I left my house at 5:30 am and arrived at Whitetail around 7:15 am. I made it to the morning ski clinic. I always loved these clinics. We worked on putting pressure on outside foot.

I went to the line up at 10:00 am. I didn’t get any class. I went to snowboard clinic to learn buttering. It was not my thing. Luckily the training was about 45 minutes. I went riding afterward. I need to relearn to snowboard with my body closed. I have been carving with opening position, which my lead instructor doesn’t like. He didn’t give me any level two class because of that. I am cool with that.

I went back to the line up at 1:00 pm. I didn’t get any class either, which I was glad. I switched to my ski boots and went to the back side. The trails were getting slushy. I didn’t enjoy it too much. I left the resort around 2:30 pm. I was exhausted. Damn, I am getting old.

In the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting, JD Vance killed two birds with one stone. He berated President Zelenskyy and kissed Trump’s ass at the same time. Trump was so flattered that he just played along with his VP. Vance showed the entire world that he had a seat at the table, a real power, and a fucking presidential puppet to back him up. Trump was talking a lot of bullshit, but his VP had a viciousness in his tone. Now that’s an authoritarian in the making and a danger to our democracy.

Today the whole family left the house at 7:00 am so I could make it to the morning line up. We arrived around 8:45 am. I went to the 10:00 am lone up and took a group a lesson. I taught two ladies.

At first, one of them didn’t think she could learn snowboarding. I encouraged her to give it as try. We took it as easy as possible. They turned out to be snowboarding really well. They followed my instructions and made great progress. I was surprised how they could do J turns.

One of the students also signed up for a private lesson and she wanted me to teach her, but her lesson had already been assigned.

I ended up not taking any lesson for the 1:00 pm line up. I went riding by myself a bit then with my wife and then with the kids.

We left the resort around 4:00 pm. It was perfect timing. I’ll be back tomorrow by myself to teach.

I am feeling sick and ashamed watching two fucking American assholes berating a man who is defending his country. America is trying to make a fucking deal with a country that is fighting for its democracy. America cares more about money than democracy. I am so sorry, President Zelenskyy and Ukrainians. The orangutan and his fucking flying monkey do not represent America. They are a damn shame to America. We stand with Ukraine.

Of course I have nothing but love for my four boys, but I sympathize with Xuân. It doesn’t mean that I am favoring him. I just know all my kids strengths and weaknesses.

Without a doubt, Xuân is physically strong. He’s athletic. He’s the only one in the family who competes in swimming. He has no fear riding the scooter at the skateparks. He is a hell of a skier. He makes tremendous progress on snowboarding this season. He eats well and grows fast.

In contrast to his strong physical, his emotion is weak. He lets people’s words get to him. Đạo and Đán seized on his vulnerability and they attacked verbally every chance they got. Even when I told them to stop, they wouldn’t. That was when I exploded and they accused me of favoritism. They could call me whatever they wanted, but I couldn’t just stand by and let them berate their younger brother to tears.

Even little Vương picked on Xuân. When Vương got mad, he would hit his older brother, but Xuân never hit his younger brother back. I wouldn’t want Xuân to hit Vương back either, but my heart hurt for Xuân.

Last Saturday, the three of us went riding together. Vương skied down to the lift first. Then Xuân snowboarded down and pulled a brake. He sprayed some snow on Vương. Vương got mad and hit his forehead with his pole. When I snowboarded down, I saw Xuân holding his head in the snow and crying. I was so mad. Vương could have poked Xuân’s eye with his pole. I yelled at Vương. He got mad and decided to ski back to the base himself. I let him go alone.

I don’t know how Xuân is doing in school when I am not around. I hope he can defend himself. Better yet, I hope he doesn’t let other people’s words get to him. Whenever I am not with my kids. I think about them a lot, especially Xuân. I hope one day his brothers will understand him, love him, care for him, and protect him. That’s what brotherhood is all about.

It was 11:40 pm on a Wednesday night and I couldn’t sleep because I got hungry. I went downstairs and made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Up until near the end of last year, I probably had a handful PB&Js my entire life. PB&J was not my jam.

Then on a warm, fine evening in November last year (I couldn’t remember the exact date). My buddy TJ and I were waiting for other dads to play volleyball. I got a little hungry. TJ pulled out a Smucker’s uncrustables peanut butter & grape jelly sandwich he packed for his son. I didn’t want to take it, but he insisted. The creamy peanut butter and the sweet-and-sour grape jelly on a cold, soft sandwich bread stuck with me. It gave me energy to play volleyball.

In December, 2024, I took a ski trip to Stowe and I bought all the ingredients for PB&Js. Since then, I have a PB&J every morning with coffee. When I went teaching snowboarding on the weekends, I made an extra one for lunch. For almost three months, I tried out different peanut butters, jellies, and sandwiches. I finally perfected my PB&J.

I chose Schmidt’s Old Tyme Italian bread because each slice only had 40 calories. I selected Kirkland’s organic, creamy peanut butter because it had no added sugar. I enjoyed Wegmans’ organic blueberry jammin’ fruit spread, which included only 5g added sugars.

Thanks to TJ, I am now hooked on PB&J. Luckily, he didn’t hand me cracks or cocaines.

I can’t believe I just wrote a post on PB&J at midnight. I always encouraged my kids to write about anything they want to hone their writing skills. I just practiced what I preached.

My passion for design is waning, especially with all the chaos going on right now in America. Design doesn’t seem to matter anymore. These essays, edited by Liz Stinson and Jarrett Fuller, are informative, but I just can’t think about design anymore. Don’t give me wrong. I am not burning out. I can still whip up a website or print material without even thinking. Nevertheless, I enjoyed a few essays from the collection.

I am an old head who knows nothing about Tate McRae. I came across her new release So Close to What. Although her pronunciation is hard to follow, she has a decent voice and he productions are banging. On the first track, “Miss Possessive,” she drops the first f-bomb, “I know what you are, tryin’ so hard / Runnin’ ’round tryna fuck a star, go.” On the first track, she drops another f-bomb, “You ain’t gonna win with the jewelry / Don’t need the cute fuckin’ names (No).” On the third track, she drops more f-bombs, “Fuck me good, fuck me up, thеn I gotta move towns / How’d I get from your gym to your couch? Oh, how?” Of course, the forth track, “bloodonmmyhands,” featuring Flo Milli, she drops more f-bombs, “Oh baby boy, you’re seein’ stars / And it fucks you up so hard.” I sweared I heard her singing “pussy star” instead of “you’re seein’ stars.” Thank goodness that she didn’t drop any f-bomb on “Dear God.” That would have been pretty controversial.

Despite the warm weather, the conditions at Liberty were still decent. I was able to snowboard on the double-black terrains and blue trails. I wanted to open my body more and go low for carving. I also tried to keep my body in the front. I would like to get better at carving on snowboard before the season is over. The clock is running out. There’s only 3 weekends left. I am going to miss it.

Let’s keep it real. The Republican Party is gone. Trump has captured and seized every GOP leaders. They no longer work for the American people. They work for Trump. Even the Supreme Court is on Trump’s side. The conservative Justices will go along with him.

The Democratic Party is so weak right now. They can’t do much. We need to get them back in Congress to balance out the power. I hope there is still a chance to restore our democracy. Nothing will matter if we lose our democracy.

Trump is expanding his power. He is already stepping over Congress. He is hinting at a third term. He already refers to himself as a king. He needs to be stopped.

After the election, I wanted to remove myself from politics, but I just can’t sit back and watch our democracy dying in front of my eyes. I don’t have any power. All I have is a voice on this blog. This is the place where I can speak my mind.