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.
When you hit the jackpot on your walk but the asshole holding your leash doesn’t let you claim your winnings.
Photo of a red/brown dog amongst some greenery. The dog is straining at her leash, trying to reach some fast food that’s been dumped next to a bush. This food includes lots of chips, a burger, some dim sims, and more than half a large pizza.
Might not be a lovely, sunny day in Melbourne today, but we still had a lovely walk in the drizzle.
Selfie of a man walking a red/brown dog on a residential street on an rainy day. The man is wearing a light grey rain jacket with the hood pulled over his head. The jacket is wet in large patches. The dog is on a grass strip next to the road and is looking at something off-camera.
T = love? That's not something I’ve seen or heard in the trans community before – but, hey, you learn something new every day. Hormone therapy *is* love.
Photo of white coloured sky writing on a mostly clear blue sky. The text is upside down from this angle, but read correctly it shows the Christian cross symbol (meaning Jesus Christ, as represented by his crucifixion), the equal sign, and a heart shape. So the writing reads “Christ is love”.
(Or is that † = love because of Easter, meaning “Christ is love”? Nah.)
When the human has stayed up way past your bedtime…but you don’t want to abandon your awake human to go sleep in the bedroom with your asleep human.
Photo of a red/brown dog fast asleep inside of a round, fuzzy, orange dog bed. The dog is curled up on its side with its face smushed against the fuzzy wall, and with all four of its paws in front of it.
It’s a gorgeous day in Melbourne today and Maggie is making the most of it. (I’m a little jealous.)
Photo of a red/brown dog fast asleep on its side in a residential garden on a bright, sunny day.
Turns out if you need to pour cement into a block at the back of a good sized residential property then this is the crane you need.
Photo of two trucks parked back-to-back on a residential street. One truck is a cement mixer and the other truck has a tall crane on it. The two are connected via a large pipe.
It might be loud, but it certainly does the job.
Photo of a truck parked on a residential street. The truck has a tall crane built into it. The crane has a long pipe running through it. The pipe is pouring concrete into the very back of an empty plot of land.
It is a little disconcerting to have a four story tall crane teaching into the sky just a couple of houses away from yours though!
Photo of a residential street with cars parked on it. Also on the street is a truck with a four story tall crane that is reaching out to the back of one of the properties on this street.
It’s finally time…
Screenshot of a window titled ‘Windows Update’ that reads “Upgrade to Windows 11 is ready—and it’s free!” and “Get the latest version of Windows, with a new look, new features, and enhanced security” plus a button that reads “Download and install”.
This upgrade notification comes six months and five days after Windows 11 was officially released.
And it’s almost exactly a week after I did an in-place Windows 10 upgrade to fix a corrupt print services install that had been messing with my regular Windows updates.
Screenshot of a window titled ‘Windows Update’ with heading that reads “Error encountered” “There were some problems installing updates, but we'll try again later”.
For weeks I’d been getting that unhelpful 0x800f0831 error when trying to update Windows.
To fix this I ran the Windows Update troubleshooter and tried all the troubleshooting tips I could find on the web. Nothing worked.
I then pored through the Windows Update install logs to see what was wrong. I found the error — a Windows install-on-demand printer service installation had been corrupted — but nothing I tried to do fixed that issue.
In the end I had to overwrite my current Windows install with an in-place Windows 10 upgrade. #NucularOption
That finally cleared the logjam because now it’s upgrade time…
Time card image from the SpongeBob cartoon series that reads “Two hours later”.
…and after lots of downloading, installing, rebooting, Windows updating, and app updating, I’m finally all set to enjoy Windows 11!
Screenshot of a welcome window titled “Hi Ameel” that reads “Let’s make sure everything is set up just how you want it” and has a button labelled “Get started”.
So far it’s great!
The Australian federal election has been called for 21 May 2022.
As a result, ABC have launched the 2022 version of their Vote Compass, which is “a tool developed by political scientists to help you explore how your views align with those of the election candidates”.
No surprises on where I fall along that spectrum.
Screenshot titled “Vote Compass” and “Australia 2022 Federal Election”. Below that there are two visuals.
One is a grid chart titled “How you fit in the political landscape”. The horizontal axis of this chart shows whether you’re on the economic left or right; the vertical axis shows whether you’re socially conservative or progressive. In the economic right and socially conservative corner is a marker for the Liberal-National Coalition (LNP). Close to the exact middle is a marker for the Australian Labor Party (ALP). In the economic left and socially progressive corner is a marker for the Australian Greens (GRN). In the top left quadrant (economically left and socially progression) is a marker that shows where I stand. This is located between the Greens and the ALP, but much closer to the Greens.
