After spending half a day at the Liberty Mountain Resort on Saturday, we went to our friend’s house to celebrate Vietnamese New Year in Maryland. We didn’t go home until midnight and the kids were exhausted. On Sunday, I let them sleep in and I was tired myself. When they woke up around 9:30 am, I asked if anyone wanted to go skiing. Đạo, Đán, and Xuân wanted to come.

We arrived at Liberty around noon and met up with my brother-in-law and his son. To my surprise, it was not too crowded. I took my kids and my nephew to the blue and black slopes. Another surprise was that all the slopes had moguls. I was worried that Xuân and Hân (my nephew) couldn’t make it, but they did just fine on the blue slopes. Đạo, Đán, and I went down the double blacks and met up with Xuân and Hân at the bottom where blacks and blues merged. Even with moguls, I managed to navigate my way down the double blacks with no problem. We were done around 4:30 pm.

We love skiing and we’ll miss it when the season comes to an end; therefore, we try to go as much as we can. The Epic pass and having our own equipment saved us time and money. We’ll definitely do it again next year.

Yesterday I did not plan to go skiing because of the heavy rain and warm weather the day before. The weather, however, dropped the night before and the resort was able to make snow. Đạo wanted to go so we went.

Liberty Resort turned out beautiful. The terrains were good. Because we came early in the morning, the lift lines were short. Đạo, Đán, and I hit the blue and double black slopes. I slipped on a double black once, but my skis didn’t pop off. I lifted up my legs above the ground and let myself slide all the way down. To prevent myself from slipping to the point where I faced the mountain and my skis started to go backward, I positioned my body in front of my downhill ski and put some weight on it as well. That seemed to work.

We did some mogul runs, but I only chose the less bumpy paths. On the green slopes I tried carving, but fell and hit my ski when I leaned. I need to start with one leg first.

We skied from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm. It was not crowded and the slopes were well groomed. As we headed up, the rental line was long. We avoided the crowd and four hours were plenty.

Edward Sorel is a satirical cartoonist and an unapologetic leftist. His illustrations appeared on the covers of major publications such as the Esquire, the Atlantic, and the New Yorker. His memoir is both personal and political. His writing is engaging and his works are exceptional. A must-read for designers. I didn’t even know about Mr. Sorel and to my surprise he is 92 years old. He can still write and draw at his age. I have utter respect and admiration for the man. I enjoyed this book throughout and I am glad that I had picked it up to read it.

Với giọng hát khàng và nồng nàng của Hương Giang cùng với tiếng đàn dương cầm nhẹ nhàng và sâu lắng, Hoài Cảm đáng lẽ ra phải là một album thính phòng ấm áp. Nhưng không biết lúc thu âm studio có lạnh lắm không mà Hương Giang run giữ quá. Mỗi lần cô nhã chữ cô run đến rợn cả người. Chẳng hạn như bài mở đầu, “Khúc thụy du” (nhạc Anh Bằng, thơ Du Tử Lê), cô hát, “Hãy nói về cuộc đờờờời / Khi tôi không còn nữữữữa.” Phải chi cô đừng sử dụng vibrato thì nghe đỡ nổi da gà. Đáng lẽ ra nhạc phẩm “Chiều tím” (Lam Phương) với cách hoà âm sang trọng là một bài blues đẹp nét nhưng cách run của cô làm người nghe rất khó chịu. Đáng tiếc thật.

Hai hôm trước đi bác sĩ khám định kỳ. Không biết lấy hẹn làm sao mà đúng vào mùng một Tết. Thôi kệ đi luôn. Quả lại tôi cũng không tin dị đoan gì cả. Tôi nghĩ dạo này chơi thể thao đều đặn nên sức khỏe sẽ tốt. Cân giảm được vài pounds. Blood pressure cũng trung bình.

Hôm qua nhận được kết quả thử máu. Cholesterol và glucose đều tăng. Bác sĩ khuyên tập thể dục thêm nữa để giảm cân nhưng không đề cập đến vấn đề ăn uống. Nhưng tôi nghĩ phải ăn uống cẩn thận hơn nhất là đồ ngọt. Bớt uống Gatorade và trà bubble. Bớt ăn đồ ngọt và đồ ăn nhiều dầu mỡ.

