On my individual case study page, I had the responsive screenshot image breaking out of its parent element to make it span the entire width of the browser.

In the HTML, I just needed to wrap a div class around the image:

<div class="full-width">
   <img src="screenshot.png" alt="">
</div>

In the CSS, this is what I need:

.full-width { 
   margin-left: calc(-50vw + 50%);
   margin-right: calc(-50vw + 50%);
   }

That works, but you will get the horizontal scroll. To get rid of the scrollbar, you need to add the following lines at the top of your CSS:

 html, body { 
   width: 100%;
   height: 100%;
   margin: 0px;
   padding: 0px;
   overflow-x: hidden;
   }

It worked, but felt a bit hacky. I removed it from my case study pages, but reposted it just in case I need to get back to it later.

On the previous homepage of my portfolio site, I wrote an intro text that read:

I’m a creative director who brings decades of design expertise, technical experience, and collaborative energy to the teams.

I set the font weight to extra heavy, which didn’t look too good small screens. I wanted to remove it, but I had nothing else in place. Then I read Robin Rendle’s recent redesign. He writes:

The goal here was to merge the about and index pages into one since they’re always the same thing anyways and this now saves you a click if you want to learn about me.

Duh! Why didn’t I think of that? I moved the about page to the homepage and set the word “Chào!” (Hello!) really big. Why not include a Vietnamese word? It was a small change, but it made me happier.

Over the weekend, I tweaked the “Tục ca” sample page a bit. I reset the type to Cormorant, designed Christian Thalmann. I really liked the upright style of Cormorant for poetry.

I also turned the “Trịnh Công Sơn” sample page into hide-and-show function. Since the page has so many songs, it is easier to scroll to the title of the songs in alphabetical order without showing all the lyrics.

Nas drops a solid 15-track record with Nas holding down the mic and Hit-Boy laying down the beat. Lil Wayne is the only guest on the album. The rest is just Nas spitting dope-ass lyrics over the laid-back, soulful productions. The last line from the hook of “Pretty Young Girl” goes: “She’s a queen, her dad a G, I know hе rock to Nas.” The first time I heard it, I thought he said, “I know he recogNas.” I was like, “Damn, that’s a clever wordplay.” Then I played it again and again, that wasn’t it. In any rate, this is Nas’s sixth collaboration with his Boy—rounding out the two triumphant trilogies. Let’s hope this isn’t their final chapter together.

I have been obsessed with Phạm Duy’s music. The more I paid attention to his lyrics, the more I appreciated his gift for words. In addition to relistening to his songs, I wanted to take a deep dive into his lyrics. The result is a sample page featuring songs I have loved as well as songs I haven’t heard. I wanted to create a page I can read on my phone when I have a few minutes to spare. While I can visit various Vietnamese music websites to read Phạm Duy’s lyrics, I prefer an ad-free page with all the songs in one place. Furthermore, I want to have a pleasant reading experience. For the typesetting I combined Fern, designed by David Jonathan Ross, and Case, designed by Erik Spiekermann, Anja Meiners, and Ralph du Carrois. Since Phạm Duy had written over 1,000 songs, the selection for this sample is only my personal favorites. I left out political, controversial songs and epic compositions. Take a look!

No, I didn’t have swollen nuts, but my minivan had. I took my 2011 Toyota Sienna to Costco for rotation and I received a call notifying me that the nuts were very swollen and they needed to be replaced. All 20 nuts were replaced at $1.80 a piece. The total was almost $40.

I spent my Sunday cleaning up our bathrooms. I started to get to work around 9 am. I wanted to do a deep clean since I hadn’t done it in a while. Scrubbed the toilets, the bathtub, the shower stand, and wiped down all the floors and the trims on the wall.

The worst part was removing the molding caulk in the shower stand. The process took me about two hours just to finish the square. The best part is that my wife will re-caulk it since she’s an expert on it. I am terrible at that type of handy, crafty job.

I am trying to do everything I can before the winter because I won’t want to do anything else on the weekend besides skiing and snowboarding in the winter. At leas, that’s the hope.

I haven’t posted anything on Twitter/X or LinkedIn in almost a year. I don’t miss them. They don’t do anything for me. I still use Facebook heavily to stay in touch with family and friends. In addition, I have been using Facebook’s Marketplace to sell used skis, snowboards, skates, and things we don’t need anymore. Even with a few scammers, I have been able to sell things. I am slowly replacing all my old equipment with new ones. Once my new skis come, I’ll sell my old ones. I should also try to sell toys and materials that are accumulated in my basement. My next career move, when I lose my job, is to buy used things, fix them up, and resell them on Facebook’s Marketplace.

Cuong Lu:

[H]appiness and suffering are very close to each other, and that touching our own suffering can be a source of relief and even a prerequisite for true happiness.

This sample contains ten selected poems from The Secret of Hoa Sen, written by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai and translated by Bruce Weigl and the author. For the title of this project, I chose “Là Việt” because Ms. Nguyễn speaks eloquently and proudly about being Vietnamese. “We have crossed the glorious cities / Paris of light or ancient London,” she writes, “Our souls still drift back to our harbor.” For typesetting, I selected Kaius, by Lisa Fischbach, for reading text, and AT Kyrios, by Stephen Nixon, for display text. If you like this sample, pick up a copy of The Secret of Hoa Sen for the full experience.

Damn, my kids use their digital devices way too much. My firstborn always glues to his phone or laptop. My second son constantly plays on his PC. My third and fourth can’t stay away from their iPads. They have no motivation to do anything else. If they go to the skatepark with me, I have to reward them with boba tea or their favorite food.

The issue is they don’t know when to stop. If I don’t ask them to turn off, they will play for hours. Even when I tell them to stop, they won’t get up until they get yelled at. It breaks my heart to see them dropping everything else and just focusing on their digital devices.

My oldest is no longer reading paper books like he used to. My second is no longer interested in playing piano. He takes months to learn one song. My third gets whiny when being asked to practice piano. My youngest doesn’t do much else.

Am I the only one who is deeply concerned? Most kids seem to do the same. When my kids get together with other kids, they spend most of their time on their devices. I get so irritated that I just don’t want to witness it.

Other parents seem to be fine with it though. Maybe I should just stop worrying and let them do whatever they want with their time and hope for the best. What else can get worse? Addiction, depression, dropout, withdrawal? As a father, I love them and want to prevent the worst, but I am failing big time. I was so naive about parenthood. I thought love would conquer everything, but love alone isn’t enough. The more I love; the more I care; the more I fail. They have sunken to the point that they can’t function without these digital devices.

My concerns, worries, anxieties have fallen on deaf ears. I hope I am dead wrong. I hope I am worrying too much. I hope I am just being paranoid. Only time will tell.