Back in July, we filled and patched the driveway, but didn’t seal it because the weather had been super hot, most day in the mid 90s F. Now the temperature is cooling down a bit in the 70s F. Today our kids get an extra day off for the Labor Day weekend. I decided to take off work as well. My wife, Đạo, and Đán sealed up the driveway. The process didn’t take too long. It feels great to check off another do-it-yourself project and saved about $5,000.

Materials

• 4 buckets of 4.75 Gal. Ultra Shield Driveway Filler Sealant ($120)
• 18 in. Driveway Squeegee ($18)

Total: $138

The cost for everything was $324. I hope it will last for another 3 to 5 years.

I love taking the shuttle to work, but the major drawback is not having access to the skatepark. In fact, I have been sitting in my office for almost the entire day. I don’t even feel motivated to walk around the campus during my lunch break. I need to figure out something to keep me active.

I still go to the skatepark with my kids after work. My four-year-old Vương finally started to like his balanced bike. He can bike down smaller ramps. The smiles on his face looked so darn cute every time he made down the ramps.

As for me, I made a small improvement. I can jump into a quarter pipe without using the coping. Đán had done it for quite a while. Đạo did it a few months ago. It took me a while because the last time I jumped in, I fell backward and hit my head. I also lost a pair of glasses. I couldn’t remember where I placed it after I felt the impact on my head. Luckily I had a helmet on. I will always wear a helmet for these types of sports.

My backward skating is also getting better. Skating backward off the ramp feels great. I tried to reach higher a bit each time until my right foot hit the coping. I want to get over the middle spine of the two quarter ramps, but I haven’t been able to pull off. Đán did it when the park was first renovated. He’s brave and he also has the skills. He just lacks the motivation and the discipline. His mind is all about video games. It kills me.

TN writes:

Hi Donny,

I just discovered your blog Visualgui today, and I have to say I really enjoy reading your music reviews for Vietnamese albums. It’s quite rare to see Vietnamese music get viewed in English proper.

I’m a frequent user of rateyourmusic.com, it’s an online music encyclopedia where people can catalog and rate music releases. I like to spend my free time there adding Vietnamese albums to the site’s database, especially those released in the 2000s and 2010s.

I’m writing this email to ask if it’s possible for me to collect your music reviews for 2000s and 2010s Viet albums into a list on my rateyourmusic profile page, with the proper attribution of course, hoping that they would help spread the good (and bad) word on Vietnamese music. Your reviews would only be visible in the list, and not elsewhere on the site.

Best regards.

I reply:

Dear TN,

Thank you for reading my blog. I am flattered that you want to include my music reviews on rateyourmusic.com. I have to decline your request because I wrote these reviews based on my personal taste and my limited knowledge of music. My music review is not professional. In fact, many of the reviews are very opinionated; therefore, I wanted to keep them on my blog and nowhere else.

I hope you understand.

Regards,

Donny Trương

I was chatting with my two male colleagues and one of them checked X (formerly known as Twitter). He informed us that more shit hit the fan. The sexual misconduct allegations still played out on social media.

One of my colleagues recounted an incident where he came to the ex-professor’s office and three students, including the adjunct professor, were hovering over him. The ex-professor joked, “We are not doing anything.”

My colleague knew about the ex-professor’s behavior for years and he didn’t say shit. What a shithead. At least three victims had pointed out that the school and the university hadn’t done shit to stop the ex-professor from engaging in sexual relationships with students. They are damn right.

I didn’t confront my colleague. I understood his situation. I had no idea about the ex-professor’s open secret. I never interacted with him in person. We only exchanged a few emails, strictly about work. If I knew about his behavior, would I do anything about it? I don’t know. My colleagues and I come to work everyday to make money to raise our family. We are just two minority employees.

I only interacted with people on the professional level; therefore, I don’t know anything else about them. I don’t play politics. I kiss up to no one. I stay as far away from the deans as I can. Even with my current supervisor, I keep things strictly business. Whatever he wants to do, I’ll do it. He has power over me. I am there to do my job and get the fuck out.

If I knew about the ex-professor’s misbehavior and if I were to report, I am sure no one would have taken my seriously. Even the victims themselves are facing a 108-million-dollar lawsuit. It’s fucked up, but we are still living under the white man’s world with white privileges and powers.

