Rain Breaw lectures on Theories and Practice of User Interface Design was excellent. She did a great job on covering issues of good user interface design, usability concerns, and look and feel assessment. However, I was a little bit distracted by a student who used the paper cutter while she was giving the lecture. The squeaky sound broke my concentration. He’s a college student; he should know better than that. It’s so inconsiderate to do that while someone is giving a lecture.

Web Design Position

In case you’re interested, I found this job posting at Fuck That Job.

Full time graphic/web designer wanted for design studio in lower manhattan. Two to three years experience, plus bachelor’s degree.

Must know HTML, Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark Xpress, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, and Flash.
Director, Premiere, PHP/SQL, Indesign, and 3D Studio Max a plus.

$6.50/hr to start. Mondays to Saturdays 8am to 6pm.

Send resume and cover letter in body of email, along with a link to your online portfolio (url) for consideration. all attachments will be deleted.

Not too bad huh? Maybe I should apply for myself.

Inspirational Peace Message

Thich Nhat Hanh (what a wonderful name) is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and a peace activist. He had written many books includes: Being Peace, Peace is Every Step, Touching Peace, and many more. In 1967, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Dr. Martin Luther King, for his work for Peace during the Viet Nam War.

Here is an inspirational peace message narrated by Thich Nhat Hanh and presented by Beliefnet.

Ignorance is Bliss

I was talking to my roommate and somehow Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon came into our conversation. He said it’s the worse movie he had ever seen. He thought it was so fake that people could fly around and a 90 lbs girl could kick ass. Well, what do you expect from a white boy perspective? I just laughed because I didn’t want to response to that kind of ignorance. Of course, the movie is unreal, it’s a fantasy. Use your imagination for a little bit and enjoy the aesthetics experience. Focus on the work of art itself and do not bring in your own judgement. Step out of your own culture for once and appreciate diversity.

Why the hell did I wait so long to watch this uplifting movie? The Joy Luck Club is remarkable. They did a great job of packing all the major stories in two hours. I used to be addicted to Chinese long ass movies. For instance, each of the mother’s story in Joy Luck Club would take about 20 to 30 hours to tell. The Chinese long movies delved into much deep details than what you would see in The Joy Luck Club. They want you to feel as if you are living in it. Ater spending many hours in the fantasy world, I was always hated so much that I had to come back to reality at the end of the movies.

Pretty Boy

Check out this cute Flash music video. The vector graphics are beautiful and the music is nice.

Mooning

Their mission is to moon the White House and they need $10,000 to do it. I can’t believe people are actually donating money for it. I am not interested in politic issues, but that is so disrepectful to the Constitution. Anyways, talking about mooning reminded me of an incident last weekend that made me laughed so hard. I was accidently cut off this one guy while cruising around Lancaster with my boyz. The guy had three teenage daughters in the back seat of his car. While we were stopping at the red light, the girls gave us loser signs with their fingers. We wanted to get them back so we told Chino to moon them. As soon as the greenlight turned, I pulled up closed to them than Chino pulled down his pants. They were screaming their lungs out. Those girls are probably still having nightmares about it. They were exposed to a fat ass moon because Chino weights around 300 pounds. That was some funny shit.

Listening to Long Me performed by Dalena. I have a lot of respect for Dalena because she is an American, who can not speak Vietnamese really well but sings Vietnamese songs perfectly. Long Me is an old song that praises Vietnamese mothers. The song requires lots of souls and feelings to express the lyrics. Not only Dalena did an extraordinary job on the song, she also wrote some of the lyrics in English as well. Although her English translation is not as rich as the Vietnamese, she has captured the general meaning of it.

Long Me bao la nhu bien Thai Binh giat giao.
Tinh me tha thiet nhu giong suoi chai ngot ngao.
Loi Me em ai nhu dong lua chieu ri rao.
Tieng ru ben them trang ta soi bong Me yeu.

Mother’s love is deeper than the sea so wide.
Her soul as sweet as peaceful stream inside.
Her words on songs are gentle breezes raise.
Rockin’ by her baby in the moonlit night.

Thuong con thao thuc bao dem truong,
Con da yen giac Me hien vui suong biet bao.
Thuong con khuya som bao thang ngay.
Lan loi gieo neo nuoi con toi ngay lon khon.

Your cries she hears in the night.
With songs of love she sings you soft truthly.
With love from the morning until night.
Although your life, she holds you in her heart.

Kick Ass Video

Fat Boy Slim’s Weapon of Choice video rocks. Christopher Walken is awesome. Love his moves on the video, especially the part where he flys around the building.

Chemical Brothers

Blasting Chemical Brothers all day long. They have some great funky beats. My favorite shit includes: Block Rockin’ Beats, Under The Influence, Choco’s Groove, Daft Punk – Da Funk, Hey Girl – Hey Boy, Bomb That Bass, and the remix of Bring The Pain by Method Man.

Will, my co-worker, recruited me to his Capoeira class. He is very good at it. The technique is really different. It’s like dance karate but it really works your body. Damn, I was hurting like a bitch. I am such a weak ass motherfucker. All I do these days is eat, sleep, and glue to this fucking computer. This piece of shit is eating me alive but I can’t do a fucking thing about it. I have been thinking of changing a career but can’t do a damn motherfucking thing but web design. I am just fucking screwed.

Paid in Full

According to VNExpress, My Tam makes 20 millions VND (approx. $1300 USD) per night for her performance while the monthly income for an average Vietnamese worker is 1 million (approx. $70 USD). Damn, that chic got everything: young, gifted and loaded. The next time I see her walking around Sai Gon, I’m gonna rob her. Yeah! You heard me, My Tam. Better duck and hide when I come back to Viet Nam. I am just playing girl. Still love your voice very much. You deserve all that money for your hard work. Don’t mind me, I am just a hater.

Illist Illustrations

Although Celia Calle web site design is not too impressive, her artworks are simply amazing. The illustrations are aesthetically powerful and the works of art speak for themselves.

Kicking out 6 grants for AES (American Education Services). 5 more grants to go and 10 more for my mom, I’ll be debt free. Damn I can’t hardly wait. Mom was skeptical when I asked her to loan me the money. She was like, “How come your cousin doesn’t have to pay anything for her college?” I replied, “My cousin doesn’t go to a private school, ma.” La Salle cost me 25 grants a year and I only owe 30 Gs altogether. I still think it was a great deal.

Noding My Fuckin’ Head to OutKast’s B.O.B

“Don’t pull the thang out, unless you plan to bang. Bombs Over Baghdad!
Don’t even bang unless you plan to hit somethin’. Bombs Over Baghdad!
Power music, electric revival. Power music, electric revival.”

That song got a fly ass beat. If you want some dope ass hip hop flavor, get OutKast Greatest Hits. Hits like Rosa Parks, The Whole World, B.O.B, Elevators, and Spottieottiedopaliscious, you’ll guarantee to drop a few pounds.

I was also listening to How To Rob An Industry Nigga by 50 Cents. That song cracked me up. He talked shit about everybody. What y’all think about The Jump Off video? The beat is off the hook. God damn, Lil’Kim looks slutty but sexy as hell.

Vassar was showing Monsoon Wedding today. I have a mix feeling about this film. The story line is great in a way that eventually you will get to know all the characters. I absolutely love the use of rich colors throughout the film. I admire the dances and Indian techno. Indian wedding is much more fun than Chinese and Vietnamese. Marigolds (Bong Van Tho) play a big part in Indian traditions. I am wondering what the significant meaning behind it. In Vietnamese, Bong Van Tho (marigolds) mean lifelong flowers. They play a big part in the Vietnamese too but I have never seen them being used for weddings. The bad part about this movie is the slow paste. The worse part is the lip-syncs, they don’t match up at all. It gets really annoying.

Anyways, I am not going into details about the movie but one of the theme is about arranged marriage. It actually works. Arranged marriages tend to be more stable than regular marriages. It’s really hard to married someone you don’t know but the love eventually grow. Your relationship will eventually build up and you’ll learn to appreciate each other. In contrast, unarranged relationships usually go down the drain. The first three months are the best part of the relationship. After that, it starts to drift away. You start to get bored. You no longer appreciate your partner. You just don’t care anymore. A year or two goes by, you can’t take it anymore and want a divorce. Ok enough of this crap.

No one can sing this song better than Don Ho (I am talking about the Vietnamese Don Ho, not the Hawaiian Don Ho). It is one of his best performance because he puts so much soul and feeling into it. Specially the bridge part.

Anh den voi em, voi tat ca tam hon.
Em den voi anh, voi tat ca trai tim.
Ta den voi nhau, muon mang cho don dau.
Mot lan cho mai nho thuong dai lau.

I came to you with all of my soul.
You came to me with all of your heart.
But it’s too late, for love meant to be.
For love to stay with me always.

So I spent the whole day reformatted my Mac. It has been working nicely so far. Thanks Keisha so much for helping me out. You’re so smart and patient. I am pretty new to the Mac world so I am just learning as I go along.

Movies I Want to Watch

Nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Award, Gail Dolgin and Vicente Franco’s Daughter From Danang seems like a good film to enjoy. Justin Lin’s Better Luck Tomorrow looks interesting as well.

Film vs. Computer Science

One of the greatest benefit of working for Vassar is free schooling so I might as well take an advantage of it. Vassar do not offered graduate schools so I am looking into getting another major. I am currently debating between film and computer science. It seems like they have a great program on film and I love movies but realistically what am I going to do with it? Therefore, I am leaning more towards computer science and I think it will benefit me greatly with what I am doing now. It’s about time I am dragging my lazy ass back to school. Well, not yet but at least I am thinking about it.

Congratulations! Miss Massachusetts

Enjoyed Miss USA 2003. It was a must needed break from cnn for a little bit. I thought Miss Texas was flawless from head to toe and her answer was great. She spoke out what she believes. Furthermore, nothing can top a pretty woman with a love for sushi. It’s just a perfect combination.

Ladies! Some fashion tips for y’all. Read it, practice it, and kick it the slutty style.

Gay Sex

Well, my computer was not returned until 4:00pm. It’s still a piece of crap. I am going to spend the whole day tomorrow back up my works and reformat the hard drive. It’s going to be as pleasure as having a gay sex (pain in the fucking ass) but I gotta do what I gotta do. Hopefully this will solve the problem. Anyway, did you watched the Oscar last night? Steve Martin was hilarious. He was such a great host. After Michael Moore trashed president Bush in his speech, Martin said: “It was so sweet backstage. The Teamsters are helping Michael Moore into the trunk of his limo.” That was pretty funny. I was disappointed that The Quiet American wasn’t even nominated. It’s such a great film. Oscar sucks!

Pissed Off

Another morning without my computer. I called up the guy from CIS this morning, he said my computer won’t be done until noon. What the fuck? Last Friday, he told me it would be ready by Monday morning. My computer has been out since last Thursday and the only thing he is working on is running a diagnostic test. Took him 2 and a half mother fucking days just to do that. Ain’t that a bitch?

My cousin Yen turns 25 today. She’s a month and a day older than me. I can’t believe time just flied us by. It seems like yesterday that we were riding bikes together. On Saturday, we had a family gathering and celebrated her birthday at the same time. Like always, we had bangin’ ass Vietnamese foods. First, we had “lau,” one of my all time favorite dish. Not sure if there is an English name for it but it’s basically “cook as you eat.” There were shrimps, meatballs(raw), oysters, beef, mushrooms, cabbages, all type of Vietnamese vegetables. They were all fresh and uncooked so you have to do is dip them in a boiling seasoned water (soup) located in the middle of the table on top of the gas stove. Take them out when it cooked, dip them in Sate (hotsauce) and soy sauce, and put them in your mouth. My Gosh, they are heaven, especially with a bottle of Heineken. After that we had steamed salmons with vegetables. Rolled them up with spring rolls and dip into man nem (the real fish sauce that only the real Vietnamese can handled). Then we had bo kho (Vietnamese beef stew with french baguette). I am not gonna go on with desserts and all the sweet stuffs. Damn my stomach was about to exploded.

After stuffed all that foods, we sat together to chit chat about my cousin Minh wedding which is coming this december. He’s currently a MIS professor and his fiance is a maternity doctor. What a perfect match huh? I am so happy for them. He asked me to put together a small site for him so that our family all over the world could access it. I told him I will be glad to do it. So check back later for this special project.

Got a brand new Sony DVD player for $30 and a used Sony car stereo head unit for 75 bucks. My car is bumping now baby. No, I do not show off my car and I am not into all that supped up shit to get attentions. I just can’t drive without a system in my car. Base kicking loud music helps me get through long hours driving.

Superman

The bonus music video from Eminem’s 8 Miles DVD is so wack. The porno stars are nasty as fuck.