Cav's Place

It’s clear from the prologue that The Lost Metal is Wayne’s book, but even so it may be hard to believe just how much, the impact and the extent of his development, or more exactly of what is revealed about his character. And that’s far from the only aspect, the other characters also developing, revealing further complexity and allowing the reader to understand more, about them, about people and society in general, maybe even about themselves. And that’s because Sanderson yet again proves and imparts at least some of his deep understanding of people and society, the hows and the whys, in particular when it comes to being broken, pushing through and sometimes, with the right conditions and support, maybe even recovering, at least to some extent. There are some memorable action scenes as well, at least one making me emotional in the way that epic battles with the fate of the world on the table tend to do despite the lack of an army, at least on one side, plus revelations that expand on Scadrial and the Cosmere as a whole, but it was the characters that made the profound impact.
So this isn’t “light” Sanderson anymore… Yet plenty of times it’s held back by still trying all too hard to be. And I’m not just referring to the fact that it remains far from The Stormlight Archive in terms of worldbuilding and depth, that new information mostly being in the form snippets and hints of what’s to come, but mainly to all the attempts at humor and shallowness, once again from Wayne in particular, which do make sense up to a point, but eventually feel increasingly forced and out of place. And then there’s this advancement to a modern setting that so far made me say that I don’t intend to read the next cycle of the series… But at this point I’m thinking that, despite fearing that I’ll regret changing my mind, considering how much I can’t stand modern settings, it’ll be rather hard to stick to that decision.

Rating: 4/5

This is a short game about a cat and a bunny that’s meant to advertise Milo and the Magpies, but in my case just confirmed that it’s nothing I’d ever care to touch. And while Milo, the cat, can be said to be the main character, it’s not the player character, the player interacting directly with certain areas of the screen. And there are few screens, chapter one taking place on two, but chapters two, three and four on the same third one and chapter five on a fourth. So, if you can figure out what you have to do right away, you can finish the game in minutes, even if some animations can be rather slow and the interactions between the cat and the bunny are tedious and serve no real purpose, not even being cute, at least from my point of view, yet the game requires them in order to progress, and in fact chapter four consists solely of this, and includes a part where any attempt at realism is thrown completely out the window.
However, it’s chapters two and three that are frustrating, the puzzles taking me a while to figure out, and in case of the one from chapter three I can’t even say that I did figure it out. I mean, I did feel pretty clever when I figured out the correct placement, but then I had no idea how to use it to figure out the numbers and apparently just stumbled upon the solution while I was actually trying to go for a different number. And while chapter five was easier to figure out, it struck me as strange that the sign wasn’t translated to English when clicking, which has to be a bug. But at least I was able to finish the game in one sitting, albeit only finding one of the secrets. Still, while there’s no way to manually save, if you quit you resume from the start of the chapter you were in at that point.

