I have taken some time off from being active online and engaging in digital correspondence with friends for a few weeks now. Somehow, it has felt both like a condensation and an expansion of time. During this period, I have stopped some activities I used to spend much more time doing (reading books, writing this…
“Children on social media” may conjure a few different things: young teens populating TikTok trending ranks with their quirky dance moves, or pre-teens clicking “Agree” to social media websites’ terms of service even though they are under 13 years old and technically not allowed to have an account. And then, there are the babies –…
I was a teenager who would eat up all the contents about minimalism and decluttering. Over ten years ago, when I was barely out of middle school, I made it a point to only possess a certain number of items, to eliminate the “inessentials” from my life, and to not buy things I didn’t need…
The age of social media seems to birth and nurture a phenomenon of constant social comparison. Measuring oneself against an external yardstick has never not been a staple of society. We, just like previous generations, are held hostage by an unbendable urge to live up to certain standards and earn validation from others. Unfortunately, with…
At the start of every year, I usually sit down and draw up a list of fifty or so books that I would like to get through during the year. Even though I have never managed to read even half this list, the mere idea of planning my read list in advance helps me push…
I recently read the Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath and her private reflections sparked some thoughts about the writing process. I’ve always sort of known that talented and established writers still “struggle” with the craft of writing. It’s an eternal challenge to feel fully immersed in and/or capable at whichever profession you are in, no…
Have you ever thought about how much time and energy humans exerted on the act of pretending? Perhaps if we seriously ask and study this question, we may arrive at a shocking answer that discreetly turns our existence into that of miserable fraudsters rather than decent, gratified human beings. My estimate is that most of…
This is a submission to the UNESCO Vietnam Office for a communications (& design) intern position. I didn’t get hired in the end but still quite like these graphics that I made. So why not keep them here? 🙂 A Sight to Lose Have you seen an image of plastic waste in the ocean, or…
The first time I listened to the song Don’t Let the Good Life Pass You By by Cass Elliot (Mama Cass!), I audibly cheered to the lyrics. This feel-good folksy tune sends a remarkably simple message: life can be wonderful and we shall cherish the little pleasures of it while we can. It sounds cheesy…
On a spectrum of very-spontaneous-borderline-reckless to steady-and-calculated-like-clockwork, where do you fall? I guess for most people the answer is dependent on the circumstances. There are some decisions we make that barely take any time to deliberate, but some other choices seem to put us at a crossroad for infinite time. The decisions we ought to…
I don’t know who originated this theory, but I remember reading somewhere that our “bad” habits are often built upon at least one unfulfilled emotional need. I use “bad” in quotation marks here also to allow for a multiplicity of interpretations when it comes to the habits that we deem unfavorable and undesirable. For me,…
Previously I have gone over why it’s tempting to feel like one individual cannot do much to make a change in the climate crisis, and why I personally believe otherwise. It is difficult and perhaps futile to measure one’s efforts against the insurmountable demand for large-scale, effective climate action. For that reason, I believe that…
When I was writing the blog post on Internet nostalgia and what I miss about the bygone eras of the web, I began to also reflect on what I get to appreciate about the present landscape of the online world. There are still so many treasures or hidden gems that I can celebrate today about…
Amidst the greenwashing from corporations and the desperate outcries from activists for collective action, a single individual wanting to do something on their part to counter climate change may feel as if their only options alternate between sliding down the consumerist chasm (which is by definition counterproductive, mind you) and experiencing a sense of insignificance…