Dan’s first day seems to be good. He didn’t cry at all when we dropped him off. It was a busy morning and the teacher just took his hand walked to the playground. Dan is in Ms. Ester’s class. She was Dao’s previous and favorite teacher. I am sure he is having a blast.

Dao is also back with Ms. Chantel who is also his previous and favorite teacher. He was a bit whiny when we brought him in, but then completely content when he sat on her lap. I came over to see how he was doing and he said, “I want to see my baby.” Ms. Chantel promised that he would get to see his baby brother later on.

Can’t wait to pick them up in the evening and treat them to Baskin-Robbins.

Sau khi nốc hết một ly cối Mojito tối qua, tôi không ngủ được vì men rum làm nóng cả người. Muốn đọc sánh nhưng lại bị ngà ngà nên mở NetFlix lên xem. Quẹt qua quẹt lại trên iPhone thì thấy có một phim có tựa đề thú vị nên cũng tò mò bấm vào.

After Porn Ends là phim tài liệu khảo sát về cuộc đời và nghề nghiệp của những ngôi sao đóng phim XXX. Điểm chính được nhấn mạnh là những khó khăn họ phải vượt qua sau khi rời bỏ phim ảnh. Vì một khi đã dẫm chân vào nghề nầy rồi thì không dễ dàng có lại được một cuộc sống bình thường.

Phần nội dung của phim thì cũng tạm được. Còn phần diễn viên thì quen quen. Thú thật thì tôi cũng chẳng để ý nhiều về những minh tinh này. Vì trong lúc xem, đầu óc đâu còn minh mẫn nữa mà chú ý. Tuy nhiên có một cô đã cho tôi được ấn tượng từ lâu. Cô tên là Raylene và cô cũng có xuật hiện trong phim tài liệu này.

Lúc còn ở trung học tôi có một thằng bạn khá thân đã cho tôi một băng video thu lại. Trong đó chỉ toàn Raylene đảm nhiệm vai chính. Chắc là thằng này nó cũng mê cô ta. Tôi đã cất giấu cuốn băng đó đến lúc lấy vợ.

Raylene làm tôi chú ý nhất là lối diễn kịch rất ngộ nghĩnh của cô trước khi giao cấu, nhất là những màng dụ dỗ trai tơ. Cô có thân hình đẩy đà quyến rủ. Tiếc rằng những vết xăm trên người giảm bớt đi phần lôi cuốn. (Đó cũng chỉ là thẩm mỹ cá nhân tôi.) Nhưng điểm đẹp của cô là nhan sắc trên gương mặt và nhất là chiếc mủi cao rất tao nhã.

Xem phim này mới biết thêm chút về cô. Raylene đã rời bỏ thế giới nghệ thuật XXX và trở thành người mua bán nhà cửa chuyên nghiệp. Còn về đời tư thì cô đã trở thành người vợ và người mẹ. Thôi thì cũng chúc mừng cho Raylene vậy.

I envy those parents who stay home with their kids. I know a handful of moms are doing that already, but I also found out the other day that a friend who is a web developer quitted his job to be home with his first daughter. I whined to my wife every once in a while that I wanted to be a stay-at-home dad as well. I told her my plan would be to spend time with the boys during the day and work on freelance projects during the night. The problem is that I am really suck at doing business. I only take on side jobs that I like and I only take on projects that come to me. I despise going out of my way to pick up clients; therefore, I won’t be able to pay the bills if I do my own business.

As much as I love my kids, I realize that I am not the type of guy that could handle constant craziness. Dao and Dan are at the age that they could go on all day long without getting tired. They both are super active. Dan alone is a handful. He climbs, runs, yells and he loves to do anything except sitting still. He has yet to listen to what I say. In fact, whatever I tell him not to do, he would do it. For example, whenever I say, “don’t put that in your mouth,” and he would put it in his mouth. He’s starting to pick up Vietnamese words like dirty, car, hand, mouth and so forth. For now, he learns mostly Vietnamese.

