The Berkeley Archives: Jon Yip Talks to Himself

A Systematic Commentary On My Life At Berkeley

Week Two: And So Begins the Nightmare

9-3-2001

So anyway, after I met up with Elliot on Friday, I went to the bookstore and retrieved all the ISBN numbers of the books that were sold out, then I returned to my room and ordered all of them (except one, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which was again sold out) online at the Barnes & Noble website. It was a great deal because I got free shipping, no sales tax, and a $20 discount for textbook purchases over $100.

That night, before the IV meeting, we went to eat at someone's apartment (argh, I can't remember her name, but I will soon) who is in our small group. It was a REALLY nice apartment, and we ate some fantastic (well, a lot of things are fantastic after eating DC food for a week) spaghetti and garlic bread, as well as some juice that tasted like Smarties. After this we attended the IV meeting, which was nice. I finally saw Shirley again for the first time since last Thursday (Crystal wasn't there but I saw her earlier when I was talking with Elliot at the IV table. She was walking around sporting her sorority green jacket), and also Wendy, who came up later and talked a little about what she was going to be doing in Chicago. Near the end we all went up and prayed for her.

Immediately after IV ended, Leon alerted me that his pal Alan was getting a ride home with his sister (who is from Stanford!), and he and I were going to hop along for the ride! We walked this girl home (I also forgot her name but she is in our small group too), then dashed back to our rooms to do some quick packing. This guy named Johnson (I remember HIS name because Alan shouted it many times while we were driving. By the way, I had never met him until tonight, and yet somehow he still knew about my Mongolia episode. Something is fishy here) drove us back to Leon's house, where I ate some great Baskin-Robbins ice cream. Then Dad and Mom picked me up and took me home, where I found the pastor and his wife from Lashio, Myanmar, occupying my room! Things couldn't get any weirder. I slept on the floor in the living room.

Saturday was laid back. I watched some cartoons in the morning with Tim and Les, and then I went to church to do worship practice with Cindy and friends. But she hadn't picked a concrete song list, plus we didn't know how to completely set up without John or Dave, so we ended not practicing. Heh. A very laid back Saturday, indeed.

I rushed to church Sunday morning so we could practice worship. It was a very nice song list; there were a lot of new songs but they were pretty good. Our worship session turned out great; I really got into it, and Leedah even commented on how he like my "style" of keyboarding, which I don't get often but I am getting more frequently from him in particular. He is putting prophecy into practice, that boy. After church I took a couple of pictures of Wendy and Ling-ling because I wouldn't be seeing them again for a while (well, I might see Ling-ling one more time on Sunday). Then a bunch of us went to eat with Wendy. We followed Zeke to Milpitas, then Leedah (who was riding in Ben's car) yelled at him once we got lost for going to the wrong place. In the end we ran around for a total of about an hour before arriving at McCarthy Ranch, which was painfully easy to get to. We ate and left. That night we rented Unbreakable. It was an interesting film, and the ending was surprising and weird, which I like in a movie, but my dad didn't enjoy it as much as me and Tim.

Now about today. We were planning to go for an outing, but I had to go back to school and I didn't want to go too late, and also I wanted to go with the Tais so I wouldn't be lonely (and also so I would have help carrying all the stuff I forgot last week). We were also already running a bit late because this morning we went to Pastor Ricky's new house with Ralph, Jonny, Zeke, Ben, Steve, and Frederick, to help him move in So Dad grilled some hamburgers really quickly in the back yard and we ate them. I ate hastily, then drove with Dad to the BART station late and held up Helen and the others.

We stopped at the Downtown Berkeley stop and lugged all my stuff to Davidson, then went to Bank of America so I could nab some cash, and then made a fast stop at Blondie's so the ravenously starving Tais could scarf down some pizza. By this time it was already time for them to go, because they had to climb Mission Peak! Man! So I walked them back to the BART station and sent them on their way. My stomach was hurting so I walked briskly back to Davidson to take care of business.

By now I've put all my new stuff away, eaten dinner with Peter, and now I'm reading The First Part of Contention, which is the second part of Henry VI, and I have to read it by tomorrow. Argh.

9-4-2001

I ate breakfast at Unit 1 at 7:15 and then went to work out in the morning at the RSF. Whoo! After lifting some free weights and working the machines for about 45 minutes, I went back to Davidson and did some catching up on The First Part of Contention (Henry VI Part 2), while at the same time putting up my Titan A.E. poster.

A little bit after noon I went to the DC to eat, then I went to class. On my way, I finally met Crystal and got to spend a quality 5 minutes talking to her before she went a different way! We ranted about how school was (or wasn't) going, until she had to walk somewhere else and I went to my class. Despite loading up with caffeine supplied by Diet Coke, I nodded off a few times during the Shakespeare class.

Somehow, it ended. Walking back, I stopped at Bancroft Clothing and bought a Cal baseball cap for Tim (50% off to $7.99), a nifty, a faded (from being displayed in a window, I assume) Cal derby hat for me (from $15.99 to $1.99!), and a Cal keychain lanyard (a ripoff at $4.99). Then I stopped at the nearby Blockbuster Video, signed up, and rented Memento, which was released on DVD today!

For dinner, I ate with Peter at the DC, then went to IV small group at Eric's apartment. Then I came back to my room, and Peter and I watched the movie, which was AWESOME! It was very original (although I had come up with the same idea as well before) and the plot was twisty, unpredictable, and it made me think. Oh yeah, it went backwards too. So now I need to do some reading, but I won't.

9-6-2001

Yesterday I got up early again to go with Leon to the RSF. We did some bench-pressing and machines, then we used the rowing machines for about ten minutes for some aerobic exercise. Whenever I work out with another person, I push myself harder, maybe because he is pushing me. For example, I switched the weight on one of the machines from 70 pounds to 60, but he made me keep it at 70. This probably explains why I get sore after I work out with him but I don't when I go by myself.

Nothing particulary interesting happened (at least that I can recall) for the rest of the day. I just went to the classes and came back. Well, I watched a bit of the DivX Three Kings that I borrowed from Leon. I went to sleep at 11:00 or so because lately I haven't been getting enough of it and my eyes are getting red and baggy. Sheesh.

So today I slept in until about 8:30. I had tried ripping Memento overnight but the synchronization was wrong, so I tried again, but it still didn't work. At around 11:00 I went to return it to Blockbuster and I found a couple of losers pulling nine or ten tapes and DVD's out of the return slot. Luckily, they didn't find anything they want, and they let me put my return into the slot first so it wouldn't be on top of the pile inside (which would make it easier for people like them to swipe it).

I was supposed to read Richard, Duke of York (Henry VI Part III) but I really wasn't interested at all and I was sick of all the Henry razz-ma-tazz, so I slacked, went to lunch, then went to class, where I fell asleep again. Urg. And when the class finished, I pretty much had to go straight to the screening for the English 173 (Literature in Films) class, where we watched a sort of pointless Czech film called Inspirace and the French film La Belle et la Bête, by Jean Cocteau. It ended at 7:00, and I walked straight to Fat Slice and used my $1 coupon and got myself a huge pepperoni pizza. Stuffed as I was, I still stopped by the DC afterwards to grab some more grub. There, I ran into a couple of graduates from ABSK who talked to me a lot and were a little too friendly for comfort.

Around 8:00 I popped back upstairs to my room and watched the rest of Three Kings, which turned out to be a pretty good movie with some nifty, quick editing effects.

No reading for tomorrow, so I'll take it easy tonight and go to the RSF tomorrow.