Cav's Place

There would be more to say, but I’m also thinking of doing something else tomorrow and, since I’m quite obviously not going to manage to write a non-personal post this week, I’ll leave those parts for what will almost certainly be this week’s second personal post, which I just hope won’t become a Sunday update. So now I’m sticking to a quick one just mentioning the two things in the title, even if the tooth work isn’t actually finished, so I’ll only finally know how that actually turned out next week.

Went to the dentist both Monday and today, Monday to have that reconstructed tooth filed down, have the mold taken for the crown and have a temporary one put in, and today to have the metal crown tested and I guess another mold taken, before having the ceramic put on as well. Not that I had much of a clue what was happening or what will happen, and of course I didn’t ask or say anything really, and dad didn’t either, but what I heard and the price they told him makes it quite clear to me that the ceramic will be only partial, which I guess means I’ll end up with exposed metal in my mouth, which is what I specifically wanted to avoid.
What’s even stranger is that, while the first doctor advised doing it like this from the beginning, saying it’s not worth spending more on it though she didn’t at the time know it has other problems and may not last anyway, and trying to reassure me when I expressed my concerns about the exposed metal, this one who ended up actually doing the work didn’t even mention this cheaper option while she was explaining what was available after the pierced root will be handled one way or another, and dismissed the regular metal alloy as outdated and potentially risky, the cheapest option on her list being the one with a full ceramic coating. And then I heard the assistant mention requesting a partial one and she said that’s fine, and the price they told dad definitely reflects it.
I guess I’ll see on Wednesday, when the next appointment is, but I’m already very unhappy and depressed about the whole thing and can’t even actually say anything. Just can’t, so just writing here, and wondering how badly I’ll crash and exactly what form the crash will take after it’ll all be done. And that’s not even considering the other potential problems.

The other thing that happened today is that I finished Torchlight, so it took me a total of 12 days since installing it. Of course, by “finished” I mean I killed Ordrak, since the Shadow Vault that opens once you do that is infinite and I don’t care to go through even one level of it. Admittedly, the fact that it’s just a stupid thing that you just go through mindlessly meant I could finish it at this time, and so quickly too, so I can say I finished a game this year already, but it was starting to overstay its welcome about halfway through. It’s like somebody took something like one location from a poor free-to-play MMO and thought it’d make a good single-player game in itself.
Played it on normal difficulty. Didn’t buy any equipment except I believe a necklace offering +2% experience, since I was going for as much experience bonus as possible, preferring that at the expense of everything else. Didn’t enchant anything except at the free altars and didn’t fit anything in sockets at all, only hoarding ember for what proved to be no reason at all. Saved images with the character and information at the end.
As for the four deaths, they’re annoying because they were stupid. First two were by traps on the last map received as a reward from the ember quest guy, first spikes when enemies blocked the way forward and instead of either dashing into the room through them or even heading back through the spiked path to try again, I went back and forth and for some reason just stood on trapped tiles until the spikes shot up and killed me, and then opened a chest in the next room after clearing it without being hasted and the trap had those flaming arrows or whatever they are and that got me again. The other two were at the start and end of the area opened for the portal guy’s last side quest, when I basically just stood there, mind probably being too unplugged, as I once only ran in front of a dark zealot and basically didn’t do anything else until she got me, and the other time I literally stopped and waited for a poison attack from another to hit me, no idea why.

I’m quite sure I was 16 when I started to become aware of the overpopulation problem, which means I’ve been increasingly concerned about it and increasingly adamant about the need to solve it by restricting births any means necessary for half my life at this point. However, until recently I was only specifically advocating drastically limiting the number of births, first by only allowing a certain percentage of people to have children, then by having a certain fixed number of breeding licenses available each year, determined according to the number of deaths in the previous year, in order to meet the yearly population reduction target, and even more recently by having scientists determine the minimum number of births needed to avoid a genetic bottleneck for the human race and only allowing that many and no more.
There were, of course, problems with those approaches. The percentage one didn’t actually allow the progress to the population target to be tracked year after year and was likely to still allow too many births, while at the same time allowing for potential wild variations in the number of births per year, likely to cause problems for infrastructure and services. The fixed number according to the previous year’s deaths one solved those problems, but made it so those who for various reasons desire more births at all costs would see immediate benefits from increased mortality, which clashed with my desired approach of drastically reducing population without killing people or allowing them to die unnecessarily due to lack of access to needed resources or services. And the minimum necessary to avoid a genetic bottleneck one largely sorted that out as well, but made genetic diversity the only real criterion for selection, whether the traits are good or bad.
Between the three, the fixed number according to the previous year’s deaths approach is probably still the most appropriate, coupled with a system ensuring that efforts to reduce mortality will continue to be made and perhaps also with a certain cap which would ensure no benefits for pronatalists in case there will nevertheless be any increases in mortality. And this is also the most appropriate because, unlike the minimum necessary to avoid a genetic bottleneck approach, it’d definitely allow proper criteria for selection that could truly bring evolution back into the game, preserving diversity but not also negative aspects, clearly aiming to objectively improve the human race.

