To distract my ears from political podcasts, I tuned into jazz. The Bad Plus’ Complex Emotions is a fantastic distraction. With “French Horns,” the group returns to its funk-jazz vibe, but also expands with rock guitar and fast saxophone. True to his name, Chris Speed blazes his sax solo with such furious speed. Ben Monder sets quiet fire on his guitar. “Casa Ben” kicks off with Reid Anderson’s hypnotic bass and Dave King’s crips drums. Speed joins in with sweet melodic intro. The star is Monder who plays some organic, futurist vibes with such an incredible feedbacks. The whole album is a wonderful treat.

I left my house at 5:30 am and arrived at Whitetail around 7:15 am. I made it to the morning ski clinic. I always loved these clinics. We worked on putting pressure on outside foot.

I went to the line up at 10:00 am. I didn’t get any class. I went to snowboard clinic to learn buttering. It was not my thing. Luckily the training was about 45 minutes. I went riding afterward. I need to relearn to snowboard with my body closed. I have been carving with opening position, which my lead instructor doesn’t like. He didn’t give me any level two class because of that. I am cool with that.

I went back to the line up at 1:00 pm. I didn’t get any class either, which I was glad. I switched to my ski boots and went to the back side. The trails were getting slushy. I didn’t enjoy it too much. I left the resort around 2:30 pm. I was exhausted. Damn, I am getting old.

In the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting, JD Vance killed two birds with one stone. He berated President Zelenskyy and kissed Trump’s ass at the same time. Trump was so flattered that he just played along with his VP. Vance showed the entire world that he had a seat at the table, a real power, and a fucking presidential puppet to back him up. Trump was talking a lot of bullshit, but his VP had a viciousness in his tone. Now that’s an authoritarian in the making and a danger to our democracy.

Today the whole family left the house at 7:00 am so I could make it to the morning line up. We arrived around 8:45 am. I went to the 10:00 am lone up and took a group a lesson. I taught two ladies.

At first, one of them didn’t think she could learn snowboarding. I encouraged her to give it as try. We took it as easy as possible. They turned out to be snowboarding really well. They followed my instructions and made great progress. I was surprised how they could do J turns.

One of the students also signed up for a private lesson and she wanted me to teach her, but her lesson had already been assigned.

I ended up not taking any lesson for the 1:00 pm line up. I went riding by myself a bit then with my wife and then with the kids.

We left the resort around 4:00 pm. It was perfect timing. I’ll be back tomorrow by myself to teach.

I am feeling sick and ashamed watching two fucking American assholes berating a man who is defending his country. America is trying to make a fucking deal with a country that is fighting for its democracy. America cares more about money than democracy. I am so sorry, President Zelenskyy and Ukrainians. The orangutan and his fucking flying monkey do not represent America. They are a damn shame to America. We stand with Ukraine.

Of course I have nothing but love for my four boys, but I sympathize with Xuân. It doesn’t mean that I am favoring him. I just know all my kids strengths and weaknesses.

Without a doubt, Xuân is physically strong. He’s athletic. He’s the only one in the family who competes in swimming. He has no fear riding the scooter at the skateparks. He is a hell of a skier. He makes tremendous progress on snowboarding this season. He eats well and grows fast.

In contrast to his strong physical, his emotion is weak. He lets people’s words get to him. Đạo and Đán seized on his vulnerability and they attacked verbally every chance they got. Even when I told them to stop, they wouldn’t. That was when I exploded and they accused me of favoritism. They could call me whatever they wanted, but I couldn’t just stand by and let them berate their younger brother to tears.

Even little Vương picked on Xuân. When Vương got mad, he would hit his older brother, but Xuân never hit his younger brother back. I wouldn’t want Xuân to hit Vương back either, but my heart hurt for Xuân.

