Geronimo !

I've always heard the word said but never knew it's meaning or history. Turns out it's the name of an American-Indian who became a prisoner of war. There's several theories of how the name/word came into common use...

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In this week's email...

• Week in the Life - read on the blog
• Creative - Changing the world at your day job (4 mins)
• Gadgets & Tech - Beoplay EQ
• Read - Storyworthy
• Watch - Earthships: Amaerica's off-grid communities (~33min)
• Quote - The little things? The little moments? They aren't little.

Week in the life

I'm back to working too much again, though my 3 week long stretches are out for now. It's been pretty hectic since Wednesday last week. I started at 8am and finished at 0230 the next morning and it's basically taken me the rest of the week to recover. I'm getting too old for those kinds of hours! 🤣

As a result, not a whole lot has happened. We've been trying to stay ahead of the release of the randInt podcast, so we already have one episode recorded for release next week.

We've been making little social media promos for them too. I've been learning how to use the webapps to get those done quickly. Some are up on the randint Instagram page if you wanna check them out.

On a non-wrok/project related note, it's Father's Day today in Australia. Since Melbourne is in lockdown, I haven't been able to see my parents. Thankfully, there's Uber Eats. Here's my dad enjoying his treat since we couldn't be there in person.

Head over to the blog for more updates...

Creative update

Changing the world at your day job (4 mins)

https://raffyhalim.medium.com/changing-the-world-at-your-day-job-c7f8140f48e

Wrote another little article over at Medium. Thought I'd try a listicle without making it a list. Not sure if it works or not, so would very much appreciate feedback if you have any.

The point was to show that there are possibly small, compoundable changes that you can make in most workplaces/9-5 that may lead to large outcomes.

Gadgets & Tech

No specific gadgets that I can recommend this week. I am eyeing off some new earphones which I'm only allowed to get if I hit my fitness goals for September. Here are some of the things recommended in the past and the headphones I'm eyeing off (haven't yet tried though!):

• Beoplay EQ - I got the E8's when they were about the only true wireless earphones around. Sound was great, some tech stuff was terrible. Looks like they've fixed almost everything, added noise cancelling and improved the call quality! It's literally my wishlist of earphones!
• Aeropress Go - If you're after one of the tiniest ways of making great coffee, this is it!
• Matt Black Fountain Pens - My current favourite "everyday" fountain pens that I use it work. Best of all, hardly anyone has the inks so no one steals them! Most people know I'm the fountain pen guy, so they also always seem to return them if they borrow it 😂

Read

Storyworthy

https://amzn.to/3jJ0MBF

This is the latest book I'm reading on crafting better stories. While it's non-fiction, the author dispenses with the wisdom with lots of actual good short stories! So it's one of the most engaging non-fiction books I've read in a very long time. I think you could actually just read it just for entertainment. I'm about 20% of the way through and so far I've already picked up a few tricks on writing better.

Watch

Earthships: Amaerica's off-grid communities (~33min)

https://youtu.be/wgUkjbMhF18

I'm not even sure how I stumbled onto this but it's well worth watching for 5 mins at least. This short documentary style video is about an architect that was obsessed with solving the waste and energy crisis every since he graduated.

He's spent decades building surprisingly functional homes with almost all modern day trimmings out of essentially rubbish and minimal construction materials! There's a bit around 3/4 of the way through about how the "AC" works which I found fascinating. All the functionality of modern day housing with no grid power. Amazing!

Quote I'm pondering

"The little things? The little moments? They aren't little."

- Jon Kabat-Zinn

After last week's quote, I seem to be noticing the ones about the "little moments" in life a lot more lately. Something about realising that this period of time with the raging bushfires last year, Covid, Trump, Afghanistan and every other crazy thing happening means that it'll be a significant part of history has made me want to slow down and focus on the moments. This will be the moments we'll all look back on and wonder "was it so bad as the books make it out to be?" or "how the hell did we get through it?"

It's an odd feeling right? Knowing somehow that this is a signifcant period in history. Mostly, you only discover that in retrospect but not this time.

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 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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