Last night
i dreamed
my son joined a gang
A gang
one million strong

This gang
these brothers
spoke Swahili
Spanish
& street talk

& nobody was afraid

This gang walked around
in broad daylight
& after midnight
dreadlocked
cornrowed
hair kinky crazy

& nobody pointed their pistols

This gang
they wore kente durags
around their foreheads
cowries around their necks
didn’t take no shit

& nobody was afraid

This gang
one million strong
These sons
were intelligent
educable
like they always been

& nobody said they were not able

This gang
they were the future
doctors
lawyers
teachers
poets all about the business
of being correct

& nobody was afraid

This gang
they walked the streets
in great numbers

& nobody cuddled their purses

This gang
they stood up
& spoke up
when justice showed
its true colors

& the swat team didn’t come

This gang
they went to schools
where no teachers made them feel
worth less or like criminals

& nobody cried rape

This gang
they praised god
their way
& remembered ancestors
in old as time ceremonies

& nobody was afraid

They
beat drums
They beat drums
& beat drums

& nobody was afraid

This gang
sang their
warrior songs
baritone voices
stirring all those
with ears bent

& nobody was afraid

Last night
i dreamed
my son joined a gang
a gang
one million strong

This morning
i woke up
said a prayer
& prepared him
for another day
in fayette county public schools

& was very much afraid

Crystal Wilkinson

Yesterday I noticed Everlasting Eye Care website was not working. I called the hosting provider on my client’s behalf. The technician wouldn’t do anything without the site’s owner verification. I called the owner, but she didn’t pick up the home. I had to ended the call with the hosting technician.

I logged into the cPanel to see if I could figure the issue myself. I noticed that the SSL/TLS status page showed warning errors. I reset the name servers from Cloudflare back to the hosting provider’s defaults. The site worked again without HTTPS. I went back to the SSL/TLS status page and ran AutoSSL. The site worked on HTTPS again.

I did all of this for my client on a Sunday evening without charging a penny. It just felt right to take care of my client’s site. The site owner is a good friend and I am terrible at doing business.

Last year when I designed and developed our family book, I needed an easy way to password-protect the entire site. My aunt, who is the author, doesn’t want the book to be public. She just wants to share it with family members. I can’t remember the resource I used; therefore, I would like to document it here just in case others find it useful.

Place the follow code at the top of the page you want to be password-protected:

<?php
 	/* Your password */
	 $password = 'yourpassword';

	 if (empty($_COOKIE['password']) || $_COOKIE['password'] !== $password) {
	 // Password not set or incorrect. Send to login.php.
	 header('Location: /login.php');
	 exit;
         }
?>

Create a login page (login.php). It should live on the top directory. Here’s the PHP code:

<?php
	/* Your password */
	$password = 'yourpassword';

	/* Redirects here after login */
	$redirect_after_login = 'index.php';

	/* Will not ask password again for */
	$remember_password = strtotime('+7 days'); // 7 days

	if (isset($_POST['password']) && $_POST['password'] == $password) {
	setcookie("password", $password, $remember_password);
	header('Location: ' . $redirect_after_login);
	exit;
	}
?>

Create HTML log-in form in login.php:

<form method="POST">
	<input type="text" name="password" placeholder="Enter password">
	<input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit" class="button">
</form>

The webpage is set to expired in 7 days. If you want a logout link, create a logout.php page with the following codes:

<?php
	/* Your password */
	$password = 'yourpassword';

	if (empty($_COOKIE['password']) || $_COOKIE['password'] !== $password) {
	// Password not set or incorrect. Send to login.php.
	header('Location: /login.php');
	exit;
        }
?>

It’s serious business to come on a man’s land
but when they get a hair up the wrong place
i always have my rifle ready. Sometimes
i turn the light on, so i can see who their daddies are.
Young white boys are like that sometimes, smelling
their selves, thinking they can do it cause i’m black,
cause i’m old, or just cause. Cause i’m a servant of the good Lord
is the reason i ain’t never shot one yet. I just say Git on, now.
Git on back where you come from out into the dark
toward the place where i hear the leaves rustling.
Next most all i hear is the gravel crunch as they head
on down the road. Sometimes they come closer still,
that’s when i poke that ole .22 up toward the trees
& let it rip three times. It’s serious business
to step foot on a man’s land but sometimes
when i hear their feet traveling away from me
like spooked cattle in the dark, i can’t help but laugh.

Crystal Wilkinson

My four-year-old boy is such a badass, and yet he is so damn cute. Last week, he told me to “Shut your damn mouth.”

Last Friday, I tried to get him out of the house while he was watching YouTube. I invited him out for lunch at his favorite place: McDonald’s. He refused. I offered him a happy meal and he said to me, “You go buy it and bring it home to me.” I said, “You better recognize.”

