Time flies, it is now five years since the first day I came to the US - five years, not too long but not too short, but enough to change a person. Change in a better way, change to be a better man.

Having our New Year Holiday in the US is just too different, although this is not the first time but it is just so hard for us to feel like it is our holiday. No matter what we do; we bought flowers, rice cakes, prepare everything for the most important holiday of the year in our culture, so many things that we need to have in order to make it feels like it is our holiday. It would never feels like when we were home, with our family, the whole family. However, there is one thing that change the way I perceive this year’s Tet is because now I have a small family to take care of. A small family that I have always dreamed of.

……   disorganized thoughts

I made a video for this Tet holiday,  hope that we have something fun to do, but I think it is kind of a counter-effect, I missed home.

photos coming soon.

My beloved-water-damaged iPod Classic.

I had 2 options, first I can swap for a new iPod Classic with a fee of $120 with no engravings. Secondly, I will have to do a mail-in for swapping and engraving my new iPod for $120. After asking my wife on which option I should choose, she said the first is fine if I want the iPod now, and of course I want it now. So we decided to go with the first option with no engraving, but I told her “you could use a permanent marker and write on the iPod, and it would be much better and much more personal to me”– she likes the idea.

I was asked to sign the terms of service on his iPad that I agree with the fee of $120 for swapping my iPod. After signing everything, I pull out my credit card and waited for saying goodbye to my $120. System halted. Maintenance. Something went wrong with Apple system. He came to me and said “Now I am being really transparent to you” and pull out a piece of paper, I thought “Okay! So now we had to do the paper route and write my credit card numbers on it” – I was wrong. He said:

“Our system is down and I cannot charge you and I wouldn’t ask you to stay here and wait until the system back online. So, I will offer you this iPod for free!” – I was shocked and thought that he was just joking around with us. But no, he was serious, very serious. I fill in my information on the paper he gave me and my hand was shaking, I still couldn’t believe that this was real.

Leaving Apple Store, we felt so great, it was like receiving the best gift ever from someone you barely know. I’ve heard about Apple Genius offer stuff for free before and I had doubt about it but this time it happened to me. Yes, Apple Genius Bar is the Best!

My new+free iPod Classic.

Behind every stranger is a story. And behind every story is a lesson. This book asks you to take the time to learn those lessons. All it takes is a mindful heart and a smile. You never know how far that smile will go. So when you walk past a stranger, dont look away. All they are saying is, Give Me Your Eyes.

Below are the photos I took for/related to the book (2009 to 2010). A digital version of the book can be viewed on issuu.com

At the beginning of 2011, me and Rachel need to do so many things to prepare for our wedding in June. Luckily, everything went in order and it was one of our happiest moments in our five-year relationship.

June 13th, 2011 – the long waited wedding of me and Rachel in Ho Chi Minh, VIetnam. With more than 800 guests, 70 tables, 5 photographers, everyone was really happy, it was a very successful wedding.

August 12th to August 17th, 2011 – Our Honeymoon in Kauai – Hawaii. A beautiful island, with so many things to see, so many thing to do. We drive all around the island, we went on a cruise to the Napali Coast, we saw many falls and we stayed in one of the biggest hotel/resort in Kauai. Just love our trip here, and we promised to come back to Kauai in our 5th anniversary.

Dec 16th, 2011 – the day that I could never forget, the day that me and Rachel had waited for more than 4 years to come. It was our graduation day – the day that we are officially done with school. One more thing that made it a much more special day is because it was also my father’s 52nd birthday.

Dec 23rd to Dec 27th, 2011 – our first road trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Not a super long drive but it was something that will stay in our memories forever, like a milestone.

Dec 31st to January 1st, 2012 – New Year’s Eve, marked my 5th year in the United States | San Francisco. Watched fireworks with my wife and some other friends at the Ferry Building. Always great to have family and good friends around while you are 15,000 miles away from home.

Jan 3rd to Jan 10th, 2012 – A trip to the East Coast with my wife. Our first destination was Washington, DC. It was a really cold day with icy streets and strong winds in Georgetown. We enjoyed our stay in DC, went to lots of museums, and walked a lot, in overall DC is beautiful minus the cold weather. Then we took Amtrak for 3 hrs to get to New York. Great ride. This was my second time in New York but first time for Rachel. I came to New York 4 years ago in a 2 days visit with my parents, we were in a rush so we didn’t really enjoy the city. But this time was different, we had more time so we can come to many parts of the city and we understand it more as a diverse city not just a busy city with thousands of people rushing to work. I also had a chance to meet with my friends in school, thanks to Phoebe.

Right after we got back to San Francisco, we dive into the progress of job searching, Rachel was not very lucky in it but we hope for the best.

Jan 12th, 2012 – Marked our five-year relationship. I bought a glass terrarium for Rachel and we put it together – She loves it, everyone loves it. We had dinner at Sanuki in Japantown than we went for movie, Mission Impossible 4.

Jan 16th, 2012 – Rachel felt like she wants to start writing again, this is a great news for me as I always wanted Rachel to continue her writing. A way for her to relax but also her writing is wonderful. She reviews her WordPress account and she will post on it from now on. This also made me want to write my blog although my writing is not that good, or you can say it sucks but I think it’s a good way for me to reduce my stress.

So, that’s it for today. Hopefully, I have something to share in the next few days.

