Superman, Crashed and Burned

 

For generations, Superman stood as the cultural blueprint for the ideal man. He embodied strength paired with restraint, courage guided by conscience, confidence anchored in humility. He was the man who could lift mountains yet chose gentleness, who could rule the world yet chose to serve it. Boys looked up to him not just for his powers, but for his virtues, a model of what a man could aspire to be at his best. But that man is no more.

The new Superman (2025) movie opens with a stunning reversal of everything he once represented. The first image we see is not steadiness or strength but helplessness: Superman, bloodied and defeated, sprawled face-down in the snow, crying out for help. His dog, Krypto, arrives, not as a loyal companion, but as a chaotic, disobedient force that bounces on his injured body, worsening his wounds, then drags him for miles across the frozen ground like a captive in an old Western. Our first encounter with this new Superman is not inspiration: it is humiliation. The next major scene continues the inversion. During an interview with Lois Lane, instead of the traditionally showcased Superman’s calm moral clarity, we see he becomes frustrated, raises his voice, and loses composure. Lois herself is combative and dismissive, questioning him about breaking laws even as he tries to save people’s lives. Their exchange is tense, unpleasant, and stripped of the dignity and mutual respect that used to define them.

This new portrayal is not random. It reflects a deeper cultural rewrite of what a “good man” is supposed to be today. Traditional masculinity - assertive, steady, principled, and protective - has increasingly been reframed as dangerous and toxic. Strength is treated with suspicion. Leadership is portrayed as aggression. Emotional steadiness is dismissed as repression. In this current worldview, a man is only considered virtuous when he is softened, humbled, or broken. And so Superman, the ultimate masculine archetype, must now be remade as weak, insecure, easily overwhelmed, and constantly challenged. The modern Superman does not inspire: he apologizes. He does not lead: he second-guesses. He does not project strength: he is allowed worth only after he first collapses.

When we change Superman, we reveal what we believe about men themselves. The sad truth is that the cultural ideal of the good man has shrunk. Instead of encouraging men to be strong and responsible with their strength, society increasingly expects them to be harmless, passive, and emotionally fragile. The result is a generation of young men who no longer see a clear path toward admirable masculinity: even their greatest hero has been stripped of his virtues.

In the end, none of this really seems to matter. The movie gives us bright colors, loud explosions, fast punches, and a few slow-motion hero shots. So the crowd cheers, the theater shakes, and everyone walks out smiling. Why do we care? We got our explosive action scenes, so we clap, and we’re happy.

How "Two and a Half Men" Damaged Marriage

 

When people talk about Two and a Half Men, they usually describe it as lighthearted fun, a classic sitcom built on raunchy jokes, exaggerated characters, and over-the-top scenarios. But underneath all the easy laughs, the show quietly delivers a message about marriage that is far darker and more corrosive than most viewers ever acknowledge. And I think that message has done real harm.

The problem isn’t that the writers set out to attack marriage, or that the show is making some philosophical argument. Intent doesn’t matter. Impact does. And the impact is plain: the show repeatedly portrays marriage as a terrible deal for men, something naïve men fall into and pay for the rest of their lives.

For 12 seasons, Alan Harper is the audience’s case study in marital misery. His divorce isn’t just a plot point; it becomes the defining feature of his entire life. He is chronically broke, paying alimony, paying child support, losing his home, and losing his dignity. And every time he tries again - attempting new relationships, contemplating remarriage - he’s humiliated all over. The lesson is clear: once a man signs that marriage contract, he gives up stability, finances, and freedom.

Meanwhile, the contrast with Charlie couldn’t be sharper. Charlie, the eternal bachelor, lives freely, sleeps with whoever he wants, and faces no long-term consequences. His lifestyle is painted as carefree and enviable, while commitment is painted as punishment. The show doesn’t have to tell men directly that marriage is a trap: it simply shows it, week after week, until the message sinks in.

I’m not claiming a sitcom single-handedly ruined American marriage culture - that would be absurd. But the show didn’t appear in a vacuum. It aired during a time when marriage rates were already declining, the divorce system was already widely viewed as risky for men, and fears about unfair financial and custody outcomes were spreading. What Two and a Half Men did was normalize those fears. It took the worst-case scenarios men worry about and turned them into everyone’s running joke.

