In Yoko Ogawa’s dark, dystopian island, objects disappeared one by one and having memory was a crime. Anyone who had any memory would be interrogated and arrested by the Memory Police and no one knew where they took them. Anything that brought memory must be destroyed. Books were burned. Calendars were vanished. Eventually anything that had form must be gone. It’s a remarkably bleak and chilling read. I often have a difficult time following a work of nonfiction, but I could read this book the whole way through without being lost thanks to Ogawa’s superb storytelling and Stephen Snyder’s outstanding translation. Like the only survival in the book, the story will remain in my memory for a long time.

Maïmouna Doucouré’s Cuties is a coming-of-age film that has been mistaken for underage sexualization due to Netflix’s botched promotion. It is uncomfortable to watch eleven-year-old girls dancing erotically in their skimpy outfit, but that is the point Doucouré tries to make.

Amy (Fathia Youssouf), an eleven-year-old Senegalese, has the responsibility of looking after her two younger brothers and she must obey the Muslim tradition. Her father is about to marry a second wife and his first wife and kids must welcome them back into their house with a wedding celebration. Amy rebels her family by joining the dance group. She befriends Angelica (Médina El Aidi-Azouni) who is the group’s leader with the resemblance of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Because her parents always busy working at the restaurant, Angelica is left on her own and she is troublesome.

It is about immigrant children growing up in housing apartments. With lack of support from teachers and guidance from parents, they get their influence from the pop culture. It is an eye-opening film that reminds me of Larry Clark’s Kids in the 90s. I hope that Netfilx is not going to pull it.

Of course he knew about the seriousness of the pandemic. He is just too incompetent to do anything about it. He doesn’t give a fuck that people died from the coronavirus. It is what it is.

Unfortunately, the Republicans are too weak and too scared to hold him accountable. His supporters don’t see anything wrong with their God. He can do whatever the fuck he wants.

Four more years and he will have more control of the country. With his power, he can make the presses, the dissidents, and the scientists disappear. He can shoot somebody without losing his voters.

I don’t know how people can vote for him. Maybe they just want to see democracy burn down to the ground? Maybe they want to live under a totalitarian system of government?

An excellent piece from Ibram X. Kendi for The Atlantic. Kendi writes:

White male supremacy has granted the president the power to accost women and “grab ’em by the pussy”; the power to “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” without losing voters; the power to call the first female major-party nominee for president “such a nasty woman” on live television and still win more white women’s votes than she did; the power to say the first Black president was not born in the United States and still have Black men say at his convention that he is “not racist.” White male supremacy has allowed the president to have a foreign power intercede in a presidential election on his behalf, to call neo-Nazis “very fine people,” to urge his supporters to vote twice, to build a monument of lies, to obstruct justice while freeing friends and punishing foes, to describe Americans who died at war as “suckers” and “losers,” and to look away as hundreds of thousands of American COVID-19 victims’ bodies pile up at cemeteries—and not face any consequences.

Kendi concludes:

Those who embrace Trumpism demand, like police officers, qualified immunity for their racism and sexism. When they hear “Me too,” when they hear “Impeach him,” when they hear “Black lives matter,” when they hear “No justice, no peace”—they hear the sounds of violent attacks on their supremacy, they envision their property burning, they see their America under attack. In their minds, slavery did not end.

Scary time in America, particularly for Black Americans.

Americans who sacrifice their lives for our country are losers and suckers. Americans who sacrifice their lives for Trump are winners and patriots. Let’s face it. We are heading toward totalitarianism if we don’t vote him out.

Hôm nay ngày đầu tiên Đạo và Đán nhập học trên mạng. Tôi vừa làm việc vừa phải xem chừng bọn nó nhất là thằng Đán. Không có người lớn bên cạnh nó chẳng chịu ngồi tập trung. Đến chiều tụi nó học xong đầu tôi nhức như chạm thần kinh.

Cuối tuần lễ vừa qua gia đình anh vợ qua chơi. Lần đầu tiên mấy anh em bên vợ tựu hợp sau nhiều tháng cách ly vì đại dịch. Tám thằng cháu gặp nhau quậy tưng bừng. Tuy mệt né thở nhưng cũng vui. Dù sao đi nữa thì gia đình vẫn là gia đình. Được như thế thì mẹ vợ cũng thấy vui.

Nhà cửa bây giờ bề bộn quá. Cần thời gian để thu xếp gọn gàng lại. Nhìn thấy đồ đạc ngổn ngang tôi bị stress rồi. Không phải lỗi ai khác ngoài tôi. Vì hơi bị lười nên cứ hẹn đến cuối tuần. Cuối tuần thì càng chồng chất lên nhau. Đồ giặt thùng thùng chưa kịp xếp. Vớ cả thùng để ngày này qua tháng nọ cũng không tìm được những đôi giống nhau. Đồ chơi từ trên lầu xuống basement. LEGO thì chỗ nào cũng có. Mỗi lần đạp lên LEGO là đau thấu xương như bị gout vậy. Đồ dùng trong nhà cũng tràn ngập không biết phải nhét vào đâu. Còn xung quanh nhà thì cây cối tấp nập cỏ dại mọc thênh thang.

