.family event

.not every year both of your parents are turning 50 ;). To make this event even more special a huge celebration party was prepared (with the most people from the close family present). A small wedding party is more appropriate to say ;). Around 45 people, 3 days, small hotel near Presov...

And among all this mess me as a family photographer, invitation designer (yeah, some photoshop came in handy). Nobody is paying attention to my need to study and study for the final exams :).
But yeah, it's good to relax a bit and loose the tense nerves ;). And so after many, many toasts, lots of food, wine, hundreds of photographs taken, fireworks, traditional folk music, dancing, sleeping, playing bowling and chatting for hours with all the people you haven't seen for months I was tired but happy that I was a part of it. And of course I'm glad for my parents, that their celebration was a success and maybe in another 50 years we'll propose some toasts to 100 years old couple :). And they lived happily ever after...


But enough of chatting, back to work :(, two more weeks to go...

.kosice's hell

.time for a special marathon race has come. The last Saturday in August is dedicated to bike marathon in my home town. 90km long, 3000 elevation metres, it's not very suitable for holiday bikers ;).

After two years of rainy weather, today we had finally some sun (maybe too much, biker is never satisfied with the weather) and only a modest mud :)... Competition was really tough, as some very good bikers were present again. My main challenge was to survive and try to improve my time as much as possible. Mission was successful, even though I've had time only for some 1600kms this season :(. I finished 17th, with the time of 5:54:37, thus improving last years time by 50 minutes ;). Yeah, it's good to add, that last year it was really rainy and we raced ankle deep in mud...
Anyhow, take a look at all the things you get when you pay your start fee... Isn't it worth all the trouble ;)?

.to study&relax

.I'd never thought there is sooo much to know for the final exams :(. It's quite overwhelming, after 2 weeks of full day study I've got through 2 out of 6 themes (question domains) only... Still 4 weeks to go, so probably there's enough time left. Yet I'm so tired already :(. Oh, how I wish it was over...

I've found out that the most relaxing thing for me to do after a whole day of math and other study stuff is working and editing of images, adding some artistic impression ;). In the same time I'm learning a lot about what can be achieved with some powerful tools :). But enough of gossip, take a look at some (still very amateur) results:

.bad luck

.the time has come for one of my favourite bike marathons, Horal, taking place in Nizke Tatry mountains. Last year was successful, I finished 29th out of 200 and it was my best placement ever (not that bad considering that I'm a pure hobby rider and among the competitors are always also some professionals...).

This year the result was not that optimistic, due to a combination of many factors (some of them are my fault, some are beyond my powers to change ;) ). First of all, my physical condition is not that good (not enough km (approximately 1350km so far) , low frequency of training sessions). The weather this year is weird and of course it had to rain two days straight just before the marathon (it was still raining 30 minutes before the start). This resulted in really muddy and hard to conquer track. And because of the mud I've experienced also some technical problems with my bike (this is the first time ever on a competition). Both dérailleurs were so chocked with the dirt, that changing the gear became almost impossible (curiously only on the medium front gear, it just kept dropping the chain...).
I was quite desperate, because it was still some 30km to the finish :(. I've been considering giving up. Yet, I've not given up ;). I've made it through the finish line using only the gears, that were functional... The placement was not very good, but at least I've won over myself and technical bad luck. It still counts, don't you think :)? I was dirty but happy, like every good cyclist should be after finishing yet another marathon ;)...

.job acquired!

.great news, folks! The job I was applying for is at last mine ;). Today I've got a long awaited verifying mail. That means that from the October I'm officially a member of Illusion Softworks development team :). I'm so glad, that's the job I've ever wanted! Hopefully I'll also like it :).
This means that I'm staying in Prague for some more time (months, years, who knows...). Thus my search for an apartment is getting really serious and intense ;).
See you around someday! Now I have to go to celebrate these great news a bit :)!

