Sau những album bolero không cảm giác và nhạc Trịnh không hồn, Lệ Quyên quay lại với nhạc thị trường. Album này nghe mà cười ra nước mắt. Bài mở đầu, “Không còn nợ nhau”, nghe lần đầu là bị móc liền. Thật tội nghiệp khi nghe em kể lể: “Nhìn lại nhau bấy nhiêu năm em được gì / tình yêu này dâng hết cho anh em còn gì / dành cho anh cả tuổi thanh xuân / chỉ để yêu một người vô tâm.” Thằng chó này vô tâm thật.

Rồi em tiếp tục chia sẽ “Yêu anh hơn chính em”, “Vì em còn thương”, nhưng “Giận thì giận mà thương thì thương thì thương”. Nghe thật dễ thương vô cùng, “Giận thì giận mà thương càng thương / chẳng cần xin lỗi chỉ cần anh thôi / hãy đến bên em người ơi”.

Đỉnh nhất là cả khúc “Yêu thương một đời”. Nghe lần đầu mà té ngửa luôn, nhất là câu điệp khúc: “Là vì anh cho em cay đắng muộn phiền / Là vì anh, em quên đi bán thân mình.” Chết mẹ rồi, con ghệ này nó mê thằng pimp rồi. Nghe lại thì chắc ý tác giả là “bản thân” nhưng chữ đó phải lên giọng nên thành “bán” luôn.

Sáng nay lái xe đi làm, tôi để nhạc trong điện thoại theo random. Thú vị là khi nghe Thái Thùy Linh hát bài “Hãy ngồi xuống đây” của Lê Uyên Phương rồi đến bài “Krazy” của Bin Z. Lời nhạc xưa và nay tuy hơi khác nhưng có thể kết hợp thành một medley. Chẳng hạng như, lời của Lê Uyên Phương:

Hãy ngồi xuống đây
như loài thú hoang yêu nhau ngoài đồng
duới nắng ban mai
phô thân trần truồng kiếp sống hoa sơ.

Lời của Bin Z:

Nhưng em ơi em ơi đừng dụ dỗ anh
Vì nếu em cưa anh sẽ đổ nhanh
Em ơi em ơi đừng làm khổ anh
Anh chỉ muốn chân em ở trên cổ anh.

Nas once rhymed, “I never sleep, ’cause sleep is the cousin of death.” In his excellent book, Why We Sleep, Matthew Walker, professor of neuroscience and psychology, offers the counterargument based on scientific researches. Hi studies show that sleep is more like the cousin of life than death because sleep deprivation can cause serious health risks including cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetic, cardiovascular disease, stroke, congestive heart failure, depression, anxiety, and suicidality. With his approachable, engaging writing, Walker takes readers into the fascinating and wonder world of sleep. It is a must-read and required-practice. Sorry Nas, but I am rolling with the sleep expert on this one.

I did not set my New Year’s resolution because I knew I wouldn’t be able to live up to it. I am already failing at exercising. It is too damn cold outside for jogging or walking. I have not been able to control my eating habit. Other than beef, which gives me serious gout attack, I have been eating pretty much anything that suits my taste. I drink wine almost everyday. Beer and har liquor are on special occasions. As long as I stay off beef, my gout is under control. I am still not getting full eight hours of sleep. I still want my own time to read. I need to make that change as well.

On the positive side, I spend tons of time with my sons. We played in the snow and Monopoly. iPads are still allowed on weekends. They got me into Beyblade. It is so much fun and competitive. I am so glad that my current job allows me the time to be with them. I sympathize parents who have to work faraway and only get to see their kids on the weekends. I don’t think I can do that. They are changing almost everyday. Our little Vương is three months now and he is different everyday. His movements, his smiles, his stares, his rollovers, his lovely cheeks, I am so blessed to witness everyday. Xuân’s verbal skills, Đán’s reading improvements, and Đạo’s creative thinking, I am so glad to be there with them even though at times I wish I can get a break.

My wife and I are on great term. She is still amazing (at everything). We worked out our differences. We talked more and argued less. For the most part, we love each other deeply (at least from my part) and we know we have tons of work ahead of us with four active boys. I don’t think life can get any better than this. So 2019 started out good even though I have not done anything to improve my damn self.

Kyle Chayka writes in the Nation:

The worst thing that a reader can do, we now know, is to consume whatever pops up at the top of a Facebook feed or Google search—the pond scum floating on the surface of the Internet. What we need is a digital-media version of organic food or a local farmers’ market: ethically sourced, sustainably funded, and integrity-certified, all the way from CMS up.

