Cav's Place

I already linked to an article offering a few more details in my previous post and more background is available for those interested, but the very short version of the reason why we “celebrated” exactly four years since the start of the “Romanian Autumn” of 2013 with another protest on the same topic is that our Prime Minister announced planning to withdraw Rosia Montana’s application for the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Obviously, this triggered an immediate reaction, and while those involved in the ongoing protests on other issues, which had plenty of other problems to put on the list recently anyway, merely added this as well along with the rest, groups born as a result of 2013’s protests and known activists who had more or less stood out of those ongoing protests after they peaked in early February, unhappy with the direction they had taken, focused on this matter and called for a protest about Rosia Montana on September 1… Which, despite clearly having a high symbolic value, was quite a poor choice for a date, to a lesser extent due to the fact that it was Friday instead of actually during the weekend and likely to a greater extent due to the fact that our national team played against Armenia that evening, here in Bucharest.

Still, Alex created an event, which was then also shared on the United We Save Community page, at the University Square fountain, the “traditional” location for the Rosia Montana protests, therefore avoiding mixing with the ongoing protest in Victory Square. This event was also to start at 5 PM, which would normally be too early for a weekday but which under those circumstances offered plenty of time for some sort of protest to take place before those inclined to do so would leave to watch the match. Those who had tickets were quite clearly not going to come either way, and in case of some of them that may be both good and bad news, but that couldn’t be avoided.
Unfortunately, other groups created an event at Victory Square, from 7 PM, and plenty said that this year’s events can’t be forgotten, so Victory Square is the protest location now and that shouldn’t be changed, resulting in that event being the widely shared and promoted one. As such, the other event’s title and description were changed to state that it had been turned into a meeting for organizers and a banner workshop, before the proper protest, which caused me to largely shrug it off, since I’d have had nothing to do there. For that reason, I can’t say much about what took place there, but I do know that the handful of people that gathered managed to eventually march to Victory Square, arriving there, with their banners and a drum, at some point after 8 PM. Probably around 8:30 PM, maybe even later, but I somehow completely forgot to check the time and I couldn’t find any article mentioning it, so can’t say more than that. Can say that, while quite a number of known faces who had otherwise laid low since that early February peak were among them, they were only around 20 or so in total. Not that I actually counted, but quite sure they were less than 30, at least.

Meanwhile in Victory Square, people had been slow to gather, with the estimated total being only in the hundreds. Again I find myself out of practice, because I didn’t try to make my own estimate at all, and those I found range between a mere “more than 100” and 1000. I believe both extremes can be eliminated, but anything between a few hundred and sufficiently below 1000 for that number to not be a reasonable estimate seems possible. That obviously includes not just those who were there for Rosia Montana, including those who arrived from University Square, but also those who were there for the ongoing protest, each of the groups staging a bit of an event before dark. The dragonfly with the Prime Minister’s face, referring to a particularly unfortunate, to put it mildly, statement he made about protecting Rosia Montana, was clearly the more creative of the two, the other merely spelling out a request for resignation, initially with a person holding each of the large letters.

To return to what took place after those from University Square arrived, it was just before 9 PM when Alex took the loudspeaker and started speaking, people gathering around. However, the timing was unfortunate, due to the “tradition” of singing the anthem at 9 PM every evening in Victory Square, and with Friday being day 214 of that ongoing protest, he was quickly interrupted for that to happen, after which the regular crowd took over. There were a few attempts to make chants for Rosia Montana dominate, but they failed, leading to most of those who had arrived from University Square withdrawing to sit on the pavement behind the banners they had tied to the fence placed around the area by gendarmes, quite resigned to the situation. Well, all but Alex, who was absolutely furious, as is quite typical of him. Sometimes he exaggerates, but now he definitely was perfectly right in lashing out at those who had decided to mix the events.
What, if anything, happened after that, I don’t know, but highly doubt it was anything significant. They also had small signs saying “Bogdan, one of us”, referring to the protester who had killed himself the day before, and meant to talk about that as well if they’d have been allowed to, which was obviously no longer the case, and there was a suggestion to simply leave the area and sit on the sidewalk in front of the Government, but I only sat there with them for a few more minutes, took the last pictures and then left, wanting to at least catch the match from the beginning if nothing notable was happening anyway.

