Cav's Place

November 6 continued the mess among activists, as 20 “representatives”, selected according to criteria that were not made public but which supposedly took the over 5500 e-mails sent the previous evening into account in some way, took part in consultations with the President while other groups vehemently opposed doing so. The list that was presented actually included 18 names, with two others apparently added without being on it, one of them being listed as supposedly representing us and, in truth, having been involved with us for quite some time, usually on matters involving forests, since that’s where his expertise lies.
After the outcry this created, some more reasonable activists simply posted messages asking him to explain his presence there and he eventually replied to say he was invited and decided to go, but stated that he represented another group, not us, what showed up in the media not being his problem. Meanwhile, both the United We Save Community and the old page posted statements saying they were not represented there. It was also known that a few of the most notable activists that make up this group were in fact invited, some of them being people I’d have really wanted there and said so, but they all refused. There was also some noticeable friction between the very few, myself included, who said that this refusal was a huge mistake and the most vocal of the rest.
As expected, both the consultations themselves and the conflicts they created between the various groups demobilized people, so the numbers seen in University Square that evening were significantly lower, with estimates of 6000 to 8000 at the peak, though some claimed 10000. The attitude was also different, more subdued and with the various groups seeming to keep more to themselves. It’s also likely that many people had noticed the fact that a stage was being set up in front of the statues in front of the Bucharest National Theater and, considering that the President said he’ll come to the Square himself to listen to the people directly but won’t specify the date or time in advance, many were expecting that to be set up for him and were waiting to see what will happen.
It actually took some time before even most of us who knew each other, and who tried to more or less gather in one area, learned that the stage had in fact been brought by the head of a major NGO representing those who took part in the Revolution. A few of the known activists had actually been discussing details with him and a few others after arriving there that evening and the agreement, presented to the rest of us when we were asked to join them, was that, while the person who had brought the stage, along with the lighting, sound system and sound engineer, initially wanted to be the first to speak, he gave up on that as well and everything was to start with a singer who had written a song to dedicate to the victims, after which anyone who agreed to respect a few common sense rules, which were also written there on the spot, could come up and speak their mind for a maximum of three minutes. It was also agreed that, after the singer will step off the stage, the sound will be turned down so only those who’ll actually gather in front of the stage, showing an interest in what was taking place there, will hear, without bothering those who simply wished to remain in the street and protest.
Well, that didn’t work, because as soon as the lights were turned on and people saw that the stage was being prepared, they started approaching to complain, the first ones saying we’re still in mourning and there should be no music, even though a few others had been playing some “songs of the Revolution” on loudspeakers that evening already. Then, quickly, more and more crowded around the stage and some charged up on it, demanding that it be taken down and not listening to anything they were being told, even continuing to repeat that there are no “leaders” and everyone should have a voice even while being told that giving everyone a chance to be heard was exactly why the stage was there. They were obviously just there to make a mess of things, shouting louder and louder and becoming increasingly physically aggressive as well, and there is some information regarding who put them up to it, but the problem is that it worked. Worse, even though Alex had asked the gendarmes to form a loose perimeter around the stage, so they’ll be able to stop anyone with the wrong intentions without looking like they’re blocking access, they seemed to be quite content to allow all of this to happen.
By the time anybody actually spoke on that stage, it was a matter of limiting the damage, and the one who sort of found herself holding the microphone and being shoved forward couldn’t defuse the situation with explanations. Then the one who brought the stage was brought forward and he just poured fuel on the fire, if you’ll pardon my choice of words, starting by saying that the stage was brought in collaboration with a minor television station that will broadcast everything live and then repeating that it is for the “leaders” of the protesters, so exactly what was going to make things even worse and against everything that had been discussed. He was eventually pulled away, but it was all lost by then, any attempts made to calm people down when the microphone was once again thrust into hands of the first person who spoke, by shouting “the Square has no leaders, we are free people” and a few other slogans, only resulted in having more of the anger focused on herself, actually being grabbed and shoved around until she could be pulled away from that group.
The matter was settled after some people disconnected and, as I heard it, stole the power cables, making it impossible to continue. Then things began to slowly calm down somewhat and, after waiting around the area for quite a while, some time later we slowly made our way back into the street, where football fans had “ruled” the evening with chants that would have been at home on a stadium, not there. Understandably, the one activist who spoke on that stage was shaken by the whole affair and those who had grown used to being the target of conspiracies and hate weren’t helping when they kept telling her that she’ll get used to it as well and shouldn’t be like this, seeing as that pretty much meant it’ll get worse and the way she felt was her fault instead of trying to shield her, as some of the rest of us did, and make it clear that she had every right to feel that way.