With Dao, he could watch TV all day long if I let him; therefore, I have to play with him as well to keep him occupied. Dao is such a witty kid, especially the things that he said. For example, a couple of days ago, he told me, “Daddy, my ‘cu’ (penis) gets bigger when I eat a lot.” I replied, “You are absolutely right, son.” I must admit. I don’t give him much attention as I should. For instance, if I take both of them to the playground, I constantly have to look after Dan. This little fellow has no fear. He climbs and does things as if he doesn’t think he would hurt himself. On the other hand, Dao is a very cautious kid and he knows his limitation; therefore, I let him do anything he likes without much of my supervision. This is one of the reasons, I always want my wife to join us so that each of us could give each kid our attention. I can only focus on one kid at a time.

In any rate, stay-at-home dad is not going to cut it for me. I can’t be looking after two kids at the same time. Spending just a full day with them is already exhausting. I can’t do it day after day. As much as I would like to be home with my kids, I simply can’t. I am not cut out for it.

Coincidentally, I listened to two podcasts this morning that talked about the digital strategy that helped Obama got reelected in 2012. Daniel Ryan shared his experience on the Non-Breaking Space, one of my favorite podcasts on web design, when he was the director of front-end development for President Obama’s 2012 election campaign. Likewise on Fresh Air, journalist Jonathan Alter explained how the Obama campaign revolutionized more than just politics by focusing on the numbers game. Both podcasts are worth listening.

I had my annual checkup yesterday even though I despise getting a physical exam. The previous one I had was two years ago and the one before that was five or six years apart.

The truth is I really don’t want to know about my health. I don’t want to find out if I have hepatitis, STDs, tuberculosis or any deadly shit. I hate seeing my blood draining into the tubes. One time I almost passed out because I didn’t have anything to eat or drink 12 hours before getting my blood drawn.

Yet the main reason I don’t like getting a check up is when the physician examined my private parts. I never felt comfortable. For the previous two exams, I chose male doctors so that I would not feel embarrassed. When they examined my dick and balls I kept saying to myself, “please, please don’t get hard.” I think I kind of did, which made me think there is some gayness in me.

The last one I chose a female doctor who is in her early 50s to see if I could be less uncomfortable. The moment came when she told me to drop my trousers. She looked away as she rubbed around my private area, but then she still had to peeped at my penis and testicles to see if I am getting any disease. It was extremely awkward, but I didn’t get hard.

Thank goodness, I only have to do this only once a year. I have nothing but respect and sympathy for doctors who have to do this everyday.

Jessica Lee wrote the following line in her high school yearbook:

Fluorine uranium carbon potassium bismuth technetium helium sulfur germanium thulium oxygen neon yttrium.

The quote appears to be a list of chemical elements, but putting the symbols together and they spell out: “Fuck bitches get money.” The line came from “Get Money” by Biggie Smalls and Jr. M.A.F.I.A. I am impressed that a young girl like her knows that joint from Biggie. Read more

“A monster about to come alive again,” Kanye West declares in “On Sight,” an opening track on his sixth studio release Yeezus. Over the heavily distorted synthesizer produced by Daft Punk, Kanye charges on, “Black dick all in your spouse again / And I know she like chocolate men / She got more niggas off than Cochran.” The monster is back and he’s darker, angrier, fouler and hornier than a motherfucker.

The lasciviousness is understandable as Kanye is about to become a father for the first time. To cope with his meltdown during Kim Kardashian’s pregnancy, he lets out all the sexual fantasies in “I’m In It”: “Eating Asian pussy, all I need was sweet and sour sauce” and “Put my fist in her like a civil rights sign.” He pushes further, “I’m a rap-lick priest / getting head by the nuns.”

If you could get past the ill rhymes, Yeezus is quite striking in term of musical direction. “Black Skinhead” reduces to a hard-hitting bass and powerful marching drums. In fact, the entire album takes on a minimalist approach. Gone are the complex palettes of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and the lush orchestration of Late Registration. The stripped-down beats allow more attention to the lyrics and that could be a curse as well, especially with lazy, Cam’ron-like punchlines: “Hey, you remember where we first met? / Okay, I don’t remember where we first met.”

Unlike his previous records, Yeezus is pared down to just ten tracks. In the hand of Rick Rubin, the album is coherently crafted to be experienced as a whole. With the less-is-more productions backing up in-your-fucking-face lyricisms, Kanye once again proves to be one of the most compelling artists who is not afraid to push his music to the next level.

