Cats, good books, AI, and religious walking in the city of Sofia
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 or two ago to not upset the animals.
At least fluff wasn’t disturbed.
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 any upper body training other than carrying kids since then. I’ve also gained weight.
But while I wonder if I should update the goal or blame the steps, here’s a video.
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 research and lost. After all, have you seen a 4-dimensional sphere?
Now that I look at the list, it’s hard to distinguish any book as particularly worst of all. I read a book that had an average of 1* on Goodreads. Was it bad – yes! But was it worse than Children of Time that took me 2 months? Not at all. It was a quick read with an okay idea.
I owe myself some good books. Or a break from reading bad books. Even the best two above were not something you’d want to remember. Maybe I need to find myself something non-fiction to flush my brain.
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 the way, hopefully it doesn’t hurt anyone else.
And speaking of trash, a the gallery below shows a pigeon eating steak, Wartburg 1.3, and a cat, resting on a pillow. Sofia is not very clean under our current leadership, whose battle with the cleaning companies shows.
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 all day with your zipper open while your friends politely say nothing isn’t kindness either. So while we search for the middle were kindness wins without criticism, remember this cat.
This is the most critical cat in my recent catblogging history. I tried to blog about her several times and didn’t know what to say. I tried different crops, and neither worked.
I know she’s not really criticizing me for taking photos of her but she looks that way 🙂 and eventually inspired me to write a brief essay about criticism.
Veselin.blog 