The Berkeley Archives: Jon Yip Talks to Himself

A Systematic Commentary On My Life At Berkeley

Week Eleven: Hard Work, Man

11-5-2001

AAHHH! My monitor was out of commission last week so I couldn't use my computer at all; I had to use the computer lab downstairs every time! So let me just quickly recap the week:

On Thursday I went to see The Man Who Wasn't There at Wheeler with Peter. We got some free Cingular Wireless t-shirts, and before the movie started, there was some Coen brothers trivia, and posters of the film were being given away for correct answers. People were so fast that I didn't even get a chance to think, even though I knew the answers. At last, this one guy won this awesome barber smock like the one Billy Bob Thornton wears in the movie, and I determined to get a prize, and readied myself to answer the next question no matter what. It was "who is Joel Coen married to?" and of course I knew it was Frances McDormand, and I got a poster! When I got back I had to arrange all of the next day's rides and arrangements, ALL in the computer lab! It took forever!

I was SO busy on Friday. I had to catch BART at exactly the right time to get a ride from Jonny (parents couldn't pick me up!!!), but it turned out that his MOM had to get me from the BART since she had the car, and she didn't come on time because Jonny didn't call her, and then we finally got to his house and the car somehow got cracked in front, and then there was crazy traffic on 680 all the way, and we took the REALLY long way to my house, where, when I finally arrived, I had to rush to make music and transparencies for the retreat, which I had to pack for, and after I did all that I was running really late to pick up Christina Sun and her friend, Jessica, and when I went to pick them up, not only was 85 south PACKED, but I took a wrong turn and had to U-turn twice, but I finally got them and we were off to the retreat, along 17 south, which was also PACKED and also very CURVY and hard to drive on in the dark, and the exit that we took was even darker because there were no lights and it was pretty hard to see, even with the high beams, and the road wasn't even big enough for two cars, so it was lucky we didn't run into any oncoming traffic on that road. Well, we got there just in time for some dinner, which was mildly tasty but (literally) sickeningly filling and un-nutritious. The session was OK; I can't remember much of it. That night we went to bed at 12:00 (I was the cabin leader for my room!) and I didn't sleep very well at all, and I had to wake up at 6:00 (John Kua woke me up and it was totally dark outside) in the morning on Saturday for worship setup and practice. That meant I had to wake up Ben and Troy and Marie too. It was COLD. Practice was hard and long, but it paid off; we sounded HERRA great and I was so happy and encouraged. Steve and Gloria also came arrived in the morning all the way from San Diego. Hooray!

The whole afternoon was off, so we played lots of tackle football on some wet, muddy, sloped ground. Wayne started off the trend of violence by picking me up and dropping me so I landed sideways hard on the ground and got the wind knocked out of me (not to mention a bruise on my side). Then there was lots of slipping and falling in the mud and ramming into the fence. My stats: I made one catch and touchdown and two hefty tackles. I also jumped up really high to intercept a pass and someone ran right under me and swiped my feet right out from under me, spinning me in the air like a top before I crashed to the ground (again, on my side). After that I walked around with Howard and Amy and someone else I think, until I took a shower and got all clean. Then there was the evening session, which was really good (worship-wise) but was lightly marred by the fact that I (and everyone else) had really bad gas and had to poop at the same time because of the food. To make matters worse, the bathroom stall doors didn't close. But that night thing was rad and REALLY long; just when I thought it was over, I checked my watch and it was 9:00. But we had a "campfire" afterwards, just a small fire in a metal grill thing where we roasted some marshmallows that I didn't get to eat. We also played some fun games with shadows on the wall of the stage that was there (it was a little amphitheater-type thing). For the whole evening, throughout the worship and fire and everything, I had this incredibly painful, throbbing headache. I went to sleep to get rid of it, and I must have slept right through the ruckus that those white folks next door to us were making, because Tim told me they were so loud that he had to go over there in his PJ's to tell 'em to dummy up.

Sunday morning I was impressed by the guys in our room, who all got out of bed and out of the room before 8:30 like I told them to do. We all loaded up into our cars and drove home. I took the wrong exit and Edward followed me, so we both had to turn around. Church was cool. Afterwards everyone went to eat with Steve and Gloria, but I didn't really have time, so I just dropped by and then left. Then I went home, got a new monitor, and caught a ride with Crystal back to Berkeley, where I studied for my midterm until 3:00 in the morning.

Today I took the midterm, and then rested for the remainder of the day. Peter and I watched The Phantom Menace, and I also downloaded the new Attack of the Clones trailer, which looked really cool. There's a whole lot of other stuff that happened but I'm too tired to write much more.

11-7-2001

Aaahh I forgot to write yesterday! It's just getting tighter and tighter. But I refuse to give up! It's ALWAYS the case that someone starts a journal with the intent of writing in it every day but sooner or later forgets to put in entries and eventually leaves it to gather dust. But that's not going to happen!

Yesterday I began serious work on my animation project for English 173. Did you know I skipped that class yesterday to study for my Film 25A class? Anyway, I went to Shakespeare class, but when I got near North Gate I realized that something was seriously wrong in my stomach; I must have drunk some of the water AFTER the pipes burst and water pressure was lost but BEFORE they put up the sign in the bathroom telling us not to drink the water. Well, it wasn't urgent, and I figured I could hold it until after class, but reminiscing over previous experiences that I've had in similar situations, I decided to play it safe and ran inside and into the bathroom, but some dude just started taking a dump! I waited and waited, minute after painful minute, until he FINALLY finished. I went into the stall and it was a good thing that I did because I had some INTENSE water loss while sitting there. I was there for a few minutes with a steady output of... yeah so anyway I was late for class, and consequently, I was lost for the entire lecture and so I simply ignored the professor.

