Check out Dana Nguyễn’s handcrafted simplexpression, in which she captures the joy and spirit of the festive season in the heart of Fairfax City.

Với niềm tin và tưởng tượng, một đống cát có thể biến thành một hòn đảo mộng mơ. Truyện ngắn của Nguyễn Nhật Ánh đưa ta về với tuổi thơ đầy thơ mộng. Phải chi giờ đây đám nhỏ dùng đầu óc tưởng tượng ra những trò chơi đầy thú vị thay vì chứ chuối đầu vào máy. Mỗi thời mỗi khác biết làm cách nào bây giờ. Thôi thì tìm những quyển sách như vầy để lui về thời thơ ấu. Những ai thích truyện Nguyễn Nhật Ánh thì không thể bỏ qua câu chuyện thật dễ thương này.

The previous design of my blog, Visualgui 2023, was solid. I loved the typographic combination, the grid-based layout, and the focus on simplicity and readability. I wanted to hold on to it, but I also wanted to make a change at least once a year to keep up with the tradition.

For 2024, I wanted the visual to be playful since this is a personal blog. I was thinking along the lines of the contemporary style of Swiss design. While browsing through Adobe Stock to get some inspiration, however, I came across Yang Guoquan’s striking abstract landscape paintings. I loved his use of colors and the beauty of nature in his art. I quickly went in that direction. Since Guoquan has a series of landscape paintings, I selected one for the header, one for the footer, and one for the divider between each blog post.

To complement Guoquan’s paintings of nature, I set the headline for each blog post in Borel, designed by Rosalie Wagner. The way Wagner skillfully connected each letter drew me into Borel. Only a lowercase letter connected to another lowercase letter. An uppercase letter would throw off the connection; therefore, I made all my headlines lowercase.

To complement the handwriting headlines, I set the body text in Kaius, designed by Lisa Fischbach. I licensed Kaius a few months ago because I always had a soft spot for a reading serif face and I knew I would need it for this redesign. Kaius supports the Vietnamese language. If I were consulted, I would make a few minor recommendations, but the diacritics are good.

For huge display words as well as small texts, I selected Neue DIN, designed by Hendrik Weber, Andreas Frohloff, and Olli Meier. I was consulted for Vietnamese diacritics on Neue DIN and I just received the updated font files yesterday. I put it to use today.

For coding examples, I stay with IntelOne Mono, designed by Fred Shallcrass. Because I rarely blog about coding, I wanted to use IntelOne Mono more than just for coding examples. I set the date, which is also the permanent link for each blog post, in IntelOne Mono. I am using four typefaces for this blog. I hope I can make Bethany Heck proud of my type combination.

Unlike WordPress’s Twenty Twenty-Four, which has 119 files, Visualgui 2024 has only 3 files. I am keeping it classic until Matt Mullenweg forces me to move to Gutenberg. I can no longer keep up with the modern theme development for WordPress. I would have to use an existing theme like WordPress’s Twenty Twenty-Four and mess around with its visual editor to modify the design, which doesn’t feel right at all. I still want the ability to design a simple blog theme with just 3 files.

That’s pretty much it for Visualgui 2024. I hope you enjoy the new look. If you are reading this from an RSS feed or another social media site, head over to visualgui.com in your preferred browser.

I can’t recall if we had replaced the battery for our 2018 Toyota Sienna or not. This must be the first time since we bought the vehicle. The battery lasted 5 years, which was not bad. It was dead this morning when my wife took the kids to school. She picked up a new battery from Costco and I replaced it.

• Battery: $120.
• A can of CRC Battery Cleaner: $9

Happy birthday my dearest Đán—the son who gives me happiness and headaches. You are still my blading champ. As much as I wanted to keep up with you, I could never drop into those tall ramps like you had pulled off. Even though I spent more time at the skatepark than you, I could never catch up to you. If you put your heart and mind into blading, I guarantee that you can do a whole lot more.

If you practice playing the piano and reading the notes, you will excel in your music journey. As I reminded you many times, private piano lessons are expensive. I don’t mind paying if you put your efforts into playing. I don’t want to waste money, time, and your instructor’s dedication.

I admire your snowboarding skills as well, but your head and soul are devoted to your digital activities. You spend way too much time on your computer and your phone. You can’t control yourself. You refuse to do anything else willingly. You isolate yourself. You don’t focus on your schoolwork. You get frustrated and depressed when you can’t spend time on your digital devices. I don’t want to restrict your access, but I need to. I worry everyday about your digital addiction. You are not alone though. Your brothers, your cousins, your peers are living and breathing in the digital generation.

Now that you are twelve years old, I hope that you will make better decisions and choices. I love you and I am here for you until the day I die.

Love,
Dad

While Mr. Điệp fixing our HVAC unit, I sought out his advice on setting the thermostat before leaving for vacation. He recommended setting the temperature to about 67 degrees. Then he also gave me some tips on preventing a water disaster.

Steps to Shut Off the Water

1. Turn off the the water heater power
2. Shut off the main water valve
3. Turn on the furthest sink faucets (both hot and cold until all the water drained out then turn them off

Steps to Turn the Water Back On

1. Turn on the furthest faucets (both hot and cold pipes)
2. Flush all the toilets
3. Turn on the main valve half way slowly
4. Turn the water heater valve and power back on

If the HVAC unit broke down while we were away, we wouldn’t come back to a swimming pool. When return, we can prevent the disaster even if the pipes busted by shutting off the main valve again. I’ll definitely take his advice whenever we go out of town.

Since we came back from New York City on Sunday, the temperatures had plummeted. Then we noticed that our heating system struggled to reach 67°F even with the auxiliary heat kicked in. The thermostat could only get up to 64°F. With my mother-in-law and the kids in the house, I worried and couldn’t sleep for the past two nights.

Today we reached out to a friend who is in the construction business and asked for a recommendation on an HVAC service. He referred us to T&J Service. Mr. Điệp Trần and his protégé Việt arrived around 6 pm to diagnose the system. It turned out that the outside unit stopped working. They worked in the cold to replace the fuse, tested the compressor, and made sure the system worked properly.

Knowing that we have proper heating again, I can go to sleep peacefully. Now I know who to call if we run into HVAC issue again. I am thinking of contracting them to replace the whole system in the summer since it is almost 15 years old.

Paid: $100

If you feel compelled to give today, please consider supporting this blog.

To hang your quotes in CSS, this is all you need:

html {
  hanging-punctuation: first allow-end last;
}

At the time of this writing, only Safari implemented this property. To make it work in other browsers, negative text-indent is needed. Nevertheless, I went ahead and added hanging-punctuation and removed text-indent for the title of JAY-Z’s song from the Beacon of HOV project. That way, the hanging punctuation would just work in all browsers in the future.

Mới đặt hành tập thơ mới của anh Cao Nguyên với tựa đề “Ba dòng thơ”. Đã đọc và theo dõi vài bài thơ ba dòng anh chia sẻ trên Facebook, tôi tin chắc rằng đây là một tuyển tập đầy thú vị. Nhân dịp lễ Giáng Sinh sắp đến, đây là một món quà đầy ý nghĩa cho những tâm hồn mê thơ và yêu tiếng Việt. Hãy đặt hành ở Amazon ngay. Trong lúc chờ đợi, mời các bạn cùng đọc “Thơ mưa” của Anh Cao Nguyên ở thomua.com.