One more thing I guess I should add here, though I’d rather forget all about it, is that a reporter from an independent group managed to catch me at some point before dark, when for a moment I didn’t pay enough attention to avoiding any who seemed like they might be interested in me and making it clear that I didn’t want to talk to them even before they approached. I wanted to tell her I didn’t want to speak, but couldn’t even say that much, so rather stood there dumbly as she introduced herself and started asking me questions, struggling to find some way to reply and saying things that had little to do with what I’d have wanted to say if I could have done it. At one question I froze completely again, stopping in the middle of a word and just staring at her as she was nodding and gesturing at me to continue, and then at another I said something I specifically didn’t want to bring up. They didn’t post their video report of the evening yet, but if they’ll use any of that, it’ll be not only terribly embarrassing, but actually detrimental to the cause.

Later edit: They posted that video report and I’m not in it. Quite a relief…

Considering the recent events, it definitely seems that we need to “celebrate” four years since the start of the “Romanian Autumn” of 2013 with new protests on the same matter. Not that there haven’t been other new reasons to protest lately as well, and some did, reports stating that around 3000 gathered Sunday, but some of those reasons were too technical, issues were getting mixed and on some of them my views clashed with those of those who did protest, so I for one didn’t return to Victory Square since a month ago. But now I definitely will, though I would have preferred the protest location to return to University Square when the issue is once again the one that can be said to have triggered this awakening of the Romanian civil society.
As such, though I don’t have much to say, I’m posting this now, as this week’s first post, and I’ll see what else I’ll manage to throw here over the weekend. Highly unlikely that it’ll be that post about no longer needing to “earn a living” and unconditional basic income that I said I should have posted already and I also wouldn’t get my hopes up about it being the one updating my list of demands for security software, which is on my mind right now after noticing a shocking announcement made by Emsisoft, but it’ll obviously have to be something. If tomorrow’s protest won’t immediately be followed by others on the same topic, I may try to post a report about it, but otherwise I guess it’ll just be another quick personal post, which may even end up being a Sunday update.

The one thing I have to add here is that this week’s run was yesterday and the time of 48:43 makes this the fastest time which wasn’t a record when it was set, and also the third in a row under 49 minutes. Sector times were 4:31, 5:09, 6:03, 4:34, 5:11, 5:56, 4:32, 5:02, 6:00 and 1:45, making for lap times of 15:43, 15:41 and 15:34. The first lap didn’t go so well and the first two sectors of the second were even worse, but then I got my head down and really pushed, managing a new lap three record and that amazing time on its second sector.
Was actually thinking that I keep expecting this to be easy, to just be something I do, but with the targets I set it’s not, I have to push myself all the way, and that’s not easy. But seeing as it’s not something I actually care to do, hardly anything is, I guess this pushing, the tracking and the targets are what keeps me going. May also mean that if I’ll fail badly once, it’ll all come crashing, but at that moment I had my targets, I knew I had to make up time to stay under 49 minutes, so gritted my teeth, really gave it everything, and managed it with quite a bit to spare.

Since I’m still yet to start reading any book and haven’t played much either, that’d be about it for now. Otherwise, just bought a few things this week, including some more plums, just a few apples and one bunch of green onions from the farmers’ market and a coconut from a hypermarket, since they were on sale and I was curious. Had to learn how to crack the coconut, which didn’t go so well and resulted in a fair bit of dirt on the t-shirt I’d have liked to wear tomorrow as well, and then had to figure out how to eat it too, but at least I did that part right today and it was all right. Don’t think I’d care to go through that trouble again though.

