Dungeon Crawler Carl

~ Veselin ~ 4 Comments

My expectations for this book weren’t very high. I bought it because it has a hole in the cover and I’d never seen a book with such a cover before. However, it pleasantly surprised me, turning out to be a fresh and optimistic page-turner. It was great, a clear 5*, and gets the honors to be the first review for the year on my blog.

The world is destroyed and turned into a giant maze, where the last living humans are forced to play a video game. It’s like Diablo but with living humans. That could’ve been an apocalypse of epic proportions, but despite the billions of dead, the game can be won. Carl is the right person for it – he has experience. The problems? He’s with his cat who suddenly started talking, has no shoes or pants, and and elderly lady keeps showing up with no intention to level up in the game. And of course, the game is full of exceptionally difficult mobs who want to complain about their existence.

I got a signed copy from the publisher, although there was no book signing, so I didn’t get to meet the author. Kudos to Pro Book for the cover, not sure who came up with the idea but it works very well.

A great find. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

Snowstorm

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

Climate change has brought softer winters to Sofia. It is the first time we’ve had two days with snow this season, and the snow barely hides the grass. It was, however, very windy, so the few snowflakes and the modest -2°C felt quite unpleasant. We could call it a snowstorm, in the absence of a real one.

I also managed to see a protest against our mayor. Equal parts protesters, journalists, and police stared at a tiny pile of trash. I walked by piles larger than this on my way to the center.

From left to right:

  • The National Library, which I’ve only visited once in my life
  • The anti-trash protest with the modest pile of trash
  • The Levski Monument, with a photo that deserves a post in the Communism series because of the iconic Serdika Cinema
  • The Church, with a bit of the Square 500 gallery to the left
  • Sofia Tech Park with one of the surrounding office buildings

And in all the photos, the sky, wondering why anyone would go outside on this dark day.

Marlboro Bags

~ Veselin ~ 3 Comments

This post is part of the series about communist Bulgaria between 1979 and 1989. I already posted about my cat, ice cream, TV, and elections.

My kids go to school with backpacks. Their backpacks tend to be large and capable capable of carrying over 10kg of weight. The modern education system in Bulgaria relies on thick, glossy textbooks and lots of printed material, which makes them heavy. I also go everywhere with a large backpack, full of necessary items.

Back in the 80s, as true commies, we had another solution to the problem of how to bring all of our items to school, apart from not having much to carry. We used nylon bags like the one below (found for sale on a local marketplace site). The more colorful it was, the better. I had the exact same as the screenshot, and I’m pretty sure it lasted almost a year. Changed many while in school, and wasn’t picky.

Of course, they couldn’t carry 10 kg like modern backpacks, but they didn’t need to. We had far fewer schoolbooks and used light textbooks. We also didn’t need to carry everything to class. Books were usually only needed at home, for the brave ones who ever opened them. I don’t think many of my classmates did.

As for the images on the bags, foreign cigarette brands were the most popular. The more colorful and unfamiliar, the better. These bags were worth serious money and could be purchased from the flea market “Bitaka”. Getting a new one was a big event. I just don’t see any dopamine high in modern kids’ lives that’s similar to this experience, perhaps getting an iPhone.

Speaking of cigarette brands and why Marlboro of all things. We grew up with access to smoking. My classmates smoked since a very young age, probably under 10. However, the cigarettes available were local, and everyone wanted the foreign, which weren’t officially available anywhere. So, Marlboro, Camel, JPS and such were primarily imported by tourists, truck drivers, and visitors from the West. Even if you could get your hands on an empty pack, it still had value. I found 10-ish such packs thrown in the wild as trash and kept them in a glass display cabinet. You could trade them with other kids. And the packs were pretty, unlike the ugly things from the modern times, covered with photos of injuries and dying people.

So the true “socialist look” of the 80s was cheap, fake jeans top to bottom, white local leather sneakers, and a Marlboro bag in hand.

Ice

~ Veselin ~ 20 Comments

The five snowflakes that fell over the city yesterday quickly turned into a thin layer of ice. This is the second most unpleasant regular event in the city, only dwarfed by the annual snow melting. Unfortunately, when the snow is not much, people tend to not clean it.

And to celebrate the snow, here’s a song that doesn’t sound like metal but if you listen carefully, has harsh vocals. The artist is Lustre, and the track is The First Snow.

Embrace this innocent beginning
To a chapter of woe and wonder
A night all dressed in white
The first snow – a token of curiosity.

The Underpass

~ Veselin ~ 6 Comments

The St. Anna underpass had no lights today. Hordes of people were walking in the dark one way, like in a scene from Pluribus. I was embarrassed to take the photo and only clicked once.