A solid reference of the latest features in HTML5 and CSS3. Weyl’s clear, approachable writing makes it easy to understand for beginners and practical for more advanced front-end developers. Good to have on hand for mobile web designers and developers.
Ngoài giọng hát nồng nàn chín muồi, Lệ Quyên không đem đến cho người yêu nhạc Vũ Thành An nét mới mẻ hay riêng biệt của mình qua những ca khúc “Không Tên.” Có lẽ bởi vì áp lực từ người nhạc sĩ đã yêu cầu cô phải hát chính xác từng giai điệu và lời ca nên cô trình bài những nhạc phẩm như một cái máy photocopy. Luôn cả lối hòa âm của Vĩnh Tâm, Minh Quân, và Minh Hoàng cũng bị hạn chế đi rất nhiều.
Về những ca từ tự tay nhạc sĩ Vũ Thành An chỉnh sửa lại thì là sự vinh hạnh cho Lệ Quyên. Riêng “Bài Không Tên Cuối Cùng” tôi thấy có một mâu thuẩn nhỏ nhưng rất quang trọng. Trong phần điệp khúc của bài có câu: “Này em hỡi / Con đường em đi đó / Con đường em theo đó / Sẽ đưa em sang đâu? Mưa bên chồng, có làm em khóc, có làm em nhớ / Những khi tình còn nồng.” Lời mà nhiều ca sĩ đã hát và người nhạc sĩ cho là sai là: “Những khi mình mặn nồng.” Tôi không biết rỏ ai đã sửa lại lời hát hay Vũ Thành An đã tự đổi lại để tránh né cái ám chỉ trong câu đó.
Theo vốn liếng nông cạn tiếng Việt của tôi, “những khi tình còn nồng” thì chỉ là lúc hai người còn yêu nhau tình cảm dành cho nhau còn nồng. Còn “những khi mình mặn nồng” không đơn giản là chỉ tâm hồn mà luôn cả thể xác. Có lẻ anh muốn gửi gấm lại cho người tình củ của mình những gì đã xẫy ra giữa hai người và chỉ có hai người biết. Mưa bên chồng có làm em nhớ đến những cơn mưa mình mặn nồng đấm đuối bên nhau?
Đây chỉ là sự suy đoán riêng của tôi nhưng khi nhạc sĩ Vũ Thành An phải sửa lại hết toàn bộ lời cho “Bài Không Tên Cuối Cùng” thì tôi thấy sự suy nghỉ đó không phải không đúng. Theo như nhạc sĩ cho biết ông không muốn người tình củ và chồng của cô phải đau buồn về lời lẻ của ông đã viết lúc còn trẻ, thất tình và nóng nảy. Nếu như chỉ đơn giản “những khi tình còn nồng” thì đâu có gì quá lớn lao phải khiến ông sửa lời hết cả bài. Ai mà không có những lúc tâm hồn yêu nồng nàn? Nhưng “những khi mình mặn nồng” thì khác nhiều. Và ông phải sủa lại rằng: “Này em hỡi / Con đường em đi đó / Con đường em theo đó / Đúng đấy em ơi / Nếu chúng mình có thành đôI lứa / Chắc gì ta đã thoát ra đời khổ đau.”
The first section of Sue Apfelbaum and Juliette Cezzar’s new book gives an informative primer for editorial design and its elements such as format, identity and typography. The book then jumps right into case studies and interviews, which are the bulk part of the book. While the real-world examples are useful, the book is missing the entire practical aspect of designing the editorial experience, something that I was hoping to read and learn when I decided to make the purchase.
As with his excellent JavaScript: A Beginner’s Guide, John Pollock makes jQuery approachable and easy to understand. Pollock not only clearly explains the concept of jQuery, he also walks you through step-by-step tutorials of how to use it. He builds each exercise gently from one to the next. jQuery: A Beginner’s Guide is a required read for anyone who wants to add rich user interaction to the web.
Despite the sweeping control of the Republican, Democratic newcomer Ken Elston took the city council spot in Manassas. I am proud to have contributed to his campaign web site with my buddy Jim Van Meer.
In researching and thinking about Advanced Web Design, a course I might be teaching in the spring 0f 2015, I am changing my mind on the type of projects I want to implement for the class. Rather than focusing on technologies, which students could learn on themselves, I would like to turn my attention to digital design such as online editorial experiences, online marketing campaigns and web typography. Now I just need three more enrollments to make it happen.
The new owners of Poplar Spring Inn had hired a development firm to replace the old site I had designed and developed. They turned a simple, usable, fast-performance web site into a busy, eye-candy, slow-performance site. Unlike the old site, which I carefully crafted to boost performance using MODX, the new site is jammed with all types of plugins, CSS and JavaScripts using WordPress. Take a look at the code and you’ll see what I mean. As for the new design, all the contents are hidden below the giant image on every page. The typography is also a big mess. The good thing is I am now off the hook.
My wife complaint that I hold a book on my hand every chance I get. I am not trying to be a snob or anything, but I am juggling with three books at the moment. I am reading Robin Kelley’s Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original. It’s 500-page long, but it is also so engaging. I am also reading John Pollock’s jQuery: A Beginner’s Guide. It’s roughly 350 pages, but he makes the concepts so easy to understand. I am also reading Sue Apfelbaum and Juliette Cezzar’s Designing the Editorial Experience: A Primer for Print, Web, and Mobile to see if I could use it for Advanced Web Design’s textbook.
Last summer Mason Law web site undergone a major realignment and simplification and we have continued to work on smaller details. We are taking small steps to prune down our landing pages. For example, the current landing page for students featured massive list of links. The new landing page for admissions is much more pleasant to look at. This is something I have wanted to do for a while, but couldn’t get buy-in to cut down the unnecessary links until now. We will be rolling out each landing page at a time.
In an unrelated note, my supervisor gave me superior performance and exceeded expectation for 2014. I couldn’t be happier. I really enjoy working at the Law School thanks to the people around me. The flexibility allows me to balance between life and work. I perform much better when I am not under stress. My deepest gratitude to them.
You must be thinking that I am being too strict on you or that I don’t love you. My dear child, I love you more than life itself and I would provide you anything I could in the world, but I also need you to know the limitation. You might get what you need, but you can’t always get what you want.
When I came to pick you up on Monday, you looked into your lunch bag and didn’t see your juice. You snapped and cried. Your favorite teacher, Miss Melissa who is pregnant, picked you up to see why you cried and you said you wanted juice. I didn’t want her to carry a 37-pound boy while holding another baby in her bell so I took you from her and promised you that we would go to the store to get some juice. You calmed down and we headed to Trader’s Joe. You enjoyed pushing the baby shopping cart around while I picked up some snacks. When we headed to the juice section, you picked out your favorite lemonade packs. We went to pay and the the cashier gave you some stickers for being a good boy. In the car, I gave you your lemonade box and you finished it in just a few minutes. We went home to have dinner.
Last night as we walked to our car to go home, you wanted us to go to the store to get more juice. I said that we had nice and cool lemonade at home waiting for you to drink, but you insisted that you wanted to go buy some juice. You started hitting me with your bag of trains. I took it away and you broke down and cried. You sat on the sidewalk and refused to walk. Other kids starring at you and their parents told them to keep on walking. As I walked off toward our car, you got up and ran after me.
As we got into the car, you kicked and screamed. I remained silent, focused on driving and waited for you to cool down. When we reached to the point I thought I could talk to you I said that, “Mommy is making some chocolate cookies at home for you and Đạo. Do you like cookie?” You responded, “Yes, I like some cookies with my lemonade.” You were fine again.
