Thank goodness for the spring break this week even though I still have to go to work. Things are calming down a bit. I am catching up with most of my school projects. The jazz board game for my seminar class is coming together nicely. I cam’t wait to play it in class. My group project for the Advanced Web Design class is still sketchy, but I have all the core requirements finished. I am in the development stage for the second project. I also whipped up 900-word essay for the class.

As for work, I am concentrating on realigning the Law homepage. We’re bringing back the carousel that is featured on almost every university web site. I was so glad we were done with in, but now it’s coming back.

On the freelance side, I launched two WordPress sites. Still working on a third one. Designed a simple business card for a client. In the process of working on a mockup for another client. Every time I say that I am not taking anymore client work, I get more requests and I hate to turn them down.

Boy, I really need a break. I am exhausted. Oh shit! Google is shutting down Reader. This is probably a good reason for me to stop checking the blogs’ updates.

Stephen Coles’s The Anatomy of Type:

Just like the human body, the Latin alphabet can take on a surprising range of shapes and proportions. These varieties can come from diverging historical paths, differences in language or culture, or simply the tool used to make the letters—whether it’s a pen, a chisel, or a compass.

This is an outstanding coffee book for type nerds.

Just rolled out PR Whiteboard blog for Matter Communications. I was brought in mainly for WordPress development. I was not responsible for any design aspect of the site. Nevertheless, the design is very nice.

What? Tùng Dương sings ballad? Get the fuck outta here. That’s not his style. He’s going to butcher those beautiful standards. Fortunately, his new release turns out to be a wonderful surprise. He can handle ballad like a motherfucking crooner.

Tùng Dương Hát Tình Ca sets off with a slow jazz rendition of “Nhìn Những Mùa Thu Đi” (Trịnh Công Sơn). Half way through, the tempo kicks up a notch for a savory swing. As always, Tùng Dương pours out his heart and soul into the song. His approach, however, has changed. He completely left out his whimsicality. I kept expecting him to freak up the melodies, but he never did. Perhaps he took some clues from Thanh Lam whose ballad singing style was being condemned for over exaggeration.

Tùng Dương is smartened up to know when to refrain himself. His version of “Ngậm Ngùi” (Phạm Duy) is soulful without being theatrical. His use of falsetto is quite good. The technique is similar to what Bằng Kiều loves to apply in most of his performance. The different is that Tùng Dương doesn’t come across like a bitch. Too bad Phạm Duy didn’t get to hear this version before he passed away. He would have loved it.

From “Dư Âm” (Nguyên Văn Tý) to “Rồi Mai Tôi Đưa Em” (Trường Sa) to “Mùa Thu Cho Em” (Ngô Thụy Miên) to “Gửi Người Em Gái ” (Đoạn Chuẩn & Từ Linh) to “Thiên Thai” (Văn Cao), Tùng Dương cuts straight to the emotional core of the lyrics with the support of intimate acoustic accompaniment. While Hát Tình Ca showcases the soother side of Tùng Dương, the album is also a welcoming detour to keep his fans satisfied until his next gig. Word is out that he’ll be in France in May to record an album with Nguyên Lê. That collaboration is going to be a motherfucker of a match.

This site’s homepage is now sporting a slideshow that uses only scalable vector graphics (SVG). The benefit of SVG is obviously the small file size and scalability. My goal is to focus on color and typography for the slideshow to jazz up the homepage as well as to show off client works. I also would like to play around with SVG because I am loving Adobe Illustrator.

After doing my research on how to best use SVG, I decided to support only modern browsers. That way I don’t have to create a PNG fallback for all the graphics. I am all about doing less work, not more. Since this is an enhancement feature, it is ok if legacy browsers don’t get it. Users can still access the blog. I have a dilemma about this whole approach. I am not sure if users on IE and below are lucky that they don’t have to these big graphics or users on modern browsers are being punished with these rich visual. I don’t know.

On the technical side, the slideshow is based off Nivo Slider, the jQuery version. After testing out many sliders, I find Nivo to be the simplest. I also purchased the WordPress plug-in license for a client, but than he decided not to use it so I implemented on the Lancaster Education Foundation.

The WordPress plug-in is very easy to set up, but my main issue is that the plug-in injects quite a bit of unnecessary JavaScripts and CSS into the page. On the other hand, the jQuery version is highly customizable. I was battling if I should use the WordPress plug-in or jQuery for the client and I decided on the former. The main reason is that the client can update the slider herself. As for my own site, I do the updates manually; therefore, I chose the jQuery version, which is free.

