1. The Book, by Keith Houston, explores the fascinating history of bookmaking that dates back to more than fifteen hundred years ago.
2. Decoded, by JAY-Z, is part memoir, part lyrical analysis, and much better than what I had expected.
3. The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank, helps put me into perspective at a time of a global pandemic.
4. The Library Book, by Susan Orlean, weaves together investigative journalism, personal introspection, operational insights, fascinating characters, diverse culture, and social openness to tell engaging, riveting stories of the evolution of libraries.
5. These Truths, by Jill Lepore, told the naked truth of our great yet flawed nation through the concoction of illuminating politics, fascinating biographies, arresting journalism, and sprawling technology.
6. Time is a Mother, by Ocean Vương, is beyond my comprehension for poetry. I need to re-read these poems again in order to understand everything he has written; therefore, I bought myself a copy. Gotta support our Vietnamese-American talents.

I refuse to jump on Mastodon and Micro.blog because the last thing I wanted to do is keeping up with more social media networks. I am tired of them all.

I never joined Instagram, which was a good decision. Google+ shut down and I didn’t even bother to download my content. I lost interest in Pinterest. I could not get into Dribbble. I no longer care about Medium. I still have a presence on LinkedIn, but I don’t do much with it. I still check Twitter every once in a while, but I hardly tweet anymore. Facebook is still hard to let go because I still want to keep up with family and friends. I did quite a bit of cleaning up on Facebook and also turned on privacy.

I still read blogs via RSS. Free blogging platforms are ridiculous. WordPress.com, in particular, is filled with ads. My kids’ dentistry keeps popping up on the blogs I read on WordPress.com. It is irritating that I just want to take my kids elsewhere.

It’s funny how social media comes in full circle again. Not so long ago, social media is a skill that most professions, web design in particular, most have. Now the less noise the better. I don’t even bother to cross-publishing my blog to other platforms. If you want to read it, you’ll just have to come here or subscribe to my RSS. I am not being cocky or anything like that. I just don’t want to creep you out everywhere you go.

When we bought the house, I imagined our basement as an entertainment space where the kids and I watch movies and play video games. We hired an electrician to put in fancy track lights from Ikea and we painted the rooms dark purple. Needless to say, it now turns into storage space with tons of shit. The track lights have been flickering on and off for years, but I refused to change the fixture.

When it comes to electricity, I am shit scared. I got shocked three times for simply replacing the switch. I got shock again yesterday even though I turned off the breaker. This afternoon, I shut off the entire breaker panel just to replace the fixture. I rather be safe than sorry because I am such an amateur.

After about an hour, I successfully replaced the fixture. Turning on the lights that worked felt great. You’re probably laughing at such a trivial task, but it is a huge accomplishment for me. I am starting to like doing small home improvements.

Being a cheap-ass has its advantage. It challenges me to do more things that aren’t just related to the web. Besides, I can’t hire an electrician to do small jobs like this. I can ask my brother-in-law, but I also dislike bothering people unless I absolutely have to. I might as well do things on my own. I can read and follow directions. YouTube has been a fantastic resource. Home Depot and Lowe’s have anything I need. All that I need is a bit of self confidence.

When my father-in-law was still living with us, he tried to teach me how to fix things. I appreciate his efforts and I miss him terribly, but I was not learning much. I need to figure things out in order to learn. I always messed up the first time, but I learned my lesson quick. The second time is always better. There is no shortcut. I just need to do it unless I could depend on my wife.

I envy my neighbor whose wife does everything. I hardly see him outside the house, but I always see his wife outside shoveling the snow in the winter and mowing the grass once a week in the summer. She even patched up and sealed her driveway, something I need to catch up on.

Back to the light fixture, my wife brought the Hampton Bay’s 3-light white ceiling spotlight. It is easy to install and it is perfect for storage area. The design is simple and you get lots of light.

Total cost: $25

Hạnh phúc nhất của tôi là mỗi đêm được nhìn thấy mấy đứa con an giấc. Trái lại với những giây phút chúng nó sống động, được nghe từng hơi thở nhẹ nhàng trong giấc mộng của nó thấy lòng mình ấm áp.

Đạo thích được ba ôm và vuốt lưng. Đạo hứa sẽ ngủ với ba đến suốt đời nhưng khi Vương chào đời thì Xuân phải ngủ với ba. Thế là Đạo với bà ngoại. Tội Xuân lắm. Lúc chưa có em Xuân chỉ ngủ với mẹ và được bú lúc trước khi ngủ và trước khi thức dậy. Chúng tôi cũng lo ngại không biết chừng nào Xuân mới chịu bỏ vú. Thế nhưng khi có em, Xuân nhường mẹ là cho em và bỏ vú luôn. Xuân chỉ ngủ với ba.

Đán là được ôm ít nhất. Lúc trước Đán thích ngủ với bà ngoại. Giờ đây Đạo dành bà ngoại nên Đán ngủ với bà và Xuân. Xuân không chịu chia sẻ ba với anh nên Đán ngủ một cùng cả chục chiếc gối. Khi Xuân ngủ yên rồi thì tôi cũng đổi sang ôm thằng con to lớn.

Đêm qua Xuân không thèm ngủ. Cứ nằm ca hết “ABC” đến “Old McDonald” đến “Quăng tao cái boong.” Tôi bảo thôi con ngủ đi thì nó lại nằm lên người tôi và nói, “I love you, daddy.” Rồi ca tiếp, “I am crazy about you. I am crazy about you.” Đến gần 11 giờ khuya mới ngủ. Sáng đi đến nhà trẻ thì than, “Daddy, I am too sleepy.”

Người ta bảo phải tập cho con ngủ riêng nhưng tôi chúng tôi cũng chẳng nghe theo. Buổi sáng con đi học ba mẹ đi làm. Chiều về chỉ còn được vài tiếng ăn ngủ nên không đủ nhiều thời gian với tụi nó. Thôi thì ngủ chung cũng là cách được bên nhau. Sau này không có tụi nó bên cạnh chắc chắn là nhớ lắm.

Tới lúc đó hai khỉ già có còn tái ngộ hay không. Hay khỉ cái vẫn chê khỉ đực ngáy to quá nên cho khỉ đực ra rìa luôn. Lúc đó thì chắc phải tự ru mình với nhạc phẩm “Đời tôi cô đơn.”

Nellie Bowles published three articles in The New York Times on kids and screen time that are worth reading.

Bowles on “A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley”:

A wariness that has been slowly brewing is turning into a regionwide consensus: The benefits of screens as a learning tool are overblown, and the risks for addiction and stunting development seem high. The debate in Silicon Valley now is about how much exposure to phones is O.K.

Even though we are limiting screen time to weekends only, Đạo (nine years old) and Đán (six years old) are quite addictive. Đán is still struggling with turning it off when time is up. He is so fearful of being banned from the iPad; therefore, I am using it as a form of punishment when he misbehaves. I am tired of yelling at him and I don’t want to spank him. The only way he would listen is to ban him from his iPad. It is terrible, but it works for now. On weekends, they get 3 hours the most each day because most of the time we go outside unless I have to do work around the house or the rain prevents us from going outside.

Bowles on “Silicon Valley Nannies Are Phone Police for Kids”:

From Cupertino to San Francisco, a growing consensus has emerged that screen time is bad for kids. It follows that these parents are now asking nannies to keep phones, tablets, computers and TVs off and hidden at all times. Some are even producing no-phone contracts, which guarantee zero unauthorized screen exposure, for their nannies to sign.

We need a similar contract with our family as well. When we get together, all digital devices should be put away. Sure, I don’t have to give my kids iPads, but then they would hover around kids that have them. Most of our vacations together always ended up in screen time rather than family time.

