Cav's Place

Expected an infuriating rose-tinted view of the present, and it does start that way, but it also makes plenty of good points, such as the value of knowledge over wealth and growth, the fact that things quite often get worse, and definitely that market forces can’t be trusted with progress and public works and policies are needed. The section about poverty in the USA, which applies in general, is also surprisingly good, as is the later one about measuring poverty, plus most of the section about politics and inequality and most of that chapter’s conclusions.
But population growth being clearly listed as positive is infuriating, as is the rant against population control, spewing the usual idiocies, and the repeated assumption that life is in itself worth living. Same goes for stating that inequality can be good because it can show the way to those who are behind, and while saying that progress creates inequality is fair, it doesn’t really tackle unfairness, injustice, why wealth would determine who benefits first. Actually, the author seems to often fail to grasp the limitations created by lack of money when goods and services are just business, even repeatedly wondering why the knowledge and developments that work in wealthy countries fail to bring the same benefits to poor ones and mentioning social acceptability as a likely answer! And he flits between positions, not taking stances and repeatedly seeming to change conclusions. For example, contrary to the good points mentioned above, still trusting and relying on the free market too much, as well as the impossible concept of endless growth, or failing to grasp obstacles and largely blaming the worse off in the part about labor market inequality, or stating that poverty may be overevaluated and listing particularly low thresholds for it. And then there’s the chapter about aid, which makes some good points about potential problems but has utterly dreadful conclusions and recommendations, largely boiling down to “hands off and let them handle things themselves”… And that USA and Sweden example, offered in support of that stance, is something that would actually be great!

Rating: 2/5

The previous personal post ended before another hospital visit, but I’ll obviously never catch up in this manner and the half marathon is approaching and Friday I walked the route, so I want to include that in this post. But, speaking of the half marathon, it’s a good thing it didn’t take place today, seeing as, after getting in bed at 5:20 AM, it wasn’t even 11:30 AM when I was woken up by a series of nearby lightning strikes. Stayed up, so I know the storm didn’t last long, but it would have nevertheless been quite an issue. Now it remains to be seen how it’ll be next Sunday morning.

Before getting to that walk, I’ll mention that Thursday I finished Fantasy General, meaning the add-on as well, after having finished the original campaign on August 20. I know there are also some individual scenarios, but I feel that this is quite enough to consider it finished, so I’m leaving those and thinking of writing the review, since oddly enough even the original game only has one on Mobygames, and this package has none, since I just recently added it. No idea when that will happen though, seeing as I have something entirely different to focus on next week and I should also rest as much as possible, plus that Tuesday I finally started one of those nonfiction books I purchased back in May, so I’ll also need to finish that and post the quick review for it, and I have a lot of catching up to do in terms of personal updates… And then, after the half marathon, I’m seriously considering trying to have those investigations done, to see whether they’ll figure out just what’s wrong and what to do about it, though I have absolutely no idea how I could possibly manage to stay in hospital for what I was told may well be about a week, plus that we’re currently clearly in wave four and hospitals are starting to get overwhelmed again.

