I purchased lots of books in February but only read eight. The two best were the two that had been stuck on my unread shelves for months, if not years. I read them to clear space for other books and was pleasantly surprised. Best Worst Overall, a good month for reading with a tot … | Continue reading
Karma means that our actions accumulate imaginary good and bad points, which we eventually cash out. While we can find anecdotal evidence this is true, it can also be a major source of anxiety. The expectations usually don’t match reality. Let’s imagine, for a moment, that karma … | Continue reading
While waiting for Dennis E. Taylor’s Legion part 2 to be translated in Bulgarian, here’s a legion of yard cats. | Continue reading
This pigeon gathering puzzled me. I didn’t see food or anything nearby, only cars. Why did they go and stay there, most of them not visibly moving? The big bucket to the right says salt. | Continue reading
All things in life have a natural tendency to decay over time. The building in the photo was once a military headquarters but is now managed by various branches of the government. Different management led to different fate. | Continue reading
The short answer? TL;DR. I’ve noticed a pattern with people who start reading. They would pick a book that they really want to read and get stuck with it. A book that makes a statement. For example, I started reading The Engineering Leader by Cate Huston about 6 months ago, and I … | Continue reading
The book is long. It’s as long as least three different books intertwined with each other. It ends with a full novella after it seems to be already over. The characters drop memorable wisdom, full of logic, all the time. I don’t remember them exactly, but you get the idea—those k … | Continue reading
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I got 3 new gamebooks from the 1990s today. Planning to read toe UFO one soon. All three are on subjects that fell out of fashion in the literature over the years. Flying saucers, samurais, and the Vietnam war. I hope at least one is actually good. Has to be the flying saucer &#x … | Continue reading
One of the two pedestrian overpasses in my neighborhood got renovated and reopened. Here’s how it looked in the beginning of January and today. We had no easy access to the park for 6 weeks, which affected the number of steps I make. I don’t think the overpasses are practical. Th … | Continue reading
If there’s one animal more common than cats around here, it’s the crow. There’s a crow lurking in the photo—can you spot it? | Continue reading
In 2006, Liu Cixin became famous with his book The Three-Body Problem. An alien planet struggles with non-periodic but frequent mass extinctions due to the unstable planetary orbit. The Fifth Season is exactly that kind of extinction in the world of The Broken Earth. While the vi … | Continue reading
Is this the real cat? Is this just fantasy?Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality And a solution to the last Find the cat problem, which proved to be far too difficult. The solution is from a slightly better angle. | Continue reading
Patriotism is a complex quality with both positive and negative aspects. Some people express it by putting a flag on their car, while others hate the rival countries. Maybe wear a tattoo with a national hero. Very few will join the army or the police out of a desire to serve the … | Continue reading
Not taken on purpose. My hands were full with bags of purchases and I was without my glasses, took a photo for the “Find the cat” series. Went back home, put my glasses on, and oh no, there’s no cat. Or maybe there is one after all? Find the cat. | Continue reading
This house is hidden behind the multi story apartment buildings near Orlov Most. I only recently noticed it’s there, even though I walk on the main boulevard almost every day. | Continue reading
The smart homicide detective Naia Thulin has to supervise her colleague Hess, who messed up at Europol. They are faced with a case involving a serial killer who leaves rivers of blood and signature little chestnut figurines. The book is engaging, well-written, but at the same tim … | Continue reading
I’m starting believe that a rule exists such that if you file an issue on GitHub, the older it is, the more weight it has and the probability it’s taken seriously increases. As it gets older, the issue either gets randomly closed, or becomes like a space-twisting gravity well. Le … | Continue reading
When I was a kid, I wanted to live in a mountain hut. I liked Pirin so I imagined my hut being there. It woud have a very large window in the living room and a fire pit with a big chimney. Why would anyone want to spend more than a few days in a … Continue reading Dream Home | Continue reading
We have this tiny storage room in our shared co-working space that likely used to be a toilet and had no door. Ever since we rented it, it’s a source of smell. The door for it was just hanging inside, too tall to be put in place. Today I decided to shorten it and mount … Continue … | Continue reading
Nelson Mandela once said that it always seems impossible until it’s done. This book is a fairy tale about an impossible adventure in which princess Marra seeks to help her sister. The sister is stuck into a forced marriage with a king who is torturing her. He is protected by an i … | Continue reading
