It's not an official holiday here in Vietnam on this special worldwide event. People celeberate Lunar New Year in Vietnam. It shall be fun and long days off then, but not now.

My mom rented a house in Hanoi to start a jewelry store. It's not my favourite thing to do. So basically, I'm stuck with helping her building a shop from scratch. I'm responsible for too much. I feel not ready and this stress me out like a rubber band. 

My friend, Haan came with 3 other Malaysians to Vietnam for traveling. Haan became my friend since we studied together at USQ, Australia.

I'm in Sapa right now and I was ... watching fog. Right, it started having heavy fog since yesterday and that was the day I arrive. Everything is covered in white. We took a lot of effort taking photos...

Today we decide not to go anywhere so we spent the time dining. At 10:30am we had breakfast. Then we had more breakfast at Bagette & Chocolat restaurant at 12pm. We had a wonderful lunch at 3pm.

Our lunch consists of over 2kg of BBQ village pork, lots of stir fried green veggie, a beer and some white rice. It's special because it's the first meal I made everyone so full... We have 5 people dining over 2kg of meat... The amount of fat intake made my head aching till now.

We had some nice trips, so I'd write about them soon.

For now, all I care is that everyone who knows, and who I know, and everyone else, have a nice Xmas.

On my side, I will be on a night train from Sapa to Hanoi, so I don't know if that's fun or not.

That's all now, see you after the holidays.

Birthday Wish for Cindy

Cindy darling, it's your birthday again! This time last year I made a webpage on my site and inserted a flash birthday card in it. This time, should I do it again?

You are in a fever right on your birthday. You study too hard for exam while having to treat a friend from Macau. You also were helping your group mate with their own task. You are overloading yourself.

Baby, for this birthday, firstly I wish... you recover before your birthday end.

• So that you can go out, by yourself a birthday gift.
• So that you can call your best friend Ina, to tell her it's your birthday.
• So that you can go out with your best friend, enjoy your birthday.
• So that, your parents and I will be happy because you are happy.

Secondly, I wish that you your semester with all passes. That mean you will study and rest well. Study smarter.

Thirldy, I wish you always happy, even when I'm not there wit

I love you Cindy. I'm telling this to the whole world, at least anyone who read my blog should know that I'm in love with you.

Here is my chosen birthday card for you... my sweetheart:

For real gift, i'm thinking of making a blog for you at xingyu.name. I wish you will enjoy blogging like I do. Let's think of that as a promise.

Love,

Binh Nguyen

Romantic Birthday Card

Since I was researching a birthday card, I stumbled on this Romantic Birthday Card from americangreetings.com. So if you are looking for a similar free card, you may visit that website and choose one for your lover.hi a

Birthday Gift Ideas

I'm bad at choosing a gift for birthday. It's my girlfriend's birthday so I really need help on choosing what type of gift to give to her. Does anyone know?

If you know please leave a comment here and tell me. I really appreciate your help, and thanks in advance.

• A simple homepage for company: www.dai-viet.vn
• Vietnamese search engine: timkiem.edv.vn
• A private forum for company staff only. This forum has contribution of another developer. It's private so I can't share the link here.

In the soon future, I will implement some other sites such as:

• Forum for edv.vn members (customers and sellers a like)
• Blogs for company staff on dai-viet.vn
• Blogs for edv.vn members
• Vietnamese Culture (Van hoa Viet Nam) on vanhoavietnam.vn
• Better interface for all the already implemented sites.

In the far future (not too far), I will cooperate with the tech team to produce another version of edv.vn. This new version should be superior to the current one. It will have all features to be a successful Internet Super Store.

Dear my team members and members of Dai Viet Vision, If you are reading this post, please encourage us to complete the new edv.vn project on time.

Thanks Dai Viet Vision's director board, especially Mr Hai Han Huu, for hiring me and let me be part of these challenging project.

Embarrassing Encounter

I've came to know Dai Viet Vision Join Stock Company since 20 April 2008. That day, I was in Hanoi and received a call from my father asking me to go to a conference. This is how I met Dai Viet Vision's owners and attracted with the company. And this is how I decided to join the force.

I went to the conference and realized that it was the opening ceremony of San Thuong Mai Dien Tu edv.vn. I was so embarrassed when everyone else was wearing formal clothing. Men were wearing shirt, pants, and leather shoes. Women were wearing Vietnamese dresses. What was I wearing? I was wearing short Jeans, t-shirt, and sleepers. On top of that, I was the only one who wear a big black backpack, which I used as my seat.

