Cav's Place

Quite a crash two days ago, the noise from the construction work nearby waking me around 9 AM and not letting me quite sleep again until I eventually got up, even if that was after 1 PM. Just kept nodding off and then waking again, being confused and miserable, even though it was just drilling and hammering and shouting and stuff being thrown straight down outside, so not like when neighbors do it and there’s no escaping it. The problem was that, while the windows may have mostly solved the problem if they’d have all been closed, only the one in my room was, so the noise was flooding in from all other parts of the apartment and getting to my room the other way around.
Meant to go out even earlier to try to get away from it, but eventually only did just before 5 PM, sort of wandering in the general direction of two protests scheduled to start at 7 PM, one at the University Square fountain and the other in front of the Turkish Embassy. That embassy is quite far to walk to, however, so I ended up wandering around the Old Town instead, checking out the used book stores there, plus having a quick glance at an antique fair I happened to stumble into.
No money on me, the situation from that point of view being really bad lately, so I haven’t gotten any in about a month now and have to make do with what is bought otherwise, that also being less and, shall we say, far more restricted in most ways than before, so I was obviously just looking as I was wandering around there, but did keep a few things in mind for the future. Don’t think I checked out any but one of those places again on my own, so the last time I as much as stepped inside the rest probably was when I met Andreea and we checked them out back in 2010.
Either way, after wandering around a bit longer, I eventually did walk past the fountain at about 7:25 PM, but that’s all I did, not staying at the protest for LGBT rights triggered by the fact that the Constitutional Court had just ruled that the initiative to change the Constitution in order to explicitly state that marriage is only between one man and one woman and therefore block any potential future legalization of gay marriage is constitutional and can therefore move to the next step, which is the debate and vote in the Parliament. Didn’t spot known activists there at a glance and only one of those I follow had shown explicit support, while the gendarmes were present in large numbers compared to the number of protesters and their positioning and posture made it clear they weren’t going to allow the event to continue, which the few articles I read later that evening confirmed.
After that, I got back here, eventually crawled back in bed, managed to nap for about an hour, then needed close to 30 minutes more to drag myself out of bed, but only for a few seconds, because then I crawled right back in and pretty much fell apart just because I kept hearing crickets from outside and my parents talking in the kitchen. Screaming internally that I just wanted everything to be quiet and leave me be, while at the same time still needing someone and to cuddle as much as ever, but I didn’t actually make as much as a sound and doubt I even moved. Just pulled the sheet over my head and sat there quiet and motionless while feeling like I was about to explode because the rest of the world, or at least the bit of it in my immediate vicinity, wasn’t.

Ran twice this week again, since it seems it’ll be too hot to go during the day the next. Tuesday my stomach was complaining about running after eating a fair bit of watermelon, so I picked a comfortable target time and completed the seven kilometers in 35:40, with sector times of 4:33, 5:24, 6:12, 4:43, 5:22, 6:22 and 3:04, making for lap times of 16:09 and 16:27. Watch actually showed 32:35.96, if I remember correctly, at the end of the second lap, but I’m using 32:36 because for once I actually pressed the button just before getting to the line I take as the end of a lap, paying more attention to another person in front of me.
As for yesterday, I meant to run until I dropped, since I was still feeling the effects of the previous evening’s crash and hoped I could at least work some of that out if I got to the point of simply being unable to keep walking after finishing. But I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to try to get under 34 minutes on seven kilometers again or try ten again, aiming to get under 52 minutes, and ended up taking it quite slowly again and sort of going for the second option but never actually deciding on it until I finished two laps and me and a cyclist coming from the opposite direction got into that awkward dance of trying to get out of each other’s way and failing to until we changed direction I think four times.
With my mind being on that, once I got past him I found myself about to go past the base of the slope I climb on for the final sector of the seven-kilometer route and next thing I knew I was climbing on it, having apparently decided not to go for ten kilometers after all, even though my time until that point gave me a chance to hope to even get below 51 minutes, not only 52. But, instead of that, I just covered seven kilometers again, in 35:38, with sector times of 4:40, 5:27, 6:14, 4:33, 5:14, 6:19 and 3:11, making for lap times of 16:21 and 16:06. Obviously, I was very far from dropping, so did nothing about the other issue.

