Category: Random

Blink and you’ll miss it. Sofia

~ Veselin ~ 9 Comments

Sofia can give you moments of color and beauty that only exist for brief moments here and there, and only to the people who go out and look. Get behind the wheel and none of that exists. Here are a few moments from my morning walk.

  1. A rose in Sofia Tech Park. Behind – a trace from the real-estate bubble. Not far is the cosplay party G-fest where colorful young people are doing whatever they’re doing. I don’t understand it but their outfits are pretty.

2. A semi-abandoned building near Bulgarian Academy of Science. My usual path doesn’t go there but a door was closed and locked with a padlock. I needed it to be open. So I had to walk around and saw it. These little puffy things? There were a million of them.

3. The beekeeper

Someone is producing honey near BAS. Not sure how that works in an urban area with a very high population density, but as you see from the photo, it happened. These things are hives.

Sofia has the tendency to turn into a jungle and does it here and there. I guess, the bees thrive in those islands wilderness.

Did you like the photos? Drop a comment.

The Unheard by Nicci French: a Primal Fear Unlocked

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

What if your child suddenly started saying and doing disturbing things – words and actions no kid should know? As a parent, a primal fear kicks in: someone must have hurt them. But who? What if it’s someone from or close to the family?

That’s the terrifying premise behind Nicci French’s The Unheard.

The book follows Tess, a single mother sharing custody of her daughter with her ex. Life is already difficult, but when her child begins showing troubling signs, Tess spirals into suspicion and paranoia. She goes to the police, desperate for someone to believe her. Instead, she meets resistance, threats, and outright gaslighting from her ex, her friends, the authorities, even from me as a reader.

Tess is almost unbearable. She’s obsessive, frantic, annoying. Nothing she does makes sense. But maybe that’s the point. As readers, we’re pulled into her unstable perspective. We feel her isolation.

The duo behind Nicci French crafts a psychological thriller that pokes at deep-seated fears. It’s not a comfortable read. It’s not about who did it, even though we’ll be presented with a name. The book is about the atmosphere. That part is maybe 5⭐️/5.

3.5⭐️/5, I didn’t like it but will keep reading Nicci French.

Fiio FT1’s Box

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

I recently purchased a new set of wired audiophile Fiio FT1 headphones. I haven’t used them enough yet to form a solid opinion on their sound quality, but one thing I can already appreciate is the packaging. The box is surprisingly well-designed — it fits both my SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7x and my wife’s JBL Quantum Live 770 perfectly.

I got the Fiio to reduce the stuff I carry in my backpack everyday and to improve my audio experience during work hours. I did, in a sense, reduce the stuff I carry but in a slightly different way. Both the SteelSeries and the JBLs come without a box and look a bit flimzy. With this box, I will no longer worry about them.

I’ll post about the audio experience with the Fiio later. So far, they sound good, very similar to Arctis Nova but with an exaggerated bass. I’m not sure if I want to EQ that down or will get used to it. I’ll post a review in a few months.