Cav's Place

Some might have expected things to be different today, when Cristina Neagu played the first match after announcing her retirement at the end of the season, especially since she’s still chasing Jovanka Radicevic, who also announced her retirement at the end of the season, when it comes to the most goals scored in the Champions’ League, but they definitely weren’t, and she keeps proving that she’s playing for the team and not chasing records or personal titles. I mean, she didn’t even take any of the penalty shots… But that doesn’t stop the rest of us from noticing that, despite only scoring three goals today, she still reduced the difference, Jovanka scoring just one in Krim’s match.
Of course, a proper way to end her career would be for CSM Bucuresti to obtain a good result in this year’s Champions’ League. Not that it’d make up for the fact that she couldn’t play at the Olympics, Romania having failed to qualify, plus that, at this early stage of the competition, a good result seems even less likely than it was last year, when I was saying that they should have pushed for a good result but didn’t seem capable of it, and indeed stopped in the quarter-finals, losing both matches against Metz. But maybe they’ll somehow produce a pleasant surprise and at least get past that stage, which I’d say would be an achievement to be proud of at the present time.

Since I’m going to mention the new UPS in the post that will include this week’s run, I guess I should write one about buying it and the problems that make me still use the old one first, including everything else from those days as well, as usual. However, seeing as I didn’t even mention getting what should be the next computer’s PSU, I’ll include that in this post as well, and in fact start with it, or more exactly with the early hours of April 19, when I finished cooking around 1:15 AM, then moved what I had made into another pot and scraped what was left on the bottom of the one that I had cooked in, then ate lunch while working on the salad, and then ate dinner between 3:30 AM and 3:50 AM, getting in bed at 5:20 AM. Then, after eating lunch and doing the day’s squats, I left at 4:20 PM, with some recyclables with the deposit symbol.
After quickly checking Carrefour, entering with those recyclables, I picked up one more on the way to Kaufland and put them in the recycling machine from there, and since I needed to pee I went to the toilet and then decided to have a very quick look in the store as well, using a self-checkout to cash in the voucher received for the recyclables before walking out. I was worried that even that took too long, since I was picking up that Seasonic Prime TX-650, which would be the first internal component for the future computer, albeit one that I could also use on this one until then. That’s very high-end, it’s true, and unnecessarily so, but good PSUs with a lower maximum power seem to have just vanished from the market and, after exchanging some messages with Seasonic support, I learned that even that was soon going to be retired. That actually seems to have been the case since then, but at that point I saw that the store that I actually got this computer from, almost nine and a half years ago, had one left in stock, with something of a discount, and while they add a small extra charge if you reserve products on-line, if you go there directly and ask for a product that is in their own stock, you can pick it up with no extra charge. Of course, there is a risk of someone else picking it up or reserving it first, but that didn’t seem particularly likely with this model, so the bigger problem was that they close at 6 PM. But I was there at 5:45 PM and could get the PSU, walking out ten minutes later, with it in the backpack.
After picking up two more recyclables with the deposit symbol, I went to Auchan, entering with everything and getting cat food and some expiring caramelized walnuts… And, after waiting in line for a while, I realized that I had forgotten about the water for dad, so I rushed back and grabbed that as well. Then, after I was done scanning and was trying to pick everything back up, a woman asked whether I needed help and picked up a water bottle, supposedly to hand it to me, but I couldn’t grab it while she held it the way she was, so I had to ask her to leave it. But I eventually managed to get everything, and then I arranged the purchases and walked out… And, after crossing the street, I ended up sort of walking back and forth for a little while, trying to decide what to do next.
I eventually decided to get back and drop everything off before continuing in the other direction, and I was back that first time a little after 7:50 PM, with about 14 kg, and it took me over ten minutes to leave again, after dropping off the purchases and peeing again. Then I went to this other Carrefour, putting the three recyclables with the deposit symbol which I had picked up on the way in a cabinet and finding an apple pastry and a bread among the discounted products, and if I’d have bought both I could have used the voucher received for previous purchases that I had to use by the end of the week. But at that point I hid them and walked out, retrieving those recyclables… But then deciding to get the pastry after all. That meant that I couldn’t use that voucher, but I could put four of the five recyclables in the recycling machine and use the one received for them, so I used the recycling machine, went back into the store with the last recyclable, took the pastry, put the bread back in its place… But the self-checkout didn’t recognize the voucher, and when I called over the employee and said that I had just gotten it two minutes earlier, she said that it takes a while for those vouchers to be added in the system, so after she tried to scan it as well she said that I could walk around the store a little and then return, but after I also tried one more time, I just paid with cash and left the voucher for another time.
After putting the pastry in a bag and in the backpack, I entered Kaufland with it, and with the remaining recyclable, and got some discounted bakery products, but when I scanned the label for the regular bread I saw that it had no evening discount, so I looked around and took a lettuce with root that was discounted… But then I went back and took one regular bread for dad anyway. And that was when big evening discounts for green onions and lettuce were announced, so I went there, but in the time it took me to walk that distance, others had already taken nearly all of the green onions, and I saw really good bundles in their carts, while just a few bad ones were left. But I still got two of those, and then also two lettuces, plus one with root of another kind, which also had a good evening discount, so I left the first one which I had picked up there, since it was more expensive, even if there actually were two of them put together. Either way, I also got some peppers for dad, then went to the self-checkout, which didn’t recognize the green onions as the correct product, so I had to call over an employee. But, even if it didn’t scan, I didn’t need to call him again in order to use the 10 RON voucher which I had just been given that day as an apology for the fact that the 10% discount hadn’t applied for some sardines which I had purchased five days earlier, since I could enter the code manually and it was accepted. And then I took my time to arrange the purchases, hearing the closing announcement while I did that.
I picked up one more recyclable with the deposit symbol on the way to that Mega Image, but the recycling machine didn’t work, so I just put the bag with the vegetables in a cabinet, entering with everything else… And seeing that the bakery products that had evening discounts weren’t bagged and labeled separately anymore, and while there was a sign stating that they were discounted by 50%, the discount didn’t seem to apply to all of them and people kept arguing about those that weren’t discounted, obviously. But I found some nice pasta that was discounted by 90% and took two, and I asked the cashier whether I could use the recyclables instead of 1 RON, but she told me to use the recycling machine, and when I pointed out that it didn’t work she told me to come another day, even if the sign on the machine asked people to hand the recyclables to the employees if it didn’t work. But I didn’t press, just paying in full, then putting the pasta in the backpack and retrieving what I had in the cabinet.
I got back a couple of minutes after 11 PM, put that pasta in the fridge, ate an apple, and went to the bathroom, to use the toilet and shower, just after 11:30 PM. I was done just before 12:15 AM, then talked to dad… And he annoyed me by throwing away a little of what he was eating, including most of the hot sauce from his sister, after supposedly forgetting how spicy it is and just pouring straight from the bottle, so instead of that sauce lasting for who knows how long, he used most of it and then threw it away, along with some of the food, because he couldn’t eat it anymore. Either way, I then ate the apple pastry and a bag of snacks, had greasy things that dad had used to wash, sliced his bread and dealt with mine, and used the worse lettuce leaves and onion tops for the salad… And I cut myself while slicing my bread, right before finishing. So I ended up eating dinner between 4:40 AM and 5:30 AM. But I was staying up anyway, to watch the sprint race, so I got in bed at 7 AM…

I ended up waking up while the qualifying was red flagged, so I stayed to watch until the end, and then I couldn’t quite get back to sleep, so I drifted in and out for a couple of hours, getting some brief naps, before getting up. And I still had that Carrefour voucher that I needed to use, and the 30% discount on all canned products from Kaufland that I also wanted to make some use of for myself, so I was going out again, but when I went out of my room I found dad awake, and with the computer on and connected, and when I asked when had he turned it on he said just moments before, but I checked the logs and it had been over half an hour! And of course it was my fault for not going there and unplugging his network cable when I got on, he even literally said that he was “blameless”, and when I told him that he could have unplugged my cable from the router if he supposedly couldn’t know whether I was awake, even though I had made my tea and left it and the window open in the kitchen, he said that each should care for himself, because that’s “fair”, supposedly! So I pretty much flew in a rage before going out, a little after 3:30 PM, and even forgot to take those two recyclables with the deposit symbol which I hadn’t been able to put in a machine the previous evening. I realized it after walking out of the building, but I didn’t return.
Either way, I had dad’s metro card, but I first went to Carrefour Mega Mall once again, picking up a can with the deposit symbol on the way and putting it in the recycling machine, then using that voucher and the one received the previous day, both of which worked that time, for two discounted sweet pastries. The woman who was ahead of me at the self-checkout couldn’t get a product to scan, so I pointed out that the bar code wasn’t straight but she could enter the code manually and, after saying that it was the first time she used a machine, she tried that, but then the message than an operator will soon come appeared and she said that she was going to give up and go to a manned checkout, which she did, but the employee obviously still had to clear the transaction before I could use the machine. Either way, I could have found something else to add and use that voucher received for previous purchases instead of those received for the recyclables, but I chose to continue to Obor and see whether I’ll find something better there, so I put the pastries in the backpack and walked there.
I found three more recyclables with the deposit symbol on the way and put them in a cabinet, but I entered with the backpack. And I did find expiring products to get, so I could also use that voucher, and then I retrieved the recyclables and, after having a quick look in another store, I put them in the recycling machine at Kaufland before entering the store with everything, getting a few things, and taking pictures of some prices, in case dad would be interested. And I also used that voucher received for the recyclables, and as I was arranging the purchases a man asked me how to use those scales that are there, since he apparently hadn’t weighed his potatoes.
After taking my time to get everything in the backpack, I put it in a cabinet when I had a quick look in Penny, though I then just retrieved it and continued to Auchan, grabbing two more recyclables with the deposit symbol and then entering with everything, using the recycling machine, and getting more cat food and water for dad, beeping him at one point to ask about another thing, but he didn’t want it. And at the self-checkout, after using the small amount that was on the store card, a warning with no message appeared when I tried to also use the voucher received for the recyclables, so I had to call an employee and she sorted it out. Then I also arranged the new purchases and took the metro back, picking up three more recyclables with the deposit symbol as I was getting close to the building.
