I am excited to announce the launch of a landing page for my passionate work as a ski & ride instructor at Whitetail Resort, which is part of Vail Resorts.

I want to share a bit about my journey to skiing and snowboarding. I also want to share my coaching progressions for both sports so guests will know what they will learn from me.

For the design, I had to go with the jacket blue. For all Vail instructors, blue is the color of our uniforms. For typesetting, I had to go with Roslindale, designed by David Jonathan Ross.

Check out my new site, book a lesson, and come ski or ride with me.

Right off the first line on the opening track, “On With the Show,” Celeste sings, “And so… Got a feeling I should go.” Her gruff voice and articulate phrasing sound just like Billie Holiday. The piano plays behind her throughout with an occasional bass and subtle strings following her. She turns up an octave on the bridge: “There’s the swell of strings, the choir in constant rage / It’s the pit that sets the time, but we never see them play.” Damn!

On “Keep Smiling,” a strumming guitar accompanies her while the lust orchestra backs her up. Again she channels Lady Day in phrasing fascinating lyrics: “Curved at the edges, first in a frown / Held like the truth is there in my mouth.”

On the title track, “Woman of Faces,” the piano accompanies her as she sings, “She is a woman of all faces / Works so hard just to be replaced with / Who really cares what she’s made of?” The tune progresses into swelling and hypnotizing orchestration.

Most of the recordings on this album has an orchestra element except for “Could Be Machine,” which has a wild drum machine. The chorus has a child-like melody in which her voice fights against the marching drums, “Could be laughing right now, could be laughing right now / Could we be machine? Could we be machine?”

I had been listening to Woman of Faces every time I hit the road early in the morning when the sun was still down, but it could have been fantastic to enjoy at night with a glass of whiskey. I tried not to drink much these days so I could focus on skiing and snowboarding. If my gout flares up, I am done.

Thank you for your requests and pre-orders on our HaH! Chili Sauce. While waiting for our HaH! Chilimaster to make a new batch, we invite you to check out our HaH! updated website. We added a photo gallery to the site. We also created a fun YouTube playlist of Donny Trương (that’s me) enjoying his food with HaH! Chili Sauce.

Timber & Lụa, by Vi Khi Nào and Lily Hoàng, is billed as experimental narratives. Each short story is written in three versions: Vietlish, English, and Vietnamese. I read several pages of the Vietlish version and gave up before my head was about to explode. Here’s a sample excerpt:

Love, mặc dù phổ quát, is not a ngôn ngữ she is designed to speak and its performance always feels a bit lập dị and nổi bật. She wants to understand it like the way ruy băng understands its lăng kính or tù giam. She was built to be a rô bô sắc sảo, từng hàng of code is perfect. Vì vậy, what is không đúng about her now? She nhìn lên nhìn xuống with her rotating eyeballs and asks Chalk, “Is fucking like a một bữa tiệc xa hoa. Or, ngoại trừ me, is it a bathroom door everyone knows how to open?”

What the fuck did I just read? The English version flows a bit better, but the Vietnamese version reads like Google Translate. I experimented with alternating between English and Vietnamese as I turned a page and that confused me even more. Even as someone who reads and writes both English and Vietnamese, I was having a hard time grasping the narratives.

Timber & Lụa is a bold, daring experimentation, but that’s about it.

Last Saturday, my fellow snowboard instructor and I coached 2 brothers. He took the 6-year-old and I took the 8-year-old. Since they signed up for a group lesson, they both could have taken the lesson with either one of us, but we split up because they might be on different levels.

The cost for each kid was $405. Their dad also gave each of us tips at the end of the lesson. He was willing to spend around $850 for us to teach his kids even though he snowboarded himself. I didn’t know if he was wealthy or not, but that was some serious investments.

On the kids’ part, I didn’t know how the 6-year-old did, but the 8-year-old gave all he could. He fell, got up, and rode again. I took him on the chair lift, showed him how to turn. He nailed his heelside, but still had trouble with his toeside. We got back on the lift and worked on it again and again.

We took a 20-minute break half way through the lesson. We gave him chips and water. After he finished them both, he got up, threw his trash in the trash can, went to the bathroom, washed his hands, and wanted to get back on the chair lift again to work on his toeside.

He definitely made good use of his time and the money his parents spent on him. For 2 hours and 40 minutes, he did not complain at all.

Yesterday I went to Liberty for the first time this season. In the morning, I taught a friend how to ski for the first time ever. After lunch, I let him work on his turns at the learning center. I went to the back side to shred on the blue and double black terrains.

I sat on the chair lift with two ski instructors at Liberty. They were nerding out about carving then asked me about my day. I asked them about their day and if they taught a class. One of them said, “We have wonderful snow on the terrains, but no one to teach.” I joked with them, “Why don’t you guys teach me?” They asked me what I was working on. I told them, “Carving.” They started giving carving tips.

