The Berkeley Archives: Jon Yip Talks to Himself
A Systematic Commentary On My Life At Berkeley
Spring 2003
Week 6: Totally Owned
2-17-2003
So really late Friday night (or actually Saturday morning) I wrote the words for the requiem/hymn whose music I had written. I took it from the “seek me and live” line from Amos.
We got up at about 9 and scratched the tour of Berkeley thing. Jonny drove us back (Tiffany, Leon, Wayne, and I) in Tiffany’s Jetta. The Jetta is actually a small car, and the Beetle is even smaller, so I’m beginning to have my doubts... Anyway, needless to say there was all kinds of ballyhooing in the car.
We went to California Noodle (actually we went to Jonny’s house first so he could get his car but I still rode with Tiffany) and then to church for auditions. I auditioned the song, and it went horribly. Then the family picked me up and we ate at Hometown Buffet, then I went back to church for the Unveiled meeting. Lots of cool stuff happened. The nifty prize was a ticket for any show at any Century theatre! Cool!
Went home and then to cell group. I got pretty tired. Cell group was cool though.
After picking me up to go to Hometown Buffet:
MOM: Hi, Samson.
JON: What?
MOM: Your hair is like Samson.
DAD: Except he’s not strong.
And...
MOM: You look like an Indian.
JON: What?
MOM: You know, like Crazy Horse.
(Mom runs around parking lot acting like an Indian)
Oh and I got my new contact for my left eye. FINALLY.
Sunday was cool. Leslie went to Valley Fair with Wendy (not Hu, another Wendy) and then a bunch of other people also decided to go, so I went with them and they ate stuff. Then we all browsed about the mall; I’d never been there before. It was all modern and fancy, and I felt like I was in Minority Report or something.
Christina and Jenny took me to the Sanrio store because I wanted to get some fun fobby merchandise, but everyone followed me and pushed me around inside so they could make fun of me. Whatever, dudes, Hello Kitty is cool no matter what you say. They didn’t have any car stuff but they had keychains, and tons of other neat-o stuff. I got a keychain and also a cool magnet. Boy I got a lot of crap for that.
BEN: Jon, if you take off that Darth Vader for the Hello Kitty I will disown you.
BEN: Jon, what are girls going to think when they see you with a Hello Kitty keychain?
JON: What do you think?
(Pause)
BEN: Hey, I think Jon has the right idea. I’m getting one of these too.
Went home. After dinner I went to watch The Hours with Mom. It was gay but also a really good movie. The acting, screenplay, and editing were all incredibly TOP-NOTCH. Boy soo good.
I did laundry.
Got up today and went minigolfing with ROL leaders and stuff. Jon Liao, Kimmy, and Jing were in my group. I was totally owning (the highest I ever got was a 4; and we had a ton of those volcano holes, it was crazy) until Ralph came over when he finished his set... I was on the 17th hole. He had 53. I was currently at 46. That jinxed me a little because I got a FIVE on that hole! To top it off, the 18th hole was a volcano hole! But guess what, I made it in TWO shots! That tied me up with Ralph for the best score of the day!
The whole gang headed off to Jonny’s restaurant and we chowed down. Then some of us went to Jonny’s house to hang out. Then we went home and I took Leslie and Kimmy to Rona’s house for that sleepover thing they’re having. Then I went to SNIFF get a haircut... it was brutal, brutal I tell you.
I think the stylist’s name was Thuy, because the name was taped to the mirror where she was at.
THUY: Whoa... you have a lot of hair.
I guess it looks OK, for short hair. It’s a controversial thing, you know... some people are for it, some against.
I finished up the laundry, packed, ate, etc., then Dad and Mom took me back to Berkeley. I packed my bag herra full because I won’t be back for two weeks.
SHIRLEY: Haircut!!! Yay!!!
JON: Yes.
I moped the whole damn night over this stupid paper that I seriously have NO IDEA what how to do. AAAAUUUUGHGHHHHH!!!
Leon made a wall of songs in our room. It is really cool.
