This is not how mature human beings behave

The other day I had an encounter with a spoiled little brat …although according to her, she was hardly a brat. Well, like a 23-year old brat ×D I would prefer to tell her this in her face, but was …unable to do it; nothing better to do here anyway, so why not blog about it a bit?

Think a little intro is required for you to get the perspective. Well, kill me; either just don’t read this paragraph or don’t read the post at all ×D Anyhow, I’ve been playing Star Wars The Old Republic for ages now. We used to have a local guild (I actually blogged [Croatian] about it like 8 years ago), but it’s been pretty-much dead for years now. I’ve been going through different guilds with different toons for the past few years, but I’ve always kept the main toon in the old guild in hopes people might start showing up again. Well, whenever I log onto that toon, there’s maybe one more person online in the guild in addition to meself and not a very talkative person at that. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago or so, I logged in to find someone online, and a talkative someone at that! Now, for the sake of argument, let’s just call that someone Alma.

I managed to talk Alma in joining my current guild (very nice people in there 🙂). One evening I even stayed up quite long to invite all her toons to the Imperial guild. Note that, anyone could have done that, but she wanted me to do it. We were planning to do a mission together for some time, but never managed to synchronize our timetables ×D Once she actually fucked me up good without touching my dick by a milimetre ×D but never mind that. Anyhow, one evening we started the so much planned mission …and, well managed to do five minutes tops, when the bitch left the mission, stopped talking to me, blocked me and soon afterwards left the guild and discord servers (hence me blogging instead of telling this to her face ×D ). So what happened? She wanted to skip everything (cinematics, dialogues and whatever). I wanted to hear the story ’cause it had been ages since I’d done the mission before, so I told her mkay, I wanna hear the story, so I’m gonna skip as soon as I read/hear what they’re saying. Well, needless to say, little Alma didn’t like that… Now, Alma before trashing your spoiled little ass, like you deserve, lemme apologize if you lied about your age and you actually are like 13 years old. I mean, your spoiled behaviour is still inexcusable, but at least it can be understood in that case. Anyhow, who the FUCK do you think you are for everything to be exactly the way you want?! Not willing to compromise one bit or at least tell me why it’s so bloody important for you to skip bloody everything… This is how spoiled brats in puberty behave; not mature people. Although we understand and tolerate such a behaviour in puberty, we nevertheless chide kids because it’s unacceptable and we certainly don’t encourage such a behaviour. You told me you’d left a guild because of an argument. Well, if you behaved like that, no wonder. At least, you had sense enough to leave us before we kicked you for spoiled behaviour. Of course, it’s possible you hadn’t had the sense with the previous guild and they actually kicked you. In which case, you kinda learned a lesson; but a better lesson to learn would be to change your bloody behaviour rather than fleeing guilds before you show your true colours.

Oh, I’ve been kidding with a guildy how women can be bitchy during PMS. Before, you conclude that’s just some geeky macho talk, the guildy in question is a woman ×D Anyhow, nope, PMS ain’t an accuse. I’m frequently in pain and I don’t jump around at people. If I feel moody, cranky or whatever, I avoid contact. I certainly don’t agree to do something with someone, only to jump at them and vent all my frustrations at them… Well, at the very least, if you do such a thing, you can say you’re sorry afterwards, you were just pissed at the world and overreacted; you know something that tends to work best when you don’t brake all the contact whatsoever…

A little digression: Alma and I did one mission together before the planned mission. A weird guy – to say the least – did that one with us and Alma immediately said she wouldn’t do any more mission with him which is her prerogative and, well, I mean the guy wouldn’t even revive his fallen comrades! Anyhow, just before going all haywire, Alma told me that I was “worse” than that guy. Well, Alma, the guy in question might be weird and if you ask me he does behave a bit childishly, but not like a spoiled brat. So I may be “worse” than him, but we’re both better than you, which makes you…,

Well, that’s it,
Take care, cheers and skål!

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Posted on 23^rd August, 2020 at 09:19 GMT
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No more Emojipedia and character map (and/or typing Unicodes)!

Good moaning folks!

Been ages since I blogged last, but well… life and shit happens 😕

Anyhow, recently I found out keyboard shortcuts to access emojis and symbols anytime, anywhere in Windows. Quite simple actually and I can’t believe I didn’t hear of it before! Lifesaving if you ask me because, in addition of being able to enter shiny emojis everywhere where they are supported (actually a lot more common than it seems on the first glance…), you can enter any character you would ever need without the character map or typing Unicodes (although you might find typing Unicodes quicker depending on your needs). If you wanna write about, dunno, El Niño and want to spell the phenomenon properly, but don’t have access to Ñ, these shortcuts can come in quite handy. Although, if you want quick access to Ñ and loads of more characters, I suggest you add US International keyboard layout in addition to your local layout and if your default layout is the basic US layout (which is the case in all Anglophone countries except the UK and Ireland 🙂), you might consider making US International default because because the US International layout is the same as the basic US layout with additional characters being accessed with AltGr (right Alt) key.
You might also want to try to customize your own layout with MS Keyboard Layout Creator (a free 🙂 program for Windows) to make it more functional like me.
But those are different stories 😀

Now, I should thank Mosh Hamedani for this “discovery” because it was his YouTube Python course that made me Google this shit out 😀 So, thanks Mosh! 😀

Anyhow, the keyboard shortcuts on American QWERTY keyboard layout are Win Key + “.” and Win Key + “;” (without the quotes, of course 🙂). As for other layouts, try pressing keys located where “.” and “;” are located on the American keyboard (in my case those are “.” and Č).
Now, once you press either of those combinations, you get a popup with emojis! 😀

Click on the image to enlarge it

To gain access to symbols,  just click on the little Ω after clicking Win + “.”.

Click on the image to enlarge it

Now, the reason I had to Google my ass of is because the shortcuts didn’t work for me at first! They started working after I accessed emojis on touch keyboard first. So to enable touch keyboard, right-click on the taskbar and checkmark Show touch keyboard button (I watched this tutorial). Once touch keyboard is enabled, a small keyboard icon is gonna appear left of the language code left of the clock. Click on it and click on the emoji icon to enter an emoji once the keyboard pops up

Click on the image to enlarge it

You can just disable the touch keyboard afterwards if you want. Although, touch keyboard can be quite shiny, especially if you use other layout(s) in addition to your local layout (e.g. I have Greek, Serbian Cyrillic and US International in addition to Croatian) because you can see how the keys on those layouts are mapped, so you might consider keeping the touch keyboard 😉

That’s it, if you still have trouble with emoji/symbols shortcut, try switching to the American layout and this “guide” applies only to Windows I don’t know if this works on Linux; probably depends on a distro 😉

Well, cheers!