I got here a couple of minutes after 8 PM, ate an orange and a sweet pastry, took a pill, just in case, put most of the purchases in their place, took a relatively quick shower, then also ate a small bag of bagels, wrote the week’s first post, and at night I fixed something to count as a combined lunch and dinner, in three parts, eating one part and a couple of bites of the second, along with a little lettuce and a clove of garlic, so let’s call that lunch, while working on the rest, then finally eating the rest, so let’s call that dinner, in my room, between 4:15 AM and 5:15 AM. It was past 5:50 AM when I got in bed, after dad got back… And after waking up at 9:55 AM, to watch the race, I tested the new PSU, on the old computer, then managed to take just a brief nap before being woken up by noise, though I’m not sure if that was Liza going to the litter box or dad getting ready to leave… And that’s it as far as the new PSU goes, since I didn’t dare to put it in this computer, so it’s been sitting on the floor ever since. But at least I managed to buy it before it vanished from the market, and the 12-year warranty means that getting it too early doesn’t matter that much.

To move on to the new UPS, I need to skip to the early hours of June 18, when I ate dinner between 3:10 AM and 3:50 AM, though the last several minutes were spent just getting the seeds which were stuck on the plate, and saw that the APC Back-UPS 850, which is what’s listed as the current option for those who have the UPS that I currently have, was discounted at that same store. So I went out a little after 5 PM, getting there 35 minutes later, getting the UPS, then opening the box and having a quick look, without actually taking the UPS out of the box. I then tried to put the box in the backpack, but it was far too large, so I put it in a bag and walked out. However, it was rather hard to carry like that, and when I spotted a bottle with the deposit symbol I stopped and put the box in the backpack anyway… Which meant that I couldn’t zip the backpack, and after placing it on that trash can in order to try to put it on, I only managed to get one strap on and then tried to walk away and deal with the other strap while walking… Which led to the UPS falling out, though I realized that it was going to fall and bent down before it actually happened, so it just fell from a small height and it was in the box. But I still put it back in the backpack after that, though I carried the backpack in my hands for a little while, until I found something better to set it on and finally managed to put it on. But the box was just going to fall out again if I didn’t hold on to it, so for a little while I walked while holding the backpack with one hand, and in the other hand I had that bottle. And that was obviously not a solution, so I eventually set the backpack back down and returned to carrying the bag with the UPS in one hand.
After picking up another bottle with the deposit symbol, I put both in the recycling machine from Kaufland, then I entered with the UPS, had a quick look at the spoiling products, found just one box of the kind of mushrooms that I wanted and took it. And I also saw one little bag of garlic, but when I peeled off the discount sticker in order to try to find the country of origin, I saw that the real label was completely blank, and when I found where those little bags of garlic where otherwise placed I saw that many were like that, making me wonder how were people supposed to buy them. However, some did have proper labels and the country of origin was listed as Romania, so I took that discounted one, also using that voucher received for the recyclables at the self-checkout and then cashing in the one left from three days earlier. And then I put the purchases in the backpack and made my way back.
It was almost 7:10 PM when I got back. Then I put those few purchases in their place, quickly tested that the new UPS provided power, plugging a hand mixer into it, ate another apple and something sweet from my mother, and left again just before 9 PM, taking the recyclables, which I dropped off in a recycling bin on the way, and those with the deposit symbol. And I picked up a few more of those on the way to Carrefour, and then some more that were around the recycling machine. But I used a machine that apparently only accepted plastic bottles, and others were aware of that and queuing at the other one that also accepted cans, neither accepting glass bottles. But that other one was used by a guy who had a whole lot of recyclables, so I just used that one for most of the plastic bottles, even a couple of those not being accepted, splitting on two vouchers, and then I moved aside, grabbed some more recyclables that were in that area and went up, washing my hands, putting the bag with the remaining recyclables in a cabinet, and getting some ends of bread and a carton of bio (organic) eggs that were among the expiring products and some cucumbers. However, when I tried to scan the bread at the self-checkout, a message that an operator will come appeared, and while one was next to me, waiting to turn off that machine since closing time was approaching, and she logged on, she couldn’t sort it out, the product code apparently being invalid, so I just left the bread even if it’d have been nice to get it. And then I put the purchases in a bag, retrieved the recyclables from the cabinet, and walked away just as they were announcing that the store had closed.
That meant that the Portugal – Czechia match had started, so in order to lose less of it I decided to go to the place where people could watch the matches in the park, and from the top of the first trash can from there I gathered several more recyclables with the deposit symbol, adding another can in the bag as I tried to find a spot to stand in, and as half time approached I went back to that trash can and gathered some more recyclables with the deposit symbol from it. And, after leaving at half time, I grabbed a couple more on the way back.
I managed to get back here before the second half started, though I then went to drop a little bag of trash down the chute. Then I cleaned a little after dad in the kitchen, put the eggs in their place, ate a can of sardines with an entire large bag of corn puffs, to count as lunch, went to wash a little before 12:30 AM, and was done at 1:10 AM. However, I then cut all of my nails, then washed and cleaned some more in the kitchen, also put the cucumbers in their place, and finally ate dinner between 3:30 AM and 4:10 AM. I got in bed at 5:25 AM.

And, since I didn’t want to turn off the computer if I didn’t have to and therefore left the new UPS unused until then, I’ll now skip to July 17, though I’ll start with the day’s early hours, when I went to the kitchen somewhat late, after shaving, and then had plenty to wash, also dealt with the two breads which I had bought for myself and was yet to deal with, used some more lettuce in the salad, and made the tea as well, so I won’t have to wait for it to cool after getting up, ending up eating dinner between 3:30 AM and 4 AM. And minutes after I got up and did the day’s squats, there was a power failure, and the plan had been to replace both the UPS and the PSU and clean some of the dust from the computer at such a time, and possibly even install Linux again, though I didn’t mean to actually make another attempt to use it just yet, but that day I couldn’t do any of that, needing to return The Bone Season, which I hadn’t even finished yet, and I’d have also preferred to write the quick review before leaving. So it was fortunate that the blackout only lasted for eight minutes and I could just keep the computer on. But I was making a note of the fact that during those particularly hot days I was having the impression that even the new mouse had started double clicking, though it never happened when I tried to test it. Either way, after finishing the book and having breakfast, I did write the quick review, then also had lunch, and left at 5:35 PM, with that book and the other one that I also had to return, two cans that I dropped off when I eventually passed by a recycling bin, and also a reusable bottle full of tea, since it was still close to 40°C, the day’s reported high having been 42°C.
I reached the Library after just over one hour, picking up a bottle with the deposit symbol on the way, then I used the machine to return the books and walked out right away, drinking a part of the tea right in front of the Library, before walking out the gate. Then I went to Obor, grabbing another bottle with the deposit symbol on the way and eventually wanting to wipe my hands on some leaves only to pick a plant that I guess was quite prickly, since it pricked one of my fingers. I was rather worried at first, wondering whether that had really been the plant or something else which had been among its leaves, and I briefly considered going back to look, but I eventually just kept going.
I first went to Auchan, deciding against using the recycling machine when I saw the line but finding many bio (organic) eggs that weren’t even expiring soon among those sold by piece, so I got plenty of those along with the liquid soap that I had gone there for, but when I wanted to enter the eggs at the self-checkout machine I guess that I got a little confused between the two options to select the number and an employee was hovering around and she corrected me, then asked how I wanted to pay and her presence and that interaction was messing me up and I said cash before remembering that I still had an older voucher received for recyclables and telling her that, and a blank warning popped up after she changed the payment method and I tried to scan that voucher, which was actually the same thing that happened on April 20, so she came over and used the hand scanner, telling me that I should have done that when I asked what had happened. Either way, I then paid what was left with cash, just wanting to get out of there and forgetting that I had a small amount on the store card as well.
After taking my time to arrange everything and make sure that I wasn’t leaving anything behind, I continued to Carrefour, washing my hands in that mall, then putting everything in a cabinet, buying some things, including a bag of corn puffs that I meant to eat on the way back, then retrieving what I had in the cabinet, adding the new purchases, grabbing two more recyclables with the deposit symbol before leaving that mall, and then two more from outside. I actually found three outside, but the second was just crawling with ants and I dropped it when I noticed.
After using the recycling machine from Kaufland, I put everything in a cabinet, washed my hands again, entered the store a few minutes after 9 PM, saw that the bakery discounts were still limited to 30% in that location… And moments later the power failed, and the fact that everything turned back on after a few seconds probably meant that their generators had kicked in. That worried me, and for good reason, as it turned out, but I couldn’t do anything about it at the time, so I got a watermelon and a few other things, let an employee know that someone had left two buckets of yogurt among the non-refrigerated expiring products, then wandered around and waited for 9:45 PM, surprised by the lack of any evening discounts for fruits and vegetables. And the power seemed to go off again, very briefly, just as I was getting to the self-checkouts, though that was probably when it was actually restored and the system switched back to the grid. Either way, I was waiting to use one self-checkout and the customer who was before me seemed to be leaving coins in the tray, but the employee who had gone to do something at the next machine after the previous customer was done apparently finished and told me that it was free to use just before that guy finished grabbing all of his things, so I felt pressured to use that one instead… And then I ended up thinking that my receipt had fallen behind the machine when it actually hadn’t been printed because I had forgotten to also take the bill received as change, the employee pointing that out when I raised my hand.
After retrieving what I had in the cabinet, drinking the remaining tea and arranging everything, I was surprised that there had been no closing announcement, even though that location was still listed as closing at 10 PM on the site and that hour had passed. However, when I walked out, after washing my hands one more time, I saw that the closing time was listed as 11 PM. That might have explained the missing evening discounts for fruits and vegetables, and the situation might have changed after 10 PM, but I didn’t go back in to check, just getting back here, eating those corn puffs on the way.
I got back a couple of minutes before 11 PM, with 15 kg, checked the computer right away and found that it was off, so I just put some of the purchases in the fridge, set the water for another tea to boil, and decided to finally switch to the new UPS, thinking that it shouldn’t take that long. So I did that, everything seemed fine at first, and I definitely liked being able to see the actual power used, which was 78W at first but then increased to 83W and stayed there while I could still see the data, that value being much lower than I thought it’d be. And I confirmed that the power failure which had affected this area had apparently been the same one which I had noticed at Obor, so it must have covered a large part of the city. I didn’t see anything about it in the news, and dad, who worked that night, said that he hadn’t either, but the logs stated that the power had failed at 9:08 PM, the computer turned off without problems at 9:29 PM, and the router had connected again at 9:48 PM, and as far as I know it needs three or four minutes to do that after turning on again, so the times match pretty much perfectly.
