I’m actually talking about the “Personal” category this time, since that’s closer to breaking my rules than all personal posts put together. Not entirely sure what to do, seeing as I’m quite obviously unable to write pretty much anything non-personal anymore, but I guess I’ll figure something out over the next few weeks. With just four “slots” left at the moment, I’ll have to.
Meanwhile, I want to say here that last night I almost had to resort to my backup plan regarding writing in my story, since the power went out shortly after midnight, as I was washing the dishes after eating. After about one hour, remembering that dad had said that they had automated the whole process and you no longer need to talk to an actual person, I called the power company and heard that the problem will be solved by 5 AM, so I was understandably very worried, largely about the very easily spoilable things from the fridge. However, there was nothing I could do about those, so I hoped for the best and decided to take care of the writing instead, lighting a candle, taking a pen and some paper and getting to work in the kitchen.
Truth be told, I’ve been thinking of trying to write like that for a while now, thinking it may help me get more of a “feel” of the words and also work somewhat against my tendency to overthink and get stuck on trying to make a few words sound right instead of continuing the scene, so I wasn’t surprised when it worked reasonably well and I had a reasonable amount of text which didn’t sound quite so bad after well under one hour. Who knows, I may try it again now and see how it works out, at least to get the basic ideas down, since I’ll be able to work on the details and make any changes when I’ll type it in the file later, just like I did last night after the power thankfully came back much earlier than expected, around 2:50 AM.
Otherwise, I meant to go out more this week, seeing as it wasn’t too hot anymore, but I only went to buy some things twice, the plans to just go to the park and maybe even simply sit on a bench and read, possibly also starting Victory of Eagles, being dumped along with pretty much everything else I keep meaning to do. But it shouldn’t be hot during the weekend either, so maybe I’ll at least go for one walk, even if only a rather brief one. It’d still mean going out three times during a single week, so it’d be highly unusual either way.
Until then, I’ll just see what I can still do around here and, I hope, keep playing The Spirit Engine 2, seeing as I started it recently, after deciding that I’ve had quite enough of being hopelessly squashed time and time again in Battle for Wesnoth, and so far it seems to be quite enjoyable. If I’ll finish it, I should at least have another review to write too, though that won’t particularly help with the issue mentioned in this post’s title…
An argument I had this week made me first plan to write a post on that topic today, but that’d have been very difficult even if I’d be in a good mood for a change, because I can’t say that I’ve ever thought about the point I was making in that manner before and it certainly isn’t a point that I’d normally be trying to make. It was simply a matter of seeing a now-former friend post a link, throwing something entirely hypothetical her way, largely just to start a conversation, exchanging a few messages that seemed to be quite nice, and then finding myself accused of blaming the victim though I was talking about something entirely different. Then she and the two friends who had joined in appeared to get too angry to even notice my explanation, dug in their heels and even started throwing insults, so I dug in mine even harder and fought back, the difference being that they were growing increasingly angrier and frustrated while I was just midly amused by the whole thing, as it always happens when somebody gets angry in a debate.
Either way, the start of that argument actually made me feel quite energized, as the moment those friends of hers stepped in I felt some of my old “bloodlust” return. Then, by the next evening, some “combat fatigue” had set in as a result of arguing with a friend, particularly under such circumstances, but it was perfectly obvious by then that this could have no other conclusion, so I recovered somewhat and just went through the motions until the end, when the insults started piling up and I gave up toying with it and replied in kind. That resulted in me being blocked right away, but I’ll add it to the growing list of blocks and bans which I could even consider badges of honor, as they resulted from trying to debate with people who obviously can’t handle such a thing and angering those who can’t tolerate rational arguments when they clash with what they believe to be true.
Otherwise, felt quite ill for about a day and a half or so, after something probably entered my bloodstream when I bled at some point, but eventually the fever broke and I managed to get some good sleep, waking up drenched in cold sweat but otherwise quite fine, so I guess my body took care of whatever it was, though I imagine that the fact that the heat wave finally ended had something to do with me recovering when I did as well.
Actually, meant to go for a longer walk today, to take advantage of the cool weather, but it rained for a while and I was feeling around rock bottom again, so I just went out very briefly, just to say that I did go out this week as well, and then came back… And can’t say that I’ve done anything since, unless you consider getting utterly trashed in Battle for Wesnoth yet again, to the point that I truly can’t find any possible solution to continue in that campaign anymore, as doing something.
