Hello !

It has been on the whole, a pretty relaxing week over here. After 2 and something years of somehow dodging the bullet, I finally tested positive to Covid last week. More on how we fared below...

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In this week's email...

• Week in the Life - read on the blog
• Creative Update - randInt S02E09 - Paul Willison - Life on the ocean
• Gadgets/Tech - DJI Mini 3 Pro
• Read - Three Body Problem
• Watch - Will society collapse by 2040?
• Quote - “Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”

Week in the life

What a honeymoon it's been! We discovered that we were both close social contacts recently and sometime around the writing of the last newsletter, went and tested via PCR and rapid antigen test and were...negative. Given that I started to get a very slight sore throat, I decided to stay in anyway. A few days later, our tests turned positive. We had Covid-19...

Initial symptoms weren't too bad: sore throat and headache but day 3 and 4 were AWFUL. More on that over on the blog...

Creative update

randInt S02E09 - Paul Willison - Life on the ocean

After some technical glitches, we finally got this week's podcast episode out! In this episode, we interview Paul, who was Chandra's sailing coach on the high seas!

In very randInt random fashion, Paul's life took an unexpected turn early and he's spent most of his years on the water living a life very different from most land dwellers.

So far, the feedback from the episode has been pretty good, so do give it a listen and let us know what you think!

(And a subscribe on your podcast app or a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify also greatly helps!)

Gadget/Tech

DJI Mini 3 Pro

Oh. My. God! I did NOT think this drone would ACTUALLY be possible but here we are! I've recommended the Mini2 to everyone (including coughing the recommendation over the phone last night!) because it's tiny with decent image quality. I didn't think you could cram more in to 249g but DJI have done it! This rivals/bests some of their flagship drones from just a few years ago in almost EVERY way while being so tiny that you don't even have to register it! It's not as cheap as the Mini2 but at 1/3 the price of the Mavic 3 Pro, it's a steal!

Other tech & gadgets:

• Nanopresso - Great coffee in a tiny brewer!
• Microwave rice cooker - I don't like having too many kitchen appliances so this device to cook rice straight in the microwave is AWESOME!

Read

Three Body Problem

Covid sore eyes and tiredness kept me from finishing the last chapters of this previously but now that I have, I can't recommend it enough.

I think part of why I found this novel so great is the premise of it all. Secondly, it's one of the few books I've read where the author is native in a different tongue. Like Murakami, this novel made me feel like I was travelling else where with little strange things here and there that you can't quite put your finger on. Thirdly, it does pin one thing down: there's a growing percentage of humanity that don't think we can solve our own problems. This is a good exploration of just that.

Watch

Will society collapse by 2040?

Kind of the theme of this week's newsletter, but I had no idea that this was an early simulation of the world using super computers back in the day...

This video goes into the original research looking at the arc of civilisation and the factors that influence it as well as where we are. It takes a bit of time setting up the premise, but is pretty thought provoking. If nothing else, it's a progress bar showing we all need to stop feeling helpless and start doing...

Quote I'm pondering

“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”

– Frederick Douglass

Even though this quote is nearly 200 years old, it feels like it could've been uttered yesterday. It's a bit negative in that it implies that society does all these things (which it does) but it IS improving.

It's useful to have this as a yardstick to try and realise that individual actions collectively form societal action. For example, next week is Australia's Federal Election. Those of us voting need to keep in mind what policies to weigh up: things for just our benefit or things that might be better for society overall. Sometimes those are in unison and other times at odds.

Even tiny things that you do can have a bit of an impact. My tiny attempt at helping the homeless during Ramadan and raising funds meant that I got a phone call and a heart felt email from one of the charity organisations. I'll be replying to let them know it was a team effort.

Thanks again for joining me in another newsletter of random! Stay safe out there!

- Raffy

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