Một ngày đẹp trời, tôi ra sau nhà nhổ chút cỏ dại. Đạo cũng theo phụ. Bỗng nhiên nó báo tôi biết có đôi chim đang bị nhốt trong cái máy lạnh (HVAC outdoor unit). Tôi vội vàng tắt máy quạt khổng lồ và lấy đôi đũa gắp đôi uyên ương ra. Tuy vẫn trong vị trí ngồi bên nhau nguyên vẹn, bọn chúng đã chết khô từ bao giờ. Chỉ còn lại thể xác giòn rụm. Bọn chúng chết một cách thê thảm.

Không hiểu sao bọn chúng có thể chui vào đó được mà lại chui ra không được. Cũng may là bọn chúng chưa bị rơi vào cái quạt. Hậu quả chắc đã bị chém ra nghìn mảnh. Thế là bọn chúng chỉ có thể ngồi yên một chỗ cho đến chết. Làm tình cũng nên chọn chỗ nào ăn toàn. Chơi kiểu này quá mạo hiểm.

Đạo cũng xót xa cho cặp tình nhân dại dột nên đề nghị tôi chôn cất bọn chúng.

I refuse to jump on Mastodon and Micro.blog because the last thing I wanted to do is keeping up with more social media networks. I am tired of them all.

I never joined Instagram, which was a good decision. Google+ shut down and I didn’t even bother to download my content. I lost interest in Pinterest. I could not get into Dribbble. I no longer care about Medium. I still have a presence on LinkedIn, but I don’t do much with it. I still check Twitter every once in a while, but I hardly tweet anymore. Facebook is still hard to let go because I still want to keep up with family and friends. I did quite a bit of cleaning up on Facebook and also turned on privacy.

I still read blogs via RSS. Free blogging platforms are ridiculous. WordPress.com, in particular, is filled with ads. My kids’ dentistry keeps popping up on the blogs I read on WordPress.com. It is irritating that I just want to take my kids elsewhere.

It’s funny how social media comes in full circle again. Not so long ago, social media is a skill that most professions, web design in particular, most have. Now the less noise the better. I don’t even bother to cross-publishing my blog to other platforms. If you want to read it, you’ll just have to come here or subscribe to my RSS. I am not being cocky or anything like that. I just don’t want to creep you out everywhere you go.

Honor Jones writes in The New York Times:

You’re fully conscious, but nothing hurts. You might as well not have legs for all you can feel them. A sheet hangs from the ceiling, covering everything from your chest down.

But while I was removed from the pain, I wasn’t removed from the experience. If you believe people have souls, a C-section is probably good preparation for the afterlife. Your body is completely out of your control, but you are not your body.

Your partner holds one arm down. A nurse or maybe the anesthesiologist — some stranger toward whom you feel a desperate sense of gratitude — holds the other. After digging around your organs for a while, the doctor says from behind the sheet, “Now I’m going to apply some pressure.” And then suddenly there is another person in the room and both you and your baby gasp the new air and begin to sob.

I was holding my wife’s hand as well until I got blacked out.

Katharine Q. Seelye writes in the New York Times:

Todd Bol was simply paying homage to his mother, a schoolteacher and lover of books. He built a doll-sized schoolhouse, filled it with his mother’s books and put it out for his neighbors in Hudson, Wis., as a book exchange.

Today, just nine years later, more than 75,000 such “Little Free Libraries” dot the globe, from San Diego to Minneapolis, and from Australia to Siberia.

I have seen several of these libraries around our neighborhood.

Hôm nay đến Eden tôi gặp lại một cô gái người Tây Ban Nha xinh xinh với mái tóc xoăn xoăn. Cô cầm tấm bản giấy viết “Xin giúp đỡ mẹ tôi đang mệnh nặng ở quê nhà.”

Sáu năm trước khi mới bắt đầu công việc, tôi gặp cô cũng cầm cái bản đó đứng trước đèn xanh đèn đỏ. Thấy cô rươm rướm nước mắt tôi cũng xót xa. Định giúp đỡ cô nhưng tôi và cô đang ngược đường.

Rồi tôi lại bắt gặp cô ở những địa điểm khác nhau. Mấy năm nay cô vẫn lừa đảo tình cảm người khác để xin tiền. Sao cô có thể làm như vậy?

Kevin Mims writes in the New York Times:

The sight of a book you’ve read can remind you of the many things you’ve already learned. The sight of a book you haven’t read can remind you that there are many things you’ve yet to learn. And the sight of a partially read book can remind you that reading is an activity that you hope never to come to the end of.

I probably have two or three unread books because I could not get through them and thinking of getting rid of them. Maybe I should just keep them for now.

Dan Barry and Jeffrey E. Singer’s “The Case of Jane Doe Ponytail” in the New York Times is about a Chinese girl whose American Dream had turned into an epic tragedy. It’s a chilling read.

Susan Orlean writes about “Growing Up in the Library:”

It wasn’t that time stopped in the library. It was as if it were captured here, collected here, and in all libraries—and not only my time, my life, but all human time as well. In the library, time is dammed up—not just stopped but saved. The library is a gathering pool of narratives and of the people who come to find them. It is where we can glimpse immortality; in the library, we can live forever.

I love this essay. Can’t wait to read her book.

From rape survivor to Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Amanda Nguyễn shares her personal story on the Makers.

David Dayen writes in the Intercept:

According to the affiliation agreement, all of Mercatus’s activities and programs “shall be carried out consistently with the educational and research missions” of the university, including cooperation with other units of the university on “projects of mutual interest.” While Mercatus employees are explicitly not to be designated as employees of George Mason, Mercatus leases office space on the George Mason campus in Arlington, Virginia (for the low price of $1 for a 28-year lease, according to a space usage agreement reviewed by The Intercept); employees of Mercatus receive ID cards from George Mason; employees are eligible to be appointed as “affiliate faculty members” of George Mason (Blahous does not appear to be an affiliate faculty member); and the university pays tuition costs for any Mercatus employees who want to take classes, as it does for George Mason employees.

Wow, $1 for a 28-year lease a huge building that looks like an high-end hotel. What a deal.