Marc's Public Blog

wonder of the seas

nice and clear waters

The pirate of the carribeans museum was actually good:

Then, took a cab to Atlantis, which was expensive to get into but pretty:

The actual water park was good nice:

another poor cat that no one loved, my job never ends :)

very cool a long river ride

cool slides through the pool of sharks

And then went to the dolphin encounter, which was good

Good times.

welcome back

The new and even bigger boat: Wonder of the Seas

I signed up for the flowrider on the first day, did ok standing but it still didn't feel natural compared to snowboarding. I forgot to give my phone, so therefore it never happened and you can watch better people:

After I managed to hurt my back and my neck there, which is very easy to do, the boat left Miami around sunset:

Many swimming pools and definitely more cool things on the deck than last year's Alure of the Seas (which I'm told has been remodelled since then), including water slides and the abyss ride from floor 16 down to 6:

unfortunately waterslides were not open when I tried to go

looked cool, though

The rest of the boat was equally nice:

different decors, equally cool

nice promenade

Nice art gallery:

The dual abyss slide was cool looking:

get in here

And because the GC crew is really a bunch of overachievers, they even setup side quests with riddles where you could unlock secret doors and get stamps for bragging rights:

Boat staff/policies/security

This is a good time to point out that the Groovecruise team did an amazing job decking out the place and turning a cruiseship into a small city with nightclubs and festival areas. They really went all out, all the way to confetti that had to be cleaned carefully afterwards and even balloon drops. Multiple stages had lasers and cool lighting and overall the sound was good. Given the location and that it had to be installed and torn down in record time because the ship was used for regular cruises just before, and just after, was nothing short of amazing.
I also need to give the GC crew a shout out for really being chill trusting. This year, I added lasers to my outfit, which I researched carefully for power and safety with the help of specialized engineers to make sure they would not be a risk to others. I also did my best not to point them at people's faces for obvious reasons. While they looked super cool, a couple of GC technicians came to talk to me and ensured I knew not to point at people or DJ, and generally to make sure I knew not to be an idiot with them. After that, they told me to have a good night and have fun. The trust was very much appreciated.

People

towelie!

Running into Friends:

Great to see DJ friends again:

Groovecruise Days 1-2

Adam Scott continued at the promenade

The next day, we got another cool balloon drop during Markus Schulz's set:

After some food, time to check out more sets:

casino

Abyss stage

and no matter where you were, other parties were going on :)

Day 3: Nassau, Bahamas

Last year, we spent an entire 2 days to get to Labadee, Haiti a mere 4H before the boat had to leave and boat 2 days back to Miami. This time, we had a full day in Nassau, which was a cool place to visit:

there was an outdoor stage and party, although I spent most of the day visiting Nassau

The day in Nassau and Atlantis was very nice, you can read more here. A few pictures below:

our ship was big :)

And Atlantis:

dolphins!

Back on the boat, turned out it was easier to watch Jon Summit from our room:

skydeck VIP backstage view :)

Groovecruise Days 3-4: Partying

Darude!

Wonderful views of Dave Dresden and Adam Scott while the boat pulled out of Nassau:

bye bye Nassau

Day4 (Sunday), I took things easy, got some sleep and an easy day on sunday:

Blastoyz by the pool

and then, make fun of me, I went to bed not nearly as late as the previous year, because of Day5:

Groovecruise Days 5: Rough Trip Back to Reality

Should you go? Would I go Back?

This is mostly what I wrote last year, as it still stands. While I don't have official numbers, it looks like the return rate for Groove Cruise is very high, and that's for good reason. I was impressed by how many things the crew did right, and things I was worried about were not much of an issue.

Things to improve:

And you're going to ask: Isn't it expensive?

To me, this is not that much more than what I would spend at EDC with VIP tickets + hotel + food and I felt the experience was close enough to VIP like. The crowds were also more mature and more PLUR than the average festival, and that was a good thing to me. Ok, the stages are not to the level of a real EDC or Beyond Wonderland-like festival, but they were good enough for me to have lots of fun.
All in all, I was very satisfied and felt it was well worth the price. Clearly plenty of people seem to agree as more people are going every year and they keep having to migrate to a bigger ship (another bigger one even for next year and this year's was already one of the biggest on the market).

I will leave you with a few links:

See You Next Year?

The Grounds... and how does it compare with EDCLV, EDCMX, and EDCKR?

