Hôm qua tôi đùa với bà xã, “12 năm nô lệ, em cảm thấy sao?” Cũng may là chưa bị dũa. 12 năm thành vợ thành chồng cùng nhau chia sẻ cay đắng ngọt bùi. 12 năm vẫn sát cánh bên nhau cho dù thế giới biến đổi và cuộc sống đảo điên.
Nhất là trong những ngày tháng đại dịch, chúng tôi càng gần nhau hơn. Gặp nhau từng phút từng giây mà chưa chém giết nhau hay thù oán nhau thì vẫn còn yêu nhau. Dù ghét nhau, giận nhau, cãi nhau, phiền nhau, đổ lỗi cho nhau, nhưng xin đừng xa nhau. 12 năm cảm xúc nào cũng đã bộc lộ.
Lúc mới quen chúng tôi đã có những giây phút khá lãng mạn qua những nhạc phẩm đã ghi lại mối tình của hai đứa. Sau 12 năm không biết những lời nhạc vẫn còn như thế hay đã thay đổi. Chẳng hạn như “Tình tự mùa xuân” của Từ Công Phụng:
Em lại đây với anh
Ngồi đây với anh
Trong cuộc đời này.
Nghe thời gian lướt qua
Mùa xuân khẽ sang
Chừng như không gian đang sưởi ấm
những giọt tình nồng.
Bây giờ mỗi bữa cơm còn nuốt không trôi với mấy thằng nhóc nữa huống gì ngồi lại với nhau để sưởi ấm những giọt tình nồng.
Rồi còn “Vì đó là em” của Diệu Hương:
Không cần biết em là ai
Không cần biết em từ đâu
Không cần biết em ngày sau.
Ta yêu em bằng mấy ngàn biển rộng
Ta yêu em qua đông tàn ngày tận
Yêu em như yêu vùng trời mênh mông.
Giờ thì biết em quá rồi. Tranh cãi lộn với em mỏi cả mồm vẫn không thắng được. Vì có đôi lúc em không cần lý lẽ.
Còn “Nụ hôn gởi gió,” nhạc Hoàng Việt Khanh và thơ của Hiền Vy: “Môi em mọng đỏ, là đỏ như mơ / Cho anh nhờ gió hôn vào là vào môi em.” Có những hôm em đang làm cá thấy thương nên hôn nhẹ lên cổ vai em. Em quay lại hỏi, “Muốn gì?” Lãng mạn nay đã trở thành lãng xẹt.
Cũng may là lời trong “Bài ca hạnh ngộ” của Lê Uyên Phương vẫn không thay đổi: “Rồi mai đây đi trên đường đời / Đừng buông tay âm thầm tìm về cô đơn.” Đúng thế 12 năm tuy không còn nắm tay nhau nữa nhưng vẫn không buông tay âm thầm tìm về cô đơn.
Giờ đây coronavirus vẫn còn tung hoành nên cũng không ăn mừng gì. Thôi thì xin mượn bài viết này để ghi lại kỷ niệm 12 năm.
Happy anniversary to the love of my life.
When I read this book six years ago, I wrote in my review that I would definitely revisit it the future. In a pandemic, I’ve run out of books to read; therefore, I reread this book. I have a better understand of Robert Irwin’s approach and process to his art this time around, but I still am a bit lost near the end. I have a hard time visualizing the artwork through words. The art world is still foreign to me. Will I read this book again in the future? Probably not. I can’t wait for the libraries to reopen so I can get some new books to read. For the time being, I still have two books I might want to reread.
For the law school’s class of 2020, we wanted to do something special on graduation. The Senior Associate Dean wanted to put together a banner on our homepage looping all the graduate names. When I received the request, I was not sure how to include over 230 graduates on a small banner. After doing some research, I came up with the scrolling solution, which is similar to the credit at the end of a film. I came across this simple CSS scrolling text technique by Syed Murtaza and adapted for our own use. The scrolling banner is only featured for today so take a look before the day is over.
