stepphenwolf

Since the day I went to live in America, many times I saw the pictures of American families gathered around the dinner praying and thank for the good luck they are entitled.  At first, I thought that was their religious, then I realized that was beyond the religious belief and and became a cultural identity . An identity reminds people not to forget the source , not forget the difficult days of our ancestors and to sympathy with the less fortunate people, the immigrants who came to America to breathe free.  As the lofty words carved into the base of the Statue of  Liberty in New York City   "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" The Statue of Liberty may be the most recognizable statue in the world and is an icon of freedom and opportunity for immigrants to the U.S.   Thanks God for a prosp

Steve the Dog loves to go to the Dog Park. As he is lying in his bed and dreaming, he hears his friend Wayne pick up his set of keys. His ears perk up, he yawns happily and he wonders if he will get to go for a ride and go to his favorite place, The Dog Park. As he gets up from his slumber, he stretches from his head to his slightly curved tail. As he lifts his tail and lowers his head to point to his friend, Wayne He is smiling, hoping to be able to tell if he is going for a ride. He watches Wayne and sees that he is grabbing the leash from the wall. He is going! He is going! He is so excited he begins to jump in circles and spins round and round. Faster and faster he goes, until Wayne puts his leash on his collar. He is wide awake and ready to go see his friends. As he runs to the car, he can barely stop from smiling. He loves to ride in the car because he can see all the cars going by and people walking down the street. Steve loves to be around people. He loves to be pe

Can you look deep into my eyes, and tell me what do you see ? Am I just another throw away life, with all this hurt built up inside of me ? Can you look deep into my fear, and do you see my pain ? Am I just another tortured soul, used by this sadist for his scientific gains ? Can you look deep into my short life, and will I die on the first try ? Am I just another of the " lucky " ones, to be blinded by the suturing of my eyes ? I do not ask to be here. I was once alive and free. Now just a horrific experiment, born with no eyes for me to see. I do not ask to stay here. I am caged and I am maimed. Found out there are others like me, who will soon be forced to face the same. I do not ask for you to think, of whose this twisted mind. Found out torture is allowed, if you say it is for all mankind. Soon the research will end, and my freedom realized. Finally the day I have longed for ....... The day I am euthanazied.   Wayne K

By David Farley   The cab driver stopped on the bustling boulevard Pho Hue and pointed at a mishmash of incongruent four and five-story buildings across the street. I hopped out and dodged buzzing motorbikes and exhaust-belching cars, trying to get from curb to curb. Then I spotted it: Banh Mi Pho Hue (118 Phố Huế; 84-4-3822-5009), the no-frills sandwich shop named for the Hanoi street on which it sits. Nearly everyone I’d asked had said Banh Mi Pho Hue served the tastiest banh mi in Hanoi. But the family that’s run the shop since 1974 has a reputation for closing it whenever the cooks run out of ingredients. So when I arrived at 7pm on a Saturday and found it still open, I was delighted. Life in Hanoi. (Hoang Dinh Nam/Getty) Translated simply as “wheat,” the banh mi is a delicious and ever-varying combination of deli-style pork, pate and veggies (think carrots, cilantro, cucumber, etc), stuffed into a soft and crunchy French baguette. Regional variations

my little daughter recommends "Mẹ, this book is so good.  You might find something related." Inside Out & Back Again is a verse novel by Thanhha Lai.  The book was awarded the 2011 National Book Award for Young People's Literature and one of the two Newbery Honors. Wikipedia   From the author's childhood experience of fleeing Vietnam after the Fall of Saigon and immigrating to Alabama, this novel is the child's-eye view of family and immigration.  Based on the author's own childhood and written in free-verse poems, this unforgettable story captures a fierce girl's struggles to find her place in her family, in her new home, and in the world. Things are changing in Hà's world, as the Vietnam War comes closer and closer to her home in Saigon. When Saigon falls in 1975, Hà and her family are forced to flee on a navy ship and, after spending months in refugee camps, end up moving to Alabama. There, Hà struggles to deal wit

Vuong Chi Sinh is the King of the H'Mong people.  The H'Mong is one of the minority ethnics living around the border of Vietnam and China.  The Vuong’s Palace is located in a valley in Sa Phin Commune, Dong Van District, Ha Giang Province, Vietnam, backed by cliffs and topped by a mass of clouds. The palace was used as a residence and fortress during the Vuong Dynasty -  Vuong Duc Chinh and his son Vuong Chi Sinh. Vuong Duc Chinh was a mandarin under The Nguyen Dynasty. Sa Phin is the middle point of opium from the Golden Triangle region of Myanmar Yunnan China to Indochina. Vuong Chinh Duc became rich from dealing goods, especially opium.  The palace is built from stone, fir wood and terra-cotta tiles in the Chinese architectural style of the Man Qing era.  The palace were built with 4 horizontal and 6 vertical rows, 2 stories and 64 rooms for the king’s wives, children and soldiers and  is divided into many areas such as dining room, bed room, kitchen, marijua

