The challenge to blog daily got me motivated to read more and shorter books. I read 15 last month, which I’ve not done since the day(s) I read The Chronicles of Amber. I didn’t blog about most of them, though. Didn’t feel right. The best books for the month were Five and Six by J … | Continue reading
I did it! I successfully read a book with a Goodreads rating of 3/5. Given that most people give 5s by default, the 3 is a pretty big deal. It’s like an IMDb rating of 4 for a movie. What grabbed my attention was the writing style of the first few pages. It sounded like … Continu … | Continue reading
I think my annual goal was a bit too modest. | Continue reading
I pushed myself to blog more and the blog started getting likes. I really enjoy receiving these. I hit a bug of a kind, though. There is a way to violently like someone’s site. I’ve not figured out where it stands in the netiquette. Getting one or 5 likes feels great but getting … | Continue reading
We celebrate the 1st of March in Bulgaria and give away wristbands called Martenitsa. Then we wear the received Martenitsa until the storks arrive or the trees blossom. Once that happens, we can put the Martenitsa on a branch or under a stone. We won’t let ourselves be set back b … | Continue reading
Somewhere around the Technical University. | Continue reading
Imagine a fantasy world with taverns, elves, orks, bands, and corruption. A mixture of Tolkien, Pratchett, the dark part of the Middle Ages, and an exploitation version of Conan. Taverns, gangs, priests, and rot. In that world, there’s an overweight battle mage who works as a det … | Continue reading
Looks like an abandoned shop in an old commie block. However, in 1997, this was the service center of RTS computers. They would assemble computers in the left part and hand them over in the right part of what’s in the photo. I also remember how their technician built a custom LPT … | Continue reading
At the heart of Sofia. To the left is a place called Koloni (columns), and ahead is Garibaldi. The clock tower of the long gone KTB bank would still ding enthusiastically. You have a choice of fast food, confectioneries and book shops. It’s ordinary. | Continue reading
How did that happen? What is it? Found near Mladost station. | Continue reading
I think life is a game that favors people with ambitious goals. Some people may have better cards or natural advantages or disadvantages. No matter what cards are dealt, a person with a goal is more likely to reach that goal than a person without it. A person who works relentless … | Continue reading
This is in Poligona, at the edge between residential and abandoned military properties. | Continue reading
I keep reading the Stephanie Plum series. My original plan was to get to book 5 but I’m going to extend that to book 10. The series keeps being cool and I consistently award high scores. Stephanie Plum is a headhunter who does more and more PI work and less and less headhunting. … | Continue reading
These plants don’t care about the cards they’ve been drawn. | Continue reading
The coziest and most hipster park in Sofia. Probably best area for Airbnb as well. | Continue reading
In each instance, we readily forgive our own minds but look harshly upon the minds of other people. I found this nice 2012 article on r/psychology about how our experience and intuition fool us into making wrong predictions. The emphasis in the article is on underestimating other … | Continue reading
An easy answer would be some individual problem, like health, loss, or work. The hard answer is – dealing with uncertainty without dwelling on the endless negative outcomes. I need my imagination to be helpful. People have come to many ways to calm their fortune-telling never-end … | Continue reading
Hard to imagine that this is a bridge but it is. I’ve walked where the tracks are many times. It didn’t look like that though. Had no tracks, no blue plastic cover, or even guard rails. There were some ways for you to fall down, although I don’t think it ever happened. Getting in … | Continue reading
These two books have the same name. Goodreads says the big one contains the small one and the small one is supposed to be volume 1. The beginning of Omnibus looked familiar (I just started reading it). However, the illustrations are not the same as before. The style is different, … | Continue reading
Reusing old tires for gardening purposes is very common in Sofia, especially for protecting plants and small trees. The results are of varying quality. Here’s a tire swan. | Continue reading
What is your favorite drink? Traditionally made with yogurt, water and a bit of salt. Shake before using. Not all yogurts can be used for ayran. Those with thickening agents or added sugar don’t work well. | Continue reading
I’m fascinated with tiny streets, bridges, walkways, and other pedestrian-only infrastructure. Remove cars and it starts looking cozy. | Continue reading
AI in the wild, posted on a cat subreddit. The community is torn if these are cats, slow-mo, or fakes. I don’t know how I feel about it. Leave the cat videos alone? LOL? Didn’t imagine Skynet like that. | Continue reading
