Mental illnesses are common 1 in 5 adults in any given year. If you can recognize the signs and symptoms and provide the appropriate responses, you can save lives. The Mental Health First Aid training will give you the early intervention tool to help someone experiencing a mental health or substance use challenge. I completed the Adult Mental Health First Aid training and highly recommend it, especially the in-person portion.
Today marks my thirteenth year working at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School. Thirteen years is a long time, but I am still here and still holding on to the title: Director of Design and Web Services.
My role hasn’t changed much this past year. My main responsibilities are still our websites. The new site for the law school has been underdevelopment for more than a year. It will launch soon—hopefully. I don’t design or code anymore. I give advice and feedback. Someone else is doing the coding. I am cool with that.
Flexibility is the other aspect I am enjoying. It gives a balance between work and life. The benefit is the reason I am sticking around. I get to spend more time with my family through the PTO I had accumulated over the years. My kids are still my priority. I hope they will love me back because I know damn well my job won’t.
Nevertheless, I can’t complain about my job. I still have the freedom and the flexibility within my perimeter. When you are not your own boss, you have to follow orders. I am fine with that. I just need to do my job. When I leave my passion and pride outside of my work, I do a better job.
I don’t need to show off my work. I don’t need to put my name on a design. I don’t get bogged down when my work is gone. I don’t need to protect my legacy. I just need to make money to feed my family.
That’s where I am at with my career. I am just going to ride it out. I am taking it one day at a time. I don’t think about the future. I just go with the flow. I will adapt when I have to. For now, I am thankful for the opportunity to continue to work at George Mason university’s Antonin Scalia Law School.
In February, I took a ski lesson at Whitetail. Since it was on a weekday, the snow school was not so busy and I requested to learn carving; therefore, I was assigned to just one instructor. It was a private lesson for the price of a group lesson. While taking lesson, the instructor encouraged me to teach.
I was not serious about it, but her words stayed with me. Last week, on a whim, I applied for a part-time position for a non-certified ski or snowboard instructor. I wrote an honest, enthusiastic cover letter about my love and passion for both skiing and snowboarding. My story paid off. I got accepted two days later.
Without a doubt, I am excited about the opportunities not only to teach, but also to learn. One of the perks for the job is getting free lessons. Just the thought of learning, teaching, and playing on the snow reinvigorated me. I couldn’t wait to share the new endeavor with my wife. Of course, she supported me. I tried to convince her this might be the beginning of my dream career. That was when she brought me back to reality and reminded me of my responsibilities. Right, I have four kids to raise.
The gist of the story is that I can do anything I want as long as I keep my full-time job. It’s all good. I still am enjoying being the director of design and web services. Skiing and snowboarding will keep my body active and my mind strong. It’s a perfect balance between sitting in front of the computer and spending time outdoors.
On January 21, 2020, I skied for the first time in my life at the age of 42. I took a beginner lesson at Whitetail Resort and fell in love with skiing ever since. Our family (2 adults and 4 kids) has become Epic Pass holders for three consecutive years. Between Whitetail and Liberty, which are close to where we live, these resorts are our family’s winter playgrounds.
I can ski my ways down the green, blue, and double-black trails. In the coming winter, I would like to work on my carving. In addition to skiing, I fell in love with snowboarding. In the winter of 2022, I decided to learn snowboarding to challenge myself. Picking up snowboarding at the age of 44 was not easy, but I overcame the steep learning curve. Now my snowboarding skills are as good as skiing skills. My goal in the coming winter is to learn carving on snowboard as well.
Thanks to the wonderful instructors who had taught me to get started on snow sports; therefore, I would like to share my experience with anyone who is interested in trying out skiing or snowboarding or both. Since coming to both sports fairly new, I still have the learning experiences fresh in my mind. I understand the importance of ski postures and snowboard stances. I can help new learners avoid the mistakes that I had made so they can progress much faster. I would love the opportunity to put my passion to work.
I was go through my old boxes and came across a letter my former supervisor at George Washington University School of Business. On November, 4, 2008, Molly Brauer wrote:
To Whom It May Concern:
I have known Donny Truong for about a year, and during that time he has impressed me as a very thoughtful, hardworking, problem-solving, diplomatic person.
When I called one of Donny’s references during the hiring process, the gentleman I spoke to said, “Donny will quietly win the respect of everyone around him.” And that endorsement has rung true every day I’ve worked with him. Donny has a sterling work ethic, and the ability to organize and prioritize tasks efficiently and effectively.
He has been working for the Office of Communications in the GW School of Business for about nine months, and everyone he’s worked with has been very pleased with his work—both his cooperative spirit and his finished products.
Donny works with a wide variety of people in senior positions and much lower positions and treats everyone with the same respect. He is an excellent team builder and a good listener. Beyond his work ethic, Donny is a creative problem solver who finds elegant solutions to complex problems, taking into account the diverse needs of sometimes incongruent groups masterfully.
Donny works hard and learns quickly. He came to this country when he was 12 years old, learned a new language, and managed to attend college and find work in his chosen field – no small task. His only weakness is some minor difficulty with written and spoken English; his comprehension is excellent and he reads broadly.