At least in part because of that, I then decided to attend the second silent, “standing man” protest scheduled to take place in front of the Turkish Embassy. Wasn’t sure about it, but since I didn’t do much with the run, said I’ll at least try to do something else that day, though the plan was to stay on the other side of the road and take pictures at first, then see how things play out and decide whether I’ll actually join the silent protesters later.
Well, I didn’t stay on the other side of the road, crossing it after just a few minutes to stay right in front of the embassy as well, but that was all I did, as I didn’t actually take part, only taking a few pictures. Also filmed a few moments, but my camera corrupted every single video, with too little being saved properly to make any of them useful for anything. Still got carded by the gendarmes, of course, but just for being in an area that requires increased security, and I did point out I’m not actually taking part and the gendarme said he noticed that as well.
Feeling quite embarrassed about it, actually being there and yet not taking part in spite of everything that’s happening and the need for at least a few people to show they’re aware it’s unacceptable and need to react in some way, but… Still too afraid of another fine, plus that it feels strange when the otherwise sizable Turkish community here has so far been notable in its lack of reaction, with the unfortunate exception of something of a counter-protest staged by a group that I heard was mostly made up of embassy staff, plus a few other supporters of Erdogan, during Wednesday’s first silent protest.
I know that those who’d want to oppose him and his actions are currently afraid of the repercussions, even here, from others in the community as well as from actual agents of the regime, and especially if they have close friends and relatives still in Turkey, but it feels strange to stand against the abuses and dictatorial regime in a country when the significant number of immigrants from that country and their families fail to react in any visible way. I mean, back in 2013, when the Gezi Park protests started, we were first a handful of Romanians supporting the protest of the Turkish community, which had come out in support of the protesters back there, and then a rather even split of Romanians and Turks in front of the embassy, while now they’re nowhere.

But I probably wrote too much about the protest above, since I’m thinking a post about that should be this week’s second one and now there’s little else left to say. But I’ll see whether something else will happen today and maybe also tomorrow and then post a “protest update” tomorrow or Sunday, possibly also including one other bit of information that was released today, on an entirely different topic. Until then, this is already long enough and I keep falling behind on reading that book.

I’ve been wondering how to title this post since late Friday night, when it became clear that the attempted coup in Turkey will fail, but I’d say this is short, simple and accurate enough. Sure, military rule can never be desirable and a coup usually works out dreadfully, Egypt now being clear and obvious recent proof that even when it’s meant to solve an obvious existing problem, it’ll replace it with an even worse one. However, Turkey’s history offered some hope that it’ll be different, and reasons to allow for some tentative, limited and definitely conditional support for this as a temporary solution to a very real and major problem plaguing not only Turkey but negatively influencing the entire region and even the world.
But Friday night was do or die, and now Turkey’s lost for many years to come, with fallout almost certain to spread over the entire region and beyond. What Turkey’s looking at for the foreseeable future is an authoritarian president whose paranoia has apparently been proven justified and who has lost no time in making full use of the events in order to greatly hasten his ongoing efforts to ensure complete control over all sectors of the country, ruthlessly eliminating anyone not fiercely loyal to him and jailing anyone who as much as dares to express any sort of criticism even more than before. There’s of course even the very serious talk of reintroducing the death penalty, and it was said that opponents will be “eradicated”.

Articles detailing exactly what happened, why and why it failed are all over the Internet and that’s not just because everybody has an opinion about it, but because it’s so easy to say, especially when it comes to the reasons for the failure. It was a poorly planned and poorly executed attempt, the president not being captured or killed as the very first action, the Parliament not being taken over or at least put under complete siege, the media not being taken over and used efficiently in order to give the impression that the deed was already done and there was no turning back, the Internet apparently not used in any relevant manner at all, aircraft and vehicles not under the control of the rebels not being disabled or too far to react in time… In short, they made just about every mistake they could have made, almost as if this was all staged and meant to fail quickly and offer the authorities this opportunity to return triumphant and take revenge.
Which, of course, is something many have been saying was actually the case. But I remain “allergic” to conspiracy theories and would require some solid direct evidence before believing such a claim. Instead, at the moment I’m thinking it was a rather desperate attempt by the relatively few who managed to remain in any position to do this without being fiercely loyal to the regime, and who knew the last possible window of opportunity was about to end. So they had neither the time nor the resources to plan this properly, the regime was probably aware of the threat and took precautions, and the result was what it was and it is now being taken full advantage of. Which, in fact, means it was caused and is being used by the regime just as much as if it’d have actually been staged, so it doesn’t make much of a difference whether the conspiracy theorists are right or not.