But that’s another matter, so now let me get to Friday’s walk, when I left at 12:35 PM. The first thing I made a mental note of was how exposed this nearby section is, the butchered trees no longer offering shade, so if it’ll be sunny it may be an issue. Or maybe not, since the forecast currently lists a high around 25°C that day and the run is in the morning, a much bigger problem being that it currently seems that it’ll be windy, in which case a lot will depend on the direction of the wind and the shelter offered by buildings. But I guess, with this morning fresh in my mind, I should say that the most important thing would be to not have another storm, or even “just” rain, just then.
But I should return to the walk and mention that I decided to quickly pass through that small farmers’ market that’s on Unirii when I got there, just glancing at a few things from a distance since I didn’t put my mask on. I was feeling sleepy, however, after just getting a few hours again, kept losing focus, and I wasn’t even a third of the way in, likely a fair bit less, when the right foot felt swollen even though I was walking, those two smallest toes that feel the worst being the biggest issue. Either way, I peed when I got to Izvor Park, using one of the simple toilets, since the more proper one was occupied and it seemed to be taking a while, and then briefly washing my hands in the drinking fountain. Then I kept going, but my right hand was feeling swollen as well and, when I was on Berzei, I started flexing my fingers and hands, which seemed to eventually help, and I also stopped feeling sleepy. But that Berzei-Buzesti part still is so unpleasant, and there’s that serious climb, towards Stirbei Voda, and also the smaller one at the end, before reaching Victory Square, so I’ll need to be careful, since they come very early and I’ll need to avoid exhausting myself on them.
While on that section, I passed the zero waste store I was curious about, but decided against going in for a look, even if it’d have been a good opportunity and I likely won’t get there again for a long time. And later, even though I haven’t bought anything from there since 2012, I took a few steps away from the route to glance at that independent English bookstore, but also didn’t go in, just checking that it was still there and open. The much more notable detour, however, came after returning to Victory Square, when I went to a pizza place where I could use some of the amount won after filling a survey back in December of 2019. That was supposed to be valid for one year but required the use of that group’s app, so when it was close to expiring I decided to try to see whether they’d be willing to put it on the physical loyalty card dad has, which they eventually did, and the fact that the amount was only actually added at that point also meant that the deadline is one year from then and not from the moment when I won it. So I mean to use part of it to get something after the half marathon, but first wanted to see how it works… Only to find that place under renovation. They were open for takeaway and deliveries, however, and a guy was there to pick up an order just then, so I walked around a bit, then stepped up and asked whether I could get something and for the vegetarian pizza I had decided on after checking the site. But there was no menu around, so when I asked about the price the employee said he’ll return with one, was gone for quite a while and then just came back with the menu open on his tablet. Then he took that card, leaving again and returning a bit later, saying that my pizza will be ready in ten to 15 minutes, then leaving again and only getting back, with my pizza, 20 minutes later.
An issue was that I was there for just over 30 minutes and didn’t even wash my hands, since I had expected to be able to use the toilet while waiting but that was obviously not an option, and being told that it could be as little as ten minutes made me decide against going all around the Square to see whether that public toilet worked. So, after returning to the route, I wasn’t looking just for a park where I could eat the pizza, but one where I could also wash my hands first, so I kept going until I saw one of those more proper toilets close to the Palace Hall, just going in to wash, since I was holding the pizza, with the box placed in a bag, and trying to also pee would have been rather tricky. Then I went to that park, walking towards the church until I found a large bench with nobody around, those closer to the entrance being occupied. So I settled down there quite nicely and ate, having taken a fork and knives with me, just having to swat away a fly now and then. Unfortunately it seems that a mosquito, or some other bug or bugs, was also there and I didn’t notice until I left, when I felt a couple of itches and realized I had been bitten my something on my neck, and possibly on my left leg as well, in which case it means something crawled its way up to get there.
Either way, since I also took the time to tear away the dirty bits of the box, to throw those in a trash can and then hold on to the rest until I finally walked by a recycling bin, I was there for almost an hour. Then, shortly after resuming the walk, I reached that short but particularly steep slope that’s a serious problem with this route, and I guess that was the last relevant mental note I made, and even that was about something I already knew. So I’ll just skip ahead to the next detour, made when I reached the Old City, though I entered it too early and had a bit to walk to get to another restaurant from that group. And that proved pointless, as it was almost certain to be, since I wanted to see whether I could spot someone eating the one thing I had considered ordering from there instead of the pizza, which would have required quite a lot of luck, which I didn’t have. So I then actually walked right back to where I had entered the Old City, stopped there to take the iron supplement prescribed to me when I went to the hospital that second time, since I had also taken those and tea with me, and then returned to walking the route.
Didn’t do that for long, however, making another detour at Unirii, first to use the toilet in that shopping center, since I still hadn’t peed again, and then to go to Carrefour, just getting some supposedly spoiling peppers, though most are fine and I only had to remove a little from the others, and a handful of onions, so I yet again couldn’t use that 10 RON code I have. Saw that the bread that I used to get from there was discounted, but all of it was sliced, and also looked for the chicken breast that was on sale, but it was only in packs of four pieces, which was too much. On the other hand, I was again charged for the bag those peppers were in, and when I pointed out that I don’t want to use it the cashier said they can’t avoid using it for those discounted products. Well, if the whole point of the charge is to reduce the use of plastic bags, if the store forces the customers to use them, the store should pay the fee, not the customer! Then again, I did find that amount on the floor even before leaving the checkout area, one coin right away and another as I was leaving, after spending a pretty long time figuring out how to stuff the purchases in my backpack… And then, on the way out, I also saw a cart with the 0.50 RON coin still in it, and it was next to another, so I just joined them and retrieved the coin.
Since it was just after 8 PM when I walked out of there, the rest of the walk was less relevant, since it was after sunset. But it just meant returning on the same route, just on the other side of the road, so it didn’t matter too much. And I quickly checked a raw vegan confectionery, rather recoiling at the high prices and small sizes, then very briefly went into another little store I happened to spot, the name misleading me into thinking it was something I’d be interested in, and then also checked a Mega Image, not getting anything from there either, nor from this one that’s across the road from here, since I decided to quickly check it as well when I got here.
I was back here just before 9:15 PM and stayed in the kitchen until after midnight, but I mostly did other things, just having watermelon and a piece of cozonac, with added jam. Then, after showering, I was initially back there at 1:15 AM, but soon returned to my room for a bit and was only really back at 1:40 AM, started eating dinner at 3:30 AM and got in bed at 5:35 AM. As for how I felt, after leaving Carrefour and for the rest of that evening and night, I felt surprisingly fine, not even tired anymore, and my feet also seemed almost fine, but at least during the first part of yesterday, on top of being really tired, my feet rather felt like they were burning again, the feeling going up my legs as well, and my eyes were also rather swollen.

