Ērģeme Castle Ruins

28 July, 2021 | Military Heritage | 43 seen

Ērģeme castle is located in the parish of Ērģeme, Valka county, some 170 km north from the capital of Riga.

Ērģeme castle served as a powerful fortress for the protection of the Livonian Holy Order eastern border and as a castle-front for the Cēsis castle of the Livonian Holy Order master. The castle was mentioned in 1422 but it was built already around year 1320 under the ordinance of the Order master Gerhard von Jocke. Masters used castle as a storehouse, point of support and shelter for the night. Planning of the castle is clearly legible. Nowadays still quite impressive castle ruins with the round corner tower in the height of five stories can be viewed.

Outside stone wall of the castle forms a regular quadrangle (it is so-called convent type castle) with two big fortification towers. Moats filled with water were around the castle. Drawbridge united the castle-front with the central part. Castle of Ērģeme was in the district of the master of Holy Order, ancillary castle of the Komturei of Cēsis. In 15th century castle was significantly rebuilt. In 1575 Ērģeme was conquered by the Livonian duke Magnuss who sold the castle to Polish in 1578. In 1621…

SEB-Active 3rd Pillar Pension Plan Review 2021

27 July, 2021 | Stock Portfolio | 15 seen

I opted for a 3rd pension pillar pension plan at SEB bank Latvia back in May 2019. I've been saving additional funds for old age for already two years. Time flies. 

On the day, when I opted to save for old age,  my dad turned 65. Kind of average age in Latvia for retirement. 

I started small, saving EUR 33/mo for the first four-month, then increased it to EUR 43/mo for the next 4 months, and again increased monthly contributions to EUR 58/mo for the next 4 months. Right now I'm investing EUR 128/mo to the 3rd pension pillar plan (I tend to increase my contributions every 4 months)

SEB Active Pension Plan 2019-2021

In total, during the past 2 years, I have contributed EUR 1,740  (average EUR 72.5/mo) to the pension fund.

After the first two years with SEB Active pension plan, I've made EUR 108.18 or +6.21% capital gain. I find this quite a good result.

I believe 3rd pension pillar won't take more than 5-10% from my million dollar retirement savings account (which I plan to enter in 2045), on the other hand, the…

Truso Valley

26 July, 2021 | Tourism objects | 27 seen

 Truso Valley is known for its mineral water springs, white/yellow travertines, mineral lake with bubbles, towers of middle ages, -most notably Zakagori castle, villages on a very high altitude such as Resi (2350m), tasty cheese and Ossetian Khabidzginas (khachapuri with cheese and potatoes) and nice people.

I first visited this area during a weekend trip to Kazbegi (Stepatsminda) at the end oh July 2021.  To get there, we took a left turn in Kobi village, passing Kobi Cable car station. The road is very much an offorad, but not extremely complicated.

It's said the area is nice for hiking, and that what I would advice, but we actually traveled here by a Nissan Xtra SUV car and had a nice picknic along the Terek river in front of as I believe a hot pool

I'm not completely sure the water is actually hot/warm at this little natural pool, but there seem to have some bubles comming out of it

Unfortunately, conflict between Ossetians and Georgians and border closure by Russian government (Locals had winter pastures in the lowlands of northern Ossetia) made this gorge abandoned.

The Terek is a major river in the Northern Caucasus. It…

Laidi manor / Valtaiķi church / Rudbārži manor

23 July, 2021 | Tourism objects | 21 seen

November has started with some cool 4K cinematic drone videography at Laidi manor / Valtaiķi church / Rudbārži manor.

All places are great and highly recommended to visit, all places share some great history, starting Baltic - German nobleman Manteuffel at Laidi Manor, or some of the most beautiful stained glass windows in Latvia at Valtaiķu church, made in Italy at the beginning of the 20th century according to sketches by Vilhelms Purvītis.

