A Walk in Dark Sofia

The Pig There’s a wave of protests in Sofia against the oligarchy, and particularly against a few obese politicians who have been in power for decades. The statue is not fat-shaming. We have a some long history with the usage of this word to describe evil humans. It predates Anim … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 1 day ago

Ready for Christmas

I’m one of many Bulgarians who like to celebrate things with grilled kebapcheta. We adopted the Christmas Markets from the Germans but added our twist – kufte, kebapche, turshia, and high prices, instead of bratwurst and super-high prices. Get your small Coca Cola for 2 euro and … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 2 days ago

The OC by D.P. Lyle, Book Review

A solid story about a stalker who is unusually creepy and perhaps more dangerous than the million others like him. A beautiful journalist receives threats and unwanted advances, like flowers and chocolates, combined with threats. The detective trio Jake, Nicole, and Pancake are t … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 2 days ago

The Void Captured Prey

It’s difficult to spot due to its perfect urban camouflage. Somewhere in the darkness, two carnivorous eyes are staring at me. The predator is stealthy. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 days ago

A Slip in the Daily Steps Average

I slipped on my 10K-steps goal for November, despite having two additional weekend days in the month. I found it quite difficult to maintain the average and eventually didn’t make it. The weather, knee pain, lots of work, zero hiking, a couple of emergencies, and several low-ener … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 days ago

I See You

Visit the post for more. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 6 days ago

November in Books

I managed to finish 7 books this month. Best The other 3 books I read were fine, although not particularly great. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 7 days ago

WordCamp Sofia Day 2

I only have a few photos from the WordCamp contributor day that happened today. I joined the polyglots. This photo doesn’t give enough credit to the group that managed to almost fully translate WordPress 6.9 in Bulgarian. I participated by translating or approving hundreds of str … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 7 days ago

WordCamp Sofia Day 1

I had the privilege to be part of the organizing team of WordCamp Sofia. Day 1 of that event is behind us, and Day 2 is a contributor day, which will happen tomorrow. We gave away over 430 badges, however the exact number of attendees will need some special counting and may be lo … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 8 days ago

WordCamp Sofia 2025 Is Tomorrow

This is the Track 1 hall, looking forward to seeing it full of fellow WordPress people. I didn’t do much advertisement on the blog but didn’t need to – more people got tickets than we hoped for. The team is great and I hope that we’ll have a nice event this weekend. By this time, … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 9 days ago

Booktabby

Given that the last catseller was a bestseller, here’s another one, selling books and postcards. Same place, Ivan Asen II street, a few hundred meters from the other cat. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 11 days ago

The Shadowed Sun by N.K. Jemisin, Book Review

A revolt is brewing. The occupation of Kisua has turned into something closer to enslavement, and the cultural rift between Gujaareh and Kisua makes the coexistence expensive. The soldiers from Kusia abuse their powers a bit too much and the locals use every opportunity to disobe … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 12 days ago

Alissa White-Gluz Changing Styles

Arch Enemy’s vocalist Alissa White-Glutz parted ways with the band and released a new single in a different type of metal. The style is not what we would expect from her, apart from an occasional growl. I’m not even sure what it is. Tried finding but the engines weren’t helpful. … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 13 days ago

Catculations

Ivan Asen II street, Sofia. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 14 days ago

Explain This

What do you think happened here? | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 14 days ago

Six Seven

It might not be that easy to guess the jubilee from this cake but it is contemporary. Nikola, from 6, turns 7. Happy Birthday, Nikola! | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 16 days ago

The WordPress and Jetpack mobile apps should soon have Bulgarian

In a brief moment of insanity, I went over the strings for WordPress Mobile iOS and translated most of them. They are getting more and more difficult as the translation percentage approaches 100%. No surprise there that the people maintaining the Canadian language were unable to … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 16 days ago

Rosehip

I attempted to take a few photos of this cat family but the rosehip took the focus. I need to level up my photography game to give these cats the credit they deserve. The little single-blue-eye void even yawned for me. Not sure if I’ll have another chance with these two – Sofia h … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 17 days ago

Driving in Sofia

I’m blessed that I don’t need to drive in the city, thanks to Automattic’s remote-work policy. But this morning, I had to drive 17 km through the city during rush hour to pick up my mom. I felt like a racecar driver again, one I used to be when I was younger. Locked in a … Contin … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 18 days ago

Black, White, and Rain

It’s difficult to imagine this chain of events, but here we are, documented with a photo. A hot water pipe bursts. One person puts a used tire in the pool, another hangs a red-white striped warning tape to indicate that. If you cross that hot pool, please use the tire. It’s dark … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 19 days ago

Many major websites are down, including X

The source of the failures seems to be Cloudflare. Thankfully, WordPress.com is not affected and my blog is up. Relying on the cloud has its downsides. The Internet was simpler when everyone kept their own servers in the basement. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 20 days ago

Void, Part 2

The void was very friendly and didn’t murder me with a stare. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 21 days ago

Energy Drinks

Sofia has a bit of an energy drink problem. The energy drinks work so well in our city, that the people consuming them fly away from their cans. Here are the top 3 leading local energy drinks from under a single bridge. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 21 days ago

Daily Sofia

I did almost 15K steps today, pretty happy with the accomplishment. All I wanted in the morning was to stay in bed and not do anything, and wasn’t that far from attempting it. A couple of highlights: | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 23 days ago

