T.I. hits Arkansas federal prison to serve another 11-month sentence for breaking his probation. He was planning on making a new album titled King’s Uncaged, but the King is being caged once again.

VNRE

Last night 31/10, Bitexco Financial Tower (BFT) – Vietnam’s highest tower with 68 floors, 262 meters high, was officially inaugurated in Hochiminh City. This lotus-shaped tower is a symbol for the development of Vietnam in the era of international economic integration.

NPR‘s Exclusive First Listen is streaming Cee Lo Green’s The Lady Killer. Check it out.

Sipping my last glass of Bear Hug‘s rum infusion mango while enjoying Miles Davis’s In Person Friday Night at the Blackhawk. The mango slices inside the bottle are quite bland. I guess the rum sucks all the sweet juice out of them. This exotic flavored rum has been my favorite dessert kind of drink. It has a bit of a sweet taste to it.

It’s now past 10pm and I could still hear Duke upstair playing with his mom. I was going to do some freelance work, but it’s Friday night so I am taking a break. Thinking of calling my good friend up, but might not be a good time. He’s still single and probably out partying right now. He called me the other day, but didn’t get to talk much because Duke was crying. I hope I didn’t scare him away with this married with children lifestyle. I have to take him out for a drink one of these days to reflect on the good old memories. Time has passed us by so quick. Back in high school, there was a girl who liked him, but he didn’t pay no mind because she was like a tomboy. Now her Facebook photos are filled with short skirts and dresses that make her look really weird. I actually think the tomboy look was much nicer, but what do I know? I am getting old. I am wondering how he feels now.

I miss blogging about nonsense. Just write down what goes in my mind and not letting anything getting in the way like grammar, spelling and making sure what I say makes sense. Rum and jazz help tremendously in loosing things up.

What else is on my mind? Oh yeah, I am craving for the old fashion hamburger from The Cheesecake Factory. I could smell that charbroiled, juicy piece of meat. In fact, that’s the only thing I order every time we go to Cheesecake Factory. Of course, a slice of the original cheesecake and a coffee is a must to finish up the meal. Every time I walk out of that place, I either feel tired or sleepy even though I have a cup of coffee in my hand.

What else? Oh yeah, it’s Halloween and my buddy Chris did another wicked theme for Vassar’s homepage. Speaking of Vassar, I really miss the good folks there. We had such a fantastic group. We were like Miles Davis’s all-star band. Everyone had a special set of skills and yet we worked together to bring out the best result. I don’t think I can find a group like that again. Alright, let’s not bring back the past anymore.

On my train ride back home today, I suddenly remember the time my wife and I spent together when we still in Poughkeepsie. The time when we spent the afternoon at the mountain reading, taking a nap and just talking about life. Just like that and now we’re spending our whole life together. I am not hearing any more noise up stairs. Duke and Dana must be sleeping already. I guess I should join them. Good night, cyberspace!

Thirsty celebrated its one-year anniversary yesterday. I was watching the book trailer last night and reflecting on the very special project I was proud to be involved in. Congratulations Kristin and thanks for the wonderful opportunity.

Before leaving Las Vegas, I stopped by Target to return a cooler and 24-pack water bottles. Here’s a brief Q&A with the customer service:

Customer service: What is wrong with the cooler?
Me: Not cool enough.
Customer service: What is wrong with the water?
Me: Not cool enough.

The lady looked at me and was not amused. We bought the cooler to keep Dao’s milk, but it doesn’t do a good job of keeping the cool. As for the water, I couldn’t figure out the short reason. Whenever I return clothes, the simplest reason is: I don’t like it. I didn’t want to tell the lady the whole story about how my sister-in-law wanted to buy 2 cases instead of 1 even though we only stayed for a couple of days and she thought that we might needed them since we were planning on driving to California, but we didn’t. If I were to carry 24 bottles of water to the airport, I might not make it back to Virginia with all the security checks.

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.