After Thursday, when Alma added herself to those sharing one of the many rotten articles popping up lately to bash NEETs, those living off their parents’ money in particular, and people expressing an unwillingness to chase any job available just to earn something in general, and I ended up writing some long comments and saving them in case I won’t be able to access them later, I was thinking I really should write a post on that topic. Of course, with those comments being in Romanian, there was nothing I could copy directly, but doubt I’d have quite managed to turn them into a post even if there would have been. Maybe I will, eventually, but it may require the mess started from that to get even worse, possibly leading to her no longer talking to me, which wouldn’t exactly be surprising at this point.
What was surprising was that she meant to hide the post from me, but apparently didn’t select the right option, immediately sending me a message to say so when I gave an angry reaction to the comments posted by others, who were also bashing those the article referred to. Obviously, that means she could have done that any number of times in the past and could keep doing it, so there went any trust from my side. Not that things haven’t been going in that direction ever since she opened her shop, became even more focused on “real life” stuff, gave up on her band, we’ve been talking a whole lot less and what conversations still existed often became even more frustrating.
Back to what happened, yes I was quite angry at that moment, snapped at her a bit, then went out for a run, needing to get back from the door to grab my stopwatch and only realizing that I had put on my regular shoes, not those I use for running, when I got there. But the run did help somewhat, so I could then get back and write calm replies, presenting a bit of my views on the matter to someone who asked what did I mean by my initial reaction. Not that I got anywhere, of course, people being determined to keep things as they are and of the mindset that if they struggle to “earn their living”, so should everyone else. Was also told that, unlike that one woman who at least openly disagreed with me there, a number of others privately asked who the fuck I was and how could anyone possibly have such fucked up ideas. Because, according to Alma, I’m the only one out of all her many contacts who’d disagree with the stance expressed in those articles. Which, sadly, I don’t find hard to believe. After all, if people wouldn’t support the way society works, it wouldn’t work this way anymore.
Either way, was also told she’s hiding posts because, on top of that, she is wary about sharing some supposedly great posts from someone else she knows after I commented with “bull” on one… Which was exactly that. Tracked it down now to see just what it said, and of course it was something related to positivity and creating your own happiness and other typical shit like that which only allows things to stay as they are or get even worse, pushing forward the idea that people are the only ones to blame for their unsatisfying lives no matter what the world does or does not do to them and should learn to take whatever crap comes and be happy with it instead of demanding things to change and accepting nothing less. So of course I shot out another retort to that… Which retort actually included quite a few more things that should end up in that post mentioned in the title.
While I’m at it, also mentioned things about freedom of speech, saying that everyone should always be free to express any opinion, but that also means accepting that anyone else is free to express any opinion regarding that opinion, which may well lead to debates and even arguments, this being added on top of something I had told her back when this began, when she was falling back on the usual thing of saying it’s just her personal opinion whenever there’s a disagreement, namely that something can be strictly a personal opinion only when it affects nobody except the person expressing it, otherwise it’s a call for debate, unless perhaps it’s supposed to only apply to those who agree with it, in which case it absolutely must include the details of exactly how that may happen without anyone else being affected. So, yes, things are probably tense with the person I’ve actually actively kept in contact with the longest at this point, apparently since early July, 2013.

Moving on, I mentioned running Thursday, and using my regular shoes instead of the running ones. That didn’t stop me from getting under 49 minutes again, the time being 48:51, with sector times of 4:28, 5:13, 5:56, 4:32, 5:08, 6:06, 4:33, 5:06, 6:03 and 1:46, making for lap times of 15:37, 15:46 and 15:42. That second lap wasn’t so good, not when you take the total time into account, but the third was the second fastest third lap and the final sector wasn’t bad either, especially considering the gust of wind trying to push me back as I was sprinting right at the end.

Other than that, Friday morning I woke up at 7:30 AM, so after only about an hour and a half of sleep, in order to get to the Ministry of Waters and Forests at 9 AM, when a petition was to be delivered, requesting to preserve access to the site used to track and report illegal logging and not remove any of its features. While most of those using the system use the mobile application, the site is a powerful tool offering more detailed information and for that reason it’s used more often by journalists or activists, yet the Ministry, arguing that the contract signed by the previous Government was illegal, ended the maintenance deal for it and reduced some of its functionality, stating that they will release another version of it, but only at the end of 2018.
What made it all little more than a formality was the fact that the Ministry posted a message regarding the issue the day before the petition was to be delivered, throwing a pile of accusations at the NGOs involved in this effort and at the opposition and stating that the site doesn’t even legally exist, as it was not finished and formally accepted, and that they’ll only accept the petition and reply to it with the documentation already published in support of their stance “out of respect for the citizens who have in good faith signed”, after supposedly having been tricked into doing so by the NGOs… Which is funny, because I thought they are required to accept and respond to any formally registered petition…
Either way, I was there, took a few pictures, then managed to shave my head, take a proper shower, make myself something to eat again, since I was alone, and get some three and a half more hours of sleep in the afternoon and evening, split in three parts due to waking up to go to the bathroom. Sure felt all messed up due to that lack of sleep, even if five or five and a half hours seems to be pretty much what I usually get, but at least I got some seven hours this morning, and the fact that I had both salad and watermelon during the day yesterday and therefore neither of them at night meant I only woke up to go to the bathroom once during that time and it wasn’t such a pressing matter even then, but sort of a case of happening to wake up and deciding I might as well go so I won’t need to go later.

