Shrimp Fried Rice

List of ingredients

1 Egg

Half pound of shrimp - peeled and chopped to half inch pieces

Salt ( can be sea or store bought)

2 bowls of rice (This is the quantity of rice before you cook it.)

Mixed Vegetables( You can buy them in the freezer aisle or you can do it yourself) A half cup

Includes (but not limited to) peas, chopped green beans, diced carrots.

1 and ½ tablespoons of soy sauce

Dice onions (about 1 tablespoon)

Non-stick pans

This is going to serve about 4-6 people

First heat a pan of oil with ½ tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat. Cook the egg like a pancake, making sure to have the egg make a thin layer over the pan until almost set and then flip to the other side until set. Let the egg cool a bit and then cut into thin strips and then set it aside.

Heat a pan with 1 tablespoon of oil on high and stir fry the mixed vegetables until crisp and tender. Make sure to sprinkle a pinch of salt when stir frying. After finishing this also put it aside,

Heat about 2 tablespoons of oil on high heat, after that put dice onions in on the pan until about brown. (It should smell good by the end of this) After the onions are about brown put in the shrimp and add a pinch of salt and stir fry until golden brown. After finishing that put it aside.

Lastly you want to heat 1 tablespoon of oil over a large pan ( a large pan is needed when you’re going to mix all of the ingredients) After heating the oil you want to the onions on the pan until they are golden brown and then add the rice and stir fry the rice with about 2 teaspoons of soy sauce until warm throughout (This will take up to a maximum of 5 mins, might be less depending on the amount of rice and how warm it is before hand)

After stir frying the rice you want to mix everything together on the same pan you made the rice so that all the ingredients mix well together and are warm.

Serve and divide amongst bowls

Analysis:

Based on the estimate calorie count of each bowl(which is about 400) I’d say that the impact on someone’s health isn’t that bad. The total about of fat per serving is about 12g and about 20g of protein. Most of the ingredients aren’t processed besides the soy sauce and the mixed vegetables. The rest of the foods are fresh and shouldn’t really be processed at all. Environmentally this mean isn’t tasking on the environment as most of the food is grown and in the case of the shrimp caught. Depending on where you live you can either grown the vegetables on your own or catch the shrimp yourself. It doesn’t really take much to find these ingredients in your local supermarket because these ingredients aren’t really special. If you were to try to locate where certain ingredients came from you’d be able to find where the shrimp of the mixed vegetables pretty easily.  

If you were try to trace some of the ingredients to the source before it got to your bowl you would find that the shrimp probably came from somewhere like maine where fishing is a big thing, almost everything else on the list you would probably find most of that stuff grown on farm. Looking at the intermediate steps before it reaches your dinner table you could see that the shrimp is probably cleaned and made sure that it fits a certain standard before being packaged and sent out. That can also be said for most of the other things on the list.

Lastly, if we were to look at the cost efficiency of this meal it could cost you somewhere from 10 to 15 dollars.

Reflection

In this unit I learned about how a lot of our foods are made. Certain foods that we might think that are good for us are actually bad for us. I learned to now look at what I really eat. The food system isn't as linear as we think it is. There's a lot of different processes that our foods goes through before getting to us. I don’t think that as an individual I don’t affect the larger food system so much because I’m only one person. I think that the food manufactures don’t care as much because they know that the average person doesn’t really look into what’s actually in their food. I think that the problem with our food is that there’s not enough people that care enough about the food that the big companies will change their ways. There’s not much push for change because people don’t really know what’s in their food. 

Some changes that I could possibly make is that I could find foods that aren’t as processed as others, or in other words better for me. It wouldn’t be as difficult for me because I’m not a picky eater but it might be for other people because they might have a condition or if they live on a tight budget. Some of the impacts that this might cause is that people start becoming healthier. As an individual I am ready to make these changes because my family usually makes homemade meals for every meal of the day. 

• What surprised you most about this information?
  I was surprised that the reason were obvious and somewhat hard to find information about.

•  What seemed quite obvious about explaining this data set?
  It seemed obvious that a lot of this was because of wars and revolutions around the world
• Looking at the overall trend and incorporating what you know about the US presently, predict and defend the immigration trend for the next two decades.
  I think that the immigration trend will rise but not as similar to the past decades because of the current economy. Immigration will still occur because many people want a better a life for them and their children.
• Describe how you made a decision on how to visually represent the information.
  We decided that it was best to have a google presentation so that we could all work on it together
• What parts of group work were challenging?
  Everyone works at a different pace, Personally I like to finish early. It wasn't challenging but It would've been nicer if we finished sooner
• What would you do differently if you had this project to do over?
  I would try to make it nicer and try to find more information
  
  Click here for our presentation

Main Understanding: Hard work and struggle can lead to creativity

Throughout the year I have learned about many different and controversial topics. Some of which I believe aren't part of the normal curriculum. Many things that we did included our own original play that was part of a controversial topic and many other things that are interesting, In the beginning of the year I walked into Mr. Block's History and English class thinking it would be a regular boring class and we would do what I did in a regular high school class. Instead of that I had a different experience. It was regular assignments and research but it was a hands-on experience to different things, like being a part of the Art in the Open festival.

