Leonardo da Vinci would be in full agreement: The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinion.
– Neil deGrasse Tyson, Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization
2024 is a fact. An arbitrary one, but one the world over accepts, and so shall I. Still in Bulgaria, living day to day, enjoying the occasional solitary walk around my hometown. As someone who seldom re-reads a book, or re-watches a movie, I kind of get the importance of revisiting certain complex themes. By the end of the process, you get a more complete mental image, especially if you’re inclined towards realism by default. In the not so distant past, coming home or walking around town had me drunk on melancholic feelings. Now, things have changed. I’ve changed. We are all changing, and we can either help speed said change up, or slow it down. There ain’t no feasible way of stopping, however, no earthly way of hitting pause, let alone rewind.
I begin this new calendar year with an unexpected reconciliation with an ex-girlfriend I haven’t talked to in years. I also reworked the website (what do you think?) and even kick-started an entirely separate project on Facebook and YouTube exclusively in Bulgarian language. Part vlog, part an earnest effort of bringing much-needed information and clarity on different subjects. The task is gargantuan and some might say even pointless, but unlike the chubby dreamer from days gone, this portly IT professional has the know-how to deliver. Keywords: meaningful data generation and dissemination at scale. There is no two ways of going about this – the sheer volumes of useful data generated in the English language dwarfs anything generated in Cyrillic and especially Bulgarian. In other words, people who don’t speak a second language are locked in a microcosm of whatever the news, social media, and personal anecdotes serve them daily, sometimes hourly. And given the fact that most content generated is incentivized to generate money by following trends or as a part of a political campaign, it doesn’t take much to reach the alarming conclusion that this only further exacerbates matters in a country already divided and politically unstable. No! Please don’t go! This is the first and the last time you’ll see me mention anything about my undertaking. Unless something major turns up, of course. I reserve the right to be content with the work or end up burned out and completely disillusioned, eventually. Come what may! I think I am as ready as I can be at this point in time.
What I am not ready for is 2024 as a whole. That is to say, if we measure an individual’s readiness based on their NYRs – new year resolutions. I have wishes, sure, but nothing concrete long-term. It looks something like this:
- Work and study 10 hours a day, 5 days a week;
- Spend the weekends writing and recording for my side project;
- Finish revisiting the old content here and improving on it;
- Continue working on my short fiction novel;
- Pick up on my exercise game;
- Work on my diet and dietary needs (as opposed to wants);
- Visit Japan for 2 weeks (can I do it?);
- Summer in Bulgaria, spend more time seaside;
- Play through Alan Wake 2, Baldur’s Gate 3, Dragon’s Dogma 2, SCORN, Witchfire;
- Watch more Studio Ghibli movies;
- Don’t Die.
See that? Silly, right? I am a silly man. And we haven’t even talked about love! Where is the dodgamn love at?! I’ll tell you – it’s wherever your kind attention is directed at.
Thank you.
tsvetoslav shalev 
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