The Berkeley Archives: Jon Yip Talks to Himself
A Systematic Commentary On My Life At Berkeley
Spring 2002
Week Two: I’m Crashin’
1-27-2002
It was raining on Saturday and I didn’t even know it until I left the building. Leon and I walked in the rain to the BART station, where we met Dan, who was going to visit San Jose and stay at Leon’s house. I went home, and then went to worship practice, which lasted for quite a while. We were practicing for both the Sunday morning service and also for the Saturday night combined cell group meeting. It was a long practice, but it paid off later that night because we sounded really good. Jon used the new reed sticks that John bought that morning; they were so awesome because now he could do a lot more stuff than he could before without being too loud. You could totally tell the difference and the beats became a whole lot more like punk, which is what I’m sure Jon is more used to be doing. That sentence sounded weird.
Bill Baldwin was there, there was an interesting and hilarious message about the gates into heaven. It was really cool. The response worship was, as most Bill Baldwin response worships are, unpredictable and I could no longer follow the order that I had set up because the movement of the spirit kept changing dramatically. Thankfully, the songs that we hadn’t even practiced (I had chosen them as backup songs) still sounded fine and worked really well. My left foot was exhausted at the end of all this.
This morning worship also sound really awesome; I’m really glad that Jon has those new sticks. It is curious how Sunday morning worships vary from Saturday night ones. A main difference is that Sunday morning songs must be more conventional in general, or more “mainstream;” if you choose somewhat obscure songs or songs that are too new or too old, people will have trouble moving along with them. On the other hand, Saturday nights can be much more diverse and people will worship to just about anything. I think this has to do with the whole “worship night” mentality, in which people find it easier to worship on “worship nights,” conferences, etc., just because it’s a “special” night and not just a “normal” Sunday service. I think we should break out from this mentality. Oh well, as I was saying, I was really amazed by how some of the songs turned out, ESPECIALLY “Glory Come Down,” which was INCREDIBLE. Our team just keeps getting more and more blessed, and that makes me really happy. Ahh...
Another good (if altogether lengthy) sermon from Bill Baldwin, as usual. That guy is good.
I went home, played FFX instead of doing my reading, did laundry, packed, etc. Then we went to someone’s house to eat. I had to leave in the middle to go to church to meet Leon, Dan, and Zeke, who were at the evening service. Zeke was going to take us to the BART. As it turned out, we stayed for a LONG time at church, talking with tons of various people (Frederick, Troy, Marie, etc.), then the four of us went to eat at Denny’s with Cindy, where we stayed for yet another extended period of time. Zeke ended up driving us all the way back to Berkeley. And now I’m back, not having done a smidgen of work, excepting the few pages I read on the way to San Jose on Saturday. Argh...
1-28-2002
Leon and I got up kind of late this morning, so by the time we got to the RSF, most of the machines were in use. We went up to the 3rd floor instead and played some basketball for a long time, which was pretty fun, but also went to prove my own cardio and respiratory inadequacy, since I huffed and puffed and almost blew down dead of exhaustion.
Stagecraft was kind of boring. Film 108 was kind of boring too, but it wasn’t THAT bad. We saw The Jazz Singer, which was like the first movie ever with spoken dialogue. The strange thing is, the songs have words, but the dialogue is silent, like in a silent movie! The only reason that there is any spoken dialogue in the film at all is that the singer ad-libbed between songs and so it was recorded along with all the rest of the music in the Vitaphone. The movie itself was boring in the middle section, but it was actually a really good movie and had a whole lot of memorable, meaningful lines and themes in it. Many of the lines actually showed me revelations about worship, music, and God, even though the main character puts on blackface at the end of the movie to pretend to be a black guy. See, this guy’s dad is a cantor for some Jewish thingy, but he wants to (and does) become a jazz singer. So the movie is about how he sings to his God too, but in a different way. If I could only remember some of the lines. Oh yeah, I bought the books for the class and some of that technical jargon nonsense crap they put in is just plain retarded. It’s a book on MUSICALS, not a freaking O-chem textbook. Just tell me what I need to know, instead of sawdusting your book with meaningless bullshit so it can look fatter on the shelf. Man, I hate all these intellectual reprobates. AND, I found that Barnes and Noble’s website has the main textbook for the course for 30 bucks, instead of the 50 that I paid at the ASUC bookstore today! They were ripping me off like old bathroom wallpaper! Those crooked, no-good...crooks! I bought them online and will return the ones that I have now.
