I found a pair of Flying Eagle Enkidu aggressive skates on Amazon Warehouse that fit me perfectly. It was such a great deal that I couldn’t resist. Except for the damaged box, the skates were brand new. I gave the pair a try at the skate park yesterday and I am loving it.

I went down a few curved ramps and a quarter pipe, but I did not try the higher curved ramps yet. The skates are a bit heavy, almost five pounds on each foot, but they felt so comfortable. I predict that the smaller wheels and the heavy boots were designed to keep me balanced. Aggressive skates don’t come with the heel brake; therefore, I need to learn to do the T-stop or other braking methods without relying on the heel brake. I am taking my time because falling at my age takes too long to recover.

I need more time to adjust to the new Flying Eagle since I had gotten used to the Zetrablade, which I still love. It was the first inline skate that didn’t hurt my feet. I didn’t even realize that the Zetrablade was designed for skating on the road instead of at the skate park. I changed the heel brake and still keep the pair for skating with the family when we go biking on the trails.

Đán also wanted a pair of aggressive skates. I wanted to get him a pair of Rollerblade NJR, but I could not find his size. Fortunately, I found a different pair with his size on eBay. Since it was a great deal, I bought one pair for Đạo as well. They look great, but they have no brand. I called the skate shop and the seller told me that there were no boxes and they could not find the brand on the skates. They just found them in their warehouse and listed them on eBay for sale. They already sold six pairs and haven’t heard any complaints from their customers.

I can’t wait for their skates to arrive. We’re now moving from recreational to aggressive. Đạo, Đán, and Xuân who uses a scooter prefer skate park over ice skating. They had been willing to go to the skate parks with me more than ice skating rinks.

This is a super quick introduction to web design for non-designers. Osborn shows the principles of design, which include layout, hierarchy, color, and typography. She keeps each theory short and sweet and without a line of code. I read the entire book in an hour. I am not the target audience, but I have not read a book on web design in a long time. Plus, the book is beautifully typeset in Tisa family.

Ít khi có dịp dành thời gian riêng với Vương nên hôm nay lấy ngày nghỉ đưa nó đi chơi. Bây giờ mùa thu thời tiết bắt đầu chuyển lạnh nhưng có nắng ấm nên không khí rất thoải mái và dễ chịu. Rủ luôn vợ và mẹ vợ đi nông trại để được gần với thiên nhiên.

Đáng lý ra là đi Cox Farms nhưng vé vào cổng đã bán hết nên chọn Great Country Farms cách nhà một tiếng đồng hồ. Khác với CF, GCF rất vắng. Đến nông trại cũng hơn 11 giờ rưỡi trưa nên chúng tôi đi ra đồng chọn một trái bí ngô về trưng cho có chúc mùa thu.

Mua bí xong chúng tôi qua bờ sông kế bên ăn trưa. Cuộc sống dường như chậm lại. Tôi không dùng iPhone để chụp hình và cũng đăng trên Facebook. Tôi chỉ tận hưởng thiên nhiên.

Ăn nhẹ xong chúng tôi quay lại nông trại để xem những thú vật như gà, vịt, dê, và heo. Vương được rong chơi trong khu vực playground gồm có gối nhảy, cầu tuột, và những trò chơi ngoài trời. Vương rất thích nhưng chơi không bao lâu phải quay lại để đón mấy anh tan học về.

Một ngày thứ Hai chỉ đơn giản như thế là đủ rồi. Thấy Vương tung tăng giữa cánh đồng chứ không ngồi cặm cụi vào iPad, tôi rất vui trong lòng.

Today marks my 10^th year working at George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School as Director of Design and Web Services. A decade in the web-industry timeline is eternity, but it still feels like yesterday when I took on this position.

In my first three months on the job, I single-handedly re-coded the entire website from scratch. I ripped out all of the HTML markups and CSS presentations and rebuilt everything from scratch. Our site was one of the first higher education websites that went responsive. In retrospect, I am glad I took that approach right from the get-go. In the past nine and a half years, our website has gone through many iterations instead of major redesigns. Because of the solid foundation I built from the beginning, our website stands the test of time.

In the last few weeks, we conducted a handful of user studies, in which we asked current students to share their experience using our website. We gave them a few tasks and asked them to do as we watched their browsers. They found our website easy to navigate and they could find what they needed. They provided us suggestions we can improve, but the feedback had been positive.

As CSS grid has become stable, I wanted to go back to replace complicated floats with grids, but the task seemed overwhelming. In the past five years, I have taken on new roles beyond the web, which included marketing designs and email newsletter. I could not dedicate my time to make the transition. Every time I looked at my SCSS file, I wanted to just throw it away and start from scratch. Unfortunately the site had grown so much in the last decade.

