Cuối tuần cả gia đình tôi đi dự buổi tiệc kỷ niệm 29 năm của chị Thư và anh Hội. Nhìn thấy anh chị gần 3 thập kỷ vẫn yêu thương như thuở ban đầu, tôi rất hâm mộ.

Gia đình chị Thư quen với gia đình vợ tôi từ lúc còn ở Việt Nam. Bố mẹ vợ tôi và bố mẹ chị là bạn thân. Tôi không biết nhiều về chị nhưng nhận ra được sự cởi mở và thân thiện của chị mỗi lúc gặp và trò chuyện. Chị là người đã đưa hai thằng con trai và thằng cháu tôi đến võ đường của anh. Dĩ nhiên là hai thằng nhỏ con tôi và thằng cháu nhỏ cũng sẽ bái anh làm sư phụ khi tụi nó chịu nghe lời.

Tôi biết anh Hội qua võ đường Thần Phong. Tuy chỉ gặp anh vài phút những ngày cuối tuần lúc đưa mấy thằng con đến học võ, nhưng tôi luôn kính trọng bản chất khiêm tốn và điềm đạm của anh. Anh dạy từng đứa tận tình theo năng khiếu của mỗi đứa. Tôi tin rằng anh không chỉ dạy võ cho mấy đứa nhỏ mà luôn cả đạo đức làm người. Hy vọng bọn nó sẽ học hỏi võ thuật và noi gương theo nhân cách của thầy.

Tôi lấy làm vinh hạnh được chứng kiến buổi tiệc thật ấm cúng của anh chị. Con gái anh chị ca bài “The Power of Love” tặng cha mẹ đầy ý nghĩa. Bạn bè hát những bài nhạc tình gửi tặng cặp vợ chồng hạnh phúc. Đặc biệt là anh chị cùng song ca “Bài ca hạnh ngộ” của Lê Uyên Phương. Khi anh chị cất câu, “Rồi mai đây đi trên đường đời / đừng buông tay âm thầm tìm về cô đơn,” tôi hiểu được tình yêu bền lâu của anh chị. Lúc mới yêu và mới cưới, đôi uyên ương nào cũng nắm chặt lấy tay nhau. Nhưng khi đường đời đầy chông gai họ có còn nắm chặt hay không hay buông tay âm thầm tìm về cô đơn? Lê Uyên Phương đưa hai câu này vào nhạc thật độc đáo.

Vợ chồng tôi cũng nhận thức được hai câu này và hy vọng rằng chúng tôi cũng sẽ có kỷ niệm 29 năm như anh chị. Cám ơn anh chị đã cho chúng em cùng chung vui với anh chị trong một ngày tràn đầy ý nghĩa tình yêu. Qua tình cảm anh chị dành cho nhau, tôi tin chắc rằng anh sẽ đưa chị đến cuối cuộc đời.

Đán is a good athlete. Because of his brave and wild personality, he can pick up any sport quickly. He learned to swim at the age of four by jumping into the deep end of the pool and trying to make himself to me. Đạo and Xuân never trusted me enough to do that.

When he learned to ski, he picked it real fast as well. He always skied at the edge of the slope or tried to find hills he could jump off. He made Đạo and his cousin went on the blue and black slopes with him. I sometimes worried about his fearlessness.

He wanted to take up fencing because it sounded cool when he told people that. He’s really into it and he does it quite well. The instructors encouraged him to practice more and get into private lessons to focus on his technical skills.

He picked up ice skating fast too. The first time he went out on the ice, he didn’t use the wall. He just walked, fell, got up, and walked again. He quickly found his balance. I instructed him to start skating instead of walking and he began jumping. In the last few weeks, I started to learn the hockey stop from watching some YouTube videos. He saw how I sprayed a bit of ice and got intrigued. He asked me to teach him. He got impatient at first, but I assured him that he could do it quickly. Not only he now can do the hockey stop, but he can also skate backward, crossover, and even one-foot eagle. He just tried out whatever he saw other people do that looked cool. He has the natural ability and now he just needed correct instructions. I wanted to enroll him into private lessons, but he is doing so many activities. He seemed to love all the sports he is playing and he didn’t complain about any of them.

