Bằng Kiều and Minh Tuyết aren’t just pop singers. They are pop savvies. Their latest collaborative effort, Lâu Đài Tình Ái, is the proof once again that they know exactly what their fans want and they deliver just the way their fans desired. They don’t challenge their listeners and they ruffle no feathers.

Like most new releases coming from Thúy Nga production, Lâu Đài Tình Ái is an album filled with old popular ballads. Both Bằng Kiều and Minh Tuyết are on-the-page vocalists; therefore, they bring nothing new to these new tunes. In fact, they stay as faithful to the written melodies as they could. The result is safe but sincere. For instance, Minh Tuyết’s solo rendition of “Đừng Xa Em Đêm Nay” (Đức Huy) is the only cover that comes closest to Thảo My’s original. While her vocal delivery is straightforward, Đồng Sơn’s elegant Latin arrangement makes the tune sounds fresh.

As for Bằng Kiều’s solo performance, his take on “Nha Trang Ngày Về” (Phạm Duy) is reflective and nostalgic. In addition to Tùng Châu’s simple, sensational arrangement, what made this version works is that Bằng Kiều has restraint himself from belting out his falsetto. I was expecting to hear him wailing out on the last bar, but thankfully he ended the song in the low register.

Out of their four duets, “Tình Bơ Vơ” (Lam Phương) stands out. Their vocal deliveries are what fans from both camp would anticipate. What new is that Tùng Châu gives the song a Latin rhythm with sprinkle of bluesy keyboard licks. Without a doubt, the productions make Lâu Đài Tình Ái enjoyable for at least one or two listens.

At dinner last night, I shared with my wife a few things about Duke Ellington I have been reading. I said that he was a spoiled child. Dao asked me, “What does spoiled mean?” My wife replied to him, “What do you think it mean?” He said, “It means when you get a lot of toys.” My wife and I both know that Dao is a bright kid and he’s also very stubborn. The combination makes him a hard-headed child to deal with.

I notice his behavior has changed drastically in the past year. He enjoys going to school and interacting with his friends. At home he plays well with his brother except when Dan plays with the toys that he liked. For instance, when Dan played with a garbage truck he tried to take it away from Dan. If Dan wouldn’t give it up he would start a fight. I stepped in tell him that Dan is playing with it at the moment he needs to wait for a bit. He would start to lose control if he couldn’t get what he wants. When that occurred I sent him to timeout.

Once Dan is done playing he would give it to Dao. Dan usually doesn’t play with a toy for too long. Dao thanked him and then he moved on. As soon as he grabbed a train, Dao wanted that train as well even though we have ton of trains in the house, he had to have the one Dan was playing with and then we go through the same timeout again. This behavior of his is driving me off the wall and I can’t seem to get through to him at the moment.

Như thường lệ sau khi đọc xong hai quyển sách thì tôi tắt hết đèn để thằng Đán ngủ. Hôm qua mệt quá nên tôi thiếp đi. Đến 9:30 giật mình thức dậy thì thấy nó vẫn chưa ngủ. Khi đưa tay ôm nó thì tôi đụng cái tả. Ngạc nhiên là tại sao tả lại rớt ra. Tôi bật đèn đọc sách lên thì thấy nó đã lột hết cả quần lẫn tả và đang nằm vuốt cu. Cái trò này hơi bị mới.

Hôm qua là ngày tổng thống đáng nhớ.

The first assignment for our graduate seminar, which focused on analog typography, was to explore the expressive range of non-traditional type. We had to choose a theme: “fire, water, earth and air” or “summer, spring, winter and fall (or autumn).” Then we had to create each word without the use of the computer and each composition must be executed with one of the following media: wet (paint, ink, etc.), dry (pencils, crayons, charcoal, ballpoint, etc.), collage (2D or 3D) and mechanical/photographic means.

For my project, I chose “fire, water, earth and air.” For the execution, I selected food as my media. For fire, I used crushed chilly peppers. The reason is obvious: hot peppers burn like fire. That was the easiest one to do and it met the dry media requirement. For earth, I wanted to convey organic; therefore, I made a collage of whatever my wife had at home (green beans, onion, carrot, mint, garlic and tangerine) into the word. For air, I picked popcorns since they are as light as air. To meet the mechanical/photographic means, I took a shot of the composition.

Water was a bit tricky to pull off. My initial concept was to freeze the ice cubes with food coloring. Once they are frozen, I could assemble them into the word “water” and let the ice melt a bit before taking the photo of it. Then I came across some watermelon in the refrigerator and the idea went off. Water in watermelon, get it? So I smashed up the watermelon and let the juice spilled over the canvas with the word “water” spelled out. That also met the wet media requirement.