As for my story… For the first time in a very long time, I even fell behind on my own plan of at least putting something in there, regardless of how bad it is, so that’s not going anywhere either… Then again, nothing is.
As anyone who’s interested would already know by now, Curiosity has successfully landed on Mars. What’s more, during those first few minutes after touchdown, when it could use Mars Odyssey to relay the data to Earth, it has even sent a couple of small pictures (first, second), showing its shadow and the terrain just around itself and causing all NASA sites that carried any information about it to promptly crash under the strain of the generated traffic. More data should be coming around this time, as the Odyssey will make another pass over it.
The mission itself will take a long time to actually get going, because it’s meant to last for at least about two Earth years but all systems have been designed and successfully tested to function for at least three times that long and the power supply should last for well over a decade. Of course, that doesn’t sound like quite so much when you factor in the fact that Opportunity has been functioning for over eight and a half years, but its primary mission was only supposed to last for about three months, so the results started coming in very quickly because they had to collect as much data as they could while they were reasonably certain that there won’t be any problems.
In fact, what I saw in the press conference just now was that they have a very long checklist that they’ll need to go through in order to ensure the health of such a complex rover and for the next few weeks we’ll probably be getting nothing but the results of tests, which may even stretch on for the next few months, and the base of the target mountain will probably only be reached after about a year. Still, even those test results may mean something, as in order to test the systems they’ll have to be analyzing something, so let’s see what happens… And let’s hope that the nuclear generator Curiosity carries won’t end up damaging another planet as well, because I’m still very uneasy about using something like that and would have really wanted them to find another solution.
Yesterday was scheduled something which was supposed to be somewhere between a protest and a public debate, the debate part being that which interested me, because the “hardcore” group which generally gather at the Fountain in University Square had announced that they were going to present their proposed solutions and also ask any other participants to add their own to the list as well instead of doing nothing but saying who and what they don’t want. So, seeing as I’ve been asking all protesters to come up with solutions all along, I wrote down an overview of the electoral reform I have in mind, which would be my primary request from the current politicians and also my main requirement before I could see any calls for resignation, impeachment and so on as being able to solve anything, and went, wondering if anything will come out of it. Unfortunately, as it could have been somewhat expected, nothing did, at least not before I left, because the gendarmes weren’t about to allow it.
If I include myself despite wandering around instead of sitting with the rest, ten of us were waiting around the metro station entrance when three gendarmes showed up and asked for identification, which made me become even more edgy and eventually wander off for a while. By the time I returned, the three were gone, but two returned soon after and continued debating with the organizer of the event, apparently quite casually, before said organizer led the rest of us to the location where the event was actually supposed to take place, with the gendarmes in tow but taking their time.
Once there, a few guys took to waving the flag they had brought and unrolling the one large banner they had, which was just a call to discuss and debate, without mentioning any specific issues or names. However, that was obviously too much for the gendarmes, who immediately crossed the street to pester the organizer again. Or, more exactly, those two merely pestered him, but then two others came, along with one of those trucks used for arrests, shouting at the poor guy from some 30 centimeters away through a loudspeaker and saying that we had to clear the area because it was an unauthorized gathering and we were supposedly blocking the road and disturbing the passersby, even though we were just a few people leaning against the fence, some even standing on it and therefore taking up no space whatsoever on the sidewalk, and generally being quiet with the exception of the organizer who kept trying to talk to them, while they were standing right on the bicycle lane and shouting through a loudspeaker.
Still, most of us did scatter a little after what appeared to be a final warning and watched from a few meters away as a few guys were still trying to discuss the matter with the gendarmes, until they decided to give up as well, with the organizer apparently leaving the banner there and leading us away while waving the flag and asking out loud what law will they claim he’ll be breaking next if he’ll simply wander through the city waving the country’s flag. The gendarmes were also still following us as well, but we also seemed to have grown slightly in number, with some five or so people added to the group, at least one being a passerby who had apparently decided to join in for a while after witnessing the gendarmes’ behavior.
But that was pretty much the end of it for me. The group seemed to have split, I tried to keep up with the six who were in front, but soon they noticed that the others appeared to have stopped and stopped as well while I kept going. I meant to get back to them, but was already quite edgy because of the whole situation and one guy had also suggested to the organizer that we should go to some sort of bar or restaurant nearby where a lot of people seemed to be and see if we can gather some more from there, and I was really not keen on that. So I kept going, all the way to the University Square, had a look around there as well, then went all the way back to the original location before giving up completely after failing to spot the group again but spotting a couple of cars belonging to the gendarmerie waiting behind trees, possibly just in order to quickly react in case the group would have tried to return.
