Well, what a weekend it's been, !

After a solid weekend of driving, it's finally back to (hopefully) normal life for the next little while. I'm sure this email will end up coming out a bit late, but you'll see why below...

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Week in the life

This week was one where time off was a minimum and work started on the normal cadence. In a way, the entire week I had been waiting for the weekend. Not to party per se, but rather to have everything ready for the big drive to Wollongong about 800km away for a friend's wedding!

I was going to be finishing work late on Friday and with recent flight cancellations and times not working out, driving all the way surprisingly seemed the most sensible option! More on all that over on the blog...

Creative update

PSA: You don't have to love your job!

I have gotten back to writing a bit again on Medium and this was a short piece I wrote during my break. Now, I'm not the best writer so I'm not sure I got the point across, but essentially the summary is this: work being a passion is a relatively new phenomenon. I kinda like my job, but I'd definitely not be rocking up early in the morning if it wasn't leading to providing for the rest of life.

Not a piece on quiet quitting or anything but a counter point to hustle culture and searching for passion in work all the time.

Gadgets/Tech

Kindle Scribe

I'm having a very hard time not ordering this right now. It's coming out in a few weeks but essentially it's like the reMarkable tablet but with kindle built in! I love gadgets that let you write naturally and would love something like this to journal and also read without too many other apps to get in the way. Best of all, it's e-ink so battery should last days and days if not weeks!

Other gadgets/tech

• Dji Mini 3 pro - Current favourite drone. It's tiny but got the job done in Greenland!
• Tairona pocket projector - I never really got the reason for mini projectors, but after winning the Freestyle, I can see the appeal. This one is a Kickstarter and has the one thing I wish mine had: a built-in battery.

Read

The Myth of Normal

Ok I'm a bit torn about this one. On the one hand, I don't really like things where the environment can be blamed for everything, but on the other, you can't also escape the feeling in the day to day that we're all kinda missing the big picture stuff while focussing on the microscopic. Thus far, I'm not far into the book, but it's raising interesting points...

Watch

The Big Short

This is an old movie now but I had never watched it til last night. I have to say that it's hard to make financial stuff exciting or easy to understand and this movie did it hilariously well! It was an entertaining, if scary education on how the last financial crisis happened and how the next one might unfold...

Quote I'm pondering

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

— Jiddu Krishnamurti

This shouldn't be too much of a surprise given the theme of this week's newsletter but the quote does ring true. I don't have any specific things to suggest in fixing all the societal ills, but I am trying to look at myself and see if I'm personally focussing on the important things.

I have noticed that in the very literal sense of sickness, I havent been focussing on staying healthy nearly as much as I should both with respect to physical health and keeping on top of stresses in the realm of mental health.

Maybe that's a good enough first step? Actually list your own personal priorities and commit to keeping to it and maybe that is a slow change that helps the bigger problem?

That got a bit abstract didn't it? I blame it on the long drive. 😅

Anyway, that's all for this week. Hope you're staying safe and have a wonderful week ahead!

- Raffy

PS - Given it's been 2 years, I'll be going back through the feedback and tweaking things. Do you like/dislike the subtle changes this year? Let me know with 1 click! I read the survey every week (& keep tweaking things with your feedback!)

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