Summary of 2024

Even though I travelled less in 2024 than in previous years, 2024 was still a very busy, sometimes even hectic year for me. After all, I set high goals for myself! And now it's time to take stock of 2024, so that I can evaluate how I've performed and then optimally set new plans and goals. So let's recap 2024.

Goals for 2024

• take a catamaran cruise
• buy an apartment
• next winter, go to the warmth of Thailand
• try Kubernetes on my own VPS, as a programmer (deploy) and as an admin (install, manage)
• promote myself with short videos, put them on all networks: Instagram, FB, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube
• comment on current topics and events or shocking topics through short videos, ideally in IT
• write articles and publish them on a monthly basis on the blog
• personal meetings
• produce training in partnership with Skillmea
• end poor quality collaborations
• take a massage therapy course - I crossed this off because there was no reason to invest time in it that would have to be fixed in my diary
• visit friends within the Czech Republic
• cancel VAT

Health

My health comes first, so I exercise regularly and eat healthy, and if possible I try to have enough quality sleep. In this regard, the biggest problem is the surroundings and women, because nowadays it is common not to sleep at night.
Times are cruel, and so anything that is contrary to good health should be rejected. Which realistically means constantly refusing something. Not smoking and not being in a smoking environment is fortunately possible and standard nowadays. In contrast, consuming alcohol regularly and eating poor quality food or not having time to eat is still unfortunately common. However, I put food and sleep first, so you won't find me at late night parties.

Living in Prague

The long-term plan was to stay in a big city. I decided to choose Prague. It's not a very good city, but it's the biggest city in the Czech Republic. I stayed in Prague for a whole year starting in the summer of 2023, including the winter and switching to the following year until the autumn of 2024, when I flew to the warmth for the winter. Admittedly, a friend of mine was heavily tempting me to go to Asia in the winter of 2023/2024, and I would have loved to go somewhere warm myself, but a plan is a plan and I keep my promises and my plans. And I'm proud of myself for that, for being able to set a plan and work towards set goals while others have no goal.
At the same time, I made it a point that if I spent the winter of 2023/2024 in Prague, I would spend the winter of 2024/2025 abroad in the warmth, and so it happened.

Travel

In May there was the Navolnenoze/Freelancing.eu meetup in Dresden. So I took my car, put my bike in it and made a working trip to Germany. I stayed and slept in Germany in the city of Dresden, where I also did a bike tour.

In 2023 a friend announced they are organizing a catamaran cruise in 2024. I didn't know what to expect, but being the brave man I am, I decided to sign up. Details are in the article Visiting Athens and sailing on a catamaran in Greece.

For the second time in my life, I visited Beskydy, where a friend invited me. On the way I stopped at my friend's place in Olomouc, where I stayed overnight. On the way, however, I first made a bike trip around the town of Tasov and I biked around the town of Přerov.
Then between Olomouc and Beskydy I went to try out the very nice Vykleky quarry for diving, where I also spent two nights. The weather in the mountains wasn't as nice as in the region and I was tired from diving and cycling and even got wet and then unfortunately cold on the way up. There was neither the desire nor the strength to do any activities. So instead of cycling in the Beskydy Mountains and then going on to another friend in the Jeseníky Mountains, I turned around after three days in the Beskydy Mountains and drove straight back to Prague.

During my travels around the Czech Republic I visited several new cities: Tábor, Olomouc, Týn nad Vltavou, Přerov and other towns.

Outside Prague I discovered a sandstone lake where you can swim freely:

Since this year was full of new activities, there was no time to visit friends in Jablonec nad Nisou, Pilsen and the Vysočina region.

Here you can see where I traveled in the Czech Republic:

In November of 2024, I went to Thailand. And traditionally, I spent the winter, including Christmas, in warmth. I wrote the details in the article Nomadism in Thailand in Pattaya.

Here are the GPS records of my travels in 2024, GPS records Germany, GPS records Greece.

You can see my travels in pictures on Instagram.

