Blog Archive: May 2022

International Scout Centre Rustavi

31 May, 2022 | Professional services | 92 seen

The industrial town of Rustavi, approximately 25 km southeast of the Georgian capital Tbilisi, offers a modern international scouting center.

The youth center offers space for a variety of indoor and outdoor activities. The facility is available for children and young people from Rustavi and offers comfortable and reasonably priced accommodation, seminar, and conference facilities for regional and international youth groups, schools, universities, and non-governmental organizations, as well as tourists and individual travelers.

I first visited this place at the end of May 2022, during an event organized by Latvian Sunday School in Tbilisi.

Should I say I was really impressed after seeing it? Now, I have seen such places all over the world, but was really surprised seeing such high level center in Georgia. Really cool!

Since its opening in 2013 the centre has hosted special events such as training courses, seminars, planning weekends, etc.; annually the centre is used by around 1200 people, with approximately 6500 overnight occupancies.

The International Scout Centre Rustavi (ISCR) is a project of the The Caucasus Cooperation Foundation…

How to Fix "Unable to install bootstrap, bootstrap.settings already exists in active configuration"

26 May, 2022 | Drupal Development | 110 seen

As this was already the second time i faced the "Unable to install bootstrap, bootstrap.settings already exists in active configuration." problem i decided to share a quick and simple solution.

Background: I have faced this error when performing the Drupal 7 upgrade to the Drupal 9 version and trying to enable the bootstrap theme. 

solution: in PHPMyAdmin open the database your Drupal site is running, in the Search tab enter "bootstrap"

Make sure you select all under tables and click the go button

You will get a result with rows showwin where bootstrap setting might belocated, in our case, table config

Simply click the delete on config.

that's it - now you should be able to install and activate the bootstrap theme for Drupal

Notes from Tbilisi: Caru.ge services our Car, new expats join language courses, PCR test

25 May, 2022 | Living in Georgia | 14 seen

The morning started with the kiddo having a little fever (temperature 37 C). Decided to leave her at home and observe, as this Friday we have our first school concert. It would be very sad to miss. Sent a message to Ms. Nino.

Yesterday - the car just stopped working, or won't crank. Already for the third time, this year ordered caru.ge to service the car. As the car was parked in Vake I went to the office in the morning to meet the service guy in the afternoon. Traded a bit of bitcoin futures. Packed out robot cleaner for cleaning our apt.

Met with the caru.ge guy, he said, the problem is with the starter, had to order evacuator. I left the spot and come home. 

We received a letter from the school that there have been positive covid cases among teachers and pupils, we ordered PCR test to see, does the kiddo has got Covid or not. We already had at the start of February after returning from Bakuriani.

Caru. ge informed that the problem is with fuel pumps (VW Touareg has 2 of them) the total cost for replacement and work GEL 1,400. Sh*t 

Our language courses for ex-pats in Georgia are gaining momentum, got another applicant.…

Top 8 Best Selling Intel Core i7 12th generation laptops

23 May, 2022 | Laptop Reviews | 190 seen

Laptops with the latest 12th generation Intel core i7 processor will be popular among gamers and graphic editors.

In this article, I've listed the top 8 best-selling laptops with Intel Core i7 12th generation processors. 

See: Top 9 Best Selling Intel Core i9 12th generation laptops

A quick note: 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 will earn an affiliate income at no cost to you. Prices for laptops listed on this page are retrieved using Amazon Product Advertising API and are updated daily. For actual prices please refer to the product page on Amazon.

• POWERFUL, FAST, AMAZING: Our new laptop is packed with the premium performance you’ve come to expect from Samsung — plus some; It’s powered by the latest 12th Gen Evo-certified Intel processor, our most powerful available CPU yet
• THIN, LIGHT, POWERFUL: With a PC this powerful,…

How To Upgrade Drupal 7 to 9 (With Multilingual Support)

19 May, 2022 | Drupal Development | 25 seen

In this article, I will keep notes on how I upgraded the multilingual Drupal 7 site to a multilingual Drupal 9 site.

Turns out I had originally built this website on Drupal 7 more than 10 years ago and it already felt that the exciting website's look and feel is a bit outdated and we wanted to get a fresh look.

I thought it wouldn't do any harm upgrading the database too. As I have already done a few successful upgrades in the past and as the website was not very complicated I didn't spend a lot of time on this.

As I'm using Linode VPS I decide to go the migrate path, and started with creating a new subdomain on the webserver giving it a prefix d9

As I already had configured the server I will walk through the most essential parts only in this article, for configuring a server from scratch, see this article: How to Install Drupal with Nginx, PHP-FPM 7.4, MySQL, phpMyAdmin on Ubuntu 20.04 - Linode Guide

We will install Drupal 9 in the directory "/srv/www/d9.caucasustranslations.com". Please replace my domain name in your installation with the domain name of the website that you want…

Dashbashi Canyon & Waterfall with 240 meter long Glass Bridge

17 May, 2022 | Tourism objects | 99 seen

If there is a reason to visit Dashbasi canyons near the Tsalka in Georgia - the canyons themselves, cascading waterfall and the glass bridge hanging over the gorge should raise some interest.

