Hū færst þū ?

How are you ? That text might look foreign, but it's actually Old English and translates to "how fares you", the original basis of the new greeting. Supposedly "hello" and "hi" were only introduced into the common language around 1850. Before that, different greetings were the norm. Hope you liked the early random fact...

As always, a small favour? Could you forward this newsletter to just 3 people that you think would like one of the articles? 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
• Creative update - Paranoid Parents and Tesla tales (~31mins)
• Gadgets & Tech - Tirtyl tablet based eco hand soap (~$25)
• Read - Stories of your life and Others (~$10)
• Watch - Brain implant helps a man speak (~5min)
• Quote - Your attention is one of the most valuable things you posses. That's why everyone wants to steal it from you.

Week in the life

It's been a slower week for me since it was the first few days of leave. Being in lockdown, there's only so much one can do! On one hand, I really needed a break so it's been nice to just sleep in without an alarm. On the other hand, the constant phone calls and emails don't really help the restfulness part of leave.

The good thing is that apart from a bit of work over the weekend and tomorrow, I have the rest of next week off as well. At the current rate, Melbourne will STILL be in lockdown, but I'm really hoping to be able to go on a day trip somewhere if somehow the lockdowns lift by end of the week.

It's meant lots of time playing with the cats and trying to get them hooked on cat videos...

Read more over on the blog over on the blog...

Creative

randInt EP 013 - Paranoid Parents and Tesla tales (~31mins)

https://anchor.fm/randint/episodes/EP-013---Paranoid-parents-and-Tesla-tales-e15ud24

This is another fortnight so it means another episode of the randInt podcast! Something special happened earlier this week where a listener thought the podcast was weekly and was upset that we didn't have a new episode.

I believe that means we have a fan of sorts!

Anyway, this episode, Chandra discusses his impulsive Tesla model 3 purchase and we share stories of how paranoid our parents were in our younger years...

Gadgets & Tech

Tirtyl tablet based eco hand soap (~$25)

http://tirtyl-au.refr.cc/raffy1

I've been looking into ecofriendly products and things that minimise packaging for the last little while. I genuinely didn't realise that a small tablet dissolved in tap water could generate hand soap!

There are several companies out there, but this one is an Australian one that also supports ocean clean up and hence I've ordered the basic starter set. If you use the link above, you'll also get 20% off your order.

PREVIOUS/OTHER PRODUCTS

Some previous things that have been featured:

• ZeroCo cleaning products - Continuing with the eco friendly cleaning solutions, here's one from a little while ago that has other household products that also diverts ocean bound plastics.
• Belkin TrueFreedom Pro charging mat - Ever since switching to true wireless charging, I've been waiting for one that's thin, cheap and takes a small USB-C cord for power. Belkin finally has that product!

Read

Stories of your life and Others (~$10)

https://amzn.to/37GZBMn

I mentioned this book a little while ago and I've been reading it one short story at a time recently. While it's very much sci-fi, I love the themes that it explores regarding the search for God, human augmentation and just how far we would push ourselves.

The length of the stories is just perfect for a full story before bed and it seems to have led to some pretty interesting dreams after pondering the concepts and themes in the book.

If you're non-fiction junkie like me but want to dip your toes into fiction, this is an excellent place to start.

Watch

Brain implant helps a man speak (~5min)

https://youtu.be/SMOangzKcMc

I've featured a whole bunch of interesting science projects in the last little while. The closest to this video is probably the Neuralink project by Elon Musk. This is a seperate project all together that uses a similar premise to let a paralysed man speak for the first time!

The sheer number of projects in this space that are coming up and producing useful results says to me that in the next 10 years, we're going to have a mini revolution in the computer communication space. Just like when the keyboard and mouse was invented, we might have a different way to interact with technology soon

Quote I'm pondering

"Your attention is one of the most valuable things you posses. That's why everyone wants to steal it from you."

- Austin Kleon

This was one of the quotes from Keep Going by Austin Kleon that stood out to me the most near the end of the book. From the moment you wake up, you have to give your attention to something. There's not really any time you're NOT giving your attention. The trick is to make sure it's on the important stuff considering in the modern day, everything is designed to take it away from you (ironically, in a way, this newsletter does the same thing, but hopefully benevolently).

So, be mindful of where your attention is and check regularly to see if it aligns with what your priorities are in life.

, I hope you have a great week ahead. Stay safe and I hope to see you next week. Hope you enjoyed this weeks newsletter. As always, feedback is welcome!

See you later!

- Raffy

PS - What was your favourite part of the email? Let me know with 1 click! Every week I'll go and check the feedback and tweak things as requested!

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