When I attended my friend Nate’s funeral, Mrs. Tra Hun thanked me for coming. She still recognized me even though I had not seen her in over a decade. I could tell she was devastated by her youngest son’s death. I could see the tears in her eyes. I could feel the pain in her heart.

I completely froze when I found out this morning that Mrs. Hun had just passed away on Monday—only three months after her son had gone. My heart ached when I learned that she had Covid. Her passing has reaffirmed that this deadly virus is far from over. We can’t let our guard down.

When my mother passed away from Covid, I was in town and wanted to come by their house to see Nate to rekindle our friendship, but I only drove by their house and left. Although I tested negative, I did not want to get them infected, especially Mrs. Hun and her husband. When I saw her daughter at Costco, I asked about the family and she told me that everyone was doing fine. I was relieved.

I knew Mrs. Hun when I started hanging out with her children. Their house was a block from my sister’s old house. Even though she barely spoke English, she made sure that I knew her rule when I came over and she only had one rule: “Sit down and pee.” Mrs. Hun kept her house spotless clean. Her hardwood floors were always shiny that every kid ever came to the house had slipped and fell.

Mrs. Hun worked hard everyday to raise her family. In addition to her full-time job at the greenhouse, she loved to grow vegetables, herbs, and melons in her backyard. She woke up early to water her plants before going to work and spent more time in her garden after work. She was a kind woman who would feed us whenever we stayed at her house. Her love extended beyond her own children. She treated us like her own kids. She always smiled and asked how my mom was doing. She let us hang out at her house through the night as long as we kept our noise to the minimum.

I miss the good old times hanging at their house, playing video games, and eating raw steak with white rice. I miss seeing her smile and hearing her yelling in Cambodian, which I did not understand. Mrs. Hun will always have a special place in my heart. May her body and soul rest in peace.

Xuân didn’t do too well on his ice skating test last week. He struggled with backward crossover and T-stop on his left foot. These two foundation skills are very important for him later on. Unfortunately, he didn’t want to practice. He passed Beta, but doesn’t want to take any more lessons. He wants to learn to play hockey like his brother Đán instead.

Before he could start hockey, I want him to take one more skating class. He will learn the mohawks and 3-turns in Gamma, which will help him with hockey. He agreed to take one more class. Next year, I will enroll him in the Future Caps Learn to Play program so that he can get all the gears and skates for free, which would cost $1,000.

Đán will finish up his Learn to Play Hockey 3 this Saturday. He seems to enjoy it. He will start level 4 next Monday. After that, we will be eligible to join a hockey team. I am not sure if I want to drop $1,600 for him to play on a team. I am sure my wife wouldn’t mind.

Đạo will finish up his Freestyle 1 in two weeks. He doesn’t seem to enjoy figure skates as much as he used to. He is not sure if he wants to take Freestyle 2, but he wants to give hockey a try. I enrolled him into Learn to Play Hockey level 3 and he will start next Monday at the same time as Đán. They just won’t be in the same class.

For me, I am still struggling with one-foot spin. Yesterday, I went to practice, but I could barely do the dance and jump sequences. The rink was a bit crowded. My mind was not in it because I didn’t sleep much the night before. I don’t think I will go to Freestyle 3.

My wife has purchased skiing season passes for Đạo, Đán, Xuân, and me. Đạo and Đán, in particular, are happy and looking forward to skiing. I am grateful, but also feeling guilty. With season passes, we will most likely spend our weekends skiing and less time tidying up the house. As much as I would love to go skiing with the kids, I dread not taking care of things around the house. I asked my wife to see if she could cancel the passes.

How should I begin this? I’m just so offended
How am I even mentioned by all these fuckin’ beginners?
I’m so appalled, I might buy the mall
Just to show niggas how much more I have in store
I’m fresher than you all, so I don’t have to pause
All of y’all can suck my balls through my drawers
Dark Knight feeling, die and be a hero
Or live long enough to see yourself become a villain
I went from the favorite to the most hated
But would you rather be underpaid or overrated?
Moral victories is for minor league coaches
And Ye already told you we major, you cockroaches
Show me where the boats is, Ferrari Testarossas
And Hammer went broke so you know I’m more focused
I lost thirty mil’, so I spent another thirty
’Cause unlike Hammer, thirty million can’t hurt me
Fuckin’ insane, the fuck am I saying?
Not only am I fly, I’m fuckin’ not playing
All these little bitches too big for they britches
Burning they little bridges, fuckin’ ridiculous

JAY-Z (an excerpt from “So Appalled”)

I have been re-listening to Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. “Monster” is so sick and energetic that it dominated the next track. What turned me off on “So Appalled” was Swizz Beatz’s hook, but then JAY-Z contributed such a hard verse on it that I like to quote it in full.

