To aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina, iLoveNgocLan.com contributed to the Manilow Fund. For every dollar we donate, Barry Manilow matches it, and so does the Manilow Fund. In less than 48 hours, they have raised $150,000.00 toward Red Cross. They are raising another $150,000.00, so if you’re thinking of giving, get your contribution tripled through Manilow Fund.

The relaunch of Development site is on hold because the client is not ready. Hopefully, sometimes next week.

Received the made-in-Germany version of Jazzy’s Moon & You. The only difference is the black-and-white design of the booklet, which is quite elegance. Nice job, Any Nguyen. Thanks Jazzy!

Just went through my first day of History of American Jazz’s course. Perfect class for me since what we do is learning about jazz’s history and listening to jazz. The instructor is very passionate about jazz, and he brings a lot of energy to the class. I am feeling the vibe already. This class will definitely help broaden my music writings.

Lastly, iLoveNgocLan.com is gathering donations for Katrina’s relief. My heart goes out to the victims and their families.

West coast is nice. Had a great time with my best friend and his family. His kids (one girl and two boys) took up most of my energy, but they are a blast. Ngoc Lan’s Night was a success. Wrote a piece in Vietnamese about the special event. Just a quick note. Need to get back to work for the launch on Thursday.

Check out Vassar’s banner and see if you can spot the visual gui. Mad props to Chris for the geeky but cool look.

I will be flying out to San Jose tomorrow morning and will be attending Ngoc Lan’s Night on Saturday. I will have to fly back on Sunday because I have deadline (September 1st) to meet. I was not planning on going at all, but my projects are working out smoother than I have predicted. Development site is 95% done and will be ready to relaunch on September 1st. The design will be completely new and refreshing, so make sure to come back and check it out. The redesign of German Studies site is coming along too. After several mockups, we finally agree on a design that is contemporary, edgy, clean and simple. After Development site gets out of the way, I’ll knock German Studies out too.

Although being at Ngoc Lan’s Night is the whole purpose of the trip (the organizer works too hard to make it happens), I also get a chance to visit my best friend who will be hosting me for two days. It’s about time I drag myself over the west coast. I am sure I won’t find anything as surprising as the first time I stepped my foot on the land of opportunity, but at least I’ll get to know Californ-I-A. I also needed a short break before the summer is over and the new semester begins. I am planning on taking a jazz history course, but not sure if I can get in. I won’t know until the first day of class. That’s the price I have to pay to get into free class; therefore, nothing is really free.

I must admit, I was rushing through, and didn’t give Jazzy’s album enough attention it deserves; therefore, I have missed many details that should have been included. I didn’t even mention the musical arranger who has contributed a huge part on the album. Since I have been listening more carefully and picking up more important elements, I decided to revise and expand the piece. So please revisit Moon & You for a better review.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am about to blow my own trumpet with Louis Armstrong’s style: clear and loud, so please cover your ears. While checking out an Apple store (in a mall, not online), I felt in love with the 30-inch Cinema Display. Of course, the first thing I wanted to do was to find out how Visualgui.com looks on such a huge screen, and I am impressed. Instead of getting large white space on the sides like Apple’s own website, Visualgui.com is filled the screen with the image background (like I said in my Visual Changes post, folks with large screens get extra bonus). Here is the normal-text-size screenshot, which has been resized from the width of 2550px to 800px. And here is the screenshot that had been zoomed out by increasing the text size. Notice how the site scales to fit the 30-inch Display. Users with low vision will surely appreciate the flexibility of the site. I am proud to present to the world a Web site where design meets universal usability. Visualgui.com also passed 508 standards according to Cynthia.

Ngoc Lan’s Night has been mentioned on TNT (Tieng Nuoc Toi) radio hosted by Thuy Tien. Thanks to my man Nam Loc for his support. Mad kudos to Thuy Trang aka AngelNgocLan (the organizer of Ngoc Lan’s Night) for making it happens. All her hard work, from contacting the special guests (Nam Loc, Thanh Lan and Truong Ky) to getting the band together to creating posters and tickets, is surely appreciated it.

I forget to include in my last post that your donation (cover charge that includes a 9-course dinner) will go toward the National Multiple Schlerosis organization. So please come out and support the event.

Update: Just booked my ticket. See you all there.

Visualgui.com has been recoded to bring accessibility up another level. Now users can adjust the text size and the layout will scale accordingly. I also switched from three-column to two-column layout to allow the content area to be wider.

A young Vietnamese lady who speaks no English married to a Scottish man. On their honeymoon to Thailand, they went to a zoo. The lady saw an alligator and told her husband in an exciting tone, “Lacoste.”