The Berkeley Archives: Jon Yip Talks to Himself

A Systematic Commentary On My Life At Berkeley

Spring 2002

Week 13: Drives Me Up the Wall

4-14-2002

I took the BART home after Film 108 on Friday. I arrived home to discover that Mom STOPPED watching A.I. because she didn’t like it! She said she couldn’t watch all the “dark sides” of human beings, but after much persuasion by me, she was convinced to finish the rest of the movie.

On Saturday I got up nice and late and had myself a great night of sleep; my eyes looked pretty good. I made the tabs and transparencies for worship practice, mowed the lawn, and went to practice. It was just me, Tim, and Ben. Not being accustomed to a lack of instruments (drums in particular), I had some trouble bringing everything together, but after a lot of practice (two hours, which is a lot for only 3 people), things started sounded pretty good.

I went back home and played some FFX, ate dinner, and went to cell group. There was no lesson, so we played a lot of basketball and a really long game of Mafia, which I came THIS close to winning, ousted only by the blindness of others and the quick, clever thinking of Wayne, the killer.

Worship this morning was pretty good and went well. After church, I went home and went with Dad and Tim to watch Panic Room, directed by David Fincher. It was a great movie; not only was the cinematography and editing style WAY cool, but it was herra suspenseful too. I was super tense at the climax. The plot was really good too, with lots of interesting twists and a lot more stuff than you would expect about a movie about a room.

I ate dinner, and then the family took me all the way back to Berkeley. At a little past eleven o’clock, I checked out the apartment with Leon and Shirley, right across the street (in fact, I can see it right here from my window). It’s decent, rather good actually, and quite affordable, with a good location. By all accounts, it essentially looks like a go, so the only dilemma remaining now is who the third resident will be...

4-15-2002

...Shirley. We talked, we talked, we talked, and we talked, and when all the dust settled, Leon and I came to that conclusion. The time was after 9pm, but we made the necessary phone calls to Shirley and Wayne. Then Leon called Julie (the girl who lives there now) and we found out that we might not even get the freakin’ place! Someone else looked at it first, and therefore has higher priority than we do EVEN THOUGH WE DECIDED FIRST! We had only a measly DAY to think it over and we still don’t get it?? I’ve seen this problem before, when we were trying to buy a house years ago, and the same “rule” seems to apply. How distressingly stupid.

I woke up late this morning, but I called Leon anyway to see if he still wanted to work out. He didn’t. So we ate and discussed the housing situation for a long time, finally vowing to make a decision at dinner. I went to the Stagecraft lecture (late, because I ran into Jean on the way, talked to her, then Leon also happened to find us and we talked some more). I met Elliot in the GBC, and James on the way back to my room. I then went to the screening of Woody Allen’s Everyone Says I Love You, a great movie, for Film 108, and, as usual, I had to put up with all the crap that those dirty old men fart out. There are always a few people that say the same geezer bullshit every time. One of these dudes always tries to bring up useless, barely-related facts and bits of trivia to show how much he knows about film and entertainment; one line out of nowhere was “Well, she’s named after the author!” in reference to one of the characters in the movie. What a freaking, retarded, stupid, asshole-munching, sleeve-breaking, old, retarded, retarded idiot. I hate smartasses like him. They’re the kind of people that make me disgusted with Berkeley.

I left early to spare myself of any excessive shit and ate dinner with Leon. We discussed long and hard, so long that we had to leave the DC (it closed) and talk in his room for another few hours. At last we came to the decision (detailed above), and you know the rest of the story.

AUUGH I can’t believe I have so much stuff to do! My Phase I of Telebears is this Friday, can you believe it?? SO DAMN SOON?!? Why must they torment us so?!? Not to mention the grand crock of classes I MUST take this year, including my pre-1800 class, my American Cultures class, and my senior seminar! It’s driving me up the wall. INSANE IN THE BRAIN!!!

RANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe I’ll draw another comic to express and vent my rage.

4-16-2002

I ate brunch this morning with Leon, then eventually found my way into the English 100 class, in which I spoke for the first time in months and stuttered like a maniac (well, it wasn’t that bad. Maybe it was just in my mind. Regardless, I know for a fact that I had to repeat the word “distancing” three times before I got it right). I also got my paper back... A MINUS!!! We are on a ROLL! I don’t know what it is about this class; she writes all over my paper like it’s a straight C minus, then hands me an A minus. Well, she was a teacher at Harvard, so she can’t be stupid! It must be all those dumb smartass teachers who are giving me bad grades.

The Stagecraft lab involved vacuuming a thick (and I mean THICK) layer of dust off the lights and pipes in the paint room. It was a dirty job, but we got it done, and Tim signed us out. I managed to put the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon DVD on Ebay today, after I got back. Oh yeah, I also picked up a couple of passes to the screening of Murder By Numbers that’s showing tomorrow.

Small group included dinner tonight, and started early. Supposedly, we were to watch the sunset from Hung-Tzu’s high-rising, luxurious apartment, but it rained, for some reason. It was fine, though, we had some good food, and we watched one of James’ videos, Dark Crystal, a movie with muppets directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz. We just hung out for a while, and then Eric drove us back.

I worked on an essay for the Coen brothers decal. I started it today, and finished it today, three full pages on how Steve Buscemi shuts up in every movie! Unbelievable! I never had a more fun time this whole year writing an essay. This is how essay writing should be; none of this lame, subjectively nonsensical crap.

I was planning to write more, but I forgot what I was going to write about. Anyway, I’d like to say again: A MINUS!

