Yes! It’s time to celebrate. I finally drove off with my dream car yesterday. I wanted this baby for years. She’s a precious white diamond pearl 2003 Acura 3.2 TL. I felt in love with her the first time I laid my eyes on her. She is simply elegant. The gold letters make she looks even more luxurious. With the combination of white diamond pearl, gold letters and classy body, she is sexy as hell.

Why didn’t I pick the new 2004 TL? She is very attractive as well but too sporty and too complicated. For me, less is more. With too many bells and whistles, she simply lost that luxuriousness; therefore, I rejected her. Beside, I have to spend seven more grants if I choose her. On both personal taste and financial level, I went for the grandeur 2003 TL.

Had a great weekend with my family. Little Eric is so adorable. Here are some photos of him. My sister seems to be doing good. Took ma to Philly where she bought 12 boxes of Liver Purifier for $480. The seller was so happy. They stopped everything they were doing and tried to explain to me how good the medication is. Ma said it helped her. It is a lot of money but if it can make ma healthy, I am supporting the medication all the way.

Sammy is so cute now. I love to spend time with her. She is so much joy. Boy, I missed that cute little girl already. I love the way she translates English to Vietnamese and vice versa. For example, I asked her what is, “Oh! my goodnesses” in Vietnamese. She replied, “Troi oi! Troi.” She is so much fun. I don’t know how many times she said, “I love you, Cau Doanh.” She looked after me at the door with the sadness on her face when I was about to head back to Poughkeepsie. She said, “Cau Doanh, please don’t go. Stay and play with be Tu.” She made feel so loved and I was just speechless.

I find this post from Lele is really interesting and creative. If you follow my site daily, you can spot right away which statement is mine. When I first started this blogging thing, I was kind of holding back because this is my professional work overall. However, I began to receive emails from my co-workers as well as my family members saying that my site is an inspiration and my blogging is very touching. Even my boss finds it interesting. They have learned so much about me that they wouldn’t be able to learn from our daily interactions. I am glad that they can separate my professional work from my personal stuffs. With my current workload at Vassar, I am not looking for any freelance work so I really don’t give a fuck if my potential clients find this site offensive. It’s all good, baby.

It’s always great to spend time with family and friends. Sammy is so cute with a new haircut. She loves Monsters, Inc. She has been watching it everyday for the past week. Sammy pointed out Boo, the adorable little girl, and said, “That’s be Tu. Ma Tu hong co quay (But Sammy doesn’t misbehave)” She pointed to Sully, the big monster, and said, “Cau Doanh.” Then she laughed at me. I tickled her and made her kissed my cheeks. I kept on demanding her to kissed both of my cheeks. After the sixth times, she got tired of kissing me and just simply pushed my face away. After the movie, I put her to sleep and she was doing the sign language “You go to sleep” just like Sully did to Boo. Man, I love this adorable little girl so much. I hope she will grow up to be successful. I am kind of worry about her being too smart. She might think she will get away with everything because of her smartness and ended up ruin her life. I knew this one girl when she was eight years old. She was a cute little girl and absolute smart and outgoing. I was thinking to myself, “This girl will grow up to be somebody, maybe a doctor or a lawyer.” At the age of eight, she was baby-sitting her little three years old brother while her parents out working days and nights. Even as a smart girl, without directions, she ruined her life. At the age of fourteen, she got pregnant. When I heard the news, I couldn’t believe what I heard. Both she and her boyfriend were still in middle school. How the hell are they going to raise this kid? She dropped out of middle school to take care of the kid. I felt so bad for this poor little girl. She spent her youth babysitting her little brother and now she is spending her teen babysitting her own kid.

While at Wal-Mart yesterday, I spotted a Cambodian girl. I remembered her from high school so I came up and said, “Hey! How’re you doing?” She looked at me and replied, “Sorry, I don’t remember you.” Then she walked off with her boyfriend/husband. I felt mad idiot. Luckily her boyfriend/husband didn’t whoop my ass. I knew her when I was a freshman and she was a senior in High School. She helped me figured out where my classes were and we talked a couple of times. It’s only been eight years and she doesn’t remember me at all.

Another incident happened a couple of months ago. I saw a guy who was in my 8th grade class. I knew what his name was and I even pointed to him the class we were in. The only response I got from him was, “How are you going to pick out my brain like that? It’s been ages ago.” So next time when I see someone I know but I don’t think that person remembers me, I just pretend I don’t remember him/her to save my embarrassment.