Dashbashi Canyon Natural Monument is part of Khrami (known as Ktsia at it source) gorge near Dashbashi village, 3 km from the town of Tsalka

I first heard about this place a couple of years ago from an ex-pat friend, back then the place was pretty much not developed and unknown to the broader masses.

We first visited Dashabshi Canyon in 2020, back then it was still a pretty much-underdeveloped area, but some touristic routes were built. Back then we didn't climb down to the cascading waterfalls, but instead, I made some nice drone videography from the nearby restaurant (Restaurant Pepo near Dashbashi Canyon).

See: My First Drone Video / DJI MAVIC MINI

Now, we returned here again at the end of April 2022 and huge improvements are made. There is a good asphalt road, a visitor center, and plenty of tourists. Entrance fee (Gel 19, as of 2021)

I didn't try to cross the glass bridge over the canyon, instead, I got my adrenaline rush from…

Top 9 Best Selling Intel Core i9 12th generation laptops

16 May, 2022 | Laptop Reviews | 101 seen

The 12th Gen Intel® Core™ HX processors utilize desktop-caliber silicon in a mobile package – to deliver high levels of performance for professional workflows like CAD, animation, and visual effects.

The HX processors are unlocked out of the box and available in Core i5, Core i7, and Core i9 models.

In this article, I've listed the top 9 best-selling laptops with Intel Core i9 12th generation processors. 

A quick note: 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 will earn an affiliate income at no cost to you. Prices for laptops listed on this page are retrieved using Amazon Product Advertising API and are updated daily. For actual prices please refer to the product page on Amazon.

• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU: Bringing the flagship 80 Ti class of GPUs to laptops for the first time, the RTX 3080 Ti features 16GB of the fastest GDDR6 memory ever shipped in a laptop and delivers higher performance than the desktop TITAN RTX
• 12th…

Tsalka lake & Dashbashi canyon with waterfalls

13 May, 2022 | Living in Georgia | 22 seen

 This time, our destination was the mesmerizing Tsalka Lake and Dashbashi Canyon, where nature's beauty unfolds in every corner. From hyper-lapses over the tranquil lake to an adrenaline-pumping drone flight over a 240-meter long glass bridge, this weekend was truly one for the books. Fasten your seatbelts, and let's dive into the magic of Tsalka and Dashbashi!

Our journey began at Tsalka Lake, a hidden gem surrounded by rolling hills and lush greenery. The calm waters mirrored the clear blue sky, creating a serene atmosphere that instantly transported us away from the hustle and bustle of daily life. A-frame houses dotted the landscape, offering a picturesque backdrop for our weekend retreat.

To capture the essence of Tsalka Lake, we embarked on a mesmerizing journey through time with hyper-lapses. The changing hues of the sky, the gentle ripples of the lake, and the play of sunlight on the water – each frame told a unique story of nature's poetry. The resulting footage is a visual symphony that we can now revisit and share with fellow nature enthusiasts.

Next on our itinerary was Dashbashi Canyon, a natural wonder that promised excitement…

Notes from Tbilisi - Crypto Club, Learning Spanish, Could Bitcoin crash $25,000

12 May, 2022 | Living in Georgia | 8 seen

Yesterday I visited the crypto club event at Local Tbilisi. Met a bunch of smart guys, mostly expats, was fun to watch bitcoin love/hate talks, listened to stories about investing in alt-coins. Been there, and seen that. 

As you might already know - I'm neutral on crypto, neither bullish nor bearish. Prefer to trade Bitcoin futures.

With a smile, listened to the crypto talks about where should bitcoin go next, some saying bitcoin will have support at $20,000 some said at $18,000. nevertheless, most of the crypto enthusiasts didn't care about the bitcoin price dropping, as seems they are hodlers or not investing in Bitcoin at all but in some altcoins. 

Belgian guy made a lot of sense, saying bitcoin is open source, vs the rest are just commercial pump and dumps. Makes sense to me.

Too many talks about some Luna coin, which crashed during our meeting. It seemed that most of the crypto enthusiasts believe in crypto taking over the world by storm. Anyhow, I left the meeting with some food for thought. 