I had seen posts that the Samsung 990 PRO NVMes fail or keep vanishing from systems and recommending the WD Black SN850X instead, which is also cheaper, and I definitely trust the WD Black range, but I nevertheless went for a 1 TB Samsung 990 PRO with Heatsink for the new computer‘s primary storage, hoping to not be one of the unlucky ones… But it seems that I am, and an added problem is that, with Windows 10 being installed on it and that key being purchased as it was, completely legally and legitimately on my part but likely in a gray area on the part of the seller and with warnings that it may not work if not used quickly, I may be unable to activate it again if I’ll need to reinstall on a new drive, if I’ll replace this one under warranty.
The thing is that, at this point, the problem seems to just appear once in a while and not have lasting effects, but that’s unlikely to last. I mean, the problem first appeared in the early hours of December 13, when I had been pushing the system, having BOINC run Asteroids@home and MilkyWay@home work units at the same time, which seems to really push the temperatures up, the CPU approaching 70°C, while I also had a fair number of browser tabs open, including some music on YouTube, so when I found myself staring at a BSOD listing a WHEA UNCORRECTABLE ERROR and seeming unable to even gather information, being stuck at 0%, I initially thought that I had pushed something too hard, but after pressing the reset button I found that the NVMe wasn’t seen on the system anymore. However, it reappeared after I pressed the power button, which also resulted in a reset, the system booted back up normally and chkdsk didn’t find any problems, so at that point I just ended up getting in bed at 5:20 AM, concerned but at the same time relieved that things seemed to have sorted themselves out for the moment. And after getting up I put that error’s raw data, which was the only piece of information that was saved, through a hex to text converter and confirmed that it was caused by the NVMe, so before going to bed at night I sent a message to Samsung support about it, the initial reply being that it’s good that I have the latest firmware, since I had mentioned that, as well as the fact that the reported temperatures are low, and that as long as it’s seen again, things should be all right.
Well, that obviously wasn’t the case, since it happened again last night, at a time when I wasn’t at the computer and BOINC was just running MilkyWay@home, which actually keeps the CPU below 50°C, so I got back to my room and found it in BIOS, with the Samsung NVMe once again gone, and everything yet again appearing normal after I pressed the power button. And, after chkdsk once again didn’t find any problems last night, after I got up today I also ran the complete extended self-test on the Samsung NVMe from BIOS, and it passed. And I also followed the advice from a post, turning off the LED from the software and setting the M.2 to GEN4 in BIOS… Though another interesting thing that I noticed in that post is that the user in question also has an ASUS TUF GAMING motherboard, though on an Intel platform. And another discussion also mentions ASUS motherboards at first, though further down others are also listed and people just trash these NVMes.
Still, the possibility that the problem is caused by something else does remain, and in another discussion I saw that a motherboard problem may cause it as well, but my first concerns were about the RAM, since the first BSOD was actually on December 7, when, after finally switching back to the old computer to make sure that everything’s properly backed up and also allow it to finish the last Asteroids@home work units, I switched back to this new one, used Group Policy to turn off Cortana and telemetry, rebooted, and found myself staring at that BSOD, with a page fault in nonpaged area error, apparently from the TV tuner‘s remote control driver, which I thought I had stopped from loading on startup, so that seemed rather weird. But using the memory diagnostic function from Windows didn’t reveal any errors, and memory or processing problems would have likely at least resulted in multiple invalid work units for BOINC projects by now, which doesn’t seem to be the case, so I passed that off as an oddity, since everything was normal after a hard reset and nothing of the sort happened since then… But, on the other hand, it is interesting that all of these problems started after turning off telemetry.
I could try switching positions, but I now have that 4 TB Kingston NV2 as well, which I placed in the second slot, and since I put the motherboard‘s heatsink back on in that place and that one covers slots two and three, and I removed that film from the heat pad for slot two, there may be consequences if I move it again, and the fact that I got the Samsung one with the heatsink means that I’ll have to keep that heatsink off if I’ll put it in either of those two other slots. Not that getting the one with the heatsink instead of the regular version wasn’t a bad choice either way, seeing as the motherboard has its own heatsinks for those slots and those would probably also serve to hold the NVMe in place better, but since I didn’t really know anything about NVMes before getting this one, that never even crossed my mind until I actually had it, so I’d have likely ordered the version with heatsink instead of the regular one even if I’d have gone for the WD Black… Which I really, really should have done. Not that it’d have guaranteed a lack of problems, and if they’re not actually caused by the NVMe it might have made no difference, but my chances would have been much better.

