Describe your most memorable vacation

~ Veselin ~ 13 Comments
Daily writing prompt
Describe your most memorable vacation.

It has to be my trip to Alaska, which took place in 2004 or 2005, when Bulgaria was not yet a member of the EU, and our passport strength was quite limited. At that time, I had never visited another country, and out of all the places in the world, I traveled to the USA, and from all the places in the USA – to Anchorage and Fairbanks. The trip was memorable enough that a photo from it remained a header of my previous blog for about a decade.

It had to be Alaska because my girlfriend went there for a work-and-travel trip and I missed her, so we had a vacation at the end of her work duties.

Things that made it memorable:

  • First visa, with the interview process and all the uncertainties around it
  • First airplane ride. I was dressed like for climbing the Himalayas because someone told me it would be cold on the airplane. It wasn’t. I probably smelled like a skunk
  • Excessive security checks. I was checked far too many times for a trip perhaps because of my Himalayan look. Have you ever seen anyone be checked at the gate past security? I was.
  • One of the legs got delayed for 12+ hours
  • Someone with the same last name told Delta they were me, got my ticket on the way back, and managed to change it to another location. This resulted in me flying first class (and sleeping all the time)
  • Saw glaciers, big mountains, big lakes, big cars, big plates with lots of food, and all you can eat buffet
  • Saw many drunks and experienced a culture of alcohol and weed

All of that doesn’t sound too exciting now that I’m older but it was a great adventure for my younger self. Basic things like airplanes, car rentals, motels, and diners felt like magic.

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

I finished this monumental work by Rebecca Yarros and have mixed feelings. I considered not writing a review but at the same time the book is is divisive and engaging. So here are my thoughts. Let’s start with the good. It’s readable and I read it!

The magic system is not good and it doesn’t get better in this part of the series. The nagging feeling that the system was borrowed by Naomi Novik remained, even though it’s likely unfair.

Naomi Novik develops a Mana/Malia magic system in the Scholomance series, which I recently reviewed and appreciated highly. The Mana is a magical energy that’s earned by work and owned by life. The Malia is mana stolen from others, often by draining their life. Rebecca Yaros uses the same system but doesn’t use the names Mana and Malia. Good energy comes through Dragons and bad energy – from Earth directly, no Dragons. This becomes a critical problem in book 2 as the main conflict in the book is between the magicians who use dragons and those who don’t. But why are the dragon-users good? They don’t strike to be particularly kind or merciful. What generates the Dragon mana? Is it dead sheep?

Naomi Novik develops a dragon rider university in the series Temreire and chases the history of dragons, how they fly, how they fight, how they eat, what they eat, numbers, shepherds, fields, cows, and so on. Rebecca Yarros drops “I’ll eat a flock of sheep” in book 1, and “he moved a flock of sheep to the valley” in book 2. What we get instead is the description of how baby dragons sleep for months and grow while sleeping. I wish those baby dragons at least ate some food like baby birds.

I still found it interesting despite these serious flaws. The book is engaging in the way Matthew Reilly writes. Yeah, there are dragons, which make no sense. They are connected to humans for no reason, generate unlimited energy with no source, and the love story exists despite the constant lies and intolerable deception by the main male protagonist. But it is still a page-turner. I might even consider reading the third part, although it won’t be high on the list.

4*/5

Ruzha

~ Veselin ~ 3 Comments

It’s good to be outside. Played some football instead of watching and took my first flower photo in over 10 days. The grass is turning yellow already.

Are there things you try to practice daily to live a more sustainable lifestyle?

~ Veselin ~ 4 Comments
Daily writing prompt
Are there things you try to practice daily to live a more sustainable lifestyle?

Here’s a rough list of things I would tag with “sustainability”

  • I try to walk 10k/day on average. It improves my mental health for a whole lot of reasons. I barely use the car so it reduces my family’s carbon footprint
  • Eat less meat. I’ve tried vegetarian but it doesn’t work for me. Less meat is still better than other options
  • I read from about 10pm to when I get sleepy. Once I get sleepy, I go to bed. In case I can’t sleep, I read more
  • I have an 8pm limit on work, even if I want to do overtime, I try not to exceed 8pm. Remote work comes with risks, one risk is blurring the line between personal and professional, and putting a strain on family
  • We adopted a liberal minimalism at home. I wouldn’t buy clothes if I don’t need them, or if I don’t have empty space in my 2 drawers. I still buy paper books though, shame on me.