The Berkeley Archives: Jon Yip Talks to Himself

A Systematic Commentary On My Life At Berkeley

Fall 2002

Week 8: The Right Carrying Amount

10-6-2002

And now it was my first Sunday morning ever in Berkeley... I did Tae Bo with Shirley and got all sweaty and dusty. Then I worked on my paper for the rest of the morning, made some Ramen, continued writing while half-watching bits and pieces of The Fast and the Furious on TV, and kept on writing and writing all day. Actually most of the day wasn’t even spent WRITING, just sitting in front of the computer thinking (and idly surfing imdb.com for useless bits of trivia). That’s how I write papers. It’s so inefficient, but it’s the only way I can get it done. It takes me time.

Leon came back from Fall Conference at around 4 or so. Shirley went out for her rehearsal and Leon slept. That left me alone for a good chunk of time to “write” some more. At 6:00 or so I decided to go down to Fat Slice and reward myself for all my hard “work” and also to, err, “balance” out all the exercise that I’ve done in the past few days. Mmm, pizza is good. I came back, worked more, Shirley came back, I worked more, this guy rang our apartment again delivering pizza to the wrong address, I worked more, Leon woke up, I worked more... finally, just before 10:00, I FINISHED! Of course I must smooth out the rough edges and everything, but the core, structure, and substance are all accounted for! I could turn it in “as is” if I wanted and it probably wouldn’t make much of a difference, but I won’t do that. It’s got to be polished if I’m to acquire that A grade that I want to (but most likely won’t) get. Boy that would really level up my GPA by a good amount, if I could wrangle up some A’s this semester. I really want to say “w00t” right about now but Shirley won’t let me, so I’ll just release myself here in text: w00t!

I just found out today that Holes has already been made into a movie and is due out at the end of this year, or the beginning of the next. It’s directed by Andrew Davis, who did The Fugitive and Collateral Damage, and it’s written by the guy who wrote Frailty, which suggest some sort of dark tones, and that’s a good thing for Holes. However, it is being distributed by Disney, which scares me. At least they got someone decent to play the Warden: Sigourney Weaver. Well, there’s no need for me to keep writing that anymore.

10-7-2002

I woke up well past nine this morning. I thought I would be able to get up earlier since I went to bed about 15 minutes earlier than usual, but I still got up late. Oh well, at least I’m getting more rest. I ate, fine-tuned my paper to perfection (in my eyes, anyway) with plenty of time left to do devotions. I went to class, where he let us out early again (plus there’s no English 135AC for the rest of the week! Is that great or what?), and then I went back and chilled out for a while. Ate some food and stuff.

I was kind of eating and half watching TV while doing my reading for tomorrow with Shirley until sectionals time. And the sectionals guy let us out early TOO. Awesome! It’s just been a good day today. Plus it’s been really hot so I think all the teachers know and factor this. Back at the apartment, Victor called and asked if we wanted to watch a movie or something. I said I had class at 6:00 and asked if he wanted to come over after that, and he said OK. Knowing that the entire evening would be totally gone now, I picked up my reading for tomorrow and finished it. I really didn’t want to go the film screening for Film 151, but I did.

The walk there was wonderful. I met Leon on the way back from small group prep, and also Kenny, and also Kody from my floor last year. The sun was low in the sky and it was warm. My polo shirt is the lightest shirt I have and with the top two buttons open the air can circulate quite nicely and it felt really good, especially when I don’t have a frickin’ backpack weighing on my shoulders. It was a very nice walk through Berkeley.

Alas, I had to go indoors for the screening, which was at Dwinelle today. Immediately I fell asleep, and never shook out of it, except in brief bursts which were too short for me to remember. Ever since I left the apartment I had been scheming about leaving early, and I was just waiting for some excuse to do so. And what do you know!! My cell phone shook (it was on silent). Normally it’s a wrong number or something, but I checked the number, and it was Jonny! This was my chance! I went outside and took the call, and we talked about TV cards because he was shopping for one. After the call, I found that it was nearly twilight, still warm but slightly cool at the same time, and absolutely beautiful. So I decided “screw the screening, I wasn’t awake anyway” and walked back home through Berkeley, which suddenly and inexplicably became gorgeous to me. I don’t know what it is, but just walking through the city on a night like this, with a light shirt, shorts, and sandals on, with no burdens on my back or mind (my papers are all done with as of today – for now) is one of the great and lovely experiences of life. I know I sound sappy, but hey, it was a sappy evening. I rounded off the trip by taking a walk on the wild side and actually buying something from Sweetheart Café (hey, I needed to break my twenty anyway; it’s been sitting in my wallet for weeks). It was a cookies and cream with pearls, on special today for two bucks. And it was GOOD.

