Vice President Harris came prepared and delivered. She connected with the American people while took down Donald Trump.

She got under his skin so bad he started talking about people eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. WTF? Trump had no plan and no policy. He kept circling back to same tired rhetoric and scare tactics on immigrants. He claimed that millions of people from mental institutions and insane asylums came into our country and took over our jobs. So we hired sick and insane people to do the work for us. That makes absolutely no sense.

Tonight Vice President Harris has proved to the American people that she is the right choice. She is smart, tough, and compassionate. She came; she conquered; she closed the chapter on the Donald. I am ready to close this chapter on the Donald as well. As soon as early voting begins, I will cast my vote for Harris.

Are you with her?

Khi nghe ca khúc “Vết thù trên lưng ngựa hoang” của cố nhạc sĩ Phạm Duy, tôi luôn thắc mắc câu “Ngựa hoang muốn về tắm sông nhẫn nhục”. Sau khi đọc quyển tiểu thuyết giang hồ của tác giả Duyên Anh tôi mới hiểu được nguồn gốc của sông Nhẫn Nhục. Nhân vật chính Hoàng Guitar muốn kiếm sống bằng nghề đánh đàn chứ không đánh đá. Anh cố lội sông Nhẫn Nhục để đến được bến bờ bình yên, nhưng đời vẫn trôi anh về bến bờ du đãng. Tuy Vết thù hằn trên lưng con ngựa hoang đã gần 60 năm mà giờ đây tôi mới đọc lần đầu. Tuy nhiên vẫn bị lôi cuốn bởi cây bút đầy hấp dẫn của nhà văn Duyên Anh.

Album #Trầm3 của Ngô Lan Hương tiếp tục với phong cách acoustic. “Mùa thu cho em” (Ngô Thụy Miên) mở đầu Ngô Lan Hương được bè bởi nhóm acapella êm dịu và mộng mơ. Phần thứ hai, cô được tiếng đàn guitar đệm cùng. “Yêu em dài lâu” (Đức Huy) bắt đầu với tiếng đàn dương cầm nhẹ nhàng. Phần saxophone solo điệp khúc chuyển phần hoà âm sang giai điệu jazz mong manh. “Yêu nhau lắm cắn nhau đau” của chính Ngô Lan Hương viết là trình bày được phối theo giai điệu swing thật dễ thương. Chỉ hơi đáng tiếc là album hơi ngắn chỉ có sáu ca khúc.

When I agreed to design and develop the web book for The American Robin, I did not expect any payment. I wanted to help out my mentor who is a close friend of the author. Furthermore, I wanted to spread the idea of leaving a legacy that anyone around the world could access.

The web book version of The American Robin is a wonderful gift from the author because the website has no ad, no paywall, no popup, no gimmick, and no tracking. Because the web book was intended to be free, I did not want to charge for my contribution. Nevertheless, I took the project as if I was paid in full. I stayed up late on weekdays and spent my weekends working on the book.

When choosing Warbler, designed by David Jonathan Ross, to typeset the book, I used my own license from the Font of the Month Club. Even though DJR’s standard licensing agreement has no restrictions on how many websites can be used, clients should have their own font licensing. After I decided to use Warbler for the book, I contacted David about the font licensing and he was totally cool that I used my own licensing for the web book.

After the web book went live, I spread the word on my blog, portfolio, and social media. I even emailed my friends and family members who liked reading. My job was done and I thanked my mentor for the opportunity to work on the book. She informed me that the author loved the website and thy had been discussing about offering me an honorarium.

I must confess. This was the first time I heard of the term honorarium. I had to look it up in the dictionary. It was an honor to work on the website even without a payment, but I was more than glad to accept an honorarium. I was delighted that my mentor was still looking out for me.

As soon as I received the check for the honorarium, I purchased a license of Warbler. The web book now has its own font licensing. Since I got paid, the type designer should get paid as well. It just felt great doing the fair share.

Why am I revealing this information? It’s a proof how bad I am at doing business. I rather designed for free then getting paid. When not getting paid, I made no compromises in the design and development of the project. If I was getting paid, I had to get approval from the client. My best projects have always been not what my clients want, but what their audiences get out of the project. The ideal projects are when the client, the audience, and the designer are satisfied. This web book is an epitome of that ideal project.