Everyone was looking at me as an alien!

Initial Chat with Dai Viet's Owners

Mr Tinh Van Han, which is CEO of Dai Viet Vision, happens to be a good friend of my parents. That's the power of relationship. Thanks to that, I could talk to him, and the vice-director Hai Huu Han, who is his nephew. I was very surprised uncle Tinh is a CEO of such a IT company. He should be old and more traditional?

Mr vice-director Han knew I graduated IT from Australia. He immediately expressed his will to have me work and invest in his company. He seemed to truly appreciated my Australian degree, even though we just met for the first time.

Join or Not?

The next few days, Hai called me and openly asked me for opinions on joining the company. I hesitated at first, so I spend few more days investigating the business and current Vietnam e-commerce status.

On 29 April, I visited Hai and other staffs of Dai Viet Vision in Hanoi, right at the head-quarter. I joined the company's party pre-holiday. 30 April is the Vietnamese Day celebrating the day of gaining freedom.

Join as Investor?

Vietnam is developing, and Internet commerce is one of the biggest, fastest growing business model. I want to make something like edv.vn for so long, but never had a chance to start it. Now is the chance, someone already made the company and the site. I only need to improve it (I hope).

My father disagreed to invest at first. He couldn't understand the business model. However, my mother agreed. She use Internet everyday and she believe in it. My girlfriend also disagreed at first. She worry I lose the money and time for a risky business.

Join as a worker?

That's what Hai offer me. He tried his best to bring me to work for the company, with or without investing money. I couldn't decide quickly because I'm only temporary in Vietnam. My future is in Australia, not here. On the other hand, it's a good way to gain more IT experience and prove my ability to make big projects successful.

I have too many ideas haven't implemented. My talents have not been used for long, and this is a chance for them to shine again. With my qualification and skills, I want to be a manager. I don't want to spend whole day on coding something that is designed by someone else. I want to give ideas, and manage people to implement those ideas. This way, I can contribute more of my skills, knowledge, talents, at the maximum productivity to contribute to the company.

Decision to Join

Join as a Worker

After doing enough analysis, I decided to join the workforce of Dai Viet Vision. At the moment the standard salary of Dai Viet Vision's personnel is still low. However, with my degree and real skills, I requested twice the current highest salary. I also requested a managerial position where ideas are important, not labor force. My request was accepted without any hesitation and conditions.

Join as an Investor

I also decide to buy from 10% to 20% of the shares of Dai Viet Vision. This is for me to gain more authority and ownership. It's important to be a owner. That way, I will be more responsible and work harder. I will be part of the company, and the company will be mine. However, this will not be too soon. I still need more time to be sure it works.

I've been to many cities and towns between Hanoi (northern Vietnam) and Quang Nam (center of Vietnam). That journey make me so tired. I had not enough sleep and rest.

I will be answering emails and questions from today.

I confess, I'm in a relationship for a year already. My girlfriend's name is XingYu Wen. Her English nick name is Cindy and that's what I call her, too. She also have Facebook profile so if you want to have a look please visit her on this link Cindy Wen. On my own Facebook profile I also uploaded a few nice photos of Cindy.

I met Cindy last year on 23rd Jan 2007. My relationship with her perhaps is one of the strangest. She started the friendship with a text message to thank my parents for taking care of her mother while her mother traveled to Vietnam. I just finished my study at USQ. I was preparing to depart Australia.The first longest conversation I had with her was helping her out with her Marketing assignment involving making an Excel program. Cindy was not that good in computers, just like other girls I know. So I spent many nights with her teaching her how to do the simplest thing. Since then we have been chatting everyday.

I departed Australia on 12 Feb 2007. Since then If we are away from each other we use Yahoo! and Windows Live Messenger. If I didn't have access to Internet she would called me on my phone.

I officially fallen in love with her on 18th March when I met her in China and I holded her hand. That was the first time in my life I ever held a girl's hand which made me feel so special. The power of love made both of us forget all surrounding and enjoyed the moment of heat exchange.

