Cav's Place

I guess it sounds fitting to have 24 teams in Euro 2024, but it’s just too much. It also makes for a weird competition format, with third placed teams indirectly competing with each other in a way that can’t possibly be fair and pairings and routes for the knockout phases that can’t be known ahead of time, but it’s the number itself that’s just too high. True, weaker teams can give everything in the first matches and create some surprises, or at least some interesting matches to watch, while those that fancy their chances tend to take it slowly and may offer less of a show, especially during the group stage, but overall it still seems to me that 16 teams was a fair number.

But I guess it remains to be seen how it will turn out, starting from this evening’s opening match. And opening match results may well be strange, even more so when the host country that plays in that match is one of the better ones in the competition, but the difference in quality between Germany and Scotland lead me to believe that a strange result would be a narrow and more difficult win for Germany, not anything else. And I would consider Germany to be one of the favorites for reaching the semifinals, probably along with England, though I’m expecting them to stop there, with a final between France and Portugal appearing most probable at this point, and the paths through the knockout stages also seem set just for such an outcome. Not that I’m necessarily discounting Belgium or Spain, but they’re probably in the third tier this time around. And I’m tempted to say that Netherlands and Switzerland may be the other two teams to make it past the round of 16, but things are less clear at that level and there may be other options as well.

I’m about to go out to vote, and over here that means casting no less than five votes today, since our officials have decided to lump our local elections together with those for the European Parliament. On the other hand, in a few other countries the European elections have already taken place over these past few days. But in most other EU countries, today is the day of the European elections, with one vote to cast that really will have a significant impact on where the European Union goes over the next five years and how the multiple crises will be dealt with, or even whether they’ll be dealt with at all. So I’m just taking this opportunity to ask everyone to go out and cast an informed vote, seeing this action for what it is, a far from sufficient but definitely necessary act of involvement in public life, a practical requirement of being a citizen, and a prerequisite for having any sort of say in what happens between elections, for any sort of right to complain, demand, protest, petition or, in general, express any sort of opinion. Express it now, when you’re asked in a formal manner, and then continue to get involved in as many other ways as you can.
And these really are critical elections, with the far right, “eurosceptics” and allies of Putin’s Russia continuing their surge, the big business lobby continuing to do what it has always done, and the support for even the terrifyingly weak existing or drafted environmental regulations, for proper social policies, for Ukraine, for European integration, or even for EU and even NATO membership, waning. So, if you are fortunate enough to have some proper Green-Left options in your country that also stand firmly for the European Union and against Putin’s Russia, please vote for them, if you haven’t done so already. And if that doesn’t exist, try to see who’s likely to do the most for the environment, first and foremost, then who may go against big business and support social policies that are actually suited for the future, who may push back the hardest against the far right, nationalists and “eurosceptics”, who may stand most firmly against Putin’s Russia, supporting Ukraine and any others who are or will be under threat, and preferably also who may support Palestinians, a larger European Union, accepting a few more countries in the foreseeable future, and freer migration policies… Or, if it comes down to such an unpleasant choice, who may at least do something for even one of those issues and the least against the others.
There’s no way around it, the situation will be bad for the foreseeable future and we’ll need to spare no effort if we’re to have any hope of improvement. But this is a deciding day for most of the European Union, a moment when we can make the next five years, and possibly far more than that, either a little easier or a whole lot harder. And yes, you may say that a single vote doesn’t count for much, but there may well be situations where just a few votes may decide whether one person or another will get elected, and later there may be situations where that person may make a difference. And, even if that won’t be the case, or if it won’t be the case for your vote, casting it is, as I already said, a prerequisite for making any sort of demand to be heard in the future.

