This is our last night in Las Vegas. I am sitting on the 25th floor of The Palazzo looking at the gorgeous view of the Sin City. Duke is already deep asleep after a long day of walking and pushing his own stroller from The Venetian to Caesars Palace. For some reasons, he likes to push the stroller more than sitting on it. Maybe being born on the year of the water buffalo has something to do with it. Dana already sneaked out downstairs to spend some last minutes with the slot machines.

Taking a kid to Las Vegas results in some interesting experience. We need to find kid-friendly environment as well as taking turn to be with him while one of us was at the Casino. Dao discovered the slot machines as soon as we landed in Las Vegas. He loves anything that has buttons and spinning wheels. He also loves the view from the Palazzo’s window. Each morning he got up and ran to the window. He looked up on the sky and said “bay” if he saw an airplane. He looked down and said “xe” when the cars passing by.

Although we stay at The Palazzo (courtesy of my brother-in-law), my favorite spots are in downtown. I don’t have to burn too much cash to have a good time. Yesterday, I sat at the Pai Gow table for five hours with around 15 rounds of gin and tonic and only lost 100 bucks. In Atlantic City, $100 would have lasted in 10 minutes. I am not a big gambler and I set my limit is $100 a day. On Sunday, I hit a bonus for $100 so I treated everyone to dinner. After dinner, I went back and lost all of my bonus.

Gambling aside, Las Vegas is still my favorite spot for relaxing and enjoying Vietnamese food. There are places that even open twenty four a day so I could get some good pho any time. Ok, my brain is fried. My head is still spinning from yesterday’s alcohol. I better catch some sleep before we head back to Virginia tomorrow. Flying is a bitch and it gets even worse when you don’t have enough sleep. Good night, virtual world.

My next goal is to turn WordPress into a simple CMS so I could offer to my future clients an easy way to update their web pages. All that I really need the CMS to accomplish is the ability for the clients to change text, add a page or insert an image. It’s sound like a simple system, but I want the framework to take full advantage of HTML5 and CSS3 and I want to strip away many admin features that my clients won’t need.

The simple CMS has been in the back of my mind quite some time, but I haven’t had a chance to work on it. Maybe when I redesign Visualgui.com, I would use it as a project.

Thanks to Text Link Ads and the sponsors (on the right column) for supporting Visualgui.com. As of today, Text Link Ads makes more money than both Google AdSense and Amazon affiliate combined and the sponsor links don’t even stand out. It really is a nice way to create some passive income to pay for my domain and hosting fees. If you have a blog, you should give Text Link Ads a try.

I hate to admit it, but the quality of my own blog has been slipping. Blogging is no longer exciting like it used to be and being a father makes blogging no longer a priority. As Cong Dao is growing, so is his demand. He sucks up so much energy for such as little fellow. Try to spend an evening with him at the playground or the mall and you’ll see what I mean. By the time he goes to bed, I am also burnt. Trying to blog half beat and half sleepy doesn’t seem to cut it. I used to be able to blog during my commute to work, but now I spend that little amount of time catching up some sleep. Thanks to Starbucks’s fifty-cent refill, I go through my day with two venti cups of French Vanilla ice coffee. One in the morning and one at 2:30pm.

I am not complaining at all because there is nothing I rather want to do more then spending time with Cong Dao. I have so much fun just seeing him discovering new things everyday. I want to blog about our experience, but if I do’t do it right away, it will slip away. Each day goes by and he had learned so many new things that I simply lose track and don’t want write about it at all.

Beside Cong Dao, writing about music, Vietnamese in particular, has been my passion for this blog. I got into music critique because the music excited me and I wanted to share my thoughts. Back then many singers such as Tuan Ngoc, Thanh Lam, Hong Nhung, Thu Phuong, Nguyen Khang, Tung Duong, Ngoc Khue, Duc Tuan rocked my world. With each new release, there was something new to look forward to. For the past two years, it seems like the music scene either stands still or just so much mediocre. I don’t feel good writing negative reviews most of the time. It just makes me feel like an asshole making fun of the singers’ work.

The music has become absolutely uninspiring. Dam Vinh Hung won some golden album is a perfect example. I was going to blog about this over the weekend before they announced the winner, but I had other things to do. Not that I really care about some worthless award, but it came no surprise to me that Dam Vinh Hung’s horrendous Nhung Bai Ca Khong Quen beats Le Quyen’s classy Khuc Tinh Xua. In fact, I already predicted the outcome when I first read about it in the news. Musically speaking, Le Quyen blows out Dam Vinh Hung like Ly Tong blew pepper spray in his face. It’s a no brainer at all. Even though I only listened to Dam Vinh Hung’s Nhung Bai Ca Khong Quen, he included enough “red” tunes in the double album to guarantee himself an award. It’s not about music. It’s all about politics.

Anyway, my focus for this site will be changed. The blog is no longer a priority. I will be concentrating on web design and development. HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery are the things that get me exciting. I would like to revamp this site completely when I am done with my client work. For now I just need to take a break and hang out with my little guy. Nothing gets me more exciting than going up and down the escalator with Cong Dao. This little fellow has no fear at all when it comes to step on and off the escalator. In fact, he is intrigued with it.

Our first gig for Simplexpression did well at the 40th Annual Festival of the Leaves.

Since it was our first time, we didn’t really expect much. We would be happy even if we were to sell five items. Fortunately, we sold way beyond our expectation even though some of our competitors only sell items that were a fraction of our price. In addition, we only had a very limited collection. In fact, our display was so simple and spare that one of the customers asked, “Is this all you have?”

We only showcased a handful of selected pieces, but they stood out. The compliments were mostly “simple,” “beautiful” and “elegant.” We also sold quite a bit of our classic designs from our original web site. Big props to my sister-in-law for helping us out. She was great at creating the displays and greeting the customers. Thanks to Duke too for being such a good boy. He enjoyed the parade and running around our booth saying hi to our customers. I spent most of my time looking after him.

Of course, the show wouldn’t succeed without the creative designer who handcrafted these beautiful pieces late at nights. I am very proud of her and her work. I had fun and I am looking forward to future festivals.

In the introduction of Miles On Miles, a book that complies Miles Davis’s interviews, Paul Maher Jr. and Michael K. Dorr point out Miles’s favorite word:

“He plays like a motherfucker,” “my band is a bunch of motherfuckers,” “those guys are dirty motherfuckers,” “my legs hurt like a motherfucker during that tour,” “she’s a fine motherfucker.”

In an interview with John Palcewski, Miles offered his solution to end the Vietnam War:

“What we gotta do is draft all the bitches under twenty-five and send them over there. All kind of tough-lookin’ white bitches, with all that clean, white skin and blonde hair and big tits. When these cats read in the paper that a hundred of them get killed by the Viet Cong, the whole thing will be over in a day.”

Miles sure was something else.

Today Eric, my little nephew, turns seven. We spent some time together over the weekend and I am very pleased with the new changes I have noticed. I was worried about him a lot up to this point. Eric didn’t talk much and he threw tantrum around like a mad kid. Because he couldn’t communicate, he easily got frustrated. He listened to no one and he was always in his own world. He would zone you out as if you don’t even exist when you tried to talk to him. He got really mad when things didn’t go his way. Eric was a bright kid, but he only did things he liked.

Until recently I started to see the changes in him. He is opening himself up and he interacting more with other people. I asked him to read something to me and he did. I am not sure when he started to learn how to read, but I begged him before and couldn’t get a word out of his mouth. I remember my sister used to chased him down with a stick in order to get him to brush his teeth. Now he just does it on his own. He even showed Duke how to do it. I used him as a model and Duke let me brushed him without fussing. Being a big cousin, Eric shows his responsibility. I gave him a test by telling him to look after Duke. I pretended to read so I could observed him with Duke. He actually played with Duke and showed Duke things that he likes to do like cooking and cars. Duke did everything Eric did. When we were at the Borders, Eric picked up a ball and so was Duke. Whenever Duke held on to something, he would scream if we just snatch it from him. He was holding on to a pen and non of us (Dana, Samantha and me) could get him to give us the pen. Eric pulled out his hand and asked for it and Duke gave it to him. It was a joy watching the two of them playing together.

It looks like Duke already have a great cousin to play with and to learn from. Thanks for being such a great kid, Eric. Happy birthday!

My current emotion could be summed in Elton John’s lyrics: “It’s a sad, sad situation / And it’s getting more and more absurd / It’s sad, so sad / Why can’t we talk it over?” The situation looks pathetic as if we’re getting the pleasure out of destructing each other. How the fuck did we get to this point? It feels like I am witnessing my own blood dripping away and there is not a damn thing I could do to stop it. Now all I can do is hoping that time would heal the wound. Until then, I am emotionally wrecked.

Lea Michele as Rachel brought back Britney’s mega “Baby One More Time” and the different was that Lea’s vocals were much more powerful. The star of the Britney episode, however, goes to Heather Morris as Brittany. Her lines were spot on:

“I don’t brush my teeth. I rinse my mouth out with soda after I eat. I was pretty sure Dr. Pepper was a dentist.”

“This room looks like the one on that spaceship where I got probed.”

“Please don’t pull all my teeth. When I smile I’ll look like an adult baby but with boobs.”

If you missed last night’s show, watch it on Hulu.

Miles Davis’s startling trumpet on “Tutu” burnt into my brain the first time I heard it. With electric bassist Marcus Miller supplying the machine groove, Tutu marks the rebirth of the muted, mysterious and melancholy Miles.