After our latest redesign under the new dean direction, I decided I need to tackle this issue. Now that I have a designer to help me with graphics and a developer to help me with day-to-day requests, I could focus on refactoring the CSS elements as well as cleaning up the HTML markups. Simply replacing float layouts with grid layouts make the CSS file much more cleaner and manageable. In addition to simplifying the CSS elements, I was able to get rid of tons of unused styles.

Although the work was entirely behind the hood, it made me feel great. I had accomplished something that I had wanted to do for quite a while. The overall visuals haven’t changed much, but the details have been hammered out. Because I have invested my time, energy, and effort into our website, I take great pride in my work and I treat it with tender, love, and care as if it is my own baby. I take the responsibility and the ownership of it. I expect my developer to do the same. I wanted him to put his care into it instead of just dashing off to complete the requests. Every piece of markup needs to be clean and no inline styles unless absolutely necessary.

I understand that we have to do things quickly, but doing so carelessly will come back and bite us in the long run. Our website has come a long way. The day of hosting it on a GoDaddy dedicated server is long gone. I am so glad that we had migrated to MODX Cloud with the help of the incredible MODX team. From the server side, our site is now fast, secured, stable, and in good hands. From the frontend side, the HTML markups and CSS presentations are streamlined. The design is still fresh and modern with exceptional typography.

If everything goes well, I will stay with the law school until my retirement. I only have about 20 odd years to go. I don’t know if I will be able to keep up with the web industry in my 60s. That’s a scary thought. Then again, I have not kept up on the latest trend a decade ago. I am still doing fine thus far. I can’t see myself doing anything else besides web design and development, but I never know what the future will hold.

Nhận tin Chú Bảy vừa qua đời chiều hôm qua, tôi không khỏi nghẹn ngào. Chú ra đi gần một năm sau ba tôi mất. Trong mấy anh chị em, Chú Bảy là người thành công nhất trong ngành xây dựng. Chú và thím cùng sát cánh bên nhau gầy dựng sự nghiệp lẫn gia đình. Bốn đứa con của chú được nuôi dưỡng, đào tạo, và thành đạt.

Đối với gia đình và người thân, chú luôn thương yêu và lo lắng cho các anh chị em. Lúc còn sống, ba tôi thường khen chú luôn trọng tình nghĩa. Với con cháu chú cũng quan tâm và thương mến. Với tôi, chú rất ít nói. Mỗi lần đến thăm chú thì cũng chỉ hỏi thăm vài câu qua lại. Tôi cũng không biết phải nói gì với chú nữa nhưng tôi biết được nếu tôi cần sự giúp đỡ chú sẽ sẵn sàng.

Chú đã ra đi ở tuổi 74 sau gần một năm chống chọi với ung thư gan. Mong linh hồn chú được an nghỉ trong bình yên. Cháu sẽ nhớ chú mãi mãi.

Wednesday night, I didn’t go to sleep until two in the morning. Then I had to wake up at seven to take Đạo to school. I drank massive coffee and felt like shit all day. I went to ice skating class and couldn’t even do a proper Mohawk. I stayed back after class to practice, but the public session was crowded. Katie, my former coach, was there skating with Megan, one of my classmates. Megan and I used to take Katie’s class, but now we have a different instructor. I took three classes taught by Katie and she barely spoke to me beyond simple instructions. Somehow Megan managed to befriend her. I watched Katie perform and show Megan how to spin on one foot. Katie was fantastic.

I tried to do the dance sequence our new coach Kim taught us, but I couldn’t do it. My mind was exhausted and I was intimidated by the good skaters and instructors. I left the rink early and went home. I felt incompetent. I told my wife that I will quit after Freestyle 2. I went to bed and had almost eight hours of sleep. I felt much more refreshed. I worked from home on Friday; therefore, I took a lunch break and headed back to the rink. I had the entire rink to myself for the first half an hour. I focused on the dance sequence and was able to pull it off. I felt great again.

What I liked about Kim, my new coach, was that she focused on forms and she broke down the steps clearly. In a group lesson, I had about three minutes one on one with her. So far, I can do the dance sequence, the jump sequence, the spirals on edges, the ballet jump, and the half lutz. I just need to focus on the one-foot spin and the forward edge entrance. When I told my wife that I might go to Freestyle 3, she was not too happy since I said that I would be done with ice skating lessons after Freestyle 2. She showed no encouragement at all.

I understand her feelings. My life has revolved around ice skating. I want to practice every chance I have; therefore, I am not doing much around the house. I have to cut it back. So maybe this should be the end of ice skating lessons for me. I don’t think I can do much anyway. Too bad, our kids are giving up on ice skating. They have the opportunity to continue, but they don’t want to and I don’t want to force them either. For me, I have obligations to fulfill and ice skating isn’t a priority. I want to do it for fun and to challenge myself. I wanted to see how far I can go, but I think this might be it for me. I’ll keep skating for fun, but no more lessons. Without the coach to push me and the classmates to encourage me, I am not sure how far I can go. For instance, I haven’t made much progress with rollerblading. To be honest, rollerblading is a bit too dangerous. I have been injured quite a bit lately; therefore, I have to take more caution. I am too old to take risks. Ice skating is much safer, but it requires lots of techniques. I can’t spin even if my life depends on it.