The good news is I almost did all my reading today. I think I’m going to drop that boring English course with the old smartass lady, and I’m going to stomach this Nelson fellow and his Middle English, despite all the fair warnings I’ve received from fellow English majors. I have to take this pre-1800 class anyway, it might as well be now. Shoot, it’s late. I’m crashin’.
1-29-2002
ARGH! Stayed up so late last night! It’s getting worse and worse; I’m probably going to sleep at the same time tonight. Peter is really smart; he asks a lot of questions about God, and he knows a lot about Satan even though he isn’t a Christian. For example, he said that all the scientists that try to disprove God are actually being used by Satan to confuse and deceive people. It’s amazing how someone who isn’t even a believer can realize this while many Christians are oblivious to the fact.
After eating breakfast with Leon, we went to the bookstore to return some stuff but the line was too long, so we didn’t. I skipped that boring class at 9:30 because I’m going to drop that freakin’ thing like a crumpled math assignment into the waste-paper basket.
Middle English was enormously boring, I fell asleep multiple times. I wish I could just drop those classes without having to worry about anything, but I can’t. Those classes just have to be taken. Crap. English 100 was OK, at least the conversations and lectures were intriguing rather than dead-dull. Then it was off to Zellerbach Playhouse for my Drama 60 lab. Upon arrival, I found the area infested with all those idle Berkeley cops and out-of-shape dudes in trench coats. Bill Clinton, of all people, was speaking about some meaningless topic, as usual, on campus, so they HAD to have all these cops and people, and they had to set up roadblocks, which I easily walked past.
In the playhouse I spent 3 hours running about with this guy named Tim. I painted these fiery block things for the set of the Dante project, painted other random things, washed paintbrushes, mushed putty into staple holes in some back-drop wood, and did a few other miscellaneous errands. It was hard work for sure, but somehow rewarding. Besides, 3 hours doing some manual labor beats 3 hours reading Silas Marner, which is what I was supposed to be doing tonight but I read a lot faster because the book was boring. Those hours went by fairly nicely without too much anguish.
I went to the bookstore, bought a few more books, ate, and went to small group, which was particularly informative and enlightening today. I came back, watched Pulp Fiction (a mistake, not because it wasn’t a good movie; it was; but because I should have been doing work. Why do I always do this?), and read half of the amount of Silas Marner that is assigned for Thursday. OK that’s it, I’m going to bed.
1-30-2002
Ate breakfast, then worked entirely on arms with Leon at the RSF. I benched 95 lbs., three sets of 10, and then about 3 more lifts with 105. Agh... Well, I’m improving. Something funny: my upper body isn’t sore at all, but last time it was killer sore for DAYS. Hmm. Afterwards, we went to the ASUC bookstore so I could return some books. Placing the books to return on the counter, I realized that I brought the WRONG BOOK: instead of bringing Augustine’s The Confessions, I brought Bronte’s Jane Eyre, which I DIDN’T want to return. Rats. So I just returned one of the books, the Middle English Lyrics book that was all messed up. Then we went to Ned’s and I bought the same book but cheaper and in much better condition.
Since I left Davidson early for campus, I went to ASUC bookstore again to return that book that I forgot in the morning. The Drama 60 lecture was kind of boring, but it was OK. I’m just thankful I don’t have any additional reading for that class. Heh. Speaking of Zellerbach Hall, I just found out that Bill Clinton was speaking yesterday IN THE SAME BUILDING! I was in that same building as he was, and the was NO security whatsoever. Actually, there was, but they didn’t give two rats’ kidneys that I waltzed in and out of there like a squirrel. And you know what else I found out? Ang Lee is filming The Incredible Hulk. As a matter of fact, I knew that already, but what I did NOT know was that they are thinking of filming the movie right here at UC Berkeley! I guess the Lawrence Labs are the perfect setting for that kind of movie (arrogant, liberal, mad scientists). Maybe I can offer my services... Ahh...
