“Tinh yeu den em khong mong doi gio, tinh yeu di em khong he hoi tiec.” This tune has been playing in the back of my head ever since I heard My Tam sang it when “Hat Voi Dong Song” first came out. The song took off like a love anthem so did My Tam. “Hat Voi Dong Song” was written by Quoc An. It is interesting how he took phrases from an article written by Le Nguyen and transformed them into lyrics. Usually songwriters take poems (not articles) and create the melody for the music. In Quoc An’s case, it is quite unique and creative and he pulled it off nicely. The lyrics are smooth and the melody flows perfectly. Of course, My Tam’s performance is flawless. Here is the article that talks about the song and here is the original article written about Ngo Thanh Van that sparked Quoc An to write “Hat Voi Dong Song.” Sorry my English readers, the articles are in Vietnamese only.

The folks at Triple Strength finally released their interactive Flash site to showcase their work. With clean and simple design, the site is intuative and beautiful. Great job guys!

Before coming to Vassar, I was working part time at Triple Strength doing Flash and web design. Although I was only there for a few months, I learned so much about design thanks to the Senior Designer Hung Nguyen. He is the man with the skills. I owe him alot for that. I enjoyed working with them but I find myself loving the educational environment more. I always wanted to work for a college and Vassar gave me a perfect opportunity. I still miss my good old folks at Triple Strength though. Big shout out to Hung, Lance, Pam and Alicia. I’ll drop by the studio sometimes when go back to PA. Once again, the site looks great.

Last Friday, Eben Ostby, Vassar class of ’77, gave an informal talk about techniques and process of CG filmmaking at Pixar. Eben is a supervising technical director at Pixar, where he worked on Monsters, Inc., Toy Story 1 & 2, A Bug’s Life and a variety of early computer-animated short films. It was interesting to see how they come up with ideas and the process of creating the film. He touched a bit on how they created the beautiful Sidney scene in Finding Nemo. At the end, Eben asked the cameraman to stop recording so he can show Boundin’. It is such a fantastic short animated film. The tap dance is awesome, the music is great and of course the animation is amazing. You can watch a sneak preview at Pixar’s site.

Amy Tan says, “Loud farts don’t stink, and the really smelly ones don’t make a sound.” Well! She hasn’t smell Jurassic Fart. It Is loud, green and deadly.

The half Vietnamese Kira Kener is way too good to be a porn star. She has such a gorgeous appearance and striking features. It’s heartbreaking to see that pretty face gives heads. Oh well!

As you have noticed, the top navigation of VisualGUI has changed a bit. I want to make it more visible and colorful. Spice things up a little. I am quite hapy with the visual impact.

Hov! The Grey Album is simply a work of art. The unity between Black (Jay-Z) and White (The Beatles) is off the hook. What more can I say? Go to Grey Tuesday and cop yourself a copy. Save the music y’all.

The coolest thing about being gay is not to have to get married. However, the gay community is fighting for the right to get married. Massachusetts and other states should pass law. Give the gays the equal opportunity to experience the sorrow life of marriage.

Remember the adorable 6-7 years old kid performed in Bien Nho’s production Tuyen Chon Nghe Si? His name is Chau and he was mimicking Hoai Linh in Tra No Tinh Xa where he acted like an old man. In Hay Cho Toi, he dressed like a little pimp and danced like Nguyen Hung. Of course, as cute as he is, everyone loves him. Unfortunately, his music and video are being banned in Viet Nam because he dressed and acted inappropriate for his age. Give the kid a break. Give him a damn chance. This is why kids in Viet Nam do not have opportunities. Instead of encouraging kids to do what they like, they shut them down. Meanwhile in America, Lil’ Romeo and Lil’ Pow Wow make millions rapping about girls and wearing Hip Hop baggy clothes. Oh well, life is never fair. If you can read Vietnamese, check out the article at VNExpress.

Ms. Julia, who inspired me with her poem Your Beauty, is back and dropping some dope rhymes for Solitude, a theme I recently designed for Ngoc Lan. Not only Julia is fluent in English, she can write in French and Vietnamese as well. Wish I had half of her skills. If you’re interested in reading more of her beautiful poems, go to iLoveNgocLan.com’s poem page and check out: Beautiful Maria, If Only I Could, In The Night…, Like a Star. They all dedicated to Ngoc Lan. Isn’t Ms. Julia a greatest fan of Ngoc Lan?