As I came back I ran into Leon again, who was going to someone’s birthday party. I went inside, and soon Shirley went out somewhere, leaving me alone in the apartment. I chilled again for a while until I got the call from Victor, who then came over with Chris. We watched Memento, which they hadn’t seen (!) and totally tripped them out. They left right after; Victor went to meet another friend and Chris went back to his room to sleep.

Right after they left, Shirley came back. Leon is still out, at the party I assume. We have to go to Safeway tomorrow. It’s almost midnight now and I have nothing really left to do that requires my immediate attention (hence my long journal entry today), so I may just go ahead and get myself 8 solid hours of sleep... sounds good to me!

10-8-2002

Again, I woke up a little after nine, even though I went to sleep an hour early. Oh well. We are running out of food. I spent the morning organizing our paper recycling bin, sweeping, vacuuming, and wiping the floors, and stuff like that. At 12:30 I went to class and didn’t fall asleep! Oh, and there was another unannounced quiz, which I bombed of course. His questions are just too confusing. I hope he curves though, since no one else does very well either (I’ve seen scores when he passes quizzes back to us... heh heh). Then I went to English 115B, where I worked on the crossword until I was fully stuck; then I made a CONSCIOUS decision to go to sleep, since others were already sleeping too (and you know how I like to fit in and all), so I laid my head back against the weird double-doors that I always sit in front of and drifted off. He said some stuff about a book or two that we have to read, but I don’t know what he’s talking about. I know that I have to read Paradise Lost because the final paper will be about it.

I came back briefly before going to chorus. Tiring. Afterwards I got to hog down on tons of leftover food from the social on Sunday. So it turns out I did get a piece of the (food) action after all!

Came back, and Leon, Shirley, and I worked on the crossword until small group time. We finished it!!! (A “saw” is a like a little saying, an “adage.” What a ghetto crossword.)

Small group was good; there was tons of people. I think I am starting to remember everyone’s names now. They all went to study somewhere. Shirley came back from her worship team meeting thing. Leon is still out there somewhere. I’m really hungry.

10-9-2002

Ahh... no class this morning. I ate some oatmeal, relaxed, watched the rest of Collateral Damage, and maybe some other stuff that I can’t remember. I started reading Maggie by Stephen Crane, for English 135AC. I also studied for the quiz that I had today in vocal technique. Victor came over to study with Leon. I went to take the quiz at 3:00. It went OK, but it was so hard to distinguish between certain vowels. Then she finished up the little individual workshop that she started last week.

When I came back, Victor was still here. Him, Leon, and I spent a little time jamming together, and this time it was OK because it wasn’t late enough for any neighbors to complain. After that, Victor left. Then Leon went to a meeting for his education class, and I made myself a hefty serving(s) of pasta. Shirley came back, and ate the rest of my food, watched TV and read Maggie, and also my reading for Film 151 tomorrow. Leon came back from his meeting but he didn’t have time to go to Safeway (which we desperately needed to do) but Shirley had offered to go with me, so we went, but not to Safeway. We went to Andronico’s which isn’t quite as far, but more expensive. We didn’t get much stuff, since it cost more and also we had to carry all of it back, but we turned out to get just the right carrying amount, and I only spent about 22 bucks total.

When we got back I put all the food away and cut up the pork we got so I could put it in bags and freeze it. Then I did more reading. Soon Leon went to the library to go study, since he says it’s easier to study there because there’s nothing else you can do. I should probably do that sometime, but I don’t like going to libraries to study. Hmm.

I continued to read until almost midnight, when I decided that I should finally finish up what I didn’t over the weekend and beat Parasite Eve. I did. It was cool. Then I did some more reading, but not much. At least I finished the reading for tomorrow..

