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A Father’s Pride

My friend showed me pictures of his cribs
And all I could show him was pictures of my kids
He said he got a brand new sports car
And all I got was my sons’ brand new report card

Base on Ye’s original lyrics

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License to Fail

Việt Thanh Nguyễn gave a short, inspiring commencement speech at F&M college. He touched on failure:

Now, you have just spent four years of your life here, and probably many years before, trying not to be mediocre. I’m here to give you permission to fail. Your parents might not want to hear that. But you should listen to Samuel Beckett: “Ever tried,” he wrote. “Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”

Also kids, take note: “a B+ is an Asian F.”

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Cảnh cáo

Sáng nay đưa thằng Đạo đi học như thường lệ. Sau khi cho nó xuống, tôi lái xe ra thì có một cô Á Đông mặc chiếc áo giao thông màu xanh lá cây chặn xe tôi lại. Cô vẫy tay chào và ra dấu hiệu cho tôi quay kính xuống.

Cô hỏi, “Anh có biết đây là bãi đậu xe của nhân viên không”? Tôi trả lời, “Biết chứ nhưng tôi đâu có đậu xe. Tôi chỉ dừng lại cho thằng con tôi đi bộ vào trường”. Cô lắc đầu nói, “Lần sau anh thả con xuống ở trước cổng trường”. Tôi gật đầu đồng ý cho xong.

Thú thật thì cái hàng đến trước cổng trường rất là dài. Lúc đến đó sẽ trễ giờ học cho nó và trễ giờ làm cho tôi. Giờ bị bắt quả tang rồi thì phải làm theo thôi.

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More Brand Designs

I added a handful of brand designs to my professional portfolio. Take a look.

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Darned Dangling Modifiers

I received the following sponsored message in LinkedIn from some dude:

Hello Donny,

As a Director of Design & Web Services at George Mason University – Antonin Scalia Law School, I thought this report would interest you on how to drive campaign success through TikTok.

I couldn’t help but thinking of a few bars from Ye’s “All of the Lights,” in which he rhymed:

I’m heading home, I’m almost there
I’m on my way, headed up the stairs
To my surprise, a nigga replacing me
I had to take ’em to that ghetto university

I thought the dude replaced my job.

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Pain in the Ass

The following post is literally about pain in the ass. Stop reading now if you want to spare the details. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Last weekend, I started to feel a sharp pain in my ass while camping. I wondered if a bug bit my ass while I was sleeping in the woods. I thought it might be the hot sauce I ate that burned my ass. I don’t know. I just hope it will go away because taking a shit is just painful.

When I reached down my hand and touched it, I could feel a lump on my left cheek. I tried to take a selfie of my ass, but I couldn’t. I am thinking of paying my family physician a visit, but the thought of her looking into my ass is just too embarrassing.

I am just going to wait it out for a few more days to see if I get any better. I don’t think I ever had any symptoms like this before. What a pain in the fucking ass.

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Help Adam Phan’s Fire Recovery

Adam Phan was my web design student and teacher assistant. He’s a charming and caring guy. In a recent fire incident, Adam lost his home and his belongings. He shares:

To be honest, I’m not all right as I witness my home and everything I’ve worked for go up in flames. It was traumatic and surreal. When I was finally able to walk up to my apartment building, it did not look anything like the home I had known.

It was dark, heavy with smoke and debris. My friend and I were escorted by some firemen up to the building. My building looked like a bomb had gone off in it. Inches of water mixed with wet drywall, insulation, burnt cinders and neighbors’ belongings. And when it came to my apartment—it was something out of a horror film. I woke up to a beautiful condo loft home and came back to a burnt down, flooded shell.

If you can, please help him out.

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The Blogroll

I removed the blogroll from my homepage since many blogs on my list are inactive. Bloggers don’t write like we used to anymore. I just found out that Ms. Nguyễn has made her blog private. I followed her journal for a long time. She was my only Vietnamese blogger left. She was like my blog confidant. I am going to miss her writing. It is hard to find passionate bloggers to follow nowadays. Of course I could turn to books to read, but I have always loved the raw form of blogging. I appreciate the unfiltered thoughts as well as the immediacy of publishing to the whole world to read.

I still love writing and I have learned that this is the only place that allowed me to write freely. Facebook is not a place to post lengthy journal. No one reads my writing when I cross post my blog on Facebook. As a result, I just post everything on here only. Maybe it is the fact that I don’t know who is reading has allowed me to just write. I don’t care about the likes and the comments. I just dash off a few hundred words off my head and hit publish.

Since I removed the blogroll off my homepage, I am just going to keep it here as an archive. I am not going to curate it. If the blogs go inactive, let them be. I might go back to add more in the future if I find blogs worth reading.

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Thank You for Your Support

I have been pouring my heart and soul out on this blog for almost two decades. My dream has always been to turn this little blog into a full-time gig. Then again, a dream is just a dream and it is still a long shot, but I haven’t given up because I still love blogging.

I dedicate a big chunk of my time to this blog and it costs more than time and energy to sustain. If you enjoy reading this blog, please consider supporting my efforts to keep it free of intrusive advertising and third-party tracking. Your contribution will help pay the bills and keep this blog active.

Ways to support

My thanks to the following generous supporters

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Mr. Cường Plays Kanye’s Music

On Monday I took Đán and Xuân to private piano lessons and bought along a music sheet I found only for Kanye’s “All of the Lights” (Interlude). I asked their instructor to show them how to play the tune. Without even listening to the tune, he played the interlude so beautifully and he let me filmed it. Take a listen.

If you live in Northern Virginia and would like to take piano lessons, I recommend checking out the NOVA Piano Studio.