Cav's Place

In just a few hours, starting at 10:09 PM GMT, we’ll be able to witness one of the rarest cyclical and predictable astronomical events, namely a transit of Venus. Yes, they come in pairs that are eight years apart, so there was another one in 2004, but these pairs are separated by 105 and a half years and these groups of two pairs are themselves separated by 121 and a half years. As such, the last transit before the 2004 one was back in 1882 and the next one will be in 2117, so you should make the most of this chance because you most probably won’t get another.
If you want to observe the event directly, a map depicting how much of the transit you’ll be able to see depending on your location is available at the bottom of the NASA article I linked to above, but make sure you won’t look at the Sun without properly protecting your eyes, since that can quickly cause serious and likely permanent eye damage. Otherwise, and perhaps preferably, there will be plenty of opportunities to observe the transit safely by looking for one of the on-line or TV broadcasts, such as the ones offered by NASA or Planet Hunters, which will likely provide far better images than you’ll be able to obtain on your own, especially since that way you’ll be able to view any part of the transit you wish, without being limited by the sunrise and sunset times for your location.

Since we’re talking about astronomy, I must take this opportunity to show you one more thing before letting you prepare for the transit, in case you’re interested: The second video in Neil deGrasse Tyson‘s “We Stopped Dreaming” series. It’s an outstanding speech that, despite focusing on the USA and NASA, applies to the entire world, presenting one of the most important reasons why we should keep looking up… And restart dreaming.

Somewhat strangely, I haven’t been following the Roland Garros this year, only glancing over the first round results for singles a couple of days ago. However, last night I went through all the results so far for both singles and doubles and noticed one match that stood out due to its length: Paul-Henri Mathieu defeated John Isner 6-7 (2-7) 6-4 6-4 3-6 18-16 in the fourth longest match in Grand Slam history, lasting five hours and 41 minutes.
Seeing as he entered the history books in 2010, after winning the longest match in the history of tennis, against Nicolas Mahut, at Wimbledon, it sure seems like Isner is becoming the marathon man of tennis, at least when his opponents are French, even if this time he lost. Granted that this match has nothing whatsoever on that one, but it’s obvious that something quite like that will probably never happen again, so we have to leave that one aside and compare what happened now to the other very long matches, in which case it ends up looking quite impressive. For one, it set a new record for most games played in a match at Roland Garros ever since the tie-break has been introduced, so it can claim to be the most tightly contested match of this traditionally very tactical tournament.

But now that the tournament caught my attention this year as well, I’m going to watch what I can. Of course, it’s highly unlikely that a second such match will take place during this year’s competition and in fact, as 2010’s record also proves, they generally take place during the first couple of rounds anyway, but the Roland Garros is the tournament that I generally follow the most anyway. So let’s see what Andreas Seppi will manage against Novak Djokovic now, after surprisingly winning the first two sets.

Edit: He lost. 4-6 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 7-5 6-3 for Djokovic.

It’s been a while since the last time I had nothing written in a week before the weekend, so I should just throw something out here today and then see what I’ll manage to write about tomorrow. If it comes down to it, I did manage to write two non-personal posts last week, so I could get away with two personal ones now. I’d certainly rather not waste last week’s effort so quickly, but the option is there if needed, especially since I heard that there’s a chance that I may be alone tomorrow, in which case I doubt I’ll feel like struggling for several hours to come up with something non-personal to post.

But enough with the introduction. What I should be saying here is that I finally started reading those books. More specifically, I picked up The Born Queen on Monday, saw that it had about 600 pages, thought I’d take it relatively easy and go through about 100 pages per day… And ended up finishing it on Wednesday, though at one point I thought I might even finish it on Tuesday. It was a little hard to get going after not reading any proper books for so long, had to take a break after about 20 pages, then another after about 20 more, but then something clicked into place and I saw just how starved for reading I was.
There’s also a tiny two-paragraph review that I quickly wrote for it as soon as I was done, and if anyone’s interested I wrote similar ones for The Briar King, The Charnel Prince and The Blood Knight as well. As I said there, The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone is one of the very best series I ever read and I highly recommend it to anyone who has any interest in high fantasy, in spite of the various criticisms that all but the first book received.

