The 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa is coming in two weeks. I am very excited that ESPN360.com will simulcast 52 out of 64 matches online. It’s about time the US pays attention to the sport that the whole world loves. I am pretty sure Viet Nam would be an exciting place to be. Since I can’t be in Viet Nam, Eden Center will do. As you already noticed, I put together a banner to start the countdown. I will try to blog about the World Cup as much as I can, so here is the Nike commercial to start off the excitement.

Quang Dung takes Dep magazine to court for an opinion piece (“Quang Dũng – Chàng tỉnh lẻ lên phố thành sao“) that literally slammed him. From his stilted enunciation to lack of innovation to formulaic music production, the article doesn’t point out anything we haven’t already known. Quang Dung just couldn’t take the negative comments and demanded an apology, which is ridiculous. The author doesn’t attack Quang Dung’s personal life; he only writes about his musical style. It’s called the art of criticism. Quang Dung had made a mistake of making the case even bigger.

We’re returning Cu Dao’s grandma back to grandpa this weekend after spending more than a year with us. Gone are the homemeals after work. Gone are the beautiful flowers around the house. Gone are laughter and the joy of having her around.

A year later and grandma remains the closest to Cu Dao. In a year she had spent more time with him than any of us. I can’t thank her enough for what she had done for us. At times I felt so guilty that she had to look after him for me and Dana to catch some sleep. We were just too damn tired. I don’t know how she could keep up with his energy for ten hours a day and I never see her fuss or complain. Duke smiles often and grandma has something to do with that.

After a year of living in the same house with grandma, one thing I had learned is her easy approach to life. She doesn’t allow anything to stress her out. She lives and works with what she has. For instance, she cooks with whatever we have in the kitchen. Unlike my mom who has to have all the right ingredients, she just substitutes whatever that needed to make the dish taste right. In way her, her cooking is quite creative. She approaches to anything else that way; therefore, her life is very laid back. She doesn’t need much to feel happy. I really admire that quality of her and I am learning to apply that lifestyle into my own.

Thank you mom for a wonderful year. We will miss having you around. If you miss Cu Dao, you are welcome back any time.

Doan Minh Duc was born with his digest system hanging out his gut. The operations caused his family everything. At times, there was no food so his grandma had to feed him water mixed with sugar. Duc’s dad died in a work-related accident trying to make money to cure his son’s rare defect. The heartbreaking story could be read in Vietnamese at VnExpress.

Looking at Duc makes me think of Cu Dao, especially those round eyes and big ears. I am very fortunate that Cu Dao doesn’t have to go through the pain that Duc is going through; therefore, I really do hope that little Duc will get a chance to live a normal life. Information on donation is at the end of the article, please do what you can to help the poor little boy.

In an interview (1, 2 ,3) with Kristine Sa, Cathy Viet Thy was in tears when speaking about her public divorce with Johnny Tri Nguyen. She said that she was not attracted to him back when he started noticing her. Based on his old photos, I could see why. Johnny had some really girly hairdo back in the days. If Ngo Thanh Van saw him back then, he would had no chance. Viet Thi had done changed the little boy’s appearance by dressed him up and gave him a haircut. Still, a little boy is still a little boy. It’s time to let the little boy go and find herself a real man. I doubt that she will have a hard time finding one. Even though she has some wrinkles around her eyes from crying, she is still one hot MILF.

Two of my favorite jazz legends died a week apart. Jazz singer Lena Horne left us Sunday a week ago at 92. Jazz pianist Hank Jones left us yesterday at 91. RIP Ms. Horne and Mr. Jones.

Let’s listen to Lena Horne’s “Stormy Weather” and Hank Jones’ “In a Sentimental Mood.”

Another weekend came and gone. I hadn’t done much except working around the house and spending time with Cu Dao and Dana. Thanks to Popeyes’ chicken and Corona on Saturday, I mowed the lawn so my house doesn’t look like a forest next to my neighbor. She has people cut her grass twice a week. I do mine once every two weeks.

Thanks to Popeyes’ chicken and Corona again today, I cleaned and organized my house. Being a freak of a minimalist, organizing the house is a bit of a challenge for me. I always have a hard time figuring out where I should store things. It’s a choice between throwing things out or put them somewhere and I would never find them again. Sometimes I just stood there stare at a particular thing for like fifteen minutes and still didn’t know what to do. At times I just wondered around the house like an idiot and not knowing what the heck I should do. That was when I needed Corona. It really helped clear my mind.

Spending time with Cu Dao was the most joyful part of the weekend. I enjoyed dancing with him to Hoang Thuy Linh’s album. That album is now stuck with us. No matter what mood he was in. He would move his body as soon as he heard the beat. We hung out at the bookstore while Dana went grocery shopping. I picked up some graphic design books to flip through while Cu Dao played around in the children section.

That’s pretty much how I spent my weekend. The other day, someone asked me what do I usually do for fun. Beside spending time with Cu Dao and Dana, I couldn’t think of anything else. I guess it doesn’t take much for a boring guy to have fun.

Jeremy Keith’s “A Brief History of Markup“:

There won’t be a single point in time at which we can declare that the language is ready to use. Instead, we can start using parts of the specification as web browsers support those features.

This is the reason I pre-ordered his new book HTML5 For Web Designers.

With my mother-in-law staying with us, I have been watching more TV than in the past. We watch Dancing With the Stars on Mondays and American Idols on Tuesdays. Tuesday nights are still my favorite even though I am no longer interested AI. Clearly Crystal Bowersox is the most inventive and has the most potentials even though the judges haven’t complimented her two weeks in a row. If she loses, AI will become a joke.

What comes after AI is getting me excited. The first time, Glee caught my attention was its rendition of Young MC’s “Bust a Move.” I thought it was cheesy, but funny as hell. Tonight, Glee brought me back to Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” and MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This.” Rachel’s version of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” was a perfect show-closer. Lea Michele’s pitch-perfect tone made the campy tune sounded fresh.

Ben Michael Ward:

Want to know if your ‘HTML application’ is part of the web? Link me into it. Not just link me to it; link me into it. Not just to the black-box frontpage. Link me to a piece of content. Show me that it can be crawled, show me that we can draw strands of silk between the resources presented in your app. That is the web: The beautiful interconnection of navigable content. If your website locks content away in a container, outside the reach of hyperlinks, you’re not building any kind of ‘web’ app. You’re doing something else.

Word.