The Berkeley Archives: Jon Yip Talks to Himself

A Systematic Commentary On My Life At Berkeley

Spring 2002

Week 3: I Deal With the Facts

2-3-2002

On Friday night, I went to eat at Gypsy’s with Shirley, Ben, and Leon. The Wus left after that, and Leon and I went to IV. Supposedly, we were going to leave right after, but we were waiting for Mina and it SOUNDED like she wanted to go with us, so we waited for a long time for her to come back, but she didn’t so we just left at 11:30. We made very good time; it took 50 minutes to get from Unit 2 to my house!

I spent Saturday morning playing FFX (woohoo!) and reading some of Silas Marner, which I had to start over because I didn’t retain two whits of information. Man. For lunch, we went to Hometown Buffet, and then we went to Costco, which basically burned up the rest of the afternoon due to the revoltingly long lines. By the time we returned home, I had just enough time to clean the bathrooms, vacuum the family room, and play some more FFX before cell group. Cell group was pretty good; it is so hard to have everyone stay with the lesson and not get distracted. I suppose I’m partly to blame for playing alongside the young ‘uns by joining in with their immaturity. Haha.

Today church was cool. GAIN painted the room all Barney-like so it looks like the Teletubbies went in there and self-destructed. I don’t like it. I went home, packed, played FFX, went to Leon’s house, and we drove back to Berkeley. I finished the re-reading part of Silas Marner and got a little bit through the new assignment reading. I think I’m going to go to bed soon, since I’m not getting enough sleep. My left eye has been twitching all week. Agh...

2-4-2002

Today at the RSF, Leon and I maxed out, lifting lots of really heavy weights. On the way back we stopped by this shoe sale thing on the street, and Leon got some shoes for his sister’s birthday.

Before I went to Stagecraft, I stopped by the Bearcade to pick up some tickets for the advance screening of Hart’s War, but they were all out! I will go back tomorrow to get some. Class was cool because we got out early. Film 108 was kind of boring; I fell asleep a few times, during both the lecture and film. The film was Hallelujah, a 1929 musical with an all-black cast. It was a pretty good movie, and I liked the scenes with Ezekiel’s preaching, but for some reason I always fall asleep in the beginning of the films in class and stay wide awake for most of the rest. Something must be wrong with me, like I’m not getting enough sleep. My left eye is still twitching as much as ever. I can’t tell if it is getting worse...

On the plus side, I finished Silas Marner! Glory be! And I dropped that ridiculous Middle English class, which means I’ll HAVE to get into a decal. At dinner I ate pretty healthily to make up for the monstrous lunch I inhaled. Oh yeah, I took a shower, and the damned fire alarm went off, right then! I had to get my stuff together and stomp out quick, the ear-splitting alarm blaring all the while. It nearly drove me deaf. After I came back I finished the rest of my shower and I just watched a little bit more of Charlie’s Angels but I need to go to sleep, which I hope will fix my eye. It’s getting really annoying. That’s it for today, I’m hittin’ the sack early.

2-5-2002

I woke up early today to eat with Leon and return my books. I watched the rest of Charlie’s Angels since I had actually finished my reading, and went to class. On the way, I stopped by the Bearcade to get some passes for Hart’s War, and they were gone AGAIN! This looks like it’s going to be a full-house, sold-out show...

For reasons I don’t quite understand, the assignment for the next English 100 class always eludes me, and I end up not remembering/knowing to do it until the actual class time that it is due, leaving me to scramble some notes together for me to hand in. In a matter of seconds, I was forced to come up with a paper topic to present to class. Later, she discussed how and what to write in the upcoming essays, and it is all bullshit! I can’t believe it! I really have no idea how I’m going to do it; she said the papers have to not be obvious and surface, not to support theses with passages, but to analyze and interpret, which is precisely what they teach us to do in high school and junior college (she did, however, point out that she didn’t like the fact that it was taught that way). How stupid! I deal with the FACTS, not some overblown subjections.

The Drama 60 lab was long and tedious; we spent the whole time putting scrim onto the steel frames (oh, and we also spent a lot of time sitting around in the seats waiting for Stan to go run various errands). This girl, Maggie, told me that she was taking English 173 this semester, concerning books and films, with Elliot, the same professor who teaches my English 100 class! I would have taken that if I knew they were offering it. Man.

I’m eating a lot healthier now! Less meats, main courses, snacks and desserts, and more fruits and vegetables! I eat a ton of oranges now! Heh heh! Peter and I ate with a bunch of new people in Davidson; one of them was this girl in my English 100 class, and she was totally shocked and flabbergasted by the whole bullshittiness of the whole thing, the same as I was. Argh.

Small group was cool and very informative. Our group had an especially profound edge today, and we had a lot to say about Isaiah 49: about the differences between iniquity, sin, and transgressions; how the shifting of pronouns (“you” to “they” to “us”) had to do with retribution for sin not being affected by whether you were an Israelite or not, and other fun things. Also, Eric gave me his TV card since it didn’t work on his Windows XP upgraded computer! Just what I needed to watch the Olympics! It must be God’s will, since I really wanted/needed one of these.

I got back, and Peter and I spent a good deal of time debating rather heatedly about abortion and the legalization of it, though it all started from the topic of slavery (don’t ask me how, I don’t remember). Interesting, how debates always seem to take unusual and awkward turns.

I finished all my reading for Thursday tonight (!) while at the same time talking and gawking about airsoft guns and gear. Ahh... If I only could buy a gun. I really want a gun. Perhaps I’ll get one for my birthday.

It’s funny how Farnaz always calls us “boys.” Like she’ll say “hi, boys” or “good night, boys.” It’s very pre-1950's-esque.

I should concentrate more while I’m reading the Bible and not be distracted as I do (I talked a little about this during small group). It would help me stay focused on God throughout the day. Did you know the Bible itself can keep you accountable?

Tomorrow I MUST get those movie passes...

2-6-2002

This time, Leon woke ME up. I just couldn’t bring myself to get up at 8:00 in the morning. Oh well, we worked out; we didn’t exactly max out, but my muscles are herra tired now from all those reps. Leon couldn’t eat brunch because we went too late and he only had time for either a shower or a meal, and he chose the former.

I left a little early so I could see if there were any remaining passes for Hart’s War, and I expected there to be none remaining, as usual, but THEY HAD THEM! I snatched those babies up like a towel after a swim.

Stagecraft was all right. We learned about the different types of curtains and scrims on a stage. I went back to Davidson and idled around for a bit until around 5:00, at which time I headed off to Wheeler for the first meeting of the Coen Brothers decal. By the time those decal dudes got there, about 100 smartass, wannabe-film-snobs were there, planted down on the steps of Wheeler, including that unbelievably annoying moron from both my Film 25A class last semester and Film 108 class this semester; he’s the guy that thinks he knows everything about movies just because he’s seen Moulin Rouge and Mulholland Drive and Requiem for a Dream. Grr. Anyway, they made us write a few sentences about why we wanted to take the class, and told us that they would email us tonight. I handed in my deftly written, thickly targeted paper to them and went back to eat. They had ribs at the DC. Mmm...

Here’s a word that people are starting to use to sound like they have high vocabularies: jingoistic. I bet they don’t even know what it means. It is exactly the same as a few years ago when everyone said words like “plethora” and “schizm” to sound all smart and everything. Now they say “jingoistic,” which they almost without exception link to the American armed forces, and the general public’s view of them. How stupid. There is a plethora of other words to use, so why use that?

OK, so I wrote my little proposal to hand in to Eliot in English tomorrow, and I also watched The Family Man for fun, since I finished my reading for tomorrow YESTERDAY (HA!), and it was a pretty good movie, with some good acting, and some evidence of a promising artistic filmmaking career in Brett Ratner.

Guess what came into my (e)mail box late this night! A message from the decal coordinators, telling me that... I’m in the course, man! Laying utter waste to over 100 other hopefuls, I entered the course control number that was so graciously given me and took the liberty of enrolling myself. HA! Speaking of that class, it’s going to be held in a bar; Kip’s, on Durant, to be specific, which may pose a problem for me, me being under 21 years of age and all. Oh well, it’s Berkeley. People should be more open minded.

I think that my eye twitch is getting better, but I’m not completely sure. One thing that is sure is that it is freakin’ annoying and scary and I want that damned thing to go away. Some light internet research into the issue told me that it is a minor problem that doesn’t pose any threat and should go away within a while. One of the causes is hypersensitivity in certain facial muscles and other things of those undecipherable nature, which could be related to stress and fatigue. Stress and fatigue?! That’s ridiculous! It’s 1:00 in the morning right now. Do I sound stressed to you? Do I? DO I?!?

2-7-2002

I forgot to mention that the Coen Brothers decal accepted about 40 students out of over 100 people. Boo yah!

Ate breakfast this morning and messed around until class lunch (or did I do anything productive? I can’t even remember). I ate lunch with Meti, who was talking to a bunch of these girls, and eventually the topic of conversation inexplicably turned to... you guessed it: abortion! Needless to say, all these Berkeley females are a mob of liberal feminists, so they were, for the most part, pro-abortion. There was this one girl, however, who was, for some reason, pro-life, because she thought that the aborting procedure was barbaric and revolting (which it is), and Meti was also a hardcore pro-lifer. How interesting. She thought all Americans were for abortion because she said when she was in her junior college in LA, she did a presentation on pro-life in school and received evil eyes from all the students. Sigh... well, it’s good to know that I’m not alone in this left-wing, conservative-abhorrent university.

The rain started to fall today, not a downpour, or even a drizzle, but a light, fine, mist-like rain that came down in almost invisible threads. It was very nice. It is like washing things away and making them new.

For the first time, I actually wrote something to turn in for English 100 BEFORE class started! I handed that in, and for the rest of class we had small group discussion about the readings for today.

The Drama 60 lab went a little faster today, maybe because Stan wasn’t in charge the whole time; he had to go to a meeting so he put this guy, Brian, in charge.

Ate dinner with Peter and Leon, and went to see Hart’s War with Leon, Eric, and Tim. By now the rain was falling a bit more heavily and my hair got soaked. The screening started at 8:00, and we left at 7:10 (roughly) and when we arrived there was no line outside! I couldn’t believe it! But then we went inside and found that a long line wound around the halls of Wheeler. Fortunately, this girl from Intervarstiy, Cynthia, could let in two people early. We drew “straws” (torn pieces of paper) to see who could go in, and it was Leon and I, so we both went in, took the absolute best seats in the house, and saved a couple next to us for Eric and Tim. It was a good movie, with a good plot and some nice twists. At the end, Leon thought it was allegorical. I can see that. There are a lot of connections, I suppose.

Crap! Only AFTER the movie do I remember that I have reading to do for Film 108 by tomorrow. Shoot, just when I was starting to write my English 100 paper. Looks like a poor night’s sleep for me. At least my eye seems to be getting a little better.