Last Saturday, we pulled together our first community sale. A week before, I started to collect everything we hadn’t used in years including toys, books, rollerblades, bikes, helmets, vases, shoes, and everything in between. I was excited to get rid of the things that I had wanted to throw away for a while.

The sale started at 8:00 am, but I woke up around 6:00 to get everything ready. Most of the things I just wanted to give away, especially mix boxes of toys. Once I had everything set up, I asked Đạo and Đán to be in charge of the sales. They could keep whatever they sold. Only Đạo was willing to do the sales.

At 10:00 am, he made about $30. Then the rain started to pour. We had to cover everything with the tarps. The rain stopped around 11:30 am. We opened business back up, but couldn’t sell anything. We kept all the free stuff out for grab, but no one picked up anything.

On Sunday, we continued to put all the free stuff out while my wife posted a few items on Facebook’s Marketplace. We made more money through Facebook’s Marketplace than on our driveway. On Monday, I took all the unwanted boxes to Goodwill.

It felt great to be able to get rid of so much junk in our basement. For 15 years, I always dreaded all the stuff that we had collected and could not let go. I didn’t want to hurt my wife’s feelings, but I started to feel stressed out everytime I wanted to tidy up our place.

We still need to get rid of more things, but I will try to sell them through Facebook’s Marketplace. As for community sale, it was our first and our last.

Typeset in Degular and Swear, designed by James Edmondson, Elliot Jay Stocks’s book is a lovely printed publication on web typography. The book features 100 clearly written principles accompanied by beautiful illustrations to help readers understand the key concepts.

From typographic fundamentals to choosing and pairing fonts to typography systems to OpenType and variable fonts, this book is a comprehensive guide to typography. Even though Elliot focuses on typesetting for the web, his principles can apply to other mediums as well.

His writing is friendly and his approach to typography is flexible. There are no hard rules in setting types. His principles serve as guides and not regulations. You just have to do it and get a feel for it. For example, he argues that long-form text can be set in either serif or sans serif typefaces, as he illustrated in the typesetting of his own book. I still prefer serif for long-form reading, especially for books with just text. The simplicity of sans-serif text always made me read too fast and skipped the words. I had to consciously tell myself to slow down. On the other hand, serif typefaces made me read slower, but retain the information better. That’s just my own experience.

If you are a design student or interested in improving your typesetting, Universal Principles of Typography is highly recommended. Thanks for the shout out to Vietnamese Typography.

Khác với những album trước tôi đã nghe, Vĩ cầm ca không theo phong cách acoustic. “Tình ca phố” (Quốc Bảo) được phối khí theo electronic đương đại. “Lối cũ ta về” (Thanh Tùng) được dàn dựng theo orchestra. “Chưa bao giờ” (Việt Anh) được hòa âm theo pop ballad. “Chuyện tình thảo nguyên” (Trần Tiến) thì hơi upbeat một chút. Tóm lại là những ca khúc Hiền Lê trình bài rất tốt, nhất là “Lối cũ ta về”. Tuy nhiên album không được cái concept cụ thể từ đầu đến cuối nên phần trải nghiệm hơi bị xáo trộn.

Last week, Robin Rendle launched The Cascade, a member supported blog about the past, present, and future of CSS. I didn’t hesitate to become a member to support his work.

I have been following Robin’s writing for a while. I subscribed to his personal site and newsletters. Robin is a skillful writer. Even when he writes about typography and CSS, his style is always approachable. Furthermore, I always appreciated his honesty in life, design, and career.

I am glad that he started The Cascade so I can keep myself up to date with CSS features that I haven’t heard of yet. I have not followed the web industry since the rise of frameworks like React. I am still crafting my webpages by hands with semantic markups and CSS presentations. This approach is still accessible and fast.

Thêm một album thu âm acoustic của Hiền Lê. Trong đây cô thu các ca khúc nhạc Việt lãng mạn của nhiều tác giả như “Phố mùa đông” của Bảo Chấn, “Mùa thu cho em” của Ngô Thụy Miên, và “Nhìn những mùa thu đi” của Trịnh Công Sơn. Cô vẫn hát với tiếng đàn guitar và violin. Riêng “Nỗi nhớ mùa đông” của Phú Quang và “Chia tay hoàng hôn” của Thuận Yến được đệm với đàn piano và violin. Một sản phẩm đơn giản, gần gũi, và đầy cảm xúc.

