Hello everyone 👋 Thank you for coming to my blog. For some time now, I’ve been considering creating a space where I could go back to some form of content creation. My first step in this direction is a personal blog. I will share my knowledge and thoughts, post deep technical analyses, self-document some of my projects, and write about topics I find important.

First, a bit of history

My journey with content creation started in 2011 when I created my YouTube channel called (very creatively) MarPiRK. I chose this name because I never really had any kind of nick and MarPik was already taken 😜 I was already 2 years into programming, and I felt there weren’t enough high-quality sources in Polish to learn from. Definitely, at the time, I was at the peak of the Dunning-Krugger curve to decide that it was the time to start teaching other people. Nonetheless, I wanted to begin this endeavour, and there has been nothing that could hold me back. It was also a time when several “let’s players” started to surface on YouTube, and I was getting more into gaming. I thought I should start doing this as well – that was how MarPiRKgaming came to life. That never really took off (what a relief), and I had carried on with my main channel.

On the channel, I was posting Delphi 7 tutorials (yeah, that is my first language, don’t ask). Then I followed on with some Linux videos. At the time, I was eagerly exploring all topics related to programming and system administration, so I had a lengthy list of future video series and projects. Unfortunately, due to a lack of time and some additional extracurricular activities, it slowly faded away, and I had no chance to finish any of the series I started.

Then came an opportunity to build a desktop computer from scratch. It was fabulous because I needed more and more processing power due to the increasing complexity of all the side-projects and for some casual gaming. At the time, I watched a lot of YouTube videos related to building computers and wanted to try out this format. I decided to document my journey from the very beginning. It was pretty exciting to do, as the system had hard-tubing liquid-cooling with some not-too-shabby components. Moreover, it was the first time I showed my face to the camera. It was a time when I was switching a specialization in music school and getting ready for final exams in high school. Yet again, the time was limited, so I didn’t manage to edit and post all of the videos from the series. I have all the raw videos, so who knows, maybe I’ll post it later to feed nostalgia.

Sadly, this was the end of my main activity on YouTube. From then on, I had no real chance to do anything similar, apart from a small project during my studies (which I will probably post here). In high school, my colleagues and I started a 3D printing start-up called SENT Technology. Then I began studies and finished music school. This meant that there was no time for any additional activities whatsoever. After completing my Bachelor’s degree, I wanted to focus on SENT, but then the pandemic hit and everything basically blew up 😉

At the end of the first year of the pandemic, I wrapped up my SENT activities and decided to pursue a regular job in embedded systems. Now, nearly 2 years after joining a company called Embevity, I feel I finally have the time, the headspace, and enough drive for new challenges.

What is next then?

The recent years were a hell of a ride for me. Now, I want to create a safe house for all the thoughts I wish to share. I need an outlet where I can express myself in all the colours I have to show.

The first step is to look through all the scattered documents and projects from my past to check what is suitable for this blog and to organize my prior work.

Then comes the fun part. I want to start writing new posts. You can expect the following topics:

• FPGA design – SpinalHDL, SystemVerilog, VHDL,
• Embedded systems – C, C++, Rust, system architecture,
• DevOps – Docker, CI/CD, Ansible, K8S,
• Mobile app development – Flutter,
• Tooling – Python, build tools, automation,
• general thoughts – be it technical or non-technical.

Honestly, when I look at this list, I am both happy and terrified. I can’t wait to start sharing my thoughts and knowledge, but, at the same time, I know how much work it will be to cover even a small part of all the things I want to show.

Another thing is that I am not a native English speaker. This is actually one of the reasons to create this blog. I wish to strengthen my language skills to the point where I would be comfortable doing some recordings, either in audio or video format. Eventually, my dream is to attend a conference as a speaker, but that needs to wait for a while 😉

I will be happy to hear back from you if you find my posts helpful or interesting. You can contact me by e-mail (marek at serenitycode dot dev) or on Matrix (@marekpikula:matrix.org).

In the end, there is nothing else left but to start writing. Wish me luck 🤞