I had to read William Golding’s Lord of the Flies for an English class in eighth grade. I didn’t understand a darn thing.

At the time, I got pulled out of the regular English class to join a diverse group made of a Caucasian boy, a Spanish girl, and me, a Vietnamese kid. Our teacher was from Ireland. We took turns reading the book and I loved our teacher’s accent.

In the past few weeks, Đạo had to read it for his English class and he recommended it to me. I read it again more than 30 years later. This time I understood the book much better. When there were no rules and orders even kids became savages. It is such a dark fiction for young adults.

I enjoyed Golding’s writing. While I was reading it to escape the current events, I couldn’t help wondering about the future of our country. The majority of America had made the decision to take us back. It is just a matter of how far back we will go.

Đạo had been asking my wife and I for a new laptop. His first laptop, which was purchased two years ago, was getting too slow to render his 3D models. He has been creating digital arts for a while and he has been posting his work on Instagram. I have no problem supporting his artistic passion, but I am concerned about his digital usage.

I hesitated to buy him a new laptop because I just didn’t want him to glue to his screen. At the same time, I wanted him to have a creative outlet. Any form of art is good. I studied digital art in college, but I was not good at drawing. I was better at designing. Even though I am no longer nagging him about his grades, I would like him to care about his education. Furthermore, I wanted him to be a role model for his younger siblings.

I asked him to write to tell me why he needed a new laptop and he gave me legitimate reasons. I also asked him to write to tell me why he deserves a new laptop. Once again, he delivered.

Yesterday, I took him to Micro Center to buy the laptop he had been researching. He did his homework and picked out a good deal. He was excited about the new laptop. It’s his early Christmas present. I do hope that he keeps his words on grades, priorities, and brothers.

I met with Xuân’s teachers last Thursday. His English teacher informed me that he has been struggling with language arts. Part of his struggle has been my fault. I hadn’t read Let’s Read with him for a few months. He hadn’t practiced writing much. Somehow our routine had messed up. I took him to the skatepark more than spent time reading and writing.

After Vương busted his chin, Xuân had been reluctant to scooter. He still scootered, but not as much anymore. My foot had been hurt as well due to gout; therefore, I hadn’t rollerbladed much neither. It was time to refocus on the kids’ education.

After my meeting with Xuân’s teachers and his first report was not looking so good, I asked him to study with me. Xuân still does what I ask him to do. I encouraged him to pick up blogging again and he has been doing it. He could write whatever he liked. I am glad to see that he is getting back to it. His recent posts are so cute. I hope he will continued.

In June, I helped brought badòngthơ (tercets) by Physician-Poet Cao Nguyên online. At the time, the site only featured 15 selected poems. Today, the entire book, which features 119 poems, is available on the website.

When Cao Nguyên decided to publish all 119 poems, I made some changes. I added the alphabet listing as a way to navigate between the poems. I also added the poem numbers for permanent links. Readers can now share a particular poem they like.

If you can read Vietnamese or want to learn Vietnamese, you will enjoy the delightful poems in badòngthơ. Many thanks to the author for making this book available on the web. If you want to support his work, you can still purchase a print copy.

I hadn’t post on my X account in years. Yesterday, I finally pulled the plug. I am not joining any new or alternative social platforms. I am still on LinkedIn, but it doesn’t seem to do anything for me. I am still active on Facebook because I have lots of family members there.

This evening I met up with a former colleague from Vassar College. Sixteen years after I left Vassar, we still kept in touch. Whenever he came to DC, we would meet up and chat.

We talked about work and web development. We also talked about our personal life. As much as I wanted to avoid politics, we talked about it. I was glad that we were on the same page. We see the differences between the left and the right on policies. One party is all about the individuals and their wealth. Money comes first. Decency and democracy don’t matter much. The other party is about lifting up everyone, creating equal opportunities, and upholding our democracy.

I am proud to have a friend who still cares about integrity instead of money. No matter who won, it wouldn’t make a different to him and I financially. It would matter significantly if we were to lose our freedom. Let’s hope our country won’t turn into dictatorship.

A friend from high school invited me to his house on Saturday. Some of his college friends were there and they congratulated him on the new house he purchased back in August. He did not tell me it was a housewarming party. I bought some Chinese roasted duck.

He and I go all the way back to high school. We were closed, but went separate ways after we graduated. He joined the Army and became successful. We both ended up in Virginia, but hadn’t kept in touch for over 20 years. One of the reasons was his constant deployments.

