OffSetLab

The year was filled with good things and the bad. Mostly good. It's hard to complain looking back. After all, we did more than expected.

I am keeping my publishing frequency of once a month, but like I said before, I lost some of the data when the SSD failed along with a plethora of components so the two consecutive articles were done late December. The restrictions were loosened up so we got to travel, but I miss just staying at home in a way. I also published Cuply in the Summer but need to come back to it to see it in action this year and iron out any kinks.

Moving on to the recap. A friend said that revenge traveling was trending. Being holed up during the pandemic meant that we saved enough money. Coupled with some additional planning meant that we didn't waste our days off. Usually our trips are self-organized and follow a bit of a template, we prefer to take accommodation near the city centre, and then rely on hop-on-hop-off buses and free walking tours to get a better sense of the space and history.

Trips:

• Poland (Krakow, Auschwitz, Wieliczka salt mine, a lot of it was focused on what happened during the WW2, but we definitely found time for vodka tasting)
• Croatia (back home, Zagreb and Papuk nature park)
• Hungary (Budapest, saw some friends from Ireland that were visiting their family)
• Austria (Vienna, the capital of the old Austro-Hungarian empire that Croatia was a part of)
• Slovakia (Bratislava, the last destination of our trifecta trip; in retrospect it would've been great if we had the time to visit the cities traveling via Danube, as all three are on it, but it was still great. The architecture is very familiar in the remnants of the empire)
• Spain (Valencia, a futuristic looking city that reminds us of the Star Trek's San Francisco version, with a lot of green surfaces converted from the old dried up river bed)
• Spain (Barcelona, visiting a work colleague)
• Andorra (Andorra la Vella, while visiting Barcelona, it was an opportunity to visit this snowbound microstate)
• France (Ax-les-Thermes, all part of the same day trip from Barcelona)
• USA (Boston, Somerville, New York, visiting for work and an opportunity to see another continent. Saw four out of five boroughs in NYC, a neighborhood music festival in Somerville and took some lovely tours in Boston)
• Switzerland (Zürich, long layover towards Greece, we plan to come back)
• Greece (Athens, Volos, Rhodes, Santorini, Mykonos, Delos, visiting the islands)
• Turkey (Istanbul, Kusadasi, and a bit of Turkey which is very European, well, at least the parts we were at, and Istanbul is magnificent)
• France (Paris, Versailles, a trip with Vesna's parents)
• Spain (Tarragona, to see this old Roman Empire city with all the accompanying ruins, then Barcelona, visiting for work, this time saw the inside of Sagrada Familia)
• USA (New York, and work again, and some other vistas, the Wicked musical in Gershwin theater on Broadway and the last borough which was Bronx, where we visited the botanical gardens)
• Romania (Brasov, Bucharest, Sibiu, Sinaia, visiting castles, all the gothic and vampire things. Carpathian mountains are beautiful, and Peles Castle is an amazing modern castle)
• Croatia (back home and Zagreb again)

As for domestic travel, a couple of friends came over so we revisited the usual spots in Dublin and around our place, as well as finally went on a tour of the cemetery. My parents visited at one point so that was a blast, too. However, we did some domestic travel outside of Dublin, too, taking a road trip with friends:

• Derry in Northern Ireland (a quick visit on a rainy day)
• Malin Head (the northernmost point of the island)
• Glenveagh (the national park)
• Slieve League (beyond amazing vistas, we took a boat ride as well)
• Ballyshannon (a small trip around the city)
• Marble Arch Caves in Northern Ireland (going underground with all the stalactites and stalagmites)

Concerts and events:

• Oh, Wonder

List of things we bought:

• Grow light for the plants which worked with a pump for the plants to survive in the tub while we were away on one occasion
• ESP32 feather board for the automation of the standing desk
• Aqara door and window sensors for turning of the heating if the room is ventilating
• D&D things, books, papers, inks...
• 3D printing safety equipment and miniature painting equipment
• Cocktail making set and then some metal straws and picks
• Bluetooth speaker for the bathroom. Unfortunately it's not that smart to be always on, but works
• Soldering iron kit for working on the Cuply project
• Life is Strange comic set, so I've read a bit this year
• Logitech Z407 PC speakers because the old ones died and I couldn't repair them. I'm not on that level yet
• New backpacks for Vesna and I, a picnic blanket and travel pillows
• Zemismarat curtain motor because I got tired of waiting for the IKEA to release a fitting item... that and the old curtain nearly fell on my head because the old axis got worn down
• External Samsung SSD for backing up things locally
• Tefal deep fat fryer because our local fast food joint closed down and we were panicking
• Kitchen utensils and replacing/repairing things in the apartment
• This is Vegan Propaganda book I got from Vesna and I highly recommend it
• New poster covers
• Bathroom curtain
• Raspberry PI Zero 2 W
• Desktop PC components that died (CPU, PSU, Cooler, MoBo, RAM)

Other important events:

• Got a confirmation that my citizenship application was being processed, but it will probably take another year and a half from the time of this writing
• PC died, but managed to repair it
• Contracted COVID-19 most likely while traveling from France
• Started wall climbing, seems it will stick and we need to get fit
• Finished hydroponics, i.e. the Cuply project
• Didn't draw, but must do something this year
• Played some games, but only finished Ori and the Will of the Wisps
• Read some comic books and books: Life is Strange, Persepolis, This is Vegan Propaganda
• Got into cocktail mixing
• Reminded myself we're getting older
• Got back to planning trips
• Didn't ride the scooters, but need to do something about it this year
• Started 3D printing

Right now it's back to planning out this year and making some resolutions yet again.