Unfortunately for us love always hurt. We had many happy moments, but also may sad moments. At times we cherish and compliment each other while other times we quarrel and look down at each other. Like right now it's Valentine day and she is still angry at me. I bought a special edition Swatch watch for her, but she hasn't accepted it, yet. They Valentine just start but it's another "let's break up" story. I'm so sad right now. I wish every lover out there please try your best to avoid arguments and cherish each other on these days.

It's a very very long story so I could not finish now. I may continue later if you are interested in learning about it.

I enjoyed taking photos of various beautiful objects like building, vehicles and posters.

At 5pm, we stopped by a large park with exercise equipment. In China you can easily find these type of park for exercising. They have things for you to practice.

There were many ping pong tables. I wanted to play but didn't bring the ping pong bats. So lucky for me an old man came by with bats and balls but no partner. So I was very happy to play with him for an hour.

While I was playing table tennis there came a woman with a very interesting small lovely dog. The dog can stand on 2 legs and beg people. The owner can pull the dog up into the air with the lead without causing any harm. At first we were so scared the dog may die because the action looked exactly like... hanging a person. Cindy was so shy and I had to encourage her to take photos. Cindy's mother enjoyed playing with the dog.

2 days ago

I had a whole evening out for Karaoke in Zhuhai city. It was a very cheap Karaoke session in a high-tech facility. Renting a Karaoke room in Zhuhai normally cost up to RMB200/hour, however it was day time so we paid only RMB25/hour (about US$3). We didn't know the nearby Karaoke cafe only cost RMB8/hour.

At 6pm I missed my blog too much and so I had a quarrel with my girlfriend I wanted to go home. That evening I made a real mess and later on I had to say sorry to everyone.

Yesterday

I went out again with girlfriend for some fresh air. It was enjoyable afternoon. We had KFC, noodle, and expensive turtle jelly (RMB35/bowl).

Then I spent the whole evening for eating, massaging, and watching comedic action movie by Stephen Chow.

At midnight I checked on TDNam.com for the modulinepro.com domain name (PR5) I bought few days ago. It is still in wait time and will be available to me by tomorrow. I realized domain buying is a real profitable business. I taught my girlfriend about domain trading and she liked it too. We spend 2 hours for learning a few things about buying domain names.

What's next?

Well, there are too much to say in too little time. I will leave the details for later posts if appropriate. It look like it's time for me to implement a few online business ideas.

Christmas is coming, so don't forget to read some Christmas Tips if you are interested.

Note: 1 USD is around 8 RMB

Did you notice I have a category called "Official log"? That's originally the "Uncategorized"category. I reuse it and actually abuse it to become a off topic category. I am still thinking about moving toward writing more personal blog entry. I might keep this dot name domain for my personal blog, and move my professional blog into some dot com domain. What do you think?

I've been trying to put something about Christmas up but it seem of no help. It's not because I don't have any idea, but no time to write.

My when my girlfriend came back from Australia on 4th Dec. Since then I've been extra busy with a lot of things. I wouldn't mind having boring holiday times but since I have girlfriend now I want to spice things up a bit.

I might end up spending more time to go out then to write blog. But if my girlfriend support me, I might spend more time writing about Christmas and how people celebrate it here in China.

Yesterday I spent the whole day with my girlfriend and friends. We went to Zhuhai city center for some shopping. I notice Chinese people also celebrate Christmas. Every where I go I saw sign of Christmas decorations. I don't even know if they are Christian or not, but they sure take holiday as serious business opportunities.Have you ever tried Chinese McDonald? Yesterday was the first time I had a good drink from McDonald. There hot ginger drink taste great. It's been over 8 month since I left Australia so I don't know if McDonald there also have ginger drink.

Chinese people of course take their New Year seriously. However, I was surprise didn't see any New Year decorations. Now sitting in front of my computer I realise they celebrate Chinese new year, not this Gregorian New Year.

As a normal entertainment activity, I spend few hours playing mahjong. It is getting bored because I can't concentrate on playing to win the game. I'm so much distracted because I miss my blog and miss keeping in touch with fellow bloggers.

My new hobby is watching Chinese kungfu videos. This always was my hobby, but I skipped it for few months already. This time because my girlfriend come back and started watching video that's why I re-activate the hobby.

That's it for now. I will try to write more in the morning.

1. How we lost 300 yuans for some absolute b_llsh_t,
2. How much time wasted for window shopping, and lastly but most important
3. How beautiful a flower show in ZhongShan (China) is.

It took fair bit of photos, few hundreds. I'm still waiting for a photo hosting solution, so, who will be the one to tell me the best photo host? Is it Photobusket.com, or Flickr.com?

Since it was a whole day trip I'm really tired now and have not much energy to write. So I call it a day and will start fresh tomorrow.

Mean while, please kindly check out my latest version of "Binh dot Name Birthday Event". What do you think is the proper title for that post?

This "Part 1" of the series is for comments till 19th Nov (GMT+8)

On Let's be Friend for my 26th Birthday I would like to thank

1. Haan for saying "hope you have a great 26th birthday in China", and here is her thought on the word Uncle.
   
2. Getrootvn for saying "best wish for you…- merry marry soon and have a lot of money )".
3. Cindy (my girlfriend) for saying "I WISH WISH AND PRAY PRAY PRAY CAN BE WITH YOU SOON".
4. Mike Huang for pointing out that my English is not good enough (very honest guy) and saying "p.s. You DO have great content once in a while."
5. Kat for saying "Happy Birthday!...".

On 18 Nov Online Birthday Party Specials, I would like to thank:

1. Haan for saying "Have a great celebration today".
2. Mike Huang for saying "Happy EARLY Birthday Binh! Have a great 26th!", he contest ended with Last Day For Entries Into The Bloggin-Ads Contest!
3. Blank Mind of Treizie for saying "Well, you have a cute cake indeed..;) Try to be a better person before your 28th birthday come.:)", and here is her Update for AskAnswerEarn Forum and Proof of Payment
4. Zelvin for sayin "Happy Belated B’day. Wish you all your dream come true... Please don’t forget our friendship. You are one of my favorites friends in Australia.... Wish you all the best. Zelvin unfortunately hasn't got time to do a blog yet.

On My First Birthday Gifts 2007, I would like to thank:

1. cyberpunk for saying "that’s a pretty nice drawing…", and here is how he feel himself a noob sometimes on RSS Feed Exchange and Confessions of a Noob
2. kab625 for saying "Happy Birthday…keep celebrating until the end of the month. You have permission." and here is her latest medical advice:Adenovirus Type 14. The Lethal Cold Virus
3. mtchick for saying "Your birthday sounds overall very happy. I’m sorry your girlfriend couldn’t be there with you! That cake is beautiful!" and here is her latest Office party
4. Kitty for saying "Happy Birthday! I’m sorry you didn’t have as much fun as you woulkd have liked!". She had some bad time with a shop lifter saying "I Don't Remember That!"
5. Blank Mind of Treizie for saying "You have a cute cake indeed..:). 26th is not old.. That is for sure.. So be a better person before you turn 28 next year..:D"

On BlogCatalog.com "It's my birthday... yesterday." I would like to thank:

1. mtchick for saying "Happy late birthday! "
2. kab625 for saying "Hi there, and I hope your birthday was great. We like to have "The birthday month", that way anything goes for weeks at a time, so keep celebrating...Happy Birthday to you.....all month long."
3. WanNo for saying "Happy belated Birthday.. Hope ur wish come true... " and here is her latest Pink Panther video Pink Panter - Pink on the Cob
4. teebob for saying "happy birthday", and he put a Response to garf"s tag.

On BlogCatalog.com Someone gave me negative feedback on my English, do you? I would like to thank:

1. acousticguitarist for saying: "...happy birthday", and here is his latest Blues and Country Guitar Scales.
2. wandadog13 for saying "... Happy Birthday!" and here is his Home Improvement Tip - Beware Rogue Traders
3. Aprilfreelance for helping me rearrange my words to make them more readable. And here is her latest Bible software advice BiblePro: Free Powerful Bible Software

Thanks everyone for the birth day wishes/gifts.

My birthday ended 2 hours ago by my local time (GMT+8). It was a series of 2 joyful days... mixed with some sadness.

Some Happy Birthday Moments

• The evening of the 17th I had dinner in a luxury restaurant. There was also a wedding party there, which made the evening more festive.
• The picture above was taken after cutting my beautiful birthday cake.
• On the afternoon of the 18th, I went to Zhuhai. The Fish Ferry statue draws a lot of visitors and the cool wind was refreshing.
• The evening of the 18th, I had another great dinner. I was so hungry I ate too fast, though.
• My girlfriend was on a picnic. We make each other smile, and I love it when she calls me.

My birthday cake:

Not-So-Happy Birthday Moments

I wish my birthday be the most happy day of the year I would have. But it's not the case, as always. Here are a few moments that I wish not have:

• My girlfriend isn't here with me right now.
• Beside a few friends who know about my blog, I haven't got any good result from 18 Nov Online Birthday Party Specials and Let’s be Friend for my 26th Birthday.
• The morning of the 18th ... I couldn't get up early to walk the mountain because I couldn't sleep well the night before.
• Afternoon of the 18th, I wasn't allowed to buy a candy stick when I was very hungry (so childish I was hehehe).
• Evening of the 18th, "Yawn, sleepy again... where is the bed...", I slept from 7:30pm till 10:30pm...

I will post the photos later on. Perhaps when I completely am certain what blogging platform I will use.

You could help me out by suggesting your favourite photo services. I know a little about photobucket.com and flickr.com But haven't tried any.

First Gift

Thank you, mommy (Cindy's mother), for taking time to sew this beautiful scarf and gave it to me for this special day:

The weather in China and Vietnam is changing toward Winter. Yes, it's getting colder and colder. This scarf sure will warm me up from now on. I love it.

Second Gift

Thank you, my sister Thuy, for giving me the wonderful second birthday gift this year.

The words on the drawing:

Happy birthday to my brother!!! Binh Nguyen

Wish you a merry and happy birthday!

Everyone always wait for you to succeed,

Soon come back to our family, remember to bring Cindy as well, hihi ^-^

Always be joyful and healthy, my brother!

Signed

Ghost! (unfortunately for me, my sister chose "ghost" as her nick name)

(It's your beloved sister Thuy not anyone else, don't need to ask! )

What's next?

It's still 1 more day to go, and I am waiting for more wishes and gifts. The more the merrier. I feel this birthday should be social birthday.

Thank you all.

I'm a newbie blogger so please kindly support me by leaving comments on my blog. By blogging I'm:

• Looking for people who like what I do and become good friends.
• Keeping in touch with friends and family.
• Sharing my experience, and
• Hoping that my words not only get to people eyes, but also their heart.

I inherited a pair of nearsighted eyes from my mother. The same eyes become special when powered by a pair of glasses. So the result is a bit dramatic:

• Debugging code is my talent,
• Taking photo is my hobby,
• Writing review is my expression,
• Googling is my daily life,
• Surfing the web a lot is my doing,
• Writing a lot is I can do,
• Criticism is my bad,
• Staying late night is my unavoidable.

So far so good, 2 months before this blog start I already started writing. However, because being a perfectionist I delayed in publishing my works, waiting for "The Perfect CMS". That's a topic I will discuss about, later.

I have near a thousand pages to publish. I hope I have time to do so because I'm writing new posts everyday, which is eating up the time. In my blog you should expect the following:

• Things I learned, especially web development related stuff like PHP, ASP.NET, WordPress, Drupal, etc.
• Things I reviewed, especially software and websites.
• Things I stumbled upon.
• Things I am creating (my ideas)
• Photos, yes dozen of thousands of photos I took by myself during the last year since I got my Sony digital camera. I prefer quality over quantity so give me times to slowly uploading them with good description.

• the WWW,
• the HTTP,
• the .com
• FireFox browser
• reading (but no book please)
• writing (I won’t write book though).
• telling my opinions
• watching kungfu movies (Jet Lee and Jackie Chan are the best)
• reviewing things (the effect of software debugging)
• blogging (wow, that’s amazing)
• photographing (if distributed out, on average I take about 30 photos/day)

• a qualified web developer (webmaster),
• a talkative learner (especially in discussion group),
• an active discusser,
• an idea generator (yes, everyday I have new ideas, but couldn't make them
  come true, yet),
• a qualified software developer (analyst programmer)
• a silent friend (not regarded as very good friend, but kind hearted)
• a beloved son (my parents love me)
• a special boyfriend (my girlfriend love me)
• a novice blogger (i just started blogging)

I'm a qualified web developer by graduating a Bachelor of Information Technology (Net technologies) from University of Southern Queensland (USQ) in April 2007. This qualification was then certified by the Australian Computer Society (ACS) in September 2007.

That degree is backed up with a Diploma of Information Technology (Computer Software Development) from Canterbury Business College back in 2002, which made me a programmer. This diploma in conjunction with the courses from USQ made me more an analyst programmer than an ordinary one.