Well, things only seemed fine for a few minutes, after which the data connection with the UPS was lost. I also noticed that the low voltage setting was as loose as possible instead of as tight as possible, but I’m not sure whether I saw that before the connection was lost or after, what I know being that when I tried to change it back the software became barely responsive. So I turned off the computer and the UPS, and after turning them back on I could once again see the data, but both of the voltage settings were at the defaults, and then the data connection was lost again, before I tried changing anything else, and just unplugging the cable and plugging it back in didn’t change anything, a message appearing that the USB device had malfunctioned.
Even though, as far as I know, the latest version of the software just uses another version of .NET, otherwise being identical to the previous version, which I had at the time, I then downloaded that new version, also noticing at that point that the software itself is being discontinued, but the new software requires at least 64-bit Windows 10, so I won’t be able to use it at all. Not that it should matter, since this model of UPS has been around for quite some time and shouldn’t require some new software, and in the manual it’s the old software that’s listed, the new one not being mentioned at all, but it was something that I could try… But when I wanted to scan the installer, EAM just got stuck, fully using one CPU core without actually doing anything, and I couldn’t even stop the scan. Maybe it was because I closed the browser the moment the download completed and then tried to scan right away, so the file might have still been locked in some way, but the result was that I had to reboot, and then I restarted in safe mode, thinking that it might be needed in order to remove the old software, but the installer service isn’t available in safe mode, so I booted normally again, Comodo Firewall forgetting its HIPS settings again at that point, and then I uninstalled the old version and installed the new one… Which, as expected, didn’t change anything, as it still reported that it wasn’t receiving anything from the new UPS.
I left things like that as I went to the toilet and to shower, I’d say a little before 1 AM, though I’m not sure exactly when, and I think that it was a couple of minutes after 1:30 AM when I came out of the bathroom. Then I switched back to the old UPS and everything was fine, except some gibberish showing up after some actual data in the firmware version field, but I have no idea whether that wasn’t the case before as well. Either way, I was obviously all messed up, whimpering and shaking, and sent dad a scared e-mail, not that he was going to help in any way, and of course he didn’t. But I then managed to put the purchases in their place, ate an apple and two candies, drank the tea… And cut myself while washing the reusable bottle, only noticing it after getting back to my room to check the computer again and being left wondering whether I had left blood on anything, since a fair bit of it was on two fingers, but I didn’t seem to find any. And I finally ate dinner between 4:25 AM and 5 AM, saw that there were no visits that day, and got in bed at 6:20 AM, though sleeping was obviously a problem.

Well, on July 23 I plugged the new UPS into the old computer, which still has Linux Mint 18.0, then turned off the power strip and let it run on battery for quite a while, then turned the power strip back on and left it like that until the battery was fully recharged, a few hours later, and it never lost the connection. Of course, that was without any additional software, it just displayed the battery charge and whether the computer was on battery or not, without any other information, and there was also an awfully long delay, I’d say around a minute or so, between the power being turned off or back on and the notification being displayed, but the fact that the battery level was displayed throughout that time meant that the UPS was sending that information, the connection wasn’t lost, so the problem is not the UPS. And it’s not the computer either, nor the software, since it doesn’t happen with the old UPS… Which I’m still using at this point, since I haven’t really done anything about the issue other than looking it up back then and seeing that others have been having it as well.

This is, of course, another rushed post from this series, written in order to have a second post this week, and this time around it’s really frustrating, because another band that I considered including here is releasing a new song in a few days, and they don’t have others released within the past year, so it’d have been really wrong to just pick some old songs at this point and I had to set them aside for another time. And then I ended up wondering why another band was on the list at all and found my original idea of making a post for bands from Germany that are already on the list and which have released new material within the past year pretty much impossible, so the third band ended up being quite the opposite.

Either way, the one band that I clearly wanted to include here is Lyriel. In fact, I’ve been meaning to include them in one of these posts for many, many years, but they hadn’t released any new material in almost a decade… Until recently, when they released Odyssey of Dreams, so that has to be my first pick. And, while I’m sure that I listened to more of their songs a long time ago, now I made it easy for myself and only listened to the few older songs that also have videos, going with Leverage as the second pick. Now, while Odyssey of Dreams obviously does, I want to see whether, after such a long time between releases, their new material can at least match the level of their old songs overall… And whether they’ll do something about the fact that, at least based on the few that I listened to today, their songs tend to start rather poorly, so you need to wait out the first part, and you should, the very first impression being unlikely to do them any justice.

Next, Sacred Groove is another German band which released some new material recently, The Secret of the Morning Sun being their newest song, which I’ll select as my first pick. They’re not something to write home about, and the vocals definitely need to be better, but what’s somewhat odd is that on at least a few of their older songs they seem to be, and I’m going to give The Other Side as an example, maybe even more so because the sound quality leaves quite a lot to be desired, and yet it’s still significantly better than the new material, at least in my opinion. It may be a matter of focusing on their strengths, in which case I wonder why don’t they do that far more often.

