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It's officially the first birthday of the Sunday Surprise! Hooray!

To celebrate, I will be doing some competitions probably next week. Let me know what you think the prizes should be. In the mean time, I thought I'd use this issue as a retrospective to highlight my own favourite things from the year just gone that I've posted about on this newsletter. Also, to celebrate, I'm giving away my favourite books from this year. Enter and share the link with your friends!

This might be a long email, so I'll try to keep most of it to the "Week in the Life" section on the blog. If you have any favourite things from the newsletter this past year, please let me know!

Before I forget, thank YOU for reading this email. Every so often I get an email or comment and it MAKES MY DAY. There's something nice about seeing the fact that people are reading/seeing something slightly creative that I've managed to put out into the world... So thank you again.

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 - randInt() podcast - Truffles & awkward attention
• Gadgets & Tech - DJI Mini 2 / Floately: Levitating plants / Ember Mug
• Read - The Rational Optimist / The Graveyard Book / Guns, Germs & Steel
• Watch - This is Water / You are not special / Best stats you've ever seen
• Quote - the 3 quotes that I think of the most... 

Week in the life

Firstly, happy birthday America! For those celebrating, I hope you're having a blast!

This week was so intense that I barely made it through with little sleep and spent the whole weekend just resting (hence the late email). In the space of 72 hrs or so, I had to intubate a 9 month old child, deal with rare but life threatening condition called "malignant hyperthermia" and a full-blown anaphylaxis! Talk about one hell of a week!

But that's enough medical talk. For now, it's all about the Sunday Surprise turning ONE! For those of you here from the start, thank you for following along. I didn't consider the very first email as really a first since it was mainly a test email and close friends. Here's what it looked like:

That's right, the links were different, so was the colour schemes and I hadn't quite made up my mind on the sections. I'd like to think that everything from the design and the consistent sections is a nice upgrade. I wonder how things will look by next year? Do you have any suggestions?

This bit might get a bit long, so follow along on the blog if you like...

Creative

randInt() podcast - EP 010 - Truffles & awkward attention (~39mins)

https://anchor.fm/randint/episodes/EP-010---Truffle-and-awkward-attention-e13t2n3

Well, part of the reason this newsletter is a bit late is that the podcast needed to be released a few days ago, but due to tech issues, I had trouble accessing the audio files!

It's belated but here! If you want to know about Chandra's truffle experience, awkward attention and some random facts, this episode is for you!

Gadgets & Tech

Like with the next few sections, here are my top 3 favourite gadgets that I've recommended this last year.

DJI Mini 2

https://ebay.us/eUvjDQ

I really didn't expect to love this drone as much as I do considering I used to have the more expensive sibling, the Mavic 2 Pro. This tiny drone is 250g and has one of the most stable connections to the controller. It's super easy to fly and has me taking it out way more than the many other ones I've owned.

Floately: Levitating plants

https://floately.kckb.st/photosbyraffy

I have had a floating lightbulb for a while but didn't think much of getting a floating planter as well since I didn't think it'd work well. Oh how wrong I was! Now this plant greets me every time I walk through the front door and go to put my keys away. I have another one next to my bed as well for good measure.

I just find them mesmerising to stare at. I suppose it's a little bit like magic.

Ember Smart Mug

https://amzn.to/3yoX1pg

As I write this, I'm sipping on a hot chocolate but like most days, I'll start a task and forget about the beverage only to return to a cold drink. That was the case until I got this mug. It keeps my coffee/tea/hot chocolate warm for hours!

It's a simple thing really, but something that I've appreciated a lot as winter has rolled into Australia.

Read

This week, I'll highlight some of the books that I've really enjoyed that have changed my world view the most. Here's my top 3 that I absolutely loved that I've recommended this past year.

The Rational Optimist

https://amzn.to/3qMAjFd

I'd heard about the book previously but the past year was a great time to read this and How Innovation Works by Matt Riddley. The pandemic has meant that this has been a challenging time and these 2 books helped remind me that we've been here before as a species and survived. Not only that, we're in a MUCH better position than before.

The Graveyard Book

https://amzn.to/2TCF4F0

I'm not much of a fiction reader these days but this book was simply amazing! It's one of those rare books that makes you sad that it's over because you know a story this good is pretty rare to find.

The book itself is about a boy who grows up in a graveyard, being raised by ghosts while discovering how it was that his family were killed while he was just a baby. In his own fantastical way, Neil Gaiman takes this dark premise and turns it into something amazing.

Guns, Germs & Steel

https://amzn.to/3yl3PnV

I truly didn't expect to like this book after the first few pages as much as I did. It's rare that I like history books in general, but this one explored such an interesting question of why civilisation ended how it was instead of any one of the ancient societies winning out instead.

It explored the questions from various viewpoints including evolution, sociology, innovation and even geography. It was a wide ranging trip into fields that I'm only slightly familiar with, but I came away with an appreciation for all those little factors that led to us being here today.

Watch

This is Water (~22min)

https://youtu.be/8CrOL-ydFMI

How could there be a year in review with out mentioning David Foster Wallace's 'This is Water' speech? I listen to this every 6 months or so and have done so for a while. It's a must watch to recalibrate yourself to what's important in life.

You are not special (~12mins)

https://youtu.be/_lfxYhtf8o4

Another classic that had a lasting impact for me. How often can you say that about a high school commencement speech? It's funny, smart and ultimately puts into perspective about where we sit and the world and encourages us to go achieve those big dreams to be deserving of our privileges.

The best stats you've ever seen (~20min)

https://youtu.be/hVimVzgtD6w

This is possibly the first video that I watched that genuinely got me interested in data visualisation. Statistics til then was a dry and boring topic, but Hans Rosling changed it with one talk for me. It's entertaining and his enthusiasm is infectious!

Quotes I frequently ponder

As you're probably aware, I love collecting quotes. From the past year, I've shared many but these are the top 3 I keep coming back to.

"That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing"

- David Foster Wallace

"I don’t have time" is just another way of saying, "It’s not a priority."

- Naval Ravikant

“Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.”

- Jerzy Gregorek

Well, , that just about wraps up the email for this week as we look back on the first year of the Sunday Surprise. I've said it before, but thank you again for reading.

Til next week,

- Raffy

PS - What was your favourite part of the email? Let me know with 1 click!

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