Meeting new people

Now that I have a base in Prague, I'm trying to meet new people. I'm an introvert, so I choose people in my surroundings and don't go to mass events like discos and pubs.
But unfortunately a lot of people are only into going to work and alcohol. Even so, I've managed to meet a few new people who don't just get by but are trying to move forward and know how to work with their time.

I ended up meeting quite a few new people, some interesting ones, and I continue to keep in touch with some of them. I am very grateful to have met Martin Koníček, with whom I am in regular contact. And, within the limits of time, we also meet in person, whether for work or non-work discussions, sometimes while playing ping-pong.

Business

I'm still surprised how few people are entrepreneurs. And most of those who do, do so out of necessity or even under the švarcsystém (bogus self-employment). The situation then is that there is no one to discuss business with and share information. We would need more entrepreneurs, if only because they are the ones who move the Czech economy forward.
Fortunately, in recent years I have already found a handful of people with whom I can discuss and together work out how to work better. I'm very glad when someone gives me their unbiased opinion or when I can advise someone.

Ending collaborations

Fortunately, as an independent entrepreneur, I don't have to participate in collaborations that don't work. At the same time, as a responsible entrepreneur, I diversify, so I don't even have to worry about ending collaborations. Whether the customer terminates it, or I decide to finish the work in progress and not take on any new tasks.
This year I handed over one long-term collaboration with a customer. And I'm glad that the infrastructure that is legacy is no longer my concern :-).

VAT, flat tax

The limit for being a VAT payer has already been raised. Being a VAT payer is more paperwork and it doesn't give me or my customers any advantages. On the contrary, now that I provide short-term accommodation, I have to pay VAT on the price, so I am more expensive for end customers, or rather I have worse competitiveness. So I have decided to cancel the VAT registration and at the same time switch to a flat rate income tax next year, which will make the paperwork a lot easier. Although due to invoices from Booking and Airbnb, I will have to file a form every month as an identified person.

Employment?

I keep getting job offers. More often than not, it's contracts. Some of those offers are even interesting - technologically, in the way they work, and financially they wouldn't offend an experienced specialist either.
But I wonder: "is it worthwhile to deal with such offers anymore?". Although some companies can already offer a good and meaningful project, effective project management, flexibility and work remote. But it's still not like being a freelancer.
As a freelance IT specialist, I'm the master of my own time and determine where I want to work. This offers such personal benefits and optimization, which translates into personal satisfaction and job performance, that the contractor's offerings can't compete with that. Today, I've moved on financially as well, so financially it doesn't make sense for me to work full time for one company. Last but not least, I see it as a big risk to have the majority of my money coming from only one company. For example, if someone is an employee.

Video course

I successfully made a video course on Docker in collaboration with Skillmea. I took creating a video course as an interesting experience and investment. In addition, doing it as a collaboration ensures quality video and audio production. Thus, I was willing to invest my time in developing such a course.
You can judge the result for yourself - see the Docker video course.

Propagation

Video

Current topics and shocking videos are what people are interested in. Personally, I don't follow tabloids, so it is also a problem for me to catch such a current topic. But whatever resonates intensely and for a long time reaches me too. So I've done videos and posts on topics like digitizing construction management.

It is very time-consuming to make even a video of ordinary quality. I also have a lot of other work to do and most importantly other priorities, which is why I have not had regularity in posting videos on my YouTube channel in 2024.

In order to make better videos for my YT channel, I bought a new action camera model: the DJI Osmo Action 4. The GoPro cameras are currently troublesome, yet much more expensive. Real users, and friends of mine, report GoPro cameras overheating and then shutting down unexpectedly. So GoPro is a very poor choice. I have never experienced any unexpected shutdowns with the DJI Osmo Action 4. I am very satisfied with the features and usability of the DJI Action 4. It's a big improvement over the Eken H9R, in video quality, features and ease of use alike.

Articles

I have successfully published 12 articles in 2024. Articles allow me to summarize information. And subsequently, I myself can refer to such an article as documentation or guidance. In addition, articles allow me to promote information about what I do.
So I take writing an article as one of the basic quality ways of promoting an independent professional.

