In the parking lot this morning, Dao said to me, “Daddy, am Dao. Xe dung Dao.” He told me to carry him to class so that cars won’t hit him. It was cold and I was in a rush to get to work so I just picked him up. I think I have to carry him to class until he goes to college.

Yesterday he helped me changed diaper for his little brother so he pulled up the stool to stand next to me and said, “I am too small,” and glanced around the room and went on, “smaller than the light.” I smiled and replied in Vietnamese, “I don’t think I’ll ever be as tall as the light either.”

I witnessed little Dan smiled at me for the first time yesterday as I tried to communicate to him with the five words babies use. He seems to use “neh” very often. The little guy is hungry all the time. He doesn’t seem to use “eair” (lower gas) though. He just drops a few loud farts to make sure that we heard him. That’s his secret language for “change me now.”

First few listens of Gretchen Parlato’s The Lost and Found didn’t quite sink in. Parlato has a tiny, breathy, whispery, slurry voice and the music is all over the place ranging from r&b to pop to post-bop. Paying closed attention, however, the album is a rare gem. Parlato isn’t just a singer. She uses her voice as an instrument to engage with her vigorous rhythm section, which made up of pianist Taylor Eigsti, bassist Derrick Hodge and drummer Kendrick Scott. On the hypnotic reinterpretation of Wayne Shorter’s “Juju,” her voice floats like ghost passing through glass alongside tenor saxaphonist Dayna Stephens. On Lauryn Hill’s “All That I Can Say,” she rides the groovy r&b beat with grace and effortlessness. With poetic lyrics, beautiful melody and sleek beat, her original “Still,” co-written and duet with guitarist Alan Hampton, is no less impressive. The Lost and Found showcases not only Parlato’s stylistic versatility, but also her ethearal sensibility.

I drove home from work yesterday with a bit of a migraine. Fortunately Dao’s good behave helped clear my head. He turned off TV and asked me to play with him on the table train he received for Christmas. He brought the stool so I could sit on while holding his baby brother. He helped me changed Dan’s diaper twice within five minutes. He was happy to take a bath and coorperated when we brushed his teeth. I let him watched some Charlie Brown on my iPod and sent him to sleep.

In the past couple of weeks, Dao had behaved mischievously and rebelliously. He even started getting rough with his little brother. Now every time I sense that he’s about to do something to the poor kid, I distract his attention and move him away to something else. That method works better than trying to talk some sense to him. On my days off, I spend as much time as I could with him. I usually take him out of the house. We were at Chuck E. Cheese’s on Monday and he played $5 worth of Skeeball games. He finally got the ball over the hump. Some he’ll be able to make some points.

I took him to one of his classmates’ birthday party at a little gym for kids. Once again he didn’t want to participate in any of the activities. He just wanted to shoot basketball with me. A couple of weeks ago, I took him to another one of his friends at daycare and he didn’t join the kids either. I am hopeful that he’ll grown out of it later.

As for the little one, I don’t get to spend time with him much; therefore, it seems like every time I pick him up he gets bigger. He’s only a month a a half, but already outgrow his three-month clothes. He’s getting rolls on his thighs and his cheeks all puffed up. He’s still getting unlimited access to mommy’s breasts for another month before she returning to work.

Andrew Sullivan:

What liberals have never understood about Obama is that he practices a show-don’t-tell, long-game form of domestic politics. What matters to him is what he can get done, not what he can immediately take credit for… Not for the first time, I realized that to understand Obama, you have to take the long view. Because he does.

Worth reading.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life’s difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph. This is triumphant music.

“Confessions to My Daughter,” an opening track on When the Heart Emerges Glistening, kicks off with Ambrose Akinmusire’s mesmerizing, naked trumpet intro then teamed up with tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III for a hypnotic dual backing up by pianist Gerald Clayton, bassist Harish Raghavan and drummer Justin Brown. On “The Walls of Lechuguilla,” Akinmusire once again plays a very intriquing unaccompanied intro switching between high and low notes and speeding into a post-bop thrills. As the apt title suggested, Akinmusire’s heart emerges glistening on all but one of his original compositions. With a promising debut, Akinmusire is the up and coming new trumpeter to keep an ear on.

By now, fourth album into their career, the Puppini Sisters are no longer an act of novelty, but that’s not a problem at all. They still have a few tricks under their sleeves. They swing the hell out of “I Got Rhythm” and get real hoedown on “Get Happy.” Hollywood opens with the sisters’ up-tempo original title track, then take listeners back to good old show-stopping hits (and a few misses) and then closes out with “Parle Plus Bas,” a playful French version of the theme from The Godfather.

