When someone from a high-profile organization reached out to me for a potential consulting project, of course I was skeptical. I assumed they tried to spam me—it was too good to be true. I ignored their message, but they followed up. Their email seemed legit; therefore, I did some research and they turned out to be who they claimed to be. I took on the project. Although I cannot share anything, I am excited about the opportunity to work for a company I have admired and respected.
Grato Marker, designed by Teja Smrekar, is a playful hybrid of geometry and informality. Although it has a casual attitude, Grato Marker is serious about supporting Latin, Greek and Cyrillic languages. Reviewed by skilled experts, it supports more than 270 languages including Vietnamese. Yes, I was consulted on Grato Marker’s Vietnamese diacritics. Big props to TypeMates.
I went to Bryce yesterday to kick off our skiing/snowboarding season. I also wanted to test out my new gears to make sure I can ride them. Since we are getting serious about these sports, we might as well invest into new equipments.
Over the past several months, I sold my used gears and replaced them with new ones. Although they were brand new, they were at least 50% off. I took my time to do my search.
For snowboarding, I bought a 2023 Salomon Super 8 board ($265), 2020 United-G1 Rome bindings Rome Bindings ($110), and 2021 DC Men’s Laced Lace snowboard boots ($164). The whole set was $539.
For skiing, I bought 2023 Fischer RC Fire SLR Pro skis with RS 9 SLR bindings ($215) and Lange RX 120 ski boots ($355). The whole set was $570. Both set for just a bit over a $1000 is not bad.
Since Bryce is running an early-season discount on lift ticket for $40, I decided to drive an hour and 45 minutes to test out my equipments. Unfortunately, the condition was icy hard yesterday. I couldn’t initiate or turn my board at all. I was falling on my ass and knees. Fortunately, I had my Soared 3D Protection short pants on, but my knees were brutal. I need to put on my knee guards. The board performed well despite my horrible skills—I couldn’t get my front-knee steering down. This will be the technique I will learn this season. The DC boots worked really well. The stiffness held up well. I didn’t feel any pain at all.
I also tested out my Fischer skis, but I couldn’t do much under the hard-ice condition. They worked. I can’t wait to spend a week at Stowe starting this Saturday.
Out of the Chainz-Wayne duo, the veteran flows far more superior than the rookie. Right off “G6” and “Big Diamonds,” 2 Chainz can’t keep up with Lil Wayne’s virtuosic deliveries. Wayne maneuvers his way around the beats with effortlessness. It’s easy to enjoy the way he raps than what he raps. On the other hand, 2 Chainz has a few hilarious punchlines like, “I went to paradise with a pair of dice with a pair of dykes.” Unfortunately the album loses its momentum halfway in. “P.P.A.” is just misogynistically horrendous.
I was about to make a special announcement on a consulting project I landed, but I had to suppress my excitement after reading the NDA. Oh well!
One of my favorite rollerblading techniques is the ability to drop in. The highest I can do is an 8-foot, curved ramp. Anything higher than that is just out of my league. Đán, on the other hand, has mastered his dropping techniques and he has the confidence to pull it off. Here are some of his awesome drops:
I admire his skills and confidence.
The Snowman is back and he might forgive, but he never forgets. Jeezy delivers 29 tracks all by himself. He raps the bars and the hooks. His flow is still slow and eerie. His storytelling is still captivating. I didn’t I could finish 29 tracks, but I had gone through at least three times. I could quote his rhymes and punchlines on any track, but I leave you with this one: “They wouldn’t let you in the door, but I walk you in the buildin’ / Only thing I’m takin’ care of, nigga, is my children.” Glad to hear a hustler’s taking care of his kids.
Last Friday was my last of work for 2023. I will return on January 10, 2024. I need a long break.
As soon as I found out about the release of Playpen Sans, designed by Laura Meseguer, Veronika Burian, and José Scaglione, I typeset the “Cổ tích nhi đồng” sample page again. Playpen Sans has an organic handwriting quality that fits well with the folk tales for children.
When setting the stories in Playpen Sans’s regular weight, I was surprised how well the text can be read. The TypeTogether team had done an exceptional job of keeping the authenticity of the handwriting style without compromising readability. Striking that balance requires research, time, and skills. The final product shows that they had invested in all three.
Playpen Sans comes with Vietnamese diacritics right from the initial release. The combinations, the stacks, and the positions of the marks are spot on. What I love the most is the bottom tail of the hook above, which adds a handwriting touch to the mark. In my type reviews, I always recommend the bottom tail.
While admiring the diacritical marks, it occurred to me that I have seen this typeface before. I went back to my font review archive and there was Playpen Sans, but under a different name. José Scaglione had sent it to me a while ago to review. I almost forgot all about it until now. It is incredible that they made Playpen Sans free for anyone to use.
When I took over the law school website, responsive design started to gain traction. In my interview presentation, I made the promise that I would make the whole site responsive if I were hired. Even though I had very little knowledge on server administration, which was the main responsibility of the web services developer position, I was hired.
My supervisor at the time told me, “Although you don’t have much backend knowledge, you have a strong sense of design. I am sure you will be able to pick up all the server stuff.” I was thrilled that she had more confidence in me than I did in myself.
To keep my promise, I ripped out all the HTML and CSS and rewrote them from the ground up. I also approached mobile first in my responsive redesign. I did not use any frameworks; therefore, everything I coded tailored to the site—nothing more, nothing less. At that time, we still used floats for layouts, but as soon as the CSS grid landed on major browsers, I rewrote the CSS to take advantage of the grid functionality.
To give our site more flexibility, I developed layout patterns based on the grid system. I put together a demo page to show different combinations (buttons, images, text, video). The grid can accommodate at least 12 layouts. The best part is the fluidity of the grid system. It is made to adapt to any digital device.