Tập truyện ngắn về chủ đề xã hội, đời sống, và cách cư xử với nhau. Những câu chuyện không quá phức tạp cũng không quá não nề. Lối viết văn của Y Ban có chút mập mờ và huyền ảo. Không rõ ràng cũng không có câu kết luận như Có thể có, có thể không. Vì thế những câu chuyện không lắng đọng lại sau khi đọc. Chỉ nhớ mang máng những nhân vật và những khúc đoạn khác nhau. Đọc cũng tàm tạm thôi.

Spike Lee’s new joint for Netflix takes four Black-American veterans back to Vietnam to recover their soul and gold. The journey takes on a dark path once they found what they were there for. Lee joined forces Black actors (Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, and Isiah Whitlock Jr.) with Vietnamese actors (Johnny Trí Nguyễn, Ngô Thanh Vân, Lê Y Lan, Nguyễn Ngọc Lâm, and Sandy Hương Phạm). Lindo gave an unforgettable performance. He looked so damn menacing in the red MAGA hat. Perhaps you don’t want to fuck with a Black veteran who voted for Trump. It’s missed opportunity with one-sided perspective.

Đây là lần đầu tiên tôi nghe giọng hát của Hà Lê nên cũng chẳng rõ lai lịch của em (mới Google biết em 35 tuổi nên nhỏ hơn tôi) nhưng tôi thích ngay cách em biến hoá nhạc xưa với âm hưởng hiện đại. Từ “Huế, Sài Gòn, Hà Nội” được đổi mới qua giai điệu reggae, đến “Biển nhớ” với electronic hip-hop, đến “Ở trọ” với không gian ambience, Hà Lê cùng những nhạc sĩ hoà âm thổi vào ca khúc Trịnh Công Sơn những luồng gió contemporary. Đã lâu rồi mới được thưởng thức nhạc Trịnh với những thay đổi mới lạ.

Last year Đán told me that his two friends taught him some bad words. Yesterday I had the opportunity to talk to one of them.

The issue came up when Đán asked if we could listen to hip-hop since they already knew all the bad words. I asked Đán what bad words he already knew and he spilled out, “Bitch, ass, dick, fuck, and shit.” I asked his friend where he learned these words from and he responded, “Just go to YouTube and type in bad words.” Kids nowadays know exactly where to get their information.

I can’t recall how the middle finger came up in our discussion, but the friend told me that his dad uses his middle finger a lot. I was a bit surprised; therefore, I asked him to clarify and he said, “When my dad teaches senior students, he uses his middle finger to point on the board.” I then remembered that his dad is a high school math and science teacher.

I played them some JAY-Z’s, but couldn’t help to wonder if I could show them George Carlin’s infamous “Seven Words” routine. No, I’ll let them discover on their own.

Đạo, Đán, and Khôi (their cousin) are tight. Unlike when they were toddlers, they played together more than fought or argued against each other. They would spend all day on their digital devices if we let them. Because we live close by, they wanted to have sleepovers every weekend. Every time they had a sleepover, they would wake up at noon, ate brunch, then played video games while my wife and I redid our deck.

Last Saturday, we had no water in our house because we replaced our shut-off valves. All of us went over to my sister-in-law’s house to sleep. I was dead tired by 8:30 pm and just wanted to crash on the sleeping bag in the living room, but Đạo insisted that I should go to sleep in one of the bedrooms upstairs because the boys wanted to sleep together on the coaches. With my sister-in-law’s family, our family, and my mother-in-law, all the bedrooms upstairs were occupied.

By 9 or 9:30 pm I already passed out on the sleeping bag. Around 2 am, I heard voices whispering. I looked up and saw Đạo and Khôi chatting with some lights glowing. I got up to tell them to go to sleep and I was shocked to discover that they were playing on their iPads.

The next day, we had a parents-children discussion and we found out more shocking confessions. They had “secret iPad” time at night when they were supposed to be sleeping together in our house. No wonder they woke up so late. They secretly played on their iPads at the wee hours. My heart broke a little. They broke our trust. This is a sign of addiction. With the coronavirus and house-fixing projects, we let them loose for a bit with screen time and now they are sinking even deeper into digital addiction.

Now I feel so guilty for letting this happen. We need to get out again soon. Before the coronavirus hit, we limited screen time only on weekends. We would go out skiing, ice skating, swimming, or other activities. Nowadays Đạo hardly picks up his book to read. The only thing they have on their mind is screen time. We need to wean them off again.

Chappelle is on fire on 8:46, which was his birth time as well as how long George Floyd’s neck was blocked by the police’s knee. Chappelle is thoughtful and provocative on the murder of George Floyd. He calls Laura Ingraham a cunt and calls out the stupidity of Candace Owens. I have not seen any living comedians can speak their minds like Chappelle. Given his status in the comedy world, I respect him even more. He’s a comic who does not afraid to speak the truth and he does not back down whether you agree with him or not.

