Cav's Place

Went to the third protest against ACTA yesterday, but was disappointed by what I found there and eventually left, frozen, a little more than an hour and a half after the start of the protest. Still, it is something for me that I managed to go, not to mention that I also did my best to keep up with the few who were trying to shout and sing, so I did my part and do plan to go again next time, on March 31. Whether I’ll stay or not will depend on how many others show up and what happens, but I’m quite sure that I’ll at least go and have a look.

If you want any details about yesterday, I’ll say that I left just past 4 PM and therefore rushed all the way there, since I thought that I might normally need more than one hour to make it, if I’ll have puddles to go around due to the melting snow. However, I perhaps rushed a little too much, arriving at 4:50, so ten minutes before the announced start time, and finding only three or four others there. As a result, I wandered around for a few more minutes, then sat on a bench and waited until, almost exactly at 5 PM, a few familiar faces arrived, one of them very loudly asking where were all the others and then calling one of the organizers to ask what’s going on.
Things did get somewhat better a bit later, but we peaked at slightly more than 50 people, perhaps 60 at most, around 6 PM, after which the number started dropping, only a little more than 40 being left when I also walked away, slightly past 6:30. Still, while well below the 2000 that attended the first protest and even the 150 that attended the second, 50 or 60 people are still more than the roughly 20 that tended to show up at protests around here before this year, so the worse problem was the lack of involvement, most splitting off in groups of five or so each and simply chatting with each other, few shouting or singing anything. That made it even more awkward for me to be among said few, feeling increasingly out of place as time passed, since saying or doing anything made me stand out so clearly even among what already was a very small group.
In the end, though I was originally thinking of staying until 7 PM, when another protest was supposed to merge with this one, I made my way out almost 30 minutes earlier, as I said, partly because I was too cold and largely because of this lack of involvement. The fact that someone asked me to pick up a sign and stand where I’ll be seen better certainly didn’t help either, and might have been enough to make me leave even without the other issues, but by then I was already getting ready to go and it actually made me stay for a couple of minutes more, so it won’t look like I’m running away immediately after refusing.

If you want some pictures, you have some from the ground and some from above, though I have to specify that there was some mixing of issues even while I was there and, as I already said, another protest was supposed to start in the same place at 7 PM, not to mention the one that’s scheduled to take place there each day after 8 PM, plus that some people from the ongoing protest that takes place across the street from that location were also coming for a “visit” just as I was leaving. As a result, while the pictures taken later may show somewhat more people, they don’t reveal how many people attended this particular protest, but only those of them who stayed among the others.

Yes, I’ve been playing Morrowind again recently. The last save was from May 19, 2008, but I still knew exactly what I was on my way to doing, recalling very clearly that a part of why I gave up on the game at that moment was that I didn’t feel like crossing the map for that particular thing. The other part was that I was fed up with the constant respawns and the fact that, after figuring out exactly what I had to do to level up with full efficiency, I realized that I basically had to choose between that and actually playing the game and I didn’t feel like mindlessly performing repetitive actions for who knows how long.
Well, while I couldn’t tell you exactly why I picked it back up now, especially since I’m currently stuck in five other games and Morrowind was the one I thought I’ll be least likely to pick back up this year, those repetitive actions were, oddly enough, why I kept playing it. They kept me busy while requiring no thinking, allowing me to just use them to sort of suspend any processes inside my mind and therefore delay what clearly seems like another major breakdown until after tomorrow’s protest against ACTA. And now I’m so close to managing that while at the same time almost done with improving my character’s attributes and therefore able to actually restart playing, so it all worked out quite well.
Now I couldn’t tell you what will happen after the protest and the breakdown that is clearly coming and only getting worse because I delayed it for so long, but I’ll probably continue playing it at least for a while. I’m also hoping to get back to writing somewhat more as well, because you see that I haven’t posted anything here in over a week and my story suffered as well, as looking for ways to delay said breakdown meant that I even gave up on the idea of a daily word quota and therefore added even less to it than what little I was pushing myself to add so far.

Yes, this is basically just written because I want to stick to two posts per week and therefore had to post something today, seeing as I certainly won’t be doing anything of the sort tomorrow, considering that I’ll have to put every shred of energy left into attending that protest. I just hope that I’ll somehow manage to stick around there at least for a couple of hours, though the recent negative developments, including one that could be said to be directly related to this, certainly make it even more difficult than it would normally be.
One way or another, you’ll be getting another post on Sunday. If I’ll still be able to, I’ll tell you how the protest went and perhaps go into more detail about my week, but at this point is seems quite likely to simply be a brief note mentioning that I’m having this breakdown that I’m trying to delay until then. Either way, it almost certainly will be a personal post, so I’ll once again need to make up for it by writing two non-personal ones, most preferably next week.