I’m not at all keen on reading in Romanian in general, and fantasy that’s actually written in Romanian in particular is something that just doesn’t seem to work, or at least my, admittedly very few, past experiences showed that I just can’t deal with it. So my expectations of this book were low, but it seemed promising enough to eventually make me decide to give it a chance, and I must say that the fact that it’s in Romanian actually didn’t bother me, and I’m tempted to think that the tenses used probably had plenty to do with that. And the story does develop in an interesting manner, starting slowly and tamely, the fantasy elements barely even being hinted at for a long time, but eventually picking up and then pretty much exploding and spreading out, encompassing more and more and repeatedly going in unexpected directions.
That said, it clearly feels amateurish. I also don’t know how can something with so many typos be published by an actual publisher, and a particular problem is so weirdly recurring that I kept thinking that it must be intentional, yet I could find no justification for it. And the author also has problems finding names for places but just rolls ahead. But more important than that is that she seems to have a good imagination and plenty of ideas, but not the ability to put much of it into words, the result lacking the depth and complexity required for epic fantasy, with so much that’s left unsaid and unexplained, many events just being thrown at the reader while the occasional explanations are information dumps, so the more the story develops, the more it turns into a fairy tale instead of proper fantasy. And I’m not even sure what to comment when it comes to hero’s luck, because most events, good and bad, simply happen to the characters, Tan probably being the one notable exception, actually acting in a hero’s role. Well, Tan and Lemongreen, of course, but that falls fully under what’s simply thrown at the reader, with no explanations whatsoever.

Rating: 3/5

Since I still can’t make myself write about the half marathon, as in the actual run, but Thursday I went to Bookfest, I guess I’ll write about that now, to have a second post for the week, and I’ll start from that day’s early hours, when I went to the kitchen very late, several minutes after 1:30 AM, and there were some things to wash as well, and I didn’t rush, ending up eating dinner between 3:30 AM and 4:20 AM, and getting in bed at 5:20 AM. Then I got up when the alarm rang, at 12:30 PM, and left at 2:45 PM. That’d have been rather late otherwise, since the plan had been to leave by 2:30 PM and walk, but while I was getting ready dad said that he wasn’t going to mother anymore and could give me the metro card if I’ll be back by the time he’ll leave for work, so I tried to figure out whether I could get back by then and eventually took the card, the idea being that we’ll most likely meet at the metro station or on the way.
I didn’t take the recyclables with the deposit symbol, but when I spotted one I picked it up, meaning to cash it in at the Shop & Go that’s close to the metro station, but when I got there I saw a message asking people to use the Mega Image from Decebal to return recyclables. I’m pretty sure that’s illegal, but I couldn’t do anything about it at that point, so I turned around, grabbed one more plastic bottle with the deposit symbol that I spotted in that area, and took the metro, meaning to go straight to Bookfest but ending up also checking that independent bookstore after all. That had been part of the original plan, when I thought that I was going to walk, and I actually considered getting off at Victoriei and going there after all, especially after just missing the metro when I switched, but I decided against changing the plan yet again, so I just waited for the next one, which came only a few minutes later, and took it for one more stop, but then I got rather confused and, even though I was only wondering whether I was going straight or would end up a little way off and would need to look for some landmarks in the distance and make a correction, I found that I had somehow turned around, only realizing it when I spotted the name of the street where that bookstore is. So I decided to extend that detour a little more and have a look there after all, leaving those recyclables outside and picking them back up after just looking around a little and only asking about the price of Dawnshard, since there was no additional discount and I couldn’t get myself to also ask if they really weren’t offering any special discounts during Bookfest anymore, since they had done that in other years, after they decided to stop attending.
I had been just about whimpering even as I walked without really knowing where I was, and checking that store had messed me up even more, but at least I finally knew just where I was, so I then made my way to the book fair, picking up two more recyclables with the deposit symbol on the way and leaving a third, a beer bottle which was still at least half full. And I wanted to see whether I could hand them in at the Shop & Go from that area, which seems to be pretty much the only such store from that area, so I lost quite some time to get to it, initially trying to find how to cross that intersection and get straight to it and then still going around those buildings, to confirm that no larger store was there after all. But once I did go in I found that it did have a recycling machine, so I used it, had a quick look in the store and then cashed in the voucher.

