New job comes with new perks. I got an iPhone on my first training day. My office comes with a gigantic glass window. I could see an airplane flies by every now and then since we’re closed to Reagan National Airport.

My predecessor used an old Dell laptop since he was not a designer and only used command lines. I gave my supervisor this list a week before I came on board and everything was there when I started my job.

I no longer need to commute into DC. The parking here is cheap and the flexible hours allow me to avoid traffic. I come to work at 10; therefore, don’t have to rush in the morning to get Dao to daycare. Getting up at 8 am instead of 6:30 am makes a whole lot different, especially the winter is coming.

The main campus is just right by my house. I had my orientation today and I dropped by the library to check it out. When I was at GW, I loaned most of the tech books through GM. Now I have access to a huge library within a walking distance.

The best part is that my workplace is only 10 minutes away from Eden Center. The folks around here are so nice and diverse. Now the hard part is to do my job well so I won’t disappoint them.

My mom was hospitalized yesterday for dehydration. She also has bladder infection. She couldn’t move her muscles. I was very worried, but I am so glad nothing serious happened. She’s doing a bit better now, but still too weak to go home. Thanks to my sister for taking care of her. I’ll visit her this weekend.

In my new job I inherited three different content management systems. I know WordPress and familiar with Drupal, but ModX is fairly new to me. The main site is running on ModX, which set up three years ago by my predecessor’s predecessor. I had done some reading on ModX as well playing around a bit with the current site, which runs on the older version of ModX.

I am quite impressed with ModX’s flexibility, template design in particular. Like Drupal and WordPress, ModX is based on PHP and MySQL. Unlike Drupal, ModX is very friendly for designer. A designer can create the entire static HTML site and only need to add in ModX snippets where dynamic contents required. The snippets are ModX’s own code so you can’t mix in HTML with PHP; therefore, the HTML codes could be quite clean and minimal.

With the school’s particular site, however, the previous’s previous developer customized the core and database to create functions that ModX didn’t have at the time. The downside is that upgrading ModX will be a huge challange.

Sophie Milman’s previous release, one of my personal favorites, Take Love Easy, proved that the twenty-something vocalist could swing, scat and seduce even within a straight jazz combo setting. Her recent release, In the Moonlight, added another layer of sophistication with the backing of luscious strings.

The first two tracks, “Do It Again” and “Oh Look at Me Now,” show once again that Ms. Milman still has the swag to swing gently. The third title track, however, displays not only her deep sensibility for bossa-nova rhythm, but also her sensual confidence with lush orchestration. Yet the sexiest track on the whole joint has to be her interpretation of “Ces Petits Riens.” Her flirtatious French-singing backed up by sensational Spanish arrangement is like Alizé blended with Patrón: sweet yet delicate, strong yet smooth. The guitar and accordion solos are like adding lime and fresh mint leaves to the mix. There goes my very own recipe for “Ces Petits Riens” cocktail inspired by Sophie Milman.

Although I prefer Ms. Milman’s straight swing and ballad translation over orchestral flourish, In the Moonlight is a perfect accompaniment for the cool autumn season. It’s definitely a romantic record.

Dao was being a very good boy today. He helped me clean up the toys and organize the house; therefore, I took him out for a treat. First we went mini-golfing and he made a hole in one. Then he ate almost an entire jumbo hotdogs and popcorns. After that we headed over to the ghost train. We had to wait for half an hour just to get on the train. Though the ride was filled with fun Halloween spirit, Dao was ready for a nap.

After the ride was over, I gave him milk and drove around town enjoying the beautiful red and yellow autumn leaves and listening to Sophie Milman’s latest album In the Moonlight. I got this album a few weeks ago, but haven’t had a chance to really listen to it in its entirety until now. I liked the album so much that I stopped by Starbucks drive-through, grabbed me a venti cup of coffee frappuccino, turned off the engine and wrote a review on a piece of napkin. I really miss blogging about music now that I no longer have the luxury to do so.

After that I drove around bait more and then headed home. As soon as I put the car into park, he woke up. He didn’t want to go back in and wanted to go table train so we headed to Barnes and Noble. He played train, lego and read some books. Before we knew it, it was already 7 p.m. so we better headed home. It was indeed a fulfilled father-and-son day. I can’t ask for more than these precious moments together. I did leave all of my own issues behind while I was with him.

Sorry for the lack of updates. My new job requires quite a bit of learning. I started on Tuesday and I have been eating, sleeping and dreaming of Linux command lines. My predecessor who is writing his dissertation for a PhD in computer science is a hardcore programmer. The only tool he used was PuTTy. He turned off every graphical user interface to save resources. He also shut down everything including graphical control panel, FTP and PHPMyAdmin.

The good thing is that my new supervisor is very understanding. She gives me time to catch up on all of these new responsibilities. The folks in the building are also very awesome. I am very glad and can’t ask for anything more. These days after work I just wanted to relax and crawl into bed. I don’t even touch my brand new MacBook Pro. Definitely looking forward to a nice, relaxing weekend. We have garage sale tomorrow so I am thinking of getting rid of many of the things we don’t need in the house.

Today marks my first day at George Mason School of Law. I am excited and looking forward to make a huge change to the website.

I am pleased to announce the new launch of Theatre Arts Workshop, “a professional performing arts teaching facility for students of all ages, ambitions & abilities.” This project is a collaborative effort between me and Ryan Dellolio, a very talented web developer who was a colleague at GW.

Ryan brought me in to do the design and front-end development. I worked with the client on the visual layout and created the HTML5 template as well as the responsive design. He took care of implementing WordPress and everything else. The partnership worked well and the client is very happy with the new site. I hope to get the opportunity to collaborate with him again in the future.

Back to reality after five days of being a lazy bump. I tried to stall as much time as I could by not going anywhere ad doing anything. All we did was sleep, eat, play by the pool and beach. We were served when wanted to eat. Even our plates was carried to our table after we picked out our food. Our room was cleaned when we hit the beach or pool. Drinks and cocktails were served whether we lounged on the beach or the pool. I had at least a dozen of mojito a day.

Speaking of mojito, after about six or seven glasses, the staff asked me to play some soccer on the beach. It was a five-minute game and I almost passed out. They had to laid me down and gave me water. That really hit me. For the past few stressful months all I did was having burgers for lunch and didn’t do my jogging. After this week I need to watch what I eat and hit the track again.

As for Dao, he got fresh milk everyday from the staff. The teacher in the Kid Club adored him, but he was into the swimming pool more than spending time with a hot babysitter. Still, he enjoyed his time in Catalonia. We had a very relaxed time as well. Food is the only thing that was not so great. The buffet featured too many similar items from day to day

We were definitely being privileged. I don’t know if I want that life everyday, but definitely a moment to treasure for five days. Mad props to each and every staff at Hotel Catalonia for the outstanding service and accommodation.

Today I finally got my hand on an iPhone for the first time at my new job and then I heard that you had gone to a better place. Although we had never met, I felt a great loss. Your vision and your work have changed the world. Thank you for leaving us the true meaning of innovation. RIP.