§03 Writing

Writing captures self truths, and encourages me to slow down and observe

§03.1 The book

Flesh is the Shore cover

Book · 2026

Flesh is the Shore

My first book: about 24,000 words, 84 pages in a 5 × 8 paperback. I wrote and typeset it in subScribe, the writing suite I built, and it comes out in 2026.

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§03.2 Hong Kong, 2018–2019

A city disappearing in slow motion.

I spent 2018 and 2019 in Hong Kong as a SCAD student, and I wrote about the city as it fought for its identity—from the first anxious conversations about 2047 to the tear gas of the extradition-bill protests. These are in the order I wrote them.

  1. 01 Sep 2018 · Essay Anxiety in Hong Kong: The Threat of Merging With China “To be honest, I really hate China,” a frustrated Hong Kong local said to me. Students on the looming merger with China, and why most of them refuse to be called Mainland Chinese.
  2. 02 Apr 2019 · Travelogue Chungking Mansions: The Ghetto of Hong Kong With Great Food A vast collection of seedy, low-budget hotels, infamous for its history of drug trafficking, prostitution, and illegal goods, that also contains some of the best Indian food in Hong Kong.
  3. 03 Apr 2019 · Travelogue The Graveyard of Ceramic Deities: Exploring Southern Hong Kong In the back of Hong Kong Island, there is a secluded area where the hills are filled with thousands of ceramic deities.
  4. 04 Jun 2019 · Essay · Medium Hong Kong: Disappearing in Slow Motion Hong Kong’s cultural identity, democracy, and freedom of speech are under threat from the looming superpower touching its northern border.
  5. 05 Jul 2019 · Journal The Fall of Hong Kong Hong Kong fights back against Chinese influence, despite the inevitable decline of the territory.
  6. 06 Jul 2019 · Essay The Police, Triads, and the Yuen Long Attacks: Fall of Hong Kong Revised It is 11 pm. Splashes of blood decorate the floor and shrill yells fill the halls of the Western Rail Line in Yuen Long—the police are not there.
  7. 07 Aug 2019 · Essay What Now? The Future of Hong Kong Protests For over two months, Hong Kong has stood at an impasse, with millions of citizens protesting the fugitive extradition law to China—but the future of the protests seems uncertain.
  8. 08 Aug 2019 · Journal Hong Kong: Thoughts on August 5th I am deeply disturbed by the events that unfolded on the 5th of August in Hong Kong.
  9. 09 Aug 2019 · Journal Summer Journal: June The night air was heavy, smelling of the sea, fish, and cigarette smoke. At a hawker centre in Tuen Mun, a table of beers turned to the hypocrisy of democracy.
  10. 10 Oct 2019 · Journalism · SCAD District Hong Kong: A Farewell With a year full of societal unrest, it is important to look at why Hong Kong is an incredible experience, and why you should visit.
  11. 11 Dec 2019 · Journalism · SCAD District Hong Kong Protests: What Started Them and Why It's Still Going Hong Kong has been in the throes of city-wide protests since June 9th. What started it? Why is it going on for so long? What is SCAD’s response?

§03.3 Journalism

Aliquo Journal · Jul 2021 How the Twelve Tribes’ Multi-Generational Plan to Return the Messiah Results in Child Abuse “It’s a cult,” the locals whisper as they walk past a yellow café in Savannah. With Katie Woodworth, I looked at how the group’s plan to return the Messiah results in the abuse of its children.
Aliquo Journal · Feb 2021 One Hundred Is When I Will Go My great-grandmother, 98, uncovers her anxieties, regrets, and things she’s thankful for amid isolation from the pandemic.
Aliquo Journal · Nov 2020 Hundreds Converge on Maine Capitol Claiming Election Fraud Hundreds of Trump supporters, with megaphones, flags, and dead deer in tow, converged on the Maine Capitol in Augusta to claim Democrats stole the election from them.
Medium · Nov 2020 A Celebration of the Mundane: The Umbrella Cover Museum A quaint Maine museum’s appreciation for the mundane.
Medium · Mar 2020 Psychoanalysts to Cribstone: A Look at a Small Maine Island An island off Maine’s coast offers unique historical attractions, with a surprising link to Jungian psychology.
SCAD District · Feb 2020 Radio Host Miguel Fuller Proclaims 'Let Me Be Me' Miguel Fuller gave an engaging and useful talk at the Pei Ling Chan Amphitheater about what it means to be a radio host.
SCAD District, removed · Feb 2020 A University's Shaky Response to the Coronavirus SCAD moved all Hong Kong classes to eLearning for the rest of the quarter due to coronavirus fears. We can’t talk about it.
SCAD District · Jan 2020 Gambling on the American Dream: The Struggle of Visa Holders SCAD represents 119 countries. Many of its students are in the U.S. on a visa and plan to work here—a prospect that is becoming more unobtainable every year.
Aliquo Journal · Dec 2019 Sentimental Sewing: The Stories That Made a Museum “It was the first inanimate object I had a moment with,” said Wayne “W.K.” Binger, who runs the Vintage Sewing Machine Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
SCAD District · Oct 2018 Emotional Support Animals Cause Legal Trouble for County In Savannah, four short sentences in the updated ordinance removed Emotional Support Animal (ESA) status from dogs without Canine Good Citizen (CGC) certification.

