Au revior, !

That's something akin to "good bye til we meet again" in French. Don't worry I'm not stopping the newsletter or anything like that, but after these last few weeks, I'm going to switch off for my holiday beginning next weekend. I wanted to give myself permission to just relax and that's step one! Have you got any breaks coming up? Let me know!

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Week in the life

The universe is set on making the last weeks before my holidays incredibly busy! I've literally done another 3 days >12hrs long, the last 2 being about 18 hours back to back. No, it was planned to be like that - unexcepted things happened.

So to say that I'm ready for a holiday is an understatement! But more on all that over on the blog...

Creative update

Reels: Quick Edit - Reflections of Melbourne

I always feel like I'm cheating when I link to Instagram posts or Reels as a "creative update" but the truth is that even a simple Reel like this takes time to make. As you can see from the weekly summary, that's been a bit limited so this has been it as my creative outlet for the week! 😅

Gadgets/Tech

Sony ZV-1

Given all my SLR's etc I really didn't think I would even need to consider a compact camera at all. Til now, I haven't really had the need for one except to use the super slow mo modes which phones have these days.

However, I'm going to be going to Greenland and Europe and given the state of airlines and baggage, I'm intending on flying carry on only. Even the mirrorless cameras get a bit heavy when lenses and chargers are thrown in the mix so I'm seriously considering the ZV-1 as a nice balanced camera that can take decent photos, videos with a nice flip out screen and decent battery life with a very small footprint.

Other gadgets/tech

• Kaweco Sport - My current favourite fountain pen!
• Nest Mesh routers - I didn't think my apartment would need a mesh network but since getting these, there has been a night and day difference in Wifi performance

Read

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life

I've been in an odd spot with reading: 18 hour days means I'm not rested enough to enjoy the imagination part of reading fiction but I'm not really sharp enough to get some of the concepts of reading non-fiction.

In a way, this was the ideal book to bridge the gap. It fits with the general theme of slow productivity/story telling that I've been reading around lately. I'm about half way through it and it's been a mix of entertaining and insightful. It reads more like fiction but hints at deeper things. So far, can definitely recommend.

Watch

What would happen if no one worked?

Given I'm working too many hours at the moment and tend to think of things in extremes, my mind always wonders to the opposite end of the spectrum: not working at all!

This video is an interesting thought experiment on what would happen if we all just stopped working...

Quote I'm pondering

It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

– Henry David Thoreau

I started reading Walden a little while ago, but I got distracted before I really got stuck into it. The book felt like a meditation on life sprinkled with little quotes like the one above that made me stop and think.

That's probably the reason I got distracted from reading it in the first place! Given the general theme of most weeks must come through as a focus on the busy, this quote came to mind: Am I just being an ant or doing something I want to do?

That's all for this week. I'll see you all sometime in the next month or so depending on how the holiday goes! Let me know what you get up to in the mean time by dropping me an email!

Stay safe!

- Raffy

PS - Given it's been 2 years, I'll be going back through the feedback and tweaking things. Do you like/dislike the subtle changes this year? Let me know with 1 click! I read the survey every week (& keep tweaking things with your feedback!)

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