on Facebook about last night's Oscar results and I know I shouldn't be, but I don't know why I'm getting so worked up! I feel so bad for people that commented before me that keep getting a notification every time I write something. So basically this guy is upset that a picture made by a little nobody from France (Michel Hazanavicius) beat American big-namers like Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, and Steven Spielberg. And now he is arguing that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II should have won because of its "impact on pop culture". 
????????????????????
Given that the writer of that status is an independent filmmaker, I think the first argument is a little ironic. And given that the Oscars is a highly adult-catered show, giving the best picture award to Harry Potter would be leaving a lot of voice. 
Anyway, speaking of Oscars. Here are some of my favorite intros from past Academy Awards hosted by Billy Crystal and Hugh Jackman! 

And for the sake of maintaining the sex appeal of this blog, here ya go. 

You're welcome. 
And I noticed that I wear the weirdest combination of clothes when I'm home. 
It's cold, okay? 

I made Magritte's The Son of Man into a chips & dip plate! I wasn't born with the gift of artistic skills, so I do realize that it looks like an 8th grader's project for her ceramic class, but I still can't wait for it to get baked and ready for pick up next Thursday. 

The last one obviously doesn't apply to me, but I helped Sarah a great deal while she made it including the original founders one, which I think is the best one. I wish meme generator was an actual job. Anyway, the long President's weekend is over and tomorrow is the first day of track but I'm still sick :3. Kind of funny that my antibiotics says less than 1% of patients discontinued its use due to side effects and I'm part of that minority. Talk about luck. 

Oh god Peter is the cutest person ever. I love all his facial expressions. I don't mean to sound like those irritable hipsters disillusioned with modern pop culture, but listen to this and look at all the young people singing along D': 

If I may add, I don't find him physically attractive at all (cute at the most). As the original writer of this post brought up, it's his creativity and unique views on the world that make him attractive, not necessarily his looks. I think he'd be a really fun guy in real life too - less neurotic and cynical than he is often depicted in movies.  On a different note, 

I found stacks of my old Yu-Gi-Ho, Digimon, and baseball cards in the garage. I know the picture doesn't make it seem like a lot of cards, but man, there are hundreds of them. I think it's pretty funny given that I always make fun of boys that collect these kinds of things. 

And it was Sarah's birthday two days ago. Sort of a bummer since we were both awfully sick and ended up canceling our dinner reservation at Sushi Ota. Nonetheless, the cake was bomb and we had fun watching Friends with our blankets with kleenex boxes under each arm. 

These are some really interesting articles on how My Neighbor Totoro may be a story about a murdered girl and how Spirited Away may be a depiction of prostitution. 
The analysis of My Neighbor Totoro seems too far-fetched, though I am angry I have never thought of that for Spirited Away before! Duh, Nora. How did I not see that. That film was a 10/10 for me already, but now knowing that a deeper and darker insight exists, I officially bestow my stamp of acknowledgement that it is one of the best piece of cinema ever created. 
That being said, the newest Studio Ghibli film The Secret World of Arrietty is being screened in the United States less than a week from today, woooo! 

Probably the strangest music video I've ever seen. That boy needs therapy. 

So my dad’s back from Korea finally and we had this interesting conversation during dinner about what the American Dream is and the prospect of a contemporary average Joe achieving such status.

We both agreed that the American Dream is up to personal interpretation, although we added that monetary success serves the primary motivation, as it does to every human action if one were to look through my eyes of cynicism. Alas, there is a slight catch to the definition of a rather ambiguous term in that American Dream should be accessible to everyone regardless of gender, race, and social class. To add to that, the success that results from this pursuit of American Dream should stem from working a job we truly enjoy. Isn’t that only so logical? Isn’t that what dream is, ultimately? A cherished hope?

So what if you make $200k a year working at a law firm when your true passion lies in paleontology, stopping world hunger, the fine arts, English literature, praising God, fighting homophobia, 20th popular culture, the French language, playing the classical guitar…you get it.

I understand that the concept American Dream especially applies to immigrants, such as myself. We are systematically taught at an early age that what we can’t do here, we can do in the USA. Those naïve aspirations I had as a kid gradually became disillusioned and believe it or not, what once used to be abstract and indescribably romantic visions are now mere numbers. 

Is my 2150 SAT score good enough? Would UCLA consider it competent? What about Boston College? I got an 89.5 in the class…Ms. Macmanus, can that be rounded up to an A? Please? PLEASE? Yeah? Oh my God, I love you I love you I love you. And not just in grades and scores either. Is my family’s total income of $70k annually meet the average standards of Carmel Valley? You have the iPhone 3? Wow, switch it already! I have the iPhone 4, which automatically puts me in a higher class of some sort, is that not right? 

If the American Dream was a beef patty, it would be drenched in materialism which would be the sauce, dumped under a restrictive social class which would be the processed cheese, and the double standard which would be the two buns – there I just made you a McDonald’s Big Mac, how’s that for something 100% American? 

What I’m getting is that the American Dream that originated from the Manifest Destiny, that is, if my recollection of my faint US History knowledge is correct, was much more romantic and easier to acquire than it is now. On a side note, whenever I hear Manifest Destiny, I always think of the incredibly corny scene at the end of Far and Away when Tom Cruise is racing through an open Oklahoma territory when he tragically falls off the horse and dies….for 5 minutes, only to be saved by the miracle of love (or his gift of short height since his head probably didn’t even reach the rock that mortally wounded him). 

To end on a lighter note, I would like to say that coming the United States, as awful as I may make it sound (I really just miss my friends and cheap, street food), is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. Want a little irony? The sheer fact that I am able to write this and have these contemplations is due to the education I received at my school, which by the way was free.