Hoa Mi’s volume one, Mot Thoi Yeu Nhau, showed some promising return, but her follow-up volume two, Thu Tinh Khong Gui, and three, Trom Nhin Nhau, are huge disappointments. Even on a cold, rainy, gloomy Sunday morning, I felt no soul in her covering of sentimental ballads (nhac tru tinh). Her heart is just not into the songs. Her version of “Dung Xa Em Em Nay” is the blandest I have ever heard, as if she was reading off the music sheet. The mechanical productions aren’t doing her any favor either.

George Law, an exceptional graphic designer and typographer at Vassar College, said that Robert Bringhurst’s The Elements of Typographic Style is a book “to be read once a year.” I am taking his advice because Bringhurst packed so much useful information into this book that I discover something new every time I read it. Bringhurst is such a great writer that he makes words and letters “dance in their seats. Sometimes they rise and dance in the margins and aisles.” The Elements is not just for anyone who appreciates the art of typography, but also for anyone who appreciates the art of music and language. As he puts it: “Good typography is like bread: ready to be admired, appraised and dissected before it is consumed.”

Yes, I am now addicted to iPod Touch just a day of owning it. It is indeed “a great pocket computer.” Checking emails and surfing the web without even have to boot up my laptop. I was not crazy about iPods until the Touch, an advanced Christmas present from Dana. Why did she give it to me now?

Over Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt’s house, two of my nephews (a three and a four years old) have the Touch. It was mind-boggling to see children at that age with an iPod, but they were using it like a toy. My cousin’s reasoning is that instead of buying her kid toys, she just get the Touch and he can learn from it. Of course, when my cousin endorses something her siblings follow. That’s how the other kid also got an iPod. If my cousin doesn’t have to take care of my aunt who is suffering from a stroke, she would be a great marketer. She makes things sound so great whenever she likes them. Even my mom would take her advice on things.

In any rate, I was playing with the Touch a bit and impressed with the way Safari renders web pages. I told Dana and she broke the secret: “I got you one for Christmas.” Since she already told me what I am getting, I might was well get them now. I am now loving Apple iPod Touch 32GB.

For the past couple of weeks, I have been working like there’s no tomorrow. I am taking on a couple of very exciting projects for both GWSB and consulting. Lately, I have been very motivated to design and I have to thank Duke for it.

Watching him sleep every night somehow inspires me. After Dana nurses him to sleep in our bed, it’s my job to watch him in case he wakes up and crawls off the bed. He no longer sleeps in his crib. With a reading light, a stool to sit on, and the corner of the bed as a computer desk, I have been working way past midnight cranking out designs and codes for my consulting works.

The night is so quiet and the only sound I would hear is when Duke twists and turns. All I have to do is tapping his butt and he would go back to sleep. Sometimes I just look at him and so damn proud of myself.

My sister-in-law invited me and my wife to lunch at Pasara, a Thai restaurant located a block from USPTO. The place is a bit small, decorated with heavy wooden furniture and Asian arts. Even the menu cover is made out of wood. The food was not outstanding but savory enough for a revisit. We had fried calamari, which is my sister-in-law’s favorite appetizer and she could make it better. We also shared clay pot shrimp, chicken green curry and drunken noodles. The noodle was the best out of the three dishes. The service was not all that bad either.

Fuck Minh Tuyet and let’s make it official—Le Quyen is the new hooker. On the street, a hooker is someone who offers sex for money. In music, a hooker is a singer who lives by the hooks and makes luscious love to the hooks.

Le Quyen’s volume 3, Neu Nhu Ngay Do, is packed with catchy, contagious choruses. Right off the opening title track, she drips her thick, husky vocals over the banal lyrics like honey and ginger over plain, white tofu. On the Chinese-melodic “Tha Thu Cho Em,” she wraps her big-ass pipe around the hilariously-heartbreaking lines, “Neu em ra di bay gio thi nhieu nguoi se trach moc / vi da ben nhau bao ngay ma gio day doi thay,” as if girls these days really give a fuck what people say. With “Roi Mot Mai,” she brings out her rockability that is a reminiscent of Phuong Thanh.

Just when I give up on her for going down the trendy, poppy path, Le Quyen Acoustic pulls me back and gives me some hope again. Unlike Minh Tuyet, Le Quyen is not a mediocre singer at best. She has a dark, raucous, powerful voice with a bit of range. Her jazzy cover of Jimmy Nguyen’s “Mai Mai Ben Em” is intoxicating. She knows how curl her raspy, smoky vocals around the acoustic picking guitar and sentimental sawing violin. On Tran Le Huynh’s “Chan Tinh,” she completely erased Van Truong and intimately made it all her own. With Phu Quang’s “Noi Nho Mua Dong,” songbird Le Quyen trenches her soul into a bitter cold winter night and her delivery is a resemblance of the younger Thanh Lam who I truly missed.

