Although I have more than I can use for my personal projects, I keep acquiring new typefaces. I recently bought a complete web license for Captura Now, designed by Anita Jürgeleit. Captura Now is a friendly, flexible sans-serif family with a variable font and Vietnamese support. I haven’t had a chance to, but I will put it to good use one day.

I invested in Lang Syne, designed by Stephen Nixon, from Future Fonts. Although Lang Syne is still in its early development, I trust that Stephen will complete it with a variable font and Vietnamese support, just like what he is working on for Name Sans.

As much as I have been excited about Future Fonts, I have refrained myself from making purchases. Except for Name Sans, a handful of fonts I have invested in have no future. Some of them aren’t going anywhere. With the exception of Name Sans, none of them supports Vietnamese, which is not too useful for me. As of this writing, only five typefaces on the entire Future Fonts catalog support Vietnamese.

I am still a long-time member of the Font of the Month Club. I am really happy that every font David Jonathan Ross each month comes with the Vietnamese language. I still highly recommend this club for students and font enthusiasts.

Adichie’s Notes on Grief is a beautiful, lyrical tribute to her father who passed away caused by a kidney failure. His sudden death during the global COVID-19 pandemic devastated her. She lived in the U.S. and he died in Nigeria; therefore, she could not be with him. My father passed away in Vietnam during the lockdown as well; therefore, I felt her pain and sorrow. The book is 67 pages and I read it in one sitting.

Today, Đạo and I learned the waltz jump, which is the last technique for my Freestyle 1 lessons. To pass Freestyle 1, I have to complete forward inside pivot, two-foot spin, arabesque, backward edges, half flip, and waltz jump. Now that I have all the technical down, I just need to practice my form for the test, which will be the second week of August.

I like this new learning method. Instead of focusing on nailing down one technique before moving on to the next one, I am learning all the techniques first then taking my time to refine them. Practicing several techniques seems less monotonous than just one at a time.

When I was making the transition from hockey to figure, the toe picks kept getting in my way. I tripped on them. As I am doing more jumps or hops (in my case), I begin to appreciate them. They are my new favorite tool for techniques.

After Freestyle 1, I will be done with group lessons. The pressure is both rewarding and stressful. I am the oldest and the only guy in the group. The girls are much younger and they can do the techniques with ease. I am too old to keep up with them.

I like to learn using Coach Julia’s YouTube videos and some encouragement from Đạo. He is keeping me motivated as we are trying to learn new techniques. The process will be slower, but I can learn at my own pace. I don’t need to take any test and I don’t have to keep up with my skatemates.

Đạo had written about our time together.

Hôm qua Đạo chích ngừa COVID lần thứ hai. Tuy vẫn còn sợ kim nhưng Đạo chịu để anh dược sĩ trẻ người Việt chích. Đạo chỉ cần nắm lấy tay tôi để lấy thêm can đảm.

Để phòng ngừa tác động thứ yếu, hai cha con rủ nhau đi trượt băng. Đạo chỉ tôi cách quay hai chân. Tôi dễ bị say sóng nên quay hai vòng là chóng cả mặt. Rồi hai cha con cùng nhau học cách nhảy lật nửa (half-flip jump). Gần ba tiếng đồng hồ, chúng tôi tập có kết quả tốt.

Sau giờ trượt băng, hai cha con dắt nhau đi nhà hàng Nhật. Đạo giống tôi ở chỗ là đi đâu cũng mang theo quyển sách. Trong lúc chờ đồ ăn mạnh ai nấy đọc. Lúc đồ ăn mang ra, hai cha con vừa ăn vừa tâm sự. Tôi hỏi thăm nó về thằng bạn của nó.

Hôm thứ ba vừa rồi nó đến nhà thằng bạn chơi. Từ lúc đại dịch đến bây giờ tụi nó mới có dịp chơi chung với nhau. Lúc đến đoán Đạo về, tôi cũng xã giao với mẹ thằng bạn của nó. Tình cờ biết được rằng hai vợ chồng đã ly thân. Ông chồng đã dọn ra khỏi nhà. Chỉ còn lại bà vợ với bốn đứa con (ba trai một gái) trong căn nhà lớn. Cuối tuần thì mấy đứa con qua ở với ba.