Today we had our first Spanish lesson for a kiddo with teacher Eva (Latvian in Tbilisi), she has worked at QSI…

Georgian language classes for Expats in Tbilisi

11 May, 2022 | Living in Georgia | 34 seen

I've been involved in the Georgias ex-pat community for some good time already, a few years ago I helped to launch the Georgian Expat photographer club, and some years later I launched Expats in Georgia Facebook group, and today I'm happily sharing the latest brainchild - Georgian for expats

A couple of weeks ago I helped to start  - the Georgian for an Expats language course. It took us some 72 hours from the idea to realization, as we already had an office in a convenient location, tutors, and even a whiteboard - it was all about marketing texts, and Facebook ads.

After the first 24 hours, we got our first students. 

Here is what it all is about

Learn basic Georgian in 8 lessons with a professional tutor.

Small group sizes. GEL 250 for a full course or GEL 40 per lesson

• 200+ most useful vocabulary words
• The most useful phrases you can use in everyday situations
• Proper Georgian pronunciation
• How to put basic sentences together
• Read and write in Georgian
• Easily order foods and drinks
• Pronounce words correctly without hearing them first…

Batumi - city with inspiring Architecture

10 May, 2022 | | 7 seen

I love visiting Batumi once or twice per year, preferably in Spring / Summer season. Back in 2012, we even lived in Batumi for some 6 months. 

We were renting a small soviet time apartment in the city center (next to Radisson Batumi) for about $400/mo and enjoyed walking around the city wandering with many new and exciting buildings. 

What I always love about Batumi - is the never-ending and booming real estate with many great architectural buildings. 

Invest in Batumi Real Estate (Buying Black Frame Projects)

In today's Piece of Life series - my latest discovered from Batumi, from a flight of a drone

Amazing architecture here, towers and squares, boulevards and beaches

The city is expanding at a fast pace

Batumi - city with inspiring architecture

Batumi real estate crypto token

Notes from Tbilisi - Gym, BitcoinGeorgia.Ge, Georgian for Expats and Bitcoin dips under $32,000

9 May, 2022 | Living in Georgia | 9 seen

Wow, what a day it was today - stock futures were opening lower, quite lower, Dow Jones index was failing more than 400 points, extending the stock market bleeding for some sixth or seventh week in a row.

I was holding several long bitcoin positions on Deribit with strike prices above $40,000, and the losses just kept accelerating, to keep my positions above the water I bought more bitcoin and deposited them on Deribit. 

Bitcoin is not for all. Bitcoin futures, definitely are for a few select ones.

Went to the Champions academy for some cardio and dumbell workout. Later worked on my latest brainchild - BitcoinGeorgia.ge (more on that in some of the other blog posts.

In the evening we had our second lesson for Georgian for expats, this time Gvantsa took us shopping to the AgroHub and we had a chance to practice our Georgian. 

The rest of the evening I spent gazing a the bitcoin charts, praying it doesn't fall under $30,000 tonight

What a day!

How to Place a Stop Loss Order on Coinbase Pro

4 May, 2022 | Crypto | 275 seen

For most of the time, I have been using a Coinbase Pro account just to buy and hold Bitcoin once a week. Just recently I started thinking about trading Bitcoin more frequently - like a couple of times per day using trade signals like Moving Averages with Golden and Death Cross.

The idea is quite simple - Once there is a trade signal indicating a buy - I will manually buy Bitcoin, to protect myself I want to set a stop loss of about 1% under my bought price. In case of trends reverse, I’m protected and don’t blow my account.

As an active stock trader I know pretty well the concept of stop losses, but working on a new platform there is always some learning curve involved in understanding the platform itself, so I was familiarizing myself with the Coinbase Pro platform and was looking how to place a stop-loss order, luckily I found this awesome article to kickstart my learning curve

To place a stop-loss order, you’ll need to have an open position. Change the order type from Buy to Sell and select the Stop tab. You will see three fields, and here’s what they mean:

• Stop Price…

Weekend trip to Batumi from Tbilisi by Train

3 May, 2022 | Travel guides | 12 seen

In this article, I will share notes and points of interest from our latest trip to Batumi during the Orthodox Easter 2022.

We were traveling from Tbilisi Railway station by train, paying GEL 25 for a seat in second class (The price for the seat in first class was GEL 60, business class GEL 100). Comfortable 2-story Swiss-built Stadler train, the total travel time about 6 hours. Just a few stops - Tbilisi - Ureki, Kobuleti, Batumi.

Batumi railway station is not located in the city center, so we took a Taxi (Bolt app) and paid about 5-6 GEL for a transfer to our hotel near the Boulevard. We chose to stay at Best Western Premium hotel, which is located out of the city center but offered a king-size bed with an additional bed for our daughter, free breakfast, and access to the heated indoor swimming pool for just GEL 200/ per night. In total paying GEL 800 for a 4-night stay here.

Originally I had an idea to hire some local driver and explorer the Khulo area and Chakvi (I wanted to film tea plantations), but in the end, we decides to take it easy and enjoy our swimming pool, trade some stocks and bitcoin futures from the hotel room. Which I in fact enjoyed.…