IMRAN™: In My Humble Opinion: October 2025

Thursday, October 23, 2025

Wind Weathered White Resilient Remarkable Rose - IMRAN®

Twelve years ago, I planted rose bushes in the garden of my blessed Apollo Beach home in Florida. Over the years, some have flourished, soaring to 10–12 feet tall, their fragrant, vivid blooms a testament to nature’s splendor. Yet, a few faced tougher odds—likely due to the rocky soil in some parts of the property.

One such tenacious little bush resides by the edge of my driveway. Unlike its lofty neighbors, this resilient rose has remained modest in height—just two to three feet tall. Nestled in a wind tunnel between my home and the one next door, it has faced countless challenges but has never faltered.

Today, under the already vivid late-March sun, it bore some of its regular gifts: two beautiful white roses. Their petals, though already whipped and worn by the wind’s unrelenting force today, showcased a quiet beauty, a defiant charm. Weathered but wonderful, this rose stands as a remarkable symbol of life’s enduring will to bloom, even against the odds.

#IMRAN #Florida #TampaBay #ApolloBeach #roses #flowers #nature #spring #resilience #perseverance #inspiration #gratitude

Wednesday, October 22, 2025

Tokyo, We Have An Addiction - IMRAN®

Superb salmon tataki, great tuna tartare, wonderful yellowtail jalapeño, and the two fabulous salmon and tuna specialty rolls including mango and avocado make up a great dinner.

#food #Japanese #IMRAN #photography #bokeh #sushi #sashimi #fish #humor #wordplay #dining #style #foodie #LongIsland #NewYork #seafood #gratitude

Tuesday, October 21, 2025

Fun Fabulous France,Spring Sunset Shades, Paris Places Perspective (April 21, 2018) - IMRAN®

Fun Fabulous France,Spring Sunset Shades, Paris Places Perspective (April 21, 2018) - IMRAN®
It was mid-spring in Paris, and the city was bathed in the kind of light photographers dream about. At a quarter past eight, as the sun dipped toward the horizon, I stood atop the Arc de Triomphe watching the golden hour unfold across the city.
In the foreground, the slender spire of Église Saint-François-Xavier pierced the skyline, its silhouette etched in gold against the evening sky. A quiet but commanding presence, it stood as a reminder of the city’s spiritual and architectural depth.
Just beyond it, Les Invalides gleamed, its dome catching the sunset’s last rays and glowing like polished gold. Beneath that brilliance lies Napoleon Bonaparte, but in that moment, the monument felt alive—radiating history.
Far off, the Montparnasse Tower rose above the skyline, its modern silhouette softened by the amber light. Often seen as a break from tradition, tonight it looked almost poetic—like even the future was willing to bask in the past.
And beneath me, the Arc de Triomphe itself—my perch and Paris’s proud sentinel. Built to honor those who fought for France, it offered a view that stitched centuries together in one radiant sweep. That evening, Paris didn’t just whisper its story—it sang it in gold.

© 2018-2025 IMRAN®

#IMRAN #France #Paris #history #autobiography #travel #travelogue #architecture #memories #city Canon Vixia

Thursday, October 16, 2025

Tokyo, We Have An Addiction - IMRAN®

Superb salmon tataki in the front. Tuna tartare appetizer on the right. Wonderful yellowtail jalapeño appetizer to the left rear.

#food #Japanese #IMRAN #photography #bokeh #sushi #sashimi #fish #humor #wordplay #dining #style #foodie #LongIsland #NewYork

Sunday, October 12, 2025

Déja Vu vs DoYa View: Do You Experience Such Coincidental Alignments Of Random Things? - IMRAN®

Have you ever had one of those oddly timed coincidences that feels too precise to ignore? I experience a lot of those. Not the type of déjà vu brainwave—of having experienced that exact moment before and knowing exactly what would unfold in the next few seconds—but actual verifiable alignment of various unrelated things, despite total randomness.

This weekend, on October 10, 2025, I grabbed another handful of unread magazines from my piles of thousands that I’m working to browse and send to recycling at my Long Island home. Among them was a July 2018 issue of GQ, which I placed on my dining table in New York to browse during dinner and dispose of.

I’d owned it for over seven years but never flipped through it—mostly because I’d been spending so much time in Florida. An artist named Zayn Malik was on the cover.

The name Zain is of personal significance to me in another not-so-secret, precious part of my life. But I didn’t recognize Zayn. I’ve never followed One Direction and had no prior awareness of him in the band or as a solo artist. Still, something about his Pakistani heritage caught my attention, so I looked him up.

