Greetings !

Happy New Year! We made it through 2020! I hope you got to celebrate this milestone, because unlike every other year, this one seems very deserved. I'm writing this from my room in Ballarat where it's just hit past midnight on the Sunday and it's raining outside. I've probably done more "living" in the last few days than for most of 2020, but more on that later...

Firstly, could I ask you a few questions about this newsletter? This should take maybe 2 mins max!

A litte survery about the Sunday Surprise

If in 2021 you have a friend who you think would enjoy the this email, maybe forward it on? It helps A LOT! You can send them the following link to be their referer which puts YOU in the running for prizes...

Week in the life

I've had the past few days off and have been in Ballarat to have the first mini break in what feels like forever and it has been great! I used the first few days off to pack and ship some puzzles and to go check out the Triennial that I mentioned last week. It's well worth a visit. The scale of the first piece you see is just stunning. So if you're in Melbourne, get yourself a free ticket!

The cats have been getting along better this week after the initial adjustment of each being the sole cat in the household for majority of their lives.

Anyway, Ballarat! It was meant to be a few days away from Melbourne and a change in scenery. Before I went, I didn't really plan anything because I just wanted to chill out. But boy, was I happy I went. There was plenty of great coffee, lots of good burger spots ( and other food!), a lovely lake and lots of artsy things to take in! So much so that we didn't really even leave the main town the whole weekend! Will definitely have to go back later this year for another trip.

If you're planning a trip, the Visit Ballarat site has a list of all the spots and I've been posting up a whole bunch of stuff on my Instagram.

PxR & Kickstarter update

PxR Store

https://www.photosbyraffy.com/shop

I was wondering why so many people weren't sending me their addresses for their puzzles and I realised that I had only sent the survey from Kickstarter to mostly the work people!

After sending the new back surveys through, I received a deluge of details and started packing and sending puzzles through. As you read this, about 75% have been shipped or delivered and I'm hoping to get this to about 90% by the next 48hrs. Couriers have been unreliable in picking up and delivery is delayed, so I've been hand delivering all those that I can.

There's only 4 calendars left on the online PxR store. If you're after one, click on through! Currently, the 2021 Calendar comes with FREE Shipping in Australia with the code "SURPRISE".

Gadgets & things

DJI Mini 2

https://www.photosbyraffy.com/dji

One of the things in Ballarat I did was to fly my latest little gadget, the Mini 2 drone! Now, I have had a whole bunch of drones in my time and I have to say, for something that ways 249g, this thing is AWESOME!

Unlike the original mini, the connection to the controller is great. The battery life is actually realistically over 20mins and everything charges by USB-C so no more giant power brick! Even though I have the Mavic 2 Pro, I got this for travel and do not regret it.

If you're thinking about drones and are curious, this would be my recommendation for an ideal first drone. The picture quality isn't as good as the Mavic 2 series, but it's $750 vs $2500 and with much less hassles.

SEE ALSO

Some people keep asking about previous recommendations etc so I'm going to link a few that have come up in conversation in the last week below:

• Lyre's non-alcoholic spirits - Still waiting for my bottle to arrive, but judging by reviews, should be great!
• Floately floating planter - This is still awesome! Very much still enjoying my plants spin around weightlessly.
• Zens Wireless charging pad - My current wireless charging pad of choice. Works with iPhones and most Android devices and it's GREAT to not have to line up the charging coils!

Watch

Grappling Hooks: In Real Life

https://youtu.be/c1fxO0bGGps

Ok, now in almost all superhero or spy movie, there's always someone with a grappling hook that they use to effortlessly get into places or just, you know, generally use it to fix everything, right? So it was disappointing to know that they're actually quite difficult to make in real life.

Until now.

One of the old interns from HackSmith (the guys that did the Lightsaber) went ahead and made one that's pretty darn close to what you see in the movies. This is a little test video of how it works.

Read

The Science of Near-Death Experiences

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/04/the-science-of-near-death-experiences/386231/

One of the great things about this newsletter is that the people who sign up, often email me and tell me their interests, which then leads me down rabbit holes of new topics and one was on near-death experiences (NDEs).

Turns out, there's entire conferences and niche subset of medicine looking at the commonalities of NDEs and even a grading scale! This was all relatively new to me, but then I realised that I watched a show on Netflix called The OA and a lot of the plot started making sense then.

So, this article is a bit random, but it is a good primer on all things NDE.

See also

• The OA - A quirky TV Netflix show that kinda hard to describe. It's part science fiction, part fantasy. Season 2 even features a mind-reading giant octopus.

Quote I'm pondering

"It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it..."

– Seneca

This seemed like a good quote for the beginning of the year when resolutions are in vogue. I feel like I need this tattooed on my arms because of the sheet amount of random things I tend to look up (just look at what the Sunday Suprise contains!)

I'll have to find the other quote one day, but it the gist of it was that we all get the same 24hrs as Elon Musk, Yuval Harari or...Donald Trump. It's how we use it that gets us the outcomes...

Have you heard any good quotes lately? Let me know!

Well, that's it for the first week of 2021! It had more photos than normal, but hopefully you enjoyed it. Stay safe and see you next week!

Stay random.

- Raffy

PS- Can I make a final plea for the survey? Should take 2 mins! Thank you!

Sunday Surprise uses affiliate/referral links in the newsletter. While this does not influence the product recommendations or verdict, if there are any that are likely to lead to Photos by Raffy receiving any sort of compensation from, they will be marked in orange. Non affiliate links will appear as blue.