This photo takes me down to memory lane. I can still recall the architecture of the school.

Truong Trung Hoc Nguyen Dinh Chieu is located between my house and my elementary school. To get back home, the fastest route was to cut through Nguyen Dinh Chieu. In order to do so, I had to either go through the dog hole (lo cho) or climb the fence. In first and second grade, I did the former. In third to fifth, I did the latter. Sometimes I was chased my security guards, but I don’t recall getting caught. If I did, all I had to say was, “sorry, I won’t do it again.”

In the summertime, a bunch of us from the neighborhood would walk together to the school to play soccer at these courts. That photo really reminds me of the good old days. I can still remember vividly the yellow plastic all I used to carry around.

Just like that and 20 years of my life have already gone by. Damn, time sure has flown by. Life sure is way too short.

If you haven’t already, head over Mozilla to download Firefox 4 to take advantage of its full HTML5 and CSS3 support.

If you haven’t already, check out hilarious video clips of Dao dances to “If You Happy and You Know It” and rocks to Thanh Ha’s tunes.

I really like the news addition of LinkedIn. It targets articles that are related to your profession. I joined a bunch of web-design related groups and reconnecting with people I have worked with in the past. LinkedIn is definitely a great social network for professionals, especially now that “LinkedIn Surpasses 100 Million Users.”

Blossom Kite Festival is this weekend. We’ll take Dao to the Monument. I am in the process of making a kite for him. Making a kite not only brings back my childhood memory, but it is also the only thing that I still remember how to do from my childhood. This should be fun.

In “The Science of Happiness and Potential,” Shawn Achor pointed out that if you write for three minutes about your positive experience once a day for thirty days, you’ll see 50% drops in doctor visits. Speaking of doctor visits, I have not visited a doctor for more than three years. I better find me a physician soon. In any rate, I will try to focus on positive experience when I blog rather than negative ones.

Another weekend went by. Didn’t do much, but was not relaxing either. Spent time with Duke and Dana and worked on a client project. Also did some work for GWSB. When I figure out something, I just can’t wait until Monday to do it. I might forget about it.

Yesterday, we went to Nordstrom and the real mannequins freaked me out. I was like, “damn they looked real” and one of them winked. What got me was that the real models was standing right next to the mannequins. Getting paid for standing still must be hard. I don’t think I can do it. I’ll either get itchy or I’ll begin to fart. But hey, that’s just me.

I am also reading a very good book by Jeremy Keith titled DOM Scripting. Man, he is such a great writer. Very clear and easy to understand. Speaking of books, the ones that I really want to read are mostly from George Mason, not from GW. The nice thing is that I can check out these books through the loan program. So if you’re a student or a staff member of any of the schools around the Metro area, you get access to books to all the colleges around here including Georgetown, American and Marymount. So big up to George Mason.

“Ba Oi!” Oh that’s Duke calling me to go upstairs to sleep with him. So peace out y’all. Hope you all had a nice, relaxing weekend.

Melancholy Baby shows that Jaimee Paul has got the blues. “I want a little sugar in my bowl / I want a little sweetness down in my soul,” Ms Paul whips out her bluesy pipes, intoxicating phrasing and turns Nina Simon’s classic into her own. Her version of Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields’s “Big Spender” puts the Pussycat Dolls to shame with her sultry, shouting blues. She also puts her own spin on Bill Wither’s “Ain’t No Sunshine” and reinvigorated U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” with a hypnotizing, bossa-nova flavor. With Beegie Adair’s tender, delicate touch on the piano, Ms gives me melancholy too on the title track.

With deep knowledge and a light sense of humor, Bruce Lawson and Remy Sharp have done an excellent job of Introducing HTML5. To help readers understand how to apply the new structures, the authors use real case studies such as The Guardian newspaper and a WordPress comment form. In addition, the book delves into web development including data storage, offline web applications, drag and drop and geolocation API. Introducing HTML5 is a solid guide for making intelligent, accessible web sites using the new language.

Kristofer Layon’s The Web Designer’s Guide to iOS Apps is an informative intro to create an app with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript using NimbleKit, the Objective-C framework. From installing the iOS SDK to creating contents to marketing and distributing your app, Layon demonstrates how web designers could pull together an app without knowing how to program. While the book helps readers get started, it doesn’t take them further than creating a simple web page for an app. I was expecting something more dynamic like how to pull in an RSS feed or hook up an API.

