I am looking forward to the three-day conference, Computers in Libraries 2012, next week. The program featured some interesting topics including web and mobile development for library.

I will also be attending the five-day training for Red Hat System Administration I (RH124) on the first week of April. This is the skill tI need to pick up for my current job. I have learned my way into Linux by reading books and with the help of the previous developer. I am hoping to gain more knowledge and confidence through the training.

Install WordPress

wget http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
tar xfz latest.tar.gz
cp -r * ~/public_html/your/website/folder/

Change Permissions (rwx => 4 + 2 + 1 = 7)

For Directories:

find /path/to/your/directory/ -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

For Files:

find /path/to/your/file/ -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

Permissions

chmod -R 755 directory
chmod -R 644 files

Remove files and directory (use carefully)

rm -rf YourDirectory

Change Owner

chown -R apache new_name //change entire directory

Rename Directory

mv {old} {new}

Database

mysql -u root -p //To access database
mysql> create database [database name];
mysql> show databases;
mysql> drop database [database name];

Getting Dao to brush his teeth takes quite a bit of patience and effort. He doesn’t quite get the important of brushing his teeth yet. So I gave him a little demonstration last night using Photoshop.

I pulled up a recent photo of him and zoomed into his smiley face. I selected the yellow stains on his teeth using the Magic Wand Tool and pointed out to him, “You see all that germs running around your teeth?” He replied, “Yeah, like Curious George.” He referred to one of Curious George’s episodes on germs. I said, “That’s right and if you don’t brush your teeth, this is what is going to happen to your teeth.” I slowly darkened his teeth by adjusting the image’s level. He quickly ran into the bathroom and asked me to brush his teeth. I just took my time and did it slowly without having to hold him down. Afterward, he held water in his mouth and spat it out saying, “Go away germs. Go down the hole.”

With the daylight saving time changed this morning, he didn’t get up until almost 8 o’clock. I told him to go brush his teeth and the reaction was “no.” So I reminded him what happened yesterday if he doesn’t want to brush his teeth. He quickly got up and ran into the bathroom and we did the same thing we did last night. After we all done, he said, “The germs in my mouth are gone.”

I am not sure who long this method would last, but the message is definitely effective.

Seeing my wife breastfeeding my boy makes me understand why many women, especially working mother, don’t want to breastfeed their kids. It’s a hard commitment. She has to pump milk every few hours when she’s at work. Fortunately she has a very flexible job. Because breastfeeding baby gets hungry more often during the night, she has to stay up more often to feed him.

On top of all of that, Dana has to watch her diet. Our lil Dan has eczema and he gets worse whenever she eats beef or seafood. Now she has to give her favorite food like steak, lobster and crab for the sake of the baby. She doesn’t have to give up any of that if she simply gives him formula.

Every time I hold lil Dan in my arms, it never ceases to amaze me how a little boy who gets bigger and more beautiful everyday simply by drinking his mother’s milk. There’s a Vietnamese proverb that says, “Uống Nước Nhớ Nguồn” (drink water, remember the root). I say, “Drink milk and remember your mother.” Yes, breastfeeding is hard. It requires tremendous efforts. So my deepest respect goes out to all the mothers who breastfeed her baby.

These days we have tacos almost every week thanks to my mom-to-be sister-in-law. Last night we had tacos again for supper. Whenever I have tacos, I have to have some margarita to go with them. Last night I made a bit too much and I was the only one drinking it. After dinner I was buzzed and yet still had to do my parts: giving Dao a bath, brushing his teeth and putting him to bed.

Taking care of a kid with a bit of a buzz was quite fun actually. I was just bugging out with him. We splashed water all over the bath tube and screamed like drunken college kids. After giving him a bath and putting him on his new diaper, I told him to play in the bedroom so I could take a shower, but he wanted to come inside the bathroom with me. When you have kids, privacy is something that is completely lost. The other day, I was taking a shit while he was standing next to me watching YouTube video on my iPhone.

