We arrived at Mount Snow around 10 am and the lines for the lifts were already long. My sons and I took the express lift to the top of the mountains. We started off the green trail so Vương could come along. Then Đạo, Đán, and Xuân went ahead without us. I had Vương on the harness and I skied behind him to keep his speed under control. Skiing with a toddler was harder than I had expected. It took us at least half an hour to complete the green trail, which was long.

By the time we made it back to the main entrance, it was already noon time. After lunch, I hit the black slopes with Đạo, Đán, and Xuân. Once we made it past the main lifts, the lifts to black and blue slopes had no line. The conditions were great. The terrains were somewhat steep. We made several runs. Time went by fast when you were having fun. It was almost 4 pm and we had to go.

The kids and I liked both Okemo and Mount Snow. The former was smoother than the latter. Both of these resorts definitely were worthwhile for the eight hours of driving. We’ll definitely come back next year if we have the opportunity.

As the weather in Virginia and Pennsylvania gets warmer, I feel a yearning for snow. I don’t want the skiing season to be over yet. When my wife suggested that we should head to Vermont because it snowed, I took her up on it. Since the boys had off school on Friday, we could make a short getaway. She booked a small house on Wednesday and we hit the road on Thursday. The drive took eight hours.

Friday morning, we headed to Okemo. The weather was beautiful and the conditions were fabulous. I took Vương on the magic carpet on the bunny slope then the “magic seat” for the green. He enjoyed the runs and wanted to do the green again. This time the operator didn’t let us take the lift. Vương required the lift ticket even though he was free. I had to go to the frontdesk to get one for him. By that time, he no longer wanted to ski anymore.

I joined Đạo, Đán, and Xuân on the expert slopes. The trails at Okemo were wide and long. The black slopes connected to blue slopes; therefore, we could ski for a long time before reaching the lift again. I loved the long runs. They were great exercises.

Xuân had caught up with us. He switched to parallel and felt comfortable on the black slopes. It was nice to be able to ski together with my boys. Okemo had so many trails that we had to follow Đạo. He led us to where we wanted to go. I told him I wanted to check out the double black diamonds. He pulled out the maps and showed us the way.

We had a great time and we definitely will return to Okemo in the future. Tomorrow we’ll check out Mount Snow.

On Monday I took Đán and Xuân to private piano lessons and bought along a music sheet I found only for Kanye’s “All of the Lights” (Interlude). I asked their instructor to show them how to play the tune. Without even listening to the tune, he played the interlude so beautifully and he let me filmed it. Take a listen.

If you live in Northern Virginia and would like to take piano lessons, I recommend checking out the NOVA Piano Studio.

In his riveting book, Brain Deer, a multi-award-winning investigative reporter, digs deep into three decades of Andrew Wakefield’s misinformation war on vaccines. Deer exposes Wakefield’s professional misconduct, dishonesty, and fraud. Wakefield claimed that the MMR vaccine caused inflammatory bowel disease. He argued that autistic enterocolitis was related to bowel disease and regression and that opioid peptides impact the brain. He conducted studies of twelve kids that had autism caused by vaccines. Unfortunately, these kids already developed autistic behaviors before they were vaccinated. It took me almost a month to read this book and I am glad that I took the time to learn about the doctor with no patients who fooled the world. Deer’s work is a master of investigative journalism.

We had another fantastic skiing weekend: Roundtop on Saturday and Whitetail on Sunday. I was surprised how well Roundtop kept their slopes powdery despite the warm weather. In contrast, Whitetail was very slushy. Nevertheless, we had great runs at both resorts.

As the season is winding down—March 20 is predicted to be the last day—the resorts have become less busy. I didn’t see long rental lines like before. The lift lines moved fast, especially the lifts for the expert terrains. In retrospect, Đạo, Đán, Xuân, and I made tremendous progress this season because of our Epic passes. We are incredibly grateful to our lovely lady who bought us the passes. She is such a caring mother. Of course, she had to buy me the pass as well so I could take the kids. I think I held up my end of the bargain.