Còn được vớt vát là chất uric acid giảm xuống mà không cần phải uống thuốc. Tôi vẫn uống wine đều đặn. Thỉnh thoảng vẫn uống bia và rượu nặng. Không ăn thịt bò thường xuyên. Lâu lâu thèm thì ăn một tô phở bò.

Sức khỏe như thế coi như tạm ổn. Sẽ cố gắng thể thao nhiều hơn và kiềm chế cái miệng lại.

Welcome to the second iteration of this blog. Warbler, a new text face David Jonathan Ross has sent out to the Font of the Month Club yesterday for February, has prompted the change.

I have been a member of the club from the beginning and I appreciated all the display fonts, but a text face is rare to come by. Even though Warbler Text is still a work in progress, especially with Vietnamese diacritics, I can’t wait to use it and this blog is a perfect place to experiment. Stephen Nixon once quipped, “I like how @visualgui handles this: he updates the fonts on his blog frequently … like once a month, I think?” Whenever I get new fonts, I tend to update this blog to put them to use.

Although the body text has changed to Warbler, I still keep Forma DJR for display and small texts. I also changed the colors to make it easier on the eyes for reading. In addition, I moved the main column to the middle and the sidebar to the left. Thanks to CSS Grid, swapping columns is so easy.

Since we are celebrating Vietnamese New Year this week, this little update is fitting with the holiday spirit. Wishing those who celebrate Lunar New Year with plenty of love, health, and wealth. Stay strong like tigers.

Hôm nay chợt nhận ra rằng dạo này ít viết tiếng Việt. Thôi thì mấy bài sắp tới sẽ cố gắng viết bù lại bằng tiếng mẹ đẻ của mình. Với những người Việt đến đọc trang blog này, chúc các bạn năm Nhâm Dần mọi sự tốt đẹp với cuộc sống trở lại bình thường.

Đây là xuân thứ hai vắng cha vắng mẹ và xuân tha hương thứ ba mươi mấy rồi. Xuân mỗi năm mỗi xa hơn nhưng không nhạt phai. Mặc dù chỉ còn lại trong ký ức, còn là người Việt Nam thì vẫn còn xuân. Cho dù con tôi sinh ra và lớn lên trên đất Mỹ, nó vẫn gốc Việt nên nó cũng phải biết đến xuân. Chữ xuân thật đẹp nên tôi đã đặt tên cho thằng con trai là Xuân.

Mỗi lần xuân về tôi lại nhớ mẹ. Không tha thiết là nhớ nhung những kỷ niệm xưa mà chỉ nhớ đến mẹ. Không tiếc nuối là phải chi còn có mẹ vì sớm muộn gì cũng phải lìa xa mẹ. Nỗi đau không còn có mẹ trên cõi đời này cũng từ từ xoa dịu đi. Cái chết không ai tránh khỏi nên đành phải chấp nhận. Tuy nhiên tôi vẫn nhớ mãi con người của mẹ, tiếng cười và tiếng nói của mẹ, và tính tình có một không hai của mẹ.

Mấy năm gần đây cuộc sống của tôi có rất nhiều điều thay đổi. Tôi phải làm quen với sự mất mát trong cuộc sống. Tôi mất người thân thương bởi covid hoặc ung thư. Tôi mất đi tình bạn bè và tình thân thiết bởi chính trị. Tôi mất đi lòng người bởi những gì tôi đã viết hoặc đã nói. Những mất mát này không may xảy ra nhưng tôi đã chấp nhận. Thế giới của tôi càng lúc càng thu bé lại. Chỉ còn lại vợ con và những người thân trong gia đình. Càng lớn tôi càng khó tìm được bạn bè cho dù rất muốn. Thôi thì cũng đành phải chấp nhận cuộc sống riêng tư của mình. Dần dà rồi cũng quen thôi.

Last Saturday, I went over to a Scout’s parent house to drink for the first time in more than two years. We touched on the controversial topic that had been shaking and dividing our pack. I was told not to waste my time responding to a parent who just wanted to draw attention to himself. At first, I intended to stay quiet like most parents in our pack, but I could not let that man spread right-wing misinformation to other parents. He was making false claims about masking and vaccinations; therefore, I had to speak up. I enjoyed writing and poking fun anyway; therefore, I didn’t think it was a waste of my time.

As much as I hate political discussion, I find it entertaining for drinking and bullshitting. I have figured out that as long as I don’t identify myself as a Democrat or a Republican, I can say whatever I want and I can flip flop my positions just to rouse up the people. I want free healthcare as well as free tax. Why not? When I didn’t have any kid, I supported abortion. In addition, girls who aborted liked to have sex. Now that I have kids, I don’t support abortion so that parents can go through the misery of raising kids too. When I was single, I didn’t support prostitution. Now that I am happily married, I supported prostitution just in case my wife pulls the plug on me and I would need somewhere to plug it in. These are my drunken talking points so that I can still have fun without having to defend my positions.

In reality, I had always voted for Democrats because they seemed to care about society whereas the Republicans seemed to care about themselves and their own party. No matter how hippocratic or ridiculous they would come across in public, Republicans always put their own party first. Trump berated Ted Cruz’s father and called his wife ugly. What did Lil’ Ted do? Not a goddamn thing. What a bitch-ass pussy. Democrats, on the other hand, are so divided that they can’t get shit done. I am so frustrated with the Democrats, but I can’t see myself casting my vote for the self-serving Republicans. For now, I just stay independent and view politics as a form of entertainment, nothing more.

On Saturday, I took Đạo, Đán, and Xuân to Liberty Resort. We arrived around 8:30 am, 30 minutes after the lifts began to operate, and the weather was beautiful. We hit a few runs before the crowd was pouring in. Xuân went on blue terrains as well as a black terrain. Đạo, Đán, and I hit two double black terrains. On one of them, I skidded into an icy area. My turn was a bit deep and I started skiing backward. My skis popped off and I slid all the way down. There was no way I could walk back up to retrieve my skis. Fortunately, another skier saw my skis on his way down and picked them up for me. Skiers and snowboarders often helped out when other skiers popped off their skis.

Around noon, the lifts started to pack. We left around one in the afternoon. Around 3:30 pm, I went over to a Scout leader’s house to grab a drink to celebrate Vietnamese New Year. We drank beer and Scotch and ate plenty of food. By 9:30 pm, I was already buzzing and thinking that the combination would give me a hangover and I couldn’t go skiing the next morning.

I woke up at 6:00 am on Sunday and felt fine. I was just a bit tired from drinking. I woke Đạo and Đán up to join me, but only Đạo wanted to go. Just the two of us hit Whitetail. We arrived around 9:30 am, 30 minutes after the opening time, and the parking lot was already filled up. In addition, there were buses arriving. We hit the blue and black slopes then hit the double black twice. We did six runs and went back home. The lines were simply too long and I wanted Đạo to rest before school on Monday.

Whitetail is definitely not a place to ski on the weekends. It is just too damn crowded, especially the lift for the green slopes. The lift for the black and double black slopes was faster, which made sense because not too many people could ski or snowboard on these terrains.

It was a great weekend. I am trying to ski as much as I can before the season is over. I am getting a ton of workout, I think.

I read the entire novel and still hadn’t understood the plot, but then the plot doesn’t matter. This is the kind of book that you just read a bit at a time. If you know the reference, you will enjoy it. If you don’t know then you just have to keep reading. Lockwood is a brilliant writer and any part of this book can be quoted. Here’s one:

The first boy who had ever called her a bitch was now in jail for possession of child pornography, and this felt like a metaphor for the modern discourse. But the modern discourse, too, was his mother moaning after a single glass of red wine, “I know that he’ll have to go to hell, but still he’s my son” and “What did we do? What did we do? What did we do! What did we do!”