I found a hotel not too far from the venue, but the 2 lane road got packed quickly and badly ;)

it was nice of them to warn locals it would be a gridlock

best way to get there was scooter for hire

20+ event in Thailand, but why on earth were small digital cameras not allowed?

security check was thorough, felt a bit over thorough

So far I have been to 10 EDCs in Vegas, EDC Mexico and EDC Korea. EDC Mexico was pretty good but the day hours were brutal (hot, plus high altitude thin air, and on top of that volcano ash in the air with a bad PM2.5 score, that made things hard). EDC Koreak, despite being in April, was literally the coldest festival I had ever been to, the windshield was brutal.
But let's reacp:

I realize it's subjective and my memory is imperfect, but EDCTH / Puket felt the most EDCLV of all 3 events as far as stages and decors were concerned. I'm just genuinely impressed by the amount of gear that Insomniac is shipping to remote countries.
Here is an overview of the grounds:

I even got to meet Geoff, the lucky guy who gets to play with the LED and fire toys (although I'm sure it was a shitload of work to setup):

Downtown EDC was cool:

They brought Kandi Casino!

Karaoke battle!

Plenty of food options, but they did not accept real money sadly

But now let's talk about the fake money BS. Yes, it's apparently the custom to screw people over in Thailand with this, but still.... You had to buy $30 at a time, 3% surcharge for credit cards, and of course non refundable. Why???? This is so petty and literally undid so many great things that this EDC did:

sorry, but this is bullshit. On top of that, they couldn't even process credit cards on phones

at least they are telling you how they are screwing you, minimum $30 top up and no refund

Compared to EDCKR, Insomniac did the right thing and put water stations (thank you), although they were single access (not 10 or 20 in parallel like EDCLV). Still, at least they had some:

Back to the venue, this EDC felt the most like Vegas with its streets of lights and pixel forest:

matching colors ;)

some kids didn't even make it to midnight, haha

Skydeck was well built:

The VIP areas were quite decent. There even was a baby VIP ferris wheel :)

But they tried to put some grass on top of whatever was underneath, but in some places it didn't hold:

it soon turned into that

Thailand/Asia EDM Lovers

of course, also got to meet other friends who came to Thailand just for EDC

and the ever lovely edcentertainers

Still got lucky to meet some DJs:

And m'f'ing Pasqualle!!!

Now let's look at the festival days:

EDC Day 1

Of course the highlight of Day 1 was Tiesto who played a lovely trance set:

If you stayed until the end, getting back anywhere was a mess, the 2 lane road was gridlocked with cars, scooters that couldn't moved and pedestrians everywhere jut walking back. I did the 20-25mn walk back to the hotel and got back before most people got clear raod to wherever they were actually going. If anyone took shuttles, let me know if somehow they had a magic special route or if they were stuck in the same mess (I think they were):

Video Summary of Day 1:

Day 2

Just like Day 1, Day 2 was not fun during the day, the few people who came were hiding in the shade:

one nice perk of VIP

Iused the time of arriving early to fix my LED panels which sadly are still unreliable but I bring spares

Day 2 was the one mostly trance day at Stereo Bloom (with a few techno sets that were less to my liking):

the set times got a bit weird, Paul started late

then key4050, but not really trance

thankfully Gareth played lovely trance after that

Stayed for the fireworks and drone show:

And then got the hell out to avoid the traffic :)

Video Summary of Day 2:

Day 3

then it got nice ;)

Sadly, a bad conflict between Seven Lions and Armin:

caught the start of 7 lions

And then went to Armin for fireworks and drone show:

with drones shooting fireworks

The fireworks and drone show were really good. Insomniac did not go cheap:

Drone show:

Ending fireworks:

For day 3, I left a bit earlier through a side excit another right and walked to the first scooter I could find and gave them cash for a ride back (only a few minutes when the road isn't blocked):

technically illegal to have 3 people per scooter, but everyone did it

Video Summary of Day 3:

Thought/Impressions/Suggestions/Conclusion

In somewhat random order:

This EDC felt big without being too big (the walk from circuit grounds to kinetic fields was painful but not as bad as EDC Vegas). After 18:30 when the sun started to set, it got quite busy, but too bad there was only 5:30 worth of festival at that time.
Outside of not being close to being "dusk to dawn", this felt close to a regular EDC Vegas, very much worth going to.

Thanks to everyone who made the event happen!

