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.
At first I thought this was someone was getting a classic car delivered to them. Then I realised it’s somebody moving their entire workshop because this truck was followed by at least seven others, all carrying cars in various states of repair.
Photo of a beautifully restored 1960s era classic car in pale yellow on the back of a towing truck that’s driving down a residential street.
I love a good liminal space, and I walked by one my way home from work today.
Overhead photo of a mostly empty corner of a food court. There are empty tables and chairs neatly lined up, with only one person sitting and eating and a couple of others walking by.
Also this café, that’s now closed till breakfast.
Photo of a food court café named Lily Li that’s closed for the day. The lights have been turned off and all the chairs have been placed upside down on the tables.
Shout out to Nadia for getting me this happy mug for my recent birthday and to Sophie Hurst for the lovely design!
Selfie of a bald man with a salt-and-pepper beard holding up a large white mug. On the mug is an illustration of a brightly coloured Pakistani rickshaw, drawn on a yellow background. Below the illustration is the text “tu chal, mein aaya…”.
Stopping to smell the flowers.
(Well, technically, stopping to smell which dog had peed on those flowers – but whatever.)
Photo of a red/brown dog smelling the bottom of two large flowering bushes on the side of the residential street. The dog is wearing a walking harness that’s attached to a lead that the photographer is holding.
The clouds at sunset were really something today. This photo can’t express how bizarre, but gorgeous the sky looked.
There’s a box of hot chips on the counter and, since Nadia and I have walked out of the kitchen, she is mightily concerned that she isn’t going to get any more.
(I came back. She did get a couple more.)
Photo of a red/brown dog standing next to a kitchen counter with her ears pricked and her attention focused on what’s on top of the counter.
Same dog, same kitchen counter – just a few hours earlier at doggie dinner time. Nadia is measuring the dog food before she puts it in Maggie’s food bowl.
Photo of a red/brown dog waiting in anticipation next to a kitchen counter. The dog is looking up at someone who is off camera.
Turns out when you’ve already had three Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations without any reaction you don’t have to wait around inside the pharmacy for fifteen minutes after your fourth one :)
Selfie of a man inside a car. The man has the left sleeve of his black t-shirt rolled up to show a plaster over the place on his upper arm where he was given a vaccination injection.
When you support Proton, Proton supports you.
Screenshot of an email from Proton. The title of the email reads “Happy Proton anniversary! We’re giving you extra storage for free.”
Nice, long walk
+ routine visit to the vet
+ drying off in front of the heater (it’s a cold, rainy day)
+ pig’s ear treat
= happy potato (who is snoring gently).
Photo of a red/brown dog curled up and fast asleep in a comfy dog bed in a carpeted room.
Best. Walk. Ever. Well, at least for Maggie.
We found a pile of chips under a tree (which is what she’s being pulled away from here), a whole open packet of crackers, and two small orange and poppy seed muffins.
She managed to sample a bit of each.
Photo of a red/brown dog straining on her walking harness and lead as she tries to get at something at the base of a tree.
I finally got around to watching season two of Star Trek: Picard and, while the story itself was fine, I think the show’s pacing and editing ruined the whole experience.
I think if the showrunners had been forced to tell this story in eight episodes instead of ten, they would have gotten rid of the slack and produced a tighter, more enjoyable show.
*SPOILER WARNING* Season two of Star Trek: Picard discussed freely below
Time travel stories in the broader Star Trek universe can be fun: “how would people from the future navigate life on earth in this century?” is an interesting idea to explore. Sadly, these stories frequently end up being, well, a little bit tedious. And ST:P season two is no exception.
That said, I do like this season’s overall story, which is centred around the idea that ‘no one should be alone’. That’s what motivates the actions and decisions of all the principal protagonists:
A story: Q doesn’t want to be alone when he dies, so he plans one last adventure with his favourite pet, Jean-Luc Picard. And since Q doesn’t want Picard to die alone either, he uses that adventure to force Picard to confront his past. Picard doesn’t want to be alone, but his difficult past (which we are shown in slow, excruciatingly drawn-out detail) stops him from having a genuine relationship with Laris (who also doesn’t want to be alone).
B stories: Raffi and Seven want to be together, but Seven needs to stop hating her Borg-self and Raffi needs to stop trying to control Seven (and everyone else around her). Rios feels disconnected from everyone, which he tries in-part to overcome by attaching himself to father figures through his life (Picard being the latest). Tallinn has watched and guided Renée Picard from afar, but she has never been able to connect with her charge directly.
C story: Jurati and the Borg Queen are alone in every timeline, and they go through their lives trying to connect with others in one way or another. And since this is a C storyline (ie not a standard, secondary-character development, B storyline) it merges with the A storyline at the end of the season.
D stories (covering the junior principal cast): Elnor is torn between the Qowat Milat and Starfleet, and he doesn’t know which of his extended families he wants to be with. Kore wants to be free to live a life alongside everyone outside her bubble. Young Guinan feels isolated on this planet since she’s having a difficult time connecting with humanity.
