Cav's Place

I must say there were moments while reading this book when I had to take short breaks because I was too excited or too busy mentally praising this or that scene or line to still be able to focus properly. The action is decent, but the calmer moments are even better, offering the great characters a chance to shine even more, portraying the world in perhaps unnecessary but definitely most welcome detail, and touching upon major issues or sharing words of wisdom for those who care for deeper meanings.
On the other hand, while the chapters are particularly long, the book itself is far shorter than I think a fantasy book should be, or at least far shorter than I prefer one to be, regardless of the fact that there are several of them in the series. Perhaps for that reason, some moments seem treated too shallowly, in contrast with the overall atmosphere and attention to detail. And I definitely disliked the untranslated Elder speech, especially when there was a significant amount of it.

Rating: 4/5

As I have done in 2008, actually also on June 15, as well as in 2010, I will once again wonder why aren’t teams allowed to challenge the decisions of the referees by asking them to look at the replays. It won’t be some technology making decisions, in fact that’d be impossible at the moment, but the referee will simply be able to properly see what happened and decide whether the original call stands or it was a mistake which should be rectified. It’d be simple, won’t require implementing anything that isn’t already being done for matches, if done properly it won’t even add all that much time, and it should be enough to get rid of huge mistakes such as the ones that once again plagued most matches so far.
In the past we had that fifth official whose duty was to watch the replays on a television screen and determine whether a goal was scored or not in case it’ll be uncertain whether the whole ball crossed the line, ignoring any and all other mistakes he may notice. Now they took that to the next level and poured who knows how much into technology that will determine whether a goal was scored on its own. And all of this unnecessary effort was done for a single issue that may appear once or twice during the entire competition, if at all. However, something that is absolutely necessary, will cost very little and require no new developments whatsoever, still isn’t being done and the only plausible explanation is that it’d prevent referees from being used to fix matches and they won’t allow that. Absolutely no other attempt to explain why this isn’t done can stand up to any sort of scrutiny for as much as a single moment.

Yes, what I was first saying, back in 2008, about the referees themselves being able to ask to watch the replay before making a final decision, was a bad idea, because many may have been tempted to do it for most decisions and it’d have been a complete mess, but the idea of teams being allowed to do this in order to challenge a decision definitely stands. Obviously limit this right, two or three wrong challenges per half during the regular time and two more during extra-time, whether one per half or both granted from the start, but of course a challenge shouldn’t count as having been used unless the referee will stand by his original decision even after watching the replay.
This way, teams will know not to waste them, not too much time should be added unless the referee is particularly bad, but at the same time any other complaints or discussions with the referee would vanish because if a player or official will complain but the team, through the coach or team captain, won’t actually ask for a challenge, it’ll mean those who complain know they’re wrong and are only trying to create some pressure or waste some time and should therefore receive yellow cards from the first words or gestures. In addition, the clock could and should be stopped from the moment a team challenges a decision and until the referee restarts the match after viewing the replays, so the time currently wasted with these discussions that are now pointless but nevertheless tend to take place after particularly questionable or simply infuriating decisions will be recovered.

I guess I’ll stop here, because I just meant to quickly mention this again between two matches. If I felt up to writing more about the World Cup at the moment, I’d be picking on very different issues, largely related to the fact that Brazil shouldn’t be hosting it any more than South Africa should have hosted the previous one… Or any more than Russia should host the next or Quatar the one after that.

Finally managed to get myself to start reading Time of Contempt this week and have to say there were moments when I was enjoying it too much to continue, if that makes any sense. Too busy grinning and thinking that this or that scene or line were so great to focus properly anymore, so had to keep taking short breaks for probably the best reason possible when it comes to books. Admittedly, the very long chapters are rather troublesome, especially for someone as rusty as I am when it comes to reading, but there are exactly seven of them, so that makes it easy to say I’ll read it in exactly one week.
In addition, after finally managing to finish The Lost Vikings at the start of last week and spending a couple of days poking through King of Dragon Pass a little more, I got back to Return to Krondor, quickly finished chapter two… And then I got stuck in chapter three, ending up in exactly the sort of situation that makes me abandon games. My brain somehow decided to pretty much take a break, so I made an extremely poor use of a great situation and now I won’t be going anywhere until I’ll get the same things, or of course better ones, which seems extremely unlikely, considering the multiple random checks involved.

As for bad news, my body definitely seems to have had enough of all the stress and lack of sleep, because it’s acting up in several ways at once. In fact, that’s probably the better scenario, the worse one being that something more serious is wrong and is causing the other issues I’m noticing. I’ll have to see what I can do about it, but at the moment this is definitely causing even more stress and lack of sleep, so it’s quite a vicious circle even if that’s the only cause.