Or Rudbārži manor, about a century ago, back in January 1919 Colonel Oskars Kalpaks "started" Latvian War of Independence / no wonder there is planned to establish a cadet school at Rudbārži manor soon

Filmed with DJI Mavic AIR 2 / post-processed in Adobe Premiere Pro

Royalty-Free Music from Bensound: Memories

My RSI+STOCH Stategy Settings for Trality Crypto Trading bot XLM, ADA

22 July, 2021 | Crypto | 35 seen

In this article, I will share details on how I configured Trality crypto trading bot for trading ADA and XLM coins with RSI and STOCH indicators

This is my algo trading bot I originally launched in mid-May 2021, by setting it up to sell EUR-XLM pair based on RSI strategy, bit latter I added ADA coin to this setup, but then I noticed that bot has used all buying power to purchase only ADA coins, which is not what I actually wanted and here I decided I need to fine-tune some settings, defining that say only 50% can go in purchasing one coin, And then I remembered during the day I played with BTC RSI+STOCH indicators and decided it would be smart adding STOCH to this bot also.

A stochastic oscillator is a momentum indicator comparing a particular closing price of a security to a range of its prices over a certain period of time. The sensitivity of the oscillator to market movements is reducible by adjusting that time period or by taking a moving average of the result. It is used to generate overbought and oversold trading signals,…

Georgia - Russia Friendship monument near Gudauri

16 July, 2021 | Tourism objects | 37 seen

Georgia - the land of many wonders

A drone flight around Georgia - Russia Friendship Monument near Gudauri

• DJI Mavic mini, August 16th, 2020
• Music by Scott Holmes - Epic Cinematographic

Backtesting BTC-EUR RSI Strategy with Trality

15 July, 2021 | Crypto | 16 seen

For the past couple of days, I've been testing Trality crypto trading bot a lot, executing a few trades.  I must say - I feel very impressed with what this bot can do, if you are new to Trality, see my brief review here: Simple Crypto Trading Bot From Trality

As I like testing and implementing ideas, in today's article I'm going to talk about the Relative Strength Index (RSI) and its usage in crypto trades. I believe RSI is one of the easiest ways to trade crypto. Not 100% proof, but a good starting point for sure. In fact, this is the one and only I understand the most. 

See my previous article about backtesting RSI with XLM (and ADA) coins: Backtesting XLM-EUR RSI Strategy with Trality

Disclosure: I'm not a financial advisor and I don't give you any advice, I'm just sharing my own experience. Investments in stocks, funds, bonds, or cryptos are risk investments and you could lose some or all of your money. Do your due diligence before investing in any kind of asset. 

The relative strength index (RSI) is a momentum indicator developed by noted…

Khertvisi Fortress

12 July, 2021 | Military Heritage | 23 seen

Khertvisi fortress is one of the oldest fortresses in Georgia and was functional throughout the Georgian feudal period. It is situated in Khertvisi village of Aspindza Municipality, Southern Georgia, in Meskheti region. The fortress was first mentioned in the 10th-11th centuries.

The church was built in 985, and the present walls were built in 1354. According to a local legend, Khertvisi was once destroyed by Alexander the Great, though it has then been reconstructed and invaded on numerous occasions through the centuries.

I first discovered this gem back in 2014, when Khertvisi was used as a starting point for our two-day rafting trip, see: Rafting in Georgia - Khertvisi - Aspindza - Borjomi, it took me a few more years to return here and flew a drone around

Khertvisi Fortress in Georgia

In the 10th-11th centuries it was the center of Meskheti region. During the 12th century it became a town. In the 13th century Mongols destroyed it and until the 15th century it lost its power. According the inscription on a stone, found in the fortress, significant reconstruction was made by Zakari…

Orbeliani square Tbilisi

9 July, 2021 | Tourism objects | 15 seen

Autumn feeling or fun with a drone near Oberliani square / Alexander Garden in Tbilisi. (The former and famous Hotel 'London' is located in this area) Music by David Hilowitz - Equilibrium I Cello version

Salty Garden Tavern in Mlashe

8 July, 2021 | Restaurant reviews | 42 seen

Salty Garden Tavern is an awesome place located in Mlashe village, some 60 km from the nation's capital Tbilisi near the Bazaleti lake

We discovered this place at the end of May 2021 and were surprised to learn that the owner of the tavern - David speaks some Latvian.

Mlashe village

Our mission is to support the development of our village Mlashe, protection of its ecosystem. Salty Garden provides working places to local people, therefore they won’t leave the village in search of the other job.

Traditional crafts are valuable resources that need to be protected. 

We have already employed two Mlashe’s families and some more are providing us veggies, fresh milk and meat.

