Imran Anwar, founder of Internet email, co-founder of .PK ccTLD, pioneer of credit card industry in Pakistan, comments on topics of interest to everyone. From timely news to timeless movies, elections to electronics, cloud computing to strategic marketing, and everything interesting in between. Read these sometimes serious, sometimes tongue in cheek opinions, add your comments. Click Like! on the FaceBook button. Share the post on FaceBook and socials.
Cold White Hot Cloud Attack (Tampa Bay Florida) - IMRAN™
(Timelapse Music Video. Play with sound, enjoy more on larger screens)
An almost icy-cold but white-hot looking series of mushroom clouds rose from the waters of Tampa Bay attacking the perfectly blue sky today. This is the timelapse video I captured with no filter and no editing of any kind to the images. The movement of the clouds, first boiling up into the sky, and then flattening to march towards land at Apollo Beach, was so dramatic I was inspired to compose a short music tune. I titled it "Cloud Attack" just to go with the video. It may be something I build on to make a track for my next music album. What do you think?
Apollo Beach Tampa Bay Florida Fireworks (Aerial Music Video) - IMRAN™
As the fourth of July weekend was rolling to an end, I took out the DJI Phantom 4 drone to the dock. I wanted to capture the view of the fireworks from all around the Tampa Bay area. This is Part 1, presented as a quick and dirty music video.
Kennedy and K2, my German Shepherd Dogs, were with me, as I recorded this drone flight and as the night boomed with the explosions from fireworks. I launched the drone a few minutes before 9 PM at which hour I expected the fireworks to start in earnest.
Enjoy the music. The music is actually just a 30-seconds riff I created to build on later. It even has two notes I hit accidentally and would not use in any actual music album. In the interest of time, I just repeated the loop a few times for this video. Enjoy the fireworks. Share with your friends who will also enjoy them.
Yes, wordplay intended. Winds of Change are all around Tampa Bay, Florida. And, yes, see the winds change ON Tampa Bay, and see how the winds change Tampa Bay waters' colors, textures, waves, and moods.
This was supposed to be a longer dramatic music video but a timer setting error meant it was only recorded as a 2.5-seconds timelapse. That is too short to post anywhere. So I slowed it down a little bit. That makes it 7-8 seconds so a little less shockingly twister-like as the original short recording is.
But you can see the drama. You can literally see the invisible wind visibly change right in front of your eyes. Watch the clouds initially swirl and twist perpendicular to the usual shape of twisters. See how they stretch along the East-West line but travel south to north.
But then, within seconds even in real-time, a massive shift in wind occurs and the clouds head towards the house and head east. Watch again just to see how the palm trees indicate the brute force of the shift. Dramatic nature!
Unfortunately, it is not a cute wordplay humorous title, but it is accurate. Thanks to sleazy organizations and corrupt politicians releasing tons of toxic waste into Tampa Bay waters the last 3 days have caused thousands of dead and dying fish to float by. Who knows how many more died in the wider and deeper parts of the bay, and elsewhere. EACH white spot (especially if you see this on a monitor vs a small device) is a dead or dying fish. Hundreds that are lodged on the rocks and shorelines are not even clearly visible. Shame on the people who let such a criminal slaughter take place.
Gorgeous Caribbean Waters At George Town, Cayman Islands Rocky Shoreline - IMRAN™
My then-GF "K" had taken me on a 4th of July holiday weekend trip to the Cayman Islands. It had been planned for my birthday a month or so earlier.
It was summer 2013. It was hot. It was the Caribbean. It was quite beautiful. I do have to admit, the Cayman Islands are not quite as exciting or beautiful to me as the Virgin Islands, or especially places like Eleuthera, also in the Caribbean.
This trip ended up being a lot more drama than it was worth at the time. Fortunately, it accelerated my decision to clear my life of unneeded drama on returning to the USA. However, I savor my great memories.
Regardless of how happy I can be to be rid of a few specific people in my life, I do always cherish the (good) memories and experiences we shared. Life is too short to erase those joyful experiences just because the persons with me at those times were not worthy of being kept next to me.
So, despite the too frequent bursts of drama, and my literally almost taking an early flight home, we did have some good times. We spent a lot of time exploring the shoreline of Grand Cayman.
During a long walk exploring the nooks and crannies off South Church Street, George Town, we found many beautiful spots to make memories, including this magical rocky place. Smith's Barcadere sandy beach was a good place to go snorkeling, as well as swimming in the absolutely stunning blue shades of water that surrounded the area. Very few people were around.
This is an old 3D camera video so the quality is not that great. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do to block out the irritating background sound. I did not want to kill the full audio of this clip because the sounds of water are always part of the magic of seeing a sea or ocean video. After all, it is just like having to tolerate negative people even during an amazingly positive happy blessed life!
It may be impossible to have two hours to spare to watch a golden Tampa Bay afternoon sky turn into a stunning summer sunset and mellow magical moon-fall. It is impossible not to be blown away by watching it in less than one minute in this HDR timelapse music video I created to share with you. Come, experience everything with me here.
German Shepherd Dogs Kennedy Looking For Dolphins & 3 Months Old Puppy K2 Looking For Ways To Annoy Him - IMRAN™
Kennedy, a GSD rescue I got in 2019, is one of those German Shepherd Dogs that should be a breed called Saint Something for his patience. K2 was a three months old puppy when I recorded this video at the dock of my blessed home on Tampa Bay, in Apollo Beach, Florida. This was a few days after my birthday last year, and only 5 weeks since K2 had found his forever family home here.
As boats go by you can see Kennedy keep an eye on them but his real interest is to wait for his dolphin buddies to show up. K2 in the meantime is getting ON Kennedy's nerves, by getting UNDER his skin AND his body to playfully bite at the larger dog's legs.
I love how Kennedy is so gentle even when he play fights puppies, smaller dogs. His tenderness is most incredible when I have seen him approach babies in strollers and sniff but without waking up the sleeping infant. That is better than some people's kids I know. LOL
Kennedy & K2 Frolic At The Beach On Tampa Bay Florida (3D Anaglyph) - IMRAN™
Enjoy this anaglyph (red/blue shades) 3D experience as Kennedy and K2, my always happy and active German Shepherd Dogs, frolic on the beach in my neighborhood. (Please use the red/blue shades to see the 3D).
Renegade Serenade (First Cut) - Untitled Album - IMRAN™
Been too busy (or lazy? LOL) to do anything since I released my first album "nTrance" in 2003-2004. Catch that on Spotify at https://play.spotify.com/album/0w09TS16TwyBs3FVHgb0BH .
Over the years I started work on many new tracks, but have not had time to put them together into a new album. I am finally getting around to giving it more time.
Check out this first take on one I call Renegade Serenade. Work in progress, and it has not been given any editing, mixing, or mastering treatment at all.
One sound is jarring because the real synth for that track is my Korg in New York so the placeholder instrument sound is a bit too loud and clashing. But, as I said, just a first take... Enjoy.
10 Years - Dusk At Shoreline Park Marina Alameda California January 2011 - IMRAN™
How quickly a decade can fly by. The iPhone 4 video was recorded during my stay in Oakland, California, literally 10 years ago prior to my writing these lines.
It was mid-January, 2011. It was a complicated time in my life, as for many others. I was recovering from the craziness that was the George W. Bush inflicted near-depression economic meltdown of 2008-2009. But I was hard at work exploring new ideas, new opportunities, and yet experiencing life to the fullest. Today, I am writing this hoping that the country can recover from the Donald Trump inflicted economic suffering, and a near-destruction of democracy in America in the four years leading up to the elections in 2020. As I was a decade ago, I am hopeful.
That chilly California evening I had met my friend and old Columbia MBA classmate Larry Landman, who had left the USA for Denmark back in 1991 or so but was visiting California at the same time as me. We walked around this beautiful marina in Alameda catching up while catching the sunset and dusk over the Shoreline Park marina.
The fleet of sailboats, many with blue colors prominent, were lined up against the pink sky and the terrain in the background. I wonder if the scene there has changed much 10 years later.
Without being presumptuous of even a day of life ahead, I also wonder what life holds in store in the next 10 years. Only the best, God Willing.
