Để kỷ niệm 20 năm album đầu tay của cô ra đời, Ngọc Khuê trở lại với cuộc “Dạo chơi” dân gian hiện đại. Những ca khúc đã đưa tên tuổi cô đến khán giả như “Bên bờ ao nhà mình”, “Chuồn chuồn ớt”, “Giọt sương bay lên”, “Gió mùa về”, và “Bà tôi” được mix lại với những âm hưởng điện tử.

Nghe thì cũng là lạ nhưng nặng về phần điện tử hơn là phần dân gian. Chẳng hạn như “Bên bờ ao nhà mình” trở thành một club hit nhiều hơn là một contemporary mix. Tuy đã 20 năm nhưng tôi vẫn ấn tượng với bài phối dân gian jazz hơn là bài mix mới với phần rap không cần thiết.

Đáng tiếc là cả album đều như thế ngoại trừ “Bà tôi” với bài phối jazz đường phố đầy sáng tạo. Tiếng bass, tiếng percussion, tiếng dương cầm, tiếng sáo hòa quyện vào nhau rất thú vị. Phải chi Ngọc Khuê vẫn theo đường lối jazz nhưng khai thác những âm hưởng mới lạ thì hay biết mấy.

Last night, I upgraded the Law School website to MODX 3.1.0. With MODX Cloud hosting, making an upgrade was just a click of a button. Of course, I had to make a backup first and that was also a click of a button.

MODX has to be one of the most unappreciated content management systems. After working with other systems, both open source and proprietary, I appreciate MODX even more.

As a designer, I appreciate the freedom and flexibility MODX offers to create a unique experience without any compromise. I don’t need to rely on bloated frameworks or predetermined templates.

As a developer, I appreciate its powerful architecture to deliver a rich experience. Its reusable code keeps the content manageable. I reuse its code plenty of times to create dynamic content.

As a server administrator, I appreciate its cloud hosting service for a peace of mind. Since we switched to the cloud-based subscription, I no longer have to manage the server. From security to backup management to failover strategy, MODX takes care of everything.

The MODX support team is superb. I can reach out to them at any time and they would respond promptly. Obviously no one knows MODX better than the people behind the CMS.

After more than 15 years of using MODX, I still can’t figure out the reasons it is not widely adopted. I hope MODX continues to thrive even if it stays small.

In the past two nights after work, I tuned up 3 boards and 6 pair of skis. Xuân and I have a board and a pair of skis. Đạo has a new pair of skis. I also tuned up his previous pairs to store away. I just looked up Alpine Ski Shop and price for basic tuning is $65 for skis and $50 for snowboard. I am saving us $540 by tuning them myself. Skiing and snowboarding are not cheap. I have to save whatever I can. I will finish up scraping the wax tonight.

Upon hiring me for the instructor position, the manager invited me to the Instructors Training Course. The first order of business at the ITC was introducing ourselves. Most instructors had been either skiing or snowboarding for at least 10 seasons. I only snowboarded for 2 seasons.

I had the least experience, but I could ride comfortably on any terrain from the greens to the blues to the double blacks. Some people think I have a natural talent, but I don’t. I only have the passion and the determination. I had to work hard at it.

My second son has a natural talent. I have always been so envious of him. In December, 2021, he and I took a semi-private snowboarding lesson together for the first time. I fell, got up, and fell some more. My feet were uncomfortable. My body was exhausted. I bruised my thumb on the magic carpet. I went back to skiing. My son went on and excelled in snowboarding. He could ride down the double black terrains in his second season. These days, he can zoom down the double black with ease.

After giving up snowboarding, my skiing soared. I could ski anywhere on the mountains. Nevertheless, I felt somewhat of a failure. I couldn’t accept the fact that I could not snowboard. The next season, December 2022, I decided to give snowboarding another shot. I made myself a challenge. Age was not an excuse to back down.

I took another group lesson, but the class was only me and another beginner learner. I was catching the edge like crazy. I could not make it down the lift without falling. I skated on one foot and almost twisted my ankle, but I did not give up. I kept at it for two weeks. I watched countless tutorials on YouTube and learned how not to catch an edge. I progressed to the blue and black terrains. I still fell on the double black terrains and I didn’t conquer them until season 2.

The Epic Pass motivated me to ski and snowboard as much as I could. I loved both sports; therefore, I didn’t give up skiing. As I was getting excited about snowboarding, my son was getting bored. He was gifted, but he didn’t want to learn new skills. On the other hand, my goal was to learn how to carve. Something about leaving a thin line on the trail fascinated me. I kept working toward my goal. This year, I am starting to get it. I encouraged my son to learn with me, but he refused. I am sure he could pick it up in no time if he wanted.

I keep telling him how good he is and I wish I could have his skills. With his talent and my hard work, I would go far. Then again, when something comes easy, you take it for granted. In contrast, you treasure it when you work hard to earn it. I am happy to be where I am today, but I will continue to grow.

Check out my snowboarding shorts on YouTube.

When I started getting into jazz, I spent time listening to George Gershwin’s songs through jazz singers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and of course Billie Holiday. I got familiar with his lyrics through their singing. Yesterday, I came across Oscar Peterson Plays the George Gershwin Song Book and I was hooked. Oscar Peterson (piano), Ray Brown (double bass), and Ed Thigpen (drums) played these tunes with such delight. They swing on “They All Laughed” and get down to the blues on “Oh Lady Be Good.” I have been listening to the albums on my way to the ski resorts and back.