I saw the most interesting opportunity in the situation where VMware changing licensing and so a lot of users had to consider what to do next. The question is why anyone would use VMware when VMware's performance isn't even anything special.
After this event, I was contacted by several entities that would like to migrate VMware to Proxmox.

What I learned and tried

My favorite activity is to educate myself. Therefore, I have planned what new things I would like to explore and learn. At the same time, I purposefully set aside time to learn a new skill that I happen to stumble upon while working or on my life's journey.

Freediving

One possible activity on the catamaran in Greece was to do freediving, which is diving without a compressed air tank. It is diving on a single breath. Since I like sports and water, I decided to do a course.

On the course I practically experienced that staying underwater for 3 minutes is easy. I learned and practically verified diving to a depth of 8 meters. And I was able to swim 53 m with fins on one breath.
After successfully completing the course, I signed up for one more practical training session and then gained further experience at sea in Greece.
To dive I needed equipment, I was wondering whether to rent or buy it. In the end I decided to buy it, because freediving can be done in the Czech Republic too. I consider buying equipment as an investment in myself.

After returning from Greece I actively searched for places to dive in the Czech Republic during my travels and I found a few good ones. On my way to the east of the Czech Republic, I stopped outside Olomouc at the Vykleky quarry, where I spent almost three days diving. GPS footage of diving in Vykleky quarry.

I filmed a pike there:

I also visited on my way from Prague to České Budějovice the Miličín quarry. Where I also filmed some shots of fish. A walk around the quarry in Miličín. Bike tour near Miličín.
On my way from WarpCamp to the Giant Mountains, I checked out the Srní quarry - metal scrap and dived nearby in the Trhová Kamenice quarry. GPS footage of diving in Trhová Kamenice quarry.

I may write a separate article about freediving in the future.

Scubadiving

While researching water activity options in Thailand, I found that there is a possibility of diving with a compressed air tank and that they offer diving courses here. People here didn't know much about freediving. Only the divers knew that freediving existed. So I bought a scubadiving course and started the practical part. The theory was in the form of e-learning via the web or mobile app. The whole course was within the framework of the big international school PADI, and it was PADI that supplied the e-learning, and thanks to that I could do the theory and exams in my mother tongue, Czech, which made studying much easier for me.
With the turn of the year, I then completed the exams and got my license to dive in open water to a depth of 18 m.
Given my experience in the water, including freediving, I passed the course very quickly.

The course cost about 15k THB. That's not little; the price in the Czech Republic would be about the same. But even so, the course in Thailand has some major advantages:

• the course was in the sea
• drop off from my accommodation was provided
• there was food on the boat, which was included in the price of the course
• the instructor was devoted to me alone

So it was full service.

Technology, experience

The mode of operation that I have chosen, being an independent professional (= freelancer), allows (and maybe even forces) me to educate myself regularly. Which I'm glad for, because I'd hate to stagnate in one place, even if it were a warm employee's chair.

I have tried and learned with these technologies:

• OpenMediaVault - is a Linux distribution built on Debian and ready to provide network services. And all this can be managed through a graphical web interface.
• Proxmox Backup Server - I got more familiar with setting up access rights. I practically verified restoring the VPS from backups. Verified restoring access to encrypted backups.
• GitLab CI/CD - I am now able to set up GitLab to automatically run pipelines including application deploy to the production/test server. I take running unit tests and phpstan for granted.
• the "at" command - I've become familiar in detail with the at command. The AT command is used to run a program once at a predetermined time.
• Kubernetes - I started trying and learning Kubernetes - I accomplished a big and long term goal. I tried microk8s, k3s and minikube, which are pre-built Kubernetes installations for test and small-scale operations. I've also tried manually installing Kubernetes and building my own Kubernetes cluster.
• Multiarch build - I learned how to do a multi-arch build docker image. Which comes in handy since it's now quite common to run Linux, and therefore containers, on CPU architectures other than just x86_64. For example, the ARM architecture is very typical today, thanks also to Apple.
• Wildcard Let's Encrypt certificate - finally there was an opportunity to generate a wildcard certificate at Let's Encrypt authority. This is possible thanks to authorization against DNS. The setup is very simple, see the tutorial from my friend Věroš Kaplan: getting a Let's Encrypt certificate using DNS. The same procedure can be used if you need to generate a certificate without a public webserver.
• I have organized a PHP course for beginners.
• I have participated in Czech conversations with Ukrainian women and helped them prepare for job interviews in the Czech Republic.
• I tried flying a quadcopter (drone) with a camera. Model i9 ...
• IPv6 - on my other physical server on the Internet, I configured IPv6 so I could experiment more. But I ran into limitations with the provider ;-(
• Thai - since I was in Thailand I had the need and opportunity to learn Thai.