Here’s the weirdness: that same day—October 11, 2025—he released a new single. So the moment I finally engaged with a seven-year-old magazine cover featuring someone I’d never heard of, he happened to drop new music. It was so random that if it were in a movie, the audience would laugh at it as one of those “yeah, sure, like that type of coincidence happens in real life.”

No algorithm prompted me. No playlist suggested him. Just a perfectly timed sync between a forgotten magazine and a new release from someone I had literally just learned existed.

This Zayn “moment” wasn’t serendipity. I have no direct connection to him or even his music. But it was one more entry in a long list of strange, well-timed coincidences that seem to follow me. Do you have similar experiences and stories to share?

#IMRAN #NewYork #LongIsland #EastPatchogue #HeronPointe #GreatSouthBay #magazines #music #random #serendipity #coincidence #timing #philosophy

Thursday, October 09, 2025

American, Delta Departures From Departing Delta At Tampa — Early Spring, Blue Skies — IMRAN®

Flying and photography—two lifelong loves I was blessed to begin at age 7 in Pakistan, thanks to my late, incredible father. In the late 1960s, I became the first in my family to fly, and likely one of the first kids my age to own a brand-new camera. So flying, photography, photographing flying, and flying photography remain enduring sources of joy and gratitude.

On March 28, 2025, I was departing from Tampa International Airport, bound for New York City. The crisp early spring air offered blue skies to aviators and photographers alike. Just as my Delta flight was preparing to depart, an American Airlines jet nosed into position—wedging itself between another Delta flight taking off and mine. A moment of motion, memory, and the magic of flight.

#IMRAN #flying #family #Florida #Tampa #Delta #American #airplanes #aircraft #aviation #travel #memories #spring #autobiography

Tuesday, October 07, 2025

December Sunset (Board/Dog)Walk At New York Home - IMRAN®

I had taken K2 to the beloved New York home after the dual hurricane hits at the blessed Tampa Bay home. This was a capture with the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses. I captured it on December 6, 2024 as we walked to the home beach to enjoy another sunset.

#IMRAN #NewYork #LongIsland #EastPatchogue #HeronPointe #GreatSouthBay #Sunset #sky #clouds #GSD #GermanShepherdDogs #dogs #gratitude #winter #walking #marina

Sunday, October 05, 2025

Grateful For 30th Autumn At Blessed Love-Filled New York Home - IMRAN®

Thirty autumns in this blessed New York home. I look around and see the layers—colors, textures, memories—each one a quiet witness to the seasons I’ve lived, created, and archived here.

The blue shirt wasn’t planned, but it matched the mood: calm, grateful, present. Behind me, one mirror catches a beautiful black stone statue of two lovers in embrace I bought a quarter century ago. An ode to the beloveds who gave all of themselves to me in this haven of uninhibited love. You know who you are.

The other mirror reflects my aviator leather jacket, from learning to fly 25 years ago. Other fragments of the room you see, like my journals and posts, catch slices of time and life.

Even the mobile sways with stories. I took this selfie not to pose, but to pause—and honor the space that’s held me and my loves through it all.

#IMRAN #NewYork #LongIsland #EastPatchogue #HeronPointe #HomeSweetHome #selfie #memories #gratitude #memoir #love #lovers

Saturday, October 04, 2025

Delta Happy (Not To Collide With Another Aircraft At LGA) Meal — IMRAN®

On my flight to New York, I was grateful for Delta’s consistently solid service and a flavorful spicy chicken afternoon fare in the Pakistani/Indian style — always a welcome option, even for someone who’s not a rice fan. I made my foray in seat 4A, foraging through a surprisingly delightful light meal.

Their occasional beef stroganoff and other limited-edition meals can reach restaurant quality, as I’ve posted before.

I was even more grateful not to be on either of the two Delta planes that collided at LaGuardia Airport after my flight. That must’ve been…. “Awkward!”

#IMRAN #NYC #Pakistan #dining #food #foodie #travel #travelogue #humor #gratitude #menu #Delta #lifestyle

Friday, October 03, 2025

K2, Framed By Fall, A Portrait At The New York Property - IMRAN®

Late last November, K2 joined me on a drive to Long Island, New York—his quiet strength filling the space left behind by Kennedy, whom we had bid farewell eight months earlier in April. That autumn late morning, he posed with a grace that felt both present and timeless, captured against the fading gold of trees at the property in East Patchogue.