Lúc trước tụi nhỏ đi học đi nhà trẻ, tôi lấy ngày phép ở nhà dọn dẹp. Bây giờ lấy ngày nghỉ ở nhà cũng phải lo cho bọn nó nên lấy ngày nghỉ cũng không làm được việc gì. Vợ tôi còn bận rộn hơn tôi nữa nên cũng không có thời gian thu xếp đồ đạc. Thôi thì giờ đây làm được việc gì thì làm.

Nhờ quyển sách Vietnamese Typography (Nghệ thuật chữ Việt) mà tôi được cơ hội làm việc với những nhà thiết kế chữ từ Á Châu đến Âu Châu từ Nam Mỹ đến Bắc Mỹ. Tôi được họ tin tưởng trong việc nhật xét và góp ý để chữ của họ được rõ ràng và dễ dàng cho người Việt đọc. Được đóng góp một phần nho nhỏ trong công việc đưa nghệ thuật chữ Việt được dồi dào hơn là một sự vui sướng cho những con tim yêu thương chữ Việt như tôi.

Gần đây nhất, tôi được làm việc với Stephen Nixon qua bộ chữ mới Name Sans của anh được thiết kế dựa theo những bảng tên mặc khảm của NYC Subway. Name Sans đã được văn phòng Thống Kê Dân Số của tiểu bang New York chọn làm phông chữ nên họ yêu cầu anh Stephen làm bộ chữ với tiếng Việt và anh Stephen đã tìm đến tôi.

Tuy Name Sans vẫn chưa hoàn tất nhưng tôi tin chắc sẽ là một bộ phông rất hữu dụng, đặc biệt là Name Sans có tiếng nói Việt cho người Việt.

Back in April, David Jonathan Ross sent me a demo version of Roslindale variable font upon my request. I hadn’t a chance to try it out until a couple of days ago when I had the idea of redesigning Trịnh Công Sơn’s lyrics sample page, which I had created to show off Vietnamese typography. In the previous version, I set each quote using various fonts from Font of the Month Club, which I am still a member. It was playful but distracting reading experience. Furthermore, the performance was terrible because of the amount of fonts. In this redesign, I wanted to take the opposite approach.

Although this version of Roslindale is still a work-in-progress, it demonstrates the power of the variable font technology. With just one file, I can use Roslindale for large display, body text, and everything in between. The level of control the designer placed in the typographer’s hand for setting text with variable fonts is unprecedented. As you can see on the page, the author’s name is set in ultra weight. Each song’s title is set in bold display. Each song’s lyric is set in text. Each song has highlighted quotes setting in thin italic display.

I am not sure who reads this page, but I read it all the time. Trịnh Công Sơn’s lyrics are filled with poetic prose. I love to read them when I have nothing else to read or if I need to kill time. It’s a great way to learn Vietnamese and to figure out Trịnh Công Sơn’s spellbinding lyrics. I have been using this page more than I had originally thought.

Many thanks to David for letting me experimenting with demo. I can’t wait to see the final release of Roslinsdale. I know it will be amazing.

Sáng nay nhận được tin dữ khiến tôi vô cùng xót xa. Cả người đau điếng đầu óc rối loạn không biết phải tính sao. Trong hoàn cảnh hiện tại với COVID lan truyền, tôi có thể làm được gì trong giờ phút này?

Đêm qua trằn trọc không ngủ được. Những tâm trạng khó tả không thể nào viết được ra lời. Nhiều cảm xúc mâu thuẫn chồng chéo lên nhau.

Cuộc sống rồi cũng như thế. Tương lai rồi cũng như thế. Mình đến trên đời này rồi mình cũng phải ra đi. Còn sống một ngày là hẹn chết mai kia.

Thôi cố gắng ngủ được phút nào hay phút nấy. Ngày mai còn rất nhiều công việc phải làm. Nhất là trách nhiệm với đám con.

Đạo, my twelve-year-old son, has been fascinated with guns. He reads about guns and observes all of their components. I asked him why he is interested in guns and he told me that he liked the history and the mechanism behind them.

He loved telling me his latest creations. He walked me through the features he had created based on various guns. From the magazine holder to the front sight, I was impressed with the way he translated what he saw from real guns into his LEGO creations.

Building LEGO guns is one of his favorite activities when he’s not on the computer. He used to build tanks, airplanes, and helicopters with LEGOs. I am sure gun is just what he is into right now before moving on to something else. I am glad that he finds his creative passion, but I can’t help being a bit concerned given the gun violence in America.

Đán, my eight-year-old son, on the other hand, has been fascinated with the Rubik’s Cube after watching Netflix’s documentary The Speed Cubers. Unlike his brother, he just spends time messing around instead of following instructions. He figured out how to solve one side, but showed no interest in solving all six.

I used to be able to solve all six sides when I was a kid. Now I can only solve one. In the past few days, I spent a bit of time reading instructions and watching YouTube videos trying to solve it. I got pretty close and messed up at the last step. I wanted to solve it so that I could teach him, but I got frustrated and gave up. He is just going to have to figure it out on his own.