As I am doing my work from home, a meat truck pulled up and the doorbell rang. The guy tried to sell me some meat. I told him that, “We are vegetarian and we don’t eat meat.” His replied was, “Do you cheat some time.” I told him, “No way. Thou shalt not cheat.”

The past few weeks had been a hell of a ride. The roller coaster has subsided, but the journey only begins. There’s tremendous hope for the strong body and soul. It’s up to the mind to decide.

I am going through all of George Carlin’s standup specials available on Netflix. Was Carlin really like that in real life or that was just his stage persona? I can’t tell because he sounded so real. His takes on religions, politic and subtle things in mundane life were so damn spot on. I usually can separate the art from from the persona like when listening to hip-hop, but Carlin’s routines are kind of blurry. In any rate, I could careless. Carlin is still one of my favorite comedians of all time.

Can one really get past envy and jealousy? I have try my hardest to not get those two things get to me, but it is so damn hard. It’s probably already in my gene. Sometimes I don’t like somebody simply because I don’t like him. The more I try to like him; the more I dislike him. It’s a horrible trait, but I simply can’t stop. I recognize it, but I can’t control it.

We closed out the deal yesterday at 3% for 15 years on our mortgage. I am now the sole borrower, but the property is under my wife and I. She cajoled me into it. I guess that’s how it is when you married someone who is smarter than you. Then again, she shopped for the loan and was able to get us a good deal. I just had to sign the paperwork and owe a big-ass debt.

After picking Dao up from daycare yesterday, he asked me his usual question, “Daddy, do you have something special for me?” I responded, “Con noi cai gi (What do you say)?” He switched to Vietnamese, “Dao muon keo (Dao wants candy).” I responded back to him “Daddy khong co keo (I don’t have candy).” He went on, “We go to the store and buy candy.” I said, “But I don’t have many money.” He said, “Yes you do have money in your pocket.”

Then I tried to distract him with some music while we were in the car. Nicki Minaj was playing on my iPhone. The beat was pumping so I let him listened. Not for long, I had to turn it off because she started cussing. Then he requested, “Daddy, I want to hear ‘Beez In The Trap.'” I was a bit surprise because that song was not even playing at the time and if I remember correctly, I did let him listen to the album just for a bit about a month or so ago, but somehow he could remember, “Beez In the Trap” is in the same album. So I let him hear it and the songs starts like this, “Bitches ain’t shit and they ain’t say nothing / A hundred motherfuckers can’t tell me nothing / I beez in the trap, bee beez in the trap / I beez in the trap, bee beez in the trap.” He sang along the latter two bars. I wondered if he already picked up the first two bars too, but didn’t understand what the words are. I was cracking up listening to him singing along with Nicki Minaj.

We’re going through a tough time and facing one of the biggest challenges of our lives. We’re not sure what tomorrow will be like, but we’re hoping and praying for the best.

George Mason Law is now featured on Mediaqueri.es. The screenshots were captured a few months ago; therefore, the small-screen version is outdated. The latest version has the entire menu links moved to the bottom. Still, we’re very pleased to see that Mediaqueri.es is showing us some love.

Lacking of sleep finally took a toll on me yesterday. I could only make it through half day at work. I felt sick and needed some sleep. I went to Eden for lunch, but barely finished chao goi vit (porridge and cabbage duck salad). Headed straight home and knocked myself out. The headache and the dizziness didn’t go away until I took an Aleve-D, my drug for everything.

The incident indicates that I can no longer stay up late. With two boys, fulltime job and occasional freelance gigs, I need to balance my time and priorities. Blogging is hard to give up, but I have to. I know I said this a million times in the past, but I haven’t done it. I definitely can’t give up entirely, but it will be sporadic.

Thanks for reading!

Last Tuesday I attended my first WordPress DC Meetup, which was also my first Meetup ever. Responsive Web Design attracted quite a crowd that day. The speakers did a decent job of presenting RWD, but there was not anything exciting. It was more of an introduction to RWD.

The best part of the Meetup was the job announcement at the end. If you’re looking for a design job or WordPress developer job, Meetup is the place to go. Companies and agencies were there to scout talents. It was a good vibe over all.

I got a cold call from a company trying to sell me a CMS. Here’s how our conversation went:

Salesman: “Are you looking into a web content management solution?”
Me: “Not really. We already have something in place.”
Salesman: “What are you using.”
Me: “MODX.”
Salesman: “Ah ha, open source platform.”
Me: “Yes” (I was impressed that he knows about MODX.)
Salesman: “Is it PHP or .Net?”
Me: “PHP” (So he doesn’t know about MODX. It was just a wild guess.)
Salesman: “How do you like MODX?”
Me: “It’s very flexible. I was able to do HTML5 and responsive web design out of the gate… What language is your CMS written in?”
Salesman: “Java.”
Me: “Oh ok.” (Red flag. Red flag.)
Salesman: “Unlike MODX, which developed by some sixteen-year-old kid in the U.K., our system is developed by professional developers…”
Me: “Wow, wow… Hold on. MODX is developed by a team with a great community backing it up.”

That was a deal-breaker for me right there. How can you trash something that you know absolutely nothing about it? He made it too easy for me to end the conversation.

With my wife’s approval and my mother-in-law’s help looking after Dao, I’ll be attend the WordPress DC Meetup tonight. The topic is on Responsive Web Design. Definitely looking forward to it.