My homie called me up last night asking me to come to his grandma’s memory event. This is an annual event which family and friends get together to pay respect to grandma. Although, my friend is Cambodian, we have very similar traditions. The monks will be there to pray pray for his grandma’s soul. Of course, there will be tons of food afterward. Cambodian food is hot and banging. Yep, I am coming home.

Poor Tay

She just came back from her Asia travel and caught a flu. Fortunately, not that deadly flu as we have seen on TV; however, the US security gave her a hard time. They kept her in a separate room for a week until they found out for sure she did not catch that deadly stuff.

Fuck This Host

D3studio went down for more than 12 hours. This host company fucking blows. I tried to switch to another hosting company once but they did not transfer my DNS over. It looks like I am going to have to kiss D3studio.net goodbye and come up with a new name. This shit is fucked up.

A Letter From Ngoc Lan’s Fan

This kind of letter really makes my day and how can I say no to this proposal. Trong, I hope you don’t mind me posting your letter.

Hi anh Donny,

Xin mao muoi viet email nay den cho anh. Toi thay anh co mot trang trong website cua hang anh, danh cho co ca si tai cao bac menh, Ngoc Lan. Toi la mot trong mot so cac ban ai mo co ca si nay rat nhieu. Chung toi thay hien nay khong co mot cai website nao dedicated cho co ay ca, va evidently you are a fan of hers (I’m switching to English here because it suddenly dawned on me that you wouldn’t understand Vietnamese, sorry if I’m mistaken!). Would you be generous with your time and create a website for Miss Ngoc Lan? Of course I would pay for the domain name and I would pay what I could afford, but I’m really asking, no begging, you to help us out. Your site shows your truly amazing expertise and talent (not to mention very good taste!).

Would you be able to help us out with this website for nguoi dep Ngoc Lan? If there’s a charge, please let me know what the charge is and I’ll try to manage within my limited capabilities. But regardless of the answer, would you please reply to my email? I truly appreciate your considering my request. I do not seek anything other than a place for her thousands of fans to come to. She’s been gone over two years now, the wound is still so fresh, the loss so real…

Thank you for your time,

Trong

Can’t believe I have been blogging almost everyday for the past three months. The whole purpose is to improve my writing and I am enjoying it very much. I know my English is really bad but hey, I am working on it. Actually, I was a good writer when I was a kid studying in Vietnam. Ironically, I hated writing when I was in fourth grade. I always bribed the girl next door with ice cream to write my papers. She was not a good writer because I always got C grades on the papers she wrote. My dad caught me one time and beat the hell out of me. After that she was not allowed to come over to my house anymore. I was forced to write on my own and it came to my surprise that I got a B on the first essay I wrote. The teacher actually liked my writing. I began to discovered my talent after that.

In fifth grade, I was selected to represent my class in a writing competition between all the fifth grade classes at my school. Although, my essay was good but I came in second place because the judges said my writing was too violent. The topic was “describe something you did that you regretted.” So I described how I disobeyed one of my teacher and he slapped the taste out of my mouth. I might be exaggerated a little bit but teachers did hit students. Thank God they don’t do it anymore. If I did not remembered a poem or failed an exam, the teacher would slap my hands with his/her wooden ruler. My hands were swollen everyday. After getting hit so much, I didn’t feel pain anymore. Of course, the judges were the teachers so they didn’t admit that they were wrong that was the reason that they gave me second place.

After fifth grade, I left Viet Nam to start a brand new life. I had to learned everything over again. Of course, as a hard headed as I am, I didn’t want to learn. Time drifted away, I lost my Vietnamese and my English didn’t seem go anywhere. My whole life is such a waste so far.

My cousin Yen turns 25 today. She’s a month and a day older than me. I can’t believe time just flied us by. It seems like yesterday that we were riding bikes together. On Saturday, we had a family gathering and celebrated her birthday at the same time. Like always, we had bangin’ ass Vietnamese foods. First, we had “lau,” one of my all time favorite dish. Not sure if there is an English name for it but it’s basically “cook as you eat.” There were shrimps, meatballs(raw), oysters, beef, mushrooms, cabbages, all type of Vietnamese vegetables. They were all fresh and uncooked so you have to do is dip them in a boiling seasoned water (soup) located in the middle of the table on top of the gas stove. Take them out when it cooked, dip them in Sate (hotsauce) and soy sauce, and put them in your mouth. My Gosh, they are heaven, especially with a bottle of Heineken. After that we had steamed salmons with vegetables. Rolled them up with spring rolls and dip into man nem (the real fish sauce that only the real Vietnamese can handled). Then we had bo kho (Vietnamese beef stew with french baguette). I am not gonna go on with desserts and all the sweet stuffs. Damn my stomach was about to exploded.

