Tranquil Sunset at Dubulti

29 April, 2018 | | 7 seen

Dubulti, has been our home since February 2018, we are spending here this Summer.

One of the rare and actually only attractions here is the beach. I've been documenting it a lot lately.

In today's Piece of Life series - a tranquil sunset from Dubulti beach:

Storytelling photo - mother and child in a sunset

Actually, that was here in Jūrmala, I decided to take my second 365 days photo challenge. Photos from today are from folder day 5

Seagulls at sunset

Portrait in a sunset

How To Fix: Error: Call to undefined function curl_init()

28 April, 2018 | Servers | 26 seen

After upgrading from Ubuntu 12 to Ubuntu 16 I discovered an error for Drupal website sending e-mails using Mailsystem + Postmark

here is the error code:

Luckily there is an easy solution, installing missing curl:

Hope, that helps!

Baltic Dividend Stock Market Review - Thoughts After Investing for a One Year

27 April, 2018 | Investments | 34 seen

April 2018, marks a small one year anniversary since I've been investing in the Baltic Stock market, more precisely - Baltic dividend stocks. 

I decided to invest in the Baltic stocks, once I found I'm too short to open Interactive Brokers account for buying US stocks (required opening minimum is $10,000). Buying Baltic stocks from local brokers (SEB bank) is relatively cheap (about 3 EUR commission per trade).

Back in April 2017 I started to acquire first stocks in the Baltics, now a year later I've built a humble (~EUR 7,800 worth) Baltic stock portfolio. In general I could sell of all of my holdings there and put this money to open Interactive Brokers, but that's not the plan (At least not yet)

Since April 2017, I have bought 18 dividend paying stocks in the Baltics, in March 2018, after it was announced that one company is planning to leave Nasdaq Baltics I sold it, got some humble profit). And now I actually hold just 17 dividend paying stocks.

For tracking my holdings in Baltic Stocks I've built a simple Google Spreasheet

In total,in dividends I've received EUR 343,7 giving a dividend yield on cost 4.37%, while…

Planting Onion Springs and Radishes

25 April, 2018 | Home Remodeling | 5 seen

For the past three years, it has been already a tradition planing some veggies in the garden.

For this year's early garden works - planting onion springs and radishes.

Planting spring onions

Planting radishes

Goodbye Social Sharing Buttons (Speed up Page Load time)

24 April, 2018 | Blogging | 13 seen

Google recently announced Google Speed search ranking algorithm to be rolled out in July 2018, after which page load times on a mobile for the first time will be a ranking factor for Google.

People want to be able to find answers to their questions as fast as possible — studies show that people really care about the speed of a page.

Although speed has been used in ranking for some time, that signal was focused on desktop searches.

The “Speed Update,” as we’re calling it, will only affect pages that deliver the slowest experience to users and will only affect a small percentage of queries. It applies the same standard to all pages, regardless of the technology used to build the page. The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal, so a slow page may still rank highly if it has great, relevant content.

As mobile traffic accounts for about 45% for my blog, with this upcoming Google Speed update I decided to make the most, and most probably to boost overall search rankings for mobile search. A time ago I already implemented Google AMP, and now about 20% of search traffic coming to my blog are served by AMP.

How To Migrate Drupal Website From Host to Another Host

22 April, 2018 | Drupal Development | 8 seen

There might be a dozen of reasons why migrating your existing Drupal (or any other CMS) website from one host to another. In today's article, I will share my experience migrating Drupal 7 from one host to another before upgrading to Drupal 8

In this guide, I will migrate Drupal 7 between two separate Linode VPS, at one there is Ubuntu 12.04 and php 5.5 version while at the other there is Ubuntu 16.04 and php 7 version.

Let's start with setting up an environment on host 1 or existing VPS. First I'm going to create data copies for the public_html folder (After investigating folders structure and size, I learned that existing website is at the size of 3.5GB size - that's decent I guess for a more than 4 years and active website).

For seeing folder sizes on your Ubuntu machine, you can run the following command:

Now, let's prepare this folder for migrating to another host.

