As I am working on the redesign for Scalia Law website, I am doing some research on the top-ranking law schools to see what they are up to these days. I checked out Yale, Stanford, University of Chicago, Columbia as well as our peers including Wake Forest, OSU, and Georgetown. The trend I am seeing is that every site uses a full-screen banner on the homepage.

We were not using full-screen banners because they required large images. We had three or more rotating banners, which tripled up our homepage loading time. If we wanted to take the full-screen route, I suggested that we only load one banner at a time, which is what I am seeing on these sites. They are moving away from the slider. I proposed that we load a different banner each time someone visits our homepage.

To perform a random load, I searched up MODX and I could not find anything simple like a PHP random function. Then I came across the &sortby=`RAND()` parameter from the getResources extra. Here’s the code for that:

[[!getResources? &parents=`12345`  &tpl=`RandomHomepageBanner` &limit=`1` &showHidden=`0`    &includeTVs=`1` &tvPrefix=``  &sortby=`RAND()`]]

I showed the mockup and it was approved. I implemented it on our homepage. Somehow a full-screen banner made our site more “modern.”

Here are my concerns about embedding Twitter:

1. Because we embed Twitter into our homepage, we carry an extra load, which slows down our homepage performance.
2. Twitter design doesn’t blend well with our design. We don’t have any control of how it looks. The typefaces and colors are different. Twitter’s blue doesn’t go with our brand colors. Although we both use sans serif typefaces, our sans has a friendly, humanist quality to it. Twitter’s sans is geometric and corporate.
3. Privacy worries me the most. By embedding Twitter on our site, we give Twitter permission to track our users.

Here’s Twitter’s policy on privacy:

When you view Twitter content such as embedded Tweets, buttons, or timelines integrated into other websites using Twitter for Websites, Twitter may receive information, including the web page you visited, your IP address, browser type, operating system, and cookie information.

Instead of embedding Twitter, why don’t we do it like the podcasts? We list all of the Twitter accounts, including the centers so they can also get exposure on our homepage. Here’s the implementation.

The new web content specialist has been working with me for two months and she asked me for feedback. I couldn’t be happier. She hit the ground running and learned all the responsibilities. She is reliable, detail oriented, and independent. In addition to making updates according to requests, she spots issues including broken links, spelling errors, and outdated markups.

The truth was that I wanted to hire her after the round of interviews. She was highly recommended by a friend of mine. I had to go with the committee to hire someone else even though I predicted that she wouldn’t stay for too long. She left after nine months. Before she left, she trained her successor.

The current web content specialist had been out of the workforce in a while to raise her kids. As her kids grow older, she wants to get back to work for a bit. This position fits her schedule because I offered her flexibility. My management style is easygoing. She is working 100% remotely and we are working well together. My colleagues, including my new boss, have complimented her on her work as well. I hope she will stay for a while. I really appreciate what she has contributed to our team.

Koh Ewe, writing for Vice:

Hieu grew up in Cam Ranh, a city in south Vietnam, where his parents owned a small electronics store. He got his first computer when he was 13, and by age 14, the curious teen was already dipping his toe into the world of hacking, inspired by a man he had befriended at a local internet cafe.

Merriam-Webster defines bánh mì:

a usually spicy sandwich in Vietnamese cuisine consisting of a split baguette filled typically with meat (such as pork or chicken) and pickled vegetables (such as carrot and daikon) and garnished with cilantro and often cucumbers

Wang’s memoir, in which she takes readers through her immigrant struggles, reminds me of my own childhood. I shared similar experiences as someone who didn’t speak a word of English and lived in an cockroach-infested apartment. Her family faced more challenges than our because they were undocumented. We were chained migrations. Although Wang’s writing is moving, I find the content a bit too long. For almost 300 pages, Wang only covered up to her middle school years. She skipped her entire life in Canada where her family had to moved to because they were still illegal in America. It’s still a good read.

I took my 2011 Toyota Sienna to Ourisman Fairfax Toyota to get an oil change. We’re clocking in 160,000 miles. The service staff who checked me in asked if I needed anything else besides an oil change. I figure I should get a new rear wiper blade. Obviously I had to pay for the part, but he also charged me for the installation. I told him to cancel the service. I just wanted to pay for the part ($18).

The trick to replace the rear wiper was to turn it on. When the blade wiped half way through, turned of the engine. From there, I just popped off the old wiper and replaced the new one. A YouTube video shows how to that in 1 minute and 7 seconds. Ourisman Fairfax Toyota was going to charge me for this, how greedy?

Our three-year-old Vương has two cavity spots on his upper front tooth. His dentist recommended silver diamine fluoride (SDF) treatment to keep his tooth from decaying too quickly. We had an appointment for today. His dentist rubbed the SDF liquid on his tooth. The entire treatment took less than 5 minutes. They charged us $150. My jaw dropped. What a lucrative business.

In his forth Netflix special, Jo Koy steps up his game with his energy and charisma. His materials include the CPAP machine, his mama’s pussy, and his road to success as a Filipino-American comic. He faced the challenges as well as systemic racism, but he determined to march forward. He kicked the door open so all Filipino-Americans can come through. I am glad to see him making it and he deserves the recognition. Despite the sexual content, his performance was enjoyable and his delivery felt honest.

I have not contracted Covid yet. Does that make me a super-dodger? No, I have been more like super lucky. Our family members, including my mother-in-law, have been shielded from Covid. I believe my mother who died of Covid is protecting us from Covid. I was by her side when she fought and lost her battle with Covid and I didn’t get it from her.

A couple of weeks ago, we came real close to catching it. When my six-year-old son tested positive, I thought we were all doomed. I slept right next to him the night before; therefore, I was positive that I had been infected. I went to the skatepark to rollerblade before my symptoms showing up. I rollerbladed hard and sweat like I was taking a shower. I stepped up the highest ramp and pray to my mother. I asked her to protect us and she did. Later on that evening, we tested our six-year-old again and he was negative, twice.

None of our family member showed any symptoms and we all tested negative despite being exposed so closed to people with Covid. We are definitely not super-dodgers. We are super lucky because we (my kids and I) have put down our guards, but we haven’t caught it. It has to be the invisible power from my mother that protects us. Still, I am keeping my mask on and keeping social distances. I am going to get the boosters and all. Covid is here to stay and we’ll catch it eventually.