Tag: dailyprompt

What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself?

~ Veselin ~ 14 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself?
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Good job to whoever came up with this writing prompt! I have two candidates.

  • Buying my first computer. I knew I wanted one ever since I was 7, so I began saving my pocket cash. The world changed—communism fell, the world moved from 8086 to the 8088XT, 286, 386, 486, and eventually the Pentium. By the time I finished high school, I had saved just enough for about half a computer. With a little help from my family, I finally managed to buy one. I met all kinds of characters along the way, wrote two books that never saw the light of day, and worked part-time jobs. Learned Basic and math. It felt almost like a journey out of The Lord of the Rings, culminating in that moment when I disposed of my savings at the mountain of Doom to get a shiny new K5 computer—only to realize I didn’t know how to use it.
  • Overcoming panic attacks. That one took more than 8 years and involved the Sermon, two therapists, many books, a deep research on the subject of thinking errors, and some bad luck. I could also write a book about it but it would be grossly incompetent. Maybe a blog post one day. Also, with panic attacks, there’s no guarantee they’re gone for good.

I’m now after 10k steps/day average over the course of a year and climbing Vihren in 2025.

What’s a topic or issue about which you’ve changed your mind?

~ Veselin ~ 14 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What’s a topic or issue about which you’ve changed your mind?
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Memories are not set in stone. They change and merge, slightly twist and bend the past according to our needs. I recently discovered that there was no way I played Heroes of Might and Magic 3 in high school, given that it was released 2 years after I graduated. I always thought that this was the game I played the most as a kid, and there’s no way it happened because the years don’t match. I probably played HoMM3 later and my memories of playing HoMM1 and 2 merged with the third version. This twisting and bending is a good thing to be aware of when holding strong beliefs.

Here’s an issue where I keep changing my mind. I hated cars and though I’d never have one. Then I got a small one (Clio 1). I lived in that thing, drove it so much. Then I got a larger one where I co-habited with a mouse. Then I got an SUV. Got back to a family sedan. Then I thought electric cars are the future and started looking for ways to own one. Followed Elon Musk on Twitter before he got political. Then I realized electric cars are still cars and you move 2 tons of iron and plastic to save yourself a few minutes per day at the expense of your health and other people’s health.

Now I think cars should be used as a last resort. People should rather ride horses than drive cars for their daily commute. Who knows what I’ll think on the same subject next year.

Meanwhile, walking gives me content like this for my blog. Had no idea there is an autumn crocus.

How often do you walk or run?

~ Veselin ~ 7 Comments
Daily writing prompt
How often do you walk or run?
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The daily writing prompt is poking me at my weak spot. I walk every day I can and my goal is to walk roughly 2h per day or 10K steps. I believe that walking makes life better, and cars make it worse. Walking also gives material for blog posts.

Here are photos from my two daily walks today. The first one was part of my trip back home.

A thousand tourists staring at a marvelous tourist creation, like flies attracted by sugary water. Tourists can make the prettiest thing on the planet look undesirable.

Stray white panther from Sofia. Well fed and bored, refused to look at me for the photo. Wouldn’t have seen her without my evening walk to buy food. No tourists around.