Update 15^th June

A small wee little update. With all the work I’m taking Mosh’s course slowly. Anyhow, the guy just said he hated cats and the motherfucker was LAUGHING! Well, Mosh, you are a fucking asshole and now I hate you! Was thinking of buying your advanced course after I finish this one, but now – if I’ll go for advanced at all – I’m either buy another advanced course or steal yours! And just after being smart he “encouraged” me to “get ‘his complete Python course'”. Well Mosh; I might indeed “get” it, but you won’t get a penny from me! Who the fuck do you think you are spreading such hatred?! It’s my time for (evil) laugh MWHAHAHA ×D
I mean, this morning before work me kitty spilled me juice all over the table and floor, so I had to waste precious morning time cleaning the mess (being half asleep, I doubt I did a pretty good job anyway 😕) and I ended up going to work thirsty! I’m going to kill the little punk for it when I return home 😡 but that was an isolated incident!

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Posted on 28^th April, 2020 at 18:54 GMT
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Optimal resolution for a 14″ screen

Do you have a 14″ laptop? These days, they make full HD 14″ screens, but full HD ain’t optimal for a desktop environment: text is often too tiny. True, you can scale the text, but that can look terrible depending on the program whose text is being scaled. Took me a year (and a half), but I finally realized, I should just divide 1920 with 1080 (1920×1080 is full HD) and then divide lower resolutions Windows supports until I reach the same result …and I found it 😀 The resolution is 1600×900. Everything looks nice and smooth, the text – in normal font size – is readable and no need for scaling 😀

Just don’t forget to set the resolution back to 1920×1080 when you connect your computer with a telly 😉

Cheers!

Good morning, Europe!

Europe, I wish you a good winter morning!

The morning was pretty dark, ah? After all, tonight was the longest night in the year.

Now, all you permanent DST (summer time) proponents; how dark would the morning be if we were observing summer time now?

I have a question for you: Why the fuck should we suffer dark(er) winter mornings because it’s too hard for you lazy assholes to move clocks back for a single bloody hour in autumn?!

Pomicanje sata – uski pogled

Ovaj post sam zamislio kao odgovor na komentar na članak iz Novog lista koji sam spomenuo u prethodnom postu, ali “uvod” se malo odužio. Zato sam do odgovora stavio Ctrl+F kôd. U biti, ako želite preskočiti na odgovor, pritisnite Ctrl+F (izbornik \ Traži/Pronađi na stranici) i upišite cfteo 🙂

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Ljudi bi navodno trebali imati široki kut gledanja. Međutim, raja često ima uzak pogled – vidi samo ono ravno pred nosom i ne okreće pogled ni malo sa strane. Raja jednostavno ne promišlja. Pomicanje sata je klasičan primjer. Šta raja vidi? Tlaku pomicanja sata dva puta godišnje, ali zato prednosti pomicanja sata uzima zdravo za gotovo.

Što je uopće pomicanje sata? Pomicanje sata je pametno iskorištavanje dnevnog svjetla tijekom  godine i šlus! Ali raji ne pada na pamet da sunce ljeti ne izlazi u 4 ujutro, a zalazi tek oko 9 navečer zato što smo pomaknuti sat vremena. Tako je mrak ujutro dok svi spavaju, a dan kada smo aktivni; i to najčešće vani. A ni jutra nam nisu prevruća. Ako su vam ljeti jutra vruća već sada; bila bi još toplija da nismo pomaknuti za taj jedan sat jer ljeti svaki sat puno znači. Zimi, pak, nemamo depresivna i mračna jutra jer se na jesen vratimo za taj jedan sat. Djeca ne idu u školu po mrklom mrak; niti mi idemo na posao po mrklom mraku (barem većina nas ne ide). Istina, dižemo se u mrak; ali dok se spremamo za polazak, počinje se daniti. Potpuno se razdani do drugog sata škole. Dok izađemo ujutro iz kuća, već se malo zagrije (da smo zimi pomaknuti za sat, najhladnije bi bilo baš kada idemo na posao / u školu); vozači ne voze po mrklom mraku itd. I sad ti meni reci da to nije vrijedno pomicanja kazaljki za jedan jedini sat dva puta godišnje.

Ali, naravno nitko ni riječi o tome. Tek nakon što su svi mediji ishvalili bijednu anketicu i retardirani prijedlog Europske komisije (pročitaj prethodni post), počeli su se pojavljivati naslovi poput Zimi mrak do pola devet ili ljeti dan u 4 ujutro?! E pa kasno novinarčići na Kosovo stižu. Puno ljudi je odjednom skužilo da pomicanje sata nije tako loše. Zato pitanje kakvi bi bili rezultati famozne ankete da joj je prethodila kampanja koja bi ljudima napomenula gore navedeno. Ali šta će ti kampanja za neobvezujuću anketu?! Nadalje, da je anketa provedena zimi, uvjeren sam da bi rezultat bio suprotan, odnosno da bi većina bila za “zimsko” vrijeme tijekom cijele godine jer bi im trenutni raspored dnevnog svjetla bio dobar i ne bi im palo na pamet kako bi bilo ljeti, nego samo da lijenguze ne pomiču sat… U kolovozu je većina bila za ljetno vrijeme jer im nije padalo na pamet kako bi zimi bilo na ljetnom vremenu; samo da se ne pomiču sat…
Međutim, najglasniji su oni koji i dalje tupe svoje; oni kojima možeš milijun puta iznijeti svoje argumente; oni, naravno, nemaju poštene protuargumente i često se razumiju u računanje vremena ko Mara u krivi kurac; ali filozofiraju.

Više uopće nije bitno da li se pomicanje sata ukida, nego retardirani prijedlog Europske komisije da svaka članica bira hoće li cijele godine biti na standardnom (“zimskom”) vremenu ili ljetnom. To može rezultirati apsurdnim i nelogičnim vremenskim zonama, pa bismo u skoroj budućnosti mogli pomicati sat na svakom drugom graničnom prijelazu tijekom cijele godine umjesto da ih svi pomaknemo dva puta godišnje. Rokovi, za donošenje odluke, koje bi članice dobile su jednostavno neostvarivi ako ne želimo da sve ode u krasan kurac.
Gosponu Junckeru istječe mandat, pa bi sad htio skupiti čim više političkih poena dok još može da ga zapamte kao predsjednika koji je “spasio građane od pomicanja sata”. To je jedini razlog koji vidim za tako ishitreni prijedlog. Tipično politički, jebe se njemu šta će ostaviti nasljedniku. E, ali malo se zajebao jer ako razjebe Europu, bit će zapamćen upravo po tom da ju je razjebao. Ne znam, čini mi se da ga je malo rano počela loviti demencija. A eto, to se događa kad ti mozak pliva u alkoholu 🙂
Ukratko, najvažnije je da ostanemo vremenski usklađeni – ako se pomicanje sata ukine, onda svi trebamo ostati na istom računanju vremena; a ne da imamo vremenski kolaž od kontinenta. Koji kurac su u toj jebanoj anketi uopće postavili pitanje da li bi radije zadržali ljetno ili “zimsko” računanje vremena?! Da nisu, ne bismo bili u problemu kome udovoljiti.