February is over and it’s time for Black March to begin! Let’s show these international corporations that try to spy on and control our behavior in order to preserve a rotten and outdated copyright system that we can live without them, but they can’t continue to exist without us! Let’s show them that the more they try to force their will upon us, the more we will fight back and the worse off they’ll be! Let’s show them that the more money they try to make, the more they’ll actually lose!
Remember: The protest’s aim is to prove to these corporations that we can survive without them, so this is not a simple call not to legally purchase any content that such an international corporation holds the rights to, but one to completely avoid obtaining any such content for the entire month of March. Yes, this means that “pirating” any such content needs to be equally avoided, because this is the only way to show them that we don’t actually need them, so don’t start any file-sharing application unless you’re certain that all the content that will be transferred will be legitimate, don’t visit any “pirate” sites, don’t even watch any copyrighted content on YouTube! Stick to what you already have and wait at least until April to get anything else.

On the other hand, keep in mind that this is not a movement against content creators, and perhaps not even against all distributors, but strictly against those international corporations that try to push through laws like ACTA, SOPA and others like them. So if you have any money to spare this month, if you can afford to do so, you could donate to those who create quality content, be it software, music, books, movies or anything else of the sort, and make it available for free. You could look for and make purchases from authors who make a living by selling their works but at the same time accept that those who can’t afford them or are simply not yet certain enough for a purchase should also be allowed to enjoy them freely. And you could also look for independent content creators who have clearly expressed their opposition to such laws and purchase something from them, perhaps discovering a hidden gem or two while you’re at it.
There is no point in making all pay for the crimes of a few, so keep in mind both parts of this movement. Hurt those who want to hurt us for their own petty interests, but at the same time try to support those who provide enjoyment and entertainment, those who create and share, and still manage to be reasonable about it. See content creators and small, local distributors as being in between us and the large international corporations that are bent on being our enemies, look carefully to figure out which side they support and return the favor, if you are able to do so, to those who are on ours. The only way to win this is if we work together with them, promoting, supporting and defending each other, as an army of Davids against a squad of Goliaths.

Yes, it’s been this long. As of today, assuming that my calculations are correct, I have not only suffered after her longer than the relationship lasted, but more than twice longer. So I’m passing yet another “milestone” that I didn’t think I’ll make it to, that I most likely should never have made it to, and the situation is now not merely no better, but actually worse than before, seeing as she put me on ignore wherever she could as of a few months ago…
But let me check those calculations one more time, in writing this time, just to be sure. Not that a day or two would make much of a difference, but let’s see: If I am to consider the calculations for the previous such “milestone” to be accurate, then I first need to go three years, including one leap year, from December 13, 2008. Since there have been no leap years since then, that in fact means that I’ll have to go three years and a day after that, so not until December 12, but until December 13, 2011. Next, starting from the next day, December 14, I have to add two 31-day months. Since December and January are just that, that gets me right to February 13, 2012. And adding 15 more days on top of that will get me all the way to yesterday, February 28. So yes, if I didn’t somehow get it wrong now as well, as of today, February 29, 2012, I have suffered after her for more than twice longer than our relationship lasted. And it hardly was a short relationship, as you can see…

What’s next? I have no idea… All I know is that I’ll always love her and won’t stop hoping for a miracle, even if this hope is merely the false hope I’m required to create for myself because I couldn’t survive without it and I am, after all, still alive. And I also have to hope for that miracle, instead of either the miracle or death, because I have suffered far, far too long for death to be a welcome conclusion anymore. If I would have died within the first year after she left, or at most within a year and a half, then we’d all have been better off, but I was too much of a coward to kill myself then and afterwards it stopped being a suitable solution, so I wouldn’t even want it anymore.
All of this’d be worth it without as much as a second thought if we’ll end up back together someday and spend the rest of our lives, but no less time than we spent apart, together after that, both of us being fully content with our relationship and in good health. Actually being truly happy with how things are going would be even better, of course, but simply being content, as in not having any significant reasons to feel unhappy with our relationship or with each other, would be quite enough for me. And since the only thing I couldn’t accept even for her would be to have children around, considering my views regarding ovepopulation, this means that I have to keep hoping that she isn’t and won’t be involved with any, and particularly that she won’t have any herself. As long as this is the case, I’m at least left with that theoretical chance that I need to hold on to simply because I’m still alive, because I couldn’t survive without this hope.

At first I didn’t mean to mention this here, since it’s an entirely different issue, but I’m going to edit the post and add it too. I’m talking about the fact that I spent a good part of the day, or more exactly a good six hours, working on a reply that ended up having some 3750 words but may not matter in the least, and I can quite clearly say that I had yet another reason to feel particularly bad. But, of course, ending up sorely disappointed is exactly what happens when I somehow fail to expect the worst every single time.
My fault, of course, for allowing the good first impression and my resulting hopes to get the better of me and somehow fail to see it coming. I mean, why would it matter that she also admitted that the “moral” and “ethical” measures couldn’t be sufficient to solve the overpopulation problem in time? My views are obviously infuriating, frightening and appalling, I deserve to be locked up for them and the world would be better off without me and those like me. Which is, of course, the typical reaction, even from those who claim to also be worried about or even trying to solve this issue, but I somehow failed to expect it this time.
So this would be the other reason to be particularly unhappy today, after having my hopes of finally finding someone around here who doesn’t only seem pretty nice overall but is actually able to think strictly rationally about this issue and see what needs to be done about it dashed so thoroughly. And what made it even worse was that, after adding the fact that we seemed to very much agree on the importance of the issue to what had been a pretty good first impression, I was even starting to allow myself to hope that I had unbelievably stumbled upon a potential “real life” friend, quite a few years after the last time I thought this about someone and a full decade after I last had such a person in my life, even if very briefly.
But I guess I now simply need to make sure that I won’t be caught unprepared yet again, starting by making sure that I won’t allow myself to hope that we’ll somehow work this out, despite taking all that time to write that reply. Past this, my level of confidence in humankind’s ability to solve the worst problems it itself creates is already back to its normal value, namely only very marginally above zero, and the fight goes on, for this and any other truly worthy causes. And a translation of a good part of that e-mail should be turned into a post, perhaps as early as next week, so it wasn’t all for nothing even if nothing will be left of it otherwise.
(In case the person I’m talking about stopped by again and is reading this, well, there you have it. Just being perfectly open and honest, as always. And I did try to leave out any potentially identifying information.)

