Magandang araw !

That's "good day!" in Filipino. I'm trying yet another new title for the email (thanks Jean!) and call it Curious Curations for this week. What do you think? If you have any other suggestions, I'm ready to hear them! I'm going for "quirky, but explains what it is in the title.."

You might've noticed a few little changes too: there's a little "in this week's email" section that links externally (I can't seem to link to specific points in the email without upgrading to a much more expensive option for the email software!) and articles/videos have an estimated read/watch time. I'm in two minds about the latter change as a lot of the more interesting articles etc are longer, but specific sections are interesting and I don't want to put people off checking it out...

Also, I'm doing a giveaway, so if you have friends who'd like this email, forward it to them! If that's you reading, sign up using the link below for your chance to win!

https://www.photosbyraffy.com/giveaway

In this week's email...

• Week in the Life - read on the blog
• Read - Selection of articles featuring: Vantablack
• Gadgets & things - Pocket & ZeroCo
• Watch - Sushi for cats
• Quote - If you set your goals ridiculously high and it's a failure, you will fail above everyone else's success
• Truly random

Week in the life

Well, after working through last weekend, I finally have the day off today! Hooray! I now officially feel like a proper member of the sub-continent since as of less than a few days ago, I have cooked my very first biryani (with some help!)

It turned out quite a bit better than expected and I dropped some off to my parents who thought I had bought it from a restaurant- I think that's gotta be a compliment for the first attempt!

It's been a bit of a foodie week actually since I'm writing this after having dinner at Minamishima which was delicious and a very belated birthday dinner from last year!

PxR update

PxR Store

https://www.photosbyraffy.com/shop

How I edit: City night shots ~30min

https://youtu.be/5UVAJGuwHmc

Well, with all the logistics sorted, now I can finally get back to editing photos and just doing normal photography things! I'm putting in a link to the "How I edit" video from a little while ago just to see if any of you would like this, but shorter and simpler using Snapseed, a free, but very powerful photo editor for your phone?

I'll be doing a few more of these anyway, so if you have any specific requests, let me know!

As you can also see, the life updates are going up on the PxR blog side. Not sure if they belong there or else where, but for now, it's going to be there, especially if there's any travel involved!

Gadgets & things

Pocket

https://getpocket.com

If you're wondering how I keep track of the random articles etc for this newsletter, this would be how. Pocket is quite an useful service that's free and lets you save clips/articles and videos so that you can read them later. You can email or share to the app and it'll save almost anything to your account.

Highly recommended!

ZeroCo

https://www.zeroco.com.au/

After the recycling article last week, I went to see what we could do to reduce single use plastics. Zero Co came up as an Australian company that essentially sends refills for all your common cleaning products AND sends you the empty bottles that are made from ocean plastics that they've collected!

Even the refill packs can be sent pack with their pre-paid envelope so that they can reuse them! I've switched to using them a few days ago and so far so good!

PREVIOUS 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:

• Bissell SpotClean- If you have pets, this is a necessity for your carpets!
• Choetech Wireless Charger - Only a matter of time until generic chargers got good! This is FAR cheaper than the Zens and promises to do the same wireless charging speeds
• Skybox SSD - I haven't ordered this yet but so far looks like a great addition to anyone taking lots of photos and videos or wanting essentially a wifi storage drive.

Watch

Sushi for cats (~4min)

https://youtu.be/zGcYabz3hYg

Since I had a hearty Japanese meal, it reminded me of this video from a while ago about a guy feeding his cats gourmet sushi!

Sushi looks simple, but watching him prepare everything is mesmerising in the amount of skill it must take. If nothing else, watch it for the cats!

Read

Selection of articles featuring: Vantablack (~8mins)

https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2021/1/16/22233381/vantablack-car-paint-hyper-shift-stars-musou-black

I came across this colour called Vantablack when BMW used it as paint for a special edition promo vehicle. The amazing thing about this material is that it absorbs all the light making things look like a 2D shadow. Have a read of the article and the links within. My favourite is the bit about the guy falling down what looks like a cartoon hole...

Quote I'm pondering

"If you set your goals ridiculously high and it's a failure, you will fail above everyone else's success."

– James Cameron

There's something to be said for reasonable goals and also something to be said for trying to really aim high. The thing I found fascinating about James Cameron is that most of his movies are excuses to go do something else that he finds interesting. So in a way, his goals are always lofty in trying to combine 2 things that he finds interesting. I might even share the video where he discusses that next week...

Anyway 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...

• Carry on like a pork chop (~1min) - Turns out this saying is a shortened version of the original and hence makes very little sense these days.

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 survey or drop me an email.

Stay random and stay safe!

- Raffy

Ps - no real request this week. Where are you as your read this email? 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.