The good life | Kamiel Choi

Drawing cows for Miru

Miru loves cows. When she sees a cow, or any animal that looks like a cow, she touts her lips and utters a long "mooo!" I don't know where her little obsession came from, but cows are the largest animals she knows thus far, and her first bovine encounter had been overwhelming. She fled into ...

And (what if) I say, that it is this culture of excessive individualism that has created the constellation where "community" is perceived as some kind of higher purpose, and our "ego" as something low, something we need to be ashamed of. If community is our true value, the individual would be celebrated as the valuable ...

Pfffrt.

[series-miru] Pfffrt. Miru is now sixteen months, and she's adorable. I think I can't find the words for it, which is a wonderful irony because she is getting more expressive every day. I've been meaning to write this for a long time, and I have the feeling it might already be outdated because Miru is ...

The Aura of Money

A little anecdote that showed me recently what is wrong with our money: We were eating out in an Indian restaurant, where they serve excellent vegetarian dishes, fresh naan-bread and aromatic rice. The portions were quite large, and we were enjoying the many flavours, while feeding some of the salat cucumbers to our one-year old. ...

Loss

I've been dreaming about loss, why? Loss of material objects that were in my possession a decade ago (such as computer disks or books), or still having to finish some exams to earn my college degree or even my high school diploma (a recurring dream I have that I'd love to look up in the ...

The Average Family

Kansas, 2050. - The shit has hit the fan, years ago. The Surveillance State has diabolical proportions and every citizen gives voice to dissent, shows abnormal behavior or otherwise deviates from the average, is arrested. Family Grey has always lived comfortably, and during the first months after the crises (a term that was used mostly ...

Let her do the talking

[series-miru] Miru gets more expressive every day. Her vocal range resembles that of ever more extraordinary songbirds, she can stick out her tongue, pick her father's nose or anything else that fits her fingers, she can stand for several consecutive minutes, smiling proud of her accomplishment, eat with a spoon, decorate her surroundings with food ...

Personal story: How to tell the story of our car explosion

We're doing fine. I'm sitting in a bar in Zaragoza, watching an old man waiting, a glass of brandy in front of him. He looks at his watch. The Chinese children on the bar are yelling, and the television plays football. It is eight and I am here to write. Words are increasing their subjective ...

Think like a network [draft]

It is nice to focus on our own social group. The search for more community spirit seems to be a common denominator of many people who have fallen, for various reasons, out of love with the individual consumerist worldview and its promise of satisfaction through material saturation. So we head for the exit, we dream ...