I love reading books. Writing reviews on Goodreads makes me feel accomplished and helps me remember what I’ve read. Before Goodreads, I often forgot which books I owned and ended up buying them or even reading them again. Most of my ratings are 4s and 5s. Some are 3s. Almost no r … | Continue reading
Dropping a recommendation for the visitors of Sofia – the Take a Cake bakery is my top choice of guilty pleasures. They have several shops around the city and no shortage of sweets. I wish I could share a photo with the actual cupcakes I got for Saint Valentine but they didn’t la … | Continue reading
Stephanie Plum is a young 30-ish old woman with no job and no future. She starts working as a headhunter and hunts for dangerous criminals who skipped bond, primarily relatives and beloved members of the community. Dead bodies are flying everywhere for no apparent reason. There’s … | Continue reading
In 1998, I had a very old professor in accounting (Kosta Pergelov, RIP). He would love to sneak philosophy into his lectures. One of his proverbs stuck in my mind. He would stand in front of the full hall with about 100 students and slowly yell if you can imagine slow yelling: Co … | Continue reading
I’m not sure if I miss the snowy February from the past. Probably not. | Continue reading
5pm on a warm Sunday. I’m about to visit a book signing for a genre of books that almost ceased to exist in the late 90s. It’s in Lozenets, an expensive neighborhood located on a hill, in what looks like a residential building. There are no signs. I’m looking left and right. Am I … | Continue reading
Every complex software system tends to have sub-systems that are in the process of being rewritten but stuck in limbo. I call this myself the Hydra, although it’s a term that doesn’t exist outside of my head. The subject of second systems deserves a full essay but while I sit on … | Continue reading
I like thrillers where a strong detective or military or whatever solves mysteries, catches murderers, and restores the balance of the force. Last week, I found the series about Stephanie Plum. She’s a headhunter, a field dominated by men on both sides. She fights with persistenc … | Continue reading
We have a neighbourhood called bed bug, yes. | Continue reading
We visited the greenhouse part of the Botanic Garden yesterday. It’s a nice distraction from the busy and gray winter Sofia and transports you to a world of flowers and fish. Honestly, can’t imagine the effort to maintain all these flowers – they have slightly different needs, an … | Continue reading
Lack of money can make you unhappy but does more money above a certain threshold bring happiness? No. I’ll try to prove that with pseudo-math and book references. First, can we have a functional relationship between money and happiness? Is there a function Happiness = f(money) wh … | Continue reading
I would find like-minded folks and come up together with practical ideas to reduce cars in cities. There have to be other ways to commute that don’t pollute as much and are not threatening to pedestrians and cyclists. For example, very slow speed limit in the city, no free public … | Continue reading
These would blossom in my grandparents’ yard around New Year. It’s the first sign of the coming spring to me. | Continue reading
The WordPress.com Reader found me this story from 2023 on a site with almost no visitors. It imagines a utopia where AI does almost all the work except for some. Like Human Resources. Why is that spared? Check the story. I don’t believe the current boom in generative AI will push … | Continue reading
This poster is almost graffiti art. Also shows what we lose with computer-assisted creativity. | Continue reading
I got to this book by pure randomness, using a random book finder. I had no clue it existed before the tool suggested it. My wish was to read something different and with more life in it. The last 2 books I finished were quite grim and had nearly identical serial killers. So here … | Continue reading
Finance worker pays out $25 million after video call with deepfake ‘chief financial officer’ I can foresee that the “Nigerian Prince” and “We are calling from the bank” enterprises may get fully automated, pushing ordinary criminal copywriters and call centers in impoverished are … | Continue reading
Someone in 1983 communist Bulgaria wrote a book about drinks. I was hoping to find a recipe for Boza but found more modern drinks like milk with cocoa. It also had a cocktail with Curacao. This impressed me because this ingredient is imported and my country wasn’t even able to im … | Continue reading
This is a simple book and part of a series I hope to finish. It comes with promises – there will be races with fighter-jet fast homemade cars. Whatever happens in the race will be decided milliseconds before the finish line. There will be crashes, of course, with speeds that woul … | Continue reading
I like books. I like to read them, to watch them, and to slowly choose them in the bookstores. I don’t like to keep them at home for too long as they take up a lot of space but otherwise, I love books. I also like my Goodreads archive with all the books I read … Continue reading … | Continue reading
This is the tiny square in front of Sofia Ring. One of my favourite places in the city. It has Starbucks, safe space for the kids to play, and a choice of food. The view is fantastic. | Continue reading