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.

In his email to students, the dean addressed the sexual misconduct committed by a faculty member. In responding to the criticisms that the law school didn’t take any action, the dean pointed out that he put in restrictions against the professor. Unfortunately, it gave the impression that the dean knew about the sexual misconducts, but he didn’t immediately terminate the professor. He put in restrictions, but stayed quiet hoping the whole thing went away. If the women didn’t come forward and the media didn’t pick up the scoops, he wouldn’t have spoken up. I wonder who came up with this terrible communications strategy.

Aebra Coe reports for Law360:

The women said those early advances led to years of misconduct, during which Dorsey and Landry felt they had no option but to continue engaging sexually with Wright or else risk serious damage to their careers. Both said they believe there are “many” more women who have been similarly approached by Wright, based on conversations with former schoolmates and colleagues, as well as a conversation between Landry and Wright himself.…

Despite a string of flirtatious comments, Dorsey said, she generally thought Wright was “harmless” at the time and felt reassured by the fact that he was married and had small children. When he asked her to join him on a trip to meet clients in California, she said, she agreed to attend.

They stayed at a nice hotel, and when they arrived she discovered there was only one room with one bed, Dorsey said. There weren’t any client meetings during the trip, she said, and instead they went wine tasting.…

According to Landry, she confronted Wright in 2020 about his alleged sexual misconduct after he sent her an email apologizing for his behavior. They met in person and he told her he’d sought sexual relationships with countless women in professional settings, she said.

“He told me he couldn’t even count the number of people he sent inappropriate messages to,” she said.

Damn!

Adam Gabbatt reports for The Guardian:

With Cannon’s profile higher than ever, her impartiality is being questioned. The judge’s financial disclosure form for 2021, which was reviewed by Accountable.US, a liberal-leaning watchdog group that tracks government corruption, shows that she was reimbursed by George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School for a six day trip to “colloquium seminar” held at a resort and spa in Montana in September.…

The purpose of Cannon’s 2021 trip, according to her financial disclosure form, was to attend the “Sage Lodge Colloquium”, an annual conference held by the law school in the town of Pray, Montana. Newsweek reported that Cannon attended the colloquium again in 2022.

It is not clear why her hotel and travel was paid for. Organizations will commonly reimburse guest speakers or lecturers, but the agenda of that year’s seminar does not show Cannon doing any teaching or speaking.

Damn!

Loes is display serif typeface designed by Dương Trần. Loes is still a work in progress; therefore, the price is only $35. I bought it to support a fellow Vietnamese type designer.