expand upon his “show me a scientist who claims there is no population problem and I’ll show you an idiot” statement. Yes, there are indeed higher expectations from scientists, they should be held to higher standards, but show me a person, any person, who claims not simply that human overpopulation is not a problem, but that it’s not at least one of the biggest, if not the biggest, facing the world, and I’ll show you an idiot. And the same goes for anyone who claims that, from the environmental perspective, overpopulation is only a problem in poor countries or because of the poor in general, not seeing that the environmental impact of poor children may increase in time, as their standard of living will improve to the level everyone not proven guilty of a serious crime should be entitled to, but that of a child who’s better off is great from or even before birth, so the population in countries that are not poor needs to drop now, drastically in case of the wealthier ones, while in case of the poor ones the improvements in the standard of living may be restricted until the population is sufficiently reduced.
While I’m at it, show me a person, any person, who now, when information is so readily available, chooses to worsen this problem by having one or, even worse, more children without somehow being forced to do so and I’ll show you a criminal. I dare say one worse than a murderer. Though, of course, forcing another to have a child, whether in the strict sense of the term in case of a woman or even something as “simple” as not giving a man the right to decide to terminate a pregnancy he did not willingly choose to cause, is even worse. Of course, that means there are a lot of idiots and a lot of terrible criminals in the world, but that’s no news, and the fact that idiots and criminals, in far more ways than this, are in charge at pretty much every level is even less so. The fact that a number of current world leaders do not have children, or at least none of their own, is interesting, however, but in some cases it wasn’t exactly a choice and in the rest that choice definitely doesn’t reflect in the views they express and the policies they support, so they may not be criminals in this sense, but that doesn’t change the other matter.

But that’s nothing I haven’t kept repeating either, so let me now move on to another article published these days, which also raises the alarm and pulls no punches, this time about the full extent of the hardships and disasters likely to be caused by climate change even by the end of the century. At 7200 words, you should set aside a bit of time to read it, and perhaps it won’t say anything new if you really looked into the matter, but for most it will be full of shocking revelations, as it goes well beyond what even most of those who believe themselves informed tend to think about when it comes to the consequences of climate change, the path we’re already on and our chances to turn back before it’s too late.
Why am I including it in this post about overpopulation? Because it stresses the fact that we have already done so much damage that not even applying all of the best available methods to reduce emissions right away will be sufficient to prevent disaster, and avoiding even the worst of it will require immediately and drastically changing the way of life of billions. Well, now imagine how much less of an overall impact those behaviors would have had and how much better the chances of changing them in time would be if we’d have handled the “billions” problem decades ago and by now the population would have been safely below carrying capacity while also taking the other species into account. And, of course, while the best time to start implementing the drastic measures required to tackle this problem was decades ago, the second best is today.

I’ll finish this with a brief “history” of my personal stance regarding population and breeding, starting with the fact that there was a time when I wanted three children, all of them before 25, preferably one before 20. But then, around the age of 15 or so, getting Internet access meant I started finding information and realizing that overpopulation was a problem, so at 16 I was finding it hard to justify having any children anymore personally, and by 18 I knew that this view needed to be applied to everyone if we were to still have a chance. Initially, I was saying that no more than 10% of people should still be allowed to have children, then, as time passed, the population kept growing and the environmental damage continued to worsen, I reduced that target to 5%, then to 2%, then to “the minimum required to avoid a genetic bottleneck”, as I also stated in the “Causes I’m Passionate About” post. But it’s been almost three years since then and things kept getting worse, without the world even considering to enforce any of the necessary measures even in any foreseeable future, so I moved on from that to deciding that “antinatalist” is the proper primary term to use to describe myself and considering a complete moratorium on breeding as necessary, at first for at least ten years, and as of recently for at least 20 years.
Of course, that minimum number of years will only increase as even more time passes and things don’t change, or not as drastically as required. But, however many the years will be, we should be using that time to fix things, both when it comes to the environment and to our society, and when the period is over we should analyze whether we have done enough in every aspect to allow a small number of people to have children once again. If not, the moratorium should be extended, I’d say for five more years, after which we should analyze again, repeating as many times as necessary and not allowing any more humans to breed until this world will truly be worth living in for all, humans as well as the other species we should be sharing it with and taking responsibility for. I do believe we should not go extinct, because we have caused all this damage and suffering and we should be the ones to fix and make up for it, but if so much time will pass without us having done enough that, even in spite of all the advances in medicine, we will go extinct as a result of this moratorium, we’d deserve nothing else anyway.

