Toni Morrison:

I only have 26 letters of the alphabet;
I don’t have color or music. I must use my craft
to make the reader see the colors and hear the sounds.

Word!

The president hits back at the Heritage:

There is always room for serious discussion on how best to make a university open, welcoming, and productive for all citizens, but unfortunately this report – sloppy, methodologically questionable, and simply inaccurate as it is – not only falls short of something we can take seriously, it does damage to our capacity to have such a serious conversation. Quite frankly, it also damages Heritage’s reputation for providing accurate and useful information.

He even invited the Heritage to campus to explain the report. Why does he need to invite these racist conservatives who oppose diversity to campus? He just gives them an opportunity to speak about their whiteness heritage. While they claimed that hiring a diverse group of talents is wasteful, they have no idea how much money has been wasted by the white incompetent leaders to hide their ignorant and lack of knowledge. Those incompetent leaders should be fired instead.

It was 6:50 pm on a Friday evening and the Office of the President sent out a mass email responding to the Heritage Foundation report, in which the authors criticized George Mason University for being too diverse. I’m not going to link to the report and I don’t need to read it to find out about its stupid racist shit. Let’s keep it real. Only a white conservative think tank would put out such a low, divisive, provocative report. Oh wait, it’s the Heritage Fucking Foundation. The authors criticizing George Mason University for being too diverse is like me criticizing the Heritage Foundation for being too fucking white.

22 năm vẫn nhớ và sẽ không bao giờ quên.

I haven’t posted anything on Twitter/X or LinkedIn in almost a year. I don’t miss them. They don’t do anything for me. I still use Facebook heavily to stay in touch with family and friends. In addition, I have been using Facebook’s Marketplace to sell used skis, snowboards, skates, and things we don’t need anymore. Even with a few scammers, I have been able to sell things. I am slowly replacing all my old equipment with new ones. Once my new skis come, I’ll sell my old ones. I should also try to sell toys and materials that are accumulated in my basement. My next career move, when I lose my job, is to buy used things, fix them up, and resell them on Facebook’s Marketplace.

Cuong Lu:

[H]appiness and suffering are very close to each other, and that touching our own suffering can be a source of relief and even a prerequisite for true happiness.

Mitch McConnell froze two times while talking with reporters and we invited him to speak. That’s fucking hilarious.

Kelvin Khoa:

Cám ơn Donny lúc nào cũng làm cho trang web của Ngọc Lan cũng xinh đẹp.

Donny:

Chào Anh Kelvin,

Rất cám ơn lời động viên của anh.

Regards,

Donny Trương

TN writes:

Hi Donny,

I just discovered your blog Visualgui today, and I have to say I really enjoy reading your music reviews for Vietnamese albums. It’s quite rare to see Vietnamese music get viewed in English proper.

I’m a frequent user of rateyourmusic.com, it’s an online music encyclopedia where people can catalog and rate music releases. I like to spend my free time there adding Vietnamese albums to the site’s database, especially those released in the 2000s and 2010s.

I’m writing this email to ask if it’s possible for me to collect your music reviews for 2000s and 2010s Viet albums into a list on my rateyourmusic profile page, with the proper attribution of course, hoping that they would help spread the good (and bad) word on Vietnamese music. Your reviews would only be visible in the list, and not elsewhere on the site.

Best regards.

I reply:

Dear TN,

Thank you for reading my blog. I am flattered that you want to include my music reviews on rateyourmusic.com. I have to decline your request because I wrote these reviews based on my personal taste and my limited knowledge of music. My music review is not professional. In fact, many of the reviews are very opinionated; therefore, I wanted to keep them on my blog and nowhere else.

I hope you understand.

Regards,

Donny Trương

I was chatting with my two male colleagues and one of them checked X (formerly known as Twitter). He informed us that more shit hit the fan. The sexual misconduct allegations still played out on social media.

One of my colleagues recounted an incident where he came to the ex-professor’s office and three students, including the adjunct professor, were hovering over him. The ex-professor joked, “We are not doing anything.”

My colleague knew about the ex-professor’s behavior for years and he didn’t say shit. What a shithead. At least three victims had pointed out that the school and the university hadn’t done shit to stop the ex-professor from engaging in sexual relationships with students. They are damn right.

I didn’t confront my colleague. I understood his situation. I had no idea about the ex-professor’s open secret. I never interacted with him in person. We only exchanged a few emails, strictly about work. If I knew about his behavior, would I do anything about it? I don’t know. My colleagues and I come to work everyday to make money to raise our family. We are just two minority employees.

I only interacted with people on the professional level; therefore, I don’t know anything else about them. I don’t play politics. I kiss up to no one. I stay as far away from the deans as I can. Even with my current supervisor, I keep things strictly business. Whatever he wants to do, I’ll do it. He has power over me. I am there to do my job and get the fuck out.

If I knew about the ex-professor’s misbehavior and if I were to report, I am sure no one would have taken my seriously. Even the victims themselves are facing a 108-million-dollar lawsuit. It’s fucked up, but we are still living under the white man’s world with white privileges and powers.