The Berkeley Archives: Jon Yip Talks to Himself
A Systematic Commentary On My Life At Berkeley
Fall 2002
Week 13: Go All Out
11-11-2002
At about noon on Friday, Wayne drove Leon and I back to my house, where we hung around and did stuff til Leslie got back from piano lessons. I ran late because I had to go to Office Max to make transparencies of the songs since I ran out of blank ones, and traffic was absolutely horrid, especially with the rain. It took longer than I thought, and Mt. Herman road was completely locked because the power suddenly went out (I saw the traffic lights go off) and the traffic was utter chaos. Plus highway 236 was really long. It was hard to find Camp Hammer because it was so dark, rainy, and it was off on a weird side of the road. Anyway, when I got there, they had no power whatsoever and people were doing their best to set things up in the dark. And let me tell you, it was DARK. Obviously I couldn’t do worship on keyboard, since there was no electricity. The Dining hall was being run on a generator, so there were a few lights in there, and they could cook. They made us lasagna and some good stuff and we ate by candlelight. How romantic. Our session started late. I led worship for the first time using guitar. It was pretty scary. But I did it. Dean Sherman’s thing was good. Finally we all headed to our cabins (I was cabin leader with Howard of ours, “Sequoia”), set our stuff up in the dark, and went to sleep. We actually talked for a long time and a couple of 7th graders were whining and getting on everyone’s nerves, and Jon Hwong (in the bunk above me) and Howard would rag on them. Hahaha! That was fun.
No power the next morning either. Ben led worship acoustically again. In the afternoon we played football in the wet grass, and that was tons of fun, even though I didn’t really do anything except taunt the other team and play on the line weakly. We had an Unveiled 2003 meeting, which was cool. The power finally came back.
On that day I actually felt wanted because all the skit teams for the ice breaker (we were supposed to come up with a skit and use random props that Jonny brought) asked me to be part of theirs. Kim and Stephanie were the first to ask me, so I joined theirs, but later Jon Yeh’s team and Jon Liao’s team asked me too. Wow I felt so loved.
Anyway I came up with all this cool stuff to do with our random stuff but because we kept on getting stuck, they just decided to use my sordid Mongolia story, which everyone in the state knows by now, and parody it. I felt so used.
It turned out all right, kind of lame, but funny I guess. The other ones were the same, except for Jon Liao’s (with Steve Yang, Victor 7th grader, and Clifford), which was brilliant. A kung fu goofy thing. That was a riot.
The session was good. Afterward a lot of us messed around on the stage and played music and wrestled and stuff like that. I took a shower and went to bed.
Sunday was messy. Cindy was slotted for my car since John had to drive the car back early to set up. She was supposed to be the last one to leave, to make sure everyone was accounted for, but Christine’s dad thought that Wayne was going to take the kids home so he didn’t come. So we ended up waiting there for a long time before Cindy made some phone calls and decided that I take as many people as possible to church while she and the rest of them would wait for Christine’s dad to get there.
I missed worship and a little of the message. After that we went home I went shopping for new shoes (got some Airwalks) and I got Max Payne at CompUSA. I found out that Bunny died. I was sad. I felt really bad about it.
Today we went to Vallco. I got some heel and arch support soles for my shoes. At home I hung around until Wayne and Wendy took Leon and I back to Berkeley. Wayne keeps on cracking jokes that I never get. It’s really funny that way.
We buried Bunny in the back yard, quite an unpleasant business. I have a lot of reading to do. Argh. At least I get to go bowling tomorrow with small group.
11-13-2002
I woke up this morning at 7:45, planning to go to morning prayer, but I went back to bed. I woke again at around 9:15 or so, ate, read the Bible, and played Max Payne.
I thought I wrote yesterday! In fact, I’m SURE I did! Where did the entry go???
Anyway, yesterday (to be brief; I can’t believe the entry is gone, it took so long) I went to class, where I had a quiz (Film 151) which I bombed because I didn’t do the reading. I thought there was going to be a guest speaker, but that’s Thursday.
In English 115B, the professor handed out the assignment for the final paper. How lucky; I’ve missed class for about two weeks or so.
Chorus ended early because Peter got a little miffed at Marika.
Instead of normal small group meeting, we went out for a fun night. We went to some Ethiopian restaurant and got really full. The food was really good, you get this huge plate of food and you scoop it up with this sour bread stuff and eat it. Mmm.
Then we went bowling. The first round I got 90 or so, but I really improved toward the end. My streak continued into the next game, in which I scored 120. I got a strike, on the 9th turn. Lots of spares. Some people in small group are really good. There were a lot of 150's and ups, like from Ryan and David. Dang.
The original entry was a lot better.
Anyway, I was playing Max Payne this morning and missed class. But that’s OK since I already have the paper assignment for midterm 2. Leon also played Hitman 2 meanwhilst. At around 2:00 I decided that I had to memorize that song for vocal technique, so I did, even though I already had most of it memorized. At the vocal technique class we ran through it and some people STILL hadn’t memorized it. But it went well.