Either way, since I’m writing this, I should probably mention some other things as well, starting with the fact that, on December 16, after ending up giving my hosting provider temporary access to the blog and having it be all for nothing, since they couldn’t sort out the problem that I had reported, I ordered that Kingston NVMe, with dad finally managing to pay by card, so I could also extend the warranty for it to seven years. However, I’m still not seeing it among the products that I can request to be serviced from my account on the store’s site and therefore can’t verify that the extended warranty does apply and I’m worried that the payment problems messed something up, since dad had made a first attempt on the evening of December 15 but then realized that he couldn’t authorize it, then left me the information in the morning and went to the bank to sort things out, so I tried again while he was there but it still didn’t work, probably for different reasons, and it finally worked when he tried yet again after getting back, the nice thing being that the store had reserved the product, which seems to have been their last one, during that time, offering a link that was valid for 24 hours and allowed us to try to pay again without needing to actually order again or risk having someone else buy it. Since the product was delivered, on December 18, it would seem that everything was fine, but the delivery guy didn’t ask for a signature, or even for the PIN that would have confirmed that I was the intended recipient, so I’ll give it a little more time but, if it still doesn’t appear there, I’ll have to ask what’s going on.
The thing is that I’m not using it at all yet. I mean, after vacuuming the hallway and having Liza jump straight on my back when I was close to finishing, trying to cling on and scratching my back and shoulders in several places, I did install it that day and ran the full extended test in BIOS, but that was it… I even forgot to disconnect the case’s power LED when I opened it. But I’m going to have to poke around again anyway, not only in case the problems with the Samsung NVMe will continue, but also because the plan for the Kingston one is still to put Linux on it, at least just in case, and I want to disconnect the Samsung at that point, so Linux won’t detect the presence of another OS on the system when it’s installed and the two will remain completely separate. Either way, this means that, while other partitions will be for Windows or for both, if the first one, where I’ll put the OS, is intended for Linux, I didn’t even initialize it under Windows yet. But, since I had to turn off the computer that day anyway, I took the opportunity to switch to the new UPS again, plugging the data cable into the computer but not installing any version of the software yet, so I can confirm that it’s still sending data, but have no idea whether it won’t appear to stop doing so if and when I will install the software, as it did on the old computer.

Speaking of the old computer, on December 12 I updated and activated Windows 10 on it as well, being somewhat surprised that the second purchased key still worked. But I put the computer in the living room and connected it to dad’s peripherals while I did so, and then, when I switched back to the installed Windows 7, I forgot to make a system image backup before making an account for dad, the last one being made back at the end of September… And I should have really made another, because after making that account I ended up with that conhost.exe crash that makes it unusable that I was mentioning back in 2018 and 2019. So I’ll see what I can do about that, but I didn’t try anything so far, just bringing it back here and leaving it next to the desk, since dad isn’t ready to switch to it yet.

Otherwise, I’ll also mention here that no visits were recorded on December 7, 8, 9 and 21, and no visits for three consecutive days was quite surprising. And I’m also going to say that I got in bed at 5:20 AM on the morning of December 8, and the same thing happened this morning. On the other hand, after having started it on December 2, on December 8 I finished The Dromost Gate, also writing the quick review. And before going to bed in the morning, so in the early hours of December 9, I started The Emerald Gate, which I finished on December 14, though what I scheduled to be posted at 11:59 PM was just the rating for the quick review, the text being added later that night. And then, on December 20, I started reading The Lost Metal, which would be only the 11th book this year, so I have to finish it and one more by the end of the year if I’m to stick to the usual target, which is quite embarrassing in itself. But the fact that yesterday I played Cave Story’s Secret Santa, mainly in order to write the quick review for it as the week’s first post, means that I finished four games this year, making it the first one since 2021 when I meet at least the low goal, 2020 remaining the last year when I can say that I finished five. But I’m still wondering when or if I’ll manage to write the reviews for the “proper” games that I finished this year, meaning Diggles, the first Vampires Dawn and Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition. On the other hand, after it was the only one purchased for myself out of what actually were the first games purchased since August of 2020, on December 9 I actually started one more, Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom, albeit just completing some of the tutorial missions so far.

While it’s not a sort of game that I’d normally go for, it ended up being a nice enough way to spend about an hour. I guess it helps if you play it at this “proper” time of year, but it should be pretty easy to pick up and play either way, the houses are sufficiently varied to remain interesting, and I should be proof enough that you can get through it all even if you wouldn’t normally have the interest, or the skills, for the genre. And the music’s pretty nice as well, at least considering the game’s length, which prevents it from feeling repetitive.
Some actual instructions would have helped, however, as I discovered only by accident that you can briefly sprint, though I hardly ever did it, needed a little while to realize that you can also pull blocks, only found after I finished the game what the Jellyfish Juice did, I guess because I always made sure to fully explore the houses before leaving, and was at quite a loss the one time when you need to whack a guard with the bag, trying to go everywhere else and then stay a short distance away and press every key before I dared to walk right up to it and hit Enter, wondering if anything would happen. And then there are some technical matters as well, one being that the game seems to only be meant for widescreen resolutions and doesn’t have any real options, so on my 1280×1024 monitor the sides of the screen were cut off and I couldn’t see the name of the house or the number of presents to deliver, and I also wonder why does such a small and simple game require a 64-bit OS, which prevented me from playing it until now. And why were those things that seemed to be save and recovery points in the game if they never worked, and displayed that message that the drive appears to be full that actually made me wonder whether something was wrong?

