Hôm nay ngày sinh nhật của một người con hiếu thảo, một người em rộng lượng, một người mẹ đảm đang, và một người đồng điệu tâm hồn đã cùng tôi đi suốt mười mấy năm qua trên con đường đời. Tạ ơn em đã cho chúng ta một mái ấm gia đình. Tạ ơn em đã đỡ anh đứng dậy mỗi lúc anh gục ngã. Tạ ơn em đã chỉnh anh những lúc and sai. Tạ ơn em vẫn ở bên anh. Chúc em một ngày sinh nhật vui vẻ.
In her lyrical Home, Hanson leaves plenty of space on the page to let readers pause, breathe, and heal. What a beautiful book of poetry on heartbreak. I enjoy it immensely even though I am not heartbroken.
Hôm qua sinh nhật 81 của mẹ vợ. Con, rễ, và đám cháu cùng chúc mừng Mẹ trong buổi ăn tối. Thấy Mẹ vui vẻ và vẫn còn khỏe, tôi cũng an tâm. Mỗi ngày Mẹ vẫn cố gắng đi bộ với cô bạn trong xóm.
Tôi thường hay nhắc nhở vợ đường coi thời gian bên Mẹ là điều hiển nhiên. Vợ tôi may mắn được sống bên Mẹ. Không phải ai cũng được cái diễm phúc đó, nhất là cuộc sống trên đất Mỹ. Tôi đã đánh mất đi cơ hội của mình. Tôi không muốn vợ cũng thế. Những anh em nào còn cha mẹ, hãy dành thời gian thật nhiều với cha mẹ. Thời gian không lấy lại được.
Là thằng con rể, trách nhiệm lớn nhất của tôi là không làm cho mẹ buồn. 15 năm qua nếu tôi có làm chuyện gì sai, tôi xin Mẹ tha thứ. Tôi tự biết mình có rất nhiều khuyết điểm. Ngoài vợ và con (vì không có đường chọn lựa), chỉ có Mẹ mới bao dung được tôi. Tính tình thành rễ này chẳng những không dễ dãi mà còn hơi bị thất thường. Đôi lúc có hối hận nhưng vì phải va chạm trong cuộc sống đã khiến nó như thế.
Chúc Mẹ sinh nhật vui vẻ và luôn khỏe bên con cháu.
Hôm qua giỗ Ba. Con dâu nấu vài món chay đơn giản cúng Ba. Mới đó mà ba năm đã trôi qua từ ngày Ba rời xa trần gian. Tưởng nhớ đến ba, con hình dung ra được một người xếp trong ngành xây dựng. Con còn nhớ những lời nói lớn tiếng của Ba với công nhân.
Ngày xưa Ba đi xây máy ấm cho người ta nhưng Ba lại không xây được máy ấm cho gia đình mình. Con không trách Ba. Con tôn trọng sự quyết định của Ba.
Con không theo nghề Ba. Thậm chí con không thừa hưởng được một chút tay nghề nào của Ba. Con không biết xây dựng nhà cửa nhưng con luôn cố gắng xây dựng máy ấm gia đình.
Ngày xưa không có Ba bên cạnh con cũng trải qua được sống gió. Giờ đây con luôn lo lắng cho đàn con từng li từng tí. Lo sợ bọn nó sai đường lạc bước. Không biết có nên noi gương theo Ba để bọn nó sống tự do và tự trưởng thành.
Vẫn luôn nhớ đến Ba.
Việt Thanh Nguyễn is damn fine writer. I enjoyed his novels, but admired his memoir. His prose commands attention and I couldn’t stop reading his remarkable The Man of Two Faces. As a literary critic, he tackles colonialism, capitalism, and racism head on. As a son, he writes eloquently about his parents. As a Vietnamese American, he holds nothing back from the true meaning behind the American Dream. This memoir is a prerequisite reading for Asian Americans and a required reading for all Americans.
Nguyễn writes about AMERICAMT:
a pro-life nation,
indivisible, under God,
has watered its dark fields
with blood spilled from
colonization,
genocide,
slavery
& war.
Nguyễn writes about bad Vietnamese refugees:
Taking welfare benefits while working for cash in the ethnic economy? Receiving government housing subsidies while renting out rooms to even poorer refugees? Faking marriage to get immigration status? Faking divorce so supposedly single parents and their children could get additional benefits? Faking car accidents and injuries for insurance money, and treating nonexistent patients to fraudulently claim government reimbursements? Abusing children and wives? Racially discriminating against the Amerasian children of American soldiers, including those children used as passports to the United States by their families, who then sometimes abandon them? Assaulting and robbing fellow refugees, as well as stealing microchips, extorting businesses, running brothels, and dealing drugs? Assassinating journalists with unpopular opinions about the homeland? Going to the homeland and pretending to be rich even if one is a busboy? Finding a girlfriend, mistress, or second wife and living a doubled existence, or, fuck it, just abandoning one’s diasporic family altogether for the sweet life back home?