Gần đây tôi thích nghe những album acoustic của Hiền Lê và đặc biệt là album này cô trình bày những nhạc phẩm của nhạc sĩ Trần Tiến. Cả bảy ca khúc điều đạt cả nhất là “Ngẫu hứng phố” và “Quê nhà” với hai nhạc cụ guitar và saxophone. Đây là một album mộc mạc, nhẹ nhàng, cảm tình, và rất Hà Nội. “Hôm nay ta buồn lắm đấy, hôm nay ta cô đơn làm sao”, hôm nay ta sẽ nghe lại album này.

Hiền Lê trình bài nhạc Trịnh với phong cách acoustic qua nhạc cụ guitar, violin, và flute. Thấm thía nhất là “Mưa hồng” với những cú móc đàn violin nhẹ nhàng như những hạt mưa rơi tí tách và phần kéo solo đầy cảm xúc. Ngược lại “Ngẫu nhiên” thì tươi vui hơn và nhanh hơn một tí. Tiếng sáo cộng thêm phần nhộn nhịp của thiên nhiên. Chỉ đáng tiếc là liên khúc “Tình nhớ” với “Tình xa” và liên khúc “Ru ta ngậm ngùi” với “Ru đời đi nhé”. Bài này xen lẫn bài nọ nghe lãng xẹt.

Chưa từng nghe qua Hiền Lê. Nhìn tracklist toàn là nhạc ngoại lời Việt nên cũng không hứng thú cho mấy. Khi nghe thử rồi thì thích cách chơi acoustic. Giọng hát Hiền Lê dễ thương cùng với nhạc đệm guitar mộc mạc nên dễ đi vào lòng người nghe. Cô hát lại ca khúc “Ngày mai không có anh trong đời” với cảm xúc nhẹ nhàng và tiếng đàn violin của cô mang một nỗi buồn da diết. Với “Còn làm mưa mãi” cô thả hồn theo tiếng đàn guitar và tiếng sáo xôn xao. Album được khép lại với “Mưa trên biển vắng” gợi lại với bao ký ức xưa.

When I heard George Mason working on the rebranding a few years ago, I predicted it wouldn’t be good. Today the new logo was revealed and it’s shockingly bad.

The university claims to create a brand for the future, but the “GM” monogram appears to be stuck in the 80s. The use of green and gold colors on the outlined typeface makes the monogram appear more amateurish than prestigious and more athletic than academic.

The connection between “G” and “M” doesn’t feel natural. The two letters were forced together instead of being “All Together Different” as the university has claimed.

Now we are stuck with a bad brand. Let’s see how long it will last.

My Dearest Đạo,

It is hard to believe you are turning 15. I used to hold your tiny body in my arms and now you are even taller than me. You are becoming a fine young man. I might be strict on you at times, but I am proud of you.

Thank you for helping me out when I needed a hand. I can rely on you to complete the job. I ask for your help so you can learn to work with your hands. When I was your age, I didn’t fix anything around the house. I ended up not knowing much.

When we first moved into our house, which was when you were born, I hesitated to repair anything. Unfortunately, hiring a handyman these days is much more expensive than my own income. I ended up learning as much as I could from watching YouTube videos and trials and errors.

I used to lack the confidence to fix things on my own because I was afraid of making them worse. I don’t want you to lack the confidence like I did. Having some extra skills on your hands will always be useful. You don’t need to depend on others to do the jobs for you.

In sports, you are a fantastic skier. I loved shredding on the mountains with you. I hope we can continue to do so in many more winters to come. If you ever decided to pick up snowboarding, I can give you some tips.

I hope I drilled enough in your head about the importance of education. Call us old school, but your mom and I still believe that education is the standard for having a good life later on. When I was your age, I was more interested in getting that piece of paper than learning, which was my mistake. If you have to go to school anyway, you might as well learn as much as you can. Again, don’t be like me. I learned more after I graduated than I did when I was in school.

In regard to our digital consumption, I am deeply concerned, but I also understand it is hard to pull away from our screens. I didn’t do a very good job of guiding you and your brothers through the digital temptations. As you are getting more mature, I hope that you can manage and balance your time.

Happy birthday, my oldest son. I love you with all my heart.
Dad