E stories (?): Adam Soong didn’t have a real storyline, did he? He was just given a shallow motivation for his antagonist-ey actions. And Renée Picard was just a convenient butterfly-wing-flap that Q used to change the future, so she didn’t have much of a metaphorical journey either.
None of the D stories needed to be told in this season, though at least Elnor’s journey provided Raffi with the drive to move forward. Young Guinan’s story was interesting for TNG fans, but Kore’s story was entirely unnecessary to the main plot. I’m guessing the showrunners didn’t want to drop Isa Briones as a principal cast member from a whole season of filming and that’s why they wrote in Kore’s mini story arc. Though maybe formerly-Wesley Crusher’s appearance will set up something interesting for season three? Who knows?
The real error ST:P’s showrunners made in this season, I think, was that they elevated the A story too far above the B and C stories. As a result, too much screen time was dedicated to Jean-Luc Picard and far too much screen time was dedicated to his past.
In telling J-L’s story painfully slowly it’s like the showrunners were creating a show for particularly dim twelve-year-olds who needed to be repeatedly hit over the head with the story stick for them to keep up with what was going on. From episode three onwards Nadia and I rolled our eyes and audibly groaned Every Single Time in which they showed us anything from J-L’s childhood.
In contrast we were both riveted to the screen every time Jurati and the Borg Queen interacted with each other. We could tell from early on in episode three that whatever transpired between these two characters would have far-reaching consequences on our rag-tag team of time travellers. This storyline was written beautifully, told tightly, acted brilliantly, and executed sharply. If only the A story had been written half as well.
I think there were three ways in which they could have improved the A story:
They could have gone with drastically variable episode run-times, which we know works just fine on streaming platforms. They could have skipped the entire FBI agent Martin Wells bit altogether, for example. That little aside served absolutely no purpose to the broader story, and they could have just made Picard and Young Guinan wait for Q in the bar for one whole episode instead.
They could have gone with one, or even two, fewer episodes, which would have forced them to tighten their overall writing, cut down on the flashbacks, and generally move the story along at a much tighter clip.
They could have trusted the audience to keep up with was going on, which would have helped them get to the point much, much quicker. There have been so many time travel stories told on film and television in the intervening years between the season finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation and season two of Star Trek: Picard. Viewers would have kept up. There have also been numerous stories about people confronting their past, understanding themselves better, and then changing their future decisions as a result. But no. We needed to be shown everything in a contrived/fake-clever manner and then had everything explained to us in a, frankly, condescending way as the season progressed. It was infuriating.
On the plus side, I thought the B stories were all told really nicely. Before watching season two I’d listened to the No Man's Land audio drama featuring Raffi and Seven that was set immediately after season one. Knowing what happened in that story made the Raffi/Seven storyline in this season more enjoyable. And Rios is such a puppy dog. I was lovely seeing him happy in this season instead of him being all mopey like he was for most of season one.
I sincerely hope the studio and showrunners take on the feedback they’ve received on season two, and that they do a better job with writing and editing season three – particularly on the A story. I know they’re capable of telling a great story, I just hope that this comes out in the execution.
*fingers crossed*
I’ve had a delightfully dessert-ey few days.
First I made a (gluten and lactose free) three-tier carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Plus a basic fruit trifle. Both turned out really well :)
Photo of a dining table (with a flowery table cloth) around which people are standing. On the table is a large cake with rustic cream cheese frosting and the numbers 5 and 0 stuck on top of it. Also on the table is a trifle bowl containing fruit trifle that’s topped off with vanilla custard.
Then yesterday I made two pies: one apple and one sweet potato.
I made the gluten free sweet pastry for these from scratch too.
Close up photo of an apple pie cooling on a rack. Behind the apple pie, and slightly out of focus, is a sweet potato pie.
The apple pie even featured an unintentional alien face :)
Close up photo of an apple pie that has three slits cut into it so steam can vent during baking. The slits are arranged in a way that looks like two angled eyes and a vertical mouth.
And since I had some leftover pastry, I made a few mini apples pies for good measure!
Photo of four mini open apple pies cooling on a rack on a kitchen counter.
Those turned out pretty well too.
Close up photo of a mini open apple pie with crispy, caramelised apples and a nicely browned crust. This pie is lying on a cooling rack, along with a couple of adjacent mini pies.
So yay for some successful weekend baking!
Happy birthday Nadia!
#StarOnAStick #PotatoQualityPhoto
Photo of a woman standing in a public park at night. The gardens behind her are decorated with lanterns strung on poles to illuminate walking paths. The smiling woman has long hair and is wearing a black puffer jacket.
We celebrated Nadia’s birthday with an evening at The Wilds, an outdoor festival of art, light, and performance that had food trucks, bars, and an ice skating rink.
