TypeMate is running a special deal of 50% off on all of its font collection. It has a handful of fonts supporting Vietnamese. I had the pleasure of advising a few of them. I am eyeing on Kaius Text, designed by Lisa Fischbach. It supports Vietnamese as well, but I didn’t review the diacritics; therefore, I am not sure how they look. The deal ends tomorrow so I need to make a decision fast.
With a subscription to Amazon Music, I have been listening to new jazz and hip-hop albums and discovering artists I haven’t known before. For instance, I have been pumping Young Nudy’s Gumbo in my Sienna. The title of his songs filled with meats and vegetables including “Brussel Sprout,” “Portabella,” “Shrimp,” “Duck Meat,” and “M.R.E.,” which, my oldest son told me, stands for “Meals Ready to Eat.” I am not sure if Nudy’s lyrics have anything to do with food since all I can hear are “pussies” and “bitches.” He sounds high as fuck on all of the tracks, but the beats are just infectious. The melodic string plucked against the pounding bass line makes “McChicken,” produced by Coupe, chilling and hypnotizing at the same time. The hook and the rhymes are just too damn misogynistic and too trigger happy to quote on here. That’s what hip-hop is all about. You have to separate the art from the content. I enjoyed Gumbo even though I have not heard of Young Nudy before.
Is it the color of sunshine or the color of your eyes
It’s autumn with rain falling, I’m holding your hands, so soft and shy
The sun’s shadow falling early on the terrace this evening
And then some day, the clouds will be flying up high in the sky.
The sunshine’s away to let sorrow creeps into your hair
Your face’s pale, with a look of wistful melancholy
Those olden days, why the autumn leaves didn’t turn yellow,
and why the sunshine hadn’t entered into your eyes.
You enter the park with silent footsteps
The wind and the clouds have returned to the forest
The grass and trees suddenly light up with the color of sunshine
You enter the park with wondering round eyes
Sunshine’s sparkling like golden crystal gems
My soul suddenly feels a deep melancholy rising…
The evening has entered the garden of your eyes
Autumn comes and goes away many times
Thousands of trees lighting up like candles in two rows
To welcome the sunshine into your eyes
(The color of sunshine’s now in your eyes)
Translated by Vương Thanh
Màu nắng hay là màu mắt em
Mùa thu mưa bay cho tay mềm
Chiều nghiêng nghiêng bóng nắng qua thềm
Rồi có hôm nào mây bay lên.
Lùa nắng cho buồn vào tóc em
Bàn tay xanh xao đón ưu phiền
Ngày xưa sao lá thu không vàng
Và nắng chưa vào trong mắt em
Em qua công viên bước chân âm thầm
Ngoài kia gió mây về ngàn
Cỏ cây chợt lên màu nắng
Em qua công viên mắt em ngây tròn
Lung linh nắng thủy tinh vàng
Chợt hồn buồn dâng mênh mang
Chiều đã đi vào vườn mắt em
Mùa thu qua tay đã bao lần
Ngàn cây thắp nến lên hai hàng
Để nắng đi vào trong mắt em
(Màu nắng bây giờ trong mắt em)
Trịnh Công Sơn
For Memorial weekend, we went camping again. This time with our family instead of Cub Scouts. We cooked. We ate. We biked a bit. The kids spent most of the time on their screens. We wanted to escape, but the digital devices were inescapable.
Seeing the kids gluing their eyes to their screens from the moment they woke up to the time they went to bed broke my heart. They took no appreciation of the nature surrounding them. I can reinforce my boys, but not their cousins. I stayed quiet to avoid confrontations.
What was the point of venturing into the woods only to spend time on screens? I had no motivation to do any activities other than biking. I wanted to check out the skatepark nearby, but I just went around the campsite collecting woods and burning them. I enjoyed making campfires and watching the flames.
It was such a shame that digital devices had taken over the kids’ life. No matter where they went, they had to be connected. Bonding time turned into screen time. Am I being too biased with video games? Am I being too worrisome? Am I the only one concerned about digital addiction? I hope I am wrong. I hope they will turn out fine.
Which month is it now, my love?
The clouds drift serenely in the sky
This evening, if you did not sulk at me
Or said words of blame,
We would not feel so lonely.
Which month is it now, my love?
I’m seeking the color of the flower on your hair
This evening, I miss you already and miss
Your dress, so beautiful with the hue of poetry,
And your lips full of dreams and wishes.
Heavy rain’s falling this evening
to make us feel the bitter cold
I’ll be taking you home
My love, please don’t be angry at me anymore
Looking at each other with deep sorrow,
feeling the winter chill in your soft shoulders
Which month is it now, my love?
I go seeking the spring season of life
Let winter dies, then spring appears
With your eyes beautiful like the starry sky,
To make our hearts be full of love.
Translated by Vương Thanh
Bây giờ tháng mấy rồi hỡi em?
lênh đênh ngàn mây trôi êm đềm
Chiều nay nếu em đừng hờn dỗi,
trách nhau một lời thôi
Tâm hồn mình đâu lẻ loi.
Bây giờ tháng mấy rồi hỡi em?
