I picked Emily Witt’s Health and Safety off the shelf because I recognized the author’s name. Emily Witt is a staff writer at The New Yorker. I couldn’t recall if I had read any of Witt’s articles, but I would read any book written by any staff writer at The New Yorker.

Witt writes about her own life revolving around drugs, alcohols, parties, politics, and sex. Witt’s writing is witty and funny. I got a kick out of her quip on Jared Kushner: “Much later, when I worked as a reporter for The New York Observer , her husband, Jared Kushner, was the publisher. He was a real estate scion whose dimples looked like they had been carved into his cheeks with a silver spoon.”

Witt writes openly about her sex life: “Because the venue was illegal, sex acts, drug insufflation, and cigarettes did not need to be confined to bathroom stalls or outdoor areas, which was liberating, and I gave Andrew a blowjob in a room that had been left dark for sex.” Her romantic relationship was tumultuous.

Witt covers politics for The New Yorker during the pandemic. Her book ends up near the end of 2020 when Joe Biden won his presidential election. I wonder if she will write her next book covering the recent years up to 2028.

Health and Safety is deeply personal and emotional. I appreciate how much of her personal life she is willing to share. I enjoyed reading it immensely.

After almost a week, Đạo apologized for his behavior. Of course, I accepted his apology and gave back his phones and laptop. I love him to death, but not unconditionally. I need to be firm with him when I need to.

Đán and I are cool too. We don’t speak much, but I learned about his thoughts and feelings through his blog. His posts helped me started conversations with him. I am glad that I assigned daily blogging to him in the summer. I hope he will continue to write. His posts remind me of my early blogging days. I blogged to get things off my chest and released my tension. They helped. We talked about our struggles. We talked about how do deal with scams and losing money. He thanked me for the talk. I thanked him as well. He can come and talk to me anytime.

I want to treat all my kids the same, but I just can’t. They are different in age. They have their own personality. I can’t apply a blanket approach to them. When they were younger, I wanted us to do everything together, but they have different interest. I need to stop feeling bad for not getting the entire crew together. Of course, it would be ideal to bring everyone together, but it seems selfish for me to demand their time to spend with me. Obviously, whenever they want to, they can always hangout with me. Otherwise, I just going to cut them lose.

Since my dad was hardly around me when I was a kid, I always thought that I needed to spend time with my kids. Now I feel as if I am forcing them to spend time with me when they would rather spend with their friends or digital devices. Now I give them the space to do things on their own. Maybe I am not the best person to be around with. I am too damn boring.

Part of the Suisse superfamily, Suisse Int’l, designed by Ian Party, is rooted in the Swiss legacy, which emerged around the schools in Basel and Zürich in the 1950s. As a sans-serif workhorse with 18 fonts, Suisse Int’l offers versatility and flexibility for playful as well as purposeful typesetting. Suisse Int’l is equipped with sturdy diacritics. For Vietnamese, its acute, grave, and hook above stack to the right of its circumflex.

Last Saturday, all four kids wanted to have a sleepover with their cousins. The house was empty and quiet. Around 11 pm, I asked my wife if she wanted to go out. She refused at first, but was convinced that we hadn’t been on a date night in 17 years.

We headed to Eden Center to check out the new Popup joint. There was a rave party so we decided to check it out. As we stood in line to get in, we were aware that we were the oldest couple there. The bouncer who was even older than me said to me, “Are you sure you want to go in?” I replied, “Hell yeah!” He didn’t bother to check our IDs. He announced to everyone, “We got an OG in the building.” I laughed and replied, “Thanks G. Do you have a senior discount?” I paid $20 entry charges for me and my wife.

Most of the kids were Asian in their 20s. I was not sure if they were Vietnamese or other Asians. They weren’t dancing to the music. They were just standing around drinking. The music was not loud enough and the beats weren’t captivating either. We found a seat over at the food court side. My wife didn’t want a drink. She was on her phone. I was not in the mood for drinking either. I walked around just to check out the scene. Most of them dressed casually. Then I saw two Asian girls wearing thongs exposing their booty cheeks. I headed to the bathroom, but there was a line of boys waiting to take a piss. I went back to our seats. After half an hour of being there, I realized we didn’t belong there. I felt like we were chaperones at a school dance.

The night was still young and we were not in the mood for food. We headed straight to MGM. The casino floor was crowded. We were thirsty. I ordered a beer for myself and water for her. We walked around the casino, but didn’t feel like losing our hard-earned money. We left MGM around 1:30 am and came back home around 2:00 am.

It was not terribly exciting, but we got out of the house for a bit. We tried to rejuvenate our youth, but let’s just face it: we’re fucking old.

Taking inspiration from Geometric Sans while staying true to its Grotesque roots, Only Extended, designed by Emmanuel Rey and Quentin Schmerbe, brings something new to the Swiss aesthetics. With its monospace design, offbeat letter proportions, and super shorts ascenders and descenders, Only Extended is unconventional yet functional and fresh yet flexible. Only Extended supports for languages as diverse as Vietnamese, in which its acute, grave, and hook above stack to the right of its circumflex. I had the pleasure of working with Swiss Typefaces designers on Vietnamese diacritics for Open Extended.

Troy Leinster releases Retain, a contemporary grotesque for everyday use. Retain comes in nine upright weights and supports for over 390 languages. I had the pleasure of advising Troy in Vietnamese diacritics. Check out Retain.

