Replaced four brand new Michelin Primacy Tour A/S Tires for our 2018 Toyota Sienna SE at 40,000 miles. The tires were purchased from Costco for $970. Then performed wheel alignment at Ourisman Fairfax Toyota for $140. Another day, another grant spent.

Total cost: $1,110.

In this painstakingly beautiful novel, Elinor, half-white-half-Asian model-turned-writer, returns to her hometown, North Dakota, to cover the oil boom for a magazine article her professor who she had an affair with passed on to her. She set out to interview the workers in the small town and unearthed deep layers of classism, racism, and sexism. Yun’s writing is engaging, compelling, and devastating. She taps into the unmistakable American story—a heartbreaking, breathtaking read.

I was frustrated with my regression in learning figure skates. In the past few weeks, I could not even begin to attempt the toe loop jump. Even yesterday, my right inside 3-turn was so bad that I could not gain enough speed to initiate the jump. I was about to give up the whole sport. Figure skating isn’t for me anymore. My kids already quit. It must be time for me to throw in the towel as well. I told my wife I was done. She didn’t have any reaction. She knew too damn well that I was just venting out of frustration.

After skiing season over, I was a bit depressed because I need to be constantly learning or progressing. Before taking up skating and skiing sports, web design was my professional as well as personal development. I used to sit in front of the computer as much time as I could have to myself. These days I haven’t kept up with the latest technologies. I just picked up whatever skills I needed to do my job and to continue my passion projects. I rather spent time with my family when I was not working.

My kids and I used to go ice skating rinks and skateparks together. These days they only like going to mountain resorts for skiing, but spring is here and the snow is gone. Now is the perfect time to get back to rollerblading and ice skating, but my kids have moved on. I knew the time would come when they started to have their own interests. I am still glad that we had spent a chunk of time together learning these sports. I will always treasure those moments, including all the ski trips we had taken this year.

Even though I no longer have my kids to motivate me, I am still holding on to ice skating and rollerblading to keep myself active. If I don’t do these sports, I would become a lazy-ass old fart. Today I hit the ice rink again to give the toe loop jump another shot. Instead of using the right inside 3-turn to initiate the jump, I switched to the backward crossovers to give me more speed. That was all I needed to complete my toe loop jump. I still needed more practice to refine my jump, but I am thrilled to be able to get myself inspired again.

Cách đây hai tháng, tôi đọc quyển sách Vietnamese Stories for Language Learners gồm những truyện dân gian được ông Trần C. Trí và cô Lê Trâm dịch sang tiếng Anh. Ở những trang cuối của sánh có phần mục lục những câu thành ngữ tiếng Việt. Tuy không đồng ý với một số câu chuyển ngữ của dịch giả, tôi vẫn lấy làm thú vị nên thiết kế một trang mẫu để đưa vào quyển sách Vietnamese Typography của tôi. Mời cả nhà xem thử trang “Vietnamese Idiomatic Expressions” tôi vừa thiết kế xong.

Calling it theatrical all you want, but I am continuing to mask up in public. I encourage my kids to do the same, but I don’t force them. Fortunately, they still want to mask up on their own. Đán wears his mask almost everywhere, indoor or outdoor. Đạo and Xuân only wear a mask in class and anywhere they feel necessary. In fact, Đạo has been the only ice hockey player who still wears a mask on ice. As long as he’s comfortable with it, I am fine with it. I wear one on the bench as well. Vương wears a mask when he sees all of us masking up, but he also takes it off whenever he feels like it. We’re cool with it.

It is such a damn shame that wearing a mask has been politicized and become such a divisive issue. Has masking worked? Maybe we’re lucky thus far, but our family has not contracted Covid and masking might have played a huge role in that. I spent weeks with Covid victims and stayed in the same room for hours with my mother when she had Covid. Masking had saved me from contracting the virus.

As masking has relaxed and most people have dropped their mask, we do not want to let my guard down. Covid is here to stay and we have to live with it. I don’t even know how long we can go before we get infected, but we do the best we can. We continue to mask up in public places.

I understand the hypocrisy of masking up and then taking it off when eating, but I am cool with it. Not everything has to be yin or yang all the time. On his show, Bill Maher keeps repeating his irritation about outdoor masking. People wear masks outdoors not just solely for Covid reasons. They may want to prevent dust and pollution. Nothing wrong with wearing a mask outside. He doesn’t want to wear it, that’s fucking fine. People want to wear it, let them be. Just fuck off.

Let’s keep it real. Ye has issues. No, scratch that. Ye has some serious fucking problems. Over the years, his abnormal behavior has become more erratic as his music has become more expressive. It gets to the point where his life and his art are inseparable.

As a fan of his music, I tried to focus only on his work. I didn’t care that he said, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” It didn’t bother me that he hijacked Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech. His support for the Trump presidency, however, was the last straw for me. I was disappointed. I didn’t want to hear his music ever again like I wouldn’t listen to R Kelly (sex predator) or Nguyên Khang (another dumbass Trump supporter). For a while, I stopped listening to Ye’s albums altogether.

These days, I gave in and went back to his catalog. I completely tuned out of his relationship dramas with Kim and Pete. With his breakout debut, The College Dropout, Ye proved to be a conscious rapper with bangers such as “All Falls Down,” “Spaceship,” “Jesus Walks,” and “Never Let Me Down.” I always get a kick out of “The New Workout Plan.” The testimonials are hilarious as hell, especially Ella-May from Mobile, Alabama who had been able to date outside of the family after listening to Kanye’s workout tape.

His sophomore Late Registration follows up with so many gems. The soprano sax in “Drive Slow” is so damn intoxicating. Etta James’s voice is so addictive in “Addiction.” JAY-Z steals the show in “Diamonds From Sierra Leone,” with the line, “I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man.”

With Graduation, Ye tightened up the album experience by leaving out skits. Right from “Good Morning (Intro),” “Champion,” “Stronger,” “I Wonder,” to “Good Life” are all solid tracks. In “Can’t Tell Me Nothing,” Ye reveals, “I feel the pressure, under more scrutiny / And what I do? Act more stupidly.” “Big Brother” is such a beautiful tribute to JAY-Z.

808s & Heartbreak is such a unique album. He can hide his voice behind AutoTunes, but he cannot hide his soul. “Coldest Winter,” a tribute to his mother, is just soul-crushing. I love the entire album, except for the live recording, “Pinocchio Story,” which felt out of place.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy starts strong right out of the gate. From “Dark Fantasy,” “Gorgeous,” “All of the Lights” (I love the interlude), to “Monster,” there’s so much beauty in darkness.

Yeezus is ten solid tracks from beginning to end and they are hard as fuck. “I’m In It,” in particular, is not even quotable. If there’s any doubt that Ye is not a lyricist, this alum is a testament that Ye is a lyrical genius.

Watch the Throne, Ye matches JAY pound for pound on the lyrical front. I hope that they will follow up the second album in the future.

Let’s face it. Ya is a flawed human and a music genius. Once I separate the artist from the asshole, I can enjoy his work.

Ski season is officially over. Liberty, Roundtop, and Whitetail had closed this weekend. I am feeling nostalgic already. Skiing has been so much fun, especially spending time with my boys, but it is time to put our gears away. What will keep me active in the spring and summer?

I want to get back to figure skating. My skills are getting rusty. I am still stuck on salchow and toe loop jumps. I need to nail these jumps to move forward. I don’t have too much confidence and passion like I used to; therefore, I don’t know how further I can go. Then again, I am not competing with anyone but myself.

I am still rollerblading at skateparks. I am not advancing much. I am still working on my pumps and riding the half pipe. I have gained confidence in my drops. I fell once yesterday from dropping down a high curved ramp. I felt fine until I went to sleep. My right shoulder was in pain. My body shows its age. I am starting to feel as if aggressive skating isn’t for old men like me. My kids no longer have any passion or interest in rollerblading; therefore, I feel lonely skating on my own. I still do it. I don’t want to give up yet.

Besides these sports, I should be focusing more on housework. Over the years, we have accumulated much more stuff than we need. The more I push off, the more overwhelming I get. I need to spend more time getting rid of things we don’t need. Tidying up the house has been a challenge with four kids. They leave toys everywhere.

As much as I despise home maintenance, I have to do as much as I can on my own. Not that I can’t afford to hire handymen, but I just can’t justify paying for everything around the house that needed fixing. Truth be told, maintaining our house is one of my sources of stress. Then again, what can I do? I am just going to face whatever hits us.

Đã lâu rồi tôi không viết về mẹ. Không có nghĩa là tôi đã quên hẳn mẹ. Trái lại tôi vẫn nhớ đến mẹ rất nhiều. Thời gian trôi qua giúp tôi nhận thức được tình mẹ con không chỉ tồn tại trên trần gian. Dù cho âm dương cách biệt, mẹ vẫn mãi mãi bên tôi.

Lúc mẹ được thoát khỏi những đau đớn và đau khổ của cõi tạm này, lòng tôi luôn xót xa mỗi khi nhớ đến mẹ. Ăn món ăn mẹ đã từng nấu hoặc nghe một nhạc phẩm mẹ từng hát ru tôi ngủ, tôi không thể nào không ngậm ngùi. Ước gì mẹ vẫn còn đây. Ước gì mẹ không bị Covid cướp đi tính mạng. Ước gì tôi đừng đưa mẹ vào bệnh viện. Ước gì tôi che chở được cho mẹ như mẹ đã từng chở che cho tôi. Có hối hận hay tiếc nuối cũng không làm mẹ sống lại. Con người có sống rồi cũng sẽ chết. Còn sống một ngày là hẹn chết mai sau.

Để vượt qua những tháng ngày khó khăn đầy phiền muộn và chán nản, tôi đã tập trung vào gia đình nhỏ của mình và những môn thể thao khiến cho tâm hồn của tôi không bị sao lãng. Tôi vẫn nghĩ đến mẹ thường xuyên, nhưng ngược lại những nỗi buồn đã trở thành những niềm vui. Những đứa cháu nội của mẹ đã giúp tôi không còn buồn bã nữa mỗi khi nhắc đến bà. Mỗi lần thằng Đán ăn sashimi, nó luôn xin phép bà nội đừng giận. Lúc còn sống bà không muốn cho thằng cháu cưng ăn cá sống. Và tôi cũng thế, mỗi khi làm những chuyện mạo hiểm, như trượt tuyết từ trên núi cao xuống, tôi cũng xin phép mẹ đừng giận con. Mẹ nghe được và thấy được nên vẫn luôn phù hộ cho tôi bình an.

Giờ đây cho dù ở chân trời nào, trên núi cao đầy tuyết hoặc xuống biển mặn, tôi vẫn luôn có mẹ bên cạnh. Nhớ tới mẹ khiến tôi luôn hãnh diện và hạnh phúc đã được làm con của mẹ hết kiếp này. Mẹ đã sinh tôi ra và đã hy sinh cả cuộc đời cho tôi đến ngày mẹ nhắm mắt. Giờ mẹ đã đi rồi nhưng chắc chắn mẹ con mình sẽ đoàn tụ khi con trả hết nợ đời. Không biết tuổi đời tôi còn được bao lâu, nhưng giờ đây vẫn có mẹ trong tim của con.

Tố My không chỉ được nhạc sĩ Phạm Hồng Biển trao cho những tác phẩm của mình mà còn được anh hoà âm cho album Cửu Long tình. Với những nhạc cụ truyền thống, người nhạc sĩ trẻ này đem đến cho người nghe những âm thanh của thôn quê. Từ đầu album đến cuối, giọng hát ngọt ngào của Tố My cùng những tiếng đàn dây tiếng sáo khiến người nhận xét này nhớ đến quê nhà những là vào những ngày tuyết lạnh trên xứ người. “Má thương con hoài” làm tôi không thể không nghẹn ngào:

Má ơi, nuôi con má khổ trăm bề
Từ ngày bầu bì nghén thai
Đến khi lắm bụng quặn đâu không xiết
Từ ngày tập bò biết đi
Đến khi nên người bước chân ra đời.

Thương mẹ Việt Nam quá.

In her latest Netflix Special, Tomlinson shares the loss of her mother when she was eight, the struggle with her mental health, and the challenge of her religious upbringing. Tomlinson definitely has a dark sense of humor because she believes “if you can laugh at the darkest stuff that’s ever happened to you while it’s still actively happening to you, sometimes that’s what help get you through it.” Tomlinson is a fantastic writer. Her materials are thoughtful and her delivery is on the beat. I highly recommend streaming it.