Having grown up in an entirely different culture, I did not grow up playing cowboys. There were no lassos, no toy guys, no horses (or rocking horses), no saddles, no Stetson hats, no cigarettes, no Midwestern drawl… But I would often read about it in books. This society - it made me curious. It all [...]

By early 1961, as many as 1,000 people a day flee East German communism for a better life in the capitalist west. Western media report the exodus. Eastern state-controlled media ignore it. Still, East Berliners can see their neighbors leaving. The migration continues. On Aug. 13, 1961, the East German government throws up a 27-mile-long [...]

I believe extra-terrestrial lifeforms are out there, somewhere in the galaxy. They must be. The universe cannot be this lonely. Perhaps they have even visited us? Perhaps they are observing us from afar, paying close attention to our life, monitoring our behaviour and studying our mental capacity. How do they see our world? What do [...]

I used to dream of flying through space: observing life from afar. This habit of mine started not long after riding aboard an airplane for the first time in my life. Seeing parcels of land and clusters of buildings becoming tinier as I flew further away was a very fascinating experience. I was intrigued by [...]

Years ago, when I just arrived in Vancouver, I would often lose my way while navigating the often-confusing highways. I did not have the luxury of Google Maps, or any maps for that matter. On one of my mis-journeys, I had to drive through a bridge. I did not know its name at the time, [...]

The eye is a powerful organ. It helps us distinguish the real from the unreal. It feeds into the brain, letting it interpret the signals. Is this reality? What makes it real? Seeing it? Touching it? Recognising it? What are the factors that help us separate the authentic from the fakeries? Certainly many other factors [...]

Recently, two new murals by Roy Arden were unveiled at the Vancouver Convention Centre Expansion Project in Coal Harbour, Vancouver. Using historic photo images from the Vancouver Public Library, Arden’s giant collage Big House (2008) depicts events in pre-WWII British Columbia. The focus of Big House is the social and economic struggles, conflicts and realities [...]

I am not one to remember my nocturnal emancipations. Try as I might, I cannot remember much. However, last night was quite the pleasant exception. I have been down with the flu for the past week, and so have not been able to sleep well, if at all. I am just now getting better, and [...]

As a child, I hated mealtimes. I was never interested in eating. Faced with the gargantuan task of feeding myself, I would divert my attention to playing with my food. All the broccoli florets would become a forest, all the mounds of rice would be molded into cliffs, I would pour in all the soup [...]

In this day and age of Flickr and Facebook, I have very few pictures of myself taken. The only ones that surface are ones you see as my avatar. The last time I had a picture taken was during my trip to Malaysia - a year ago. I just do not like the idea of [...]