I met up with him about a month ago and we reminisced on the good old days. We were still the same old friends even though we had taken our own path. He went through a tough divorce, but the break was clean since they didn’t have any children together.

During the party, he and his friends talked about politics. I enjoyed the food and the Rémy. I didn’t say a word. I didn’t feel the need to get into the discussion. After all of his friends left, I sat alone with him and we talked about the past. Then politics came up again.

He asked me if I voted and I said, “of course, it was my civic duty and my rights.” With some booze in my system, I could no longer hold back. I plowed into our political discussion. I had tremendous respect for my friend who put his life on the line to defend our country. I also wanted to understand why he went with the orange turd. From our conversation, I learned that he voted with his pocket book. He chose the dollar over democracy and decency.

As an old friend, I was a bit disappointed, but I had no ill will toward him. He was not alone. In fact, the majority of America had voted that way. I told him that I hope I am dead wrong about the threat to our democracy. As a country, we abandoned decency for money. What a damn shame.

My final thesis for my MA in graphic design, Vietnamese Typography, turns 9 today. Over the years, this special book has given me the opportunity to collaborated with type designers and typographers around the world. It has lent a hand in expanding and enriching Vietnamese typography.

When I turned in my final thesis, I submitted a physical book and an online version. Three years later, I launched the second edition with only the web version. The obvious reason was that the I had always been a web designer first. The decision to focus only on the web book was that I wanted the book to live on. Once the book is printed, it cannot be changed. On the other hand, the web book can be updated anytime.

Over the years, I made minor edits to the content and added new recommendations for typefaces that support the Vietnamese language. My favorite part of the project had to be designing new samples to showcase Vietnamese language, culture, and literary.

I will continue to work on this project for many years to come.

Lâu rồi không nghe tiếng hát Ngọc Khuê và cũng không theo dõi sinh hoạt trong nghệ thuật của cô. Ngọc Khuê là một trong những ca sĩ trẻ khai phá đường lối dân gian đương với Bên bờ ao nhà mình cùng với nhạc sĩ Lê Minh Sơn. Mới đó mà đã gần 20 năm rồi.

Mấy hôm nay tình cờ tìm được Dân gian đương đại (vol. 1) của Ngọc Khuê trên Spotify. Theo Spotify thì album này được phát hành vào năm 2008. Không biết có chính xác hay không vì tin tức trên Spotify lộn xộn lắm. Trong album này Ngọc Khuê cover lại “Ngày xưa Hoàng Thị” và “Đưa em tìm động hoa vàng” của cố nhạc sĩ Phạm Duy. Dĩ nhiên Ngọc Khuê luôn đưa vào phong cách khác lạ của mình vào ca khúc cũ. “Một thoáng Hồ Tây” của Phó Đức Phương đúng với sở trường của cô từ lời ngâm qua âm hưởng dân gian với phần nhịp điệu đương đại.

Tuy nhiên ca khúc khiến tôi khá ngạc nhiên là “Tình hoài hương” của Phạm Duy. Khác với phong cách yểu điệu thục nữ của cô, Ngọc Khuê hát “Tình hoài hương” với cảm xúc chín muồi và sự trải nghiệm chín chắn. Cô xử lý những câu thấp rất khéo léo như “Quê hương ơi, tóc sương mẹ già yêu dấu / Tiếng ru nỗi niềm thơ ấu / Cánh tay êm tựa mái đầu / Ôi bóng hình từ bao lâu còn ghi mãi sắc màu.” Từng chữ, từng câu, và từng hơi thở, cô hát với tất cả tình hoài hương.

In the last few weeks, I turned to books on buddhism keep myself from checking the news and going insane. K. Sri Dhammananda’s How to Live Without Fear & Worry is filled with insightful advice. As I was reading, I started to put sticky notes on the passages that I found useful.

Last Monday, the day before the election, I went back to Lancaster to visit my aunt and I brought the book with me. When I left her house, I also left the book behind. I only realized it was missing when I was already half way home. I didn’t want to leave the book half read, but I didn’t want to drive back to get it either.

Since this book was not for sale, I could probably find a digital copy of it and I did. Even though I didn’t like reading on my phone, I made the exception. To save the passages I liked, I decided to do a little experience. Instead of pasting the text to my Google Doc, I flooded my Facebook timeline. I would go back to my posts and collect them later, but I also wanted to share positive vibes to family and friends. I hope they would find the quotes useful.

I definitely recommend reading the entire book, but if you don’t have the time, you can read my notes.