.long way home

.I needed some rest after last quite eventful month. Furthermore, I need to start studying for the final thesis. And so I've decided to go home for a month or so... In addition to this, I have two bike marathons and one big family celebration planned in three weeks to come.
I was travelling by car (moving my computer, bike and some stuff) with a safety co-driver personalized by my little sister Sasa ;). As it is already a month, since I saw Lubica for the last time, some minor detour through Surany was carefully planned again :).
What to say about it? It was great once again. We had some nice time together, eating pizza, chatting and laughing a lot and later cooling down in the nearby pond. Luckily, I got drowned only once, as Lubka hasn't got the strength for more ;)... Swimming contest was further spiced up with some rain and a thunderstorm. It was a welcomed addition after such a hot day.
We drank some coffee and got a heavy gift consisting of home grown products :). However, then we had to go :'(. Road home was still too long. We reached Kosice at around 10 PM, without any accidents.

I guess, that's it, see you soon, Buba!

.thesis shipping

.finally, that day has come! I've bound my thesis and handed it in. This work is over then. Of course it was not without some problems...

To make me feel some adrenaline rush, lady at the faculty desk said, that my thesis was missing one line at the front page. I was speechless, nobody ever pointed me to that (there is not even a word in the official rules about the need to have topic in English and Czech both included). Yet, without this it couldn't be accepted?!
I had some two hours to rewrite that page, print it out, have the thesis rebound, hand it in and last but not least apply for final exams... Every place included in this short list is in the different part of Prague, to make it even more challenging.
But luckily, after 2 hours of running through the old parts of Prague (in front of the eyes of curious tourists) I did it all successfully. Never again...


Wish me luck for the final exams (18.-19.9.)!

.friendly visit

.the last week was really busy. My very good friend Janka (we met in Saarbrucken during my erasmus stay) was coming to pay us a visit here in Prague. I've not seen here since Easter holidays, so I was really expecting this event :).

Unfortunately the weather was playing a big negative part in this play :(. Very cold (17 degrees) and windy, cloudy conditions with drizzling rain are not very much favouring the sightseeing activities. Nevertheless, we did pretty much interesting stuff during the last 6 days. And what is the most important, we had a lot of fun.
Everybody who is in Prague wants to see the castle, Staromestske namesti, Orloj and Vysehrad. So we did ;)! First day was completely about visiting these famous places and taking a lot of pictures. Interesting thing to mention is that during the first days with rainy weather there were thousands of tourists everywhere, but for example on Wednesday on Vysehrad there was only a bunch of people, even though it was sunny and warm finally :). Anyway, Saturday was the day crowned with the most beautiful photos and a great time while taking them :). And as I was accompanied by such a nice girl we got a free entrance into some of the castle's exhibitions ;).
Because the day was not over yet, we went to a cinema to see a late night screening of La Mome (a movie about life of Edith Piaf). It was nice and sad... I like her music and so this was an interesting journey into the last century. It's worth seeing.
Sunday was reserved for two important things: visiting the Zoo and some evening jazz ;). The sky was clouded and very unpleasant, but we wanted to see some cute animals. Walking around the area, suffering from the rain and cold wind, we did take some nice pictures (lazy tiger, curious giraffe, funny possums, etc.), seen very human-like gorilla (laying her hand against the glass wall and looking at us with those sad and intelligent eyes)...
Evening was a bit of a risk. We'd found some jazz event (an absolutely unknown Czech band playing) and bought the tickets. Still it was really cool and we had heard and seen some 3 hours of really fresh and modern jazz combined with other styles. It was perfect and relaxing. Check some venues for Freetech band and give it a try!
I had to take care of some school stuff on Monday (printing thesis, etc.). But in the evening we had some time to visit a tearoom with my sister Sasa and Igor. It was fine, with Apocalyptica music playing in the background ;) and some good fresh green tea :). It's a shame that all the tearooms are closing so early :(...
The next day some castle road trip was planned ;). We went to Konopiste château and afterwards to Zebrak (ruined castle) and Tocnik, to see something completely different.
Konopiste is really nice, with interesting guided tours through the depth of the palace (Franz Ferdinand d'Este, assassinated in Sarajevo 1914, lived here). Tourists can see impressive collections of weapons and hunting trophies, as well as some exotic souvenirs from monarch's trip around the world.
Zebrak is on the other hand only a ruin. Yet it is more medieval and visitors can see surrounding nature and near castle of Tocnik from its high tower. It was nice and for free ;).
The last two days were dedicated to Vysehrad and the botanical garden. Finally some sun broke through the clouds and it was also warmer. We were both tired from the last days and so our pace was also slower. The only important thing was to enjoy the walks, views and sceneries :).
And that's it, Janka left this evening, the story is over. I had a good time and relaxed a bit before the study for my final exams.

