You-Want's Life

I have always wanted to go to Paris since late 2013.  Paris has long been promoted through various forms of media, but I was either too young to notice it, or too naïve to appreciate foreign cultures. When I watched Disney’s blockbuster animated film, Ratatouille, I was somehow unmoved by the breathtaking details the creators included while designing the beauty of a well-lit Paris at night; I sadly did not pay sufficient attention to the settings of Mr. Bean’s Holiday when he roamed across Paris from La Defense to Paris Gare Du Lyon. But as a Taylor Swift’s fan, the release of her music video for the song, Begin Again , quickly grasped my attention. Having been filmed in the French capital, the music video introduced Paris in a romantic, dreamy, fairy-dusted light. I fell in love with Swift as much as with the artistic direction their team has taken for the 4-minute long video. Paris is widely recognised as The City of Love. That became a key reason for Swift’s team to fly to Paris...

Winter is a beautiful, beautiful season when it snows. The world is in shades of white and blue, and the gloominess of the sky feels only much depressing. However, it’s in the weather which I find the most fitting time to process and heal from the past. As snow falls, it blankets everything, like a shield of comfort and beauty over the scars on your skin. I see frosty mornings with sunlight shining through forest foliage in different angles and suburban streets becoming a state of art in the snow. Anything hideous seems to receive a glam makeover and any pain would feel numb and perhaps doesn't actually matter anymore.  So despite the cold, it’s a hopeful reset.  And when the sun comes out the next day, shining over the white town that puts me in awe, over and over again. I see beauty still exists in something so utterly temporary. I then remember all the times when I think I have everything I have ever wanted forever but still fear losing them. I think about how unknown the f...

Having come from a conservative country, nudity is a huge taboo. You can’t avoid the sounds of ‘yerrrr’ or ‘yuckkkk’ when somebody in the room (or in sight) is naked. Someone is bound to make a reaction. Yep, that’s where I came from.  Being put in a boarding school hostel near the country’s capital where open showers were practised as a sign of brotherhood, it was a rare glimpse into that Western culture we so commonly see on TV, where students openly shower after some sports sessions but nobody makes a whine. It was hard to assimilate into that environment at first, for sure, with my heart racing anytime I had to go into the shower room and if anyone entered the space when I was in there. But I’ve learnt a thing or two there after a few rounds- it’s not that bad being seen naked- the question to myself was, why was I ashamed of my body? Too skinny, or too small? Was I trying to hide anything? In the world of highschoolers and teenagers, body image discrimination could be a huge t...

Euan Thum is a Malaysian model and poet based in Coventry, United Kingdom. He has worked with renowned photographers from Britain, Poland, Italy, Pakistan and Malaysia. In the field of poetry, Euan's work has been featured in multiple international publications including the Nightingale Journal and the Beckindale Poetry Journal. This is an interview with Red Game Magazine, done in August 2020. Shot by Hlouwby Tell us about your brand.   I express myself through poetry, modelling and photography, while inspiring those with low self-esteem to see themselves in their own reflection and love themselves for who they are. I am also involved in numerous social projects, which aim to leave positive impacts across various fields including education, environment, mental health and more.   When did you know that this was the right path for you?  I grew up timid and reserved, and at many points in my childhood I could hardly stand up for myself. In my mid-teens, I was bursting w...

This article was first published on StemSide's platform . We know corals as the colourful rock-like structures under the sea that host numerous species of sea life. But what are corals, really? Are they living creatures or just plain rocks? Are they animals or plants? Corals are in fact, animals. Corals are formed by coral polyps, animals with soft bodies and short, tentacle-like arms that pull their food and sweep it into their mouths. They are close relatives to sea anemones and jellyfish. Corals are also sessile, which means they attach themselves to the seafloor. Figure 1: The similarities in the anatomy of a coral polyp and a jellyfish (medusa). See Footnote 1 for image credits. Corals connect with each other and create a colony which grows over hundreds of thousands of years and becomes a reef. The base of corals is made of a protective limestone skeleton (calcium carbonate) called a calicle which forms the structure of these reefs. Figure 2: The anatomy of a coral polyp...