Whenever I banned Đán from playing video games, he would say, “I want a normal dad. Why can’t I have a normal dad?” His definition of a normal dad is a parent who lets him play video games all the time. If that’s the case I would rather not be a normal dad.

Đạo is not doing too well in school, not because he is struggling, but because he is slacking off. No matter how much I had talked and explained to him the importance of education, it seems to go into one ear and out the other.

Xuân seems to be doing good. He is just a bit too whiny and lacking motivation. He has so much potential in ice skating, but he just wanted to quit. He kept asking me when his class will be over and reminding me not to sign him up anymore.

Vương is a three-year-old badass who curses like a sailor. Whenever he said, “What the fuck,” he would followed up with the sweetest smile. How can I even be mad at him?

Speaking of profanity, I let Đạo and Đán listen to Kanye and Jay-Z in the car. Đán’s favorite tracks are “HAM,” “Monster,” and “New Slaves.” The beats on these tracks are crisp and clean, but the lyrics are so filthy. Đán told me that he blocked out the words and just concentrated on the beats and the flows. As for Đạo, he told me that kids from his school cursed more than the lyrics on his track. He knew all the words, but he never used them. I just have to take their words for it.

I am failing in the parenting department on so many levels, but I don’t want to be too rigid. Give them some space to grow.

When I meet other Asian Americans, I always wondered which Asia they are, but I could not ask. I am not sure what would be the right question to ask. “What type of Asian are you?” That sounds horrible. “Where are you from?” I know many Asian Americans have an issue with that question, especially those who were born in America. “What is your ethnicity?” They are obviously Asian. It often felt awkward when I tried to ask their Asian origin.

I would only bring up the question if I think they are Vietnamese American. I just speak in Vietnamese, “Chị là người Việt hả?” (Are you Vietnamese). If they answer in Vietnamese then yes. If not, they would tell me that they have no idea what I just said and they would tell me what type of Asian they are.

If you have any suggestion on how to ask Asian Americans what type of Asian they are, please share. I would love to know. On the contrary, I wouldn’t mind if anyone asked me any of the questions above. I would not not be offended. In fact, I would be glad that they are interested in my exact background.

I haven’t written about politics on this blog and I don’t want to, but I have to draw your attention to the governor race between Terry McAuliffe and Glenn Youngkin if you live in Virginia. We must vote for McAuliffe because the Youngkin is too damn dangerous for Virginia and here are some of the reasons:

1. Youngkin embraces Ron DeSantis’ mishandling of the COVID-19 for Virginia.
2. Youngkin opposes mask mandates in public schools in Virginia.
3. Youngkin criticizes Virginia universities for requiring students to be vaccinated.
4. Youngkin touts dangerous anti-vaccine rhetoric in Virginia.
5. Youngkin supports Texas’ abortion ban in Virginia.
6. Youngkin plans to defund Planned Parenthoods in Virginia.
7. Youngkin aims to roll back gun-safety laws in Virginia.
8. Youngkin proposes an anti-education tax plan that would be a disaster for public schools in Virginia.
9. Youngkin walks the dangerous line on baseless claims of election fraud in Virginia.
10. Youngkin brings Trump’s toxic agenda to Virginia.

Let’s keep Trump’s hatred out of the state for lovers. Youngkin, a Trump disciple, has no place in Virginia. Early voting begins on October 17, go cast your ballot for Terry McAuliffe and the Democrats. Let’s keep Virginia blue.

I had no idea who Glennon Doyle was. I picked up her latest book based on the cover. I can’t even figured out what the heck the artwork is supposed to be, but I spotted on R.E. Hawley’s essay, “Behold, the Book Blob.” Untamed is a collection of personal short essays covering many grounds including marriage, infidelity, feminist, religion, politics, parenting, and love. Glennon found her true love when she met Abby. Yes, the soccer star Abby Wambach. Glennon divorced her husband and married Abby. They raise three kids together. On giving kids their own phone, she writes:

There is so much about phones and children that parents worry about. We worry that we are raising children with commodified views of sex, lack of real connection, filtered concepts of what it means to be human. But I find myself worrying most that when we hand our children phones we steal their boredom from them. As a result, we are raising a generation of writers who will never start writing, artists who will never start doodling, chefs who will never make a mess of the kitchen, athletes who will never kick a ball against a wall, musicians who will never pick up their aunt’s guitar and start strumming.

What I like about this book is Glennon’s untamed honesty. Although the book is 330 pages, it is a quick read. Her prose is short and sweet. Each essay could be a blog post. What I fear is that my wife would fall in love with another woman and would leave me. Then again, it would be less hurtful than another guy.