An excerpt from the School of Art’s mailing list to students:

As you can imagine the start up cost to get a website for this type of service has a nice price tag. I would like to know if there is interest from the School of Art to showcase their talents by helping [us] create a website and platform much of the likes of Facebook.

Not a bad way of getting students to create something like Facebook for free or low cost.

I started to collect Vietnamese ballads arranged in jazz flavors over the years. Whenever I heard something jazzy, I just drag it into my “Visualgui.com Presents Viet Jazz” playlist, which now has 90 tracks, which takes 7.5 hours to get through. I am in the process of edit down the number of tunes, but here’s the list so far:
1. Ai Dua Em Ve/Thuy Vu
2. Ao anh / Le Quyen
3. Bai Khong Ten So 8 / Y Phuong
4. Bay Gio Thang May / Le Hieu
5. Bien Can / Nguyen Hong Nhung
6. Bong Ngay Qua / Quynh Hoa
7. Buon / Ho Ngoc Ha
8. Chan Tinh / Le Quyen
9. Chay Tron / Tung Duong
10. Chieu / My Linh
11. Chieu Nay Khong Co Em / Thang Long Bass
12. Chim Trong Muon Thua / Nguyen Ngoc Anh
13. Co Hong / Nguyen Thao
14. Con Mat Con Lai / Duc Tuan va Vua Lua
15. Con Tuoi Nao Cho Em / Trinh Vinh Trinh
16. Cuoi Cung Cho Mot Tinh Yeu / Thanh Ha
17. Cuoi dem / Tung Duong
18. Da Yeu / Toc Tien
19. Dau Chan Dia Dang / Thu Phuong
20. Dem Do Thi / Thanh Ha
21. Dem Hoai Vong / Tuan Ngoc
22. Du Nang Co Mong Manh / Nguyen Khang
23. Duyen Kiep / Anh Tuyet
24. Ghen / Duc Tuan
25. Gui Gio Cho May Ngan Bay / Ngoc Quy
26. Ha Trang / Tran Thai Hoa
27. Hoang Vang / Tan Son
28. Huong lac / Le Cat Trong Ly
29. Huyen Thoai Nguoi Con Gai / Hong Hanh
30. Khuc Tinh / Tuan Ngoc
31. La Do Muon Chieu / Tran Thai Hoa
32. La Thu / Ngoc Quy
33. Lang dang chieu dong Ha Noi / Ngoc Anh
34. Lang Le / Ho Quynh Huong
35. Lau Dai Tinh Ai / Thuy Vu
36. LK Ai Ve Song Tuong – Toi Di Giua Hoang Hon / Nguyen Khang
37. Loi Ru Mat Em/ Tran Thu Ha
38. Mai Mai Ben Em / Le Quyen
39. Mau Dem / Jazzy Da Lam
40. Mo / Tung Duong
41. Mo Coi / Lieu Anh Tuan
42. Mong Duoi Hoa / Thuy Vu
43. Mot Coi Di Ve / Hong Nhung
44. Mot Doi Quen Lang / Khanh Ha
45. Mua Dong Cua Anh / Tan Minh
46. Mua Thu / Tran Thu Ha
47. Mua thu canh nau / Hong Hanh
48. Mua Thu Chet / Thu Phuong
49. Mua Thu Khong Tro Lai / Hoang Nhat Minh
50. Mung Xuan / Y Phuong
51. Nang Chieu / Ngoc Quy
52. Nang Thu / Thu Hoai
53. Nguoi Yeu Toi Khoc / Thuy Vu
54. Nhin Nhung Mua Thu Di / Hong Hanh
55. Nho Anh / Ho Quynh Huong
56. Nho Mua Thu Ha Noi / Thu Phuong
57. Nhung Buoc Chan Am Tham / Phuong Vy
58. Nhung Con Duong Nho / Hong Nhung
59. Nhung Khung Troi Khac / Nguyen Thao
60. Noi Long / Ho Ngoc Ha
61. Pho Ngheo / Tran Thu Ha
62. Phuc Am Buon / Anh Tuyet
63. Roi Mai Toi Dua Em / Tung Duong
64. Roi Nhu Da Ngay Ngo / Hong Nhung
65. Rung Xua Da Khep / Thanh Ha
66. Sang Ngang / Duc Tuan
67. Sau Y Biec / Tuan Ngoc
68. Se Hon Bao Gio Het / Nguyen Khang
69. Ta Ao Xanh / Tung Duong
70. Tam Su Nguoi Ca Si / Viet Hoan
71. Thoi / Nguyen Khang
72. Thu Quyen Ru / Mai Hoa
73. Tinh Ca Cho Em / Hong Hanh
74. Tinh Cam / Quang Dung
75. Tinh Lo / Thanh Ha
76. Toi Doc Bao Cong Cong / Nguyen Dinh Thanh Tam
77. Toi Tim Thay Toi / Ho Quynh Huong
78. Toi Voi Troi Bo Vo / Tran Thu Ha
79. Trang Khat / Tung Duong
80. Trong Co Don / Ho Quynh Huong
81. Tuoi Da Buon / Thanh Ha
82. Ve Em / Tan Minh
83. Vet Lan Tram / Anh Tuyet
84. Voi / Tuan Ngoc
85. Vung Lay Cua Chung Ta / Tran Thai Hoa
86. Xin Con Goi Ten Nhau / Duong Quoc Hung
87. Xin Mat Troi Ngu Yen / Anh Tuyet
88. Yeu Dau Theo Gio Bay / Hien Thuc
89. Yeu Nhau Di / Hong Hanh
90. 60 Nam Cuoc Doi / Phuong Vy

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.