Konnichiwa, !

That's a "hello" in Japanese. How are you doing on this lovely Monday? I intentionally took the afternoon and evening off yesterday to relax a bit and hence the slightly delayed email, but it's in line with giving myself a bit more "me" time. What did you get up to this past week? Send me an email and let me know! I love hearing back!

As always, a quick favour? Could you forward this newsletter to just 3 people that you think would like one of the articles? It helps A LOT! If you're the friend reading this, click the link below to join! Glad to have you here!

Weekly Summary

It's only February and I'm already finding the weeks are starting to blur. I literally had to look at my calendar to see what I'd been up to since the last email! Maybe it's just old age.

This week has been a more relaxing one since I kept it intentionally light after all the coughing/chest infection the previous week. That said, it was quite busy none the less.

Let's chat about all that on the blog yeah?

Continue reading on the blog

Creative update

Hello 2023! Welcome to Season 3!

Well, well, well! Look who's back with a brand new season of random podcasting goodness! randInt returns for yet another year with a whole bunch of tangentially related topics in our podcast.

This episode is all about renovation pains, "interesting" customer service, a tour of Chandra's boat and more!

Listen now

Gadgets/Tech

Eight Sleep Pod 3 Cover

Ok, so this year I'm focussing on health and different elements of it. One of the things I've noticed for a while is that I sleep best when it's cooler. There's been a few people I've heard talking about cooling pads for beds and how it works wonders on their sleep. I decided to take the plunge and get the Eight Sleep version. It is NOT CHEAP but I am a pretty big fan already after 1 night. The link above should get you about $200 off if you're interested. Will be writing up a review once I've slept a week with it...

Eight Sleep

Read/Try

16personalities

I found this online personality test that aligns with the Myer & Briggs personalities. I feel like it hit my own personality quite accurately as INTJ-A. What type are you? Drop me an email and let me know!

Try the test

Quote I'm pondering

'Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.'

— Salvador Dali

As the medical year starts, so does the wheels of all my side projects and creative endeavours. I've found myself slipping back into perfectionism and doing things part way because they're just not as well made as I'd like.

Usually, I remind myself that most people simply don't care. On this instance, it's a reminder that whatever I make will always feel unfinished. There's always limitations in everything that anyone makes. Be it the finest jewellery or a piece of consumer technology, there's always trade offs between quality, cost, durability and the essential function of the item itself. Most things are very well designed, but very few things would even come close to being "perfect".

Yet, these imperfect things make the everyday so much more pleasant. Can you imagine if the car wasn't released til it was "perfected"? Or if computers in all forms (which still crash, both Mac and Windows!) weren't around because they weren't finished?

The world works with imperfect iterations and so after an appropriate period time, releasing the creation is better than not...

With that, it's the end of another imperfect email. Wishing you the best for the week ahead!

- Raffy

PS - You've read til down here?! Thank you! As a superfan, I'd love to know your opinion. Let me know with 1 click!

Sunday Surprise uses affiliate/referral links in the newsletter. This does not change the recommendation/verdict but may result in Photos by Raffy receiving a small commission and will be marked in orange. Non-affiliate links will appear as blue. Prices recorded may vary.