Recently re-watched The Prestige. Man, what an awesome movie! This role suits Bale far more than any of his recently forgettable outings (Public Enemies, Terminator Salvation). Every characters’ performance in this film pretty much nailed it on the head, except for Scarlett Johansson’s role.

Currently reading An Ocean of Air by Gabrielle Walker.

In an active effort to combat the ever increasing hours spent hunched over a computer desk on the Internet or spouting vulgarities at my fellow gunmen over the PlayStation Network, I’ve pledged to return to a beloved childhood pastime: reading. The fresh scent of a mint-condition, unread book was duly missed. Who can forget the hardcover binding press-downs our teachers routinely guided us through in grade school? This will hopefully give me a chance to recapture my severely decayed literary skills. Perhaps considered to be an outdated medium of information and entertainment, I believe physical books won’t see the light at the end of the tunnel for quite some time. In my lifetime, yes, books may grow to be obsolete (the abundance of e-readers and Kindles out there are further developing this progress). Regardless, I vow to one day house my own library of books that I have accumulated over my lifetime; this will be setup in two, perhaps three mahogany-finish bookcases in my personal office room. (Like father, like son… though I question the majority of my father’s selections which house everything I wouldn’t, including the classic Encyclopedia Brittanica set, dissertations on polymer research, aging chemistry books, etc. A narrow breadth of these books cross over into more interesting choice areas such as Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, IQ testing and optical illusions.)

You know that colossal library that the Beast surprises Belle with in the classic Disney animation? The one with shelves stacked so high it would have likely taken a team of Nobel Prize scholars several dozen lifetimes to read through? I always thought that would be really cool to have. This was before I knew about computers though, and the convenience of accessing information, multimedia experiences, and un-imagineable worlds from several computing devices and a cable connection.

I can’t even begin to count how many Firefox bookmarks I plow through in my free time, all conveniently aligned in my Multirow Bookmarks Toolbar at a finger’s click away. It’s become a bit of a routine. Appreciation to the world-changing innovations the web has brought aside, I’ve always valued simplicity and order. This value is likely one of the contributing factors to my occasional impulses to organize my things. It can’t hurt to toss old bookmarked websites I no longer visit or to delete 7 of the 10 songs I don’t listen to from a rock band’s album. On the same token, it can’t hurt to divert some of my time away from the computer screen altogether, especially after having stared at two all day at work.

The surging speeds of internet browsers coupled with multiple tabbed sessions has really affected my attention span. With little patience to show for, I’ll just as easily close an article and switch to the next if either a) it’s littered with ads or is simply slow to load, or b) I lose interest. Its this instinctive ease to keep moving and find new Digged links, the next YouTube hit, or New York Times Opinion pieces that pushed me to return to books, at least for the time being. I hope to settle my mind and simplify my focus, yet honing my thoughts on issues I can really give some thought to.

I’ve finished reading The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (and found Fooled by Randomness far more fulfilling) and The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008 by Paul Krugman. I am now thoroughly enjoying The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose, a young journalist from Brown coming from a lax Quaker and liberal upbringing who goes undercover at one of the most conservative and largest evangelical churches in the nation, Liberty University. Though initially put off when I read the author was still an undergraduate at Brown at the time of publishing, I thumbed through a few sections and determined younger than me or not, this guy’s writing was not only fantastic, but it instantly connected with me on several focal aspects of Christianity I was questioning myself. I’m about two-thirds of the way through.

I also made my first purchase of an issue of the Harvard Business Review for the train rides. It has done wonders to my intellectual ego.

I’ve consistently found Mondays to offer more than say, a Tuesday or a Wednesday. On Mondays I am well-rested, bright and chirpy well into the workday, planning my tasks for the week and catching up on the weekend e-mails. It provides a nice, productive contrast to the lazy Sunday of the day before.

By Wednesday though, I’m fatigued, less motivated, and completely aware that a long and unwelcome Thursday stands between me and the breath of freedom/Friday evening. Yes, I’ll have to settle on Wednesdays being my least favorite day of the week.

On the subject of self-delusions, I came across the following article in the New York Times today, entitled “When All You Have Left Is Your Pride”. To no surprise, I was inclined to filter the headlines and arrive at a page that gave self-reinforcing confirmations on a matter I had recently given thought to.

I’ve neglected to write for a while. Though convenient it is to use the hustle and bustle of a daily work schedule as an excuse, it leaves me feeling that my literary skills are deterioriating as rapidly as time speeds by these days. Since when should anyone heed any attention to excuses anyway?

I am troubled with my own inactions these days; these concerns revolve not of what could have been, but on the lack of absolute care that I am so quick to (not) feel. It is surprising how troublesome a moderately good (this varies comparatively) lifestyle can be; when one’s daily routine consists of a modicum of events strung together over the months into a comfortable and overly familiar pattern. My greatest enemy is sloth. I tend to lose these battles during my free time.