Thanks for your company and see you again!

.grown-up stuff

.so it looks like I'm finally switching from the student life into some serious grown-up way of living it all through ;). I'm still not graduated, but this mission will be hopefully accomplished in less than two months...
I've been to an interview in one company I'm very interested to work for. They have to tell me their decision until the end of this week. I really hope I'll get that job, it'll be like dream come true :). Keep your fingers crossed, please!
There is one another thing connected to this. I need some place to live in :). Because of this I've started looking for some room/flat that I can afford to rent. We would like to find something together with some friends and that brings also many new problems (we need to agree upon location, price and plenty of other things).

But first of all thesis and graduation. I'm so desperate to be successfully over this...

.latino pizza

.we've met again. After a long time we managed to come together for a nice talk and tasty pizza with our friends from El Salvador and Peru. This little dinner was traditionally taking place at our favourite pizzeria Einstein.

Because it's so hot these days, we've chosen a fine cold beer as a starter ;). And it really served its purpose to refresh :). We haven't seen each other for quite a time, so there was a lot of stuff to talk about.
Between the conversations a fine pizza was eaten and as a dessert some cool ice cream was chosen. I've not tried it, as I have a sore throat and am not willing to provoke some illness right now ;)...

So I guess, till next time!

.krkonose fever

.dreams do come true :). After so many days of terrible weather sun has finally shone last week. That means we had a chance for some biking. Krkonose mountains were chosen as a destination (with its highest mountain Snezka, 1602m). The highest mountain range in the Czech Republic was quite challenging and a bit biker unfriendly... Let me explain it a bit further.

After finding some place where to stay (near Pec pod Snezkou) and finding someone to go with (Jozko as always) all that was left was packing. We wanted ride in various locations of Krokonose, that's why this year we went by car (it's good to be mobile and not dependent on train schedules).
First days were really tropical, temperatures rising up to 35 degrees (not a great condition for a biking )... Still it was quite cool in comparison with 42 degrees in Slovakia during this week :).
We did some biking near Snezka. It was nice and challenging, the ascends are really steep and it's all the time up and down, like a roller-coaster ;). What was not that cool is the total ban for cyclists on some of the tracks (due to the high level of nature protection). That means that you cannot reach Snezka on bike (even though there is tarmac road almost to the top :(... ).
Nevertheless we have reached the summit (on foot), it was great and long trek through the surrounding beautiful nature. It was quite crowded up there. Many, many Czech and Polish tourists (most of them using a cablecar to get there) were parading around (some of them in very inappropriate shoes and clothes)...
To have a break from Krkonose we have also seen the Adrspach Rocks. Situated not far, this small sandstone area is decorated with hundreds of great and bizarre rocks. I really recommend it to your attention. It's worth the detour.
We spent one day in the vicinity of Harrachov. The track was really nice, yet this was the only day with heavy rain, so it was not that much fun ;). But we are strong and get through this foulness :). The evening sights were worth the long wait in the pub.
And finally we have planned some trip to near Poland, to see their side of the mountains. It was not bad, with a lot of untouched nature and minimum of tourists. While riding towards the foreign country we saw many military forts from the time of WW2. This region is full of them, even though they never served their purpose (due to the Munich pact)...
So this is it, more then 300kms on the bike, around 30kms on foot and a lot of positive energy from the nature. That's the result of the last week in Krkonose. I loved it :).

.when you miss somebody...

.you probably know that feeling, when you desperately want to be with somebody and she is not around, she is so far away... The feeling when the words told over the phone or the internet are just not enough. The only thing that matters is to be close to the person, to laugh together, walk together and to breath the same air.
The time is getting so slow, lazily passing by, torturing your heart with seconds that take ages. Your mind is telling you the wait will be over, just be patient. But heart never listens to such reasoning, heart is just sad and lonely. Sad and lonely, frantically awaiting the end of the wait. Dreaming about the happiness...

