When Agatha caught her husband screwing GDOG (Grande Dame of Grapefruits) in their shed, she chopped it into pieces with a hatchet. After the incident, Agatha’s life turned upside down. She started therapy, spied on her cheating husband and his young lover with grapefruit-shaped hips, and tried to bonk the mailman and the UPS guy. Agatha was also a member of the Moms Facebook group.

Kristin Bair’s third novel, Agatha Arch Is Afraid of Everything, is heartbreaking yet hilarious. Bair incorporates the language of social media into her story. It took me half of the book to get into the flow of emojis, acronyms, and tweets. Once I got past the interruptions, however, I found Bair’s style, the combination of long and short forms, to be playful. Like music to my ear, I can still hear the rhythm of the woodpecker’s tap tap tippity-tap after I finished the novel. And damn, she can write about sex. A delicious, delightful read.

Full disclosure: I designed Kristin Bair’s website to promote her latest novel.

My ice skating lesson went horribly wrong on Tuesday. I skated for five minutes and my feet felt extremely uncomfortable. It was so unbearable that I had to get rental skates. I struggled miserably with backward crossovers. I definitely need more practice.

On Monday, the day before my lesson, I went back to Pure Hockey to see if they could help me with the uncomfortness I had been experiencing. The salesman sold me a pair of insoles. They were comfortable when I tried them on, but not so much when I went on the ice. He recommended that I lace up as tight as possible, which caused the pain. I’ll try to loosen up the lace a bit. If that won’t help, I’ll get myself a new pair of figure skates instead.

I am loving rollerblading. I feel no pain at all. I have gotten used to my shoes. I could do all the straight ramps at the skatepark. I tried out the curved ramp yesterday and fell three times before I found my groove. I am starting to feel the pain in my right arm because of the falls. Age has something to do with it.

I was skating down the high ramps next to a little Asian girl who was skateboarding. She was petite and talkative so I asked her how old she was. She told me she was 10. I complimented her on her skateboard skills. A few minutes later, she asked me for my age. I told her to take a guess and she said 15. The mask hid my face really well. I told her I am 43. She said, “Oh, you skate really well for your age.”

I then realized that I was the antediluvian in the skatepark. Most skateboarders were teenagers. Most scooters were kids around 6 to 10. A few bikers in their teens. My sons and I were only rollerbladers.

My thanks to Chris, a friend and a formal colleague at Vassar College, for supporting this blog. Readers like Chris make this blog free of advertisement and third-party tracking. If you enjoy reading this blog, please consider supporting my efforts. Chip in what you can.

Lắng nghe thầy Thích Chúc Đại giải thích bốn câu trong “Kinh Phước Đức” đầy ý nghĩa:

Tránh không làm điều ác
Không say sưa nghiện ngập
Tinh cần làm việc lành
Là phước đức lớn nhất.

Đọc trọn bài ở trang nhà Làng Mai.

My brief farewell post on Christopher Dang had found its way into people who were close to him or inspired by his works.

Thom Easix wrote to me on January 26, 2020:

Hi Donny,

We don’t know each other, but I just wanted to let you know that I read your blogpost about Chrisopher Dang and that I had the same experience as you. I also started designing in the early 2000’s when I was still a kid and I was really inspired by Halovision. I really looked up to him.

As time passed I also stopped following him, but once in a while I think back on that time. I always remember his art to still be really good.

So today I googled him again and yes, his old artworks still holds up. He had such a feel for typography, shapes and colors. I don’t know how to properly explain it in English, but he was really talented.

Today I also discovered he passed away and I found out through your blogpost.

I don’t know why I’m sending you this email, but I guess I want to thank you for your blog and it was nice to read that you also got inspired by him. It’s not something I can share with other people.

Have a good day,

Best,

Thom

I replied to Thom:

Dear Thom,

I am glad that you have shared your thoughts with me. When I found out that he passed away, I was shocked. I wrote that post wondering if other people had similar experience. You email is a proof. Chris was a talented artist and even his early works had left a deep impact in many of us who didn’t even know him.

Regards,
Donny Truong

Thom responded:

Hi Donny,

Thanks for your reply. I was really moved by it.

Because of your email I searched some more about him and I found out he was a very loved and good person. It kept me busy all day.

I hope he knew how many people he inspired and that his style is visible all over the world. I live in the Netherlands and I’m sure his work laid the foundation for what I like in graphic design.

For the future when I have a flashback to those early 2000’s, I will also remember your email and this story.

