Trong tập thơ mới của anh Cao Nguyên có một bài chỉ trọn vẹn một câu:

vòng tay ôm nặng mảnh đời nhẹ tênh

Đúng với chủ đề Vắn, tuy bài thơ chỉ tám chữ nhưng nói lên được sự nặng nhẹ trong cuộc sống của chúng ta. Có những vần thơ tuy nhẹ nhàng nhưng chất chứa tận đáy lòng:

đêm đêm
đếm lá
trên cây
đếm nhịp
tim gõ
chuỗi lời
vô tâm

Anh Cao Nguyên có vẻ như thích đếm. Hết đếm lá rồi đếm những gì không vui:

chẳng có gì vui
hết rồi vui

tôi quỳ
tôi đếm những không vui

vui đi đâu mất
không về nữa

tôi nhặt lại tôi
lúc chưa vui

Rồi anh lại đếm những hoàng hôn với tâm trạng buồn mang máng

có những
hoàng hôn
có thế thôi

không thương
không nhớ
chẳng bâng khuâng

hững hờ
hờ hững
theo hờ hững

chẳng nhớ
chẳng thương
không bâng khuâng

Dĩ nhiên tập thơ của anh không thể thiếu hình bóng nàng thơ. Tôi còn nhớ đọc tập Thơ mưa lãng mạn của anh. Nhưng giờ đây thơ về nàng sắc bén hơn xưa:

đôi môi nàng
ngọt nụ cười
lưỡi câu bén nhọn
nụ cười con giun

Và đây là một lời nhắc nhở thấm thía:

mai sau
nhỡ có
vô thường
em ơi
nhớ nhé
mình từng
với nhau

Cách anh dùng từ “vô thường” và “từng với nhau” gây sự bất ngờ cho cá nhân tôi.

Đầu năm đón nhận món quà từ anh Cao Nguyên thật đáng quý. Cảm ơn anh và chúc anh luôn khỏe mạnh để tiếp tục sáng tác những bài thơ đẹp cho đời.

We are about halfway through the season. For Whitetail, we only have about a month and a half left. Damn! It’s way too fast.

I woke up early this morning and headed to Whitetail. I joined the ski clinic. I just wanted to ski with the instructors’ instructors. After the clinic, I changed out my snowboard boots to lineup. My snowboard supervisor called me over and asked if I wanted to be a dual instructor. The ski instructors wanted me to become a ski instructors as well since I had been participating in the ski clinics. I was like, sure why not.

I changed back to my ski boots so I could shadow a beginner lesson. There were 18 students from age 7 to 13. The young instructor who was assigned to the class freaked out. He called the supervisor for help. It took 3 of us to teach 18 kids to ski. My job was helping the kids popping in and out of their skis and standing up. It was quite an experience.

In the afternoon, I was assigned to teach 5 adults who were learning snowboarding for the first time. They did well. I hope they’ll continue to work on their J and S turns. After class, I changed to my ski boots and started some runs. I left the resort at 5:00 pm. It was a long day.

My goal for this season is to get 2 more shadows in for ski lesson and take the jacket test. The ski progression for first-time learner doesn’t seem so bad.

I took Xuân and Vương to Liberty today. I hadn’t skied much; therefore, I wanted to ski with Vương. Xuân was still snowboarding. They wanted to try out moguls. To my surprise, they did well. I worried that Vương couldn’t make it, but he did just fine.

Skiing with Xuân and Vương reminded me of Đạo and Đán back in the days. They are grown now and don’t want to hang out with me anymore. In a few more years, Xuân and Vương will do the same; therefore, I want to be with them whenever I can.

Time flies and I don’t even know how long I can keep skiing and snowboarding. I don’t want to waste any opportunities. Life is too damn short.

Every Friday, I looked forward to reading a new edition from Manuel Moreale’s People and Blogs newsletter. I enjoyed discovering a new blog through his interview. For months, I wanted to be featured in the newsletter, but I didn’t want to suggest my own blog. A few weeks ago, I decided to do a mock interview instead. I took Manu’s questions and answered them myself. As I was about to hit the publish button on my own blog, I reached out to Manu to see if he was cool with it. To me surprise, he responded, “It’s totally fine to suggest your own blog and I’m down to feature you.” I was astounded and I was so glad that I didn’t hit that publish button. My mock interview turned into a reality. You can read the interview on People and Blogs or below, which I want to keep for posterity.

P&B: Donny Trương

This is the 75^th edition of People and Blogs, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have Donny Trương and his blog, visualgui.com

To follow this series subscribe to the newsletter. A new interview will land in your inbox every Friday. Not a fan of newsletters? No problem! You can read the interviews here on the blog or you can subscribe to the RSS feed.

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Let’s start from the basics: Can you introduce yourself?

My name is Donny Trương. I am a web designer. I still write HTML and CSS by hand. I haven’t used frameworks because I haven’t found the need for them.

I have a BA in digital arts & multimedia design and an MA in graphic design. For my independent study in grad school, I wrote Professional Web Typography and published it as a web book. For my final thesis, I wrote Vietnamese Typography and also published it online for free access.

Vietnamese Typography has become an essential reading for type designers who would like to support the Vietnamese language for their typefaces. The web book has also led me to become a type advisor, in which I work with type designers around the world to help them with their Vietnamese diacritics for their typefaces.

In recent years, I have become obsessed with skiing and snowboarding. I skied for four seasons and snowboarded for two. This winter, I became a snowboard instructor. I am teaching beginner group lessons. When I first learned snowboarding, I fell a lot. My goal is to help people fall less and enjoy riding more.

I live in Fairfax, Virginia with my lovely wife and our four boys. I enjoy blogging, reading, rollerblading, ice skating, skiing, and of course, snowboarding.

What’s the story behind your blog?

I started blogging in 2003 to experiment with design, share my thoughts, and improve my writing. English is my second language and I wanted to communicate better through words. When I came to the US at the age of eleven, I didn’t know a word of English and I hated writing. I couldn’t put a sentence together.

Even in my college years, I never let anyone, except for the professors, read my papers. I was afraid of being judged. When I started blogging, however, all of my fears went out the window. I didn’t worry about my grammar errors. I didn’t worry about my incomplete sentences. I didn’t care how I sounded on the page. I didn’t care who read my blog. I just wanted to write.

I appreciate the freedom of blogging. I write for no one, but myself. I grew up listening to rap music; therefore, I used lots of curse words in my early blogging. The more I write, however, the less curse words I use. I still use curse words once in a while, but only when it is necessary.

What does your creative process look like when it comes to blogging?

My process is just to write whatever comes to my mind. Whenever I have 15 to 30 minutes, I would sit down and bang out 100 to 300 words. I constantly think about topics to write about in my head. Once I sit in front of my computer, I don’t have to stare at the blank screen and the blinking cursor.

When I am out and about, I jot down my thoughts right on my phone. I write when I stand waiting in line or at the doctor’s office. I use Google Docs so I can quickly transfer my writing from my phone to my laptop.

I give myself no restrictions. I can write one line or ten paragraphs. I want to be as open and as honest as possible in my journal. I share as much as I can without getting in trouble.

Blogging is both pleasure and therapeutic for me. By writing down my thoughts, I no longer need to carry the weight in my head. Writing to release my tension has kept me blogging regularly for over 20 years.

Do you have an ideal creative environment? Do you believe the physical space influences your creativity?

Blogging for myself doesn’t require any creativity. I just need to get the words from my head to the page. I write when I am bored. Even when I am driving on the road for long trips, I write in my head. It makes the driving go faster. Once I have access to my phone or my laptop, I would write down what I was writing in my head; therefore, I don’t necessarily need a physical space. I can write and hit publish anywhere and any time on my phone.

A question for the techie readers: Can you run us through your tech stack?

My blog is powered by WordPress. I design my own theme with just three files: index.php, screenshot.png, and style.css. A modern WordPress theme these days has hundreds of files. I just checked WordPress’s default Twentytwentyfive and it has 253 files. How insane is that?

I redesign and realign my blog several times a year. When I licensed a new typeface, I would want to use it first on my blog. When I found inspiration or got bored with thee current design, I would change it. Although I changed the look and feel quite often, the underneath blogging structure hadn’t changed much since the beginning. If I were forced to move over to Gutenberg, I would be screwed. I wouldn’t know how to create a modern theme.

For hosting, I use a Droplet from DigitalOcean. I use Cloudflare for SSL, basic caching, and security measures.

Given your experience, if you were to start a blog today, would you do anything differently?

WordPress has served me well over 20 years. It has grown significantly as a solid CMS over the years, but I still use it as a blogging platform.

I am deeply concerned about the controversies lately between WordPress and another premium WordPress hosting company. The WordPress founder is going bananas. I am not sure about the future of WordPress.

If I have to do it all over today, I don’t know where to start. I don’t know what platform to choose. I know other CMSes, but they are not a blogging tool out of the box like WordPress.

Financial question: How much does it cost to run your blog? Is it just a cost, or does it generate revenue?

I pay about $250 a year for hosting and domain registration. My blog does not generate any revenue. I tried ads. They didn’t work and I found them distracting the reading experience. I tried custom banner ads, in which I would work with the clients to design them to fit with my design and their message. They didn’t work out.

I am asking for support from readers and that isn’t working either. My blog remains my own hobby.

Time for some recommendations: Any blog you think is worth checking out? And who do you think I should interview next?

Here’s my blogroll. You should interview Mandy Brown next.

Final question: Is there anything you want to share with us?

Check out donnytruong.com. It’s my portfolio site. You can see my works there.

This was the 75^th edition of People and Blogs. Hope you enjoyed this interview with Donny. Make sure to follow his blog (RSS) and get in touch with him if you have any questions.

Today marks my 31^st day on the mountains. I have been skiing, snowboarding, and teaching for 31 days this season. I am fortunate to be able to do what I love for free (including my family members) and a bit of extra money. Teaching is not enough to make a living, but enough to enjoy all the perks. I am content with that.

I taught two adults today. They came in half an hour late for their lesson. Even though they signed up for beginner lesson, they had been snowboarded before. They caught up quick. After I covered all the basics, we went straight into J turns and then S turns. After that I took them on the long green trail to practice their S turns. They told me that my explanation of torsional twist was very helpful for them. They rode with confidence. They did not catch the edge. That was all that I wanted to get across.

I didn’t get a lesson in the afternoon; therefore, I rode with two other instructors. I went to the back side, but the trails were so foggy that I decided to call it the day and headed back home. Another fantastic day in the book.

I had been listening to Dave Brubeck’s classic Time Out for years. And yet, I only came across his follow-up Time Further Out last week. “Far More Blues” expanded his time signatures from “Take Five” and Paul Desmond was killing it on his alto saxophone. I always have a soft spot for Desmond’s sensual sax sound. “Far More Drum” gave Joe Morello the space to solo. I always enjoyed an energetic drum improvisation and Morello delivered. The rhythm in “Unsquare Dance” is exhilarating. Loved this album.

With a smartphone in hands, I filmed lots of short clips, especially when our family was out skiing and riding. With short clips, I turned them into YouTube shorts. I enjoyed pairing the favorite videos with my favorite jazz tunes. Here’s a clip of my wife skiing and my son cruising down the steep green at Liberty.

We have been couchless for a few months. I didn’t want to replace it. Couches are expensive and they turn you into a potato. We didn’t need one, but my wife insisted on getting one. Of course, she always got what she wanted. She ordered a set of Coddle Aria Fabric Sleeper Sofa with Reversible Chaise and Storage for $1250. I didn’t care much for it. It just took up space along with all the things we accumulated over the years. It is what it is. I just try to do my part to tidy up as much as I can.

The encounter of two saxophone legends (Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster) alone was already something special. With the Oscar Peterson rhythm section, they made history. The album kicked off with the intoxicating “Blues for Yolenda.” These guys were the masters of the blues. From the intro, Peterson (piano), Alvin Stoller (drums), and Ray Brown (double bass) laid down the blues mood. Hawkins and Webster joined in unison. Whereas Webster made his sax cried, Hawkins played a charming solo. What a magical moment. On “Tangerine,” Coleman began with such a beautiful solo and Webster took it up a notch. Absolutely astonishing.

Professor Li:

Hi Donny,

Thank you so much for generously donating your time to speak with my students! Your work is truly wonderful and thought-provoking. I was especially moved by the COVID and climate change project you did for Mural Arts Philadelphia.

I’d like to extend an open invitation for you to visit La Salle at your convenience. Our end-of-year show takes place in late April or early May, but I’d also love to arrange a more casual lunch between us whenever it suits you. I would truly enjoy the opportunity to meet and chat in person.

Once again, thank you so much for your talk—my students and I greatly appreciated it.

Have a fantastic weekend snowboarding!

Here’s the transcript for my presentation.