In most societies, from West to East, then and now, men have had conducted a traditionally dominant role over female one. Social life has been established based on male values. In asserting that dominant role, a man has been expected to be first a pillar of the family. Once getting married, he is in charge of providing his family's needs. Being hard-working and finacially successful are man's norms. His obligations to secure the well-being and protection for his wife and children are considered a matter of course. In oder to affirm his dominant role, a man has to learn form his childhood to be assertive and competitive, the qualities required for going ahead; to conceal feelings of weakness such as emotions; to deny signs of failure such as doubt or compromise. He also is expected to be aggressive in his heterosexual activity. Finally, he needs to be in control of any situation and circumstance. The responsibilities assigned to the male role can be a source of stress and an

I remember climbing several times to the top of the Great Pyramid. To the West is the vastness of the Sahara Desert. To the East is the Nile Valley, dominated by the huge city of Cairo. All around are the ruins of the Giza Plateau and the Sphinx. Up there on the summit, many blocks bear the carvings of past climbers. There are the names of Napoleon’s soldiers, perhaps written after their victory at the Battle of the Pyramids. Young General Napoleon said to his men, “Soldiers of France, forty centuries look down upon you.” Then, the Mamluks, the Turkish military caste which ruled Egypt at the time, charged on their horses, gorgeous in their brocades, with scimitars flashing. However, snappy fashions didn’t do much good against massed French musketry. The French fleet didn’t do so well against the British, and with his supply line cut Napoleon left his army in Egypt and slipped back to France to become Emperor after a few years. Later on, he repeated this abandoning

It was evening and the ordeal of my 12 hours flight from Taipei had ended with a bus ride from the airplane to a very large building that I later came to know as the Tom Bradley International terminal, Los Angeles. Inside the huge building I got line for immigration, and what a long line it was. And there were so many more just like the one I was lost in. After shuffeling for what seemed like forever, with strangers bumping me, being rude with cell phone, coughing germs all over the place and doing other things people do in line, I finally was front and center. It was my turn! The INS officer official in his demeanor and smile, asked me several questions.  I smiled at him and he continued as he smiled back...in his official way, big bright shinning badge, creased uniform and bald hair cut. "Mrs. Ton welcome back to America".   I was a bit stupefied and tongue-tied.  And his official smile....and that shining badge.  A warm feeling and I realized that America has been always

The Earth has beauty everywhere, filled with magic in the air. Just listen to the gentle wind, that helps the weary soul to mend. The Earth has beauty, if you have eyes, just watch the majestic sun to rise. Watch the twinkling stars at night, guide the sleepless dreams in flight. The Earth has beauty, listen well, the babbling brook cast it's spell. The lone wolf howls across the land, and the deserts silence on pebbled sand. The Earth has beauty, feel the call, of the towering mountains tall. In of a field of poppy flowers,in a moment of springtime showers. The Earth has beauty, just look within for that is where it all begins. Just look around and you will see, the beauty is in you and me!

Love isn't finding someone you can live with. Love is finding someone you can't live without. unknown If you love somebody, let them go. If they return, they were always yours If they don't, they never were Hope for the best, prepare for the worst and take whatever comes

Much of the vitality in a friendship lies in the honoring of differences, not simply in the enjoyment of similarities. ...... There is a miracle called friendship that dwells within the heart, and you don't know how it happens, or when it even starts But the happiness it brings you always gives a special lift, and you realize that friendship, is GODS special gift! aldrew guzaldo

The evening was Saigon hot and the humidity, although bearable, was just enough to pop-out the sweat. The restaurant, on a darken side street, was croded and cloudy with BBQ smoke from legions of charcoal pots being used at the tables of families, tourists, locals and lovers cooking their meat selection....be it  beef, pork, shrim, goat ... or even field rat, but the smell was sensational and alluring. There was no pretense of style or decor, this place was about eating and the menu reflected page upon page of every consumable one, or at least I, could think of to eat, and more. We passed on the roasted goat, pork, and of course the roasted chicken and ..., but we did go with a quarter of a young pig ... roasted over hot coals at the front wall of the eatery. There along the sidewall walk, young sweating men worked at the art of roasting the pink porkers and turning the days old piglets into a taste treat beyond caring about the death of such a young animal. The eatery was not more

The beauty of life is, while we cannot undo what is done, we can see it, understand it, learn from it and change. So that every new moment is spent not in regret, guilt, fear or anger, but in wisdom, understanding and love. -Jennifer Edwards

