We have mood lights in the bedroom that are hard to enjoy. Every day we must remember to plug them in and every night lean far out of bed to turn them off, not optimal. Adding a timer into the mix helped by automatically turning the lights on at a set time but had downsides: still had to unplug the lights to turn them off, had to remember to plug them back in come morning, and timing would become out of sync with sunset time.... read more

A four day weekend for us means water sports and the Italian country side. Leaving Munich after work Thursday we drove south through the Austrian alps to Lake Garda. This trip instead of climbing in Arco we focused on the lake. Sailing Friends ask me: how do we sail? what sort of license do we have? I explain sailing doesn’t work like that. Many different jurisdictions and rules exist but what it comes down to is, “Do you know how to sail?... read more

On, above, and below the Adriatic. Dear friends, family, and future self, Heard of Istria? I hadn’t, but when Masha proposed a vacation I was eager to escape the home office routine. Promises of fresh sea food, charming coastal towns, sailing, and scuba diving were more than enough to convince me. Back now, I’m here to report on the trip. It turned out superb and I hope next time you’ll join us.... read more

Before update you on my reef tank I’d like to go over the aquascape. Reefing is part science, part animal husbandry, and part art. The art side begins with the Aquascape, aka the organisation of rocks to create a canvas that will be filled in with coral, invertebrates, and fish. A simple pile in the centre of the tank would technically work, but for this tank I wanted something more creative.... read more

How to learn German while staying up to date on all things reef aquariums? Korallenriff. A great blog with a ton of original content on reefing. From how two videos to product releases they cover it all. It is a project by ankerundmeehr accompanied by a YouTube channel, magazine, and salt water wiki. I struggled to stay up to date with their content. Unable to find an RSS feed for the blog I decided to scrape it and build my own.... read more

Language learning is big part of my life. Currently I’m focused on German and Russian. I’ve done formal classes, talked with native speakers, and used apps. Of my favourite apps is Duolingo. It has a great interface and set of features. When paired with other resources for self guided learning I think it is powerful. Problem came a few months ago when I started getting a ton of notification spam. Suddenly I had 340+ friends and needed to know about every 7 days streak they went on.... read more

One day last year I discovered my partner and I share an interest in aquariums. 👌🐠. Ever since then I wanted to get back into the hobby. Now that we have settle into our new apartment and have plenty of free time I decided to start. With these corona lockdowns I hoped a tank would bring not just something beautiful into our home but an activity to share. As I remember with my freshwater aquariums, the most important thing is research, research, research.... read more

First reef tank post! After weeks of research and implementation a small cube of sea is now being cultivated in my living room! In the future I’d like to do posts on specific reefing topics but in before that lets catch up on my experience with aquariums thus far. It was the first week of my freshman year college. My new roommate convinced me how cool aquariums are and soon we were on a bus from the university to a local fish store.... read more

Another ski tour!

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Route What makes a good ski tour? Tree skiing has always been important to me. Ever since I was little I enjoyed the trees. With my mother and uncle on the piste the rule was I could go in as long as they could see me. My cousin and I would weave in and out of the woods all day. This tour reminded me of those times. great view to start off with... read more