This will be a particularly rushed addition to this series, but while I still haven’t returned to checking any groups or other sources, and still doubt I will in the foreseeable future, so I still don’t have any actual new finds, I did at least get back to only including bands with recent releases. And I do have a couple of more recent finds that actually are new bands that I keep wanting to include but still can’t because they only have, or at least only officially posted, a single song, so I’m hoping that a second one will appear soon enough and it’ll be at least as good as the first. But, until that happens, I still have plenty of those that were added to the list quite some time ago to go through, and three more are in this post.

Sort of to get it out of the way, I’ll start with Mastercastle, and the reason why I rather want to get it out of the way is that I’m not sure I want to include it in such a post, and was considering removing it from the list at first. However, while they’ve been around for quite some time and their older releases likely wouldn’t have caused me to add them in the first place, their last full album, released in 2017, marks an improvement that is likely the reason why I added them back when I did, by far the most notable example of that improvement being Space of Variations. And that improvement is also noticeable in their recent release, Who Cares for the Moon, so maybe they’ll continue on this path.

Next is Eleine, which is a band that I likely meant to include in such a post so many times that I was certain I already had. One of the reasons why I kept deciding against it is likely embarrassingly shallow, and I’m referring to the fact that I’m very much put off by how their lead vocalist chooses to look. But she has a good voice and vocal lines, and I like the choruses in general. On the other hand, the other parts of their songs tend to sound harsher, and most unfortunately include growls, which is a much stronger and definitely entirely justifiable reason to keep skipping over them. But now I no longer did, and my pick out of their recent songs, Memoriam, shows what they’re capable of. And I’ll go with Devotion for the second pick, as it’s a song that even starts with male vocals and some growls, but I find even those growls tolerable, showing that they can be all right even if they insist on sticking to this sort of sound. I’d much rather they didn’t, of course.

As for the third band, that’s Metalite and the name is definitely appropriate when it comes to their sound, which is indeed “lite” but nevertheless all right to just listen to. What I found rather interesting, however, is that they seem to use that sound to tackle serious matters. Not particularly deeply, if you look at the lyrics, but they quite clearly seem to make a point of it, and have done so all along, my two picks, the recent Peacekeepers and the older Purpose of Life, being good examples of this.