Well, I pretty much wrapped up the reading for tomorrow (unbelievable!) so I watched The Shawshank Redemption, which was awesome. Yeah, but event-wise, today wasn’t exactly overflowing with spectacular occurrences of unfathomable interest.
1-31-2002
As usual, I ate with Leon. Middle English... boring. English 100... not too boring, because she involves the whole group. She’s a good teacher. Her last name is Elliot. What I like best is that she actually showed us, nay, GAVE US A HANDOUT about how to write the papers! Everything that I needed to know last semester, but didn’t! She told us NOT to write down something that nobody could argue against, not to write down facts, but to write something that was an ARGUMENT, something that wasn’t obvious. She told us to ANALYZE, and INTERPRET, and to find five or six meanings in a passage instead of one. She told us that she would rather have us OVER-interpret than under-interpret. If only I had known all this last semester! CRAP!
This time at the Drama 60 workshop I didn’t get to work with Tim. I got to work with the guy in charge instead, Stan, who was kind of an asshole but he lightened up after a while. This one girl just asked what we were building and he got all smart-assy and said “what do you mean by that” and all that crap. Finally he said “it’s The Divine Comedy. Now what did that do for you?” His assistant had to whisper to her afterwards what it was about and everything. The whole ordeal wasn’t as fun as painting and all that stuff I did on Tuesday; the hours dragged by as we erected big, steel, scrim-covered frames that were (I think) supposed to be the set. Somehow, though, it ended.
I ate too much mashed potatoes at dinner, which I ate with Peter and Leon. We got Suzi to start using AIM. Heh heh, she’s fallen into a trap.
I felt like relaxing today because I’ve done most of the reading, but I didn’t want to waste time watching a movie, so I wrote part of a short story instead, a story that I’ve been wanting to write for a very long time. Unexpectedly, it turned out to be not as fun or interested as I had hoped. Oh well, we’ll have to see how it is when it’s done.
I really want to drop Middle English now! I found out today that there will be an upper division English decal on the Coen Brothers! That sounds awesome! If I get in that, there’s a super chance that I’ll drop this boring pre-1800 class and take it some other semester. Life is short, you know, and your time in college is even shorter.
Tomorrow we’re going to play some basketball at 8 am, at the RSF! Ben is coming by Berkeley to visit, so I might get a ride home with him and Shirley. We’ll see.
2-1-2002
I had to wake up so early today, to call Leon and go to the RSF to play basketball with all a bunch of people from IV. Those guys are really good, or maybe I’m just really bad. Anyway, I got herra tired and sweaty and gross, so I took a NICE shower when I got back to Davidson. Then I went to the DC with Leon and ate way too much food, and up until now my stomach has been bothering me a whole lot. So much that I had to take a big nap and a big dump before class. Originally, I had planned to watch Charlie’s Angels today but I decided to spend my time more usefully and started re-reading Silas Marner, but this time actually paying attention to the book and retaining information. Almost none of the stuff I read was familiar to me, though I had supposedly “read” all of it this week. Ugh... so boring. Well, it’s really all right after all, I just need to concentrate.
GREAT NEWS! Professor Justice bumped my grade up! YES! I won, I won, I won! He even told me the (numerous) things that I did all wrong on the exams, which was invaluable information to me. YES!!!
Film 108 wasn’t too boring today! Yes, there were long periods of time where I spaced out and let my mind drift into a complete, utter lack of thought, but for the most part (or rather, for the half part) I was semi-aware of what was going on around me. And I didn’t doze off once! That’s something I can’t say for any other class so far this week.
I’m going to go eat with Shirley and Ben soon. Ben drove down from Davis to visit friends and pick up Shirley. Then I’ll most likely go to IV and get a ride home with Leon, who will borrow his sister’s car. Ahh, so many things to look forward to... but thanks to school, I won’t be able to do them. I want to see The Count of Monte Cristo. Oh, and there’s an airsoft skirmish next Saturday! And then there’s that Coen brothers decal. Seriously, if that class can apply towards the major, I’m dropping that thing like a stoner does to a Tupperware bin of acid.