Listening to Ngoc Khue’s Ben Bo Ao Nha Minh on my way to work gives me nostalgia and makes me realize that I haven’t heard a Vietnamese groundbreaking album like this in ages. Out of all the singing contests in Vietnam, Sao Mai Diem Hen 2004 introduced two rare talents up to date: Tung Duong and Ngoc Khue.

Nowadays singing competitions only produced pop singers with grand voice but no vision. Vietnam Idol 2010 Uyen Linh shook up the Vietnamese pop scene. She became an instant phenomenon and yet her new release Giac Mo Toi under producer Quoc Trung’s direction is a disappointment. Rather than taking her far out, Quoc Trung constraints her with pop-rock template. In a year making, he only produced seven tracks for the album and six of them were rerecorded from the contest. The arrangement of “Chi La Giac Mo” takes away the rawness she performed on stage accompanied by simple strumming guitar. Her version of “Sao Chang Ve Voi Em” immediately brings Hong Nhung’s to mind. Her English on Al Green’s “Take Me To The River” is decent, but she hasn’t quite mastered the language’s nuances.

Luong Viet Quang won the people’s vote in Sao Mai Diem Hen 2010 and released his debut titled Can Ban (Basic) under the direction of My Tam. Recognizing his likable voice, My Tam picked out pop ballads like “Dem Nam Mo Pho,” “Boi The Ta Yeu Nhau” and “Doc Thoai.” The minimal, elegant arrangements allow Luong Viet Quang to sing right on the melodies. It makes perfect sense why the album is called Can Ban. Let’s hope that Luong Viet Quang will break out of the basic training in his next release, but I highly doubt it.

Even though the George Mason Law web site relaunched more than two weeks ago, the work is still not done. I have been doing tons of tweaking behind the scene including cleaning up templates, CSS and contents that added by others. Editors like TinyMCE are quite evil for people who don’t write markups. Sometimes I just have to let it go and not too bothered with it.

The major work I have been doing is recreating all the banners on the secondary pages. For example, the top banner is now running across the page instead of splitting with the side navigation. So I spent most of my time looking for photos and recropping and recreating the banners. It’s actually a pretty fun, creative exercise. Now that I think about it, all the jobs that I held involved crafting banners. I did a whole bunch when I was at Vassar College. Then I crafted a collection for random rotation when the School of Business rebranded into the University look and feel. Here I am again, pumping out banners after banners. One of my colleagues also helped me out and she likes doing it as well.

Of course I also try to make something fresh for this homepage at least once a week. I like to use this space to not only promoting just my work, but also other things that I find interesting to keep you stay tuned.

Em Dan has been completely recovered from the cold. He’s now working hard to gain weight. Because of his chubbiness, he feels so good in my arms. He starts to smile quite a bit nowadays like this one my wife took. He looked at himself this morning and also started to smile. We gave him a bath last night and he enjoyed it quite a bit. He seems to be the opposite of anh Dao.

And Dao irritated me last night. He kept scratching my arms and keloids. His finger nails were so sharp that I felt like needles poking me. I stomped out of the room to change to a long sleeve shirt. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I am going to wear long sleeve to bed from now on and trying to get him off my arms. I felt so bad because he kept saying, “tay, please.”

About the biting incident the other day, his teacher called me to apologize. I was cool about it, but I emphasized the important of letting us know things like that occurred at school. As I was giving him a bath, I asked him how was school and if anyone bit him. He said that he told his friend, “Please ‘A,’ don’t bite me, thank you.”

We spent the Saturday at my sister’s house and Dao played with Eric the whole time. Most of the time they played well together, but they get a bit rough once in a while. Dao cried and said that Eric hit his hand with a (toy) car. Eric also complaint that Dao started it. After calming them down, Dao said to Eric, “Please don’t hit my hand. I am a little small.” He sounded so cute the way he said “little small.”

Being a parent is hard, but seeing your kids grow and develop make it all worthwhile.

When giving Dao a bath last night, I noticed a red bruise on his back (below his left shoulder). I asked him what happened and he told me that one of his classmates bit him. He told me the name of the kid and where it happened. He cried and the teacher tried to comfort him, yet no one reported to us.

I was sad and irritated, but I stayed calm and spent the rest of the evening with him. This morning I was going to have a talk to his teacher, but she was reading to the kids so I didn’t want to interrupt. I reported to the administrator instead, but I didn’t say who did it. He’s going to find out and contact me sometimes today.

I am very glad that Dao was able to tell me exactly what went wrong. Although I was outraged, I didn’t flip out or anything. I just wanted him to be able to communicate to me if things don’t go right with him at school. The clip of the Asian kid attacked by seven kids still traumatize me. I told my wife that we will make sure that our kids will go to school and home safely until they go to college. Yes I am a helicopter parent when it comes to the safety of my kids.