Tôi hỏi Đạo có để ý bạn của nó buồn không khi cha mẹ chia tay. Nó không thấy bạn có thay đổi vì cả, vẫn vui vẻ bình thường. Chắc con nít còn vô tư chưa hiểu chuyện hoặc tuy cha mẹ không sống với nhau nữa nhưng họ vẫn sắp xếp để không ảnh hưởng đến con cái.

Tôi không biết gì về gia đình của họ nhưng trường hợp cũng tương tự như gia đình tôi (hai vợ chồng bốn đứa con). Dĩ nhiên vợ chồng nào cũng có vấn đề cả nhưng bước tới đoạn đường chia tay sau khi đã có bốn đứa con là một quyết định không nhỏ.

Tôi định hỏi Đạo nếu như gia đình của chúng ta rơi vào hoàn cảnh như thế thì sao. Nhưng rồi tôi không muốn nó phải suy nghĩ nhiều. Tuy trong cuộc hôn nhân này tôi không thể tự quyết định nhưng tôi sẽ dùng hết khả năng và quyền hạn của mình để điều đó không bao giờ xảy ra.

Những bài viết ngắn tựa như những blog posts chia sẻ tâm sự cá nhân của hai tác giả. Nội dung rời rạc. Chuyện không đủ thu hút. Cách viết không đủ quyến rũ. Tác giả viết trong tâm trạng chán đời nên cũng chẳng có gì sôi nổi. Đọc không thấy chán đời, chỉ thấy chán nản.

Đán, Xuân, and their cousin Khôi just wrapped up their five-day Sky High Skating Development Camp at the MedStar Capitals Iceplex. Based on the program’s description, I signed my boys up to develop their skills based thier levels. For example, I wanted Xuân to work on his backwards and Đán to work on his freestyles. I expected the coaches to test each individual skater and then grouped them together based on their level.

Unfortunately, there was one coach for eight kids in different levels. The coach was a seventeen-year-old girl who could skate, but didn’t have the experience to teach. She showed a few techniques for all the kids regardless of their levels. For example, the waltz jump is for freestyle level; therefore, Đán could do it, but Xuân and Khôi couldn’t. They need to learn the bunny hop first before they could even try to do the waltz jump. They ended up skating just for fun most of the time.

It was not the coach’s fault. She had the tough job of overseeing eight kids for four hour straight each day. In fact, she was very patience and cool with them. The kids had fun, but I was hoping they had developed some solid skills as well. The program was over promised, but under delivered.

I have been blogging for almost 20 years and I haven’t stopped. I find the freedom to write exhilarating. When I immersed myself into reading, I couldn’t stop. I find the pleasure of reading liberating. When I set my ear on jazz, I was hooked. I find the history and the art of improvisation to be hypnotizing.

I must have an issue with addiction or obsession. Once I hooked onto something, I just wanted more or to go all the way. I am not sure if it is good or bad. I don’t take the moderation approach. Go hard or go to hell. Fortunately, I never started smoking or using drugs. I don’t think I can dig myself out of those holes.

I had an issue with alcohol, but my gout, which is a curse and a gift, put my alcoholism under control. If I were with one or two drinking buddies, I could drink until my body couldn’t take anymore, which caused everything to come back out. Fortunately, those friends do not live close by.

I never wanted to go skiing, but my wife wanted me to do it with the kids. On our first skiing trip, I didn’t go because I refused to pay almost two hundred dollars for just one day. On the next trip, I gave it a shot to get my wife off my back. Then I was hooked. Skiing felt like flying even on a bunny slope. I ended up taking my kids on a ski trip every weekend in the winter right before the pandemic hit. I felt guilty because we blew five hundred dollars each day on skiing packages and food just for Đạo, Đán, and me. My wife, however, brushed it off. She encouraged us to go for it.

Then the pandemic hit and we were forced to stay home. We did some biking, but that quickly got boring. My wife suggested rollerblading. I thought she was out of her mind. Falling on concrete and getting hit by the cars on the streets seemed to be too dangerous for rollerblading. Then she bought us rollerblades. We started on the basketball courts when no one was playing. Then we discovered skateparks. I didn’t realize there were skateparks for skateboarding and rollerblading. I got hooked. I fell several times trying to do the drops, but I loved the vibe.

