I am getting pretty damn comfortable in the director chair. When I first stepped into the role, I worried that I didn’t have the skills to lead. I had always been a hands-on designer and developer. As I started to connect with other directors and higher ups, I learned that their main job was talking shit. I had seen so many directors pulling shit out of their ass without an ounce of embarrassment. I realized that I could do that shit too. I just needed to grow thick skin.

Even though I no longer need to be hands-on, I am responsible for leading the design and development processes. I need to make sure our codes are up to standard, our technologies are up to date and secured, and our products meet accessibility and usability. I often speak out in meetings, provide design feedback, and propose technological solutions. Essentially, I talk a lot of shit, but I know my shit and I can back it up. When designers and developers told me that certain things can’t be done, I proved to them that things can be done. I have the advantage that I don’t just talk the talk, but I can also walk the walk.

I still keep up my design and technical skills. I still run, update, and upgrade cloud servers for my own websites. I still design and code all of my projects. When I die, I hope one of my sons will take over all of my digital intellectual properties. Đán will most likely be the one.

I am a fan of Gay’s writing, particularly in Hunger. She has such an easygoing, approachable style. Over the years, I would read any opinion pieces she had written. Whether writing on politics, race, civil responsibilities, culture, or man problems, she brings fresh, smart, and honest opinions to the table. Her latest book is a collection of essays she had written in the past decade. It’s a good read.

I was go through my old boxes and came across a letter my former supervisor at George Washington University School of Business. On November, 4, 2008, Molly Brauer wrote:

To Whom It May Concern:

I have known Donny Truong for about a year, and during that time he has impressed me as a very thoughtful, hardworking, problem-solving, diplomatic person.

When I called one of Donny’s references during the hiring process, the gentleman I spoke to said, “Donny will quietly win the respect of everyone around him.” And that endorsement has rung true every day I’ve worked with him. Donny has a sterling work ethic, and the ability to organize and prioritize tasks efficiently and effectively.

He has been working for the Office of Communications in the GW School of Business for about nine months, and everyone he’s worked with has been very pleased with his work—both his cooperative spirit and his finished products.

Donny works with a wide variety of people in senior positions and much lower positions and treats everyone with the same respect. He is an excellent team builder and a good listener. Beyond his work ethic, Donny is a creative problem solver who finds elegant solutions to complex problems, taking into account the diverse needs of sometimes incongruent groups masterfully.

Donny works hard and learns quickly. He came to this country when he was 12 years old, learned a new language, and managed to attend college and find work in his chosen field – no small task. His only weakness is some minor difficulty with written and spoken English; his comprehension is excellent and he reads broadly.

I recommend Donny highly because I believe he will succeed at anything he puts his mind too; his life is testament to that.

Yours sincerely,

Molly Brauer

Xuân’s short clip is getting over 10k view. I must admit that I was a bit nervous when he went down that ramp.

As skiing and snowboarding have wrapped up, I am slowly transitioning over to rollerblading. My passion for rollerblading is winding down. I haven’t had the motivation to learn new skills. I just keep doing what I have already known.

I haven’t been to the skateparks as much as I used to. I need to spend more time doing housework. For two days this week, I chose to tidy up the house rather than hit the skatepark.

Đạo and Đán have little interest left in rollerblading. Soon they will lose all of their skills, if they stop skating, which is a shame. I can’t do anything about it. They are old enough now to make their own decisions and sitting in front of their screens for hours is their choice.

Xuân still enjoys scootering and joins me whenever he can since his schedule is almost full. He has swim meets, tutor sessions, piano lessons, and Scout activities. He stays busiest out of all of us.

Vương joins Xuân at the skateparks every now and then. He rides his balance bike, but not really into it. I am just glad whenever he decides to come with us.

I haven’t set my foot in the ice skating rink in a while. I wish I could go back, but not at this time. Soon I will give up rollerblading as well.

I hate doing the housework. It is such a waste of time. No matter what I had done, the mess would resume a week later. It is just an endless cycle. The longer I ignore it, the more it will creep up on me. The more stress I acquired. I just can’t let all the shit pile up. I don’t want to live in that environment. I haven’t invited anyone from outside of our family to our house after the first year we moved in.

As I was getting ready for work this morning, I hit the light switch on the ceiling fan and broke the chain. After work, I opened up the canopy and tried to remove the broken chain. I messed up the whole circuit trying to put it back together. I didn’t want to waste any time so I went to Home Depot to find a replacement.

I asked one of the associates to help me find the part and he immediate told me it was only available online even though the website said at least 5 items were in store. I had to find it myself and I did.

I went home, installed the new part, and voila! It worked. I wasted almost 2 hours on this tiny job. It was a good learning experience. I will order more parts for other ceiling fans too.

Another day, another DIY. The 3 Amp Single-Pole Single Circuit Pull-Chain Switch cost $5.

After reading what Trịnh Công Sơn had to say about his artist friend, I decided to put together a tribute page for Đinh Cường, whose website I designed more than a decade ago. I also would like to present some of his oil-on-canvas masterpieces. I created an art-direction sample with the integration of typography and imagery. For typesetting, I chose Platypi, designed by David Sargent, for its quirky features such as the contrast between sharp and heavy serifs and intriguing visual rhythms. Take a look: “Đinh Cường: Thi sĩ của hoài niệm”

After more than a decade of trying to choose images that convey diversity for the school that named after the ultra conservative Supreme Court Justice, I lost my passion for working with photography. Fortunately, Angela Riechers’ The Elements of Visual Grammar reinvigorated my long-lost love for the art of imagery. The text is clearly written and the accompanied images helped conveyed the message. I recommend it for design students and professionals.

For April, David Jonathan Ross sent out Job Clarendon Text to members of the Font of the Month Club. As much as I appreciated David’s wild display typefaces, I always loved when he sent us text faces. Job Clarendon started out as a display typeface for huge text such as posters and flyers, but now the text version pushes the slab serif family to a whole new level. Finding a slab serif text face is isn’t easy. Finding a slab serif text face with the full Vietnamese diacritics is just so rare. Of course, I have to feature it on the type recommendation section of Vietnamese Typography.

It had been a year already since I installed a new water heater. As I am typing up this document, I am draining the water from the tank. Here’s my flushing process:

1. Turn off the electric power
2. Shut off the cold water valve that goes into the tank
3. Connect the hose at the bottom of the tank
4. Open the hot side faucet in the basement bathroom and kitchen sink
5. Flip up the relief valve on the tank to release air
6. Turn on the plastic knob at the bottom of the tank gently toward the left where the hose is connect it. The plastic knob should turn easily and the hose will turn with the knob. Don’t try to force it or risk breaking the plastic knob.
7. Let it drain and wait (do something else like writing this blog post
8. Check the expansion tank to make sure the water pressure matched the main water pressure, which is 48 to 50 PSI
9. Turn on the cold water valve on and off several times (once the tank is completely drained) to flush out more sediment
10. Close the valve and disconnect the hose
11. Turn the cold water valve on the tank back on
12. Flip the relief valve down once the water reached halfway or higher
13. Turn off the sink valves in the basement bathroom and kitchen
14. Turn the power back on

It was not a bad process. I will do it every year to make sure the tank is in good shape and the water is clean. If you haven’t tried it yet, check out this video.