Why

I get the feeling the new generation laughs at and creates absurd things. Here’s one I saw on my walk. 31 years ago, the Bulgarian national football team reached the World Cup semi-finals. Nice, but long forgotten. Why would anyone celebrate such a distant and insignificant event … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 23 days ago

Rust

May this rusty fellow brighten your day. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 24 days ago

What part of your routine do you always try to skip

Two things, one controversial, and one not. Breakfast. I’m a mild believer in the intermittent fasting. It’s not because of any science behind this diet but rather because if I don’t try doing it, I can eat all the time, particularly sweet things. This can’t be good. I’m sure bad … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 25 days ago

Cat found

Not very friendly. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 27 days ago

Book Clutter

I’m starting to think the ideal number of books to own is almost zero. I feel like one should only keep books that are either signed, gifts, not yet read, or for some reason frequently re-read. Everything else serves very little to no purpose and only forms clutter. The individua … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 27 days ago

If you stare into the void, the void stares back at you

Visit the post for more. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 29 days ago

Charity 1 by Wolfgang Hohlbein

There’s a wonderful feature by the local reading site Chitanka that offers you random books. I would click 10-15-20 times and find something new I’ve never seen before. A few days ago, it offered me the apocalyptic sci-fi Charity. Charity is an astronaut and a military captain du … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 29 days ago

Why aren’t intelligent people happier

I found this nice article today that digs into the subject. Check it out. The article suggests that we’ve been measuring intelligence the wrong way, which leads to poor correlation with life success metrics. Most of our intelligence metrics (like IQ) focus on how well someone can … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 1 month ago

White Panther

A shy yard cat observing for danger. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 1 month ago

The Nebula Collection by Artline

Publishing books with covers that are all part of the same image is still a relatively uncommon practice in Bulgaria. There have been some nicely designed series over the years, but not many that build a consistent visual identity across multiple titles. This is the Nebula sci-fi … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 1 month ago

WordPress Sofia Meetup

I had the opportunity to speak at the WordPress Sofia Meetup today. My first talk in a really long time. Happy that the organizers invited me. The event had food, beer, good folks, and a social part that was far more interesting than my talk. Just for the record, a speaker selfie … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 1 month ago

For We Are Many by Dennis E. Taylor

In the second part of the Bobiverse series, the self-replicating Bob probes have now reached dozens of star systems, and their mission has grown far beyond exploration. With Earth in a nuclear winter, the Bobs take on the monumental task of coordinating humanity’s evacuation. In … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 1 month ago

Domestic Long-hair

This fluffy ball is, I think, a restaurant cat. Lots of the restaurants here have semi-stray cats that would help the customers eat their meat, if they’re having difficulties. Meow. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 1 month ago

October in Books

October was a busy month and I didn’t have much time for entertainment. I still managed to finish five books. Best Book Worst Book | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 1 month ago

Grey Heron?

I saw a mystery bird today. I thought only have one big, long-legged frog-eating bird around, and it’s the Stork. But we saw something like a grey stork, way out of season. Storks have already left the country for the year. So with some effort and the kind help of this website, I … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 1 month ago

The Wire

There’s a park close to our co-working space that’s surrounded by a wall. Right in the middle of that wall, there’s a patch of 10-ish meters of barbed wire. I’ve been to the other side a few times, nothing but trees. Makes me wonder why and how? And a local resident: Very friendl … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 1 month ago

The dark side and the darker side

This is a photo from my neighborhood. This is the dark, northern side of the buildings. And this is a sidewalk, the legal way to cross the highway. Of course, there are other ways further away. I call this sidewalk “The middle path” because it’s medium inconvenience, and in my op … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 1 month ago

Three Wishes

This question has one simple answer, that’s likely also wrong. “Infinite wishes” – you actually only need one, and you’re good. However, if we dig deeper, we don’t want anything to do with the genie. The genie has a way of twisting everything. So meeting that genie means you bett … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 1 month ago

Don’t cross the street

Scary monster on the other side! | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 1 month ago

Dancing in the Rain

This is a nice statue from the socialist period. It’s named Victory to be politically correct but we can rename it to Dancing in the Rain – after all, it rains and she looks like dancing. I’m not sure I encountered much today but I surely soaked wet. Didn’t want to walk with an u … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 1 month ago

The Wildlife of Sofia

I was lucky to have good weather this morning and saw all kinds of nice little things, more than I can squeeze in a single blog post. As long as one has the eyes to look and the curiosity to keep the look for longer than a second, all kinds of findings start coming up. … Continue … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 1 month ago

Rainbow over concrete

For a few minutes this morning, the skies were magnificent. Just enough to make the little abandon his breakfast Ninja Turtles episode for about five seconds. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 1 month ago

Cat’s Tongue

I forgot my office keys today, so I worked for a few hours from a nearby shop and had a cookie there. We have a traditional recipe for cookies called Cat’s Tongue – essentially flower, sugar, butter, and vanilla, prepared in a shape that reminds a tongue. To celebrate that moment … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 1 month ago

Writing Prompt: What major historical events do you remember?

Most of the historical events I had a chance to live through were negative. Beginnings of wars, Chernobyl, 9/11, major protests, Covid-19. However, I choose to remember good things as well. Every person has at least a few personal holidays. Birthdays are important. I do my best t … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 1 month ago