Kathryn Schulz describes these horrifying species:

Of the five-thousand-odd species of stinkbug in the world, the brown marmorated kind is the most destructive, the most annoying, and possibly the ugliest. It is roughly the size of a dime, although thicker, but its head is unusually small, even for an insect, which gives it an appropriately thuggish look. Its six legs prop its shield-shaped body up in the air, as if they were pallbearers at the funeral of a Knight Templar. Its antennae are striped with bands of dark and light, while its eyes, should you get close enough to gaze into them, are the vivid red of an alarm clock at night. The “marmorated” in its name means “marbled,” but “mottled” is closer to the truth. Entomologists, who have a color palette as elaborate as Benjamin Moore’s, describe the underside of its body as “distinctly pale luteous” and the topside as “generally brownish cinereous, but also greyish ochraceous, ochraceous, testaceous, or castaneous.” To everyone else, it looks as dull brown as its own frass, the technical term for insect excrement.

They could be anywhere in your house. Schulz writes:

One poor soul spooned up a stinkbug that had blended into her granola, putting her off fruit-and-nut cereals for life. Another discovered too late that a stinkbug had percolated in her coffeemaker, along with her morning brew. A third removed a turkey from the oven on Thanksgiving Day and discovered a cooked stinkbug at the bottom of the roasting pan. Other people have reported accidentally ingesting stinkbugs in, among other things, salads, berries, raisin bran, applesauce, and chili. By all accounts, the bugs release their stink upon being crunched, and taste pretty much the way they smell. (They are also occasionally eaten by household pets, though seldom twice. One of my cats recently ate two at once, and promptly vomited them up.)

Finally finished reading Rachel Aviv’s provoking, chilling piece on “What Does It Mean to Die?.” Aviv writes:

African-Americans are twice as likely as whites to ask that their lives be prolonged as much as possible, even in cases of irreversible coma—a preference that likely stems from fears of neglect. A large body of research has shown that black patients are less likely to get appropriate medications and surgeries than white ones are, regardless of their insurance or education level, and more likely to receive undesirable medical interventions, like amputations.

Tom Critchlow:

Small b blogging is learning to write and think with the network. Small b blogging is writing content designed for small deliberate audiences and showing it to them. Small b blogging is deliberately chasing interesting ideas over pageviews and scale. An attempt at genuine connection vs the gloss and polish and mass market of most “content marketing”.

Critchlow makes a challenge:

So I challenge you to think clearly about the many disparate networks you’re part of and think about the ideas you might want to offer those networks that you don’t want to get lost in the feed. Ideas you might want to return to. Think about how writing with and for the network might enable you to start blogging. Forget the big B blogging model. Forget Medium’s promise of page views and claps. Forget the guest post on Inc, Forbes and Entrepreneur. Forget Fast Company. Forget fast content.

This blog is written mostly for myself these days. I don’t care about page views and popularity. I am thinking of pulling the plug on Google Analytics since I have not checked it for almost a year or so. I write like no one is reading and that could get me in trouble.

In her new concise, engaging book, Ms. Lemott shares inspiring stories drawing from the Bible, real life, and her own flaws to illustrate mercy. Ms. Lemott is obviously a skillful writer. Just read how she defines mercy:

Misericordia is Latin for “mercy,” from misericors, “merciful,” which is in turn derived from misereri,“to pity,” and cor, “heart.” Mercy means compassion, empathy, a heart for someone’s troubles. It’s not something you do—it is something in you, accessed, revealed, or cultivated through use, like a muscle. We find it in the most unlike places, never where we first look. (p.51)

Although Ms. Lemott incorporates theology in her writing, she is not preaching. In fact, she questioned God and I appreciate that. The conflicts she had with her son resonated with me the most. I am sure I will be in the same boat when my boys become teenagers. It’s touching and beautifully written. The book design by Amanda Dewey is also gorgeous. I highly recommend turning off your digital device and pick up this book, you’ll be enlightened.

Farhad Manjoo:

Basically, I was trying to slow-jam the news — I still wanted to be informed, but was looking to formats that prized depth and accuracy over speed.

It has been life changing. Turning off the buzzing breaking-news machine I carry in my pocket was like unshackling myself from a monster who had me on speed dial, always ready to break into my day with half-baked bulletins.

Now I am not just less anxious and less addicted to the news, I am more widely informed (though there are some blind spots). And I’m embarrassed about how much free time I have — in two months, I managed to read half a dozen books, took up pottery and (I think) became a more attentive husband and father.

These days I turned off all of the notifications on my phone. I prefer to read printed books over digital devices. I still carry a book with me everywhere I go. I look more like a dork reading a book while most people around me stare at their screen, even in my own home. I deactivate Facebook until I need to use Messenger to communicate with my family in Vietnam. I still need some work with Twitter since I use it mainly related to web design and development. The online publications I read the most are The New Yorker and The New York Times and I usually go for the long essays rather than quick news.

