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.
The last time we were at the Serena Hotel in Islamabad we were dressed, well, a little differently :)
Collage of two photos, on above the other. The first photo, dated 1 Feb 2004, is of a man and a woman seated on stage and dressed in traditional Pakistani wedding outfits. The second photo, dated 1 Feb 2024, is of the same man and woman taking a selfie in a hotel lobby.
Happy 20th wedding anniversary Nadia!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
Today I used my favourite garden tool (which I didn’t know was my favourite garden tool till I used it today): a line trimmer (aka whipper snipper). Same with my new self-propelled lawn mower, which now my second favourite.
Photo of a grass-spattered line trimmer (whipper snipper) and battery powered lawn mower on an outdoor deck.
We had heavy rain and seriously wild winds across Melbourne overnight and well into this morning.
Screenshot of a smartphone weather app showing a large band of heavy rain moving towards Melbourne from the west.
Luckily just three weeks ago our local council and the power companies that supply our side of the city had come through and cut down all the tree branches that were close to powerlines in our neighbourhood. They’d asked us to do the same with the trees in our front yard too.
Photo of a letter titled ‘Vegetation clearance responsibilities’ with diagrams showing how residents need to trim trees around power lines in front of their houses.
Not that this stopped whole trees and massive tree branches from falling across roads in and around Melbourne’s west, of course.
Screenshot of a smartphone app showing a continuing list of ‘Tree Down’ incidents across several suburbs in Melbourne’s west (including the suburbs of Brooklyn, Ascot Vale, and Maidstone).
Which inevitably led to a bunch of power outages.
Screenshot of an ‘Electricity Outages’ webpage from electricity supplier Jemena. The map on the screenshot shows several pockets of power outages across Jemena’s area of supply, which is mainly to the inner west and inner north of Melbourne. There are no outages at the bottom of the map – between Altona North and Williamstown – which is where the suburb of Newport is situated.
But we lucked out in our neighbourhood: we did have a couple of brownouts during the worst of the wind, but we never actually lost power.
This was the biggest branch that fell on our street.
Photo of a large branch that has fallen off a massive tree on the side of a residential street. The branch that has fallen off is as long as the house behind it is wide.
Fortunately most of the branches that did fall were thinner and leafier, like this one. (Medium sized dog for scale.)
Photo of a relatively thin tree branch that has fallen and is lying on the nature strip next to a residential street. A red dog on a leash is standing next to the branch on the grass.
So chalk one up for proactive maintenance from the Hobson’s Bay City Council, Jemena, and Zinfra!
Working from the office today – with indoor mask restrictions back in place across Melbourne – is going about as expected. #tumbleweeds
Selfie of a man wearing business attire and a face mask. The man is standing in an open plan office with all the desks behind him unoccupied.
(To be fair there are about ten people working on this floor, they’re just mostly on the other side of the building.)
On the plus side I got to wear my all-blue work ensemble, including a blue face mask, so that was nice. That’s, like, the opposite of the regular pandemic blues :)
Mirror selfie of a man standing in a lift. The man is wearing business attire: black leather shows, a navy blue suit, a blue check shirt, a blue sweater, and a blue face mask. He is carrying a brown leather bag.
The walk to the train station early this morning was lovely too.
Selfie of a man in front of a public garden and netball court, both of which are empty. The man is wearing a suit, dress shirt, sweater, scarf, and hat.
And there’s still plenty of fruit left even at lunchtime. (Usually at least all bananas are gone by 10am.)
Photo of two wooden boxes lying on the counter of an office kitchenette. The boxes are filled with fruit: apples, pears, and bananas.
Importantly, I got to welcome my new team member on her first day of work. So that was the obvious highlight of the day.
So win some, lose some with the whole having to wear masks indoors thing. But that’s okay: health and safety first.
Photo of a sign framed and mounted on a portable stand that’s been placed in the middle of a corridor at the entrance to an office. The sign say “Please wear a mask at all times”. Behind that is another stand installation that dispenses hand sanitizer and says “Hand sanitising station”.
It’s nice to take an afternoon break when you’re working from home.
Here are Maggie and I making the most of the only corner in our back garden that is still bathed in sunlight.
Selfie of a man and a dog sitting right up against a weathered fence on a bright sunny day. The shadows being cast by nearby objects are long, meaning the sun is getting lower in the sky and so it is late in the afternoon.
That’s not too different from this morning, tbh, when she and I lazed around in bed for a bit before starting the day. Evidently my thigh makes for a comfortable pillow.