To finally pick up from where I left off, after walking to the tents and taking the first of the day’s pictures, I signed the form that I had to sign there, despite having also signed two others on the bus, and picked up another reusable bottle and another one of those things that go on the neck, though it was black instead of gray, plus the gloves and a vest, which we were asked to return at the end. Then I took tea, a banana, even if they were all very green, two packs of the regular biscuits and one of the nicer ones, since there didn’t seem to be many of those nicer ones while the others were available in various kinds and they had piles of boxes of them, plus that I recalled a post on a site that I follow recommending them at some point. However, I then remembered checking the ingredients and being bothered by something, so I read them again and, after putting on the vest and eating and drinking the rest, I decided to put the regular biscuits back, and then I waited for a moment when I could cut in and get another tea, during which time I also grabbed another banana off the ground… And then I drank that tea and ate that banana as well, doing so while standing next to a trash can where others had dumped several bananas that they had taken no more than one bite from, some only being partially peeled and otherwise untouched, and when I wondered out loud who had done that a guy from the group that was next to me said that they had, and even sounded rather smug about it. Either way, since the nicer biscuits seemed gone by the time I had cut in the line and no other breakfast was being offered, I ended up getting a pack of those regular ones after all, from the other table where they were placed, and it was of a kind that I expected to like less than those first ones which I had put back, but I ate them nevertheless.
The problem was that time was passing and there didn’t seem to be any sign that we were about to start working, so I peed again and then just stood around until 10:40 AM, when we finally started moving to the actual “PlantFest” site, and after I stopped to take a couple more pictures I saw the woman who had been talking about the elections on the bus again and we exchanged a few more words, that time about the way the planting was organized, with each row being meant for a certain kind of tree and signs placed to specify which that was, so I said that I was certain that people were going to mix them up anyway while she disagreed, saying that she believed that people had their brains with them. Either way, it was a couple of minutes after 11 AM when the speeches started and a little after 11:15 AM when that part ended and we could start planting. However, even though I had grabbed a spade and obviously didn’t try to find a partner, I got moving rather slowly and then, once I picked a row where I thought that I could plant on my own, I found myself unable to untie the bundle of saplings placed there, and when someone else came to help he was unable to do it either, trying to cut the string with my spade but being unable to do so, saying that I had picked a blunt one. So I wasted a fair bit of time, but while I was there those who were on either side of me confirmed my earlier assessment, since literally the first thing I heard was them asking each other why should they stick to a single type of tree per row and saying that it’ll be nicer to mix them up. Admittedly, those signs had only been placed up to a point, starting from the end of the planting area, the only indication of what should be planted on each row everywhere else being the bundle of saplings placed before it.
By the time I finally managed to pull three saplings out of the bundle, which remained tied, others hand started planting on pretty much every row that I could see, so I eventually took a cue from others who were starting from the other end of the rows and did the same, finally starting to actually plant a little before 11:45 AM… But that day I kept needing to pee, and I just barely managed to hold it in long enough to plant those three saplings, and while I initially meant to dash a few steps into the overgrown area and take care of that problem then and there, I quickly realized that it’ll be pretty difficult, so I rushed to use the toilets, just barely making it. And I believe that it was at that point when, after placing my gloves on those portable things before washing my hands, one fell between them and I had to pull one aside in order to retrieve it. And then I couldn’t find my row again, so I eventually walked back to the “proper” end and looked for another that I could start to plant on. But that took me quite far and I had just planted two more trees by the time some announcements were made and I stopped planting and haltingly made my way back, until I got close enough to actually hear what was being said… At which point I saw people coming back with more of those nicer biscuits, so I decided to go back and see whether I could take some more as well… Only to reach that table just as what seemed to be the last box was being put away, empty. So I just peed one more time, since I was there, and in the unlikely case that the problem with the fallen glove didn’t happen the first time, then it must have happened at that point.