After stuffed all that foods, we sat together to chit chat about my cousin Minh wedding which is coming this december. He’s currently a MIS professor and his fiance is a maternity doctor. What a perfect match huh? I am so happy for them. He asked me to put together a small site for him so that our family all over the world could access it. I told him I will be glad to do it. So check back later for this special project.

Saw Su Ba (monk) in my dream last night. She smiled at me and called out my name. She passed away a few years ago. Although, the last time I saw her was 19 years ago, her kind-hearted descriptions remained in my mind forever. When I was five, spent about a year at the temple and it was the happiest experienced ever. There was Su Ba (“grandma” monk), Su Co (“auntie” monk), chi My Chau (“sister” monk) and me (just a lucky regular 5 years old kid). Chi My Chau was adopted to the temple after her parents abandoned her because of her disability. According to the Vietnamese theory, it was a curse if the child was borned abnormal. The parents must killed or gave up the child. However, Chi My Chau was the kindest and sweetest individual I’ve known all my life. Although she was limping when she walks, she was always taking care of me and was never too busy to spend time with me.

Each morning, Chi My Chau and I watered the garden then we would helped Su Co sweep and clean the temple. After that, we would pick out vegetables to prepare lunch. Vegetarian dishes were always delightful. I loved the fried rice that was made from white rice and vegetable oil. Plain and simple but delicious. They used to teased me how easy I was to raised, all I need was the fried rice. After an afternoon nap, it was play time. Chi My Chau taught me how to make all kinds of neat stuff such as kites, birds, propellers, etc. from coconut leaves and papers. Flying kites was my favorite hobby. Chi My Chau made beautiful kites.

After play time, we would gathered into Su Ba room for Bible lessons. After that, all of us gathered around the temple to pray. I was in charge of hitting the gong. It was my favorite task because whenever I hit that gong, everyone bowed, specially big occasions when there was alot of peple. Of course, I couldn’t hit it all the time. I had to follow Su Ba’s prayer and knew when to hit the gong. Following the prayer, it was dinner time. My favorite time was after dinner where Su Co would tell fantasy stories on how the Buddha used his/her powers to help people. After storytime, Chi Chau and I walked around the temple to insert incense.

That was my daily routine at the temple. It was the most peaceful life I ever had. I was surrounded by love and spirit. It was like living in heaven and I was protected from the outside world. When I was six, my parents came picked me up because it was time for me to go home and go to school. I could remember vividly the teardrops from Chi My Chau eyes as we said goodbye. We were a bonded family and I didn’t want to leave. They were my temple family members that I will never forget. My life after the temple was a disaster. The real world was full of evil, hate, and temptation. Without their guidance and direction I was lost and became a little monster (another interesting story). I could never go back to that life because the real world has rotten me. I have no place after this life for me. I have no Jesus or Buddha in me, not even God.

Now back in Poughkeepsie. Had a quality time with the family. Came home Friday night, my mom made goi cuon (spring roll), pho (Vietnamese noodle), and sinh to sau rieng (durian smoothie). Damn I was stuffed to death. Saturday, took my mom and my aunt to Philly for grocery shopping. We stopped at Joy Tsin Lau for tim sum (tea lunch). Never have enough of shrimp dumplings. At the asian supermarket, I bumped into my uncle. Man, he was bling blingin’ with gold chain, diamond ring, and a Rolex. On top of that, he’s pushing a brand new 2003 Lex LX. Damn it! He should have lent me some of his dough so I can pay off my student loans.

We bought heo quay (Chinese roast pork) for dinner. My head started to spin after munching away the pork skins. Too much fatty gets me dizzy as hell but I couldn’t help myself. After dinner, I spent some time with my cutie Sammie. We watched Mulan together. It was probably the fifth time I watched that animated film. The storyline is so sweet. The music is fantastic. Of course, the illustrations and animations are amazing.

On Sunday afternoon, hang out with the fellaz. It was unbelievable. We picked up some tacos and chalupas at Taco Bell for lunch. After finished eating them at my boy’s crib, everyone was fighting for the bathroom. Damn, I’ll never eat at Taco Bell again. The foods were bangin’ but they just come right back out. That’s pretty much sumed up my weekend.