All veggies and fruits are growing with no use of pesticides, accordingly newest bio standards. The waste is recycling. 

Now Mlashe is a place to be.

Cool views, authentic Georgian cuisine, kid-friendly, pet-friendly,  very friendly, and goodhearted owners.

Dinner at Salty Garden

yummy, one of the best katmis mcvadi and tasty homemade lemonades. the menu is pretty nice and adopted for…

June 2021 Dividend Income Report - $128.31

7 July, 2021 | Stock Portfolio | 48 seen

Welcome to the fifthy (#50) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from dividend-paying stocks in June 2021.

The last June we spent in Georgia and at the end of the month traveled back to Latvia, we did many nice road trips, kept going to the gym and visited swimming pool, English kindergarten for our daughter. Life is very good. I was doing quite a lot of awesome drone videography around both countries, discovered new places both in Georgia and Latvia.

From the perspective of dividend income - Last June was surprisingly good. 

In total, we took  $128.31  in dividend income last month. Which is  quite awesome, for doing nothing, just holding stakes at great companies.

Compared to the previous June in 2020, when we took just $82.11 in dividend income,  monthly dividend has increased by +56%  (+$46). A year ago we did set a goal to take at least $300 this month, now this unfortuneltly didn't happen. 

Luckily, an additional $1,223 was made from options…

How To export Image from Video File in Adobe Premiere Pro

6 July, 2021 | Digital Photography School | 22 seen

Lately, I've put my DSLR camera aside and mostly using DJI Mavic AIr 2 + phone for photography and video (mostly video). 

The drone is an awesome replacement for a DSLR camera - you can have both video and photography, the only drawback - no audio, that's why I'm using a phone. 

anyhow, recently I discovered an awesome place here in Georgia, the restaurant Salty Garden, I did some drone videography, did some mobile videos, made a nice short clip at the end, but I forget to take any photography - so I was left with no other option - export a single frame (s) from Adobe Premiere

And here is how:

From your timeline, with the frame selected press CTRL+SHIFT+E (or locate export frame icon under the selected video)

Export Frame from Adobe Premiere Pro

You will be prompted to select the Format and chose the location. I chose JPEG (though you can export also BMP, DPX, GIF, JPEG, OpenEXR, PNG, Targa and Tiff)

Next, I can import selected frames in Adobe Lightroom and fine-tune.

Hope this helps!

Restaurant Chiko near Aspindza

5 July, 2021 | Restaurant reviews | 26 seen

Restaurant Chiko near Apsindza is one of our best discoveries lately here in Georgia, the restaurant no only offers amazing and spectacular views but it also serves tasty cuisine for a very very affordable prices.

First discovered in June 2021, when returning from Vardzia cave town, we made a stop here because of spectacular views and I really wanted to have a good cappuccino. I got both + more.

The view that attracted

After seeing this views when passing by, we decided to take a stop here and have a cup of coffee.

The mountains are called - Aspindza mountains

River Mtkhari passing by

The views are just worth a million.

Hotel under construction

There was ongoing hotel construction works performed during our brief stay here, should be very nice hotel in future, for travelers exploring this part of Georgia.

Weekend

2 July, 2021 | Living in Georgia | 8 seen

Weekend - turned out quite a nice video, despite a bad luck filming. Got a no-fly warning from monks at Zedazeni monastery and heavy rain ruined my plans filming at Birtvisi canyon. From the good - discovered how to use action track on Mavic Air 2.

All the rest - enjoy!

Music by Scott Holmes: Storybook

April 9-11, 2021

How to Flip a Mirror Video in Adobe Premiere Pro

1 July, 2021 | Digital Photography School | 105 seen

Recently I launched my YouTube channel where I talk about stocks, options trading, and finance in general. Most of the filming and editing I'm doing myself.

As I'm filming with my Samsung Galaxy A51 phone  and then importing video in Adobe Premiere Pro for editing I noticed that some of my videos kind of look weird as t they are in a "mirror effect"

Mirror effect video

Look at the T-shirt - the text is in mirror effect. 

Now to change it  - select the video file and apply Horizontal Flip from the:

Effects - > Video effects - > Transform - > Horizontal Flip

Flip horizontal video in Adobe Premiere Pro

Hope it helps!