Right on!

DHH explains the reasons “Signal v Noise exits Medium”:

Writing for us is not a business, in any direct sense of the word. We write because we have something to say, not to make money off page views, advertisements, or subscriptions. If some readers end up signing up for Basecamp, that’s great. But if they just like to read and not buy, that’s also great.

Beyond that, though, we’ve grown ever more aware of the problems with centralizing the internet. Traditional blogs might have swung out of favor, as we all discovered the benefits of social media and aggregating platforms, but we think they’re about to swing back in style, as we all discover the real costs and problems brought by such centralization.

When SvN moved to Medium, I was disappointed to see a small, independent company moves its blog to Medium. Glad to see it is moving back out. I have not read an article in Medium for years.

Sinclair Target writes in Motherboard:

Regular people never felt comfortable using RSS; it hadn’t really been designed as a consumer-facing technology and involved too many hurdles; people jumped ship as soon as something better came along.

RSS might have been able to overcome some of these limitations if it had been further developed. Maybe RSS could have been extended somehow so that friends subscribed to the same channel could syndicate their thoughts about an article to each other. Maybe browser support could have been improved. But whereas a company like Facebook was able to “move fast and break things,” the RSS developer community was stuck trying to achieve consensus. When they failed to agree on a single standard, effort that could have gone into improving RSS was instead squandered on duplicating work that had already been done.

I still prefer RSS reader over social media for online reading. It is quieter and more focused. I do hope blogs will be coming back after people get sick and tired of Twitter and Facebook.

Zoe Tillman reports in BuzzFeed News:

In pieces reviewed by BuzzFeed News that Rao wrote between 1994 and 1996 — she graduated from Yale University in 1995 — she described race as a “hot, money-making issue,” affirmative action as the “anointed dragon of liberal excess,” welfare as being for “for the indigent and lazy,” and LGBT issues as part of “trendy” political movements. On date rape, Rao wrote that if a woman “drinks to the point where she can no longer choose, well, getting to that point was part of her choice.”

Yes, she is one of our finest faculty members. Then again, it will be sexist if she won’t get the nomination for the DC Circuit because the guy who she’s going to replace had done worse and still got the seat on the Supreme Court.

In her beautiful, poignant memoir, Brennan-Jobs recounts her experiences of living with a caring, depressing mother and a cold, cruel father who happened to be Steve Jobs. Despite all the turmoils between the two parents, Brennan-Jobs turned out to be a resilient individual. Even in her young age, she was smart and compassionate. She can also write. Although the book is almost 400 pages, it is such a breezy read. Not only we get to know Steve through the intimate lens of his daughter, but we also get to know his wife Laurene. Small Fry is a page-turner. I definitely recommend it. In addition, the book is set in Adobe Caslon Pro, by Carol Twombly. It is georgous and highly readable.

This blog gets a slight design update. I am getting rid of the multiple colors for each post. I also changed the typeface to Pliego, by Juanjo López. I really love this beautiful text face with lovely OpenType features. Pliego is one of my recent font purchases. I had the pleasure of reviewing Vietnamese diacritics for it.

With the end of Typekit’s standalone plans, I am changing the way I am using fonts. I no longer trust the subscription model if I have projects that I want to stay online for a long time like Vietnamese Typography and Professional Web Typography. Although Google Fonts seems to be doing well, I never know when Google will shut it down given the history of projects Google had abandoned. I also don’t want Google to track you. I respect your privacy.

I am now hosting the fonts myself as much as I can. As a result, I having buying fonts and it could be addictive. Like getting tattoos, you’ll want more typefaces once you started buying one. I never understood why people buying so many expensive handbags until I started buying fonts. Just to have the font files on your hand is such a pleasure.

David Jonathan Ross’s Font of the Month Club has been a good resource for experimenting with new typefaces. David also has a handful quality typefaces with affordable prices. If his typeface doesn’t have Vietnamese support yet, I can make a request to have it drawn. For me, I can’t purchase fonts that do not have Vietnamese diacritics. It’s a deal-breaker for me.

In addition to David’s fonts, I also purchase typefaces Juanjo López and Tobias Frere-Jones because their fonts have Vietnamese support from the get-go. If you are a type designer and need help with Vietnamese diacritics, please read my book. If you need further advise, please get in touch.