That matters. Comedy has a way of shaping what we believe without us realizing it. When the same message appears across dozens of episodes: marriage ruins men; divorce bleeds them dry; women hold all the cards, it becomes part of the cultural background. A young man watching that doesn’t walk away thinking, “Haha, what a clever satire.” He walks away thinking, “That’s what marriage looks like.”

I want to be hopeful about marriage. I want to believe that people try to make it work, that two adults can come together in good faith, that love and effort matter more than fear. But the reality is that the perceived risk of marriage keeps rising, and shows like this amplify that fear even further. They reflect a world where men increasingly feel they have everything to lose and not much to gain.

Maybe that’s the saddest part: instead of offering a healthier or more balanced view, Two and a Half Men reinforces the idea that marriage is a gamble only a fool would take. And for many viewers, especially men, that message sticks long after the laugh track fades.

I Watched “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”

 

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a fun, family-friendly movie. Highly recommended.

I am most impressed with Taylor-Joy's performance. Having previously watched The Northman, I had expected Princess Peach voiced by her to have a deep, croaky voice, but Peach sounded just fine, likeable, dignified, and Peach-like. 

The rest of the cast did a phenomenal job too, but it wasn't surprising. Pratt did a good job as Mario, and considering how goofy Pratt is, he was probably having a blast. Before the movie's release, there has a widespread concern about how Pratt did not sound like Mario at all in the early trailers, but it ended up a nonissue. (i.e. Mario did sound like Mario and not Pratt cosplaying). Jack Black as Bowser is an absolute no-brainer. The man was born to play Bowser.

Just like any other video-game adaptation, the bigger a fan of the game, the more you would enjoy this movie. The game is filled with homages to many titles of the Mario franchise, including Mario Cart and Luigi's Haunted Mansion, to name a few. But the movie is still watch-worthy for people who are not familiar with the franchise. (I myself only played the original Super Mario Bros. growing up and did not keep up with any other Mario games throughout the years). In the movie, Mario himself is also not familiar with this "Mario world" and has to explore this world's features himself.

You should go watch it. You'll probably enjoy it, like my toddler son and the middle-aged me.

Quick Pencil Sketch - Joaquin Phoenix's Joker

Instead of being productive, of course I would get hyped by the new Joker movie and make a sketch on a Friday evening. I guess I ended up drawing something for this year's Inktober after all!

An Atypical Thought about Sins and Betrayals

In the NetFlix show Atypical, a mother had an affair, ended it, then was found out. Her children hated and avoided her. Her husband was disgusted by her. At first, he left, but soon after, problems happened at home so he came back for the children but told her to leave. One of their two children, the show’s protagonist, had autism, and when he was told that his mother had cheated on his father, he nonchalantly commented:

- Wow, it’s the first time I met a person who committed adultery.

Adultery is widely considered an unforgivable sin. When we find out our love partner has cheated on us, we end the relationship. We don’t forgive them. That’s what we do. On the seventh holy bullet point, the Lord has commanded, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” And this may very well be the only thing on which people of both sides would agree with each other these days.

Her husband was a paramedic who was mostly out at work. Her teenage daughter tended to do mean and disrespectful things to her just for the sake of it (saying stuff like, “No one needs you, Mom!”). Her autistic other child, the main character, he, well, had autism. It means two things: first, he was not empathetic to her, and if he didn’t need anything from her, he would tell her to go away. Simply no emotional connection. (There may be different kinds of autism, and some autistic people can be empathetic, I’m not arguing.) Secondly (and much more universally), he needed a lot of accommodations. So “her”, the mother, spent most of her time since he was diagnosed accommodating him. Driving him to see the therapists, listening to whatever he had to tell, doing whatever else to tend to his needs. Adding all the typical housework to that list, and you’d have a person without a life. She spent her days serving her family who did a pretty good job showing her that she was not needed.