Three Little Questions
Wanna bring a high-​level marketing meeting to a screeching halt? Just do what brand consultant Greg Galle of Creative Capital does—demand unambiguous answers to three little questions:
1) Who are you?
2) What do you do?
3) Why does it matter?
Now, the first question is fairly easy for most companies to an swer. “We’re Glo al Grommets, a multi national provider of grom mets.” The second question is a little harder. “We make grommets—no, we make more than grommets, because we have a full line of widgets, too.” But the third question, why it matters, can get sticky. “It matters because we make really good grommets—and widgets.” (Sure, but every one says that.) “Because we sell the widest selection of grommets and widgets.” (Right, but I only need one kind of grom met, and I already buy it from someone else.) “Because we have the best people.” (Yeah, right—prove it.) Unless you have compelling answers to all three questions, meaning that customers find them ir resistible, you haven’t got a brand.

Made this movie for a friend of mine,  just to show him how this camera look and feel.

Shoot with Panasonic GF1 + Olympus M.Zuiko 17mm f/2.8

Sống tại thành phố San Francisco đã được 3 năm rồi, bao nhiêu kỷ vui buồn đều đã có tại đây. Trước khi TR sang đây học với mình, cả 2 đứa cũng đã có rất nhiều suy nghĩ về việc sống chung với nhau. Rất nhiều chuyện có thể xảy ra khi 2 con người bắt đầu sống chung với nhau, việc anh không cũng là việc của em, việc của em cũng là việc của anh tất nhiên sẽ dẫn đến cãi nhau và tệ hơn thế nữa. Sau 2 năm 4 tháng sống với nhau, coi như là sống thử 1 cuộc sống gia đình, mình và TR đều đã học và hiểu được rất nhiều điều, hiểu được sự chia sẻ trong niềm vui và nỗi buồn, hiểu được rằng cũng có lúc cả 2 cần cho nhau 1 khoảng trống để tĩnh lại.

Hôm nay, mình đọc được 1 part trong Peace is every step của Thich Nhat Hanh về cuộc sống chung của 2 người, dù chỉ lá 1 đoạn viết rất ngắn nhưng sao lại xúc tích đến như vậy. Mình muốn viết lên đây để có thể chia sẻ với những ai đang/sẽ có 1 cuộc sống chung với người mình yêu đọc được và suy nghĩ về nó.

Đây là đoạn trích của Living Together:

When we live with another person, to protect each other’s happiness, we should help one another transform the internal formations that we produce together. By practicing understanding and loving speech, we can help each other a great deal. Happiness is no longer an individual matter. If the other person is not happy, we will not be happy either. To transform the other person’s knots will help bring about our own happiness as well.

The root cause of any internal formation is a lack of understanding. To practice mindful observations is to look deeply to be able to see the nature and causes of something. One important benefit of this kind of insight is the untying of our knots.

[from Peace is every step]

Leica M8 + Leica leather half case

Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5 Nokton + UV/IR filter

Voigtlander 25mm f/4P Color-Skopar + UV/IR filter

Voigtlander 75mm f/2.8 Color Heliar

Belstaff 556 messenger bag + Tenba photo inserts

So all of these gonna be with me on the trip to Miami, FL and Puerto Rico next week and I will also bring my Bessa R for some more fun in the sun. I am so excited for this winter break, I have great results in all of my classes, my parents will come to San Francisco next Monday, January 12th is our anniversary and January 20th is her birthday also. ………..I still have my Art History 20th century essay to write but I am just so lazy to just sit and do it.

FOREVERYTHING SHE IS TO ME

It’s a long journey,
to the edge of the earth,
but for you,
I would try it.

Fire bites the skin,
unpleasant and scalding,
only when it’s a threat to you,
is when I’d forget the fire licking me,
then look for our fire within our stronger soul.

Forever if you take mine,
forever I would cherish yours,
hand in hand,
plummeting through the earth,
and into the stars,
were the most fantastical dreams waltz.

With you,
I could stay there,
till we watch the last sunset,
until the final sunrise,
dancing with my dream,
dancing with my angel.

————-

Video by Sa Nguyen
Poems by Tia E
Music by Marc Anthony - Everything You Do

As I am writing this, I am at my new place without internet connection. The guy from Comcast is installing my service right now. My new place is amazing, it is so big and I have never imagine that I could have a big place like this to live and study. The rooms here is spacious, bright, with view to the city, everything is clean with white walls. Love this place so much. However, it is quite far from my school, it will takes me 40 mins to travel from my new house to school by Muni. I have 3 more days to finish moving all of my stuffs from my old place, hope that time will be my friend. Wendy and Tiger is helping me and Rachel moving our stuffs while they are having their finals, how nice of them. Tiger has been my friend for 13 years since we study middle school in Vietnam, it was lucky of me that he also study in this city. Wendy also a student in my middle school in Vietnam, I knew her before when I saw her in middle school but we’ve never talked, and she also study in San Francisco. This Saturday, my other friend, Thien Phan also come from Vallejo with his pick up truck to help me carry the bed and my sofa, they are freaking huge and heavy. So lucky that I have good friends here. Thanks a lot guys.

-Thu 05.21.2009 0.07AM

The cancelation of the internet makes me have to move all of my necessity stuffs to my new place: laptop, blanket, pillows, etc. I cannot live without the internet even just 1 single day. Now the house is like a warehouse with full of boxes and stuffs.

- Thu 05.21.2009 0.33AM

Sleeping time….tomorrow will be another long day…