Email	blog@fnovac.ro
Mastodon	@novaccian@mas.to
XMPP	nicolae@fnovac.ro
Git host	git.disroot.org/novaccian

My name is Nicolae-Flavius Novac. People usually call me Nicu, Flavius, or Nic—in English speaking circles. I am a professional software engineer¹ specialized in .NET applications, which is a bit ironic knowing that I've been a Linux user and an adherent to the free/libre software philosophy since high school.

I think what one does describes them better than what one declares they are, so in the following paragraphs I list some goals and objectives that I aim to achieve.

My general, overarching goals in life are to improve my character and live in accordance with nature.² This ideal is rooted in the stoic philosophy which I strive to practice everyday.

A healthy mind and a healthy body are conducive to effectively applying one's reasoning faculties towards making the best decisions and then to effectively implementing them. Hence, I try to work out at least a few times per week to maintain physical fitness. I also avoid ultraprocessed food, trying to cook my own food as much as possible from simple but high quality ingredients.

Knowledge is power, so I try to learn new things everyday. I use the flashcard software Anki to memorise various facts. For instance, I am learning Greek, so I create cards with translations, declensions, or conjugations of Greek words. Using the FreshRSS feed reader, I follow many blogs, which cover a wide range of domains such as software and technology, mathematics, philosophy, or politics. I also read books—mostly non-fiction, but not as fast as I would like. You could argue that fiction or art in general does not impart knowledge anyway. Nonetheless, I think good art enriches our soul in a way that's as important.

Learning is important, but involves mostly consumption of media. To actually improve my skills, I understand that I must practice. This is one of the reasons I created this blog, to have a place to practice writing, and a place to publish my work in general. I try to write in order to improve my thinking process and my ability to express myself clearly. Of course, one can practice anything without being public about it, but maintaining a website provides a strong incentive to produce quality work and to keep going.

As a software engineer¹, my purpose is to solve problems using computers, and I enjoy doing so. Outside of professional work, this rarely involves creating a brand new, standalone application or program. There is already a lot of free³ software that can be used as is, extended, adapted, or combined with other programs to adequately fulfill the great majority of my needs. This is why, save for this website, I don't have other personal projects to showcase yet. I do have a couple of ideas that I want to implement, though.

As mentioned before, I value free³ software, as opposed to proprietary software. My preference is not based on blind faith in some ideology, but on the practical fact that free software affords me more freedom, which is another important value for me. There is much to be said about this, but in short, when I have to choose something, I prefer the options that gives me the most freedom

fnovac.ro is my personal domain, currently consisting of this blog and a private FreshRSS instance. Its purpose of is to be my home on the Internet, a place where I can publish my writings and deploy web applications. Currently, the base domain fnovac.ro redirects to the blog. You can find the source code for the blog here.