Lupe Fiasco is a conscious rapper who is unfortunately running out of consciousness in his latest release Lasers. Instead of focusing on his lyrical skills, his strongest assets, Lupe lets r & b hooks, Auto-Tune and dance beats take over his rhymes. Lupe is at his best when he speaks his mind like on the brilliant “Words I Never Said,” in which he criticizes: “Limbaugh is a racist, Glenn Beck is a racist / Gaza strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t say shit.” Too bad, Lupe spends too much time trying to speak to the radio and the clubs.

In “The Medium, The Message, The Method,” an informative piece in BizEd, Sharon Shinn shares 10 tips to create a unique marketing plan for Business schools:

1. Stop looking over your shoulder.
2. Focus on what makes you unique.
3. Define your marketing goals to determine your medium.
4. Choose your advertising vehicle.
5. Give special attention to digital media.
6. Exploit the power of video.
7. Join like-minded communities online.
8. Export your worldview.
9. Always remember those alumni-and other stakeholders, too.
10. Make sure that message focuses on the experience.

I would have linked to the article, but BizEd doesn’t have an online edition of its magazine.

We didn’t do much this weekend. No traveling and no visiting the museum. On Saturday we spent some time at the mall. Although the indoor playground was packed, Dao managed to run around, laughing, sliding and were having a good time. That was actually the first time I saw him enjoyed the playground. The funny thing was that as he was running, he would put out his arms to protect himself if he saw kids running toward him.

We bought him an alphabet train puzzle. Each piece of the puzzle is placed together in alphabetical order with each animal, except for letter “u.” Is there an animal that begins with letter “u?” The puzzle uses umbrella instead. Dao has already know quite a bit of the animals and he could recognize their features even though he doesn’t get the name right. For instance, when I showed him the picture of the fox, he said cat. When I showed him the picture of the vulture, he said “chim” (bird in Vietnamese). When I showed in a picture of a frog, he said “ech” (he only knows Vietnamese name for frog). When I showed him picture of the gorilla, he said “Bac Ky” who is my sister-in-law’s husband. Yes, I was puzzled myself on that one too.

Sunday afternoon at 2:30, we went to Eden’s birthday party. Eden is one of Dao’s classmates at the daycare. Eden’s parents booked an hour and a half at The Little Gym, which located on the second floor with a beautiful view of Fairfax Corner. I picked up one of the club flyers and the price for a birthday bash is $300 for up to 15 kids.) Before we went, we tried to give him a nap, but he only slept for half an hour. By the time we headed to the party, Dao was already acting up. While other kids did all kind of activities, Dao played basketball with his buddy Aidan. At school, Aidan and Dao are best buddy. The teachers said they do everything together even sharing their food. At the party we could see why. Just the two of them shooting hoop while the rest enjoyed jumping up and down the inflatable bed. While the rest sat in the room enjoyed pizza and cake, the two of them running up and down the hallway. Brit who is also one of Dao’s buddy joined the two boys.

Dao made some hilarious comments this weekend. When he sneezed, he said “bless you Dao.” When I carried him on my arms, he said “Dao nang” (heavy), but refused to walk when I put him down. Whenever I asked him to do something for me, like getting a towel or throwing clothes in the washing machine, he would complimented himself, “Dao gioi” (good).”

Friday after work we took Dao to the mall. He loves table train and we love to read; therefore, Barnes and Noble is the happy spot for all of us. As we were driving, Dana realized that we didn’t have Dao’s backpack with us. We left it in the new minivan. I told Dana that we could buy some diapers for him at the mall.

Five minutes at the train table and Dao did a number two. I told Dana to watch him while I go get some diapers. I looked up the mall directory and couldn’t find a convenience store. I checked the bathrooms to see if they have some sort of vending machine for diapers, but couldn’t find any. My last resort was to ask for one.

I went to the kid’s playground and check out the mommies to see if they were approachable and the kids to see if they were closed to Dao’s age. I spotted an Asian mom with a little girl on the stroller. I went up to the mom and asked, “Excuse me, do you happen to have an extra diaper to spare? I couldn’t find a store in the mall to get one.” She must have understood the feeling; therefore, she quickly responded “sure” and pulled out the exact same one (size and brand) we used for Dao. I thanked her and headed back to Barnes and Noble. I told Dana I couldn’t find a store and she said, “I told you so.” Then I pulled the diaper out of my pocket and said, “I told you I could get one.”