Pos Eisai ?

That's "how are you?" in Greek. Thanks for joining me for another week of all things random. After the survey last week, I'll be tweaking little things here and there. If you'd like to suggest anything, feel free to email me or take the 2 minute survey.

A litte survey about the Sunday Surprise

Also, if you think a friends would like this newsletter, send them the link below which puts YOU in the running for prizes...

In this weeks email:

• Week in the Life - read on the blog
• Read - Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO is shaping our world
• Gadgets & things - Stake app
• Watch - Tesla FSD from SF to LA with no intervention!
• Quote - "I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary"
• Truly random

Week in the life

After the time off in Ballarat, it's been gentle start to the work year for me with a few half days and time for afternoon naps (yay!). It's been a super lazy week I must say!

I've done some interesting surgeries with some of the most yuck looking gallbladders. I umm-ed and arr-ed about putting a photo of it in here but thought that it doesn't belong in a photography related email. If you guys want to see just how bad it was, let me know and I'll show you in the next email...

I have been enjoying the views around Melbourne and the amazing sunsets that have happened. Here's a very bad/compressed GIF of one of them below.

The cats have been relatively peaceful, except yesterday when the older one found some long lost energy and decided to chase poor Luna around the house. It was all playful and kept the place feeling lively!

I've also been enjoyin mocktails with lots of shipment coming through of the non-alcoholic "spirits" from Seedlip!

PxR & Kickstarter update

PxR Store

https://www.photosbyraffy.com/shop

So there's maybe another 5 puzzles to go and the rest have been either hand delivered or sent in the mail. The last address came through yesterday so by next week, I will have successfully done all I can to finish my very first Kickstarter!

Thank you to all that supported the project! It's been interesting in that as I deliver the puzzles at work, people end up seeing it and buying! Maybe the box looks more impressive in person than the photos? There's about 6 more in the store if you're interested.

Also, this year I thought I'd try and focus a bit more on the photography and turning it into a more of a side-hustle. As such I thought I'd treat the Ballarat trip as an experiment to see if I could make it into what tourism boards may want. I'll try to write it up as a "weekend trip itinerary" on the blog just to try out and experiment on various this I can do.

Gadgets & things

Stake

https://www.photosbyraffy.com/stake

Instead of focussing on gadgets, I thought I'd begin this year by suggesting some apps and services. Since the "Read" section is dedicated to Elon Musk and I recently invested in Tesla, here's the app/service I used to do it.

Stake essentially allows you to buy US stocks from overseas (from multiple countries). The interesting thing about the service is that it allows you to buy fractional shares since some of the US stocks are worth thousands of dollars for just 1 stock! I should mention if you sign up through the link, then we both get a random US stock too!

It feels a bit odd to put investment stuff on this newsletter, but considering this is stuff that people actually ask me about in real life, I thought it's probably not too strange!

Also, if you're news to shares and investing in general, I'd recommend reading Mr Money Mustache and watching some of the New Money videos. I'm not a financial planner or anything but happy to discuss this stuff since I find it interesting!

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:

• Luminar AI - The simplest (but very advanced) image editor out there. If you want the best 1 button improvement, this is it (but it still has advanced features if you feel like tweaking). Use code RAFFY for 10%ish off
• DJI Mini 2- Probably the best starter/travel drone. For something only 249g, this is one feature packed drone
• Zens Wireless charging pad - My current wireless charging pad of choice. Works with iPhones and most Android devices and it's GREAT to not have to line up the charging coils!

Watch

Tesla Full Self Driving from SF to LA with no interventions (~15min)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQG2IynmRf8&t

This is a bit geeky of a video but I'm very excited for this to come to Australia!

It reminds me of a video Tesla released a year ago (2mins) about someone driving around near their factory and the car basically did the trip without the human driver ever touching the wheel.

This time around, it's the same but as beta software to a member of the public driving on roads that aren't the test track Tesla uses! While it's not true that it's totally touchless, that is a 6hr-ish drive! To think that in a year or so, the progress they made means that they're comfortable releasing this to the public (albeit in a VERY small number) makes kinda excited about what's in store for the future...

Read

Elon Musk: How the Billionairse CEO is shaping our world

https://amzn.to/3oxNFTY

He's just topped the chart in terms of being the richest man in the world and has his share of controversy, but he's a pretty interesting and unorthodox guy through and through!

I'm about 40% through this book that I'm listening to as an audiobook and it's a fascinating look into how he's managed to build businesses in fields that he's essentially a beginner in and then gone to upend the industry!

If you're not quite ready for a full book, but want a quick snapshot of the life that Elon has lead, read the The Guardian article below.

See Also:

• Elon Musk: from bullied schoolboy to world's richest man

Quote I'm pondering

"I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary."

– Elon Musk

Hmm... this email has really turned into a Musk-fest hasn't it? Might as well embrace it with the quote too. It's because I decided to immerse myself in the world of someone I admire to begin my year and Elon was on that list.

That quote struck me because of some of the chats I've had with my friends recently about impacting the world in postive ways, whether by putting in the time to create companies, donating to charity or leading by example.

Ultimately, it comes down to a choice to do something meaningful and to take the time to find the highest impact that you can make at that point in time.

Have you heard any good quotes lately? Let me know!

Truly random

Here's some bits and pieces I saw this week that I thought was amusing on the internet...

• Why can’t the stormtroopers in Star Wars shoot straight? I'm not a super Star Wars/Star Trek fan, but it's a humourous attempt at explaining the motivations behind possibly the worst foot soldiers in a galaxy far, far away...
• N900 unboxing - Unboxing videos have become a genre in their own right but in the before times, companies went out of their way to make impressive PR boxes for reviewers. Personally, this is one of the coolest ones I've ever seen!

Anyway, that's all for another week! Hope you liked the small tweaks! If you have any suggestions or comments on it, please fill out the survery or drop me an email.

Stay random.

- Raffy

PS- What apps or services do you find to be super useful? I'm going to be featuring a few more, but you might already be using something better. I'd love to know if you have any suggestions. 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.