I just relaunched my professional portfolio. Almost twenty years into the game and I still am passionate about the art of web design; therefore, I want to bring back simplicity and beauty to the web.

These days, too many sites are built using pre-made site builders such as Squarespace, Wix, or WordPress. As a result, most small-budget websites looked the same. I believe that even with a limited budget, your online presence does not deserve to be templated.

Take a look at the projects I have created. Each site had been designed with specific goals and visions. If you have a small business or a passion project that needs a unique website, let’s talk. Together we will create an experience that is focused on your audience and tailored to your brand.

Tôi và Tắc chơi với nhau lúc nhỏ. Nhà tôi ở cạnh nhà Tắc. Ngày xưa không có iPad như bây giờ nên chúng tôi thường lê la trong xóm. Hết tán u đến bắn bi. Hết thả diều đến tạt lon. Hết đánh cờ Tướng đến đánh Tiến Lên. Hết thục bida (ai thua trả tiền giờ) đến bấm trò chơi điện tử (Contra). Làm sao quên được những buổi chiều mùa hè cùng nhau lội bộ ra vườn hoa Lạc Hồng học bơi hoặc những buổi tối bới một tô cơm ra trước nhà vừa ăn vừa nghe Dì Ba (mẹ Tắc) kể những câu chuyện ma rùng rợn nhưng đầy hấp dẫn. Những ký ức đẹp của tuổi thơ mỗi khi nhớ đến đều khiến tôi bùi ngùi.

Nếu như còn ở Việt Nam chắc chắn rằng Tắc đã là đứa bạn hàng xóm thân nhất của tôi. Chúng tôi đã có nhiều chuỗi ngày vui vẻ của thời ấu thơ. Nhưng mười tuổi tôi xa quê hương và có cuộc sống mới. Hai thằng bạn cũ cùng xóm ngày nào giờ đã sống trong hai thế giới khác nhau. Tôi không biết cuộc sống của Tắc ra sao. Còn tôi thì vất vả trên xứ lạ quê người. Không bạn bè che chở. Không biết tiếng bản xứ. Không hòa nhập được với cuộc sống mới. Đó là những chuỗi ngày tôi nhớ quê hương vô cùng.

Ngày tháng rồi cũng nhanh chóng trôi qua. Sau mười mấy năm xa cách tôi trở về Việt Nam năm 2001 sau khi tốt nghiệp đại học. Gặp lại Tắc, tôi vui vì Tắc vẫn nhớ đến thằng bạn cũ ngày. Tuy tôi và Tắc hoàn toàn khác biệt nhưng chúng tôi vẫn thân nhau như lúc nhỏ, nhất là mỗi khi ngồi vào bàn nhậu nhắc lại chuyện xưa. Tôi trở về Mỹ kiếm công ăn việc làm và xây dựng mái ấm gia đình. Thời gian lại thấm thoát trôi qua.

Hai năm trước tôi về lại Việt Nam sau mười sáu năm xa cách. Tôi đã có gia đình và có con còn Tắc vẫn độc thân. Cho dù thời gian khá dài nhưng chúng tôi vẫn thế. Tình bạn vẫn không nhạt nhòa. Tắc lấy ngày nghỉ đi uống cà phê, ăn hủ tiếu Mỹ Tho, và đưa tôi đi nhậu cùng bạn bè. Với tôi những giây phút ấy nhẹ nhàng nhưng đậm tình, đơn giản nhưng đáng nhớ. Tuy sống ở Mỹ đã hơn 30 năm nhưng trái tim và tâm hồn tôi vẫn còn Việt Nam. Tôi hy vọng sẽ trở lại quê hương mình một ngày gần đây. Cám ơn Tắc vẫn còn nhớ đến thằng bạn hàng xóm này. Tuy nhà tôi giờ đây đã không còn nữa nhưng đường Nguyễn Huệ vẫn luôn là xóm của tôi mặc dù chỉ trong ký ức.

My portfolio site gets a redesign again. The focus is still on simplicity and typography. The main typeface is Exchange, by Frere-Jones Type. Even though Exchange is an excellent text face, it also looks gorgeous at large size. Headers are set in Bild by DJR. I dig the latest version David sent out last May to the Font of the Month Club members. The new version of Bild comes with variable font.