Some of the topics that struck me as interesting were the lesson that we learned about the different rights to education, and the boy that refused to say the pledge of allegiance. We asked different essential questions about each of the topics that we were discussing in class. When we started the process out making our own play, I struggled because I had never done a thing, in actuality I never wrote much until this year. The first thing we did before we wrote plays were that we were to read plays written by the classes from before. After we had read plays and talked about different controversial topic that our play had to include. Throughout the process of writing it, we had much help by doing several activities that would immerse us into the characters that could be in our play. I had some trouble thinking about what topic I wanted to pick during the period that we were choosing. During that time, Kim Jong il died so I decided to do something with the country of North Korea. I strived to create a play following a couple with mixed feelings about the Leader of North Korea dying. I tried creating a story that could’ve been possibly be happening at that very moment.

Second Understanding: Change can only occur when there is support

            Throughout the year we’ve had many different assignments and most of those assignments required us to as another student to peer-edit each other’s work. Most of what I am proud of writing wouldn’t be what it is. This year we wrote a language autobiography on how language affects us. Seeing that I am Vietnamese, I know two languages. The difference from knowing an Asian language and English in my eyes is a big leap from knowing Spanish and English, or English alone. It’s a big leap because of the structure of the Asian language and the difference it makes. In my language autobiography I talk about how when I was younger I felt like an adult. I felt like any adult because of the responsibility that I had as the best English speaking person in the house. Another thing that we did that I help finishing up was the Poetry Unit. Inside this Unit we wrote different poems, with each poem having a different requirement, and constantly had our peers editing posting feedback about the specific poems we wanted. We asked our peers to support us we wrote poetry and made a specific page where we stored our different poems that we wrote at that time.

Third Understanding: Listening can help immensely

            Although I have listened for most of the school year, there are some bits and pieces here and there where I started to space out momentarily. One moment was when Mr. Block was talking about the Final portfolio, which is what you’re reading, I spaced out because I was reading different vignettes from the book “Finding Freedom” Another instance where I wasn’t in the zone was when we were introduced our podcast interview which was part of our Crossing Boundaries unit. This project was a group one where we all interviewed people outside of our school.

            This year has been very interesting, it has been weird but in a good way. I feel satisfied with what I produced this year

1) Introduction

In the beginning we were asked to make a language autobiography about our language. At first I didn't understand what it meant to write that. After I read some other language autobiographies, I somewhat understood what it meant to write a language autobiography. I think that I wrote something similar to Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue" because I can relate to her. I learned a lot about how people think what languages are and how different we speak even though we all speak english.

2)

 I might still not be an adult now, but I know the experiences of becoming an adult. I was burdened with the responsibility to become my parents, or rather answer the phone calls as them, in the early course of my childhood.. At the time I was only 8 or 9 years old, my parents mostly spoke broken English and I answered most of the calls that came from anyone that was speaking English.

As I was the one going to school in America and spoke English for more than 7 hours a day, I would be the ideal candidate to answer the phone. I was forced to answer all the calls if the call spoke any kind of English. I would be the one answer the calls because my parents were afraid that the caller would take advantage of them not being able to speak English well. Most of the time I had to make up an excuse that “I” was busy. Most of the calls would go.

             “Hello is Mr Le there?”

             “I’m terribly busy, I can’t answer right”

             “When will you be available?”

             “Try again tomorrow at lunch”

After I would hang up the phone, and my parents would ask who called and what did they want. At times I would answer important business calls for my parents, because they wanted to make sure that there weren’t being fooled or conned. My dad would claim that the people who called were mostly asking for money for them or their organizations. The first time that I answered one the calls that was meant for my parents, I was nervous that I would mess up. What 8 or 9 year would answer a phone that could be a very important business. All I wanted to do was do my homework and play with my legos or watch TV. After the first call, I thought was all over, no more calls I would have to answer. Eventually when someone called I was always the one to pick it up, no matter how far I was or how close my parents were. Sometimes I would have to run across the house to pick up the phone, other times it would simply be next to me. I didn’t that I would have to answer a call from a complete stranger in my living room, pretending to be my own parents. What I wondered is that why would the callers push on and still call although. I have denied them so many times. The same thing would apply when we would go shopping; sometimes I had to ask for my parents how much this or that was because they could understand English that well or I had to say It for them because of this broken English. Although my English wasn’t like what it is now, I was able to speak clearly and everyone was able to understand me. Now I’m able to speak clearer and with better grammar. When I speak it doesn’t really show that I’m from Southwest Philadelphia because I don’t tend to use any slang when I speak.

