Earthquake Rubbed DC

Dana, Duke and I had lunch at Roti. We felt the booth shaking. I thought the other folks at the end of the booth were shaking it. Dana thought the Metro was running beneath us. Then all of the sudden everyone ran out of the place. The workers told us to evacuate. I grabbed Dao and we ran out. My work place closed down after I sent Dana and Dao home. The Metro is now crazy crowded. So I am stopping by Starbucks waiting for the traffic to calm down.

That was the first time I felt the earthquake. I didn’t really know what it was. Thank goodness nothing happened.

Student Orientation

Spent the whole morning attending student orientation. I sure felt like being a student again. I only have one more week until classes begin. The good thing is that I’ll start out with foundation courses: “Introduction to Structured Programming” and “Database Design and Applications.”

About two weeks ago, I met with the chair and she is super wonderful. She looked at my transcripts and told me that she doesn’t see any of my undergraduate classes that are equivalent to the foundation courses for the program. I quickly told her that I don’t have a problem taking the prerequisites and then she enrolled me into the foundation courses.

I am going to have to put my design aside and concentrate on the programing side. Looking at the core and elective courses ahead, I am actually very excited because they seem to complement well with my current direction in web development. So I am definitely looking forward to going back to school. One of the perks of working at the school I am attending is that my colleagues who work in the program are looking out for me. Awesome!

Update: My professor uploaded the syllabus on Blackboard. The book for the class, Modern Database Management (10th Edition), is $190. Back in my days (10 years ago), books were about $60 on average and I thought they were too damn expensive. $190 for a book? Holy smoke.

CSS3 Column Count and Word Count

Column count is one of my favorite CSS3 properties. If you’re using modern browsers, you can see that I am using it right now on this site. Each blog post is divided into two columns. The big headings separate each post. Column count works well with long posts, but not for shorter ones. The one-sentence post would look awkward with one line being spread out into two columns.

After digging around, I found a simple solution that allows me to set a limit number of words before making the split. So now the post will remain one column if the text is less than 100 words. Isn’t that sweet? Another reason to love WordPress.

2011 Family Reunion

We had a blast at my in-law’s annual family reunion last week. We booked an eight-bedroom house at Indian Beach, NC. More than thirty of us from Canada, Texas, California, New Jersey and Virginia gathered under one roof for a whole week. Dana, Dao and I only stayed for half of the week and that was way too short.

The day started out with breakfast including banh bot loc (vietnamese clear shrimp and pork dumplings), xoi lao Xuong (sticky rice with Chinese sausage) and green (avocado) eggs and ham. After breakfast, we headed toward the beach, which is about 10 feet from the house, then back to the swimming pool on the deck and then the jacuzzi.

Everyone gathered around the house for lunch, which included bun bo Hue (Hue’s vermicelli soup), roast pig, and pork chops with rice. Each individual family prepared a meal a day. After lunch, some folks took naps; some went back to the water, some played pool and foosball in the basement. Most of the women gathered into the entertainment room to watch kdrama.

Then we returned once again for dinner, hung out, watched TV or just chatted. On Thursday night, I bought a bottle of Patron and thought that not too many people would drink it. We only ended up with 2 and a half shots each. I should have gotten two bottles.

Dao had a lot of fun hanging out with his cousins, particular Aiden who is a couple months older than him. They chase each other around the house for Thomas Train, but then sat together to watch “Curious George” on my iPod. Dao loved both the pool table and foosball. Everyday he made me play with him. He didn’t like the water, yet the last day he wanted to stay in the pool.

Last night, I put together a video with various clips I filmed.

Current Listening

These days I no longer have the luxury of reviewing music in depths so I am just going to drop a quick list of what I am listening to.

Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch the Throne. A fruitful collaborative effort between two rap giants. Although Kanye can’t match Jay bar for bar, he holds up on his own. The beats are crazy. Check out “Niggas in Paris.”

Toc Tien’s My Turn. Toc Tien is one of Thuy Nga’s bright young stars. She’s not one of the sexiest singers, but still a pleasure to watch and to hear. My Turn is a bit bland, but enjoyable for a trendy pop album.

Siu Black’s K’Bing Oi. Siu Black gives some classic tunes some rock flavors with her big voice. Her version of “Con Chut Gi De Nho” is pretty damn hot.

Giang Tu and Phuong Hong Que’s Can Nha Mau Tim. Giang Tu has become one of my favorite war-related singers. His version of “Mot Mai Gia Tu Vu Khi” is quite captivating. He has a big, raspy voice similar to Duy Khanh without the over-emphetic and over-phrasing issue. Like most of the older singers, Phuong Hong Que hardly changes her singing. Maybe she doesn’t have to since she has a distinctive voice.

Uyen Trang’s Khong Bao Gio Quen Anh. Uyen Trang is new to me, but her remix version of “Xin Dung Trach Da Da” is an instant hook. Even the rapping is forgivable.

Optimizing Fast Image Delivery

I am using Sencha.io Src to deliver the homepage banner and screenshots for my sites and motion. Sencha.io Src is a free service that optimizes images and delivers them according to user’s device. Sencha.io Src is a perfect complement to responsive web design. The implementation is very simple. All you have to do is attaching this url (http://src.sencha.io/) in front of your image source.

How to Create Flash Slideshows

Every now and then I get an email asking me how to create a Flash slideshow. Rather than answering the same question over and over again, I just going to post it here and point people to it.

Although I still create a motion piece once in a while, Flash is no longer one of my professional tools. I stopped keeping up with Flash, particularly with ActionScript, many years ago. I use Flash mostly for animation because I am horrible with After Effects. Flash is much simpler for creating quick teasers.

So the frequent question has always been how to learn Flash. In my days there were many great tutorial sites and I am sure they are still many out there, but the only one I know still exist is Flashkit. Flashkit could be quite overwhelming for beginners. Flash was one of the most challenging programs for me to learn at the time and Flash didn’t even come with a whole scripting language then.

I used the Visual QuickStart Guide Series to help me started. Once you get a grip of Flash’s interface, timeline and how to move movie clips around the stage, you can create slideshows. From there on, it’s up to your patience (lots of) and imagination.

Hommie From High School

Met up with an old buddy yesterday in Eden Center. He’s the only one from high school I still keep in touch with. He hasn’t changed much. Still the same guy I knew more than fifteen years ago. We caught up and reflected on the yesteryears.

Right after high school we took on our own path. We both went to college, but he also joined the US Army. Every time I hear something going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, I think of him. He turns out quite well. All cut and fit. I am now taking on the role of a married man and a father while he’s still enjoying his single life.

At this point of our lives, we seem to have nothing in common, but the thing that we both held on to from the past. No matter how far apart we have grown, I am glad the we still have something that bonded us together. Definitely looking forward to hanging out with my hommie again.

Back to School

After my 2001 graduation from La Salle University, I thought that I would be done with school for good. Academia was never meant for me. I spent more time learning the things that I wanted to accomplish than sitting in class. Yet a decade later, I enrolled myself into the Master of Science in Information Systems Technology program this coming fall. In less then two months, I will be back in school again.

Is this the right time for schooling? I am not even sure myself since we will be expecting our second baby at the end of the year. I actually applied into the program over two years ago. I sent in my transcripts, letters of recommendation, statement of purpose and resume. I filled out my online application, but couldn’t submitted it. Something went wrong. Before I could go any further, Dao came into my world. I dropped it aside and focused on becoming a parent.

About a month or so ago, I was notified that if I don’t do anything with my application, it will be dropped out of the system. So I called the office to find out what else I needed to do to complete my application. It turned out that I just needed to paid $60 and hit the submit button.

I am actually very excited about MSIST program because it seems like a great enhancement to my professional career. After meeting with the wonderful advisor, I immediately got into two classes that run from 4pm to 6pm from Monday to Thursday. The problem is I won’t be able to pick up Dao from the daycare because he needs to be out by 6pm and it takes me at least an hour to get to his place. Once Dana gives birth to the next baby, she won’t be able to drive for a while so we’re now begging our father-in-law to come help us out as well since my mother-in-law will give us a hand with the new kid.

After we welcome our new baby, our plan is to have Dana stayed home at least three months, which means she won’t be paid. At that time, we’ll depend on just one income; therefore, I hope to pick up more freelance projects to cover the expenses.

The next few months will be quite intense for us, especially for Dana. That is the reason I am still unsure if this is the right time for schooling. Then again, when will it be the right time? If not now then when? So my thought it that: Let’s just do it. Then again, I only have to give up a few things, like blogging, Netflixing, dining out, spending time and money at Costco, sleeping and most importantly wasting time on the Web. I am sure I can handle it as long as I can still keep up with web design and development. I have nothing to lose.

My only thing that I feel extremely bad and discomfort about is that Dana will be carrying most of the burden even though she is very supportive of my decision. I definitely picked an awesome partner even though I take that for grant at times.

Amy Winehouse Dies at 27

The news of Amy Winehouse passed away today at the age of only 27 is heartbreaking but hardly shocking. She had lived the life she sang in her award-winning Back to Black. While the album was blowing up, Winehouse was on the road to self-destruct with drugs and alcohol. In the title track she claimed, “You love blow and I love puff / and life is like a pipe.” Whenever I listened to that two bars, I can’t help thinking of Nas’s “Life’s a Bitch.” Nas was one of Winehouse’s musical heroes. Could Winehouse took Nas’s words a bit too her heart? Who knows, but the chorus seems to describe her troubled lifestyle: “Life’s a bitch and then you die; that’s why we get high / Cause you never know when you’re gonna go.”

Goodbye, Amy.