One of the most important boulevards in Sofia starts with this house. There’s a newer building at the corner, called Tsarevets (Царевецъ), and it’s a symbol of Sofia but it’s Tsarigradsko Shose 1A and was built a year later. I hope this little pink house gets restored to its full … | Continue reading
Some of the best ideas and lightbulb moments I’ve had happened while taking shower or walking outside, so in a sense, when having a break. A real break for me is when I allow myself to not think about anything. Close the lid early and commit to keeping it closed until tomorrow. O … | Continue reading
I have some ideas to share with you, based on my last 24 hours of blogging. Add Images as Galleries Have you noticed that when you blog a single image, it’s not clickable and stays small? Like this: It’s a very large and pretty image but nope, can’t click. And this is clickable: … | Continue reading
Seeing one cockroach under the sink usually means an infestation. Roaches like to hide. It only showed up because the hiding spots were overcrowded. I like to apply this generalization to software engineering—especially over beer. The way I defined this Cocroach Rule matches the … | Continue reading
Found this writing prompt on Reddit and liked it more than our daily prompt here. I wrote a list and then filtered it out by removing most superheroes. I personally believe superheroes undermine people’s faith in their own future and are just bad taste. You can rebel, learn how t … | Continue reading
My big kid reached the age when math is no longer easy. His teacher is ambitious and the other parents – even more ambitious. Many of his classmates take private lessons. I’m trying to teach my kid some tricks to help even the score. One of the points I make is that when solving … | Continue reading
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2025 starts well, as if the Goodreads challenge is still usable. I completed many good books last month. Best books Worst books | Continue reading
This is Budapeshta Street (named after Budapest), one of the most hipster areas of Sofia where the new and old live together. Lots of restaurants and small businesses and not as many tourists as elsewhere. New graffiti, an old house, and a giant ancient hole between the two, fill … | Continue reading
Chess is a game that should’ve disappeared by now. Chess engines have become so strong that humans can no longer contribute to game theory—except by coding the chess engines. Yet, YouTube is filled with funny and wildly popular chess influencers. As a result, both of my kids have … | Continue reading
A Deadly Influence is a crime thriller about Abby Mullen, a hostage negotiator assisting with a kidnapping case. Somehow, the kidnapping is linked to a cult. Abby Mullen grew up in a cult and is still haunted by the massacre that brought it to an end. Overall, the book is fantast … | Continue reading
I revolved around the proximate G2 celestial body 46 times and we applauded with flavorful sustenance 🎉 | Continue reading
A fellow blogger Dr. Victor Bodo wrote about the types of happiness. He identified 4 types of happiness by origin – coming from pleasure, from purpose, from spirituality, and one from following a wise path. Lottery winnings can greatly impact the first type of happiness. However, … | Continue reading
I hate plumbing but at the same time if a mild plumbing issue appears, I attack it like a Pitbull – fiercely and with a very mild competence. Today the toilet in our shared co-working space didn’t stop filling the water tank. I changed this thing and now it stops. Little did I kn … | Continue reading
Not a tourist attraction but I liked the view. The little one wanted to go there to buy a specific type of candy from a specific store right next to that bridge. Who am I to resist to an offer to walk 1 hour with no particular purpose? We saw many snowdrops on the way … Continue … | Continue reading
Onyx Storm is out. Back in June, I ate books 1 and 2 of the series like ice cream on a hot summer day and rated both 4*/5. The problem is that this new book is huge, and 4/5 is not a very high rating for my blog. More like meh. Where do I draw … Continue reading Onyx Storm: shoul … | Continue reading
I challenged myself to do a 365-day blogging streak last year and managed to do it. I have to admit that I messed it up a few times mostly during trips, most recently 2 weeks ago in Agaete. The blogging streak doesn’t work very well with timezone changes. You can be on a streak, … | Continue reading
I know that shopping isn’t supposed to be a thing that brings joy and we need a more sustainable source of dopamine, but here we are. Got a delivery with 7 gamebooks from the period 1992-1998. | Continue reading
Geo Milev, Sofia. Hard to find pretty things outside these days so here’s something that I didn’t expect to keep hanging. Felt like seeing creepy dolls. | Continue reading
Prisoner of Tehran is an autobiography by Marina Nemat about the abrupt end of her childhood. She was arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard at the age of 16, imprisoned, tortured, and sentenced to death without trial. Some of her friends and schoolmates were executed and sh … | Continue reading
A cat person here but this dog was cute and practically asked me to take a photo by standing there. | Continue reading