Edit: Another study, also available in full, reveals that having one less child reduces the emissions a person is responsible for by far more than anything else. Far more than everything else, for that matter. An average, for developed countries, of 58.6 tonnes saved per year for having one fewer child, compared to 2.4 for living car-free, 0.8 for a plant-based diet, and quite negligible values for the day to day stuff that’s usually promoted. But, of course, these high-impact measures are rarely mentioned, and in fact the study found that reducing the number of children is never mentioned officially as a measure to take. No that there’s any news in any of that…
Later edit: Of course, they could and should have phrased that the other way around, stating how much each of those actions makes one responsible for instead of how much is saved. So having an omnivore diet instead of a plant-based one adds 0.8 tonnes per year, driving an internal combustion vehicle adds on average 2.4 tonnes per year compared to living a car-free life, and each child you have makes you responsible for a total of 58.6 tonnes per year. And with the study stating that emissions must fall to two tonnes per person per year by 2050, you’ll very clearly see what that means.

Stumbled into a press release about a resolution aimed at promoting “a longer product lifespan, in particular by tackling programmed obsolescence for tangible goods and for software” adopted by the European Parliament, which includes a number of interesting proposals. Not that they mean much of anything if not enforced, of course, and even if they will actually end up being applied in practice it won’t really do much when, instead of enforcing good practices and banning undesirable ones, the resolution limits itself to voluntary measures, seeking balance and taking steps aimed at encouraging some things and discouraging others, but I guess it is a tiny step in the right direction.
However, I am particularly concerned about the fact that the resolution “notes the role of commercial strategies, such as product leasing” and “highlights […] the shift towards business models such as ‘products as services’” as positive developments even though, while they do indeed provide incentives for businesses to create products that last, they force users to give away even more rights and control, which is absolutely the opposite of what needs to happen and something that needs to be fought against in every way. Plus, what’s that about “encouraging, in the event of a recurrent lack of conformity or a repair period in excess of one month, extension of the guarantee by a period equivalent to the time required to carry out the repair” when the warranty period absolutely must be extended by the full amount of time the product spends in service every time, and the limits on the amount of time a product can spend in service before the customer is entitled to request a replacement or refund tend to be much shorter than that? But, of course, it’s just these negative developments that are most likely to be encouraged as a result, just because they bring advantages to those who are already in a position of power.

My view remains that the first thing to do in order to make products more durable and easier to repair when needed and upgrade when desired is to increase the minimum warranty period. It could be set to a minimum of 24 months, so it could be set higher as well, and I’ll stick to my proposal to increase it by six months every other year starting in 2020, resulting in the minimum warranty period reaching five years in 2030. That will simply force all producers to make durable products if they want access to the European Union’s market, and it will also be in their best interest to make products that are modular and easy to repair, since it’ll make it easier and cheaper for them to make the repairs if they are needed under warranty. And not restricting who can open products and making the instructions needed to carry out repairs easily available would also help, as at least some users would be inclined to make at least some simple repairs on their own, especially if they either do not require spare parts or only require cheap and readily available ones, instead of waiting for the product to be serviced. Of course, if the product is damaged as a result of the actions of someone not authorized by the manufacturer to carry out repairs, the warranty will be lost, but the manufacturer will need to prove that this is the case.
In addition, and in fact the resolution does mention this as well, the warranty absolutely must always be tied to the product and not the user, and it shouldn’t be limited by location either. This will mean that people who want to always have the latest products will be able to do so and yet still not simply discard the old, whether the desired changes involve component upgrades or complete replacements, as the old products or components will be able to be sold to others who will know very clearly that they will remain under warranty for quite some time, and also that they are built to be durable in the first place. A strict requirement to replace a product that requires repairs for reasons that are not proven to be the result of damage or misuse, say, three times over the course of the warranty period with a new one should also go a long way toward making manufacturers pay particular attention to durability.

