Check out Dana Nguyễn’s handcrafted simplexpression, in which she captures the joy and spirit of the festive season in the heart of Fairfax City.

If you feel compelled to give today, please consider supporting this blog.

Mới đặt hành tập thơ mới của anh Cao Nguyên với tựa đề “Ba dòng thơ”. Đã đọc và theo dõi vài bài thơ ba dòng anh chia sẻ trên Facebook, tôi tin chắc rằng đây là một tuyển tập đầy thú vị. Nhân dịp lễ Giáng Sinh sắp đến, đây là một món quà đầy ý nghĩa cho những tâm hồn mê thơ và yêu tiếng Việt. Hãy đặt hành ở Amazon ngay. Trong lúc chờ đợi, mời các bạn cùng đọc “Thơ mưa” của Anh Cao Nguyên ở thomua.com.

I purchased a license of Lang Gothic to accommodate AT Lang, designed by Stephen Nixon. I know Stephen will support Vietnamese and will turn it into a large family. I was hoping that Stephen would expand AT Lang to include reading text, but it looks like that will be on Lang Gothic. It is only $35. Definitely worth spending.

Raymond Leone writes for Psychology Today:

Obviously, it’s not that simple. And just like the nature vs. nurture debate, it’s really some combination of both. I’m certain that Alexander has spent hours and years practicing and perfecting the “craft” of his instrument. And I don’t think Yo-Yo Ma became who he is just because he practiced more than everyone else. But creating in the moment is certainly different than, say, playing Bach note for note, as written. There is no room for error in playing the Bach cello suites. Is there more room for error in jazz? Miles Davis famously once said, “If I play a wrong note, I’ll just play it again and then it’s not wrong anymore.” Well, I don’t think you can do that when performing Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor.

What I think is that you need both. The creativity fuels the craft. And the craft is needed to express the creativity at a high level. A professional level. There is always some of both involved. And ultimately, it’s those who are most creative and most dedicated to the craft that are the most successful.

After reading my latest rant on digital addiction, Adrik Ivanov writes:

Greetings,

I have seen your parenting column on your blog and I have some suggestions. I think that you should be concerned that your children are addicted. This will be the first generation to be born with digital devices constantly around them. They will be bombarded with mass amounts of hyper palatable videos from TikTok and such. The internet is currently designed to be as addicting as possible and will change your children.

I’m not trying to be alarmist, but this technology is going to fundamentally change the fabric of our society. It’s concerning, and no you are not alone in your concerns. Why do you think billionaires are trying to limit their child’s screen time? It’s because they know that they have created a monster.

For your kids, I think you should intervene. Be gentle but firm, enforce screen time and such measures. If they cry, do not waver in your conviction. If they get bullied for not interacting with the latest TikTok trend of the day, support them. I know it’s hard, but by letting your children do whatever they want, you could expose them to the Pandora’s Box of the algorithm. It will get worse, much worse.

I hope this doesn’t sound too conspiratorial or “i-know-what’s-best-for-your-kid” karen type. I’m worried about the future. My cousin has always glued herself to her phone, and I’m not really better.

From an emailer in Vietnam

Adrik Ivanov

My phone rang. The area code was in Virginia and my phone didn’t flag it as a spam call. I picked it up just in case the call was from my kids’ school. The lady on the other line greeted me and said something about my home I didn’t understand. I asked her to clarify and she made me an offer on my property. I replied, “Sure, two million dollars.” She said, “Thank you, have a good day.” Then she hang up. I guess she was not interested in my property after all.

Winnie Lim moved her sites from DigitalOcean to OpalStack. Winnie writes:

I decided I didn’t want to manage my own servers anymore – it got tiresome having to install updates every so often – so after some research I found out that some ex-employees from webfaction started opalstack, so that is where I moved her website to. I like that is is very much like webfaction, it is almost like a vps with ssh but it is managed.

I feel Winnie. It gets tiresome having updates my droplets every few months. Then again having to manage my own servers keeps me in the game. I need all the technical skills to do my full-time job in my position as a director. I don’t need to do it myself. I just need to know my shit. As far as moving off DigitalOcean, I don’t know where I want to move to.

Winnie is also concerned about the longevity of her site:

I am still concerned about what happens to my website after I am gone, and also the actual longevity of opalstack since it is a small friendly company. But well sometimes we just have to take a leap of faith.

I worried about my sites after I die as well, but I have come to accept that when I am gone my sites will be gone with me as well. If I lose my sites tomorrow, I will definitely be sad, but I will move on.

JAY-Z talks to Gayle King about his work, life, and The Book of HOV installation at Brooklyn Public Library. I want to check it out.

Adrik Ivanov:

Greetings,

It is nice that accessibility is one of the things you take care of when designing your blog. I found your musings interesting as a Vietnamese from the “motherland.” I honestly don’t know what else to say more on the topic. Besides hoping that in the future, more website designers would take care in designing websites for disabled folks and people who browse the web using the terminal for whatever reason.

Warm regards,

Adrik

This email made my day.