Inauguration Day 2021 Magic Floating By On Tampa Bay Sunset Clouds - IMRAN™
Enjoy 30 seconds of tranquility and peace in this timelapse sunset music video.
This was the first sunset after the inauguration of Joe Biden as President of the United States. A sense, and hope, of a return to normalcy, was in the air as the magic floated in the air of these colorful clouds crossing over my blessed home at sunset.
I just hit a couple of keys on the Korg WaveStation keyboard to add random music to the video in a quick music-video. This is a sound I plan to use in a track in my next music album.
Watch Saturn & Jupiter Drop In For A Romantic Rendezvous With Earth As Gold & Pink Fire Filled Sky Sunset Ends In Heavenly Bodies' Seductions Over Tampa Bay Florida - IMRAN™
Imagine a triple seduction and willing submission of two heavenly bodies with a down to earth speck of dust. You can see magnificent colors of love and erotica fill the sky as the sun sets over Tampa Bay, Florida. But even as the sky bid adieu to those vivid hues and began its embrace with the darkness of night, Saturn followed Jupiter to drop in on the scene in preparation for their secretly getting even closer in the nights to come.
So much magic and passion in the air, tonight and every night, as two beautiful brilliant golden powerful heavenly bodies willingly submitting to the pull of gravity excitedly anticipate their time with me, separately and together, making magic, each time, right here, in front of my camera lens, very soon. <3 <3
PS Due to some logistics challenges, I had to use the terrible user experience of Cyberlink PowerDirector to straighten the horizon of the original Nikon D850 sunset timelapse video. Unfortunately, that turned the video into a mushy 720 resolution video, which I then added music and titles to in my many-years old iMovie program on the MacBook Pro.
Sun Down, Tempo Up - IMRAN™ Watch another "routine" spectacular Florida sunset unfold over Tampa Bay. As Friday after Thanksgiving came to an end, I shot this quick timelapse with the Nikon D850 just as the sun was setting. Sun down, tempo up, the clouds sped up -- as did the number of boats that went past my lens on this holiday weekend.
German Shepherd Dogs, Boating, Sailing, Sunday Scene Tampa Bay Florida - IMRAN™
Just a quick Livestream from my neighborhood's Symphony Isles beach on Tampa Bay, Florida. Kennedy and K2 are enjoying the beach as boats and sailboats dot the seascape. A gorgeous weekend coming to an end.
A quick video through the kitchen sliding door to the pool deck. I was looking at K2, my then 9-weeks old German Shepherd puppy, having a grand time eating a sweet mango. Mango is the king of all fruits, especially if you ever get to eat a genuine Pakistani mango of any of the many incredible varieties there. Kennedy was nearby and had already had his piece.
German Shepherd Puppy K2 Can Pester German Shepherd Dog Kennedy & Human Owner In 30 Seconds & Still Have Time To Relax - IMRAN™
Yes, German Shepherd puppies are super adorable. But they are also very effective at using time. What other creature can pester, bite, annoy, amuse and just get love from a grown German Shepherd Dog AND an adult human in 30-seconds and still have time left to spare to play?
K2 Kennedy Wrestling On The Dock After Shampoo & Shower - IMRAN™
Another short video from earlier this year. K2 and Kennedy both had gotten shampooed and showered at the dock, and were still wet. K2 as usual started a little game with Kennedy, and the older German Shepherd was more than happy to play along.
Kennedy vs K2, German Shepherds Tug Of War In Half A Minute Of Cuteness - IMRAN™
Kennedy likes to sometimes rip up dried fronts and branches as if he is tearing apart the carcass of an animal he has hunted. K2 loves doing that too. But in this case, K2 was more interested in a tug of war with Kennedy.
2019 Beautiful Boating Blue Bay BCI Beach BC Before COVID 19 - IMRAN™
Even though this was just over a year ago, in some ways it looks like a different era. Mid-May 2019, I captured this video in a short live stream on my jetski bobbing on the wakes and waves of Tampa Bay boaters next to Beer Can Island's beach on the east side.
K2 German Shredder Training While Chill Champ Kennedy Relaxes - IMRAN™
Another from the early videos of K2, the GSD puppy, learning to be a German Shredder. The older but still young although wise and very chill German Shepherd Kennedy just ignores the puppy's antics.
