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.
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.
Guess whose large pointy ears have heard the slow moving thunderstorms rolling by several kilometres from our house and has therefore plonked herself right next to my office chair? *sigh*
At least the storms aren’t so close by that she’s started stress farting. So that’s a silver lining.
Photo of a red dog lying right next to the legs of an office chair.
It was good while it lasted. The thunderstorms finally came through our suburb so poor Maggie was a panting, trembling stress machine for three hours.
Photo of a dog sitting on a sofa. The dog’s ears are pulled back and its tongue is hanging out as it pants stressfully.
Maggie made the most of what little sun we got today.
Photo of a red dog sitting on the grass on a mildly sunny day. The dog is looking at the photographer.
She’s definitely living the life!
(Meanwhile I spent the day in back-to-back meetings from 9am to 4pm, with only two short breaks in between. *sigh*)
Photo of a red dog asleep on its side in a residential garden.
It’s been ages since I’ve ridden a tram. At least I got to see one when I went into the office today.
Photo of a classic tram turning into a street in front of some office building. Everything but the tram is blurred in the photo.
Zippy cyclist is zippy.
Photo of a motion-blurred cyclist exiting a curved bridge onto a paved, inner city riverbank.
Maggie would like Nadia to know that she too likes popcorn. Very, very much, in fact.
Photo of a red dog, ears pricked, standing at the foot of a low, outdoor lounge chair. The dog is looking attentively at the person sitting on the chair, whose is mostly off-camera but has their feet visible near the dog’s head.
A few seconds later…[Chariots of Fire soundtrack starts playing]
When the weather is good, you take an extra long walk. And after you take an extra long walk, you nap. Them’s the rules.
Photo of a red dog fast asleep on a towel that’s been spread across the seat of a black leather sofa.
So the Google Pixel 6 Pro smartphone camera’s long exposure functionality is cool.
Selective long-exposure photo of a train passing through a level crossing. The moving train is the only element of the photo that has a motion blur effect applied to it. Because one of the long-exposure photos taken was from before the train appeared within the frame, the train in the final image appears to be semi-transparent. A white car has stopped in front of the lowered boom gate of the level crossing.
The more I use it, the more I like it.
Selective long-exposure photo of a train passing through a level crossing. Only the moving train has had the long exposure effect applied to it, so it’s the only object in the photo with motion blur.
Some days you just gotta…
Yay for post-lockdown catch-ups!
Had a lovely, delicious dinner at Panda Hot Pot with a bunch of friends. The food was good and the company was fantastic. 10/10 would recommend.
There was a line outside the restaurant for our scheduled sitting too. Nature is healing!
Selfie of a man and a woman sitting next to each other inside a large Chinese restaurant. Both are smiling at the camera.
Maggie keeps an eye on us while we eat dinner on the off chance that she’ll score a human-food treat when we’re done. She is forever hopeful and always hungry!
Photo of a red dog, sitting alert and ready, a short distance away from a dining table that has a pattered green and white tablecloth.
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.
A couple of months after I stopped needing to wear it, I had to pull out my puffer jacket to walk the dog this morning. With this current cold snap we’ve taken two steps forward, three steps back on our way to summer in Melbourne. *sigh*
Selfie of a man walking along a residential street. He is wearing a black t-shirt, black puffer jacket, and black cap (with a red trim).
When you’re walking Maggie and she suddenly surges forward or pulls away, you know she’s found something to eat in the buffet that is our neighbourhood.
One in five times she succeeds. The rest of the time I pull her back quickly enough.
But now she knows that I know…
A red dog being walked on a lead in a residential neighbourhood sniffs at a patch of grass in the nature strip by the side of the road.
So these days, when I yank her to a halt (and she’s not still straining because Dammit. She. Is. So. Close.), she immediately feigns disinterest. Sometimes she even takes a small step in the other direction.
Then, the second there’s some slack on her leash, she lunges forward to grab the forbidden morsel. It’s a smart tactic that’s even worked a few times.
But now I know. And she knows that I know.
I’m curious to see what she'll come up with next :)
A red dog being walked on a lead looks back over its shoulder at the photographer who has stopped walking to take this photo.
I do occasionally let her grab a doggy street food snack, by the way. We have a primary school and three cafes nearby so there’s always fresh bits of sandwiches and the like strewn across our neighbourhood.
Finding and eating random stuff on the road is the highlight of her day!
No, really. We are heading into summer in Melbourne. We’re just not going in a straight line.
Photo of a red dog settled down on the floor in front of a gas heater.
Intermittent rain + laziness = tall grass.
Tall grass + sunny day in spring = comfy dog.
Photo of a red dog lying cushioned on some tall grass in a residential lawn on a sunny day.
So the portrait mode + front-facing camera combo on the Pixel 6 Pro smartphone works quite well.
Especially when you can use the magic eraser to remove two instances of unruly beard hair :)
Selfie of a man looking straight into the camera. The man is in his 40s, and is bald with a full, but trimmed salt-and-pepper beard. He is wearing glasses and a black henley-style pullover. The background behind him is out of focus, helping his face stand out more in the photo.
Finally got the time to start playing Forza Horizon 5 today! Hello Mexico :)
Really fun game so far. Looks gorgeous in widescreen HDR. Great music too. 10/10 would recommend.
Photo of a widescreen computer display that’s showing the interior of an airplane cargo hold that contains a jeep that’s about to be parachuted out of the rear cargo door that’s open behind the vehicle. On the desk, under the display are two speakers. Directly in front of the screen is a gaming steering wheel that's attached to the desk.
This is personal website of Nadia Niaz and Ameel Zia Khan. Here we document our lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia