Links of designers and agencies I gathered for a course on professional design practices. Although I have a long list, these designers and agencies have new, inspiring web presence.

Designers

• Andrew Clarke
• Dan Mall
• Mark Boulton
• Oliver Reichenstein
• Trent Walton

Agencies

• Big Spaceship
• Huge Inc.
• Paramore
• Playground Inc.
• Teehan+Lax

Origami artist Giang Dinh on Buddha:

Remember that Buddha is within any one of us. My hope is that the viewer of the right piece will “fill in the blanks” and see your own “Buddha face”. Do not look for Buddha in the external world; you must look within.

His reason for choosing paper as a medium is also compelling:

Origami is a special kind of sculpture. You start with a piece of paper and end up with the same piece of paper. You do not add or subtract anything thing like other kinds of sculpture. By hiding the unnecessary parts of the paper, the origami artist can create the whole new world. It is magical, like fairy tales. The material is so simple, the possibility is endless. And you do not need many special tools. Mainly it is a direct conversation between your heart/hands and a piece of paper, especially if you fold in the air.

Giang Dinh is the son of painter Dinh Cuong.

Bổng nhiên tôi rất thích cái clip em này ca bài “Bạc Trắng Tình Đời” trong lúc đang ăn nhậu vui chơi. Có cái gì đó rất thú vị và sống động. Mời nghe thử nhé.

I am in the hospital with my mom. She’s diagnosed with pneumonia. It’s around 12:25am and she’s talking in her sleep mostly things about my nephew like telling him to wash his hands. She also seems to be talking on the phone with her friend. I asked the nurse if she’s hallucinating, but he doesn’t know for sure since they didn’t give her any morphine. Very strange. I hope she’s ok.

I took a full day Sass Workshop yesterday with Roy Tomeij. He walked us through every SCSS syntax and gave us some new features coming out in Sass 3.3. He shared his modular approach to CSS, which was quite intriguing. He also showed how simple it is to create CSS animation with Sass. I learned quite a bit yesterday and will need some time to digest everything. If you want to learn Sass, definitely check out Roy’s “Screw CSS” workshop.

Terry Gross interviews Elizabeth Smart on her abduction. It’s both disturbing and inspiring.

Kevin Whitehead reviews Ahmad Jamal’s latest album Saturday Morning. At 83, Jamal still got mad chops.

Jeffrey Zeldman talks with Debbie Millman about failure, success and happiness. Two people I have deep respect for on the same podcast. Can’t get any better than that.

Dạo này khá bận rộn với công việc, con cái và bài vỡ. Mấy tuần nay ngủ không đủ nên bệnh và khá nhức đầu nên không còn đủ tâm trạng cũng như thời gian để blog. Tuy vậy nhưng tôi vẫn thấy may mắn và hạnh phút. Công việc vẫn suôn sẻ. Gia đình vẫn ấm cúng. Chỉ là không đủ thời gian để làm hết mọi thứ mình muốn. Đến giờ tôi vẫn không thực hiện được cách ổn định giờ giấc và những thứ cần thiết và không cần thiết. Có lẻ thêm hai năm nữa khi Cu Đán lớn lên một chúc thì sẽ đỡ hơn. Bây giờ Cu Đạo đã tự làm được khá nhiều việc nên cũng đỡ phần nào. Thôi thì tới đâu hay đến đó. Bây giờ tan sở đi rước hai thằng nhóc về tắm rữa cho tụi nó rồi đi học tối nay. Mông rằng ông thầy sẽ hài lòng về những thiết kế đã bỏ hết mấy đêm dài tạo ra.

Popular Science:

It wasn’t a decision we made lightly. As the news arm of a 141-year-old science and technology magazine, we are as committed to fostering lively, intellectual debate as we are to spreading the word of science far and wide. The problem is when trolls and spambots overwhelm the former, diminishing our ability to do the latter.

Comments are not only bad for science, but also for health.

I’ll be attending Sass Workshop on Tuesday, October 15, 2013 in Reston, VA. Even though I have been working with Sass quite a bit, I am looking into diving deeper into advanced techniques and Compass. If you’re planning on going, but haven’t bought the ticket, you can use this web address for $25 off.

To prove how important diacritics are in Vietnamese writing, here’s a conversation I had on Facebook that started out with a haircut, but could mean totally something else depending on how dirty your mind is:

John Smith Ban thich cat ngan hay cat dai?

Donny Truong Writing Vietnamese without “dấu” is quite dangerous.

John Smith And sometimes so confusing that it makes people ask you over and over for clarification. You answer and answer but they keep asking, asking. Cu hoi, cu hoi, cu hoi hoai! Until you get upset and want to chui lon!

Donny Truong Du roi, du roi. Dung chui lon nua.