I am unofficially done with Freestyle 3. Since I am learning on my own, the process took much longer than the ten-week group lesson. In addition, I took a break when we went skiing. I learned the backward-outside and backward-inside pivots fast. The back arabesques weren’t much of a challenge. I had the most trouble with the salchow jump. I got it down, but I am still not great at it. I skipped the change foot spin because I do not want to learn any spin. I didn’t learn the dance step sequence because I could not find any tutorial on YouTube. What I enjoyed the most from Freestyle 3 was the toe loop jump.

I am now ready for Freestyle 4. I am going to start with the loop jump. I am not sure the different between the loop and the half-loop jump. Then I’ll work on the flip jump. I am not sure what two arabesques and back 3-turns are. I need to look those up. I am going to skip the sit spin as well as the dance step sequence.

Continuing to learn figure skating allows me to set a goal for myself. Learning on my own is harder, but I don’t feel the pressure to keep with up with my classmates. I used to practice a lot to not embarrass myself. Now I just incorporate it into my exercise routine. At times I felt so frustrated, particularly when I was learning the salchow jump, and wanted to sign up for private lessons just so I can nail the techniques I was working on, but I was a bit shy to work one-on-one with a coach. In addition, I don’t want to pay for private lessons. We’re already spending private piano lessons for two our our kids and other activities including ice hockey and swimming. I’ll see how far I can go learning on my own.

I work Monday and Friday from home and Tuesday to Thursday at the office. On a typical day, I wake up at 7:00 am sharp to start my routine. Around 7:15 am, I wake up Đạo then head down the kitchen to prepare lunch for him and myself. We go out the door by 7:40 am.

On Monday and Friday, I drop Đạo off school then go back home to get Đán and Xuân ready for school. Then I take them to school as well. I then return home again to start my job. I work straight to noon then take Vương out to lunch and the playground during my lunch break. Then we return home. He takes a nap while I continue my work. Around 2:45 pm, I pick Đạo up from school then go back home to do more work until 4:30 pm or 5:00 pm.

On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I drive to work after dropping Đạo off to school. I arrive at the office around 8:30 am. I drop my lunch off the fridge and make myself a cup of latte. I head into my office and work until noon. I heat up my food and head back to my desk. I have a quick lunch and watch some YouTube, mostly on figure skating or rollerblading tutorials. Then I get back to work to 2 pm. If the weather is warm and sunshine, I use my lunch break to go to the skatepark to rollerblade. If the weather is cold or rainy, I go to the ice skating rink. Both places are about five minutes from my office. I skate for an hour then head back into the office until 4:30 pm or 5:00 pm. That one hour of taking a break and getting some exercise has motivated me to come to work. It helps me stay healthy and rejuvenate my mind. I am grateful for that flexibility.

The best part of skating at 2:00 pm is that the skatepark or the ice skating rink is mostly empty. I get plenty of room to practice. Sometimes I skate with home-schooling kids. A while ago I met a mom who took her daughter to the skatepark to skateboard. After talking to her, I learned that her seven-year-old daughter snowboards and she has a big goal for her—like Chloe Kim. This afternoon I met another mom at the skating rink. Her kids had private hockey skating lessons. I asked her a few questions and learned that the private lesson cost $90 an hour. That’s not including ice time. The public session cost $15 per person and I thought it was already expensive. The money we spend on our kids is insane. We are spending the same amount each week for Đán and Xuân to take private piano lessons. Đán seems to be into it. He practices regularly. Xuân doesn’t practice that much. Last summer, I let Đạo and Xuân take private figure skating lessons. Unfortunately, they showed no effort or interest. I ended up dropping the lessons. Now they don’t even want to go ice skating for fun. I am debating whether I should take some private lessons for ice skating, but I don’t want to pay $90 an hour. I am learning to skate on my own because I am a cheapskate.

After reading the introduction, I had a different expectation for the book. I thought Jaffe would delve into how we can find some glimpse of happiness from our job since we spent the majority of our waking hours working. In contrast, Jaffe writes about inequalities, politics, and exploitations that come with work. We still have to work to make a living; therefore, we might as well demand better working conditions. Not what I expected from this book, but an informative and essential read nevertheless.

I removed the blogroll from my homepage since many blogs on my list are inactive. Bloggers don’t write like we used to anymore. I just found out that Ms. Nguyễn has made her blog private. I followed her journal for a long time. She was my only Vietnamese blogger left. She was like my blog confidant. I am going to miss her writing. It is hard to find passionate bloggers to follow nowadays. Of course I could turn to books to read, but I have always loved the raw form of blogging. I appreciate the unfiltered thoughts as well as the immediacy of publishing to the whole world to read.

I still love writing and I have learned that this is the only place that allowed me to write freely. Facebook is not a place to post lengthy journal. No one reads my writing when I cross post my blog on Facebook. As a result, I just post everything on here only. Maybe it is the fact that I don’t know who is reading has allowed me to just write. I don’t care about the likes and the comments. I just dash off a few hundred words off my head and hit publish.

Since I removed the blogroll off my homepage, I am just going to keep it here as an archive. I am not going to curate it. If the blogs go inactive, let them be. I might go back to add more in the future if I find blogs worth reading.

• Adactio
• A Working Library
• Bảohouse
• Colly
• DJR
• Ethan Marcotte
• Frank Chimero
• Hey Georgie
• I Love Ngọc Lan
• Lilgui
• Lil Xuân Shine
• Maggie Appleton
• Matt Mullenweg
• Ms. Nguyễn
• Robin Rendle
• Sơn Phước
• Susan Jean Robertson
• Tinigui
• Winnie Lim

It’s not a secret that I like to drink. I drink to accompany my meals. I don’t like drinking to the point that I have to throw up and get a hangover. I like to drink enough to take my mind off reality, but still have control of my consciousness. The sweet spot for me is to have just enough alcohol to relax, to leave my worries behind, and to not give a dam for a few hours.

