Ali Wong’s third Netflix Special dropped on Valentine’s Day, but don’t expect any romantic materials from the foul-mouthed comedian who walks the fine line between vulgarity and authenticity. She defends feminism (money, power, and respect) and talks about taking cum on her face at the same time. How does it feel to cum on the face of a millionaire? She explains, “Sure, you’ve gotten head, but have you ejaculated onto a great American mind? Has your sperm swam in the eyes of an icon? Have you been deep-throated by a voice of a generation?” She is so damn nasty and yet brilliant. Success in the standup world is when you get high paid for talking shit. Ali Wong is full of shit and she knows it and capitalizes on it. Her writing is still sharp, witty, and punchy; therefore, her latest special is worth streaming.

Sunday morning, I woke up around five in the morning and saw some snow falling. It was going to be a good skiing day. I woke up the kids around 7 am. We changed, ate breakfast, then headed to Roundtop. We arrived at the resort around 9 am. The slopes were a bit icy but skiable.

I skied with Đạo, Đán, and Khôi on the double black with moguls four times, but fell three times. It was too icy for me to control my skis. I went to another double black without moguls and did fine. Then hit a few more blacks with Xuân and Hân. By 2 pm, I was exhausted. The fallings didn’t hurt, but they took a toll on me. The kids also wanted to leave so we said goodbye around 3 pm.

The resort wasn’t crowded and I suspected it had to do with the Super Bowl. After we got home, I went over to a friend’s house to watch the game. I didn’t care much about football. I just wanted some good food and a couple of beers. In addition, I wanted to hang out with Anh Tiến. We lived five minutes away, but we hadn’t gotten together in years. I was going to head home after the half-time performance, but I stayed until the end. He explained to me the rules of the game as we watched. He was shocked that I was kind of clueless about football. I never paid attention, but I think I got it now. Then again, I might forget everything when we watch next year’s Super Bowl.

The half-time show was awesome. Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg took me back to the good old days of gangster rap. Queen Mary was as soulful as always. Kendrick Lamar was dope. 50 Cent was alright. Eminem knelt down at the end of his performance. Word!

Yesterday I took Đạo, Đán, and Xuân to Roundtop despite the warm weather (50F). To my surprise, the slopes weren’t so bad. They were slushing but skiable. Even though I had been to Roundtop several times, I didn’t realize that it also has separate lifts to black and double black slopes.

I took Xuân and Hân (my nephew) to both slopes. They did fine on the black, but struggled to get through some moguls on the double black. I advised them that if they fall, just slide down. Hân loved the idea. He told me, “Chú Doanh, you are the best. You invented a new technique. If you can’t ski down, slide down on your butt.” He and Xuân enjoyed sliding down on their butts.

We skied from 8:30 am to 2:30 pm and went over to my brother-in-law’s house for dinner. I had a few beers so they asked us to stay. I am glad we’re staying because I didn’t sleep well the night before. In addition, I was exhausted from skiing. Around 7 pm, I started to doze off.

As I am writing this post at 5 am on Sunday, the snow is falling outside and temperature has dropped to the 30s. We will be heading back to Roundtop again in the morning for more skiing.

My mother’s brother passed away on Tuesday. I wrote a farewell piece in Vietnamese. His son, who is my cousin, asked me to put together a tribute website for his father, similar to the one I created for my mother. Of course, I agreed.

I took codes from mother’s site as a starting point. I wanted the same structure and layout, but completely different typography. I never thought I would ever use the Noto global family, due to its neutrality, but here I am. While Noto Serif text is pretty bland, its display companion is quite striking, especially the contrast between thick and thin. As a result, I use Noto Serif Display for big headlines and Noto Sans for body copy and small texts.

I hope it is a fitting tribute to my uncle. Rest in peace, uncle. We love you and miss you dearly.

Ms. Pat has a wicked sense of humor. In her Netflix Special, she shares her personal matters including being pregnant at thirteen, her crippled uncle, and her gay daughter. If truths were told, she had been through a lot in her life. Comedy is her way out of the darkness. She gives us an invaluable advise: “Learn how to take the darkest shit in your life and turn that shit into laughter. ‘Cause when you can laugh at it, that means you got control of it.” Watch her show with an open mind and you’ll enjoy it like I did.

Last Friday, I had a conversation with another Scout father during our Vietnamese New Year party. He and his wife are dentists with their offices. They are a successful couple in their late 30s. I don’t think he is older than me. He was either born in the U.S. or migrating here at an early age.

Our conversation stemmed from the email exchanges we had on masking, vaccinations, and politics. From his scientific knowledge and personal perspective, he does not support vaccination mandates. I agreed with him. It’s an individual decision. There’s no shame in not getting vaccination. If you are unvaccinated and you contracted Covid, you should accept the fact that you put yourself at risk and you could take up an ICU unit, which could be used for other critical conditions. Your body, your choice. If you choose not to get vaccinated (the majority of Republicans) and you are against abortion (also the majority of Republicans) then you are a hypocrite. You can do whatever to your body, but you don’t give women that choice.

As far as masking, we didn’t dwell much into this issue because it had been debated to death in our email exchanges. What I found intriguing is that the young dentist is more conservative than liberal. He doesn’t support universal healthcare because he believes that would lower the quality of his service as well as the whole health industry. He explained that suddenly people show up to his office for the first time in 20 years with all kinds of issues. To me that’s a good thing. At least they showed up to check up rather than waiting until they got serious issues. That would cost even more. I know someone who had a heart problem, but didn’t get checked up. When he almost died, he showed up at the hospital and stayed for two weeks. His bill was $80,000, but he didn’t have a job and didn’t have any money. We, the taxpayers, had to cover his expenses.

Since he is a dentist, I wanted to get some inside perspective from a medical profession. I asked him if Medicare paid less than insurance. He said yes, but the bigger issue is that it takes time and effort to get reimbursement from the government. He takes his time with his patients to provide quality care. If he has to take on more Medicare patients, his quality would suffer. If he doesn’t then his business would suffer.

I totally understand his situation and it also comes down to money. I have tremendous respect for the medical professionals, which include dentists, doctors, and nurses. They have to have compassion and empathy in order to be in the industry of helping people. They make decent money as well but that shouldn’t be their priority. But then the more I see medical professionals turning into businesses, the more I lose my faith in them.

As I said before, I no longer identify myself as a Democrat. The Republicans are all about looking out for themselves and I am not down with that. The Democrats have more social inclusions. They are morally right, but they simply can’t get things done. They also need to get more young people like the dentist on their side. Then again, we’re still living in a white man’s world.

Happy sixth birthday my brightest Xuânshine!

I am happy with your development as well as your accomplishment. You are doing well in kindergarten. One of your teacher’s comments was that you routinely retell your personal experiences and stories. Seeing you are thriving makes me feel less guilty. I am so sorry that I have not spent time teaching you reading and practicing math. Your older brother still needs more help from me. I will get to you soon. I promise.

Fortunately, you are a quick learner who pays close attention; therefore, you excel in everything you do. You picked up skiing effortlessly just like how you picked up biking and ice skating. I wish you would continue to learn figure skating, but you seem to fall out of love with it just like your older brothers. You have started piano lessons and you seem to have the chops for it. Keep going, my son. I believe that you can do anything when you put your mind to it.

Your mother and I are very proud of you. As we are celebrating your special day today, we want to thank you for bringing energy and Xuânshine to our family. Being a younger brother, you try to catch up with Đạo and Đán from sports to video games. Being an older brother, you treat Vương with care and tenderness. You are a wonderful grandchild and a son. We all love you dearly.

Love,
Dad

After spending half a day at the Liberty Mountain Resort on Saturday, we went to our friend’s house to celebrate Vietnamese New Year in Maryland. We didn’t go home until midnight and the kids were exhausted. On Sunday, I let them sleep in and I was tired myself. When they woke up around 9:30 am, I asked if anyone wanted to go skiing. Đạo, Đán, and Xuân wanted to come.

We arrived at Liberty around noon and met up with my brother-in-law and his son. To my surprise, it was not too crowded. I took my kids and my nephew to the blue and black slopes. Another surprise was that all the slopes had moguls. I was worried that Xuân and Hân (my nephew) couldn’t make it, but they did just fine on the blue slopes. Đạo, Đán, and I went down the double blacks and met up with Xuân and Hân at the bottom where blacks and blues merged. Even with moguls, I managed to navigate my way down the double blacks with no problem. We were done around 4:30 pm.

We love skiing and we’ll miss it when the season comes to an end; therefore, we try to go as much as we can. The Epic pass and having our own equipment saved us time and money. We’ll definitely do it again next year.

Yesterday I did not plan to go skiing because of the heavy rain and warm weather the day before. The weather, however, dropped the night before and the resort was able to make snow. Đạo wanted to go so we went.

Liberty Resort turned out beautiful. The terrains were good. Because we came early in the morning, the lift lines were short. Đạo, Đán, and I hit the blue and double black slopes. I slipped on a double black once, but my skis didn’t pop off. I lifted up my legs above the ground and let myself slide all the way down. To prevent myself from slipping to the point where I faced the mountain and my skis started to go backward, I positioned my body in front of my downhill ski and put some weight on it as well. That seemed to work.

We did some mogul runs, but I only chose the less bumpy paths. On the green slopes I tried carving, but fell and hit my ski when I leaned. I need to start with one leg first.

We skied from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm. It was not crowded and the slopes were well groomed. As we headed up, the rental line was long. We avoided the crowd and four hours were plenty.

Edward Sorel is a satirical cartoonist and an unapologetic leftist. His illustrations appeared on the covers of major publications such as the Esquire, the Atlantic, and the New Yorker. His memoir is both personal and political. His writing is engaging and his works are exceptional. A must-read for designers. I didn’t even know about Mr. Sorel and to my surprise he is 92 years old. He can still write and draw at his age. I have utter respect and admiration for the man. I enjoyed this book throughout and I am glad that I had picked it up to read it.