When I was in the position of being my parents, I didn’t feel comfortable because I wasn’t doing something a kid would do at my age. I would have to impersonate my parents when somebody called. I think that influenced the way that I speak now. I think that by speaking properly at a young age, it influenced me to try speaking without any slang. Answering phone calls repeatedly I would have to speak with Standard English to sound like an adult. I couldn’t just speak the way I would if my friends, I would have to speak formally like if I were talking to a teacher or someone important. I think that made me changed the way I spoke even to my friends. Over time I noticed that I got more formal even with my friends and family. I did start getting less formal with my friends but got more formal when talking to adults or symbols of power. I think that when I became my parents when I was younger I was trained to talk in a formal way so that the caller could not recognize that I wasn’t my father.

Most of the time I would code switch between my friends, my parents, and other adults. I think that code switching is important because if were we to speak to adults like we do to our friend then it wouldn’t fit in. We couldn’t just talk to anyone with slang, if an important guess came to visit you would have to speak properly to show a good first impression. When we speak to our friends, we tend to be less formal then we do if we were talking to any adult. It’s important also when you talk to your parents and when you talk to teachers. You can’t just ask the teacher a personal question, like you would ask your parents. Like in “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, She talks differently when she’s near her mother or husband. When she’s around Americans, she uses sophisticated phrases Asking a stranger wouldn’t be normal, that’s why code switching is important. Code switching lets us to change our speech depending on where and who were talking to. Everyone code switches everyday, Husbands code switch when they’re near their wife and vice versa, Friends code switch when an adult is around. Everyone code switches at least once a day

Tan, Amy. Mother Tongue. National Council of teachers of english,

3

                                                What is the Pipeline?

Today the US is debating on whether to drill the crude oil in the tar sands of Alberta, Canada. Although I’m not for the pipeline but I need this job because my wife and I are running on a tight budget right now. They claim to provide jobs but they exclude people because of their of their relationship with the pipeline and how it runs. I can’t tell the audience is but it feels wrong to not tell them, and now its time to do my presentation. The Tar Sands oil from Canada could bring many jobs for a certain length of time for the construction of the pipeline that will run through at least 4 to 5 states and maybe an Indian reserve. It will run through many residences and an aqua firer having a great risk for people who have the pipeline running through there backyards. It also creates a big risk for the residences that get water from the aqua firer nearby. Another problem could be that TransCanada could be trying to evade some minor safety issues to save money. It will bring money and jobs to the United states as well as the fact that we don’t have to go to a foreign country to drill oil and ship it over here, but with the crude oil from the tar sands it takes 3 barrels of water to have 1 barrel of oil for us. The risk of having a massive pipeline under residences creates a possible risk of having an oil spill in backyards.

                                                The Dene

The Dene is a Native American tribe that lives a long the pathway of the Tar sands crude oil pipeline. Even if the Keystone XL Pipeline does create jobs, TransCanada could exclude hiring people from the Dene. They could try to drive the Dene out of their homes because of the Crude Oil that could harm the environment. It could create a untrusting relationship between the Dene Native American tribe, and the Government because they are there legally. Many Indian tribes contribute to the environment and always take care of it, but if we drill the crude oil we have a chance of destroying some of the environment as a by product. It could possibly harm the wild life living in the nearby areas. It can affect the homes of the residences with the pipeline running through their home. It will make it more dangerous and riskier for the children to go outside and enjoy the fresh air. The oil can affect the homes and make certain household objects smell odd. It can have a safety hazard because you could smell the gasses in the house if it leaks out. The Dene tribe could be angered because they were left out of the jobs that the companies claim to hire people. They could sue the companies because its going threw their reservation. The Dene could become very sick because of the chemicals that could possibly leak out of the pipeline.

                                                            My kids

As I drove home today I was thinking what would happen if the President allowed the keystone pipeline that usually averages about 25 years as a life span. I was driving home thinking if I would have to move away because of the possibility of the pipeline being drilled under my backyard and house. My kids might not be able to play some sports in our backyard with their friends. They won’t be able to enjoy the great outdoors like I did. My wife and I won’t be able to have the backyard pool parties me and the neighbors come over for a couple hours to eat and talk about recent events. As I was driving home I happened to drive by a school and I wondered were would all the kids play if the pipeline ran under their neighborhoods and parks and surrounding areas. Where would these kids go if the pipeline ran under the playgrounds?  How would the joggers be safe with the massive pipeline running through their pathway? I turned on the radio to see if any of the local news networks were talking about this massive pipeline that could change the United States. When I reached my house I came in and turned on the TV to see if there were any developments. I reached for the controller as the initial channel was something my kids were watching last night. I pressed on the channel+ button furiously until I found a local new channel that was talking about the Keystone XL Pipeline.

