Last Saturday evening, Eric wanted to go to McDonald’s. When I told him no, he responded, “If you don’t take me to McDonald’s, you’re not my uncle.” I was totally shocked. Can you believe this? My little nephew would severe off all ties with me over McDonald’s. I didn’t know if I should cry or laugh, but one thing I know for sure: Dao will be kept away from McDonald’s as much as possible. I don’t want to hear, “You’re not my daddy if you don’t take me to McDonald’s.”

My thanks to those who had made purchases on Amazon’s Black Friday Deals through my affiliation. Amazon continues to add more deals for Cyber Monday; therefore, you can still shop and support Visualgui.

We just rolled out 17 new items on Simplexpression. On the necklace’s detailed pages, we added a display photo to give customers an idea how the piece look on their neck. In addition to free shipping, we also offer complimentary gift-wrapping.

Just downloaded Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy for $3.99 on Amazon.

My buddy Tim gave an inspiring, informative talk on “More Perfect Typography.” Glad to see him doing well at Typekit.

“Who Can Resist a Man Who Sings Like a Woman?,” an interesting piece by Fernanda Eberstadt:

The countertenor is a 20th-century phenomenon, the approximation of an art that has luckily been lost to us. Much of the sacred music and opera roles sung today by Jaroussky or by mezzo-sopranos like Cecilia Bartoli were originally composed for Farinelli and his peers — male singers who were castrated before they reached puberty in order to preserve their high, pure voices. This act of oversophisticated barbarism, supposedly a response to St. Paul’s edict in the Corinthians (mulier taceat in ecclesia, “women should be silent in church”), kept the papal choirs and ducal courts of Europe supplied with sopranos for their Vivaldi oratorios. By the 17th-century, when public decency laws forbade women to appear onstage in the papal states, castrati were moving into the recently invented art of opera, playing male and occasionally female roles, much as boys did on the Elizabethan stage. By the 18th century, a large percentage of male opera singers were castrati.

Yesterday we checked out scenes from the Dr. Seuss’s classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas! carved out of ice at the Gaylord National. After an hour standing in line, Dao was bored and tired. By the time we could get in, he was already not in a good mood. He didn’t want to put on the big blue thick jacket the hotel provided and the place was freezing. He cried so much that Dana just took him out. I took a few photos and left as well. The walk through was actually pretty short. We paid $24 a person and $12 parking for an experience that was less than five minutes. I could understand why they charged so much to keep the gigantic freezer running, but I didn’t think it was worth while.

I am loving the new janitor. I have seen him around for a couple of months and the bathrooms have been spotless clean. Not only that he helps make the school look good, but he also helps employees like me enjoy the working environment.

Plenty of time I see him coming into the elevator and I just wanted to say how much I appreciate his work, but I am not sure how to bring it up. I don’t want to offend him or he might take it the wrong way. Would it be ok if I just say, “Thanks for keeping the restrooms clean?”

I don’t know. I think I just buy him a cup of coffee or something.

In an unedited interview, Jay-Z talks about his new book, Decoded, and longevity of hip hop with Jon Stewart.

Vietnamese romantic comedy Passport to Love (Chuyen tinh xa xu) could be watched in its entirety on Hulu. I’ll view it tonight.