Orion Crosses The Pre-Dawn Sky Above My Home, As The World Turns - IMRAN™
One of the many magics of the universe that I do not get enough time to savor, study, and share is simply the stunning sky right above our very heads. This was a nearly 4-hours timelapse from about 2-6 AM.
I captured it with the Nikon D850 pointed to the South as Orion crossed the sky above my blessed home in Apollo Beach, Florida. Even here the light pollution from Saint Petersburg to the right makes it harder to see the stars on that side.
It was interesting to see the pre-pre-dawn light breaking over the western sky start to flash to the left of the screen at about 5:30 AM. They were not house lights.
Maybe they were sky angel cops chasing Orion around the universe, flashing red and blue, early in the morning. No matter what light you favor in the elections, red or blue, I am hopeful for the rise of a new dawn, of hope, justice, decency, democracy, and love.
Kennedy & K2 Chill Watching Boats On Tampa Bay & A Florida Sunset - IMRAN™
Quick clip from the iPhone from K2's first week with me. Yes, I know, I have not even uploaded all the cutest videos from April yet. This one was as much to share the sunset and boating scene with you as to show these two beautiful German Shepherds who enjoy these with me.
Where The Heck Is Hope Hicks? - IMRAN™ Unless Trump somehow got Hope Hicks pregnant and has sent her into hiding, am I somehow missing any mention of her in the news? It was almost a month ago that she tested positive for... something. And since then, no news of her recovering, working from quarantine, being in a coma, or pregnant with orange demon sperm. Wishing all the traitor-enabling sycophants ill does not mean wishing them dead. But it would be interesting to see if someone that close to Dr. Death Drumpf croaked from the 'hoax' virus that was going from 15 cases to zero as he claimed in February. Now the MilkMan Pence is going to take the fall as the head of the coronavirus task force has 5 people in his circle test positive with the disease. What pre-existing condition would Trump accuse Hope Hicks of having... treasonitis? Sycophancilitis? Syphillis?
Mind-Blowing Tampa Bay Sunset & Florida Dusk With Stars Moving Across The Sky (60-Seconds Music Video) - IMRAN™
Enjoy the mind-blowing 1-minute music video, showing 2 hours of sunset, dusk, and stars rotating above, as the world turns. Boats, jet skis, airplanes, satellites, clouds, birds, and even dragonflies fly by. Literally all in 60 seconds. Play with sound, ideally on a big screen. Replay to see so much going on it is hard to catch in one viewing. Like, Love, Comment, Share and understand why I bow my head in gratitude.
Having been born and raised in Pakistan, but having traveled the world, I know that the mangoes from Punjab in Pakistan are literally the kings of all fruits from anywhere on the planet. Knowing that how could I not introduce my precious new German Shepherd puppy K2 to that fruit? Kennedy had previously had it while being with me. As you can see, K2 was totally into it, when he had been with me one week. The wet doggy bed is from his having been in the swimming pool earlier. Kennedy and K2 both enjoyed their first tastes. Both decided that German Shepherd Dogs Are A Man(Go)'s Best Friends.
60 Seconds Mind-Blowing Tampa Bay Boating Sunset (Nikon D850 Music Video) - IMRAN™
Two jet skis race by as a cargo container sidles past the exquisite colors of this sunset. Enjoy the 1-minute music video.
Full-fledged DSLR cameras like the Nikon D850 can take some great pictures as you have seen. Video recording ability was one of the reasons I waited for this model. But it is very hard to do handheld casual videos, especially when trying to manually zoom in by rotating the tight barrel of the 70-300mm Nikkor lens.
It leads to a twisting motion on the hand holding the camera, and the video will show those movements. But still, I had wanted to zoom in on the mind-blowing colors of this sunset on Tampa Bay. This was at my blessed home in Apollo Beach, Florida.
Red Hot Memories Of Heavenly Blue Views At Harbour Island, Eleuthera, Bahamas, Caribbean, At Romantic Getaway Spot - IMRAN™(PG13 text)
A low-resolution video taken in 2007, this has poor quality compared to what we see these days even in cell phones. But it is still enough to show the heavenly views of the Caribbean facing East at the beautiful Coral Sands resort in Eleuthera, Bahamas. The sand there is literally powder soft and pure pink.