Ali Wong is back on the stage after her divorce in 2022. Most of the materials from her latest special is about dating and fucking. No crime in that. Male comedians talk about sex all the time with graphical, vulgar details. Don’t hate the player; hate the game. Then again, I am not interested in her subject matters. I am more intrigued with her writing. I could tell she has all of her jokes written out in her head. She delivers them line by line and in complete sentences. She definitely puts in the work. Good for her. Get them millions.

Despite getting up early and driving to Whitetail on time, I missed the morning ski clinic. I was a minute late, but I forgot my pass. The lifties didn’t let me on even though I was wearing my uniform.

For the morning lineup, I was assigned to teach a beginner lesson. A nine-year-old girl was waiting with her mom. I asked her if she needed to use the bathroom before we got started. I needed to use the bathroom myself. When I came back, she was with about 7 or 8 more students. I also saw another instructor take over my spot. I was cool about it. I could just go riding.

The group headed out to the learning center. As I was about to punch out my time, 2 girls came out from the rental. I was asked once again to take on. Then the dads told me that 2 more will be joining the group. Then 4 more came out. Then 5 more came out. Suddenly I had 16 students altogether with ages ranging from 9 to adult.

I asked another instructor to help me out, but he had to check in with the supervisor. He took away the 5 adults from me. I still had 2 moms who wanted to stay with their kids. I had 11 students left and we were about 15 minutes behind schedule. Fortunately, I had another shadowing instructor helping me out.

The lesson went better than I had expected. We made it through the entire curriculum. Students were able to do some J turns and began to do S turns.

In the afternoon, I didn’t have any lessons so I went riding solo. The crowd was not as bad as yesterday, but it was still busy. I went home around 2:30 pm.
Despite getting up early and driving to Whitetail on time, I missed the morning ski clinic. I was a minute late, but I forgot my pass. The lifties didn’t let me on even though I was wearing my uniform.

For the morning lineup, I was assigned to teach a beginner lesson. A nine-year-old girl was waiting with her mom. I asked her if she needed to use the bathroom before we got started. I needed to use the bathroom myself. When I came back, she was with about 7 or 8 more students. I also saw another instructor take over my spot. I was cool about it. I could just go riding.

The group headed out to the learning center. As I was about to punch out my time, 2 girls came out from the rental. I was asked once again to take on. Then the dads told me that 2 more will be joining the group. Then 4 more came out. Then 5 more came out. Suddenly I had 16 students altogether with ages ranging from 9 to adult.

I asked another instructor to help me out, but he had to check in with the supervisor. He took away the 5 adults from me. I still had 2 moms who wanted to stay with their kids. I had 11 students left and we were about 15 minutes behind schedule. Fortunately, I had another shadowing instructor helping me out.

The lesson went better than I had expected. We made it through the entire curriculum. Students were able to do some J turns and began to do S turns.

In the afternoon, I didn’t have any lessons so I went riding solo. The crowd was not as bad as yesterday, but it was still busy. I went home around 2:30 pm.

The entire family went to Whitetail today. The crowd was chaos. I bought Đạo a new pair of Atomic Maverick 86 C Skis ​+ M 10 GW Ski Bindings 2025. With the employee discount, I paid $415, which was 40% off original price. He loved the skis.

I checked in at 12:45 pm and one of the lead instructor assigned me to Kid Mountain Camp (KMC). I taught a class for the first time. Luckily, I only had two students: a 9 and a 10 years old brother and sister. They did well for their first time learning. Of course they fell, but they were able to do J-turns at the end.

Today, Xuân began the Whitetrailers program for snowboarding. He was placed in level 2. I made the request to bump him up to 4. They ended up placing him in level 5. He is snowboarding really well.

After my class and his program, we made two runs together. It was still crowded and starting to get cold. We decided to go home. The kids requested Sushi Bomb. We ate until 9 pm and got home around 10:45 pm.

I made $60 today before tax and spent $700 on equipment and food. My wife was right when she said, “You spent more than you worked.”

Starting tomorrow, I will be working seven days a week at two different jobs for the rest of the winter. One pays the bills; the other pays the lifts.

When I took on the instructor position, I didn’t know one of the perks was that my whole family got to access all of the ski resorts almost for free. I was glad that I ran into another employee who not only told me about the perks, but also gave me the refunds for all of our seasonal passes.

Another part of the job I enjoy is the employee connection. It didn’t matter which resort I went to, the employees took care of me if I needed something. I was part of the larger network of employees. We all worked under a big cooperation, but we looked out for one another.

I was going to give teaching a try for one season, but the perks and the employee connection will keep me coming back next season if they still want me to return.

Of course, I miss my colleagues at my other job as well. Can’t wait to see them on Monday.

I finally subscribed to Netflix so I could watch season 2 of Squid Game. I was a fan of season 1 and season 2 lives stood strong. I hope I am not giving anything away, but season 2 is not finished. We will see season 3 in the future. I hope it won’t be too long. I was glad that there were only 7 episodes in season 2. I don’t want a TV series to drag on for too long. I kind of wanting to rewatch Mad Men, but I don’t want to spend that much of my time for it. I still enjoy reading, skiing, snowboarding, blogging, and so on.