I woke up early today and headed over to Attitash to catch the 8:30 am opening. I got on the second chair. I snowboarded two runs on the green and one on the black trails. I tried carving. My heel line was looking good, but my toe line still needed work.

I went back to the rental house and we didn’t get out of the house around 10:15 am. I went to Wildcat Mountain. The crowd was less than I had expected. Wildcat brought back many memories. Four years ago when we first learned skiing, I couldn’t pizza down the blue terrain. I had to call the ski patrol to take me down on a toboggan. Đạo, Đán, and Xuân did the same. Now we all conquered the blue terrains.

I skied with Vương and wanted to use the poles. I went to the rental shop. The price to rent the poles was $12 for the whole day. I showed them my employee ID and they loaned me the poles. It was another fantastic employee connection.

The kids and I enjoyed the advanced terrains at Wildcat, but my wife and her sister couldn’t do much here. We’ll stay in Attitash tomorrow, but it will be raining all day tomorrow. We might just stay at the rental house to relax and recharge.

I woke up early this morning with some sadness. Four years ago today, my mother passed. I wrote her a letter in Vietnamese.

Around 7:45 am, I headed over to Attitash. As I was getting ready in the parking lot, I realized that I forgot my helmet. I didn’t want to turn back so I went to the rental shop. I told the man at the podium that I am an employee and I forgot my helmet. He loaned me one without any charge. He told me, “We take care of our employees.” Another benefit of being an employee at Vail Resorts.

I snowboarded on the big green trail practice carving. I was loving it. I took three runs and headed back around 9:30 am. The rest of the family was not done packing. We didn’t leave until 11:00 am.

The lift lines were long, but they moved fast. I skied with the younger kids. We did three runs and it was time for lunch. After lunch I went to the blue trails at the big kids. I had to keep up with them. They skied fast.

Another fanatic day in the book. I love skiing and snowboarding.

Thưa Mẹ,

Thế là Mẹ con mình bốn năm xa cách. Thời gian rồi cũng xoa dịu nỗi đau trong con. Con phải chấp nhận đời người có sống và có chết. Rồi một ngày con cũng phải ra đi. Tuy nhiên, một điều không thể nào thay đổi là Mẹ vẫn mãi trong con. Không giây phút nào con không nhớ về Mẹ.

Dù hạnh phúc, dù đau buồn, dù gặp may, dù gặp nạn, con vẫn luôn hướng về Mẹ. Những lần trượt tuyết trên đỉnh núi cao, con dừng chân ngồi một mình giữa bầu trời yên lặng, và cảm nhận được Mẹ đang từ trên thiên đàng nhắc nhở con luôn phải cẩn thận. Con vẫn cười và trả lời, “Dạ con biết rồi.”

Mẹ đừng lo lắng cho con nhé. Con đã trưởng thành và còn có trách nhiệm với đàn con. Con hứa sẽ sống hết mình trên cõi tạm này. Dù thành công hay thất bại, con sẽ không để mình gục ngã. Trong gia đình hay ngoài bạn bè, ai thương mến con thì con cảm ơn. Ai ghét con thì con cũng đành chịu, cho dù là người thân thiết. Con không lo lắng gì cả. Cho dù cả thế giới ghét con, con biết Mẹ vẫn thương yêu con, như lời nhạc sĩ Phú Quang viết:

Mẹ là người đầu tiên
Người đàn bà mãi mãi
Không bao giò phản bội
Ngay cả khi con ngu dại một đời.

Con trai cưng của Mẹ,
Doanh

Last night, I had a Long Island Iced Tea with Thai food. Lacking of sleep the night before with a long day skiing and a bit of alcohol, I got knocked out. It was a good sleep.

I woke up early this morning, wrote up a blog post, and waited for the rest, including my wife’s sister’s family. It was almost 10 am and not too many of them were up yet. I decided to go for a few runs since Attitash is about 5 minutes from our rental house.

The lines were already long when I arrived. I took the green slope trying to carve on my snowboard. I wanted to see if I could go low where I could touch the snow. I did one turn at a time. I was getting a hang of it. I wanted to practice more runs, but the lines were too long.

I hopped on a different lift, which had no line. It turned out that the blue trail was quite icy. I fell several times. By the time I got down, it was time to go back to pick up the family.

The line got longer. I went with Xuân and his cousins for two runs. They got tired of waiting in line so we went in for a late lunch. We took an hour and 40 minutes lunch. By the time we were done, the lifts were closed.

It was time to go home. I’ll head out before 8 am by myself early tomorrow for a few runs.

