In my younger years, I really enjoyed watching Bond movies. I think they also were among the firts ones I had the privilege to watch on video (VHS). Growing up, my fondness for Bond and action movies in general, especially the ones with unrealistic stunts, toned down. I now watch some of these movies if I just want to pass the time.
As the year comes to an end, I feel like a reflection is needed. 2023 was quite a ride. I planned to have this reflection on LinkedIn, but the Prague shooting on the 21st of December made me limit my social media presence and exposure at this time, out of respect for the victims.
It is good to have some days left over from the annual vacation, and this time I had three days to use in December. An excellent opportunity to explore a new place.
As an expatriate, not only I can live this wonderful city, but I also have the chance to see all the touristy attractions, especially out of season. Recently I saw an advertisement for the Pilsner Urquell Experience. A wonderful opportunity to visit, especially since my brother and one of his friends happened to be around. Extra fun, since the friend is a university professor in food chemistry.
There are two experiences one can book at the center of Prague: The tour of the process, the brewery and the story is one. I made a mental note to visit next time.
The second, is the "Tapster Academy", learning to pour a perfect pilsner. This is the one we opted for, and the experience was worth every single minute. Our trainer, Alesh, was not only knowledgeable, but also fun!
Although I cannot drink much any more, I easily managed several (small) glasses of pilsner during this one hour, whithout even being tipsy. Which means, that if Pilsner is served properly, it is a great beer for even non-drinkers like me. And this is what we learned: How to wash and prepare the glasses, what is the right temperature, how to clean and maintain the tap, and of course, how to pour Pilsner for a perfect hladinka, šnyt and mlíko.
Overall, I highly recommend this experience to anyone who visits Prague from now on, and I think I'll try to put it in the agenda of the next team-building event I will have in Prague.
My partner and I went to the Adršpach Rocks in October of last year. She never fails to pick fantastic destinations for quick getaways, most of which require at least a little bit of trekking. In this case, the rule held true.
The beach "Kolokytha" (which means pumpkin) is on the Kalydon Peninsula, the same peninsula as is the infamous, last active leper colony in Europe of Spinalonga. Despite being October, the sea was quite warm and pleasant.
Recently I wanted to set up 2 new Home Assistant instances, and I installed the same add-ons I am using for my "main" instance. They are tested and I have automations built with them; one being the Signal Add-on.
Don't you love open source and the capabilities it provides? My constant tinkering of my home automation has no end! The latest improvement is asking the system to play my favorite music. And I remembered that the advanced capabilities of using Rhasspy with Home Assistant with as little code as possible is not clear to everybody. So here is an explanation of how this works, and how I leveraged these capabilities to satisfy my music needs.
What do you do when your laptop breaks? If you're like me, you try to find a way to give it a second life. You either replace the broken parts, or, some times, you just imagine other ways to repurpose the laptop.
My Home Assistant was misbehaving lately and I could not figure out why. It did take me time, effort, a lot of cursing, troubleshooting and head scratching, and eventually it was solved by the typical "this can NOT be the problem, but there is nothing else to try!" approach!