My third and youngest son had been asking me to take them to see Deadpool & Wolverine. I finally took them today. I thought it was just a comic film, but I was deadline. It was excessively violent and filled with profanity. The F-bomb was dropped in almost all of the dialogues. It was definitely a mistake for me to take them, and yet they enjoyed it. They even knew the characters. I knew Wolverine, but I had no clue the rest of the gang. I also fell asleep in parts of the movie. This is not my cup of tea.

Gun violence in America is way out of control and we still don’t have a solution. Even the U.S. government still has no policy to prevent mass shootings after mass shootings. Wait is Cuong Lu’s attempt to address the issue through love and compassion. The book is his love letter to the killers in hoping that they will treasure their lives and the lives of people they want to take. He points out in the prologue, “The moment the violence stops, peace is possible.” I hope this book will reach those who are in despair before they hurt themselves and other people.

Karrin Vasby Anderson, Professor of Communication Studies at Colorado State University, weighs in on the debate:

Trump’s own white masculine insecurity was on clear display throughout his debate against Harris. It was a different type of pathological masculinity than the aggressive and aggrieved toxic masculinity Trump perfected as MAGA stagecraft.

Trump’s performance in the debate illustrates why insecure white masculinity should be disqualifying for a presidential candidate. When triggered, it short circuits the candidate’s strategic thinking and elicits demagogic and dehumanizing arguments.

The debate between Harris and Trump revealed how vesting authority in an insecure white man is dangerous for democracy.

She nailed it.

Last week, I took my YF YouFu 110mm Three-Wheel Inline Skates to practice carving for skiing. My goal is to get my posture correct and to roll my knees and ankles to imitate carving on skis. The big wheels on the rollerblade allowed me to bend my knees and ankles and to follow through the C shape. I can’t wait to carve on my skis this winter. This is what I am aiming for.

I am still practicing my snowboard carving in the basement. I am using my son’s rental board and boots to practice my posi-posi stance and to tip the board on its edge for both toe and heel turns. I still couldn’t go as low as where hands can touch the ground, but I could dig the edge into the ground. My goal is to leave a thin line in the snow when I carve on snowboard this coming season.

Yes, my goal is to carve, carve, and carve. That’s all I wanted to accomplish this winter. I already put in my winter holiday break. I will take a month off during Christmas and New Year. I can’t wait. Please Mother Nature, give us lots of snow this year.

Just 24 hours after a historic presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris raised $47 million from 600,000 donors. No wonder she wanted to debate him again, but Trump got scared to step back into the ring one more time. She would knock him the fuck out and end his bid for president. He underestimated her. Trump’s toxic masculinity was no match for Harris’s strong intellectuality. Who won the debate? Just follow the money. All America, this narcissistic, racist, insecure, angry, whiny white boy has to go.

I must confess. I was laughing my ass off watching the debate. Donald Trump had the temperament of a six years old boy. Kamala Harris could read him like an open book. Instead of talking about his destructiveness, she led him into destructing himself and it worked every single time.

Throughout the debate, Trump proved himself to be a self-centered bully. Harris schooled him a lesson on bullying. Hearing him spill wild conspiracy theories and baseless claims, I could never take this bully seriously.

When the moderators asked him about January 6, he said flat out, “I didn’t know anything about it. It was not me. I did nothing wrong. I just showed up and gave a speech.” He denied any responsibility and yet they still support him. I just don’t get it.

The other day, I watched my nephew playing around with my boys. He was walking backward and hit the pole that held an umbrella. He started to cry and scolded the pole, “Why was that thing even there?” He started kicking the pole. It was the pole’s fault that made him fell. He blamed the pole for standing in his way. It was nonsense, but understandable. He’s a little kid.

After the debate, instead of blaming himself for screwing up, Trump blamed the moderators who refused to let him spilling his lies. Trump never takes any responsibility. He cares about no one else, but himself. He didn’t care that millions of Americans were dying during the pandemic under his watch. He doesn’t even care about his own supporters.

Again I just can’t vote for a whiny little brat to be our president. His incompetent and childish behavior is too dangerous for the job of the president. He’s a danger to our country. He’s a grave danger to our democracy.

I was laughing at his debate performance, but I am deeply concerned about him taking over our country for four more years. We were lucky before, but let’s not put our country at danger again.

The other day, we wandered into a pet store somewhere in New Jersey. There was a cute puppy inside a cage. Xuân and Vương came up and petted the puppy.

Of course, they begged me to buy the puppy. And of course, my answer would be no even if we got the puppy for free, but I glanced at the price tag, which was $999.99, and replied, “Sorry sons, the puppy cost a thousand dollars. I can’t afford it.” My five-year-old Vương replied, “But dad, you always spent money on alcohol.” His older brother Xuân chimed in, “I saw the receipt. You spent $850 on liquor.”

I thought to myself, “Oh shit! They got me good.”

Vice President Harris came prepared and delivered. She connected with the American people while took down Donald Trump.

She got under his skin so bad he started talking about people eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. WTF? Trump had no plan and no policy. He kept circling back to same tired rhetoric and scare tactics on immigrants. He claimed that millions of people from mental institutions and insane asylums came into our country and took over our jobs. So we hired sick and insane people to do the work for us. That makes absolutely no sense.

Tonight Vice President Harris has proved to the American people that she is the right choice. She is smart, tough, and compassionate. She came; she conquered; she closed the chapter on the Donald. I am ready to close this chapter on the Donald as well. As soon as early voting begins, I will cast my vote for Harris.

Are you with her?

When I agreed to design and develop the web book for The American Robin, I did not expect any payment. I wanted to help out my mentor who is a close friend of the author. Furthermore, I wanted to spread the idea of leaving a legacy that anyone around the world could access.

The web book version of The American Robin is a wonderful gift from the author because the website has no ad, no paywall, no popup, no gimmick, and no tracking. Because the web book was intended to be free, I did not want to charge for my contribution. Nevertheless, I took the project as if I was paid in full. I stayed up late on weekdays and spent my weekends working on the book.

When choosing Warbler, designed by David Jonathan Ross, to typeset the book, I used my own license from the Font of the Month Club. Even though DJR’s standard licensing agreement has no restrictions on how many websites can be used, clients should have their own font licensing. After I decided to use Warbler for the book, I contacted David about the font licensing and he was totally cool that I used my own licensing for the web book.

After the web book went live, I spread the word on my blog, portfolio, and social media. I even emailed my friends and family members who liked reading. My job was done and I thanked my mentor for the opportunity to work on the book. She informed me that the author loved the website and thy had been discussing about offering me an honorarium.

I must confess. This was the first time I heard of the term honorarium. I had to look it up in the dictionary. It was an honor to work on the website even without a payment, but I was more than glad to accept an honorarium. I was delighted that my mentor was still looking out for me.

As soon as I received the check for the honorarium, I purchased a license of Warbler. The web book now has its own font licensing. Since I got paid, the type designer should get paid as well. It just felt great doing the fair share.

Why am I revealing this information? It’s a proof how bad I am at doing business. I rather designed for free then getting paid. When not getting paid, I made no compromises in the design and development of the project. If I was getting paid, I had to get approval from the client. My best projects have always been not what my clients want, but what their audiences get out of the project. The ideal projects are when the client, the audience, and the designer are satisfied. This web book is an epitome of that ideal project.

We now have a ping pong table in our basement. It took me a minute to clear up the space. I simply moved everything to another room. My wife’s sister gave us a MD Sports Table Tennis Conversion Top. I used a 6-ft and two 4-ft folding tables from Costco to hold up the table. The full-size ping pong table turned out great.

Đán started to get into ping pong and asked for a table. He is getting pretty good at it. I hope he will stick with it for a long time, or at least until he can beat me. Xuân is also into it. He is already showing some improvements. I hope Đạo and Vương will join us as well.

Playing ping pong brings back my childhood memories at the refugee camp in the Philippines. There was a ping pong table at an open space near where we stayed for six months before we could come to America. The table had no net; therefore, a couple of kids my age and I stacked two bricks and placed a stick on top. We made paddles out of hardboards. All we needed was a ping pong ball. That all it was needed for us to pass the time and to hone our skills.

Now that I cleared one room for the ping pong table and another room for my ski-tuning station, we need to go through all the stuff we accumulated over the years. My wife wouldn’t let me sort them out because I would donate or trash whatever we don’t need. I am getting impatient waiting for her. It drives me crazy that our space isn’t as optimal as it could be. I had seen worse, but our space could have been tidier. I feel guilty that I couldn’t provide a clutter-free space for our kids. It stuck on my mind all the time. I wish I could just ignore it, but I couldn’t.