Still on the topic of books, the book fair is taking place here this week, and I went there yesterday. Didn’t get anything from there, and in fact there was hardly anything that caught my eye in any way, finding myself somewhat more interested in what was being sold in the little traditional foods fair that was taking place outside, on one side of the main alley, but at least I went, unlike last year. However, not getting anything from there doesn’t mean that I didn’t get any new books thanks to it, because that little bookstore that hasn’t been participating in several years is still offering a 20% discount on all titles during the fair and I passed through there on my way back after noticing that something I was curious about was cheaper there even at full price than it was on the Romanian branch of Books Express.
I do have to say that I really don’t like that little bookstore, since it’s so small and cramped and there are usually two people working there in one way or another. In fact, I had never managed to buy anything from there myself so far, only entering a couple of times and quickly becoming too panicked to even be able to look around well, but yesterday that changed and I could even talk to the cashier briefly, seeing as one of the books I was looking for after seeing on their site wasn’t on the shelves and he had to look through the stacks of books they hadn’t yet sorted properly for a copy. Maybe that was in part because I didn’t see two people working there anymore, certainly was also thanks to the fact that there were two other guys there before me and they kept him occupied for a while, so I could browse without feeling watched, but what matters is that I got the two Witcher books that have been translated in English so far, which were the ones I actually went there for, and also The Eternity Artifact, because I happened to notice it there, I do rather like the author‘s work and, at a mere 23 RON after discount, it was surprisingly cheap… And that “surprisingly” became “shockingly” after I checked its price on Books Express afterwards and saw that they’re currently selling it for a staggering 66.75 RON! And no, that’s not for the hardcover edition…
So, to conclude, I haven’t bought any books in a year and a half and now I bought seven in a month. Just read one of them so far, and that only happened this week, but I’ll be going through the rest now as well, since I got myself started. The Eternity Artifact should be next, for a change of scenery and because it shouldn’t be directly related to anything else, and then I’ll see. I still plan to leave A Dance with Dragons last, however.

Otherwise, a worker mowed the weeds behind the fence that’s behind the building here yesterday, which may be a first, as so far there were some people ripping out whatever they could get their hands on around this time of year. Thankfully, and unlike in previous years, this time the bushes and trees seem to have been left alone, the only taller vegetation that was sadly removed being the plants that had coated the fence. This still leaves me looking at a metal fence with barbed wire on top and piles of dead vegetation scattered everywhere behind it instead of a healthy sea of green, but with the taller things left alone for once, it is much less bad than I was expecting. I only hope that they actually plan to leave them be for once and aren’t just taking a break for the weekend and coming back next week to finish the job…

This should be it for now. There would be one more thing to say about how yesterday went, but I’ll leave it out. It was expected to some extent, seeing as I do that whenever I need to interact with others outside, but I feel crappy enough whenever that happens and yesterday it was worse than ever before, so… Yes, this should be more than enough for now.

This is the end of certainly one of the very best series that I ever read. The story is interesting, the pacing is extremely intense, with next to no filler and very, very little that doesn’t actually drive the story forward, and any complaints that may in all fairness be made regarding character development and the huge amount of extremely lucky events that happen to the characters easily get forgotten.
As for the very end… It’s a whirlwind of action, a chain nightmare, a series of fever dreams which has been building up all along and suddenly explodes in your face, leaving you gaping and grasping at it, trying, perhaps in vain, to come to terms with all that’s going on. When it’s all over, all too soon, you’ll probably still be at least somewhat confused and perhaps, as Mery put it, “feel a better kind of sad”.