Oh yeah. About the vacuuming experience this afternoon: I basically was inhaling 15 years of accumulation of asbestos deposits. That can’t be good for you. I feel sorry for people like Tim and Brian and Stan, who work in the shops for years and have to breath all these paint fumes and sawdust from chemically treated wood and stuff. It must be terrible for their health, but that’s just what they do; it’s their job. They just go about their life, doing their job. I guess that’s they way the world works. Most people don’t obtain fame, or fortune, or excitement or popularity, they just live their lives and do whatever they need to do. Sometimes I think it’s important to think about that.

4-17-2002

Leon and I didn’t work out today, since he had to work on his paper. I ate brunch with him instead. The Stagecraft class was normal, nothing special happened. I also picked up a petition to change class schedule form and got one for Alexis as well. Stan signed us out without having us do any work.

I just hung around until 5:00 or so, when I went to La Val’s to hand in the paper I wrote last night. Those two guys didn’t show up even after 5:10, though, so I left early and went to the DC to eat an extremely quick dinner. I then went to Wheeler to watch Murder By Numbers, which wasn’t a very good movie; it tried to be a clever mystery but was actually rather simple and uninvolving. I came back and couldn’t do any work, so I drew an expressionistic comic about partying. Soon after I completed it, the room was swarming with people looking at it and my “Magnet” animation that I made last semester. Eventually, the dust cleared. Feeling guilty for wasting precious time, I attempted to do some more scheduling work for my upcoming Telebears appointment, but the schedule site was down or something, so instead we (Pablo, Danny, me, and occasionally Richard and Igor) joked around randomly about things. Pablo, Danny, and I had lots of fun with Danny’s little tape recorder. I just remembered that I have an assignment for English tomorrow.

4-18-2002

I ate breakfast with Leon, did my reading and wrote my assignment for English 100. I went to class and nearly drifted into sleep many times but managed to keep myself half-conscious until something snapped (I sucked in really quickly) and I stayed pretty awake for the rest of the time.

In the Stagecraft lab, we needed to use the freight elevator, but something was going on in the auditorium and we couldn’t make any noise. Brian opened the door, and the sound of beautiful cello music wafted out... it was Yo-Yo Ma! YO-YO MA. The one whose tickets sold out six months ago... the one whose concert EVERYBODY in Berkeley dreamed to attend... and I was right there, standing back behind the stage, with a free, close-up showing within my grasp! But we couldn’t, we had work to do, and I missed the freakin’ chance of a lifetime. We spent the full three hours moving and sawing large flats of plywood.

I came back, ate dinner, and sat around. I don’t know exactly what I was doing; I was partly doing my reading for tomorrow (which I finished), partly exchanged music with Judy, and some other stuff that seems to have left my mind. Why does time pass by so quickly? Before anything can be done, it’s past midnight. When I’m at home, I can run out of things to do before 10:30, but here... I can’t really get anything started until late in the evening. I still don’t know what to do with my Telebears tomorrow, and that La Shana woman hasn’t answered my emails yet, so I guess I’ll have to make do with what I have. I still have to think about those essays too, the Film 108 one (the one I’m especially dreading right now) is due in two weeks. Plus I have another English paper due in two weeks, and another paper to write for the decal. Crap!!

4-19-2002

I woke up pretty late this morning, at about 10:30. I at brunch and basically relaxed (read Holes and won another auction on a Fleming & John CD) until 2:00, when I went to the Film 108 class. Surprisingly and unusually, I did not get sleepy and doze off, but I still had to put up with the same bullshit as usual, except it wasn’t geezer bullshit.

I went back to my room and relaxed again. At a little past five, it suddenly dawned on me that my Telebears Phase I started at 4:00! I scrambled onto the system, which as per not normal, worked. Finding all my classes with space to spare, I found what classes I needed to take most, what classes were filling up fastest, and what classes had the most seats maximum. All that factored, I signed up for the 17^th century Renaissance English class (for my pre-1800 class) and an Animation class taught by Russell Merritt. I hope I can still get into an American Cultures class and the Ang Lee auteur film class. I finished reading Holes, determined to start writing a screenplay based on it.

Leon and I ate at Unit 1, then went to InterVarsity. It was OK, and I saw Wendy! Ahhh she ran down and gave me a big hug, and commented on how I looked “different” (“Disheveled,” she clarified). Ha ha, it was good to see her.

IV ran rather late, until 9:30, so when it ended I ran to Wheeler so I wouldn’t miss Vanilla Sky. I made it in time, and sat next to Eric. It was WEIRD movie, even weirder than I thought it would be, and I was expecting something weird. It was half Fight Club and half The Matrix. Not a classic or anything, but really interesting and neat.

I need tp start submitting my writings and drawings to publishers and stuff. Many an hour has been spent on writing and drawing things, requiring so much from me, feeding off the expenditure of my heart and soul, and I’m NOT MAKING ANY MONEY FROM IT. For crying out loud, if I’m going to work this hard, I should freaking GET PAID for it. No more sitting around being a lax fool.

4-20-2002

I woke up at about 10:30 today. Danny stayed up very late reading and finishing Holes. It is Cal Day, which means there are lots and lots of people and activities and programs on campus (none of which I participated in). I ate lunch, packed, and went to see that University Dance Theater show at Zellerbach (luckily, I saved the outrageous $6 ticket price since it was Cal Day and they had it for free). The first two shows were kind of gay and silly, but the next two were all right. I should be going home now.