After hitting the CPU limit on the shared server at HostPapa, I knew I needed to make the move for the long run. I am so glad that Thủy Nguyễn, a long-time reader of this blog, recommended DigitalOcean. I hesitated at first because DigitalOcean is a cloud-hosting service and I do not have much experience with cloud servers. Fortunately DigitalOcean has tons of tutorials to help me make the move. From setting up the LAMP stack to virtual hosts to SSH keys to Let’s Encrypt, I was able to follow along. I had to destroy several deployments and started over. I hadn’t worked with the command line in a while and it was like rediscovering an old love.

I created two Droplets: one exclusively for this blog and one for my static sites including Vietnamese Typography and Donnytruong.com. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect Vietnamese Typography is the cause for the CPU shortage. The site hosts tons of web-font files. I was thinking of limiting the number of fonts being served on the site, but it would ruin the purpose of the book. I wanted to showcase as many Vietnamese typefaces as possible. Now that the web book is on the cloud, I hope the traffic won’t blow up my budget.

Migrating this blog was a huge challenge. Transferring the database over was time consuming. I tried SQL dump, but it didn’t work too well. I finally just use the export and import tools provided by WordPress. I can’t believe it worked great. I still have a handful of things to take care, but I need to get some sleep. I hope to get back to regular blogging schedule soon.

Our summer vacation has swiftly come to an end. I enjoyed rollerblading on the street, jumping the waves with the kids on the beach, swimming in the pool, eating tons of food and ice cream, drinking a few bottles of beer, and spending some quiet moments with my lovely lady late at night. I was having a great time until an account manager at HostPapa contacted me to let me know that my website was hitting with CPU and I/O faults. He recommended that I upgrade my plan to Business Pro.

I stressed myself out over such a minute issue. I should have just made the upgrade to get it done and over with, but I worried much more than money. What if I lose my digital presence? I put years of work into this blog and now my work is depending on this hosting company.

After reading my previous post, a reader wrote to me recommending DigitalOcean, a cloud-based hosting solution. I spent some time playing around with it. I deployed its one-click LAMP stack, but there is so much work to do after the server is up and running. I need to spend more time with it.

To fix the immediate issue, I did some optimizations on my end. The CPU and I/O are not spiking up anymore. I can’t help but wonder what if I lose my entire blog one day. Will I be OK without it? It has been part of my life for such a long time. Will I be able to move on? All these thoughts put me under stress, but my lady had made me feel better. I am very grateful for her. I think I will be OK as long as I still have my family.

From 2003 to 2019, all of my websites were share-hosted by Lunarpages for eight bucks a month. I was happy with its service for 16 years. I even recommended my clients to host with them. In 2019, HostPapa acquired Lunarpages and I was concerned.

An acquisition is never good for the customer, but I stayed on. I just don’t have the time and the resources to research and to migrate my sites. Because I am running multiple sites, which was fine with Lunarpages, I am paying $15 a month.

The new business plan was already double what I paid before, but they are constantly trying to up-sale me to the business pro plan for $25 a month. That’s more than what I am willing to pay for my personal sites. I might need to start looking for a new home for my digital properties if HostPapa keeps trying to rope me into their higher plans.

Yesterday a big wave knocked my glasses out of me. It took a split second and my whole world has become blurrier. We’re vacationing in South Carolina and I didn’t bring a spare pair of glasses with me. I took my vision aid for granted. I depended too much on my glasses. Now I am trying to navigate my world without it.

For the most part, I am doing fine. I woke up early in the morning, made myself a cup of iced coffee, and went rollerblading on the street. I almost ran into a truck for being careless. After a mile of skating, I went back to the vacation house, ate breakfast, and took the kids to the beach. The water was warm and the weather was beautiful. The kids loved jumping and surfing the big waves. We then headed back to the rental property and jumped into a small swimming pool. The kids enjoyed the pool just as much as the beach.

Everyone gathered back into the vacation house for lunch. After a full meal, everyone rested or took a nap. I took my kids to the skate park, which was half an hour from the rental property. Driving was a bit of a challenge without my glasses, but I just needed to be more cautious. The skate park had low ramps; therefore, it was nice to skate without too much risk. Once we were back to the rental property, the kids wanted to swim in the pool until dinnertime. We ate together. The adults chatted while the kids watched TV. All three of our families agreed on no iPads or digital devices for the kids. It worked out well. They played together more rather than each kid on his own device.

This is our last summer vacation. Next week the kids will go back to school and I’ll go back to the office for the first time since the pandemic. The challenging time is still not over. I am still concerned about the surge of the Delta variant.

Since I will be on vacation next week, I took my ice skating test for Freestyle 1 ahead of schedule. I thought I would have done well since I nailed all the required techniques and I had been practicing frequently. To my surprise, I passed with the minimum scores. My coach wanted me to practice more before taking Freestyle 2.

My posture was terrible. My arms weren’t coordinating with my legs when I did backward edges. I jumped too early on the waltz jump. I didn’t lift my leg far enough for the spiral. My half-flip was decent. My spin was good even though I practiced it the least. I didn’t like spinning because I would get dizzy after 2 spins.

After the test result, I am not sure if I should go to the next level. I want to focus on my posture like my sons, Đạo and Xuân, who are taking private lessons and their coach scrutinized their every move. They are relearning from the beginning. After six weeks, Đạo only passed forward crossovers. He still needs to work on his backward crossovers. I don’t know if I want to go that far back in order to learn proper posture. I don’t skate to be a professional. I just want to have fun.

Should I sign up for Freestyle 2 or should I learn on my own using Coach Julia’s YouTube instructions? I am exhausted. I am taking a much needed break to clear my mind. I will spend my vacation thinking things through.

Đạo and I hit the skate park in the morning. We had been rollerblading two to three times a week. Đạo is a good skater, but he is very cautious. He stuck with the low, straight ramps. I encouraged him to try the higher, curved pipes, but he declined. Of course, I didn’t force him to do anything he didn’t feel comfortable doing. I took some risks and pushed myself a bit. I fell several times in the past; therefore, I am being careful as well.

After our rollerblading session, we had a brief conversation. I complimented him for saying no to my challenge. He didn’t take the bait and he wasn’t being pressured into doing something that he didn’t want to. I wanted him to apply that concept to his life. He will start seventh grade in two weeks.

Just thinking back to my seventh and eight grades gives me a chill. I had such a rough time; therefore, I do not want him to go through what I went through. I was bullied for being the only Asian kid in class. I was laughed at for not speaking much English. I kept it all to myself because I didn’t know who to turn to. I didn’t tell my mom because I didn’t want her to worry and she couldn’t do anything for me anyway.

I advised Đạo to come to me or his mother if he experienced bullying in school. I reminded him to just walk away from situations where he wouldn’t feel safe or comfortable. I stressed the importance of not being pressured into smoking, taking drugs, drinking alcohol, or doing illegal activities. He understood my advice and I hope he will remember my words when he has to deal with peer pressures.

As the school opening getting closer, the cases of COVID due to the Delta variant are surging. Parents in the Fairfax County Public Schools are worrying. They are petitioning to get the school board to offer a virtual option.

As much as I despise having our kids attending online classes, it is a safer alternative. The issue is that I have to return to my office the same time our kids begin their school year, which is two weeks away. I am going to discuss with my supervisor about extending my remote work.

Over the weekend, I talked to my wife the potential of not letting Xuân attend kindergarten this year. I am fine with keeping him at home for a year, but she doesn’t want to since she would have to bear the brunt if I have to go back to the office. Letting Xuân and Đán attend in-person classes is risky. The pandemic is far from over and we cannot let our guard down.

America is deeply divided over vaccination. Before the pandemic, I thought the number of anti-vaxxers was very insignificant. Now I realize I am dead wrong. I stopped following politics in America because of its divisiveness. I only pay attention to policies I care about. Now the anti-vaxxers are taking the divisiveness to the extreme.

I refused to attend our family gathering because many of my cousins have refused vaccination. It took one member of the family who is obsessed with conspiracy theory to convince others not to get vaccinated. I love them and pray for them not to catch the virus, but I can’t put my kids at risk. I hope we can see each other again after the pandemic. Yesterday, a friend from high school shared her story on Facebook, which confirmed that I made the right decision not to attend our family gathering. She wrote:

I’ve been masking since end of February 2020 before any mask mandate or shut-down was even announced. I worked all of my hospital shifts through the pandemic. I drove almost 200 miles a day when the trains shut down. Then I started taking the trains and busses, while fully masked, when they opened back up. I was tested for covid weekly and always came up negative. Masking works really well. I let my guard down recently at a family gathering and let my daughter go about unmasked even though she wasn’t vaccinated. It was stupid of me, but I had hoped that everyone in attendance was vaccinated or not a covid carrier. You should never really just rely on hope. I love my family to pieces regardless of what they believe in. I only wish them health, safety, and happiness. If I had to repeat the family gathering I would have still attended, but would definitely have kept my daughter and myself masked and more distanced. Hind sight is 20/20.

Two weeks ago, I took Đạo and Đán to try out Vovinam. It took place in a small studio close by our house. Many kids didn’t mask up. Except for one master and myself, none of the parents wore masks at the meeting. As a result, I decided to pull them out for now. Our kids are good with masking up. Even our two-year-old Vương wanted to wear his mask because his brothers were wearing them. We still need take more cautions with the high transmissible from the Delta variant.

In the past few weeks, my nine-year-old Đán started talking with an Asian-mocking accent. He stressed out the syllables, especially the last word in his sentences. It irritated the fuck out of me. I asked him to stop, but it was already stuck in his head. I explained to him how Americans use that racist accent to mock Asian-Americans and I had to endure it throughout my life living in America. Hearing it from my own son brings back those painful moments.

Last night, I asked him how he picked up that accent and he pulled up YouTube videos made by a Vietnamese-American named Nathan Doan. I could barely watch one of his clips without cringing. He played a character named Ging Ging who adorned a conical hat, spoke with a fake Asian accent, and closed his eyes the entire time. I don’t know his purpose for creating this character. I don’t give a fuck if it is a satire. I don’t want to find out.

He needs to stop selling out his culture for cheap laughs. They are laughing at him, not with him. When kids picked this up without knowing the reference or the history and started to emulate it, that’s not a laughing matter.

I pride myself as a constant learner. It started when I became obsessed with Flash. I wanted to learn everything about Flash. I spent days and nights going through online tutorials. It felt great when I learned to create something new. At first, Flash was simple to learn. It was a visual tool for creating web animation. Everything took place on its timeline. Then Flash introduced ActionScript. I plowed through books after books learning ActionScript programming. Unfortunately, I didn’t get very far with ActionScript. The more Flash advanced, the more lost I got. Eventually, I gave up the complexity of Flash programming and picked up the simplicity of HTML and CSS. I continued to learn as much as I could about web design and web standards.

Working in the web industry, I had to constantly keep myself up to date or else I would become irrelevant. That fear had haunted me and made me want to do something else. Unfortunately, I don’t have any other skills. I kept myself in the game by learning and practicing HTML and CSS. Of course, I needed to know a bit of PHP, MySQL, and server technologies to run content management systems like WordPress and MODX. I have not looked into any new frameworks. I don’t even know what React does.

Despite not focusing my learning on new technology, I am constantly learning something else. If I don’t, my brain would be inactive. I feel the need to activate my brain and to constantly improve myself. I blog almost daily to improve my writing. I read every day to improve my language skills. I try to skate as much as I can to improve my health. I enjoy these activities, but I also feel the burden. Why do I need to learn constantly? Why do I need to improve myself? What am I trying to prove? Would it be OK if I just let my brain idle? Have I learned enough already? Life is short and I will die one day.

I encourage my kids to read, write, and stay active. They are young and they have so much to learn. Learning is much easier at their age than mine. When I was a kid, I didn’t have any guidance to encourage me to learn or to play sports. My mother offered me food on the table and that was her way of raising me. She just wanted me to eat well and do well in school. I missed out so much that I am trying to make up for it now. I am not a fast learner and I recognize my limited capabilities; therefore, I try to take one thing at a time. I become a constant learner. Yes, constantly learning is rewarding, but where am I going with this? What is my end goal? What am I trying to achieve? I have nothing set out for myself, except I feel better about myself. I can express myself in writing. I soaked in more information when I read. Learning to skate gives me some physical activities. Could the pressure of constantly learning keep me from getting depressed? If I have nothing to occupy my brain, I might fall into depression. I didn’t feel so great about my body when I was inactive. I am still not in any great shape now, but I feel better about myself doing sports.

When I started writing this blog post, I had a doubt about the conditions of constant learning. I was not sure if it would be good or bad. By thinking out loud and writing it down, I came to the conclusion that learning keeps me from getting depressed. That’s a good thing. I am doing these for myself and that’s all that matters. I hope I can instill constant learning into my kids.

Woke up around seven in the morning to get Đán ready for his hockey lessons. Drove him to the ice rink and watched him practice and play for an hour. Went back home, grabbed a quick bite, and took Đạo, Đán, and Xuân to an ice skating public session. Spent three hours working mostly on outside backward edges for the test next week. Took them to Sweet Berries for some frozen yogurts. Went home, rested, then headed to my sister-in-law’s house for dinner. Found out my mother-in-law’s brother-in-law passed away after a long battle with cancer. Drank a beer and reminisced on the short time we spent together. Life is too damn short. Rest In Peace, uncle Chiếu.