Finished The Spirit Engine II ten days ago, but I still haven’t managed to get around to reviewing it. Worse, that gaming magazine from here that comes with full games had Two Worlds II packed with their latest issue and I was curious about that after playing the first, though I knew that it’s worse, so bought it and started playing a couple of days ago, which obviously means that I’m now even less likely to manage to write that review. I do mean to put some effort into it at some point, however, because the game’s certainly worth at least that much.
As for Two Worlds II, I can certainly confirm that what I had seen before is true and it really is worse than the first one, which I rather enjoyed. It has a few improvements, but many things have gotten worse, the control scheme and responsiveness in particular, plus that the best thing about the first game, namely making an insanely overpowered mage that’d allow you to stop worrying about enemies and just enjoy exploring the huge game world, doesn’t quite seem to be possible anymore, or at least not nearly as quickly or as easily. Still, I’m giving it a shot and I seem to be putting a fair amount of time into it, so at least I’m doing something…
Speaking of doing something, this month really was an uphill struggle to keep putting something into my story and it’ll take some more struggling today as well if I’m to get to the end without falling behind even my own “worst case” schedule. If I’ll manage this, I’m giving up on the schedule again for next month, being content if I’ll manage to still add something every day, even if it’ll just be a few lines, and perhaps try to plan ahead so I won’t be struggling so much to find ideas when I need to write anymore. After all, during the first part the usual rule was playing out scenes in detail in my mind in seconds and then taking days to manage to put a crappy version of them, sounding much worse than I was “seeing” them, in writing, but this entire second part was much worse than that, since I didn’t even have those scenes in mind anymore and basically had to come up with more or less random events to pass the time and very loosely lead to the conclusion, which was the only thing about this part that I had in mind from the beginning… As such, I can only hope that the third part, which I’m about to start working on, will work much better, but fear that it won’t.
As for the blog, well, I do need to write a second post for this week, after all, but have no idea what. The original plan included that The Spirit Engine II review, but somehow I doubt that’s going to happen, so let’s see. Of course, there are several other issues that I’d want to write about, plus that post that I’ve had in a file, as a rough draft that’ll still take a fair amount of work, for the past six months or so, but that’s clearly not going to happen…
Though any amount is far more than I’d like, there was surprisingly little “human filth” to be found in this part of the series. The focus is instead exactly where it should be, with dragons that are really coming into their own, reaching their potential both in how they act and in how they’re presented, and battles that are depicted wonderfully.
I must also note that, while the author has raced through a lot of potential action, seeming to only want to depict that which was particularly meaningful, the effort to take a shot at several important issues that the world is still facing is still obvious and, I believe, largely successful.
Rating: 4/5
Note: Original review date lost. Using date listed as the date I finished reading.
It was just brought to my attention that Kiva sponsors are currently giving away $25 to loan out for free to anyone who joins after being invited by an existing user, plus a similar bonus, if more limited in how it may be used, to the user who successfully invited them. So, well, as annoying as invites generally are, here you go.
The “offer” is limited however. A quick search turns up mentions of something like this as early as March, but I gather that those refer to a similar but different promotion, with perhaps a larger number of such free loans given out as well, and the messages I find around the beginning of August are the ones that actually refer to this one. Still, at the time I’m writing this it says that there are some 5500 such free loans left out of a total of 32000, so you should hurry if you want to get your chance to help someone for free.
As it was entirely expected by anyone who thought things through and was neither blinded by nor forced into USL’s rhetoric, our Constitutional Court ruled that the referendum was invalid, so Traian Basescu can return to office. Obviously, since four judges were already determined to vote this way and there was no way for the data to change sufficiently to make a difference, it’d have been completely impossible for the three who were determined to say that it was valid to persuade at least one of them, on top of the two who weren’t so set on one position or the other, to change their stance and therefore obtain the required two thirds majority, so this decision could have been reached immediately after the referendum as well, sparing us all a lot of trouble.