Now that I got to the issue of objectively improving the human race, that in itself leads to a particularly difficult problem, namely what those objective criteria may be, who will decide that and who will judge the applicants for a breeding license according to them. Considering certain ghosts from the past, the human race as a whole is likely even less willing to even discuss such matters than population control simply in terms of numbers, the general view being that the concept itself is necessarily evil or, at the very least, that it will unavoidably be misused in a similar or even worse manner despite any potential positive applications it may in itself have.
Needless to say, I completely disagree with that view and say that objective criteria can indeed be found, likely starting from proven resistance to various serious diseases, and obviously also no above average predisposition to any diseases or malformations, and then continuing with exhibiting extraordinary mental or physical abilities which are likely to be at least in large part genetically transmitted. And, while at first I was saying this would imply carefully analyzing the applicants’ family trees, developments in genetics make such analyses increasingly exact and less likely to rely on the subjective judgment of people, which will be replaced to an ever greater extent by hard data and computers.
Still, while I will always firmly state that there’s nothing inherently wrong or evil in the concept itself, I must admit a great risk of misuse does remain even under the best scenarios, humans being humans. And not only that, but coming up with such a system, ironing out the many kinks it’s certain to have at first and applying and enforcing it worldwide will take time, making a rapid switch to it impossible. And we definitely can no longer afford to allow things to continue as they are until something like this will be ready for implementation, especially since it’s obvious that the situation will worsen significantly if people will know breeding will be restricted several years before it’ll actually happen, not only because more will rush to have children during that time but also because the efforts will be hindered at every step by pronatalists.

Well, I can now say that shouldn’t be a problem anymore. The silver lining of how bad the situation is, considering the current population, the numbers which live in poverty and therefore need to be able to consume much more than they currently do, and the continued lack of any relevant efforts in the direction of actual population control done correctly, is that there’s simply no more room for any breeding if we’re to have any chance of getting back down to any even remotely acceptable population levels within any reasonable amount of time. All those discussions about who should be allowed to have children are no longer a relevant matter at the present time simply because the only answer that still makes any sense is that nobody should be having children right now and likely for decades to come.
Since the limitation tends to be the fertility of women, the human race will continue quite fine and completely naturally if such a moratorium will last 30 or 35 years, and perhaps even 40 years. With no more births for 30 years, there will be almost a billion women under 45, about two thirds of them under 40, when breeding will be allowed again, so even if only a small part of them will be allowed to have one child each at that time, the human race has no risk of going extinct. And, of course, genetic material can be preserved and children can be created artificially, which will only get easier with future developments, so even if the moratorium will last for a century or, depending on how much life will be extended by then, even more, it still seems unlikely that a new generation won’t be born when the time will be right and enough problems will be solved. In some ways, it may even be better to wait until the vast majority of those alive right now will die of natural causes, leaving a relatively small number to guide that new generation through its early years and then offering it a more or less fresh start, assuming they’ll learn the right lessons from the mistakes of the past.

