Shishman Street

~ Veselin ~ 1 Comment

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?
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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.

Reading in June

~ Veselin ~ 5 Comments

I had a good month and read some great books. I’m currently on sabbatical, a three-month paid leave that Automattic awards as an anniversary benefit every five years. I’ll dedicate a separate post to that because it’s a very significant event for me, but until I write it, I wanted to mention it here for context. I’m AFK, logged out of most systems, chilling, and not paying attention to bugs.

So, June.

Best books

  1. Thrawn – a pretty hardcover book with a classic Star Wars space opera inside. 5/5, pure joy. Looking forward to reading part 2
  2. Lost in Math – popular science and part of my journey to discover why certain things happen that shouldn’t, if the math was right. 5/5 but maybe not for everyone.
  3. None of This Is True – an unusual thriller, defining what the new usual looks like. 5/5, but also maybe not for everyone.
  4. Look Alike Twenty-Five – a bit of spice for my month, another Stephanie Plum novel. These are 5/5 if you don’t read them often and degrade quickly if read in succession.
  5. Killer Weekend – a killer has one weekend to execute an order but is facing Walt Fleming. Both will make mistakes. I liked it enough for 4/5 and consider reading the continuation.

Worst

  1. The Proving Ground – Michael Connelly’s take on AI. Not bad but not interesting either. 3/3
  2. Guess Again – I already don’t remember what it was about, other than finding it readable but not memorable.