Cách đây bốn hay năm nằm trước, lúc tôi mới phát hiện sách tiếng Việt trong thư viện khu tôi ở, tôi đọc rất nhiều sách. Trong đó tôi nhớ nhất là quyển tùy bút mộc mạc, nhẹ nhàng, và đã đem lại cho tôi những ký ức về quê hương. Tôi không nhớ rõ tên sách và càng không nhớ tác giả. Tôi tìm lại trang blog mà cũng không thấy. Tôi trở lại thư viện tìm từng sách một nhưng vẫn biết phải Những ngày rất trong của Trần Nùng hay không. Tôi đọc lại thì thấy không phải. Tôi nhớ quyển sách đó tác giả đã diễn tả món ăn đồng quê rất hay, nhất là món cá kho. Giờ đây cũng không biết quyển sách đó ở đâu.

We took all four boys to the dentist for their six-month checkup. c came out and told me the orthodontist would like to talk to me. I knew I would have to spend more money. She informed me that Xuân needed a palatal expander. Since we already paid for Đao’s expander and braces and Đan’s braces, I expected we will have to do for Xuân and Vương as well. I didn’t even think or hesitate to drop $1,000 to start the palatal expander for Xuân. I just gave them my credit card. Yes, I am guilty as charged for my extensive parenting style. I would have thought it over if I were to drop a grant on myself, but for my kids, it’s all good.

Hai tuần trước, tôi gặp thằng bạn học chung từ trung học. Hơn mười lăm năm chúng tôi mới gặp lại nhau tuy chúng tôi hiện ở cách nhau không hơn mười lăm phút lái xe.

Nó mời tôi đến câu lạc bộ dành cho lính ăn trưa, uống bia, và rượu bourbon. Từ lúc chúng tôi rời trường trung học, mỗi đứa mỗi nơi. Chúng tôi cũng đã chọn lối đi cho riêng mình. Nó thì vừa đi học đại học vừa đi lính. Nó đã không ngừng nỗ lực gây dựng sự nghiệp. Giờ đây nó đã khá giả. Chỉ có điều hơi cô độc vì không có con và đã một lần đổ vỡ gia đình.

Ngược lại thì tôi không giàu có gì. Làm ít, ăn xài thì nhiều. Nhưng tôi may mắn là được một máy ấm gia đình. Đó cũng là cái an ủi nhưng có con cái thật không dễ dàng. Thậm chí tôi càng căng thẳng khi tụi nhỏ càng lớn. Hy vọng mình có thể làm tròn bổn phận một người cha.

Đúng là cỏ lúc nào cũng xanh hơn ở phía bên kia. Nếu được một mình thì tự do và thong thả biết mấy. Đâu cần phải lúc nào cũng nghĩ về đàn con. Dĩ nhiên tôi không hối hận con đường tôi đã chọn. Tuy khó khăn cũng phải vượt qua.

I invested in a future font called Thow, designed by Dương Trần. My hope is to include in my book a recommendation for a typeface designed by a Vietnamese designer. We’ll see how far Dương Trần will go with this typeface.

Last night, I watched the Virginia Senate debate between Tim Kaine and Hung Cao. I didn’t know anything about Hung Cao and I was curious about my fellow Vietnamese American who is running for U.S. Senate. With his military service and immigration background, I thought he would be straightforward and compassionate.

I was disappointed with Cao’s performance. He dodged every question. The moderators had to repeat the question every time he gave his answer and he still didn’t give a straight answer. Like Trump, Cao kept coming back to immigration no matter what topic was being discussed at the moment. When Cao tried to avoid the questions so many times, he started to make some bizarre cannibal shit. That was the moment I realized that Cao was not talking to Virginia voters. He was talking directly to Trump.

Just like JD Vance, Hung Cao cannot be trusted to represent the people of Virginia. He is a Trump’s bitch. He was willing to look stupid on the debate stage just to please Trump. It’s a damn shame for a Vietnamese-American candidate who brings nothing new but the same old Trump agenda to Virginia. What a Caoward!

In the age of digital distraction, reading Yoko Ogawa’s Mina’s Matchbox takes patience. The novel plays with the characters and you are invited to be part of their daily lives. Even though the family is wealthy, they don’t do anything spectacular, except for the young girl who rides to school on a hippo because of her health. The story is quiet yet mysterious. I tried my best not to pick up my phone while reading and hoping for something dramatic to happen. If you want to get away from the digital chaos and want to relax, this is a perfect read. Stephen Snyder has done an excellent job on the translation. If you have never read Ogawa’s works, I highly recommend The Memory Police, which was also translated by Snyder.

Last week, we took some time off to take the kids to the beach. Despite the cold water, the strong wind, and the crashing waves, we had a great time together. It was nice to have the time just for our little family. Nevertheless, we had very little down time with the four active boys.

As the boys are growing and demanding their own time, I don’t know how many more times we can spend together. I want to use my time on earth to make memories. As I am aging, I don’t know when my time will be up. It might sound cynical, but we don’t know when we will be running out of time.

As we spent our time on the beach, we also attended my mother-in-law’s sister’s funeral. She lived a wonderful life and spent her time last with her loved ones before she left. If I were to have as much time as her on earth, I would have about 43 years left. Given how unhealthy I have become and how stressful I always carried with me, I don’t think I have that much time left.

As I am getting older and seeing people leaving this earth, I often think about my own time. A close friend of mine drowned in his teenage time. A heart attack robbed the time of another close friend of mine when he was in his 30s. My parents, aunts, and uncles have lost their time to illnesses.

As time passed me by, I realized that I had wasted so much of my time. I spent too much time worrying about things that might happen such as losing the ability to feed my family, raising my kids wrong, drifting away from the love of my life, and fading into darkness.

Nowadays, I just want to treasure the present time that I have. I can’t spend too much time worrying about things that I don’t have control over. I can’t even control my own time. Only time will tell.

In last night’s VP debate, JD Vance proved to be a skillful communicator. He performanced well in the first half in hammering Kamala Harris on the economy, even though it was the Biden Administration. In contrast, Tim Walz was a bit nervous. He should have given a straight answer on his trip to China. He got the date wrong. So what? It was 35 years ago. Move on.

In the second half, Walz came out swinging on abortion and democracy. He cornered Vance on the 2020 election result and Vance gave a “damning non-answer.” Vance pivoted and revealed his dishonesty. He knew damn well that he could not cross the Trump line.

Vance succeed in the VP debate where Trump had failed in the presidential debate. Vance out-performed Trump on Trump’s own policies. Too bad, Vance is not on the top of the ticket. He is still running as Trump’s Vice Puppet—not Vice President.

Vance demonstrated his debating skills, but has also proved further that he is not trustworthy. He knew what to say to advance his political career even if he had to lie to himself and to the American people. Even Trump knows this guy is not to be trusted. Vance will betray him to get to the top. Let’s wait and see.

Paul Caron writes on the TaxProf Blog:

George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School will have incurred more than $38 million in losses over five years by the end of its 2025 fiscal year, according to budget projections shared with the wider university’s board of visitors at a meeting Thursday.

Here’s the breakdown:

The annual losses the school has posted have increased nearly every year, from $3.8 million in 2020, to $3.3 million, $4.3 million, $5.8 million and $7.8 million in the years following. In its 2025 fiscal year, the law school is projected to lose $13.2 million.

I don’t know anything about the school financial situation, but I am not surprised either.

Andrew Solomon writes for The New Yorker:

Social media acts on the same neurological pleasure circuitry as is involved in addiction to nicotine, alcohol, or cocaine. Predictable rewards do not trigger this system nearly as effectively as unpredictable ones; slot-machine manufacturers know this, and so do social-media companies. “Teens are insatiable when it comes to ‘feel good’ dopamine effects,” a Meta document cited in the attorneys general’s complaint noted. Instagram “has a pretty good hold on the serendipitous aspect of discovery…. Every time one of our teen users finds something unexpected their brains deliver them a dopamine hit.” Judith Edersheim, a co-director of the Center for Law, Brain & Behavior, at Harvard, likens the effect to putting children in a twenty-four-hour casino and giving them chocolate-flavored bourbon. “The relentlessness, the intrusion, it’s all very intentional,” she told me. “No other addictive device has ever been so pervasive.”

Social-media platforms harness our innate tendency to compare ourselves with others. Publication of the number of likes, views, and followers a user garners has made social-media platforms arenas for competition. Appearance-enhancing filters may make viewers feel inadequate, and even teen-agers who use them may not register that others are doing the same. Leah Somerville, who runs the Affective Neuroscience and Development Lab, at Harvard, has demonstrated that a thirteen-year-old is likelier to take extreme risks to obtain peer approval than a twenty-six-year-old, in part because the limbic system of the adolescent brain is more activated, the prefrontal cortex is less developed, and communication between the two areas is weaker.

A heartbreaking, frightening read for parents. Being a father of four kids, I live in fear everyday about children digital addictions.