By no means I am condoning people having affairs. Still a big NO. People who do that should really be ashamed of themselves and it really is their fault. But who doesn’t want to be needed? Who doesn’t want to be thanked, to be affirmed that they matter? And the ruggedly handsome bartender could do just that. So it happened. A family, wrecked. As long expected.

When I saw how she was disgusted and rejected by her husband and children, I wondered, how about their 20-plus years of marriage, how about all the love, the time, the efforts she had put in their lives: ain’t they amount much at all? Do we abandon all of what we and our loved ones have been through together – all of them – because of one big mistake? Should we though?

Countless people have had affairs. I don’t think they are all sex maniacs. Maybe people cheat because within their own families, they have been neglected, unappreciated, and abandoned. If our spouse was to have an affair, would it be possible that we were, collectively, also at fault? In this story I just told, wasn’t it her husband and children who arguably initiated her adultery?

When our loved ones committed a horrible mistake, it’s probably because we didn’t do something right ourselves. We feel betrayed, but maybe we have betrayed them first.

So the message is to not judge others too hastily. Another message is about the lesser-known Bible verse of 1 Corinthians 6:7b:

“Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?”  

Ted Mosby is not a Nice Guy

Ted Mosby from How I Met Your Mother is not a nice guy. Façade-ing as a good guy searching for true love, Ted went out and dated and slept with girls after girls for at least a decade, then after a number of years, now spends another decade to “share” all of his exotic experiences with his teenage children. “This is the story of how I met your mother”, he said. “I slept with this girl and that girl, etc. including your aunt Robin whom I still have a crush on”, he might as well have said. Oh and, I’ll briefly talk about your mother at the very end so that we won’t feel so bad.

At one episode, Ted’s friends (I think it was Marshall) pointed out how on each gathering occasion, such as Thanksgiving or Christmas, Ted would invite his girlfriend at that time to attend, she would be in the group picture, and never to reappear in the next one. How sad is that? How can we enter another person’s life, be a part of it, and then disappear (or in this case, make them disappear) forever? But good ole Ted did that, over and over. If someone spends some time to do some statistics, Ted may have slept with more people than Barney, the supposedly Don Juan of the group. In another popular show, The Big Bang Theory, Amy asks Penny if sleeping with 30 would constitute her as a slut. Well, respectfully, is our Mr. Mosby a slut? Probably not. He is a guy and our cultural perceptions on guys are different. But he must be a real big jerk.

Or so I thought.

I had this girlfriend Jenny from high school. We would be together everywhere. We weren’t just dating, we were good buddies. Now I look at the group pictures I had at the time, among our friends I would see myself, and I would see her.

Then we broke up and moved on. Still friends though, because being high school classmates is not something you can easily erase. Years went by, and one day I found myself gotten married with Arwen, another person who I met in high school, Jenny and I’s old classmate. But I couldn’t invite Jenny to our wedding: she’s my ex. And I look at the recent pictures when we went out to spend time with the old high school class, Jenny is not in them. I suddenly realize that she wasn’t there simply because we no longer dated, just like how she were in the older pictures simply because we were dating. I date someone and they are allowed to be in the pictures; I break up with them and they are no longer included.

Good Lord, I am just like Ted.

24 Hours Without the Internet

Right now I am in the process of relocation, and there was a 24-hour gap between checking out of Motel 6 and having a guy from Cox coming over to install the Internet in my new apartment. (The Motel 6 in Oklahoma City has fantastic and free Internet, by the way; it’s far superior to the one in San Jose whose paid Internet service is painfully crappy.) Not having Internet access this long was a challenge to me no doubt, but Challenge Accepted!!!

When facing some hardship, of course the first thing to do is to lament about it. So I stared at my laptop screen and realized how sad Life was without the Internet. More than half of the icons are Internet-based programs. I could care less of what people said on Facebook for 24 hours, but giving up Internet entirely was not fun. I needed to read the news and check emails; I wanted to look at YouTube; I wanted to play video games. They all required Internet connections. Oh how about going out to explore the new city? Let me see what places they have on Google Map… oh wait.

