Cav's Place

Whether it’s because recent developments threaten to worsen the problem even more, because the situation is already dreadful and we need to find a real solution immediately or because there have actually been some positive developments recently and we shouldn’t waste the momentum, there is every reason to believe that 2010 will be a crucial year for a number of causes. It’ll likely be a crucial year for many more issues than I’ll list here, but I can only write about those that are important to me…

While this may surprise some, I think the most important battles of 2010 will be fought on the “piracy” and file-sharing front. Recent negative developments underline the need for immediate action, while the rise of Pirate Parties everywhere can create a powerful and organized movement for just this purpose, especially since the Swedish Pirate Party is now represented in the European Parliament.
The distributors are out for blood, in a final effort to stamp out those who would reduce the huge amounts of money they make off others’ work or perhaps even get rid of them completely by promoting direct contact between the content creators and the consumers. That wouldn’t be so bad if governments wouldn’t be so easy to buy, but since a good bribe or, as the case may be, a believable threat is usually enough to ensure the laws they desire will be adopted, we have a big problem on our hands and very little time to solve it, considering the strength of the enemy.

Despite the unsurprising failure of the Copenhagen Summit, it did provide a certain momentum for environmental issues, especially since many organizations managed, either separately or by working together, to make themselves heard quite loudly. These organizations learned and improved during the Summit, while others can learn from their experience, resulting in more powerful, better organized and ultimately much more effective campaigns in the future. But we need to take advantage of this moment, before any lessons are forgotten and, more importantly, before actual decisions are taken at the highest levels, so we won’t need to fight an even tougher battle in order to change them later.
2010 will also be an important year for environmental issues simply because we’re really out of time. You could say that there’s no way for the things that need to happen to actually happen in due time anymore, but we can still try to reduce the damage and therefore make it somewhat easier to repair later, once we’ll finally convince ourselves that we really need to roll up our sleeves and fix everything humanity has ruined ever since it started relying on the exploitation and destruction of Nature for its own benefit. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll realize that fact while there’ll still be anything left to save… And anyone left to try to save it…

On a related note, 2010 will also be an important year for animal rights, as there are many issues related to this topic that require immediate attention and a number of important decisions regarding some of them will apparently be reached this year. That means that our first duty is to pressure the decision makers in order to ensure that the new laws and regulations will be written with the best interests of the animals in mind, as opposed to those of certain corporations or even humans as a whole, and then we’ll have to keep monitoring the outcome because otherwise it’s unlikely that such laws and regulations would amount to anything more than words on a page. Animals can’t sue, after all, so people find it easy to mistreat them without fear of retribution.

Important battles of the “Privacy War” will also be fought this year, because governments tighten their control more and more. Often, terrorism is used as an excuse for these actions, but I have to wonder when will they feel secure enough of their grip on the people to give up even on this excuse, because the truth is that a skilled terrorist who truly desires to cause harm will find a way past everything any government could ever attempt, so these measures serve to hinder and ultimately control the general public much more than to provide any concept of security.
A particularly worrying trend is the widespread use of RFID, which, if anything, is more of a security risk than a safety measure, at least for the person in question, because any RFID device can theoretically be read by anyone who has managed to purchase, manufacture or steal a suitable device without the need to steal from or even touch the victim, therefore dramatically increasing the risk of identity theft. But, of course, it’s not the security of the people that the governments care about, but their ability to track and control them.

Last but not least, 2010 could also be an important year for those who fight against discrimination of any kind, and perhaps even more so for those who fight for LGBT rights and cohabiters’ rights. A string of encouraging developments regarding these issues in general, and gay marriage especially, has been observed towards the end of 2009, which means that a certain momentum exists and it shouldn’t be wasted.
Of course, it’s equally true that certain negative developments have also been observed and therefore immediate action is necessary in order to counteract them, meaning that a very carefully balanced agenda is in order.

This list only means to outline a few key areas where important changes are required and also can be brought about by the end of this year. As always, it’s far from exhaustive, even from my own perspective. For example, I really wish I could have included something about overpopulation, since for me it’s by far the most important issue, but I doubt 2010 will bring any significant developments in this area, seeing as the vast majority of people simply refuse to understand that it is indeed a problem, or at least refuse to see that it’s a global problem, making it theirs as much as anyone else’s.

I never cared for these “New Year’s resolutions”, but I do make plans and usually stick to them, so I thought I’d list what I plan to do in 2010. You’ll find that my list is made up of very simple things and that none of them could be considered achievements by the vast majority people, but I know my interests, my limits and the situation I’m in. I will list things I know I can do, unlike most other people who usually get carried away with their “resolutions”, saying things that are too ambitious, beyond their abilities or simply go against their personality, which is just why they hardly ever achieve them.
This post will, however, contain two lists. The first one will be made up of goals I’m quite certain I can reach, while the second one will be slightly more ambitious. No list will contain any goals that are too unlikely, but at least a part of the second one will likely be a little beyond my reach, so I’ll acknowledge that by saying that reaching any of the goals on that list is entirely optional.

That said, here’s the first list. In no particular order, what I plan to do in 2010 is:
– Continue to go out at least once per week, as I’ve been doing for over two and a half years.
– Stick to this little daily exercise routine of mine, as I have for the past four years.
– Earn and redeem at least 15000 butterfly credits on Care2, in order to take advantage of their new system and make myself a tiny bit more useful. (If the value of a credit will change significantly, the goal will also be adjusted accordingly.)
– Continue to follow the rules I have set for myself when I started this blog, namely to post something on at least two different days of each week, have the posts filed under Personal and Tests & Surveys make up less than half of the total number of posts at all times and have the Society category contain more than half the number of posts contained by the Personal category at all times.
– Keep backing up my important files monthly, as I started to do after the last HDD failure.
– Continue to have more legally purchased software than “pirated” software installed on my computer at any one moment, as has been the case at least since I bought this computer.
– Read The Blood Knight in January, since I decided to stop after a few pages and wait a while longer after purchasing it, then read at least five more books, none of them translated into Romanian, by the end of the year.
– Finish Planescape: Torment, which I’m currently playing, in January, then play at least five other games by the end of the year, at least one of them having been released in 2008 or later. (By “play” I normally mean “play and finish”, but it will also count if I’ll give up on a game shortly before the end, as I did with Final Fantasy VIII.)
– Submit ratings on MobyGames for all the games already on my “Games Played” list on IGN and continue to submit ratings on both sites for any new additions.
– Fulfill my pledge to Global Population Speak Out by writing at least one blog post about overpopulation and sending messages regarding the movement to at least a few newspapers during the month of February.

And now on to the second list, which you’ll notice consists of additions to the goals listed in the first one. The order is the same as on the first list, to make it easier to follow. What I will attempt to do in 2010, if conditions would be favorable enough and my mood good enough to take advantage of them, is:
– After increasing the difficulty of one of the three types of exercise that make up my little daily routine in 2009, increase the difficulty of at least one of the other two by the end of the year and don’t go back.
– Earn and redeem at least 25000, or even 30000, butterfly credits on Care2. (Again, if the value of a credit will change significantly, the goal will also be adjusted accordingly.)
– Have the number of non-personal posts exceed the number of personal posts, which are those from the “Personal” and “Tests & Surveys” categories, by at least 25 by the end of the year.
– Despite the fact that it’s still a laughable goal compared to how much I was reading while living with Andra, it would be a huge step forward if I could manage to obtain and read at least ten, and preferably at least 12, books, including The Blood Knight.
– Play at least three games released in 2005 or later, at least two of them being released in 2007 or later, but also get rid of at least two of the games kits that are currently on my computer, either by playing them or by deciding that I’ll never want to play them and is therefore pointless to continue keeping them.
– Write reviews on MobyGames, which I could then also copy to IGN and perhaps a few other sites, for at least ten of the games that I have played, at least five of them being for games that I have played in 2009 or earlier.
– Rise noticeably above the level of “armchair activist”, mainly by getting even more involved on-line when it comes to the causes I care about, but also by participating in at least one actual protest regarding an issue that I care about.

These lists are not exhaustive, but they contain what I could think of right now. They do not contain any goals that would also require the full cooperation of others, since that’s out of my hands. As I said, they contain things that the vast majority of people would never consider to be achievements, but they’re my lists…
I could have added a third list, containing my hopes and dreams, but decided against it since those haven’t changed and aren’t going to change, so it’ll serve no real purpose to write them again in this post.

Otherwise, I wish all of you the same things I wish for myself: May all your wishes come true as long as that won’t cause unjustified harm to others or to the world as a whole, and may your worst years be in your past, the one that’s just ending eventually proving to have been worse than any of the ones that’ll follow it.

The story seems to turn harsher, and humans once again play a major part. There seems to be little enough actual action, which makes this book appear to be more like book one of part two of the series than book four of the series, but the supposed cliffhanger at the end most likely is no cliffhanger at all. Truth be told, I finished it quite some time ago and I barely remember anything about the first half of it, so it’s a very important part of the overall story and reveals even more about the characters, but the action is not so memorable in itself.

Rating: 4/5

Yesterday’s mood was reversed by something I happened to stumble upon and actually get today. It’s unlikely to last, but it’s a rather nice feeling for the moment. I think I’d better start from the beginning…