While this was going on, a march of silence to the club started, some people also leaving from University Square though I believe it was actually announced as starting from Unirii Square. For the rest of us, that was pretty much the end, so it can be said that we took no part in that evening’s actual protests. But, as I was saying above, I’m not sure who did, with those football fans leading the chants. When we got back to the street, even those who are usually infuriatingly optimistic and keep saying that the people will find the right solutions and work together if they’ll only be given a chance were crestfallen and even made snide comments on a “united we save all of Romania” chant that started at one point, considering the sort of Romania which had been revealed by what had just happened… And by what was to continue to happen that night and, to some extent, also the next day, considering all the comments and articles that were posted.

November 7 was the day with the highest death toll since the night of the fire, the number of dead having settled at 32 for the past few days before suddenly growing to 39 by the time the evening’s protest started and then to 41 before it ended. In the street, however, probably only some 3000 people were present at the peak, and football fans, some of them aggressive, even violent, and possibly also drunk, continued to lead chants and pretty much block any real and reasonable protest. In spite of that, staying on another part of the street, another group of people managed to, quite by accident, turn the evening into what the previous one should have been, only in a far more rudimentary fashion and growing naturally.
Those of us who knew each other were once again simply trying to stick together and stay away from any potential trouble, allowing any others who showed interest to gather around as well and leaving the rest to do whatever they wanted. It was already quite late when, as a result of some discussions between him and a few others, Vlad came up with the idea to announce a truly open meeting next weekend, probably in a park, so anybody who has anything to say, who wants to present their own views and solutions, will be able to do so. He wanted to have fliers printed with the time and place, to be given to people the next day, while for that evening his suggestion was to talk to people directly, see who the more reasonable ones still taking part in these protests are and ask if they’d be interested in something like this. Of course, when I heard that I was starting to move slightly away from him, because I can barely say a couple of words at a time, rarely, to these people that I somewhat know for a few years now, and even that often makes me forget what I meant to say anyway, so I wanted no part of that plan, but the result of him trying to make sure that all of us heard this was that the several small groups which had formed joined together into a circle of probably a little over 20 people.
What happened next was that the discussion started taking place then and there. Somebody started talking, then somebody else wanted to, Vlad offered to be the moderator when it became obvious that one may be needed, a loudspeaker was used after more people had joined us and speakers couldn’t be heard well by everyone without one anymore. As more and more became interested, the group grew to dozens and then to hundreds, possibly even close to 1000 people, a line was formed for those wishing to speak when too many hands were being raised to keep track of, a second and then a third loudspeaker were used to amplify the sound when a single one was no longer enough…
There were a couple of tense moments, when some vehemently demanded to speak when it wasn’t their turn, some of the ideas presented were simply too insane, others were purely personal problems that had nothing to do with why we were there or with what such a gathering could achieve, but overall, as I was saying, it ended up being what the previous evening should have been, only in the middle of the street, without the stage or any plans or arrangements. When people started leaving the Square that evening, most who remained were part of this circle and discussions continued until no more than a few hundred were left and gendarmes asked them to clear the road, which they did without incident.

The next evening, continuing the discussions was clearly the main part of the plan and a small sound system was brought so we won’t need to keep relying on the loudspeakers anymore. However, what couldn’t be obtained was a generator and those who tried to persuade any of the television crews to allow us to plug the speakers into theirs had no luck, so everything was simply carried into the street and then back again without being used. Still, those who spoke that evening were heard somewhat better because two others, who have particularly large loudspeakers, joined once the discussions started and used them to amplify the sound, though it seemed that one ran out of power after a while.
But that was the day’s second event, the first being that the President did show up after all. We were actually wondering why we had been allowed to take to the street before enough had gathered for this to normally happen, even the peak reached later likely being below 3000, and at first, when about half an hour later people suddenly started rushing to a certain spot, some assumed that some football fans had started another conflict, but within moments the word spread and most of us followed the crowd to see what was going to happen. A few stayed behind, probably at least in part to look after the speakers, which at that point were still in the middle of the street, but we also seemed to have positioned ourselves pretty much on the line where people split at that point, many of those closer to the intersection staying where they were even after hearing why the rest were rushing away.