We started out at the green slopes at the beginning of the season and now we can take on the double-black slopes. I did not take any skiing lessons this season because they always sold out. Everything I learned, I learned from watching YouTube videos. Then I would share what I learned with Đạo and Xuân. Đán is on his own because he does snowboarding. With Đạo, I just gave him some tips and he figured them out on his own. I helped him make the transition from plow to parallel. When we sat together on the lift, I pointed out to him the difference between the two from watching other skiers. It didn’t take him very long to break his plow habit.

Xuân is such a fast learner. He picked up hockey stops simply from watching me practice. He also picked up side-slipping from a ski patrol when he got stuck on the blue slope. With these two skills, he could maneuver his way around the double-black slopes. When we skied together, I just needed to remind him to parallel his skis. Because he had mastered his hockey stops, he had a much easier time making the transition to short turns. He wanted to learn hop turns, which I used quite a bit on steep slopes to control my speed and to feel the adrenaline rush of hopping down the slopes.

I don’t consider myself an expert, but I jumped to the gun like I am deaf (điếc không sợ súng). I know nothing; therefore, I doubt nothing. What I love about skiing is the celebration of failure as part of growth. I fell countless times, but I found the skiing community to be very supportive. Advanced skiers always helped out novice skiers. My skis popped off plenty of times and other skiers always stopped to help pick up my skis for me. Even Đạo and Đán had picked that up; therefore, they helped out when others fell and dropped their skis. On Saturday, Đạo, Đán, Xuân, and I attempted the Gunbarrel, which is the steepest slope at Roundtop. Đạo and Đán went down first. Xuân made it halfway, but he was intimidated by the moguls. I was still on top, but I was not sure if I could stop at his spot. As I was attempting to, someone else offered to help. He got to Xuân and carried him down the steep slope. Xuân enjoyed it. I made myself down to Xuân and all of us continued to the lifts.

Because I have done ice skating as well as aggressive rollerblading, skiing seems more like a natural extension of those two sports. Falling on snow is nothing compared to falling on ice and concrete. Falling off the concrete bowls will guarantee to scrape your skins.

I am a bit sad to see the skiing season is ending, but I am definitely looking forward to next year.

As an immigrant kid from Vietnam, I learned English through hip hop. Because my English was limited, I paid attention to the way rappers enunciate their words and the way they put together their bars. 2pac was one of my favorite rappers. Once I got past his cussing, dissing, and gang-banging, I found the raw emotions in his lyrics, in which he spoke eloquently about police brutality, domestic violence, and personal expression. I listened to rap because I didn’t want to read.

My son, Đán, is not a reader; therefore, I wanted to see if hip hop could help improve his language arts. Before letting him expose to rap, however, I had to explain to him that he has to get past the explicit content. He cannot repeat cuss words, which he already knew. We often listened together in the car during our ski trips. He liked good beats; therefore, I let him listen to Kanye. We pumped 808 & Heartbreak at max volume. The productions on the album were top-notch and the lyrics were clean. On “Welcome to Heartbreak,” Kanye spat with AutoTune:

My friend showed me pictures of his kids
And all I could show him was pictures of my cribs
He said his daughter got a brand new report card
And all I got was a brand new sports car

I broke down the rhymes and the wordplays in those four bars. I also pointed out that “Coldest Winter” was a beautiful tribute to Kanye’s mother. After we listened to 808 & Heartbreak for a while, I had an internal debate if I should let Đán listen to Yeezus, which is Kanye’s strongest album. The productions were hard and the rhymes were harder. “New Slaves” is one of Đán favorite tracks, in which Kanye spilled a handful of references on racism, but the refrain caught Đán’s attention. When Kanye repeated, “You see it’s leaders and it’s followers / But I’d rather be a dick than a swallower,” Đán asked me, “What does he mean by swallower?” Kanye spoke his mind and he might offend people, but he rather be a jerk than to swallow his words. Obviously, I didn’t tell him about the other reference. The only track that he couldn’t listen to on Yeezus is “I’m in It.” It was way too inappropriate for him.

Next up was My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The productions on this album were fantastic. We always enjoyed the instrumental interlude to “All of the Lights.” Of course, his favorite track is “Monster,” in which Nicki Minaj contributed a monstrous verse. Đán asked me if I knew the word “sarcophagus,” and I did not know. He told me it’s a stone coffin. See, I also learned from my son.

