Đêm qua mưa to gió lớn (quật đổ cả cây cổ thụ), tôi mở trang thomua.com của anh Cao Nguyên ra đọc:

Phải chăng số kiếp ruổi rong,
Mưa đêm yên phận hoài đong chán chường

Bài “Mưa đêm” có thêm lời ngâm khiến tôi nhớ quê nhà.

Cảm ơn anh Nguyên đã chia sẻ cả quyển sách lên mạng để mọi người cùng đọc. Thomua.com là một trong những dự án tôi đã được hân hạnh thiết kế và rất quý trọng.

Mới đó mà đã 10 năm từ ngày trang sách web được đem lên mạng. Lúc đó phông chữ có tiếng Việt rất hiếm hoi. Cũng may, tôi tìm được Alegreya và Alegreya Sans, thiết kế của Juan Pablo del Peral. Tuy nhiên, hai phông chữ này có một số lỗi nhỏ trong phần đánh dấu tiếng Việt nên tôi liên lạc anh Juan. Bất ngờ anh đã hồi âm cho tôi và sửa lại theo lời góp ý của tôi.

Giờ đây Alegreya và Alegreya Sans rất đẹp và dể đọc rất thích hợp cho văn thơ.

One of the enlightening courses I took at La Salle University was film criticism, taught by Professor Bill Wine who was also a film critic. Each week, we spent the entire class time watching a film and another class time discussing the film.

Even though my English was limited and I knew nothing about film criticism, I enjoyed Professor Wine’s perspectives. Some of the films we watched that stood out to me including Citizen Kane, The Piano, and The Crying Game. He broadened my horizon on the art of motion picture. I didn’t participate during class discussions at all and he never called me out.

We had to write a paper on a film and I wrote about Stanley Tong’s Rumble in the Bronx. Any film starring Jackie Chan was intended for entertaining purpose. My piece was pretty bad. I didn’t know how to write a critical-thinking essay.

Even after 25 years, I have not forgotten about the class and Professor Wine. I just learned that he had passed away on June 14, 2026 at age 81. All the memories are rushing back. Thank you for the wonderful course. Rest in peace, Professor Wine.

Congratulations to the Hùng Vương Youth Group Eagle Scouts:

• Mỹ Tiên Nguyễn (Our first female Eagle Scout)
• Nathan Lê
• Ryan Phạm
• Nhật Tiết

We’re proud of their dedication, leadership, and accomplishments. View the Court of Honor slideshow or watch Ryan Phạm and his friend covered the Eagle’s “Hotel California.”

I have friends returning to Việt Nam. I have friends vacationing in Florida. I have friends traveling to North Carolina. I am still here in Virginia. I am not going to lie. I am enjoying it. I canceled a camping trip in First Landing. It’s too damn hot. I canceled a trip to Canada. The flight tickets are too expensive and too many hours at the airports. My wife’s family doesn’t have a family reunion this year. We just chill out at home and relax. It’s also cost-saving.

I look forward to Xuân’s swimming competitions. Đán will start his online geometry course soon. All the boys have given up on rollerblading and scootering in the skatepark. I still go for half an hour when I get a chance to continue to drop-in, fakie, and ride the bowl. I just want to keep the skills that I have, especially dropping in from the high ramp.

These days, I spend more time working on my carvings. For ski carving, I skate my big-wheel rollerblades. For snowboard carving, I ride the longboard. I am not much of a skateboarder, but I enjoy carving on the longboard.

In addition to working and hanging out with the kids, I am still reading and writing. That’s pretty much my summer. I can’t wait until we get back into the winter.

The summer is here and Xuân is off to a good start on his swimming season. I dubbed him as the King of Freestyle and the Champion of Butterfly. These are his most recent races. I made the shorts and added his favorite music: Kanye’s “Champion” and “King.” These are meant for encouragements, not pressurea.

Xuân and his teammates are thriving on competitions, but I wanted to make sure to him that he shouldn’t have to feel the pressures. In my book, he is already a star no matter where he ranks. As long as he’ll give it all every time, he will be at the top. I am wishing him all the best this season and looking forward to cheering him on at every meet.

I definitely am proud of him.

“Dòng sông vẫn chảy bơ vơ / Cõi đời cát bụi mịt mù cha ơi”. Yên nghỉ nhé ba.

I had the opportunity to sip Teeling 15 Years PX Sherry Single Cask for the first time on Friday at a friend’s retirement party. At 112.2 proof, this Irish whiskey is smooth with dark-fruit flavors including plum and raspberry. It finishes with a slight lingering sweetness, which is what I enjoyed.