Last but definitely not least, yesterday morning, as I was walking to a store where you’d better go early if you want to still find something good that’s on sale, I took note of a cat sitting in the middle of this street nearby and a guy with a backpack leaning down to pet it. Since it’s a one-way street with speed bumps, generally little traffic and largely unusable sidewalks mostly taken up by parked cars, neither the person nor the cat were in any way unusual, since everyone walks directly on the road and only moves aside when a car passes, but I definitely remembered the moment when, less than an hour later, I was walking back and saw that same cat lying dead, in the same spot, in a pool of blood.
Unlike the one I saw killed on that same street back in 2009, this one definitely was not flattened, so I have to assume that it was struck hard enough, but then I find it difficult to believe that a car would drive fast enough for that so my mind keeps going back to that guy, especially since the cat was in the same spot. It also keeps going back to the rumors that another cat from this area was killed by having its head bashed in with a rock, and to the lost cat posters I’ve been seeing on and around that street for the past several months.
In other words, I’m wondering whether it was simply a coincidence or that guy killed the cat, and possibly not only that one. I obviously don’t want to accuse, not even just in my own mind, a person who likes animals and simply stopped for a moment to pet a cute cat that walked in his path, but I can’t not ask myself this question… And once I do that, I also can’t not ask myself whether I could have saved the cat by leaning down to pet it as well while he was there, or perhaps even by simply stopping to look for a longer moment instead of just smiling and walking quickly past that spot.

This will be another quick post, just to avoid another Sunday update. I’m completely exhausted, so only trying to somehow write this now and post it just before midnight, because I’m not even sure I got three hours of sleep yesterday, adding together the morning and the afternoon, and then some sort of problems, which I hope only consist of some momentary inflammation and not a urinary infection or something even worse than that, ensured that I didn’t get more than another few hours, split in a few different parts, today either. Let’s hope these issues will sort themselves out and I’ll manage to catch up over the next couple of days.

Yesterday I was supposed to be one of the witnesses for another protester, who was supposed to have been my witness as well if the judge who heard my case would have wanted any, but ended up wasting a good four hours in Court, plus the time spent on the road, for no reason. He was last on the day’s schedule and, seeing as this judge heard witnesses, the proceedings dragged on, but when his turn finally came he was told he’ll only be able to use one witness, probably because he was the only one who had both of those he had listed actually show up, and he chose the other one, for obvious reasons. Not that I’m complaining about that part, of course, but it’d have made things a lot simpler if I’d have known in advance that it’ll be like that, so I wouldn’t have gone at all. Still, this should at least mean that there will be no more court dates if no new problems will appear, at least if the Gendarmerie won’t appeal the ruling in my case and if he’ll be successful as well.

What made yesterday even worse, however, was the fact that, shortly after leaving, I noticed that the bottom part of my right shoe was peeling off, so I was sort of limping and dragging my foot, literally, as I went to Court and then to a hypermarket after the hearings ended. Admittedly, at the time it didn’t seem to be that big of a problem because it looked like there won’t be quite that much to glue back together, seeing as these have the soles split in four, with this front part making up most of the surface, the part under the heel being split in two and another part, which doesn’t seem to have any practical purpose, in the area that makes less contact with the ground. However, now that I had a better look at them, I noticed that the parts under the heels of both are coming off as well, while that middle part of the bottom of this right one is completely gone, plus that it may be getting a little torn in another area as well.
Having the bottom part fall off the old ones, completely and on both at once, while taking a walk, was the reason why I ended up getting these, I believe about seven years ago, but now the plan is to ignore what’s gone, since it doesn’t exactly matter anyway, and still try to glue everything else that’s coming off back together, seeing as it was obviously simply glued in the first place. However, there’s quite a lot to do and I’m not sure if it’ll be worth it, nor how long it’ll actually last, so the glue may be an additional and more or less useless expense and I may end up needing new shoes soon enough anyway, and I definitely don’t care to go looking for any.

The week began with three anti-fracking activists finally being granted, on May 19, the audience requested on January 21 and meeting a team of four representatives of the Romanian branch of the European Commission. The independent reporters who meant to join them were not allowed inside and the activists themselves were asked not to reveal what they were told, so they limited themselves to stating that the meeting lasted over two hours and the representatives seemed receptive on a personal level, but it’s quite clear that their hands are tied when it comes to actually doing something about the situation in Pungesti. Still, the posts I saw seemed to indicate that the talks were considered somewhat encouraging, at least on some level, and in the end the very fact that this meeting took place at all is a positive development.

