Oh Keish! What can I say? I am going to miss you like crazy. You’ve been such a wonderful friend. I love all the moments we shared. Go out to eat, go to the movies, cook at your place, and share stories about our families. I have so much fun being around you and thanks for listening. You’re the one that I can really open up to. This job has brought you to me and I am thankful for that. Things will not be the same when you are not around anymore. You had made it really enjoyable. I admire your design skill, adore your personality, and love your cooking. You’re such a talented individual and I’ve learned so much from you. Please keep in touch with me wherever you go. I do not want our friendships to fade because of the passing of time. I will always remember you.

Love
Donny

Wow, I am overwhelmed by all the compliments from Thuy Nga’s forum on my motion graphic piece for Don Ho. To answer all the confusions, I am just a fan of Don Ho. The piece I created was inspired by the little intro from his ‘Hoi Tiec’ album. The text was taken from Ngoc Lan Musique’s album “Nhung Loi Me Hoac.” It was written by Ngoc Lan. I thought the text and the music complimented each other that why I used them. I showed the piece to Don Ho and he was very pleased with it. We even talked about “Nhung Loi Me Hoac” album. He worked with Ngoc Lan on that album without any commissions. He also commented on how sweet and unique Ngoc Lan was. He didn’t like the album a whole lot but I love that album. Ngoc Lan and Don Ho are a perfect combination. They both have good hearts. Don is such a wonderful guy and I support him all the way, even though his latest albums, Phien Da Sau and Tinh Khuc Trinh Cong Son, are rather disappointing. However, his graphic design for both cds are absolutely beautiful. This guy really has the eye for art. I can’t wait to see his own site. It’s a completely different ball game from print to web.

“Cha yeu hoi, gio noi chon nao? De me yeu le loi suot bao thang ngay. Bao dong to nhoc nhang, xot xa quay quanh me yeu.” This song (‘Vang Cha’ performed by Nguyen Phi Hung) simply reminded me of my old man. He left my mom all these years, to be exact, thirteen years and still counting. No matter how much I hate him, deep down inside I still love him dearly. I still remember the good old time we had even though it was a very short period. Dad, we could have been such a happy family but you fucked it all up.

Michael Lebowitz, class of 94 Vassar graduate, gave a great presentation on Interactive Design for the Film Industry. He is the co-founder of Big Spaceship, a design company that specializes in graphic, interactive and web design for film sites. Big Spaceship portfolio includes: Gangs of New York, Identity, and Down With Love. I don’t know if I should reveal this but these guys are paid in full. The budget for Gangs of New York site was 150 grants. They also developed Battle for the Sudan, an award winning multi-user game powered by Unity Socket Server. Mike is an awesome guy who willing to push the envelope in digital media design. Make sure to check out his company’s upcoming project called Underworld. I saw the teaser and it looks hot. Thank Mike for the fantastic lecture and thank Rain for the great sushi dinner. It was a wonderful evening.

Registered visualgui.com through GoDaddy. This is the beginning of a long blogging journey.

Rain Breaw lectures on Theories and Practice of User Interface Design was excellent. She did a great job on covering issues of good user interface design, usability concerns, and look and feel assessment. However, I was a little bit distracted by a student who used the paper cutter while she was giving the lecture. The squeaky sound broke my concentration. He’s a college student; he should know better than that. It’s so inconsiderate to do that while someone is giving a lecture.

Web Design Position

In case you’re interested, I found this job posting at Fuck That Job.

Full time graphic/web designer wanted for design studio in lower manhattan. Two to three years experience, plus bachelor’s degree.

Must know HTML, Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark Xpress, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, and Flash.
Director, Premiere, PHP/SQL, Indesign, and 3D Studio Max a plus.

$6.50/hr to start. Mondays to Saturdays 8am to 6pm.

Send resume and cover letter in body of email, along with a link to your online portfolio (url) for consideration. all attachments will be deleted.

Not too bad huh? Maybe I should apply for myself.

Inspirational Peace Message

Thich Nhat Hanh (what a wonderful name) is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and a peace activist. He had written many books includes: Being Peace, Peace is Every Step, Touching Peace, and many more. In 1967, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Dr. Martin Luther King, for his work for Peace during the Viet Nam War.

Here is an inspirational peace message narrated by Thich Nhat Hanh and presented by Beliefnet.

Ignorance is Bliss

I was talking to my roommate and somehow Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon came into our conversation. He said it’s the worse movie he had ever seen. He thought it was so fake that people could fly around and a 90 lbs girl could kick ass. Well, what do you expect from a white boy perspective? I just laughed because I didn’t want to response to that kind of ignorance. Of course, the movie is unreal, it’s a fantasy. Use your imagination for a little bit and enjoy the aesthetics experience. Focus on the work of art itself and do not bring in your own judgement. Step out of your own culture for once and appreciate diversity.

Why the hell did I wait so long to watch this uplifting movie? The Joy Luck Club is remarkable. They did a great job of packing all the major stories in two hours. I used to be addicted to Chinese long ass movies. For instance, each of the mother’s story in Joy Luck Club would take about 20 to 30 hours to tell. The Chinese long movies delved into much deep details than what you would see in The Joy Luck Club. They want you to feel as if you are living in it. Ater spending many hours in the fantasy world, I was always hated so much that I had to come back to reality at the end of the movies.