Acoustic has its stale moments with tracks like Thanh Tung’s “Mua Ngau,” Duc Huy’s “Neu Xa Nhau” and Ngoc Le’s “Xa Roi Tuoi Tho.” Yet as long as Le Quyen doesn’t waste her voice with lollipop tunes, she remains one of my favorite Vietnamese vocalists.

Yesterday I went to the mall trying to do my Christmas shopping. Three hours later I ended up with a bunch of promotional designs I picked up from various stores. I really like the way Crate&Barrel incorporate photo into its gift cards so I took two of them. I also like Bloomingdale’s brown bag gift card concept. If you pull the bottom of the bag, the gift card pops on top. I was holding the bag in my hand and a salesman offered to ring me up. I told him I just wanted the card and he let me have it.

Being a designer, I have always picked up well design pieces I see laying around, but I never pull them together in a central location. After yesterday’s shopping, I decided to save a collection for design inspiration. Now I have a reason to go shopping even if I don’t need to buy anything.

Complementing Jeffrey Zeldman’s third edition of Designing with Web Standards, John Allsopp’s Developing with Web Standards is a comprehensive guide for web designers and developers who seek to implement latest technologies including HTML5, CSS3 and DOM into their projects. Allsopp’s vast knowledge of web development combined with his clear, simple instructional approaches come through on the pages.

Allsopp takes us all the way back to the basics of markup (HTML) and core concepts of presentation (CSS). For those who come late to the industry, the first part of the book will help you understand the important aspects of web standards. For those who have been in the game for years, part one and two are great for refreshing your knowledge and picking up things that you might have missed. The third part is where Allsopp delves into the principals of HTML5, CSS3, web fonts, and SVG.

Whereas Designing with Web Standards is recommended for directors, clients and the big bosses, Developing with Web Standards is without a doubt is a must-read for designers and developers.

I had my first web site back in 2000 registered under D3Firm.com. I lost the domain name because I signed up with a horrendous hosting company. I started from scratch again with D3Studio.net and made the same mistake. The company went offline, out of business and took my domain name with it. I was so frustrated that I started to do careful research on hosting companies.

In 2004, I registered Visualgui.com with GoDaddy separately just in case the hosting company screws up I can still have my domain name. Then I started hosting with Lunarpages because of all the rave reviews. It turns out that Lunarpages has been quite stable for the past five years. If you visit my blog everyday, you probably notice that my web site stays up about 98% of the time. Both iLoveNgocLan.com and Simplexpression.com are also hosting with Lunarpages. Whenever I work on a freelance project, I always recommend Lunarpages for my clients. In fact, I just referred one of my new clients.

Lunarpages is running a special promotion for the holidays. You’ll get 50% off on any 12-month plan. If you’re looking for an inexpensive, reliable hosting company, I highly recommend Lunarpages for the excellent service, reliable support and reasonable rates.

Why am I promotion it? I just hope that the company gets more clients and continues to do a great job so my web sites stay in good shape. That why I don’t have to deal with all the nightmares I’ve through five years ago.

In a packed concert hall at the John F. Kennedy Center last night, Sonny Rollins showed that he is still the Saxophone Colossus at the age of seventy-nine. Limping on stage in a white jacket and sun glasses, Mr. Rollins was greeted by an up-roaring crowd and standing ovation. He wasted no time charging his bop licks over an uptempo rhythm provided by Kobie Watkins (drums), Victor Y. See Yuen (percussion), Bob Cranshaw (electric bass), and Bobby Broom (guitar). Clifton Anderson added the rough, deep trombone sound to the sextet.

Mr. Rollins then ripped through the bluesy “Heaven In the Sky” like a young man with a wounded soul. He also poured his heart out on a sentimental tribute to “J. J. Johnson.” The band members are mostly younger than Mr. Rollins and they sure kept him active. Drummer Kobie Watkins played as if he meant rhythm he hit. The passion and emotion expressed on his face were a joy to watch.

Mr. Rollins and his band closed out the night with a highly groovy tune that had a Caribbean flavor to it. Some of the audience members got up and danced along with Mr. Rollins improvisation and interaction. Once again, the crowd cheered on as they exited the stage. Even without an encore, the show was mesmerizing.