But not even the amount of time such a moratorium should last is something which needs to be discussed at the moment, because it isn’t only a necessary measure in order to solve overpopulation without increasing mortality and also offer the time needed to implement a fair and objective system of selecting those who’ll eventually be allowed to breed again, but also a huge opportunity to fix the world, by which I mean both the environment and human society. When it comes to the environment, we have a lot of damage to fix, and we definitely also need to accept the responsibility for the well-being of the other species we share this planet with that comes with our position as the ones who can shape this world according to our will. As for human society, we must create one where all bar those proven guilty of serious crimes are guaranteed a decent standard of living as a basic right and also have enough true reasons for happiness to more than make up for any pain, suffering and sadness, be it caused by negative events that can’t be prevented or inherent to being alive as a thinking, feeling being.
Many social systems will get a break once existing children will become adults and no others will take their place, and the population dropping as fast as it possibly can without an increase in mortality will reduce the pressure on both the environment and human society, allowing changes and improvements which would be extraordinarily difficult or completely impossible otherwise. In other words, we have much to do and a moratorium on breeding will offer the opportunity to do it while also providing an incentive to get to work as soon and as hard as possible. It’ll be completely up to us, and anyone who actually wants the human race to continue to exist on this planet, as well as those who are young now and for some reason want children of their own, will need to make every effort to bring about those changes in the least amount of time. Under such a scenario, if we eventually will go extinct, it’ll only be because we didn’t deserve to remain on this world, since it’s no longer a matter of lacking the knowledge or the technology, but only one of lacking the will to do what’s right. And that’s inexcusable.

On quite a whim, I decided right on January 1 to install and start playing Torchlight, even though only a few days before, when I looked through the games I have, I had put it way down the list of those I may try to play this year, the last of those I said “maybe” for, before the “unlikely” ones. But then I somehow just changed my mind and didn’t just install and try it, but have actually been playing it for quite a few hours per day, so at the moment I’m level 21, fame level 11, and just got the three glyphs from those ruins and also completed all side quests available so far and cleared the two additional dungeons you can use items received as quest rewards to create portals to.
Thing is that, after feeling quite fine about it for the first two days, taking it as just something I can go through rather mindlessly, now it’s already getting to be a bit of a chore. Will still likely keep going for quite a while as long as it won’t become frustrating due to difficulty, which so far isn’t a problem, but it’s just too much of the same, sections reused even over a few levels, entire levels reused with only minor differences, enemies that just aren’t interesting and way too few skills and spells to make the character interesting. And the fact that spells are quite hard to find, you can only know four of them at a time, which in my case is down to three since I found Identify and learned that in one slot, and when you unlearn one it’s completely gone, so you can’t simply swap them around as needed, makes that even worse.

Otherwise, yesterday I woke up after probably less than two hours of sleep to get to the Government at 9 AM, when a petition asking the prime minister to sign the application to make Rosia Montana a UNESCO world heritage site before the end of his term was delivered. It must be submitted this month and the prime minister’s signature is the only thing missing, yet he refused, making excuses and supposedly leaving the task for the new government, which was sworn in today and is unlikely to have something like this on its agenda at all, not to mention so quickly. And, on the other hand, if it does get signed and submitted by them, those we fought and who’re likely worse now than they were back then will get an image boost thanks to this very issue instead of some of those opposing them getting it.
Of course, delivering the signatures then, right at the end of his term in office, was only a symbolic gesture, but the petition had just exceeded 10000 signatures and his clear refusal was only recent, so such a symbolic gesture was what was left. Not that it made any difference, as today proved, but I am curious what the response will be, as they’re required to give one, and also whether the response will also be given individually to each of the rest of us who showed up and ended up submitting the petition as individuals as well.
Didn’t intend to do that myself, but Claudia had brought a pile of papers with the petition text that people could write their name and contact information on and then sign, so those who won’t be allowed inside with the folder of signatures will still be able to go in, and since some 25 of us were there and they said they’ll only allow three at a time, the rest did that and, right at the gate, I gave in and filled one in as well, being the last to do so. Then, simply because I was standing close to the gate when those who delivered the main petition came back out, I was in the first group going in after them, though that means the first of two groups, since the guards then decided to allow everyone in after we came out, though the agents inside were bothered even that five had been allowed in that second group I was in.
And yes, of course things got awkward again when I had to pass filters, since I had my camera with me and also a pile of used batteries, as I usually take in case I can squeeze another picture or two out of them when things are calm, or at least to put in as I go through the pictures at the end, so I won’t use a good pair for that. Not that I did anything with it, as I took no pictures, but there I was, with all of that, and when I heard there was a filter I pulled out a plastic bag I also had with me and threw the batteries in it, along with my phone and keys and the coins I had in my pocket, making the security guard ask with some confusion whether I had batteries in there after the bag was scanned. However, things got rather more awkward when the scanner still beeped and I just then realized I had forgotten my camera, which I keep in my sleeve, with the strap around my wrist, to be able to take out and slip back in as needed. Rather understandably, the agent wasn’t pleased with me digging something out of my sleeve after passing the scanner, and they didn’t give it back to me until I left.