So I read the Bible my today’s portion. I was following the Bible reading plan I found (previously!) online of going through the whole Bible in a year. The first 3 chapters in the book of Ezra were fine, just a lot of names but I’m sure they’re important. Then I jumped to James and read about how humility was important. Being humble is such a tricky topic and maybe I’ll write about it some time.

I prepared lunch, and it wasn’t anything fancy at all. Since I just moved in, I wasn’t really in the mood to cook so it was only something out of a box. But when Arwen asked me what I had, I said, “steak, smashed potatoes, and corns”. Trust me, it wasn’t as good as it sounds.

Luckily, I had input the addresses of a Barnes & Noble in town and a Vietnamese supermarket in my GPS, so I could actually go outside and check those two out. I love bookstores, and if Borders were still around I would go there all the time. Barnes & Noble is larger and even more fun. So I went there and did whatever snow does in the summer… I mean, whatever a nerd does in a bookstore: staring at book titles and feeling happy.

Another place I went to was a Vietnamese supermarket called Super Cao Nguyen. I found it online, and it’s supposed to be the biggest Asian market in town (how cool is that?). It was really fun going in there. They have a large variety of food and spices. They have good meat buns, “xôi” (sticky rice with chicken or pork), “bánh chưng” (Vietnamese new year cake) and many other things! Here are some pictures of what I got:

"Bánh bao" (meat bun)

Xôi gà (sticky rice with grilled chicken thigh)

Bánh chưng (Vietnamese rice cake)

Because this is a Vietnamese store so besides Japanese, Korean, and Chinese stuff, they have many Made-in-Vietnam goods to choose from. Here comes my patriotism! : ) Oh and right next to the supermarket was a pho restaurant called Mr. Phở’s. It is one of the most popular pho restaurants in Oklahoma City! (I didn’t go in because of my habit not to go to a restaurant alone. Maybe I’d go when Arwen comes visit and make a review on that.) But anyway, I got out of Super Cao Nguyen with a lot of froze food and felt super excited (no pun intended!). So I went home.

At one point I watched The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug on my laptop. (Luckily I didn’t need to use Internet for this.) I am still amazed how Hollywood could muster 3 long movies out of a tiny little children’s book. If J. R. R. Tolkien could see this he’d laugh so bad.

And of course there was another thing that I did during this 24-hour period: I wrote this blog post! Now I needed that Internet guy to come and install the thing so that I can post this entry, didn’t I? Hopefully with this new life in Oklahoma City, I would find many things to share and have the time to share them. Please pray for me so that I’d live. 

I Watched 'I am Sam' for Christmas

I thought I should do something for Christmas. My families and friends were far away. Even the neighbor guy I hung out with was gone visiting his aunt. But I still thought I should do something. I watched a movie. I watched I am Sam.

She told me about it. She told me about someone telling someone else how he (or she) was “the color red of her life.” I wanted to watch it to know what it meant. A love movie could be nice – I supposed – each and every time I could learn something new and insightful. The movie I am Sam was insightful indeed! However, though it was full of love, humors, and excitements, it was not, by any means, what I was expecting.

I am spoiling it: the movie is about a retarded father trying to get back his daughter, and he does it splendidly. There were many things going on in my head as I was watching it, thoughts about relationships between parents and children, about the beautiful diversity of companionships, about different values in Life and how one chooses which to pursuit. I am Sam is a surprisingly meaningful movie and I can make this post a long and boring discussion about the richness of it. Or, I can talk about retarded people.

To say it simple, retarded people have problems with mental development and their intellectual level can only reach that of a young child. They are everywhere, and to tell the truth, I never feel too comfortable being around them. They tend to disturb people around at an ultra-high level, and in the worst case I have experienced, they treated my friend Renae badly while she was trying to help them. I have wondered at times why people try so hard to help them while they aren’t really that treasurable. I can live with inherent unproductiveness, but I cannot easily forgive ignorant cruelty.

The movie gives me a different experience. The miserable beings in there present us with series of touching moments. How Sam raised his daughter Lucy to become a strong and smart girl, how Sam’s handicapped friends helped him to buy Lucy her new shoes, and how he had the famous lawyer Rita Harrison to help with bringing Lucy back are most incredible among others, and watching them would easily bring one into tears. The disabled were able to perform the miracles.   