Links

room was super small, no room for my luggage and no bathroom

Here is our trip:

One "interesting" thing with all the liveboards in Phuket, is that they all seem to leave at the exact same days, which is unfortunate when you need specific dates like I did. Also many boats only went for 2-4 days when I wanted 6 minimum. There were 4 boats anchored and ready to leave at the same time:

food was good

Although the boat was on the smaller side for the amount of divers, there was also a fair amount of crew to take care of us, and they did a great job:

This boat trip had a stop on 2 islands, which was fun and enjoyable:

looked for those but was not able to find any

fun local pigeons

and noisy bats :)

also found my water monitor big lizard from last time

déjà vu :)

I didn't take a picture of all the liveaboards I saw, but I saw many:

this one looked sweet

Phinisi I was on last time

but back to this one :)

and mid way through the trip, this fast boat got new guests in and old ones out

So, let's get to the diving:

my dive guide and dive buddy who made sure I didn't get lost :)

I had some reliability issues with my main camera case, so I ended up taking both cameras :)

clown triggerfish

a few sea snakes, I love those

found a fair amount of lobsters

One of the highlight spots of the trip was Richelieu Rock but when we arrived, the current was unbearable. Got some pictures but it as pretty rough:

Then it was the 6th and last day, 2 more dives;

a good amount of parrotfish

Across the multiple dives:

Muliple local pipefish and seahorses:

another beauty

and then I found this one :)

I tried to lure it out but this is as far as I got, it was smart

And a highlight was seeing Octopus Sex, first time at night. I've read it takes up to 3h :)

they would even bump into one another

Also got lucky with some nice sunsets:

Thanks to all the nice Bavaria staff, despite the somewhat cramped boat, it was a good week.

This is a display driver for Framebuffer::GFX that displays on RGB Panels using https://github.com/mrcodetastic/ESP32-HUB75-MatrixPanel-DMA . It runs on top of the same code that https://github.com/marcmerlin/Framebuffer_GFX and therefore provides access to the usual trio of APIs: FastLED, Adafruit::GFX (via Adafruit::NeoMatrix compatibility using FastLED::NeoMatrix) and LEDMatrix compatibility too. To get example demo code, go to: https://github.com/marcmerlin/FastLED_NeoMatrix_SmartMatrix_LEDMatrix_GFX_Demos

Here is a video demo of a 24bpp framebuffer based set of demos that simply can't run on ESP32-HUB75-MatrixPanel-DMA without this framebuffer driver:

Installation

How to use?

Why not use mrcodetastic's library gives Adafruit::GFX compatibility?

What you get is this:

Low Level Drv|Glue Driver for FrameBuffer::GFX
FastLED     - FastLED_NeoMatrix  -------------\     FastLED CRGB Array 
ESP32-HUB75-MatrixPanel -,                    |
FastLED_ESP32-HUB75-MatrixPanel_FrameBuffer_GFX
SmartMatrix - SmartMatrix_GFX -----------------\    24bit FB storage        API Support
                                                \   CRGB methods like
AF:ILI9341-\                                     \  scale8/fadeToBlackBy
AF:SSD1331  |--- FastLED_ArduinoGFX_TFT ----------|        |               ,FastLED API
AF:ST7735  /     FastLED_SPITFT_GFX (for AF)      |        |              / (XY 2D to 1D mapping)
ArduinoGFX/  AF:Adafruit (ArduinoGFX is all in 1) |        |             

                                                  |        |            

ArduinoOnPc-FastLED-GFX-LEDMatrix arduino         - FrameBuffer::GFX------ Adafruit::NeoMatrix +
emulation for linux / Raspberry Pi:               |        |             \ Adafruit::GFX APIs
----------------------------------               /    Adafruit::GFX       \ 
rpi-rgb-led-matrix - FastLED_RPIRGBPanel_GFX ---/   LEDMatrix (optional)   `LEDMatrix API
ArduinoOnPC X11/linux - FastLED_TFTWrapper_GFX 

FastLED_SDL (linux)   -  FastLED_NeoMatrix   -

So you write against any of the 3 APIs in Framebuffer::GFX, and you get to run on all hardware backends without having to change your code, including switching from teensy to ESP32, or rPi to display on RGBPanels.

you can run your code natively on linux

I should stress that for RGBPanels, if you're writing code for ESP32 and ESP32-HUB75-MatrixPanel, you absolutely want to use this glue driver, because when you decide to scale up, you can switch to an rPi, get 3 parallel outputs for a display that is 3 times as large or refreshes 3 times faster, and all your code will just work with no changes required outside of the matrix init. So the same code can run on these bigger displays (those run with rpi-rgb-panel):

or on bigger arrays with triple channel using rpi-rgb-panel, no code changes needed

And one more reminder of how awesome it is to be able to compile your arduino code on linux, run it on linux with full display, and debug it on linux with gdb and ASAN to find your memory leaks and dangling pointers. You get this for free by using FrameBuffer::GFX for all your code.