How do I know when I reach that state of mind? It is usually after three bottles of beer, two shots of Patrón, or two glasses of gin and tonic. Anymore than those would send me over the regrettable mindset. What do I do when I reach that sweet spot? I like to drive and pump rap music at the maximum volume on my stereo. The recent album I had been enjoying was Ye’s “Yeezus.” “Hold My Liquor” and “I’m In It” got me tripped up every time.

This past winter, I hit the slopes when I reached my sweet spot and I could ski like a fearless motherfucker down the steep slopes. The feeling of letting myself fly down the slopes was just sensational. Of course, I was still able to control my skis to not let myself get into accidents. I also did it on rollerblades. The adrenalin rush of dropping down the half pipe was as exciting as it was scary as fuck. If I fell, I would be done, but I only live once.

I am obviously a bit drunk as I am writing this post. Writing while under the influence is just pure joy, but it could also get me into trouble. Then again, if you can’t be honest with what you are writing then what’s the point of blogging?

What the fuck was wrong with Will Smith? He bitch-slapped Chris Rock on live TV. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air lost his cool. While Will’s action was not acceptable in any shape or form and he should apologize to Chris, his rage was understandable. He didn’t want Chris to talk shit about his wife even it was just a joke. Unlike Ted Cruz who let Trump shit on his wife and father, Will stood up for his wife. Not only Ted didn’t stand up for his wife and father, he also attempted to fight for the guy who insulted his love ones to stay in power. It is hard to believe that a Senator of the United States is such a bitch-ass pussy.

My supervisor exited the building for two weeks. I miss her every time I walk by her office, but my role hasn’t changed much. In retrospect, she had been hands off in the past few years and let me handle my business. My interim supervisor is one of my colleagues. She is super chill as well. I hope she will take over the role to lead the talented team that I am proud to be a part of.

One of my colleagues who works closely with me on a day-to-day basis is technical savvy, detail oriented, and reliable. She only started a few months ago, but she already knows the ropes and how we operate. She handles most of the tasks on her own, unless she has questions for me. I am so happy that she has come on board and I hope that she will stay. We work so well together.

So far my role and responsibilities seem to work out well. I am not sure about the future, but I am treating my job as a job. Everything happens for a reason. I can’t control what I don’t have the power to control. I am just going with the flow to see where life takes me.

Dù bộc lộ tình cảm, tình yêu, hay tình quê hương, lời thơ của ông Đặng Quang Chính giản dị, dễ hiểu, và dễ gần. Chẳng hạn như bốn câu “Mơ về nắng đẹp”:

Vần thơ trao đổi nắng mưa
Vần thơ làm bạn dỗ dành trái tim
Đọc xong con mắt lim dim
Mơ ngày nắng đẹp lần tìm gặp em.

Một giấc mơ nhẹ nhàng của một người xa quê hương. Ý thơ của ông dễ đọc nhưng phần typography quá tệ. Phông chữ dấu Việt bị nhiều lỗi. Tác giả chỉ chú trọng vào lời thơ chứ không để ý đến cách trình bày và nghệ thuật chữ Việt cho những tác phẩm của mình. Hơi đáng tiếc.

According to my Epic Pass at a glance, last season I skied 23 days on 20,839 vertical feet at 7 resorts: Attitash, Liberty, Okemo, Roundtop, Snow Mount, Whitetail, and Wildcat. I had the Northeast Value Pass, which cost $495. The lift ticket ranged from $80 to $100 a day. Let’s do the math: $80 x 23 days. That’s $1,840. I saved $1,345. My three older kids had Epic Local Passes for $311 each. They saved $4,587.

In addition to saving almost $6,000, Epic Passes allowed us to skip the purchasing line, which could be long on weekends. The equipment rental lines were even worse. I heard people stand in line for two hours. An equipment rental at the resorts costs $45 a set. For our boys, we rented a snowboard set and two ski sets for the season at Sun & Ski. The used equipment cost $150 to rent for each set. We decided to rent for them instead of buying because they grow too fast.

For me, I am not growing anymore; therefore, I bought a pair of used Head skis for $50 and a pair of used ski boots for $40 through Facebook Marketplace. I spent an additional $75 to get my skis tuned, waxed, and adjusted to fit the boots. When I filled out the form, I checked myself as a beginner; therefore; they made my bindings easy to pop off when I slipped or fell. When I skied steeped slopes, my skis would pop off if I couldn’t control myself. As a result, I had to learn to ski well in order for my skis to stay on, which was a good thing. I kept the binding setting as it was even though I advanced to double-black-diamond slopes. I am not sure how old my skis are, but I love them. Head seems like a good brand.

Through my experience, I learned that you don’t need expensive skis to hit all the terrains. You just need to get over your fear and embarrassment. I felt no shame when I fell. In skiing, falling is part of learning and growing. Before I started skiing, I didn’t understand why people paid so much money to just go down the slopes. After I joined in, the feeling of skiing down the mountains was just incredible. The adrenaline rush was indescribable. You just have to feel it to get it.

Skiing is, no doubt, an expensive sport, but you can make it affordable and enjoyable. We spent a bit up front, but we didn’t have to think about it for the entire season. Epic Passes were definitely worth the investments for us. It is a fantastic sport to do with your family. We also saved money by packing our lunches and drinks. Sandwiches and noodle cups were all we needed. We are now ready to look into getting Epic Passes for next year. I am glad that my wife is doing all of the purchases. If it weren’t for her, we probably wouldn’t end up skiing so much last season. My goal for next year is to get her on the green slopes.

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.