Also ran after that. Not right away, I mean, but getting back, grabbing something to eat, going to the toilet, spending a little time on-line and then going before it got cloudy. Still little wind and sunny, but temperature only a little above freezing, so had more clothes on again and after also having been somewhere else already that day and sleeping so little, it was a huge effort to stay under 35 minutes. Felt like I was going for a record and for most of the second half I was considering giving up on that target or even stopping, but I kept pushing even when my vision was getting blurry and I was feeling quite out of it, the reward being a time of 34:53, with sector times of 4:31, 5:13, 6:08, 4:30, 5:17, 6:11 and 3:03, making for lap times of 15:52 and 15:58.
That was the first decent day for running after a few windy ones, and seems to be the last for quite a while, as today it was windy again, tomorrow it may rain a bit and then we may actually get a bit of a taste of winter, with highs well below freezing for at least about a week, with the forecast for Friday also including strong wind and snow. So I guess this is the point where I’ll start digging into that buffer of four runs I have, because it seems highly unlikely I’ll be running again for a while. Will keep looking for days when it may still be possible to some extent though, even if I’ll need to give up on target times and simply try to cover the distance, wearing whatever clothes will be needed under the circumstances, also because taking a break will only make it harder to start again.

Last day of the year, only one post so far this week and really don’t want to start 2017 with a Sunday update, so I guess a report on my personal goals for 2016 may be something to write. Pointless, little and meaningless goals, just for personal use, but that’s pretty much the rule for what I can still manage to post in recent years, so it’s either this or worse.

The main blog-related goal was to just keep posting something twice per week, which I managed to do. In fact, including this one, there are a total of 109 posts this year, and since the first was the second one for that week, it means there were four additional posts over the course of the year, one of them in a week with three in March and the other three in a week with five, actually posted on five consecutive days, or in fact six if you add the one posted the Sunday before, in May.
While, again including this one, 66 of the 109, so just over 60% of this year’s posts, are personal, as far as totals go, that category and the Tests & Surveys one are now at 578 out of 1224, so still under half, which is the other long-term goal left. Sure, that’s only thanks to old book reviews copied here, but it counts. And speaking of which, still didn’t get around to copying all of those old reviews, actually.
And to finish with the blog, something specific for this year was a clear goal of adding two more posts in my “New Finds” series including five bands each, but also a tentative one for either three regular ones or two bigger ones, for a total of at least 15 bands mentioned in such posts this year. That means that, with two posts including a total of 12 bands, since the second one included seven, I met the clear goal, but failed the tentative one.

Still on-line, there were some goals for MobyGames submissions, and those were almost completely failed. The main one was to get at least 1000 points in a year again, since the last time that happened, barely, was in 2013, and I also wanted to do it while counting less than 250 points obtained from submitting electronic covers. A tentative goal above that was to have at least 2000 critic scores, formerly known as mobyranks, submitted and approved, so to get at least 1000 points only from those, as that used to be what I usually submitted and in each of 2011 and 2012 I had over 3000 of them. On the other hand, the first lower goal to fall back to was at least 1000 total points, so including even over 250 from electronic covers, while an even lower one was just to get no less than 2014’s 818 points, which was the least amount in a year after 2010. But all I have right now are 685 total points, including 411 from electronic covers and only 196.5 from the 393 critic scores, while in queue there are only four more critic scores, since I was recently added to the users whose critic score submissions are automatically approved unless they specifically uncheck the box for each they want seen by an approver, and 11 more electronic covers, so a total of 35 more points if all will also be approved, making for a maximum total of 720 points this year.
The one goal I didn’t fail is submitting all reviews published on Games Xtreme up to the end of 2015 for games that are in the MobyGames database, since based on a message I mentioned at the time that became a little goal after learning that The Adrenaline Vault will not be relaunched after it was hacked. Must say I’m very surprised I managed this, since only a week and a half ago I was only up to the end of 2011 and hadn’t added any more in quite a while, but then I got back to it, pushed, and was halfway through 2014 yesterday, with a goal of at least finishing that year today. However, before stopping to have time to also add a few more pointless lines in my story before going to bed, I was only six reviews short of finishing 2015 as well, and I submitted the five I could submit today, the other one not being in the MobyGames database.

