I graduated from La Salle University in 2001 with a BA in digital arts and multimedia design. I was in the inaugural graduating class of the DART program. Now, 24 years later, I am invited back to my alma mater to speak on typography. I am looking forward to connecting with my young design classmates tomorrow.

Đêm qua đi làm và chơi về muộn nhưng sáng vẫn phải thức sớm đi cày tiếp. Lái xe đi làm, uống bao nhiêu cà phê cũng không tỉnh. Tuy đi xa tốn thời gian nhưng cũng vui. Nghĩ lại cảm thấy cám ơn vợ vô cùng.

Ngày xưa lần đầu vợ hỏi đi học ski với mấy thằng con không. Tôi từ chối vì ngán tuyết. Vợ biết tôi không ngán tuyết mà ngán tiền. Ski không phải là môn thể thao rẻ, nhất là với người mới thử. Lần sau vợ không thèm hỏi nữa, mà đăng kí lớp luôn. Đã trả tiền rồi không học thì mất tiền. Lại tiếc tiền nên tôi đành phải học.

Lần đầu tiên đặt chân lên chiếc thảm thần thoại và trượt trên tuyết, tôi như lạc vào một thế giới mới tôi chưa từng đến. Tưởng nhưng vợ đẩy mình vào địa ngục nhưng lại được lên thiên đàng. Từ lúc đó tốn tiền dài dài cho đến nay.

Cái gì cũng có cái duyên. Nếu không gặp nàng. Không cưới được nàng, mỗi mùa đông về tôi cuộn mình trong chăn như con sâu làm tổ, trong trái vải cô đơn. Giờ đây trời không tuyết tôi cũng lạy trời tuyết phủ kín đường về.

Vài tuần trước tôi tình cờ đi cùng chiếc ghế lift với một ông người Á Châu. Hai chúng tôi cũng chỉ nói vài câu xã giao. Khi xuống lift, chúng tôi cùng chọn đường hai hột xoàn đen (double-black diamond). Ông ski xuống rất điêu luyện. Tôi cũng snowboard theo sau ông. Ông bảo, “Chú snowboard hay lắm”. Tôi trả lời, “Ông cũng ski rất giỏi”.

Hay người lại đi cùng một chiếc ghế lift. Ông nói với tôi, “Lúc trước tôi cũng tập snowboard nhưng té nhiều quá, tôi đã bỏ. Tôi rất phục cậu”. Tôi cười đáp, “Ông vẫn có thể luyện tập”. Ông trả lời, “Tôi 80 tuổi rồi còn tập gì nữa”. Tôi vừa ngạc nhiên vừa nể, “Nỗ lực nào đã khiến ông giờ đây vẫn ski”? Câu trả lời ngắn gọn của ông, “Why not (Tại sao không)”?

Câu trả lời của ông sẽ là động lực cho tôi tiếp tục mỗi mùa đông về. Hy vọng vợ chồng tôi vẫn sẽ ski hoặc snowboard ở tuổi 80. Rồi đây anh sẽ không đưa em về nhà mà cùng dìu nhau trên những đỉnh núi đầy tuyết trắng mộng mơ.

After working on Saturday and Sunday, I was exhausted. The driving and the waking up earlier started to get to me. I planned on taking MLK off to relax and recharge, but when your son wanted to go skiing and snowboarding with me, I couldn’t disappoint him.

Xuân and I decided to go to Roundtop so he could meet up with his cousins. I also wanted to revisit Gunbarrel, which is the steepest double-black-diamond slope in Pennsylvania. It hadn’t opened in the last couple of years. I used to ski down this slope many times.

We kicked off snowboarding. Xuân progress from green to blue to black. We did four runs and it was lunch time. We met up with my brother-in-law and his two boys. I switched to skis because I missed skiing. I had been snowboarding quite a bit. We did a few more runs on the blue and black slopes.

My nephew and I wanted to go to the back side to ride Gunbarrel; therefore, Xuân switched to skiing as well. We tested out Ramrod, which is also a double-black-diamond slope, first. Although there were some bare spots, Ramrod had some snow to grip our skis on.

Gunbarrel was steeper and slippier. There were lots of bare spots. Xuân and his cousin made about a quarter of the way and they both went down. I traversed to the icy spot right at the top and slid down all the way down. Most skiers and snowboarders fell as well; therefore, I didn’t feel too embarrassed.

I am going to wait until Gunbarrel get more snow before would try it again. Nevertheless, we had a great time.

In the morning, I had a group lesson with 10 students. They were adults and teenagers. They picked up surprising fast. I ended the lesson with S turns.

In the afternoon, I had my first private lesson with a ten-year-old boy. I tried to teach him as much as I could to make his dad’s payment worthwhile. It was hard for him to understand the techniques I explained to him. Nevertheless the lesson went fine.

I was done after 3:00 pm, but the snow was falling fast. I didn’t want to drive home in the snowstorm. I stayed and snowboarded in the back side. The conditions were great. I hit the double-black-diamond slope twice. I even went on the mogul trail, which I had not done on snowboard before.

It was a fantastic day.

I always love the sound of the trumpet. In the right hands, a trumpet can sound like a human voice. Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and Clifford Brown are some of my favorite trumpet players, and now I am adding Freddie Hubbard to this list. I listened to Hubbard before, but I didn’t know much about him. In recent days, I immersed into Hubbard’s The Body & The Soul.

The album kicks off his Hubbard’s emotional rendition of “Body and Soul.” His trumpet is clear and can put you to tear. The orchestrated reinterpretation of “Carnival (Manhã de Carnaval)” is just astounding. The tune begins with the horn section playing the sweet melody to get you into the mood. Hubbard blazes his trumpet with a magnetizing solo, especially in the high register.

In “Aries,” Hubbard showcases his post-bop chops with his all-star players: Eric Dolphy, Wayne Shorter, Cedar Walton, Curtis Fuller, Reggie Workman, and Louis Hayes. Recorded in 1963, the album still sounds fresh today.

We left around 8:30 am in the morning. We arrived at Whitetail around 10:00 am. I took three runs on the blue trails with Xuân (on snowboard) and Vương (on ski). Of course, I was snowboarding.

I checked into the ski school and asked my supervisor about KMC (Kids Mountain Camp) and he sent me over to the camp. I taught an eight-year-old Chinese girl and a ten-year-old Vietnamese girl. They did alright.

After that a friend came and asked me to show him some pointers. I gave him a quick lesson. He wanted to stop after I showed him how to stop on heel and toe edges.

I went up back to the lift to see if I could find my wife and kids. I couldn’t find them. I took the long green trail and carved. My carving is getting much better. I can pick up more speed. I felt great.

We left around 7:0 pm and decided to stop by Ugly Dumpling Express for dinner. The food was not bad.

I am now exhausted. I need to go to sleep so I can get up early tomorrow to drive back to Whitetail to teach.

Whether skiing, snowboarding, web design, or jazz appreciation, when I wanted to explore something new, I dived in as deep as I could. Typography was no exception. I spent years not only practicing typography, but also picking up every book I could get my hands on. I even collected them so I can reread them in the future. If you are interested in typography, here are 30 books, which I have on my bookshelf, for you to discover the art and science of typesetting.

Để kỷ niệm 20 năm album đầu tay của cô ra đời, Ngọc Khuê trở lại với cuộc “Dạo chơi” dân gian hiện đại. Những ca khúc đã đưa tên tuổi cô đến khán giả như “Bên bờ ao nhà mình”, “Chuồn chuồn ớt”, “Giọt sương bay lên”, “Gió mùa về”, và “Bà tôi” được mix lại với những âm hưởng điện tử.

Nghe thì cũng là lạ nhưng nặng về phần điện tử hơn là phần dân gian. Chẳng hạn như “Bên bờ ao nhà mình” trở thành một club hit nhiều hơn là một contemporary mix. Tuy đã 20 năm nhưng tôi vẫn ấn tượng với bài phối dân gian jazz hơn là bài mix mới với phần rap không cần thiết.

Đáng tiếc là cả album đều như thế ngoại trừ “Bà tôi” với bài phối jazz đường phố đầy sáng tạo. Tiếng bass, tiếng percussion, tiếng dương cầm, tiếng sáo hòa quyện vào nhau rất thú vị. Phải chi Ngọc Khuê vẫn theo đường lối jazz nhưng khai thác những âm hưởng mới lạ thì hay biết mấy.

Last night, I upgraded the Law School website to MODX 3.1.0. With MODX Cloud hosting, making an upgrade was just a click of a button. Of course, I had to make a backup first and that was also a click of a button.

MODX has to be one of the most unappreciated content management systems. After working with other systems, both open source and proprietary, I appreciate MODX even more.

As a designer, I appreciate the freedom and flexibility MODX offers to create a unique experience without any compromise. I don’t need to rely on bloated frameworks or predetermined templates.

As a developer, I appreciate its powerful architecture to deliver a rich experience. Its reusable code keeps the content manageable. I reuse its code plenty of times to create dynamic content.

As a server administrator, I appreciate its cloud hosting service for a peace of mind. Since we switched to the cloud-based subscription, I no longer have to manage the server. From security to backup management to failover strategy, MODX takes care of everything.

The MODX support team is superb. I can reach out to them at any time and they would respond promptly. Obviously no one knows MODX better than the people behind the CMS.

After more than 15 years of using MODX, I still can’t figure out the reasons it is not widely adopted. I hope MODX continues to thrive even if it stays small.

In the past two nights after work, I tuned up 3 boards and 6 pair of skis. Xuân and I have a board and a pair of skis. Đạo has a new pair of skis. I also tuned up his previous pairs to store away. I just looked up Alpine Ski Shop and price for basic tuning is $65 for skis and $50 for snowboard. I am saving us $540 by tuning them myself. Skiing and snowboarding are not cheap. I have to save whatever I can. I will finish up scraping the wax tonight.