Cats, good books, AI, and religious walking in the city of Sofia
There’s a legend that bringing rocks down from Vesuvius makes the bad luck come home with you. Not sure what the origin of the story is, perhaps Pele’s Curse from Hawaii. Pele, the goddess of volcanoes, doesn’t like her rocks taken away by tourists. Wash your shoes if you visit Vesuvius.
The photo above represents what I saw from the crater last week.
I spent a week in Naples for a team meetup with my team. I kept comparing the city with Sofia for reasons that may not be immediately obvious. At least not obvious to me. Don’t take this post seriously.
Here’s this spreadsheet with an honest and unbiased comparison between Sofia and Naples.
| Sofia 🇧🇬 | Naples 🇮🇹 | |
| Volcanic activity | 🚫 | ✅ |
| Nearby mountain | ✅ | ✅ |
| Mountain tries to kill you | 🚫 | ✅ |
| Lots of pizza | ✅ | ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ |
| Lots of trash | ✅ | ✅ ✅ ✅ 🍌 💩 |
| Dog poop | 💩 | 💩 💩 💩 🤦 |
| Frequent dealers | 🚫 | ✅ |
| Sidewalks blocked | ✅, | ✅, |
| Pineapple pizza | ✅ | 🚫 |
| Roman ruins | ✅ | ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ |
| Has skyscrapers | ✅ | ✅ |
| Has skyscrapers everywhere | ✅ | 🚫 |
| Has a giant brutalist trash can | 🚫 in progress ⏳ | ✅ |
| Restaurant food prices | 💰 | 💰 💰 |
| Restaurants offer salads | ✅ | 🚫 |
| 4-course meals for tourists | 🚫 | ✅ |
| Food is usually great | 🚫 | ✅ |
| Yogurt is usually great | ✅ | 🚫 🤦 |
| Coca Cola Zero bottle size | 500 ml ✅ | 450 ml 🤦 |
| Number of cats | 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 | 🐈 |
| Crowds of tourists | 🚫 | ✅ |
| Drivers sometimes stop for you | ✅ | 🚫 |
| Taxi prices | 💰 | 💰 💰 💰 💰 |
| Taxis may attempt to scam you | ✅ | ✅ |
| Walkable | 🤦 | 🤦 |
Naples for me was a place with a long history, old buildings, too much pizza, and lots of cars.
Terraces made of bricks and rebars? Does the blue paint keep the terraces from falling? How? Why?
Lindsey Vonn finished second in Sun Valley, one of her favorite disciplines–the Super G. I was a big fan of Lindsey Vonn during her competitive years and was quite shocked to see her make a podium today, at the age of 40, after roughly 7 years without medals and a five-year hiatus.
I’ve always admired athletes who don’t give up when they accumulate wealth and injuries. Ronnie O’Sullivan is 49 and won several world championships after his partial retirement. Noriaki Kasai kept jumping until around 51. I hope Vonn makes a win next season to teach us all a lesson.
One of the good things about buying a new item, like my new headphones, is that I now get targeted ads with music, headphones, and other pleasantries. This is how I discovered the city of Varan, Bulgaria 🙂
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