Back to the President, he wandered around the area for some 20 minutes, surrounded by a line of guards which were in turn surrounded by television crews and other reporters. He didn’t use a loudspeaker or any sort of sound system, only talking directly to the few people who either managed to fight their way through or, as it happened to one who can be said to be part of this group, found themselves pulled inside. Seeing as he’s one of the more troublesome ones, who was fined, taken away and even briefly detained quite a number of times, he said that, when he heard the guards say his name and was grabbed, he assumed he’ll be taken away yet again, yet instead suddenly found himself standing face to face with the President. Under those circumstances, I find it amazing that he managed to ask a few quite reasonable and relevant questions before being pulled out of that moving security perimeter the same way he had been pulled inside it.
After it was over, many activists were angry and some even felt guilty that they had followed the others instead of completely ignoring the visit. The obvious reason was that now the media was going to focus solely on this and consider the evening over even before the open discussions started, and the visit itself had been little more than a publicity stunt, as no message was actually delivered, too few people were heard, and not in any organized manner, and none of the lists of demands or proposed solutions put together by those who had gathered them from people in various ways could be presented. But all of this was eventually thrown aside after getting back to the original plan for the evening.
Since what was to happen was now known, plenty of people quickly gathered once a wide circle started to form, more loudspeakers were used from the beginning and there was a line of those waiting to speak, though some kept pushing their way through. I can’t say that what was said was better, as there was still a fair amount of insanity, plenty of purely personal problems and time wasted congratulating people for being there or with other platitudes in spite of Vlad’s repeated attempts to advise people to skip over these things and get straight to the point, but that is what happens when everyone is given a chance to speak their mind. It also was a good way to figure out who offers reasonable solutions and supports compatible views and, since the speakers were asked for some contact information, those can now be contacted for whatever the next stage will be, as we definitely need to move beyond simply protesting in the street if we are to actually change something.
The street was cleared quite early, even though more people were still in the circle than when it had been cleared the day before. In part, that happened because the “Dacian flag-bearer” had climbed all the way to the top of a streetlight and two fire trucks had arrived to get him down, the first one apparently not having a long enough ladder. There was also some confusion at that point, as some of us withdrew to the fountain rather quickly, people splitting into small groups to talk about various things, but many protesters insisted on remaining in the street, prompting the gendarmes to send a warning. That caused some concern, as at that point an excuse could have been made to use force or start giving fines and “kill” any chance the protest had to continue, in any manner, but that fortunately didn’t happen and the evening could eventually end peacefully.

Some people continued to gather throughout this week, but likely less than 1000 on Monday and, as far as I know, no more than a few hundred, if not only dozens, since then. As such, November 8 marked the last time the street was blocked and also the last such open discussion organized by the known activists before the one planned for tomorrow, in Izvor Park. So I’m going to end this post here and then see about writing another to cover the current week later, though after spending some 25 minutes around the fountain on Tuesday I didn’t attend anything else and I heard that some things did happen, including some potentially important meetings, which means that right now I’m probably missing a fair amount of information. But, then again, that’s often the case, as I’m not usually even aware that things that aren’t particularly public take place and, considering how I feel and act around others and that I can’t speak my mind except on-line, I’d have little reason to go there even if I did know when and where.

On the evening of October 30, a tragic accident, which was covered in detail by international media, took place inside Colectiv club, some fireworks used during Goodbye to Gravity’s release concert for their second album, Mantras of War, reaching a pillar placed a few meters in front of the stage and igniting the foam used for insulation. Within seconds, the fire had spread to the ceiling and the roughly 400 people inside tried to rush to the single open exit before being killed by the flames or the extremely toxic air, made up of a mix of gases that shocked doctors when it was determined. Once the dust settled somewhat, 27 people were pronounced dead that night and close to 200 were injured, many of them in serious or critical condition. At the time I’m writing this, the death toll has risen to 54, most of those who were injured but will survive will likely have a worse fate ahead of them than those who won’t and, starting a few days ago, some of those who escaped relatively unharmed by the fire started to seek medical assistance due to respiratory problems developed as a result of breathing in that deadly mix of gases, in some cases the complications being severe enough to be life-threatening.
