I haven’t posted anything on Twitter/X or LinkedIn in almost a year. I don’t miss them. They don’t do anything for me. I still use Facebook heavily to stay in touch with family and friends. In addition, I have been using Facebook’s Marketplace to sell used skis, snowboards, skates, and things we don’t need anymore. Even with a few scammers, I have been able to sell things. I am slowly replacing all my old equipment with new ones. Once my new skis come, I’ll sell my old ones. I should also try to sell toys and materials that are accumulated in my basement. My next career move, when I lose my job, is to buy used things, fix them up, and resell them on Facebook’s Marketplace.

Cuong Lu:

[H]appiness and suffering are very close to each other, and that touching our own suffering can be a source of relief and even a prerequisite for true happiness.

Mitch McConnell froze two times while talking with reporters and we invited him to speak. That’s fucking hilarious.

Kelvin Khoa:

Cám ơn Donny lúc nào cũng làm cho trang web của Ngọc Lan cũng xinh đẹp.

Donny:

Chào Anh Kelvin,

Rất cám ơn lời động viên của anh.

Regards,

Donny Trương

TN writes:

Hi Donny,

I just discovered your blog Visualgui today, and I have to say I really enjoy reading your music reviews for Vietnamese albums. It’s quite rare to see Vietnamese music get viewed in English proper.

I’m a frequent user of rateyourmusic.com, it’s an online music encyclopedia where people can catalog and rate music releases. I like to spend my free time there adding Vietnamese albums to the site’s database, especially those released in the 2000s and 2010s.

I’m writing this email to ask if it’s possible for me to collect your music reviews for 2000s and 2010s Viet albums into a list on my rateyourmusic profile page, with the proper attribution of course, hoping that they would help spread the good (and bad) word on Vietnamese music. Your reviews would only be visible in the list, and not elsewhere on the site.

Best regards.

I reply:

Dear TN,

Thank you for reading my blog. I am flattered that you want to include my music reviews on rateyourmusic.com. I have to decline your request because I wrote these reviews based on my personal taste and my limited knowledge of music. My music review is not professional. In fact, many of the reviews are very opinionated; therefore, I wanted to keep them on my blog and nowhere else.

I hope you understand.

Regards,

Donny Trương

I was chatting with my two male colleagues and one of them checked X (formerly known as Twitter). He informed us that more shit hit the fan. The sexual misconduct allegations still played out on social media.

One of my colleagues recounted an incident where he came to the ex-professor’s office and three students, including the adjunct professor, were hovering over him. The ex-professor joked, “We are not doing anything.”

My colleague knew about the ex-professor’s behavior for years and he didn’t say shit. What a shithead. At least three victims had pointed out that the school and the university hadn’t done shit to stop the ex-professor from engaging in sexual relationships with students. They are damn right.

I didn’t confront my colleague. I understood his situation. I had no idea about the ex-professor’s open secret. I never interacted with him in person. We only exchanged a few emails, strictly about work. If I knew about his behavior, would I do anything about it? I don’t know. My colleagues and I come to work everyday to make money to raise our family. We are just two minority employees.

I only interacted with people on the professional level; therefore, I don’t know anything else about them. I don’t play politics. I kiss up to no one. I stay as far away from the deans as I can. Even with my current supervisor, I keep things strictly business. Whatever he wants to do, I’ll do it. He has power over me. I am there to do my job and get the fuck out.

If I knew about the ex-professor’s misbehavior and if I were to report, I am sure no one would have taken my seriously. Even the victims themselves are facing a 108-million-dollar lawsuit. It’s fucked up, but we are still living under the white man’s world with white privileges and powers.

“Strangers on the Internet,” hosted by Irina Manta, conducted two exclusive interviews with Professor Christa Laser and Professor Brandy Wagstaff. Thank them for making their stories public. The law school and the university should have done more to prevent these behaviors. I had no clue.

Leah Nylen, reporting for Bloomberg:

[E]ight women told Bloomberg News that, over nearly two decades, Wright used his positions and influence to proposition female students, staffers and job applicants. Promising career help, he sent some of them flirtatious texts, invited others on trips where he would book only one hotel room and engaged in sexual relationships with three of them. Several of them said they feared losing opportunities if they turned him down.

The story is just blowing up.

AI wrote:

Greetings,

I like the fact that your website exists. However, your website seems more geared to font designers designing fonts. I like that you are helping western font designers design Vietnamese fonts. So that we have more well designed Vietnamese fonts. However, if you want to add more to the website. I would want you to add more typography guides specifically for Vietnamese. Like punctuation, text formatting, page layout and type composition. Your website reminds me of the similarly named Matthew Butterick’s Practical typography, and Typography for lawyers. If you can extend your website to more topics other than type design. It would be gladly appreciated. Thank you.

Regards.

I replied:

Hi A,

Thank you for writing to me. I also appreciate your feedback. You are correct that my web book is for type designers, and it was intentional. The first version of this book, which was my thesis for my MA in graphic design, my goal was to enhance and enrich Vietnamese typography. I am a typographer and not a type designer. I can only set type. I don’t design type. When the book launched, however, many type designers had reached out to me and asked for my advice on Vietnamese diacritics.

For the second version of the book, I revised and expanded the book to include more information and illustration to help type designers support Vietnamese. It’s a win win. The type designers have to design Vietnamese diacritics in order for me to use their fonts. Without type, I can’t be a typographer.

I like the idea of adding typography guides specifically for Vietnamese. This is what I have been doing with the samples. Designing sample pages had become one of my favorite creative exercises. I choose the type of subjects I wanted to create, the design directions without needing approvals, and the typefaces I wanted to showcase.

Yes, Vietnamese Typography and Professional Web Typography were inspired by Matthew Butterick’s Practical Typography. I loved that book so much that I followed his lead. I wanted the information to be free for all and anyone who can support would be great.

Donny

So the outlaw professor sues his ex-law students for $108 millions. In his own complaint, he admits that he had slept with multiple first-year students—even more than one at the same time. He also admits that he used his connections, powers, and privileges to help the students with their careers. He also admits that he cheated on his wife. This guy is incorrigible.