Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor writes for The New Yorker:

If we are serious about ending racism and fundamentally changing the United States, we must begin with a real and serious assessment of the problems. We diminish the task by continuing to call upon the agents and actors who fuelled the crisis when they had opportunities to help solve it. But, more importantly, the quest to transform this country cannot be limited to challenging its brutal police alone. It must conquer the logic that finances police and jails at the expense of public schools and hospitals. Police should not be armed with expensive artillery intended to maim and murder civilians while nurses tie garbage sacks around their bodies and reuse masks in a futile effort to keep the coronavirus at bay.

We have the resources to remake the United States, but it will have to come at the expense of the plutocrats and the plunderers, and therein lies the three-hundred-year-old conundrum: America’s professed values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, continually undone by the reality of debt, despair, and the human degradation of racism and inequality.

Word!

Last week I wrote in Vietnamese addressing the issue in my own community in regard to Black Lives Matter. I am angry and embarrassed, but I am not the only one. Hasan Minhaj also speaks eloquently to his community on this matter. He said, “Look, I can’t speak to what it is like to be black, but I know how we talk about black people and it is fucked up.” Yes, it is indeed fucked up that we talk shit and stay on the sideline. He offers three things we can help end systemic racism in America:

1. End Qualified Immunity
2. Demilitarize the police
3. Vote out the shitty local officials

Fuck that! Let’s vote that crazy racist motherfucker out of the White House as well.

Gần đây con bận rộn quá nên xém một chút quên ngày sinh nhật của mẹ. Con thành thật xin lỗi mẹ. Đã lâu rồi không gặp mẹ. Xin mẹ thông cảm nhé. Chừng nào cơn đại dịch lắng xuống con sẽ đưa đám cháu về thăm mẹ. Con xin chúc mẹ luôn mạnh khoẻ.

We did it. The re-decking project is now completed. It is not perfect, but I am satisfied with the final product. I am glad it is now done. It feels like tons of weight has lifted off my chest, literally. The project was a great learning experience for me and it has definitely boosted my confidence. As someone who loves to build virtual homes more than real homes, I came to realize that I am not as bad as I thought when I have to get my hands dirty.

Of course, I could not have done it without my wife who has more confidence in me than I do in myself. She knew I could do it and had been there with me every step of the way. She researched, made suggestions, did all the calculations, and made me redo parts that weren’t quite right. Sure, we had some tense moments, but we communicated and worked things out. I loved our collaboration. We didn’t move mountains, but we accomplished something together. I have nothing in common with Barack Obama, except that we both married up. He became the president of the United States, but I have a new deck.

I also could not have done this without the help of my mother-in-law. She took care of the kids so we can focus on this project. Although I took a week staycation, I did not get to spend much time with the kids. I felt guilty letting them spend lots of time on their digital devices. They helped out a bit in the beginning when we broke down the deck, but they rather stayed inside when the weather was getting hot. I don’t blame them. Đạo, our oldest son, helped out a bit here and there, but he also was tied up with video games. The good thing is that I still have to take another week of vacation time by the end of this month. With social distancing still in effect, I am not sure what we can do, but I am fine with just staying home, reading, blogging, and playing with the kids so my wife can focus on her work. Also thanks to my sister-in-law and her husband for lending us the tools, which saved us quite a bit of expenses.

The biggest motivation for redoing the deck ourselves was cost saving. We could not afford $15,000 to $20,000 to hire the professionals. Initially I budgeted $900 for the materials if we simply replaced old woods with new woods. Then we decided on composite materials and my wife estimated $4,000 and she was close. My rough tracking is around $3,332. You can see the break down at the end of this document.

The project took us three weeks to complete. It was not as hard as I thought. It just takes time, patience, and many trips to Lowe’s and Home Depot. If you’re thinking of redoing the deck yourself, you can do it. I am not even a good handyman and I could pull it off. For resources, I find Lowe’s video and instructions to be easy to follow. YouTube also has plenty of good instructional video.

As I was working on this project, I thought of my father-in-law. I wish he were still here with us. I would have learned so much from him. I still recall one time he asked me to help him fix a wood gate when I came over to his house. At the time my wife and I were still dating. He knew his daughter would be in trouble if she married someone who couldn’t even hit a nail’s head straight on with a hammer.

Even today I still can’t hit a nail straight on its head; therefore, I preferred screws. Even with a screw, I stripped its head at times. Thankfully I have his daughter to guide me through. I want to dedicate this project to my father-in-law. Rest in peace, dad!

