Chaos

~ Veselin ~ 1 Comment

Is a little chaos actually good for us?

Constant changes are part of life. Changes come with a little bit of chaos.

Not much changes on Mars and Mars isn’t a very habitable place.

Wisdom from Empire of the Vampire

~ Veselin ~ 7 Comments

I’m reading a second book over 1000 pages this year, called Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff. The book is full of exceptionally powerful vampires that are quickly turning humans extinct.

The main character says that the vampires are people free from consequences. Not facing consequences is what makes them evil, not the vampirism (well, at least for now). It clicked with me because it makes total sense in a world where people compete to be as free from consequences as possible, yet the consequences are everywhere.

I have the feeling this book will get 5*, if I manage to read the whole thing.

Shishman Street

~ Veselin ~ 7 Comments

Shishman Street is sometimes pedestrian. It is beautiful and I hope it would one day become pedestrian-only, especially given that the main pedestrian area in Sofia is so packed with people that it’s no longer pleasant.

I wish I took more photos. I didn’t suspect anything there is blog-worthy but when scrolling through the camera roll, these two photos surprised me.

Better sleep

~ Veselin ~ 1 Comment
Daily writing prompt
What do you do to improve your sleep?
View all responses

I stopped sleeping well in my mid to late 30s. I used alcohol to end the day, coffee to start it, and didn’t sleep much in total. Yet I still woke up at night anyway. The bad sleep eventually contributed to significant health issues.

Here’s what helped me turn things around:

  • No beer. The first 3-4 days without beer are awful but then it’s like no longer carrying a backpack full of bricks. Mornings are far more productive
  • No coffee. I’m convinced stopping coffee helped, but can’t evaluate by how much. Probably less important than beer, I’d place it second most important as I can physically sense the caffeine when I have too much
  • I count my steps and have daily, weekly, and monthly goals. Feeling physically tired helps me but steps are also like a form of meditation, they help process information, get my thoughts in order, and I think reduce stress
  • I dedicate time to reading before bed, as it makes me sleepy
  • Go to bed early. I found a saying somewhere and blogged about it but can’t find the source now. It goes roughly as follows:

If it’s not worth doing first thing in the morning, it’s not worth doing last thing in the evening

The reason for going to bed late most nights was just doing random things online, like doomscrolling or watching TV shows. Not worth it, according to the rule above.

This resulted in better sleep for me on average, and I think I clock 7+ hours most nights.