On Friday, I went to bed around 10:30 pm, but couldn’t sleep. Around 12:30 am, I decided to just go. I hit the road at 1:00 am in the morning. Around 1:30 am, the tire-warning light lit up. I panicked a little. Then the light went off. Then went on again as I drove further away from home.

I stopped at a service area and checked the pressure on all four tires. They were at 37 PSI, which meant the tires weren’t punctured. I kept on driving until I was too tire and needed a nap. I took 3 naps at 3 different stop areas. The estimated time from my house to Stowe was around 9 hours. I took 12.

I arrived at Stowe Mountains at 1 pm. I took out my snowboard and hopped on the lift. I wanted to try out the carving technique I had been learning in my basement for many months. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out as smoothly as I had thought.

I did 2 runs and I was exhausted. Lacking of sleep and driving 12 hours got me beat. At 3:00 pm I decided to check into the motel to relax and recharge. Let’s try skiing tomorrow.

I have heard of the name Emily Dickinson countless of times, but I have not read any of her work before her letters. Ms. Dickinson sure wrote lots of letters. This collection, edited by Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell, has 1,304 letters Ms. Dickinson wrote. Many of them she wrote in poems. One of my favorites was the one she wrote to Lucretia Gunn Bullard, about late spring 1864: “The lovely flowers embarrass me, / They make me regret I am not a Bee.”

Another piece that touched my heart was to to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, mid-March 1872:

Dear friend –
I am sorry your Brother is dead –
I fear he was dear to you.
I should be glad to know you were painlessly grieved –

Of Heaven above the firmest proof
We fundamental know –
Except for it’s marauding Hand
It had been Heaven below –

Dickinson

This book is over 900 pages, but it is worth reading Ms. Dickinson’s personal writings.

My Lil Xuân Shine is back writing consistently on his blog. I am so glad that he finds the time to practice his writing. He is showing improvements. Of course, I love seeing my kids blogging. Đạo and Đán don’t write much anymore. I hope they will come back as well. Free-writing or blogging is so much fun. They can write whatever they want. There’s no restriction or limitation. All they need to do is just type, just like what I am doing now. They know at least one person is reading their blog and commenting on them as well.

Turning Beethoven’s masterpieces blues is a fascinating concept and Jon Batiste pulled it off with his imaginative Beethoven Blues. The album kicks off with his fusion of “Für Elise (Batiste).” In this 4-minute piece, he plays classical then injects the blues into it. The album also ends with another version of “Für Elise (Reverie).” In this 15-minute extended piece, he plays improvisational jazz. The result is just mesmerizing. Batiste demonstrates his exhilarating chops in “Symphony No.5 Stomp,” which reminds me of Cecil Taylor’s style. His boogie-woogie skills are undeniable in “Waldstein Wobble.” His rendition of “Ode to Joyful” is fleeting yet relaxing despite hearing my kids played for hundreds of time when they first started taking piano lessons. I’ll be spending more time with this album in the next few weeks somewhere on snowy mountains.

2Advanced Studios was rebooted about seven months ago. The site is the same, but the platform has changed. They replaced Flash with Rive and React JS. The interaction is slick, but accessibility is still an issue. The all-cap typesetting is still horrendous. I am not excited about the return of the bygone era.

I joined George Mason University in October 2011. I designed, developed, and maintained the law school website from 2011 to present. Take a look at the evolution of the law school homepage from Mason Law to Scalia Law from 2012 to 2024.

The temperature is dropping. It’s time to store away our rollerblades and scooters and bring out our skis and snowboards.

This Friday will be my last day at the law school for 2024, but then my other job will start on December 20 if Whitetail can manage to open. I can’t wait that long to hit the terrains; therefore, I will be driving 10 hours to Stowe this Saturday. Since the kids still have school, I will spend time alone to relax and de-stress.

My wife and I hadn’t planned our “me time” trip, but it just fell into place. I always encouraged her to take some time for herself to recharge. I am sure the kids and I drive her to the wall everyday. I was glad that she traveled to Paris a few months ago with her aunt, cousins, and sister. It would be nice to go on a ski trip with the fellows, but none of my friends would be interested in the winter sports.

Then again, I am completely comfortable traveling alone. I would spend all day on the mountains anyway. After a long day of skiing and snowboarding, I would find a nice place to eat and check out the area or see a movie in a theater. Of course, I can just kick back reading a book or writing a blog post.

As for spending time on the mountains, I am looking forward to applying the carving techniques I have been learning all summer. Using my rollerblades, I emulated ski carving with proper stance and driving with my outside foot. I practiced my snowboard stance on my actual snowboard. I hope these off-the-snow techniques will transfer on the snow.

Carving is my only goal for personal development this season. I am looking forward to helping others learn snowboarding. I can’t wait to spend time with my family on the mountains this winter.

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In the past few months, I volunteered to design a brand new site for Liên Đoàn Hùng Vương 612. Check out the new site or read about the case study on my portfolio site.

Quân là một cậu bé mới lớn ở miền quê. Vì nhà nghèo nên cậu bỏ học lên Sài Gòn kiếm sống phụ giúp gia đình. Không may, cậu bị lừa gạt và gài bẫy trở thành một Callboy. Thú thật lúc nhìn bìa sách, tôi không rõ từ Callboy cho đến khi đã đọc mấy chương đầu. Callboy nghĩa là Trai Gọi cho sang còn thấp hèn thì gọi là Đĩ Đực. Quyển tiểu thuyết về đồng giới khá nhạy cảm. Nguyễn Ngọc Thạch không một chút ngại ngùng gì khi mô tả những cảnh làm tình giữa đàn ông với đàn ông. Đời Callboy đầy bi đát và cái kết đầy bi thảm. Dĩ nhiên văn của Nguyễn Ngọc Thạch thì rất là lôi cuốn nhưng đây là một đề tài khá nặng ký. Bạn đã được cảnh báo.