Random tangent (blog)
Ameel Khan's personal blog. This is a blog about life, technology, photography, typography, the internet, science, feminism, books, film, music, and whatever other random stuff I come across or happen to be interested in today.
It is clearly too hot to sleep in the fuzzy orange dog bed today. Of course that means Maggie must sleep right behind me as I stand at my standing desk.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
High-angle selfie of a man wearing a headset and a black, printed t-shirt standing in front of a desk in a carpeted room. Close behind the man is a red dog fast asleep on its side, its nose pointing towards the man. Next to the dog is a fuzzy orange dog bed.
In all things there must be balance. This is how Maggie balances our having the air conditioner on today.
Photo of a red dog asleep on its side on a sunny day in a garden with slightly browned, sun-burned grass.
What time is it? It’s time for me and Nadia to take our annual Australian Open tennis tournament selfie!
Selfie of a man and a woman sitting in the stands of an outdoor tennis arena. They are both wearing geeky, black, book-related t-shirts; sunglasses; N95 face masks; and blue Australian Open lanyards.
With the 50% capacity limits placed on attendees this year, we even managed to find a totally empty section of Kia Arena in which to take a slightly less pandemically themed selfie :)
Selfie of a man and a woman sitting in the stands of a large, open air tennis arena. They are both wearing geeky, black, book-related t-shirts; sunglasses; and blue Australian Open lanyards.
One more in our full “hot day at a sporting event in the post-vaccine era” regalia.
Selfie of a man and a woman in front of Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia on a sunny day. The man and woman are both wearing black t-shirts, wide-brim straw hats, sunglasses, and N95 face masks, and have blue Australian Open lanyards around their necks.
Speaking of hot days, Nadia was reunited with her happy place at the Australian Open :)
A woman wearing shorts, t-shirt, sunglasses, large hat, and an N95 face masks walks up to a large fan that is spraying a fine mist of cool water onto people walking by.
Meet Millie – our new mailbox spider!
Millie was a little startled when I checked our mailbox this afternoon, but she’ll get used to it.
Huntsman Pat from last year took our daily chats in stride – and he used to spend his time on the mailbox lid (inner flap?) itself!
Photo of an adult huntsman spider sitting at the bottom of a wooden, residential mail box.
You’re always only one SIM-jacking event away from losing control of your bank account.
Screenshot of a smartphone text messaging app that shows four text messages. All the messages read: “Don’t share this code with anyone, including NAB. Your security code is XX for Internet Banking password reset”. That six digit numerical code designated by XX changes in each message.
It’s 2022 and still banks don’t offer time-based, one-time tokens (like when you look up a code from Google Authenticator) as your second factor when authenticating with them. It’s embarrassing.
For each and every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Action: The weather was lovely so we went for an extra long walk.
Reaction:
Photo of a red dog fast asleep on a sofa. The dog’s head is resting comfortably on a brightly coloured cushion.
One nice thing about summer – and the resulting lack of long sleeves – is that I can bring the Orient M-Force Beast back into rotation :)
Photo of a man’s wrist on which he is wearing a chunky dive watch on a thick, maroon coloured NATO strap. In the background of the photo is a dog being walked on a red leash.
So Nadia and I rushed out to get our COVID-19 booster shot immediately after we became eligible for it a few weeks ago.
Turns out I took the “rushing out” bit a little too literally because I drove there too fast and earned myself a speeding fine!
Given the Australian Government’s omicron omnishambles do you really blame me for zipping over there to keep myself as safe as possible? :)
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Photo of a letter from Victoria Police titled ‘Infringement notice’ with a subheading that reads ‘To the operator - offence detected by a road safety camera’. The letter is addressed to Ameel Zia Khan and the photographer is holding his thumb over the recipient's mailing address.
Two trains pass each other at a level crossing.
One train goes left-to-right…
Photo of a Metro Melbourne train going down the tracks at a level crossing. The photographer is standing only a short distance away from the tracks. The train is in clear focus, while the rest of the photo is artistically motion blurred.
One train goes right-to-left…
Photo of a motion-blurred, blue coloured train zipping down the tracks at a level crossing. The photographer is standing only a short distance away from the tracks.
Both photos were taken with a Pixel 6 Pro smartphone. The first photo used the ‘action pan’ camera feature, while the second used the ‘long exposure’ feature.
It is stinking hot and humid in Newport today.
I mean that literally because food and garden waste bins in the city of Hobson’s Bay are being collected fortnightly instead of weekly. And so wide open, post-rubbish-collection bins with scrapings of rotting food in them are lying all over the place.
Photo of two large rubbish bins with their lids open standing on the side of a residential street. One bin has a red lid, the other has a green lid.
Over the last couple of years the Hobsons Bay City Council trained us to put all our food waste into our green bins via these kitchen caddies – without compostable big bags, which still aren’t allowed. Those green bins were then collected weekly.
Photo of a kitchen food waste caddy with printed instructions on the lid that tell you what is and isn’t permitted.
Now, at the height of summer, they’ve change the green bin pick-up frequency from weekly to fortnightly.
They knew this was going to be an issue so they launched a permitted compostable bag trial that we signed up for back in November last year. But they won’t send us those trial bags till February.
So now every fortnight our streets stink of rotten food. Fun times.
Photo of three rubbish bins standing and lying haphazardly on the side of a residential street on a bright sunny day. All the bins have their lids open, and one bin is on its side. At the bottom of the photo is a dog on a red leash being walked by the bins.
Caught the edge of the thunderstorm that passed by our suburb a couple of hours ago.
Photo of several layers of clouds covering half of a bright blue sky above a house. The lowest layer of clouds is quite dark, while the uppermost layer has rays of sunlight breaking through the gaps.
Every January I do a review of where I spent my time, money, and attention in the year just ended. This lets me add or remove subscriptions, memberships, recurring payments, and social media follows. It also lets me see if I have any biases or blind spots, or if I’m unknowingly stuck in any kind of echo chamber.
This year I’ve decided to document and share some of my 2021 review.
I subscribed to 41 podcasts in 2021:
I listened to every single episode of 83% of them
46% of them I supported financially in one way or another (eg memberships, recurring Patreon support, digital subscriptions, one-off donations)
Women and non-binary people hosted 54% of the podcasts I listened to
I mostly listened to technology podcasts (eg This Week in Tech, Security Now, Rocket, Command Line Heroes, Darknet Diaries)
I directly supported 12 people through recurring payments in 2021:
Most of these people are YouTubers (or at least started on that platform)
67% of them identified as female or non-binary
I paid for eight news and information sources (through recurring subscriptions):
Given that list, it makes sense that Blindspotter thinks my media diet:
leans left + centre (with the Conversation, the Guardian, and ABC Australia as my top 3 news sources) and
is somewhat narrow (since its sourced mostly from independently owned sources).
(This analysis was based off 53 of my most recent tweets that contained a link to a news article, by the way, so take it with a grain of salt.)
Do I want to engage more with media sources that lean to the right or are owned by large media conglomerates? Not really. Which means I’m quite happy with my current media balance.
My current media diet matches the latest ABC Vote Compass analysis of my political leanings (from the 2019 Australian Federal election) which puts me somewhere between the Greens and the Australian Labor Party. So that checks out.
I like getting and using things for free, but I pay for what’s important to me and what I can afford at the time.
So over 2021:
I donated to a handful of causes and businesses (eg Sikh Volunteers Australia, Edgar’s Mission)
I subscribed (on and off) to seven audio and video streaming services – all of which I made the most of during 2021’s various pandemic-related lockdowns!
I made regular recurring payments to the online platforms I got a lot of value from (eg Wikipedia, Reddit, Twitter)
I paid license fees or made donations to several software projects (eg Mozilla, paint.NET, Joplin, Arq, Camtasia/Snagit, Microsoft Office)
I paid for my public presence on the internet (eg Squarespace, Namecheap)
I subscribed to a bunch of key online tools and services (eg Proton Mail, Signal, Trello)
I paid to keep my digital and online presence secure (eg Bitwarden, NextDNS, Mullvad, Have I Been Pwned, and a couple of cloud storage solutions for encrypted file sync and backup)
The social network I participate in the most is Twitter.
Over 2021:
I posted 1,010 tweets, 33% of which were replies
I tweeted the most in June and August (131 and 139 tweets in those months, respectively)
On average my tweets get 198 impressions, and 5.8% of people who see my tweets engage with them (like, reply, retweet, etc)
My most popular tweet in 2021 got 45,237 impressions
My most engaging tweets in 2021 (of which there were a few) got 33.3% engagement
Overall, I’m happy with how much energy I put into Twitter and how much engagement I have with the people on this social network.
Over the year I also used tools like (the free versions of) Followerwonk and followerAudit to analyse my Twitter graph, which told me interesting things like:
I follow more female users (29%) than male users (22%) – though this tool only estimates within the gender binary
That said, gender isn’t relevant to most (49%) of the Twitter users I follow (eg they’re not personal accounts)
5.6% of my followers are estimated to be fake, which is lower than the 7% world average
92% of the people I follow have been on Twitter for more than 5 years (I myself have been on Twitter for more than 13 years)
Finally, to get the most out of Twitter, I did these things:
I followed really good users and several interesting topics
I maintained a bunch of lists to keep my main feed from being overrun by stuff I didn’t want to see all the time (and then I used TweetDeck to track what’s been said by users in those lists)
I audited the users I follow, and then did at least two bulk unfollows last year
You have to put in the work if you want to have a good experience on your social network of choice. That’s what I did with Twitter, and that’s why it continues to be one of my favourite places to hang out.
(FYI. Most of the rest of my online energy goes into YouTube, Reddit, tumblr, and the broader decentralised, RSS-based web via NewsBlur.)
I did do more analysis than this, but I’m not going talk about it all here.
