Eleven days ago (Friday, July 21, 2023), Vương came down with high fevers and vomited while we were out camping at First Landing. Five days later, his symptoms hadn’t gone away; therefore, we took him to the pediatrician. He was tested negative for Covid and flu. Two days later, he still didn’t get better. I wanted to take him to the ER, but the on-call nurse advised taking him to PM Pediatric Care. He tested negative for strep and urinary tract infection.

Earlier today, he still had high fevers and still threw up. Worse, he was lethargic. I couldn’t just wait around anymore. My wife and I took him to the ER around 5 pm. He had a chest x-ray. His lungs were cleared. They drew three tubes of blood from him for testing. They also swapped his nose for more tests.

More results will be confirmed tomorrow, but he is not in any immediate danger. He was discharged. I hope the doctors were correct that his viral infection is lasting longer than expected, but will go away.

Seeing him being sick breaks my heart. I hope he will recover quickly.

With Anthem of Unity, guitarist Joel Harrison invited Jack DeJohnette who played drums for Miles Davis to join him along with saxophonist Greg Tardy and keyboardist Gary Versace. Together they formed an outstanding quartet. They give Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin” a soulful, waltzing interpretation, especially Harrison’s emotional solo. They way he accompanies Tardy is just too damn beautiful. Tardy and Versace were blazing on “Today Is Tomorrow’s Yesterday” and DeJohnette’s opening improvisation on “Parvati” is captivating. The album is a beauty of unity.

I just completed the “2023-2024 Mandatory IT Security Awareness Training” for work in less than 10 minutes . I took the pre-check test and scored 25/27. If you want to check your answers, visit Quizlet. Make sure that you do not close or refresh your browser or else Quizlet will blur out the answers.

On “Abracadabra” Nas rhymes, “2020 when we did the first one / Five album run, not a cursed one, it’s a blessed one / By the time y’all hear this, we be halfway through the next one.” Without a doubt, Nas is a prolific rapper, especially after he found his fruitful collaborator. Nas and Hit-Boy make more magic on this short, concise, compelling album. Only 50 Cent and 21 Savage get the guest spot on Magic 2. Nas continues to churn out dope rhymes himself. He has proven that his assets are his words. Almost 30 years after he released his classic Illmatic, he has not ran out of words. He is a wordsmith and that is how he gets to where he is today. At 49, Nas is a hip-hop living legend.

Since the design mockups are secretive, I prepared questions to ask during the “unveil” meeting. These questions are strictly for the designer who doesn’t code.

Research

• Had you conducted any research for the redesign? If yes, can you share something you had found?

Accessibility

• Have you used an accessibility tool like WebAim to check your color contrast?

Navigation

• Are we getting rid of the quick links, which is one of the most frequent use navigational item on the current site
• How does the menu function on mobile devices?
• Are repeated links in the footer necessary? The Nielsen Norman Group suggests, “Eliminate redundancy on webpages whenever possible to reduce cognitive overload. Each extra link makes your site harder to use.”

Fonts

• How are you planning on hosting the fonts? Local or third-party?
• Will we be using static or variable fonts?
• Do the fonts support beyond English? Do they include diacritics? We have quite a few faculty and staff names with diacritics such as: Helen Alvaré, Seán O’Connor, and Tammy Trần

Mock-ups

• We use tables for various tabular data such as course schedules. Do you have a mock-up for tables? How do tables respond to various devices? How do you sort each table column?
• Do you have a mock-up for the faculty and staff bio page? How do you list their credentials and bio?
• Do you have a mock-up for an emergency message at the top of the site?
• Do you have a mock-up for a spotlight story? Are there options for including photos—algin left, align right, or full width?
• Do you have a mock-up for the events section?
• Do you have a mock-up for secondary pages?

Banners

• Do we use responsive images for banners? How do they look on mobile vs. desktop?

