Thứ ba tuần trước chị tôi qua nhà chơi. Con của chị cũng qua tuy không đi cùng nhau. Lâu lắm rồi mới có dịp hai chị em và đứa cháu dành thời gian cho nhau. Ở Virginia tôi đưa chị và cháu đi tham quan những địa điểm danh lam thắng cảnh ở khu vùng này.

Sáng thứ năm tôi rủ vợ, mẹ vợ, chị và cháu đi ăn dim sum gần nhà. Ngồi trò chuyện thì hỏi thăm đứa cháu tình hình tìm công việc ra sao. Vợ tôi góp ý và động viên cháu học cao học ngành y. Chỉ thế thôi mà cháu nổi giận cho rằng ai cũng tạo áp lực cho nó. Thế là nó bỏ không chịu đi chơi với tôi và mẹ nó. Nó về lại nhà tôi dọn đồ bỏ qua nhà bạn nó.

Chị ở lại chơi với gia đình tôi đến trưa chủ nhật mới về. Thấy hoàn cảnh của chị tôi cũng chạnh lòng. Tưởng đâu con cái lớn khôn rồi đỡ phải lo lắng. Thương con, lo cho con, dặn dò con, dạy dỗ con, vậy mà con nó không hiểu được nỗi lòng của cha mẹ. Chị cũng thế. Tôi cũng thế.

Mấy hôm trước gõ “Viet Jazz” vào Amazon Music thì ra albums Jazz dân ca Việt Nam 1 & 2. Bấm vào nghe thử thì thích ngay. Những bài dân ca nằm lòng lần đầu tiên được nghe qua tiếng đàn dương cầm độc thoại như cách chơi của Bill Evans. Nhẹ nhàng, chậm rãi, và ứng khẩu theo phong cách jazz. Tiếc rằng tôi không biết ai chơi đàn dương cầm hoặc MSGproduction là nhà sản xuất nào. Tìm trên mạng cũng chả thấy. Thôi thì đành chỉ nghe và thưởng thức vậy.

Winnie Lim moved her sites from DigitalOcean to OpalStack. Winnie writes:

I decided I didn’t want to manage my own servers anymore – it got tiresome having to install updates every so often – so after some research I found out that some ex-employees from webfaction started opalstack, so that is where I moved her website to. I like that is is very much like webfaction, it is almost like a vps with ssh but it is managed.

I feel Winnie. It gets tiresome having updates my droplets every few months. Then again having to manage my own servers keeps me in the game. I need all the technical skills to do my full-time job in my position as a director. I don’t need to do it myself. I just need to know my shit. As far as moving off DigitalOcean, I don’t know where I want to move to.

Winnie is also concerned about the longevity of her site:

I am still concerned about what happens to my website after I am gone, and also the actual longevity of opalstack since it is a small friendly company. But well sometimes we just have to take a leap of faith.

I worried about my sites after I die as well, but I have come to accept that when I am gone my sites will be gone with me as well. If I lose my sites tomorrow, I will definitely be sad, but I will move on.

JAY-Z talks to Gayle King about his work, life, and The Book of HOV installation at Brooklyn Public Library. I want to check it out.

The right (passenger) rear tired had 4 punctures. It was irrepairable. Since the tread reading for the tires was at 5/32, I went ahead and replace all four. The last time I replaced them was in December 2019. Thanks to this blog, I could pull up the information immediately. The tires were over 3 years; therefore, they needed to be replaced anyway. I ordered 4 new all-season Michelin Defenders at Costco. I needed new tires so I can go to the ski resorts this coming winter.

Tires, tax, and installation cost $880. I am going to need to an alignment as well. The cost of having a car.

