And finally, I'd like to thank the Academy for these amazing birthday wishes

Much of my ramblings have been observations of social media behavior. It's a new world, rife with opportunity for humorous commentary. With social media, anyone who wants to can become a "celebrity." A misguided one perhaps, but nevertheless, there is a captive audience in social media land, and people like to take advantage of that (myself included). And when the ol' birthday comes around, you are a celebrity who just won an Oscar. Now, me myself, I've removed birthday information from my profile because I want to avoid birthday wall at all costs -- as well as being the butt of my own joke -- but I still partake in the posting of happy birthdays for other people at times. It takes little brain function and two seconds of my time, but man, the ripple effects from dozens of happy birthdays on someone's wall can really be something else. The day after is what I fondly call: the Birthday Oscar Speech. And it goes a little something like this:

I'd like to thank my fans-- I mean fellow Facebookers for their support and love and all the birthday "wishes." You like me! Right now, you really like me! I'd like to thank Mark Zuckerberg for creating the tool that enables the birthday wishing. (holds out Oscar pointing over to Zuck in spirit and puts hand on heart). Without Zuck, we would NEVER remember each other's birthdays and we could never get the outpouring of birthday wishing we see today. Facebook truly is a game changer in birthday wishing technology. Before you, Zuck, maybe five to ten people would call, email or text me for my birthday, meaning, only the people who actually gave a shit about me. Not so today. There is no deprivation of birthday specialness for me on this holiest of days. And finally, I'd like to thank Mom and Dad for conceiving and raising me. I would never have made it without you guys. Literally. 

On Stuff

As time goes by, I am getting more depressed by rampant consumerism. Not to sound cliche, or communist, it's just that my whole being feels completely saturated with "stuff," there's no more room for me to care about the stuff that's getting sold in the world (that is, the American world). I know that someone somewhere is buying this... stuff, and I understand that in order to have a healthy economy, people need to buy shit. I get that, but there is so much useless crap that gets marketed and sold in America, that I just can't be alone in feeling this way -- because let's face it, I'm not that special. Maybe we can just make a friendly, non dictatorial decision that your products and services should be truly useful to society. In my view, there are two layers of products and services that we truly need. The ones that are necessary for our primary needs, and the ones that are society game changers. I also include anything artistic THAT's GOOD (NOT CRAPPY ART) because I'm of the mind that art is of true value to society. The first layer seems pretty obvious. The second layer is a little more gray. But I would say that the following inventions qualify as game changers: commercial banks, aviation, home appliances, the telephone, the computer, the internet, the cellphone, the iPhone and the iPad... and that's about it for now. Everything in between, the knick knacks, the patty whacks, the thingamabobs, the whozits and whatsits galore, let's just do away with those.