The Berkeley Archives: Jon Yip Talks to Himself

A Systematic Commentary On My Life At Berkeley

Week Six: I Should Study Now

9-30-2001

On Friday I waited for Jonny to come up to Berkeley with Leon (Leon had to go back home for a dentist appointment) and in the meantime I watched Dogma, which was a very funny movie (I laughed out loud many times, and I was even by myself. I don't laugh at movies too often when I'm alone unless it's REALLY funny). When they got here, we went to Top Dog for some franks, Fat Slice to get ourselves a couple of them, Jamba Juice for a mango smoothie, and then the poster shop on Bancroft, where they were hosting a buy-one-get-one-half-off sale. I bought a Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon poster and got a Fight Club poster for 50% off.

All of us went to IV together (we were almost late, so I didn't have time to run back to Davidson to drop off my posters; I had to drag them along with me), which was fun. I was so stoked for watching Raiders of the Lost Ark in 35mm, Dolby Surround! I asked a lot of people if they wanted to go, but nobody did! Shirley had NEVER seen ANY of the Indiana Jones movies, and she didn't even WANT to go with Jonny and me! Aaauugh, how can that be possible? But Jonny and I watched it and I thought it was really neat; the film was released theatrically in 1981 and it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience to be able to view an Indy film on a big screen. On a meaningless tangent, I saw Danny and Melissa there again.

Jonny drove me to his house in record time (just for fun he hit 100 mph! WOW! I thought the car was going to shake apart) where we were supposed to sleep, but instead we talked for about an hour. Consequently, we woke up the next morning an hour later than we were supposed to, and for THAT we rushed mindlessly, arranging rides to Second Harvest food bank. As it turned out, I rode along in Emily's snazzy BMW with Vincent (he was back!), Don, and Marie. Apparently, Vincent wasn't informed (or rather, he didn't read the directions) that open-toed sandals were not allowed for safety reasons, so we drove Emily's car to my house and he borrowed my old Reeboks, then went back to work. Jon Yeh was there and we were labeling stuff and he kept saying things like "recognize!" and we had a fun time annoying and insulting people.

Argh, I was so tired, but Jonny and I tried arranging one of the dramas for the worship night. After masses of calling back and forth between members of the casts of two dramas, we finally got Redeemer together! And ARGH I was tired, but we had worship practice with Cindy. Worship night was cool; the drama went really well too. WHOO what a day.

Sunday. Today. Worship was nice. I went to the baptism and dunked 'em all; it was so great to see them get baptized! WOW! Right after the baptism, Dad came to take me to Leon's house but Zeke was there so he took me...I shouldn't have wasted Dad's time. Urgh. Anyway, at Leon's house, Zeke and I hung out for a while until Jean came home, and we went to pick up Elliot, then we went to Berkeley.

10-1-2001

This morning I woke up mildy sick. There seems to be quite a few people in our building (and particularly on our floor); I had a sore throat and a stuffy nose.

I really hate going to class now because they make it SO DANG BORING, and it would be remotely bearable if it weren't for those SEATS. AAAGH they are so uncomfortable and I can't stand them and I want to string up and beat whoever designed them. They were probably intended for torture in foreign countries and Berkeley just had them ship some over for their classrooms. I saw Benita during my break from Film 25A.

Something amusing was at Sproul Plaza. Someone put some kind of soap or something in the fountain, so it was all sudsy.

This afternoon some girl came by my room and told me she had to do something for her class. I had to stand on my head and sing songs from Barney. Then she told me she was kidding and tried to get me to buy magazines from her. I chatted for quite a while with her because I didn't want to just tell her "I don't want any, so get out" and luckily she was friendly and not too annoying or pushy. She noticed all the posters I had up on my wall and closet (somehow I managed to set up my new posters on the closet last night).

After she left, I went back to Dwinelle to meet with my editing team, where we went downstairs to fiddle around with the VHS editing machine. It was really nifty because it would go through the tape perfectly frame by frame, without any blur, static, or jumpiness, and when we made cuts, the transitions were smooth; I stopped a shot and then continued it from the same place but as a different shot, and I could hardly tell where the stop was.

10-2-2001

I woke up early to eat breakfast. Upon my arrival back at Davidson, I attempted feebly to read Richard III until I almost dozed right there while in the 2^nd or 3^rd act, so I took a quick nap before attempting feebly again to finish the Shakespearean work. I couldn't concentrate, and my fever was acting up a bit, so I watched Hollow Man instead.