The second visual is a bar chart titled “How much agree with the parties” and it shows that I agree 90% with the Australian Greens, 60% with the Australian Labor Party, and 33% with the Liberal-National Coalition.
An excellent way to spend your Sunday afternoon.
Photo of a red/brown dog sleeping soundly on a human bed with its head propped up on a pillow.
And not just one, but two packets of chips to yearn for!
Photo of a red/brown dog on a red leash twisting its head sideways as it tries to reach for a couple of brightly coloured empty packets of potato chips mere centimetres away from her on the other side of a chain link fence.
They make all that effort to add random spaces in words so automated SMS spam filters don’t block their attempted spam/phish…and then the spam filters effortlessly figure it out and block their messages anyway.
(งಠ_ಠ)ง
Another year, another fantastic Barbell Babes Brigade lifting party for Nadia – with one equal and two new personal bests!
Photo of a woman in a large indoor power lifting gym. The woman is wearing black exercise gear, wrist straps, and a lifting belt and is smiling at the camera. She is leaning on a barbell with heavy weights on it that’s been placed on a lifting rack.
This year’s results:
Squat: 90kg
Bench press: 50kg
Deadlift: 107.5kg (up from 65kg just two years ago!)
Photo of a woman smiling broadly at the camera. The woman is wearing a sleeveless black exercise top and is standing in a large power lifting gym.
#JustStrong
Photo of the back of a woman’s head. The woman is standing in a large power lifting gym. She is wearing a sleeveless black exercise top and her hair has been arranged into a bun that’s being held together with paint brushes.
Maggie was only a little stressed at the vet today. Her visits usually end up net positive though, because the *second* the vet gives her a treat all her stress goes out the window :)
Photo of a red/brown dog standing in a large waiting area, looking up at the photographer. The dog’s mouth is open because she’s panting and her ears are pulled back slightly from the typical alert position. She looks a little stressed.
Two years ago today I wrote this on the whiteboard next to where my team sits in the office. I guess “foreseeable future” was right because, in this post-vaccine stage of the pandemic, we’re all still working from home.
Photo of a whiteboard on which there is text that reads: “Looking for the Digital & Social Media team? We’re all working from home for the foreseeable future. Contact us via Webex, phone, or email. #FlattenTheCurve #COVID_19”.
My current plan is to start going into the office one day a week from April. Maybe. I’ll still be fully N95-masked, of course. We’re not in the post-pandemic stage yet! But let’s see what happens in the next few weeks.
We’re certainly living in interesting times!
Making the most of the sun and quickly-growing grass (which I haven’t mowed yet).
Photo of a red/brown dog that’s been taken through a wooden trellis. The dog is sleeping on its side on the grass on a sunny day.
Turns out peanut butter bread is super easy to make and is quite delicious.
The recipe I followed made a relatively mild loaf, so next time I’ll make a richer, more cake-like version.
Photo of a home-baked loaf of rich brown bread cooling on top of a wire rack on a kitchen countertop.
FYI: I followed the 1932 recipe in this video (which is from the US Great Depression) and I’ll try Dylan’s own peanut butter bread recipe for the next loaf.
Nadia Tweeted this:
Best part of the day. (Less so for @ameel because he has to spot me these days.) pic.twitter.com/BfgngsknPA
— Nadia Niaz (@NadiaNiaz) March 2, 2022
Which I quote-tweeted and said:
Don’t tell Nadia, but spotting her is one of my favourite things to do. Not only do I get to watch her lift ridiculously heavy weights (and increasingly heavy ones at that) I also get the opportunity to hang out with her when she's having the most fun (+ take cool photos of her)!
Photo of a strong-looking woman in a black sleeveless shirt and hair held up in a bun with paint brushes. The woman is wearing wrist straps and a thick leather belt for lifting heavy weights. She is standing in a room in front of a weight rack that has a loaded barbell on it.
Up side of wearing a well-fitted, (K)N95/P2 mask: your likelihood of contacting COVID-19 in an indoor setting is greatly reduced.
Down side of wearing a well-fitted, (K)N95/P2 mask:
Close-up selfie of a man’s face. On the man's cheek and nose are reddened indentations made by the straps of a tightly fitted faced mask. The man is sitting inside a car.
Sunday afternoons, amirite?
Close up photo of a sleeping red/brown dog with its head resting on the side of a fuzzy dog bed.
My ‘highlights of red’ outfit while walking the dog today: red sneakers, red watch strap, and red leash+collar combo. Not exactly painting the town red; more like fine lining it :)
Photo of the bottom half of a man’s outfit as he stands on the pavement next to some grass. The man is wearing a black T-shirt, olive green shorts, and red sneakers. The man’s watch is on a red strap and he is holding a red dog leash.
This is personal website of Nadia Niaz and Ameel Zia Khan. Here we document our lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia