I convinced the entire family to wake up early to experience the groomed terrain. We left the rental house around 7:40 am. Since AJ’s Ski & Sports opened at 8:00 am, I decided to come by to pick up a snowboard and boots for Xuân. He outgrew his Burton board and boots. My wife and I had been searching online for a while, but we didn’t make the decision until today.

Xuân is getting pretty comfortable with snowboarding and preferring to ride more than ski. He is also growing rapidly. His boots went from size 2 to 5. His old board, which is 110 cm long, stood up to his chest. I decided to give him 140 cm, which is as tall as him. I didn’t worry that he wouldn’t be able to ride a 140-cm board because I am riding a 154 cm, which is as tall as I am.

We got him a pair of Burton Smalls BOA 2025 for $150 and Jones Youth Prodigy snowboard 2025 for $220. I warned him that a 140-cm board was going to be fast, but he adjusted to it quickly. He loved it and wanted to spend more time on it than his skis. I love it when my kids take advantage of what we got him.

The weather was warm today, but we still enjoyed it. I snowboarded all day. I am leaning more toward snowboarding myself. I could maneuver my way around the moguls with quick turns. I love weighed and un-weighed myself to get my board around. I am having much better control of my board when riding the double-blacks. I want to do more snowboarding tomorrow.

We are expecting to get another snow day. Can’t wait.

I am so happy that we are spending spring break skiing and snowboarding at Stowe. Yesterday we spent 12 hours on the road.

This morning, Đạo and I woke up early and made it to 8:00 am opening time. The condition was phenomenal. We both skied togther from blue to black to double black terrains.

At 9:00 am, we headed back to the rental house to pick up my wife and the rest of the boys. We didn’t come back to Stowe until 10:30 am. The temperature rose and the snow turned slushy.

I took my wife to the blue terrain and cut over to the green trail. She did well. Xuân wanted to switch to snowboard and I switched with him.

He, Vương, and I went down the moguls. I made quick turns and really enjoyed the method. I went back for two more runs.

Today, I enjoyed snowboarding a bit more than skiing. I just love being back on the snow. Can’t wait for tomorrow.

As Trump is turning America into autocracy, we need to fight back in nonviolent opposition. Long-lasting peaceful protests will build momentum over time. As different sectors of society withdraw their support from Trump’s corrupt regime, he will fall.

To challenge the Trump authoritarian regime, we do not take immoral and illegal actions. Community is a powerful tool of resilience. Taking part in organized defiance, but also putting up personal defenses. Clean up your digital and personal life.

Don’t let your personal scandals undermine your credibility and weaken the movements. Separate work from personal devices. Don’t share information with anyone you don’t trust.

Compliance with the laws is also a key strategy for fighting against autocracy. This is a test to see if America still has laws and orders. Democracy dies when Trump has absolute power.

With 20 years of experience and having designed hundreds of books, Debbie Berne covers every detail that goes into designing a completely book from start to finish. The primary focus is print. She dedicates one chapter on e-books, but nothing on web books.

On “Using Fonts Together,” Berne writes:

It’s certainly possible—and in type scholarship often considered admirable—to set an entire book in a single typeface. More commonly, I want two or three fonts for all the different situations inside a book. Usually, I will choose a serifed text type for the body text and a sans serif as a contrast for chapter titles and headings. Sometimes the diversity of text will make the addition of a third font appropriate- for sidebars or other distinctive passages, as display type in part or chapter openers, or for small areas of emphasis or little areas of flair. This is (usually) enough. Font choice isn’t the only way to differentiate kinds of text, and designers push type to show its many faces by using it bold or in all caps or larger or, when possible, in color. Keeping a font palette limited makes a big project feel unified and intentional.

This passage made me curious how many typefaces I used in Vietnamese Typography. It turns out 100 typefaces are being used for the book site. Oops! I broke the rule.

Nevertheless, this is a comprehensive, informative guide on designing a book that everyone who’s involved in publishing a book should read.

Từ ngày hai đứa quen nhau đến vài năm gần đây, hai vợ chồng chỉ quây quần bên gia đình nhỏ. Thỉnh thoảng tôi có ông bạn thân từ Canada qua chơi. Còn vợ thì chỉ ở nhà với con cái. Nhiều lần hai vợ chồng tâm sự với nhau: “Chắc hai đứa mình chẳng bao giờ quen biết bạn bè”.

Từ lúc cho tụi nhỏ gia nhập vào Liên đoàn hướng đạo Hùng Vương, tôi cũng quen được một số anh em cùng sở thích: ăn nhậu và nói xàm. Vài tuần hoặc vài tháng anh em tụ họp ngày cuối tuần làm vài chai whiskey và tầm xàm cho cuộc đời nó đỡ chán. Những lần đi ra ngoài mà vợ ở nhà trông con, lương tâm tôi cũng bị dằn vặt. Tôi hứa nếu vợ có dịp đi chơi cùng bạn bè, tôi sẽ trông đám con.

Thời gian gần đây vợ kết nối lại với bạn học xưa. Cũng may là có hai cô bạn khá thân thương ở gần. Mấy ngày vừa qua, những người bạn cùng trang cùng lứa tụ họp với nhau tung hoành vùng DMV. Cuối cùng tôi cũng thực hiện được lời hứa. Khi vợ vắng nhà, tôi chăm sóc đám con. Tuy nhiên, ham vui nên tôi cũng nhập vào ăn ké vào những buổi chiều. Có người nấu món cháo lòng quá chất lượng.

Mười mấy năm qua, hai vợ chồng bận bịu chăm lo con cái. Giờ đây thỉnh thoảng cũng phải dành thời gian riêng để chăm sóc bản thân. Nhất là cuộc sống hiện nay lúc nào cũng dồn dập và áp lực rất dễ bị lôi vào tình trạng trầm cảm. Có bạn bè tâm sự đôi lời hay than phiền về chồng con cũng thoải mái và nhẹ nhàng hơn. Thấy được vợ mở rộng ra hơn, tôi cũng vui và hạnh phúc. Cảm ơn những người bạn dễ thương của vợ.

Democrats in the Senate must kill the bill that aims at dismantling the checks and balances. The federal judges are our only lifeline left to defend our democracy. They have been hard at work to block the Trump administration from executing their reckless and lawless executive orders. They are protecting American citizens as well as American constitution. Without these federal judges doing their jobs, we will became an authoritarian country. Democrats and Republicans with conscience, you must vote against this outrageous and dangerous bill. Let’s not overstep the Judicial branch.

In the past 48 hours, Trump has demonstrated what an absolute idiot with absolute power looks like. This is the reason we need the division of powers between legislative, executive, and judiciary. When one man has all the power, he fails miserably as Trump has embarrassed himself on the world stage. We need checks and balances. We need to bring back democracy.

Our country is run by someone who had filed for bankruptcy six times. Yes, six times. You have to be a fucking idiot to believe that Trump was a good businessman. I know I am offending lots of his supporters. So what. It is what it is. China is whipping his ass on tariffs. If we don’t stop him now, he will bankrupt America.

Oops! I missed the anniversary of this blog two days ago. When I registered Visualgui.com on April 8, 2003, I didn’t anticipate that it would last this long. As of today, I have written 9,845 posts. It has been an incredibly long journey of writing down my thoughts almost everyday for 22 years.

The motivation to start blogging and to keep me going all these years is simple: to improve my writing. I am not great at anything, but I can improve at anything when I put my mind to it. I don’t need to make outstanding achievements. I just need to make a bit of progress each day. I will never become a professional writer. I just need to write better for myself.

The same way I approach reading. I read a bit a day just to gain some knowledge. The method also applies to skiing and snowboarding. I will never be a professional skier or snowboarder, but I can always improve my skills. Some people take a day or two to learn snowboarding. I took three weeks.

When I set my mind into something, I will put in the work to improve it. It’s true that “Rome doesn’t build in a day.” I will keep writing for as long as I can. Writing has been therapeutic for me. Writing relieves my tension. Writing helps me cope with depression. Writing improves my communications in my profession. Writing brought me my wife and one of my closest friends. On top of all, writing documents my ordinary life.

Wednesday morning, Trump hinted: “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT”

At noon, he backed off his tariff tough talk. Nasdaq soared almost 12%, highest day gain since 2008. S&P 500 increased 9.5% and Dow Jones surged 8%, or about 2,800 points.

Trump manipulated markets and violated insider trading. He must be investigated and impeached. Of course, the Republicans in Congress are too cowardice to take action.

Trump shows his incompetence on the world stage. China is kicking his ass once again. I still can’t believe we have such an idiot as a president.