This is the beautiful side of the internet 🙂

I wish you all the best in your career and not to be too cheesy, but may his spirit live on in our work 🙂

Best,
Thom

I also shared with Thom an email from someone who was close to Chris. Alyssa Key wrote on December 19, 2020:

Hi Donny,

I found your site entry online when googling our beloved Tinypants. He died of natural causes, stemming from a trial pharmaceutical he was using from losing his vision. Ironic, isn’t it… halo vision. Anyways wanted to help answer that question for you. He was my partner, best friend, and soul mate for many years. Our lives went different paths a few years before his death and I never got a chance to remind him I loved him. We will all see him again soon though. Hope you’re well, sorry if this so random.

Warmest Regards,
Alyssa Key

I responded to Alyssa on December 19, 2020:

Dear Alyssa,

Thank you for writing. He was a gifted artist who reached so many people with his work. I didn’t know him personally, but I am sure he knew he still has a special place in your heart.

Thank you for answering my question. I hope you and your family are doing well and happy holidays.

Regards,
Donny Truong

Dr. Joy Garcia Tiên is my life-long mentor. I got to know Dr. Tiên through the Upward Bound program way back when I was in seventh or eighth grade. Upward Bound was the pre-college program that gave kids from low-income families an opportunity to pursue a higher education. By providing summer college courses, campus visitations, and job shadows with professionals in different fields, the Upward Bound program prepared children with limited access to educational resources a path to a better future. Through her kindness, compassion, and mentorship, Dr. Tiên had played an essential role in getting many of us, particularly Vietnamese-American children of immigrants, to where we are today.

Two weeks ago, I met up with Dr. Tiên for the first time in over twenty years. Even though we haven’t met face to face, Dr. Tiên has always been in contact to see how I was doing. She understood what it was like losing a mother and offered advice to help me pull through the darkest days of my life. When we were catching up about the good old time, in a windy evening at my mother’s resting place, Dr. Tiên mentioned that she is working on her own coaching and consulting endeavor called Educational Partnerships for Success. Helping kids to success has always been her passion for over 30 years; therefore, this project is near and dear to her heart. I offered to help with her website. Dr. Tiên only had two requirements: the ability to update the content herself and a blog component to share her writing. To meet her needs, WordPress is the obvious solution.

Since Dr. Tiên already purchased the domain name, we just needed to get the hosting through the same company. Domain.com’s hosting package offers SSL certificate and WordPress installation with a click of a button. I hope these features become standards for many hosting companies if they don’t have them already. Once WordPress was installed, I activated its Twenty Ninety theme. This theme offered a clean, simple design that would work well for Dr. Tiên’s website. To make it personal, I created a child theme to add the logo at the top, change the colors to match the branding, and reset the typography. For headings, I chose Fraunces, designed by Phaedra Charles and Flavia Zimbardi, for its playfulness. For body text, I chose Rosario, designed by Héctor Gatti, for its academic friendliness. The two typefaces complement each other.

With the new Gutenberg editor inside WordPress, this theme gave me the flexibility to create different editorial elements through UI components as well as typographical hierarchies. It seemed to be the way to take advantage of WordPress’s Gutenberg. The days of creating a WordPress theme from scratch are long gone for me. I just needed to create the shell and rely on Gutenberg’s blocks to do the rest.

With the website up and running, I hope it will play a small role in getting Dr. Tiên started. She had already put together some wonderful STEM programs for the kids. I can’t wait to get my boys to enroll once the pandemic is under control. With her PhD in math, Dr. Tiên is also passionate about helping students who struggled with math to build more confidence in themselves.

I believe in Educational Partnerships for Success because Dr. Tiên had tutored, mentored, and guided me into the right direction. I am grateful for her support and her continuous work to help underserved kids, like myself and my friends were, to expand their potentials, reach their goals, and pursue their dreams.

Thưa mẹ, những đêm đông giá buốt khiến con xót xa nhớ về mẹ. Nơi mẹ nằm hoang vu và lạnh lẽo lắm. Lúc trước con nghe nhạc phẩm “Đừng bỏ em một mình” của nhạc sĩ Phạm Duy và nhà thơ Minh Đức Hoài Trinh do ca sĩ Thái Hiền trình bày con đã rùng mình. Giờ đây con không dám nghe lại. Con đã cố gắng rất nhiều để trở lại với cuộc sống bình thường nhưng trong thâm tâm và trí óc của con vẫn vắng đi một hình bóng quá lớn. Đêm đến con vẫn âm thầm rơi nước mắt. Sự ra đi của mẹ con vẫn không thể nào ngờ được. Con tìm đến kinh Phật để giúp con vượt qua nhưng lòng con vẫn không thể nào lắng xuống.