This caused shock, grief, outrage, the expected wave of conspiracies and ruthless people, including some from the media, attempting to take advantage of the situation, but also an immense wave of solidarity and grassroots efforts aimed at helping the victims and the friends and relatives wishing to be near them. Blood banks were overwhelmed by those rushing to donate blood, people volunteered to help in any way they could and people as well as companies offered services free of charge and made countless donations of both money and needed products. Of course, there were also calls for swift and harsh punishments for those the public saw as to blame for the tragedy and demands for a number of resignations, going all the way up to the Prime Minister, but grassroots efforts made during the three days of national mourning declared by the government focused on helping the victims and the medical personnel fighting desperately to save their lives. There were gatherings and marches, even one with over 12000 participants, but they were silent, as a way to pay respects to the victims, people leaving thousands upon thousands of burning candles and flowers at the closed gate of the crumbling Communist-era factory which had in recent years rented its abandoned halls to the club, dozens of other businesses and at least one group of activists.

While this was going on, and while actually being directly involved in the efforts I mentioned above, various groups also worked on lists of demands, making them public after the three days of mourning ended, and the United We Save Community was no different, publishing a list of ten that included a number of resignations considered as a single item, specified as being not negotiable, but otherwise focused on the investigation of the accident and improving public safety, disaster readiness, emergency response and the health care system. As this was made public, a huge protest was announced for November 5, several other groups agreeing to change the plans they had made independently and join a common action that day. This left a single protest focusing solely on demanding the resignation of the Sector 4 mayor, seen as responsible for granting the club the required approvals even though it didn’t meet the safety requirements, announced for the evening of November 3, starting at 6 PM.
Well, that protest ended up being huge, with most activists and groups quickly adapting to the situation to announce their support and take part, and the list of resignations that were demanded growing to include the Prime Minister and the Minister of Internal Affairs, whose resignation had already been demanded recently after a police officer heading his motorcade on a motorcycle fell in a large hole caused by some work being done on that street and died, which also prompted investigations revealing that he had used official motorcades several times per day on average, abusing the privilege even when running personal errands. Some also wished to protest against the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, considering the absence of any official involvement of the Church in the efforts made for the victims, his snappish reply when asked about it and also all the messages posted by various people claiming to be Christians and later also taken up by some high school religion teachers, which said that rock music is a path to Satanism and the victims deserved what they got, especially since a Halloween-themed afterparty was supposed to take place after the concert that evening.
Since the focus was on resignations and I never took to the streets only to call for someone to step or be brought down when that person hasn’t been found guilty of a criminal offense and I don’t have a clear idea of who I’d want to take their place right away, I didn’t take part in that protest, but it was easy to follow, so I can say it started with a few thousand people gathering in University Square, spilling into the street when the area was filled. Then, as it tends to happen after that critical mass is reached and a march starts, more and more joined on the way to Victory Square, probably some 15000 people ending up stopping in front of the Government building.
The group continued to grow while there, peaking at well over 20000, probably up to 25000 or even 30000. However, as they stayed in one place for a good hour and a half, some eventually grew restless, some simply leaving while others began causing problems, arguing with the gendarmes, pushing against the line they had formed and in one case one person even throwing a rock which, from what I heard, ended up hitting another protester in the head, though I’m not sure if that was then or later. As a result, while a fair number were unhappy with this decision and once again started accusing some of the known activists of manipulating the protesters, a call was made and people got moving again, some time later ending up in front of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
What’s interesting is that, while a few of the known activists got as close to the Ministry building as possible and waited for the others to join them, the rest, and the entire long column of people, initially simply continued the march, leaving those few shocked and terribly disappointed. Those at the head of the column were eventually persuaded to turn around and make a brief stop there as well, but it was only a matter of about five or at the very most ten minutes until everyone left again. At that point, it appeared that the intensity of the protest was dropping, people continuing to leave.
The next destination was the Parliament, but once again it was mainly a matter of marching past it, those at the head of the column not even stopping long enough to wait for those at the other end to reach the area before announcing that they were leaving for the original target of the protest, namely the Sector 4 Mayor’s Office, where they did stop for about half an hour. Some more incidents were reported there, including someone throwing what appeared to be a firecracker, and this is also the point where the reports I’m seeing are unclear. The estimates I saw the next day tended to agree on a peak of about 30000 protesters taking part and that evening I was under the impression that it was reached there, more people joining, or perhaps rejoining, once the group reached said initial destination, but others say the numbers continued to drop and the peak was that from Victory Square, so I’m not sure how things actually were. Still, a peak of around 30000 at some point seems an accurate estimate.