I read 62 books this year, which is 30 less than last year.

In 2023, I read mostly poetry books. This year, I went back to fiction, nonfiction, and a few design and technical. I should be reading more web design and development books. I also read Vietnamese fiction. I have over 30 Vietnamese books on my iPhone; therefore, I can alternate between English and Vietnamese.

I read some books on buddhism, which I liked. I want to read more on life, death, compassion, kindness, and all the buddha teachings. I also want to read music books again, especially on jazz and hip-hop. I am in the middle of reading a book on Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Bill Evans.

With the skiing and snowboarding activities, reading has not been my top priority. I definitely pick up reading again after the holidays and ski season.

Check out my reading record.

At 11:00 pm on Wednesday, we hit the road from Virginia to New Hampshire. The kids were sleeping. My wife and I took turns driving. We arrived at Attitash around 9:30 am. I was expecting to take 12 to 14 hours, but we made it in 10.5 hours.

We had brunch then hit the trails. I skied with Vương and my wife on the green trails at Attitash Peak while Đạo, Đán, and Xuân went to Bear Peak. We had a late lunch. I joined the older boys on Bear Peak. Unfortunately, the lift stopped working. We waited 20 minutes and had to take the shuttle back to Attitash base.

Needless to say, I am exhausted and sleepy. I am going to need a nice sleep to recharge. We’ll be skiing and riding at Attitash and Wildcat for a week.

Snowboard Technical Fundamentals

1. Control the relationship of the Center of Mass (COM) to the Base of Support (BOS) to direct pressure along the length of the board
2. Control the relationship of the COM to the BOS to direct pressure across the width of the board
3. Regulate the magnitude of pressure created through board/surface interaction
4. Control the board’s tilt through a combination of inclination and angulation
5. Control the board’s pivot through flexion/extension and rotation of the upper body
6. Control the twist (torsional flex) of the board through flexion/extension and rotation

Teaching Skills Fundamentals

1. Collaborate on long term goals and short-term objectives
2. Manage information, activities, terrain selection, and pacing
3. Promote play, experimentation, and exploration
4. Facilitate the learner’s ability to reflect upon experiences and sensations
5. Adapt to the changing needs of the learner
6. Manage emotional and physical risk

People Skills Fundamentals

1. Develop relationships based on trust
2. Engage in meaningful, two-way communication
3. Identify, understand and manage your emotions and actions
4. Recognize and influence the behaviors, motivations and emotions of others

Vũ Nguyễn writes:

Please remove what you wrote about nhạc sến being cheesy. Obviously you don’t truly enjoy it. If you want cheesy then take a look in the mirror.

To be honest, I can’t remember what I had written about Nhạc Sến. This is the only post that I could find about Nhạc Sến and “cheesy.” Reading it again, I did not knock on Nhạc Sến. Anyway, I am not going to remove what I had written.

First Time Snowboarders

Level 1: “I’ve never snowboarded.” –Green Zone Snowboarder

Level 2: “I have experienced sliding, traversing both directions, and stopping.” –Easiest green terrain

Level 3: “I can control my speed while moving across the hill, and can stop with confidence. I am starting to turn in both directions.” -Green terrain

Level 4: “I can link skidded turns on green terrain.” –All green terrain

Blue Zone Snowboarders

Level 5: “I am confident and can connect different turn sizes and shapes on all green terrain. I make more or less the same size and shape turn on easy blue terrain.” –All green terrain and easiest blue terrain

Level 6: “I am doing most blue terrain by connecting various turn sizes and shapes. I am also exploring switch riding, easy bumps, and/or freestyle.” –All blue terrain

Level 7: “I am able to ride all blue terrain in varied conditions and working on easy black terrain, including bumps, trees, and terrain parks.” –All blue terrain and groomed black terrain

Black/Expert Zone Snowboarders

Level 8: “I am confident performing dynamic turns on varied terrain and snow conditions, including trees, steeps and powder.” -All black and easy double blacks terrain

Level 9: “I am confident riding the entire mountain. I am working on a variety of tactics and techniques that will take me to the next level.” –Entire mountain, all conditions

For my third shadow, I observed an instructor teaching 7 to 9 year-old kids to snowboard. He went off the curriculum. It was tough teaching kids. They caught an edge and fell over and over again. By the end of the lesson, they couldn’t do a J turn.

In the afternoon, I decided to take the test to get it done and over with before I take a week off for vacation. I bombed the test because I changed the order of the curriculum and added a few things. I have to do another shadow with my supervisor before I could take a retest.