To again pick up from where I left off, on August 3 I saw 7:08 AM when I woke up to pee, so I had little sleep, but meant to go out early. The problem was that dad was still up after coming back from work, but I did what I could to get ready, drank all the tea made at night, left at 8:40 AM, reached the Sector 3 Treasury at 9:05 AM… And apparently followed in the footsteps of an older woman who entered before me, and who seemed to be the only other one there at the time, though a few others had just exited as I entered.
I was there to retrieve what I invested in state bonds a year earlier, so I first went to the only person who seemed available, but she told me to go upstairs for that. I had no idea going upstairs was allowed, but since I was told to, I went, got to the only person who seemed available there, got told to go to the next one, since it depended on the first letter of the last name, and even though that next place seemed closed, one of those who was at the desk behind the glass did come over a bit later and told me how much I had, which was the amount I had calculated, and the daily limit for cash, also mentioning that she could transfer all of it in an account. I told her that I had read that the transfer implied a fee, but while I thought it’d be a percentage and much higher, she said it was, I think, just 0.51 RON. But I said I’ll take the cash, just the amount that was over the limit that day, so she told me to go back down and wait in the hallway to be called. I wasn’t sure which hallway though, whether it was that main room or the little spot in front of the stairs, where there was a door with a sign saying that was the place for payments for state bonds, which was open despite the “please close the door” sign. And since nothing seemed to be happening right away, I hesitantly wandered in, heard someone tell someone else that someone was there and the one who was called came and handed me the money, asking me to please close the door both when I walked up and, after I asked, also when I left. Felt even more embarrassed when I returned to that main room though, since I saw that woman waiting there, and being called a moment later, so I guess I had jumped her by going in, since she had been just ahead of me at every step, only choosing to wait there instead.
After walking away from there and checking a Mega Image on the way, I went to Carrefour, at first just to check prices. Had the scary feeling that my right hand was also swelling though, seemed harder to move, and it looked like it was rather swollen, but it’s been bigger than the left ever since I started noticing, and when I mentioned it to a doctor when I was at the hospital she didn’t seem to think it was an issue. Still, I kept flexing it, trying to hold it higher in ways and at times when I didn’t think it made me look too weird, wandered around the colder areas for a while, but eventually went to the toilet and then to Kaufland, getting dill, some apples that were discounted because they were starting to spoil, some expiring biscuits and another watermelon, since there was an additional discount for one kind, finally getting the price down to the maximum I was normally willing to pay in previous years. Wondered about getting more of those biscuits, but didn’t know how good they were and didn’t.
Got back to Carrefour after that, peed again, and thought that my hand felt better, though I can’t say it looked better. Either way, got the cucumbers dad had asked for, since he wanted to pickle some more, the dill being for that as well, and also got a few things for myself, but placed the label for the cucumbers on the bread, so I’ll be able to reuse the bag I had the cucumbers in, and it ended up having a crease on the bar code, so it wouldn’t scan and the cashier told me to weigh them again. At least I was just a few steps away from the scales that are in that area, and the listed weight was exactly the same, and that time I just put the label on my hand and she scanned it from there. Should have done that the first time as well, and in fact had it stuck to my hand when I got to the checkout, but thought it’d be better to put it on a product, as I usually do in such situations…
Either way, after spending some time struggling to get the watermelon in my backpack, I was back here at 12:40 PM… And soon thought I really should have gotten more of those biscuits, after tasting them and seeing how good they were. Otherwise, had a big lunch, then tried to nap in the evening but spent some three and a half hours in bed and barely caught a few very short naps, each of them mere minutes long, because of noise, in good part made by dad, who admittedly couldn’t have known I was trying to sleep, but also coming from outside. And later, when there was no more noise, I spent another hour and 20 minutes or so in bed and yet didn’t manage to fall asleep at all, so it is possible that this lack of sleep also had something to do with the series of irregular heartbeats I felt before going to bed in the morning. Either way, it was 3:45 AM when I started eating dinner in my room, albeit after licking some things in the kitchen, while moving and mixing what I had bought.