§03.4 Essays, travelogues, and a journal

Most of these first ran on the Aliquo Journal, the blog I kept from 2018 to 2021. It lives here now.

  1. Essay · Mar 2021 A Hate Crime: Growing Anti-Asian Violence in the US The pandemic has been racialized, increasing the violence and verbal abuse toward Asian Americans—women especially.
  2. Essay · Nov 2020 The Neighborhood of Empty Houses I came to realize my neighbors were nothing but empty houses.
  3. Essay · Apr 2020 Analyzing Munch's Vampire Vampire, Edvard Munch’s famous painting, was a title assigned by a later interpretation, influencing the modern understanding of the art for over a century.
  4. Journal · Jan 2020 New Year, New Anxieties The year of 2019 ends with more global anxiety than it started.
  5. Essay · Oct 2019 Can a Photographer Emotionally Charge a Photograph Through Intent? Photography is not only an act of capturing images to document moments, but emotionally driven work, reflective of the photographer’s subconscious.
  6. Journal · Sep 2019 Summer Journal: Savannah Vignettes I am sitting alone in the empty room, listening to the hum of the air vents above. Hurricane Dorian is on its way.
  7. Journal · Sep 2019 Summer Journal: August I live in a neighborhood on the verge of gentrification—marked by a very literal socioeconomic railroad track.
  8. Journal · Jul 2019 Summer Journal: July My father is setting down the final layer of polyurethane on a new home he bought in Augusta, Maine.
  9. Travelogue · Jul 2019 Montenegro: Making Peace From Violence Holding myself afloat with a series of gentle strokes, I stared into the gaping maw of an old submarine tunnel, built during Montenegro’s communistic, Yugoslavian years.
  10. Travelogue · May 2019 Five Days in Bangkok: A Travelogue Thai election, medical horrors, and floating markets: five days exploring the astounding Thai culture.

§03.5 Talks and testimony

  1. Talk · Aug 2026 Leveling Up the Cyber Force: AI-Driven Serious Games for DCWF Mastery DAFITC 2026, Montgomery, Alabama. A breakout session I co-presented with Dr. Mark Reith of the Air Force Institute of Technology, on an AFIT and Haiku serious-gaming platform that uses generative AI to assess mastery of DoD Cyber Workforce Framework work roles, with a live demonstration and early pilot findings.
  2. Talk · Jun 2025 The Great AI Debate SuperCharger Ventures Festa, Verdala Palace, Malta. Debating alongside Arif Anis MBE and Sarosh Ahmad, I argued that general-purpose AI, powered by evolutionary programming and quantum computing, will eventually do most economic jobs—and that the human drive for non-economic artistic expression remains ours alone.
  3. Testimony · Apr 2025 Testimony on LD 1571 Maine Legislature. As a Baxter Academy board member, and a graduate of its first class, I testified against a bill that would have required traditional certification for every full-time teacher in Maine’s public charter schools.
  4. Talk · Apr 2021 SCAD GamingFest: The making of Zoélie SCAD GamingFest 2021. The technical side of developing Zoélie, the student game that went on to win first place for Best Gameplay at the Intel University Games Showcase.
  5. Talk · Feb 2019 SCAD Talk Hong Kong SCAD Hong Kong. An 18-minute talk on escapism, and on enjoying the process of creating.