In a typical graduation year, we would have a print booklet about 40 pages. Since the event is online this year, we wanted to create a short program page recognizing all the graduates. I put together the program page using CSS multi-columns. I really love this CSS feature. It makes typesetting for something like this painless.
We also created a page for the faculty and staff to leave personal notes for the graduates.
Designing for the dark mode had been an afterthought for me. I simply changed the text and background colors and leave everything else intact—even typography. Because I still preferred reading dark text on light background over light text on dark background, I spent most of my time designing for light mode and I had always loved serif text faces. If I have to read text on dark background, however, I prefer sans serif over serif. As a result, I thought why not changing up the typography as well for dark mode.
If you are reading this site with dark mode, the main text is set in Amica Pro, by Dave Rowland. Last year, I had the opportunity to advise Dave on Vietnamese for Amica Pro. I am not sure if he had a chance to implement my recommendations. The version I am using has not been updated. Although some minor tweaks would be better, but the diacritic design over all is pretty solid. For display text, I am using David Jonathan Ross’s Dattilo DJR Banner, which has a variable font.
If you read this site on dark mode, please let me know your feedback.
Stacey Abrams has not even been picked for the VP spot yet and the right pundits already started swinging at her. They called her names, tried to discredit her accomplishments, and even compared her to their own Sarah Palin.
Their arguments are laughable given who they had voted to run our country. When they put a moron in the White House, they have no credibility to criticize others. They should just shut the fuck up, but they can’t. They are racist and don’t even bother trying to hide it in public anymore.
Although I still hope that Biden will pick Elizabeth Warren as his running mate, I hope that he and his campaign don’t rule out Abrams because of the stupid, racist, right-wing pundits.
With the help of my two older sons and their cousin, we pulled out all the deck boards and railings over the weekend. On Monday, I woke up at seven in the morning and went to Lowe’s to pick up 4×4 pressure-treated timbers and other materials to continue the project. I didn’t get to work on the deck because I had to switch to my full-time job at 9:30 am.
I was going to jump back to the deck project after work, but my wife insisted that I needed to get the permit from the county. Instead of doing physical labor, I called the county and emailed about the process. I spent time reading and gathering information. I went ahead and submitted my application and paid the fee. I also submitted the paperworks I think they needed. I hope the process will work out smoothly. I am not doing anything much really. I am just replacing the woods.
This morning at 7 am I went to Lowe’s and Home Depot to pick out more materials. I didn’t get to work on the deck as I had planned in the morning so I did some after work hours. I cut up 4×4 timbers. I am hoping to install the posts tomorrow morning. The project is so far so good. I am not in a rush, but I wanted to keep the project moving.
I debated whether I should go with wood or composite. I kept switching back and forth trying to figure out which method is simpler. Right now I am leaning toward composite. I really don’t like the idea of maintaining the wood every summer. We’ll see!
Tuần rồi tôi có đăng lên vài tấm hình mấy đứa con lên blog. Có một đọc giả gửi thư nhắc nhở rằng tôi là một người chồng và một người cha may mắn. Đúng thế, tôi là người đàn ông rất may mắn mặc dù vợ tôi không được hiền và con tôi không được ngoan.
Đừng hiểu lầm nhé. Tôi không phải nói vợ tôi là bà chằn và đám con tôi là lũ quỷ. Tuy nhiên “vợ hiền con ngoan” thì không thực tế cho lắm. Vợ chồng sống chung mười hai năm, không thù ghét nhau là may mắn rồi. Những lời lẽ nhỏ nhẹ và ngọt ngào của thuở ban đầu giờ đã thay thế bằng những lời cộc lốc và chua chát. Những câu nói đùa giỡn của ngày nào giờ chỉ khiến đối phương giận. Tôi thấy được sự hao mòn trong đôi mắt em.
