Cajoled by Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump went to war with Iran. In just six weeks, the Trump war has killed thousands of lives, cost billions of dollars, caused chaos across the Middle East, and crumbled the world economy. Trump attacked Iran then begged for peace. Unlike the sycophants surrounding Trump, Iran isn’t bowing down to him. Now all he does is shit-posting. The whole world is now watching a social-media president who is displaying his dangerous incompetency.
I am going to have my first colonoscopy on Thursday. I must admit. I am a bit nervous and stressed out. Tomorrow will be the prep day. I just can’t wait to get the procedure done and over with.
My blog, Visualgui.com, turns 23 today. While the blogging sphere has diminished after the rise of social media, I am still blogging almost daily. It’s one of my favorite activities that I still enjoy doing. I am so glad that I have found blogging. It has opened a whole new world for me that I didn’t know existed.
Up until I started blogging, I hated writing. I didn’t know what to write. I stared at a blank piece of paper or a blinking cursor on screen and couldn’t get my words out of my head. I dreaded writing academic papers. I almost failed all my writing classes. I ended up choosing design as a major so I didn’t have to write. I just needed to make things look pretty. I loved design until I had to make a living off it. Design has become a job. I didn’t like design for money. I enjoyed designing for myself.
In contrast, writing will never become my profession. I will never make money off writing. I don’t need to write for others. I only write for myself. Blogging allows me to write whatever the fuck I want. I spent the last 23 years practicing my writing in both English and Vietnamese. I no longer fear the blank page nor the blinking cursor. It feels liberating that I can get my thoughts out of my head.
Blogging has given me the space I needed to work out my issues, document my life, and just write. Furthermore, blogging has made me a reader and a listener. For many years I hated reading. After I started blogging, I read voraciously so I could practice writing reviews. The more I read, the more I enjoyed reading and discovering new topics. I read from fiction to non-fiction, design to web development, typography to technology, jazz to hip-hop, and English to Vietnamese. I won’t stop reading.
I have always been a music listener. Whenever I discovered something interesting in music, I wanted to share with others. I wanted to point out exactly what I was hearing. I didn’t have too many people around me to share my listening experience. As a result, I wanted to write about music and share with the world. When I first started to review music, it took me forever to get the words out. My music vocabulary was limited. The more I write, however, the more words I pick up and my flow becomes better. I still enjoy listening and writing about music.
Whenever I get into something, I tend to stay with it for as long as I still make progress. I love skiing and snowboarding because I will continue to improve myself. Writing has become a life-long learning process because I can continue to improve. I don’t need to become a writer. I don’t need to become a professional skier or snowboarder. I am still a professional designer who does many other things. Even though blogging, reading, skiing, snowboarding may have nothing to do with design, they help me to become a better designer. I gain broader perspectives and I bring outside influences into design. I don’t get locked into design trends. I don’t get creative blocks. I don’t get burned out. Now I understand the reason to look outside of design.
My blog has been running on WordPress for over 20 years. The first few years, it was powered by B2, which was the core infrastructure before WordPress. Over the years, WordPress has moved beyond a blogging engine and become a full-blown content management system. Nevertheless, I still only use WordPress for blogging. I keep my theme simple so that I can change the design at least once a year. I mostly changed the typography and moved things around a bit to improve the reading experience.
Twenty three years into blogging and I still want to write something each day; therefore, I will continue to do this for as long as I can. It has been an incredible journey so far and there’s no reason for me to stop. I am still living. I still have many things to get off my chest. I am still blogging.
If you would like to see the visual changes of my blog in the past 23 years, check out the archived screenshots.
If I were to learn how to sing in English, I would imitate Stacey Kent. Her enunciation is fucking irresistible. With the intimate setting in her latest release, A Time for Love, I have no choice but to listen to each of her words.
The album kicks off with “Lucky to be Me” (composed by Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green)—an upclose duo with pianist Art Hirahara. Just listen to the way she drops the “k” in: “I am simply thunderstruck / At this change in my luck.” Her attention to words alone makes her singing unmistakeable.
With “The Shadow of Your Smile,” Kent and Hirahara stripped the bossa nova rhythm down to just a slow-burning rendition. She leaves plenty of room for her pianist to accommodate her voice. The mutual respect between their musicianship comes through in their collaboration.
“As” is a fascinating reinterpretation of Stevie Wonder’s classic. Hirahara switches to an electric keyboard for some funk groove and Tom Tomlinson joins in with his soprano saxophone. In the refrain, Kent simply sings the word “always” and lets Tomlinson’s soprano play the backup: “Until the ocean covers every mountain high / Until the dolphin flies and parrots live at sea / Until we dream of life and life becomes a dream.”
I can’t comment on her French in “La Javanaise,” her Spanish in “Carihoso,” and her Italian in “E la Chiamono Estate.” I don’t know these languages, but I like the sound of her singing.
My 2025-2026 season has officially ended after spending spring break at Stowe. Despite the pouring rain and the melting snow, the conditions at Stowe were still decent. I skied two days and snowboarded three days.
For the entire season, I spent 55 days skiing, snowboarding, coaching, and spending time with my family on the mountains. Each season, I love skiing and snowboarding a bit more than the previous. I enjoyed the fun, the exercise, the social, the experience, but the self progression, the self discipline, and the self motivation keep me coming back season after season.
My goal has been carving on both ski and snowboard. I am about 70% there this season. I will have to wait for the next season to continue my progress. Of course there are many techniques to learn, but I just want to focus on one thing at a time. I will continue to learn and to progress for as long as I can.
It’s a privilege for me and my family to have access to these expensive winter sports for almost free. Of course, I have to work, but I am glad that my skills paid for our passes. Nevertheless, I didn’t get to work much last season, which was fine with me. I didn’t fight for my turn to teach. In fact, I gave up my turn so I could spend time skiing or snowboarding with my family.
While my colleagues worked on their certification, I just worked on my own progression. My lead instructors and trainers encouraged me to get certified, but I didn’t see the benefits. In contrast, I have to pay a $150 membership fee each year to keep my certification active. I am content with being a none-certified instructor for now.
It’s time to put away the equipment. December 2026 will be here before you know it. Until then, let’s grab some rollerblades and skateboards for the spring and summer.
The other day, Xuân played pickleball against his buddy. They became competitive and argued back and forth. His friend got mad and walked off the court. He said to Xuân, “I am done with you.”
I observed, but didn’t want to get involved. I didn’t say anything and let them work out their conflict themselves. Xuân looked sad and wanted to go home. I took him home. In the car, I asked Xuân, “Are you OK?” He nodded, but didn’t want to talk about it.
The next day, Xuân asked me if I were going to dads’ volleyball night so he could meet up with his buddy. I asked him, “Weren’t you guys mad at each other yesterday?” Xuân replied, “Everytime we fought, we would be friends again the next day. We were always like that.”
When they met up for volleyball, they were so happy to see each other. My jaw dropped. It was fucking awesome how kids just moved on quickly and held no grudges. It was an eye-opening moment for me.
Even as an adult, I often took things too seriously. I had a difficult time letting shit slide. I ended up holding things inside. I need to learn to be a kid again. Just let shit go. No need to sweat over small things. Just move on. Life is too damn short. In fact, let’s turn negative into positive.
Thanks to my Lil Xuânshine and his buddy for teaching me an invaluable lesson.
My Lil Xuânshine plays multiple sports. Whether swimming, skiing, or snowboarding, he excels in them. Even if he never competes in any of them, I still support him for as long as he puts his efforts into them.
I must confess. I am a terrible swimmer. I can’t swim from one end of the pool to the other end without taking a break. I tried to learn to swim, but I quickly got bored. I felt as if I were trapped in a pool filled with water. The good thing about swimming is that the weather is not an issue.
On the other hand, skiing and snowboarding depend on the weather, but that’s the beauty of these winter sports. It’s a partnership with Mother Nature. What makes skiing and snowboarding so damn exciting and magical is the pleasure of carving across the snow and leaving your tracks behind.
After discovering the art of carving, I had been focusing on chasing those tracks. It took me a while to understand the techniques of carving on skis, but I picked up carving on snowboard a bit faster. Regardless, I still have a long way to go.
I have always enjoyed watching a flock of birds flying across the sky in an “S” shape. My ultimate goal is to ski and ride down the trails in an “S” shape similar to those flying birds. Carving down the long terrains feels like flying to me. I have yet to perfect my carves, but I am not in a rush either. I still have many seasons to work on toward my goal. Having a goal not only lets me stay focused, but also lets me thrive.
For the first time in my life, I feel as if chasing a dream is possible. I have free access to many mountains in the world. As an instructor at Vail resorts, I am surrounded by expert skiers and snowboarders who can help me achieve my goal. I will get there on my own terms. All I need is my own determination.
In his interview with Frazier Tharpe, JAY-Z said:
Everything in your life, it’s not happening to you, it’s happening for you.
Last week, I attended the annual Computers in Libraries 2026 conference in Crystal City. This year, they should have renamed the conference to AIs in Libraries 2026. Out of 4 keynotes and 70 tracks, the focus was primarily on AI. There used to be a track dedicated to website and UX, but this year there were only two presentations on website and UX. I attended both. For the rest, my brain was about to explode with AI lectures. Then again, I learned something about Vibe Coding.
As a web designer and developer, I had always been skeptical of using AI to create webpages. After hearing and seeing some demo about Vibe Coding at the conference, I decided to give it a try. One of my passion projects has been creating typographic sample pages for my Vietnamese Typography web book. Whenever I read something interesting in Vietnamese, I would create a sample of it—of course with proper credits. For instance, if I read a book, I would sample my favorite chapter and provide an English translation if I could. If I read from a printed book, I would take photos of the pages, copy, and paste the text. After that I would write the HTML markups for the text. The process beat typing up the text manually, but it was still tedious because I had to change dumb quotes to smart quotes, markup italic words, and make sure hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes were applied correctly.
With the latest sample page showcasing Bảo Ninh’s short stories, I tested out Google Gemini. I uploaded 10 images since the free version only allows 10 images at a time. I put in the prompt: “Convert images into one HTML page. Markup <em> tags for italic text. I changed the option from “Fast” to “Thinking.” Within 15-30 seconds, Gemini showed me the HTML page it had created. I copied and pasted into my HTML editor, removed everything else except for the main content. I was amazed how clean the HTML page was. All the smart quotes, hyphens, and dashes were correct. Italic words were marked up in <em> tags. Furthermore, it places all the footnotes correctly at the bottom of the pages. It was definitely a time-saver for me not having to do these tasks manually. I still do not trust AI to do the design for me because I still want to write my CSS and the way I structure my HTML document, but I can let it help me with speeding up the manual, repetitive labor.
I had a mixed vibe about Computers in Libraries, but I always ended up attending. While not all of the presentations fit my interests, a few did. If nothing else, I had a chance to get away from my regular work for a couple of days.
Carlo Iacono writes a fascinating essay on “Books and Screens.” Iacono argues:
The real problem isn’t mode but habitat. We don’t struggle with video versus books. We struggle with feeds versus focus. One happens in an ecosystem designed for contemplation, the other in a casino designed for endless pull-to-refresh.
Reading worked so well for so long not because text is magic, but because books came with built-in boundaries. They end. Pages stay still. Libraries provide quiet. These weren’t features of literacy itself but of the habitats where literacy lived. We need to rebuild those habitats for a world where meaning travels through many channels at once.
Iacono concludes:
The choice isn’t between books and screens. The choice is between intentional design and profitable chaos. Between habitats that cultivate human potential and platforms that extract human attention.
I recommend reading or listening to the entire piece.