Being screwed by your own family is excruciatingly painful. I had suspected it for a long time, but I didn’t want to find out. I could not handle the truth. Now the wound is cut open, the betrayal is real, and the lie is exposed, what more can I do? Not a damn thing.

When it comes to family, all that I ask for is honesty and fairness. When you owe someone something, you are responsible for paying back. You should not take advantage of your own family simply because they care about you. Helping out your family is a must, but taking advantage of your own people is a damn shame.

I wish I never had to find out, but the truth can’t be hidden forever. I cannot live knowing that I cheated others, especially to my own family. How can you live with yourself knowing damn well what you’re doing is not right? We should love and protect the people we love, not cheat, lie, and take advantage of them.

Please stop now. It is never too late to turn around, especially in your own family. Don’t set a bad example for your children. Be truthful to yourself and the people who care deeply about you. I hate to have to walk down this path, but I can’t stand still watching you screwing the person that loved you the most.

With a bit of cheating, I completed my Typographically Trịnh in 77 instead of 100 days. My patience has ran out, but I do not like leaving a project incomplete. As a result, I just wanted to get it done and out of my system.

In retrospect, it was much more challenging than I had expected. The biggest hurdle is the lack of typefaces for the Vietnamese language. I ended up reusing lots of typefaces and with different combinations. There is 21 usable typefaces in Typekit directory. Because Google Fonts has display issue in Safari, I had to abandon it. As much as I did not want to self-host the fonts, I had to in order to use some of the types in Google Fonts.

As for the content, I still have tremendous love for Trịnh’s lyrics. I am sure I could do 100 more if I wanted to. I intentionally left out all of his anti-war songs. Although he was such a great ballad songwriter, I only chose a handful of his romantic lyricism. My main interest were lyrics that has to do with life and death. I’ll definitely use this site again and again to read his words.

I need to take a break from the site, but I will come back again to tweak some of the designs. I might add in more quotes or change out quotes if I come across something inspiring. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I had creating them. Now that the project is complete. I am now turning my attention back to this blog. It will be politic as usual.

A letter from Đán’s swimming instructor:

I’m emailing you today to let you know that Dan is advancing his swim skills and we would like to invite him to join the Starfish Advance swim level in the fall. The Starfish classes are offered on Mondays from 1:30-2:00pm, slots limited to 5 students… He is currently in the most advanced class and learns the stream line, freestyle with proper breathing, jumping off the wall and swimming to instructor without help for about 10-15 feet (almost always wants to go first) and little bit of back float. He is a fish.

So proud of our little dinofish.

The seven-day family gathering in Hatteras Island (The Outer Bank of North Carolina Beach) was filled with food, drinks, laughter, electronic devices, and a bit of drama. As usual, each family took turn to cook delicious dishes for 30 some people.

It was nice to spend to with the elder generation. Some are still in good health, but some had shown signs of weakness. Despite the difficulties, they had managed to come to each reunion. In contrast, our generation had all the opportunities and health, yet not many of us could put in the effort to attend the reunion.

The drinking group was still going strong. Despite having gout, I could not resist the temptation to drink. We killed four bottles of tequila and several bottles of wine. I did not touch any beer. My gout prevention medication was Naproxen, which also helped with the hangover. It’s like killing two birds with one stone. I am pretty sure my lung and kidney don’t appreciate it. I having been feeling a bit of a pain at the bottom of my feet. I am hoping not to get an attack, but it is still to early to tell. I have been drinking lots of tart cherry juice and getting back to my plant-based diet to help clearing out the uric acid. I did quite a bit of running in the morning, swimming in the pool and at the beach, as well as foot massage in the hot tub. At the end, I am still not sure if I want to put my body through this again even just for one week a year.

For the younger generation, Việt Xuân got lots of attention for his first reunion. His lovely smiles brought joy and laughter to lots of family members. Of all the kids, Việt Xuân was the only one not gluing himself to an electronic device. During the day, I took the kids out to the pool and the beach to get away from the iPads. I am proud to witness that Đạo and Đán had been able to swim in the deep side of the pool without a floating device. Unfortunately when they were not in the water, they glued themselves to the iPads. In our normal days, they could only get the use the iPad on the weekends. At vacation house, everyone else was on it and I wanted some quiet time for myself so I can relax, read, or work on my side project. I had mistakenly getting the beasts out. When they got tired from swimming and cranky from not napping, they whined and screamed when it was time to turn off the devices. There were a few humiliating on full display in front of everyone.

