Blog Archive: November 2021
An ex-pat living in Georgia since 2011, I trade stocks, take photographs, work out at the gym, and many more. Here I write about travel, finance, and other things that might interest me.
Latest articles
Vilgāle apt update: Doors, drywall, electricity
Again a few weeks have passed and I got the latest images from the Vilgåle apt renovation. This time contractors have almost finished drywall works and are ready for plastering and finishing electricity works. The end is so close I can even feel it. Slowly, but we are progressing here. seems the next task is to plaster ceiling and add tiles on the walls New doors have been installed, also lamps for the halway Cost so far: Water plumbing: EUR…
Top 10 Best Selling Laptops December 2021
In this article, I've listed the top 10 best-selling laptops models on Amazon in the month of December 2021. As a proud owner of Macbook Air, I found it just logical this list features it Without further ado, here is the list: Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to Amazon.com, by clicking on links on this page and by making a purchase on the Amazon site, I might earn an affiliate income from that. Prices for laptop computers …
Black Friday in the Stock Market
Quite a crazy Black Friday in the market. or Mr. Market almost squeezed me out of my comfort zone. A sharp recovery helped and I went shopping on bargain (hopefully). Worst day since June 2020. Should focus more on covered calls in the future
How to Sell Oil with Options (RDSA stock)
There are a couple of ways some might get exposed to the oil market, you could go with futures, ETF's or individual stocks. In this article, I will share an example on how some could sell options on individual stock - a stock I've been selling options with mixed success in the past - RDSA - or Royal Dutch Shell Royal Dutch Shell PLC, commonly known as Shell, is a British-Dutch oil and gas company headquartered in the Netherlands and…
3 Days into My Meatless Experiment: Reflections and Observations
I decided to take a quick experiment and stop eating meat for 7 days. Just meat, not dairy or eggs. I guess age, current affairs, people around me, and go green hype have finally reached me. Despite that I still love meat, and I don't call myself a vegetarian. Not yet. Today is day 3, and I noticed I eat a lot more veggies, bread, and fish. I will keep you posted Going meat-free for a week is a great way to experiment with a plant-based diet…
Adding Custom CSS stylesheet to Drupal Olivero theme
Just recently I migrated my blog from Drupal 7 to the Drupal 9 platform, and this time I decided to stick with what I get, instead of building it all from scratch. I really like the default experimental theme Drupal Olivero, but of course, there are a few things I would love to fine-tune. Instead of building a theme from scratch I decided to apply a few customizations for the stylesheet, and here is how (this is not recommended as when…
Top 10 Best Selling Mirrorless Cameras 2022
When talking about mirrorless cameras in 2022, Canon, Sony, Nikon, and Panasonic are the brands to consider. In this article, I've listed the top 10 best selling mirrorless cameras on Amazon.com A quick note: Please note this list contains affiliate links to Amazon.com, by clicking on links on this page and by making a purchase on the Amazon site, I will earn an affiliate income from that. Prices for mirrorless cameras listed on this page is…
Latvian National Opera
The Latvian National Opera and Ballet is an opera house and opera company at Aspazijas boulevard 3 in Riga. Its repertoire includes performances of opera and ballet presented during the season which lasts from mid-September to the end of May. During a typical season, LNOB presents almost 200 performances, including, on average, 6 new productions. The largest is the Great Hall which houses 946 seats, while the smaller ones – the New Hall, the…
How to Rotate a video in Adobe Premiere Pro (Portrait to Landscape)
Sometimes when filming with a mobile phone, I shoot in portrait mode. Portrait mode is Okay for social media posts, but not really cool looking on larger screens. Recently, when working on a larger home video in Adobe Premiere Pro, I discovered a few scenes shot in portrait mode, but actually where meant to be landscape. Without further ado, here is how to rotate a video in Adobe Premiere Pro Upload your clip, from the timeline select clip…
Vilgāle apt update: Hallway, Sauna and more
It has been a few weeks already since the works with Vilgāle apt have been restarted, finishing the hallway, kitchen and sauna. more wiring were done, additional drywall constructions, some plumbing and a lot of sauna works. Hopefully the works could be done by the end of the year, but more realistic I'm looking on Spring 2022. Will see. There is built a closet for storing wooden pellets, boiler and wood pellet stove itself. Looks bit tidy,…
Tskaltubo - Former Soviet Spa Resort
Tskaltubo is a spa resort town in west-central Georgia. The resort was especially popular in the Soviet era, attracting around 125,000 visitors a year. Bathhouse 9 features a frieze of Stalin, and visitors can see the private pool where he bathed on his visits. Just like Chiatura cable car town, Tskaltubo is very interesting to visit and see the brutalist and futuristic Soviet architecture. In today's Piece of Life series - Tskalubo - former…
Top 10 Laptops With Windows 11 OS
In this article, I've listed the top 10 best-selling laptops models with the latest Windows 11 operating system Without further ado, here is the list: Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to Amazon.com, by clicking on links on this page and by making a purchase on the Amazon site, I might earn an affiliate income from that. Prices for laptop computers listed on this page are retrieved using Amazon Product Advertising API and is…
The Grand Documentary of 2019
Almost 38.8 GB (676 clips short clips per year) footage resulted in almost 2 hours of film. (1h 56 m). As every year - documentary cinema - in the style of home video, but we have thought about your vestibular aparatus - trying to avoid the tremors of the hands and the desire to work with and around the zoom as much as possible (undoubtedly, the couple places ar filmed in a manual mode). Filming with a tripod and a baby on the move is difficult…
Chreli Abano Sulfur Bath in Tbilisi
Chreli Abano is a sulfur bath located in the Tbilisi Bath district of Abanotubani. We have been heading to these baths a lot in the past (back in 2011-2013), since then we have changed our location, visiting other, not so fancy ones on Kyiv street, but lately again, we have started to visit sulfur bathhouses in the old town district. As they are many, I will try to give a quick recap of all of them, though after revisiting Chreli Abano sufur…
Vilgāle apt update: Drywall for Bathroom, Kitchen and Hallway, Building Sauna
It has been a while since I posted the latest updates from our Vilgāle apartment renovation, the active construction works have been paused since March, except some minor plastering was done by mid-June. In the Summer months in Latvia, it is hard to find contractors. I was left with no other option than to wait for the fall/ winter season. Without further ado, works have resumed with lightning speed and there is a hope we will finish this apt…