taimoor.me is now Online

Its been a long run, a very long run. Though in between we may have had prolonged absences it has still been a considerable amount of time since we have used this space to create, share and explore a variety of thoughts & ideas. However, circumstances are such that we now bid farewell.

Though the change would not be majorly visible on the face of it since we move to what has been created more or less as an exact replica of the old Mind Storm essentially Mind Storm has re spawned again.

So I bid you farewell at taimoor.wordpress.com and welcome you to a place of fresh possibilities and new beginnings taimoor.me

Project taimoor.me

Couple of days back there was a ticker on the WordPress Dashboard urging me to buy a taimoor.me domain through them and mapping it to my current blog. A passing glance at that and with a slight push from Munir today I have managed to register for both domain and hosting. Apparently, my blog is now being self hosted and as this is typed WordPress 3.2.1 is being uploaded onto the hosting servers for subsequent installation.

While it happens, a little run through for anyone else who might be interested in getting this done:

1. Do not get the hosting or domain registration done through WordPress itself. The price tag there is day light robbery.
2. The folks at Pi Labs Hosting, however, are quite helpful and at least for me made the entire registration process fairly swift & simple. Not to mention not that heavy on the pocket.
3. Next comes the installation of WordPress 3.0 (or any version for that matter) on your hosting servers. Again, fairly simple. A step by step tutorial can be found at: http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress
4. Going with the assumption that my readers are noobs such as your truly, FileZilla is nice little FTP app which lets seamlessly upload your WordPress installation files to the hosting servers.
5. Now I am sure most people would actually have a blog before they would decide to migrate their blog to a self hosting scenario. This subsequently means that the bulk of posts &  comments already on the blog need to be moved to the new enterprise. If you are a WordPress blogger simple follow the link below and your migration problem is solved.  (The page makes it looks fairly simple, haven’t experienced it first hand as yet. #FingersCrossed)

Like I said, its fairly simple and hopefully you folks would find Mind Storm at a new destination for the future posts.

Returning now to the uploading, installation and migration.

P.S. If PTCL is your DSL service provider, forget hosting and better go shoot your brains out instead. Otherwise, their super slow upload speeds would knock your socks off!

What is Swaish?

Swaish is the answer when you don’t know the question. Swaish is the agreement when there is a fight. Swaish is the word when there is no word. Swaish is the conclusion to all arguments. Swaish is a religion when you have lost all faith. Swaish is the light when there is night. Swaish is I love you when you are feeling shy. Swaish is the beauty we cant find. Swaish is the food which warms our bellies. Swaish is a thank you when you don’t want to thank openly. Swaish is culture, swaish is a code, swaish is everything which is otherwise missing. Swaish is the tradition which separates men from beasts. Swaish is the honor which is difficult to keep. Swaish is the bird when there aren’t two in the bush.

When there is nothing there is swaish, when there is swaish there is everything.

I bid you all swaish!

Oil Slick

So you take a weak sewerage line structure, a tired driver in the prime mover, a tank truck hauling the precious black gold and the patience to prance around an oil spill in the most unexpected of places; and you have yourself a beautiful reflection of the truck in a deep pool of what otherwise would have made some really expensive electricity.

Until you have a reasonable explanation of how did anyone manage to tilt an 18 wheeler at a place where the speed couldn’t possibly increase more than 15kmph; this makes for a pretty amusing sight.

Oasis

When you live in a metropolis with greenery as sparse as the rule of law in a war torn country the sight of a few well maintained coconut trees is nothing short of a treat for eyes grown weary of a concrete landscape.

Just a glimpse of the world outside the boundaries of the frame will reveal the absolute barrenness of the surroundings but we are here to treat our eyes not bore them with the redundancy of concrete structures.

Macro on iPhone

Took some time to experiment with the Macro photography on my iPhone. That would be the first presentable shot that has been managed. iPhotography has suddenly opened a whole new world for me!

Drowning in the Ocean

Centuries past when Helious reined the skies and mortals bowed to him – the Lord of Light – it was still the Ocean which was the feared deity. For it drowned men, killed then who tasted it and swallowed the light to spread the insanity of night fall. Ocean; mother of darkness, slayer of the Lord of Light and bringer of terror which consumes men grown.

Behold, the last glorious moment of the gracious Helios and prepare for the rule of the vengeful Mother of Darkness.

Captured in Ruins

Times when things beyond usefulness suddenly don’t seem useless. In death they mingle with the barren landscape and come to life when captured in their ruin!

Turn to Gold

With dusk, a lot comes to life; things which don’t exist, colors only imagined and ideas which are mere fantasies. And if you happen to find yourself at the right place at the right time you may witness a rarity never seen before. For dusk is a fleeting moment and it’s elaborate mysteries reveal only to the fortunate few.

In the Right Shade

The right light can do wonders for a photograph; anyone who has ever used something as primitive as a point-and-shoot camera is well aware of that.

However, when your primary camera is one mounted on the phone you carry around in your pocket, mostly lightening isn’t a luxury available to you. Though that doesn’t mean that the world of creative photography is lost to you and sometimes even shadows & mere reflections provide with shots which, if nothing else, are interesting to look at.

Here are a few to validate that claim.