I had fun playing with this project. It’s a special feeling to do the craft with your hand instead of relying on the computer even though I used some Photoshop to clean up the photography. I also had a personal assistant helping me out with the execution. Thanks baby!

My boys are fascinated with trains. Dao loves trains when he was about one. He also has a huge influence on his younger brother and cousin. From The Polar Express to The Little Engine That Could to Thomas & Friends to Chuggington, the three of them could watch train movies all day day long. One of the songs that played the most in our minivan during Christmas travel was “The North Pole Express” by Nick Lowe. Seeing them loved that song so much, I came up with the idea of pulling together a jazz train collection for them to get them to listen to jazz. Last night, I came up with about forty songs in my collection and the one song that has been covered the most was Duke Ellington’s “Take the ‘A’ Train.” I narrowed down to just ten and the requirement had to be fun for the kids to enjoy. So here’s my final list:

1. “Daybreak Express” by Duke Ellington: When it comes to train songs, this one comes to mind immediately. It’s a thrilling composition filled with the “Ellington Effects.”
2. “Hobo, You Can’t Ride This Train”: Gotta love Pops’s gruff voice on this record.
3. “All Aboard” by Wynton Marsalis: This is one of Dao’s favorite train tracks. It’s definitely an Ellington’s influence.
4. “So Many Roads, So Many Trains” by Otis Rush: Gotta throw in a good old blues train into the mix.
5. “Take The ‘A’ Train” by Duke Ellington & His Orchestra: Although I have about ten versions of this tune ranging from Ella Fitzgerald to Ben Webster, I have to go with the original record.
6. “The North Pole Express” by Nick Lowe: This is the track that inspires this collection. The kids are already in love with it.
7. “That Same Old Train” by Snooks Eaglin: Another blues train with the sensational bluesman Snooks Eaglin.
8. “Honky Tonk Train Blues” by Meade “Lux” Lewis: Gotta have some boogie woogie in the mix as well. I hope it would inspire one of the boys to pick up the piano.
9. “Mystery Train” by Junior Parker: The original blues tune that became a rockabilly standard.
10. “Blue Train” by John Coltrane: A hard bop joint from Coltrane is more for me than the kids.

The following report came from one of Dao’s teachers:

Yesterday, we went to the gym and we saw a few bugs and the children were very intrigued about them, so today we asked them.
Miss Rachael: What did you guys see in the gym?
Kassie: We saw a bug
Alex: we saw a stink bug.
Eva: I think I saw 5 stink bugs. There were one had 2 babies and the other had 1 baby.
Miss Rachael: What do you know about bugs?
Dao: if you squish them, they die.

I never taught him that.

Because Dao is eloquent with language, Dan picks up his motor skills from him as well. The other day, Dan dropped a container of cereal while we were riding to the daycare. He said slowly, “I spilled cereal… Dao can you pick them up?” Early today, I was putting on his diaper and joked with him, “Cu đẹp đâu rồi?” (Where is your pretty penis?) He tried to take off his diaper and replied, “Let me show you. Let me show you.”

Hoàng Quyên has a big pipe and a slight raspy timbre. In fact, her voice has a reminiscent of the youthful Thanh Lam’s without vibrato issues. Her rendition of “Em và Đêm” and “Có Đôi” off her debut Cửa Thơm Mùi Nắng, a collaboration with her mentor Lê Minh Sơn, makes you miss the efflorescent Thanh Lam back in the old days. Her phrasing, particularly on the high register, is so much lighter comparing to Thanh Lam’s. Even though vibrato is applied in big notes, she uses them with care and control.

Highlight of the album is the opening “Ngày Em Ra Đời.” The tune, which produced by Lê Minh Sơn himself, has a sensational swing with hypnotic walking bass and Miles-inspired muted trumpet. Another standout number is “À Í A.” Accompanied by Trần Mạnh Hùng’s elegant classical piano, Hoàng Quyên brings out the emotional essence without being operatic like Trọng Tấn.

“Gió Mùa Về,” on the other hand, falls short on range and dynamic. Her version, which has a new rock-up production, is flat comparing to Ngọc Khuê’s contemporary folk-jazz take. In addition, Ngọc Khuê added so much playfulness—pushing her vocals to an uncomfortably high level and pulling back to child-like talking—into her delivery that it would be hard to match.

