We had a great time at the scouting camping trip over the weekend even though the weather was cold at night. On Saturday, the kids had a full day of activities. They mixed up with other packs in the DMV area.

One of the highlights was the performance during the campfire program. One of the troops performed a Halloween tune based on “The Addams Family” theme song. The troop leader taught us the lines to sing along. He hummed the riff then sang, “The Thằng Lồn family.”

I flipped the fuck out. Did he just say “Thằng Lồn?” I realized the troop name was “Thăng Long,” but he had to change the diacritics to match the melody and the result was unfortunate. After the program, I confirmed with other leaders and parents to see if it was just me, but I was not alone. One of the leaders pointed out that he heard the same thing because he was right next to the guy who was singing the tune.

The unfortunate misplacement of diacritics had proven that even a Vietnamese speaker can an ancient name of Hà Nội into something completely. In my book, Vietnamese Typography, I emphasized the important of diacritical position to avoid incidents like this one.

I am not the first person you loved.
You are not the first person I looked at
with a mouthful of forevers. We
have both known loss like the sharp edges
of a knife. We have both lived with lips
more scar tissue than skin. Our love came
unannounced in the middle of the night.
Our love came when we’d given up
on asking love to come. I think
that has to be part
of its miracle.

This is how we heal.
I will kiss you like forgiveness. You
will hold me like I’m hope. Our arms
will bandage and we will press promises
between us like flowers in a book.
I will write sonnets to the salt of sweat
on your skin. I will write novels to the scar
of your nose. I will write a dictionary
of all the words I have used trying
to describe the way it feels to have finally,
finally found you.

And I will not be afraid
of your scars.

I know sometimes
it’s still hard to let me see you
in all your cracked perfection,
but please know:
whether it’s the days you burn
more brilliant than the sun
or the nights you collapse into my lap
your body broken into a thousand questions,
you are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
I will love you when you are a still day.
I will love you when you are a hurricane.

Clementine von Radics

On Saturday, I acquired another used snowboard. It’s a 156cm Capita board with Flow step-in bindings. The board is way too tall for me to ride, but the seller wanted to get rid of it. He sold it to me for $20. Maybe when I become an intermediate snowboarder, I’ll give it a go. I am not even sure if I can learn snowboarding this coming winter. We’ll see.

I still need to find a snowboard package for Xuân. He wants to learn with me. Though I am sure if he can learn anything from me, having my son to learn together sounds like fun. We’ll switch back and forth between skiing and snowboarding. Đán is already committed to snowboarding. He has left skiing behind. In contrast, Đạo is sticking with skiing and refusing to pick up snowboarding. Vương will continue to ski and I hope to teach him the basics.

My wife still needs a pair of skis. I sold her K2 Jr. pair. It didn’t seem to support her weight. I am having a hard time finding a women pair of skis in the 135cm-140cm range. She might just end up using my Head pair, which I really love, but might be too long for her to learn.

I have been learning snowboarding on my carpet to get familiar with the beginner skills. I am pretty sure it will feel complete different on the snow. This will be my last attempt at snowboarding. If I fail, I will focus completely on skiing and I will resell or give away my boards. We’ll see. I will be blogging about my progress here.

I married the earth.
Now life is simple.
I sit in a chair
and speak to the things around me.
Hey clock, hey life, hey mirror!
When they don’t speak back
I laugh or I weep,
whatever they feel like doing,
and the moon comes closer, closer.

Mary Ruefle (from the Strays series)

Look at mami: eyes blue, 5'2"
I approached her—“Hi, boo, how you?
Pony skin Louie? Oh, you fly too
You a stewardess? Good, ma—I fly too”

Cam’ron (an excerpt from “Down & Out”)

Iliza Shlesinger drops her sixth Netflix special with a message for guys who can’t get a girl. This is her respond to the mass-shooting tragedies, in which the guys who murdered women because they couldn’t get sex: “It is so easy to get a girl. All you gotta do is show up. Just be good at something.” She is talking about a passion, even something dumb like fishing. I wholeheartedly concur with her because there were times in my life I thought I couldn’t get a girl and I would be alone for the rest of my life. Then I found the love of my life because I had a passion for reading, which she thought might rub off on our kids.

In the beginning of her special, I find her acting a bit too much, but her writing eventually wins me over. Shlesinger is a brilliant comic and she uses her microphone to voice women issues, including abortion. Of all of her Netflix specials, this one is definitely her most personal, in which she talks about her husband, kid, and miscarriage. I have nothing but respect.

That’s my man, anytime I holler, holler with me
We shared chicken sandwiches—they were a dollar-fifty
Budget: seven dollars, nickel bag, and White Owl
I hope the chicken sandwich last us through the night, child
We ain’t care; we ain’t sleep; we were night owls
Insomniatics, our lifestyles compatible
Magical, Pops gone, shit tragical
Moms gon’ miss you; my house is where the addicts chill
I’m like a teacher; I need me a sabbatical
It’s not irrational; I grew up radical.

Cam’ron (An excerpt from “Get Down”)

On Thursday, we went to the skatepark after school as usual. As I was blading, I heard Xuân cry. He fell off the ramp and busted his chin open. We immediately took him to the ER to have his chin stitched up. He told me he needed to take a break from scootering for five days when his stitches were taken out. On Friday, we went back to the skatepark. I told him he didn’t have to scooter, but he decided to get back into the game.

I told him to avoid the ramp that he had fallen off. It’s a straight ramp, but has a gap at the bottom, in which you have to jump off. He did this ramp in the past with his old scooter. The new one is a bit faster. I didn’t see how he fell. I tried this ramp three times and I fell every time. I couldn’t keep my balance. Fortunately I know how to fall on my guards; therefore, I was not hurt. Out of all of us, Đán is the only one who can pull it off and he does it with effortlessness.

Seeing Xuân fall made me realize how dangerous skating at the park can be. We need to be more cautious. For a while, I hadn’t thought much about it because we had been doing fine. I worry about Đạo the least because he has always been careful. Xuân has been careful as well until this incident. I worry about Đán the most because he is confident and somewhat fearless. The trade off is that he advances very quickly. I haven’t learned new tricks because I just don’t want to take risks like I used to.

Amanda Loudin, writing for the New York Times:

Shaking up your fitness routine with in-line skating has big physical payoffs, said Esther Goldsmith, a London-based exercise and sports physiologist with the bio-analytics firm Orreco. “Depending on how you’re skating, you can reap both aerobic and anaerobic benefits,” she said. “But you also engage a wide variety of muscles you might not from a sport like running or cycling.” You’ll pull in stabilizing muscles from your abs and calves, for instance, as well as inner and outer thigh muscles.

What sets in-line skating apart from sports like hiking, running and most types of swimming is that you move in a lateral plane of motion, rather than just front and back. Over time, these types of functional muscles — those we use in daily life — decline if not challenged in this manner. “Skating takes your body side to side, involves your core, and improves your balance,” Ms. Goldsmith said.

Skating also trains your nervous system by requiring your body to do several movements at once, like squatting and pushing off to the sides (particularly if you’re mixing up your style). This is helpful in both athletic and daily activities, said Ms. Goldsmith. “When your muscles and nerves are more prepared, it reduces the likelihood for tweaking your back, for example,” said Ms. Goldsmith. “Skating trains your body for these daily activities without even realizing it.”

Careering around on tiny wheels can have additional benefits later in life. For one, it provides an equal aerobic benefit to running, but with lower impact on the body, presuming you don’t fall.

The payoff from learning to glide balanced on one foot at a time is also valuable. “Our balance peaks in our late 30s and begins to decline in our 40s,” Ms. Goldsmith said. “Many accidents happen over the age of 65 because of trips and falls. Skating regularly adds balance to the routine and that can help slow down that decline.”

That doesn’t mean skating is without risk — falls happen, and sometimes sprains or broken bones accompany them. But by mastering foundational skills and padding up with helmets, wrist and knee guards, you can mitigate your chances of injury.

I have been drinking and eating steak quite a bit, but my gout hasn’t flared up. I suspect because I have been rollerblading everyday.

Think the American Civil War,—
…followed by a century of Jim Crow.

If you do not become a master
you are a slave.

The voice of What had to be built leaves certain
words bodiless. The Lost Cause, strange

fruit, was lost, for us, in a song about lacerated flesh.

When a master stares at himself in the future

what he fears is that the world will do to him what
he did to the world when he was the world.

Frank Bidart (an excerpt)