The newly redesigned iPod Shuffle comes with VoiceOver.

A heartfelt piece about a loving couple adapting to their new life after an accident that left the wife paralyzed from waist down.

On her sophomore release, Nua Hon Thuong Dau, Y Phuong steps up her game. Although the album is not perfect, it is way better than her debut Tra No Tinh Xa. The major improvement is the matured materials. Instead of wasting her voice and our time on junkie hits, she pours her heart out on some of the most emotional classics.

Y Phuong sure knows how to provoke the drama. Accompanied by strumming guitar and sawing violin, she drowns in her own tears on the title track. On Tuan Khanh’s “Chiec La Cuoi Cung,” she swells like a songbird with a lost soul across a crescendo. At the climax, she holds the high notes with her gorgeous vibrato. On Vu Thanh An’s “Bai Khong Ten So 8,” she maneuvers her flow around the bossa-nova arrangement effortlessly. Her rendition of Trinh Cong Son’s “Rung Xua Da Khep,” Ngo Thuy Mien’s “Bai Tinh Ca Cho Em” and Tram Tu Thieng’s “Tuong Niem” are well-delivered even when her pitch is a shade too high for comfort.

Nguyen Anh 9’s “Tinh Khuc Chieu Mua” sounds worn out partly because the song has been sung to death. This tune should be banned for a while before anyone could return to it. It desperately needs a break. On the contrary, Pham Anh Dung’s “Thien Than Mong Manh” sounds new, but out of place on this album. The nice, relaxed feel of the tune breaks the dramatic theme she has built up to that point. Without the last track, Nua Hon Thuong Dau is just depressingly pleasure.

Yes big bro, the great man can make that chunk of wood sing.

I have a toe that has been bothering me for a couple of months. I finally takes my wife suggestion and go see a podiatry. I had a 9:00 appointment. The doctor came in looked at toe and said, “You have a wart. I am 99.9% sure, but I have to refer you to a skin doctor.” At 9:08, I walked out of the doctor office with no treatment.

Vassar homepage is featuring one of my designs when I was still employed there. A year and three months later, the design still look fresh.

Some of my favorite pieces from Z Furniture:

Edison Display Units ($877.80)
777 Black Silver Display Unit ($657.80)
Black Modern Coffee Table With Glass Top ($327.99)
Zuo Modern TV Stands ($543.90)

Maybe when we get some extra money.

I am a bit surprise that Digital Web takes this long to cease publication. The magazine hasn’t work for me three or four years ago. Still it was one of the most useful online resources a couple years ago.

I didn’t get to do much this weekend. Half of my Saturday morning was spent at the conference and half of the evening at a high school friend of my baby shower. Her baby girl is expected to be born a day before my little guy and she has gained almost forty-five pounds. We were discussing on hooking them up.

Even though my weekend was interrupted and didn’t get any help from my sister-in-law and her hubby, I am so glad that the basement is now completed. The weather had been very nice so we opened the windows to get all the fumes out. Dana was able to help me with touching up all the messes I left.

We are also in the process of replacing all the door locks. The previous owner had many locks that required a key to open, but the problem is we couldn’t find any keys. We don’t want our little boy to lock inside one of the room and we can’t get in. Besides, want to change them all to one consistent design. We went to EXPO and picked up eight locks with 40% off because the store is closing. We also bought a gorgeous chandelier at EXPO a couple weeks ago. We went back today and picked up some accessories for our bathrooms.

Next week we should be able to clean up the house and than we should be able to move in the following week. We’re also planning on a housewarming party on April 4th even though the house is empty. The only thing people are waiting to see is the colors of the house. Thanks to my sister-in-law who has been telling everyone how crazy we have gone through with all the colors. I am still very proud of my colorful crib.

Social media networks were a big buzz at AACSB conference this year. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are mentioned in every session. My job in the next few weeks will be to get The George Washington University School of Business on these networks. We have talked about social media networks before, but never actually done anything. The main reason for the resistance is the time that devoted to these social media. Who is going to tweet? Who will update Facebook? Who is going to keep track of LinkedIn?

From what I have learned from the sessions, most of the B-Schools have a Facebook page to have a Facebook page. Some schools are using Twitter to let the students know about an upcoming event or to remind them a certain deadlines. A few use LinkedIn to connect with alumni. These reasons alone still weren’t convinced me those are the ways to approach social media. Hannah Paramore, president of Paramore Redd Communications, however, had shown us how to take advantage of social media as tools to reach different audiences. She gave an example of how a record company makes it profit by repacking its content. Take Miles Davis for instance. There’s the re-release of The 50th Anniversary of Kind of Blue, Miles Davis for Lovers, The Best of Miles Davis and so on. In comparison, social media networks are just different ways of getting out the message. Let say you write a blog post. The post could go on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to reach different audiences. Since most of these networks, especially Facebook, make sharing contents so easy, why not just make one and repurpose them to different channels.

Sounds like a fantastic idea to me. Does anyone else have any thoughts on that or how to best use these social media to benefit the school?