02/14/2007: "Please Excuse Our Dust"

So to all 3 of you that read this blog on (ir)regular basis, you may have noticed a few changes.

First, I added 2 new friends to the side bar under the "Ex-Viet Kieus" title. Thirsty Thong is an excellent blog written by a couple of Vietnamese Americans expats living in Vietnam. Thong, who seems like the main writer, is a mutual friend through some kids I met while working on the film American Knees. The blog is a funny exploration of what it's like to live in Hanoi, from a culturally-savvy, educated view point.

After reading the blog and some email exchanges with Thong, I'm convinced he is my Tyler Durden. I know, it sounds gay, but this kid likes Jenny Lewis, hip hop AND he's Vietnamese. Someday, when we meet in person, I can only hope he asks me to punch him in the face to verify my instincts.

VA to VN is written by an old friend of mine from the APA Film days. Oddly, he stumbled upon my blog via Thong's via another friend of mines, or something like that. The blog is exactly as the title describes: it chronicles his and his wife's move from Virginia to Vietnam. The writer, D, is the first Vietnamese lawyer I ever met (true fact) and for a while we were in the same Vietnamese Big Brother program in DC. The blog is written in a very concise, yet witty manner. D covers everything from technology to economics to food to cars. He also likes sports, which I am slowly getting into.

The second and probably most notable change you may have noticed is my Header picture. I just felt like the blog needed a change, tho I was very happy with my old header pic:



This was a composite picture of my two cousins, Jenna and Bao. Bao was probably 5 (13 now?) and Jenna 3 (11 now?) when these pictures were taken. The photos were part of a photography project and I liked how in both of the pictures they were covering their ears, like "Man, this blog is soo loud!" (i.e. annoying). The pictures are a bit fuzzy because I had to scan them from a contact sheet.

The new Header pic is of my mom when she was in her early twenties. I decided to keep the color scheme cconsistent with the rest of the blog. Call me crazy, but I'm pretty set on this pink color.



In the future, I will see about adding some more peeps and links to the side bar and will keep on working on Header pics as I need to improve my horrid photoshop/design skills.

Replies: 3 Comments

on Friday, February 16th, terry said

hey, thanks for the comments on the header!

on Friday, February 16th, Megan said

Terry, hi there:

i think your new header is great. your mother is beautiful and i see the resemblance in her face to yours.

secondly, happy BELATED birthday!!!! i think we are one year apart. how is 28 so far?

on Thursday, February 15th, Thông said

Terry, you got me pinned to a nail (is that the saying?). But there are some things that are off:

I love Jenny Lewis and Rilo Kiley, but mainly because of Jenny Lewis. My Make-A-Wish Foundation dream: to have Jenny Lewis do me, dump me, then write a song about how gloriously wretched our affair was. I loved the LaFace R&B reign in the 90s but hated Babyface after he started copying Lenny Kravitz. I loved Native Tongue drops but now hate it, all because Talib Kweli's conscious shit went out of style, so I prefer Jay-Z over a Timbaland beat any day (any Timbaland beat for that matter). Timbaland is my shit. I also like Radiohead and Norah Jones a lot.

Sometimes I wish I was gay, but then I take one look at a cropped picture of Norah Jones. Man. No condom, no problem.

Amendment: I am the every Vietnamese American's Tyler Durden. I'm such a tool. A glorious tool!

That's a fuckin' beautiful new header man.