Sveiki !

That's "hello" in Latvian. It's another lockdown in Melbourne so I hope you're staying safe wherever you are! The naming of the newsletter hit another snag with the crowd wanting to keep the name the same inching ahead by one vote! So here's the link again if you haven't voted:

• Newsletter Renaming survey!

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 - Sapiens (Graphic Novel Edition)
• Gadgets & things - Creditcard tripod
• Watch - Xiaomi Mi Air Charging
• Quote - Seek knowledge from cradle to the grave

Week in the life

I took the last week off from work and it was GREAT! I still had some work to do since I couldn't arrange cover last minute, but on the whole, it gave me a chance to rest up and sleep. I wanted to do a few things around the house so I made many trips to Ikea and Bunnings Hardware.

I also had a lovely assistant help me with the assembly of things...

I managed to get away to a tiny cabin in the woods for a few days as well. It's my first time in a tiny cabin and I have to say I loved the cozy space! This was the view waking up the first morning:

While the space was amazing, the bugs...we're less so. After dark, if you had the lights on, there windows would be swarming with moths and other bugs...which then brought out the spiders. To be fair, the cabin we stayed in was well sealed by as someone who's borderline arachnophobic, it wasn't an exciting notion falling asleep looking at the underside of a spider on the other side of the glass. The morning views above did make it worth it though!

If you're after more photos, check out the blog since otherwise, this email will get too long!

PxR update

PxR Store

https://www.photosbyraffy.com/shop

The puzzle from Kickstarter has been out for a few months now and I just received the very first completed photo! Ben and wife Sigrid completed what is undoubtedly a challenging puzzle!

If you got one of the puzzles, please to send me progress pics - I love seeing what you're getting up to with it.

If you'd rather share on social media, use #pxrpuzzle tag so I can find it!

In other news, the second episode of the randInt podcast is now live! This is our first minisode so I'd love to hear what you think. Also, we're using a podcasting platform that allows you to leave voicemails for us! So be one of the first and leave us a message!

Gadgets & tech

Creditcard tripod

https://amzn.to/3qnZXzc

This came up as a suggestion for me on Amazon which seemed like the perfect little gadget for me! As you know, most of my photography is done on the phone these days and I tend to like night shots quite a lot. This means I need a steady phone to capture long exposures but rarely do I go walking around with a large tripod.

This promises to fit in my wallet and can accomodate my phone so I can take sharp loong exposures! And it seems pretty cheap at $11

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:

• Bolt heated coffee mug- Like the Ember mug, but without needing an app and also dishwasher safe!
• Insta360 X2 - One of the best 360 cams around and what I use to take the 360 videos I put up on YouTube.
• Lumos Ultra Helmet - Along with the e-bike, this helmet with built in stop light and headlamp should make my bike trips much safer.

Read

Sapiens (Graphic Novel Edition)

https://amzn.to/2ZcS1or

I'm sure you've probably realised I quite like Yuval Noah Harari's writing so when I saw he was publishing the book "Sapiens" as a graphic novel, I couldn't wait to order it!

It's finally available and I've ordered my copy and can't wait to see the illustrations. A quick reminder on the original book: it's a narration of how humans came to be where we are and traces the history of our species in quite an entertaining way. The book will be a volume of 3 graphic novels and this is the first in that series. If you haven't read the original, it's an excellent book that I've recommended to a LOT of people.

Watch

Xiaomi Mi Air Charging (~1min)

https://youtu.be/xsFHKCcV2rg

This is basically a concept video for a product that I think probably going to be out in the next little while. If I had started this newsletter about 10 years ago, I would've linked to an old TED talk that demonstrated something similar as a pure technical concept so even though the video isn't quite here yet, I'm excited to see that it's coming from a company and not just a science demo!

Can you imagine the ramifications of this in a decade from now? Houses where you can just plonk down appliances without having to worry about a power point. Maybe even my dream of having monitoring equipment in hospitals that don't require a tangle of wires! 😂

SEE ALSO:

• Quest for Nikola Tesla's Wireless power (~10min) - this was a mini documentary that I had saved as a potential future video to share a few months ago. It's amazing for me to be able to share that concept one instead given that just a few months ago, it was still just a possibility!

Quote I'm pondering

“Seek knowledge from cradle to the grave.”

– Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)

As a Muslim, it's quite often that people assume that due to what you see in the media and pop culture that the religion suggests being trapped in antiquity. Though it's hard to imagine, the oldest university (by some definitions), University of Al-Karaouine, was founded during the Islamic Golden Age.

While things seem to be going in the reverse direction due to extremism and those that champion a very different view, the core directive in the religion is to strive for knowledge.

Just thought the quote would serve as a nice contrast to common views, Would you have thought it attributed to the Prophet if you saw it in passing? Here's some other that you might find surprising:

• 45 quotes from Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)

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

- Raffy

PS- I'm wondering if I should add any segments to the email? Do you have any suggestions? If so, 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.