Man I’m pretty tired. But at least I’m not hungry, because I ate a lot of pasta, and also a pear after we got back from shopping. Today I was getting pretty desperate, eating anything I could find in the cupboards. For the past couple of weeks I’ve basically been living on tortillas, eggs, peanut butter, and an occasional pasta or Fat Slice. Oh well, THAT’S been put to an end, finally.

Wow, the days are getting much longer to me. Each day (and week, for that matter) seems to drag on and on now. And that may be a good thing, actually, because previous to these past couple weeks, I felt that the semester was going by far too quickly. Telebears Phase I is in less that 2 weeks, for crying out loud!! MAN!

10-11-2002

Woke up extremely late today; past 9:30 I think. At least I wasn’t the only one; Shirley got up later than I did (!) and Leon got up at almost 12:00. I spent the morning reading Maggie and talking/worrying with Shirley about next semester’s schedule.

I ate lunch and all that. At 12:30 it was class time. Snooze. It’s so embarrassing because I fall asleep in that class but no one else does. At least in English 115B there are other fellow nappers so I’m not alone. By the way, he let us out of that class early because none of us bought the book that he told us to. We are supposed to have it by Tuesday now. But I don’t want to buy any more books. I finished a lot of the crossword.

So it was reading and TV again for me until chorus time. Chorus was OK. It was cold today, and a little bit rainy (but not much).

I got back. Leon went to Oases. I read/watched TV, and made a ton of pasta and a huge salad to eat. Shirley went to a Bible study. I watched some of Deep Blue Sea. Shirley came back. I surfed around randomly online and read some more, and ate some more. I watched the rest of Deep Blue Sea, which was pretty neat. Leon also came back, and we finished the crossword (we are getting really good at it. We finish it pretty much every day). Yahoooo.

Time to go to bed. No class tomorrow! Wheee!

10-11-2002

Went to kickboxing with Shirley this morning... it wasn’t nearly as bad as it was for the past few weeks, although she did make us do 30 push-ups, 30 squats, 30 this, 30 that, etc., since it was her birthday (she turned 30). Then we went back. I had no class! Leon went to class, and he wouldn’t come back for the whole day (in fact, it’s 1:00 am right now and he’s still not back). All he ate was a bagel. Shirley also went to class. I watched Battle Royale, an INSANE Japanese movie that is really awesome and gut-wrenchingly violent. It’s weird because I can watch like a normal action movie with lots of violence and I have no problem with it, but with this movie it was excruciating every time I had to see another death, “Lord of the Flies” style. But it is such a cool movie.

I ate some lunch, and tried to do some reading and stuff. Ugh it is so difficult. Anyhoo, Shirley went off to worship practice and stuff, so I watched Me, Myself, & Irene, which is a really funny movie. Jim Carrey is just so good at physical humor. Ha ha ha!!! I also spent good time making some of the pork that we got the other day at Andronico’s; I baked an entire package and ate it by myself, with some rice. Mmm it was so good. I haven’t had meat in so long.

I went really early to see if I could get some tickets early for The Bourne Identity. I expected the line to be long, which is why I went so early, but there was no line, and they didn’t let me buy them ahead of time anyway. So I just arrived at IV half an hour early and they asked me to help write name tags, which was lots of fun (though embarrassing because I had to struggle with a few names which I definitely should have known). Shirley asked for a “special” name tag, so I made it all special but she went off to do some other stuff, and her tag was still on the little sticker sheet, and people were seeing it and pretty soon everyone wanted a “special” sticker, so I hid it until she got back. I still made a few special ones, like red crosses all over Wayne’s tag, and stuff like that.

The meeting went long today. Edward went today! After the meeting I was talking with Crystal, Elliot, Edward, people like that. I actually got some people to go with me to watch The Bourne Identity!!! No one ever goes with me! Elliot and Wendy were going to go, and Jay and his (I assume?) girlfiend, and Ken. I better know all their names because I wrote them on their tags. But then Wendy decided not to go; she walked home with Shirley instead.

The movie was great! I had been hearing different things about it: generally, the review said it was great; and friends and people say it was OK, Howard said it was OK, Crystal said it was OK, Jonny said it was good, and Shirley raves on and on about it. It was actually better than I expected. Really intriguing and entertaining. Elliot came home with me because Wendy was still at our place.

Elliot had us watch a whole lot of those Homestarrunner episodes before going home with Wendy.

Going home tomorrow!!!