I got to the book fair a couple of minutes before 4:30 PM, but after just grabbing a plan from one of the information desks I went to wash my hands, in case I’ll see anything to munch on being offered. Then I looked all around, pretty much ignoring the major publishers, quickly glancing at many of the small ones, paying more attention to the Romanian fantasy publishers and to a couple of others that publish certain nonfiction books, and really taking my time to look carefully whenever I saw books in English. I also made a bit of a point of showing some interest in the area where several Arab countries, including Palestine, were presenting themselves, and they also offered some dates and I meant to take some, but I couldn’t work up the courage to do so at first. And at least there is an Arab bookstore, and that’s what used to be in that area in previous years, so it wasn’t exactly out of place, but what was out of place was that, separately from those other Arab countries, Saudi Arabia’s embassy also had its own area, and it was so formal and intimidating, with some staff members in suits and basically presenting the country, plus that there were obviously other reasons why I didn’t want to show interest in them, yet they were also offering dates as well as some things to munch on and, after also just walking away at first, without daring to take anything, when I returned to that area and saw another guy just walk by and grab something, I also reached over, took a bagel and ate it… After which one of those staff members covered the bowls and even moved the one with the munchies under the table, only taking it out when he was offering something to those who were actually engaging with them.
Well, it just so happened that the small area of a publisher of Romanian fantasy which I had also noticed last year was just in front of the Saudi Arabia area, and while I initially only had a look from a distance, rushing away when one of the people from there engaged with me as soon as I approached, after going all around I returned to the Arab countries’ area and grabbed a date after all, and then I wanted to see whether I could get something else from the Saudi Arabia area as well. So I went back there and, since several people had gathered and I couldn’t work up the courage to just reach over right away, I tried to see whether I’ll be allowed to have a better look at that publisher’s books on my own, and that time around they did let me do so without interacting with me. And I spotted the one which had attracted my attention last year, so I considered buying it, but as I was thinking it over I had another look at Saudi Arabia’s area and saw that those bowls were on the table and uncovered again, so I reached over to take a date from there as well, and since that made my hands sticky I then reached past the people who were engaging with the staff in order to also grab a napkin to wipe with. And then I went back to that publisher and bought the book, even if it is in Romanian and therefore my expectations are low, since reading in Romanian just feels wrong in general and in case of fantasy in particular I really can’t see how it can work in Romanian at all, my admittedly few past experiences saying that I just can’t deal with it. Either way, I wasn’t given a receipt, but I then just put the book in the backpack and made my way out, returning the plan to the information desk, washing my hands again, since they still were a little sticky, and leaving a little after 6:20 PM.

