Howdy !

That's cowboy for "howdy" (ha! thought I'd give the random languages a break!). Melbourne has been feeling a lot more like normal with cafes and retail open and brunches being back on the menu!

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:

Week in the life

If we're lucky, Melbourne's ring of steel should be down sometime today! I had an on call at a hospital outside my 25km radius and I got to enjoy some different scenery down in Frankston Victoria.

It's been a busy week of work otherwise. Things feel like they're back in full swing and as such there's been less time to dabble in the hobbies. I suppose that was always going to be the case after such a long lockdown!

How have you been spending your week?

PxR & Kickstarter update

PxR Store

https://www.photosbyraffy.com/shop

Well first of all, congratulations to CLAIRE DAVIDSON! You have won the Sixty Degrees South 2021 Calendar! Send me an email with your address and I'll ship it across.

If you ordered the Kickstarter puzzle, the survey should have arrived by now. The multi-pack surveys haven't gone out, so if that's you, don't worry!

It's just a bit of the waiting game on this front at the moment!

Gadgets & tech

Handheld Portable colour printer

https://amzn.to/2JHbEjP

I'm not sure which one the original one of these printers actually is, but I ordered one and found it to be quite handy! This version on Amazon is actually cheaper than the one I ordered.

Essentially, it's a little cube that you connect to your phone via wifi and can design labels and images to print on just about anything! Mine works quite well and I'll be using it to label things around the house!

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! Just set up the second one in the bedroom.
• 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!

Read

The Magic of Doing One Thing At a Time

https://hbr.org/2012/03/the-magic-of-doing-one-thing-a

I'm not sure where I read the original piece on working on tasks in series vs working on them in parallel but this article summarises the key concepts.

Essentially, in the modern world, we think we can do multiple things at once. In reality, there is an attention cost to task switching and an eventual constant feeling of overwhelm.

If this sounds like you, it's well worth the read.

Watch

Aurora Borealis from the ISS

https://youtu.be/iVM2dQ_7DyY

I was going to put another speech in here, but thought in light of all the election noise, here's something amazing instead...

One of my old childhood dreams was to see the aurora and it was the reason I spent a good chunk of my savings at the end of my internship to buy much too expensive camera for my skill and travel to a then relatively small and unknown island called Iceland where I witnessed the phenomenon on a very cold and cloudless night.

This video is of the same thing, seen from SPACE! In 4K! Is it ok to add this to the adulthood dreams list?

Listen

Joe Rogan - Elon Musk episode

https://youtu.be/RcYjXbSJBN8?t=1729

I think I may have mentioned Joe Rogan podcasts in the past. His previous one with Elon Musk caused quite a bit of controversy.

Anyway, I find it fascinating to hear the ideas coming from people at the cutting edge of what's possible and the link above should take you just at the point where Elon talks about Neuralink enabling direct human-to-human communication and the issues it solves.

It's amazing to hear someone think about such a simple thing in engineering terms and break down what the fundamental problems are and how you'd solve for each one. The whole podcast is great, but just hearing the 2-3 mins was the most impactful part for me.

Quote I'm pondering

"There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will."

―Epictetus

This timeless wisdom comes around every so often in slightly different words. I encountered for the first time in Steven Covey's book "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" where he discusses the your circle of influence (ie the things you can control).

Given the pandemic and world events make it seem like everything is in a constant state of calamity, I thought it's a nice and timely reminder that one of the easiest things you can do to increase your satisfaction with life is to minimise the thoughts of all those things you have no control over.

The economy is tanking? What can you do but live? US elections are bringing about the death of democracy? Not much you can do but live on and show what a great democracy can be like. Global warming killing of species? Just focus on what your day to day and where you might be able to contribute.

That's what I'm telling myself anyway!

Truly random

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

• Lightsaber vs Bank Vault - I keep coming back to more of these lightsaber videos after featuring the one from a few weeks ago. This one shows the Hacksmith guys literally cutting into a bank vault. Crazy!

• Melbourne Cafe Barista Vlog - Proving that almost everyone is now trying the whole "vlogging" thing, here's a random cafe barista from Melbourne. I didn't think I'd even watch a minute, but ended up watching timelapses of them making coffee. I suppose even the little things can be interesting if it's not part of your day to day?

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 - If the 25km radius lifts today, where will you be off to? I need some recommendations! Let me know!

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