This morning I dropped some candy on the floor. Dao yelled, “Chet cha (dead dad), you made a big mess.” My response to him was, “I am ok. I am not dead yet.” He picked up this phrase from Grandma. We have to be really careful what we say around him because once they registered in his head, he’ll find a way to use them. When he did something that he was not suppose to and got hurt, grandma told him, “dan doi.” Now he uses the phrase as well when the situation is similar.

As for poor lil Dan, he has caught a cold. He has been vomiting due to congestion and cough quite a bit. He was a roll for some Michelin rolls, but now he just not gaining weight. At least he’s not dropping. I really hope he’ll recover soon.

I was holding Dan in my arms, feeding him and watching Louis C.K’s Hilarious. I felt less guilty when he fell asleep. I hope that he didn’t hear anything. I definitely can’t watch this in front of Dao. He would picked all the uncensored materials right up. What I like about Louis is that he hits right on the shame spots.

Every once in a while, I manage to make some dumb mistakes that could have been avoided if I was being more careful. Last Thursday when I arrived home from work, I received a big bill for something I shouldn’t be responsible for. I knew that the bill was a mistake, but I was irritated. I told no one about it and I just couldn’t through the night. I couldn’t sleep because I couldn’t wait to get it resolved the next morning. That’s one of my weaknesses.

The next day, I started to make phone calls and then realized that I am going to have to go through some hoops to get the charge drop. The lack of sleep of the previous night combined with the stress of not solving the issue sent my head straight to the depression camp. I finally told my wife about it after I got home from work and she assured me that it’s not a big deal and I shouldn’t have to worry. I took her advice because she’s my better half and she knows more shit than me.

So the weekend, I left it at the back of my mind and just enjoyed my time with my sons. Now I am just dealing with it as much as I could. If it doesn’t work out, fuck it. As long as I know in my heart I am not responsible for it. If I did I would have no problem paying for it. Though I blame myself for being carelessness, I never pride myself in being a perfectionist. I made many mistakes in the past and I’ll make many more in the future. One of the things wish I could learn from my wife is to sleep it off. She is a master at it. I also need to learn how to calm the fuck down as well to make my life less stressful.

I put together a minimal page for our second son Dan. Uploaded many new photos to our Picasa album. I also clean up his big brother’s page and added a few more photos. Love the shot in which he gave grandma a kiss.

Eden Center has sprung up two new, slightly upscale Vietnamese restaurants: Rice Paper and Vy Bistro. Unlike most eatery places in Eden that focused mostly on the food, these two paid some attention to decoration and presentation as well. The interior design is simpler and more modern. The plates and dishes aren’t like the one you can buy in a Vietnamese grocery store in the same strip.

The problem is that their menus aren’t too different from the rest of the places. Vy Bistro doesn’t offer anything unique. The waiter asked us if it was our first time there and he recommended bun bo Hue (Hue’s vermicelli soup) as one of its highlights so I ordered it. The soup, which was not piping hot, didn’t stand out. The portion was a bit small compared to other places around Eden Center.

Rice Paper does have a few unique dishes like the delicious appetizer Oc Len Xao Dua (Snails cooked in coconut milk). I also had Com Bo Luc Lac (Rice With Shaking Beef), but not that impressive. The beef is a bit overcooked. The service here needs some improvements though.

Dana, Dao and I were at Thanh Son today buying some sweet treats. The line was long and Dao didn’t want to stay inside. I took him outside while Dana was waiting to made orders. Outside the store, there were two women selling fruits and banh it (sticky-rice dumplings). The older lady is probably in her late 70s and the younger one is probably in her mid 40s.

The younger one is quite aggressive. She would grab anyone walking by trying to sell them something. One time she grabbed me and offered me some banh it in the bag for $10. I told her that I only wanted half of it for $5. So I handed her a five-dollar bill, but she insisted that I give her a twenty because she needed some change. When I gave her a twenty, she threw it in the bucket and gave me two bags of banh it instead. I took my money back and told her that I didn’t want to buy anything from her. Since that day on, she hasn’t harassed me to buy anything.

Back to today, as Dao and I were outside waiting for Dana, I heard the two of them arguing. The younger lady accused the old lady of spreading rumor about her. She said in Vietnamese something like, “You told people that I have diabetes.” The elderly responded, “I do not spread rumors. I only mind my own business. Yes, I said you have diabetes, but I never said anything about your pussy dripping wet.” The exact Vietnamese words were, “lon chay nuoc.” I couldn’t help laughing, but I had to drag Dao away. When I told my wife, she said, “You don’t need to be in Vietnam to hear Vietnamese gossiping.”