My Life

Combining science with workout

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Athlean-X is an awesome site that I have been following for the past several years. It offers a huge variety of different videos about exercising, nutrition and much more. And these videos are always backed up by a scientific explanation about how specific exercises effect our body and what we should definitely keep in mind while working out. I know that Athlean-X is represented also on many other platforms but I have always gained any knowledge that I needed solely based on their Youtube channel. It’s a good place to see when you’d like to learn how to train some specific part of your body and most importantly how to do the exercises correctly. Because if you’re not sure how to perform the exercise it’s better not to do it at all.

Jeff Cavaliere is working with professional athletes and it’s great that he shares much of the knowledge with us without any costs. Of course if you like he has many paid training programs so it’s totally up to you. With nearly 5 million subscribers you can be sure that you’ll get quality information! A lot of the exercises can also be practiced at home so you don’t have to run to the gym immediately :). You can find their channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/user/JDCav24/featured

athlean

Photography

The world’s greatest photography game – Gurushots

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Last year I discovered a great site where you can upload your photos and take part in different competitions. There are many different topics and new challenges are being added constantly. Although there are prizes for only the very top photographers you can still earn votes from professionals and hobbyists from all over the world, see how other people react to your photos and get many new ideas about what to add to your own portfolio. They also share many great galleries and articles and offer an opportunity to get picked to be presented on one of many exhibitions being held all over the world. There is also a ranking system – the more votes you get and the better spots you take in the challenges, the more benefits you have. Otherwise the site is completely free to use. If you’d like to share your photos with others along with getting some extra excitement while taking part in a competition or you’d just like to enjoy the many masterpieces Gurushots offer, this site is definitely for you! Go and check it out for yourself!

https://gurushots.com/

gurushots

Meetup

Getting back into Meetup world :)

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After a half-year break I got back to arranging Meetups. I organized one last week and now I plan to start making them more often on many different topics. I must admit that I really missed it during my trip. Everywhere we went to I always searched if there were any interesting meetups being held. Sad truth is that although there were several groups everywhere there were not many events and attendees. Back here in Estonia it seems that this community is still on the path of growing and that’s definitely good news! Every month there are new groups being added and many new members joining. Although it’s still relatively IT-based there have been many new groups emerging with other topics and subjects.

Although there are many platforms for creating these sort of groups and events I think Meetup.com is still one of the best. It’s really simple and since there is no other distracting information besides the events themselves it’s a great tool for this.

If you are reading this post in Tallinn or you plan to visit Tallinn I invite you to join the activities of my group or any other Meetup that catches your attention. I promise you won’t regret it.

Here’s an overview of Meetups by TNSM (Tallinn Networking and Socializing Meetup) coming in April.

Board game night

Thursday, Apr 12, 2018, 7:00 PM

Seiklusjutte maalt ja Merelt
Tartu maantee 44 Tallinn, EE

15 Members Attending

This time we’ll be playing board games! I will take some of my own but feel free to bring along any great games if you have :)! I booked a separate room and most likely we will play in smaller groups. No prior experience or knowledge required, we will figure out the rules and everything else on the go :)! See you on Thursday the 12th!

Check out this Meetup →

Geocaching at Kalamaja

Thursday, Apr 19, 2018, 7:00 PM

Circle K gas station @City Hall
Põhja puistee 33 Tallinn, EE

13 Members Attending

An evening walk in the beautiful Kalamaja-Lennusadam region while searching for hidden treasures – sounds great doesn’t it :). If you don’t know what is geocaching you can read more about it from here – https://www.geocaching.com/play. No special equipment needed, nowadays you can just use your cellphone. Dress according to the weather. Let’s meetu…

Check out this Meetup →

Networking evening

Tuesday, Apr 24, 2018, 7:00 PM

Seiklusjutte maalt ja Merelt
Tartu maantee 44 Tallinn, EE

7 Members Attending

This time we’ll keep it at a bit more professional level – if you have an idea that you need some help with and you’d like to discuss it with others or if you just would like to expand your network – feel free to join. You never know who you might meet and what could happen :). Depending on the number of attendees a table/room will be booked. See y…

Check out this Meetup →

Discovering Pirita – a hiking trip

Saturday, Apr 28, 2018, 2:00 PM

Pirita velodroom
Rummu tee 3 Tallinn, EE

11 Members Attending

Let’s go and discover the beautiful nature trails of Pirita river. We will be hiking on a 7,2 km long path starting from Pirita velodroom. Since the road is in a good condition no special equipment is needed, just dress according to the weather. You can get to Pirita with many different buses, more specific information found from here -https://m.tr…

Check out this Meetup →

My Life

What to see when visiting Tallinn (in my opinion)

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I have written about different places to see in SE Asia but now I thought about giving some recommendations what to visit when you’re in Tallinn, my hometown. Comparison to the huge cities of the world Tallinn is a small town with approximately 450.000 citizens. Yet, if to compare it with a total Estonian population of 1.3 million you can clearly see that more than a 3rd of the whole population is living in here. If you like you can read more about it from Wikipedia and Visit Tallinn websites.

But now, what would be the places I’d recommend to see when in Tallinn. Solely based on my opinion and not in any particular order.

Rotermann quarter

As in many places in Tallinn, this is the area you can see how the old soviet and modern architecture has been molded together. It’s not big but definitely worth a visit!

Tallinn Old Town

Well, you just can’t miss this one! This is by far the most popular tourist attraction in the city, especially beautiful and magical during winter when everything is covered with snow.

Seaplane harbour

One of the most interesting and original museums in Tallinn and actually worldwide. It has a great atmosphere which makes you feel like you’re in a different world. Their website can be found in here.

Estonian open air museum

Located in a beautiful Rocca-al-Mare seaside you can really get a sense how people lived in these areas in the olden days.

Kadrioru park

A truly beautiful park with different gardens, ponds and buildings. If you happen to be here in autumn there’s a special event called “Valgus Kõnnib Kadriorus” when the whole park is lighted with candles, torches and other light installations. Although by now it’s a bit crowded it’s still a beautiful sight :).

Kumu art museum

Right in the edge of Kadrioru park there’s a modern art museum, a must visit for all art and architecture lovers.

Tallinn TV tower

Be sure to visit the tower with a beautiful weather, then an awesome view greets you. Otherwise the visibility can be just a hundred meters so you might as well stay on the ground :). For adrenaline lovers there’s a possibility to do edge-walking 🙂

Valli bar

Let’s just say that if you like to meet some very interesting people and have a very interesting shot called “Millimallikas” that’s the place to go. Located right in the old city.

Pääsküla bog

A relatively short bus drive from the city center you can find Estonian nature at it’s finest – a beautiful bog with wooden paths leading your way. If you want to enjoy some quiet time this is the place to go. I must say although that there are even more beautiful and blissful bogs located in many places all over Estonia.

Pirita promenade

You can get beautiful views to Tallinn skyline and just stroll along by the seaside. Once again, look for a beautiful weather, otherwise wind can carry you away 🙂

Kakumäe, Stroomi and Pirita beaches

All beautiful in their own way. Although the water gets warm enough to swim only in the hotter periods of summer they are all great places to go for a walk or just enjoy the calming waves. Pirita is the most popular of these during the summertime.

Many of the different parks in Tallinn

Luckily the choice is abundant. Tallinn is quite green and there are many parks for a quiet afternoon walk or a picnic.

Tallinn  Song Festival Grounds

Located right next to Kadrioru park it’s one of the most known cultural sights in Tallinn. During the Song Festival more than 100.000 singers and visitors gather there.

My Life

Why on earth do you need puzzles :)?

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And by puzzles I mean these jigsaw puzzles where you have hundreds or even thousands of little pieces that you need to combine together into a big picture. But there’s a great substitute if you’re looking for something different – buy a new piece of furniture :). We bought a new bed for ourselves and as usual it arrived in lots of small cardboard boxes. Luckily there were proper instructions included and all the parts were there. But in total (if to count all nuts and bolts) there was 461! pieces and 48 unique ones. After several hours and one beer I managed to put it all together and the end result is quite nice but it’s funny how they manage to disassemble something to so many different parts :).

It always reminds me of a funny picture about IKEA Christmas Tree that usually goes around in Christmas time. Just for clarification we didn’t buy our bed from there but it’s probably the case in most of the companies :).

ikea-christmas-tree-458x600

ikea funny

My Life

Everyone has their 10-year old still inside :)

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Yesterday we went to see Pacific Rim: Uprising. Huge robots fighting other huge robots fighting huge alien monsters :). It sounds like a 10-year old boy’s dream, doesn’t it :). I remember when I was a kid I loved to play with different transformer-type robots and monsters. And that 10-year old is still alive inside of us, you know I’m right :). Of course I think this applies a bit more to men (we have those 5-year old’s and 12 year old’s as well) but still!

The movie itself should not to be considered as something serious nor it’s trying to be. It looks like they had their bit of fun directing and acting and that’s exactly how it should be in case of these kind of movies. I admit, that I enjoyed the first Pacific Rim a bit more (in most cases the first movie is always the best) but it’s still a solid good entertainment! Definitely it’s not a film for everyone but if you just want to laugh and feel like a kid again you should consider it!

I also really enjoy the clip Honest Trailers has made of this movie, you should definitely go and check it out plus I highly recommend seeing other videos they have to offer!

My Life

My IMDB ratings list + some of my favorite films

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IMDB is a great site. Not all, but most of the time you can get an adequate sense of how good the movie is based on ratings and comments. Once again there are many similar sites but when I want to get an overview of a film I usually turn to IMDB. A while ago I decided to start rating the movies I’ve watched. I’m not a huge movie maniac but quite often I like to enjoy this kind of entertainment. I think my favorite genre is Sci-Fi but there are many factors based on which I pick a movie. In addition to the ratings mentioned above recommendations, current mood and many other things also play their part.

In the list I’ve rated movies that I’ve seen in the last year + some that just popped into my mind (that I’ve seen before) or some that are just my favorites. About the latter here are some movies that based on current moment I think are a definite must watch! You can see my whole list in here.

Gladiator – I think it’s my favorite movie of all time. Awesome screenplay, actors, story, soundtrack, effects and there is really nothing not to like about it in my opinion!

Shawshank redemption – I think you can consider this already as a classic, no words needed. Being on number 1 spot in IMDB overall rating speaks for itself!

Interstellar – the ending will hurt your brain but after the movie I went to pub with a friend of mine and discussed the film and all subjects it affected for several hours! And these kind of movies I like!

Inception –  it might by difficult to grasp on first viewing but everything is laid out just perfectly!

Arrival – once again one of those movies that makes you think about what we really know and how much is there yet to discover!

Schindler’s List – a superb story of a horrific moment in human history.

Lion – for some reason this movie really stuck on me. The main character’s desire to find his family was really felt and I could relate with it.

Passengers – in some way this movies was not the perfect one but I really like the idea they had, how they built on it and how they executed!

First Lord of the Rings – it was just magnificent but in my opinion none of the sequels really lived up to the first part.

The Matrix – something really out of this world.. or perhaps this is exactly the world we’re living in 🙂

These are only a fraction of the great movies out there and naming all of them in here just wouldn’t make sense. And I probably wouldn’t remember all of them in a first go :). But if you haven’t seen some of the movies mentioned above or higher in my ratings list I strongly advice to check them out :)!

All the best!

Lauri

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