Bowles on “The Digital Gap Between Rich and Poor Kids Is Not What We Expected”:

Lower-income teenagers spend an average of eight hours and seven minutes a day using screens for entertainment, while higher income peers spend five hours and 42 minutes, according to research by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit media watchdog. (This study counted each screen separately, so a child texting on a phone and watching TV for one hour counted as two hours of screens being used.) Two studies that look at race have found that white children are exposed to screens significantly less than African-American and Hispanic children.

Why didn’t the studies look at Asian children? I am sure Asian kids, Vietnamese in particular, are exposed to screens even more than African-American and Hispanic children.

Honor Jones writes in The New York Times:

You’re fully conscious, but nothing hurts. You might as well not have legs for all you can feel them. A sheet hangs from the ceiling, covering everything from your chest down.

But while I was removed from the pain, I wasn’t removed from the experience. If you believe people have souls, a C-section is probably good preparation for the afterlife. Your body is completely out of your control, but you are not your body.

Your partner holds one arm down. A nurse or maybe the anesthesiologist — some stranger toward whom you feel a desperate sense of gratitude — holds the other. After digging around your organs for a while, the doctor says from behind the sheet, “Now I’m going to apply some pressure.” And then suddenly there is another person in the room and both you and your baby gasp the new air and begin to sob.

I was holding my wife’s hand as well until I got blacked out.

I am embarrassed to say that I have put off replacing our bathroom exhaust fan for almost 10 years. The previous one made loud screeching noise, but I was not confident to do it. In the past few days, it bothered me enough to look up YouTube and tried to replace it. To my amazement, replacing the fan motor took 10 minutes. All I had to do was unplugged and popped out the out motor and put the new one in. I am beating myself up for being such a sucker.

Nutone Fan Motor Assembly cost $15.

Nowadays the cost of maintaining your cars and house are ridiculously high. Fixing your car according to the technician’s recommendations can easily cost thousands of dollars. We recently had plumbing and electrical inspections, as part of the annual service plan, and the recommendations were about 10 grants. They either think we’re millionaire or we just have money raining from the sky.

Of course, we did not follow any of its recommendation. If the pipe bursts, we know where to shut off the water. If a toilet licks, we can throw in a new toilet. If a light switch goes bad, we can replace it. I am not oppose to hire a professional to do some of the work, but changing a toilet costs almost $800. How fucking ridiculous is it? Well, if I have Jay Z money, I wouldn’t care, but I only make enough to raise my family.

My wife said I am being stingy about those things, yet I am willing spend $50 to $100 every time I take my kids out to eat. First of all, $50 to $100 is nothing compared to thousands. Second of all, I do not feed my kids fast food. We go for Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. Third of all, those are times well-spent with the kids. Sure, we go out a couple times a week, but it is all good. My mom used to raise me that way. When it came to food, she never not willing to spend.

Voting used to be harder. I had to do my research to find out which candidates to vote for. I had to choose Republicans or Democrats whose policies matched mines. For example, I am conservative on taxation and liberal on abortion.

Nowadays voting is much easier because Republicans only care about their own party. Most of them bowed down to Trump even though he mocked them, called them names, and offended their love ones. These spineless leaders don’t care about the people. They just care about their own political career. They have sold their own soul and dignity. They betrayed their country and stayed loyal to Trump even if they hate his ass. I have never seen a bunch of cowards with loud mouths but soft as a cluster of grapes.

On November 6, I’ll just vote straight Democrats. Even though I disagree with some of their policies, they still have some self-respect. It is such a damn shame that one of the major political parties is captive and gutless.

Katharine Q. Seelye writes in the New York Times:

Todd Bol was simply paying homage to his mother, a schoolteacher and lover of books. He built a doll-sized schoolhouse, filled it with his mother’s books and put it out for his neighbors in Hudson, Wis., as a book exchange.

Today, just nine years later, more than 75,000 such “Little Free Libraries” dot the globe, from San Diego to Minneapolis, and from Australia to Siberia.

I have seen several of these libraries around our neighborhood.