Teodore, Teodore (cfteo)

U biti, o tome smo napisali članak u Novom Listu. Naveo sam ga u prethodnom postu i u oko mi je upao jedan komentar.
Iako je pametnjaković od komentatora krajnost; slično razmišlja puno raje. Zato sam ga odlučio tu prokomentirati da baš ne komentiram direktno članak na kojem sam radio ×D

U početku sam mislio izbrisati ime komentatora i ne obraćati se njegovim imenom, ali budući da se lako vidi tko je komentator; to bi bilo vrijeđanje inteligencije.

Evo komentara

Za početak, pametan se ne miješa u ono što ne razumije. Ali kad se netko već miješa u nešto što ne razumije, onda je tipično da za ono o čemu nema pojma – ili ako jednostavno nema protuargumenata za ono što pročita – kaže da je sranje…

Prvo bih te pitao da li ti uopće znaš što je to anketa? Da li znaš da postoji razlika između referenduma i ankete? Jesi li čuo za izlaznost? Da li znaš da je čak i da bi referendum bio važeći potrebna izlaznost veća od 1%? Da li možda s ovih 90% misliš na postotak izašlih na anketu Komisije iz Hrvatske? Prvo, to ti je jednina; drugo 90% ih se izjasnilo za ukidanje pomicanja sata, među njima je bilo i onih koji nisu za ljetno vrijeme; treće na anketi je sudjelovalo 0,52% stanovništva RH – to ti je ugrubo 22 281 stanovnik, od kojih 10% uopće nije za ukidanje pomicanja sata, znači ugrubo znamo da su cijela 20 053 stanovnika za ukidanje pomicanja sata; za ostale samo nagađamo i čak ni ne znamo koliko je od ovih 20 053 za ljetno, a koliko za “zimsko” računanje vremena. Informacije radi, Hrvatska je na popisu 2011. imala 4 284 889 stanovnika. Priznam, nisam vrstan matematičar; ali ovo mi se ovo baš ne čini reprezentativno…
Kad smo već kod famozne ankete, želim reći onim 4 262 608 građana Lijepe Naše koji nisu sudjelovali u anketi da smo svi dobili pitanje Ako se ukine pomicanje sata, za koje računanje vremena ste? – i oni koji su bili za i oni koji su bili protiv pomicanja – tako da kad se tumači da je velika većina ispitanika bila za ljetno vrijeme, pitanje da li uključuju sve ispitanike ili samo one koji su bili protiv pomicanja sata.

Sad mi, molim te, reci koje su to “gotovo sve zemlje EU” koje žele ljetno računanje vremena. Ono, malo mi potkrijepi izvorom. Bojana ti je već spomenula sjevernjake kojima nikako ne odgovara ljetno računanje vremena zimi.
U Zagrebu je jučer sunce izašlo u 7:28, a danas u 6:28. Kako si već, sigurno, čuo na TVu, u ova dva mjeseca će se dan još skratiti tako da će izlazak sunca na zimski solsticij biti u 7:30 (kao jučer za vrijeme ljetnog vremena) to bi bilo 8:30 da ostanemo na ljetnom vremenu zimi. U Helsinkiju je jučer sunce izašlo 8:29, a danas u 7:32. Budući da su njima razlike u trajanju dana puno veće, njima će razlika od danas do solsticija biti još veća.

Inače, ovo ti je fotka prosinačkog jutra (09:00) u Moskvi kada su bili na ljetnom vremenu. Kmica?! Eto, takva divota čeka Europu ako cijele godine budemo na ljetnom vremenu 🙂 Sunce ti kalajisano, uskoro će sve škole biti kmicaschule 😉

Mislim, čitajući tvoj komentar dalje, imam dojam da misliš da je razlika u duljini dana rezultat pomicanja sata. Ali, Teodore, razlike u duljini dana nemaju veze s pomicanjem sata… Jesi li išao u osnovnu školu? Jesi li je prospavao? Da sad ne ulazim u nagib Zemlje u odnosu na Sunce (to je ipak gradivo za trojku), Zemlja ti nije ravna ploča 🙂 Ne, ljeti smo samo pomaknuti za jedan sat. Da nismo, svitalo bi sat ranije, a bogme i zalazilo ranije, ali bi dan bio jednako dug… Tako bi ti zimi dan i dalje bio kratak da smo pomaknuti za sat remena, i opet bi kurca stigao; samo bi ujutro bio čisti zombi 🙂 Da, neki ljudi ne žele po mrklom mraku i smrzavici na posao bilo pješke, javnim ili osobnim prijevozom; niti žele da im djeca idu u školu po mrklom mraku. Ti nas možeš zvati nenormalnim, ali eto nama nije do jutarnjeg mraka 🙂 Da, sada zimi nije mrak do 8. Kad bi i bio, onda bi mrak na ljetnom vremenu bio do 9. Savvy? Mi, nenormalni, se dižemo prije 9, pa nam nije svejedno je li mrak do 9 🙂 Na kraju krajeva, Teodore, zašto bi nam bilo mračno… -čnije! ×D jer je ljenčugama poput tebe teško vratiti kazaljke na jesen?!

I sad te moram razočarati. Ukidanje pomicanje sata u Europi je lako moguće, ali ako se ukine, nas će vjerojatno zahvatiti standardno (“zimsko”) vrijeme. Naime, uz to što ljetno vrijeme zimi nikako ne paše Skandinavcima, EU će ovo vjerojatno iskoristiti priliku da skrši vremenske zone na minimum. Budući da ono što je nama “zimsko” vrijeme je ljetno vrijeme za zapadnu Europu; zapadna Europa će vjerojatno dobiti ljetno vrijeme, a mi “zimsko” i još će zadovoljiti Skandinavce!

Vremenske zone u Europi. Jasno je ko dan da su Francuska i, pogotovo, Španjolska zapravo u Zapadnoeuropskoj vremenskoj zoni, ali računaju Srednjeeuropsko vrijeme. Još jedan uljez, ali ne tako očit, je Benelux. Da, tim zemljama je “zimsko” računanje vremena zapravo ljetno (jer su tada sat vremena ispred svoje vremenske zone), a ljetno računanje vremena zapravo “duplo ljetno” (jer su tada 2 sata ispred svoje vremenske zone). I sad, njih i nas ostave u Srednjeeuropskoj vremenskoj zoni i još pripoje Portugal i Britansko otočje… Jer za turizam, gospodarstvo, promet i bilo koju drugu djelatnost je lakše ako između zemlja nema vremenske razlike.
Na engleskoj Wikipediji je bolje objašnjeno; članak je popraćen i kartama koje jasno prikazuju što govorim.