#IMRAN #GSD #GermanShepherd #LongIsland #NewYork #EastPatchogue #autumn #portrait #nature #humor

100,000 Viewers on Google vs. 14+ Million Views on Flickr; Where Do We Go From Here? — IMRAN®

A late night notification from Google caught me off guard pleasantly: over 100,000 people have viewed the handful of photos I’ve posted there only recently. That’s less than 1% of what I’ve shared on Flickr—where I’ve amassed 14+ million views over nearly 20 years. But let’s not confuse metrics.

Google counted viewers, Flickr counts views. One is pure generic global reach, the other is fewer but with many loyal viewers over the years. It’s a moment to reflect—not just on numbers, but on platforms and squandered potential.

Microsoft let Skype rot on the vine. IMHO, WhatsApp and its clones wouldn’t have been necessary if Skype’s global community hadn’t been mismanaged into oblivion. Yahoo did the same with Flickr. Instagram might’ve remained a footnote had Yahoo not fumbled its head start—first under Jerry’s indecision, then under Marissa Mayer’s overhyped tenure.

Today’s Flickr is a shadow of its heyday. I recently scrolled through its primitive messaging system—still a stream of unthreaded, individual messages spanning hundreds of screens—to revisit my earliest interactions. Most of those accounts are gone. Others haven’t posted in a decade. Many have deleted their entire libraries, including non-erotic content, just to comply with Flickr’s shifting paid account policies.

In a world of uncensored paid platforms, wildly popular free PG-13 services, and even Google’s passive hosting options, it’s increasingly difficult to justify the steep annual cost of a Flickr Pro subscription.

So I ask: What are your thoughts? What’s your plan? Where do we, and Flickr, go from here?

#IMRAN #Yahoo #Flickr #Microsoft #Skype #strategy #consumers #customers #loyalty #CX #UX #innovation #future #photos #photography #SocialMedia #PhotoSharing #censorship #IMHO #commentary #management

Thursday, October 02, 2025

Fortunate To Know & Understand “O Fortuna” - IMRAN®

“O Fortuna” from “Carmina Burana” by Carl Orff is not just music—it’s a thunderous invocation of fate’s cruelty and fortune’s volatility. Composed in 1935, when my late father was a toddler, this choral masterpiece opens the cantata with a primal force that has echoed through concert halls, film scores, and—regrettably—too many superficial ads. But beneath the bombast lies a profound meditation on the wheel of fortune, the rise and fall of human destiny, and the raw unpredictability of life.

This particular performance by the Vienna Philharmonic (Wiener Philharmoniker) captures both the grandeur and the anguish embedded in Orff’s vision. The Latin lyrics, drawn from 13th-century medieval poetry, speak of fate as a tyrant—blind, capricious, and ever-turning. If you take a moment to read the translated text, you’ll uncover lines like:

“Fate—monstrous and empty, you whirling wheel…”

These aren’t just dramatic flourishes—they’re existential truths, shouted into the void by monks and minstrels who knew suffering, joy, and the impermanence of both.

There are many reasons why it moves me so much. The music’s relentless rhythm mirrors the pounding of time itself. The choir’s crescendos evoke the rise and fall of empires, fortunes, and lives. The lyrics remind us that no triumph is permanent, and no despair is final.

This piece has been one of my personal favorites for decades—not just for its sonic power, but for its philosophical depth. It’s a greatness-inspiring reminder that art can scream truth louder than any sermon or slogan.

Watch the video in the comment below—and if you’ve never read the full translation, do it. You’ll never hear “O Fortuna” the same way again.

I first heard O Fortuna more than 35 years ago—and it struck a chord so deep, I’ve never stopped resonating with it. Its fierce truth about fate and fortune mirrored my own worldview so precisely, it felt like the music had named something I’d always known. That alignment wasn’t just emotional—it was philosophical, spiritual, and enduring. I consider myself truly ‘Fortunate To Know & Understand “O Fortuna.”’

#IMRAN #music #classics #ClassicalMusic #Vienna #orchestra #CarminaBurana #fate #fortune #philosophy #history

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1DEoy1une6/?mibextid=wwXIfr

MMM: Making Music Magic: See How New Order Created Blue Monday - IMRAN®

How many of you love this great dance track from the 1980s? I enjoyed the breakdown https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1LnMUsCPRn/?mibextid=wwXIfr of the awesome song Blue Monday by New Order. https://youtu.be/9GMjH1nR0ds?si=Iro8-uJ8N2_3lWaq

Having loved the song since it came out, and being into MIDI music-making since the start of MIDI, literally 40 years ago, it makes me appreciate their talent and the power of this track so much more.