For the design, I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. The homepage is just text leading into my professional projects. The about information now has its own page. I also added a about and book page to highlight my books.

In the past, I wanted to keep my résumé independent of the site, but with the redesign, I brought it into the layout as well. I also got tired of maintain a print and an online version; therefore, my résumé is now designed in HTML and CSS first then exported out as a PDF for print.

I hope this latest redesign will last for a while before I feel the itch to change it again.

In her latest Netflix Special, Cummings presented her take on feminism by using jokes to make us understand what it feels like to women. The shit they put up with men at work and on the street. She also brought out a sex-robot double who is creepy yet erotic. She’s brilliant and entertaining. In the #MeToo moment, female comedians are stepping their games and I am loving them. Keep them coming.

Muốn đọc thử những mảnh vỡ của nhà văn Thái Hậu để lấy cảm hứng viết blog. Tiếc rằng những bài viết lợt lạt không đem lại cho tôi những gì mong muốn. Cách viết của tác giả có chất thơ nhưng lại khó hiểu. Tập truyện khá ngắn nhưng dễ bị ngán. Tuy cố đọc cho hết nhưng tôi sẽ không giới thiệu sách đến bạn đọc.

In her beautiful, heartrending memoir, Talusan shares her story of growing up as an immigrant from the Philippines, discloses her struggles with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, and reveals her darkest family secret. As an immigrant myself, I can relate to her experience being bullied and singled out. As a father, I sympathize her yearning to be a mother. As a man, I have upmost respect for her resiliency for overcoming a disturbing family betrayal. Talusan’s prose is excellent. A must-read immigrant memoir.

Dear sons,

I am still struggling between freedom and structure. On one hand, I would like you to have the freedom to do whatever you want. On the other hand, I also need some structures, especially with Đạo and Đán. Every time you punch and kick each other, I feel the pain too. Should I step in to stop the fight or should I let you hurt each other until you figure out yourself? As a father, I find it too hard to stand and watch or to look away. My intervention doesn’t seem to get into your head. It rages me to see you repeat again and again as if my words have no meaning.

From the way you threw tantrums in public and the way you ignored your mom’s and my words continue to irritate me. I told you again and again, but nothing stuck. I had been hard on you lately and I am regretting it. So I am going to try the opposite direction. I am going to give you as much freedom as I can. As long as you don’t harm Xuân and Vương, I will trust you to make your own choice.

If you don’t want to read, I won’t make you. If you hate Taekwondo, you can quit. If you don’t want to take swimming lessons, you can stop. If you want iPad all the time, I won’t stop you. If you don’t want to take a bath, that’s fine. If you don’t want to brush your teeth, that’s on you. If you don’t want to eat, stay hungry.

I’ll do all I can to refrain from yelling at you or punishing you. I won’t cautious you when you fall, but I will be there for you when you get hurt. I won’t tell you what to do unless you ask for my advice. I won’t stop you loving you, but I will stop restraining you.

I had been wrong all along about how to love you. I had been over-protective. I worried too much about your behavior. I expected too high from you. I am ready to let go of who I want you to be and let you be who you want to be. By not reigning you in, I hope that you’ll soar instead of fall. Even if you fall, I’ll be there to pick you up.

Everyone makes mistakes. I made countless of mistakes in my life and being a parent is one of them. I hope that you will forgive me. My intention had been to be good to you. I wanted to give you a father-and-son relationship that I didn’t have. I am not blaming my dad for my mistakes. I am on a good term with him now. I don’t hold any grudges from him anymore. I am a grown man now and I am responsible for my own actions. If I fail you, it’s all on me—not your mom, not my dad.

I am struggling with my own conscience. I thought I would be a good parent, but I am not. I hope it is not too late to make the change. I am grateful that I have you. I thank your mother and the man above everyday for giving me four healthy, energetic boys. I know people who would love to have one kid, but they can’t. I know parents who don’t have the time to be with their kids everyday; therefore, I should not take our precious time together for granted. I love you four from the bottom of my heart.

Love,

Daddy.

During our family reunion, we had an intriguing discussion about our profession while enjoying a bottle of Don Julio. My wife’s aunt said that she had worked for her company over 30 years and that she would never take on the lead role. As a minority woman who is in her 50s and isn’t fluent in English, she rather stayed in the technical position than being a leader. My cousins agreed with her perspective. To them, a leader has to have perfect English and the ability to bullshit. As Vietnamese, we were not trained for those leadership roles. She went as far as criticizing the way we raise our kids different than the way white people raise their kids to prepare them to be future leaders.

I completely disagree that leaders have to have perfect English. For example, Ángel Cabrera is the president of George Mason University and he speaks with an accent. I am director of design and web services at Scalia Law School and I don’t speak perfect English either. As leaders, the way you communicate is more important than your accent. Yes, I have seen leaders who bullshitted their way through, but you can smell them miles away. I have no respect for those leaders. For me, leaders don’t have to have in-depth technical skills, but they need to have a vision and enough technical knowledge to understand what is possible and what’s not. Because I have technical background the people who answer to me can’t bullshit me. I understand what’s possible and how to accomplish it. Likewise, the people above me respect not just my leadership skills, but also my technical skills.

As for parenting skills, I did not understand the comparison between my cousin whose wife is Jewish and us (two Vietnamese parents). They have one boy. We have four. Of course, we can’t spend all of our time on one kid. I found her reasoning to be laughable and somewhat offensive. I don’t mind her criticizing our parenting skills, but putting down our son is hurtful.

It is time for us Vietnamese to stop using our language barrier as a clutch. We need to get over it. In fact, we should use it to our advantage. We can speak both languages. We bring a diverse perspective into the team. Let’s take on more leadership roles than simple be led.

My seven-year-old nephew is getting used to having his dad finishing up his food for him. Whether a plate of cold pasta or a bowl of mushy phở, his dad took it all in. The other day, he had two bites left from his spring roll and yet he did not want to finish it because he wanted to play on his iPad with my kids. I told him Đạo and Đán would wait for him and the iPad would wait for him. He just needed to finish up two bites, but he refused and his dad let him off the table.

This weekend, my wife made delicious dumpling noodles. He ate all the dumplings and half of the noodle. His dad was not there so he asked him mom to finish it. Unlike his dad, his mom would never eat his leftover. She told him, “If you can’t finish it, give it to grandma.” My mother-in-law refused not because she didn’t want to, but she was also trying to finish her own bowl.

I said to him, “You can finish it. There’s not that much left.” He looked angry. I handed him my bowl and said, “Why don’t you finish mine and I’ll finish yours.” He shook his head. I went on, “So you don’t want to eat my leftover, but you expect others to eat yours?” He began to sob his mom came over to calm him down, “That’s OK if you can’t finish it.” She took the bowl and dumped the rest into the trash can.

My wife gave me a look for making him cry. I was just trying to teach him about not wasting food. I did not feel bad for him at all, but I did feel bad for my wife. She took her time to made the noodle soup for everyone. Đạo and Đán helped wrapping the dumplings.

This issue can be easily avoidable if parents just give their kids a small portion first. If they didn’t have enough, they can ask for more. I lived in Vietnam and witnessed first hand how hungry children eating strangers’ leftovers at phở places. It broke my heart and irritated me to see this kind of behavior from Asian-American kids.

Vietnamese parents, please make your kids finish their own fucking food.

On the homepage of my blog, I am combining Merriam-Webster’s “Word of the Day” with David Jonathan Ross’s “Font of the Month Club.” The idea is for me and you to learn a new word a day if we come to this site everyday. Thanks to RSS Feed, I can get the word of the day to display on my site automatically and easily. Since WordPress already has an RSS built-in function, I just need the following code to get the word:

< ?php include_once(ABSPATH.WPINC.'/rss.php'); wp_rss('https://www.merriam-webster.com/wotd/feed/rss2', 1); ?>

As for the typeface, I want to take advantage of my membership of the “Font of the Month Club.” I can’t wait for August’s font in three more days.

On type-related news, I added Crimson Pro to the Type Recommendations section. Check it out.