Nevertheless, Cửa Thơm Mùi Nắng is a strong, solid debut. She can’t go wrong under Lê Minh Sơn’s guidance and Trần Mạnh Hùng’s arrangements. The album, however, doesn’t define the true Hoàng Quyên other than the younger version of Tham Lam. Nothing’s wrong with that. Madeleine Peyroux started out sounding like Billie Holiday, but found her true self as she became mature. Let’s hope that Hoàng Quyên will discover her own voice as well.

An intriguing take on “How Typography Affects Conversions.” Ankit Oberoi:

For Internet marketers, the most important thing to remember is to use typography to complement and enhance your copy. When done right, it can trigger the right emotion, mood, and even action required to get a visitor to convert.

In his presentation titled, “The UX Army of One: How to Get More Done with Less,” Jonathan Rubin, program manager for the DigitalGov User Experience Program at the U.S. General Services Administration, explained five simple steps to get usability and user experience rolling in your organization.

The first step is to take advantage of cheap, effective resources such as templates (scripts, personas and Heuristic evaluations), free tool trials (for prototyping includes Axure, Balsamiq and POP) and books (Rocket Surgery Made Easy by Steve Krug).

The second step is to make quick wins. He suggests making small tweaks along the way rather than making big design changes. For usability, he advised using three testers and to focus on three top usability issues.

The third step is to sell your concept by presenting both good and bad UX stories and showing before and after screenshots of your design. Jon also recommends applying Jakob’s “Corporate Usability Maturity.”

The fourth step is to share results quickly (the day of the testing if possible). When sharing the results, don’t just email them. Present the results instead. Making quick reaction videos are highly recommended if you have the resources.

The final step is to build a team. Find other people who do user experience both inside and outside of your organization. Give yourself a cool title like user experience evangelist or UX team lead. Hands-on training is also a great way to build a partnership.

While the presentation was informative, it focused more on usability than UX aspect. Jon spoke more from a theory than design perspective. Still, I am glad to see some UX activities in the NoVA community. I am definitely keeping an eye on the NoVA UX Meetup in the future.

Like many self-taught web designers, I questioned the value of academia. Before enrolled into the master program in graphic design at the George Mason University School of Art, I wondered if the investment worthwhile. Would I get anything out of school or would I just waste my time? As I listened to a few web design podcasts that covered the same topic, I had more doubts. Many web designers left school because they found the programs weren’t up to speed with the industry. They weren’t taught responsive web design or the latest technologies.

Even though I was unsure about going back to school, I applied for an MA program away because the degree would allow me to teach and share my passion for web design. In spring of 2012, I was accepted into the program and decided to give it a try. After more than ten years, I was excited to be back to the classroom environment. For my first semester, I took a four-credit course on advanced typography and one-credit course on graduate design seminar.

As much as I love type, I struggled in advanced typography. I could hardly keep up with the professor’s expectation. Each class I had to bring in 20 to 30 pieces of work for critique. As a result, I just had to churn out work, but had no time to refine any of it. I made it through the class, but it was stressful. I didn’t learn much because the course felt like an acrobatic exercise than creative thinking. Once again, I wondered if the efforts and the investments worth it. I thought of dropping out, but decided to give it one more shot.

In the spring of 2013, I took a four-credit advanced web design and a one-credit seminar. I had been doing web design for the past ten years and my technological skills were fairly up to date; therefore, the web design course should be a piece of cake. I was wrong. I struggled even more. While the professor wanted me to do sketches on papers and mockups in Photoshop, I wanted to jump straight into the browser. Our approaches were totally different. Since I was the one being graded on, I needed to follow the professor’s approach.

While I was having a hard time with my advanced web design class, I had fun in the seminar class. For the entire semester the class focused on building a board game. I created a jazz trivia game. What I enjoyed so much about the class was that I was working something that interested me. Rather than just getting the assignment done, I put the effort into the work. At the same time, I got to know a classmate that changed my perspective on schooling. Even though the seminar was just a one-credit, he put 200% into his projects. He went the extra miles on everything he did and that inspired me.

In the fall of 2013, I took a four-credit course on brand identity design and a one-credit seminar. I did well on both because I turned the assignments into opportunities. Rather than just trying to fulfill the requirements, I selected the subjects that I was passionate about and that made the whole different. I put more thoughts into the contents and the design process.

It took me three semesters to realize that you get out of graduate school what you put in. The courses won’t prepare you for the newest trend in the industry, but they prepare you for critical thinking and problem solving. As a result, I learned to select classes that would broaden my horizon rather than classes that teach technical skills. Instead of choosing classes that I know I could breeze through, I would choose classes that would challenge me. In that regard, graduate school is worthwhile.