Last night, I just wanted to catch a glimpse of the Korean TV series that everyone is talking about and I couldn’t stop watching until two in the morning. I am hooked on the concept of adults playing the children games. If they win the money goes into the jackpot. If they lose, they get shot in the head. It is pretty wild what human beings would do for money out of desperation. I’ve always enjoyed the over-the-top violence in Korean’s films and this one is no exception.

Pierre-Simon Fournier, Manuel Typographique, 1764:

After the first necessities of life, nothing is more precious to us than books. THE ART OF TYPOGRAPHY, which produces them, provides essential services to society and secures incalculable benefits. It serves to instruct the citizenry, to extend the progress of the arts and sciences, to nourish and cultivate the mind, and to elevate the spirit: its task is to be the agent and broad interpreter of wisdom and truth; in a word, it is the portrayer of the mind. Thus one could rightly call it par excellence the art of all arts and the science of all sciences.

Saturday morning, I took Đán to ice hockey as our usual bonding time. Đán is an excellent skater. He has speed and perfected his hockey stop on both feet. His hockey skills, however, need more work. He couldn’t control the puck with his stick. He kept missing the goal. His coach loaned him a new stick for lefty, which seemed to help him. After class, his coach came to me and gave me the stick. He promised Đán that he would give him the stick if he finished level three. That was nice of him and Đán was happy about it.

We came back home and I took Đán, Xuân, and Vương to a Japanese ramen house for lunch. Đạo didn’t want to go. The night before, I promised Đán that I would take him out to one of his favorite restaurants if he read Let’s Read with Xuân. He was more than glad to do it. When I read this book with Đán when he was in kindergarten, he struggled quite a bit, but Xuân seemed to pick up the words quickly. In any rate, Đán and I ordered our favorite spicy miso ramen while Xuân and Vương ordered their favorite pork and chicken buns.

After lunch, we went back home and relaxed until 2 pm. Then I took Đạo, Đán, and Xuân to get their flu shots. Xuân volunteered to go first. This guy had no fear of the needle. He later described getting a flu shot was as painless as marrying his mom. His analogy was hilarious and I wish our marriage was that easy. Đán took the shot without a fuss. Đạo was a bit nervous, but I reassured him again that he wouldn’t even feel it if he would just relax. I told him to work with the needle instead of against it. He took my advice and we were done. He didn’t feel a thing. We were out of the pediatrician office in less than 15 minutes.

I took them to Veterans Memorial Park in Woodbridge to check out the skatepark, which has the tallest halfpipe I had seen yet. We had to take the stairs to go to the top of the pipe. If I were to drop in, I would either break every bone in my body or die. No one was dropping from this pipe; therefore, the kids used it as the slide instead and they loved the thrill. The skatepark also has a humongous bowl. Again, if I were to drop in, I would break my ass even at the shallow end.

Most of the skating activities took place in the area away from the bowl and the halfpipe. Đán rode the ramps with the skateboarders. He is a natural skater with confidence and a bit of fearlessness. Đạo and I hesitated a bit because of the crowd. There were quite a bit of skateboarders. Xuân rode around smaller ramps on his scooter. After spending nearly three hours at the skatepark, we headed to an ice cream parlor close by. The menu items were written in Spanish. All of the employees spoke primarily in Spanish. Although all three of my sons are enrolled in Spanish, only Đạo put his foreign language skills to use. Đán was shied and Xuân could only count from 1 to 29 in Spanish. I let Đạo order for us. After that, we went home and had dinner.

On Sunday, we got to sleep in a bit. Around 10 am, I took Đạo to the library to return some books and to pick up new ones. After reading a novel, I wanted to switch to nonfiction. I picked out two books. We went back home, tidied up the house a bit, and folded our clothes. We had a late lunch. Then I dragged my wife and all of our kids to Woodland Wonderland playground and Walker Mill skatepark in Maryland. I felt guilty for not spending too much time with Vương because he has not picked up skating yet. Since the playground and the skatepark were within walking distance, this place was perfect for us. My wife took Vương to the playground while the rest of us stayed at the skatepark. This skatepark was less scarier than the one in Woodbridge, but some skateboarders were a bit aggressive. Đán didn’t seem to mind. He went in and did his things. Đạo was a bit intimidated. Xuân tried out new ramps on his scooter. We were there for almost two hours and drove back home for dinner. That was pretty much how we spent our weekend. I was glad that the kids got to do outdoor activities rather than stayed home playing on their digital devices.