I returned to my room and worked on the animation until dinner; after that I went to small group. Then after THAT I went back to my room again and worked on the animation some MORE, until 2:00 in the morning. I'm estimating that about now it is around 30-40% complete. Hard work, man.

Today I went to the English 173 class and was bored out of my mind... I'm just not getting enough sleep. But at least I got my project proposal back, on which the professor commented "extremely promising." Wait 'til the real thing is finished; it's going to knock your socks off! In Film 25A we watched this very early 1920's "documentary" called Nanook of the North, which shows the life of this Eskimo, but actually a lot of it was staged and everything; I could tell just by how everything happened very ideally for a documentary.

At the Golden Bear I saw Crystal for the third time this week (on Sunday when she drove me to Berkeley, and also on Monday when she ran into me outside of Dwinelle); she was with Gloria. I said hi and all, but I was running a bit late for Art Studies so I just left them without even saying anything else to them. I felt really bad... argh. In Art Studies we watched Bonnie and Clyde, which was all right. Then I went to PSP at Huai-Ming's house; this time only Elliot and I showed up (no Leon or Mariann... slackers). Now I am back here, "studying" for that lame-o Shakespeare midterm tomorrow.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention: on Monday night, Peter and I watched my new The Phantom Menace DVD! It was cool!

I am getting tired of wearing these annoying glasses. I am not supposed to wear my contacts for a week before I put on the new pair I got from Dr. Han, with the new design. Grr.

"Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill."

- Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Scene I

11-8-2001

Wow, I almost forgot to write an entry today! I turned the computer off and was about to go to bed when I remembered that I hadn't written anything yet today! Well, this morning I lost tons of money from the stocks. Seriously, they go up right up to the MOMENT I buy them, and then they go down. This is not an exaggeration or anything; this really happened to me numerous times this week, and it is starting to get on my nerves.

I felt assured, prepared, and semi-confident about the Shakespeare midterm that I had today. I reviewed all the passages that the professor (Justice) went over in class, and also brushed up on other important passages. When I received the exam from him, I was shocked. It was SO FREAKING HARD. Nearly all the passages were never discussed in class, and besides that, they were very obscure. That makes Justice a LIAR, because he said that the exam passages would mostly be from the lectures in class, but they weren't! And he also said that if they weren't from the lectures, they would be very obvious quotes, but they weren't, so that makes him a two-fold liar! AND he told us that there would be no tricks in the exam, that it would be honest and straightforward, but it most definitely WASN'T! So that makes him a THREE-fold liar! ARRGH! When I got back to my room, Suzy asked me how I did, and I told her that I did bad, and she also thought that it was WAY harder than the previous midterm! Man!

I had only less than an hour to get some songs ready for Jonny to print on the bulletins before he left from the office, and then I went to the English 173 screening (on the way I ran into Crystal AGAIN! Wow, I've just been repeatedly stumbling upon her uncannily, this week in particular. How curious) and saw this really cool and funky French film called The City of Lost Children. It had some pretty good special effects and stuff. After that I went back to my room, told Jonny the songs, returned Ralph's call regarding worship, a Christmas play, and mission trips. To relax, I watched the rest of Galaxy Quest that I hadn't finished a few days before and wrote a girly letter back to Gloria. All non-academic activities aside, I began working again on my animation... and I completed all the drawings! I couldn't believe it! Now all that's left is the actual animating and sound (PLUS I got a sound byte from Monique for female automatons!). I hope I can finish all this by the deadline (Wednesday). WOOF I need more sleep...

11-9-2001

This morning I scrambled around with my stock adventures, as usual, and actually did some of the assigned reading for the first time since... well, a long time. I went to my English 173 discussion, came back, watched a little bit of Frequency until the computer lab downstairs opened, at 3:00. I had to scan in my drawings, and the only scanners were hooked up to the Macs. Never before have I used such an incompetent, inept, and worthless machine; the controls were clunky, inconvenient, and errors and snafus abounded. Finally, after two hours of restarts, bad scans, and incessant bugging of the grumpy and reluctantly helping assistant in the lab, I managed to get in 7 mediocre scans of my pages, and then I IM'ed them to Leon and Gloria (because there was no other way to transfer them; email didn't work, no networking or FTP possibilites, and the Macs don't even have floppy drives. What a stupid system), ran back up to my room, and then had them IM the files back to me. I went to go eat.

What happened while we ate? Some girl dropped her tray, making a big noise and getting food all over the place. Every head in the DC turned to her. Well, she cleaned most of it up, and I didn't think any more of it, and I went to go get a dessert when a BUN, hurtling through the air, connected with my head, and thus I was the first target that began a massive, full-scale food fight which left cheesecake dripping of my neck, other fine desserts plastered on my clothes, and food that wasn't even mine on my plate. Some girl even stood up on the salad bar to chuck fresh greens from a high position. The finale ended with light applause from the Unit 1 staff.

I came back to clean up (but didn't) and fiddled with the "talk" function on IM with Jen while Leon waited for me outside to go to Intervarsity. We arrived late.

After IV I came straight back and worked on my animation until 2:00 am. I don't know if I can do this in time.