Troy Leinster releases Retain, a contemporary grotesque for everyday use. Retain comes in nine upright weights and supports for over 390 languages. I had the pleasure of advising Troy in Vietnamese diacritics. Check out Retain.

With triangular serifs yet curved brackets, Pennyroyal DJR, designed by David Jonathan Ross, balances personality and functionality. Although Pennyroyal DJR is a book face, it can also be set for long-form reading in digital environments thanks to its smooth, open, and airy letterforms. Pennyroyal DJR comes with sharp diacritics. For Vietnamese, its acute, grave, and hook above stack to the right of its circumflex. Take a look.

On Saturday, all four of our boys wanted to have a sleepover at their cousins’ house. Ðán and his cousin stayed up until 5 am Sunday. They spent most of their time playing video games. I was horrid, but not surprised. When unsupervised, they didn’t know their limit.

At home, I would ask them to turn off their devices and take a break. If they didn’t comply, I would just shut down the entire internet. No one else seemed to be concerned about their digital addiction. Am I over-worrying?

The digital conflicts have decided us. My kids don’t want to spend time with me anymore, and Đán in particular. It hurts me, but I let them make their own choice. I don’t want to be a controlling dad.

I have been going to the skatepark by myself. Even though I am not excited about rollerbi anymore, I need to do some exercise. Xuân has not wanted to tag along. As he’s picking up swimming, he is leaving scooter behind.

As they are growing, they are dropping everything else and spending more time on their digital devices. I am hoping they will stick with the winter sports, but I doubt it. Ðán is getting bored with snowboarding. We used to pay thousands and thousands of dollars for our seasonal passes until I became a snowboarding instructor last year. My pass was free and my family’s passes were almost free. Since they are no longer obligated to go, they will be less likely to go.

It’s a shame that they are taking their privileges for granted. Not too many kids get the opportunity they do. Of course, I loved for them to go. I always had a great time skiing or snowboarding with them, but I wouldn’t feel so bad if they didn’t want to take advantage of the passes I made available to them. Even all of our gears were new. I tuned and waxed them regularly so we could have a wonderful experience on the snow.

My wife always chastises me for making them do things that I wanted to do—going to the skateparks or the ski resorts. She and the kids got me into these sports in the first place. As they got bored and moved on, I just haven’t quit.

I have become an uncool dad for not allowing them to stay on their devices for as long as they wanted. My kids don’t want to hang out with me. That’s OK. I am their dad, not their peers. I am always here and I would do anything with them with the exception of spending hours and hours in front of the screens.

Two days ago, July 3, 2024, David Jonathan Ross sent to his Font of the Month Club members a wonderful surprise: Pennyroyal DJR. I am down with his display experimentations, but I always love a solid book face. As soon as I downloaded Pennyroyal DJR to my machine, I had to use it for something and Visualgui is the place to play with.

The previous redesign of this blog was December 19, 2024, which was eight months ago. That was a long time for this blog redesign. I usually redesign or reset the types every three to four months. The previous design was set in Lang Gothic, a sans-serif typeface. I am now moving back to a serif book face. Initially, I set everything in Pennyroyal DJR, but then I wanted to add a sans-serif typeface for smaller texts and UI elements. I ended up setting body text and large headers in Pennyroyal DJR and complementary texts (smaller headers, time, and date) in Gimlet Sans. I also set code samples in Input Mono. All three typefaces designed by David Jonathan Ross.

For the look and feel, I wanted to resemble a book. For the light mode, I chose a light-cream-paper background. For the dark mode, I chose a dark-brown-paper background. I do not have a theme switcher. The theme follows your device setting. If you set your device to light, you’ll get the light-paper theme. If you set your device to dark, you’ll get the dark-brown theme. My focus is always on readability.

I hope you will enjoy reading the second iteration of Visualgui 2025 as much as I enjoyed typesetting it.

I am paying DigitalOcean almost $40 a month for my two Droplets. This blog (visualgui.com) is hosted by one Droplet. The other Droplet hosts the following sites: donnytruong.com, hiepkieuky.com, prowebtype.com, simplexpression.com, and vietnamesetypography.com.

In my initial setup, I wanted my blog to have its own Droplet because it is powered by WordPress. All sites on the other Droplet are static, except for with a bit of PHP includes and a few minor PHP functions. Both Droplets are performing well. They have enough resources to power all sites. The only downside is that I have to update and upgrade both Droplets. I have been thinking of putting all sites into one Droplet.

If I could put all of my sites in one Droplet, I could potentially cut the month fee in half. I am not sure if the server has enough resources to power all these site as one. As a result, I have been thinking about it, but I have not consolidate all sites into one Droplet.

Anyone has experience with DigitalOcean, please let me know if I can drop all my sites into one Droplet.

I sent this letter to Toyota:

I had a service appointment at Priority Toyota Springfield on Friday, June 27, 2025 at 11 am. I didn’t leave the dealership until 4 pm. An oil change and state inspection took 5 hours. I had to wait at the dealership because Mr. MB refused to shuttle me home. I understood that the distance from Priority Toyota Springfield to my house was 9.5 miles; therefore, he couldn’t take me. He grumpily informed me that he had been working since 8:00 am. I felt his pain, but I didn’t appreciate his rudeness.

From the long-wait service to the disgruntled employee, I was extremely disappointed with the entire Toyota experience. As an owner of two current Toyota Siennas and various Toyota cars in the past, I have been a loyal Toyota customer. I am looking to purchase a new Sienna, but I am not sure about the bad experience I had at Priority Toyota Springfield.

Please do better,

Sincerely,
Donny Trương

The third and final season of Squid Game released on Friday and I binged it. Season 3 continues to be bleak, but has lost its novelty. It should ends here. I enjoyed it. It’s time for me to cancel Netflix. I don’t have time to watch much.

Đán and Xuân are crushing it with their daily blogging. While Xuân writes about his daily routines, which involve swimming and playing video games, Đán writes what’s on his mind. I help Xuân editing his posts a bit, but I can see the improvements. I asked him to write 150 words, but he has been exceeding my expectations.

Đán’s posts are hilarious. I enjoy reading his thoughts. He just needs to slow down and edit his pieces. Even though he doesn’t see how daily blogging helps with his writing, I can see that his thoughts are clearer. He has a natural talent for anything he does. From rollerblading to snowboarding to writing, he can do anything well. The only issue is that he doesn’t have enough patience to delve deeper. Perhaps ADHD has something to do with it?

Đạo hasn’t posted anything since Monday because I confiscated his laptop and smartphones for disrespectful attitude. I am not going to tolerate that kind of behavior. He is not my peer. He is not my sibling. I am his father and he needs to get that straight. It has nothing to do with favoritism. It has nothing to do with egotism. Until he learns his lesson, I will not cave in.

In this 33 ⅓ series, Shawn Taylor drops his personal perspective on A Tribe Called Quest’s People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm. Taylor’s reflection starts off strong. His mother always invited a new man to their home to abuse them. He recounts the moment he had the album on his hands. Unfortunately, his writing lacks the analysis of the album from a music critic or journalist. He shares more of his personal journal. I didn’t enjoy it as much as other series.

In this 33 ⅓ series, John Perry dissect Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland. Perry has some informative details about the album and Hendrix. He went through the album track by track. It’s a decent read.