Now I’m left with that overview of the electoral reform I have in mind, written down and printed out, so at least I finally did that thanks to this… But it’s not like it was of any use, seeing as I didn’t even show it to anyone while there and feel too edgy to even post it anywhere or send it to any of the organizers now. So, in the end, I more or less just wandered around for a couple of hours on a hot summer day without accomplishing anything… Though you can say that I at least attempted to take part in my first protest, or event, on political and social themes, seeing as I have so far avoided all of these, both because I couldn’t join in when I didn’t see actual solutions being brought forward, or at least none that I could actually support, and because these situations with the gendarmes are a given whenever something like this is announced.
Otherwise, today and for the next two days the temperatures are supposed to approach 40°C in the shade again, possibly even going slightly over that value on Tuesday, so I’ll be watching my computer’s temperatures carefully again, especially since it claimed to have very briefly overheated two or three more times even after I tried to clean it inside… And I’ll see whether I can just go on a couple of hours of sleep and wake up around 8 AM, if not even earlier, tomorrow to follow any announcements regarding Curiosity‘s landing.
Today I should have written something about a conclusion, even if only a temporary one, to our political crisis, seeing as our Constitutional Court was supposed to rule on the validity of the referendum. However, I must limit myself to just a simple update, because the Constitutional Court instead announced that it’ll delay its decision until September 12 due to supposedly receiving conflicting information regarding the total number of voters, requesting updated information regarding the voter lists by August 31. Crin Antonescu will remain interim president until then.
To summarize what happened, on Sunday we had a referendum to impeach our current president, Traian Basescu, after he was suspended by the Parliament, which is currently controlled by his opponents, USL. According to the official results, 87.52% of votes were in favor of impeachment, but the turnout was only 46.24% after Basescu and PDL asked their supporters not to vote. As a result, Basescu should normally return to office regardless of the results of the vote, because the law states that the referendum is only valid if the turnout exceeds 50% of the total number of voters present on the lists.
However, USL and their supporters now claim that the referendum should, in fact, be valid because last year’s census showed that Romania’s population has dropped significantly and therefore the lists are outdated and the required turnout has actually been achieved, and they have sent documentation supporting their claim to the Constitutional Court. Yet, even according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there are no other lists and the only confirmed total number of voters is the one specified before the referendum. It may not accurately reflect the data from the most recent census, but the full results of that are only supposed to be made public in late 2013 or even early 2014, not to mention that the current leaders of USL have been quoted at the time as saying that the census was so poorly organized and there have been so many errors that it could never be used to even determine the number of Romanians left.
Meanwhile, while PDL is asking for the government to resign and for Basescu to be reinstated immediately, some leaders of USL are looking beyond the Constitutional Court’s decision and suggesting that a second referendum should be organized, which I always believed to be a probable scenario in case the turnout won’t be reached, as they’re not going to give up before they gain full control of the country and squash anybody who may stand in their way. At the same time, the Parliament did recently grant itself the right to determine the validity of the referendum and, while prime minister Victor Ponta has stated that he will abide by the Constitutional Court’s ruling, Crin Antonescu has repeatedly stated that the only acceptable outcome is Basescu’s impeachment or resignation, according to the vote of the majority.
Antonescu’s stance is mirrored by many others, be they politicians, activists or regular citizens, with the politicians and many regular citizens saying that Basescu should be impeached regardless of the turnout and the activists and the other regular citizens generally saying that, while the low turnout should rule out impeachment, the only acceptable outcome is his resignation, because the majority should decide. However, all of these seem to forget about the 2009 referendum, when the parties that currently make up USL were calling for a boycott but which was actually valid, having a 50.95% turnout. Then, 72.31% voted in favor of switching to a unicameral Parliament and 83.31%, which actually means over 360000 people more than those who voted in favor of impeachment on Sunday, voted in favor of limiting the number of members of the Parliament to a maximum of 300. However, nobody except PDL and Basescu, who has repeatedly offered his resignation in exchange for modifying the Constitution according to the results of that referendum and also reducing the president’s term back to four years, seems to have much of a problem with completely ignoring that majority…
