How are you ?

That's what " kemon acho" means in Bengali. It's only been a few days post lockdown in Melbourne and the city is shimmering with good weather! Hope you've stayed safe during the last week where ever you are! I think I'm finally getting the hang of this "don't work too much" thing and have had a nice and relatively relaxed week. How about yourself? What's news?

Before I go on, a small ask (as always!). If you have a friend who you think would enjoy the this email, maybe forward it on? It helps A LOT! If you're the friend reading this, click the link below to join! Glad to have you here!

In this week's email...

• Week in the Life - read on the blog
• Read - The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse
• Listen - Echolily - Under the Clocks (Stay)
• Gadgets & things - Matt Black/Silver Fountain Pen
• Watch - Actual HD video from Mars!
• Quote - The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.

Week in the life

As I was saying, it's been a relatively relaxed week this past week. I have taken the time to do some long standing things on my to-do list like... going to the GP for a check up and other such tasks. It's not at all a myth that most doctors make the worst patients. I've successfully avoided visiting a physician for the better part of a decade but I'm getting to the age where chronic disease start to crop up, so thought I better take my own advice and go.

It was odd being on the other side of the interaction and even though I've performed physical examinations hundreds of times, being on the other side is... uncomfortable and does require an exercise in trust. I'm glad the doctor I saw was very professional and thorough!

With the lockdowns easing, there has also been a ballooning of social commitments lately with many more coffees, lunches and brunches. I finally checked out Ichigo in Melbourne CBD. Quite a nice Japanese cafe with delicious matcha lattes and chicken sandos.

While photos have been a bit slow lately, I have been learning a lot about Adobe Audition and podcasting in general. As such, the latest episode of randInt() is out now (see below).

I have more photos of food and cats, but as always, it gets a bit long here, so I'll post a more detailed and photo intense version over on the blog...

PxR / randInt() update

randInt () episode 3

https://anchor.fm/randint

As mentioned above, there's been more activity on learning about podcasting and editing than photos lately, but I'm taking the spurt of enthusiasm and going with it. While the microphone for episode 3 was ordinary, I did learn enough about audio production to hopefully add some entertaining sound effects to the podcast. Try listening to it with headphones and let me know what you think. Was it too distracting?

Gadgets & tech

Matt Black/Silver Fountain Pen

https://amzn.to/3q5BI7D

I'm a big fan of writiing with fountain pens (I had one as a gadget from a while ago here too!) and recently went down a rabid hole of getting converters for all of mine so I could use bottled ink instead of those single use cartridges. Along the way, I found this pen which actually looks really nice, comes with an extra fine nib AND is relatively cheap making it quite a rare combo! Considering my pens get "borrowed" frequently, I'm getting a couple of these to use day to day. The silver version is also quite nice so I'm getting one of each.

PREVIOUS/OTHER PRODUCTS

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:

• Buccaneer Skillet- New generation cast iron pans for all your cooking needs...
• Lumos Ultra Helmet - Along with the e-bike, this helmet with built in stop light and headlamp should make my bike trips much safer.
• Origami office organiser - I recently just got some office organiser stuff from Per Capita and other places but damn, this looks nice and minimalist!

Read

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse

https://amzn.to/3b0vj9B

This is very different to the usual non-fiction that I post on here. This book was on display in Ballarat from a few months ago and I bought it on a whim. It's beautifully illustrated and is a lovely picture book with most pages full of short uplifting passages.

It's strangely been a great one to pick up on the odd occasion and glance through. I'd definitely recommend getting the physical hard cover version. It seems like the sort of thing I'd keep for years and glance back at.

Listen

Echolily - Under the Clocks (Stay) (~4min)

https://open.spotify.com/track/76dxpaANn296XFoWI03pmQ?si=jouosxh7QfCzosZwCH2rJg

I haven't featured music on here for a while so when a friends and fellow anaesthetist from Melbourne put on her song writing hat and made this amazing downtempo/electronica track I couldn't not share!

She goes by the stage name of Echolily and it's quite a detailed and layered track that I quite enjoy. We may also be collaborating on something in the near future...

Watch

Actual HD video from Mars! (~3min)

https://youtu.be/4czjS9h4Fpg?t=10

Ok I clearly was a bit excited about the Mars rover landing last week. After watching their cool 3d model, I didn't think we'd have an ACTUAL high definition video feed from Mars! I mean think about that for a second: you go to the country side and lose all phone signal but here we have a HD stream from MARS! And for the first time, we get to hear what Mars sounds like too.

SEE ALSO:

• The Secret Message on the Mars Rover parachute (~2min) - Looks like NASA's JPL had a bit of fun while building the rover and leaving a secret message here and there...

Quote I'm pondering

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”

- Walt Disney

I found this quote amusing since it's from Walt Disney and not some random motivational speaker. I've never studied Disney's life in enough detail but I'm beginning to suspect that most names we hear/remember had some very common personality traits like a bias towards action.

While this is common to see in a lot of business/start-up focusses pieces/authors, I just didn't expect to see it from a "creative". Would you have thought it was Disney that said that?

That's all for another week so stay safe and stay random!

- Raffy

PS- It's a really busy second on-call today! I thought I was going to have a fun afternoon of kayaking. Since I need to live vicariously, let me know what you're up to and email me!

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.