As for the third band, that’s Silent Wings and I was saying that it’s quite the opposite of what should be included in such posts not just because I stumbled into them many, many years ago and they don’t have any new material released in over a decade, but because they also split up over a decade ago, leaving behind all of two songs, Hic et Nunc and Into the Void, so those obviously have to be my two picks. They did record more and were just about to release an EP, but at the last moment they announced that they won’t be able to do so, because one of the band members left and blocked the others from releasing songs that he was involved in. And shortly after that, after releasing those two songs, the band split up, while their vocalist stopped posting covers on her channel later that same year. But those two songs are great, even more so when they seem to come from what was a new band, with members with little experience, so I think that they shouldn’t be forgotten and it’s a real pity that they couldn’t find a way to continue, in some form or another.

Since we’re approaching the end of the US Open, which is the tournament that kept hammering nails into the coffin of Grand Slam tournaments, and of tennis as a whole, as an endurance sport for half a century before the policy was fully enforced at the highest level, and my interest in tennis is still pretty much gone because of it, it may be an appropriate moment to post another idea that goes in the opposite direction of this enforcement of tie-breaks. Because I can’t stand tie-breaks, especially when a player wins a match in one, whether it’s in the final possible set or not.
Of course, if the reason why tie-breaks were introduced was because players were serving better and making it harder to obtain breaks, on the one hand it means that such measures are even now far less necessary in women’s matches, where breaks remain very common. But, either way, a solution would be to implement measures to make it harder to serve that well, for example by raising the net, maybe just at that moment, since I’m sure that technology now allows for the net to be automatically raised when a player gets ready to serve and lowered again the moment the ball passes it. And fewer points being obtained because of serving well would make for more interesting matches anyway.
But, to stick to the scoring system, if the desired outcome was to prevent sets from extending indefinitely, then why not allow them to be tied? If the score in a set gets to 6-6, consider it tied and continue with the next one, and the match ends when one player leads by more sets than the number that are left before the maximum. And that would even apply for the final set, so you could even have a five-set match won by the player who won a single set, even the first one, if all of the others were tied. So the player who actually wins sets by breaking the other’s serve more will win, but the sets won’t be extended… Unless we do get in a situation where the score is tied before the final set and that set gets to 6-6, in which case please, please allow it to continue again until one player obtains a break and the other doesn’t and stop this madness with final set tie-breaks!

I did manage to write the post about the previous two runs last evening, even though I initially posted it with a rough version of its last part, about the rest of August 19, to be able to post all of it before disconnecting, after dad got back, and then I edited that part quite heavily after getting back on-line, at night, but this post, about the long practice run, is initially little more than a placeholder, since I also went out this evening and before midnight I only managed to get as far as the paragraph about the time I lost mainly because of drinking and eating. And it’s another hard post to write anyway, so I posted what I initially did in order to force myself to finish writing it over the coming days. And at least I did manage to edit it in order to add the rest of it Friday evening.

On the evening of August 27, I got back in bed for some two hours, but I was getting up to pee every half an hour even though I hadn’t eaten watermelon that day and hadn’t even drunk all of the tea before then, and I only caught one brief nap before getting up the first time. So I guess that I just rested a little more, before eventually shaving, with cold water, taking out all of my bread from the freezer in order to see just what I still had, keeping one of the two pieces of the best kind for that night and then putting everything else back, and working on the salad, once again ending up being far too slow and eating dinner, with peanut butter on all of the bread, between 3:25 AM and 3:55 AM. But at least I also made a vitamin tea while I was still in the kitchen, which I poured into two reusable bottles after getting up, which was just a few minutes before 4 PM, so it’s a good thing that I had decided to set the alarm to ring at 4 PM instead of 3:30 PM, so I could turn it off after getting up instead of getting woken up by it earlier. Then again, I might have already been awake at 3:30 PM, since I stayed in bed for a while longer before getting up.
Either way, after pouring that tea into the bottles and seeing that it didn’t completely fill the second one, I made the regular tea as well, set aside the second shot and the second bar taken after the Dream Trek, along with the liquid magnesium that was probably from the race kit for this year’s half marathon, so just that second bar was still valid, and ate the Gala apple and the really nice yogurt, with cereals, baked almonds with Himalayan salt and raisins in dark chocolate mixed in, though I didn’t realize that the yogurt had a second protective cover, which had apparently fallen into it, so I put everything on top of it and then had to dig it out, therefore being unable to have a look at the top of the yogurt to see whether any mold started to form or whether anything else seemed off, since it was still valid but I had bought it quite some time before. But it tasted fine, so I ate it, and after going to the toilet I also ate two nicer, but also expired, biscuits, with added honey, took some other supplement, which I had tried two days earlier, since it was too early to start taking the regular ones, and one of those pills against gas, drank a Smecta with some of the new tea, filled the space left in the second bottle with it, and left at 6:50 PM, taking the two bottles and wearing the full running gear, one armband and the running belt, with just the shot in it, since I was mainly taking it in order to put a bottle in there after I’ll empty it, while the bar, the liquid magnesium, the napkins and the slip of paper with the emergency information were in the pocket of my tights. The reported temperature was 28°C, dropping just a little while I ran, since it was 26°C at 11 PM, so it may be said that it pretty much held steady at about 27°C. Since I started before sunset and finished hours after it, that was weird, but that’s what the weather stations reported…