Rating: 5/5

After a 2010 edition that was absolutely outstanding, sandwiched between two other pretty good ones in 2009 and 2011, I guess it was unfortunately about time for the entries to fall again well below that level, resulting this year in an edition that was rather disappointing. Actually, the first semifinal was dreadful, with few acts that could normally be considered as good enough for something like this, and the second had its fair share of crap as well. Thankfully, though the process was far from perfect as it still allowed a few bad acts to go through while keeping a few decent ones out, much of the obvious crap was in fact weeded out, perhaps also thanks to the fact that they gave up on that terrible idea of allowing people to vote throughout the show, so without even trying to see any of the performances first. That resulted in a final of reasonable quality, though it was still very poor when compared to the last few editions, as I said.
I must also mention that, for the first time in quite a few years, I didn’t listen to the songs before the contest. If for the past few years I already knew everything beforehand, now it was all new for me and there was no more need to try to ignore any previous opinion I might have formed about an act. That probably made it easier to rank in some ways and harder in others, but it certainly made the overall quality of the entries an unpleasant surprise.

During the semifinal, I was raising an eyebrow when our commentators were saying that Sweden was the favorite by far, but the song sort of grew on me after listening to it a few more times afterwards, so when I heard it again in the final I gave it another half a point compared to the semifinal score. Sure, it’s not exactly something to write home about, but when this edition lacked any outstanding entries, coupling a song that grows on you with a pretty good show value is enough for first place, so I have to agree.
Russia was also a deserving second place, though not necessarily based on the performance itself. That was good enough and certainly one of the best overall when compared to the others this year, but it probably wouldn’t have been quite enough for second place without the novelty factor, if I may call it that. With it, I had to put them clearly above anyone else but Sweden, which makes this the first time ever when the first two places matched my first two picks.
Serbia had a reasonably good song, I won’t deny that, but it had nothing to make it stand out and the fact that it wasn’t in English meant that any message it might have had was completely lost on me, so I couldn’t place it any higher than I did. I don’t exactly mind that it was among the top few, but I certainly would have had a few others before it.
This time around, I didn’t like the Azeri entry. I didn’t dislike it either, nothing went wrong and the performance was more solid than that of at least a few of those I put above it in my classification, but the song itself didn’t tell me much of anything, the singer was too fake and there was almost no movement on stage, with the show value relying on those images showing up on her dress, which is a kind of trick that I’m not keen on since it has nothing to do with the actual performers.
As for Albania… Yes, great voice, but that song made my ears bleed, found it absolutely dreadful. It supposedly had a message, but that was certainly all wasted when she sang it in her own language, and adding the utter disregard for any show value meant that I had no other place for it except the last one. How could it end up fifth is quite beyond me.

As far as my ranking system goes, I kept it as last year, so once again allowing half-point marks. The rest of the explanation is in the entry for 2011, so I won’t repeat it here, though I must say that it’s still not properly calibrated and I was still trying to come up with some rules as I went along, largely by comparing songs with previous ones that I had given similar marks to. But it worked out well enough in the end, and I dread to think how hard it’d have been to rank if I’d have continued to use the previous system, considering the lack of any outstanding entries.
Once again, largely for my own use, I’ll add the actual ratings here as well, with the first number after the country name being the overall rating, the second being the rating for the song and the third, added if it’s not neutral, being the personal opinion modifier. Links to all songs are also added because they are now posted on the official channel, so for once they shouldn’t vanish so quickly anymore. The actual ranking is listed between parentheses before the country’s name.

1. (1.) Sweden (6.75, 6.5)
2. (2.) Russia (6.75, 6.5, minus)
3. (20.) Iceland (6.5, 7, plus)
4. (10.) Spain (6.5, 7, minus)
5. (25.) United Kingdom (6.5, 6.5)
6. (12.) Romania (6.5, 6.5)
7. (19.) Ireland (6.5, 6)
8. (6.) Estonia (6.25, 7)
9. (3.) Serbia (6.25, 6.5, minus)
10. (17.) Greece (6.25, 6, plus)
11. (16.) Cyprus (6.25, 6, plus)
12. (21.) Malta (6.25, 6, plus)
13. (22.) France (6.25, 6, minus)
14. (11.) Moldova (6.25, 6, minus)
15. (18.) Bosnia & Herzegovina (6, 6.5, minus)
16. (24.) Hungary (6, 6, plus)
17. (4.) Azerbaijan (6, 6, plus)
18. (13.) Macedonia (6, 6)
19. (23.) Denmark (6, 6)
20. (8.) Germany (6, 6)
21. (15.) Ukraine (6, 5.5, plus)
22. (26.) Norway (6, 5.5)
23. (14.) Lithuania (5.75, 6)
24. (9.) Italy (5.75, 5.5)
25. (7.) Turkey (5.75, 5)
26. (5.) Albania (5.25, 5.5)