We had plenty of delicious Vietnamese dishes, but Teeling when so damn well with roast pig, fine-rice vermicelli, herbs, and mixed fish sauce. With close friends and eat and drink with was priceless. Great moment when you can still enjoy it. Life is too damn short.

Hôm qua cả nhà đi dự tiệc đứa bạn nghỉ hưu sau 21 năm cống hiến cho lính Mỹ. Thấy nó êm ấm bên gia đình và hạnh phúc bên vợ con, tôi cũng vui lây nên uống quá trớn.

Xỉn đến ói mửa thì chưa nhưng cũng đã lân lân. Tối về khó ngủ. Hối hận lại ùa về. Tự hứa lòng sẽ bỏ nhưng cũng tự biết khó thực hiện. Thôi thì giảm bớt sẽ tốt hơn.

Mùa hè năm nay không có kế hoạch đi đâu hết. Tôi đã hủy bỏ đi cắm trại cùng bạn bè và dự tiệc cưới bên Canada. Gia đình vợ năm nay cũng không họp mặt. Chúng tôi cũng không đi biển nghỉ mát.

Chỉ đi làm, ở nhà, cuối tuần đi xem Xuân tranh bơi. Giờ đây già rồi nên cũng khá lười. Hơn nữa đi chơi giờ tốn kém quá. Thời tiết thì quá nóng nực. Được ở nhà thư giãn là tốt rồi. Năm nay có bóng đá quốc tế nên theo dõi càng nhiều càng tốt.

Cuộc sống bình yên vậy là quá đủ. Chỉ mong muốn con cái học hành đến nơi đến chốn là vui rồi.

After I gave a presentation for the position of web services developer in front of the Law Library staff, Melanie came up, introduced herself, and thanked me for the interview. Her friendliness made an impression on me. We became colleagues when I started working at the Law School. Though we didn’t work directly, we reported to the same supervisor.

Then she took a leave to give birth to her first child. About five years later, she returned to the Law Library after her second child was old enough. We were colleagues again. When our supervisor retired, Melanie took over her position. I would be happy to be reporting to her, but I got pulled out of the library to join the communications department. Nevertheless, I was still part of the library. My office was still in the library. Melanie was my unofficial supervisor and she wanted to bring me back to the library.

Late last year, my communications supervisor announced his retirement. Once he retired, I was hoping to return to the library officially and to report to Melanie. Last month, all of a sudden, she let me know that she would be leaving her position at the end of this month. She had accepted a tenured position at another university. She will be leaving on the same day my communications supervisor retired. I was shocked to hear the news, but I was happy for her. She deserves a tenure status.

In retrospect, Melanie and I were never meant to officially work together. Nevertheless, we had a great working relationship. Our offices were in the same suite; therefore, we could always talk to each other. I could come and talk to her any time on any issues at work. Outside of work, we shared parenting advice and experience since her kids and my kids are around the same age.

I will miss having her around. I appreciate that she had looked out for me during my time here. I wish her all the best with her career as well as family.

America: The Unknown Country is a limited series written by F.H. Buckley and Esther Goldberg. I was hired to design a website for it and launched in February 2018. A few weeks ago, I noticed that the site was dead. I checked the Wayback Machine and the last time the site archived was in November 2025. Since the site had been gone for a while, I decided to put it on my server for my own posterity. I kept the site pretty much the same. I just tightened the typesetting and added a dark mode.

One of the biggest issues I have with the web is that most sites don’t last. I hate to see my projects just disappear. I am trying to save as many projects I worked on as I can. Then again, all my own work as well as the projects I worked on will be gone as well. Nothing I can do about it at that point.

When I was still in college, which was over 25 years ago, I started freelancing. I created quite a bit of sites back then, but I did not save any. One particular project I worked on was creating a website for a memoir. The author was a recovering alcoholic. He and his wife invited me to lunch when we started the project and took me out to dinner after we launched the website.

He even gave me a copy of his book. Unfortunately at the time, I hated reading; therefore, I didn’t even read the book. In fact, I lost the book. With my busy schedule, I didn’t get in touch with them. They were already retired when we met. I am not sure if they are still around.

I regret not keeping the book. I regret not keeping the website. I regret not remembering their names. I wish I could have the copy of the book so I could rework the site and keep it for posterity.

Anyway, here’s the unofficial site for America: The Unknown Country