Personal
My High-Protein / Ultra-Rich Calorie Deficit Diet (Banana & Matsoni) Helped me to Drop about 5kg in 3 weeks
For the past three weeks, I’ve been sticking to an ultra-low-calorie diet that’s delivered fantastic results—dropping from a weight that was creeping dangerously close to 100 kg down to 93.3 kg, a…
Baltic German DNA Uncovered: Tracing My Ancestry to the von Anrep Nobility
Family legends often hold a grain of truth, even if they become distorted over time. My journey into family history, particularly on my maternal lineage—through my mother's mother's father’s side (…
MyHeritage DNA test result
Today I finally received the DNA test result from MyHeritage. The result was quite surprising - I learned I have 56% Baltic, 18.8% Ashkenazi Jewish, 15.85% Balkan, and 8.7% North and West…
MyHeritage DNA test, flight to Tbilisi, Stock Recovery
Today was the last day in Riga and Latvia for a while. No More Vilgale, no more Ječi, and no more Riga until Spring 2023 (earliest). QSI school started today in Tbilisi, but we will still skip…
How to Sell a Car in Riga / Latvia
We bought a used Mercedes Benz ML 400 Diesel car in Riga a few months ago. We hoped the car would suit us for the years to come, but in the end, the vehicle was faulty even before we bought it. So…
Buying a car in Riga
A few years ago I wrote an article on how to buy a used car in Georgia, now it is time to write about our experience buying a used car in Riga Latvia.For the past couple of years, we were using…
The Grand Documentary of 2021
From more than 235 GB of footage (1409 short clips per year), I was able to produce about 48 minutes long documentary. As every year - the documentary is made in a style of a home video, filmed…
The Grand Documentary of 2020
From more than 111 GB of footage (1295 short clips per year), I was able to produce about 1 hour 30 minutes long documentary As every year - documentary, a home video style, filmed with a DSLR camera…
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…
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…
The Grand Documentary of 2018
2018 was very special. Here is a brief recap in a 25-minute long documentary. Some shorts from Tbilisi, relocating to Jūrmala. A lot of snow. Building a baby crib, chilling. chilling a lot. Picking…
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
I was first introduced to the works of Nassim Nicholas Taleb from a fellow option trader when in a conversation I mentioned the term "Black Swan", my friend told me that Mr. Nassim Taleb is…
The Grand Documentary of 2017
The Grand Documentary of 2017 is a second part from the never-ending Grand Documentary series, originally set back in 2016. The Grand Documentary of 2017 is a 5 minutes and 23 seconds long short…
The Grand Documentary of 2016
Filmed in 8 countries throughout 2016, glued, sanded, laminated, blamed and put together in Tbilisi, Georgia using Adobe Premiere CC. The Great Documentary is 13 minutes and 2 seconds long…
Documentary Around the World by Graf Zeppelin (1929 footage)
Documentary Around the World by Zeppelin is a film by Dutch director Ditteke Mensink made first aired on BBC Four in 2010. This was one of the most interesting and quality films I've…
Learn to Read Georgian in 5 Days
Strange, how it works - It was on a lazy Saturday afternoon when I finally decided to buy a Russian literature's classic - War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. While reading this book I decided to launch a…
Latest articles
LEGOLAND Berlin Review: A Fun Family Activity in the German Capital
When planning a family trip to Berlin with children, most travelers immediately think about the Berlin Zoo — and rightly so. But if you are spending a few days in the German capital with younger kids, another solid half-day activity is the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre BerlinWe visited it in April 2026 together with our 7-year-old daughter during our…
Ādģēri: The 30K Mistake That Turned Into a Long-Term Experiment
In 2023, we bought Ādģēri in an online auction.Price: just over €30,000.Financing: ~6% interest.Total expected payment over ~5 years: ~€40,000.Status (April 2026): more than half already paid.On paper, it was a bad deal.Realistically, we overpaid by at least 5–6× relative to what the property was objectively worth at the time. No serious buyer…