After more than a decade, one of my longest clients, the Lancaster Education Foundation, is moving into WordPress. That means the staff members can now update the site themselves.

I actually made the proposal to use WordPress to manage their contents a few years ago, but they hesitated to do so. Recently they hired a new, young director and she’s quite web savvy. Not only we migrated the content over, we also integrated the blog so she could use the platform to communicate.

The template is based on Twenty Twelve, which looks almost the same as my original design a few years ago, with many details polished and modified. Sass is such a useful tool for changing and compressing CSS without touching the default style.

My biggest accomplishment for this project is to finally handing the key over to the owner for updates.

For the second project of my Advanced Web Design class, I am going to build a simple web app that target jazz aficionados, fans or anyone who appreciates jazz music. The concept is to challenge the player to see if he could recognize a tune in ten second.

The functionality is straightforward. A player taps on the clip to play the music than guesses the name of the tune and who played it. Then he could tap on the answer button to check if his guess is correct. To play another tune, he simply taps on the button that would load up another clip. The game could also be played more than one player. Everyone can make his own guess.

Even though the class project only required a prototype, I am going to build out the app using jQuery Mobile framework. To make the app fun and easy to use, I am keep the interface very simple. There will only be three components: the audio clip, an answer button and a reload button. The audio clips will be loaded randomly; therefore; I would need a simple PHP script and text file to store the data. Another approach would be to use WordPress as a backend management, but that might be unnecessary for the purpose of this project. I am, however, considering developing this concept further and making it into an app that could be placed on Apple or Android app store.

As for the name, I am calling it “Jazzapp.”

Cùng lúc Nguyên Khang, Đức Tuấn và Quang Dũng đã ra mắt album của ba nhạc sĩ. Nguyên Khang hát dòng nhạc Anh Bằng qua Trái Tim Ngoan. Đức Tuấn hát tình khúc Trần Thái Nguyên qua Bài Tình Ca Đêm. Còn Quang Dũng thì hát Tình Ca Phạm Duy.

Trong ba, phần hòa âm nổi bật nhất là CD Quang Dung. Về chất giọng thì Quang Dũng vẫn ấm và đẹp. Tuy nhiên Quang Dũng đã không còn chất lôi cuốn như trước. Vả lại Quang Dũng cũng chẳng đổi mới cách hát nên nghe cũng chẳng gì gợi được sự chú ý. Trong mười tình ca, Quang Dũng chỉ đổi phong cách một lần trong “Đố Ai” vì bài này có mang âm hưởng dân ca.

Phần hòa âm trong Bài Tình Ca Đêm tuy không dở nhưng cũng không nổi trội. Khuyết điểm lớn nhất là chẳng có gì ăn khớp. Đường ai nấy đi, lời và nhạc không quyện vào nhau. Tuy Đức Tuấn đã giảm đi nét điệu khá nhiều, lối hát của Đức Tuấn vẫn không êm tai. Đức Tuấn giường như đã tập trung hết tất cả kỹ thuật chỉ để được hát một cách tự do và trôi chảy nhưng cách hát của Đức Tuấn vẫn còn bị gò bó.

Khác với Đức Tuấn và Quang Dũng, Nguyên Khang hát rất tự nhiên và lối phát âm không làm người nghe khó chịu. Tuy nhiên phần hòa âm của các nhạc sĩ Asia thì chán mòn. Nghe dòng nhạc Anh Bằng qua lối hòa âm của Trúc Hồ, Sỹ Đan và Vũ Tuấn Đức như xem phim Groundhog Day. Dường như “Mai Tôi Đi” chẳng bao giờ ra đi; “Anh Còn Nợ Em” chẳng bao giờ trả hết; và “Anh Còn Yêu Em” chẳng bao giờ chấm dứt. Trong album, chỉ có “Dù Nắng Có Mong Manh” là mới một tí nhờ Mai Thanh Sơn đưa vào vài note blues dương cầm.

As we were leaving the mall, I put Dan’s jacket on for him and my wife put on Dao’s. As we headed toward the door, she asked me where’s her jacket than complained, “Where am I on the list? Am I even on the list anymore?” I replied, “Of course you’re on the list. You’re always on my ‘to-do’ list.”

New York Times‘ Dominique Brossard and Dietram Scheufele report:

The Web, it should be said, is still a marvelous place for public debate. But when it comes to reading and understanding news stories online — like this one, for example — the medium can have a surprisingly potent effect on the message. Comments from some readers, our research shows, can significantly distort what other readers think was reported in the first place.

Shutting down the comment section makes this site much less dramatic.