A week ago, I had a weird dream. In my dream, I was having an affair with someone I had never met, yet I knew everything about her. I knew it was wrong, but I couldn’t resist. I woke up and felt terrible. I was glad it was just a dream. Then I realized that Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends had gotten into my head. I was half way through the novel where Frances and Nick were having an affair. Nick was married to Melissa. Although the sex scenes in this book were not as descriptive as in her latest book, the story was emotional and engaging. Rooney is a master at storytelling. I am glad that I picked up this book after reading Normal People last year and Beautiful World, Where Are You a couple weeks ago. I have become a Sally Rooney fan.

I was late to the party, but I was filled with joy when I found out last night that The King Radio account on YouTube got shut down. Ngụy Vũ, the self-proclaimed the King Radio, is more like the Vietnamese Alex Jones who spread misinformation including wearing a mask can kill you.

Ngụy Vũ’s studio is located right inside Eden Center. It used to be a Kobe Phở restaurant. I knew then that this guy was a scam because his phở was plain. He just beefed up the Kobe steak. There were not many customers and the rent in Eden Center was not cheap. He shut down the restaurant and converted it into a radio station. His YouTube account was pulling in over 90K subscribers.

I tried to listen to one of his episodes, but I could not get past 10 minutes. He was rambling on and on about right-wing conspiracy theories. I did not understand how YouTube allowed his misinformation to spread freely and dangerously on its platform. It took John Oliver who pointed Ngụy Vũ out in his Last Week Tonight episode on digital misinformation for YouTube to take action.

When I found out last night through one of the Cub Scout parents, I checked YouTube immediately. Ngụy Vũ already set up a new account with less than 5K subscribers. Although John Oliver brought the attention to YouTube, users who reported his account got him banned. We need to stop him from poisoning our Vietnamese-American community. I reported his new account as well.

After I picked up Đạo, Đán, and Xuân from school yesterday, we headed straight to the skate park. We skated for 45 minutes and headed home. My wife made udon. Đạo, Xuân, and I ate quickly and headed to ice skating lessons. Xuân took his test. He didn’t do too well because he didn’t practice much. Except for one girl, all of his classmates struggled with backward crossovers and T-stops. I am not sure if I should sign him up for Gamma since he isn’t into it.

My wife took Đạo and Xuân home instead of waiting for me to take my lessons. When I came home, Xuân didn’t look too well. I took his temperature and it was around 102.2F. He fell asleep and I carried him to my bed. I checked his temperature again and it was still high. I was a bit worried even though he had his mask on the whole time he was taking his ice skating test.

I tried to go to sleep as well, but woke up after he made some noise. He opened his eyes and spoke a few words in Spanish. I didn’t know what he was saying, but I asked if he was feeling OK. He nodded and went back to sleep. Around midnight, he woke up again and said, “udon.” He must be hungry and wanted udon. I was getting a bit hungry as well because we didn’t have much udon for dinner. I took his temperature again and it hadn’t decreased. At this point I couldn’t go back to sleep.

Around 2 am, he sweated profusely. His hair and the pillow were all wet. His temperature went down to 101.6F. His immune system must have fought hard. I was a bit relieved but couldn’t go back to sleep until 3 something in the morning. I woke up around 6:30 am and checked his temperature again and it was down to 99.1F. I am happy about it, but I will be miserable all day due to lack of sleep. We’ll let him stay home today to keep an eye on him.

Having a fever is not uncommon, but I am a bit panicked because of Covid. I tend to worry too much because my mother-in-law is living with us. I do not want anything to happen to her even though she got her third booster shot.

Learning ice skating is like building LEGO. Each step is a LEGO brick that is designed to let you create a work of art. While practicing yesterday, I combined the jump and dance steps into a long sequence. I am sure the professional skaters already knew, but it was a revelation to me. Here are the steps I did:

1. Begin with a backward crossover with your left foot over right.
2. Repeat another crossover with your left foot over right.
3. Transfer your weight to your right foot and glide with your left foot.
4. Do a waltz jump with your right foot.
5. Tap your left toe pick and do a tap-toe jump with your right foot.
6. Continue with a 3-turn on your left foot.
7. Tap your right toe pick then finish with a one-half flip jump.
8. Instead of checking out, continue on with your left glide.
9. Glide right.
10. Glide left.
11. Glide right one more time.
12. Do a left mohawk then stand on your right foot as you skate backward.
13. Cross your left behind your right foot and transfer your weight to your left foot.
14. Place your right foot back to the parallel position and transfer the weight back to your right foot.
15. Cross your left foot in front of your right foot.
16. Check out with your right foot.

I like jumping more than spinning. I supposed to learn how to do a one-foot spin, but I kept tripped up the left-edge entrance. As a result, I just focused on the jump and dance sequence.