Đã lâu rồi mới được thưởng thức một album nhạc Trịnh qua bầu không khí mộc mạc cùng tiếng hát nam trầm ấm. Đúng với tựa đề của album, Nhiên, Lân Nhã hát ca từ của người cố nhạc sĩ tài hoa rất hồn nhiên. Được đệm bởi tiếng đàn guitar acoustic, Lân Nhã hát nhẹ nhàng từng chữ một nên anh để lộ cách phát âm hơi điệu của mình. Tuy nhiên không điệu đến nỗi khiến người nghe rùng rợn. Chỉ cần vài shots whisky là album này nghe phê ngay.

Perform update and upgrade to the current Droplet.

List all the installed PHP version:

ls /etc/php/

The latest version should appear on the list.

7.4 8.0 8.1 8.2

If PHP 8.2 doesn’t exist, install it, but update the package lists first:

sudo apt-get update

Run the installation:

sudo apt-get install php8.2 php8.2-cli php8.2-common

Install additional PHP modules

sudo apt-get install php8.2-mysql php8.2-soap php8.2-bcmath php8.2-xml php8.2-mbstring php8.2-gd php8.2-curl

Disable PHP 8.0:

sudo a2dismod php8.0

Enable PHP 8.2:

sudo a2enmod php8.2

Restart Apache:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Source: Based on instructions by Bobby Iliev

Perform update and upgrade to the current Droplet.

List all the installed PHP version:

ls /etc/php/

The latest version should appear on the list.

7.4 8.0 8.1 8.2

If PHP 8.2 doesn’t exist, install it. If 8.2 exists, disable 8.0:

sudo a2dismod php8.0

If the error message (ERROR: Module php8.0 does not exist!) occurred, install:

sudo apt install libapache2-mod-php8.0

Enable version 8.2:

sudo a2enmod php8.2

If the error message (ERROR: Module php8.2 does not exist!) occurred, install:

sudo apt install libapache2-mod-php8.2

Restart Apache:

sudo service apache2 restart

If WordPress throws PHP MySQLi Extension error, install:

apt install php8.2-mysql

Restart Apache:

sudo service apache2 restart

Check WordPress’s Site Health. If the optional imagick module occurred, install:

sudo apt install php-imagick

Restart Apache:

sudo systemctl reload apache2

I woke up with a bit of a migraine. I was not sure if the culprit were the beer from last night, the falling incident at the skatepark, the lack of sleep, or the combination of all of them. Still, I woke up early to take Ðạo to school.

Then I met up with Xuân’s teachers for the parent conference. I was in shock to learn that he had been struggling academically. He doesn’t understand Spanish at all. Even though I was surprised, I was not mad at him. With Đạo and Đán, I didn’t see any value in learning Spanish, especially when neither my wife and I know the language. I would rather they focus on English. If they had to study another language, why not Vietnamese?

Xuân is also struggling with math, writing, and reading. He is having a hard time staying focused. He is easily distracted. He scored low his reading assessment.

I felt so guilty. I assumed he had been doing good. His behavior had been much better this year; therefore, I hadn’t heard anything from his teachers. While his social skills had improved, his learning had not.

After the meeting, my migraine dialed up a knot. Had going to the skatepark taken away his school work? I need to spent more time helping with his schoolwork.

I took my sister and her daughter to the Great Fall Park. The weather was beautiful. The scenes were stunning, but I couldn’t get Xuân off my mind.

By the time we got back home, my migraine kicked in. I had to pop in an Aleve and went for a late nap. I slept for a bit and my migraine had subsided.

Somehow I stopped following Rakim after The 18^th Letter in 1997. It was an impressive comeback as a soloist because Rakim “ain’t down with Eric B. no more.” I didn’t know Rakim dropped The Master in 1999. The typography on the cover is horrendous, but the album is a classic. Rakim was truly the master of his craft and he was at his best when he rapped about his rapping techniques: “Flow Forever,” “When I B on tha Mic,” and “All Night Long.” I didn’t mind him busted his rhymes for the ladies on “Finest Ones,” but the moaning sample is just weird and irritating. I discovered this album 24 years later, but better late than never.