One of my then beloved girlfriends loved to travel as much as I did. This was one of the great trips she took us on.
Of the primary colors RGB (red-green-blue), Red was the one that seemed totally absent in this scene. But that is where I come in to add color to life and love.
We made some remarkable red hot deep and intense memories as I had her desire more and more at this spot. The balcony wide open to see and to the sea, glass windows all around, sounds of other couples nearby, the ordinary balcony chair in that instant became a precious loveseat.
A throne for a precious princess to ride to glory oblivious to what public mores against public amore might demand. And that was when the purest passionate pleasures came in unison...
I still recall seeing the blue sea and blue sky in her penetrating blue eyes as she melted in a puddle of desire. What a magical moment, leaving our mark wherever we went and came.
It is interesting how people come and go from our lives. That girl is an ex-GF for more than a dozen years but the memories are always to be cherished for a lifetime. Ironically, this is also where I met and became friends with Suzette who is here on FB and a beloved beautiful friend even today.
Orient Point NY Ferry Ride To New London CT 10 Years Ago - IMRAN™
Among the over 150,000 digital photos and videos I have not had a chance to post, this was a good one to share literally 10 years (and 3 days) after I first recorded it. The iPhone 4 video was recorded during one of my favorite 'boat rides' -- the ferry ride from Orient Point, Long Island, New York, to New London, Connecticut, on my way to Boston, Massachusetts, as I was doing frequently back in late 2010. Enjoy the 2010 video with my 2020 music track, Be/Coming Breathless.
Incredible Inspirational Ideas Terrific Timelapse Tampa Bay Boating Beautiful Sunset Scene Shared - IMRAN™ (Inspiration Words, Music Video)
A foreboding mood settled on the horizon while the bright blue sky above tried to liven it up below. The deep red bled from the sky was bleeding into the melting gold, like the way men throughout history have shed the blood of others to gain wealth and power. The onshore wind slapped the water into a persistent pattern of little crests and troughs, each a tiny tempest in its own world, yet totally insignificant on the ocean of time. The palm trees danced a frenzied dance wanting to fly responding to the wild wind but rooted forever in the circumstance of their existence. Yet, it all comes together, like a miracle, when all these elements, and forces of light and dark, movement and stillness, unite to hasten the end of the darkness, in preparation for a new day's dawn shared by all of them. All of us. Let us unite again, as Americans, as Pakistanis, as earth-dwellers, and as humans, to start a new chapter before the end of the year.
I hope you enjoy this music video The horizon was a little more darkly cloudy than I would have preferred for it to be a long drawn out colors sunset and dusk. But who am I to complain when the result is still so much to be grateful for. This is a timelapse video made from literally almost 2000 individual photos taken by the Nikon D850. Each image was 25-30 MB so that would have taken forever to process. I just wanted to test how the results would be, so I actually made this from images just 5-10% of the original size.
Sparring K2 Takes On Kennedy On Dock At Home - IMRAN™
This year is effectively over. Despite all the craziness, it has flown by. I am still catching up on posting the cite videos and photos of K2. Here he is exactly 9 weeks old. He has known Kennedy a full week, and just like since Day 1, he loves play-fighting. He is taking on Kennedy, my loving and wise older, and at that time much bigger, German Shepherd Dog in a sparring and wrestling match on the dock of my blessed home, where I was watching a sunset and saying my Maghreb prayers and offering gratitude to the Almighty for everything. Enjoy K2's antics, Kennedy's plays, and the joy that having a puppy and a beautiful dog guarantees.
Good Boy K2 Tells Bold Boy Kennedy To Heed NO TRESPASSING Sign - IMRAN™
They say German Shepherd Dogs are very smart. They also are bold and will sometimes push the limits. For example, Kennedy went on to a neighboring dock to get a look towards our home to the right on the water. But K2, the 9 weeks old GSD puppy, seems to literally stop at the NO TRESPASSING sign and then scolds Kennedy when he returns to us. To his credit, you can see Kennedy look down at the sign as if he has just read it for the first time. LOL.
