Thursday evening was spent at my lady’s family. We had turkey and spring roll (goi cuon) at her mother’s sister place. Had a few hours of sleep at her parents’ house before heading out to Black Friday. She dragged my ass out to Staples at five thirty in the cold morning. Bought a 500GB external hard drive to archive my digital music and an electronic GPS. I have a human GPS too but she keeps falling asleep on me and in order for her to work properly she has to have her pho. We met up with her brother and sister and wasted the whole morning walking around the malls. I didn’t mind though because I was with her. It felt great to be part of her family and it felt greater to see her smile.

After a bowl of bun rieu my lady prepared for lunch at the parents’ place, I took off to my sister’s house. Had some bo kho and bread mom made and went to the bookstore to get some light reading. Spotted a new book titled Other People’s Love Letter: 150 Letters You Were Never Meant to See. Bill Shapiro, the editor, came up with the concept after he read a love letter while waiting for his date to get dress. I only skim through the book, yet I could feel the embarrassment just thinking about the first love letter I wrote to my lady. In this day and age, I am not sure if people still hand-writing their letters anymore, but here is a good one:

I love that you
sent me an actual
letter.

I can feel your
hand on the pen,
pressing firmly
on the paper.

Did you moisten the
envelope with your
lips?

That was my Thursday and Friday. Saturday is even going to be more exciting.

The office of College Relations is almost empty. I am having a hard time concentrating on getting anything done although I am not rushing to get out of work. So I am just kicking back, sipping some tea, and listening to Dave Brubeck’s Time Signatures right out of my speakers. I requested a pair of decent JBL speakers last year but only uses it when my colleagues aren’t around. So I am trying to take advantage of it while people are away for Thanksgiving.

I don’t have any plan for Thanksgiving other than to spend time with the love ones. I am, however, looking forward to a turkey dinner with all that delicious stuffing and savory gravy. Speaking of food making me hungry already. So even if you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, enjoy the days off with your family and try some deep-fried turkey.

Although I don’t have a Thanksgiving theme for Visualgui.com, Kevin has given Vassar a bursting-red design. Check it out!

Pixelsurgeon pulled the plug. Thanks for a great seven years.

NPR profiles Duke Ellington as the bandleader:

As a conductor, composer and arranger, Ellington was almost entirely a self-made success. With little formal training, the young bandleader became a keen observer of other professional orchestras, studying them in Broadway pits during daytime show rehearsals, then emulating their arrangements and techniques with his own ensemble at night.

Listen to the entire program here.

NPR reports:

Art Pepper was a self-taught jazz saxophonist who never practiced. But he earned acclaim as one of the greatest alto players to follow in the footsteps of Charlie Parker, and one of the foremost exponents of West Coast jazz. His career was interrupted by 10 years in prison on narcotics charges, and he died in 1982 at the age of 56. Now his widow, Laurie Pepper, is trying to tell his story on film, doing it one chapter at a time and posting it on YouTube.

Nice portfolio of Cecilie Ellefsen, an an illustrator and animator in Oslo, Norway.

You’re still the sweetest!

Fantastic illustrator

John Gruber on Amazon’s Kindle:

So the Kindle proposition is this: You pay for downloadable books that can’t be printed, can’t be shared, and can’t be displayed on any device other than Amazon’s own $400 reader — and whether they’re readable at all in the future is solely at Amazon’s discretion. That’s no way to build a library.

Jason Fried:

Kindle isn’t the first eBook reader, but it’s the first portable bookstore. That’s novel. A book in 60 seconds whenever I want it at used-bookstore prices. And the daily push newspaper feature sounds like one hell of a bonus. I love getting the paper, but I hate getting the paper. What a complete waste of resources just so I can get yesterday’s news. I like that there’s some genuinely new thinking behind Kindle. We should embrace this, not tear it to shreds before it even has a chance.