Run the following command to create a tar.gz archive for public_html folder

Making archive file with Putty

Depending…

Lazy Day in The Beach (Dubulti - Majori)

21 April, 2018 | | 7 seen

it was one of the sunniest days in early April 2018, we opted in for a Dubulti - Majori (Jūrmala, Latvia) lazy hiking trip. The route is easy and distance is pretty short. 

As usual - I was equipped with a camera and captured some moments. The inspiration for this title I took from here: Lazy Day in Beach (Torremolinos, Spain)

In fact, that is a thing I have been thinking a lot lately - Jūrmala could be developed in a style of Spain's Costa del Sol resort towns. I actually met more folks in April at Jūrmala beach than I met in Spain's resort towns. Sure there are no palms in Jūrmala, but they do make lovely sand sculptures

New parents feeding seagulls at Jūrmala beach

Someone has forgot about the baby. A good mood picture. 

Sand sculptures in Jūrmala

Top Family Friendly Hotels in Tbilisi When Traveling with Kids

20 April, 2018 | Hotel reviews | 34 seen

Tbilisi has a lot to offer, traveling to the capital of Georgia with kids actually is a great idea. Fancy attraction parks, lots of outdoor attraction and of course great shopping experience at Tbilisi shopping malls.

In today's article I've listed some of the best family-friendly hotels in Tbilisi (alternatively see: Top 10 Boutique / Luxury Hotels in Tbilisi (Georgia))

Explore Georgia like a local, book an individual tour now!

Disclosure: hotels listed below contain links to Booking.com, by clicking on links on this page and by making a reservation on Booking.com site, I might earn an affiliate income, at no cost to you.

This magnificent 5-star hotel overlooks the main avenue in the centre of Tbilisi, 100 m from the Kashveti Church. Tbilisi Marriott Hotel offers luxury interiors, Fitness centre and sauna. Staff at the 24-hour front desk can help guests with any queries that they may have. On site parking is free at the Marriott Tbilisi.

The spacious rooms at the Marriott Tbilisi are air-conditioned and feature classic décor. All rooms…

During the past 4 years GEL has lost its value against USD by -27.51%

18 April, 2018 | Living in Georgia | 10 seen

It has been a while since I last time examined GEL/USD exchange rates. It seems more than four years have passed already. Back in 2014, I was concerned about GEL exchange rates because I had some deposits in Georgian National currency. Now in 2018 I don't feel anymore too much concerned, because I have diversified a lot across multiple currencies. 

I stopped any deposits in GEL back around 2015, after losing some 20% in a month, back then I thought I will never invest again in national currencies (Except USD or EUR), with the start with 2017 I started to invest again in GEL currency, this time on mintos.com peer to peer lending platform.

Both individuals and entities can invest through Mintos. Individual investors must be at least 18 years old, have a bank account in the European Union or third countries currently considered to have AML/CFT systems equivalent to the EU, and have their identity successfully verified by Mintos. At the moment, US citizens or taxpayers cannot register as investors at Mintos.

Affiliate link here: Sign up to Mintos.com here.( By using this affiliate link for registration both you and I …

To Break Even My GPU Mining Rig, Ethereum Should Reach $5,153

17 April, 2018 | Crypto | 20 seen

It has been a while since my latest updates with my Ethereum GPU mining rig. In fact, Q1 2018 has been pretty dull for crypto investors, including miners.

Long story short - at the end of 2017 I decided to build a small Ethereum GPU mining rig, now in the middle of April 2018, in total, I have invested in this mining rig $1,661, though the total ROI has been just 11.63%.

In the past 4 months, I have mined humble 0.32 ETH, with today's ETH/USD ($515.83) exchange rates that would give USD 165.

I decided to make a quick math and find out what should be ETH price to break even my investment in this mining rig, if I would decide not to mine anymore (what I'm not planning to do), and found out that to break even now, ethereum should reach $5,153.

Now that is about 10 times more ethereum costs now. Could ethereum hit $5,000? Sure, at least I believe so. Could ethereum hit $5,000 in 2018? The devil knows that. At the end of 2017, I was looking on Ethereum to reach $2,000 by the end of 2018. I don't have a crystal ball and I might be completely wrong. 