Također je lako moguće da Uniji ipak dođe iz dupeta u glavu da su zadnje dvadeset dvije godine savršeno funkcionirale što se računanja vremena tiče, ne računajući problem pomicanja kazaljki dva puta godišnje, i možda još uoče da je to najbolji kompromis između sjevera i juga – sjever zimi nema mrak do podneva, a na jugu sunce kasnije zalazi u jeku turističke sezone 🙂 –  pa sve ostane kako je.

Dakle, straha nema, Teodore (ili ipak ima? 🤔)! Sviraš kurcu! 🙂

Naravno, ne kažem da nećemo na ljetno vrijeme cijele godine; pogotovo ako se retardirani prijedlog Europske komisije u potpunosti usvoji. Samo velim da su prethodne dvije mogućnosti puno vjerojatnije.
Iako je većina teritorija koja ne pomiče sat, cijele godine na standardnom (“zimskom”) vremenu, nisu svi; neki su na ljetnom. Na primjer: Saskatchewan u Kanadi, famozni Island, famozna Turska i Singapore. Od navedenih se samo Saskatchewan može usporediti sa srednjom Europom (pa tako i Hrvatskom) zbog svoje površine i lokacije.
E da cijela Europa prijeđe na ljetno računanje vremena tijekom cijele godine, kako bi se Finci zajebali… Od njih je krenula cijela ova farsa oko sata, a zimi im ljetno vrijeme ne odgovara. Ni njima pogled baš nije širok, pa im sigurno nije palo na pamet da bi Komisija mogla predložiti ljetno vrijeme cijele godine. Sada se barem na jesen vraćaju na standardno vrijeme, ali ako ih Komisija zajebe sa stalnim ljetnim vremenom …metnuli bi ga sami sebi 🤣

Ukratko, još uvijek su sve karte na stolu.

Teodore, nadam se da ipak nismo baš najgluplji i najneobrazovaniji narod u Evropi iako sudeći po tebi… Ja se bojim takvih kao ti na referendumu.

Rerendum je skuplji od ankete, ali postoji razlog zašto postoje referendumi i zašto se oni provode. Troškovi referenduma o pomicanju sata bi se mogli skresati na minimum tako da se referendum provede kad i europski izbori na proljeće – lijepo se uz odabir zastupnika stavi i referendumsko pitanje. Ali je problem kod toga što bi rezultati došli kada bi Juncker i raja pakirali kofere, a bilo koja implementacija rezultata bi bila provedena kada bi raja već davno bila doma. I kako bi onda gospon Juncker preuzeo slavu?!

Da li uopće treba referendum za pomicanje sata? Svakako je bolji od ankete; ali ne bi bio dobar, pogotovo ako bi bio koncipiran debilno kao anketa iz kolovoza. Kako sam započeo članak, raja ne promišlja i gleda samo ravno ispred sebe. Preispitati pomicanje sata bi se trebalo napraviti istraživanjem, koje bi proveli stručni ljudi i koje bi obuhvatilo cijelu Uniju, a po mogućnosti i cijeli kontinent. Neka se onda izvažu prednosti i mane i donese odluka; kao što su Ameri napravili 2005. kada su promijenili datume pomicanja sata.

Ali eto, sve će biti dobro ako svi slijedimo isto računanje.

Sve u svemu, glede nepromišljenosti i uskog pogleda, sve više mi se sviđa narodna: Svi su ljudi tupi, glupi; tupi, glupi 😀
Budući da je Čmarac čovjek i to bedak, valjda je jasno da kad velim da su svi ljudi tupi, glupi; tupi glupi, mislim i na sebe 🙂 Evo baš jutros mi Bojana pošalje link i presitno mi je za čitat; ne znam kako zumirati umjesto da mi padne na pamet da malo zavrtim kotačićem ×D

Update 3.4.2019.

Evo friškog primjera Čmarčeve gluposti: Kod mi nije radio jer sam umjesto <form> napisao <from>. Poanta je da sam to napisao 14.3., a skužio jučer (2.4.). Znači, pola mjeseca mi kod nije radio i pola mjeseca sam zurio u njega i čudio se ko pura dreku zašto ne radi dok nisam vidio da je greška najobičniji tipfeler! Sramota! Malo me kasno počela hvatati disgrafija… Dođe mi da si prosviram mozak! 😡

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Objavljeno 28.10.2018 u 14:51 po Srednjeeuropskom vremenu iliti ga u 15:51 po Srednjeeuropskom ljetnom vremenu ×D

European Commission’s proposal on time changes

Today may be the last fall back in a part of Europe and, to be honest, I am a bit dazed because of the time change and a bit tired from changing all clocks, but what are time changes? They  are a smart way of managing daylight throughout the year and definitely worth being dazed a little twice a year. It’s logical that we want daylight in winter mornings, for which standard (“winter”) time is pretty-much ideal (definitely better than summer time). If we were on summer time in winter, we’d have dark and depressing mornings.

This is a photo of a December morning (9 AM) in Moscow when they were observing summer time in winter. Not much to see? Yeah, that’d be because it’s pit black… Lovely, right? This is what awaits Europe if we switch to permanent summer time.

Anyhow, despite what time changes really are about and their usefulness, most people are just praising the Commission’s “decision” to abolish time changes. I thought it right to tell you more about the “decision”. The “decision” is not a decision at all, but a    P R O P O S A L   – nothing more, nothing less – despite how the media might put it.

Could someone tell me why daylight should wake us early in summer? Why have daylight when everyone’s sleeping and darkness when people are active; especially outdoors when we can just move our clocks one hour forward? Indeed, a single hour makes a real difference to most of us although that depends on the location (i.e. latitude).
And what does it cost us? Changing our clocks for a meagre hour two times a year. Now, I call that a bargain.
As simple as that – little sunlight in winter, extra sunlight in summer which we can arrange better by moving an hour forward ahead and all we need to do then is go back an hour in autumn, so we’re ready for winter again 🙂 I just cannot believe people can’t grasp that!

However, abolishing time changes is no longer the issue; European Commission’s proposal – allowing every member to choose whether to observe permanent “winter” or permanent summer time – is stupid and dangerous. If time changes are to be abolished, the whole continent should either observe permanent “winter” or permanent summer time. The proposal could easily result in chaos with every other country observing different time wich would be very bad for tourism, economy, communication, business, transport pleasure etc. I can’t believe someone had come up with something that stupid in one of their sessions; let alone that the Commission’s actually endorsing it!