Then I called the Cingular tech support to get them to fix the problem with my voicemail (again). They put me on hold so many times; I was so MAD! They even made me late for the Shakespeare class and I missed some information regarding the midterm. RAGH! On a lighter note: today was the absolute FIRST day I didn't nod off in my Shakespeare class! Can you believe it?? I did, however, lapse into more than a few moments of zoned, space-outed daydreaming.

Small group was OK today. I came back, and not wanting to do any more work, watched Mallrats. It is quite appropriate that I am watching all these Kevin Smith "slacker" movies because that is exactly what I am doing. Well, I am studying too. A LOT. I deserve a break today, especially since I am sick. But I still shouldn't be watching too many movies. ARGH, James said at small group today that we might watch a movie on Thursday. Maybe I shouldn't go. I should study now, but I'll get a good night's sleep for once and leave the book-hitting for tomorrow. Ahh crap.

10-3-2001

I was planning to go to the RSF this morning, but I just couldn't wake up. My film class is so boring. Instead of viewing some actually INTERESTING pieces of historic film, we watch these horrendously senile movies that I could make in my backyard that involve pro-slavery in the United States or pro-Communism in Russia. Can't we just get to the Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton movies already?

I didn't have time to go to the DC today, so I used two swipes at the Golden Bear to get some Doritos and a nice, big Philly cheese-steak, which wasn't really all that good. Next time around, I will get one of those huge chili cheese fries; those babies look wonderfully delectable.

In Mobster Film we watched Goodfellas, which probably wasn't as GOOD a movie as The Godfather, but I enjoyed it a little more, quite possibly because it had more humor (however dark) in it. There was some pretty violent scenes in there: more than a few hefty, brutal beatings (such as this one scene where Ray Liotta's character beats this dude's head in with a revolver butt), and a crazed stabbing (Joe Pesci's character, with his mother's kitchen knife, rapidly stabs a guy who called him a shoe-shiner).

Thankfully, the decal instructor sensed the class' tiredness and slugishness after watching a 2½ hour film, so he let us go right when it finished. I bounded over to LeConte Avenue to search for Hwai-Ming's house; I looked at the building that resembled the one she described and she was standing outside, posting a note to the front door, so I found it without too much difficulty. We had quite a long prayer meeting, with just four of us too (Hwai-Ming, Elliot, Leon, and me), and at the end we went to Soda Hall (they have a Hewlett Packard Auditorium because they donated so much money to them) to try to find Mariann so we could eat her cake (with her, of course. Today was her birthday; it is the same day as Wendy's birthday). Unfortunately, we couldn't find her, so we all went home. Leon and I walked together and made a quick stop at Fat Slice on the way (I am frequenting that place more and more frequently).

10-4-2001

For the first time this week (again, on a Thursday, as I did last week), I went to the RSF and did some heavy weight work! When I got back, I filled out an online application for the Counter Person position at Noah's Bagels, then watched Meet the Parents. Shakepeare class was kind of boring, as usual.

I desperately needed to view The Birth of a Nation for my shot analysis assignment, but when I went to the Media Center in Moffitt, EVERY SINGLE COPY of it (DVD, LD, and Part 2 of the VHS) were being checked out! It must have been the rush of people trying to do it at the last minute, just as I was. What am I going to do?

I called Ralph, after thinking and praying constantly for the past week; I had a difficult time pressing the "call" key on my cell phone, because it was such a significant decision to me. But I am trusting that it will all turn out fine and blessed. The English 173 screening was a little boring, by the way, but it was mildly entertaining, since we at last watched a sound film with some more humor.

Back at Davidson, I searched far and wide on the internet until I found an extremely poor quality Real file of The Birth of a Nation, and I sat down to begin my analysis of a scene. However, I lost my spot, and it was impossible for me to find it again, due to Realplayer's poor workmanship, so I gave up and turned to Chasing Amy instead. But then, only a little way through the movie (a few minutes or so), James called me up and asked if I wanted to watch Zoolander. Earlier that day I had turned down the offer because I was intending to work on my shot analysis, but now it appeared to be a futile attempt (at least until tomorrow, if I can beat the other students to Moffitt), and I needed a break week (which I suppose this is), so I agreed (I feel very bad for watching so many movies this week. But it is only this week, and besides, I am not watching any TV or playing any video games. So I suppose it evens out). I, Sam and two guys who I assume were Sam's suite mates hitched a ride with James, where we went down to Hung-Tzu's place and met up with her and her roommate, and walked to the United Artists cinema and caught the 9:45 show. It was a pretty funny movie (if overly silly).

Urk. Tomorrow I MUST do my shot analysis.