Author Archives: Daniel Li

John Nash: the late genius

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When I heard that John Nash, the mathematical, economic, schizophrenic genius that became a new father of modern economics, had died in a car crash on the New Jersey Turnpike almost exactly two years ago, I was heartbroken. But it invited me to look into his life through research and not simply a film.

This week was not the first time I’d seen the movie. I’ve watched it countless times for its direction, its gorgeous soundtrack, and its heartwarming (while largely Hollywood-fabricated) story. I’m personally a fan of 1950s vibes, so A Beautiful Mind hits the spot.

But indeed, did you know the movie greatly exaggerates and leaves out a lot of details about his life? You may remember the illusions of William Parcher, the prodigal roommate, and niece. Those were never real. In fact, Nash never even saw the people in his head; they were all visual. In addition, in the film, John and Alicia lived happily ever after as a married couple. In reality, he divorced Alicia in 1957. They continued to live together, but legally separated, for about half a century before remarrying in 2001.

This does not mean the movie is entirely dishonest or distasteful. If the characters of John’s imagination were only audio, the entire film would have been much less interesting. But it should encourage viewers to look for the truth themselves, since Hollywood is not known for accuracy.

A Tai Chi Professor

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It’s pretty crazy to imagine that a good portion of the American population know what Tai Chi is. This is largely thanks to “The Professor,” Cheng Man-Ching. Cheng is heralded as the man who brought Tai-Chi to the west. As an ethnic Chinese-American male, I have enormous respect for the Professor, especially since my mom was at one point heavily into tai chi. To us, tai chi is in a way like yoga. In another way, it’s a lifestyle. To be in tune with your “chi”, or spirit, is to know yourself.

The documentary did a great job in explaining tai chi in terms of 1960s America. Indeed, the students of the Professor were mostly “hippies”- odd folk who were open to learning new things. Now, it is an exercise performed by many in this country and around the world.

And sometimes, I wish my mother would go back to doing tai chi. I think she was a lot happier then. Having that spiritual and emotional outlet would be incredibly helpful as life gets more hectic. As such, I have a strong desire to learn tai chi. If I only I could find a Professor like Cheng.

Dr. Strangelove: a Cold War What-If

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If the United States accidentally launched nuclear strikes against the Russians, what would happen? That’s the question that Dr. Strangelove tries to answer, in the most dark-humorous way possible. As with all movies, I try to find a meaning or message behind what I am watching. While it seems silly and comical, Dr. Strangelove satirically depicts sentiments felt in the United States during the 20th century.

How did I feel about it? It was certainly funny, from the British fellow to the president to Dr. Strangelove (all played by the same actor by the way!). The crazy airbase general and the Texan air captain were equally as superb. I believe you can classify this movie as comically absurdist, a satire about fears of nuclear disruption.

Personally, I found it pretty cathartic. It’s as if all of humanity’s mistakes had culminated into this one point in time where the entire world is decimated. All of the doomsday fiction had come true and everyone went back to the stone age. Take a look at the abnormally long title of the movie itself: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. What does it mean to love the bomb? At some point, if the world comes to an end, perhaps we’d also end up thinking of the optimal male-to-female ratio in underground colonies during a nuclear winter.

Mad Max – A lot of pig shit

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I really enjoyed the 80s vibe of Mad Max, but that’s probably the only good thing I can say about it. While I am a fan of apocalyptic stories, it was difficult to see the messages, if any, that Mad Max intended for audiences to grasp. Perhaps it’s one of those movies that you should watch multiple times before you understand the meaning. Perhaps it would’ve been better had I seen the first two movies.

It was a typical post-apocalypse film, but toward the end Max meets a lot of raggedy children, survivors of a crashed 747, which reminded me of Peter Pan’s “Lost Boys.” As with all movies, I try to look for symbols. I found it interesting that society in Bartertown is not actually that different from society today. There is a clear separation of classes in the movie: the ruler Aunty, the “regular” folk, and the pig workers underground. We worship sports and entertainment just like Bartertowners love the Thunderdome.

But I think most importantly–and I’m not completely sure this was intentional–it seems that in hard times people will always look up to someone, or something. Many people on this planet are religious, and while there was no religion in Mad Max, there was always someone that people looked up to or yearned for. For the people of Bartertown, this was Aunty and, for a little bit, Master Blaster. As for the kids? They basically worshipped the idea of their captain coming back to save them. In fact, they were so sure that when they found Max they believed he was their lost captain. Of course, Max made clear that he was not, but eventually, after saving them multiple times, was Max not their hero, their captain? Did he not eventually lead them to safety and thus become the captain whose story they carved into the sides of the oasis?

Perhaps we should remember that even if something we believe it isn’t true, there may be something else that’s just as good, and that when people are desperate, they will believe anything. Like fake news.

Cornell Culinary Delights

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Last Saturday I had the joy of cooking at the Cornell food lab in the Martha Van Rensselaer building. The students there went through a very brief presentation of some basic cooking habits such as what knives to use, then we immediately got cooking. They gave us a packet full of recipes with about a dozen “stations” where one or two of us can cook one of the recipes. It was awesome. I mean, really awesome. Each station had their own stoves, microwaves, cookware, utensils, spices, ingredients, everything.

I chose the chicken and broccoli casserole, and I worked with Helen! For about an hour, we cook brown rice, onions, chicken, and broccoli to make a pretty nice-tasting casserole. Personally, I love cooking, so I was a huge fan of this event. Something about the process of making delicious food is both fun and rewarding. And, as college students, when would be a better time in our lives to learn more cooking tips than now?