Only by following through the whole story of one retarded father may I see the unimaginable. Sam and his handicapped friends show me their genuine love for other people, their extraordinary efforts to carry on responsibilities, and their utmost appreciations toward any tiny goodness of life. 

As awesome as Sam is, we can’t deny the fact that he and his friends keep acting weird and screwing things up. Someone who only glimpses at I am Sam for 10 seconds can really say, “Oh my, these guys are nothing but nuts!” But then again, is this “clumsiness” really such a bad thing? We all know someone who tries too hard and messes things up – we do too! Maybe that’s why retarded people mess up all the time: they always try their absolute best to make things work, consistently, persistently. To learn to love them patiently and courageously helps us to love better our children, our elderly loved ones, and ourselves.

To tell, retarded people are quite lovable – to the point that they may as well be listed among God’s favorites. They never twist any comprehensible truth. They try to do the right things and to enjoy their lives – and they try real hard. Don’t they have some of the best virtues that God has ever created? Isn’t there always something in them that we can observe and wholeheartedly admire? Aren’t they simply some other people that are different? We are all different. And from now on, I will restrain myself from using the word “retarded” inappropriately.     

So on one night I watched I am Sam. What a wonderful movie! It was a good time. It was a good cry. It was a good Christmas cry.

How to watch a movie and appreciate it fully

You have a movie in mind that you really want to watch because you know that it’s gonna be great? These are some steps you should take to make it a wonderful experience:

1.                   Go to Wikipedia and find out the original book the movie gets inspired from

2.                   Read the book

3.                   Finish it

4.                   Appreciate it and give it some thoughts

5.                   Wait for 3-10 months until the story has faded away a little

6.                   Now you are ready. Get the movie and watch it.

Trust me, the impacts the movie would give you after going through all of these steps are phenomenal. It takes so much effort and time of so many diligent hard-workers to produce a movie, it’s certainly worth it.

"You Want to See Miracles?"

(This post was finished last year, and I forgot to post it.)

How often do I truly seek God? I don’t know. But I know that every time I do, He will answer me in so many ways, and any of them is just so amazing. My life doesn’t seem to be so attractive these days, as I am struggling (still) will study and people. I knew that I wasn’t the most unfortunate person as now I have God and my girlfriend (sorry if the way I put “my girlfriend” next to “God” annoys you, it’s just a way to say it). I knew that but I couldn’t really feel that. My girlfriend is at the other end of this Earth, and God’s image is still not easy to… anticipate. I felt lonely and my joy left me. So I decided to watch the movie “Bruce Almighty”.

After I watched "Evan Almighty" two years ago and greatly appreciated it, I thought this “Bruce” one should be good too. And it was awesome, surprisingly awesome. The main character Bruce thought his life was terrible and he complained about God a lot. The way he said it was interesting, “He ignored me, when he can actually fix my life in five minutes!” He was beaten while trying to help a blind man; his car got broken; and he got fired right after he was offered a chance to be promoted. But he had an amazing girlfriend who always with him and supported him. It’s funny how I saw a part of myself just right in front of my eyes. I feel watching the movie is like when some friend of mine just randomly opened the Bible and saw the exact verse he needed. This movie was for me to watch and the timing was perfect. 

So the “God” appeared (Morgan Freeman again, and he did another great job), and let Bruce to be… all powerful, with only two rules: keep it a secret, and mess not with free will. I like how the second rule is so American. /This entry is sadly a spoiler, so if you didn’t watch it and plan to enjoy the movie fully, then please stop reading this and save it for later/ 

So Bruce got the power, enjoyed himself for a while until the whole society was messed up. He finally understood the lessons and he gave up his power. The idea of God letting someone to try His role is really interesting, and I was thinking that I would do a much better job than Bruce did (but oh well, I will surely screw up in some way or another too). Wonder what kind of miracle I would try first if I got the power, maybe creating some food ‘cause I am hungry :’D. What Bruce did first was… dividing his tomato soup like Moses did with the Red Sea (lol!!!) But later on, God told him, “Parting your soup is not a miracle, it’s a magic trick. A single mom who’s working two jobs and still finds time to take her kid to soccer practice, that’s a miracle. A teenager who says no to drug and yes to an education, that’s a miracle.” This is so nice! It means we all can do miracles! God does give us great powers and we sometimes just can’t realize it! So the movie made me think back, and reminded me of the great things I had accomplished. They were truly amazing and I couldn’t ever have done them by myself. 

