It’s Fun When It’s a Hobby

Another weekend is here! I am so looking forward to it. I have slept much less than I should this past week. I can feel my blood is traveling through my scalp searching for relief. I think that pumping sensation is due to sleep deprivation. I don’t know. What else? I have been writing documentations at work, which requires even more concentration during editing. Therefore, I easily get irritated by noises others make. Or is that perhaps due to the fact that my mind is not at ease? Thinking too much? I am really happy to get my new pair of "Monster Beats by Dr. Dre headphones." They do a decent job to block the noise and any sound that I don’t want to hear—I have really sensitive hearing. I think my agitated mind might due to some stress. But I cannot even figure out what is stressing me out, and I have been going to the gym regularly, this is very strange. So, I am thinking about taking a vacation. I called the travel agent for tickets to Taipei and Manila, but they have not called me back to quote me a price. While I am waiting, the current H1N1 flu comes to mind which gives me a second thought about traveling. I called my doctor to see if I can get a H1N1 vaccine, they don’t have it yet. I guess I will sleep on the idea of traveling till next week to figure out where and if I should go for a vacation. On the other hand, I don’t really need travel to relax. I can just take the bus and hike in the mountains in 20 minutes! Last Sunday, when I was walking on this quiet trail, suddenly that little dirt road profoundly moved me into tears. It’s a very strange moment that nature connects to my emotion in such a direct fashion. I pulled out my camera and took a picture (of the road) to capture the moment. I am glad the raining season is coming, so the mountain and the trails can be greener. Actually we’ve already got fair amount of rain. Last Monday, when I came home, I was pleasantly surprised how clean the exterior window in my living room is! The blue sky doesn’t show any sign of heavy storm earlier. Actually not only the storm washed my window well, it also caused severe flooding in some areas around the City. That night, this flooding video at the Van Ness station on Market was on every local TV station. I am not sure if it’s the latest storms related, Google’s services have been lousy lately. Picasa always confuses Gmail to recognize who I am. Last night, Blogger was down unexpectedly. I found it ironic that the outage status was announced on Twitter instead of, say Google’s home page. Although regardless where, it’s embarrassing. More and more I feel Google is becoming another Microsoft. Their services start to lose the edge and cool, but mostly, lost common sense. Functionalities begin to behave stupidly. Is that what an evolution look like? When it gets big and overweight, it can hardly move efficiently. It has been very evident from Google’s products anyway, without requiring any deep thoughts. Speaking of deep thoughts, today, when I was walking to my office, I fathom out a conclusion about myself: When I do something as a hobby, I enjoy doing it enormously and find every opportunity to do it enthusiastically. However, if I do the same thing for a living or due to obligations, the enjoyment vanishes quickly. Why is it? I was a math wizard when I was a little kid, and I wanted to be a mathematician after I grow up. However, after I became a statistician, I started to buy lottery tickets—hopefully one day I can win and I don’t have to sink in deep thoughts on the way to work. Take the example about cooking. I love to cook, for family, friends, and for myself. However, if I were cooking in a restaurant for a living, I would hate cooking right the way. Actually, I was about to write something about cooking in today’s entry, but it gets too long so I will save it for next time. Another example is film. I used to go to most of the movies I was invited. However, now I become more and more selective. Although I’ve already watched about 170 films so far this year, it’s a significant drop compared to the last couple years. Also, after three years in a row on the Feature Screening Committee for the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, I am sorta glad and relieved that I am taking a break from that for next year’s festival. My life is less hectic and less stressful, and I can save the time to watch some good films instead of some lousy submissions. That being said, couple films I watched lately are somehow disappointing, even I already skipped a bunch comedy and horror films, which I know that I won’t like them. So, here they are. Ong Bak 2: The Beginning Thai martial art blockbuster "Ong-bak: Muay Thai Warrior" is not only a smashing hit, it also makes Tony Jaa a super star. Building on its success, Tony Jaa goes both in front and behind the camera in his directorial debut "Ong Bak 2: The Beginning" (องค์บาก 2 | Thailand 2008 | in Thai | 98 min.), a spectacular showcase of kung fu fights with little else in it. This "Ong Bak 2" is supposed to be a sequel to "Ong-bak" (in case you miss the "2" in the title). However, the story and the time line obviously are not thought through when "Ong-bak" was made. As a result, this sequel becomes a prequel, because it is push back hundreds of years in time. Perhaps to indicate this detour, the phrase "The Beginning" is added to the film’s title (why not just take the number "2" out?). Does it matter? Not really. The film looks pale on both its story and characters, which can be replaced pretty much by any kung fu flick. What the film is really about is to show off all the carefully choreographed impressive fighting sequences, one after another one, from beginning to the end. The film begins with Tien’s escape from a genocide becoming an orphan. He falls into the hands of bandits who teach him martial arts. After Tien grows up (Tony Jaa), he seeks his revenge and fights off his enemies like a superman. In the film, Tony Jaa appears to posses superpower. No matter how many enemies he is facing and how many times and how hard he gets beaten up, he will not only rise up miraculously, and he also can still fight like a "hero" during a pro wrestling performance. And the show must go on, as well as the fighting. Although it is hard to predict the next "Ong Bak 3" will be a prequel or a sequel to this film, one thing is quite certain: there will have plenty glorious fighting, no matter who beats up whom. "Ong Bak 2: The Beginning" opens on Friday, October 23, 2009 at Bay Area theaters. Motherhood Can you imagine that Sarah Palin being a stay-home-mom wrestling with babies and house work or being a writer in front of her computer? No? What about let Uma Thurman put on a pair of glasses looked like Sarah Palin and playing that role? If you still cannot imagine it, you are in luck. That’s what happens in writer/director Katherine Dieckmann‘s new film "Motherhood" (USA 2009 | 90 min.). In this comedy about big city moms, Uma Thurman tries exhaustively to convince us that she presents one of those moms, but she shows us anything but. Eliza Welsh (Uma Thurman) is a fiction writer turning into blogger and cares her two young children at home. On her daughter’s sixth birthday, she scrambles around the New York City to prepare her birthday party, and absolutely nothing can go smoothly. She constantly arguing or fighting just about with anybody she encounters during the day: agitated shoppers, snobbish neighbors, annoyed best friend (Minnie Driver), absent husband (Anthony Edwards), and of course, others moms in the playground. Will she be able to pull her daughter’s birthday party off while reevaluating her dream and the meaning of her life? Try to predict the outcome before you watch the film, and I bet you will be correct. The film could have worked if the casting were different. Uma Thurman tries very hard to be funny and to be an everyday stay-home-mom. However, I cannot shake off the image of her waving a sword in "Kill Bill," just like I can only see Sarah Palin shooting a defenseless deer instead of stuffing gift bags for a little girl’s birthday party. I don’t see much chemystry between Eliza and her husband—perhaps because they have been married for a while as the movie suggests. Everybody seems memorizing the lines and speaking those words simply because they are in the script. One exception is the handsome mail delivery man, who stands out as the most convincing and charming character in the film, before he starts to dance. After the film, I want to say one thing to Uma Thurman, badly—what ever you do, don’t be a stay-home-mom. "Motherhood" opens Friday, Oct 23, 2009 at Bay Area theaters.