Joe Biden makes the wise decision by selecting Senator Kamala Harris to be his running mate. Ms. Harris is smart, tough, and fearless. In primary debates, she proved that she can take on anyone including Biden. She attacked him again and again. It goes to show that Biden has a big heart. By picking Ms. Harris, Biden proved that he can work with anyone, including people who were critical of him and his past policies. Beating Pence at the debate will be a piece of cake for Ms. Harris. Maybe he should bring his wife along to help him out. I can’t wait to see Ms. Harris take on the orange idiot. I am excited about team Biden and Harris. Let’s win this!

On Sunday, we took the kids to the closest beach from our home. The drive was almost two hours. As we drove closer to our destination, I suggested that we grab some lunch. I also suggested sushi because Đạo and Đán loved sushi, but my wife immediately shot that down. She suggested we grab something quick from McDonald’s. So we did.

We spent three hours playing in the water. The kids had lots of fun. On our way back, my wife suggested that we grab dinner so she wouldn’t have to cook. Great idea. Đán suggested sushi, but my mother-in-law wouldn’t eat raw fish. Xuân and Vương wouldn’t like sushi either. I suggested we get them Vietnamese food or something else at a different restaurant for them. We can ended up going straight home.

While the kids took a bath, I put away all the things from our minivan and my wife threw some egg rolls in the frying pan. We had vermicelli with egg rolls and vegetables. She also made some tofu kimchi soup. Dinner was simple and delicious. I drank some of my cold lychee saké.

When it was time for me to do the dishes, I thanked her for dinner. Then she said something along the line that she always had to cook for all of us. I reminded her that we could have ordered out. I should have stopped there, but I went on. I told her that when I took the kids out, I tried my best not to take them to fast-food places. She flipped out and accused me of being an elitist. She said that only I knew how to feed them good food and she only fed them McDonald’s.

No, that was not what I meant, but I know I needed to shut up. That was not my intention at all. I meant to say that I wouldn’t settle for fast food for the sake of convenience. When we went out together before the pandemic, the most relaxed time for me was sitting at the restaurant, getting a drink, and chatting with the kids, especially with Đạo and Đán, while waiting for the food.

I was not trying to be an ass, but I guess we’re at the point in our relationship where whatever we say would irritate the fuck out of each other. I need to keep my bullshit to myself.

Today, we’re back to normal again. I am learning how to wrap up a fight.

Anne Applebaum writes in the Atlantic:

Even if the Democratic nominee wins, “Can Biden reach into the opposite bubble?” is a question not just for the autumn of 2020 but for the spring of 2021, the winter of 2022, and many years into the future. The need to reach across informational and cultural divides will add an extra layer of complication to the multiple economic, medical, and foreign-policy crises a new Biden administration would immediately face, and will make it difficult to carry out the deep reforms that our bureaucracy, our democracy, and our health-care system need. But unless Biden makes an effort to talk with his opponents, he could end up much like the candidate in the Polish wheat field, with only the facts and 49 percent of the public on his side. Biden’s campaign may represent the last chance to bridge the gaps that divide us. If Trump wins another term, then we can be certain that no one will even try.

President Gregory Washington responds to George Mason’s legacy:

Should we then now continue to recognize George Mason and other founders as brilliant and devoted patriots? Or should we condemn them for ignoring the basic ideals by which they defined this country?

We should do both, because Mason is the very embodiment of the duality of America, which we celebrate for its insistence on liberty and justice for all, even though it enslaved and segregated millions of its own people for most of its history.

We’ll see how this will play out.

I have deactivated Facebook for almost a month haven’t missed it one bit. It’s such a toxic platform. I still use Twitter to stay update with typography and web design. I still have a presence on LinkedIn and Pinterest, but hardly checked them. I signed into Instagram once using Facebook to see a few photos I was interested in. After that, I never bothered to use it. I am not even on TikTok. What other social media networks have I missed?

These days, it either seems cool to be unsocial online or a sign of getting old. I am 42 now; therefore, it must be the latter. I am fine with that. I don’t need to be connected and I definitely don’t need to be constantly bombarded with misinformation. I don’t think I am missing out too much.