Of course, everybody knew what was going to happen, even if USL kept trying to make it seem that they firmly believed that the decision will be in their favor, but the delay served its purpose for both sides. For Traian Basescu and PDL, and even for the Constitutional Court’s judges, it was to give the people some time to cool off and therefore avoid a harsher internal backlash, while for USL it was to increase the support they enjoy internally while also attempting to respond to the international backlash while they could more easily get away with the fact that their primary focus is in fact this war for power and not actually governing the country properly.
Still, I guess it’s better late than never and, since the leaders of USL have stated that they will abide by the Court’s ruling, at least this particular issue is settled for the moment. Based on the current information, the Parliament should convene on Friday to take act of the ruling and send it to be published, after which interim president Crin Antonescu will step down, likely returning to his office as president of the Senate, Traian Basescu will be reinstated and, obviously, the war will continue. After all, USL’s leaders have also ruled out cohabiting with Basescu in the statements they made today, saying time and time again that he was in fact impeached by the people and they will continue to fight until he will be removed from office and his regime will be completely annihilated and replaced with their own, Crin Antonescu even specifically stating that another impeachment procedure may well be started if Basescu will offer them any opportunity to do so.
As for what happens next… I won’t even dare say that we should wait for the dust to settle, because it won’t settle. Through a ruling that was admittedly immoral, but legal and absolutely necessary, the Constitutional Court has stopped the greater evil from completely taking over the country, but that still leaves us with two major problems: The first is that, while they failed in obtaining the presidency as well for the time being, USL is still left with the Government, the Parliament and most mayors and local council members, and they won’t relent until they’ll be in full control. The second, and likely worse, one is that the the only thing that may still stand in the way of USL and Crin Antonescu is the only marginally lesser evil of PDL and Traian Basescu, any people or groups who’d actually have the country’s and the people’s interests at heart and truly good ideas in mind being doomed to constantly be squashed underfoot by these warring behemoths.
Watched Julian Assange’s statement from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy and, while it was still an important moment after two months spent practically in hiding, I have to say that I was hoping for something more. I wasn’t exactly expecting more, so I can’t say that I’m disappointed, but I was hoping for some new information, a more determined speech in defense of others who are being persecuted and against oppressive governments everywhere, or at least some reason other than listing the countries supporting Ecuador’s decision to have the whole thing prepared and written as he did.
Still, I did notice that he mentioned the Pussy Riot issue, which is admittedly only an issue because the Russian government chose to make one out of a little stunt which would have probably gone largely unnoticed otherwise. This is rather important, because it’s a step away from his and WikiLeaks‘ general stance of opposing anything the United States supports and supporting anyone who opposes the United States, which has led them to have a pretty warm relationship with Russia. Now we’ll have to wait and see whether this small gesture will be followed by others along the same vein or it was simply a little ploy meant to reduce suspicions that he is in fact working for Moscow.
About the issue of the asylum itself, it’s certainly a good thing because he’s still the public image of whistleblowers and of those who fight to make governments more transparent and accountable for their actions, so whatever increases his odds of staying safe helps the cause, even if Ecuador, or in fact that entire region in general, is hardly a bastion of freedom and democracy, so this is quite clearly largely motivated by the personal interests of those who are in power in that part of the world. I do still wonder how will it be enforced, however, seeing as they currently don’t even seem to have any way of getting him out of the embassy without him being arrested and extradited to Sweden, much less out of the country, so this may well get more interesting over the coming days.
No, I didn’t miss the fact that he never mentioned anything about what he’s supposedly being accused of in Sweden, but I don’t see why he’d have bothered and have already expressed my views regarding that matter several times before. Even if the reported events are real, turning the matter into a criminal investigation is clearly a setup and shouldn’t be given much attention, seeing as he could at most be accused of being an asshole about the whole thing… And the fact that he is sort of an asshole about many things and has a personality and certain behavior patterns that are a liability for such an organization, not to mention for the cause as a whole, is no news. However, as I said above, he is still the public image and him being taken down would be a blow which we shouldn’t allow past our guard, at least not as long as he’s not clearly proven guilty of a real crime, which would imply causing real and unjustified harm to another, either willingly or by choosing to remain ignorant about the consequences of his actions despite opportunities to become aware of them.