For Father’s Day, my wife treated me to Ngọc Hạ Liveshow’s 10 Năm Sân Khấu, which was held in a small auditorium at Northern Virginia Community College. The show is part of a tour that Ngọc Hạ puts together herself to celebrate the 10th anniversary of her professional career. We left the kids with grandma on a Sunday afternoon to attend the show. I thought it would last about two hours the most and didn’t expect much from it, yet the ran almost four hours and surpassed my expectation.

Under the musical direction of pianist Nguyễn Quang and with the support from her good friends Nguyên Khang and Trần Thái Hòa, Ngọc Hạ gave fans around the Metro Area an unforgettable evening. She brought back so much memories from her successful performances including “Tình Hoài Hương” (Phạm Duy), “Đưa Em Tìm Động Hoa Vàng” (Phạm Duy), “Không Thể Và Có Thể” (Phó Đức Phương) and “Mái Đình Làng Biển” (Nguyễn Cường).

Trần Thái Hòa and Nguyên Khang gave their all as well. The duets between Ngọc Hạ and Trần Thái Hòa on “Kiếp Nào Còn Yêu Nhau” (Phạm Duy) and “Tóc Mai Sợi Vắng Sợi Dài” (Phạm Duy) were exceptional. Likewise the duets between Ngọc Hạ and Nguyên Khang on “Chân Trời Tím” (Trần Thiện Thanh) and “Trở Về Mái Nhà Xưa” (Phạm Duy) were outstanding. The surprise, unexpected duet was “Áo Anh Sứt Chỉ Đường Tà” from Trần Thái Hòa and Nguyên Khang.

Although the show was promoted as “nhạc thính phòng” (intimate music), the only performance that was closest to intimacy was Nguyên Khang’s rendition of “Cô Đơn” (Nguyễn Ánh 9), which accompanied only by piano. The rest of the tunes were backed up by the band, which consist of Nhật Huấn (synth), Nhật Hùng (bass), Nhật Hải (guitar) and Doanh Huỳnh (drums).

What made 10 Năm Sân Khấu a memorable show was that the three established singers are at the top of their game. Pianist Nguyễn Quang also had done an excellent job of holding down the keyboard as well as keeping the band in tuned. I am so glad to see Ngọc Hạ made the necessary investment on the show and it well paid off. If the show comes to a city near you, definitely worth checking out.

For a while now, my RSS reader gets only a few updates a day. Most of the “friends” and personal blogs I had subscribed to either shut down or don’t update anymore. Even the tech and design news, in which I followed to stay up to date, have moved to Twitter.

Blog shows its age even though WordPress is still popular. At the core, WordPress is still a blogging platform, but it is also being used more as a content management system more than a blog. It’s a nostalgia for me to see blogging going away. It has become a part of my digital life. Blogging was never meant to be a popularity thing for me. Proof is that this blog has peaked years ago even before I closed the comment section. I hardly check who visited the site or who read the blog. It doesn’t matter as long as I still have my own space to write, design and learn. It’s the place where I don’t have to please anybody or follow anyone’s instructions.

I disconnected my blog from my Twitter and Facebook. You’ll have to visit this site to see the updates unless you have subscribed to my RSS feed. The blog is not even prominent on the homepage. You have to get past the large banner to get to the blog. The reason is that I don’t want the blog to be the main focus on the homepage and only those who want to read would scroll.

I am not sure how long my blog will last, but it is still alive and kicking for now.

What do you get when a hot pianist and vocalist pays tribute to a cool jazz trumpeter? Tha shiznit. That’s right. Sexy Brazilian Eliane Elias swings hard, drops some mean blues notes and adds some bossa-nova flavors to Chet Baker’s classics on her latest I Thought About You.

The album kicks off with a savory, mid-tempo swing on the title track and Elias’s bluesy licks are just stunning. “There Will Never Be Another You” continues with a striking balance between bossa-nova and up-tempo swing, in which Randy Brecker recreates some of that intoxicating trumpet lines from Baker. The rhythm continues to drive on “This Can’t Be Love” with Marc Johnson holding down the hypnotic bass lines.

Even though Elias is quite a sensational vocalist, her singing takes a backseat to her piano chops. On the slow “Embraceable You,” which set in an elegant Latin rhythm, her keyboard drives her voice more than complementing it. She’s all about the groove, which makes I Thought About You quite an exciting listening experience. Would love to see her live one day.