I got Russia and Sweden right, was two places off for Estonia and three off for Bosnia & Herzegovina and Moldova. On the other hand, at least ten places off for Albania, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Turkey and United Kingdom. Actually, after being 23 places off for Italy last year, I may need to start making a separate section for entries that I place at least 20 places off, because I had two now, being 20 places off for United Kingdom and 21 off for Albania!
As for the semifinals, my lists had Belgium, Latvia and San Marino instead of Albania, Hungary and Moldova in the first and Belarus, Croatia, Georgia, Portugal and Slovenia instead of Bosnia & Herzegovina, Lithuania, Norway, Turkey and Ukraine in the second. However, I only felt bad for Belgium, Slovenia and, most notably, Portugal, the other five being entries that were largely in the top ten just because there had to be a top ten, not because I actually wanted them to qualify. On the other hand, I didn’t mind the fact that Bosnia & Herzegovina, Hungary and possibly also Moldova did qualify despite being outside my top ten, as you could say that they ended up there due to certain peculiarities of my ranking system.

In the end, let me briefly explain my top ten picks, as I usually do.
As I already said, Sweden’s song does grow on you and that’s enough for first place when coupled with a pretty good show value and the fact that no entries stood out this year. I’m not even sure it’d have been in the top ten in 2010, but this year it was probably the best act overall, yes.
Russia, again as I already said, got a certain amount of sympathy from me thanks to being a group of apparently nice old ladies, which also led to slightly different expectations regarding the quality of the singing. The idea of creating a traditional kitchen scene was also a nice touch, being one of the very few entries with a decent show value.
I really liked Iceland’s song as far as the composition goes, saw it as clearly the best song of the competition from that point of view. However, I couldn’t place it any higher due to the lack of any notable show value, though if it would have had that I probably would have taken a little off the song score instead, because their voices didn’t quite fit the quality of the composition, particularly in the final.
Spain had a great voice and a good song. However, it wasn’t outstanding, it wasn’t in English and nothing happened on stage, the vocalist even appearing alone for the first half of the act, so I certainly couldn’t have placed it any higher.
The United Kingdom had a very solid entry overall. It didn’t stand out in any way, it was below Estonia, Iceland and Spain in terms of the song itself and below Ireland, Russia and Sweden in terms of show value, but it was decent in both categories, which was enough for fifth spot.
About Romania… I might have been a little subjective for once, possibly also because of their problems during the semifinal, which made me need to compensate a little then and probably left me with those ratings fixed in mind for the final as well. It was a solid entry, however, the song was at least decent, it had a little show value as well and there were next to no other entries in the same genre.
Ireland is seventh largely thanks to the show value, as they were among the very few to actually bother with that. The song wasn’t bad, but that’s about it.
Estonia had a good song, certainly one of the very best this year, but the lack of any show value whatsoever hurt it, as did the fact that it was in Estonian, so I couldn’t place it any higher.
As I already said, Serbia had a reasonably good song, but the fact that it wasn’t in English meant that any message that it might have had was entirely lost and the lack of a notable show value hurt it as well. There was something interesting going on there, but it simply wasn’t enough.
As for the Greek entry, in the semifinal I considered it similar but marginally better than Romania’s, but after listening to it again in the final I found myself deducting half a point from the song rating due to certain sounds that I’m really not keen on, which is why it ended up only tenth.