We happened to have finished relatively early so we cleaned up our station and hurried back to the presentation area where the food lab volunteers (?) had arranged our dishes as a potluck. Together, we all ate our creations, from omelets to tacos to lasagna to salmon with quinoa, and more. I seriously hope Rose does this again sometime; this was the best event ever!

Would I actually take the red pill?

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In The Matrix, the protagonist, Neo, lives in a world simulated by machines. At one point, he is asked to take one of two pills the blue pill or the red pill. To take the blue pill is to stay as he is, living in a simulated world. To take the red pill is to know that he lives in a simulation.

This is the second time I’ve seen the movie, but Magdala asked us all an interesting question: which would you have taken? Originally, I had thought that I wanted to take the red pill, because I, as curious humans do, generally want to know things. Also, I thought it’d be fun to try to save the world. But have you ever heard of the phrase “What you don’t know can’t hurt you”?

If I couldn’t do anything to save the world and it was simply a matter of choosing whether or not I knew, then I think the right decision is to choose the blue pill. If it was out of my control, then why bother? Why bother knowing the pointlessness of our lives? I’d rather just live it out as if it were real. Because for all we can know and do, it is real.

 

I Love Vaginas

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And you should too, because we all came from one. I enjoyed the Monologues- it was humorous and reminded us of a lot of societal and human rights issues that still, sadly, plague this world. Admittedly, I found the play to be a little over-the-top when it came to trying to make you laugh; for example, the moaning scene that felt like it lasted a wee bit too long, or the cunt scene which was gratuitously theatrical.

I was the only male that went with the Rose Scholars group because my friend ditched me (ugh… men, am I right?), but I wasn’t the least bit lonely. There were men in the audience, sure, but through chatting with the people around me and watching the play, I felt that the Monologues created a sense of acceptance, especially since it also highlighted the concerns of the LGBT community, whose members at times may have felt alone in ways I cannot imagine. And some of the horrifying stories told on stage made even me wince and clench my legs together.

So even though the play would be sexual for the sake of being sexual (and sometimes egregiously so), I would definitely recommend this play to any feminist, of any sexuality, of any gender. I would recommend this play to anyone who wants to smile (and cringe a little). I gotta say, it was really, really weird to see a school play where they talk about sex so openly and so… vulgarly. But hey, they say a man thinks about sex every 7 seconds right? Might as well be productive and cultured when I do.

Cover Letters: Letters that Cover what?

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Cover letters always seemed to me like an enigmatic ritual, an ancient tradition passed down by recruiters for generations. But despite their origins from the days of yore, writing them is especially beneficial for jobseekers like us. Last Thursday, Cynthia and Shiv spoke about effective resume and cover letter tips, which many of us found pretty helpful.

They gave us a few example job descriptions and told us to write how we would apply to those jobs, which is incredibly difficult if the job bluntly asked for skills we simply did not have. Initially, being a computer science major, I started working on the computer science major job description, but I realized that I should be working on applying to jobs I’m not exactly qualified for, in case CS doesn’t work out for me eventually (hey, haven’t you heard we’re in a tech bubble?). So I picked up the job description for a scientific organization worker, and I blanked out. My mind had been CS-focused for so long here at Cornell.

But Shiv and Cynthia mentioned something important: just try to remember and highlight your past experiences that relate to the job description. And suddenly I felt different gears turning in my head. Memories of volunteer work I did in high school came flying back. Science clubs and competitions of long ago rushed back into focus. Suddenly, with a few minutes of writing, I no longer had nothing. Sure, I didn’t have the most jaw-dropping experiences in the world, but I had something. And that helped.

So the main takeaway is not to feel too discouraged when you come across a job description that doesn’t exactly fit you. The most significant thing I took away from the event was that when applying to jobs that we might not be exactly qualified with, we should highlight and show those that are most relevant, not necessarily most impressive. Thanks Shiv and Cynthia!

Fight Me

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When we first get a glimpse of Jack’s apartment, the camera pans across the space and CGI fills in the rooms with furniture and tools marked by descriptions and price tags as if from some shopping catalogue. Jack’s obsession with material goods is reflected in the consumerist society of today. But while Fight Club itself does not address the consumerism, I noted that the concept of consumption and waste is present throughout the film. In nearly every scene, there is a Starbucks cup somewhere, for instance, and in multiple times the flicking of a cigarette is made extremely apparent.

But there is also a theme of carpe diem as found in movies like Dead Poets Society and Bladerunner. What really struck me was the scene where Tyler held the convenience store owner at gunpoint. He asked the owner what he wanted to be when he grew up, and said that he will kill him in six weeks if he wasn’t on his way to becoming one. “The breakfast he eats tomorrow will be the best breakfast he’s ever tasted.” While slightly comedically relieving and thought-provoking; after all, we are all guilty of taking much of our lives for granted. But the method in which Tyler brought this to his attention is certainly troubling: should we all be held at gunpoint and be forced to believe we’re living our last seconds? Probably not.

It’s still uncertain to me what the message the Fight Club had to tell, but at the moment I believe that the purpose of the film is solely cathartic. While the writers cannot (and probably should not) hold me at gunpoint, he can bring me into a film and put me in the victim’s shoes. In that moment, I feel like the convenience store owner. I feel that I’m being held at gunpoint, being entranced in the dear hope that I am not murdered by Tyler Durden. But in that way, the director gives me the benefit of being thankful for my life without actually making me kneel on the wet pavement grasping nothing but my life’s failed dreams.

Your life is precious. Don’t waste it. Don’t waste it like the huge heaps of used consumer goods you waste every day and forget about.