After leaving again, the next announced destination was the Patriarchy, but that caused the protesters to split, only a relatively small number leaving the larger group to go there and not even managing to get too far, the gendarmes lined in front of the gates appearing truly determined to block the way for the first time that evening. During this time, the larger group waited, lost a significant number of people and then split again, some heading back to University Square and others to the club. Parts of these two groups met again later, around 1 AM, when those who didn’t scatter shortly after once again reaching University Square decided to go to Colectiv as well, or more exactly to the factory gate. Not much later, only a small group of people was left, sitting mostly in silence around the candles.

The next day, those who focused only on resignations got what they wanted, as the Prime Minister resigned, which also caused the Government to be disbanded and obviously also removed the Minister of Internal Affairs from office. The latter’s party needed about an hour after the decision was made public to release a statement saying they take note of and accept it, and something I’ve seen said later that day seemed to indicate that the Minister of Internal Affairs was asked to resign and refused, this being the reason why the Prime Minister chose to settle the matter so quickly and completely. The Sector 4 mayor resigned as well, though he also needed a bit of time to realize he needs to, and later he was detained and an investigation into his actions regarding the club in question was started, though by now he was released again while the investigation continues.
This hardly meant that the protests were over, however. In fact, November 4 brought the highest turnout, estimated at about 35000, but also caused the most reasons for concern, as many of those who attended simply didn’t know why they were there anymore, different political parties and other interest groups made particularly visible efforts to steer the protest in their favor and everyone else saw the opportunity to make their personal demands and desires known, on pretty much any issue and in any direction possible. People wanted change, but many didn’t even know what to say should be changed, much less how, and those who did couldn’t possibly agree on anything, the demands being so diverse, often in direct conflict and at times frightening to even consider. For his part, Vlad tried desperately to gather opinions, ask people what they wanted, what their demands were, how they see the way forward, get some serious discussions going, and simply got nowhere.
This time, I went as well, trying to figure out what was going on and what will come next, seeing as the meeting scheduled before the previous day’s events, which was supposed to take place that evening, was obviously canceled under the current circumstances. I arrived at about 7:20 PM, however, just when thousands of people were getting ready to start marching to the Parliament, and left at about 8:30 PM, disappointed and more than a little angry because of what I saw. Others, on the other hand, seemed thrilled, judging by the posts I saw that night. May have been difficult to say why they were thrilled though, and the one person I actually talked to about it admitted that my assessment was right, didn’t have many rational reasons to hope that much good will come of it and actually, after spending the entire evening there, knew of many more serious reasons for concern than I did, but it was simply a matter of a certain kind of euphoria generated by so many people gathering.
But to return to what actually happened, those thousands of people did start marching to the Parliament at that time, but thousands more, including the vast majority of the known activists, stayed behind, as was the original plan for that evening. Later, it was said that some 10000 people ended up in Constitution Square, led by some highly questionable individuals who climbed the fence surrounding the Parliament building and were allowed by gendarmes to even wander around in the garden for a while. Many looked and acted like the troublesome kind of football fans or even homeless people, they tried to hide their faces, threatened those who meant to take pictures of them and gave conflicting answers that seemed made up on the spot when asked who they were and where they came from. The obvious goal of these efforts was to demand snap elections, which would play right into the hands of the opposition, as no new parties or real independents could be ready to run on such short notice.
Various attempts were also made to steer people to the Cotroceni Palace, which is the presidential residence, but those failed every time, both in University Square and in Constitution Square. As the protest was nearing the end, there were some discussions about going to the Patriarchy as well, but those seemed to only result in arguments among some of the known activists. The only thing that did work was an earlier attempt to break off another part of those gathered in University Square and persuade them to try joining those in Constitution Square, but by then those were already returning, so the two groups met at Unirii Square and eventually returned together, creating that peak of about 35000 people in University Square.
After that point, people started leaving and, except various discussions and arguments and a drone falling on the crowd, it didn’t seem that much else happened. As expected, most were rushing to the University metro station around 11 PM, hoping to catch what they thought were the last trains. It was later announced, possibly as a result of the efforts of a television station, that the trains will actually run for two hours longer that night, to help all those people return home, but the announcement came too late and the two hours didn’t exactly seem necessary, as the number of people in University Square was likely below 1000 some time before midnight, when most of them decided to once again head to the club, or more exactly to the factory gate, where they eventually also ended the protest.