Design System

• What does the typographic hierarchy look like?
• Do you have a mock up for h1 to h6, text blocks, pull quotes, bullet lists, etc.?
• Do you have a design system? Buttons, drop-down, icons, pagination, toggle switch, etc?
  • Vanderbilt Design System
  • Columbia Design System
  • A Design System for WVU

Layout

• What is the max width of the site?
• Are there flexibilities for the layout?
• Can we drop the sidebar for a full-width design?
• Can we switch the columns around?
• Is there a grid pattern we can choose?

With 26 tracks clocking in almost 90 minutes, Pink Tape is hard to get through, especially with Uzi’s Auto-Tune singing in the later numbers. Even his sexual braggadocio gets boring. There are some shining moments like “Suicide Doors” and “Mama, I’m So Sorry.” Uzi’s style is not my cup of tea.

I just returned my parking permit and gate-access card. I made the commitment to take the shuttle to work. The only thing I missed not having access to my car is going to the skatepark during my lunch break. I will make that up in the evening after work.

For my lunch break, I will be walking to the library or the bookstore. I haven’t set my foot in Barnes & Noble in years. I need to do some exercise to keep myself active. I started ice skating again, but my skills are rusty. I am relearning the techniques I had mapped out for myself. I am wondering if I should go back to retaking group lessons. Private lessons are too expensive for me.

I am still snowboarding in my basement. I can’t wait to get back on the snow again. I want to learn carving on both snowboarding and skiing. I found a few snowboard on sales for $250 or less, but I haven’t made a decision to purchase yet. I am still searching.

While rollerblading, I met a guy who taught skateboarding to young kids. His rate is only $25 an hour. It’s very reasonable. I asked my kids to take lessons, but they refused. They are sticking with skating and scootering. I am still in search for aggressive skates for Đạo and myself.

Today I bought a brand new TV for the first time in almost two decades. The last TV was a hand down from my sister-in-law’s father-in-law. His son gave us his TV after he passed away. The brand was Vizio. We had it for almost a decade. In the past few weeks, the audio stopped working. We were watching silence TV.

Before the Vizio, my brother-in-law handed down to us a Samsung, which last 5 or 6 years. Before that I had a few hand-down tubes from my sister and her then husband. I didn’t care much for TV. I could live without it, but my mother-in-law and my kids still watch YouTube on TV.

I took the kids to Costco last evening and we picked up the cheapest one in the store, which was a 50-inch Hisense for $250. The quality looked decent on display. Another reason I went for it was the RCA connectors. I wanted to hook the audio to my refurbished Sony receiver my mother bought for me at a Sony Outlet when I was in seventh or eighth grade. Around the same time, She also bought me the Yamaha speakers at an electronic store that went out of business. I wanted to keep these equipments for many years to come. They reminded me of her.

It turned out that the RCA connectors behind the new Hisense TV were input instead of output. I should have paid attention. Fortunately, it also had a digital output. I will try the adaptor from digital output to RCA.

I hope that will work. I am still an old-school when it comes to video and audio technologies. I am getting antiquated as I am growing older. Oh well! That’s life.

Update: My wife bought the DAC 192KHz Digital to Analog Audio Converter and it works like a charm.

Our family, along with my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and nephew, arrived before noon on Thursday and picked out a campsite. We loaded everything and put up our tents. We went to the beach and then came back to our site. The booking miscommunication caused us to move a different site. It was a bit of a pain, especially when it started to rain, but we made the transition.

Despite the moving issue, we had fun. Unfortunately, we were bitten by mosquitoes. My arms and legs are still itchy. I couldn’t sleep much. I couldn’t wait to pack up and go home. I am done with camping. This year was not as fun as last year. The kids enjoyed their time. I had fun with them. Poor little Vương got sick.

I got tired of drinking and socializing. We knew each other so much now. We didn’t have much to talk about anymore. Even though my gout has not flared up—knock on wood–I need to cut back. It is no longer fun for me. Our relationship is complicated and I am not in the mood to articulate. I am not sure where I am going from here.

Loes is display serif typeface designed by Dương Trần. Loes is still a work in progress; therefore, the price is only $35. I bought it to support a fellow Vietnamese type designer.