Buying an apartment

My long-term goals included acquiring my own home so that I would be the sole owner and have 100% clarity and certainty about what was going to happen. In order to get a feel for the situation, I started looking at what offers were available.
Eventually one offer came up that met my main specific requirements, it was a good time because the buying frenzy had subsided, so there was time to think about it and I got a slightly better price. So there was no reason not to buy, and I had no choice but to decide to go ahead.

I didn't know what to expect in terms of arranging a mortgage. However, as it turned out, arranging the mortgage was relatively straightforward, and since I like to understand things that concern me, I arranged the mortgage myself. Anyway, in the end, looking after everything needed is my responsibility, because my money is my responsibility too. I must commend the communication from the bank (Fio Bank) and from the real estate agent who represented the selling party. They made the effort to move the process to a successful conclusion. I feel that the free market already provides a better level of service than that it used to be. At least as far as new entities are concerned. For example, the Blue Pyramid (a subsidiary of Komerční banka), with which I have a building society, couldn't even answer my email.

The buying process was lengthy and the bureaucracy was huge. No one told me exactly the overall process in advance. Each party considered themselves experts and thought that they were the only ones who understood it. And that the other party (broker, bank, notarial escrow) did not understand it. Each side knew how to arrange their own service well, and then it was up to me to see that it fitted together. Fortunately, life and business have taught me the need for good communication, and all parties involved communicated and were proactive, so that any ambiguities were cleared up and the parties involved provided what was needed for a successful completion.

Again, I did well to make my own decisions and not take the advice of strangers who only "advise" from their perspective. As a result, I did an excellent job buying the kind of apartment I need and I am happy with. And not something that someone else would want or that is currently a trend for average people. The apartment I chose has much more practical value for me.

Marketing-wise, the apartment was after a complete reconstruction. The reality is that there was a renovation in the past that was partial. Even if for a non-technical person or for a woman, it may look like a complete renovation.
I could move into such an apartment right away. And it's almost on the same level as a new apartment, because it is well equipped. I even have a dishwasher, for example.
I only finished a few things to make the comfort perfect: got the missing door, turned the refrigerator door around, threw out the chandelier.

Short-term accommodation

As I travel a lot and wanted to fly to a warm place for the winter, it seemed uneconomical to me to leave my newly acquired apartment unused for a long time. I therefore decided to start a short-term accommodation business so that I could then cover at least part of the costs while I'm away.

I was inspired to do so by the following experiences:

• A friend has an apartment that he rents out entirely when he's not there. Actually, he rents it out most of the time now because he travels a lot, both abroad and in the Czech Republic.
• When I lived in Spain in the Canary Islands in a town Las Palmas, the Spanish owner of the apartment also rented out his room when he wasn't there.

I have been iteratively (progressively) furnishing and upgrading a room for rent. The first time I had guests, I had to sleep on the floor in my room on a sleeping mat and then on a mattress, because I only had one bed and the guests had that. Only later did I arrange a second bed for myself. I was missing one door to my room, so I put in a wardrobe and got a second hand door later.
Gradually I bought new duvets and bedding for the guests. Got more equipment: a better table, more chairs, etc. And equipped the kitchen for them, so it wouldn't be like when I travel and in a lot of places they don't even have enough plates.

It may not look like it, but providing accommodation is very challenging, mainly due to government bureaucracy. In the end, I grew to love providing this service, so I plan to continue doing so.

Here are the reasons why I provide short-term accommodation and how it is more interesting to me than if I rented the room out long-term or kept it empty.