I want to treat myself to a brand new snowboard for the next season. My budget is between $200 to $300. I have been doing a bit of research on rocker vs. camber. Apparently both of my used boards are cambers. No wonder I caught the edge so many times last season as a beginner snowboarder. From what I learned, rocker is a bit easier to learn for beginner. I didn’t know that. Since I had passed the edge-catching phrase, I want to continue with a camber.

After many months of looking, I finally came across a great deal: The 2023 Nidecker All-Mountain Thruster. It is on sale for $250. I bought the 150cm-long board instantly. Then I checked the Nidecker website and the chart recommends the 150cm board for riders between 121-143bls. Unfortunately, I am way over that range. I need a 156cm board.

I am not sure if 6 cm would make a different, but I better follow the recommendation. I tried to learn on a 143cm board, but it was not stable when I was riding down the blue terrain. My 156cm board was much more stable for me to ride.

I cancelled my order. Now I am back looking for a good deal on a snowboard. I might end up with a rocker or I’ll just use my 17-year-old board.

“Strangers on the Internet,” hosted by Irina Manta, conducted two exclusive interviews with Professor Christa Laser and Professor Brandy Wagstaff. Thank them for making their stories public. The law school and the university should have done more to prevent these behaviors. I had no clue.

Leah Nylen, reporting for Bloomberg:

[E]ight women told Bloomberg News that, over nearly two decades, Wright used his positions and influence to proposition female students, staffers and job applicants. Promising career help, he sent some of them flirtatious texts, invited others on trips where he would book only one hotel room and engaged in sexual relationships with three of them. Several of them said they feared losing opportunities if they turned him down.

The story is just blowing up.

I discovered striking covers of Phạm Duy’s songbooks on Phạm Duy’s website. The illustrations are beautiful, but I am drawn into the custom typesetting with Vietnamese diacritics. I have to create a sample page to feature the covers. Of course, I have to add some text to the page as well. I selected Eric Henry’s “Phạm Duy and Modern Vietnamese History,” which was written in English with proper diacritical marks for Vietnamese words. For reading text, I chose Be Vietnam Pro, designed by Lâm Bảo, Tony Lê, and Nguyễn Việt Anh. Check out Phạm Duy music typography.

AI wrote:

Greetings,

I like the fact that your website exists. However, your website seems more geared to font designers designing fonts. I like that you are helping western font designers design Vietnamese fonts. So that we have more well designed Vietnamese fonts. However, if you want to add more to the website. I would want you to add more typography guides specifically for Vietnamese. Like punctuation, text formatting, page layout and type composition. Your website reminds me of the similarly named Matthew Butterick’s Practical typography, and Typography for lawyers. If you can extend your website to more topics other than type design. It would be gladly appreciated. Thank you.

Regards.

I replied:

Hi A,

Thank you for writing to me. I also appreciate your feedback. You are correct that my web book is for type designers, and it was intentional. The first version of this book, which was my thesis for my MA in graphic design, my goal was to enhance and enrich Vietnamese typography. I am a typographer and not a type designer. I can only set type. I don’t design type. When the book launched, however, many type designers had reached out to me and asked for my advice on Vietnamese diacritics.

For the second version of the book, I revised and expanded the book to include more information and illustration to help type designers support Vietnamese. It’s a win win. The type designers have to design Vietnamese diacritics in order for me to use their fonts. Without type, I can’t be a typographer.

I like the idea of adding typography guides specifically for Vietnamese. This is what I have been doing with the samples. Designing sample pages had become one of my favorite creative exercises. I choose the type of subjects I wanted to create, the design directions without needing approvals, and the typefaces I wanted to showcase.

Yes, Vietnamese Typography and Professional Web Typography were inspired by Matthew Butterick’s Practical Typography. I loved that book so much that I followed his lead. I wanted the information to be free for all and anyone who can support would be great.

Donny

This morning my wife informed me that the shower head in her bathroom had been leaking. I opened up the valve to inspect. I looked up YouTube and came across “How to Fix Leaky Shower Tub Faucet” by Matt Taylor. I went to Home Depot to buy a single-handle replacement cartridge (Moen 1225). It also came with a white cap that can be used to losing up the old cartridge.

I also bought a cartridge puller for Moen made by Everbilt. This one was probably not necessary, but made removing the old cartridge with ease. I recommend it.

The process took about half an hour. Not bad for a Sunday home replacement project.

Parts

• Moen 1225 (Single-handle Replacement Cartridge ($23)
• Everbilt’s EvCartridge Puller for Moen 1200, 1222 and 1225 Series Tub/Shower Cartridges ($16)

Total: $39.