God Morgen !

That'd be "Good morning" in Norwegian. It's a new month and Melbourne is feeling MUCH more alive! I'm very glad to be moving around a bit more! How are things where you are?

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! You can even use your own referral link:

This is going to be an image/GIF heavy newsletter, so I'd suggest unblocking images in the email client you're using...

Week in the life

Melbourne is officially out of lockdown!! And here's my first brunch from a place called Kuu in South Melbourne. Well worth a visit if you're in the area.

That's probably the thing I missed the most about this whole time. That and travel. I'm just glad one of the 2 things is now fixed!

A little while ago, I bought a whole bunch of plant stuff and here's some updates on that front. Firstly, the triangular planters are looking great and I'm just waiting on the Devil's Ivy to grow some more roots before planting into the last planter in the corner pot like you see in the photo below:

On the herb front, here's a quick animation from the other morning. Yes, they have just sprouted in the self watering pots!

On the floating planter front, there's this:

PxR & Kickstarter update

PxR Store

https://www.photosbyraffy.com/shop

The survey for the Kickstarter will be going out a bit later today! So keep your eyes out for that. In the mean time, I've gone ahead and ordered the treat for the healthcare heroes at work: it's going to be a drinks fridge where they can buy discount $1 coke cans and use the profits to fund further treats!

On the PxR front, I have also printed a small batch of calendars for 2021! The photos are A4 in size and for a first time project, I'm quite happy with it!

If you're after one, you can get one at the new PxR shop! Also, next week, I'll be giving away a calendar to someone on this email list. If you're reading this, you don't have to do anything else!

Gadgets & tech

This week I saw 2 super cool things so I had to include both. First is very much a "me" product - a levitating planter! The second, I have yet to buy, but it's just soooo cool: Teno, a very different speaker...

Zens Wireless Charging pad

https://amzn.to/3jNFwr4

So the whole "wireless charging revolution" was meant to allow you to put your phone down and charge without any wires. While technically this works with any charger, the reality is that if your phone isn't lined up with the charging coils, no charging happens.

Apple was going to make a "magical" mat but gave up and has now added magnets to help line up the charging coils instead to the new iPhone.

However, other companies kept developing the tech and got it right. This is one of those products that I have been using for a while now and am quite liking. The Zens essentially lets you put your phone or other device down ANYWHERE on the mat and get it charging. It sounds like a small thing, but once you try it, you'll see why that small thing is actually a big thing!

SEE ALSO

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:

• Oculus Quest 2 - The easiest to set up and best standalone VR experience currently available. Seriously, if you're remotely interested, try this. It's pretty darn awesome!
• Floately floating planter - Loving this thing at the moment!
• Luminar AI - One of the fastest and most feature rich photo editing software is coming out soon! Pre-order discount still applies for another few weeks.

Read

How the economy works

https://economicprinciples.org/

There's not a day that goes by where you don't hear about the economy either doing great or awful. Have you ever stopped to think about what exactly the economy is and why it matters?

Ray Dalio is one of the most succesful hedge fund managers and his team has put this site together that has a very simplified video that gives a very good overview of how the economy works, what a recession is and how policy makers go about fixing things.

Now, it's in the "Read" section because if that video piques your interest, there are a lot of essays that go into many interesting aspects of economics, including how populism rises and the economics behind that. Given everything that's happening in geopolitics, it's a different way (for me at least) of looking at the world.

Watch

15 huge waves that don't look real

https://youtu.be/iVM2dQ_7DyY

I'm not really one to watch these list videos on Youtube, but while making the calendar, I was looking through old Antarctica photos and videos and watched the huge swells of Drake's Passage which led me onto this video.

Some of the waves on there are simply monstrous and I'm amazed that there's even a surfer on one of them. It's a nice 15 min distraction from your everyday that will remind you how epic nature can be.

Listen

Naval Ravikant - How to get Rich

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5rzKIiySApi1yMg5HoCsC6

This week, I thought I'd feature a podcast I'm re-listening to by Naval Ravikant (Venture capitalist and founder of Angellist). Even though the title is there, I've linked to a short 3 min podcast called "If you're so smart, why aren't you happy?"

I'm hoping that podcast will be a gateway drug into the one called "How to get Rich" which summarises a lot of career and life advice under a very scammy sounding long session. The actual podcast is a collection of these small 3 min episodes that I keep coming back to listen to every few months. It's more life philosophy than it is career advice and I really like the precision of thinking on display here.

I've tested playing this for people not normally very interested in business or tech startups and have found that they actually wanted to listen to it as well. SO very much worth while...

Quote I'm pondering

“Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it… Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again”

―Steve Jobs

This is something that really stuck with me after the first time I heard it. If you stop and think about it, it's definitely true. Most politicians, policy makers, heck even the manager of your local council are all ordinary people just like you.

And unlike the Elon Musks and the Bill Gates of the world, they end up influencing a large portion of the day-to-day world that you inhabit. Therefore, YOU are equally capable of changing things around you too.

It's a scary and empowering thought, don't you think?

Truly random

How are you finding the random section? Would love feedback if you liked this.

• Ramit Sethi on Millionaire Tax Lies

Ramit is one of those "financial gurus" that I actually like and think his advice and analysis is spot on. In this little Instragram story series, he dissects the myths of taxing millionaires and why it isn't such a bad idea.

• Cassini Mission - Chris Abbas

Since I was asking about art, this 3 minute video is done by the guy who did the intro sequence to the medical drama "House" many years ago. All the images are from the NASA archives that he's strung together into a gorgeous video to the sounds of Ghosts by the Nine Inch Nails. Fun fact: this is the video that got me interested in NINs more ambient works. Before that, I thought Trent Reznor was all about the metal/industrial rock.

Thanks again for joining me on yet another week of randomness. What did you think of the reshuffled format? Any new section you'd like to see in the future? Email me and let me know!

Stay safe and stay random!

- Raffy

PS - Thanks for the artist recommendations! This week, I want to know what you have been up to since the lock down lifted. If are lucky enough not to have been in lock down, whats the one thing you'd miss the most? Let me know!

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