Next stop - Station Dubulti (B&W Photography)

15 April, 2018 | | 12 seen

Black and White (B&W) is not the part of my favorite photo techniques, but sometimes a good B&W can add some drama to a photo story.

I don't call myself a drama expert (at least in photography), but I have tried in the past and sometimes love to experiment with this photo technique. See: Wandering In The Woods B&W Photography

In today's Piece of Life series - a single photo from my second 365 days photo project's second day - Next Stop - Station Dubulti

Lonely sign at Jurmala beach in Latvia

Shot at the start of April 2018

Thoughts about Upcoming Dividend Income From Baltic Stocks in May 2018 (Zemaitijos Pienas, Olympic Entertainment Group, Klaipedos Nafta)

14 April, 2018 | Investments | 20 seen

It feels like I'm losing ground under my feet when looking on the future dividend income for the month of May 2018.

At the start, Olympic Entertainment group announced it's intentions to leave Nasdaq Baltics (here I hopped for lucrative dividends) - I decided to sell my humble holdings of Olympic Entertainment Group and bought instead Kaunas Energijos and some other stock for the upcoming month of June.

Today Zemaitijos Pienas announced dividend cut (even worse no dividends for 2018), but proposed minimum buyback price per share. My first thought was - if there is no dividend - I don't need such share in my portfolio. Though I spent my time, did some analytics -  and I have been thinking a lot on if shares don't bring money, I must sell such share and put money into shares generating money.

Zematijos Pienas stock price for the past 5 years (Data source: Nasdaq Baltics)

During the last 5 years, the stock price for Zemaitijos Pienas has risen by more than 130%. After an announcement come about dividend cut for 2018, the stock price dropped by -7.26%. On Friday evening Zemaitijos Pienas stock…

Highest Deposit Rates in the World by Country 2018

12 April, 2018 | Macroeconomics | 84 seen

As a small and growing investor, I'm always looking for higher yield investments, and despite deposits doesn't fit in my wealth building strategy, I have made some pocket money in the past. 

Update: Highest Deposit Rates in the World by Country 2019

Personally, I would favor peer to peer lending marketplace like Mintos.com over the hustle of opening a foreign bank account in a distant country just to chase a higher deposit rate. 

Top Peer to Peer Lending Sites 2019 (Highest Yields)

Both individuals and entities can invest through Mintos. Individual investors must be at least 18 years old, have a bank account in the European Union or third countries currently considered to have AML/CFT systems equivalent to the EU, and have their identity successfully verified by Mintos. At the moment, US citizens or taxpayers cannot register as investors at Mintos.

Affiliate link here: Sign up to Mintos.com here. By using this affiliate link for registration both you and I will receive — 1% of your average daily balance which should be paid in 3…

Top Things to Do in Tbilisi in May

10 April, 2018 | Travel guides | 22 seen

There is a common opinion that spring does not exist in Georgia as far as cold March swiftly flows into desperately hot but rainy April.

After having celebrated Easter Georgia is getting ready for the most pleasant and long-expected May – the month that plays a role of a small introduction to the long-awaited summer. May welcomes not only tourists but the locals as well into its partially tranquil and in some places lively world where merging with nature, organization of excursions, and long nights of walking in the drizzling rains enchants all those longings for romance and natural beauty.

Tbilisi opens its doors to every single person and furnishes its narrow and winding streets with greenery. Flowers bloom almost everywhere in parks and by the road creating an unforgettable ambiance. The country seems to be like a small kingdom that never leaves its place under the sun and it is difficult to believe that cold weather had just left a couple of weeks ago. In order to have fun at its fullest, there are several places in Tbilisi that could be marked with ‘must visit’ sign. Before going out it is better to stock up with water…

Easter Egg Painting 2018

8 April, 2018 | | 6 seen

The Christ is risen! 

Though we already celebrated Easters last week, the Orthodox Church (including Georgia) is celebrating Easters on April 8th, 2018. In today's Piece of Life series - our  already annual tradition - Easter egg painting (from the last week)

Easter egg painting 2018

Egg decor for 2018 

Cat enjoying painted Easter eggs

Easter egg and chocolate candy basket 2018

Happy Easters!