Close up photo of a red dog lying on a blue bed sheet on top of a bed. The dog’s head is propped on to what appears to be the leg of the person under the sheet, who is also the one taking the photo.
Important update: both of us have changed position. She’s found another warm spot and I’m now sunning the back side of my head. #ManualRotisserie
Selfie of a man and a dog. The dog is lying on her side in a sunny path of paved residential driveway. The man is in the foreground and is looking at the camera. There is bright sunlight on the back of the man’s head.
We conclude the documenting of my afternoon break with the all-important cool down in the dirt. Though at least that’s something she’s doing all on her own!
Photo of a red dog sitting on a shady patch of cool, freshly dug-up dirt under a small tree on the side of a weatherboard house.
Autumn + neighbour’s tall tree + wild, windy night = (electric) leaf blower time.
Photo of a residential back garden showing a wooden deck, a pathway next to the lawn, and green grass growing in the lawn. There are yellow, orange, and red leaves scattered all over the ground. There is also a red dog sniffing around on the path.
That was a lot of leaves! (Also, I love electric leaf blowers so much.)
Photo of a residential back yard showing a large collection of red, orange, and yellow leaves that has been blown onto a cemented area next to a fence. Placed in front of these leaves is a black and bright orange AEG brand electric leaf blower.
There’s a lot you can accomplish during your working-from-home lunch break :)
Friday, 13 March 2020 was my team’s last day of working from the office – though I did go in the 16th for a couple of meetings in the morning. Hard to believe that was exactly one year ago today!
Guess that’s life when you live in interesting times. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Photo of text written on a whiteboard that says: “Looking for the Digital and Social Media team? We’re all working from home for the forseeable future. Contact us via Webex, phone, or email.” This is followed by two hashtags that say ‘flatter the curve’ and ‘COVID-19’.
To quote Vladimir Ilyich Lenin:
There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.
February and March 2020 was definitely a set of those weeks!
My new favourite t-shirt to wear to a desi get-together :)
Selfie of a man wearing a black t-shirt with white text on it that says: I was told there would be biryani.
Nadia’s first (baby) tomato harvest is here! (Update to this post from earlier in the month.)
She would’ve had a bigger bunch to show off but the neighbourhood possums ate the tomatoes that were ready to pick yesterday. (Ah well.)
Close-up photo of a hand holding four baby tomatoes.
That 'COVID normal' train life in Melbourne.
Selfie of a man wearing a hat, eyeglasses, and a large face mask. The man is seated on a train that’s stopped at a train station. There is a long instructional sticker on the inside of the train window that says: Keep your distance where you can.
Is this not the most appropriate t-shirt to wear to your office Christmas party? :)
Selfie of a man standing next to a road on a sunny day. The man is wearing a grey t-shirt that shows a tall, distinctly shaped office building – illustrated in a style that makes it look like a Christmas tree, complete with a start on top. The text printed below this building illustration says: Nakatomi Corporation Christmas Party 1988.
I love my new glasses! Props to the sales rep from The Eye Lab Melbourne who picked this retro square style from Lacoste out for me and got me to try something less rectangular :)
Close-up selfie of a man wearing a pair of rounded square eyeglasses. The man is bald and has a salt-and-pepper beard.
I do still like my old frames; they just worked better when I had a wider face.
Close-up selfie of a man wearing a pair of wide rectangular eyeglasses. The man is bald and has a salt-and-pepper beard.
Wearing sunglasses and a rain parka, I was prepared for both rain and shine when I walked Maggie this morning. (Melbourne’s weather is more unpredictable than usual this time of year.)
Selfie of a man in a baseball cap, large sunglasses, and a rain parka walking a dog along a residential street.
I’m glad I was prepared. Because here we are, 20 minutes after that first photo, sheltering under a large tree during a blustery rain shower!
Selfie of a man in a baseball cap, large sunglasses, and a rain parka with its hood pulled over the man’s head. The man is walking a dog on a leash.
And ten minutes after that we were being toasted by the bright sunshine again.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Selfie of a man in a baseball cap, large sunglasses, and a rain parka as he walks a dog along a residential street. There is bright sunshine on the pair.
Don’t get me wrong though: I love Melbourne and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. You just have to be prepared for all that this city has to throw at you :)
Thinking tomato-ey thoughts and planning her plant potting process is Nadia.
A woman, with her back to the photographer, is standing in front of several medium and large sized potted plants in a residential garden. One of her hands is on her hips, the other is holding a large plastic watering can.
This is personal website of Nadia Niaz and Ameel Zia Khan. Here we document our lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia