Category: Random

GothamChess in Bulgarian

~ Veselin ~ 1 Comment

I had a period of chess addiction around the time my big kid was 5-7 years old. He showed interest in Chess, so I started learning it to make him a world champion. My kid lost interest in chess quickly but I kept playing and even attended the national championship for Rapid chess, where I had a terrible performance and got my soul crushed.

One of the streamers I watched at that time was the then younger Levy Rozman, GothamChess. I even subscribed to his Twitch and bought his courses before switching to streamers, more appropriate for my level. That period of my life ended long ago, I no longer study chess, don’t follow the developments, and very rarely play blitz. But I was surprised to find out that GothamChess grew so much in popularity that he got translated to Bulgarian.

Learnings from relationships

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment
Daily writing prompt
Which relationship has taught you the most about yourself?
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In order to answer this question, I need to remove a word from it – the word “yourself”. Sure, I learned stuff about myself when facing moments of struggle, suffering, risk, or terror. But the learnings in general are far more interesting and readily available than learnings from nearing breaking points. And you can learn from anyone.

I read this concept from Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People where he makes a point that you should listen to people so they like you more. There is a quote predating his work and I think it’s cleaner than Carnegie’s as it means that you should just listen to understand with no particular goal. Here it is:

In my walks, every man I meet is my superior in some way, and in that I learn from him.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

So, you can learn things from almost everyone, as long as you listen. Listen with curiosity and no judgement, as Ted Lasso says.

Nemesis with Lauren Hart

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

Arch Enemy released the new version of Nemesis with Lauren Hart. It’s a completely different song, compared to the iconic 2008 version with Angela Gossow. I’d love to see the live performance. I think it would be quite nice because Lauren Hart radiates energy like a Tesla coil.

Of course, the bar is set very high.

I hope they come to Sofia.

Eating habits

~ Veselin ~ 6 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What are your best healthy eating habits?
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Eating and drinking too much can undo any fitness progress you can make. Sooner or later, adults reach the point to try to put eating under control. I love food. I can eat more than I should. I can say that I reached that point years ago. I’ve tried a bunch of things and am currently following only two.

  • I do my best to not drink alcohol. The rule I follow is very general – don’t drink calories. If it has calories, not a good drink. There are exceptions, I let myself drink beer during meetups and our traditional summer vacation in Greece. I also drink Ayran when attempting to climb a peak. Otherwise, very strict with that. I don’t even drink coffee anymore.
  • I (do my best to) eat salads. I don’t like salads but here we are. Every single healthy living manual says eating salads is important. I mostly do it because salads make me less hungry for sweets but I know the health benefits are elsewhere.

I know that the real thing I need to do is to stop eating chocolate but I’m still hoping that the salads will somehow be sufficient.

Me, going after green salad.

Best way to battle negative thoughts

~ Veselin ~ 1 Comment
Daily writing prompt
What’s the best way to deal with negative thoughts?
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Okay! We all live on a tiny piece of dust next to a very old star that’s eventually going to consume Earth. We’ve not be informed about our purpose but we know we’re all going to die. It’s not easy to deal with all of that and the other reasons to feel bad about the future. Negative thoughts use periods of vulnerability from stress, health, or other misfortunes and just penetrate the walls and take space we can use for, pretty much, anything else. By the time they reach us, it might already be late to act in the most efficient way.

Here’s my short list, listing multiple items that have helped me over the years.

  • Walking. 1h outdoors is like 2h of meditation. Also helps with sleep. I didn’t start the 10k/day to improve my mental health but after doing it for several years, hard to not put it on top of my list.
  • Sleep – the brain just works better when properly rested but it can’t do that if it’s fed with coffee and alcohol, or you’re not physically tired. So…
  • No alcohol or coffee. I’ve experimented in this area and no amount of alcohol or coffee is good.
  • Planning positive events ahead, just placing good things in the calendar. Planting them like seeds to grow in anticipation.
  • Cats (and dogs btw) but cats work for me. Cats don’t care.
  • Religion and spirituality – after all, we need a way to accept defeat.
  • Awareness about thinking errors. Most of our fears are about stuff we have no control over. I think superstitions can be particularly harmful. People are universally afraid of black cats. Why?
  • Reading books, fiction in particular.

None of that counters negative thoughts at the moment, and none of this is a measure against moments of grief and loss. But it helps over the long run.

I re-read some of my old posts in preparation to publish this one. I think they still hold.