Guess what I did when I came back. Max Payne. Right when I took a break, Julia IMed me about going to study at Heller or something. I made spaghetti for me and Leon, but Leon was busy still playing Hitman 2. So I went with Julia first and Leon said he would meet us there.
We went to the main stacks instead of Heller. Boy you can get so much done when you study out of your home. Clarissa joined us later (Leon never came). Pretty soon the two of them were totally conked out on the table and I was the only one doing any reading. At a little past 11, I finished everything (completed “The Awakening” AND I re-read the ENTIRE “Maggie!!!”) and we went home. Heheh? That was productive and fun.
I came back, and... Max Payne. Of course, I did some other stuff too, errands and such. I have to go to the poster shop tomorrow. I also have to burn a copy of My Neighbor Totoro for Nancy (from Davidson last year).
11-14-2002
Woke up today past 10! Ugh! I tried everything to burn Totoro to another disc, but it didn’t work. My burner is all messed up. So I just gave Nancy the original burn.
Film 151 was cool, some guy came to talk to us about researching for the paper. I got my paper back, finally. It was an A-!!! I was so worried about it too! A-!!! Probably the best grade I’ve gotten this year. Wait, it IS the best grade I’ve gotten this year.
I skipped English 11B again. Heh heh. I went to the poster shop instead, where EVERY poster was 5 bucks. I got the Lord of the Rings one that I always wanted. Did stuff til chorus. I helped Eric with his personal statement. I really should have started my paper by now, but that can wait. I think.
Shirley went to Starbucks to work on her paper. Chorus was pretty good today. I came back and no one was there, so I ate chili and played keyboard for a while. Then Leon came back. I was planning to watch a movie but instead I got caught up in Max Payne again. Man that game is so engrossing and fun.
Then I got caught up in Counter-strike again! Can you believe it? I played with Ben and Andrew at the Godhead servers. We’re going to start our own clan with [RoL] tags on our names. I got totally r0x0red and it was so embarassing.
11-15-2002
I woke up this morning with barely a few minutes to spare before we had to leave for kickboxing. It wasn’t so bad today. Pretty hard work, but I could handle it this time. Weird thing is she said she was going to go all out today. Hmm. There was a LOT of people.
I skipped class! Whee! I Jesse came over to work with Leon on their CS project. Leon went to class but Jesse stayed behind and watched me play Max Payne (a game whose coolness I am still unable to get over. It is probably the coolest, most fun computer game I’ve ever played). Leon came back with Victor. We hung out for a while. Then he left to go home. I decided, after much mind-work, to watch John Woo’s The Killer, which had some really awesome action sequences. It was released in 1989 but you can tell some of the cinematic techniques that modern-day action movies try to mimic. I’m glad that the Wachowski brothers had the good sense to credit the Hong Kong classics that they borrowed from, even though people still thing that The Matrix was like the first movie to ever use slow-motion and lots of guns or something. Sigh.
I made lots of pasta again for Leon and I. Then we went to large group. The message was really good. Then I came back, played more Max Payne, then some Counter-Strike with Ben and Andrew (I vastly improved today, finally). It’s quite late now. Tomorrow I must begin my paper. I MUST.
11-16-2002
I got up nice and late today. Got straight to work on my paper at 10:30. Been sitting at my computer ever since (it’s 2:10 right now). I’ve written a total of nearly 2 pages. Granted, I did sort of wander off now and then, but I didn’t play ANY games or watch ANY movies at all. Writing papers is so hard and annoying. Nothing really of interest happened today.
Leon made some good tuna sandwich-ey things today. Some strange conversations took place. Leon put a volleyball in his hood and it looked really funny. Shirley put this orange mask thing on her face.
I didn’t eat dinner today, but I constantly ate Cheez-its and kettle corn throughout the day to supply me.
I am on a pretty good track with this paper. Hopefully it will turn out all right and I’ll finish by early tomorrow evening so I can do some fun stuff for a change. Well, not really change, since I’ve been playing so many games.
I got caught up in a lot of IM conversations today. I should have just put an away message up, but I like talking. I never initiated any IMs but I still got a lot. Michelle (in Oregon) kept talking about her chem projects and stuff. Jenny asked me about which jacket to buy. Glen talked to me about worship music. Tiffany talked to me about completely random things that I had a hard time understanding. Tim talked to me for a very long time debating about why horror movies were bad while I tried to defend the “suspense” films that sometimes happened to wander into the “horror” genre. And a couple more, but they didn’t take much of my time. All in all they stole away my essay writing time, but I need breaks anyway.
I also got in a lot of debates about police work, policy, and brutality with Leon (he’s reading some stuff about that for class). Pretty interesting.
Tomorrow we will visit Great Commission church in Albany. Then we will go shopping with small group for Operation Christmas Child.