As we rode off the lift, they asked me to come along. They introduced themselves as Leo and Dave. They coached me on Dipsy Doodle. I was having a private lesson with two instructors. When we skied to the flat area, Leo gave me a “wrap-up” talk as instructors should do. I thanked them and unzipped my jacket to reveal my inner jacket. They recognized the blue uniform instantly. I confessed to them, “Yes, I am an instructor at Whitetail.” We all laughed. I went on, “I was testing you guys. Not only did you give a great lesson, but you were also willing to coach a random guest. That was very generous of you.” Leo said, “You’re the undercover boss” while Dave pulled out his phone to take a selfie of us.

Dave said, “You should join our team.” I told him that I actually applied at Liberty first, but I was rejected. I applied to Whitetail and they hired me immediately. They took me to the Ski and Ride School to introduce me to the director, but he was not there. Dave gave me his card and told me to contact him so he can put me in touch with the director to see if he could transfer me over.

I was not looking to make the transfer. Liberty is about 15 minutes closer to my house, but I am loving Whitetail, especially the Ski and Ride School. I am glad to be part of it and the extra 15-minute commute is definitely worth it.

A few months ago, I listed my Ski & Snowboard Services on Facebook’s Marketplace. A week later, Facebook removed my list for violating its policy. I was not allowed to post services. I didn’t know. Now I know.

In the last few days of 2025, I decided to put together a webpage for Donny Trương’s Ski & Snowboarding Services. It only took me a few hours, but I enjoyed designing it. I took all the photos to show my process. The site is typeset in NaN Tresor, designed by Christoph Koeberlin.

Now I just link this page to the DMV ski groups. Take a look at Donny Trương’s Ski & Snowboarding Services.

Today was our last day in Vermont. Our family, along with my wife’s sister’s and her brother’s family, gathered for a week skiing and snowboarding at Mount Snow. With 8 boys between the age of 7 and 16, there was never a quiet moment. We couldn’t get out of the rental house earlier than noon to head to the terrains. With the holiday crowds, we could only get a few runs in a day.

We arrived in Vermont on Friday around noon and headed straight to Mount Snow resort. We went to the slopes again on Saturday around noon. On Sunday, I taught my friend’s kid how to ski. On Monday, we stayed at the rental house all day due to freezing rain. On Tuesday, the winds were too strong. I was the only one who went to the resort. I spent 6 days on the terrains.

I was planning to teach Đạo and his cousin snowboarding, but they seemed to be wanting to stick with skiing. Nothing wrong with that. They are very good skiers. I was happy to see Vương getting back on his skis. I worried that his fracture would get worse; therefore, I gave him four rules. First, he couldn’t use poles, which kids seemed to prefer anyway. Second, he could only stay on green terrains. Third, he couldn’t do any jumps. Fourth, he couldn’t go into the trees. He complied with the first two rules. The third and fourth, not so much. He was doing fine and had a great time with his brothers and cousins.

The rental house was about 20 minutes away from the resort. Yet, we couldn’t get our minivan out of the driveway because of the freezing rain. Luckily, my wife’s sister had a Revian with winter tires. Or else we would have been stuck in the rental house for a week.

This trip gives me a few things to think about. If we are going to take winter trips to go skiing, we will need to get a car with all-wheel drive and winter tires. Last November, my wife and I started to look for a new car. We decided on a 2026 Toyota Sienna Woodland, but the final price made me back out. Now, we need to reconsider. Our 2011 Sienna is almost 220,000 miles. Our 2018 Sienna is almost 100,000 miles. If we want to continue to travel Vermont every winter, we need to get a new car.

Happy New Year! Let’s kick off 2026 with some strength.

In 2011, I had the opportunity to work with Activist and Author Jennifer Karin on her websites and print materials. In late December of 2011, Ms. Karin sent me her “Strength” card to redesign. I loved her prose; therefore, I asked her if I could put together a digital version that could be hosted on my site. She generously granted me permission.

In the last few days of 2025, I decided to revive the “Strength” page. In addition, I would like to translate Ms. Karin’s words into Vietnamese. I redesigned the page and typeset in Lang and Lang Gothic, designed by Stephen Nixon. Take a look at “Strength: Nghị lực”

I read 42 books this year, which is 20 less than last year.

A couple of months ago, I had some distractions in my personal life, which prevented me from reading. I took 40 days to read a 300-page novel, Kristin Bair’s Clementine Crane Prefers Not To. I read less poetry books this year, but I did read the 960-page A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker 1925 – 2025. I read less Vietnamese book, but I read an 800-page fiction, Hân Như’s Điều Bí Mật.

In this digital age, it is hard to compete for your attention against your smartphones and tablets. My oldest son used to read lots of books. Now he’s constantly glued to his phone. My three other children are not fond of reading either. I understand the distraction of digital devices; therefore, I still prefer to read paper books, unless the books I want to read are only available in digital formats.

Back in September of this year, I subscribed to The New Yorker. Reading articles takes away my book reading time, but I am OK with that. I need to keep up with the latest cultural news and events, but I have completely refused to read anything related to politics. I even turned to Spotify for new music instead of listening to the latest podcasts I subscribed to, which were mostly about politics.

In 2026, I will be picking up more books again after the skiing and snowboarding season. I enjoyed reading thick books; therefore, I will try to continue in that direction. In contrast, I might pick up books of poetry again.