The time was 3:25:45, with lap times of 16:28, 16:53, 17:05, 17:41, 17:54, 19:26, 18:19, 19:07, 20:48, 20:42 and 21:22. So I need to get below 3:10 in order to have any realistic chance of squeezing under four hours at the marathon, have a personal best of 3:18:07 and a second best of 3:23:09, but only managed to be a little faster than the first time I covered this distance, making this only the third out of the four times that count, leaving aside the terrible ones from 2020 and 2023. And squeezing under 3:10 would mean an average lap time of 17:16, so I only covered the first three laps in less than that and after five laps I was about to go over that average, which obviously happened seconds later, considering all of the time lost at the start of lap six. On the other hand, that personal best meant an average lap time that was less than a second over 18 minutes, so I was still over one minute ahead after eight laps, but by that point I already knew that aiming to beat that time was a lost cause, and not just because I lost more than that difference at the start of lap nine, but because I knew that I had no chance of getting anywhere near the times that I managed on the last three laps back then. However, at that point I was still hoping for the second best time, only realizing towards the end of lap ten that I had no chance of managing that either, and over the course of the last lap even being somewhat concerned that I might even fail to beat that first run’s time, since I only remembered that it was 3:26, not the seconds as well, so I had to stay under 3:26 to be certain and I was really struggling… And the fact that I did stay under 3:26 may mean that this wasn’t a complete embarrassment, but it’s clearly a bad time, and a disheartening one…
Since I mentioned the lost time, when I drank at the start of lap four I lost less than 30 seconds, but let’s say that I lost about 30 seconds that lap, since I later realized that I had forgotten the time that I saw at that point and it was too dark to see it properly while still running, and in fact I ended up losing several seconds because of that, since my eyes just wouldn’t focus. Then I lost about a minute at the start of lap five, when I ate that bar, and some two minutes at the start of lap six, most of it because I struggled to close the zipper of the running belt after emptying one bottle of tea and putting it in there. Since I neither ate nor drank at the start of lap seven, I just lost a few seconds, in order to see the time properly, while at the start of laps eight and ten I drank again and lost some 30 seconds because of that. However, at the start of lap nine, when I pulled that shot and the liquid magnesium from the pocket of my tights and drank both of them, I once again lost some two minutes. On the other hand, I didn’t even stop to check the time at the start of lap 11.
Getting back to the beginning, it was clear that 3:10 was out of the question and any attempt would just result in exhausting myself too early, like in 2022, but I looked at the stopwatch a couple of times over the course of the first lap, eventually decided to try to cover it in just under 16:30, and did just that. And then I wanted to stay under 17 minutes on lap two as well, which I also managed without any problem. However, since I tried to pay close attention to how much effort I was making and avoided pushing in pretty much any way, I failed to do the same on lap three. But, despite the lost time, I stayed under 18 minutes not just on lap four, but on lap five as well, and while I did push on lap five in order to manage that and realizing that I had gone over that average lap time that was required for 3:10 at the start of lap six was slightly disheartening despite knowing that I shouldn’t even really think about that, at that point I was still thinking not only of a new personal best, but even of getting under 3:15, which was the best target that I realistically thought of at the beginning.
That didn’t last long, however, only managing to recover a small part of the time lost at the start of lap six despite pushing over the course of it making me realize that none of that was likely anymore, especially since I was starting to tire. And when I went well over 18 minutes on lap seven despite not drinking or eating and the actual running time for lap eight was worse, I realized that the best possible scenario was to average 20 minutes per lap over the last three laps, which would have at least led to a new second best time. So I settled for that, and while all of the time lost at the start of lap nine was a serious problem, the fact that the actual running time was similar to that from lap eight gave me some hope… But lap ten was hard, and when the time was similar to that from lap nine despite losing so much less, it finally became clear that I could only hope for a new third time, and the way I felt even put that in doubt, so I gave everything I had left over the course of the last lap, pushing even harder over the last few hundred meters.
To move on to the problems, there actually isn’t that much to say. I mean, there were some issues caused by people, but since speed wasn’t the primary goal, they didn’t matter that much, and the more significant ones only caused me to slow anyway, as I’m pretty sure that I never actually stopped because of that, and towards the end it was quite clear, the number of people dropping sharply. Of course, having to weave and go the long way around meant covering a longer distance and that definitely mattered, but I couldn’t say how much, and it’s possible that the running lane was the worse problem from that point of view, considering all of the damaged spots, including plenty that created a risk of tripping, and the fact that the long straight of sector two seemed to be the worst part of it, much of it being basically unusable, the risk of tripping approaching certainty, so I did my best to avoid all of those places, obviously even more so after dark.
As for physical issues, my right knee started giving some warnings from sector two of lap two, and by the end of lap three the right ankle and the left knee joined it, but I wouldn’t say that those issues became noticeably worse after that in themselves, and the only other specific physical problem appeared at the start of lap nine, when I noticed that something was wrong with my back after drinking that shot and the liquid magnesium. Actually, at first it felt like the problem was with my neck, but after a while it became quite clear that the feeling was reflected from my back, and it’s not just that I couldn’t snap it or otherwise correct it while I ran, but it actually took a couple of days before it seemed to fix itself. But, of course, the real problems came after hitting the wall, which actually happened relatively late. I mean, I already mentioned that it was on lap six when I started to feel somewhat tired, but I was quite all right until about halfway through lap eight, when my hands started going numb, and I was just about to complete sector two of lap nine when I noticed that the numbness was beginning to also affect my arms and my legs were getting heavy. That was still manageable until the end of that lap, but from the start of lap ten, maybe also because I slowed to a walk in order to finish the tea and then had to start running again, it was a struggle to keep putting one foot in front of the other, so the fact that I just kept running after that, not even stopping to have another good look at the time, likely made all the difference.