Last Saturday, the three of us went riding together. Vương skied down to the lift first. Then Xuân snowboarded down and pulled a brake. He sprayed some snow on Vương. Vương got mad and hit his forehead with his pole. When I snowboarded down, I saw Xuân holding his head in the snow and crying. I was so mad. Vương could have poked Xuân’s eye with his pole. I yelled at Vương. He got mad and decided to ski back to the base himself. I let him go alone.

I don’t know how Xuân is doing in school when I am not around. I hope he can defend himself. Better yet, I hope he doesn’t let other people’s words get to him. Whenever I am not with my kids. I think about them a lot, especially Xuân. I hope one day his brothers will understand him, love him, care for him, and protect him. That’s what brotherhood is all about.

It was 11:40 pm on a Wednesday night and I couldn’t sleep because I got hungry. I went downstairs and made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Up until near the end of last year, I probably had a handful PB&Js my entire life. PB&J was not my jam.

Then on a warm, fine evening in November last year (I couldn’t remember the exact date). My buddy TJ and I were waiting for other dads to play volleyball. I got a little hungry. TJ pulled out a Smucker’s uncrustables peanut butter & grape jelly sandwich he packed for his son. I didn’t want to take it, but he insisted. The creamy peanut butter and the sweet-and-sour grape jelly on a cold, soft sandwich bread stuck with me. It gave me energy to play volleyball.

In December, 2024, I took a ski trip to Stowe and I bought all the ingredients for PB&Js. Since then, I have a PB&J every morning with coffee. When I went teaching snowboarding on the weekends, I made an extra one for lunch. For almost three months, I tried out different peanut butters, jellies, and sandwiches. I finally perfected my PB&J.

I chose Schmidt’s Old Tyme Italian bread because each slice only had 40 calories. I selected Kirkland’s organic, creamy peanut butter because it had no added sugar. I enjoyed Wegmans’ organic blueberry jammin’ fruit spread, which included only 5g added sugars.

Thanks to TJ, I am now hooked on PB&J. Luckily, he didn’t hand me cracks or cocaines.

I can’t believe I just wrote a post on PB&J at midnight. I always encouraged my kids to write about anything they want to hone their writing skills. I just practiced what I preached.

My passion for design is waning, especially with all the chaos going on right now in America. Design doesn’t seem to matter anymore. These essays, edited by Liz Stinson and Jarrett Fuller, are informative, but I just can’t think about design anymore. Don’t give me wrong. I am not burning out. I can still whip up a website or print material without even thinking. Nevertheless, I enjoyed a few essays from the collection.

We stayed silent and we scrubbed all diversity pages. Glad to hear students speaking out.

Trong những tháng ngày sắp tới không biết công ăn việc làm sẽ ra sao. Vợ làm chính phủ đang bàng hoàng. Tôi làm trường Đại học của tiểu bang rồi cũng sẽ bị ảnh hưởng.

Tôi bàn với vợ từ đây đến 2028, chúng ta nên hạn chế mọi chi phí có thể hạn chế. Chẳng hạn như không đi nhà hàng nữa. Không sắm đồ đạc nữa. Mấy tháng nay đang có ý định mua xe mới vì chiếc xe cũ đã chạy hơn 200,000 dặm nhưng thôi. Chạy xe củ tiếp cho đến khi nào không còn chạy được nữa.

Nghỉ mát hay nghỉ hè gì cũng cắt đi bớt. Cũng may là mùa đông đi trượt tuyết không tốn kém như xưa nữa nên vẫn có thể giữ lại được. Chỉ phải bỏ ra hai ngày cuối tuần đi dạy thôi. Đi trượt tuyết có lợi không chỉ cho cơ thể mà luôn cả đầu óc. Từ lúc đi trượt tuyết tôi không còn bị căng thẳng nữa nên khỏi phải đi trị liệu tâm lý đỡ tốn tiền therapy.

Bàn thì mình tôi bàn thôi. Vợ không lên tiếng gì cả mà chỉ phán một câu, “Dĩ nhiên anh đâu muốn đi đâu ngoài đi trượt tuyết”.