Total Cost

• $3,332

Posts

• Materials for posts: $255
• Seal tapes: $110
• Wood filler $10
• Water sealer for post: $15

Deck Boards

• Fiberon composite decking: $1320 (including Trex’s hidden fasteners)

Railings

• Fiberon railing system: $870 (including sleeves, base mountings, and caps)

Stair

• Fiberon composite decking: $180
• Wood: $70
• Nails & brackets $60
• Grass: $50
• Concrete blocks: $40

Miscellaneous

• Trim $200
• Fairfax County Permit: $112
• Wrecking Claw: $50
• Triangle rule: $10
• Drill head: $10

This week’s photos come from our redecking project. You can see random photos of the project in progress or you can read my seven-part blog posts. We’re pretty happy withe the final result.

Khi đọc những lời lẽ miệt thị người Mỹ Da Đen, tôi xót xa và xấu hổ cho cộng đồng Việt ở Mỹ. Trong giờ phút này cộng đồng của chúng ta phải tranh đấu cho sự bất công của cộng đồng Da Đen. Nếu như chúng ta không lên tiếng kêu gọi thay đổi thì đừng thêm dầu vô lửa với những từ ngữ khinh bỉ như “lười biếng,” “vô giáo dục,” “thấp hèn,” hoặc “trộm cướp.”

Sinh mạng của người Mỹ Da Đen thật đáng trân trọng. Họ đã trải qua quá nhiều sự bất công và sự kì thị. Từ lúc làm nô lệ bị đánh đập và thậm chí bị treo cổ, họ đã đấu tranh để được quyền công bằng. Sau 400 năm, giờ đây sinh mạng của người Da Đen vẫn nằm trong tay những người có nhiệm vụ bảo vệ họ. Người Mỹ Da Đen biểu tình vì sinh mạng của họ vẫn bị nguy hại. Người Mỹ Da Đen biểu tình vì sinh mạng của họ dễ dàng cướp đi chỉ vì màu da của họ. Người Mỹ Da Đen biểu tình cho mạng sống của họ. Người Mỹ Da Đen biểu tình cách đối xử hung bạo và tàn nhẫn với họ. Những kẻ cướp bóc chỉ lợi dụng hoặc muốn tàn phá sự biểu tình bình lặng của họ.

Nước Mỹ nợ người Mỹ Da Đen rất nhiều. Điều ít nhất người Mỹ có thể làm là tôn trọng mạng sống của họ. Việc chúng ta có thể làm được là thay đổi chính quyền trong cuộc bầu cử sắp tới. Những lời lẽ khinh bỉ và kì thị nên giữ lại cho chính cá nhân thôi.

The stairway has been a challenge for us. It took two days for my wife and I to debate, calculate, and strategize. According to the Virginia Residential Code, a stair with a height of 30 inches or higher required guards and with four or more risers required a handrail. Our stair is 27 inches; therefore, we don’t need guards. If we can make our stair with 3 risers, we don’t need a handrail either. Because the maximum height of a riser is 8.25 inches and we our riser 8 inches, we still have 3 inches extra.

Our choices were between a four-step stringer or two boxes stacked on top of each other. We decided on the boxes. Each box will be 8 inches tall. We just need two boxes plus the riser from the deck. For the remaining 3 inches, we’re going to fill up with dirt and flattening out our yard. We wanted to make the boxes a bit bigger and wider so we can also use them as a bench to chill out or for me to have a drink or two.

With my wife’s engineering mind, she did all the calculations for the stair. I just had to follow her direction. She is a tough boss with uncompromising inspection and attention to details, but I wouldn’t get too far without her. I had started to create the framing for the bottom box she had drawn out. Tomorrow I will finish up the top box. Once that’s done, I’ll place both boxes on concrete deck blocks and attach them to the deck. It is a simple concept, but takes a lot of materials. I hope we can wrap up this project by the end of this week. I really miss reading. I can’t wait to pick up Vietnamese books I have reserved at our public libraries.

In her latest Netflix Special, Gadsby takes on haters, golfers, anti-vexxers, famous painters, and Louis CK too. She is a brilliant comedian with an autistic vision. She doesn’t just think outside the box. She eats the fucking box too.

We wrapped up the railings today. Although the Fiberon’s ArmorGuard rail kit made the installation easy, I couldn’t have done it without my wife. She did all the measuring to make sure I didn’t mess up. We worked together to and got the job done. I am happy with the result.

We will be tackling the stairs next. I am not sure what to do yet. I am trying to keep it to only three steps so that we don’t have to include the handrail. I also wanted to make the stairs wider than the original and now I realized that I to have have four stringers instead of two. The original stairs didn’t even have a foundation or footing. It seems to be a bit more challenging than I thought.

Once the stairs are done, we just need to add some finished details including the trim board and the post caps. I hope to wrap up this project in the next few days or the end of this week the latest.

I am devastated and deeply in despair for our country. I am powerless as I witnessed another tragic death of a black man. He was lynched not standing up but laying down and not by a noose but by a knee. My heart goes out to George Floyd, his family, and Black Americans. I feel their anger and grieve. I am lost for words; therefore, I am going to let the photos speak. An image is worth a thousand words.