Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream.

For his newly launched The Outline, CEO & EIC Josh Topolsky wanted it to be “a next-generation version of The New Yorker.” After spending about fifteen minutes on the site, I am impressed with its unconventional approach. The site offers no navigation; therefore, you can just get lost in its beautifully designed articles. Its intention is to allow you to focus on the story, but I am more distracted with its sleek designs and animations. I explored quite a bit, but haven’t stopped to read any of the pieces. I wish it was designed for reading rather than browsing.

If you read this site, you know how much I love reading. In addition, I have started to collect books that I would like to keep. In the past few years, I started a collection of books on design, music, technical, typography, and writing.

Around this time of the year, family members (my wife and her sister) asked me what I want for Christmas so I put together a wish list on Amazon of the books that I would like to acquire for my little library. If you would like to buy me a book too, please feel free.

Nghe tin Quang Lý đột ngột qua đời ở tuổi 66 vì nhồi máu cơ tim khiến tôi bùi ngùi. Tôi rất hâm mộ giọng ca thanh và đẹp của ông. Nhắc đến Quang Lý thì những người say mê giọng hát ngọt ngào của ông sẽ nghĩ ngay đến “Thuyền và biển” (nhạc Phan Huỳnh Điểu và thơ Xuân Quỳnh). Riêng tôi, bài gắn liền với Quang Lý là bản tình ca lãng mạng “Nụ Hôn Gởi Gió” (nhạc Hoàng Việt Khanh và thơ Hiền Vy), đặc biệt qua hai câu, “Môi em mọng đỏ, là đỏ như mơ / Cho anh nhờ gió hôn vào là vào môi em.” Xin cám ơn ông rất nhiều và cầu mong cho linh hồn ông được bình an.

Just watched two powerful talks from this year’s XOXO. In her hilarious presentation, Jenn Schiffer shares her fascinating experience as a tech satirist. In her honest presentation, Lucy Bellwood tells her personal story as a hungry artist. They both are worth watching.

I am late to the party, but I am down with M-TP. Although Sơn Tùng is still too Korean-esque, I am getting used to his style and flamboyancy. His music is OK, but at least he writes his own songs. I can’t hardly make out what he sings most of the time, except for “Tôi không phải dạng vừa đâu… vừa, vừa, vừa đâu.” His latest live show Ambition is surprisingly enjoyable. Check out part 1, 2, 3, and 4.

The network connection appears to be not working right now, but you can still access the homepage offline.

Andrew Sullivan:

I was, in other words, a very early adopter of what we might now call living-in-the-web. And as the years went by, I realized I was no longer alone. Facebook soon gave everyone the equivalent of their own blog and their own audience. More and more people got a smartphone — connecting them instantly to a deluge of febrile content, forcing them to cull and absorb and assimilate the online torrent as relentlessly as I had once. Twitter emerged as a form of instant blogging of microthoughts. Users were as addicted to the feedback as I had long been — and even more prolific. Then the apps descended, like the rain, to inundate what was left of our free time. It was ubiquitous now, this virtual living, this never-stopping, this always-updating. I remember when I decided to raise the ante on my blog in 2007 and update every half-hour or so, and my editor looked at me as if I were insane. But the insanity was now banality; the once-unimaginable pace of the professional blogger was now the default for everyone.

A fascinating read. I have been trying to kick this online addiction as well.

The New Yorker’s Ariel Levy:

What is radical about Wong is that her discussion of quotidian domesticity is interwoven with commentary on what may be the last taboo of female sexuality: women are animals. It’s old news that women can be as raunchy and libidinous as men. Wong addresses something else, which has remained virtually unexplored, not just in comedy but in pop culture at large: the terrifically hard-core female experience of reproduction—the part that comes after the sex that so many women have already publicly declared they want. Wong describes nursing, for instance, as a “savage ritual that reminds you that you ain’t nothing but a mammal.”

Loving the short videos on grammar from The New Yorker’s Comma Queen.