Speaking of my story, still managed to at least add a little something every day, but it’s still completely pointless, or in fact even more so than before. Can’t remember the last time anything relevant happened or, more importantly, the last time I knew what I wanted to happen, the nearest future scene in my mind remaining the end of the sea voyage, which has been clear since well before I actually started writing any of this. Nothing to do with sticking to a word count either, not even sure I’m averaging 100 per day lately, and definitely didn’t stick to even that as a minimum anymore.
Did cut off what I have so far at the end of what I consider part two and copied that in a separate file as a potential actual first book, as it makes more sense and most of it flows to some extent, since I knew what should be happening and where to go next, but it’s been simply sitting there ever since, as I don’t dare to start making any attempt of going through it to make it into something which might, at a real stretch, be in any way worth reading by someone else.

Oh, back to on-line stuff, at some point I found myself mostly moderating in the Facebook editor, though I also added some information for some pages, and as I was seeing the numbers add up I came up quite recently with a goal of getting all badges, since I only had the one for suggesting 100 page edits left, and having 2000 edits and 1000 accepted ones by the end of the year. And all of those were met today, when I got myself over 2000 total edits, which once again are mostly made up of approving or rejecting others’ submissions, as it was only yesterday that I got that badge for 100 submissions of my own. The accepted edits got over 1000 I think a day or two before that, not sure exactly anymore, though the accuracy keeps dropping, now being at 81%, so 19% of those not still in queue have been rejected by others. I still stand by nearly all of them though, since I actually check unless something seems very obvious, but of course others may not, or some may be attempts to use the system to spread false information or, likely more often, simply for pranks.

Still on the computer, the usual goal of finishing five games may have actually been met this year, depending on how you count. At best, you can say I actually finished six, the easy ones being Flight of the Amazon Queen and Hordes of the Underdark, then counting the original Tropico 4 campaign as one game and the DLC pack, or at least the Modern Times campaign, as another, and also counting Akalabeth, which I only quickly rushed through by abusing the amulet, and Gone Home, which I have a hard time calling a game. In other words, at worst you can say I only finished three, but do think Gone Home should count as something, since I played and finished it as it’s meant to be played, so should be at least four.
And I already mentioned finally finishing Hordes of the Underdark, and that was another specific gaming goal for the year. Has been one for quite a few years now, in fact, but now it finally doesn’t have to be listed under failed ones anymore. King of Dragon Pass still has to be, however, since I didn’t even make another attempt there… And now it may be quite impossible to do so, since it seems it can’t deal with something Emsisoft does after a certain update. Not that I even tried it again lately, and there has been another update also pushed to the delayed branch since, but knowing that King of Dragon Pass tends to refuse to run simply because certain other programs are running, it’s not exactly unexpected. It is very annoying though, and makes me wonder whether I shouldn’t just admit I gave up on it, after my two attempts so far ended so embarrassingly.

And on the topic of finishing things, without counting that “alpha version” of one that’s not actually released yet, also managed to finish 12 books this year, to average one per month, even if the last seven were read in the last four months. Only The Slow Regard of Silent Things and Sword of Destiny were actually bought this year, and A Dance with Dragons in 2012. Then there was The Cavalier Club, which I won on Goodreads, and Bai Ganyo, read in Romanian, as something grabbed while sorting through these old books to give away. The rest, so seven out of 12, more than half, were ebooks picked up for free, Blessings of a Curse in 2013, A Circle of Iron last year, and Weniaria, Free-Wrench, Quantum Tangle, Dragon of Ash & Stars and The Joined Realm this year.