Github: https://github.com/marcmerlin/FastLED_ESP32-HUB75-MatrixPanel_FrameBuffer_GFX

Qatar airways had a very decent business product, outside of stupidly weighing carry ons of people in business and telling me I have to check in my lithium batteries and laptop because they weigh too much as carry on. That kind of security incompetence is worrisome. Outside of that, the flight was nice once I finally got in and wasted 40mn dealing with this carry on problem and needing to trick them so I could get on the plane with my batteries that are illegal to check in. Thanks to James Lee from points.me for finding me this flight at a reasonable price in miles.

another pajama for my collection :)

almost there, sadly the A350 had windows that did not allow my GPS to work, so I have no idea which way around we went for the 15H flight

Day 1: Souq Waqif

I went to falcon hospital, which was also a falcon resale location:

plenty of eye shields you could buy :)

I loved this cute little baby

Then walk back around town:

the working camels were resting/sleeping

found happy cats, this one was so happy to get scratches

for non cat specialists, it's pretty rare to cats to be so chill and trusting

fancy pigeons

Day 2

the pearl

Next, I took a cheap uber to Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum, a 30mn ride to a private residence with a wonderful collection. Very much worth the trip.

extensive collecion

that Shaik's property is huge

This included a big personal car collection:

From there I went to Katara Cultural Village:

They had a nice french inspired mall, Galeries Lafayette:

I'm not sure how well they were selling french cocktail dresses to jihab wearing arab women though ;)

poubel, haha

Next, I went to the Pearl Island:

Day 3: Starting with Desert Sunrise Tour

sunrise

obligatory selfie ;)

It was still cold but time to go sand boarding. It was a bit different from snowboarding but not too much so:

the only issue was the lack of lifts going back up :)

it also wasn't super steep

after a few runs, I was good, climbing back up was work ;)

Next was to visit the inland sea:

Next, required camel ride :)

It was nice to get another falcon, this time without eye shield:

beautiful bird

picture with my guide and driver

I signed up for the optional ATV ride after that. As expected, it was lead follow and too slow, but that's pretty typical since it can dangerous if you flip over and most drivers have no clue and will hurt themselves:

to be honest the dunes were easier than Oceano, CA, and we didn't even get to ride them up and down on the steep parts

After the tour, I went back to check out from my room and go to down to see a few more things, starting with a Quran learning center in town:

Then went to the impressive National Museum:

Views of the bay:

Then went to the Islamic Art, which doesn't actually have so much on display, but the pieces that are are nice, and the building is absolutely wonderful:

Next went to Imam Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab Mosque (State Grand Mosque) which was open to visitors during prayers:

thankfully I came right in between 2 prayers, so it was empty

And then I went to Education City Mosque which was indeed a stunning building:

From there, I was in some university oark and I figured out their free trams would take me to the museum of modern art, otherwise a 45mn walk away. It was not a must do museum, but I was closeby, so why not?

At this point, I was done with the 2 day tour google gemini gave me, so I looked for extra suggestions and Aspire park was an interesing area. Unfortunately the default location I picked got the driver to drop me on the wrong side:

I think this was built for the FIFA world cup

eventually I got inside the mall, but it took a while. It was very cool though

lucky me, I needed a new Louis Vuitton bag

they even had a carrefour for me to do my shopping :)

AFter that, although it was not on the google tour, it was obvious from the skyline that I needed to go West Bay for the wonderful skyline:

I got there just in time for sunset, lucky me

wee :)

magical sunset as always

I stuck around for the lights to come on

After that, it was time to go back to the airport. Qatar airlines nicely charged me almost $300 luggage overage because I had 51kg totaly instead of 40kg (11 extra) as from Doha it's 40kg total, not 2x 32kg, sigh...

nice lounge though

seats were nice, but only 6h flight, not much time to sleep

they had a lounge area and bar. Nice idea but didn't get a single drink or food on that plane, slept from takeoff to landing

Ending Thoughts

The country also felt super cheap. My private desert sunrise tour was a mere $150 for 4h+ and a private guide and driver. Ubers would often cost $5 for shorter rides, or $15 for longer ones. I gave big tips to each driver as it felt way too cheap.