Now, the basis of the proposal is a failure of a poll with the turnout of less than one percent. I elaborated why the poll is a failure further in the text I pasted bellow. Although, I’ve seen critical articles to the proposal lately, at the beginning – as soon as the results of the poll had been made public, and especially after the Commission had come with their proposal; that is – most media had been praising the “decision” – how we’re saved from changing our clocks twice a year… – and saying everything had been decided without saying what consequences such a “decision” could easily bring us. There’d been a few exceptions like this article and this one though even they lean towards favouring the abolishment of time changes a bit, but never mind.
Therefore, I bombarded the institutions of the EU with inquires about the proposal. I, also, sent a text accompanied by maps to a bunch of media. A local newspaper used the text for an article they published. You can read it here (Croatian).

Anyhow, I’m just going to paste the text and maps (unlike in the article in Novi list, you can enlarge the maps here; that is make the text readable) I sent the media here:

Dear All,

I have read many articles regarding the abolishment of time changes in the EU. Unfortunately, most either just state the time changes are going to be abolished or are content in saying we will no longer have to move our clocks.

We have been temporally harmonized and co-ordinated for twenty two years.

However, European Commission’s proposal on the time changes could easily put an end to such a situation. You can read it here. It is interesting to note that the proposal is still available only in English and French, despite being made on 12 September .

The proposal says every member should choose whether they want to observe permanent DST (summer time) or permanent standard (“winter”) time, which could result in illogical and absurd time zones on the continent. Instead of having to change our clocks twice a year on the whole continent, we could end up having to change them at every other border crossing throughout the year.  When we meet a business partner or a friend from another European country or simply have family there or go to a holiday, we would to have to check the time zone because time zones would not follow any logic.

Click on the image to enlarge it

Click on the image to enlarge it.

Such a situation could ignite or reignite ethnic tensions.
Non-EU members are probably, but not necessarily, going to follow the closest EU neighbour. Imagine if Croatia opts for standard time (GMT+1 in Croatia’s case), as do Romania and Bulgaria (GMT+2 in their case), but Hungary opts for summer time (GMT+2 in their case – same as standard time in Romania and Bulgaria). Who is Serbia to follow in such a case? Whatever Serbia opts for, Serbian Republic in Bosnia is going to follow suit to be aligned with Serbia. Bosniaks are, probably reluctantly, going to back the Serbian Republic to avoid fragmenting the country. In that case, Croats are not going to be happy to have one hour difference with Croatia. Even if Bosnia unnecessarily ends up in two time zones, well… Just take a look at the inter-entity boundary line to see how that would look like. Even worse, although very unlikely, situation is that Bosnian cantons with Croatian majority would align their clocks with Croatia while the rest of the country would align them with Serbia. Imagine the “friendly arguments” while deciding what time Bosnia should observe if Croatia and Serbia wouldn’t follow the same time.

Click on the image to enlarge it.

Click on the image to enlarge it.

Then there’s Kosovo, which will probably opt for different time than Serbia just to spite them. Kosovo Serbs would be even more unhappy with such a situation than the afore mentioned Bosnian Croats.
The Balkans are not the only focal point. By the time the final decision takes affect, Brexit will have been finalized. Despite the UK no longer being obliged to follow EU directives, they are probably going to follow suit of the Republic of Ireland to avoid fragmenting Ireland. However, maybe they aren’t. Imagine how ethnic tensions in Ireland are going to rise with Northern Ireland and the Republic not aligned.

What I find really sad is that the basis of the proposal is a poll with a turnout of less than 1%. The Commission might call the poll “the Commission public consultation with ‘highest number of responses ever received'”, but the fact remains that the EU is not Croatia nor is it Luxembourg, nor any other small EU country. The EU has 28 members with the population of over five hundred and twelve million; making 4.6 million respondents a meagre number. You can look at the results here and see how poor the turnout really was. Most countries “are represented” with a lot of zeros; Germany (almost 4!) and Austria (almost 3!) being exceptions; meaning most of the respondents are from those countries, meaning other countries are not represented well; not to mention the rest of Europe that is going to be affected by the final decision. In addition, no campaign had been done prior to the poll (telling people that they can vote on an unbinding poll is not a campaign) and the poll with daylight being the main issue was held in the middle of summer when days are long! All in all, an insult to democracy; nothing more 😦
Macedonia is holding a referendum on the change of the country’s name on the 30^th [September].* The turnout for the referendum to be valid must be 50% of the eligible voters + 1. How could they ever hope to join the EU with that attitude?! A poll, with a turnout of less than 1% is good enough for us…

Europe is facing many challenges and problems, but at least we have co-ordinated and harmonized time. Why make another unnecessary problem?

Best regards

P.S. I’m the author of the attached maps. Feel free to publish them.

To sum it all up, I’m going to quote a popular Croatian politician from the first half of the 20th century – Ne srljajte kao guske u maglu. Wikipedia translates it as Don’t rush like drunken geese into fog; basically, think before you act 🙂

*In the meantime, the referendum in Macedonia was held and the turnout was less than the required 50% + 1 vote (i.e. it was 35%), but Macedonian prime minister is still pushing it forth; either because he sees the European Commission is pushing forth their crap and his referendum had like a 35 times bigger turnout …or because of the fact that Macedonia is never going to get a better deal from Greece and the deal is the best compromise. And speaking of a compromise; time changes in Europe are just that – a compromise. We go an hour ahead in spring so southern Europe has later sunsets during the tourism period and then we go back an hour, so it dawns before noon in northern Europe in winter.
Anyhow, the Macedonia naming dispute is another (long) story 🙂 If you’re interested though, you can start reading about the dispute here and Google your way around for more 😉

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Posted on 28th October 2018 at 10:19 GMT; 11:19 Central European Time or 12:19 Central European Summer Time if you prefer ×D
Use Time Zone Converter to quickly convert the time

eKupi, nikad više

Prvo da naglasim da ne kritiziram kvalitetu proizvoda s eKupi, niti ju dovodim u pitanje. Sobni bicikl kojeg sam kupio preko eKupi super radi, ali još ne mogu ocijeniti kvalitetu jer je nov.

Međutim, usluga im je KATASTROFA i nema šanse da ikad išta više kupim od njih.

Sve je počelo u utorak 3.10. Odmah sam izgubio živce jer sam sat vremena pogubio na naručivanje. Naime, kad god bih kliknuo Dodaj u košaricu bio bih preusmjeren na košaricu gdje bi me čekala poruka Ništa nije dodano u košaricu. I tako probam ja na Chromeu, ne ide; probam na Operi, ne ide; probam na Firefoxu, ne ide; e na Edgeu je išlo! Već sam se tad zapitao je li eKupi cilj da proda koji proizvod i kako im uopće ide zarada. Mnogim ljudima ne bi palo na pamet da probaju s drugim pretraživačima; nakon milijun neuspješnih klikova, vjerojatno bi odustali.
Dobro, kad je konačno prošlo dodavanje u košaricu, naravski, trebao si se ulogirati. Registriram se i na završetku registracije mi kažu da ću primiti mejl s potvrdom registracije. Čeka Čmarac ko budala, a od mejla ni M. Onda mi je dopizdilo i probao sam se ulogirati bez prethodnog potvrđivanja …i uspjeh! Dam ja svoje podatke, uključujući broj mobitela i dođem do načina plaćanja. Budući da mi je bilo najvažnije plaćanje pri preuzimanju, baš sam pazio šta biram.
Sve gotovo, dostava za nekoliko dana. Prođe petak i mislim ništa od bicikla do ponedjeljka, kad u nedjelju stiže mejl da će narudžba biti otkazana jer nije plaćena… Čmarac, naravski, popizdi; zovem ih, reko kako da platim ako plaćam pri preuzimanju, a bicikl još nije došao??? Kaže mi žena da sam odabrao kartično plaćanje – sigurno nisam jer, kao što rekoh, plaćanje preuzimanjem mi je bilo najvažnije – ali dobro. Kaže ona da može samo napraviti novu narudžbu što je značilo da moram čekati još nekoliko dana, ali ajde. E sad dolazimo do najvažnijeg:
Ne znam da li ovi idioti iz eKupi misle da kada kod njih nešto naručiš, tvoj život prestaje i moraš biti doma 24 sata dnevno dok narudžba ne dođe ili koju vražju mater; ali mi u srijedu nismo bili doma i kad smo se vratili u kasliću nas je dočekala obavijest da preuzmemo paket težak 20 kg iz pošte jer “nikog nije bilo kod kuće” kada su dostavili pošiljku… Mislim, u krajnju ruku, koji kurac sam im ostavio broj mobitela ako se nisu udostojili nazvati barem prije nego su krenuli s narudžbom?! Još nismo odmah znali šta je jer je pošiljka bila 40 kn jeftinija od bicikla. Mislili smo da nam netko lifra neku pizdariju. Znači, prvo me stara vukla u kolicima do pošte da vidimo šta je jer je na mene i bez mene ti na pošti ništa ne vele; onda kad smo ustanovili da je bicikl, stara je otišla u obližnji dućan po kolica u kojim je teglila 20 kg do doma. Naravno, nije mogla i mene i bicikl pa se onda vraćala po mene.

Sad ne znam je li tih 40 kn popust za zajebanciju koju smo prošli ili će mi još poslat račun od 40 kn (koji im neću platiti); ali i da su mi zaračunali 100 kn popusta, nisu vrijedni tog. Nema šanse da išta više naručujem od njih, a i vama bih preporučio da ništa ne naručujete od njih ako su vam živci mili.

Ukratko, eKupi sigurno nije moja internet trgovina!

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Objavljeno 15.10.2018 navečer. u 9 sati

Standardization

Did you know there are more than 5000 languages in the world? The number of cultures is even higher.

In all that diversity we need some common ground in modern world. Imagine if every nation used different time units (i.e. something other than days, hours, minutes, seconds). We’d have quite a mess on our hands. How would we keep track of time? What would be days in dunno Germany, could be weeks in dunno Australia. Mkay, there are different calendars, but Gragorian calendar is used world-wide as an international calendar, so while some have two New Years in a single year (e.g. Orthodox and Chinese), we all enter a new year on January 1st at the same time. Well, with 24ish hour differences because of time zones, but we need those to use daylight properly on different parts of the planet and even in this case we have Co-ordinated Universal Time [UTC, GMT, Z(ulu) Time etc.]; we can just use GMT offset to standardize our local time (e.g. GMT-5, GMT+2…) although, truth be told, many people don’t know the GMT offset of where they live and even more don’t comprehend daylight saving time 😦 But that’s a different story.
For better or worse, out of the thousands of lingoes, we use English as de facto lingua franca. To be honest, it’s probably for the better because if you think English grammar is a bitch, you should take a sniff of other lingoes 😉
There are even Ocean Data Standards and there’s International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

But now, we come to thingies we don’t have standardized. There are many, but I’ll name a few.

To begin with, I would like to point out that I fully support localisms. Actually, they make us so diverse and rich 🙂 However, international standards should be taught at schools across the planet and standards should be used on shit foreigners can easily come in contact with. So, while you can say the distance between Glasgow and Edinburgh is 45 mi and that London is miles away from Glasgow, traffic signs should say the distance between Glasgow and Edinburgh is 75 bloody kilometres and between Glasgow and London 650 bloody kilometres.

Yeah, there’s metric system; a measurement system adopted by all countries… expect for the US and Liberia. There are about 200 countries in the world (the exact number depends on what you consider a country); many of which have autonomous regions often with their own cultural identity. Now, imagine if all those used only local measures… So, to avoid all the mess, we all adopted a single system (a system where units and subunits are simply divided by 10, making metric system the simplest measurement system; easily mastered along with a local system), but there are always those who ain’t willing to adapt one bit. Tell me again, what number do I divide units with to get subunits in the imperial system? Is it the same number with all of them? Basically, dear Yanks, be happy we learn your lingo. Is it so hard to adapt one bit? Well, truth be told, Americans ain’t the only ones having an issue with metric system. I’ve heard those smartasses from UKIP want to abolish the metric system in the UK. Assholes, nobody expects you to abolish the imperial system. You can have it alongside the metric. It has worked out splendid like that in the UK for half a century now, hasn’t it? Not only are you making lives of foreigners visiting your country easier – thus actually boosting your tourism… – you’re helping fellow Brits to communicate with the outside world. Or are you hoping to keep your nation in the dark that way? I don’t know what’s more pathetic – keeping your own people in the dark or doing it with a measurement system. It’s interesting how these ultra nationalists work – claiming they’re all for the people all the while working against them. Bloody, hypocritical bastards… Well, I’m going off-topic here. Sorry 😦

Anyhow, since I mentioned mileage on traffic signs, I might as well continue with traffic signs. There are drivers all over the world; many of them travel abroad. Wouldn’t it be easier to have the same traffic signs all over the world? Again, while most countries and territories use the same traffic signs there are always ARRÊTs (STOP signs in Québec), ALTOs (STOP signs in Spanish speaking Central America), PAREs (STOP signs in South America) and DURs (STOP signs in Turkey). Here‘s the complete list 😉 Aye, we’re way less unified with traffic signs than we are with measure. And stop is probably the most complex word on traffic signs. Goddamn, that’s a toughy! Stop is such a rare word! It certainly doesn’t appear in Spanish and French… Well, at least you don’t need a calculator to convert PARE or whatever to STOP; better than carrying a calculator with you for speed limits 😉 Although, I guess there’s no fine for using a calculator while driving …as long as it’s not on a cellphone 🙂

Say you’re on vacation in Spain and you want to email someone. You use a local computer and want to copy a word. You wanna use a keyboard shortcut only to see Ctrl is missing! Yeah, most keyboard layouts have English labels despite characters being arranged differently to accommodate the local lingo. So, while characters are different on my keyboard from, dunno, those on a Finnish keyboard, Ctrl is still Ctrl, Alt is still Alt, Ins is still Ins etc. Therefore, after getting used to them a little, I can easily use Finnish keyboards and Finns can easily use Croatian keyboards. But, some regions decided to translate the labels… And don’t tell me the  key arrangement is all that matters (“if you know the arrangement of keys, you can work on any keyboard”). First, the point is to make it as simple as possible. I mean the shape of ARRÊTs and STOPs is the same, so you should recognize the sign by its shape, but that’s not the point! The key word here is “should“. I mean, I know a guy who barely mastered Ctrl. Give him, dunno, Strg (German) and his head is going to explode! And that works with what? Ctrl, Alt, Shift and Caps Lock? God knows how other keys are arranged on compact keyboards! I could probably get my way around German labels, but others… especially French! As if AZERTY wasn’t bad enough, I’d have to watch out for Maj, Suppr and whatever… Actually, my experience is opposite. Back in the days of Internet cafés, a few French tourists entered the café I was in and upon seeing keyboards around them, they started screaming something like Clavier! Clavier! ×D
Proves my UKIP point. Assholes “want to change every little thing in their image to save the ‘dignity of their nation'” and end up unnecessarily complicating their people’s lives… I mean, French wouldn’t have died if they’d left English labels. Despite, the lingo still being a major language in the world; a lingua franca in many countries; there wouldn’t be like more than 5000 lingoes, but only three the keyboard layouts are translated to and English (maybe more, but I only know about German, French and Spanish labels in addition to English). Actually, French wouldn’t be the second most spoken lingo of Switzerland – the only lingo in Switzerland that comes close to German – in that case because labels on Swiss keyboards are in English ×D Just like, the metric system doesn’t threaten neither English nor the imperial system in the UK. Well, maybe it does threaten the measurement system because metric is simpler than imperial and is international, so if people get tired of two measurement systems (a big “if”), the imperial is likely to go. After all, we all had our own systems before the metric and they still live in certain phrases. Knowing how many phrases English has with miles, inches and pounds; the imperial systems is miles away from death in the UK and other anglophone regions 😉
Back to the keyboard layouts. Unfortunately, translating labels on keyboards doesn’t seem to be a practice from the past. I’ve heard rumours of a new Slovenian layout. Granted, Slovenes use the same layout we do. The layout was designed back in Yugoslavia, but the idiot designer(s) didn’t have Slovenian in mind, so instead of putting the letters we share with Slovenes together followed by the letters Slovenes don’t use, they put one Slovenes don’t use in the middle (i.e. instead of ČŽĆ arrangement, the arrangement is ČĆŽ). This arrangement increases the frequency of typos while writing Slovenian because you have to jump over Ć every now and then. Therefore, I understand Slovenes wanting to rearrange letters on their keyboards, but translating labels… Note that unlike Spanish, French and German that are spoken by up to hundreds of millions of people and understood (to a degree) by many more, Slovenian is spoken only in Slovenia with the population of about two million people…

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Posted on 8th August 2018 at 13:25 GMT
Use Time Zone Converter to quickly convert the time

Zašto bi invalidi trebali imati prednost pri zapošljavanju

Naslov posta je u kondicionalu jer iako Zakon kaže da “osobe s invaliditetom imaju prednost pri zapošljavanju”, u praksi…

Mi jednostavno imamo dodatne troškove koje zdrava raja nema.
Baš se oporavljam od operacije (zapravo dvije jer se zakompliciralo, ali da ne tupim…), pa imam primjer.

Znači, zbog prijašnjih zdravstvenih pizdarija, oporavak koji bi inače bio dug je meni još duži …i kompliciraniji. Najvažnije je da ne mogu na štake. Znači, sljedećih mjesec-dva-tri sam prikovan na kolica.

Sve što mogu sam, radim sam, ali… U kolicima ne mogu u kupaonu i jedva se prebacujem na ćenifu što značajno otežava higijenu, jelte? Da bih oprao ruke, netko mi mora staviti lavor i sapun ispred kupaone. Detaljnije se ne mogu oprati sam.
Danju se redovito prebacujem na ćenifu, ali noću da se prebacujem i strmopizdim… Imam gusku koju ako je napunim (srećom ova 2-3 tjedna koja sam doma još nisam imao potrebu), treba isprazniti. To ne mogu sam bez da ne prolijem pišaku po podu i vjerojatno po sebi, a da ju prolijem po operiranoj nozi (rane još nisu skroz zacijelile) i da vidiš veselja… A šta je sa sranjem?! Uhvatilo me jednu noć. Skoro sam probudio cijeli kvart, ali sam uspio stisnuti zibe …i šupčić.
Piti mogu sam. Ali natočiti si… Iz sudopera ne mogu. Iz frižidera mogu ako u frižideru ima nečeg. U frižider se stavlja kad natočiš vrč u spomenutom sudoperu ili kupiš u dućanu. Po stanu se furam u kolicima, ali na dulje relacije, da… opet ne mogu sam (nošenje namirnica da ne spominjem).
Ni suđe ni posuđe ne mogu sam staviti u spomenuti sudoper, a o pranju dotičnog da ne govorim. A postaviti stol? Mogu …kad mi netko doda / stavi suđe na stol. I tako dalje…
Srećom, mama mi je još u stanju pomagati, ali što kad više neće biti? Možda više neću ići na veće zahvate, pa ću se sam nekako snaći; ali to je malo vjerojatno. I ovdje govorim samo o operacijama. Preostaju mi dvije opcije: osobni asistent ili maltretiranje žene ili prijatelja. Ne bih sad o tome da je baš zbog invaliditeta i onoga što on sa sobom nosi teško naći ženu koja će preuzeti taj teret; koliko god televizija, portali i novine naveli primjera da je partner stupio u dužu vezu unatoč teretu ili čak baš zbog njega. Naravno, nije nemoguće; ima puno primjera, ali ukupno je toga malo. Nije riječ o diskriminaciju, ali je logično da cure privlače mišićavi muškarci, a dečke ljepuškaste cure. Sprijatelji se čovjek s različitim ljudima. Ali to je to – prijateljstvo. Doduše, zna se iz prijateljstva svašta iznjedriti, ali to baš i nije tako često. Dobro skrećem s teme. U svakom slučaju, čak ti ni ženu nije ugodno gledati dok ona rinta, a ti kurca možeš; a kamoli prijatelje od kojih imaš manja očekivanja. Znači, puno vjerojatnija opcija je osobni asistent koji nije besplatan…

Naravno, bolnica nosi sa sobom troškove.