As for running, I definitely managed to stick to averaging one run per week, and in fact at the moment I have a buffer of four runs to help get me through the winter. And I also managed to switch to seven kilometers as the normal distance, not getting back to less since I switched to this distance. Not that this was a goal until I actually made that switch, but it became one right away once I did.
But the most important achievement here, and in fact the only one actually worth mentioning out of all of this, is completing my first half marathon, which wasn’t necessarily a specific goal at the start of the year but quickly became one in March. That also includes two failures though, since the main goal was to finish it with an official time under two hours and the secondary one was to finish with less than two hours as real time, but the official time was 2:08:27 and the real time 2:02:38. Did manage to cover what should be the distance of a half marathon in less than two hours through the park while training for the actual race, but that doesn’t exactly count.

Despite the size, this post was rushed, so I may be forgetting something and, if so, I may or may not make edits. Still, between running and the only actual achievement here, namely completing an official half marathon, the books read, the games finished, the blog posts, adding to my story and submitting on MobyGames, I think I covered everything that actually was a goal. Oh, except the fact that I also stuck to my tiny daily exercise routine as well, but I haven’t given up on or failed at that since I started, after Andra left, and it’s not enough to make much of a difference anyway.

As the title states, I’m writing this post on the new keyboard I bought yesterday and connected earlier this evening. If I remember correctly, the old one was nine years old, unless it wasn’t actually bought in late 2007 and it’s even older, since it definitely isn’t newer. Either way, it was starting to show some signs of aging, with occasional moments when pressing the space key on the left corner, as I do, didn’t register, the numpad minus key only working if pressed on the left side, and a few moments when the left Ctrl either didn’t register or, quite the contrary, acted as if pressed though it hadn’t been.
Problem is, I won’t have black or otherwise dark stuff, which rules out the vast majority of the options for pretty much any electronics and keyboards are no different. Then, the few left tended to be wireless or not in the standard format, and those available here also likely having the Romanian key layout instead of the standard US one, and I definitely won’t have that either. And I also liked the function to start calc.exe, which the old one had on a separate key but this also has when pressing Fn+F12. So I did keep an eye out for possible replacements if needed and while there was one other, very cheap and completely basic, option available in case of emergency, I spotted this one in a store not long ago and it was the first one I saw in years that seemed to check all the boxes, so I took advantage when it was on sale for little more than half price these days.
So far it seems fine, and I only made way too many mistakes and had to look while typing the first few sentences on it. Also accidentally pressed the LED key then, but even though the keys are significantly higher and accidentally pressing that or Fn seems quite likely because of this, considering how I type, it hasn’t happened since and everything feels just about where it should be. And it’s also quieter than the old one, which was also quite quiet, on this one only the space key making a clear click. That key also requires significantly more force to press than the rest, but I’m quickly getting used to it. And I should also be getting used to the fact that I can’t just slide it this way and that, being significantly heavier and also with a somewhat more adherent bottom.
My main concern is durability, however. Even more so about the lot this particular one is from, such heavy discounts making me suspicious, but even otherwise, seeing the key life listed as three million strokes is hardly encouraging and on some keys even getting to the end of the two-year warranty period would be questionable if that’s true, so definitely nothing anywhere near the lifespan of the old one. And I definitely want things to be durable, not only because needing to replace them is expensive but because I don’t want my purchases to encourage waste and planned obsolescence, and also simply because I deal very poorly with change. So let’s hope it’ll deliver far more than promised…

