Hieu:

Dear Donny,
I’ve read a lot of your reviews / comments on Vietnamese DVD / Albums but it has been a while without seeing your critics on Thuy Nga Paris by Night . How about this time with Paris by Night 107 which has just been released a couple days ago ?
Best,
Hieu V

My response:

Dear Hieu,
Thank you for reading. Unfortunately I no longer have the luxury of sparing a couple of hours watching Paris By Night, let alone writing a review for it. These days I only focus on albums that I feel worth mentioning or worth my time reviewing.
Best,
Donny

My use of social media has changed unconsciously over the year. In the beginning, I tried to connect all my networks together. My blog RSS feed would go to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. My tweets would feed into Facebook and LinkedIn.

These days, I separated out my networks. I use Twitter mainly for web-related topics and keeping up with the industry. Facebook is mostly to connect with friends and family. I am not using LinkedIn as much as I used to. I hardly use Pinterest and gave up on Google+.

I used Google Reader quite a bit to keep up with my favorite blogs, but now that Google shut it down I am going back to Feedly. I love Feedly interface design, but somehow the functionality always confuses me, especially the “today” tab.

Out of all the social media activities, blogging and reading blogs remain my favorite. I like the personal space when I blog and I like reading blogs in which the authors put more time and effort into writing them.

Thank goodness for the spring break this week even though I still have to go to work. Things are calming down a bit. I am catching up with most of my school projects. The jazz board game for my seminar class is coming together nicely. I cam’t wait to play it in class. My group project for the Advanced Web Design class is still sketchy, but I have all the core requirements finished. I am in the development stage for the second project. I also whipped up 900-word essay for the class.

As for work, I am concentrating on realigning the Law homepage. We’re bringing back the carousel that is featured on almost every university web site. I was so glad we were done with in, but now it’s coming back.

On the freelance side, I launched two WordPress sites. Still working on a third one. Designed a simple business card for a client. In the process of working on a mockup for another client. Every time I say that I am not taking anymore client work, I get more requests and I hate to turn them down.

Boy, I really need a break. I am exhausted. Oh shit! Google is shutting down Reader. This is probably a good reason for me to stop checking the blogs’ updates.

Stephen Coles’s The Anatomy of Type:

Just like the human body, the Latin alphabet can take on a surprising range of shapes and proportions. These varieties can come from diverging historical paths, differences in language or culture, or simply the tool used to make the letters—whether it’s a pen, a chisel, or a compass.

This is an outstanding coffee book for type nerds.

New York Times‘ Dominique Brossard and Dietram Scheufele report:

The Web, it should be said, is still a marvelous place for public debate. But when it comes to reading and understanding news stories online — like this one, for example — the medium can have a surprisingly potent effect on the message. Comments from some readers, our research shows, can significantly distort what other readers think was reported in the first place.

Shutting down the comment section makes this site much less dramatic.

These past few weeks, my typical day goes something like this: Get up. Take Cu Dan to grandma. Go to work. Go to class until 7 PM. Go home. Put Dan to bed. Take a bath. Play with Dao for a bit. Jump back on the laptop around 10 PM until 2 or 3 in the morning.

Between work, school and freelance projects, I have been living and breathing in WordPress. All of a sudden, I am getting all kind of WordPress inquiries. I am going to be extremely busy in the next few weeks as well.

Forewarn, do not watch this clip if you have a light heart. It’s a video clip of a woman beating a toddler senselessly. The kid looks about the same age as my baby boy. How could a kid that young could tick off a woman that much is way beyond my comprehension. My heart simply stops to such human-less behavior. Kids at his age deserves loving and caring, not beating.

I interviewed one of my colleagues who is a mother and had taken a few online business courses. She preferred online over onsite classes so that she could be home with her son, especially after work.

She took courses in which she sat through videos and courses in which everyone joined in at a certain time. She likes the latter better because she preferred the interaction with the instructor and other students through webcam. The liveliness of the participation made her learning experience much better than going through videos.

One of her biggest complains was that the interface was way too crowded for her laptop. She had to have too many window browsers open including one for video, one for the lesson, one for class discussions and one for exercise. She wished the design was simpler to let her focus on her main task.

I also interviewed another colleague who took an onsite Linux class. The first class, the instructor walked through the installation process and helped out the students who had trouble. The other student in class could also hop on another student’s computer to help with the installation.

In each lesson, the instructor took the students through the materials. He typed command lines on screen and the students followed along. After that the students would go through the exercise on their own and then moved to the next lesson. Every three lessons, the students would have an assignment to complete for a grade. The assignment based on the lessons the students had learned.

My colleague said the course could have been easily offered online because every task required using the computer. The students could learn at the own paste and they would have more time to troubleshoot their own codes before asking the instructors or other students.

Then again he liked the onsite class because he could meet with other students. They could take a break and connect with each other. The social aspect appealed to him and he wouldn’t think that online classes would offered the same experience.

Chúc tất cả các đồng bào, đồng chí, đồng tính và đồng loại năm quý tỵ được đồng tâm và đồng lòng với nhau. Hãy đồng cảm và tôn trọng lẫn nhau. Hãy ca tụng sự khác biệt để cuộc sống thêm sắc màu và tươi đẹp.

Let our LGBT brothers and sisters show their pride too. Tet should be a celebration for all so let’s stop this divisiveness in our community. Happy Lunar New Year, my friends.