Things that worry me (but I don't show it)

The new information from Virginia Tech is scaring me. I am horrified, shocked and saddened. Blacksburg, VA is small like my Gettysburg, PA. Both colleges are in small towns and it scares me, still, that this kind of horror could’ve happened in G’burg. Luckily, none of my friends are affected by the recent massacre, but the grief is so massive that even I shed a tear. Can you imagine some student sitting across the classroom with headphones and refusing to respond to anyone in the classroom? I definitely can! These college students are in every classroom I’ve been to. Professor Lucinda Roy is a hero for showing genuine concern for the student, and actually tried to help but could not get across to him. I worry that this is going to happen at UDC, even though I hide my paranoia really well from someone I care. I'm not in general a fearful person! The whole situation does not settle well in my gut.

As if it hasn’t been discussed, this whole situation should indicate that we absolutely need to review the gun policy; otherwise, we’re looking for more episodes like this in the future. There are many lone nutjobs, even the ones that have no history of violence. So long as there is access to guns, there are gonna be school shootings, subway attacks and even office shootings and at home in your neighborhoods. Metal detectors don’t solve anything. The authority should look into gun owners. Duh! Silly ATF people, when are you gonna comprehend this simple crackdown?

Also, what the hell is going on with counseling services or lack thereof in colleges? This is such a tragedy. I visited Gettysburg counseling services several times, voluntarily, over my years at the school, it helped me to stay balance. It’s so absurd how few therapies are available out there and how insurance companies don’t care much about metal health. People around me are genuinely good, but how much of those caring will do for a nutjob? We are bombarded with deliverables and deadlines to meet. How can we tell who needs help!? I am not paranoid! I worry about college students is all. There should be gun control and easy access to good counseling. This whole event makes me worry. My prayers and sympathy go out to the victim’s family and friends…Let’s go, Hokie!

Good reads and more books

I’ve recently joined Goodreads, thanx to U2Lorax’s invitation (Squirrelly, April 3, 2007). It’s a site where you and your friends can talk about books. I’m not a voracious reader, and I don’t have many recommendations, but a couple of my chummies are fantastic reviewers on books. I would recommend this site if you’re into reading and don’t mind the numerous e-mail updates from your inbox.

I’ve come across this nifty blog book meme. (Stolen from Everyday Randomness). The drill is to boldface the titles you’ve read. Some peeps italicize the ones they want to read (but have not read yet) - I will not bother with that. Movies don't count. I’m not sure what the selection criteria were for the list. They’re not all classics, but I suppose that all were, at one point or another, best sellers. Thanx to SG for introducing me to “A Prayer for Owen Meany”. That has got to be the best book on the list. There’s no booky meme for Vietnamese classics. I would be very interested if someone could compose that and send it my way. I’m always looking for a goodread, and of course, until I get that 2 extra hours in a day, I won’t be so bitter about finding the time :-)

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25 . Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela's Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She's Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones' Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard's First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Gỏi cuốn (Vietnamese Spring Rolls)

I made some very delicious gỏi cuốn for GA, who has turned 6-0h, woo hoo! This is the second time I've made her vegetarian Vietnamese fresh spring/summer rolls. I wanna post the recipe so you guys can give it a try (and a reminder for me :-) It's a lot of fun making these rolls. Lots of variations, but the below recipe, I chose meat for my stuffing. If you're a vegan, try the fried tofu with mints and bean sprout. Most important of all is the sauce. I am still learning how to make better hoisin sauce myself, so Good Luck!

Ingredients for the rolls
* Rice paper sheets
* Small package rice vermicelli
* Cooked lean pork loin
* Cooked shrimps
* Bean sprouts
* Cilantro
* Basil leaves
* Lettuce
* Cucumber

Ingredients for the sauce
* Hoi Sin sauce (you can buy the sauce at the local asian food store)
* Coconut milk
* Rice vinegar
* Crunched roasted peanuts
* Mayo (my latest addition to the sauce and it actually tasted good)

Preparation of the filling
(1) Cut the cooked pork into small strips
(2) Heat up the shrimps over water vapor. Peel them, remove the head, legs and the intestine part (dark black line on the back of the shrimp)
(3) Cut the cucumber into halfmoons
(4) Cook and drain the vermicellli
(5) Wash the herbs and put everything on a big plate

For the sauce
Mix about 2/3 cup of the hoisin sauce with 1/3 cup coconut milk. Add a sprinkle of rice vinegar. For the serving garnish with the roasted peanuts.

Now wet the rice paper and put it on your plate. Add a bit of the vermicelli, herbs, meat, shrimp, cucumber and bean sprouts on your sheet and start to roll it carefully. Fold it from both sides and roll it again. This takes a bit of gentleness because shortly after the rice paper is dipped in the water, it' becomes extremely soft and fragile. Once you learn to fold it, you'll want to make lots.

Now dip it in your hoisin sauce and bon appetite! Some people like to eat it spicy. So for those who like it spicy you can add to the hoisin sauce some of the hot chili sauce (so good, tears are running down my face :-) I don't cook often, like my mom does. I make my dinners and lunches depending what's left in my space of the fridge, which is a small lower cabinet. Another of my never ending housemate issue.

If I'm unclear, check this professional site recipe. Enjoy!