I still use RSS to read blogs I have been following. I should make a list of websites I subscribed to and share on my blog. I always return to this tiny space of mine on the internet. A personal website or blog is still better than a mega platform. I can do anything with it. Yes, I can throw up ads too, but I have total control of them. I wouldn’t put ads that would degrade this site; therefore, my readers don’t have to worry. I have a few promotions in the line-up that I am excited about. You’ll see what I mean.

I enjoyed watching Street Food: Asia with my kids, particular my eight-year-old son who likes to cook. In addition to the mouth-watering dishes, the stories behind the chefs were inspiring. They sold food to survive. They showed up and worked hard everyday. The perfected their craft over the years. Seeing people enjoying their food brought them joy. I definitely biased, but the episode in Sài Gòn, Việt Nam was my personal favorite. I loved snails and enjoyed different dishes of snails.

I purchased a handful of fonts from FutureFonts. Unfortunately, most of them are incomplete; therefore, unusable. Their creators have abandon them. The fonts I invested in have no italic yet and only Name Sans supports Vietnamese. In fact, out of the entire FutureFonts catalog, only three fonts include Vietnamese.

Seeing how Stephen Nixon completed his excellent Recursive family, I have high hope that he will complete Name Sans as well. Other than Name Sans, my hope for the fonts I have bought to be usable beyond display typography in English is diminishing. As a result, I have been refraining myself from making anymore purchases from FutureFonts.

Yesterday, I could not resist the temptation from a beautiful serif text face; therefore, I bought Loretta, by Nova Type Foundry. I did a bit of research into Joana Correia’s work and she had completed Alga. She even added added diacritics to Alga, which is also one of the three fonts that supports Vietnamese in FutureFonts catalog. I hope she will complete Loretta with Vietnamese as well. We’ll see.

Thuy On:

The keening of us
the spaces between
a kerning too distant
your clauses conditional
dashes sprinting away
I didn’t want to be modified
& left dangling
but you trailed into ellipsis
and left me falling through gaps.

Via diaCRITICS.

If you read one article today, make it this one. Ibram X. Kendi writes in the Atlantic:

False hope was my new normal, until it wasn’t. When they scanned my body, doctors found that the cancer had spread. I had Stage 4 colon cancer. I had two choices: denial and death, or recognition and life. America now has two choices.

Trump’s denials of his racism will never stop. He will continue to claim that he loves people of color, the very people his policies harm. He will continue to call himself “not racist,” and turn the descriptive term racist back on anyone who has the temerity to call out his own prejudice. Trump clearly hopes that racist ideas—paired with policies designed to suppress the vote—will lead to his reelection. But now that Trump has pushed a critical mass of Americans to a point where they can no longer explain away the nation’s sins, the question is what those Americans will do about it.

Or Americans can realize that they are at a point of no return. No returning to the bad old habit of denial. No returning to cynicism. No returning to normal—the normal in which racist policies, defended by racist ideas, lead to racial inequities.

On this path, Trump’s denialism has permanently changed the way Americans view themselves. The Trump effect is real, and lasting. The reckoning we have witnessed this spring and summer at public demonstrations transforms into a reckoning in legislatures, C-suites, university-admissions offices.

On this path, the American people demand equitable results, not speeches that make them feel good about themselves and their country. The American people give policy makers an ultimatum: Use your power to radically reduce inequity and injustice, or be voted out.

End racism now!

Watching Jonathan Swan interviewing a four-year-old reminded me of conversations with my four-year-old sons. I went through it with my first, second, and third sons. They just have their own limited views that nothing I said could make any sense to them.

For example, the other day my four-year-old son ate the last popsicle we had in the fridge and he asked for more. I told him that we didn’t have anymore and I even opened the fridge to show him that we didn’t have anymore, but his response was, “But I want more.” I explained to him that we ran out of popsicle and even if we had more he wouldn’t allow to have two popsicles at one time. His response was, “But I want it.”

Although I only watched a few minutes of the interview, I could tell that Swan was getting frustrated. No matter how many times he tried to ask his questions and to present the facts, he couldn’t get through the four-year-old mind. When Swan said that the U.S. death toll is 1,000 a day, the four-year-old responded, “It is what it is.” Jonathan, welcome to my world!