Seventeen high schools in Virginia withheld National Merit awards impacting Asian-American students. According to Fairfax County Times, “an estimated 75 percent of National Merit Semifinalists—a notch above Commended Students—are of Asian heritage.” This is absurd. This type of shits makes me want to vote for Republicans and Youngkins.
Yesterday I noticed water coming out of the water heater and I knew we needed to replace the tank. I called Ricardo, but he is in Mexico partying with his girl and won’t be back to the States until early next month. I called a friend and asked for a plumbing recommendation. He told me to get the specs from the current tank then buy a new one with the same specs. We installed an A.O. Smith water heater when we first bought our house, which was almost 15 years ago. I went to Lowe’s and brought the same brand with the same specs.
My friend told me Tilo, a contractor, would come around 11 am to replace the tank. Then I watched a YouTube video from Lowe’s showing how to replace an electric water heater. The process didn’t seem to hard and I could pull it off, but I didn’t have the confidence to do it myself.
Tilo arrived around 11 am. We went to Lowe’s to pick up some SharkBite connectors. He cut out the copper pipes to take the old tank out and reconnected them using the SharkBite connectors. Unfortunately, one of the pipes was bent; therefore, he took it back out. As he tried to pull the SharkBite back out, he bursted the pipe that was connected to the tank.
We headed back to Lowe’s to pick up a SharkBite that would connect the pipe into the tank’s faucet and another SharkBite connector. He accidentally picked up the SharkBite Check Valve. When he installed it, the arrow on the SharkBite Check Valve was pointing up, which blocked the water from entering into the tank. When he turned the water back on, he didn’t realize that the water was not filling up. When he turned the power on, we heard a loud pop. We assumed that the coils were burned. He tested the top coil and it was fine, but the bottom coil had no current.
It was already 2 pm; therefore, we headed out to Chipotle for lunch and went back to Lowe’s to pick up another coil. After replacing the bottom coil and filling up the water, we waited for the water to heat up. Nothing happened. He decided to take everything out, return the tank to the store, and buy another one.
Seeing him struggle with the copper pipes, I suggested the flexible pipes based on the video I had watched. The flex pipes were a big time-saver. He connected the water pipes in less than half an hour. We waited and waited, but still no hot water. It was already around 8 pm. I told him to go home since the manual stated that it could take up two hours to heat up the water. He charged me $250, but I gave $300 since he already spent all day. We still didn’t have hot water.
The next morning, January 19, 2022, I got anxious and googled for a plumbing company and came across an ad from My Plumber Plus for a $49 plumbing repair diagnostic. I called to make an appointment. The technician came, looked at the water heater, gave me two quotes: about $450 for repair and about $650 for repair and parts. The only things he did were turning on the hot water at the sink and scanning the power line with non-contact voltage tester. I asked for the diagnostic and he said he just had to fix it. I thanked him for coming in and paid $49 for nothing. What a scam. I would steer away from My Plumber Plus.
Tilo came back in the evening trying to figure out why the water heater was not heating up. He started with the power wires. One of the wires broke off inside the wire cap. He rewired it again and we could hear the coil working inside the tank. Luckily I didn’t pay $450 to My Plumber Plus for such a small fix. I should have kicked myself in the ass for not opening up the power wires to inspect, but I learned.
From watching YouTube video, observing Tilo, and helping him installing the water heater, I gained valuable experience and gave me a peace of mind. I kept having the recurring fear that the old tank would just bottom out on me one day. Now I can be reassured that I can minimize that risk. Furthermore, I will be able to replace the tank myself in the future. Being a homeowner, I have to be responsible for so many things in the house. With the except for the HVAC unit, I can handle almost everything in the house. Being a handyman would cut down the cost of fixing and replacing things around the house, which make me enjoy living my house more and not having be in constant fear.
$952
The lowest quote I had received from a dozen of plumbing company was $1,700. In addition to saving about $750 from hiring a company to install the water heater, I learned the hands-on experience.
I worked for a leader who valued talent over product. She chose an open-source product and invested in her employees to build out the platform we needed.
On the flip side, I worked for a leader who valued product over talent. He was willing to pay a shitload of money for a proprietary product, but he wouldn’t give an hourly employee a small raise. The differences in leadership styles were astounding.
Leadership plays an important role in our job. A great leader can make our work enjoyable, motivate us to push ourselves, and value our contributions. An incompetent leader can make your life a living hell, demoralize our spirit, and devalue our contributions.
I have been through it all and learned to navigate different terrains. Surviving is a must when you have to raise your family.
On Saturday, I snowboarded on the blue terrain learning to initiate my turns early. My toe turns are improving, but they are still not as effective as my heel turns. I am still trying to learn quick turns on steep terrains. I found this video useful in showing how to put pressure on my front foot and lift up my back foot to pivot the turn. I still haven’t accomplished this yet.
On Sunday, I snowboarded on the blue terrains at Liberty. I did well; therefore, I went on the black terrain. I was able to pull it off. I was happy about it. I want to spend more time learning the fast turns. In snowboarding, turns seem to be everything. Once you master your turns, you can enjoy your ride downhill. Learning tricks would be the next step.
Skiing and snowboarding have significant benefits for me. In addition to keeping myself active during the winter months, I haven’t had a gout attack even though I have been drinking quite a bit and consuming beef. Knock on wood, but I haven’t had any winter sickness like cold, cough, or congestion. When I ski or snowboard, I put all my stress behind. I don’t give a shit any more. I just go with the flow.
When I redesigned this blog in the past, I would share it on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. With Visualgui 2023, I didn’t share it on social media platforms. I just posted here. That was it.
I haven’t touched Twitter and LinkedIn in months and I haven’t missed them. I have returned to Facebook to post clips of my kids skiing and rollerblading. I am not sure why I am doing it. Part of me wished my mom was still here so she could see her grandsons. I will stop using Facebook in the near future.
I am getting tired of social media. I am not getting any benefits from them. I am going to just focus on this blog and that’s it. This is my little corner on the web where I can just drop whatever on my mind. I also enjoy reading personal blogs via RSS feeds. I hope to see blogging coming back this year.
The new design for 2023 is here. Unlike previous years, in which I came up with the new design a couple of weeks before the new year, Visualgui 2023 comes a bit late. I was catching the Designer’s Disease: “most of us catch it at one point or another but evolve & find a new formula—one that takes everything in you to make.” Yes, I stole that one from Nas’ King’s Disease 3. I didn’t know what to design for a while and then I overcame the disease.
As you can see, I have a new logo. After using the previous logo for five years, I just wanted to come up with a new one, which set in Megazoid, designed by David Jonathan Ross. I love this quirky typeface. Megazoid is chunky, raw, weird, and anything but boring.
For typography, I selected the two typefaces that I had the pleasure of contributing to the Vietnamese diacritics. The main body copy is set in Aneto, designed by Veronika Burian, José Scaglione, Azza Alameddine, and Roxane Gataud. I love the readability of Aneto. To accompany Aneto, I chose Change, designed by Alessio Leonardi, for large headings as well as secondary texts. The two complement each other nicely. For coding, I kept Input Mono, designed by David Jonathan Ross.
For the huge text on the homepage, I chose Aneto Skyline, which is part of the Aneto family. I will also use Change in the future. I hope you’ll like this new design.
We bring nothing into this world
except our gradual ability
to create it, out of all that vanishes
and all that will outlast us.
Les Murray
Gần đây tôi dùng thử Amazon Music để nghe nhạc khi lái xe đường xa như đi 10 tiếng đến Vermont để trượt tuyết. Thường thì tôi nghe nhạc jazz hay hip hop, nhưng tình cờ nghe nhạc Việt Nam và phát hiện ra tiếng hát Thùy Dung. Tôi không biết cô là ai hoặc cô ở trong hay ngoài nước. Cô có chất giọng tốt và hát tiếng Pháp nghe chắc ổn tuy tôi không biết tiếng Pháp gì cả. Nếu như cô chỉ nhạc Pháp không thì không có gì đặc biệt cả nhưng những bài hòa theo giai điệu jazz khiến những bài cover của cô nghe phê hơn. Chẳng hạn như cô trình bài “Paroles, paroles” theo điệu swing, “La vie en rose” theo blues và samba, và liên khúc “Toi jamais” và “L’amour c’est pour rien” theo bossa nova.
Năm nay sẽ có thay đổi lớn, không sớm thì muộn. Đến nước này rồi thì còn gì phải lo ngại. Tôi vẫn cố gắng tập trung để không phải bị lôi vào phiền muộn. Xong keo này ta bày keo khác.
Cuộc sống là thế. Người trên luôn có quyền lực hơn người dưới. Lúc xưa tôi chỉ nghĩ đơn giản mình làm theo trách nhiệm của mình không cần phải lo lắng gì cả nhưng trong thực tế thì không phải như thế. Người có quyền lúc nào cũng trên cơ cả cho dù họ chẳng biết gì cả.
Đến cuối ngày cũng chỉ kiếm tiền nuôi sống gia đình. Tôi không còn xem nặng đam mê nữa. Tới đâu hay tới đó. Tôi chỉ cần làm những gì mình phải làm. Tôi cố gắng không để những công việc ngoài tầm tay ảnh hưởng đến cuộc sống và gia đình của tôi, nhất là con cái.
Giờ đây chỉ biết xuôi theo chiều gió. Đến đâu hay đến đó. Hy vọng cơ hội mới sẽ đến trong năm mới.
I haven’t listened to Nas since his 2008’s release Untitled. His outputs were lackluster as he suffered from King’s Disease. In “Ghetto Reporter,” the opening track on King’s Disease 3, he admits: “King’s Disease: most of us catch it at one point or another, but evolve, find a new formula. One that takes everything in you to make.” With Hit-Boy locking down the beats, Nas rhymes as if he has been cured from the disease. The entire album is a banger.