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November 18, 2008


Spent a week in Los Angeles urban camping with my brother for his 32nd birthday. Here are my favorite shots from my brief visit. Credit to Sheryl Crow, "If it Makes You Happy."

Los Angeles from dao nguyen on Vimeo.

November 04, 2008

Where Are The Keys?

In Transit from Dallas To Houston

I spent the weekend at my parents. It's always a mixed feeling experience; one part joy of seeing my other siblings/nephews and one part pain because my dad can make critical comments about the slightest things. The worst this visit being an outburst about my brother having shaved off his hair.  Later the same day I lost the car keys. To make things more complicated, my mother's shop keys were attached and I ran over a nail and got a flat tire.

I've had many challenging circumstances in my solo travels.  What make this particular test more daunting than others however is that I feel I have my dad breathing down my neck the whole time. To top it off, I misplaced both of my mp3 players.

In times of stress s like this I try my best to pull from it something positive, perhaps a lesson. I ask myself "what can I use from this or learn from this"- a reminder that it's all relative; some guy is starving in Somalia.  This is nothing, yet it's my nothing.

While searching for my missing things I was searching for a common theme.  All of this had to mean something. I feel experiences are wasted otherwise. One of the reasons I keep this blog is to remind myself of the lessons I've learned in life. I'm a college drop-out so it's even more important to prove to myself that I can do well in life despite having made that decision.  Losing my keys doesn't help with that campaign.

My sister in law offered to take me back to my mom's deli, the last place I remember seeing the keys  and a miracle happened. Evidently, I had dropped them along with my card keys right in front of the deli door. I was ecstatic and thanked my lucky stars. Later that evening my nephew found my music players and I felt like the luckiest guy. Having retrieved these missing items I thought to myself, what else have I misplaced in my life and is there still hope of retrieving this things also? I thought of my relationships with certain friends and family members. I've been gone for so long.  Can I pick up where I left off?  Are some things lost forever? beyond replacement and repair? I'd love to hear what you think.


"Maybe redemption has stories to tell,
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell"
- "Dare You To Move" by Switchfoot

November 01, 2008

Renaissance Man


My Brother, Ken, is a renaissance man. He is an artist, an athlete, a father, an all-around interesting character and I am proud to know him as a brother.