The plan for today was a long walk, going through four or five Christmas fairs, just as something to do… I was going to walk a certain distance in order to be able to get on a bus that’d get me straight to one of those fairs, visit it and then keep walking as I’d go through the rest of them one by one, then take another bus from the last one, get off it when it gets as close to this area as it’s going to get and then walk the rest of the way back. And all of that while wearing boots that are a little too small…
With the traffic being as it is, the bus ride to the first fair turned into two long and awful hours. I could have walked there in that much or likely even slightly less, but that didn’t look like such an appealing prospect, considering the boots. So the bus was hardly moving, but it had a very effective air conditioning system, which meant it was quite hot inside. Since everyone was dressed appropriately for the weather outside, the vast majority were looking at least a little afraid after a while, trying to find enough room to get their coats off, looking for things to wipe the sweat off their faces with and so on. Eventually a woman yelled at the driver to turn it off unless he wants to kill us all, which prompted an older man to say nobody else is bothered by it and mockingly ask whether she was in heat. The woman told the man to ask the others before speaking for them and eventually, since the driver didn’t care about any of this, somebody else opened a window, which made the rest of the trip a little more bearable. Seriously, even I felt like throwing up in there, and my tolerance to heat is quite high.
After eventually arriving at the first fair, I realized there was hardly anything to see there. So I quickly moved on and started walking towards the second. Looked at what was being sold there for a while and eventually moved on, though not before a woman yelled after me to ask if I didn’t want to get something nice for my girlfriend. I’d just want my girlfriend back, thank you very much…
After some more walking, I arrived at the third fair, which was the “Smart Gifts Fair”, organized by a nice bookstore from here. But I either didn’t even get to the “fair” part or didn’t even notice when I did. Either way, that’s not why I was there. The real reason was that I took the opportunity to just look through their English books section. In a way, I was thinking to look for Victory of Eagles; then I was staring at the rather many books by Raymond E. Feist that they had… All of a sudden, I noticed the top half of a cover sticking out from behind a couple of other books that were stacked in front of it. It said Greg Keyes. My first thought was obviously that it couldn’t be what I’m looking for. I’ve never seen any book from The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone over here and besides, even if was from that series, I assumed it’d be the most recently released one, The Born Queen, which is the fourth in the series, so finding it wouldn’t be all that useful for me, since I only read the first two. But I set the books that were in front of it aside and, much to my surprise, I saw The Blood Knight, which is the third one in the series and therefore just the one I was looking for. I let out a quite audible “Hey!” and then grabbed it and looked at the back cover, thinking it’d be too expensive. (It’s not just that books in English usually are very expensive over here, but that bookstore is pretty well known for the atmosphere and their prices do tend to reflect that. So I expected it to cost over 40 lei, perhaps closer to 50, and I’m really unwilling to pay more than 35 lei (at today’s rate, that’d mean $11.85, €8.28 or £7.40) for a book.) But, to continue the surprises, the price tag said 32 lei. So I just grabbed it and rushed to the register before I got time to think about it and get scared. Only been wanting that book for the past three and a half years, after all…
So I bought that book, left the bookstore and canceled the rest of the trip since I didn’t really feel up for much of anything anymore. Despite the fact that I probably could have ended up walking less by picking other options, I was already shaken so I thought the shortest route is the one you know. That made me walk back until I ended up close to the second fair and took a tram from there, since I knew it’d get me closest to here. That tram certainly took its time, so I waited for quite a bit and people obviously ended up packed like sardines inside it for the entire trip. Also, since I didn’t exactly know what cues to look for to know ahead of time when my stop would follow, I just made my way to the door and got off after passing the last place I was certain I had to pass… Which was two stops short of where I actually should have gotten off, which resulted in even more walking.

In all, I was out for just under five hours and therefore walked for slightly under two hours. The public transportation part was really unpleasant and my feet are complaining about the way the boots treated them. Expected a couple of toes to be in a rather bad shape for a while after this and it looks like a few other areas have also been affected besides them. I’ll also need new boots, obviously, but realized these were too small after buying them two years ago and didn’t exactly have any winter since then to need to wear them, so now that we finally seem to be getting a whiff of a proper winter, with a fair amount of snow on the ground, it’s noticeable. But getting this sure means it was worth it!
It would seem that I find myself being able to make purchases much more often lately. Worryingly so actually, at least for me, since it’s been just over a month since the last time I bought something. It’s not just the social anxiety that makes me very uncomfortable with the idea of purchasing things, after all…

Yet another winter solstice passes and once again it saddens me. Though I may delay feeling crushed by the longer days a little this time around, because even I was thinking that it may be getting dark a little too soon since my body decided that 3 PM is a better time to wake up than 2 PM. But I certainly wouldn’t be comfortable with anything more than that extra hour of light, the equivalent of the hour lost by getting out of bed later, so I’m sure I’ll start feeling as crushed by daylight as I usually do as soon as the sun will set at least an hour later than it does right now. And, even until then, I still don’t like the idea of the days getting longer at all…
There’s little to say otherwise, because everything I said last year still stands. Just replace “three years” with “four years” in that post and you’ll get exactly what I’m thinking and feeling right now.
But at least we seem to actually have a winter this time around. There’s a fair amount of snow and it’s quite cold enough for it to settle nicely on the ground, which hasn’t happened in recent years. I don’t know if it will last, but these days do remind me that what once was lost can be regained, even if it’s completely out of your control. That should help whenever I need to once again lie to myself by saying there could still be some hope for me in this life. At least for a little while, as long as the sky will still be black and the ground still white…