Which leads to the bigger problem, which is the reaction. Inside Turkey, all the political opposition was united in condemning the attempt, there are reports that those who took part in the protests that started with Gezi Park were even on the streets Friday night to push back against the rebel troops, Saturday saw large gatherings of loyalists praising Erdogan and Allah and demanding the death penalty, and anyone who may have any real and completely justified concerns or criticism to express is being silenced. So there’s absolutely no hope left for anything but a drastic worsening of the situation for the foreseeable future.
Even worse was the international reaction, however, and it all started from the United States, the current administration once again proving that having even someone with half a ball in the White House would be an improvement and absolutely necessary for the world when they were the first to release a firm message of support for the Turkish government while the situation was still fluid. Of course, it’s also possible that they had all the information before anyone else and already knew the outcome at that time, so they were merely backing the winning side, but an explicit message of support for that regime, without pointing out its crimes and demanding drastic and immediate changes for the better, is a terrible signal, and one which has unfortunately been echoed since then by nearly all other countries, as well as the European Union and NATO. Egypt, for obvious reasons but making a perfectly valid point, got in the way of a UN resolution, but that’s a rare exception, if not even the only one.

So this is the end. Huge increase in the support enjoyed by the regime, a complete and ruthless consolidation of power and control, the elimination of any known or suspected critics while any who may still think for themselves and manage to get away with it will flee or hide in fear and censor themselves, and an “international community” not daring or even caring to react to the abuses. Erdogan was elected president in 2014 for a five-year term that can be renewed once, so, barring truly shocking events, Turkey is lost until at least 2024, and almost certainly for some time after that as well, as merely being unable to maintain this particular position after that point will stop neither him nor those he surrounded himself with. As a status I saw today said: “If an attempted coup doesn’t result in the death certificate of the dictator, then what dies is even the shadow of democracy which had still existed until then.”

Last year I didn’t even write a post on this date, which feels completely wrong, especially since it’d have been the tenth since she left. At the same time, even considering the round number, what was there to say that I didn’t already say so many times before? It may always seem that it’s getting ever worse, but whenever I look back through such posts, which tends to happen at least on July 12 and September 27, I’m reminded it has been pretty much the same for several years now. A few areas where a slightly greater impact may occasionally be noticed may perhaps be identified, and that does count as the situation getting worse overall, but only marginally and if you really struggle to quantify it, so definitely far less than it feels like it is, day after day.

Should probably get to reading a few more pages of that book I’m the “alpha reader” for, as I’m just barely staying on pace to finish it in two months and can’t afford to skip a day, or even to do far less than usual in one, but I’m not sure how that will work, as I’ve been pretty much sitting here and mostly drifting off for the past few hours. Think I spent close to one hour solving a sudoku which should have normally taken me under ten minutes, and sometimes even closer to five, and that’s dealing with numbers, which my mind can grasp far better. Words are an entirely different matter…

May be better to crawl in bed for a while, but it’s getting a bit late for a possible nap and this crazy neighbor that keeps screaming at her child is quite a problem when I don’t have headphones on and am not listening to something, since closing the window in the evening is probably not the best idea now. It’s not too hot yet, still quite far from it for me, but it can get rather uncomfortable without the window open during this cooler time of the day, and I don’t want to get to the point where I’ll need to keep it open while sleeping quite yet.

And I again just left this open and drifted away, though at least I spent a few of these past 35 minutes replying to something. Had this open for I think some four hours already, and now there’s definitely no time to get through the number of pages I should be getting through today, not unless I’d just be reading them instead of going over every little bit so carefully, and I definitely won’t just read. So maybe staying in a debate about population control, especially with World Population Day having been yesterday, would at least mean I’d be doing something with my day… But it’s probably not what I should be doing, and having said debates in the comments section of an article on The Guardian won’t do anyone much good anyway. So I guess the book it is… Somehow.