Nguyễn writes about his decision to focus on English:
As a child, you must have made the decision. You could not speak both languages like a native or like a master. The worst possible outcome: speak both languages poorly. The next worse outcome: speak English like a foreigner but retain your mother tongue. The best outcome: speak English like a native, Vietnamese like a child.
Now that he is an accomplished writer with a masterful skills for English. It’s time to sew back his mother tongue.
As a father, my constant concerns, worries, and fears on digital addiction, depression, and self-destruction are hitting close to home. They are happening around me to the people I know.
Talking about the danger of digital addiction to my kids isn’t sinking in. They can’t pull themselves away from their screens. Their brains aren’t mature enough to walk away. I can’t help them if they can’t help themselves.
I am so tired of repeating myself. My words don’t mean a thing. I want to just let them do whatever they want with their lives. At work, I present the issues. If they don’t want to fix the issues then they are no longer my problems. My kids are my responsibilities. They stress me out, but I can’t stop worrying. My mind is exhausted by the end of the day.
I am not sure what to do. Continuing to be a pain-in-the-ass parent or preparing for the worst? I really don’t want them to go down the wrong path. Dealing with the issues now rather than facing the consequences later.
A few weeks ago, I replaced 4 brand new tires for our 2011 Toyota Sienna at Costco. They recommended wheel alignment. I was told about the lifetime wheel alignment service at Firestone.
Basically you get free wheel alignment until the end of the vehicle’s lifetime. You just have to pay $200. The deal sounded too good to be true. They must try to sell you other services as well.
I went for it today. I had never done any business at Firestone before. I didn’t make an appointment; therefore, it took about 3 hours. I was fine with that since I could do my work in the waiting area. There was no Wi-Fi, but I could hotspot through my iPhone.
They gave me a list of recommendations, but they did not try to sell me on them. I am cool with that. If this is truly a good deal, I will take my other car for the lifetime wheel alignment as well.
At this time, you can get $20 off for the lifetime wheel alignment. I am not affiliated with Firestone. I just think this is a good deal. So do your research.
What tools do you use to create your résumé nowadays? Many years ago, I created my résumé using Microsoft Words. It was great for catching spelling errors and grammars, but the typesetting was not good. I had to use system fonts like Arial or Verdana to make sure my typography wouldn’t screw up.
Later on, I switched to Adobe Illustrator so I could have control of my typography. The final PDF file could be printed on paper or uploaded to my website. Nevertheless, I wanted to create a true web version of my résumé for accessibility. Having to keep two versions of my résumé was a bit cumbersome. As a result, I designed my résumé with HTML and CSS first then I used CSS printing media query to create the final PDF for printing. Now I only keep the web version of my résumé.
In Professional Web Typography, I walked through the markups for a two-column and three-column layout for creating a web résumé. You can download the source codes for all of the projects in the book to practice your web and typographic skills.
Take a look at my web résumé. It can also be printed out on paper. I added a new position as a type advisor to my résumé. Since the launch of Vietnamese Typography, in 2016, I have been advising type designers around the world with Vietnamese diacritics. I am so glad that I made the book available for free. I am in the process of working with a company that I greatly admired and they required an official title; therefore, I am also a type advisor.
I just realize that Vietnamese Typography went live today eight years ago. Time had flown by quick.
Even though the project was my final thesis for my MA in graphic design, I have never stopped working on it. A website is never finished. I still add recommendations for new typefaces with Vietnamese support. I still create new samples, which no one else cared but me. They have become my favorite design exercise. In addition, coming up for the content for these samples has been my way of learning the Vietnamese language through music and poetry.
I also update the client list. It has been such a great pleasure collaborating and getting to know designers all over the world. Type design is such a global community.
I also would like to thank those who had support this project. I appreciate your generosity.
Lastly, thank you for reading Vietnamese Typography.
I was
You were
He, she, it was
Wait a minute
Why shouldn’t you
also be followed by was?
If I were you
I’d say “was”
But I wasn’t you
I never was
nor will I ever be
In class we chuckled
when we recited “He, she-it is”
and the masculine came first
except when going through a door
Then the word she
went through a door
and into a new world
You wasn’t there
You were “he”
and it kept being “it”
but don’t blame “it”
“It” doesn’t even know it’s there
Ron Padgett