On August 4 I woke up at 12:30 PM, again drank all the tea made at night and left just before 1:45 PM, taking the paper and the stuff I drop off at Kaufland, and some other trash, dropping off the trash in the first bin and making a small detour for a recycling one for the paper. Then I went to get the remaining money from the Sector 3 Treasury, this time knowing what to do, and stopped at the first location of my bank that I saw, using a machine to deposit the entire amount and actually a little more, since I had taken the rest with me. It wouldn’t accept one of the bills I had been given though, I kept trying and it just wouldn’t, but I had enough in smaller bills with me, so I deposited those and kept that one.
After that, I went to Obor, making a small detour on the way to go to a location of the Library I could have borrowed something from, having taken the pass with me… Only to find it closed again, the sign stating that it had been closed for inventory until July 30 and as of August 2 they went on vacation, and July 31 and August 1 were Saturday and Sunday, when it was closed anyway, so it had simply stayed closed and will remain so for quite some time. And a confectionery I’d have wanted to check out on the way to Obor also had an “on vacation” sign…
Once I got there, I first checked that Auchan, then passed through the farmers’ market and kept the cheap corn I spotted in mind, then got cabbage and two tomatoes from that Penny, and then went to that Kaufland, being surprised when the temperature scanner at the entrance started beeping and listed over 38°C for me, but relaxing almost immediately when I realized it was broken and doing that for everyone, and after going to pee I saw that those that were at the store’s actual entrance, just a few steps away from the broken one, worked correctly. Either way, got some of the things on my list, but couldn’t find the pasta listed in the catalog at first and decided to get some of a different kind after seeing a discount label placed there. However, after waiting for a long time for my turn at the only working self-checkout machine that accepted cash, I saw that there had been no discount for that pasta, so I called the employee, she checked, asked me to scan the store card, saying that discounts require it, which shouldn’t have been the case, then removed the pasta after I scanned dad’s card, not wanting to argue over it, and the total remained the same.
After also going to that Carrefour and getting expiring eggs and some more cucumbers, directly handing the label to be scanned by the cashier while I was holding it again, I wondered what to do next, since I was thinking of getting back to this Kaufland, to see whether some of those discounted biscuits would still be available, since there had been quite a pile of them the day before. But I eventually decided to just go back to that Kaufland and get the other things on the list, except the paper towels, which I forgot about, and also got some of the discounted pasta I did find, after spotting those from the catalog but seeing that the price was higher than the listed one and it wasn’t just that the additional amount was supposed to be free and wasn’t, but the difference in price even exceeded the difference in weight. And I also had a better look at the discount sign for the pasta I had meant to get the first time and saw that it no longer applied, the period having ended the day before, so I took down that label. Then I also got myself an ice cream, had no more issues with the self-checkout, washed my hands and face, went out to eat the ice cream, went back to wash again, since I was sticky, then returned to the farmers’ market for that corn, finding that seller still there, though the others from that area had left by then, when it was getting close to 7 PM. She also had very cheap peppers, way cheaper than the already cheap ones I had seen in Kaufland, but I hadn’t noticed that the first time and bought a few from there instead, so I just got some corn and got back here a bit before 7:40 PM.
The first thing I noticed was that dad had taken one of the bags with my bread out of the freezer instead of his, so I wrote him a note about it, put it back and took his out, but mine had defrosted completely by then. It was only after he left that evening that I noticed the worse problem, however, which was that the corn was full of ants! Hadn’t looked when I killed something I felt crawling on me, didn’t make the connection when I saw one in the kitchen, and then, in order to clear the kitchen faster, I took the bag with the corn and the other vegetables to my room, so even though I haven’t seen any, some certainly ended up here as well, since when I took it back to the kitchen and looked inside, they were just crawling all over the corn. And I just reacted, dumping it in the sink, leaving the water running and rushing to wash the bag in the bathtub before peeling the corn in the sink and killing whatever I saw, spotting some other tiny things as well, only realizing after I was done that I should have given the corn a quick boil as it was, to kill everything before peeling it and boiling it properly. Worse, I also threw the unused husks in the trash at first, then picked them out of it after seeing two ants on the trash can, put them in a bag and went to throw them out, though by then it’s clear that plenty had ended up in the trash can, and some had escaped in the kitchen before then. Either way, meant to tell dad about it in an e-mail, and that ended up taking me well over an hour, since when I looked at night I saw I had one from him and it took me an hour to persuade myself to read it, and then a while longer to write something. And I again felt irregular heartbeats at night, and also the first times I woke up, since I kept needing to pee after the mamaliga.