Since the metro cards kept getting messed up after I used them at Aviatorilor in the past, when I got off at Victoriei to switch trains, I stepped out through the gate and checked the card, confirming that it still worked. Then I went back in, got off at Obor and first went to Auchan, finding a deep discount for that bio (organic) “Greek” yogurt, albeit only the kind with 10% fat, since they had piles of it expiring the next day. The discount sticker only listed a 30% discount from the full price, but the sign and the announcement that kept being repeated stated that the real price was 30% of the discounted one, or a little over 20% of the full one, though the announcement also stated that the discount will be applied at checkout. Either way, I took two of those and also meant to get some eggs, but after selecting those that didn’t have code three from those that were sold by piece, I decided to check Carrefour first, so I left them there, but decided to get some tea, since I had checked on-line and hadn’t seen any discount for it at Carrefour, the full price was marginally cheaper at Auchan, and I didn’t want to risk forgetting about it if I’ll get back for the eggs or needing to get back just for it if I’ll find cheaper eggs at Carrefour.
I had that voucher received for a few recyclables which I had put in the machine from that location on May 15, after scanning the store card because the sign stated that a small additional amount was offered in that case, and which I was then unable to use because, while the machine will also scan the physical card, the app is apparently required to use a voucher received after you do so, the printed voucher not being usable otherwise, not even at the normal value, and that day I had been told that the employee who could turn such vouchers into regular ones was busy. However, I only meant to mention it if I’ll see the guy who had told me to come back another day, and he wasn’t at those checkouts, so I’d have normally picked an unmanned one to use, but it was the manned one that was free, so I went there after all, and it proved to be a good thing, because the full discount for that yogurt apparently had to be entered manually.
Well, just as I was about to pay, that guy walked over, so I decided to ask him about that voucher, and then the two of them had something of a back and forth, with the woman manning that checkout saying that she could just turn it into a regular voucher and the guy saying that it’ll confuse him and he wanted to do it some other way. She said that he was embarrassing her in front of the customers and even reached over and canceled my attempt to pay, but I didn’t really get what she wanted to do, so after initially saying that I’ll come back after checking Carrefour, I said that I’ll just wait there and let them decide what to do and paid in full… At which point she seemed frustrated with me as well and said that she had wanted to deduct the amount from the total. But she eventually wrote down the code from my store card and walked off, and I took some time to stuff the purchases in the backpack, until she came back and gave me the money, albeit only the regular amount that was actually printed on the voucher, of course, so I still felt tricked out of that small additional amount and mean to recover it at a later time. Either way, she asked whether I had given my information when I got the store card, because she couldn’t find any name associated with that card number. Of course, dad got the card, long ago, but if there’s no name associated with it, it’s even better, though I told her that I thought that I had given it. She still said that I should register for a card again, but I just shrugged it off and left.
Since I picked up another plastic bottle with the deposit symbol on the way to Carrefour, I searched for the recycling machine in that parking lot and put it in when I eventually found it. Then I washed my hands again, entered the store with everything and, when I didn’t find any interesting expiring products, I meant to just cash in that voucher and leave… Only to happen to pass by the teas on the way to the self-checkout and see that the one which I had just bought from Auchan did have a discount there, and I even checked again after getting back and confirmed that it wasn’t listed on-line, so I’d have had no way to know that. Either way, I bought one more, frustrated that I had lost some money, and used that voucher when I paid for it, though that didn’t exactly go smoothly. But, of course, having problems with those vouchers is pretty much the rule at Carrefour, and at least that time I was able to use it on my own, albeit after moving to another machine, since when I first tried to scan it and the machine asked me to enter it instead, I tried to cancel that prompt and the message that an assistant will soon come was displayed… Yet the assistant seemed busy, so after waiting for a little while I just walked over to another machine that was free, and when I was once again asked to enter the voucher I typed the code, actually being surprised that I got it right on the first try even though it’s long and hard to see.
After also adding that tea in the backpack, I returned to Auchan and bought those eggs, but I had to wait a long time at the self-checkout in order to do so. The machine from the information desk, which should be manned, wasn’t, and it was therefore off until the employee who had handled my voucher eventually got there, but I thought that my turn was about to come at another machine at that point and didn’t want to face her again anyway, so I stayed where I was. And, until that point, there were two machines that accepted cash in that area, and one of them was manned by the employee who had caused problems multiple times before, and she was really slow anyway, so I initially took my place in line at the other one, which was unmanned… Only for another employee to come and start feeding money into it, at which point I moved back to the manned one, losing one place compared to where I’d have been if I’d have picked that line from the beginning. However, since the employee who manned that checkout was so slow, the other one was done feeding the other machine well before my turn came, so at that point I went back to that other line, losing what I thought was still just one spot in the process. Yet the foreign couple who got to use the machine after that employee was done needed some help, and then the two guys who were next, and just ahead of me, split their purchases and paid separately even if they seemed to be buying the same products, the second also remembered to get bags after the first one scanned his products, and the first one’s money were awfully crumpled up and he struggled to get the machine to accept them.
At least there were no problems when my turn did finally come, but I actually checked and saw that, even though only a few people had, in fact, been ahead of me, 17 minutes passed between the moment when I first took my place in line and the one when I actually got to use a machine. And time was a problem at that point, dad calling while I was waiting and asking where I was. But in the end it was fine, since he said that he’ll call again when he’ll walk out of the building and that happened just as I reached this station, so we met on the way, and in fact much closer to here than to the metro station, and I gave him back the card.
I got back a few minutes before 9 PM and decided to not go out again, so I just went to dump what I gathered from the litter box down the chute and grabbed another plastic bottle with the deposit symbol from the garbage room, then put the purchases in their place, arranged a few things in my room, ate some salty snacks, spent some time on the computer, and scraped what I could from what was still stuck on the cast iron pot, which had been in the fridge ever since I had last made mamaliga, four days earlier. Then I went to the toilet, did the day’s squats, in the bathroom, and washed, being done at 12:10 AM. But I had decided to make mamaliga again that night, and even though I still had to wash that cast iron pot and the other things that were in the sink, I even managed to stick to the dinner schedule, somehow, though eating that so quickly led to needing to rush to the toilet again before going to bed.
On the other hand, the light bulb from the kitchen was flickering badly, and while that had happened a couple of times before and taking it out and screwing it back in had sorted it out, leading me to believe that the contact might get a little loose after a while, that night it didn’t help, and when I replaced that light bulb with another for a few minutes, that other one didn’t flicker, so the problem clearly seems to be with the light bulb, even if I only bought it less than a year ago. Still, rubbing it a little, putting it back once more and screwing it in really tightly made things much better that night… Only for it to start flickering badly yet again last night, so I’m expecting it to fail… We have more, and I guess this explains why they were so cheap, but it’s still annoying.