Last year, we had a plumbing inspection by Home Service Doctors. The plumber recommended that we replace shut-off valves. He estimated a few hundred dollars for the three that were worn out and no longer shutting off water. I declined the service because I wanted to replace all of them (eleven total) and that would have cost me at least a grant. I thought I could replace them myself.

This weekend, I decided to take on this project. After looking up YouTube for instructions, which were straightforward, I went to Home Depot to pick up 11 one-forth-turn angle valves. Saturday morning, my wife and I dropped the kids over at my sister-in-law’s house so we could shut off our main water valve. Taking off the shut-off valves were as easy it looked on YouTube. Unfortunately, the most challenging part, which did not emphasized in a few videos, was how to remove the compression sleeves. We ended up buying a compression sleeve and faucet puller. It worked for some sleeves, but not for others, especially the valves underneath the sink with pop-up drains in the way. For those, I just left the old nuts and sleeves on and just replace the valves. If I have to do it again, I would do it that way instead of trying to pull off the sleeves. Initially, I was going to replace all eleven valves, but I only did nine for the three bathrooms. Each bathroom has two valves for the sink and one for the toilet. These are the critical ones anyway. I didn’t replace the valves under the kitchen sink and the bathroom in the basement. It already took the whole day with just the three bathrooms.

After new the valves were in place, we turned the water back on and that when the horror began. Water sprayed and leaked everywhere. The project turned into a disaster. One particular valve had water came out of the pipe. I might have pulled the sleeve too hard that I cracked part of the pipe where it was soldered. It was already late into the day. I was overwhelmed and exhausted. We called it the night. We went over our my sister-in-law’s house to have dinner and to sleep. I was half dead. I couldn’t even eat dinner. My mood was gloomy. I crashed on the the sleeping bag in the living room with my kids. Fortunately, my wife was not as worried as me.

Sunday morning, I woke up with a mild headache. I did not want to continue the job. I wanted to call the a plumber, but my wife was confident that we could do it. Apparently, she did some research on repairing the pipes using SharkBite materials, which do not require soldering. Of course, I went along with her. We let the kids stayed with my mother-in-law at my sister-in-law’s house and we headed to Lowe’s to get more materials. We went back to our house and we went straight to work. I cut the the drywall where the pipe was leaked. It turned out the pipe was more complicated than we thought. It has an elbow connect to a tee fitting, which meant we have to replace both. I gave up and called the plumber guy who used to remodeled my sister-in-law’s bathrooms. Unfortunately, he was unavailable. My wife went back to Lowe’s to pick up more materials to replace both the elbow and the tee while I stayed home tried to tighten up the screws as much as I could to stop the leaks. After tighten up the one with the leaking pipe, I turn the water on to test and to my surprise there was no leak. The pipe never cracked. The leaked was from the screw, but the water shot out too strong that it gave the impression the the pipe was leaked. My mood changed immediately. My headache was gone. I couldn’t wait to tell my wife the good news.

When she came back from Lowe’s, she also brought back a few SharkBite’s shut-off valves so we can try out. With the two valves that I could not get the leak to go away, I took them out and replaced the with SharkBite’s. When she installed SharkBite’s valves, I was amazed how simple it was. She simply marked the copper pipe and pushed the valve all the way in to meet the mark and that was it. There was no leaking and no tightening. If I could have done this project all over again, I would just go with SharkBite’s valve. It saves time and hassle. Actually, I did come across in my research about the SharkBite, but I ignored it. It seemed too good to be true. Now I am beating myself up for not considering it.

Once again, my wife saved the day. This lady is amazing. When I am pessimistic, she’s optimistic. With our next project, I will run by her first before I do anything. I told her, I am just going to be her machinery—a pretty bad one. Nevertheless, I’ll just do whatever she tells me to do. Unlike me, she does much better research and she does not feel down when things go wrong.

We dodged another bullet. I thought it would be a disaster, but it turned out fine. I truly despise house maintenance. It takes time away from my days off to relax. It also takes time away from our kids. I told my wife that for next project we will contract out, but she wanted me to do it and we will include the kids so they can learn to do as well. They need to learn how to do fix things around the house. It will be beneficial to them. I have to agree with her. In retrospect, I could have learned so much from my dad. He built houses, theaters, and temples before he retired. And yet, I know nothing about construction or house maintenance.

This week’s photos dedicated to Black Lives Matter. The inspiration came from an image of a little girl holding up a sign succinctly explains the movement:

We said “Black lives matter.”
We never said “only Black lives matter.”
We know “all lives matter.”
We just need your help with #BlackLivesMatter for Black lives are in danger!

’nuff said!

I rewatched The Matrix last night after 21 years. The first time I watched it in a theater I did not understand what the heck they were talking about. My English was still pretty limited back then. The dialogs make more sense to me the second time around; therefore, I enjoyed it immensely.

Our hardwood floor had a huge gap between the boards. This ingenious video from Adriel Denae shows how to do it quickly and cheaply. Thanks, Adriel!