Still on the matter of fracking, at least as far as their operations in Romania are concerned, a small number of activists marked the International Anti-Chevron Day, on May 21, first by posting materials informing people of the practices and crimes the company is guilty of around the world in 30 bus stops and then by staging a flash mob in front of the University Square fountain. Once again, I was not aware of any of it until after the fact, but it’s still a good thing that something happened in Bucharest after all, though the same unfortunately can’t be said about the May 24 March Against Monsanto, seeing as, as far as I know, Cluj was the only city in Romania to observe it this year.

Otherwise, also on May 21, a debate about the role of visual design in social activism was held, while some activists also mentioned the event meant to promote cycling among businesspeople and office workers, which took place the following day. This involved a “parade on bicycles”, the participants being asked to wear office clothes, which was followed by a “session of speeches and networking”. The week ended, or at least I definitely wish it would have ended, with a call for those willing to donate goods to the victims of the floods in Serbia and Bosnia to deliver them to the University Square fountain Sunday evening, starting at 5 PM, as a small number of activists were waiting to gather all donations and transport everything to the respective embassies later that evening.

Unfortunately, I can’t end this post now because I guess I also need to mention this idiotic campaign to boycott the European elections, whether by not voting at all or by casting an invalid vote, that most known activists and many regular protesters embarked on. A few did make efforts in the opposite, and correct, direction, gathering information about candidates and contacting them, including those from small parties or running as independents, to see which would be willing to pledge to support some of the causes we’re fighting for, and which ones have in fact supported us in the past as well, but those who did this were usually people associated with but not exactly directly part of this movement. Worse, even in these cases there were odd situations where the official stance of a group was to encourage people to vote for one of the parties whose leading candidates seemed acceptable as a result of their analysis, but some of the known activists leading it stated repeatedly that they personally will not vote, or will cast an invalid vote.
Obviously, even the defaced campaign posters, banners and tents were used to promote not voting, at least by some, and likely even more so during this last week of the campaign. They were fixed on the idea that this way they’ll send a strong message to the politicians that the electoral law needs changing and new alternatives must be encouraged, even though the only thing they did was prove to those in power that the system is working perfectly and they don’t even need to do anything to get rid of the supposedly informed, interested and intelligent people, so those who may be harder to trick, manipulate or simply buy off, because they take themselves out of the equation well enough if simply left to their own devices. Plenty of regular people who took part in the protests so far complained, and I obviously was one of the most vehement ones, but everything, at best, fell on deaf ears, and often enough it was seen as a sign that their strategy was working and we were accused of trying to push the agenda of the major parties which, for some reason I can’t fathom, were “clearly” panicking because of this.
A serious discussion should have taken place on May 19, when TVR, which is the state-owned television station, broadcasted a debate on whether or not people should still vote, a few known activists and journalists who agreed with the boycott being among the participants. Unfortunately, that turned into a complete mess, in part because six of the ten participants were in favor of the boycott and the remaining four, while apparently highly educated individuals who held respectable positions, seemed almost completely clueless, and in part because, after a brief presentation of the arguments against voting, everything turned into a shouting match filled with personal attacks that had nothing to do with the matter at hand and which the moderators didn’t seem to care to stop. Under these circumstances, the debate organized by the activists themselves, on May 23, might have been more interesting if I’d have believed that they were in any way interested in debating, but knowing that they were simply going to keep saying that the boycott is a brilliant idea while completely rejecting any and all arguments against it, I didn’t bother, so all I know is that about a dozen people seemed visible in a couple of pictures I happened to see.
In the end, people were called to “vote in the street” on election day and maybe about 100 attended the event taking place in front of the Bucharest National Theater, starting at 5 PM. Apparently the debates began around 6 PM and ended after 8 PM, but it was largely a matter of activists talking to each other and admitting, if they were asked, that the event itself was a failure. However, they continued to say that the campaign as a whole was a success, and they stressed that even more over the course of the following days, after the results were announced and it was revealed that close to 6% of the total number of votes were invalid.
In other words, both before and after the elections, activists bragged about reducing even that small number of votes that small parties and independent candidates could hope to obtain and therefore increasing the percentages of those they claim to be fighting against even further instead of causing a shock and sending a real message by helping a small party take one or two seats away from the major ones. As such, I do believe that “congratulations” are in order for the “United We Save” movement… They divided us, destroyed what we had created together, and kicked away a chance we won’t have again at least until the 2016 local and parliamentary elections, seeing as this year’s presidential ones obviously can’t possibly bring a success for us.