.welcome back!

.yet another erasmus stay is over. Our friend Milan is back from Slovenia with a handful of adventures and experiences. If you want to take a look at this magnificent place, try his website...

We have had a small welcome pub meeting to celebrate this event and to meet, talk and share some thoughts with our friends. Up to 12 people gathered in Svijany pub to try some special beer, digest some not so special food ;) and have a good time, while outside there was only rain and cold wind :(.
Yeah, the weather is playing some ugly tricks this week, my plans to go biking into the mountains are quite ruined. But that is a different topic...

.to Nitra and beyond...

.this day was not an easy one. I'm really tired, while writing this done. Yet it was completely worth the pain ;).

I needed to get the car from Kosice to Prague (as it'll be needed for some planned trips to Krkonose and Germany). We had a deal with two other people that they'd keep me company but at last I was about to drive alone (it's 750km so someone to keep you awake is a big help...). So what...

It takes approximately 7,5 hours to get to the destination. So I took off at 7 AM and got to Prague at half past 10 PM. Kind of not making any sense to you :)? It has a pretty straightforward explanation. I did a short stop at Surany and Nitra to meet with my very, very special friend Lubica. The weather was not very friendly, it was cloudy, very windy and cool all the time. Nevertheless we have spent a wonderful time together and have had a lot of fun (as always) :)...
Nitra is a nice historical town. As I was running on a bit tight schedule, we have seen only the most important sights (Kalvaria, Castle, historical town and hill Zobor with its beautiful views on the whole town).
Sadly, after 7 hours of fooling around and one farewell cappuccino I had to go. Prague was awaiting me and it was still 350kms to go. On the other hand it was a beautiful time spent behind the wheel, as I was driving towards the setting sun :). Really nice!

Wow, what a day this was :)!

.[brjus] is back!

.I was in a need of something to let my thoughts stray away from some subjects. And what can be better in such a situation than a world desperately needing a saviour ;)? There are only a handful of men capable of this deed. Chuck Norris ;), ... and of course the Bruce (not almighty this time)!
Do you still not know what I'm talking about? The whole civilized world (a.k.a. the USA ;) ) is again facing a great peril, this time based on hacking (some computers). Yeah, Die Hard 4.0 has come into our cinemas :).
I have to admit, this film is the best comedy I've seen this year ;). Full of (unintended) jokes and action moments exceeding everything that you know about physics and computers :). But it's definitely entertaining if you're not expecting the greatest movie of all times. Tough sarcastic lines of Bruce, said while driving completely shot up police car at full speed in a dark tunnel and planning how to actually destroy the helicopter with the same car :), are stellar. That's not all the fun you'll get for your money, lots of bad guys (unwilling to die after only a dozen of direct hits), lots of action (Bruce keeping a truck with a huge trailer on the bridge which is slowly collapsing; destroying the F-35 with almost bare hands; shooting down a helicopter with the help of a car - this is done twice! ...) and lots of crap ;). Anyhow, with the right mood this picture is a great fun :), check it out. And bow before the man called Bruce ;)...

.slalom world cup

.my own sport activities are somehow frozen these days. That's one of the reasons I've decided to took a part in Prague's leg of kayaking world cup (with many of the best athletes competing). The facility is really close to my dormitory. The actual noise and fan ovations could be heard from the window :). Of course I've taken my camera to take some nice photos of this nice dynamic sport. Unfortunately our favourites (sportsmen from Slovakia) haven't won. Famous Martikan finished 2nd (and it was really close after his amazing second run). Our still young super talent Dukatova took the 4th place. Not bad but could have been better ;)...

.new graduates are in town

.yeah, some of my friends from the university have become graduates today. To celebrate this event a bit we decided to meet in one pub near Florenc metro station.

We have had some good time including a lot of jokes about russian mafia ;). Sorry, Sasha, it was inevitable :).

Now the question of further life is gaining more and more of weight. How to start career, where to do it, etc. In three months the same will be true about me, real grown up life... I'm not sure I'm very eager about all this. Life of a student is not bad, you know ;).

Anyway, cheers to Gargii, Jozko and Feci!

.bbq all day round

.as the end of June was approaching a traditional (third time this year) cottage party at Drinov was being prepared. It is a celebration of the end of summer semester (next year it'll be something new, just a vacation...). This year it was also an opportunity to celebrate 3 new graduates (alas, not me...)!
The only problem was with not very pleasant weather forecast. Unfortunately it was fulfilled... Heavy rain and strong wind from the overcast sky :(. That quickly ended my plans to travel there on bike. Thus we have chosen a bus as a way of transportation. Luckily it's not that far away, therefore after some 30 minutes we were at our destination.
To find some decent placement for a barbecue while it's raining is a bit of a challenge. Yet it was beaten quite professionally and the first meal was served in no time :). After some time the sun spread its rays over the damp ground and warmed the whole situation ;).
Some people left and others joined our neat meeting the next day. Nevertheless, the party continued in an unchanged pace. Lots of grilled meat, some wine or beer, few miles of trekking to get ready for another batch of gourmet stuff :). Finally, during Sunday the weather cleared up and some sun bathing was on the schedule ;), accompanied by eating the last crumbs of food left in a fridge...
Evening had come and all that was left was a bus ride back to Prague. That's how this story ends, nothing more to be said ;)...

.milk encounter

.have you ever tried drinking milk (instead of a wine) outdoors with friends? Not? Well, me neither. Until tonight :)!
I have to say, it's not that bad ;). Big thanks goes to Lubica, for keeping me company. I guess it wouldn't have been that much fun on my own. So we sat on the stairs near the dormitory and chatted for a while (while the "liquor" lasted). It was amusing to watch the face expressions of people passing by ;). I guess you are not seeing people drinking milk outside that frequently at midnight...

Good night!

.podoli strikes back

.this is becoming a tradition. This week the four of us (me, Sasa, Igi and Spigi) went for a bit of sunbathing and swimming. The weather was extraordinary sunny and hot. This of course resulted in a small sunburn but who cares ;). I was extremely tired because I had been working on my thesis again last night (yeah, I've got some feedback finally!). So I was sleeping a bit, swimming a bit and also watching some women water polo. A European championship is taking place there this week. Slovakia had won 23:1 over Turkey, so I was quite happy :). After spending 8 hours on the sun it was definitely a good moment to go home...

.ubuntu!

.here it comes :). After many years spent on Windows platform I'm trying to move to something different. As lately I've found out that nowadays almost every commercial program I'm using has an open source counterpart, now I'm working on fully loosing grip of the commerce...
I've chosen Ubuntu as it sounded well suiting my needs. After some beginners problems (drivers, fonts, packages...) I'm now almost free ;). And finally 64bit free...

.a night at the museum

.i was proud to be a part of this year's Prague Museum Night (during this one night many museums are opened for free). As I've also witnessed some of the previous years, the choice of something new and interesting to see was quite narrow. But anyway, I chose some exhibitions on Prague Castle I've not seen before (because of astronomical entry fees...).
First one was situated inside Lobkowitz palace and consisted of portraits of probably every king and queen ever ruling the Czech nation ;). Small part was also left for medieval arms and musical instruments. The bad thing is that I was warned that it is prohibited to take pictures inside. Thus enjoy this pre-prohibition one ;)...
As a next stop, the big and long presentation of castle's history was chosen. At first I was thinking about leaving the place (because of a huge queue). But the crowd was moving quite fast and the entrance into the oldest parts of the castle was reached relatively quickly. The exhibition guided us through many centuries of the history. From the prehistoric times and the first settlement in the area to the latest events of the 20th century. The museum is modern, combining historical exhibits with the projections of contemporary paintings, photos. All this is accompanied by the ancient music and some sounds recreating the mood of the times. The whole exhibition is interesting but a bit too long (2 hours) to keep focused :).
To end the adventurous evening I've met some friends in the nearby pub for a beer. That's all folks ;)!

.water, steam, water...

.it took me two weeks to finally get into Podoli swimming pool area. It's not an easy job to persuade some people to go to some place :). And I've asked many friends over the time... They were busy (or lazy). But that's their personal problem ;).

So today was a grand première, opening of outdoor swimming season :). A couple of people should have come but as the time of departure was approaching they backed off. So our crew consisted at the end from two people only (me and Lubica).
Weather was sunny, with a small thunderstorm at noon. We wanted to spend a few hours sun bathing, swimming and relaxing. Entry fee is only 80Kc for whole day (student price) so it's definitely worth it (2x 50m pool, 30m pool, toboggan, sauna included). After finding some nice sunny place and chatting for a while (we both have very similar problems with our theses) we tried the quality of water (really delicious ;) ). The sun was replaced by clouds but this water - chat - water thing was continuing anyway :) (I did some nice and funny geriatric tests, with quite poor results ;), as Lubica is preparing for a final exams at medicine...). After a while some tender rain began and temperature dropped a lot. We decided to go inside (another 50m pool). There is also the sauna, so I've tried it, it was really hot (they have wet sauna with a lot of steam everywhere) but soothing.
We were forced to leave at 8 PM as they were closing the building. We were tired anyway so it was not such a big deal. On our way back we've dropped in a nice little Chinese bistro to recharge our batteries with long awaited food ;). Yeah, not a bad way how to spend a day in the summer :)...

.rocky adventure

.yeah, this was a full dosage of adrenalin and fun :). We've spent whole day biking through the Kokorinsko nature park together with Jozko. We did some 102 kilometres... Weather was really hot and sunny, so it took me 3 litres of water and 1,5l of Kofola to stay alive in this sunny inferno ;). But let me take it step by step.

At the beginning Jozko almost didn't make it on time for our train. Luckily only almost... After 40mins we were in our starting point, station Hnevice near the park. We bought some quick lunch in a local supermarket and after finding our tourist sign headed along it into the depth of the nature.
We were overwhelmed by awesome sights, giant orphaned sandstone rocks, deep pine forests and challenging (a bit muddy also) up and down narrow trails. Some parts were absolutely not passable on bike (steep footways through ravines). Aside from the rocks we've seen also ruins of army bunkers from the II. world war. They were a part of the large network of entrenchments that was actually never used because annex of the Czech Republic by Germany...
Finding water was really problematic as there are no springs (or at least we haven't find any) in the vicinity of marked paths. In this case bilberries are a great alternative. These forests are full of them so we ate some :). And when the situation with dehydration got even worse we just asked for a water in a small village we were passing through.
After a tasty late lunch and a short relaxation we continued our journey towards the symbol of this region, Kokorin castle. We took a nice trail leading near the river with many wooden gangboards and other cool stuff :). Castle was not that interesting. Maybe because I've seen too many castles in my life ;). But I have to admit that it is in good shape, not like many ruins in Slovakia...
We were running late, so we did some quick descent into the town of Melnik, took some photos of the famous confluence of rivers Vltava and Labe. Afterwards we've tried to reach the train station in time but without luck. We missed the train by a few minutes. So we headed for another station. Road goes close to a big powerplant and so we had an opportunity to see this ugly monster (and there are new family houses a few metres from a cooling tower, unbelievable) and got home at around 9 PM.

What a wonderful day :)!

.blend it!

.to do something interesting while waiting, I've returned to a 3D modelling and rendering stuff (and this time from the artist point of view ;) ). My favourite application is Blender, it is free, open source, yet very powerful.

I'm still learning how to use all the new features and how to build complex scenes. Because of this I've prepared few exercises, to train some more interesting stuff like cloth simulation, fluid simulation and creation of more complex materials, etc.
Some of the example renders are included, they are not final and there are many ways to improve them (as always, nothing is perfect...). At least I'm doing something creative and I can enjoy every progress :). Right now I'm working on a complex fluid animation, but all additional info is top secret ;). And probably will be for some time because to render really complex scenes you need much more then a standard desktop computer... This way it is sooo slow, but at least my PC has some duty during the night time ;)...