• To try and learn something new. Now if I see articles somewhere on the merits of AirBnb or how AirBnb is bad, I can now, based on my own experience to draw my own conclusion.
• Income, of course. I turn a liability, which is the apartment, into at least an occasional modest asset. Although if I count my hourly rate, it's actually lost income. But at least I have diversification of income.
• I like doing things.
• It's a way to meet and get to know new people. Often young ones, travellers, interesting people; I was also hoping for digital nomads and experts, but mostly it's tourists.
• The opportunity to learn something specific about another country without having visited it.
• Foreign language training. There is nothing like practical application. (School lessons are useless.)
• Socializing. The people even come to me, so I don't have to waste time travelling to social events.
• They leave behind food I may not even know, so I can try it. Or even some other things.
• Motivation to clean. Personally, I don't have high expectations, but you have to make a good impression on your guests. Even if they themselves leave a mess behind.
• I get some exercise when preparing the room.
• I like to make people happy by providing services that are in demand.

As I am an IT specialist, I also need to set up my own website to provide accommodation and ideally I would like to rent a room in Prague to digital nomads. Digital nomads are an interesting target group for me because they are interested in longer stays and need above-standard services and amenities, not just a place to sleep. And above-standard services are something I can provide.

A lot of information around short term accommodation was a problem to get. There is only general basic information on the internet. Specifically:

• Even the tax advisor didn't know the details of how to do the taxes correctly. Together we looked it up in the law and discussed it.
• The complexity of the Booking portal is great and the support only understands the functions used on a daily basis.

Because when I do something, I go into it in detail, I have acquired such experience and information that I could currently advise on short-term accommodation, both in accounting and in administration and processes.
At least for those who will be starting from scratch I can advise step by step. I plan to write up my detailed experience with AirBnB and booking.com as a host, and with Czech bureaucracy, in a separate article.

Women

I'm continuing my research project. Some people have dropped out or new guys have joined. Of course many people are passively interested in the information or just in the spicy situations.
It turns out, for example, that it's no problem on an ordinary weekday at noon and without alcohol to pick up a lady in the park, go straight on a date, move on to kissing and take the girl home. Of course, these situations are much more challenging because most people are programmed to meet at discos and can't relax without alcohol.
If I meet an 18-year-old girl and she's mature, I'll go on a date with her too.

Warpcamp

I attended the Warpcamp 2024 event. It's a sequel to Nette Camp. It's my favorite event because it's several days long, food is provided, and it takes place in the great outdoors. Last but not least, it involves people who are interested in technology. I was particularly interested in: forex trading in PHP and archery.

On the way there, I took a bike tour to Orlík Castle. And on the way back home, I scouted out some quarries to dive.

Internet

With a new apartment comes a rethinking of Internet connectivity.

In my rented apartment in Prague, I didn't want to arrange and deal with installing any connections, so I only used mobile internet and a prepaid SIM with the Datamania 100 GB/month service.
I subsequently got a 1000 GB plan for a year. Because this service was more cost effective, and more importantly I could easily use significantly less in one month, with the data left over for the next month when I needed significantly more data again. In fact, with a monthly prepaid package, unused data did not roll over to the next month (for example, Vodafone in Spain rolls over unused data).

I decided to set up an Internet connection in my new flat. It turned out that an optical connection was available. Ugh, I was afraid I was going to end up with coax. Plus, I'd have a worse connection in Prague than in the Giant Mountains. A company once ran fiber optics around the house and that company was bought by CETIN. So now O2 offers it. Rightly, other companies like T-mobile, Vodafone and others should be able to offer it, but CETIN and O2 are under one investment group, so it looks like there's some kind of preferential deal. The other companies will probably only offer it when O2 feels it can't sell any more. (But how it really is should be checked within those companies. I just have an opinion based on an anomaly I've encountered.)

After the first visit by the engineer, it turned out that first of all I would have to prepare the apartment for the connection. The first visit was also crucial for me in that an expert would come and actually confirm that a fibre optic connection was possible. Because, of course, the support people don't understand it and just say something based on the data in the computer. It happened to me, for example, that a Vodafone operator claimed that there might be fibre optics in another flat. When I told her that there was coax in the wall, out came the explanation that there is fibre optic cable on the Vodafone side, so they consider that to be fibre optic.
After I made the arrangements, on the second visit they ran optical fibre all the way into the flat. So I have the option of speeds up to 1 Gbit. I ordered the 200 Mbit plan because that's enough for me. When I measured it, I got 300 Mbit out of it. The Internet connection is provided by CETIN, but because the infrastructure was originally installed and configured by another company, I have DHCP instead of PPPoE directly on the socket. And even a public IPv4 address :).
As the router I used and connected my good old Turris router, which has gigabit ports and relatively fast wifi. It's just faster than other newer routers I have. I don't need to buy a brand new router. Besides, CETIN mounts the fibre on a terminator that an RJ45 leads from, so I don't need a router with a fibre port.
As for Jilemnice, I've had fiber optics there for about two years now and there is a brand new Zyxel router with a fiber port and it works very fast.

In the summer I tried the tariff from O2 and because I currently call more often and thanks to the fixed internet I don't need so much data anymore, I was considering getting a phone plan.
O2 has an interesting offer. With a minimum billing of 600 CZK per month, it gives 300 CZK back if you have an Air Bank account and pay for O2 services from it.
So I switched from a prepaid card with T-Mobile to a tariff with O2, on which I also got a discount. And since the Internet and phone tariff cost me more than 600 CZK, O2 refunds me 300 CZK. Realistically, the new tariff then costs me a few tens of crowns. I get plenty of calls and some data on it.

Prague

Does it make sense to live in Prague?
So far Prague has satisfied me the most in the area of meetups. At the same time I see it as the only advantage of Prague over other Czech cities. In second place, of the cities I have experience with, is Wrocław. The infrastructure of Dresden also impressed me a lot, but I only spent a few days there, so I can't judge it further.

The advantage I find in Prague is that there are technical meetups. I have my favourite Thai massages at my fingertips. There are people and girls in Prague. You can find some nature there, so a natural person like me won't die of big city anxiety.
However, one has to take into account that capable people have no reason to stay in Prague. On the contrary, it is inefficient to stay in Prague. So the most capable people won't be found there. The main advantage of Jilemnice, or any other town or small town, is nature and that everything is within walking distance. Yes, if you are not a fan of living in a shopping mall, then for example in Jilemnice you have all the services right under your nose around the square. For specialized services, even in Prague you have to travel a long way somewhere far off. And for example, I personally don't enjoy the constant travelling around a big city, even by car. I'd rather take public transport, which in Prague is time-consuming. Well-permeable infrastructure, whether for cars, pedestrians or bicycles, I find only in Hradec Králové.

Then life and resources can be better optimized in a small town. Especially time and money. Of course, if you don't work remote, your decision-making options are quite different.

When it comes to a place to live, also in combination with work, I advise young men this ideal approach:

1. Study in a big city.
2. Find a job in a big city and build a career there. Ideally build your own business.
3. Find a suitable candidate for a partner.
4. Have a child with your partner.
5. Move to a small town.

Projects

I not only provide services by selling my professional time, but I also build my own projects because there are great benefits in the long run...

Fitness portal

The Fitness portal, which I have big plans for and which has great potential, has grown by two members. It's a great achievement considering I basically don't devote any time to it.

Snapbackuper

Backup is an area where I like to point out that it needs to be addressed. And I'm glad I work in this area, because wise companies are interested in backup services.

Having your own quality, versatile service ready to go is advantageous. I'd like to roll out my backup service on a larger scale. It's currently the easiest thing to sell to my current customers. However, I need to create some marketing strategy and reach out to new potential customers.

Summary

The winter of 2023/2024 was a demanding one for me. I worked a lot, arranged a lot of things, didn't spend the winter somewhere warm and had worries with the paperwork around getting an apartment. I met my goals, and I did so ahead of schedule and beyond the target. And that's why I'm very proud of myself for how successfully I worked towards my goals!