Howdy !

It's another lockdown in Melbourne which means that my plans to be on leave from work are in disarray! At least I got a quick trip in last week, but more on that below. How's the whole Covid thing going where you are? Let me know!

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In this week's email...

• Week in the Life - read on the blog
• Creative update - Sunday Surprise Insta & Lunar Eclipse from a phone
• Gadgets & Tech - Nord VPN or ExpressVPN
• Read - Happy Sexy Millionaire
• Watch - Russell Brand: Interview with Gabor Mate
• Quote - “It is impossible to understand addiction without asking what relief the addict finds, or hopes to find, in the drug or the addictive behaviour.”

Week in the life

Well, I didn't expect to be writing this from the middle of yet another lockdown in Melbourne! How fast things change, eh? I'm meant to be in the middle of some leave and preparing to go hiking in Victoria next week but those plans are all off.

I'm thankful that there was a mini getaway to Bendigo last week. I happen to pick an interestingly artsy hotel called the Mercure Bendigo Schaller. The place was part gallery, part restaurant and part hotel. I didn't realise that it was around the corner from the hospital and hence there was quite a line in the morning for coffee! The rooms were on the smaller side but the place did have 2x Tesla chargers so my priorities of coffee and charging were ticked!

This year, I felt like I had missed out on the Autumn colours in Melbourne city. Going to Bendigo meant that I got to experience the last of the season in full bloom. The whole place was filled with trees in vivid colours.

More Bendigo updates and eclipse shots and on the blog...

Creative

Sunday Surprise on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/thesundaysurprise/

With the new logo and colours, I decided to see if it would be worthwhile posting up some of the titles of the sections over at Instagram. So far so good! If nothing else, I'm enjoying learning Spark to create little social media posts.

If you're wondering what the topics were on a given week or want a quick preview, check out the Instagram page and give it a follow!

Lunar Eclipse from a phone

https://www.instagram.com/p/CPVjFJKjX5b/

I happened to be in Bendigo when the lunar eclipse happened and I forgot to take my SLR with me!

Given I had nothing else around, I decided to set up and take some shots with my phone instead. I have to say, I'm very impressed with what phones can achieve through a combination of improving hardware and very good software.

This was all shot and edited on my phone!

Gadgets & Tech

Nord VPN or ExpressVPN

https://www.photosbyraffy.com/nordvpn

https://www.photosbyraffy.com/expressvpn

I think most people already use a VPN these days, but in case you don't it's something you should consider if you use any public/free Wifi networks. Essentially when you connect to Wifi, your device "trusts" most other devices on the same network and people can sniff out passwords etc. A cool trick with VPNs is that you can make it look like you're in another country. Useful if you want to access other Netflix/streaming catalogues! ExpressVPN works better with this and I've used that one for years but have recently switched to NordVPN since it's a bit cheaper (and if you use the code "onlinesecurity" it becomes even cheaper)!

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:

• HyperJuice GaN charger Currently my compact charger for laptop and phone of choice until the Kickstarter one arrives. They have a 30% off sale for the next few days with the code MEMORIAL30
• DJI Mini 2 - It's easy to fly and takes excellent pics. Best of all, it charges over USB-C so no need for a ton of chargers!

Read

Happy Sexy Millionaire (~$16)

https://amzn.to/34rcOaq

After stealing a few of his quotes for the newsletter I thought I'd actually start reading the book itself.

It's early days but it's so far so good. I like the fact that it's a millenial writing about the pitfalls of being a millenial. For a young guy, he has some pretty well formed and interesting life philosophies...

Nerd article of the week:

• Full story of the RSA hack - It's scary to think how quickly cybersecurity space is heating up. Here's a story of a security company itself being hacked! If this isn't a wake up call to upgrade your passwords and set up 2-factor authentication, I'm not sure anything else will be...

Watch

Russell Brand: Interview with Gabor Mate (~18min)

https://youtu.be/WdPdslOTwJU?t=40

Following on from last week's exploration of the Middle East tensions, I wanted to find some perspectives of people closer to the action about what to think about it all. Looks like Russell Brand had the same idea and is inviting guests onto his podcast for the same reason.

The first guest is a Jewish academic that I have heard about via Tim Ferriss and other podcasts who presents a very interesting view on it all given his history of being a Holocaust survivor and close family friends with the Likud political party in Israel. I am looking forward to the next episode for the opposing view.

See Also

• Vox: Israel/Palestine - Kept this from last week about the basics of Israel/Palenstine conflict.

Quote I'm pondering

“It is impossible to understand addiction without asking what relief the addict finds, or hopes to find, in the drug or the addictive behaviour.”

- Gabor Mate

This one comes from Russell Brand's interview guest in terms of his background as an addiction medicine specialist. While the quote itself refers to those who are suffering from addictions, I think it's got some applications to the everyday.

After all, aren't we all expressing some addictions or obsessive behaviours? It could be incessant social media use, eating junk food or mindless TV. Modern day life is filled with little "vices" which are fine in moderation, but how often do we stop to think "why" we need them in the first place?

Would you really need endless Netflix if you were working on your favourite hobby? Would you need social media if you were well connected to your friends? Or would junk food even register as an option if you had the luxury of time to cook that delicious recipe you've wanted to try?

Don't get me wrong - I'm guilty of all these counts, but it does make you wonder about that thin line that separates a vice from dysfunctional, clinical addition.

That's all for another week, ! Please let me know what your favourite section was from the link below.

- Raffy

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