As for software and updates, the resolution also mentioning this as well, security updates and bug fixes must be provided for a very, very long time, allowing users to safely continue using the versions they are comfortable with, and perhaps also work best with their products or any other software they wish to use. For this same reason, security updates and bug fixes for important software, such as operating systems, must always be provided separately from other updates, such as those altering existing features or introducing new ones. Also, and this should go without saying but sadly that’s no longer the case for quite a number of years now, updates must never degrade or otherwise negatively alter functionality or performance. And the user must always be, or at least have the clear option to be, in complete control of the update process, no updates being forced or required for the continued use of the product, with the possible exception of specific scenarios, strictly limited to security updates, in which the use of the product without the relevant update can be proven to represent a clear and present threat to others.

There would be more to say here, but probably nothing I haven’t repeated plenty of times before, so let me just add a different piece of information that may be of interest, and I’m referring to the list of MEPs who did not vote in favor of this resolution, which was approved by 662 votes to 32, with two abstentions. To also get that out of the way, those who abstained were Lars Adaktusson (Sweden, EPP) and Notis Marias (Greece, ECR).
Votes against (sorted by country, then group):
– United Kingdom (19): EFDD (16): John Stuart Agnew, Tim Aker, Jonathan Arnott, Gerard Batten, James Carver, David Coburn, Jane Collins, Bill Etheridge, Raymond Finch, Nathan Gill, Roger Helmer, Mike Hookem, Patrick O’Flynn, Margot Parker, Julia Reid, Jill Seymour; ENF (1): Janice Atkinson; non-attached (2): Diane James, Steven Woolfe
– Netherlands (4): ENF (4): Marcel de Graaff, André Elissen, Olaf Stuger, Auke Zijlstra
– Germany (2): ECR (1): Ulrike Trebesius; EFDD (1): Beatrix von Storch
– Greece (2): non-attached (2): Konstantinos Papadakis, Sotirios Zarianopoulos
– Sweden (2): EPP (2): Christofer Fjellner, Gunnar Hökmark
– Bulgaria (1): ECR (1): Nikolay Barekov
– Czech Republic (1): EFDD (1): Petr Mach
– Italy (1): ECR (1): Raffaele Fitto

To get it out of the way, I ran today and the result was 50:28, which I definitely consider poor since this year’s half marathon. In fact, it was the first time I didn’t manage to stay under 50 minutes since then, the previous such situation being the last run before the half marathon, which was a 50:15 early in the morning, on very little sleep, and while needing to manage worse issues with my right leg than now, when just my hip was still complaining somewhat. It’s also my worst time since April, and that time I was still recovering from a cold and feeling out of breath, and the fact that it’s the worst final sector time since March shows it really was all I had. The distance walked yesterday may have had something to do with it, but normally it shouldn’t have, so I’m left with the fact that I slept little and poorly recently.
Back to the sector times, they were 4:43, 5:24, 6:09, 4:36, 5:12, 6:08, 4:42, 5:16, 6:22 and 1:56, making for lap times of 16:16, 15:56 and 16:22. Lap three and sectors one and three of it don’t reflect my actual pace because my right shoelace got untied twice, as I tied it back quickly in sector one and then it happened again in sector three, when I tried to do it more properly, but I’d say I lost ten seconds that second time and probably a bit less the first time, so even if also adding the little time lost trying to find my way through what appeared to be three groups of people coming from two directions and meeting right in front of me on that same sector one of lap three, it wouldn’t have been enough to stay under 50 minutes. And, again, it really was all I had, as at least since sector three of lap one I gave it everything, seeing how far behind the target pace I was.