Pretty Boy

Check out this cute Flash music video. The vector graphics are beautiful and the music is nice.

Mooning

Their mission is to moon the White House and they need $10,000 to do it. I can’t believe people are actually donating money for it. I am not interested in politic issues, but that is so disrepectful to the Constitution. Anyways, talking about mooning reminded me of an incident last weekend that made me laughed so hard. I was accidently cut off this one guy while cruising around Lancaster with my boyz. The guy had three teenage daughters in the back seat of his car. While we were stopping at the red light, the girls gave us loser signs with their fingers. We wanted to get them back so we told Chino to moon them. As soon as the greenlight turned, I pulled up closed to them than Chino pulled down his pants. They were screaming their lungs out. Those girls are probably still having nightmares about it. They were exposed to a fat ass moon because Chino weights around 300 pounds. That was some funny shit.

Listening to Long Me performed by Dalena. I have a lot of respect for Dalena because she is an American, who can not speak Vietnamese really well but sings Vietnamese songs perfectly. Long Me is an old song that praises Vietnamese mothers. The song requires lots of souls and feelings to express the lyrics. Not only Dalena did an extraordinary job on the song, she also wrote some of the lyrics in English as well. Although her English translation is not as rich as the Vietnamese, she has captured the general meaning of it.

Long Me bao la nhu bien Thai Binh giat giao.
Tinh me tha thiet nhu giong suoi chai ngot ngao.
Loi Me em ai nhu dong lua chieu ri rao.
Tieng ru ben them trang ta soi bong Me yeu.

Mother’s love is deeper than the sea so wide.
Her soul as sweet as peaceful stream inside.
Her words on songs are gentle breezes raise.
Rockin’ by her baby in the moonlit night.

Thuong con thao thuc bao dem truong,
Con da yen giac Me hien vui suong biet bao.
Thuong con khuya som bao thang ngay.
Lan loi gieo neo nuoi con toi ngay lon khon.

Your cries she hears in the night.
With songs of love she sings you soft truthly.
With love from the morning until night.
Although your life, she holds you in her heart.

Kick Ass Video

Fat Boy Slim’s Weapon of Choice video rocks. Christopher Walken is awesome. Love his moves on the video, especially the part where he flys around the building.

Chemical Brothers

Blasting Chemical Brothers all day long. They have some great funky beats. My favorite shit includes: Block Rockin’ Beats, Under The Influence, Choco’s Groove, Daft Punk – Da Funk, Hey Girl – Hey Boy, Bomb That Bass, and the remix of Bring The Pain by Method Man.

Will, my co-worker, recruited me to his Capoeira class. He is very good at it. The technique is really different. It’s like dance karate but it really works your body. Damn, I was hurting like a bitch. I am such a weak ass motherfucker. All I do these days is eat, sleep, and glue to this fucking computer. This piece of shit is eating me alive but I can’t do a fucking thing about it. I have been thinking of changing a career but can’t do a damn motherfucking thing but web design. I am just fucking screwed.

Paid in Full

According to VNExpress, My Tam makes 20 millions VND (approx. $1300 USD) per night for her performance while the monthly income for an average Vietnamese worker is 1 million (approx. $70 USD). Damn, that chic got everything: young, gifted and loaded. The next time I see her walking around Sai Gon, I’m gonna rob her. Yeah! You heard me, My Tam. Better duck and hide when I come back to Viet Nam. I am just playing girl. Still love your voice very much. You deserve all that money for your hard work. Don’t mind me, I am just a hater.

Illist Illustrations

Although Celia Calle web site design is not too impressive, her artworks are simply amazing. The illustrations are aesthetically powerful and the works of art speak for themselves.

Kicking out 6 grants for AES (American Education Services). 5 more grants to go and 10 more for my mom, I’ll be debt free. Damn I can’t hardly wait. Mom was skeptical when I asked her to loan me the money. She was like, “How come your cousin doesn’t have to pay anything for her college?” I replied, “My cousin doesn’t go to a private school, ma.” La Salle cost me 25 grants a year and I only owe 30 Gs altogether. I still think it was a great deal.

Noding My Fuckin’ Head to OutKast’s B.O.B

“Don’t pull the thang out, unless you plan to bang. Bombs Over Baghdad!
Don’t even bang unless you plan to hit somethin’. Bombs Over Baghdad!
Power music, electric revival. Power music, electric revival.”

That song got a fly ass beat. If you want some dope ass hip hop flavor, get OutKast Greatest Hits. Hits like Rosa Parks, The Whole World, B.O.B, Elevators, and Spottieottiedopaliscious, you’ll guarantee to drop a few pounds.

I was also listening to How To Rob An Industry Nigga by 50 Cents. That song cracked me up. He talked shit about everybody. What y’all think about The Jump Off video? The beat is off the hook. God damn, Lil’Kim looks slutty but sexy as hell.