On August 5, dad bought fish and, since I was in the kitchen when he came back, threw it in the freezer, moving the pizzas I had bought for him the day before to the fridge, and when I saw that I meant to make room for both, he heard, told me from the living room to leave them because he’ll start working on the fish, and I had a panic attack just because I heard him. It was even worse later, however, since I had to hang some laundry to dry and he went to the kitchen and closed the door and had arranged what I needed on the balcony, so I assumed he was going to stay in the kitchen until I was done and didn’t try to see where I could move what he had on the balcony door in order to be able to close it… Only for him to get back to the living room before I was done, at which point I found myself ducking and just trying to breathe, but it just got worse, I was hyperventilating, stuck my fingers in my ears but that didn’t help either, and I had to run to my room and try to recover to some extent. Went back out after a while, since he was showering, finishing with the clothes and seeing that he had “washed” things in the kitchen, and moved and rearranged things in the fridge, so I had to do everything again, including washing some stuff I had washed already, since he had placed his improperly washed things on or next to them.
That night, I started eating dinner at 3:25 AM, albeit after a pretty big lunch in the evening. Otherwise, after that first panic attack was probably the first time I thought my eyes seemed purple underneath, and after the second I felt some pins and needles in my feet, or at least in the right one, and the swelling was probably the worst I had seen until then, but oddly enough, despite the panic, there were no more irregular heartbeats. Either way, before going to bed I altered that post that’s scheduled to appear at 11:59 PM on Sunday if I don’t move it, basically returning it to its original form, stating that if it shows up I’m most likely dead or in hospital. And also before going to bed I caught ten cockroaches in the bathroom, leaving them for dad in a plastic box, with a note asking if they were enough, since I had also mentioned that I was worried about all the cockroaches crawling in the bathroom in that e-mail about the ants and when he got back that morning he left a note asking me to catch some of those cockroaches I’m talking about, so he’ll see them too, since he apparently never had even though they seem to be coming out of pipes and walls and crawling all over every night…

On August 6 I didn’t set the alarm and got up at 2:15 PM, noticing that my feet were looking quite fine after a pretty good sleep, though that didn’t, and doesn’t, last. Then I had the usual stuff plus almonds and also a piece of boiled corn, with some more of those nicer expired biscuits, with added honey, as the sweet thing, drank all the tea, put on the full running gear, with some things in the pocket of my tights, and left just before 7:10 PM, when the reported temperature was about 28°C, varying a bit depending on source, though it was going to drop by a few degrees as evening fell.
The time was 1:23:14, with sector times of 4:24, 5:21, 6:12, 4:44, 5:22, 6:19, 4:52, 5:30, 6:24, 4:56, 5:36, 6:27, 5:02, 5:42 and 6:23, making for lap times of 15:57, 16:25, 16:46, 16:59 and 17:07. I again just hoped to stay under 1:24 and avoid the ultimate embarrassment of the worst time over this distance, and at least managed that. But, unlike the previous time, that was all I managed, no longer staying even under 1:23. And while I again meant to at least stay under the 16-minute targets for each sector of the first lap and pushed from the start, on the first sector I found myself gaining less than the effort had led me to hope for, then I lost time on the next two sectors and only barely managed to complete the lap in less than 16 minutes, so it looked bad and I recalculated the targets for the following laps, staying under the one for lap two but then just missing even the yet again recalculated one for lap three. That meant I had to really push, and I did and just stayed under 17 minutes on lap four, so a lap five like that previous time would have allowed me to at least squeeze under 1:23 again… But after the first sector it was clear that there was no chance of that, so I got disheartened, also slowed to a walk for a few seconds, to make sure I saw the time correctly, since it was getting dark, and no longer pushed on sector two. I again pushed on sector three though, and even more at the end, thanks to two other runners I saw in front of me, just managing to overtake even the second one right before the finish.
The people were otherwise quite a problem, however, so on top of weaving and going the long way around, I had to squeeze through, take to the grass, even on straights, and there was a spot on sector one, after the straights, or actually on that last straight that, maybe just because it’s often crowded, I hardly ever perceive or approach as one, where I think I had to at least slow on every lap, briefly stopping a few times as well. Sector two of lap one was particularly bad, including what likely was the most notable stop caused by a roadblock and multiple times when I had to slow because of misunderstandings. But there were notable issues, as in at least slowing or taking to the grass, on most sectors, if not even on all of them. And it was rather windy as well, and quite a few times I was pushing against it and that was not compensated by the cooling factor, especially as sunset approached, the heat wasn’t that much of an issue anymore and the wind seemed to be getting worse. On the other hand, there were no specific physical issues except being unable to push harder, and my legs feeling heavy at first, I guess until the swelling went down.
After the run, I first went to that Carrefour, for the cat food dad had said both we and mother were running out of, and also got some potatoes. Then I continued to that newer Kaufland, looking for evening discounts, but could just grab one regular and one red onion, the few others that were left being too bad, and one bakery product out of the few that were left, and also decided to get just a little food for Liza, but of their store brand. The self-checkout caused issues, however, telling me to scan the product first after I selected that bakery product and placed it on the scales, and when I called an employee and she looked in the bag she said she didn’t think it was what I had selected. But she asked whether that was what it said on the shelf and left it like that after I said it did indeed say that, and after eating that thing and also looking for it at times when the labels were quite certain to be correct, I’m quite certain that I had selected the correct product after all.
I got back at 11:25 PM, thinking that I was getting tired more easily while climbing stairs, or at least it had seemed that way after climbing those in the park, but on the other hand I was feeling quite good after the run, and after being in the cooler evening air, and my feet also looked fine and the veins on my arms were much less visible. Otherwise, after just having a banana and a piece of cake from my mother after getting back, I started eating a big dinner at 3:30 AM, and got in bed at 5:20 AM.