Prvo da razjasnim razliku između znakova pažnje i mita. Mito se daje prije liječenja i uglavnom je u “papirnatom” obliku. Znak pažnje se daje poslije liječenja i nije u “papirnatom” obliku. Kod nas su znakovi pažnje uobičajeni, malte ne očekivani. Dobro, kad tvoj doktor napravi sve što je u njegovom opisu posla, ajde. Ali kad, na primjer, dežurna doktorica čiji pacijent ti nisi te dolazi obilaziti usred noći nakon što je kontaktirala tvog doktora i ovaj je došao i onda još zbog tebe ostane na dužnosti pola dana nakon završetka dežurstva iako za tim nije bilo potrebe; odnosno zbog tebe je na nogama 36 sati i ti joj onda ne daš neki znak pažnje, pa ili si baš frontalni frontalni kokuz ili đubre malo većeg kalibra…
Onda po kući možeš biti u dronjcima, u tenisicama možeš imati čarape s oderanim petama ili čak rupama na prstima, u hlačama ofucane gaće; ali u bolnici ipak trebaš na nešto ličiti, a opet da nisi u odijelu ili sličnoj “finoj robi”. Ličenje na nešto uglavnom košta.
Danas je boravak u bolnici puno bolji nego prije 10-20 godina. Lijepo imaš laptop i/ili mobitel i vrijeme brzo prođe. Ajde, s obzirom na današnji (tehnološki) standard, mećimo da već imaš laptop i/ili mobitel i to ti nije dodatni trošak, po pacijentu je u prosjeku jedna utičnica, koju nerijetko koristi osoblje za uređaje za potrebe liječenja. Znači, kupi produžni kabel i pazi da žica bude dugačka jer pitaj Boga gdje će biti utičnica (meni je sada bila kod nogu…). Kako ćeš držati laptop kad nećeš moći sjediti? Kupi još i stolić za laptop.
Onda je tu Internet. Da li bolnica ima wi-fi? Sada vjerojatno. Za koju godinicu valjda hoće. Ako ga ima, kolika je brzina? Što kada se svi zakvače? Znači, plati si pošteni mobilni internet. I tako; nađe se tih troškova još.

Invalidnina? Ona pokriva dio tih troškova uz redovitu plaću. Da bi imao redovitu plaću, moraš biti zaposlen, jelte? Čak je i bolovanje neki prihod. Invalidska mirovina? Ona je za one koji ne mogu raditi, ali puno nas može. Zašto bih živio na grbači države kad mogu doprinositi društvu?! Ali moj doprinos državi je ograničen. Ne mogu nosati teret po skladištu, ne mogu konobariti i sl. Zato se i nisam školovao za fizički rad. Poanta je u tome da se “u nuždi” ne mogu zaposliti bilo gdje i tako si osigurati tu redovitu plaću; niti bi mi šef na baušteli tolerirao silna bolovanja. Ovako, kada ne mogu do posla, mogu raditi od doma. Za to mi treba i poštena mašina, odnosno još jedan trošak. Zato kada sam kupovao laptop, ispod i3 nisam ni gledao, ali me budžet ograničio na 4 GB RAM-a, integriranu grafiku i 14″ [zbog prenosivosti (pogotovo u bolnici) nisam htio veći od 13″, ali eto…]. I da, čitateljima koji bi za koju godinicu pročitali post bez da gledaju datum objave i onda si mislili Kaj ovaj bedak pripoveda?! Pa i3 je pizdin dim!, napomenem da je ovaj post pisan ljeti 2018. (a laptop kupljen krajem ’17. ×D )…

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Objavljeno prije podne 7.7.2018. u 11:50

The Fionavar Tapestry

The Fionavar Tapestry is a fantasy trilogy by a Canadian author that prompted me into writing the previous post. I started reading it because the author helped Christopher Tolkien with the Silmarilion, so I thought his works gotta be good. In addition, The Fionavar Tapestry actually won some awards. Yeah, about that…
I also read that Kay (the author) has good knowledge of myths and legends and he demonstrated that knowledge in the Tapestry. Well, that much is true, but that’s about it. All in all, I can honestly say that Fionavar Tapestry is one of the worst works of fiction I’ve ever read.

So the story begins with five University of Toronto students crossing to a fictional world of Fionavar. I have nothing against the concept, but why they crossed – the pretence – is so bloody idiotic. So a mage came to “pick them up” for a party – a celebration of king’s 50^th coronation anniversary – and none of them was a bit skeptic. Actually, one was a tiny bit skeptic, but he was quickly turned around. Mkay, a stranger claims he’s from another world and that he came to invite you to a party, and you accept everything he says, welcome him with open arms and go with him with no questions asked… Yeah… And here I can’t understand why people drawl over a royal bloody wedding…

I should have probably stopped reading right there, but I kept going naively hoping against hope things would become better because an author who helped Christopher bloody Tolkien just can’t write something this stupid. Like experience hasn’t taught me times and times again that something can be good or bad whether it’s written or played by a good or bad author/director/actor. The prime example is probably I Am Legend. Will Smith is a great author yet I Am Legend is among the most senseless movies ever.

So what happened when the students crossed over to Fionavar? They quickly became the most important people in Fionavar, of course and everyone in Fionavar was A-okay with that. Mkay… so you’ve been busting your ass for decades with something and suddenly a brat from another world – who came to your world like a day ago – is bossing you around and giving you lessons. Would you accept it so willingly? Wouldn’t you be at least a tiny bit annoyed? Could you say that everyone around you wouldn’t have a problem with such a behaviour of the brat from another world?

But, the students did lack some skills. A law student, the University’s MVP basketball player, lacked the skills to wield a sword, so the poor soul had to go for a battle axe… Minutes after appearing on Fionavar he slew a big monster. One would say that he was at least a lumberjack… alas no, he was a bloody law student; a basketball player. Basically, the 5 main characters are just a bunch of Reys.

In book two, a guy saved the day by fucking a hag… And the ending of the trilogy?! So the bad guy’s son came to his immortal daddy and the daddy told him that if his son had been killed anywhere else but there, he’d become mortal, but now Daddy could kill his boy right there because if he dies in Daddy’s presence, Daddy’s immortality is insured. And what did the son do? He killed himself to insure his evil daddy’s death… Where is the bloody sense???

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying The Fionavar Tapestry doesn’t deserve to be awarded. It really takes talent to write something that stupid. You really need to be something… And, aye, you have to be an even bigger something to continue reading the crap after being disappointed time and time again which, sadly, doesn’t go in my favour.

I might give Kay’s other works – like Tigana – a shot, but not for quite some time. After all, like I said, one crap doesn’t necessarily mean an author’s entire bibliography’s a shit, but the Tapestry… Just stay away from it! You have been warned… 😊