Amazon has an opening for UX Designer in Arlington, VA. The base salary is from from $106,000 to $184,000. Experience prototyping with Flash. What? Amazon still uses Flash?

Found a readers’ message in my mailbox. On October 15, 2010, Consolacion Cenalmor and Phat Nguyen wrote:

Hi, Your website is absolutely amazing!

My daughter dragged me to Áo Dài Trắng À Ơi. (she has just completed a degree in costume-making) and I do understand why it raised her interest.

Biển Nhớ brought back so many memories, back to the time I worked as a volunteer in Pulau Bidong refugee camp. As a member of Pulau Bidong Alumni, I guess your piece might be of great interest to lots of former refugees who are trying to revive the story of their puzzled childhood. Do you mind if I add a link to your website?

Thanks again for sharing your interests with us and … don’t worry if blogging is no longer a priority … sure little Công Đạo deserves it! And it will take some time before my husband and I finish exploring your Ali Baba’s cave!

Best regards from France
Consolacion Cenalmor & Phat Nguyen

Thank you!

I love reading Đán’s hilarious blog posts. For instance, he shares his thoughts on writing:

To me these blog posts are huge wastes of time and are incredibly time consuming for me even though I type mindlessly and don’t even revise my writing (meaning they should be quick because i’m just speeding through them). But I kinda see the reason behind why my dad wants me to write a post a day. To him instead of it being an apple a day keeps the doctor away. it’s “a blog posts a day keeps the angry dad away” which is something I will carry on with my kids.

Yes, give me 300 words a day and I’ll be gladly stay away.

I must confess that my knowledge of classical music is very limited. I might have heard of Johann Sebastian Bach’s compositions before, but I would not have recognized them. Because Brad Mehldau is a jazz pianist, I could tell when he played Bach and when he improvised. For instance, his nimble classical skills are apparent on “Prelude No. 6 in D Minor from The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I, BWV 851.” In “Toccata,” he used Bach’s composition as an inspiration to improvise on. Listeners can clearly tell where Bach ended and where he began. The juxtaposition between classical and jazz is fascinating. Mehldau is one of the few living pianists who can bring the best of both worlds together.

While our 2018 Toyota Sienna LE is still at the dealer shop, I have been driving a loaner car to work. Instead of parking in the garage, I parked on the street using the ParkMobile app.

Yesterday on my way to work, I needed to take a shit so bad that I didn’t complete the payment on my phone. I got a parking ticket for $40. I paid online to get it over with. My bad.

Today, I made sure I paid correctly in the morning before I went to my office. When I walked to my car for lunch, an officer had already put a ticket on my windshield. I tried to show her my app, which was still on the clock for another 15 minutes, but she didn’t give a fuck.

After checking the citation and my app, the license letters and numbers didn’t match. They were wrong the whole time. I suspected they were autocorrected when I entered the letters and numbers, but I didn’t double check. I submitted the ParkMobile receipt and the citation, but the Public Safety Support Supervisor didn’t dismiss the ticket. The license letters and numbers didn’t match. He didn’t give a fuck about my error.

I am not going to court for it. I’ll just pay another $40. Life is just a bitch sometimes. I just have to suck it up and pay for my mistakes.

Last night I picked up HTML5 for Web Designers to refresh my memories. I read Jeremy Keith’s first edition when it first came out 14 years ago. Rachel Andrew’s second edition had solid updated information. I am planning to teach my two teenage kids HTML and CSS. I would like them to read this book.

Over the Memorial weekend, the airbag warning light in our 2018 Toyota Sienna LE came on again. We dropped $1,245 just two months ago to get it fixed.

On Tuesday early morning, the next day after the Memorial holiday, I brought our minivan back to Ourisman Toyota to have it checked out. Later on that day, the service rep told me the wire burned again. They were looking into the root cause of the issue.

Today, 8 days later, I still have not heard back from him. My wife told me to call him to find out the progress. I hadn’t even bothered to call. As long as they can fix the problem without anymore charges, I am in no rush. Besides, he had given me a loaner. It’s a smaller car, but we still have our 2011 Toyota Sienna 2011.

I hate dealing with car issues. They are such a pain. I have been overstressed with cars, HVAC, and other money-spending issues. Money could solve everything, but we are not rich, unfortunately. I just have to wait patiently to see what thee heck is going on.

After consuming two hotdogs at Costco last evening, I had a gout flare in my right foot. It was not a severe attack, but definitely prevented me from rollerblading for a couple of days. In addition to drinking beer or Yoju moderately (a can a day) and not avoiding beef, I had been overstressed myself out. The combination did it. I am treating the gout flare with Aleve for a couple of days. Hopefully, it will be done by Wednesday. I don’t want to take Aleve more than three days. Gout flares put me in checked. It is time to slow down the fun.

After my freshman year at La Salle University, I decided to change my major from communications to digital arts. I found out that I didn’t like public speaking; therefore, I wanted my arts to speak for me.

I checked the University of the Arts website and was impressed with its programs and students’ projects. I wanted to apply, but then I decided to stay at La Salle when some faculty members informed me that La Salle would have a brand new program called Digital Arts & Multimedia Design next year.

I just learned that UArts will close on Friday, June 7. The abrupt closure is devastating, especially for the current students. Fortunately La Salle offers personalized transfer plan for all University of the Arts students. The digital arts program at La Salle has come a long way. As one of first graduates in the DArts program 23 years ago, I am doing fine in the field I studied.

George Washington University School of Nursing is hiring a Web Lead. This position is fully remote. The pay is OK ($57,553.66 – $79,165.63), but the tuition benefit is great.