I’ll also mention here that, in the early hours of June 1, I once again took it too easy in the kitchen and ended up eating dinner between 3:20 AM and 4 AM. Then, after getting up, I redeemed Lost Words: Beyond the Page, after having requested it in The Community Giveaway on the GOG.com forums, and it was a relief that the donor was not once again that user who donates so much. Either way, this morning I got in bed at 5:35 AM, after dad got back and we exchanged a few words.

Even if this trial was far less important than the others he currently faces, the fact that Donald Trump was found guilty of all charges in the hush-money trial should be good news, not just for his opponents or the USA, but for the world. But, on top of the fact that a convicted felon may still be president of the USA, and that will remain the case even if he’ll end up in prison, the sad state of affairs is that this may actually improve his chances. And he and his team are definitely masters at spinning pretty much any story in their favor and fooling those who can be fooled in such a manner, so now every effort must be made to prevent that from happening. For one, I’d really like to see him sentenced to community service, but that may offer him an even better campaign platform, so any sentence will need to be weighed very carefully against that possibility.
Now, when I’m talking about his chances, I’m obviously not referring to how his actual supporters see him, as those don’t respond to reason and will most likely only strengthen their resolve as a result of this outcome, but mainly to the people who are looking for a way to show their opposition towards either Biden and/or the Democrats, or “the system” or “the establishment”. And there are many, many very good reasons to hold such a stance, most of which can’t be explained away, and Trump paints himself as the most powerful figure who embodies that opposition, leading to what may not even be a “lesser evil” scenario, but an “enemy of my enemy” one, which is even harder to fight against.
Of course, it wouldn’t be that hard to fight against such a stance if the system would change and actually work for the people and the planet, if the Democrats wouldn’t share a significant part of the blame for why it doesn’t, and to some extent even if they’d have a presidential candidate that people wouldn’t have such very good reasons to be concerned about. However, since that’s not happening and the world remains in that desperate state of having to put every effort into just struggling to prevent the mountain from collapsing and burying everyone, as a writer from here put it once, what must be done is to show that Trump is very much part of the system, that he has made and will continue to make full use of it for his own benefit and at the expense of everyone else, and that he’s actually the bigger enemy, regardless of how one looks at things. But the even harder part is that this must be done in a manner which won’t make it look like it’s the system that pulls out all the stops in order to fight him, but instead show that it’s the reasonable people who do so, along with those who care for values that they share with those whom they try to persuade.
All of that is much easier said than done, and it doesn’t even address those who either just want to see the world burn or have given up hope and ended up deciding that making things as bad as possible will at least mean that there might be a chance for them to get better after that. But something must be done, and it must be done right and right away, because Trump and his staff are definitely wasting no time. And, regardless of how bad things are in the world right now, how much the current leadership of the USA is to blame for that, and how much worse they’re likely to get without a drastic change over there, this particular change must be prevented at all costs… Not that it’ll really be a change, seeing as Trump held that office before and we have seen the damage that he was capable of, and that was when he was much less vindictive, determined, brash and willing to go to any lengths to achieve his goals than he is now.