Last week, Đạo and I joined him to play soccer from 9:30 am to 11 am. Then I took him ice skating from 12 pm to 3:30 pm. I was exhausted, but he had swimming class from 5 pm to 6 pm. After his lesson, he wanted extra time to play in the pool. He went straight to bed and slept right through the night after dinner.

I wish his academics were as good as his athleticism, but you can’t have everything. He had been diagnosed with ADHD. Sports seem to help with his overactive mind and body. He burned so much energy without feeling tired. If he sat around, he would get bored and beg for iPad time. Reading seems hard for him to focus. He is slowly improving; therefore, I am backing off making him read every night. He got in trouble in class once in a while for not paying attention or not listening to his teachers. He struggles with Spanish. We’re thinking of pulling him out of the immersion program next year so he can focus only in English. We’ll see if he would improve or fall further behind at the end of this school year.

Pete Buttigieg drops out just two days before Super Tuesday. The move is quite shocking, but it makes sense if the rumor is true about the Biden-Buttigieg ticket. I can get behind that. I am planning on voting for Elizabeth Warren on Super Tuesday unless Biden announces his VP pick before then.

In 50 years, Bernard and Glaser have designed, redesigned, or consulted over 100 magazines. They worked together for the first time in 1968 as art director and design director for New York magazine, which showcased at length in the book. From revising the word mark to designing the covers to creating editorial experiences, the prolific duo collaborated on the magazine until Ropert Murdoch took over. After 9 years, Bernard and Glaser moved on to work on their own for various publications. Then they reunited when Bernard landed a gig with The Washington Post and Glazer landed Lire. They created their agency called WBMG and continued to put out excellent works. They have tremendous influence on editorial designs and the book is a proof. Definitely worth reading and flipping through for inspiration.

Davidson opened his Netflix Special with a jab at Louis C.K. The punch landed on C.K.’s jerking off in front of women, but he missed the target. In reverse, C.K. would have roasted his ass. His porn sex materials were disappointing. He took a swipe at Ariana Grande over big dick and small hands. That didn’t quite land either. He explained the joke he made about Dan Crenshaw’s eye patch. The word “whatever” got him in trouble and he had to apologize. That was probably the highlight of the special. He talked about the death of his father in September 11 when he was seven years old. His writing isn’t quite there yet.

Expanded on his devastating investigative reports for the Wall Street Journal on Theranos, John Carreyrou reveals the relentless drives and the bottomless lies from its chief executive Elizabeth Holmes. Dropped out of Stanford after only eight months to start her company in Silicon Valley, Holmes set out to change the healthcare industry with her innovative device that could test blood quickly and accurately with just a few drops. Unfortunately, the revolutionary concept was easy to sell, but impossible to execute. Together with her partner-in-crime Sunny Balwani, Holmes cut corners when they couldn’t deliver and cut into people’s lives when the tests showed inaccurate results. They became ruthless to anyone, particularly their employees, who questioned their fraud and immorality.

Right from the first chapter of the book, Carreyrou profiles Holmes’s childhood life with some red flags. Like most parents, her father instilled in her the notion of living a purposeful life. They encouraged her to be all that she can be; therefore, she had become competitive. When she played Monopoly with her younger brother and cousin, she always wanted to win. When she occasionally lost, she ran through the screen door in a rage. I had seen kids with this type of competitive edge. I wondered if that type of behavior is good or bad. I always taught my kids that it was OK to lose. They didn’t have to win everything and every time. Then I began to doubt myself. If I don’t drill the competitiveness in them, will they not try hard? Competitiveness had built confidence in Holmes, but focusing on just winning made her lose sight of everything else including consequence, ethnic, and compassion. If she could balance out her consciences and competitiveness, she might be able to come up with a groundbreaking product.

