Hello !

How are you going? It's a pretty cool/windy spring day in Melbourne today. The whole state is currently waiting nervously to hear about the timeline of coming out of lockdown as our vaccination rate finally starts to climb. Rumours are, we might still have severe restrictions for at least a month. But more on that later...

As always, a small favour, if I may? 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 - randInt() Youtube channel
• Gadgets & Tech - Wacaco Minipresso (~$48)
• Read - I think you're fat (~11min)
• Watch - Inspiration4 Civilian space trip (~10min)
• Quote - A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for

Week in the life

This week began rather unfortunately. Being the old man I am, I was uncrossing my leg and felt a click in the knee. Turns out, I probably did some thing to my meniscus and hence have been limping the last few days. It's put my running on hold.

That's also meant less photography walks as such. However, one of the photos of Melbourne from last week has become quite popular. Especially considering the Melbourne Demons are playing in the finals. It's been featured by Visit Melbourne, Melbourne I Love You and various other big accounts!

On to other photography related news, I think I'll make the 2022 calendar a Melbourne themed one but more on that over on the blog...

Creative update

randInt() Youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTvGdnGrX99ngz0ufo1i0Xg

I've been a bit behind on updating the Youtube channel for the randInt podcast, but this week, I ended up uploading about 3-4 new videos from the back log. I hope that by next week, I'm up to date so we can launch the new episode of the podcast in realtime with the audio episode.

The next episode features a guest who will also be cross posting the episode on his channel so best time to catch up I suppose!

Gadgets & Tech

Wacaco Minipresso (~$48)

https://amzn.to/2XBC4e4

Ok so I'm getting a bit obsessed with these portable coffee makers. I'm a big fan of the Aeropress but some have pointed out alternatives that are even more compact and portable!

The minipresso and the even smaller nanopresso require far less space to operate and have a piston system instead. The added benefit is that you can add an adapter to use Nesspresso capsules too if needed! I ordered mine today and can't wait to try this one out.

• Semi-auto cat litter box- Cleaning the cat litter isn't my favourite activity. This is a nice mix between the complicated/expensive electronic ones and nice compact traditional boxes
• Bottle+ sparkling water anywhere- It's a crowd-funded campaign for sparkling water in a portable bottle!

Read

I think you're fat (~11min)

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a26792/honesty0707/

I'd heard of AJ Jacobs and his antics in the past. This guy is a journalist who pics some interesting projects/rules for a period of time and tries to live as closely to the rules as possible.

This article details his attempts at radical honesty ie. telling exactly what's on your mind. I saw this on Tim Ferriss' newsletter and thought it was quite an interesting read.

See also

• The Year of Living Biblically - More of AJ Jacobs work. This time, living for a year by following the Biblical Testaments!

Watch

Inspiration4 Civilian space trip (~10min)

https://youtu.be/E71ffwc13y4?t=616

So over the last week, there has been another exciting development in space travel: the very first civilian only orbital flight! This video is their mid trip update. Just think about this: they're ordinary people who had 6 months of training and were up in space for a few days in a total autonomous vehicle!

We don't have autonomous cars, yet we have autonomous space vehicles! Crazy times!

Quote I'm pondering

“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for”

– John A. Shedd

After watching the Inspiration4 trip videos, it's reignited my childhood desire to explore and dream to one day go off into space. As always, the day to day worries come back to ground those dreams down, but I do think if the opportunity comes, I would go just to see the world from up so high.

What about you? Would you go? I honestly didn't think we'd be at this point in my lifetime where space might actually be a destination that you could sanely think of as possible, but it's getting closer...

Well , that's all for this week! Let me know what you thought as feedback is always welcome!

Have a fantastic week ahead!

- Raffy

PS - What was your favourite part of this email? Let me know with 1 click! I read the survey every week and tweak things as requested!

Sunday Surprise uses affiliate/referral links in the newsletter. This does not change the recommendation/verdict but may result in Photos by Raffy receiving a small commission and will be marked in orange. Non-affiliate links will appear as blue. Prices recorded may vary.