How you should feel about the country itself (like I'm not a fan of Maldives because of their lack of basic human right policies), Qatar, "it's complicated". It wsa blockaded by its neighbors for many years, until very recently, because they deemed they were to helpful to terrorism organizations. The details are more complicated, you can read this or whatever other sources you'd like to find.

All in all, I wouldn't say that Qatar is a must do destination, definitely do Dubai and Abu Dhabi first, but given my layover there, it was a very interesting 2 days that were definitely worth the stop

getting in took a while, but security was reasonably lenient

Nice decors:

Great to see the usual friends:

Main room:

totaly packed

Gods and Monsters, nice decors:

The small hangar next door

And then the huge pier they converted. I cannot express how big it was, and to be honest it felt too big and packed. Hard to get in and get a decent view, so I stayed on the side. VIP access did not really help in any meaningful way

didn't know John Summit but he played a decent enough selection that tried to appeal to all

So while it felt like a lot and very packed, good way to start the year!

I drove up on the 23rd in the evening before the temps were forecast to drop too much, and made it across the spur as it was still mostly rain:

nice decors on the way

made it

Day 1: Xmas Eve, Kirkwood

not bad given that the previous day still had grass on the runs

only solitude was open, but beggers can't be choosers :)

still looks wet

After a few runs on 5, I called it a day. The run wasn't that much fun as the better snow was higher altitude but no chair to get to it, and yeah, the snow was pretty wet and sticky half way down the shorter run. I did go out for Xmas eve for some pictures:

Day 2: Xmas Day, Kirkwood Closed

no snow for you :)

After a while, I got cabin fever and thought I'd drive to Heavenly which had lifts opened:

but before long I ended up at a random road closure on SR88

after talking to Caltrans it became clear I'd be stuck long enough that I'd get to HV too late to matter

so I turned around, back to KW

didn't make it to SLT, so went to celebrate Xmas at Cornice Grill

Day 3: Heavenly Sky Express

went to season pass office to ask whether 6 might open that day, and they said 'unlikely'

so I went to drive off to HV and got stuck because they didn't plow the exit of the parking lot (I have good triple peak snow tires and 4WD, but no locking differential)

after 30mn lost to dig myslef out, on the way to HV

I tested the new FSD in the snow, it actually did well

the bottom looked ok enough to run, but I guess they wanted to save the thin base, so we couldn't run that

the lines were not terrible, I never waited more than 10mn

crowds were very reasonable

sky opened before noon, yeah!

first time of the season, plenty of snow!

oh look, a hole in the wall :)

and snow on the other side :)

someone copied me :)

ski patrol worked hard and nicely opened Ellis

I went to play in the rock field to find fresh snow :)

and then it officially opened

pretty

after all day back to back runs on sky, it was time to go back

we were not allowed to ride back down, had to take the chair of shame back to parking lot

I used the opportunity to enjoy the lights in South Lake Tahoe:

time for a charge, new fancy v3 chargers in SLT

Day 4: Bluebird at Kirkwood: Cornice and Reut

still some pow to be found

hole in the wall

virtually no lines

obviously still some holes with a river underneath in the drain

then reut opened

more snow

patrol working on opening 1;)

Day 5: Bluebird#2 at Kirkwood: The Wall

I had nothing better to do, so I stayed in line :)

2nd chair up, wee!

even the path on top of the wall opened and ther ewas enough snow to go down from the ridge

made it to my favorite rock :)

cheers to ski patrol for all the good work

And then it was time to drive home, the roads were mostly clear, but not really

poor person didn't make it up SR88, still very slippery in places

this will more or less fit :)

nothing really looked wrong, but the power supply was dead

So I ripped out the power supply, connected a 2.5mm jack female, and now any external 5V power supply will do the job:

new fan spinning on happy switch

back online

Glad to see loads of friends again:

Then it was time for Cosmic Gate:

end of a great night

Thank you to everyone who came, it was pretty packed. Merry Xmas to you all!

Video summary: