FAQ Page - www.NguyendoFamily.com

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What's with the unusual Nguyendo surname?

You probably have not met many other people with the Nguyendo surname, and there's a very good reason for that. The word Nguyendo is disyllabic thus is an impossibility in the monosyllabic Vietnamese language from which it is derived.
Nguyendo is actually a concatenation of the surname "Nguyễn" and the middle name "Ðỗ" of our clan's male members. For me, this concatenation is a pragmatic necessity since my first name and original surname are both very common among the people of Vietnamese origin. After years of suffering from having my identity, records, et cetera, mixed up with other Tuan Nguyen's, I decided enough was enough and changed my surname from Nguyen to Nguyendo upon being naturalized as a U.S. citizen.
By the way, there's a remarkable etymology to the Nguyendo surname. Our clan's surname was originally Ðào until one of our ancestors decided to change it to his maternal side's Nguyễn as they fostered him. Then one day, one of the Nguyễn ancestors was so enamored with his wife that he decided to use her surname Ðỗ as the middle name for all their sons. Since then, for many generations including my grandfather's, all the male members of our clan have inherited the surname and middle name combination of Nguyễn-Ðỗ.
I am proud of my Nguyễn-Ðỗ name heritage, and since the modification to Nguyendo had made it even more distinct and recognizable, I vowed not to stigmatize the surname with any unconscientious conduct ... not to stain the surname that's embedded with the spirits of gratitude (of fosterage) and love (of spouse). Besides, we wish to leave a favorable impression in case you might meet another Nguyendo person in the future ;-) as our clan becomes global and enriched with ethnic diversity.
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Why the "Sweets" or "Candies" visual theme for this web site?

You're absolute correct if you guessed that it was NOT one of the following reasons:

I am secretly planning to turn this web site into an Internet confectionery business.

I have a weakness for sugary edibles.

I fancy myself as being thought as such (but NOT sugar daddy, please!) by most people.

By most people, I meant just about everyone except my Niece Melody. Inexplicably, the little bonbon seems to associate her uncle with some type of confection or another. Couple of cases to illustrate my point:

When "Mel Mel" (Melody's nick name) was about three years old, my mom showed her a catalog of Halloween costumes and asked her to pick out one for each person. My niece promptly selected a princess's for herself, a queen's for her mother, a king's for her father, a fairy godmother's for my mom, but for uncle Tuan, Melody vacillated between a jelly bean, a "Kiss" chocolate, and a "Life Savers" roll for at least ten minutes before deciding on the last one. Oh well, at least she didn't choose anything bitter ;-))

When Melody was six years old, Alice, her mom, suddenly brought me a gift wrapped package. Alice told me Melody saw something in the store that she said, "... is just perfect for Uncle Tuan..." then insisted that her mom bought it for me. Sure enough, from the unwrapped packaged I found a yellow candy dispenser shaped just like one of those animated M & M's in the TV commercials.

Candies, therefore, is a natural choice for this web site's visual theme rather than computers, sports, coins, books, arts, or bonsai.

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Is it easy to create a website like this one?

Well, it's depends on your aptitude, experience, enthusiasm, etc. as in most other endeavors ...

Some resources:

Try designing your own web pages and building own web site; it's easy and costs no money: http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/learn2/HowItWorks4_Free.html

Listing of free home page providers: http://freesitex/homepage.html

Lisa D. Wagner and Steve Callihan. Create FrontPage 2000 Web Pages In a Weekend. Rocklin, CA: Prima Publishing, 1999. ISBN 0-7615-1929-7.

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How to design a Vietnamese language web page

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Answers to riddles

Riddle 1: Say: "You'll kill me by suffocation!" to cause an endless contradiction to the devil's prerogative.

Riddle 2: 48 chickens. Logic:

	2/3 of the remaining chickens at cost = $30, so all remaining chickens at cost = ( (3/2) times $30 = $45 which is the total value of the remaining lives ones.
	Investment loss due to 18 dead chickens equals the original cost ($72) of chickens minus the total value of the remaining live ones = $72 - $45 = $27.
	Since the chickens were sold at cost, the original cost of each chicken equals the investment value loss divided by the number of dead chickens = $27 / 18 = $1.5
	The original number of chickens equals the total price paid for them divided by the cost of each one = $72 / $1.5 = 48.

Riddle 3: One string you light at both ends and the other you light at one end. When the one lit at both ends burn completely, half an hour has passed. The other string, lit at one end has still half an hour to burn. You then light the unburnt end of that string. 15min later it will be all burnt. This gives a total of 45min.

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