In January, as we prepared to hit the road for our ski trip, I wanted to introduce Đán (and also Đạo) to something else other than Kanye. I remember Clispe’s classic Hell Hath No Fury. Again if we can get past the drug-dealing storytelling, we can enjoy the intricate rhyme patterns Malice and Push T had crafted: “I philosophize about Glocks and keys / Niggas call me Young Black Socrates.” What made me choose this album, however, was the productions supplied by The Neptunes. Just as I expected, Đán was drawn to the simple, crisp, and dark productions cooked up by Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo. After we listened to the entire album the first time, Đán told me he wanted to be a producer. I explained to him that in order to be a great producer, he had to know music. The best producers, such as Kanye, Dr. Dre, Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo, and even Hoàng Touliver, know how to play keyboard. Learning piano is the foundation to beat-making.

Without telling me, Đán asked his mom to sign him up for private piano lessons. He started five weeks ago and had his first informal recital yesterday. He picked up fast and played well. I didn’t expect him to get into learning the piano, but he seems to have the chops for it. I hope he will keep his dream alive.

When Type Designer David Jonathan Ross sent out Warbler Text to members of his Font of the Month Club, I immediately updated the body text of my blog.

Even though Warbler Text supported Vietnamese, there were some issues with diacritical marks, including collisions between the horn and the hook above and the horn and the tilde. David reached out to me to review Vietnamese diacritics for Warbler Text. I went through everything related to diacritical marks for Vietnamese and made a list of suggestions. A week later, David sent me an update with all the corrections for Vietnamese diacritics.

If you read Vietnamese on my blog, please do a hard refresh to get the new changes. Warbler Text is such a pleasure to read; therefore, I featured it in Vietnamese Typography. If you want to get a copy of Warbler Text, I highly recommend you join David’s Font of the Month Club. Full membership is only $6 a month. Discount membership for $2 a month is also available.

Spent Saturday and Sunday at Liberty Mountain Resort from morning to late noon (around 4 hours each day). Had wonderful times skiing with the kids.

The weather is getting warmer and warmer. The season will end in a couple of weeks. We just have to ski as much as we can before the resorts closed up.

Skiing is a great sport. If you haven’t try it, give it a shot next season. It isn’t that hard, yet tons of fun and excellent exercise. I only started two years ago and skipped last year. This year I started off at the green slopes then moved to blue slopes, then black slopes, then double black slopes.

I have to credit my sons, especially Đạo, for encouraging me to take on the double black slopes. Once I watched him skiing down, I knew I could make it. Đạo and I were around the same level, but he had surpassed me. He can ski over moguls with ease. I navigate my way around them instead of flowing with them. He started off the season doing pizza, but I encouraged him to switch to parallel. It opened up a whole new world for him once he made the switch.

Đán is incredibly good with snowboarding. We took a two-hour lesson together. The instructor told us to stay at the bunny slope to practice, but he went on the green slope. He fell quite a bit at first, but eventually got it. I, on the other hand, gave up and switched back to skiing. My thumb is still sore a bit from the fall on the magic carpet on snowboard.

Once I switched back to skiing, I started to learn techniques on my own. I began with switching from pizza to parallel, then short turns, then hockey stops, then jump hockey stops, then hop turns. These techniques allow me to ski with confidence on any terrain. I am still working on my carvings. I have been enjoying skiing the double slopes so much that I haven’t spent the time learning carvings at the green slopes.

Xuân is doing quite well with skiing. He can do the blues, blacks, and even double blacks. He still relied on the pizza technique a lot. I am trying to teach him to ski parallel. Once he can make the switch, he will be a much better skier. He can already do the hockey stop. He just need to switch his mind.

Vương hadn’t taken any lessons. I just connected his skis with a Wedgie Edgie and strap him on a harness. He just skied straight down the slopes with me slowing him down or helping him to turn. He doesn’t know how to stop or to turn. He doesn’t do the pizza either, which is good. I hope to give him lessons next year.

My wife is also starting out this year. She didn’t have the time to practice because Vương kept clinging to her. He only did a couple of runs with me before asking for his mom. I hope next year he will be less attached to her so she can learn more.

We had a fantastic season. We used the crap out of our Epic passes. With the passes and our skis, we skipped the lift ticket and rental lines, which were always incredibly long. On weekends, people had to stand two hours in line just to get their rental. By the time we left around 1pm or 2 pm, the line snaked out all the way to the drop off area. I am glad we didn’t have to stand in that line.

Yesterday I took off work to drive to Lancaster, Pennsylvania to see my uncle for the last time. Since the viewing didn’t take place until 6 pm, I had plenty of time to myself. After dropping Đạo off at school at 8 am, I headed straight to Roundtop first. It was a warm day, but the terrains were well groomed. Since it was a Wednesday, there was hardly anyone. I shared the lifts with two men separately, one was semi-retiring and one was fully retired. The latter told me that he skied two hours a day and three days a week. Obviously he only skied on the weekdays to avoid the crowd. He made me want to retire myself.

I did six runs down the Gunbarrel, which was the double black diamond that kept falling on Sunday. Because it was well groomed, I did not fall at all. Then I did three runs over the moguls. I navigated my way around the high and steep ones, but I made it down without my skis popping off. As much as I enjoyed my quiet moment alone, I missed my kids. I wish they were there with me. Needless to say, I love skiing. As people are looking forward to warmer weather, I want cold weather and snow to continue for as long as possible.

At noon I took a lunch break and headed back to the slopes. Before 2 pm, I went into the cafeteria to attend a work meeting. I was going to skip it, but I decided to join since it was my boss’s last meeting. She’s retiring as well. After the meeting ended, I headed to Landisville to drop off a bag of durian coffee for an old friend from high school. I hadn’t met in a long time. I met her at her barbershop. We chatted a bit in between her appointments. It seemed like she was doing well.

After visiting my friend, I went to my sister’s house to drop off my stuff and headed over to the funeral home to see my uncle. He looked beautiful and rested. I met many family members and helped set up the tables with fruits and flowers for tomorrow’s service. After the viewing, I took my sisters, nephew, and his wife to hibachi grill. It was nice catching up with my little family again.

Dear Deborah,

According to my LinkedIn profile, I have been working at the law school for 10 years and 4 months. In the web industry, a decade is eternity, but my work here feels just like yesterday because of you and your leadership. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything you have done, not just for me, but for all of us at the Law Library.

When I applied for the position of web services developer at the Law Library, I was desperate to get out of a hostile, stressful environment at my previous job. During the interview process, I didn’t think I could handle the server administration part of the job and I was being completely honest with you about it in our conversation, but you took a chance on me. Through training and learning on the job, I picked up a new set of backend skills I would never have learned on my own. Thank you for placing your trust in me.

From day one, you gave me the flexibility I needed to achieve my professional goals as well as my personal life. When I wanted to pursue the graduate program in graphic design at Mason’s School of Art, you gave me support and motivation. As a result, I was able to apply my design skills to my job by offering print design services to the law school. When I took on this position, my wife and I had one son. In seven years, we grew to four. Raising young children while working was challenging, but your understanding and accommodating made it less stressful. I could take the time I needed, especially when one of our kids got sick, to tend to my family. In return, I always made sure that I was on top of my responsibility and productivity at work.

Your management style has made my time here enjoyable. By allowing me to take responsibility for my own work, I put my time and effort into areas that met the law school expectations and improved our user experience. I prioritized projects that needed the most attention as well as tasks that weren’t urgent but necessary. When it was my time to manage others, I treated them the same way you have treated me: trust, respect, and compassion.

Through your caring nature and fostering guidance, you have put together a diverse, dedicated, and talented team. I have had the pleasure of collaborating with and learning from my wonderful, friendly colleagues. We appreciated each other’s area of expertise and worked together to come up with the best solutions for our projects. When I needed help, I could reach out to any of my colleagues—not just work-related, but also personal development. The fact that our team feels more like an extended family than just a group of co-workers and the low turnover speaks volume about your leadership skills and your accomplishments. We stick around because we have an amazing leader. It will be hard without you at the helm.

While I am sad to see you go, I am happy for your retirement. Your dedication to this job and to all of us is deeply appreciated. You deserve the time off to focus on your life and your family. Your presence and influence will truly be missed, but I wish the next chapter of your life filled with joy, relaxation, and great health. Please stay in touch.

Sincerely yours,

Donny Truong