I used to ice skate a few times back in the days. I enjoyed it, but didn’t take it seriously until my kids and I started lessons. Ice skating is all about techniques. The more I learned, the more I wanted to build up my skills. Needless to say, I am also hooked on it. I felt like a little kid discovering a brand new world, except I am not a kid anymore. The learning curve is much steeper for me, but I am not competing against anyone else other than myself. I don’t have a goal, but I refuse to skate recreationally. I wanted to learn as much as I could just to prove to myself that I can do it.

I write because I enjoy expressing myself even if no one else would read it. I read because I enjoy gaining new knowledge and getting into someone else’s head. I listen to jazz because I enjoy the musical expressions the musicians created on the spot. I skate because I enjoy the feeling of being a kid again, something I missed when I was a kid.

Life is too damn short and I will leave this temporary place one day to meet up with my mom and dad. So just live it. YOLO!

I woke up and felt recharged after eight hours of sleep. I had about three hours the night before. I ate a bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats, one of my favorite types of cereal. I went straight to work with a WordPress developer at the University to change a domain name for one of our centers. The developer was awesome and we worked together well. I appreciated her talent as well as her honesty. She didn’t shy away from letting me know what she didn’t know and I did the same. Fortunately, we had different skill sets; therefore, we had each other covered. We completed the project right before noon. Everything worked out as expected. Even though we had worked together in the past few years, we had never met. I hope to have a chance to thank her in person one day.

After wrapping up the project, I went to the public library to pick up Đán. He had a private tutor session with his recent teacher to help him with language arts. The wasp removal specialist called to come by to take away a wasp nest that was as huge as a basketball. Then I helped my son Đạo set up his Zoom meeting for his writing workshop. That was only noon time.

I took Đán, Xuân, and their cousin Khôi to the ice-skating development camp at Ballston Quarter. After checking them in, I headed straight down to Copa to have lunch and to watch England versus Germany. I ordered a glass of Sangria, opened up my laptop to do some work, and relaxed for a bit. Around 3:30 pm, I took a break and decided to head to the Powhatan Springs Skatepark to do some drops and to skate around. This park is for serious skateboarding. It had three bowls. A young kid, probably around twelve years old, just dropped into the deepest bowl like nothing. He had no helmet and no guards. He was skating on his board like surfing.

I tried dropping in the shallow end of the lower bowl first and then the shallow end of the higher bowl. Then I peeped into the deep end of the higher bowl. It was not that deep, but the curve was a little deep. I went for it and busted my butt. My whole vision collapsed as the 95-degree Fahrenheit kicked in. I managed to get myself out of the bowl and found a cool grass spot under the shade to crash. I texted my wife to say, “I love you,” and then closed my eyes. I closed my eyes for 15 minutes to pull myself together. When I woke up, my butt was in tremendous pain and I could barely pull myself up. I didn’t receive a reply from my wife.

I managed to pick up the boys from skate camp with tremendous pain in my butt. I feel like an old fool. No wait, I am an old fool. I didn’t let my kids rollerblade because it looked dangerous skating on the streets. Then I got into it myself and now I am the one that takes the risks. It is true what they said, “No pain, no gain” and “Getting injured is part of the game.” As I dragged myself out to my car, I heard the kids say to each other, “Go hard or go home.” In my case, go hard and go to the hospital.

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I went back to the ice skating rink yesterday to practice after being sick for 24 hours. I spent three hours working on backward outside edges on both feet. The techniques look simple, but difficult to follow. I can’t imagine pulling off the arabesques, half-flip jumps, and waltz jumps.

When I first took ice-skating lessons, I didn’t even think about going into Freestyles. The techniques are way above my physical ability. What amazes me about ice skating is the building block from one fundamental technique to the next. The lessons have been carefully planned out like building LEGO bricks. It is important to master the foundations before moving on.

I also learned another important aspect of ice skating. Although ice skating is working with my feet, my hands play an essential role as well. The best skaters are the ones with hands and feet coordinations. Coach Julia (via YouTube) always took her time to explain the hand movements. I had always been confused about how to use my hands until now. As I was working on my backward edges, I realized that my hands must copy my feet. They helped me reach the destination I am skating to.

You must be bored out of your mind reading my rants on skatings. That’s the reason I am writing it down here rather than talking to anyone else about it. Imagine having a beer with a buddy and wanting to talk about ice skating instead of football. No wonder I have no drinking buddy.

I don’t even talk about ice skating with my wife. She is already fed up with my obsessions. I observed her the other day when we were resting on our chairs at our family picnic, all I saw was disappointment and disengagement in her eyes. I apologize.