I recommend Donny highly because I believe he will succeed at anything he puts his mind too; his life is testament to that.
Yours sincerely,
Molly Brauer
It’s time for the annual performance review. Started last year, I am keeping track of my responsibilities. Since I write on the daily basis, documenting my work flowed smoothly into my routine. Around this time of the year, I had always dreaded the self evaluation. This year, I am going incorporate my year-long tasks into the evaluation.
When I took over the law school website, responsive design started to gain traction. In my interview presentation, I made the promise that I would make the whole site responsive if I were hired. Even though I had very little knowledge on server administration, which was the main responsibility of the web services developer position, I was hired.
My supervisor at the time told me, “Although you don’t have much backend knowledge, you have a strong sense of design. I am sure you will be able to pick up all the server stuff.” I was thrilled that she had more confidence in me than I did in myself.
To keep my promise, I ripped out all the HTML and CSS and rewrote them from the ground up. I also approached mobile first in my responsive redesign. I did not use any frameworks; therefore, everything I coded tailored to the site—nothing more, nothing less. At that time, we still used floats for layouts, but as soon as the CSS grid landed on major browsers, I rewrote the CSS to take advantage of the grid functionality.
To give our site more flexibility, I developed layout patterns based on the grid system. I put together a demo page to show different combinations (buttons, images, text, video). The grid can accommodate at least 12 layouts. The best part is the fluidity of the grid system. It is made to adapt to any digital device.
Since the release of my book, Vietnamese Typography, in the winter 2015, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with type designers and type foundries around the world. I reviewed their diacritics and made recommendations to improve legibility and readability for Vietnamese readers.
When I decided to drop my book on the open web, I wanted to provide a complete resource for designing Vietnamese diacritics. I did not think about the advising service until David Jonathan Ross reached out to me to review his hyper-stylized typeface called Fit. As the name of the typeface suggested, everything must fit—even the diacritics. The double-stacked marks in Vietnamese proved to be a challenge. We went back and forth many rounds until we came to the perfect fit. In our collaborative efforts, I learned about his design process and decision making.
After my work with David, I realized I could offer similar advice to other type designers. As my site reached the type community, requests for reviewing Vietnamese diacritics rolled in from different parts of the world, including Dalton Maag in London, TypeTogether in Vinohrady, Sandoll in Seoul, Fontwerk in Berlin, Grilli Type in Lucerne, Klim Type Foundry in Wellington, TypeNetwork in Seattle, and Frere-Jones Type in Brooklyn. For a complete list, visit my client section.
In addition to typefaces, I review apps, websites, and any materials with Vietnamese text. As a result, I added type advisor to my resúmé to make the title official.
What tools do you use to create your résumé nowadays? Many years ago, I created my résumé using Microsoft Words. It was great for catching spelling errors and grammars, but the typesetting was not good. I had to use system fonts like Arial or Verdana to make sure my typography wouldn’t screw up.
Later on, I switched to Adobe Illustrator so I could have control of my typography. The final PDF file could be printed on paper or uploaded to my website. Nevertheless, I wanted to create a true web version of my résumé for accessibility. Having to keep two versions of my résumé was a bit cumbersome. As a result, I designed my résumé with HTML and CSS first then I used CSS printing media query to create the final PDF for printing. Now I only keep the web version of my résumé.
In Professional Web Typography, I walked through the markups for a two-column and three-column layout for creating a web résumé. You can download the source codes for all of the projects in the book to practice your web and typographic skills.
Take a look at my web résumé. It can also be printed out on paper. I added a new position as a type advisor to my résumé. Since the launch of Vietnamese Typography, in 2016, I have been advising type designers around the world with Vietnamese diacritics. I am so glad that I made the book available for free. I am in the process of working with a company that I greatly admired and they required an official title; therefore, I am also a type advisor.
Today marks my 12th year working at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School. Twelve years at the same job is a long time, especially in the web industry. I worked under three different deans. I had a great run with my previous supervisor for a decade. She retired last year. I miss her terribly.
My title as Director of Design and Web Services remains the same, but my role has changed drastically. I am moving away from hands-on design and development and taking on more providing direction. I don’t mind directing at all since I still do hands-on design and development on my own projects. I won’t lose my design and technical skills.
For the law school’s main website, the technical portions are being outsourced. We are throwing lots of money at outside vendors and the top is clueless; therefore, my responsibility is to make sure that the designs and developments are up to our standards. I offer my advice and expertise even if they aren’t taken.
As the main website becomes less of my responsibility, I am taking on a more prominent role on the network of Scalia Law Sites. I recognized the needs for a network of websites many years ago and I created the WordPress Multisite for the law community. In collaboration with the University’s ITS, my team supports and maintains almost 40 sites. The network is growing and we still have tons of work to do.
I don’t know what my future with the law school will be. I don’t want to think too far ahead. I no longer have the passion, but a job is a job. I don’t need the passion, the motivation, or the inspiration to do my job. I just need to put in my time and get out at the end of the day. Work is no longer on my mind after hours. I don’t let all the bureaucracies and incompetencies distract me. I balance my work and life. I enjoy the benefits I have earned in the past twelve years. I need to do what I need to do to support my family.