An episode in my life describing a move to another place was when my family and I moved from Vietnam to the United States.  My mom wanted my sister and I to have a better education and more opportunities. I was really sad when I had to leave my dad, his family, my school and my friends. I was a new advent at my new school. I was really lonely then but after I made my new friends. The neighborhood we moved in has a friendly ambience. I was an itinerant because my family has moved to different places many times. I went to four elementary schools total. I had good friends there and felt sad to leave them. Cà Na  6 grade

In general everybody love to be free. It's sometimes so wonderful that no one around ties us with responsibilities or bothers us by their presence. But why are people still tied together by marriage or just living together? That's because we need each each other so much. "It is rare to find people who actually like to be single and want to stay that way. What one finds more frequently are men and women who say they adore being single but who spend most of their nonworking time looking for some kind of sexual or romantic attachment"...(Suzanne Gordon - Lonely in America) A human being is not a rock or a piece of wood. All of us, each one has a brain, a heart and a soul. We all know how the feeling of happiness and sadness is, when sharing and being shared is .... We feel how loneliness is ... Especially when we are lonely, that's the time we really need someone maybe just for a hug or a touch. I sometimes really want to be alone. That is the time I

I once saw you on the cloud of souls. I saw your true essence. And I knew you were my twinsoul. Our love felt so intense, there was so much love it was indescribable. Yet so very real you and I were. More real than anything on this earth would be. I felt a love way beyond this earth. A love that knows no bounds. Knowing we always meet everynight on this wonderful cloud... It is like we were this cloud and I saw your eyes look lovingly into mine. I could have wept for the joy of it! Knowing nothing in this world or any world will ever separate us. For we are always one! One for all time and that time is never ending!

It just happenned yesterday http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/mall-in-columbia-on-lockdown-amid-reports-of-shooter/2014/01/25/4b3e8fb2-85e2-11e3-b85b-b305db87fb90_story.html The right to feel safe The right to bear firearms is ensured by our Constitution. Yes, we have the right to protect ourselves but we also need a right to feel safe at home, at school, at work, on the street, in a crowd, in the communities. You do not want to be a victim of firearm violence or crime; neither do I. Thus, I believe in tightening gun control laws and making them more strict. It should be difficult for one to get a gun, and impossible for just about everyone to get military-style weapons such as semi and fully automatic high-capacity ammunition weapons in our nation. Today in our country, there are too many victims of gun violence because we make it too easy for dangerous people to get dangerous weapons. Nearly 100,000 Americans are shot each year, in which more than 30,000 people died

A group of 57 children from Vinh Son orphanage, Kontum and adult supervisory attended the 3 day Beach Trip to Nha Trang this year. This trip was a special gilf from FoCH, Inc., a group of nice Americans who have a deep love for the unlucky Vietnamese orphans. This is to report that the children, the nuns, as well as my two daughters and I have all returned safely and tired after a beautiful trip. The 2007 Beach trip has ended. The bus departed from Kontum early in the morning down to Nha Trang.  The Saint Joseph Seminary there offered the children rooms and food during time they stayed in Nha Trang. The first day we visited Hon Chong beach of Nha Trang. The afternoon was most beautiful, blue sky and beautiful blue green water. The beach sand was very clean and bright and the shoreline was edged with many large and beautiful rocks and boulders. After the exciting day the children all had dinner at the seminary. The Fathers there helped us to order the food for the children’s di

Gold fish because you are golden Chocolate to make you fat And then an exercise ball to make your stomach flat Brownie mix so that you can practice Your own peanut butter jar so you can dip your fingers in without me complaining. Pens of many color will give you a chance to be astute! The licorice and twik will be burnt away with a jump rope to use everyday A card to show you ...  I think you're cool dude And a gift card that you can buy anything you like as I know you think I'm a prude .... Cà Na 12 tuổi chưa biết diện, vẫn thích ăn vặt và đồ chơi Buổi tối vẫn mò vô ngủ chung với mẹ Mỗi lần tập đàn, dù mẹ đang nấu ăn, đọc sách, lướt webs ... vẫn lôi ghế và đàn tới trước mặt mẹ, tra tấn mẹ. Kể chuyện gì cho mẹ nghe thì thò sát cái đầu vô mặt mẹ. Nhưng rồi nhanh thôi những khoảnh khắc dịu ngọt đó sẽ chỉ còn là kỷ niệm. Con rồi sẽ lớn khôn, đầy đủ lông cánh ... bay đi Và mẹ với mọi khả năng có thể sẽ luôn nâng giữ cho đôi cánh của con sãi rộng, mạnh mẽ và tự tin