Outside of my free time is another story. Active challenges at work do provide me a steady dynamic to work with, and I look back on the workweek with appreciation and satisfaction. It’s not exactly a paradise, corporate life that is, but just about everything has its ups and downs. How rare and amazing must it be for an individual to do what he/she truly loves for a living. I believe these few exceptions are showcased by the media (and ourselves) in a way that they falsely represent a higher percentage of Americans than is accurately so. Many may fool themselves into thinking they are truly in love with their work, and I do not blame them so. It is in human nature to do so and when presented with such few outs, especially in the current state of the world we are in, it is perhaps more practical (though blind) to do so.

These self-delusions do not draw the line at careers alone. Every facet of our culture and our lifestyles is embedded with reinforcing thoughts of support. We carry out actions to uphold our beliefs and our principles. When we fail to achieve what we set out to do, or when something does not fall in line with our reasoning, our temperament shifts. There is an initial answer to anything gone wrong, whether its rising sales amidst a recession (“the video game industry must be recession-proof as consumers look for alternative stay-at-home entertainment options” analysts say), a hasty judgment call on a fellow’s integrity over one drunken night, a bad call in a poker game (“it was necessary, to learn his style” you say), or a conclusive and satisfying interpretation of a Bible passage written generations ago. Someone somewhere has an answer or a proposed cause for any question or event, and will stand firm in his/her belief to the bittersweet end. This amuses me.

I conclude with an idea: I would love to see the most prominent figures and persons of faith in each of the major religions of our world stuck in a room. Or how about, 7 of these strangers picked to live in a house together, and watch their lives get taped, so we can see what happens when people stop being fake, and start being real… The Religious World on MTV!

It is immediately clear what would unfold if this Real World setup were to materialize. Either A) one by one each roommate would come to the mind-boggling revelation of how he/she was misled since birth and choose to be re-born as a devoted follower of the one religion that holds the universal truths (not likely) or B) viewers would be exposed to the most drama-filled season of reality television ever.

I’ve been informed that a remake of Oldboy (a Chanwook Park directed Korean film released in 2003) is in the works. The plan is to have Steven Spielberg direct and to have Will Smith play the role of Daesu Oh, the protagonist who is imprisoned for fifteen years without knowing why. I’m a fan of both Spielberg and Will Smith alike, but this casting decision is a mistake.

A.I., Saving Private Ryan, and Schindler’s List serve as an impressive line of work for Spielberg, leaving me little doubt that he will deliver a strong adaptation of the Korean classic which brings with it an atypically darker tone and potentially disturbing material for some. But I’ve settled on the fact that Will Smith carries a relentless aura of a charmer, a good-hearted guy who likes to have fun, a sharp guy who delivers quips that leaves his audience snickering or outright laughing. From his “allergic to bullshit” liner in I, Robot to his jabbering with Martin Lawrence in the Bad Boys franchise to his ability to humorously play off of Agent K’s stoic demeanor in Men In Black, Will can’t seem to fully bury his comedic talents.

Yet I found nothing funny about the scenes in Oldboy, which dabbles in cold-hearted revenge, torture, lust, to name a few themes without giving away any spoilers. Even had animal rights activists in a hissy fit with its incredibly eerie scene with a live octopus. The movie is amazing but I am disappointed to hear that the filmmakers and studio executives behind the casting decisions feel that they need to throw in a Hollywood A-list actor like Will Smith to top this movie off. If they genuinely believe Will is the best fit for this role and his penchant for drawing in megahit box-office numbers was a non-factor, then I think they aren’t seriously considering some of the lesser known names out there in the acting pool. I would be pleasantly surprised if Will can stretch his acting chops beyond his comfort zone and pull off this very dark role. I still feel he is at his best playing the love doctor or the action star in a Jerry Bruckheimer film.

Generally speaking however, I’m just plain sick of Hollywood remakes of successful Asian films and franchises. My Sassy Girl starring Elisha Cuthberg was atrocious. I’m guessing the same was for The Lake House. The seemingly infinite line of bad Japanese horror film adaptations appears to have finally been depleted. The Departed, perhaps one of the better and obviously more successful adapations, won a Best Picture Oscar but there was nary a mention of the Infernal Affairs film. To think the Scorsese film would have never come to fruition without the Hong Kong original, I was pretty pissed to hear words like “chinks”, “Bruce Lee and the Karate Kids”, and a reference to dick sizes coming out of Nicholson’s mouth, no matter how sleazy the character was.

And one of my beloved franchises, Dragonball, is slated to be released next year as a Hollywood film starring a Mr. Justin Chatwin as Goku. That series has such deep roots and a huge fanbase, it would have been such a positive step forward for the Asian-American community to have casted an Asian male lead for that film. Wishful thinking, I guess. No one should give a rat’s ass whether the supporting characters or the female characters were faithfully represented by an Asian counterpart (e.g. Yamucha, Chi-Chi). Goku is Goku, the face of the franchise, and it went to this guy.

It was awesome to see the nation take its first strides towards a new chapter with the first African-American elected to the presidency. Yet, if Asian-Americans can’t take the forefront of movies, let alone movies based off of material sourced from Asia, will we ever see the day when America is united under an Asian-American president?