November 5 started with a mess among activists, after the President asked for representatives to take part in consultations the next day, after those with the political parties represented in the Parliament, and the United We Save Community, the old page, various other groups and individual activists and protesters rejected the idea completely, sticking to the stance of refusing any discussions with politicians or any other actions they consider may “legitimize” the authorities. Of course, I’m also sticking to my stance of pointing out that this is at best terribly misguided, and in fact was even more so now than in 2012 and, especially, 2013, as back then it could be said that there was a clear list of demands that were not negotiable and didn’t need to be formally presented, but now not even that list existed. And no, being aware that this invitation was something of a publicity stunt and also specifically meant to generate such conflicts, even more so after a message was posted about half an hour after the announced start time of the evening’s protest asking for people to send e-mails to nominate representatives by midnight, so exactly when those directly involved weren’t exactly going to be paying attention, doesn’t change my opinion.
To get to the protest itself, I was pleased to see that the activists I know were gathering at the fountain and trying to agree on a brief list of demands, in an attempt to put some order into the mess and offer a direction for all that energy and discontent. Unfortunately, after the rest of us had agreed that one of the top demands needs to be to completely eliminate all artificial electoral thresholds, Claudiu showed up just as people were spilling into the street and we were about to follow them and disagreed, saying they should only be eliminated for local elections, but the one for the Parliamentary ones should only be reduced from 5% to 2%. That definitely won’t help the real alternatives, but with no time for further discussions, it was the idea that seemed to end up on the list as we first joined with some representatives of some student and youth groups in one area of the mass of people and then made our way to the front.
That move was to have a better chance in part of blocking the attempts to make people march again and in part of having more of an impact on the various groups, after somebody came to tell us that less than 20 meters away in any direction we’re neither noticed nor heard and the Square is simply full of all sorts of groups promoting their own demands and agendas in their own little parts of it. The first goal was achieved, the second much less so, despite the best efforts of the activists who had made their way there and apparently some football fans who tried to help. Others, on the other hand, were only there to make an even worse mess of things, argued, yelled, two rival supporter groups even fought at one point, other suspicious individuals kept accusing activists of the same usual shit and at some point a certain strange and strong smell that others I believe seemed to recognize as weed made an appearance.
While this was going on in the street, at one of the metro exists a few other activists had set up a spot where people could come and write their own demands or opinions on pieces of paper, to be gathered in order to determine and present the most common ones later. At first the location for this was announced as being the statues in front of the Bucharest National Theater, but that idea was abandoned even before our group made its way to the front, possibly because of those who had claimed that area, some demanding returning Romania to monarchy and others being the usual crowd from that spot, at the time protesting against both the current and the previous President. Either way, a significant number of demands were gathered in such a manner, and others, written in few words and large letters, ended up on a string in front of the fountain, where they remained and were joined by others in the coming days, to be seen by anyone passing by.
As far as estimates are concerned, I can’t make any myself after having been in the middle of such a large group, but I saw the media putting forward numbers of 10000 or 12000, though some activists claimed there were in fact at least 20000 people present. What’s clear is that there were a lot less people than the previous day, and also that the road was cleared and the protest ended somewhat earlier, most leaving before or, at most, around 11 PM. By the time the metro wasn’t an option to get back home anymore, no more than a few hundred were left, and I’m not seeing anything about any attempt to get back to the club as a group.

After last week’s tragedy, massive protests began as soon as the three days of mourning declared nationally ended. I didn’t take part in the first, since it was only calling for resignations, but did attend the next ones. Admittedly, only wandered around for about an hour on the second evening, as after the protesters quite surprisingly got the resignations they called for they were left without any common goal and the result was a mass of tens of thousands of people who didn’t exactly know why they were there, many actually being unable to answer that question and those who could having extremely diverse and often conflicting demands, some of them absolutely terrible. Things did improve slightly on the third day thanks largely to the efforts of those who can still be said to make up the United We Save Community and a few others who rallied to the same cause, but then last evening was once again a mess, in part because and in part despite the best efforts of the same people.
