About

I have authored a variety of literary works, including a collection of short stories in Bosnian, a collection of poems in both Danish and Bosnian, and my contributions have been featured in numerous anthologies. Additionally, I've composed and published articles, essays, and reviews across all three languages. Recently, I completed crafting a new poetry collection, and I'm presently engrossed in the creation of my inaugural novel.

My interests span a broad spectrum, encompassing literature, media, history, film, and art, as well as football, philosophy, food, and music. Beyond being a writer and poet, I'm a devoted father, husband, and enthusiast of the finer things in life.

Feel free to reach me at derion1 [at] gmail [dot] com or contact me on Mastodon.

Random facts

  • I have two most wonderful daughters with my wife Amra.
  • My sporadic writings on various subjects can be found here.
  • I published my first book of poetry called Pathétique in 2006. My collection of short stories Priče izgubljenog vremena came out in 2011.
  • I've been keeping a list of all the books I've read since 2004.
  • My hardware list can be found here.
  • I have disdain towards jingoism and conformism.
  • I am an avid watch enthusiast.
  • I hold a master degree in Media Studies and History from SDU.
  • I currently teach Integrated Humanities (history, sociology, political science), previously Danish Language & Literature, Information Technology and Media Studies, too.
  • I miss driving cars without all those fancy gadgets, computers. Man, do I miss my ’94 Škoda Favorit!!
  • I made the family coat of arms in clay sometime in 2014. There are only two pieces made. I don't know where the other one is.
  • I keep a record of all cities I visit during a year. I have been doing this since 2005.
  • You want to know how to correctly pronounce my name? Here it is.
  • I created two fonts sometime in 2004. One is Avdibeg First (handwritten font) and the other is Dinobit, a typical screen font, that should only be used with size 10.
  • I love the sound of the wind rustling through trees or leaves. And that sound even has a name - psithurism!

Literature

I have a huge respect for writers like Fernando Savater, Fyodor M. Dostoevsky, Ivo Andrić, Lord Byron, Musa Ćazim Ćatić, Meša Selimović and Erich Fromm. I am actually trying to make a list of books I read.

Here's the list of books in line, the list of books I want to read, so they are waiting in line either to be read or acquired.

The list of my collection of (physical) books can be accessed on Github.

Films I like

My favorite movies are Mirror, The Thin Red Line, Annie Hall and The New World. Here's my list of films that I hold in high regard (until page 7 or so). As you can see, I am quite fond of independent and European films. You can also take a look at my pretty much updated Letterboxd page. Here's my blog post about my ultimate film list with my favorite films from different genres.

Musical directions

Regarding music, I listen mostly to progressive metal and bands like Dream Theater, Pain Of Salvation, and Opeth, but when I want to sharpen my hearing senses or just relax I turn to classical music and Bach, Mendelssohn, Beethoven.

Songs I like

Also, check out my mixtapes. There are a lot of cool songs there.

Websites I frequently visit

Aeon, Arts & Letters, Kottke, klix.ba, ekrajb.dk, dr.dk, Distrowatch, Dedoimedo.

Linux and apps I use

I have been a friend of GNU/Linux since 2003 (Fedora and Ubuntu). I remember fondly those days when I received those Ubuntu CDs by mail in the early 2000s. I kept trying out different Linux distros throughout the 2000s, but never completely took the jump. In late August 2019, I switched completely to Linux Mint after being a Windows user since 1995. I switched from Windows 10 due to increasing data mining, and telemetry, and threatened privacy and online security. After using Mint, and Ubuntu MATE, I am currently using Debian on my main computer. I explained in this blog post, and later in this one why Debian is the right Linux distribution for me.

I have experience with these GNU/Linux distributions, which I recommend: Linux Mint for everyone, Debian for more advanced users. There are so many good and interesting distros. See most of them on Distrowatch. I've also tried Devuan, OpenSUSE, Void Linux, Arch, EndevourOS, MX Linux, Fedora, Zorin, OpenMandriva, Peppermint, etc.

I have a little (outdated) Linux Handbook to help me with all the related GNU/Linux things.

Packages, flatpaks and appimages

If a native Linux application wasn’t available, I typically relied on AppImages. For a long time, I avoided Flatpaks due to their bloated size, but I eventually recognized the value of convenience—especially in Debian, where the conservative approach to package updates can make newer software harder to access. Here’s a list of applications I use as either native packages, AppImages or Flatpaks:

Native: Firefox, Brave, Signal, Libreoffice Writer, Filezilla, Gimp, Zim Wiki, darktable, Audacious, Audacity, mc, Grsync, Timeshift, Foliate, Zotero, micro, Transmission, Shortwave.
AppImages: Filen, Heroic, Kdenlive, Marktext, Rustdesk, Teams for Linux.
Flatpaks: Flatseal, Steam, Gear Lever, KeePassXC, Scribus, Parabolic, VLC, Virtual Machine/QEMU, Eloquent.

Full-time OS usage (main PC)

Dec 2021 - now: Debian*
Sep 2020 - Nov 2021: Ubuntu
Sep 2019 - Aug 2020: Linux Mint
1993 - Aug 2019: Windows

Colophon

First, I had a simple HTML website in 2002 (it looked something like this), then I outsourced to Blogspot, and sometime in 2006 I had installed WordPress. I moved to Grav in February 2021. I migrated to Yellow in mid-July 2023. See the complete sitemap of the website.