            Today I’m an average American kid who has been very fortunate but years before I was an embarrassed Vietnamese kid who was uncomfortable with my own name, Viet. Now I’m very connected with my culture and everyday I’m learning something new, like different sayings and the different ways of life but also the history of the country, as I go along.

Years ago I used to think about asking my parents to legally change my name to Victor or some other American name that wouldn’t stand out as Viet. When I was in school I was considered an outsider because of my entirely different name. I was different from everyone else because of my name. When I was in kindergarten everyone thought I was Chinese, at that time People stereotyped Asian people as Chinese but there were an abundant amount of different cultures in Asia. I really didn’t care at the time because I was five and I didn’t know that much about anything then and there. My cousin and I were the same age and the same ethnicity but what set us apart were our names and that changed the way people looked at him and looked at me. In the beginning my parents told me to think it over again because I could be giving up something that made me unique from the rest of the kids, my name. They saw my name as something that would separate me from all of the ordinary kids in school and on the streets. They saw it as something special that no other kid could have. At the very least my parents would let me add the American name as my middle name rather than changing my first name. About a month later my parents asked me if I wanted to change my name to something more commonly heard in American like, Victor or John, but I said no. After rethinking it over I accepted my name because it was different from everyone else. I didn’t want to be like the other American kids anymore because I didn’t want to be stereotyped as something I wasn’t.

In the summer of 2011 I went to Vietnam. There I felt at home because I was no different from anyone else there. I fit in, I didn’t feel like an outsider and I felt like that was where I belonged. No one would question me what I was doing because everyone was doing it. It was something natural there rather than something different, where, as most people would just stare at me. In Vietnam it was like being on another planet where I wouldn’t have to worry about someone accepting or someone staring at me. I could connect to everyone else because everyone was the same as me. I wasn’t that other kid who didn’t have an American name. I fit in because I had a name that wasn’t so different from others. Ironically I’ve never visited or seen Vietnam and I’ve never felt more at home when I was there. Even though I’ve lived in and was born in America I never felt the way I did when I was in Vietnam. Although I’ve been raised in America where I assimilated to the way of living here, I still don’t feel exactly where I should be at times. I eat pizza, watch TV, use the Internet, and play games. In Vietnam I sit down and really get to know my family because a lot of things in Vietnam aren’t as updated as they are here in America. I do things that are normal in America. I remember during the course of second grade I had brought coconut as a drink to school for lunch and when I opened my lunch box everyone had seen that there was something I normally didn’t have and they asked what it was. When I answered that it was coconut everyone around me looked at me like I was the craziest and most insane person to drink that. In Vietnam coconuts were extremely fresh or almost any produce for that matter but it would be delightful refreshment. I would be something that was eaten once in awhile and it was enjoyed.

On the way back to Philadelphia I missed Vietnam but I also missed my own house, where I could sleep on my bed comfortably rather than feeling awkward about sleeping in someone else’s room for three weeks. Waking up the next day to visit the family I’ve grown to know all my life. Coming back to see my cousins that I’ve grown up with was nothing like when I came to my aunts house for the first time. When I first walked into the house the majority of my family greeted me on my dad’s side that I was going meet for the rest of this vacation. Only a few other relatives were missing but it felt stuffy in the house. Most of my relatives were there to greet me, it was nice for the first day or two but after awhile it was irritating because I was the center of attention because I was the son of the brother who had the chance to live in America. I was also special because I was the son of the second or third child that was still living. For next three weeks I had become the center of attention. If someone wanted to know something about America they would ask me, instead of asking my completely fluent speaking father. I would always be asked what did I do, what did I have, was there this or that at different times of the day. I realized I should learn more about my culture and language to be able vacation in that paradise of country one day.

This project was similar to the Negative space drawing because we had to choose what part of the drawing we wanted positive and negative.  We had to carve out what we wanted to be positive and leave what we wanted to be negative

For the Printmaking project I chose to draw a Street light and Inside the street are LEDs which are made from Gallium Arsenide.

If I could do this again I would do a different print. The printing wasn't that hard but I didn't favor that part of the project 

I found it in my cut out because I can see the outline of the owl and the stools

It helps because you can see the outline and see it better to make it easier

It helps because you can envision it easier

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12839756/My%20First%20Project%20-%20Large.m4v