Hôm qua con đến chùa Di Đà niệm Phật và cúng thất thứ tư cho mẹ. Người đến cầu an và cầu siêu cho người thân nhiều hơn tuần trước. Con không biết mình đang làm gì. Chỉ cố gắng đặt niềm tin vào những lời khẩn cầu và hy vọng mẹ sẽ được siêu thoát. Lúc ba mất, sư bà Thích Nữ Nghĩa Liên đã trấn an con. Lúc mẹ mất, sư bà dặn dò trong vòng 49 ngày nếu được con nên ăn chay và viếng thăm những ngôi chùa gần chỗ con ở cúng dường và nhờ các sư cầu siêu cho cha mẹ.

Việc ăn chay thì cũng không có gì quá khó khăn đối với con. Mỗi chủ nhật sau giờ cầu siêu cho mẹ, con mua luôn những món chay tại chùa về ăn cả tuần. Giờ đây con cũng chẳng cảm thấy thèm thịt cá nữa. Chỉ cần chén cơm với dưa mắm thêm rau luộc cũng thấy ngon miệng.

Việc đi chùa và cúng dường các chị cũng đã giao phó cho con nên con cũng làm theo. Lúc trước con ít khi đến chùa. Thỉnh thoảng chỉ đi dự Tết mà thôi. Không ngờ ở Virginia, Maryland, và DC có rất nhiều chùa. Chỉ ngắm nhìn những tượng Phật cũng có cảm giác thanh tịnh hơn. Nếu có duyên với Phật pháp, con sẽ cố gắng đi chùa và học hỏi nhiều hơn vì cái tâm trong Đức Phật.

Đây là những ngôi chùa và tịnh xá con đã có cơ hội viếng thăm:

Chùa Pháp Hoa (Buddhist Association of PA)
202 Cherry Street, Columbia, PA 17512

Tịnh Xá Hương Thiền
4516 Guinea Road, Fairfax, VA 22032

Chùa Di Đà
6822 Columbia Pike, Annandale, VA 22003

Vạn Hạnh Center
7605 Bull Run Drive, Centreville, VA 20121

Chùa Hoa Nghiêm
9105 Backlick Road, Fort Belvoir, VA 22060

Virginia Bouddha Vihar
9108 Backlick Road, Fort Belvoir, VA 22060

Chùa Giác Hoàng
5401 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20011

Ký Viên Tự (Jetavana Vihara)
1400 Madison Street NW, Washington, DC 20011

Drikung Dharma Surya (Garchen Quan Âm Tự)
5300 Ox Road, Fairfax, VA 22030

Chùa Xá Lợi
6310 Manor Woods Road, Frederick, MD 21703

I am proud to introduce the first redesign of this blog for 2021. The layout is still simple. The color is still red, but much more dominating. The focus is still on readability. The typeface is all new. In this redesign, I wanted to have just one typeface—one font file—to rule it all. From large display typography to bold headings to readable body copy to legible user interface to coding samples to small texts, Recursive, designed by Stephen Nixon, takes care of everything thanks to the flexibility of its variable font.

I had the opportunity to work with Stephen on adding Vietnamese diacritics to Recursive in September, 2019. Although I always had the typeface in mind, I didn’t know which project to use it with until Stephen sent me a copy of his book on Recursive in December of last year. The book is filled with typographic beauties and versatilities. It shows all the possibilities of using a variable font. The best part is where Stephen shared his original concept and the meticulous process. I was inspired.

With five different axes to play with, I had a lot of fun redesigning the site live in the browser. Wakamai Fondue was incredibly helpful in testing out different combinations as well as copying and pasting the CSS properties. Even though I don’t blog about coding much, I still love how the coding font matches up exactly with the text font.

I hope you enjoy the new design and thank you for reading.

Amanda Gorman, the nation’s first-ever youth poet laureate, on democracy and the orange monster:

The hill we climb

If only we dare

It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit,

it’s the past we step into

and how we repair it

We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation

rather than share it

Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy

And this effort very nearly succeeded

But while democracy can be periodically delayed

it can never be permanently defeated

In this truth

in this faith we trust

Backward skating is hard. I haven’t spent too much time learning it—more like avoiding it. Yesterday I started my first ice skating lesson and this course is all about backward techniques so I better start practicing them. I could do backward swizzles on ice and that’s it. I am working on one-foot backward swizzles. I am also working backward on rollerblades. I really need to get backward skatings down; therefore; I will focus on these techniques in the next few weeks. That will be my goal.