Winds of the Winter – Signed Copy

I got a signed copy from the new book by George R. R. Martin, Winds of the Winter. The wait is over! | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

I can scratch

Visit the post for more. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

Portrait

I captured the stare, and then the follow-up “I’m not a threat and don’t see you”. Friendly and talkative fellow. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

Three

The morning was unusually cold. There’s fresh snow on Vitosha, the kind that seems to freeze the whole city. It was so cold even the Devil stayed indoors. His horns get brittle from the wind. It was my last chance to set a monthly pull-up PR. I’ve been taking it easy lately, work … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

Magnolia

According to Picture This, I spotted a Saucer Magnolia today. Will keep an eye on it. Curious if any saucers will fly away. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

Occam’s Razor

Occam stated that the simplest explanation is more likely to be the correct one than more complex solutions. So here’s a problem and the simplest possible explanation, illustrated through Gemini. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett, Book Review

I’ll start writing about this book by comparison. It has the charm of Tress of the Emerald Sea, the worldbuilding of The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, and the green aesthetic of Jade City by Fonda Lee. I mean, the story feels green, not the book itself. That’s good company for an … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

Breaks from counting steps

Regular fitness activities require healthy breaks. The body needs to recover from the micro injuries. Muscles grow, the tendons heal. It also feels good. Walking is not quite the same. We are made to move and we are also not made to not move. Walking doesn’t generate the same str … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

WordCamp Sofia 2026

I joined the team for WordCamp Sofia for another year. This will be my third year in a row as part of the organizing team. The last two years were great, the teams were strong, and I hope we’ll have a good time together again. Just a few photos from last year to add color … Conti … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

Ferris Wheel in Sofia

A 40-meter Ferris wheel will soon start operating in Sofia. It will run from April 4th to September 14th, essentially from the beginning of the spring break to the end of the summer break. It’s located right next to Sofia University, facing the semi-demolished Monument to the Sov … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

Orange and friendly

Cats can be weird. This one came talking to me and a few seconds later went to chase a tuxedo lady. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

Gone Before Goodbye by by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben, Book Review

I knew it will be a tough book to read because it had bad reviews. It wasn’t easy but wasn’t too bad either. Alexander Belyaev has a story about a man who is essentially dead but his head is attached to a machine and is still talking. The head is waiting for a compatible headless … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

Blue Medusa’s debut single, Checkmate, is out

I already shared it here but happy to repeat. I think Alissa White-Gluz’s decision to leave Arch Enemy is revitalizing both Arch Enemy and her career. We are finally done with the nagging comparison with Angela Gossow — Japan 2008 was almost 20 years ago, and is not something tha … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

Stuff you never see if you don’t walk outside

It’s been over 3 years since I started doing daily walks. One of the joys of doing them is just spotting ordinary things that just looks nice, and the early spring is probably the most colorful of all seasons for walking. Here’s for your pleasure, Grape Hyacinth, a mid-80s tabour … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

Let me in

This black fellow is trying to get adopted. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

A mild horror story

Visit the post for more. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

Too close

Don’t make me move my ears back twice, human. Unless you have ham. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

Killman Creek by Rachel Caine, Book Review

Gwen survived the encounter with her husband’s serial killer buddies. Peace didn’t last long. She’s now chased by a worse enemy – a ransom group who produces deepfakes to extort rich people. They’re now after Gwen. She is interesting because her husband is a serial killer who is … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

I have your back

Honestly, I didn’t expect to capture this 🙂 But here we are. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

Ducks, Hanging Hats, and Rust

My daily walk in Sofia was in rusty areas. I saw a duck, which is quite uncommon for my neighborhood. We mostly have crows, rooks, magpies, jays and other related crow-ish species. I didn’t even know this mini-river existed, it starts nowhere and ends nowhere. It’s walled by laye … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

Spring is coming

I’m reducing the steps again, as well as the pull-up attempts. About five joints complain at the moment, including both knees. Hopefully just a temporary glitch in my fitness journey. I’m not skipping exercises, just lowering the intensity. Meanwhile, flowers are blossoming every … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

Cat families

Just a few photos of cats, who grouped themselves by color. Two torties and three white tabbies. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

Sofia today

I remember this kitten from the late fall. She was tiny. Not so tiny anymore. The Sozopol ship 🚢 And some flowers. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

Exit Strategy by Lee Child and Andrew Child, Book Review

Exit Strategy is book 30 of the series about the retired military police officer Jack Reacher, no middle name. Reacher, a 60-something, overweight, and homeless, is traveling the country with a thin stack of cash, a debit card, and a toothbrush, like a modern version of the hitch … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 4 months ago

Anniversary Harvest

I had a work anniversary a few days ago and rewarded myself with some new thrillers. Left to right: | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago

Almost Spring

The wiring on the last photo says “The floor is LAVA”. The only way to proceed safely is to jump from one white dot to another. Minecraft. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago

The Edge by Lucy Goacher, Book Review

Clementine’s sister, Poppy, has supposedly taken her own life. For six months Clementine accepts it as suicide and lives with the grief of not picking up the phone right before it happened. Then new information surfaces, and it starts to look a lot more like a serial killer. Almo … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago

Sunny Sofia

I did 17k steps today, which included more than 1h of playing football with kids between 1st and 6th grade. We finished 6-6, which was not easy to the youngest and oldest participants. The youngest one saved a kick that was too strong and now wears an elastic stripe. The oldest h … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago

The Revenge of the Damned, Book Review

The Revenge of the Damned is something like the closing act of the story arc about Sten fighting against the Taan empire. Over the course of the previous books, Taan had the upper hand – more military power and superior leadership. However, the Empire had a lead in manufacturing … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago

Model Kittyzen

It’s not that the focus or the quality of the photo is that great but I think this is one of my best cat photos lately. Such a charming cat. She’s one of the yard cats next to our co-working space. Here’s the kitten with a friend, who I previously featured here. They’re probably … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago

Commentary on Brandolini’s Law

Brandolini defined the following law: The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it. It normally applies to arguments and misinformation. Now that generating content with AI is so easy, the orders of magnitude have c … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago

Roar

We almost never see large aircraft visiting the Sofia Airport. When I heard the roar, I thought it’s a helicopter or some US military aircraft with a hundred propellers. Looked up, and I was genuinely surprised to see a Jumbo Jet. We had A380 landing here once and it made it to t … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago

Liberation Day

Today is Bulgaria’s national holiday. Happy liberation day to all of us! 🇧🇬 Unfortunately, we couldn’t visit the celebration this year. We used to have fireworks, which the kids loved and gave us a reason to go to the ceremony. The fireworks were cancelled a year … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago

Two Reps

This is my first documented pull-up with my feet not touching the ground even slightly. When I set an annual goal of one pull-up, it felt like a stretch goal. Doing it in 2027 was quite fine for me. I haven’t been to the gym since 2019, more than 6 years ago. I haven’t done … Con … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago

February in Books

February didn’t bring any particularly interesting books to my shelves. I was tempted to skip the monthly summary this month but it would break a long tradition. My alternative idea for a blog post was to write about 4-dimensional spheres. Unfortunately, that idea needs more rese … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago

Knee

I did my first true long walk since I bumped my knee into a concrete trash can a week ago. 10K steps in one go and the knee held well. I dodged a bullet this time. However, I lost my shape, feeling as if I did 20K, not 10K. The bin is now out of … Continue reading Knee | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago

Criticism

In How to Win Friends & Influence People, Dale Carnegie argues that criticism is futile. Criticism opens the gates to hell, little devils fly back, criticize, gossip, and destroy morale. Abilities wither under criticism; they blossom under encouragement. And yet, walking around a … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago

Rusty the cat

A story about the 33-year-old cat Rusty took Reddit by storm. Rusty passed away at the age of 33, making him into top 10 of the oldest cats in the recorder cat history. The poster submitted proof to the mods of r/cats that Rusty was real. People rushed to update Wikipedia’s list … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago

Fluff

Fluff from 5 posts ago moved 5 meters to the right, proving he can move if there’s a warmer surface nearby. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago

Fleet of the Damned by Chris Bunch and Allan Cole

The resourceful captain Sten joins the navy and leads a small group of spaceships in the battle against the Tahn. The genre is a retro space opera with dumb computers and ships that need hundreds of people to be operated. The story takes a sharp turn from what we saw in the previ … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago

Muted Reddit’s auto-subscription after it became intolerable

Reddit somehow detected that I’m interested in AI and Data and auto-subscribed me to several hundred AI and Data subreddits. This turned their feed to an endless slop machine. Every single pre-IPO hype post or or doom prophecy would pop on my feed multiple times per subreddit, 5 … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago

Arch Enemy has a new lead singer, Lauren Hart

Sounds like the departure of Alissa White-Gluz worked well for both parties. I already blogged how Alissa’s new work feels more like her, fresh and different. And here we are, Arch Enemy with Lauren Hart, performing as if she’s always been there. Their music sounds like a fantasy … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago

Limping Park

I managed to do 3K steps today. My knee is better, only hurts when walking. The pain at rest is gone. However, I think I won’t be able to do the daily steps challenge for another week or so. Meanwhile, the winter decided that it’s not over yet and surprised us with snow. The weat … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago

Why so serious

I had a health scare today. Bumped my knee into a concrete trash can right outside a playground. I suspect making steps won’t be possible for some time but at least nothing is broken, other than my plans. I moved the damn trash can out of the way. Whoever put it right at the exit … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago

Berlin meowall

I find myself unable to blog about anything other than cats these days. Thanks for your patience 🙂 | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago

Trabant

A Mercedes is trying to overtake a Trabant on the highway. The speed is high, way over the limit. The Mercedes is in the red, driving parallel to the Trabant. At the last moment, the Trabant slows down slightly. The Mercedes driver rolls down his window and shouts to the Trabant … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago

The Guardian

Visit the post for more. | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago

Rep

I set myself a goal to do one pull-up by the end of the year. I made some progress yesterday. My one rep is not a clean pull-up. The grip is neutral, and my legs are touching the ground from the moment I started pulling. I didn’t jump, but it’s not entirely clear from the … Conti … | Continue reading


@veselin.blog | 5 months ago