The Berkeley Archives: Jon Yip Talks to Himself

A Systematic Commentary On My Life At Berkeley

Week Seven: I'm Not Going to Make It

10-7-2001

On Friday I completed my shot analysis of a scene from The Birth of a Nation, then went to my English 173 discussion, went back to Davidson, and applied for a job at Noah's Bagels (I really hope I get a job) online. Then I packed and took the BART to Fremont, meanwhile on the way I learned via cell phone call (intermittently disconnected by tunnels) that dad wasn't going to be able to pick me up. I rang up Jonny, and thankfully he got me instead, even when he was suffering heavily from sickness and pink-eye. Well, he couldn't take me to college cell, so Emily picked me up from his house instead. We drove to Zeke's house and had a fairly productive meeting, where I learned quite a few things and discovered that both Zeke and Emily had EVEN more wise things to say than I had previously assumed, leaving me quite impressed with the both of them. Zeke showed me his Airsoft guns and right then and there I knew I had to get an MP5A5, especially since it recently had gotten $100 knocked off the price tag.

On Saturday I watched a few cartoons, studied for the English 173 midterm, and then in the afternoon we went to the Gilroy outlets, where I acquired a plethora (I hate that word because everyone uses it now to sound smart) of really neat clothes: a nice pair of black jeans for $8, a nice, gray sweater vest for about $11, a nice black, long-sleeved denim-like shirt for $8, and a nice long-sleeved normal shirt for $10. NEAT.

Soon after we got home, we had to go to the local Chevy's for a little cell leader/advisor/assistant meeting with Ralph. They had some good (and expensive) Mexican food, and luckily the church allotted Ralph $10 for each staff member for a meal.

Cell group was pretty good! Ralph and Zeke (and Benny!) visited us, and we had some crazy activities where we competed on water-drinking races (CRAZY) and toilet-paper mummification races (I won my a mile, literally. OK maybe not a MILE), and American National Anthem singing races. Haha!

Today was a busy day indeed. This morning at church a few missionaries from Egypt and another North African country came to our service (it is Mission Month at River of Life) and shared a little bit about what they are doing, and that was neat and informative. And Zeke told me he would give me his Beretta (because it hurts him to own a Beretta with a missing safety switch on the right side)! After church we had a meeting with the worship leaders, discussing Shirley (on how she was taking a break) and me (on my induction, so to speak), and the new frenzy of team-arrangements. As of now, my team consists of: me (keyboard), Tim (acoustic and/or electric guitar), Ben (electric guitar), Tiffany (vocals), Jon Hwong (drums), and Shirley (vocals and/or bass). I am really looking forward to this!

I went home, packed, ate some stuff, and drove with Dad to the BART. I studied more English 173 all the way to Berkeley. When I arrived at the station, it was dark, and I had to walk all the way to Davidson through the murky depths of the town. Brrr. And now I am studying my freaking butt off. I'm not going to make it; I'm a goner.

10-8-2001

Peter had a midterm at Dwinelle, at the same time as I did, so after we studied for a while in the morning, we walked to campus together and took our respective exams. AGH. I really had to fall back on my BSing skills, and I had trouble identifying some of the quotes and characters in the ID section, but hopefully I can turn a B out of all this.

There was a big, stupid protest to the war at Sproul today but I couldn't manage to take pictures because I was stuck in the Film 25A class. On the way back to Davidson, I picked up a couple of Blue Books (one to repay Peter for the one I borrowed this morning) at the bookstore, and also got ripped off at Owl Drugs on a $15 bottle of contacts solution that I should have brought back with me from home. But at least I got an application from the store.

I rested until 5:15 or so, when I ate with Peter. Then I went to a review group in the 5^th floor for the Shakespeare class that everyone on the floor seems to be in. Argh I am just tired.

10-9-2001

Finding it still quite impossible to concentrate or study this morning, I finished the rest of Chasing Amy that I did not see last week. However, I did manage to squeeze in a few facts about Richard III, which ultimately helped me in no way. Surprisingly, the exam was not as difficult as I had expected, but nevertheless was still quite hard and I had to lob enormous chunks of bullshit into my answers; I do not know his grading criteria, so I will just have to wait and see the lettered condition of my test. Oh well, what's past is past. Returning to Davidson after the exam, I picked up some applications from the Doe Library, and then I relaxed, for the most part, for the rest of the day.

Good news! Today I bought $795 of Nvidia stocks, and it closed in the afternoon at $804.50! That means I have already made back the $8 trading fee! And it even reached $814 earlier, but I didn't pull because I thought it would keep going up. Nuts.

IV small group was good today. But it seems like the group is getting smaller...

10-11-2001

Whoops, I forgot to write yesterday! I was too busy watching half of The Big Lebowski while reading Romeo and Juliet. Well, fortunately nothing interested happened yesterday worth recording until after my classes were over; at the decal, I watched Reservoir Dogs, which was an interesting movie. Then I went to the prayer meeting at Huai-Ming's place. This time there was more people (Mariann and Nancy came, but still no Shirley. She won't be joining us on Wednesdays, I'm afraid), and we finally got to eat that S'mores pie! Mmm! Huai-Ming drove us back in her truck, and when I got back I proceeded to watch The Big Lebowski and read Romeo and Juliet (both of which I only half-completed). I hit the sack at 2:45.

I awoke with difficulty at 9:00 today, and did a little bit of working out at the RSF (I pretty much only go on Thursdays and Fridays now... this is getting bad). I ate, finished the rest of The Big Lebowski, and read Romeo and Juliet up to Act II, Scene II. Back to normal, I started conking out in Shakespeare class again, nodding off quite a few times. Oh well, the weekend is almost here! I can't wait to get a Beretta from Zeke! And on a completely irrelevant and separate note, my Nvidia stock value has risen from $795 on Tuesday to $949 at today's (Thursday) close! WOW!

At the English 173 screening, we watched a whole lot of old Disney cartoons, such as The Three Little Pigs, The Mad Doctor, Babes in the Woods, and the like. Starving, I walked as briskly as possible to Unit 1 for dinner after the class finished, and I was upset to find out that the meal donation that took place a few weeks ago for the September 11^th tragedy was actually taking away my dinner for today! So I left, empty-stomached.

A mix of relaxing and productivity took place tonight; I watched The 6^th Day (a pretty good movie, actually, with a decent plot), then painstakingly wrote my first cover letter and resume ever for a position at the Residence Hall Computing Office! I also completed the application form for that job and also for the job at the Doe Library. Man, I need a job. What really irks me is that Leedah, of all people, has a job as a WRITING TEACHER, of all jobs, and he gets paid $500 a MONTH, of all salaries. Something isn't right in the world.

OK, let's get another thing straight. "Shit" is not a "bad" word. Properly used, it means "feces," "excrement," or "waste;" in a non-literal sense it means "lying" and "falsehood." There is absolutely NO vulgar connotation associated with it whatsoever. It troubles me so see so many people make such a big beef about a word that doesn't actually have any connection with a sexual reference, but no one seems to care about the word "suck," which DOES. Society has simply conditioned us to avoid using these words because they are "bad," and now we have been robbed of the right to utilize and apply a very useful and descriptive word.