That good feeling from that evening and night didn’t last though, everything being bad again the next day, including my eyes again seeming purple underneath, so on top of continuing to do the exercises for poor circulation I had found, which I had started a few days before but got increasingly serious about, I also held my legs and arms up for over 20 minutes that evening. And then I started eating dinner at 3:20 AM, but that was after again having a big lunch in the evening, albeit earlier.

With this blog basically being reduced to little more than a personal diary for years, I haven’t been posting about current events and no longer even really think of trying unless one provides too good of an opportunity to throw a quick non-personal post here and therefore free a “slot” for another personal one, and it felt wrong to use the situation in Afghanistan in such a manner, considering the tragedy that unfolds for so many and its implications even on a global scale. But Biden’s speech is a somewhat different matter and deserves to be lashed out at even in such a hasty manner.

The main problem is the fact that he said the “mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation building“, and that he “argued for many years that our mission should be narrowly focused on counterterrorism — not counterinsurgency or nation building“, when that’s exactly what it should have been. When you are willing and able to charge into a failed state, you should ensure that whatever you do will result in it becoming a functional one, where rights and freedoms are respected, institutions work, people have a decent standard of living… Of course, I’d say above all one where the environment is in good condition and cared for, but that’s not the point of this post.
How that should be achieved varies from case to case, and it should have been clear from the beginning that the “graveyard of empires” that is Afghanistan required a unique approach. That approach most definitely should not, can not, include “a political settlement with the Taliban“, as Biden stated he urged Afghan leaders to seek, but it might well mean actually taking over the state, at least in some manner and to some extent, instead of pouring immense resources into its fundamentally flawed systems and institutions. If so, that’s what should have been done and that’s what should still be done, for the people of Afghanistan but also for the world as a whole, which will have to bear the consequences of this new monumental failure.
Yes, if we focus just on the places that harbor international terrorism, Biden is correct in saying that “the terrorist threat has metastasized well beyond Afghanistan” and more resources need to be redirected towards other areas, but Iraq is an example of what leaving a failed state behind leads to and you won’t get far by giving up an area first and hoping for a chance to make gains in another later. Willingly allowing some threats to greatly increase is obviously the wrong policy even if you just look out for your own interests and react to threats.
But just looking out for its own interests and reacting to threats is not what a superpower, which the United States still is, should do, and not what a world leader, which Biden definitely is, should do. With great power should come great responsibility, and I’ll once again stress that nation building, drastically improving the situation and guaranteeing that it won’t return to what it was, or worse, is most definitely what the final goal of any such intervention must be. And, sure, there are many more failed states, many more places where people are oppressed, many more places where intervention is desperately needed, and in some of them success would be much more probable, but after finding an “excuse” to charge in there, and just because they’ve been there for these past 20 years, the United States has far more of an opportunity to help and to “fix” Afghanistan. More importantly, it has far more of a responsibility to do so, to think of the people whose well-being, rights and freedoms, or even very lives, are in danger under the Taliban and act accordingly.
Do I expect something like that to happen? Of course not. People are rotten in general, and those with power even more so. After all, instead of bringing great responsibility, in reality power mainly corrupts… If it even needs to, because first of all it attracts the corrupt, and the easily corruptible. But I did expect a somewhat different speech, perhaps with more promises, and definitely more excuses, and admitting blame and mistakes, not something as bluntly selfish and heartless, and also I’d say misguided, as this.