Cuối tuần vừa rồi, tôi đưa gia đình đi xa. Phải lái xe bốn tiếng đồng hồ nên tôi cần một chút nhạc êm dịu. Tình cờ khám phá ra album Relaxing Music (Vol. 1) của nhạc sĩ dương cầm Khanh Nhi. Tuy chưa nghe qua tên anh lần nào nhưng cách chơi piano solo của anh lôi cuốn tôi ngay trong bài đầu “Khoảnh khắc” (Trương Quý Hải). Anh đánh nhẹ nhàng êm dịu lại có một chút chất jazz. Rồi “Riêng một góc trời” (Ngô Thụy Miên), “Tình thôi xót” (Bảo Chấn), “Nắng thủy tinh” (Trịnh Công Sơn), mỗi ca khúc đêm lại cho tôi những giây phút thư giãn nhưng không hề nhàm chán.

Tiếng đàn guitar của Phương Phạm thì tôi đã được nghe qua những bài acoustic anh đệm cho ca sĩ. Trong Relaxing Music (Vol. 2), Phương Phạm chơi cùng Khang Nhi qua các ca khúc quen thuộc như “Biển cạn” (Kim Tuấn), “Em ơi Hà Nội phố” (Phú Quang), “Hà Nội mùa này vắng những cơn mưa” (Trương Quý Hải), và đặc sắc là “Biển nhớ” (Trịnh Công Sơn) — tiếng guitar của Phương Phạm đệm cho tiếng piano của Khang Nhi hát.

Bây giờ trời đã trở lành lạnh, tôi chỉ muốn cuộn mình trong chăn như con sâu làm tổ và lắng nghe Relaxing Music.

We now have a ping pong table in our basement. It took me a minute to clear up the space. I simply moved everything to another room. My wife’s sister gave us a MD Sports Table Tennis Conversion Top. I used a 6-ft and two 4-ft folding tables from Costco to hold up the table. The full-size ping pong table turned out great.

Đán started to get into ping pong and asked for a table. He is getting pretty good at it. I hope he will stick with it for a long time, or at least until he can beat me. Xuân is also into it. He is already showing some improvements. I hope Đạo and Vương will join us as well.

Playing ping pong brings back my childhood memories at the refugee camp in the Philippines. There was a ping pong table at an open space near where we stayed for six months before we could come to America. The table had no net; therefore, a couple of kids my age and I stacked two bricks and placed a stick on top. We made paddles out of hardboards. All we needed was a ping pong ball. That all it was needed for us to pass the time and to hone our skills.

Now that I cleared one room for the ping pong table and another room for my ski-tuning station, we need to go through all the stuff we accumulated over the years. My wife wouldn’t let me sort them out because I would donate or trash whatever we don’t need. I am getting impatient waiting for her. It drives me crazy that our space isn’t as optimal as it could be. I had seen worse, but our space could have been tidier. I feel guilty that I couldn’t provide a clutter-free space for our kids. It stuck on my mind all the time. I wish I could just ignore it, but I couldn’t.

Once in a while, I like to pick up a writing guide to refresh my memory. Jeffrey Strausser’s Painless Writing will show you how to declutter your preposition, activate your active voice, and smooth out your prose. It’s a painless guide to improve your write, and a quick read too.

In 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem, Nam Lê wrote a piece on Vietnamese diacritics titled “Dire Critical.” With lyrical prose, Lê explained the importance of tones. For example, ma has a completely different meaning depending on the accompanying diacritical mark (má, mà, mạ, mã, or mả). Since “Dire Critical” has some useful information, I decided to create a sample page to illustrate Vietnamese typography. Through HTML markups and CSS presentations, I designed the web page to resemble the printed page. The poem is typeset in Bono Nova, designed by Mateusz Machalski and Andrzej Heidrich. Read “Dire Critical” now.

In the past few days, I tried to upgrade from Ubuntu 22.04 to 24.04 twice for two different Droplets, but both failed. The upgrades went through, but I could not restart the servers. I will try again when I have more time, but I need to look for a new home for all of my websites for the long run.

I like the cloud hosting services at DigitalOcean. They are fast, reliable, and easy to manage—until they are not anymore. Management the Droplets is also the downside. Every few months I have to do updates and upgrades. Minor security updates are fine, but a major upgrade is not. I don’t want to manage these servers anymore. I feel the same way Winnie felt when she finally decided to move from DigitalOcean to Opalstack.

I can’t go back to shared hosting. I need cloud hostings like DigitalOcean, but fully managed. I am considering WP Engine for this blog, but then I would need another home for five other sites. I am not in any rush. I still have a bit of time to make the decision. If you have any hosting recommendations, please let me know.

Logo design has always been challenging yet rewarding. It’s not always easy to come up with an effective logo, but it just feels great when you hit the mark. In this book, logo designer George Bokhua presents simple-yet-practical principles to help you get there. It’s a short, informative read. The typesetting for the book is superb. The illustrations are beautiful too.