The fact that people weren’t going to respect the planting plan was yet again confirmed after I got back to work and planted three more trees, the saplings from the start of the row that I was working on vanishing by the time I went back to take more, and I didn’t see them nearby. So I moved yet again, picking another row, planting one more tree… And then being told by one of those who were planting on the row that was to the left that I shouldn’t plant on the left side, because they had planted on the right and our trees ended up right next to each other. That was an issue because the organizers said that they hadn’t managed to prepare the area properly, the weather having made them consider canceling the event before the forecast improved as the date approached, so it was fortunate that it had rained on the previous days and the ground was soft and easy to dig, since they said that it had last been plowed three days earlier and otherwise they had just pulled those strings to mark the rows, without being able to also mark the exact spots where the saplings should be planted, so we were just told to plant them about a spade’s length from each other and on a specific side of the row, depending on which side of the road we worked on. And on that side we were supposed to plant on the left and I said so, but they had already planted on the right and the row to the right of mine had also been planted on the right, and when I spotted the coordinator and asked him about it he confirmed that we should be planting on the left, but said that, under those circumstances, I should plant on whichever side I could as long as I did so as close to the string as possible.
At least I could finally get into a rhythm after that point, leaving that first sapling from that row where it was and planting 11 more on the other side by the time I stopped, a few minutes before 2 PM, so it took me much less time to plant those 11 than the first nine, counting from the moment when I actually started to work. And 20 trees seemed good enough under those circumstances, especially since, when I was getting back to work after peeing the second time, there was an announcement that lunch was going to be served soon, so it was a good thing that it didn’t happen that way, because in that case I’d have done even worse than last year, when the conditions were so awful. Not that I’m exactly certain that they hadn’t started serving lunch much earlier, maybe as soon as they started talking about the band that was going to play, but there never was a specific lunch announcement and, while people gradually stopped working and gathered in that area once that band started playing, I kept at it pretty much as long as possible, since by the time I stopped I only saw a single other group still at work, on one of the rows, as you can also notice from my pictures.
After peeing yet again, I poured myself what was left in a carton of almond “milk”, but then I noticed that the cup which I had grabbed was dirty, having likely been used by someone else and then put back on that table, in a stack, so I left it there, took another cup and filled it with rice “milk”, which I drank before taking a tea as well, which I drank while eating lunch… Which was served by that same woman who had talked about the elections on the bus. Either way, since I didn’t feel full after that first serving, plus that I was once again seriously bothered by those who were just throwing away food, the bins being full of plates that still had food on them and someone even throwing her plate away after literally taking only two spoons of beans and one bite of sausage, and since I saw that some more servings were left and simply laid out for those who wanted them, I decided to take a second serving and then rushed to eat it as fast as possible, since the last of the others were finishing and walking away by then. And it was almost 2:50 PM when I walked away from the lunch area, spotting the table where some of the organizers were eating and meaning to ask Petruta, since she was among them, where to leave the vest and the gloves, but she ignored me completely while I hovered around a little, so I ended up asking one of the guys who were also there, and then I went to where I was told and dropped them off before rushing to the buses, since few of those who had arrived by bus were still around.
What made me reach the proper buses even later was that I ended up going the wrong way after reaching the road and only realized it after taking some time to try to get more of the mud off my shoes, walking to the closest bus that I saw and noticing that all of those who were about to get on it were part of an organized group. So I then rushed in the other direction, rather confused and starting to worry, so it was a relief when I spotted the other buses, three being left by the time I reached them. However, when I asked the driver of the first one whether he was going to Bucharest, he said that he wasn’t and pointed me to the one that was just driving away, yet when I approached that one the driver gestured towards the other remaining bus, which I climbed on a little after 3:10 PM… Only for the driver to ask whether I had been on it on the trip there as well, and when I said that I didn’t know he said that if someone who had been on his bus will need a seat, I’ll have to leave it for them, and he won’t take me standing up. So I was once again concerned, even if many seats were empty at that point, but I calmed down after recognizing the inside of the bus and realizing that I had actually been on it after all, at which point I moved from the first seat which I had picked to the one which I had sat on before. And the bus got moving a little after 3:20 PM, though it then stopped again for a little while, to take a couple more people, the driver asking whether there were seats left. But at least the actual trip was once again uneventful, and while that woman continued to engage those around her in the talk about politics and I’d have had some opinions to share, I put my headphones back on and sat quietly until we were dropped off at Victory Square, at 4:45 PM.

