Today was the last day of the International Book Fair in Sofia. My book harvest this year was primarily gamebooks because there was a shortage of books I wanted and didn’t already buy before it. The Black Friday promotions were too good. The Gamebook association organized a signi … | Continue reading
The mountain was unwelcoming today for a second time in a row. We did a brief walk on the horizontal path for about 1.5h. The wind tried to blow us away, and the snow was just enough to make our hats wet. Our new 5-euro sunglasses from Decathlon that cover the side of the eye … C … | Continue reading
“We Are Legion” is an Expanse style space opera by Dennis E. Taylor. This was the first book by Dennis Taylor I read. Pleasantly surprised by how good it was. Bob is turned into a space ship who can replicate and travel with speeds close to the speed of light. Humans cannot withs … | Continue reading
My 2024 fitness goal is to walk 10k steps per day on average. It’s a tough goal – 10k is 1h 40 min of walking per day, 3.6M steps annually, or 511 hours of walking. That’s a non-trivial amount of time and effort, especially on work days. Busy on Monday? Do 4k steps and you’re … C … | Continue reading
Once upon a time, a widow had twin daughters with very different personalities: Djasta Prasta was lively and cheerful, while Cindil Pindil was quiet, hesitant, and cautious. When their mother gave them fabric to sew dresses for Easter, Djasta Prasta eagerly began working—cutting, … | Continue reading
I hid today to get some quality reading time. The book is “We Are Legion” by Dennis Taylor and is marvellous. | Continue reading
The last challenge was too difficult, posting one that’s too easy 🙂 This is Sofia Tech Park, last evening. I was short on steps. | Continue reading
I completed my Goodreads Reading goal last month and have not finished a single book since then. Not sure what’s going on. The book I currently read seems to be fine, but I’m stuck on it, and the end isn’t near. I can likely read it for another 2 weeks. The book is The Shadow … C … | Continue reading
Saint Sofia is the church that gave the city its name. It was founded in the 4th century and rebuilt several times, primarily because of earthquake damage. The present-day look is roughly the same as it was in the 500s. It doesn’t have a bell tower, unlike all the other nearby ma … | Continue reading
Do you ever see wild animals? I live in the city and the best I can do is see cats, dogs, rats, crows, magpies, jays, and pigeons. We used to have sparrows as well but I think their population suffered a disaster of some kind. Can you to find the cat on the photo? 🙂 | Continue reading
Not sure how did all these cables happen but good job to the artist who turned them into a peace of beauty. They are on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/321emirca/ | Continue reading
I zoomed too much and couldn’t properly capture this little fellow. But his expression is clear. | Continue reading
I used to be a night person. Then I had kids. Then I discovered the saying: If it’s not important enough to be first thing in the morning, it’s not important enough to be the last thing in the evening. — Someone said that on the Internet I’m now a morning person. I still do … Con … | Continue reading
I read 7 books, 1 gamebook, and 1 comics in November. Best books for the month: Worst books for the month: | Continue reading
This is not the usual November for us. Our hike was very emotional, with hail, mist, and strong winds. Lasted about 1.5h. We started somewhere in the mist, ended somewhere in the mist, and we reached some white middle point. | Continue reading
In a magical world that feels like ancient Japan, a girl with fox tail will challenge the demons. She’ll have help by lots of random creatures, some of them interesting and others – less so. The hero path has issues – the superpowers need super enemies. Thankfully, Yumeko’s super … | Continue reading
Looking back, I think the hardest decisions I made were related to giving up certain things, projects, or ideas. For example, I gave up a series of pet projects I had from my early years of engineering. Some of these were integral part of my self-identification. But we need to re … | Continue reading
I was surprised to see this little fellow outside, after all the cold lately. We had several sub-zero days. The violets were fine, and were not alone. It was also my first long morning walk from home to our shared co-working space in over a month. My current route is about 6km lo … | Continue reading
Parked cars. Moving cars. Drivers. Cars take so much space. They need wider roads, parkings, highways, bridges, traffic lights. That space can be better used. We can have bus stops, bike lanes, grass, mud, or even puddles full of grass, mud, frogs, and everything. Moving cars ten … | Continue reading
