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!
I bought Ray Dalio’s Principles over a year ago at a used book sale event. I liked the book’s typesetting. I didn’t know Ray Dalio and I had not heard of his company he built called Bridgewater. I am absolutely clueless about the financial world. The book had been sitting on my bookshelves until the pandemic hit and I ran out of books to read at home. Although the book’s primary focus is on principles, Dalio gives 124-page overview of his life and career. This part moves fast because Dalio writing is clear and concise. In the second and third parts, he shares his life and work principles respectively. I skimmed over these two parts a bit just to get the general idea. Since I have the book on hand, I will return to it later for reference or if I wanted to delve deep into a particular principle.
Đọc đến trang 95 mà vẫn không nhập được vào những câu chuyện trong hồi kí của tác giả. Chắc là vì tôi biết rất ít về Hà Nội và hoàn toàn không biết gì về Sầm Sơn. Hơn nữa những nhân vật cùng thời của bà tôi càng không biết, ngoài Hồ Chí Minh. Tuy nhiên bà còn viết được sách ở tuổi 85 thì đầu óc còn quá tốt.
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:
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!
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.