All of that leads me to yesterday, when I was out for several hours, picking up this and a LED fixture and light, checking a few prices in different hypermarkets and purchasing a few things. Some people were coming over and I didn’t want to be here while they were, so it was a way to solve more problems at once, even if it was snowing and windy as I left, which made it a bit uncomfortable for a while. The weather calmed down in the evening though, so it even felt rather nice after dark, though I wasn’t comfortable returning from the place I picked up the LED fixture and light from at that time.
Thing is that I had moved the neon that’s a secondary light in the kitchen to the small bathroom when the one from there burned out, and when dad eventually replaced it, something in the fixture broke, so it seemed to me to be the perfect opportunity to try switching something to LEDs, which I have been pushing for a while. And I found some that are very cheap, suspiciously so for LEDs, yet claim to have a three-year warranty, so I thought to give it a go. If there are problems, we’ll see how well they honor the warranty, and if they don’t, or if it’s not a matter of problems but of the light being too weak, it’s not a big loss and doesn’t mean other products would be just as bad.
Problem was, the firm doesn’t seem to give an option to pick products up from their store and, while they sell through a major on-line store as well, you can’t select to pick them up from there either, and adding a delivery fee that was 40% of the price of the products didn’t seem right. So I sent an e-mail to ask if I could pick something up anyway, since they do have a store address listed, and they said I could. Not that it was a firm order, I guess, since I listed the items I was looking at in the e-mail but as part of the question, asking whether that was all I needed to replace the broken fixture and make the switch to LED.
Either way, since I stick to just using the metro and not surface public transportation, that meant a walk of over five kilometers from the nearest metro station, with the main problem being the last kilometer or so, on a long road with military housing and other structures stretching for a long time on one side and seeming quite, shall we say, suspicious otherwise. Worst part was an old market area, currently run down, which made me feel as if I was passing by ruins which may be home to unknown threats. Also met very few people also walking in that area, but there was one young woman walking alone whose presence made me feel a fair bit safer, thinking that if she dares to come through there, it can’t be bad. As far as I recall, she was the only woman I saw walking alone in that area, and this is not exactly a line of thinking I’m proud of, but it is what it is…
It was also a bit awkward when I finally reached the place, as they didn’t seem to expect people in the store, so everyone was in the back when I entered, but somebody did come out quickly and I could tell him what I wanted. He tried to sell me something a bit more expensive at first, but he came right away to where the lights and fixtures made to replace neons were displayed and things were clarified when I just pointed to what I wanted. Then he disappeared again for a while to get the items and somebody else came out to work on a laptop, asking him for product information and my personal information while he said it didn’t matter and just dismissed her attempts to say otherwise. So I ended up with a document I was told will also act as warranty certificate even if it had nothing filled in under the buyer’s information, nor identifying information, such as serial numbers, for the products themselves.

After that, I had to walk all the way back to the metro station, then get to pick up the keyboard as well, which at least was less awkard, though the store itself, despite being one of the biggest, definitely looks suspicious when you get there. They’re focusing on orders and deliveries, after all, and deliveries are free, so they assume not many will want to come pick products up themselves, yet there were plenty of others there and, as far as I’m concerned, the problem is that there’s a fee if you want to pay cash on delivery instead of using a card when you order, so I had to go to pay cash and avoid that fee. And, after having checked out two hypermarkets before going to pick up the LEDs, all of this covered the amount of time I wanted to be away, so I could come back and drop things off before heading back out for the few other purchases.

Speaking of those other purchases, they sure caused me to look extremely suspicious, but no security guard seemed to care. The thing is that I had grabbed a few things from one place, then went to another that makes it awkward when you enter with other products, since you pretty much have to talk to a guard and they’ll ask what you have there, possibly make comments about it and either wave you through or stick a stamp to the items according to unclear rules. So I didn’t want to go through that and therefore shoved the few items in the pockets of my jacket, the problem being that the inner pockets of this jacket are pretty much horizontal and things will fall out, making me walk a bit awkwardly, trying to use my legs to hold the few items in.
The worst part came when I walked out, without purchasing anything since one item I wanted apparently wasn’t also available in this location, and pulling a glove out of one outer pocket caused something to fall out of an inner one right next to a guard. But I casually picked up the item, trying to look a bit surprised, then continued to examine it with apparent curiosity as I calmly walked away, the guard never saying or doing anything. Sure, on top of having the receipt to prove I had purchased that item from elsewhere, there was absolutely no way they’d have sold it, since we’re talking about the other hypermarket’s store brand, but seeing that would have required the guard to actually check the item out and he didn’t. Glad he didn’t, of course, but I’m not sure what that says about his skills or interest in his work.

This is already twice as long as I thought it’d be, so I should really end it, though the fact that I wrote it so quickly definitely proves I’m getting along just fine with the new keyboard. There’s just this week’s run to add, which was Tuesday, catching the good moment before the weather turned. The time was 34:50, with sector times of 4:28, 5:14, 6:17, 4:37, 5:14, 6:03 and 2:57, making for lap times of 15:59 and 15:54. Considering that first sector and the conditions, for a little while I was even thinking of making another attempt to get under 34 minutes, but the second sector time made that extremely unlikely and then the third sector made it clear I’ll need to pay attention if I wanted to even stay under 35. But at least I managed that, and then after resting for a bit I sprinted up that slope two more times, which is probably something I should be doing more often.