So I let him sat in while I took a shower. He told me to pull the toilet seat cover down so he could sit and wait. When I took off my clothes, he looked and said, “Wow, that’s a big one.” Then he pointed to his own and said, “I have small one.” Oh my goodness, I laughed so hard and I couldn’t wait to tell my wife what her son just said to me. I love this kid. He’s such a funny little boy.

I am admitted to George Mason School of Art‘s graduate program in graphic design. I feel like a high school kid getting his first college acceptance letter. In a decade of working in higher-ed institution, I am finally taking advantage of the tuition benefit for something that I truly want to learn and earn a degree. I am positive that the program will make me a better designer.

Many thanks to my bosses (past and present) for their wonderful letter of recommendation. Mad props to my sister-in-law’s husband for proofreading my expanded goal statements and my writing sample, in which I wrote about “White Space, Miles Davis and Responsive Web Design.” I am also sure that the portfolio that I put together in a couple of hours got in the the door. Visualgui not only landed me freelance projects, but also get me into graduate program. I am definitely looking forward toward the Fall semester this year.

Being a father of a three-year-old and a three-month-old gives me the best and the worst experience at the same time. Lil Dan is at the best phrase of his life. Even when the eczema irritates him, he puts on beautiful smiles every time we talk to him. I love holding him in my arms until he falls asleep. Even though I am encouraging a bad habit, he’s only being this good for a short period of time. I know how fast time has passed by so I am just going to hold on to the precious moments as long as I can. By the time he hits two or three, that’s when the worst comes out.

Dao is now in that terrible-three stage. It’s not his fault though. It’s mostly our fault because we’re not sure how to handle him. In fact, I have to give him props for being a pioneer. Dao is a bright and imaginative kid; therefore, he challenges us and prepares us for his younger siblings. I am still learning my ways around him. This past week things seemed to be much smoother than the previous weeks. I have learned one important key: not to let him get to me. No matter how frustrated I was with his constant revolts I remained calmed. If he knew that I was furious, he would push it even harder.

So now on weekdays from 6pm to 10pm he has my full attention. I wish I could spend more time with Dan, but this is the critical moment for Dao. Besides, I am sure Dan is very content with his mom. In these four hours, my focus is to feed him dinner, give him a bath and brush his teeth. As long as we can accomplish those three taks, we can play all he wants.

With that said, Dao is very funny sometimes. Here’s a clip that he’s trying to breastfeed his little brother. When I took a little dinosaur toy and touched his cheek with it, he said, “Khung long (dinosaur) please don’t eat me. Eat grass.”

I work with MODX Evolution the day I took on a new job, which is four months ago, at George Mason Law. Since the site already built out, I just needed to learn my way around the system. I knew enough to redesign the entire site with HTML5 and responsive layout. It was a daunting task, but MODX gave me the flexibility to accomplish my goal.

Now I am learning to build a site from scratch using MODX Revolution and Bob Ray’s MODX: The Official Guide is indispensable. Through almost 800 pages, Ray demonstrates his inside-out knowledge of MODX. Using the book as a reference, I was able to put together a CMS-powered site with the exact markups I had intended. I am now in love with Revolution.

Highly recommended if you want to learn MODX. Must-have if you develop sites using MODX.

As mentioned last Friday, I invited my wife to lunch with me today, but she dissed me for her colleagues and didn’t even answered my call. Ouch! I was looking forward to it, but it’s all good though. I got a whole Sautéed Lobster in Shell with Salt & Pepper. This is perfect. Not too salty and not too messy, the lobster was perfect. If I want lobster, Viet Royal is the place to go.

I was beat by a three years old. He completely shut me down yesterday. Can’t talk sense to him because his replied was, “Don’t talk to me.” Whipping his ass didn’t work either. My only choice was just do it. When I gave him a bath, he screamed as if I was torturing him. Even my wife had to check in to see if I was torturing him. Putting on his clothes was also a battle. The positive outcome was we both tired as hell when it was time for bed. We both slept through the night. Parenting a three-year-old is a challenge and I am failing. He turned me into a taciturn. I am not giving up. I am just giving in.