I really paid for that, however, and probably for those last few hundred meters in particular, since it was so hard to climb those stairs and then make my way back. I knew that I had to just keep walking, since it was probably the only thing that kept my muscles from seizing completely, so I didn’t even try to do any stretching exercises, but every step was just so hard, I had to keep pushing through the pain, often being unable to walk in a straight line, feeling like I was just about to collapse and hoping that my body would at least recover a little bit by the time I’ll get back here… And then I made the mistake of checking the nearby Mega Image, and as soon as I stepped in my legs did cramp, so I somehow stumbled to the bakery area and then placed one hand on a stack of packs of beer and the other on the glass from that area and tried to wait out the worst of it, after which I took out the sheets of paper where the ingredients for those products are listed, since they were all stacked together, and read some of them, ending up considering coming back to buy something. But I wanted to get back here by 11 PM, hoping to be able to see what the temperature had been at 10 PM, and when I realized that I only had a couple of minutes left I tried to shove those papers back in their place, then ended up leaving them on a shelf when I failed to do so and tried to rush back… Not that I could exactly rush anymore.
Well, I did manage to get back a little before 11 PM, but it was some seconds after that hour when I got to the computer and could check the weather report, and while that site is usually updated a couple of minutes after the hour, at that point I saw that the temperatures for 11 PM were already posted, so I couldn’t see what they had been at 10 PM… Not that it really mattered, considering how little the temperature seemed to have dropped even by 11 PM, so I shrugged that off, put watermelon in a plate and then, after changing my mind about returning to Mega Image, I just went to drop a bag of trash down the chute… Only realizing after I got back that I had forgotten to clean the litter box first. Either way, I then drank what little was left in the bottles and vials and ate watermelon, with some small doughnuts. I considered that I had eaten enough sweet things that day, so I didn’t want any other sweets and thought that those doughnuts were plain, only realizing after the first bite that they were sweetened after all, but I couldn’t exactly put them back at that point.
It was only after that when I finally did a few quick stretching exercises, but they didn’t help my neck, or my back, whatever it was. But then I somehow even managed to do the day’s squats before going to the bathroom, to use the toilet and shower, at 12:30 AM, the big problem being that the water was cold, so it wasn’t just that taking a bath was completely out of the question, but I was so weakened and when I dared to aim the shower at my torso and back it felt like being stabbed by icy daggers. But I eventually did manage to wash myself to some extent, being done a little before 1:20 AM. And then I started working on dinner, which included making pizza, and during that time I also ate the last box of expired walnuts with Himalayan salt, so I got almost 850 calories just from those, drank the rest of the tea and made another. I finally ate dinner between 4:45 AM and 6:05 AM, and I kept feeling so thirsty, so I then drank much, if not most, of the new tea as well, despite the fact that I felt just stuffed.

I got in bed at 6:35 AM, but it was pointless. I mean, I can’t sleep after such an effort anyway, and I was really stuffed, plus that dad got back soon after I got in bed and made some noise, having apparently brought some things and preparing what he needed in order to cook something after he’ll get up, and Liza kept meowing as well, knowing that he was going to keep feeding her if she did, and since I was still wasting time after he went to bed, it wasn’t even 7:25 AM when I got back on the computer, eventually drinking some more tea, peeing and getting back in bed at 8:30 AM… Only for some workers to start mowing the plants that are behind the building, as in actually in this little garden, not on the other side of the fence, moments later, so I got up again, took a few pictures and got back on the computer. When some cleaners also moved in to gather the mowed plants, I took a few more pictures, noticing that the guy who was mowing did at least leave some of the larger flowers, though only the obvious ones that were actually in flower, since he mowed just about everything else, and even a few of those that did have flowers, though that was likely by accident.
At least he was done rather quickly, at which point I peed again, just in case, and got back in bed, a few minutes after 9 AM… And not long after that might have been the only time when I managed to catch a nap, but even if I did, it was the briefest one and I was definitely awake again moments later and still felt so thirsty. And it also seemed to be awfully hot even though it couldn’t have really been that hot, and my back still didn’t allow me to get in the positions that I wanted to stay in, so a little before 10:30 AM I finished the tea, peed yet again, still just in case, and then tried to get back to sleep one more time… And I was still unsuccessful, so I eventually just gave up, getting up when it wasn’t even 12:10 PM. And while I crawled back in bed for close to an hour and a half in the afternoon, I dozed off just a little, likely falling asleep for mere minutes, though possibly doing so a few times. And at night I managed to finish eating dinner at 3:40 AM despite actually starting to eat at 3:05 AM, though I tried to “cheat” a little and take a first bite before 3 AM, to be able to say that I stuck to the schedule, but realized that I had done so seconds after 3 AM after all. And the light bulb from the kitchen was once again flickering badly. And I ended up getting in bed at 5:20 AM. And after getting up, so on August 30, I started taking the supplement for joints, having decided to take it for 45 days this time around.