Taking advantage of the good weather, I ran twice this week, both Tuesday and yesterday, and if Tuesday’s attempt fell just short, yesterday I actually managed to get under 34 minutes on the seven-kilometer route! Tuesday I was thinking that will need to wait until after the summer, since next week’s forecast doesn’t seem to allow runs during the day again and such good conditions seem even less likely in the weeks after that, but when I saw that it was nice again yesterday I simply made another attempt and somehow found a few more seconds there at the end.
Tuesday’s time was 34:02, with sector times of 4:28, 5:02, 5:46, 4:30, 5:08, 6:08 and 3:00, making for lap times of 15:16 and 15:46, so the second and, after taking the first one into account, fifth fastest lap times ever, third and fifth first sector times, second and fourth second sector times, second third sector time and second final sector time. And it would have been under 34 minutes, but as I was in the final sector a little girl was playing hide and seek and she turned around from the tree and started to run just as I was about to pass behind her. Had been considering the possibility when I saw her there and was thinking I’ll go around her on one side if she’ll either stay there or take only one step or the other if she’ll take at least three steps, but she took one, then noticed me coming hard and fast and froze on the second, exactly in my path if I were to pass in front of her and too late for me to normally change direction and pass between her and the tree, so I just barely managed to stop without knocking her down and then step around, almost certainly losing more than those two seconds.
Still, that was the incentive to try again yesterday and I did so with a vengeance, resulting in a total time of 33:48 and sector times of 4:32, 5:03, 5:43, 4:30, 5:05, 6:01 and 2:54, making for lap times of 15:18 and 15:36. That means the third and fourth fastest laps, fifth first sector time, third and fifth second sector times, fastest ever third sector time and second fastest final sector. My gains were there at the end, as the total time at the start of the second lap’s third sector was a single second faster than Tuesday, and that was thanks to the three seconds gained over that lap’s second sector, after losing two over the entire course of the first lap, the second lap’s first sector being covered in the same time on both days. But then I was seven seconds faster on that third sector and six more on the final one, though most of these were likely the result of the lack of anybody getting right in my way as I was putting every last shred of energy into it, hoping I’ll just keep falling forward with each step there at the end and not straight down.

Otherwise, “managed” to get myself banned on my Sector’s mayor’s Facebook page last evening, after posting a comment there for the first time, on an album where he brags about “modernizing” the sector, saying he’s willing to face the expected criticism for his projects. So I sent some of that criticism, sarcastically, saying that if modernizing is defined as paving over, encasing in concrete, butchering and destroying anything that was left natural or even “human”, then yes, the modernization is definitely running at full speed.
And the problem is that it really is at full speed, and that’s exactly the description of what’s going on, and the butchering of trees is in full force in the entire city too and I keep wishing I could fucking do something about it and think of things and then give up on every single one because it’d require or may involve directly interacting with others and I freeze at the mere thought…

Early this morning (GMT), Juno successfully entered orbit around Jupiter. Don’t expect too much too soon, however, since the science collection phase officially starts in October, the time between now and then being dedicated to testing and calibrating the spacecraft and its systems. However, the team has stated that they have figured out ways to collect some data during this time as well, so there should be a few interesting things coming our way. Just be patient and keep expectations in check.
This means that, close to 13 years after Galileo was crashed into the planet at the end of its mission, we once again have something in orbit around Jupiter. And it also means that, for the first time ever, a spacecraft powered by solar panels operates at such a distance. However, Juno won’t stay there long, the mission being scheduled to end in early 2018, by which time the spacecraft is expected to already experience problems due to the effects of Jupiter’s radiation, considering the planned orbits. And, with Cassini ending its mission in September, 2017, and New Horizons already beyond, that means humanity will be left with nothing active in the outer solar system after that point.
There is, of course, one, and only one, mission clearly set to launch beyond Mars in the future, and that’s JUICE, but that will only launch in 2022 and is scheduled to arrive at Jupiter in 2030. That means it may be beaten there by NASA‘s planned mission to Europa, but there are still details to work on when it comes to that and the launch date is only listed as being at some point in the 2020s. Still, the chance to arrive before JUICE is real if it’ll end up using the Space Launch System, which will greatly reduce the time needed to reach Jupiter and allow it to get there first even if it’ll launch quite a few years later.