Yumeko is a half-fox teenager who wields illusion magic. She has fox ears, a fox tail, and is otherwise human. She starts on a long journey to fulfill a long-awaited prophecy about the end of an era. She would need to hide her non-human nature because most of the creatures around … | Continue reading
It was a great WordCamp! My part was on the volunteers team, where I had a chance to meet some really nice folks. Happy that the organisers carried the torch and kept making camps so I had the opportunity to be there and even rejoin the team. Felt good. | Continue reading
I’m glad to be back to the WordCamp Sofia organising team 🙂 | Continue reading
I associate mountains with fitness, work, with a hurry to go back home. Beach is chill. | Continue reading
Kudos to the people in the pre-car age for building places like Sintra, with its tiny streets and bright colors. Modern architects cannot build that. “But where are they going to keep the cars?” | Continue reading
I hated this book but it shook me, so it can’t be bad. Can it? In a future so good that everyone is mostly satisfied, and so bad that it’s post-apocalyptic, a monk goes to the forest in a search for crickets. Finds an intelligent robot with a child-like curiosity. What happens ne … | Continue reading
Saw a pigeon playing in a frozen puddle. It seemed to drink water but wasn’t in a hurry, having a cold bath. | Continue reading
The knight templars had a sense of drama. The inverted tower in Sintra was used for initiating new knights who had to go downstairs blindfolded and then find the exit by listening to the sound of water. I hope the new knights removed the blindfold by this moment. The pond is pret … | Continue reading
I like posting flower photos, this one is with a twist. My app recognized it as Red hot poker or Kniphopia Uvaria, native to South Africa. The flower’s surroundings. Sintra, Portugal. | Continue reading
The jade city is a place where a small group of people can use the local high-grade Jade to obtain superpowers. Most people, including the foreigners, cannot use jade without losing their minds or can’t sense it at all. The power makes them greedy and hungry for more. Two jade-co … | Continue reading
Not sure who takes care of this buddy but he has a 3-room apartment and a portrait on the wall. | Continue reading
Shout out to Nia, who posts cat photos from Istanbul. Sharing a cat family from Blagoevgrad 🙂 When I take cat photos, they are either staring at me, moving, or both. Here, a brief moment of hugging. | Continue reading
I’m quite impressed by my phone’s camera. Pointed at the towns below me and it somehow captured a photo, despite us moving. | Continue reading
The first Japanese shrine I visited during my business trip. From what I understood, the lanterns are ads by the sponsors, who are all local businesses from Gion. Visiting during daytime would be better. The last photo is one of the nearby shops just outside the temple. Not sure … | Continue reading
I spent a few days in Kyoto and have enough photos to flood the blog. But there were only 3-4 things that truly shocked me and they were not the ancient temples, the kimono, or the alphabet. First was the rotating seats in the train. Simple and clever. Why do we not have that? Se … | Continue reading
Hear No Evil, See No Evil, and Speak No Evil (Kikazaru, Mizaru, and Iwazaru) I particularly like this popular Japanese pictorial maxim because it visually represents some of my beliefs. | Continue reading
Cinemax Blagoevgrad is a place where I watched many blockbusters. It lost its computer club a decade or two ago, and now lost its A. I hope it gets the A back. | Continue reading
This beast is one of the few surviving Sofia-B cars. An engineer wanted to build a home-made sports car, followed his dream, and made it, although the car was eventually produced after the communism was over. I’m not sure what kind of enthusiasm is needed to want to build that th … | Continue reading
I believe we can plan the future and forecast the impact of our changes without committing to a prognosis how the future will look like. Any negative prediction would be fortune telling, and any positive prediction would be wishful thinking. So, given that I don’t want to predict … | Continue reading
These people are Kukeri. They chase the evil spirits around Christmas but also on any occasion imaginable. | Continue reading
With a little fellow so smol he’s barely there. | Continue reading
First time this year, a monthly recap post with only 5 books. 4 were good, and 1 was okay. Best Worst | Continue reading