I could have taken you back to the store, but I didn’t want you to get the idea that we have to go to the store everyday. It hurt me more to be strict with you, but I am doing it for your own good. You might think that I treat you unfairly because you could see that your cousin could get whatever he wanted and you don’t. I made that mistake with Đạo when he was going through the same phrase that you are facing and it took him a long time to get his self-control together. I need you to get over it the sooner the better.
Being a parent is very hard. You will go through this when you become a father yourself. Now I understand why I was spanked at home and at school when I was a kid. I did learn to be disciplined. Time has changed and the roles have reversed. You hit me with your bag of trains just like other kids hitting their parents I have witnessed. When you grow older you’ll learn how disrespect that is do to to your parents. Just because your parents don’t hit you back doesn’t mean other kids your age won’t. So learn to keep your hands to yourself will prevent you from getting hurts from other kids.
I am writing this letter to you on my iPhone while watching you sleep like a little angel. I love you so much my dear and I hope you will understand why I did what I did. I am not a great parent, but I do the best I can.
A friend recently went on an interview for a graphic design position and she was asked to do a design assessment. She thought the assignment was extensive and asked me if she should do it. Below is my response.
Design assignment is like spec work. I wouldn’t do it unless they pay for the time that I spend on it. If they can’t make a decision based on the design in your portfolio and what you have presented at the interview than you might not be the right fit for them.
With that said, I did spend the entire weekend (day and night) working on a take-home assignment for my current job. They wanted to make sure that I was able to import data into the database and display the information on the web page. They also wanted to know if I could access the server through the command line. Even though I did some web development prior to this job, I never had to touch the database and never had to use the command line. I reached out to some of my developer friends for help and I didn’t sleep until I got it to work.
It was very hard, but I wanted the job. I also wanted to challenge myself and I learned quite a bit doing it.
We met with Đạo’s teacher today to go over his progress and one of the things that we need to work on is his self-control. He pushed his classmates when they cut in front of him at the lunch line or did something he didn’t like. His temper and self-control had been one of the things that we have worked on since daycare. He is getting much better than previous years, but not quite there yet.
Đán is going through the same phrase. When he gets mad, he is uncontrollable. He can break down quite easily. I have been a bit tough on him. If he wanted to yell, I wouldn’t stop him. I just let him do it until he calms down. It has been very stressful. Even though I could sense that he was about to break down and try to avoid it,
sometimes I was just too slow to react. I am terrible at dealing with those types of urgency.
I am not sure if everyone had those moments in their lives, but I also have that self-control issue. Obviously the older you get; the more self-discipline you possess. The simply have no choice. Wether dealing with the people you love or the people you work with, or the people you have deal with, you need to be able to control your emotion.
Blogging in the past had been a place for me to vent and spewed off my anger and emotion. Now I am much cooler and haven’t used a curse words for a long time. My topics have also changed. I no longer write much about my own emotions.
Hồng Hạnh and Thái Hòa return once again with a duet album consist of Trịnh Công Sơn’s songs. Too bad they only sing together on the opening title track, “Tự Tình Khúc” and the closing “Tình Khúc Ơ-Bai.” Thái Hòa’s charming baritone and Hồng Hạnh’s sensuous alto are a perfect complement.
Thái Hòa’s passion and devotion to Trịnh Công Sơn are undeniable. Most of his albums are his own simple, stripped-down rendition of Trinh’s songs. Most of his singings are accompanied by a acoustic picking guitar. His contribution on this album is no different. As a result, his straightforward, faithful delivery gets monotonous and predictable.
On the other hand, Hồng Hạnh brings something fresh to the record. Her rendition of “Cuối Cùng Cho Một Tình Yêu,” which arranged in the bossa nova rhythm, is quite intoxicating. Her orchestrated version of “Tình Yêu Tìm Thấy” is also hypnotizing. Too bad, she only has two solo tracks on the album.
As a whole, Tự Tình Khúc is an enjoyable record from two Trinh’s appreciators and a bonus from Đinh Tiến Dũng whose version of “Tình Sầu” is passible.