But I should actually write a post about that when I’ll get around to it. If I’ll get around to it. Either way, this shouldn’t be about that, but just a very quick personal update posted before leaving again, largely just to have a second post this week. Was thinking of starting that larger post now, continuing after I’ll get back this evening and hope to finish it tomorrow before leaving, but that hardly seemed likely, so this will have to do. If during the first days three years ago I was managing to participate every day, write “protest reports” and also somehow add at least 300 words per day in my story, now I’m barely managing to add a couple of sentences in my story in the last few minutes before going to bed and just about nothing else, so I definitely wouldn’t have managed something like that. After all, after that push during those first couple of weeks I never recovered in the least in terms of writing, and not only that, so it’s not even a question of how much I could afford to push again before crashing just as hard.

Still, at least I managed to run this week as well, and it marked the fourth week in a row with times between 20:50 and 20:55, as now it was 20:54. The intermediate times were 4:42, 10:12 and 16:16, respectively, so getting worse at the second and third points, but that was actually done on purpose, as I wanted to see what will happen if I’ll take it just a tiny bit easier then and try to push more towards the end, but as you can see the result was the same. Still don’t know how much I’ll be able to continue, seeing as the temperature is dropping these days, but it was fine then and it should actually be even warmer next week, so if I don’t miss the better days I may just manage to keep it up until the end of the month… As long as I’ll also manage to avoid any serious colds, which will get harder now because of the protests.

Following the successful completion of the fourth and final planned trajectory correction maneuver, New Horizons is now truly on its way to its next target, currently named only 2014 MU69. Of course, seeing as the object was only discovered in June of 2014, only an extremely small part of its orbit has been observed, so additional maneuvers are almost certain to be needed as its position at the time of the encounter will be determined more accurately, but I recall the team saying that they were left with enough fuel on board after the Pluto encounter for a change in velocity of 130 meters per second while these four maneuvers achieved 57 meters per second, so that shouldn’t be a problem.
Of course, one problem may be the funding, as the extended mission hasn’t yet been approved and in fact the formal proposal will only be submitted in early 2016. Now it is rather difficult to believe that such a proposal will be rejected, knowing that humanity won’t get another chance to analyze such an object at close range in the foreseeable future, but that hardly means that the approval is certain. In addition, while New Horizons is a mission with relatively low costs, especially when compared to the returns, granting it additional funds will likely mean abandoning other projects or missions, considering NASA‘s financial situation, in which case I can’t help but wonder what will be sacrificed.

I’ll just post this quickly, because it seems that the network I was in was taken over by another. At least this time it seems to be another LAN, not one of the big corporations, but it once again happened completely silently, with no warning, and I just found out after checking the connection details after it recovered after being out for a short time, and not the first time today.
In fact, it was out for some 15 minutes last evening, and being Friday evening dad called them right away and found out that the guy we used to contact no longer works there. At that point, dad also said he saw new people when we went to pay earlier this month, which would have been a clear indicator that something big happened, but he somehow didn’t pay much attention to it. He also said he’ll go there today and see what’s going on, after I made him aware that something like that should be paid attention to and also that we need contact details of someone we can get to outside their regular business hours or when they have people in the field, fixing or diagnosing problems. He now said he didn’t go, however, so this will be left for Monday.
Currently the connection seems somewhat unstable, which is understandable, and sites on Romanian servers seem to have the bigger issues, but what I’m more concerned about when it comes to that is that the LEDs on my switch blink in an odd pattern. More exactly, they blink in ways which announced problems somewhere down the line before, so if this will stay like this I’ll be wondering how to figure out details about problems from now on, assuming we’ll stay here. But maybe it’s just something happening now, while they’re changing things.
Still, as I was saying, this seems to be another LAN, with the main headquarters relatively nearby, but the financial information I found says they’re not doing well, always having losses, their income dropping sharply in 2012 and then continuing to slide down since, and those numbers saying they have no more than several dozen clients. Which was probably the case for the old network as well, at least lately, after recent problems caused some to leave, so if those couldn’t continue like that, how can these not only continue, but also buy them?
Of course, this means a new IP, which again caused me some problems, but I’m hoping it’s at least still a fixed one, because I need that. And I’m also wondering what the new parameters will be and what other terms apply, and of course I want to know who’s now handling the information and what guarantees they offer, both technical and in terms of privacy and all the other obvious concerns when it comes to important and sensitive parts of one’s life, especially considering all these data retention laws that keep being passed and all the other rotten moves made by governments and certain corporations.