Howdy !

How are you doing? It's day 9 of lockdowns for Melbourne and I'm starting to get a bit stir crazy. At least the case numbers here are pretty reasonable. Elsewhere in Australia... well, not so much. How are things where you are? Email me and let me know. I love hearing where you all read this and how things are going.

As always, a small 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!

In this week's email...

• Week in the Life - read on the blog
• Creative update - Just a cog in the machine (~5mins)
• Gadgets & Tech - BeoPlay P2 Bluetooth Speaker (~$150)
• Read - Steal Like an Artist (~$11)
• Watch - Mr Money Mustache at WDS (~28min)
• Random fact - Revenge Bedtime Procrastination (~5min)
• Quote - "A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone."

Week in the life

I have yet to hear from the competition winner an****71@gmail.com from last week. If you're reading this shoot me an email to claim your prize! If I don't hear in a couple of weeks, I'll award the prizes to the next random person from the list. I think it's only fair to claim the prize if you happen to read the newsletter, don't you think?

I've been reading through the comments on the forms at the end of every newsletter and you all have some odd requests! Well, as requested by someone, here's me drinking all that coffee.

One of the other readers mentioned that they used to work on a live cattle ship and tried the water swirl Coriolis force experiment (their favourite part from 3 weeks ago) while crossing near the equator to mixed results. I love hearing these tales, so keep emailing/filling in the forms!

The ever popular cats have been keeping me company this winter. This weekend, both cats (usually frenemies at the best of times) decided to jump on the same couch. Usually Luna is the one who likes to sit on my lap. This time, Gary got there first! This is the first time Gary has wanted to sleep on my lap in years! I wonder if he's just doing this to annoy Luna...

More on the week that was over on the blog...

Creative

Just a cog in the machine (~5mins)

https://raffyhalim.medium.com/just-a-cog-in-the-machine-33affd6e792d

This is my first attempt at writing semi-fiction. If that is even a word. I thought I'd try to take some elements of medical work and see if I can tease out a message or so from in there.

I'm not entirely happy with it, but I'm reading some books on imposing limits on creative activity to curb perfectionism so this is what I could come up with with 1 day being the limit for the whole thing (concept, story, message and the actual writing).

Would love to know your thoughts and what you found worked well and not?

Gadgets & Tech

BeoPlay P2 Bluetooth Speaker (~$150)

https://ebay.us/5bZtn3

So I left my speaker at a hospital a week and a half ago and missed having this around so much! I went through a whole bunch of portable speakers and found the P2 to have the best balance between portability, weight and sound quality. It's currently on special for ~40% off too in Australia.

I've compared this with the UE boom, Beoplay A1, JBL and a bunch more. For the size, the sound is really incredible! I have the old V1 where as this is V2 so this one is more resistant to the elements and should have slightly better battery life.

PREVIOUS/OTHER PRODUCTS

Some previous things that have been featured:

• LuminarAI 40% off sale - My go to laptop photoeditor is currently 40% off! It's the easiest way to edit with just a click and drag of a few sliders. Currently, it's the cheapest I've seen it.
• Silver Birch Fountain Pen - My favourite "cheap" fountain pen find from recent times. It's pretty good quality for the price and these have become my daily go to pens.

Read

Steal Like an Artist (~$11)

https://amzn.to/3i3BAFg

After the heavy reading of the past few books, I'm really enjoying the relatively "simpler" stuff in the trilogy of books by Austin Kleon. This is the first in the series that explores the myth about "original" creatives and argues that all new things are a remix of pre-existing ideas interpreted by the individual. Surprisingly, the end chapters of The Beginning of Infinity talks about exactly this!

I was not expecting the books to have any crossover, but hey, looks like it was a good progression after all.

Watch

Mr Money Mustache at WDS (~28min)

https://youtu.be/8-Li_sFNc4Q

So I've had a few personal finance questions this week about people getting started on their journey.

This is a brilliant video explaining how one guy managed to do it in a pretty quick time frame and the simple maths behind it all.

Financial things often get presented in a very complex way and this video does a great job of cutting out the jargon and showing how simple it can be.

Random fact

Revenge Bedtime Procrastination (~5min)

https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene/revenge-bedtime-procrastination

The irony of writing this as I exercise this exact phenomenon is not lost on me (it's just past 11pm on Saturday). I had no idea this was an actual psychological phenomenon but after reading about it, I can definitely attest to the fact that this happens every time I have a busy work period.

Quote I'm pondering

"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone."

- Henry David Thoreau

This one gets mentioned by Mr Money Mustache quite often, but I think it does ring true. There's always something nicer/shinier/better out there for almost all aspects of life. Chasing after that inevitably leads to the "rat race" and the "keeping up with the Joneses" element of the modern day.

Hope you enjoy what's left of the weekend, ! Have a safe week ahead and see you here next week!

Toodles!

- Raffy

PS - What was your favourite part of the email? Let me know with 1 click! I check every week and it helps me make the newsletter better.

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