It gets me every time. Whenever I listened to an engaging web design podcast from well-respected web designers talking about the possibility of CSS grid or the excitement of art direction on the web, the host would ask the guest to hold on to that thought so the host could thank the sponsor. Then the host would proceed with something like, “When I have friends or a family members needed a website and they ask me to do it. I don’t want to hurt their feeling, but I also don’t have the time to do it. So I recommend Squarespace to them.” Then the host goes on to read all the wonderful features like big sliders and slick parallax scrollings Squarespace offers.

Isn’t it hypocritical of the hosts to accept those kind of sponsors for web design podcasts? On the show, they criticize how the web is losing its soul and yet they have no shame promoting pre-designed templates from Squarespace, Wix, and similar services. Don’t small businesses deserve a unique-looking website as well to communicate with their customers? Templating is not the way to go. These days, I can spot a Squarespace-templated website without even having to look at the source codes. They all have similar layout, typography, and big graphic area.

If you care about your brand, image, and uniqueness and your designer friends turned you down, don’t settle for generic designs. There are still tons of individual web designers specializes in creating small, simple websites. I am one if them. I have a full-time job already; therefore, I love working on small websites on the side. What type of sites are we talking about? Let’s take a look at some examples.

If you have something to promote, you could use a simple, fast website. For example, I recently designed a website for a professor who had written a screenplay. He didn’t need a CMS since the site is mostly information about the film. He updated the script from time to time and I am fine with helping him uploading a PDF.

If you own a restaurant, you could use a unique website that stands apart from templated designs from Squarespace. I designed a website for Le Mekong Vietnamese Cuisine almost ten years ago and it is still looking great today. The owner contacted me from time to time to update the menu, but most of the information remain the same.

If you want to have the ability to update your own content, I could help you choose a CMS that make works well for what you want to do. For Đẹp Designs, a small architecture studio, I implemented Kirby for them to update the contents with ease.

So if you need a small, custom-designed website, come talk to me rather than making your business the same as millions of others. You want to stand out, not stand in.

I just renewed my membership for Font of the Month Club by David Jonathan Ross. I can’t believe it has been almost a year already. Time flies when you have fonts every month.

Even though these fonts are works in progress, I have been able to put them to use on this blog (current headings are set in Rhododendron) as well as my own site (Bild and Roslindale Text). I must sound like a broken record, but Vietnamese support in a typeface is crucial to me. I am glad David has included Vietnamese diacritics in every Font of the Month. I wish more type designers would make Vietnamese support part of their work-in-progress fonts as well.

After eleven months with eleven fonts, I am still a happy member. If you love playing with types, you’ll definitely find values in being a member. If you’re a design student, this is a good way to impress your professor and classmates without putting a whole in your wallet. As much as I love classic typefaces, I am getting tired of seeing Akzidenz-Grotesk, Helvetica, and Univers in every packaging, branding, and web design. It’s time step up your student projects with new fonts.

I am looking forward to getting all the fonts on the first day of each months to come. Thank you, David.

The launching of Future Fonts is creating some buzz in the type community. The gist of it is that type designers offer their work in progress at a low price. Lizy Gershenzon explains its pricing model:

Future Fonts also makes financial sense for both type designers and buyers. Without devaluing the work, you can get typefaces at a cheaper price. This is because they are still in progress and don’t cost as much as their final releases. As more work is completed and new versions are added, the price goes up. Early buyers lock in at the cheapest rate and get free updates along the way. It’s a win, win, with extra incentive to buy typefaces early.

It’s a fascinating concept, but Future Fonts doesn’t work for me personally because the fonts do not have Vietnamese support. In a way, Future Fonts is similar to David Jonathan Ross’s Font of the Month Club, which I am a member, but David makes his fonts available in as many languages as possible and I really appreciate that.

Jane Mayer writes:

The sources said that when Trump had stayed in the Presidential suite of Moscow’s Ritz-Carlton hotel, in 2013, he had paid “a number of prostitutes to perform a ‘golden showers’ (urination) show in front of him,” thereby defiling a bed that Barack and Michelle Obama had slept in during a state visit.

I try to stay away from politics, but every time Ms. Mayer has a new piece in The New Yorker, I have to stop everything and read it. What a great report on “The Man Behind the Dossier.” I have tremendous respect for Ms. Mayer.

The strong wind over the weekend was terrifying. Other than a few hours without power, nothing has damaged. There were moments I felt like the roof was flying off. I re-nailed the gutters and aluminum trims a couple months ago; therefore, nothing blew off. I am glad that we survived the catastrophe. On top of all, we survived the kids’ conflicts.

The boys played well together for the most part. They still argued from time to time, but no crying, screaming, and whining. I consider that to be a progress when you put five kids together in one house of a couple of days. The boys even decided to have a sleepover. I was a bit anxious at first, but they seemed to get along fine.

The parents had agreed to step back and it seemed to work. We give them a chance to they talk it out. We only intervened if things got too rough. Fortunately, we didn’t have to do much of it. It’s so nice to see the kids played together peacefully. They put less stress on us. The iPads helped too even though I feel guilty as hell for giving in to the evil of technology. What is there for them to do when the are stuck in the house? Letting them running around the house drives me nuts as well. Overall, we had a wonderful time being stuck in the house.