Though maybe I should mention that the ‘Wedding song lyrics’ page on this website continues to be the most popular page year after year. I’m glad I refreshed it a few months ago, correcting some lyrics and adding audio references for all the songs I’ve catalogued there.
What I’ll do now is spend the next few days unfollowing and unsubscribing on Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, NewsBlur, and email. That should be fun, and it’ll help get 2022 off to a good start.
I intend to have a fantastic 2022 and I trust you do too. I hope this year exceeds all your expectations and that you have a truly fantabulous time!
It’s our fifth Maggie-versary! We adopted Maggie — a red heeler, kelpie, staffie mix found wandering around the bush near Dubbo, NSW — five years ago today.
Photo of a red dog sitting on the floor on a green mat, looking somewhat nervously at the photographer.
Sadly our little doggo spent this morning and early afternoon at the vet getting some non-urgent dental work done. She’s back now, but is still worn down from the general anaesthetic.
At least she’s been reunited with her pack so she can rest properly.
Photo of a weary looking red dog who is resting her head on her paw, eyes closed, while lying next to a human.
The folks at Hobsons Bay Veterinary Clinic are fantastic, by the way. 10/10 would recommend.
Also, I love the design of the crepe bandage they used to hold the drip needle in place :)
Photo of a dog’s foreleg that has a green crepe bandage wrapped around it. The bandage has large blue paw prints stamped along its length.
The nurse said to keep Maggie warm but she’s managing that just fine on her own – given it’s a bright and sunny 34 degrees in Melbourne this afternoon!
Photo of a dog sitting on the grass in a residential garden on a bright, sunny day. The dog has its eyes half closed.
When she’s indoors, though, we give her a bit of a hand.
Photo of a red dog asleep on a towel that’s been placed across a leather sofa. The back half of the dog is covered with a soft blanket.
Overall she’s a little tired and a little stressed, but she’s eating well and is recovering nicely.
The down side of working from home during the pandemic is that I haven’t had the opportunity to walk around the city taking photos with my (still relatively new) Pixel 6 Pro phone camera system. Which is why you mostly get snaps of Maggie either at home or in and around our neighbourhood. So here are a few train photos I’ve taken over the last few weeks.
Here’s a long exposure of a V/Line train arriving at Southern Cross station. That was taken the last time I went into the office before my year-end break.
Photo of a train pulling into a platform across from the photographer. The photo is a long exposure, so the moving train has motion blur and is slightly transparent.
Here’s one of a train zipping along the tracks from Newport to Laverton stations. I’m really enjoying playing with the various motion photo features available in the Pixel 6 Pro camera.
Photo of a Metro Melbourne train running down train tracks behind a line of trees.
And here’s one of a freight train running down that same bit of track at the southern end of Newport. This time I’m making use of the zoom lenses available on this smartphone.
Photo of a freight train running down train tracks behind the tree line at the end of a residential street. The phrase ‘MULTI-FRIEGHTER’ is written on the side of a the khaki coloured boxcar that’s visible through the trees.
I expect to be going into the office at least a couple of days a week from early next year, so I’m looking forward to taking and sharing more photos then.
All clear for the Christmas barbecue!
Photo of two rapid antigen tests lying next to each other on a counter. Both tests are showing a negative result for COVID-19.
The barbecue itself was a great success. This here is just a photo of the meat tray taken halfway through the meal. Not shown are the snacks, salads, vegetarian options, pile of haloumi, and desserts! :)
Photo of a tray piled with barbecued meats, including sausages, burger patties, cutlets, and ribs.
Thank you James for the barbecuing and Bec for the hosting! #ChosenFamily
Obligatory post-booster selfie.
Selfie of a bald man wearing a blue surgical mask and sitting in a waiting area.
As is tradition since I was a teenager, I started off my big annual holiday with a big movie :)
Speaking of which, I really enjoyed Denis Villeneuve’s Dune. The team that made this film captured the scale, texture, and music of this universe as I imagined it to be. I’m quite impressed.
Photo of a cinema screen in a darkened theatre. The screen shows the Warner Bros logo on a cloudy blue sky background.
Keeping an eye on its owner while he’s stepped to Leroy’s Café to grab a coffee.
Photo of a black and tan French bulldog wearing a blue and white polka dot vest. The dog is tied to a pole with a blue leash outside a café. It is leaning to one side so it can peek through the door at its owner, who is inside the café.
She hasn't stopped to smell the flowers. She's stopped to smell what's *under* the flowers.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Photo of a red dog on a leash standing in a large patch of yellow flowers.
Nothing quite like a bowl of cold, diced mango on a hot summer day.
Photo of a hand holding a pink and white bowl that’s full of diced chunks of mango.
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When your fridge freezes your diced mango (because you inadvertently knocked the temperature dial to a higher setting) make mango milkshake.
Photo of a blue glass full of mango milkshake.
This is personal website of Nadia Niaz and Ameel Zia Khan. Here we document our lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia