Stephanie Saul, writing for the New York Times:

The Trump administration has made attacking universities central to its agenda. Higher education leaders argue that their institutions are the pillars of fact-based scientific inquiry and freedom of expression. President Trump and his supporters have argued they are elitist and focused on indoctrinating new generations into liberal ideologies.

But George Mason stands in stark contrast to the exclusive institutions Mr. Trump has targeted. It offers admission to 90 percent of its applicants. Many are middle-class students from Northern Virginia.

It is also among the most diverse campuses in the country.

I wish I can tell Dr. Washington in person to stand strong and not to back down. We have his back.

Vail Resorts:

Hello Donny Truong,

Welcome back! We are excited to have you return to the Vail Resorts team as a Ski School (Non-Cert) at Whitetail. Before you can begin your Experience of a Lifetime, we have some preboarding activities to get started.

I just can’t wait.

I had been sick since Monday and had to take off work pretty much the whole week. First it started with a sore throat, then a migraine, then a lot of coughing, like a dog. With all the medications I was taking hoping for a quick recovery, I felt miserable. I was lying in bed, listening to music, and reading. I finished writing a personal piece that I needed to get off my chest for a long time. I felt much lighter afterward.

As I become older, I don’t mind reducing unnecessary dramas in my life. I used to give a fuck. Now I give a fuckless. I don’t need all the needless stress. When I was young, I was too emotional. I worried too much about what others think of me. I was having a conversation with one of my sons as he’s going through this stage as well. I feel him, but it is also frustrating that he refuses to take my advice. I have been there and done that. The quicker he gets over what others think of him, the better his life will be.

There is no point trying to hide his flaws or avoid uncomfortable circumstances. He needs to learn to be comfortable with himself, to recognize his talents, and to focus on the positives instead of the negatives. No one’s perfect. I even gave him an example of myself. I am full of flaws. I don’t hide my bald head. I am not ashamed of my yellow teeth. I am not running away from my erratic emotions. I speak my mind and write what is in my head. If people can’t accept me for who I am, then fuck them.

Until he can embrace himself and appreciate his uniqueness, he will continue to be miserable. He just can’t sit around and feel bad for his sorry-ass. He needs to take care of himself first. He can do anything when he puts his mind to it. He has the talents, but he needs to put in the work. Unlike him, I don’t have the talents, but I have a relentless drive to accomplish my goal. Whatever I set out to do something that I am passionate about, whether designing, skiing, snowboarding, skating, writing, I will keep doing it until I accomplish something. I am in my mid fucking forty and I am still thriving. He has plenty of opportunities and he just needs to take advantage of them.

The prostitutes in Kabul tap their feet
beneath their faded burkas in the heat.
For bread or fifteen cents, they’ll take a man to bed-
their husbands dead, their seven kids unfed-
and thanks to occupation, rents have risen twentyfold,
their chickens, pots, and carpets have been sold
and women’s flesh now worth its weight in tin.
Two years ago, the Talibs favored boys and left the girls alone.
A woman then was worth her weight in stone.

Aliza Griswold

The front holes in the toilet on the first floor kept leaking water. I decided to replace the old one with Everbilt’s 2 in. Universal Complete Toilet Flush Valve Repair Kit. It was a quick job even though I had to remove the tank. For my future self, unscrew the two nuts from the bottom of the tank first in order to remove the tank.

Even with a brand new flush valve, the holes were still leaking water, not as much as before. I am just going to leave it like that for now. I’ll deal with it later.

Update: no more leaking. Yay!

All this work leads to holding both
At once. In the midst of the crowd
A woman services two men, serves

Might be a kinder word but we want this
Precise. Pressing a way through
To some bed or stage or platform is what

We do. And as she rises her body against
Each of them this makes the argument
Of resolution, of unlike moving into like

Until finally everything is the same.
We keep in time; this is not elsewhere.
Nowhere is the center more not the point,

What hand belongs to whom and where.
And to take turns and to bear
That someone goes first, which can never be

Exact or equal, is how faith must come
Into all that touch. Do not be astonished;
She has placed herself to be lost,

To be eaten while eating, a darkening
Bruise of too much, a guide of
Figuring which door to push against,

Already open. We watch for the ending
Not wanting it to end. What to know
That we did not before, save the ungodly

Angles. To do while being done. Polite the mirror
With anything possible; it is not about
Who wants whom more but you cannot help wondering

What happens to she who has been caught
As if between slides of glass—her body so useful.
What comes of each entrance given

Like bread to taste, to begin each day
As if starting over, considering what she has made
Of herself for herself by herself; and how

You could never have been her, until now, quiet
As a church, holy as a trinity, until just
Now the noise of trying to get it right.

Sophie Cabot Black

I am tired.
I am tired of speech and of action.
If you should meet me upon the
street do not question me for
I can tell you only my name
and the name of the town I was
born in—but that is enough.
It does not matter whether tomorrow
arrives anymore. If there is
only this night and after it is
morning it will not matter now.
I am tired. I am tired of speech
and of action. In the heart of me
you will find a tiny handful of
dust. Take it and blow it out
upon the wind. Let the wind have
it and it will find its way home.

Tennessee Williams

To grow old is to lose everything.
Aging, everybody knows it.
Even when we are young,
we glimpse it sometimes, and nod our heads
when a grandfather dies.
Then we row for years on the midsummer
pond, ignorant and content. But a marriage,
that began without harm, scatters
into debris on the shore,
and a friend from school drops
cold on a rocky strand.
If a new love carries us
past middle age, our wife will die
at her strongest and most beautiful.
New women come and go. All go.
The pretty lover who announces
that she is temporary
is temporary. The bold woman,
middle-aged against our old age,
sinks under an anxiety she cannot withstand.
Another friend of decades estranges himself
in words that pollute thirty years.
Let us stifle under mud at the pond’s edge
and affirm that it is fitting
and sweet to lose everything.

Donald Hall

Last night, we went to a Chinese buffet for dinner. We had five adults and two kids. Xuân, our third kid, had mac and cheese, fries, and toasted bread. I had a plate of snails, two plates of crawfish, and some steamed fish. I ordered a bottle of Tsing Tao to wash down and seafood. The beer cost $9 for a bottle. The bill was about $140. With tip, I dropped $170 with an instant regret. Damn! I need to stop spending money like this. Should have just go home to eat leftovers. I said that every time and I always caved in when the kids wanted to go out to eat.

I didn’t blog much last week because I was busy renovating 9 pair of skis and refreshing 5 pair of ski boots. For the skis, I cleaned them up, glued all the dings, sharpened the edges, p-texed all the scratches on the bases, checked the bindings, greased the groves, tightened up the screws, and finally waxed the bases. I even install two sets of bindings with my wife’s help.

I enlisted Đạo to help me filming the products and taking the photos so I can list them on Facebook Marketplace. I am not sure how many pairs I will sell from now until the ski season begins, but I am already out of steam. It was a lot of work. This is not a viable side gig if I want to make extra money.

I’ll just stick with skiing and snowboarding. I can’t wait for the winter to come. Snow god, please give us snow this year.

By the way, here’s my Marketplace profile.