Designing a Diacritic System

Thy Hà, a graphic and digital designer living in Melbourne, is working on her final research project titled Up? Down? Left? Right? for the Master of Communication Design at RMIT University. Her topic is about designing a diacritic system for the Vietnamese language. She shares the project on her website. I am happy to see more Vietnamese designers delving into Vietnamese diacritics. I also glad that her project is a response to my Vietnamese Typography. I would love to see the final product once she is completed.

Dâu lạnh

Khi trời trở lạnh tôi thèm ăn món gì đó cho đời đỡ nhạt. Thế thì còn gì mặn mà hơn là tô bún mắm? Đến quán lúc một giờ trưa nên cũng vắng. Chỉ có tôi và hai người đàn bà lớn tuổi đang ăn bún bò Huế. Hai bà vừa thè lưởi vừa tâm sự. Bà này nói bà nọ, “Thằng con trai tôi lấy vợ ở xa. Nó thì hai ba bữa gọi điện thoại về hỏi thăm còn con dâu thì cả năm gọi được vài lần.” Bà kia an ủi lại, “Dâu ở Mỹ nó lạnh vậy đó. Con dâu tôi chiều đi làm về trể, ăn tối xong nó cũng trốn vào trong phòng có để ý gì chồng con và mẹ chồng này đâu.” Tôi nghe câu “Dâu ở Mỹ nó lạnh vậy đó” thật buồn cười. Dâu ở Mỹ bị đông lạnh hết rồi dùng không được nữa. Đem đi xay ra là sinh tố hết cho rồi.

Thoughtlessness

It’s been only six months and I can’t even wait for our obligation to be over in another six months. I was expecting it, but it is getting way too uncomfortable. The level of awkwardness is getting unbearable. It is really a damn shame that it has to be this way. I hate to put a crack in a relationship, but we have offered what we could. We have done what we could, but we simply can’t change someone else’s thoughtlessness. It is what it is. I can’t do shit about it. I just have to patiently waiting it out.

Boogers vs. Silkworms

On Saturday evening, I drove Đán and his cousin (same age) home after their Taekwondo’s class. I let them watched Curious George. At a red light, I peeped at them from the mirror. While Đán glued to the TV, his cousin turned away from him, put his finger up his nose, sucked the finger, and repeated rapidly. He definitely knew what he was doing; therefore, he tried to hide it from us.

I didn’t know whether I should let him know or let it go. Two years ago, he did it without hiding while I was driving and I told him nicely not to do that. For a while, I thought he stopped, but apparently he has not. He doesn’t do it in the open, but he does it when he thinks no one is watching. I decided not to say anything and just let him have his moment. I am sure he will grow out of it.

At dinner last night, his grandma (my mother-in-law) gave him a silkworm to tried. He tried it, liked it, and asked for more. She told him that if he like it he can ask his mom to make it for him. As he popped another one into his mouth, Đạo told him it was a silkworm and he freaked out. His face got red and he went to the bathroom trying to spit it out. He didn’t want to finish his rice with grilled pork. I thought to myself, “Dude, you ate your boogers yesterday. Silkworms aren’t as gross.” Then again, Đạo’s friends freaked out when he brought silkworms to school for lunch.

It was clearly a psychological effect. He was enjoying the silkworms until he knew they were “worms.”

Digital Detoxing

I am reading Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism and trying to detox for the hundredth time. I am fed up with Facebook allowing disinformation to spread on its platform. I removed Facebook app off my phone and temporarily deactivated my account. I am logging off Twitter as well. I’ll spend this weekend hanging out with the kids and reading Newport’s book. Have a great weekend, folks.

Learning Typography Resources

My book, Professional Web Typography, has been mentioned in issue #30 of “Web Fonts & Typography News.” Jason Pamental writes:

Donny is a deeply talented designer and typographer, and has released a second edition of his book recently, updating it to include variable fonts and some other newer developments. It’s very well written and an incredible resource. Well-deserving of a place on your digital bookshelf.

It is an honor to be included along many of my favorite books on typography. If you are new to web typography, this issue is a great introduction. If you haven’t already, you should subscribe to “Web Fonts & Typography News.”

Downtime

Lunarpages, my hosting provider, has been acquired by HostPapa. They are making infrastructure changes. As a result, all my websites, including this blog, will be down for four hours today. Here’s the notification from HostPapa:

In order to perform important infrastructure updates, your service will experience downtime starting on:

Wednesday, October 9, 2019 10 pm (PST)

And ending on:

Thursday, October 10, 2019 2 am (PST)

During this maintenance period, your website and email will not be available.

I’ve hosted with Lunarpages for almost 20 years. They have done a great job with minimum downtime. I am not sure what will happen with HostPapa. Just keep my fingers crossed.

Run, Walk & Roll

Our sons, Đạo and Đán, will participate in the Laurel Ridge Run, Walk & Roll on October 11, 2019 to raise funds for their school’s education enrichment and teacher supplies. If you would like to support, please make a pledge.

Monetizing My Content With Coil

I have been blogging for 16 year and still loving it. I put too much time and effort into it, but I have not been able to monetize it. I thought of serving ads, but I hate ads. I am sure my readers do as well. I have a reader-support section at the bottom of this blog, but it has not been too successful.

I am now trying Coil after seeing some bloggers using it and tweeting about it. Coil seems like a promising way to get paid for what I post online. I also added Coil to Vietnamese Typography and Professional Web Typography. Will see how it goes.

Phong Lê lồng tiếng Chris Rock

Tôi mê danh hài Chris Rock từ lâu và muốn chia sẽ cùng những người Việt không rành tiếng Anh. Hôm nay xem phần lồng tiếng của Phong Lê làm tôi cười té ngửa.

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