Drawing from 150 people (including 60 former employees), Carreyrou has written a riveting non-fiction book that reads like fiction. Although the book is 300 pages, it moves swiftly. His prose is so hard to put down. I highly recommend it.

In 2012, my wife asked me to create a tribute website for her father after he passed away. I stood up WordPress and created a child theme based on Twenty Twelve, which was WordPress’s default theme at the time. WordPress was quick for me to set up and easy for her to add content. Except for his biography, she put together photos, videos, and letters from family members and friends.

Since then she hadn’t updated the site. She doesn’t need to. It is a special little site to keep all the wonderful memories of him. I could have left the site as it was, but I felt WordPress was not necessary. Even though I had automatic upgrade turned on, maintaining WordPress was not ideal. In addition, the Twenty Twelve theme seemed outdated.

I had wanted to redesign the site from scratch and to remove WordPress for a while. I finally found the motivation and the time last week to do it. I recreated the pages using HTML, CSS, and a bit of PHP. The new design is fresh and no longer driven by templates. It felt great getting rid of WordPress altogether.

Redesigning the site feels as if I have paid proper tribute to my father-in-law. I wish I could share the website, but I respect my wife and her family’s privacy.

Rest In Peace, Bố.

Xuân Hảo có giọng ca trầm đẹp. Qua Bản tình trầm Hảo cover lại những ca khúc lãng mạn như “Tháng giêng và anh” và “Niệm khúc cuối” (Ngô Thuỵ Miên) rất trung thành. Những bài hoà âm cũng đơn giản không có gì mới lạ. Hảo cũng cover lại những bài trữ tình như “Tình bơ vơ” (Lam Phương) và “Mùa đông của anh” (Trần Thiện Thanh). Chỉ có khác là không đủ sến thôi. Album nghe cũng tạm. Không dỡ cũng chẳng có gì nổi bật.

I have not kept up with this election as closely as I should. I had to stop following the news for my own mental health and sanity. From early on, I had decided who to vote for on Super Tuesday and I have not changed my mind. Elizabeth Warren is still my choice. Even if she won’t get the nomination, I am still down with Amy, Bernie, Joe, or Pete. Any if these candidates will be much better for America than the clown in the White House.

What will be at stake in this election isn’t just the presidential race, but also the Congress. Democrat needs to take control of the Senate. In the worse case scenario if the lunatic gets re-elected, Congress can impeach him again and actually remove the motherfucker.

I have learned to not let him get to me. My life has been much better without paying attention to him. Although I don’t give a fuck about him, I still want to see him go away after this election. Then again, I have many family and friends, the Vietnamese-American community in particular, supporting him. I respect their choice. I just don’t want him to ruin our relationships or friendships. I am not mad at you. I have nothing but love for you. Who you vote for is your prerogative.

After almost four years of hell, I am optimistic that our democracy will survive the tumultuous time. It has been challenged, but not dead yet. It has been damaged, but can be restored. I love America, its democracy, and its freedom. Even with a horrendous president ruining our country, I would rather be here than anywhere else in the world. The fact that I can write down this post and speak my mind without fear is what I have come to appreciate about America and its freedom of speech.

As I walked to the public library, an elder Black man approached me. He asked if I registered to vote. I replied, “Yes, sir.” He asked if I would put him on the ballot for Congress. I looked up at his Trump 2020 cap and I asked, “Are you running as a Republican?” He replied, “No, I am running as an Independent.” I smiled, “Really? But your hat says it all.” He responded, “I am wearing a swim-team jacket too and I don’t know how to swim.” I shook my head. He followed up, “You know, my grandfather got shot for the right to vote.” I shot back, “Then you should not support that racist. I am sorry, sir, and I am not trying to be disrespectful, but I can’t put my name down for you.”