Y’all know what I’m jammin’ to right? Hell yeah, 2pac again and again! “I came to bring the pain, hardcore to the brain. Let’s go inside my astral plane.” No More Pain is one of the most hardcore hip hop track ever. Both the beat and lyric are hardcore as hell. It cracks me up when he said, “It’s Westside, Death Row, Thug niggaz on the rise. Busters shot me five times, real niggaz don’t die.” Well, I guess you ain’t real no more huh? Hahaha, just playing Pac, you know I love your joints.

Another track that brings back da good old day is Me and My Girlfriend (no not the Gay-Z shit). I remembered pumpin’ this track in my car then my boy and I were arguing about what Pac meant when he said, “I love finger fuckin’ you.” Isn’t it obvious to you what he meant? Exactly, that’s what I thought too but my homie argued that Pac was referring to the finger that pulls the trigger. Pac was not talking to his girlfriend but referring directly to his enemies. What he really meant was, “I love to pull the trigger to fuck your ass up.” Isn’t that an interesting argument? It does make sense now that I think about it. Too bad Pac is gone and there’s no way we can find out what the hell he said. What do you think? Drop me a line to let me know your opinion on it. Alright, I am outta here for good. Peace!

Home Sweet Home

It’s a lovely Friday. Spring is here, hopefully. Definitely going back Lancaster to see my family for the weekend. Haven’t seen them for months and I really missed homemade food. Mom called me up last night to see if I am coming home today so she can make Pho (Vietnamese Noodle). Isn’t she sweet or what? She knows I haven’t have that for the longest. Gosh, I love this woman to death and no one else could take her place in my heart. She also wants me to take her to Philly (an hour and a half from Lancaster) for Vietnamese groceries so she can cook stuff for me to bring back to Poughkeepsie. I guess, she doesn’t want me to eat too much rice and hot dogs. Anyways, I’ll be out so have a good weekend y’all.

Macromedia Beta 2

The new Macromedia homepage is similar to the previous version (not beta 1). It might has a different look but the combination of Flash and html layout is pretty much the same. Although the Tray Navigation was useful, it slowed down the homepage so it was smart that they took it out. However, the Product and Solution Pickers were great and I didn’t think they caused the homepage to choked. What a waste! I am glad they still keep the Rich Internet Applications.

Every time I drop by DroLLery, there is always new interesting stuff to read.

Inspiration

With slick and sexy design, 4efx is absolutely gorgeous. With clean and simple layout, 4vs5 allows the works speak for themselves.

Unique Style

Oh man, it’s snowing again. Don’t feel like doing anything but listen to sad songs. Currently listening to “Ke Di Tim Mong.” This song was quite popular but I didn’t like it until Dam Vinh Hung performed it with his unique style. It’s quite hard to accomplished something like that because the song already established itself and if an artist is not doing it correctly, it could ruined his/her career. I have seen so many artists went down the gutter for destroying popular songs. Unlike other artists, Dam Vinh Hung unique style enhanced the songs. For instance, “Tan Tro” had a soft tune but he gave it an energy and made it so lively. Near the end of the song where the beats picked up then he screamed out with passion, “Cuoc tinh thu nhat anh da trot trao ve em. Tinh yeu dau tien tinh yeu do dam da va nhieu xot xa…” Loosely translate, “This is my first love and I gave it all to you. The first true love that is deeply strong and filled with sorrow.” He really took this song to a whole new level that no other artist has ever come close. I liked “Tan Tro” before but loved it after he put a creative twist on it. You must experience it for yourself to understand what I am talking about.

William Gibson

Jack in William Gibson cyberspace, author of the infamous Neuronmancer. His recently novel Pattern Recognition is also enjoyable.

Emptiness

It feels so empty at work. Carolyn, my boss, flew to Paris this morning. Lucky her. Keisha and Megg also took a week vacation. Of course the students won’t come back until the 23rd. Oh well, at least I still have d3studio by my side.

While surfing around, I was drawn into Asian Abuse. Growing up as asian kids, we all have been abused by our parents one way or the other. Some experienced it physically, mentally or even both. Don’t give me wrong, I love my mother to death but growing up with her was not easy at all. She would not let anyone put his/her hands on me even my own father; however, she put a lot of pressure on me mentally. My father was not around so she raised my sister and I on her own. She put lots of hope on my shoulder. She wanted me to accomplished what she didn’t get a chance to do. She would sacrifice anything in order for me to get an education. She made me feel guilty if I didn’t do good in school. I felt extremely depressed when she compared me with my cousins. She would always said, “Look at your cousins, one makes 60 thousands a year, one makes 80 thousands a year and you can’t even get a good grade.” Mom, did you know that I was hurt inside when you said, “Look at so and so, they listen to their parents. I am so unfortunate to have a son that not only don’t listen but also talk back to me.” I just wanted to expressed how I feel mom. There was no such thing as communication. Parents talk, kids listen, and that’s it. Until this day, she still treats me as a 12 years old kid but she finally understands and accepts me the way that I am and not someone like my cousins or the good kids who always listened to their parents. Our relationship is much better now then the way it used to be. I know that you will always love me and want what is best for me so you didn’t do all that stuff intentionally to hurt me. So I don’t blame you mom and I will always love you.

