The consul then looked up, smiled, and offered a handshake: “Welcome to Canada!” It was almost twenty years ago, but I still get emotional when I recall those words by the Canadian Embassy official in Manila, and the final interview that made Canada my new home.

On the first day of August, we said goodbye to our dearest boy, Diego. It was his time to go and it broke our hearts. A Labrador Retriever’s life expectancy ranges from ten to twelve years, so when Diego turned twelve in February this year, we were grateful he had made it that far. In human [...]

I didn’t know what to write here until the very last day, when this issue was due to go to press. In the past, I usually had something brewing in my mind months before publication. This time, I just didn’t know what to say. This reminded me why ZOOM’s format emphasizes photography, with very little [...]

I remember this one time when a visitor to my office, finding that I was the only one in there, exclaimed, “Oh, I was expecting to see a team of people here working for ZOOM.” I smiled and said, “It’s only me. I’m the only one behind the magazine. There is no group of people [...]

Like some people (around one billion of them as of the latest official count), I use Facebook to connect with family and friends from all over the world. Unlike most Facebook users, however, I do not check my Facebook page everyday as I don’t feel the need to know my friends’ thoughts, likes and dislikes, [...]