We got a little wet – which we expected, given the weather forecast – but we had an otherwise lovely time.
Photo of a large, artistically swooshy, and brightly coloured wireframe sculpture bathed in strategically placed lights on a dark, overcast evening. People have gathered around the artwork, and some of them are taking photos. In the background is a metropolitan cityscape with tall buildings that have their lights turned on.
Of course we couldn’t bring a cake to an outdoor event, so instead we brought all the macaroon flavours for everyone to share :)
Overhead photo of a box containing fifteen brightly coloured macaroons of different colours.
For the record, those flavours were: French vanilla, Nutella, salted caramel, double Belgium chochlat, crushed pistache, original bubble gum, lemon meringue, crème brulée, authentic tiramisu, strawberry & cream, raspberry & white chocolate, and blueberry cheesecake. I got these from Antipasti Deli & Cafe in Yarraville.
Me, from three streets away: “Why have they closed that road again? They finished all the road works here a couple of weeks ago.”
Me, after I got closer: “Oh, that wasn’t a line of bright orange traffic cones laid out across the street.”
#ChildCare #RoadSafetyLessons
Photo of a group of small children, all wearing bright orange high visibility vests, crossing an intersection in a residential neighbourhood under the guidance and supervision of several adults.
The sun came out for a brief period today; Maggie made the most of it. #HappySunDog
Photo of a red/brown dog sitting on a weathered, wooden outdoor deck in the bright sunlight.
Paws at rest…
Close up photo of a red/brown dog asleep inside a fuzzy orange dog bed. The dog’s paws are in the foreground of the photo, while its head is in the background and is slightly out of focus.
Chin at rest…
Photo of a red/brown dog sleeping on a grey dog bed. The dog’s chin is resting on the side wall of the bed.
Putting it all together: chin on paws at rest :)
Photo of a red/brown dog asleep on the floor. The dog’s chin is resting on its two front paws.
I live in the suburb of Newport, which is in the Federal electorate of Gellibrand, Victoria. This is a safe Labor seat that last year Tim Watts won with a 15.8% margin.
So it was interesting that, over the course of this election campaign, almost all the political signs I saw around my neighbourhood were for the Australian Greens.
Photo of an election sign for the Australian Greens party installed in front of a house. The sign reads “Vote 1 Suzette Rodoreda for Gellibrand”.
I guess that explains why in yesterday’s polling the Greens got the biggest positive swing (+2.97%) towards them.
Two graphs showing votes received by each political party in the electorate of Gellibrand, Victoria, Australia during the 2022 Federal Election. The first graph shows the percentage of votes received, with the Australian Labor Party receiving 43.2%, followed by the Liberals at 27.1% and the Greens at 16.8%. The second graph shows the swing in votes compared to the previous election. The biggest negative swings are for Labour (-5.84%) and Liberal (-3.67%), while the biggest positive swing is for Greens (2.97%).
Labor held on to this seat, of course, despite that 5.84% drop in votes.
Which is something I’m guessing the folks living in this house expected would happen.
Photo of two election signs installed in front of a house, one for the Australian Greens and one for the Australian Labor Party.
Aside from a single One Nation and single United Australia Party sign, the only other campaign materials I saw sound the neighbourhood were anti-Morrison signs and stickers. Quite a few of them, actually!
One of which was gleefully updated overnight :)
Photo of an election sign installed in the window of a house. The sign shows Australian prime Minister Scott Morrison wearing Hawaiian shirt and a garland of flowers on his head. Below that is text that reads, in quotation marks, “NOT MY JOB”. Stuck on top of the sign is an A4 sheet of paper with the word “GONE” hand-written on it in large, all-capital letters; and below this a smiley face.
The down side of voting just as the polls open on election day is that it’s too early for a democracy sausage. Oh well.
Photo of an empty schoolyard with two unattended plastic tables and a closed barbecue placed in front of the school buildings.
The up side is that we were done by 8:30am.
Selfie of a man and woman, bundled up in puffer jackets, standing across the street from a primary school that’s being used as a polling station.
Turns out I’m pretty decent at making pies :)
#WinningAtLife
Photo of a large slice of apple pie on a red coloured plate that’s being held up outdoors.
I made this pie using leftover gluten-free pastry from last week’s sweet potato pie – hence the sparse and rather amateurish lattice work with the remaining few bits of extra pastry!
And, for those who are interested, I followed this American apple recipe from SBS Food.
Photo of an apple pie cooling in a pie dish that’s been placed on a wire rack. This is an open pie with a sparse pastry lattice on top.
It’s nice to have a dog that responds well to antihistamines. Instead of congested snoring while you’re trying to work you get adorable, quiet snoring :)
Photo of a red/brown dog curled up and asleep in a fuzzy orange bed. The dog’s face is nuzzled into the wall of the bed, and it has its paws tucked up in front of it.
This is personal website of Nadia Niaz and Ameel Zia Khan. Here we document our lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia