Say tomorrow doesn’t come.
Say the moon becomes an icy pit.
Say the sweet-gum tree is petrified.
Say the sun’s a foul black tire fire.
Say the owl’s eyes are pinpricks.
Say the raccoon’s a hot tar stain.
Say the shirt’s plastic ditch-litter.
Say the kitchen’s a cow’s corpse.
Say we never get to see it: bright
future, stuck like a bum star, never
coming close, never dazzling.
Say we never meet her. Never him.
Say we spend our last moments staring
at each other, hands knotted together,
clutching the dog, watching the sky burn.
Say, It doesn’t matter. Say, That would be
enough. Say you’d still want this: us alive,
right here, feeling lucky.

Ada Limón

The Mason brand has served the university well. It communicates our key brand messages including academic quality, innovation, diversity, entrepreneurial spirit, and accessibility. Mason is evolving, but its visual identity is dating. To be a competitive school, Mason should consider refreshing its brand. The Mason visual identity needs to be simplified and unified.

The current University Logo is too complicated. The full lockup takes up too much space, especially when it is combined with a unit name (Antonin Scalia Law School). Although the M alone has some issues with the quill, it has the potential to carry the Mason brand like the swoosh for Nike, the apple for Apple, and the Siren for Starbucks. When the University Logo is simplified, the unit name could be better unified and balanced.

The Mason typefaces are over the place and they show no personality. The unit names are set in TheSans and that’s it. I don’t see it being used anywhere else. Myriad Pro and Minion Pro are the primary typefaces. Adobe Garamond and Helvetica Neue were thrown into the mix for no apparent reasons. Myriad and Minion are well-designed typefaces, but they are ubiquitous. They were designed to be neutral; therefore, they lack personality. Anyone who uses Adobe products would have access to these two font families. In fact, they are the default fonts for graphic tools including InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop. I have been noticing universities, such as Northeastern University and The New School, commissioning their own typefaces. I wonder if Mason would invest in custom typefaces to give the brand a unique typographic voice.

As for the colors, I would like to see the change for its primary colors or the expansion beyond the green and gold. Here are the notes on colors according to the brand guidelines:

Use Mason green and gold as the primary colors in your layouts.

Use secondary colors in combination with our primary colors to express the many facets of Mason.

Do not use secondary colors alone or as the primary color in branded materials.

Apparently we are not adhering to the guideline because the green and gold are so hard to work with.

Sau khi nhậu ba chai whiskey Nhật cùng với mấy phụ huynh trong hướng đạo buổi chiều thứ bảy, tôi về nhà ngủ một giấc đến khuya. Trong giấc mộng tôi cũng đi nhậu về bỗng nhiên thấy mẹ đang nằm ngủ. Tôi mừng rỡ chạy đến ôm lấy mẹ. Mẹ thức dậy nói chuyện với tôi. Khi tôi hỏi sao mẹ lại được phục hồi và nói được, mẹ chưa kịp trả lời thì tôi thức giấc.

Tôi tỉnh ngủ với tâm trạng hụt hẫng. Nỗi đau và nỗi nhớ ùa về. Tôi ngủ lại không được nên thức trắng nghĩ về mẹ. Thời tiết bắt đầu trở lạnh. Mẹ nằm dưới lòng đất một mình lạnh lẽo lắm. Tôi không cầm được nước mắt. Tôi hận cuộc đời này đã cướp đi người mẹ yêu dấu của tôi dù biết được rằng sớm muộn gì cũng phải xa lìa cha mẹ. Một ngày nào đó tôi cũng sẽ rời khỏi thế gian và rời xa con cái. Chỉ là không biết lúc nào sẽ chết. Nhậu nhiều ngủ ít càng chết sớm nhưng nhậu đến say sưa mới thấy được mẹ.

Mẹ ơi, con xin lỗi mẹ. Con biết mẹ không thích con uống rượu nhưng con không thể nào xoa dịu được nỗi đau mất mẹ. Nhưng mẹ yên tâm và an nghỉ nhé. Con vẫn biết được chừng mực. Con vẫn còn có đàn con thơ để chăm sóc.

Just like a revival, the verse tends to steer ’em
Through a life in the fast lane, like German-engineer ’em
No serum can cure all the pain I’ve endured
From crack to rap to back to sellin’ it pure.

Pusha T (an excerpt from “We Got It for Cheap”)

I took the minivan to the gas station close by our house for inspection. It was failed because of brake. The technician gave me a quote for $960 plus tax to replace all 4 pads and rotors. I called another auto shop and the price was $900 plus tax. I called the dealership and the price was $1,400 plus tax. I placed one more call and they gave me a quote for $780 with tax included and they would also throw in the inspection sticker.

Ravensworth Auto Service, runs by Vietnamese folks, is the shop I had used many years ago. I stopped because location was not convenient for me. Now I work remotely on Mondays and Fridays, I can just drop my car off and walk to a fast-food spot nearby to do my work. Their price had always been reasonable and they had done good jobs. I will be returning to them in the future for car services.

I told my wife that I am done with cars. When this minivan becomes too expensive to fix, I will get an electric bike.

Making the upgrade from an iPhone 6 Plus to 13 Max Pro felt like I went from a Corolla to a Tesla. I should have made the upgrade sooner. Then again, I hope to keep the 13 Max Pro for at least 5 years.

After my upgrade, I signed up for a brand new phone for our first born with Verizon’s promotion: a free iPhone 12 for a new line with unlimited plan. Since both my wife and I are already on the unlimited plan, we just needed to add another line for him.

I thought a a third line would be cheaper until the bill came a few weeks later. I received all sorts of charges and his line was higher than ours. We were on the G5 Start plan and the new line required the G5 More plan. I should have known that “More” meant more money and nothing is free in corporate America.

I made a mistake by not looking at the dollar amounts when I signed up for a new line, but the bigger mistake was giving my son a powerful tool. He could access anything at his fingertips and the whole world was in his pocket. It was like handing him drugs at thirteen. I wanted him to be more independent and reliable, but he was not ready yet. I realized that I was putting him in danger and I needed to put a stop to it.

I brought up my concerns with my wife and we asked him to let us return the phone since Verizon had a 30-day trial period. We wanted him to focus on his school work, spend more time outdoors, read paper books, and do things off the screen. He was sad to return the phone, but he understood that we were not punishing him. He knew we care deeply about his well being and we love him dearly.

I was asked to put together a last-minute fact sheet for the Scalia Law fall 2022 entering class. The goal was to showcase the numbers, such as 2114 applicants, 415 admitted, and 53% women. Because of the time constraint, I decided on a typographic direction.

Based on the provided content, I created a nine-column grid system to organize all the numbers and the corresponding texts. For typesetting, I chose Acumin, designed by Robert Slimbach, for its variable fonts, which provided a wide range of weights and widths. Once the grid system was in place, I filled in the columns with the numbers. While experimenting with variable fonts, I discovered that I could keep the weights constant, but change the widths based on the digits of the numbers. The longer the digits the narrower the glyphs and vice versa.

I ended up creating a typographic system, in which the numbers stayed balanced but dynamic. The result was simple on the surface, but sophisticated underneath with a solid grid and typographic foundation. This was one of the reasons I loved working with variable fonts. They offered limitless flexibility and precise control at the same time. Take a look at the high-resolution version of the fact sheet.

I found Sam Daugherty’s questions to ask during the interview process to be helpful; therefore, I wanted to repost them here:

Task-related Questions

• What is the skills gap you’re trying to fill?
• What are the ideal skills or experiences for someone in this role?
• What does the day-to-day look like?
• What are some high-level problems I’ll be working to solve?
• What are the backlog problems I’ll need to solve?

Job-related questions

• Is this a backfill position or a growth position?
• What does success look like in this role?
• What does collaboration and communication look like on your team and between teams/departments?
• What is the average timeframe allotted to research/design a solution?
• What is the makeup of the team and how are tasks divided?

Long-term questions

• What kind of growth opportunities are there?
• Where do you see this role/team in 3 years?
• Are there opportunities for mentorship?
• Do you see the team growing and what sort of growth do you expect?

Company questions

• Describe the culture of the team and the company for me?
• What made you want to work for [company] and what’s kept you here?
• How often do you have to work late, on weekends, or feel compelled to respond after hours?
• What does taking time off look like and are you expected to respond to messages during vacation?
• Are there opportunities to travel and meet the team in person (if remote)?

More tips in the comment section from Jared Spool:

If you open with “When you hire the right person to join your team, what would y’all be able to accomplish that you’re not accomplishing right now?,” you’re showing that you’re very interested in the team’s success. It gives you an opening for many of the follow-up questions.

Chances are, from the answer, you won’t even have to ask many of them. For example, you’ll likely learn if the reason they’re hiring is that there’s a skill gap or that they’re just shorthanded. You’ll learn if it’s work on the backlog or if these are high-level problems being solved (or high-level problems on the backlog).

You can even ask what they’ve tried in the past to accomplish these things and explore what didn’t quite work out. That’ll give you good insights into the history of “how did you get to this moment” (something that lots of folks forget to ask about), which can be quite telling about how the team and organization works.

With every follow-up question, you can mentally build up a case as to what’s in your history that would make you an ideal candidate. You can wrap things up with a summary of that.

Đọc mấy truyện đầu không cảm nhận được vì chưa quen cách viết của tác giả. Khi nắm được lối đưa văn của tác giả thì mấy truyện sau cảm thấy hứng thú hơn. Tôi đọc tập truyện ngắn này khá lâu vì gần đây viết nhiều hơn đọc. Đồng thời bị phân trí nên cũng không nhớ rõ những câu chuyện đã đọc. Tôi chỉ nhớ nhất là truyện cuối “Tục đế” với đề tài xã hội, tình dục, và Phật giáo. Chắc chắn sẽ quay lại với tập truyện ngắn này trong tương lai.

Skiing is fantastic and I still love skiing. Last season, I learned all I could and reached my goal. I went from green slopes to double black diamonds. I will keep on skiing, but I also want to try snowboarding again this season. Last season, I took one lesson, snowboarded for one day, and gave up.

Several months ago, I bought a used board for Đán, but he didn’t want it. He didn’t want to change. Since he was comfortable with the last year’s board we rented, he ended up renting the same board again. The board I bought is a bit too long for him, but might be good for me. I sharpened the edges, fixed the base, and gave it a good wax. The board is now pretty slick. I bought a pair of brand new thirtytwo Zephyr boots on sale for a decent price.

Now that I have everything I need, I am going to make the commitment to snowboarding. I will learn on my own via YouTube. I will take my time to get it right this time. I will document my progress on here like I had done with skiing.