Another nice thing about the movie is Bruce’s girlfriend, Grace. She reminded me of my girlfriend so much that I couldn’t bare it but cried. She reminded of her when she looked at Bruce, when she hugged him, when she had her smiles and her tears. I realized what Bruce did, that without his love everything else seems wrong: Grace was the one to help him find the way back. What An Amazing Grace Bruce received from God! All of this made me miss my girlfriend even much more, but at the same time comforted me, and gave me strength to carry on, for the bright future of ours is yet to come. 

I am so thankful for the movie. I will stop being depressed now (for a while at least), and continue to do what I am supposed to. I now can see miracles everywhere, because in the movie God tells Bruce this:

“You want to see miracles? Be a miracle!”

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

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Related topic(s):

A.R.K.

Dark and Cold

Would you not sometimes have to wonder what this world has turned into? When the basics of good turn debatable to so many people, would your heart not be sadden? I have recently watched The Invention of Lying, and I feel sad. It was a comedy but I felt great pain: it’s another anti-Christian movie.

Here is the summary of The Invention of Lying: In a world that everyone tells the truth, Mark is an unfortunate man who gets fired, isolated, and kicked out of his apartment. But then he discovers the possibility of telling untrue things and manipulating people with his lies. He gets rich and successful. Many hopeless people when hearing him telling them positive things turn automatically happy and motivated. One day, he tells “lies” to his dying mother about “a life after death” (which sounds just like Heaven). Eventually, he comes up with an entire religion that many people blindly believe in and be corrupted. In the end, he tells the woman he loves how he has been lying and they then get married. 

What now? After defying so many good things in Life, are we now to be convinced that telling lies is good and telling the truth is bad? To make things even worse, the movie ties lies to the words of Moses and further – the words of Jesus. How foolishly clever you are, Hollywood, for now you can tell millions of people that either Christianity is bad or the Christian beliefs are all lies! 

Mark the liar, when more and more people wanted to hear about the life after death, wrote stuffs down on a piece of paper. Then he decided to make what he wrote look better by… writing them on two Domino pizza boxes (that would remind you of Moses’ two tablets.) Then he came out before the world and told people about his made-up religion which was irrational, flawed, but deliberately similar to Christian beliefs. Whoever hates God would really enjoy watching many people cursing and blaming about “the man in the sky” – as Mark portrayed.

Later on in the movie, when his love was not reciprocated, Mark sank in his depression for days. When he reappeared, his hair was long and – to my amazement – he looked like the image of Jesus. The savior of mankind was now equalized to one miserable liar. Just exactly how many more years will our Lord be hated and humiliated? 

The Lord, His words, and His followers’ beliefs have been ridiculed in a quite despicable manner, and it’s amazing how many Americans can just simply laugh it off. “In God we trust,” the people say; they may as well continue with “and at God we laugh.” 

I turn and look through the windows: the sky is pitch black and the air is freezing. It is as if this world is getting only darker and colder. It is as if at this very moment countless of people are laughing and shouting like this: “Hey God, thanks for the good Thanksgiving break with all the good food and shelter, now back off and let us make fun of you!”

Related topic(s):
Dark and Cold
A.R.K.

The Prince And Me the movie

I happened to watched The Prince and Me this summer. It wasn’t a very popular so it was hard to find. Fortunately, I saw it at the school’s library, so I checked it out immediately. I looked at the movie case, and I knew that this was some kind of movie that I wouldn’t watch – wouldn’t, if it was not because my girlfriend told me that the main character’s somewhat similar to her.

So now I found myself watching the movie, trying to note the similarities I could find, besides trying to enjoy it, of course. Here are my notes:

00:01:40 – She’s ugly. She’s like my girlfriend? Really? Even her personality, I can’t see any similarity. Yet.

00:03:11 – Did she just say “bloody”?! Well, I hope she’s not like my girlfriend.

00:04:14 – Now I realize who she is. The girl in American Pie 4.

00:06:39 – I have a pretty good picture of her now. A good person with a very unlikable personality.

00:07:26 – She didn’t even come out to catch the bride’s flowers? How dry.

00:09:03 – She’s ugly.

00:10:52 – She said that “Shakespeare is so useless”?! Would my girlfriend say that?

00:25:57 – They just met at the lab for the first time and she’s already interested in him? She has a very sensitive heart covered by a tough shell. Exactly the type I call “very fragile”.

00:32:09 – She danced while working? The fact that she doesn’t like Shakespeare, and still likes some music and dances weirdly shows that she’s neglectful with life – living without knowing or finding the meanings of it. She would normally have a hard live. Yeah, normally, when there’s no prince around.

00:33:33 – She gave the prince – her apprentice – compliments. She obviously had had a challenging life, but because of that she could become a good manager.

00:34:23 – She turned down the prince’s request after several seconds of serious hesitation. It’s not easy for her to simply accept what she wants. How sad. Being her lover would be very tiresome and stressful. Not my first choice.

00:40:54 – She couldn’t understand some simple poems. This might be how she’s similar to my girlfriend. Sometimes she couldn’t understand the things that were so obvious to me.

00:47:05 – She has Gus(?), her pet moose. That’s cute. Not as cute as Arwen though.

01:08:28 – She’s saying stuff about the prince during her important medical exam. She had reached her psychotic state because of love. Breaking up would make my girlfriend sad too, unbelievably sad.

01:10:45 – She has a great friend – a truly great one. My girlfriend needs someone like that.

01:23:36 – In the opening ceremony, she shuffled the dirt like a “farm girl”, even though the two people before her did it differently. That’s quite an unwise thing to do. Unnecessary stubbornness should be avoided, Arwen.

∞ - She gave up their love because she wouldn’t be able to do what she wanted? How unthoughtful. How selfish. Only when the prince stepped down and gave in, their love could then remain. This “happy” ending is not satisfactory to me at all, since their love was only with one side being amazing.

Dear, I don’t want to see you in her. I don’t want to see her in you, either.

A.R.K.

Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. – Genesis 6:14 (ESV)
Since I have been reading books, mangas, and watching movies a lot these days, my worldview did increase and get changed dramatically. The annoying thing was: because of that, the Truth became confusing and my Faith came out to be faded a bit.
The more I thought about it, the more amazing it was- that I watched the movie “Evan Almighty”.
The movie was about a man named Evan Baxter. In the night he became a new congress man, he prayed to God, that He would help him to “change the world”. The surprising thing was that God did come to him, and told him to build “an ark”. To follow God’s Word, Evan had to give up his politic career and many things else…
It was just a funny movie, but there shouldn’t be a lot of Christian movies may surpass it. I was stunned with all the ideas conveyed in it.
I admire Evan so much. He decided to pray God in the first place, and he prayed sincerely. Immediately I felt the big shame of myself. Though I have been praying everyday, none of them could be that sincere, and were all covered with the cloud of selfishness. But that’s not all there is to it.
The man Evan, originally was a really clean person. (He shaves his nose-hair every day!). But since he followed God’s Word, he started giving up his manner, and became a hairy guy with shepherd’s outfit. Accept his work building the ark, everything else just messed up completely around him. Immediately I understood that was how “taking a cross” was! At the same time I realized though he sunk among all kinds of troubles and sufferings, it was Love that was given to him by Lord, and he was joyful.
The Faith was portrayed in a really simple but amazingly clear way. Whenever someone asked Evan: “What are you doing?”, he looked at them straightly and said: “I am building an ark.” Then people would ask him: “Why? What’d happen?” He would calmly reply: “The flood is coming.” Just look at his eyes at that time, we can see what the real Faith is, and how a faithful Christian is. Maybe he didn’t know, but his replies, just exactly as what God told him, were the most correct answers any human may get. It is the Wisdom that Lord gave his followers.
All the conflicts combined together at last, and caused the climax. Everything happened just as God’s Word. It is that how we receive or understand it. “The flood” did come, unpredictably through the collapsed dam, and though it wasn’t a real “flood”, it was huge enough to destroy anything. At that very moment, I thought that all the stupid people, who had been gathering around Evan just to mock and laugh at him, would be all gone with the water. But no, actually none of them died! They were all saved by the ark – all of them. It is Lord that forgave them, as well as us, the people who have been fighting and refusing Him at any single step. The answer of Evan, “He choose all of us.” was indeed true. And I was just an evil human, no thing to compare with His Grace.
How can we change the world? The answer was provided: “to build an Ark”, for ARK is any Act of Random Kindness.
The new Thanksgiving is coming. Thank you, O Lord, for all of your Giving and Forgiving also. Amen.

