I signed myself up for ice skating lessons at the MedStar Capital Iceplex. I wanted to learn the proper techniques. I decided to skip level one and start at level two since I already knew the basics. I went to the first session yesterday after work.

The instructor was fantastic. She made ice skating look effortless. She emphasized the importance of having a good posture. She showed us how to shave the ice for us to learn to stop. She demonstrated the snowplow stop and the hockey stop and advised us not to do the latter until we learned the former. I already made the mistake of learning the hockey stop on my own. She also showed us how to fall without hurting ourselves—fall on your back pocket. She taught us to do backward swizzles. I haven’t even learned forward swizzles, but I managed to do fine. I need to practice that on my own.

The session was only half an hour long. I wished it was longer, but she gave us enough materials to work with on my own without feeling overwhelmed. I am glad I signed up for it. I can’t wait to come back next week. I also need to invest in a pair of ice skating shoes. I still don’t know what to get.

While I was waiting for our session to begin, I talked to a friendly lady. She moved from Atlanta to Arlington for her new job. She works at the embassy and she will be assigned to Sài Gòn for two years. She is now learning Vietnamese. I offered to help if she wanted. I told her I wanted her job. I asked her why she wanted to take ice skating lessons and her answer was just to try out something new she hasn’t done before.

Ted Chiang’s stories are thoughtful and imaginative. In “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate,” the characters go between the past and the future—an intriguing time-travel experience. As a parent, I find the history of child-rearing through “Dacey’s Patent Automatic Nanny” hits close to home. In the modern day, most of our kids are being raised by Steve Jobs’s digital device. “The Lifecycle of Software Objects,” the longest and most fascinating story in this collection, examines the affection between humans and digients—robotic kids. I wish it was a full, fleshed-out novel. As much as I appreciate Chiang’s prose and inventiveness, I don’t have much imagination for science fiction to soak up everything he has written. Some stories just didn’t sink in. I need to revisit this book in the future at a much slower pace and in full focus.

I woke up at 6 am, headed to the poll, and cast my vote for Elizabeth Warren. I turned off my phone and continued to read Ted Chiang’s Exhalation until 8 am. An HVAC technician came to check out our twelve-year-old system. Of course, he recommended a brand new unit. My wife brushed it off.

I had a late breakfast Đán made for me. I took him to the pediatrician to take a look at his skin. He has Molluscum. I planned on taking my three older kids and their cousin out, but little Vương headed to the door and grabbed his sneakers as soon as he saw me opening the door. I cajoled my wife to come along because I could not handle five boys by myself. She took off work as well to join us. We went to Ballston Quarter for lunch then ice skating for a dollar on Tuesdays. Despite the rink being packed with kids, we got some good exercise for just a buck. Then we headed to Möge Tea for over-priced sugar drinks.

We headed back home and dropped my wife off at the polling place so she could vote. I hope she voted for Warren as well, but I do not impose my view on her. Though we would have a big problem if she supported that rotten orange whiny little bitch. I am just kidding. It would be an interesting relationship.

We celebrated Super Tuesday with chả cá Lã Vọng (Hanoi turmeric fish with dill). Even though I voted for Warren, whoever gets the nomination could beat the fucking incompetent incumbent is fine with me.

Yes, I voted for Elizabeth Warren. I still hold out hope for her. I am not going to let the media and the establishment influence my vote. She remains strong, smart, and strategic. I still want her to be our next and first-female president.

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.