Fellows, if you want to become a better man, you first have to become a father. With all the poops you have to put up with, you would have no problem dealing with all the other shit in the world.

Ladies, if you want to punish your men, keep breastfeeding your kid, especially the newborn. My wife is nursing my little son every hour. After he’s done eating she would handed him over to me. He would curl into my arm and make a really cute face then drop a few pooping farts. I think my wife is making some cruel revenge against me.

Changing the little guy’s diaper isn’t a huge problem at all because I got a really fantastic helper. As soon as I placed Dan on the changing station, Dao ran into the kitchen to get his stool so he could stand tall next to me. He then pulled out a new diaper, a piece of wipe, a jar of Vaseline and a piece of tissue. Dao learned very early on that a tissue is needed to prevent the little one from peeing on him. After I am done changing, Dao would take the dirty diaper and throw it into the trash can.

That was not so bad until Dao would say, “Daddy, my turn.” So we both headed toward the bathroom. Whenever I take the diaper off him, he would ask, “let me see.” Once I showed him his poop, one of his frequent comment would be, “I pooped a lot.” One time he said “cookie” and another time he said “hamburger.” I just couldn’t stop laughing at this little fella’s imagination. We never knew what word would come out of his mouth.

This morning before we head out of the house he said, “Dao thui thui” (stinky stinky). So I had to take off my jacket, hat and roll up my sleeves to do one more job before going to work. As we headed toward the car, a trash truck pulled up. He said to the truck, “Thung rac (trash) truck, where is my iPod?” I was puzzled for a second until I realized that about a month ago I confiscated the iPod from him because he kept throwing it when he got mad. I warned him a couple of times, but he didn’t learn his lesson so I took it away and said that, “You keep throwing the iPod; therefore, you must not want it so I thrown it in the trash can.”

When I accepted the position of Web Services Developer at George Mason University School of Law in October 2011, I took on the technical challenges such as server administration, content management system support and database maintenance. What attracted me the most to the job, however, was the opportunity to design the school’s web site. In my twelve years of experience in web-related fields, design has always played a major role in my career path.

My passion for design started in my sophomore year at La Salle University where I received my undergraduate degree in Digital Arts and Multimedia Design. Even though I wanted to do creative work, I had no clue about design. When I turned in my first web page for a class in digital art, the professor shook her head in disbelief. The page had six different typefaces, a bunch of uncoordinated colors and a handful of animated graphics. The expression I saw on the professor’s face, which I still remember today, gave me a hint that I didn’t do something right. We had a talk and she suggested that I start from the basics.

I took her advice to heart, and began learning color, typography and white space. Working with these three basic visual elements, I developed an appreciation for simplicity. When designing web pages, the minimalist approach allowed me to concentrate on the content and message. My style came together when I landed my first professional job as a web designer at Vassar College. In addition to creating design work for the school, I was surrounded by a group of talented individuals including graphic designers, illustrators and typographers. I have learned so much from this group simply by our daily interaction. By taking each other’s constructive criticisms and insightful suggestions, we grew together as a team.

After Vassar, I took on a new position as a web developer at the George Washington University School of Business. Although my main role was to maintain the school’s web pages in accordance with the University’s unified web presence, I always sought out creative opportunities like creating banners, book covers, print ads and web promotional materials. In addition, when not working at my fulltime job, I took on freelance web design projects to keep my creativity flowing.

Over the years, design has stayed with me no matter what career I embark upon. Pursuing a Master of Art in Graphic Design would not only strengthen my professional career, but also channel and broaden my passion for design. I am looking forward to studying the theory of graphic design as well as advanced topics including typography, brand identity design and web design. One of my goals in the future is to share my knowledge for design, and the Master of Arts program at George Mason University School of Art will qualify me to do so.

(Written for Master of Arts in Graphic Design George Mason University Admission)

Over the weekend, I spent an hour updating this site’s CSS for mobile-first, responsive design. I used em unit instead of pixel for breaking point, which I have reduced to just one media query.

I added a new testimonial from my latest client.

Also a big shout out to the Text Link Ads for the sponsor links on the right column. Vistaprint also renewed its ad placement for 2012.

Some of my family members who are avid Amazon shoppers asked me to put up the Amazon.com’s Affiliate link so that they can make me some money. Thanks for the support.