A one page layout for Vassar College Outreach Programs is so cute. Of course, it was designed by Kreative Keisha. Great job, Boo! Can’t wait to see your personal site launched.

WthRemix

The list of WthRemix Entries are posted. I am surprised that alot of these sites do not display correctly on Mac IE. If I was the judge, here are my picks:

Honorable Mentions: Timothy Martens (clean and minimal with usable tree menu), Tim Brown (straight forward navigation with simple layout).

Grand Prize Winner: Radu Darvas (well organized, clean layout, and nice graphic).

Happy Birthday Boo!

Went to Yobo yesterday with Keisha to celebrate her birthday. The place was quite funky but the food was great. Happy birthday sweetie and have a nice break too. You deserve it. You’re such a great friend who appreciates diversity and down to earth. I am really glad to get to know you.

D3studio launches nfsahc.org.

Swamped

What a Monday morning? Still freezing in Poughkeepsie. It feels like the wind blows my brain out. My car broke down. I am completely swamped with both personal and Vassar works. I am so hungry and they are not making anymore oatmeal because the students are on spring break. The campus is so empty without the students.

Just finished watching Rebecca, another classic disturbing drama from the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. The woman housekeeper is so creepy and mysterious. It’s a great film. Anyhow, I began to appreciate classic movies after taking a course at Lasalle called Film as Art. The course focused on critical evaluations of the work of a diverse but representative group of outstanding films and filmmakers. It was one of my favorite class and Bill Wine (the professor) was excellent. In fact, I liked it so much that I went on to take another course called Critical Approaches to Film. The course traced the history of the medium of American film, analyzed it chronologically, as well as genre by genre, from its inception at the turn of the last century through its place in society as we begin a new century. This course was taught by Bro. Gerry and he was outstanding. Not only we had to analyzed the films but we had to acted out a scene from a movie in a small group. I played Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore) in Vertigo and Lyle (Dennis Hopper) in Red Rock West. It was nerve-racking because I had never done anything like that before. It turned out well at the end and I enjoyed it.

Sickest Lyrics

After listening to the first two lines of Ignition by R Kelly, I couldn’t take it anymore. The first line he said, “You remind me of something, I just can’t think of what it is.” You remind me of a child molester, that’s it. He went on, “Girl, please let me stick my key in your ignition, babe.” Hope he didn’t used this metaphor on a child. Sick bastard!

Hatred and Racism

Watched American History X last night, a powerful film that depicts hatred and racism. Edward Norton performance is outstanding throughout the film. The illest part is when he ordered the black kid to bite the concrete then he stepped on his head. That crushed sound gave me a chill. The truth about racism illustrated in this movie shocked me deeply.

Check out the studio.

Flash Web Experience

I must admit, Macromedia had used Flash to its full potential on its site. They had taken the web experience to a whole new level with Flash. After surfing around the site, I am thrilled with the user experience. For instance, the front page remembered where I was before when I returned to it. When I went to Flash exchange to download a component. Found the component I wanted and clicked to download. It took me to a sign in screen. I went on to create a new account because I wanted to see how it works. After filling out the form, it automatically downloaded the component for me. It did all that work without having to leave the page. That’s incredible.

Flash Usable Interface

Love the interface design on Joshua Davis/Praystation. It’s straight forward, intuitive, and highly usable.

Flash Mad Wicked Motion

The animations and soundtracks from Insert Silence are raw rough and rugged. There are no words to describe it. You just have to experience it for yourself. Enjoy!

This song reminded me of Tran so much. She always sang it to me when we were on the Viet Nam tour. We had a great time together and I will never forget those magical moments we shared.

“Tinh la nhu the, khong yeu khong dau, nhoi buot trai tim goi la tinh yeu, nguoi lam ta dau mai mai ta khong trach nguoi. How I love you. My darling, How I need you… Gio ngoi co don giua troi. Tim hinh bong em yeu da qua. Long nhoi moi khi tieng the nhan che cuoi. I will love you, till I die. Toi con yeu em, yeu ngat ngay.”

Unique Digital Illustrations

Mild violence, brief nudity but sexy as hell Digital Illustrations by Richard Brown.

A Night Alone

Had a great time yesterday being alone. It was snowing so I just felt like kicking back and enjoying the rest of the evening. After work, I dropped by the library to check out some classic movies. On the way home, I stopped the liquor store and picked out a Remy Red bottle. After eating two bags of hot as hell Thai noodles, I kicked back relaxed and watched A Clockwork Orange while enjoyed Remy Red with Kho Bo (Vietnamese Style Beef Jerky). This is the real Kho Bo I brought back from the Viet Nam trip. It’s really hot and spicy but the drink cools it down nicely. My gosh, A Clockwork Orange is a most bizarre, violence, disturbed, and fucked up movie I have ever seen. This is simply one of the best Stanley Kubrick’s movie. It’s a must see film.