After giving him a bubble bath tonight, I told him to put on the clothes himself. I joked with him, “You can put on your clothes yourself. You’re a big girl.” He asked me, “What did you say?” I replied, “You’re a big girl.” He hit back, “I am not a big girl. I am a big boy, you big dummy.”

I got nothing but love for this kid. I ain’t even mad at him.

To indicate an active link in my main navigation, I used a class name as follow:

<li class="active"><a href="/about/">About</a></li>

The issue with using a class name is that screen readers don’t recognized it. Fortunately ARIA has the aria-current="page" attribute to solve the issue (learn more from Manuel Matuzović’s “Building the main navigation for a website”). I switched all my main navigation as follow:

<li aria-current="page"><a href="/about/">About</a></li>

Add PHP function to make the active page dynamic:

<li<?php if ($thisPage=="About") echo " aria-current=\"page\"";?>><a href="/about/">About</a></li>

Style the active link with CSS:

nav li[aria-current="page"] a {color:red;}

A rare, fantastic collaboration between two jazz giants: John Coltrane featuring Eric Dolphy played “Impressions.”

Armani White delivers a concise album with bouncing beats, fluid flows, and great guests. White invited 90s rap stars, Ludacris, Busta Rhymes, and N.O.R.E., on “Billie Eilish Legends Mix” to close out the album. I haven’t listened to these MCs for years and they had proved that they can still rhyme.

Without me, who will take you home from school
Who will write letters for you to bring to class
Who will dry your tears when you cry
Who will take you out on rainy evenings

And when you smile during the nights,
Who will admire your white teeth
Your bright eyes are like glistening planets
When the air’s foggy, who will breathe to clear the mist
Who will hold your hands to make your cheeks turn pink
Who will gently breathe clouds into your hair…

Without me, if one day you should cry
The autumn light in your eyes will be diminished
Your hair grows longer with poet melancholy…

Without me, who will fondle you
Who will see the smile in your eyes
Who will listen to you talking about the autumn wind
Who will hold your hands and lead you to the joys of Spring
And feel your veins pulsing with life

Without me, if one day you should die
God will ask me why your hair lacks luster
Why your arms so skinny, why your eyes so dull
With head bowed in shame, I’ll be heading toward Hell.

Translated by Vương Thanh

Cần thiết

Không có anh lấy ai đưa em đi học về
Lấy ai viết thư cho em mang vào lớp học
Ai lau mắt cho em ngồi khóc
Ai đưa em đi chơi trong chiều mưa

Những lúc em cười trong đêm khuya
Lấy ai nhìn những đường răng em trắng
Đôi mắt sáng là hành tinh lóng lánh
Lúc sương mờ ai thở để sương tan
Ai cầm tay cho đỏ má hồng em
Ai thở nhẹ cho mây vào trong tóc…

Không có anh nhỡ một mai em khóc
Ánh thu buồn trong mắt sẽ hao đi
Tóc sẽ dài thêm mớ tóc buồn thơ

Không có anh thì ai ve vuốt
Không có anh lấy ai cười trong mắt
Ai ngồi nghe em nói chuyện thu phong
Ai cầm tay mà dắt mùa xuân
Nghe đường máu run từng cành lộc biếc

Không có anh nhỡ ngày mai em chết
Thượng đế hỏi anh sao tóc em buồn
Sao tay gầy, sao đôi mắt héo hon
Anh sẽ phải cúi đầu đi về địa ngục…

Nguyên Sa

This self-titled album is the first time I set my ear on Dara Starr Tucker. With her beautiful voice, she maneuvers her way effortlessly around the bossa-nova rhythm on “Scars,” the album opener. She sweeps me up completely on the second track. Her interpretation of John Denver’s “Annie’s Song” is just so damn romantic. Listening to her phrasing reminds me of the love of my life. After 15 years together, I still have tremendous love for my wife. Our relationship has been on the upward trajectory. She helps release my stress. The lyrics capture our love; therefore; I have to quote the entire song written by John Denver:

You fill up my senses
Like a night in a forest
Like the mountains in springtime
Like a walk in the rain
Like a storm in the desert
Like a sleepy blue ocean
You fill up my senses
Come fill me again

Come let me love you
Let me give my life to you
Let me drown in your laughter
Let me die in your arms
Let me lay down beside you
Let me always be with you
Come let me love you
Come love me again

Let me give my life to you
Come let me love you
Come love me again

You fill up my senses
Like a night in a forest
Like the mountains in springtime
Like a walk in the rain
Like a storm in the desert
Like a sleepy blue ocean
You fill up my senses
Come fill me again

I wish I can listen to the entire album with my wife on our relaxing, all-inclusive vacation for just the two of us. I can only dream.