At least I managed to get to the point when I actually stopped planting before midnight, editing the post in order to add the last two paragraphs from the above section in the early hours of Tuesday. And then I edited it one more time Saturday evening, in order to add the following section as well, to also cover the rest of that day.

After getting off the bus, I walked to Obor, considering checking Auchan first but deciding to go straight to Carrefour instead, putting the one recyclable with the deposit symbol which I had found on the way in the recycling machine from there, peeing one more time and then having a quick look in the store, without even cashing in that voucher, since I then meant to continue to that other Carrefour, since I had the time. However, after starting to walk in that direction I remembered the expiring palm oil which I had seen at Auchan two days earlier, and dad had said that it might be interesting to get one when I had told him about it, so I went back and checked Auchan after all, but none of it was left and I didn’t find anything else to get, so I just asked an employee to let me out, showing him that I only had more empty bags in the bag that was in my hand, neither of us mentioning my full backpack.
When I reached that other Carrefour, I put the one recyclable with the deposit symbol which I had picked up on the way there in the recycling machine and used both vouchers when I paid for the two breads and one sweet pastry which I grabbed from the expiring products, confirming that a lot of bakery products were still to be found among the expiring ones in that location. On the other hand, these boxers that I’m wearing seemed to no longer be available there either, and I checked because it was the last place where I had seen them, so I should have bought a few more back when I did, in October of 2023, to be able to fully replace the old ones that are falling apart with the same model as I’ll start to throw them away. Either way, I then peed one more time and started on my way back, having a very quick look in a Profi and then going to the Penny location where I had seen on-line that some cheaper cooking oil was supposedly still available, putting the few recyclables with the deposit symbol which I had picked up on the way into the recycling machine, putting my things in a cabinet and then just cashing in that voucher, since I couldn’t find that cooking oil there either, which was unsurprising, as I had assumed that listing to be an error all along.
After retrieving my things, I continued to Kaufland Pantelimon, putting the two recyclables with the deposit symbol which I had picked up on the way in the recycling machine and then going up to put my things in a cabinet, but then deciding to have a quick look in that Carrefour as well… Which proved to be another waste of time, so I then returned to Kaufland, washed my hands and rushed in when it was past 9:45 PM, grabbing some expiring germinated wheat and some bananas that had a good evening discount and actually being about to start using the self-checkout machine when the closing announcement came. And then I retrieved my things and rushed to pee yet again before also checking that Mega Image, once again putting my things in a cabinet but then just retrieving them, without finding anything to buy. And then I picked up two more recyclables with the deposit symbol, which I put in the recycling machine from Kaufland, keeping the voucher for another time, but I still got back with two others, which I picked up after that point.
It was almost 10:55 PM when I got back, after having walked some 18 km after getting dropped off at Victory Square, without counting the distance covered while wandering around inside stores. Then, after talking to dad a little and putting the germinated wheat and the bananas in their place, it was 12:10 AM when I went to the bathroom, wasting time on the toilet yet again and then taking an actual bath, so it was past 1:30 AM when I was done. And I had plenty to wash and clean in the kitchen, so I took care of that… And when I put the sweet pastry which I had grabbed from the second Carrefour in the fridge I saw that the bag was opened, which I hadn’t noticed until then. Either way, I also took a pill, and ate dinner between 3:55 AM and 4:40 AM.