I’m writing this post after participating in the second scheduled protest against ACTA, which was attended by roughly 150 people, though over 3000 said on Facebook that they were going. In itself, the ratio was exactly the expected one, as two weeks ago some 40000 said that they’ll go to the first protest and only about actually 2000 did, but this serves to once more highlight a problem that already was obvious when it comes to protests organized through such social networks, at least over here.
Don’t get me wrong; nobody can deny the benefits of on-line social networking when it comes to protests, especially considering the key role such sites have played, and may still play, in the movements that took over the Arab world. However, while they do a wonderful job of spreading the word and facilitating communication, they also offer a way for people to express their grievances and vent that can replace actual protests in the eyes of those who aren’t exactly dedicated to the cause and are looking for the easiest way to apparently participate. As a result, a number of people who may otherwise have taken part in street protests will no longer do so and the discrepancy between the apparent number of participants on-line and the reality on the street is likely to discourage even more, plus that it will give the protests a bad image that will readily be exploited by opponents.

When you try to organize a protest by creating an event on Facebook or in any other similar manner, particularly when it will take place in an area that’s hardly known for the locals’ willingness to take part in such actions, you should know that you’re leaving the door wide open for a huge number of people who are unable or, more often than not, unwilling to understand how something like this is supposed to work. As such, they’ll either treat the event itself as something very similar to a petition or think that by selecting “going” they’re essentially just giving a “like”, either way considering that clicking to say that they’ll be going while sitting comfortably in front of their computers is a sufficient action to take. As I already said, some of those who are looking for the easiest way out may even consider this to replace actually participating in the protest, so they won’t go anymore even if they might have at least showed up for a few minutes if this option wouldn’t have been available.
What this does is artificially inflate the apparent number of participants and generate expectations that could never be matched by reality. On the one hand, this disheartens those who do end up going to the specified location, making some turn back, causing many others to manifest themselves in a significantly more subdued manner than what they would otherwise have been capable of, and almost certainly reducing the potential number of participants for the next protest on the same issue. On the other, in addition to making the media lose interest and give less or even no attention to any future protests on the same theme, it also allows opponents to easily say that the protest lacks real support and the entire movement behind it, if there is one, is based more on the “cool” factor than on real grievances.

Of course, seeing as people first need to know about a protest before they can attend it and on-line social networking is usually way better than anything else at spreading the word about such events, not to mention that such pages also allow people to quickly and easily exchange ideas and opinions, it’s quite true that the pros still far outweigh the cons. However, we need to keep in mind that there are some inherent problems with this approach and take measures in order to mitigate them as much as possible, and those measures may well include working with the sites that offer such services in order to make some changes aimed at reducing this discrepancy.
It shouldn’t take long to clearly spell out even before providing any further information that the event in question is not a petition or a call for virtual support, but is in fact created for an actual protest and only those who know that they will actually take part in it, in the specified location and at the specified time, should pick the option saying that they’re going. And it also shouldn’t be much of a problem for the sites that allow such events to be created, and of course I’m mainly referring to Facebook now, to add some options for those who want to express support despite knowing that they won’t actually attend, and preferably also give event creators the option of stating very clearly and visibly whether their event takes place on-line or off-line and possibly also include an optional warning for those who say that they’re going to off-line events.

The above are only some simple observations and suggestions, of course, and I’m sure that, on the one hand, other ideas could perhaps be even more useful and, on the other, most of the problem has to do strictly with the people who say that they’ll attend and then fail to show up and not with the organizers or the sites used. However, we need to do something to mitigate these issues as soon as possible and I’m quite sure that these simple measures would be a very good place to start. After we’ll implement them, we’ll be able to observe their effects and determine what, if anything, should be done next.
True, we’ll never be able to completely eliminate this discrepancy or its disheartening effect, but it’s simply a question of figuring out how to maximize the benefits and minimize the drawbacks of what is quite clearly a very good method of spreading the word about and even organizing such events. It’d certainly be a bad idea to start shunning such sites due to these inherent issues, but we need to keep them in mind and act accordingly… And hope that, in time, people will learn to lie just a little less…