And since, if not for the issue with Alma, I’d have started this post with this issue and titled it accordingly, I’ll end it by mentioning that there was no hot water for most of this week. Though notifications weren’t posted and this information was hard to find even on-line, water pressure tests were apparently scheduled for a large part of the city between August 21 and 23, and during those tests water was running through the hot water pipes and it was, of course, being paid as hot water, but it was actually cold. However, the worse problem was that issues were discovered as a result of the tests in plenty of areas, obviously including the one I live in, so hot water was not turned back on even Thursday, making me boil one liter that evening in order to shave and then use it for just a little bit of warmth at the start and end of an otherwise cold shower. Didn’t plan to do that, thinking that if I will shower at all it’ll be at night, when I’ll heat a larger quantity of water, but since I was there, hadn’t showered since Sunday and there had been the run that day as well, I just got it over with, somehow.
Considering that, it was rather frustrating when I noticed that there was hot water when I came back from Friday’s event, but since I wasn’t sure it was going to last, I left making myself something to eat for later and got first to quickly washing my hair while leaning over the side of the bathtub, largely to soothe the dermatitis to some extent, since it was getting pretty bad. Then I shaved my head, since I was starting to look like a clown again and the dermatitis sure seems to be worsened when more hair grows on affected areas, and after that I took a proper shower. And it was a good thing I did, because the water was only lukewarm when I washed the dishes after eating and cold again when dad got back in the evening, changing right into his bathrobe and going straight to the bathroom, since he knew there had been hot water when he had left that day, but finding that there was nothing to work with anymore. We do seem to have hot water again today, so let’s hope that at least now it’ll last, because otherwise these days sure reminded me of old times I’d much rather not live through again, referring here to the fact that no hot water was normal during the Communist days and then such checks took place every summer, actually lasting three weeks or a full month, until at least the early 2000s.

Saturday, so “only” three months and almost three weeks after switching the site to HTTPS, in the sense of changing the links that included the protocol and also the tiny relevant bit of the script generating the fantasy art gallery, I finally got around to enforcing this switch everywhere. After my initial tests and also waiting for these past few days to see whether anything unusual pops up, everything seems fine, but let me know in case you notice anything wrong or potentially wrong, if you can still access any part of the site on HTTP without being instantly redirected to HTTPS before the page loads, or if any page doesn’t show up as completely secure, likely due to including elements not delivered through HTTPS.

Otherwise, Sunday I went to a tour of a part of the city organized by an NGO which has been organizing them for eight years. This is the second time I’m going, obviously a different part of the city being covered this time, but there sure were a whole lot of people. Didn’t even take my camera, so don’t have any pictures of my own, but you can see the crowd in the official album. Saw an estimate of about 400 people, but I never tried to make one of my own.

Didn’t run this week yet, but that won’t be a problem, as the temperatures are now lower. Actually today is quite cool, but I didn’t feel like going, plus that it rained last night, so it may still be rather wet, and there’s no hot water once again, so I won’t be able to shower after getting back. Hoping that problem will be fixed at least tomorrow, and then I’ll decide whether I’ll go then or the day after, or maybe even Friday, though I’d rather not leave it so late.
However, on the topic of running, I noticed that the time for this year’s Bucharest Half Marathon that I had listed in the place where I keep all of them was wrong. Seeing as I check multiple times when I add a time there, and that I probably checked that one even more carefully, it’s very odd, but it should have been 1:54:56, the real time, yet it was 1:55:36, which makes it seem that I somehow meant to put in the official time of 1:56:36 instead but even got that wrong. No idea how that happened, but at least I noticed and fixed it now. Does make me wonder whether other mistakes somehow slipped through though, if such an obvious one escaped my notice for so long. At least assuming it was like that all along, the alternative being even more concerning.

But let me finish this on a, shall we say, more pleasurable note, by saying that my neighbors sure fucked loudly Thursday night. Seems to be a young couple which just moved there, or at least she just moved in, no idea, but there sure was no question about what was happening. There may have been a few other times over the years when I might have thought I heard something of the sort from one direction or another, faintly, but this was loud and clear, and of course also “aided” by the fact that windows are open at night in summer. Left me thinking that they may have deserved, or at least almost certainly desired, a better audience, some congratulations, some applause, but I didn’t hear anybody reacting and I didn’t either.
There I was, in the kitchen, eating, had been hearing a man and a woman talking loudly nearby all along, but suddenly there seemed to be some, shall we say, suspicious sounds. Seconds later, it was clearly no longer a matter of it being “suspicious” or me wondering whether I was imagining it, becoming perfectly obvious that somebody was going at it with much enthusiasm. It was so obvious that for a moment I wondered whether it was in fact somebody watching porn. I mean, on top of the loud moans, I could even hear the bodies slamming against each other rapidly, and there are some ten meters or so between the windows… But there were also a few words and I recognized the voices again, and it was made perfectly clear when after a few minutes she seemed to tell him to finish already, using an expletive that was quite amusing under the circumstances, and he seemed to comply, being as loud and obvious about it as you’d expect a typical porn actor to be, if not even more so.

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