Related topic(s):
Dark and Cold
"You Want to See Miracles?"

It's time to change

(I write the things below as a serious person. It’s not a joke. And I’ll accept all the criticisms)
Every day sign in to Y!M, I saw people discussing about Nhật Kí Va`ng Anh. Many messages, so many attitudes, so many opinions. Well, it’s an adult movie, then. So what? Isn’t it that so many XXX movies have been being sold everyday, everywhere, even in Vietnam (though illegally)? I feel funny when everyone freak out and despite the film. Many people get involve in one problem which is not strange. Having sex basically is not bad. It’s only bad when people do it inappropriately and irresponsibly. Because of some old cultural affection, that now we feel disgusted with it. To me, we are not close-minded, but we are fake. Just look at the statistic: many people want to see it, and they tell the others how they despite it. Consequently, legal XXX movies would never be accepted, and the illegal ones would still be expanded. And obviously, no thing would be fixed.
Why don’t we look at the situation at a different attitude? It’s time to classify movies, based on ages and characteristics? I don’t want Vietnamese children to see horror and violent movies - which are considered “Parent guardian” or “Restricted” in other places. I don’t want Vietnamese parents to freak out with XXX movies, because of being worried for their children. A good classification is really necessary for us this time, and for our following generations in the future.
There are things to keep, things to learn, and things to be changed. And the important thing here is self-responsibility.

Human Future

We are now staying here, working, earning money. The age of cavemen, in which people working for only food has gone so far. We now need something more. It's entertainment. We need games, we need fashion, we need movies, and much more. For a long time ago, people have been having art. Many kinds of art. And emotions. They make our lives become so colorful, so wonderful, so beautiful, so awesome. But are these pleasurable things everlasting?
I have watched some movies based on some graphic novels illustrated by the Wachowski Brothers, The Matrix Trilogy and V for Vendetta. These movies don't talk directly about future, but not about present, neither. And for me, they are all about future, a future that children born in machines or tubes, and grow up in struggle lives as in the army in wars. What they eat, what they wear are not important. There is no activity but training, fighting, navigating, destroying or being killed. These ideas are familiar to The Terminator, in which humans have to duel with machines, what they created. In these pictures, love and friendship… are treaded. People have to fight for their survivals, day by day. What kind of lives is it? The kind which is even worse than the ancient lives of cavemen! Watching these movies, we could see hazily the emotionless picture of human future, in which people become machines, or even worse, become slaves for machines. There will be no happiness, no love, nothing. Is that the destination, which we are trying, day by day, to have? You know the answer.
It sounds crazy when my discussion is on the evidences of some movies. But based on Picasso, one of the most famous artists in human history, "Art is a lie that makes us realize truth". And I feel what I just said above is not absolutely unreasonable. It could be the truth, the terrible truth that the humanity may unfortunately receive.
So, what is my purpose? Am I trying to tell everyone to entertain more? No. I absolutely don't think so. It's not necessary to have a good conclusion for every discussion, and this is just one personal thought of mine. But the outlook of human future scares me, disappoints me. Our younger generations do not deserve to have it! God bless us!