Moving on, less than two and a half hours after I had posted the previous post, there was a power outage, a significant part of the city seeming affected. Not unexpected, considering the heat wave, but no less of a problem. And it lasted some two hours at first, then the power came back for a few minutes, then it failed again for a few more minutes, then it finally recovered for good and there were no more problems here since, though I think there was at least one other brief outage nearby that night. And it did show that my UPS is still doing well despite approaching three years, as between me napping when it happened, being woken up by it beeping and taking a bit to shut down the computer, and the computer taking a fair amount of time to shut down once the command was given, probably because it was trying to figure out why it had no Internet access anymore, it kept it running for some five minutes and didn’t complain of low battery. The ones I had before this one got to a low battery warning after some two minutes or even less soon after the two-year warranty they came with expired, and likely would have no longer worked at all by now.

After that, I waited out Saturday, which was the hottest day but which still didn’t bother me while staying inside, with window closed and blinds drawn until evening. I expected to at least feel somewhat uncomfortable, but it simply was not the case at all this time, and the highest temperature I saw reported by my CPU was 60°C, so there were no problems there either. And then the temperature was already several degrees lower on Sunday and Sunday evening some storms came, Monday had highs barely around 20°C, and it kept raining until Tuesday morning. And the forecast I’m seeing lists highs only around 30°C for the next two weeks, so even if I’m of course not expecting it to be particularly accurate for more than the next few days, it doesn’t seem like any more heat waves are coming during that time.

Getting to Tuesday, I had to return the book I had borrowed from the Library then, and I knew there was one that dad wanted to read for the projects he’s involved in and I saw on the site that I could pick it up from a branch that could be on the way, if I used another route to get back, so I asked him if he wanted it and then picked it up for him, since I’m the one who has a pass now. Sure hope he’ll take care of it though, because I’ll also be the one who’ll need to return it…
The problem was that a part of the return route was new to me, in the sense that, in two places, I knew where to start from and where I should arrive, but there was a section in between which, as far as I recall, I never walked on. And while the first time it all worked out just fine, before reaching the second such spot I somehow got the distinct feeling that I had walked too far and the larger intersection I could just spot in the distance was past the spot where I should have turned, which caused my mental map to flip around, making me certain that I had messed up quite some time before, going one way when I should have gone the other, because I knew I hadn’t passed by the intersection I was looking for. However, said intersection was just the one I could spot in the distance, so the fact that I went around, not even directly back the way I had come, until I had assured myself that I had walked the other way long enough to rule out the possibility of having turned the wrong way in the first place, only meant I added a 2.5-kilometer loop to my route before ending up just where I had started from. And that took the total distance covered on streets to some 16 and a half kilometers, according to Google Maps, to which some wandering around a farmers’ market, different from the one I recently bought things from, and a mall and the hypermarket in it, was added. Actually checked out two farmers’ markets, but the first was small and didn’t have anything to interest me, so it didn’t add much.

As for the last part of the title, yes, I’m just noticing my mouse double clicking again, so I guess oiling the top of the microswitch with just a little bit of cooking oil when neither me nor dad could open it properly to try to do more only gained me a little over a month. But it is something I guess, and I sure wish I’d have just tried slipping that matchstick through before dad damaged the area around that screw that won’t budge, making the mouse sit oddly and scratch the pad. But now let’s see if it’ll work again or this month was all I had before needing to take other, likely particularly expensive, measures, at a time when getting even a fraction of the money needed sure seems like it’ll be a huge problem. But at least for the next few days, I guess I’ll just be plugging the cheap spare mouse I got back in April back in and using it while playing, since I actually got back to Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic these days, and maybe also when selecting files I don’t want to open or launching programs I don’t want to risk launching twice, if it’ll get bad enough again too soon.