Hai tháng nay sống quây quần trong nhà với vợ con đã trở thành thói quen. May mắn được vợ luôn lo lắng cho những món ăn thường ngày và lâu lâu những món ăn tinh thần. Còn đám nhỏ thì không lúc nào không khiến tôi mệt mỏi. Có con cái mới biết quý trọng những phút giây yên tĩnh. May mắn là bọn chúng khỏe mạnh và phát triển tốt. Mỗi ngày được chứng kiến sự thay đổi của thằng Vương là một niềm vui và hạnh phúc lớn. Những lời nói những cử chỉ của nó thật đáng yêu. Thấy nó được mấy thằng anh lớn thương yêu bảo bọc tôi cũng yên tâm.
Dĩ nhiên tôi không phải người chồng lý tưởng cũng không phải người cha hoàn hảo. Tôi có những khuyết điểm của mình và cố gắng vượt qua. Dù sao đi nữa thì tôi vẫn là người rất may mắn.
This week, I am featuring paintings by my friend Molly Brauer. Molly was my boss at George Washington University School of Business. She got out of communications and picked up painting.
If you visit this site on a large screen instead of a mobile device, you can see some of her beautiful paintings. What I like about her work is that each painting has a wonderful story behind it.
If you are interested in purchasing her artwork, you can connect with her on LinkedIn. She also posts her artworks on Facebook, but I am temporarily deactivating my account. I don’t find the use for it anymore.
Our deck has been neglected. In the past 12 years since we moved in, I stained it once. Needless to say, the woods have been badly deteriorated. I have been wanting to redo it every summer, but I rather spend time with the kids and go on vacation.
Now that the kids stay home and spend more time on the deck, I don’t want them to get splinters. It has come to the point where I have to do something about it. In the past couple of days, my wife and I had been discussing this project. We went from repainting to replacing, from woods to composites, and doing ourselves to hiring professionals. We looked up YouTube videos and did some research.
I wanted to get a few estimates and one of our neighbors had just completed his deck. He hired a professional company for $20,000. He informed me that the starting price is $15,000. I thanked him for sharing the information. Dropping fifteen to twenty grants for a deck is just too much for me. I don’t see it as a necessary spending, especially at the time when people struggle to pay their bills. If I could have it my way, I would rather do away with the damn deck.
After examining the structure of our deck carefully, the frame is still in good shape. I just need to replace all the boards and the railings. Although I am not a handyman and I have low confidence when it comes to home improvement, I think I can pull this off.
I went to my brother-in-law’s house to borrow a few electric saws. Then I went to Home Depot to pick up a Wrecking Claw for $50. This tool made removing boards painless. In half a day, we pulled up half of the decks already. My sons used it to help me pull up the nails. I used the saws to cut off the railings. Tomorrow we will finish up pulling out all the woods.
My calculation for the woods would be about $500. I am sure my work won’t be as nice as the professional, but I can save $14,500. Why do these companies charge so much? With the tools and the materials available from Home Depot and Lowe’s, doing it yourself seems possible if you are willing to do it. Even if I don’t want to do it myself, I have no choice, but to do it myself. I just can’t justify the cost for hiring a professional, especially for something that I don’t think necessary.
What about when people hire me to create a professional website? I don’t charge $15,000 if I could do the job for $5,000. I assume why my freelance is failing. I don’t feel good overcharging my clients. In contrast, companies do not feel bad overcharging me.
A few years ago, my sister-in-law hired a contractor to build a patio. I am not sure how she found him, but she complained that she could not find any information on his work. She advised him that he should have a website showcasing his projects then she recommended me. I came and talked to him about it. I quoted him around $2,000 for a simple website with work samples, testimonials, information about his services and his company, and of course contact information. Unfortunately, he told me he could not afford it. He charged my sister-in-law $40,000 for the job and he could not afford $2,000 for his business website? I don’t get it.
I am not sure where my ranting is heading, I just know that I am suck at doing business. I would love to be able work for myself, but I know I won’t survive. I don’t have the skills of a business-savvy person.