Many has been wondering, how come there is no photo of Donny Digital on this site? Well, I would like to remain anonymous. Besides, I don’t want to risk loosing my visitors after seeing my photo. As a guess to this site, you are very important to me and I do anything I can to fulfilled your request; therefore, you will get a sneak peak of me. Here it is, please don’t freak out, alright.

Back to the Basic

Based in Philly, LucidCircus was known for its cutting-edge Flash design; however, they decided to take a clean and simple route for their latest redesign. The outcome is quite impressive. Like Albert Einstein said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

Upcoming Project

Latin American Studies Program is my new project. The current design was my first quick assignment when I first started working at Vassar.

Snowing

Our campus tour is cancelled again due to the snow. All this time working at Vassar, I have never took an official tour of the campus. Every time we set up a date, it snowed. What a coincident!

Hooked

While the motion design from Tetsoo production blew my mind, Sullen Girl got me hooked on her monologues, stories and poetries. I am also addicted to oatmeal with cranberries in the morning.

In college, I was fascinated with philosophy. The way philosophers think inspired me. I loved to come to class just to listened to my professors lectures, especially Dr. Volpe and Dr. Tsakiridou. I learned so much from them and wished I have their brain. In Dr. Tsakiridou class, we were trained to look at work of art in a philosopher’s way. Another word, look at the aesthetic qualities alone. For example, when you look at a painting, don’t try to figure out the meaning behind it or try to find out the artist intentions. Most importantly, do not bring in your personal experience into the work of art. So when you listen to Eminem, don’t be bothered by his lyrics or try to figure out why he expresses himself the way he does. Focus on the aesthetic qualities. Another example, Piss Christ by Andres Serrano. Don’t worry how the work of art was made. Just focus on the aesthetic experience. So what is the aesthetic experience? According to Monroe C. Beardsley explanation:

First, an aesthetic experience is one in which attention is firmly fixed upon heterogeneous but interrelated components of a phenomenally objective field-visual or auditory patterns, or the characters and events in literature. Some writers have suggested that in such an experience, as when we are deeply absorbed in the tension of visual design or in the developing design of music, the distinction between phenomenal objectivity and phenomenal subjectivity itself tends to disappear. This may be overstated, but in any case the experience differs from the loose play of fancy in daydreaming by having a central focus; the eye is kept on the object, and the object controls the experience.

Second, it is an experience of some intensity. Some writers have said that it is an experience pervasively dominated by intense feeling or emotion, but these terms still occupy a dubious position in psychological theory; what we call the emotion in an aesthetic experience may be simply the intensity of the experience itself. In any case, the emotion is characteristically bound to its object, the phenomenal field itself-we feel sad about the characters, or uncertain about the results of an unexpected modulation. Aesthetic objects give us a concentration of experience. The drama presents only, so to speak, a segment of human life, that part of it that is noteworthy and significant, and fixes our minds on that part; the painting and the music invite us to do what we would seldom do in ordinary life – pay attention only to what we are seeing or hearing, and ignore everything else. They summon up our energies for an unusually narrow field of concern. Large-scale novels may do more; they are in fact always in danger of dissipating attention by spreading it out into our usual diffuse awareness of the environment.

This is why the expression “feeling no pain” is particularly apt to aesthetic experience. The pleasure is not often comparable in intensity to the pleasures of satisfying the ordinary appetites. But the concentration of the experience can shut out all the negative responses-the trivial distracting noises, organic disturbances, thoughts of unpaid bills and unwritten letters and unpurged embarrassments-that so often clutter up our pleasures. It does what whiskey does, only not by dulling sensitivity and clouding the awareness, but by marshalling the attention of a time into free and unobstructed channels of experience.

Third, it is an experience that hangs together, or is coherent, to an unusually high degree. One thing leads to another; continuity of development, without gaps or dead spaces, a sense of overall providential pattern of guidance, an orderly cumulation of energy toward a climax, are present to an unusual degree. Even when the experience is temporary broken off, as when we lay down the novel to water the lawn or eat dinner, it can retain a remarkable degree of coherence. Pick up the novel and you are immediately back in the world of the work, almost as if there had been no interruption. Stop the music because of a mechanical problem, or the ringing of a phone, but when it is started again, two bars may be enough to establish the connection with what went before, and you are clearly in the same experience again.

Fourth, it is an experience that is unusually complete in itself. The impulses and expectations aroused by elements within the experience are felt to be counterbalanced or resolved by other elements within the experience, so that the degree of equilibrium or finality is achieved and enjoyed. The experience detaches itself, and even insulates itself, from the intrusion of alien elements.

Source: Aesthetics: Problems in the Philosophy of Criticism by Monroe C. Beardsley.