With triangular serifs yet curved brackets, Pennyroyal DJR, designed by David Jonathan Ross, balances personality and functionality. Although Pennyroyal DJR is a book face, it can also be set for long-form reading in digital environments thanks to its smooth, open, and airy letterforms. Pennyroyal DJR comes with sharp diacritics. For Vietnamese, its acute, grave, and hook above stack to the right of its circumflex. Take a look.

On Saturday, all four of our boys wanted to have a sleepover at their cousins’ house. Ðán and his cousin stayed up until 5 am Sunday. They spent most of their time playing video games. I was horrid, but not surprised. When unsupervised, they didn’t know their limit.

At home, I would ask them to turn off their devices and take a break. If they didn’t comply, I would just shut down the entire internet. No one else seemed to be concerned about their digital addiction. Am I over-worrying?

The digital conflicts have decided us. My kids don’t want to spend time with me anymore, and Đán in particular. It hurts me, but I let them make their own choice. I don’t want to be a controlling dad.

I have been going to the skatepark by myself. Even though I am not excited about rollerbi anymore, I need to do some exercise. Xuân has not wanted to tag along. As he’s picking up swimming, he is leaving scooter behind.

As they are growing, they are dropping everything else and spending more time on their digital devices. I am hoping they will stick with the winter sports, but I doubt it. Ðán is getting bored with snowboarding. We used to pay thousands and thousands of dollars for our seasonal passes until I became a snowboarding instructor last year. My pass was free and my family’s passes were almost free. Since they are no longer obligated to go, they will be less likely to go.

It’s a shame that they are taking their privileges for granted. Not too many kids get the opportunity they do. Of course, I loved for them to go. I always had a great time skiing or snowboarding with them, but I wouldn’t feel so bad if they didn’t want to take advantage of the passes I made available to them. Even all of our gears were new. I tuned and waxed them regularly so we could have a wonderful experience on the snow.

My wife always chastises me for making them do things that I wanted to do—going to the skateparks or the ski resorts. She and the kids got me into these sports in the first place. As they got bored and moved on, I just haven’t quit.

I have become an uncool dad for not allowing them to stay on their devices for as long as they wanted. My kids don’t want to hang out with me. That’s OK. I am their dad, not their peers. I am always here and I would do anything with them with the exception of spending hours and hours in front of the screens.

Two days ago, July 3, 2024, David Jonathan Ross sent to his Font of the Month Club members a wonderful surprise: Pennyroyal DJR. I am down with his display experimentations, but I always love a solid book face. As soon as I downloaded Pennyroyal DJR to my machine, I had to use it for something and Visualgui is the place to play with.

The previous redesign of this blog was December 19, 2024, which was eight months ago. That was a long time for this blog redesign. I usually redesign or reset the types every three to four months. The previous design was set in Lang Gothic, a sans-serif typeface. I am now moving back to a serif book face. Initially, I set everything in Pennyroyal DJR, but then I wanted to add a sans-serif typeface for smaller texts and UI elements. I ended up setting body text and large headers in Pennyroyal DJR and complementary texts (smaller headers, time, and date) in Gimlet Sans. I also set code samples in Input Mono. All three typefaces designed by David Jonathan Ross.

For the look and feel, I wanted to resemble a book. For the light mode, I chose a light-cream-paper background. For the dark mode, I chose a dark-brown-paper background. I do not have a theme switcher. The theme follows your device setting. If you set your device to light, you’ll get the light-paper theme. If you set your device to dark, you’ll get the dark-brown theme. My focus is always on readability.

I hope you will enjoy reading the second iteration of Visualgui 2025 as much as I enjoyed typesetting it.

Gần đây tôi dành những giây phút được thảnh thơi với Phạm Thu Hà qua những ca khúc cô thu âm sống với dàn nhạc. Live Studio Session chia ra làm 4 phần.

Part 1 có 6 ca khúc bao gồm “Phố mùa đông” (Bảo Chấn) và “Xin lỗi” (Hồ Tiến Đạt) được đệm với dàn nhạc. Giọng Phạm Thu Hà cao và operatic nên có phần orchestra là quá lý tưởng. Nổi bật là ca khúc “Một mai em đi” (Trường Sa) được arrange theo giai điệu blues.

Part 2 gồm có ca khúc của Trịnh Công Sơn: “Ru tình”, “Hoa vàng mấy độ”, và “Tiến thoái lưỡng nan”. Chỉ tiếc là chỉ có 3 ca khúc nhạc Trịnh và Phạm Thu Hà hát cả ba điều xuất sắc. Phải chi cô thu âm thêm những khúc nhạc Trịnh nữa.

Part 3 có 6 ca khúc bao gồm “Đời có bao nhiêu ngày vui” (Châu Đăng Khoa) và “Không còn mùa thu” (Việt Anh). Nổi bật là ca khúc “Thà là hạt mưa bay” (nhạc Trần Thanh Tùng và thơ Lý Thiện Ngộ) được phối theo điệu bossa nova nhẹ nhàng.

Part 4 có 5 ca khúc. “Đường xưa” (Quốc Dũng), Phạm Thu Hà song ca cùng Nguyễn Đình Tuấn Dũng qua điệu blues nồng nàng. “Hà Nội của tôi” (Phùng Tiến Minh) cũng được tô điểm màu blues nồng thắm. “Dư âm” (Nguyễn Văn Tý) được arrange theo âm hưởng blues về đêm. Giọng cao sang của Phạm Thu Hà cất lên như chim sơn ca hót trong đêm.

Live Studio Session của Phạm Thu Hà đã đem lại cho tôi những giây phút thư giãn sau những giờ làm việc mệt óc và những buổi trưa nắng gắt của mùa hè. 20 ca khúc nên được chiêm ngưỡng.