No one said anything, but I wanted to apologize for the kids’ behavior was well as my inability to prevent the embarrassment. I am working harder on getting them to behave better. If not, I will withdraw from the reunion to save us from humiliation.

What an amazing speech from Obama at the DNC. Every moment is worth listening. Talking about a president with character and dignity. Obama deserves all the respect. I have no regret voting for him twice. In fact, I would vote for him again if I could, but I am glad that Hillary will continue his path. Let’s carry her to the White House. She is over-qualified and deserved to be our next president.

Michelle Obama:

When she did not win the nomination eight years ago, she didn’t get angry or disillusioned. Hillary did not pack up and go home, because as a true public servant Hillary knows that this is so much bigger than her own desires and disappointments.

Take that, Bernie supporters.

The Washington Post:

In an ordinary election year, we would acknowledge the Republican nominee, move on to the Democratic convention and spend the following months, like other voters, evaluating the candidates’ performance in debates, on the stump and in position papers. This year we will follow the campaign as always, offering honest views on all the candidates. But we cannot salute the Republican nominee or pretend that we might endorse him this fall. A Trump presidency would be dangerous for the nation and the world.

Glad to see WP speaks out this early in the election.

Dạo này ít viết blog và thiếu ngủ trầm trọng vì hăng xay làm tiếp cái vụ án Typographically Trịnh. Bây giời đã lên đến con số 60. Lúc làm đến 40 cái tôi nói sẽ tạm ngưng một thời gian nhưng vì cứ nghe nhạc Trịnh nên phải cứ làm.

Tôi gôm lại được 353 bài của ông qua nhiều ca sĩ khác nhau từ Tuấn Ngọc đến Nguyên Khang, Hồng Nhung đến Lô Thủy, Giang Trang đến Thanh Lam, Ánh Tuyết đến Bích Nga, Hiền Thục đến Hồ Trung Dũng, Thanh Hà đến Thu Phương, Thùy Dương đến Thủy Tiên. Gần đây là Thái Trân qua album Bay Đi Thầm Lặng và mới nhất là Nguyễn Hồng Ân qua album Tiếng Hát Hòa Bình.

Tuy nhiên tuy vẫn say mê nhất là những bài phản chiến và kêu gọi hòa bình Khánh Ly đã hát trước năm 1975. Những bài này tôi đã truy cập đã lâu qua dạng MP3 rất kém nên âm thanh cũng không rõ lắm. Nhưng tiếng hát đầy sức sống của Khánh Ly cùng với những nhạc cụ chơi live đã lôi cuốn tôi và cho tôi được một chút cảm giác về chiến tranh tuy rằng tôi không sống và lớn lên vào thời đó và không thấu hiểu sự đâu đớn và mất mát.

In an intriguing piece in The New Yorker on Trump, Jane Mayer talks to Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter of The Art of the Deal, about Trump’s attention span. Mayer writes:

“I put lipstick on a pig,” [Schwartz] said. “I feel a deep sense of remorse that I contributed to presenting Trump in a way that brought him wider attention and made him more appealing than he is.” He went on, “I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization.”

Có một thời như thế tập họp những bài báo của Nguyễn Đắc Xuân phần lớn viết về đề tài chóng chiến tranh của nhạc sĩ Trịnh Công Sơn. Vì những bài viết khác nhau (không chỉ riêng tác giả mà còn có những bài sưu tầm từ nhạc sĩ họ Trịnh và những người bạn cùng thời của ông) nên đọc không được một cách suôn sẽ. Vả lại tôi không có hứng thú về đề tài chính trị nên cũng không thỏa mãn lắm. Chắc phải đợi đến một quyển sách về cuộc đời và sự nghiệp âm nhạc của ông sau này.