Anh đi tìm màu hoa em cài
Chiều nay nhớ em rồi và nhớ
áo em đẹp màu thơ,
môi tràn đầy ước mơ
Mai đây anh đưa em đi về,
mưa giăng chiều nắng tàn
cho buốt lạnh chúng mình.
Em ơi, thôi đừng hờn anh nữa,
nhìn nhau buồn vời vợi,
để mùa đông buốt giá bờ vai mềm.
Bây giờ tháng mấy rồi hỡi em?
Anh đi tìm mùa xuân trên đời
Mùa đông chết đi rồi mùa xuân
mắt em đẹp trời sao
cho mình thương nhớ nhau.
Từ Công Phụng
After a week waiting for approval from Google, I implemented Adsense on Thursday. The first day I made a penny even though my site is pulling 1.62k unique visitors a day and 15.83k total requests. I’ll see how Adsense will perform in a week before I decide if it is worth keeping.
Some early dawn, on waking up, I look about myself
The sun’s shining on the terrace; the birds are startled
I know my words of love had already been heard
Sunshine’s passing through the leaves,
The dewdrops fall from the branches of the trees
Why tell my story when Life’s so fragile
My love story is sad with no sunrise
The old familiar road, with love’s usual deceits
The path of love with a hundred jumbled threads,
Trying to find love within Life’s mess
Not many years left when our hair will turn silver
And by chance, if we should meet each other,
Only to feel like awkward strangers
What’s left then to give to one another.
Morning to evening, looking about myself alone
The familiar road I will not go,
Feeling awkward when we see each other
Just ’cause in my life, there hasn’t yet been a sunrise
Translated by Vương Thanh
Sớm mai thức giấc, nhìn quanh một mình
Ngoài hiên nắng lóe, đàn chim giật mình
Biết lời tỏ tình, đã có người nghe
Nắng xuyên qua lá, hạt sương lìa cành
Đời mong manh quá, kể chi chuyện mình
Nắng buồn cuộc tình, bỗng tắt bình minh
Đường xưa quen lối, tình dối người mang
Tình duyên trăm mối, một kiếp đa đoan
Cố tìm tình chồng chất ngổn ngang
Còn bao lâu nữa khi ta bạc đầu
Tình cờ gặp nhau, ngỡ ngàng nhìn nhau
Để rồi còn gì nữa cho nhau
Sáng trưa khuya tối, nhìn quanh một mình
Đường quen không tới, tìm nhau ngại ngùng
Chỉ vì đời mình, chưa có bình minh
Lam Phương
The bulk of Daryl Fielding’s The Brand Book is on strategy. She only spent several pages on colors, logos, and typefaces. As a result, this book is more suitable for research than design. I didn’t enjoy the strategy part. Pizza United, the fictitious brand she came up with for the book, is lackluster. It is not the book I was looking forward to reading.
Do you still remember, my love?
A summer long ago, the Jacaranda tree bloomed pink flowers
You asked me to come and pick them home for us to play together
Do you still remember, my love?
Do you still remember, my love?
I took the flower petal and pressed it on your cheek
To make you beautiful like an angel
But you didn’t want to.
You’re afraid of having to go to heaven.
You’re afraid, afraid of having to go to heaven.
In heaven, we would be separated in different places
Hence, you only wanted to live in this world
Today, the Jacaranda tree of old days blooms gloriously
But since Fate spoiled our chance to be together
I feel like crying under the blood red flowers
Where are you now?
Where do I find you, my love?
Now, only pain and sorrow in my heart…
Translated by Vương Thanh
Bây giờ còn nhớ hay không?
Ngày xưa hè đến phượng hồng nở hoa
Ngây thơ anh rủ em ra
Bảo nhặt hoa phượng về nhà chơi chung
Bây giờ còn nhớ hay không?
Bây giờ còn nhớ hay không?
Anh đem cánh phượng tô hồng má em
Để cho em đẹp như tiên
Nhưng em không chịu
Sợ phải lên trên trời
Sợ phải lên, sợ phải lên trên trời
Lên trời hai đứa hai nơi
Thôi em chỉ muốn làm người trần gian
Hôm nay phượng nở huy hoàng
Nhưng từ hai đứa lỡ làng duyên nhau
Rưng rưng phượng đỏ trên đầu
Tìm anh em biết tìm đâu bây giờ
Bây giờ tìm kiếm em đâu?
Bây giờ chỉ có thương đau…
Nhất Tuấn
I have a subtle and not-so-subtle changes to the blog. For typographic, I added IntelOne Mono, designed by Fred Shallcrass, into the mix for coding examples and meta text (date and category).
For the not-so-subtle change, I added Google Adsense. As much as I despise running ads, I need to cover the hosting cost to run this blog. The ads turned out to fit well with my design. I had always used the spot right below my logo for promotions, but I didn’t always have something to promote. Now it is a perfect spot for ads.
I wish I have other ways to pull in some revenue stream for this blog, but I don’t. I experimented with Amazon Affiliate, but it didn’t worth the effort. I don’t know how much I will get from Adsense, but I want to experiment with it for a few weeks. The ads don’t seem to distract from the reading experience. In fact, the ads look quite nice with the design on larger screens.