2-14-2003
Usual morning... got up and ate, then messed around until class time. Well, actually I spent some good time reading Roughing It for English 150 but it didn’t mean anything because it’s not like I have any quizzes or tests in that class; I might as well be working on that frickin’ paper for English 176. Anyway. Oh when I woke up Leon told me that Shirley lost one of her contacts; that’s what she said on her away message. Boy that stinks. I was really miffed when I lost my contact.
Speaking of losing contacts (and getting new ones), my left eye still hasn’t gotten back to its regular state of clarity, so it’s still blurry even though I’ve been wearing the new one for a couple of days now. Barbg.
I ate light (salad and a sandwich) for lunch and I had one of those Power Gels so I didn’t even come close to falling asleep in class today! Awesome!
I went to chorus but didn’t sing because I’m all congested and crap. I brought The Hours to read and it is SUCH a good book. Allow me to explicate...
It’s all about the little, daily experiences in life. The little things, like the feel of a fabric, or the sound of construction down the street, or the smell of the air in a flower shop. The book catches all these facets; it’s amazing, and it’s in a way that the movie could only touch upon with its editing (which was brilliant). What an awesome writer. My only concern is that it makes light of the homosexual lifestyle. But fortunately that’s not the point of the book; it’s irrelevant if the characters are gay; it’s really about life, and humanity, and experience, and the psyche. It’s changing the way I look at things. Actually, it’s not, because I already look at things that way, but it’s making my mentality easier to understand. Putting it into words. Bah it’s impossible to explain. Just read the book.
I left early so I could go out with some small group people to La Mediterranee or however you spell it. I didn’t order anything, though, because I’ve gone out way more than enough this past weekend and spent loads of dough.
JASON: Hey Jon, are you still going to the RSF?
RYAN: I saw Jon at the RSF last week doing a kickboxing class. There was like him, and then 50 girls. We KNOW the reason he’s in that class.
JON: Yeah...
RYAN: Haha! He’s not even trying to hide the reason he’s in that class!
JON: Yeah, you know, the exercise.
RYAN: Yeah, EYE exercises.
Then we went to Elizabeth Ng’s apartment (her last name is NG! WHOA!) and had a joint meeting with Unit 1 people. We played some games and had some worship. I found out that Cynthia has a sister named Jennifer, and they went to Leland! Wow, all these Leland people. Awesome.
Leon got his new guitar today. It is cool. It is a lot brighter in sound than the Laravee. Victor came over after we got back and they played lots of music.
SHIRLEY: Read Justin’s xanga.
JON (face beneath a textbook): Love is like oxygen! Love is a many splendored thing!
(Jon and Leon wail “Love Medley” from Moulin Rouge)
I, again, moped around over my stupid paper; more specifically, about the reading that I would have to compare The Matrix to. I tried reading it but it was completely hopeless. I can’t understand a freaking word of it. Shirley gave me a reading on Marx from her class and it was a lot easier to understand. Now I know more stuff about Marx and Engel (whoop-de-freakin’-doo) and now MAYBE I can understand my own reading a little more. It’s 2:30. Leon fell asleep in his bed. Shirley is still up for some reason.
SHIRLEY: Want to arm wrestle??
JON: Uhh... what? Uhh... OK.
SHIRLEY: Let’s get this over with.
(We arm wrestle. I get it over with)
SHIRLEY: I have to work out!!
(Shirley starts doing mad push ups)
Actually I was afraid I was going to lose because I had previously heard lots of stuff about her being herra buff. Plus you know she says it herself all the time. But the table was in my advantage.
2-19-2003
Waugh woke up soo early this morning... like 8:30. Leon and I went to the first official morning prayer with unit 2. Ryan, Jason, Julia, and Grace were there. It was cool. Every time I wake up early I find that despite the moment of discomfort when waking up, the usage of time becomes much more productive. I guess I’ll have to try to wake up earlier from now on.
After prayer I went to the RSF. The last time I went I didn’t max out much so I didn’t get sore; so this time I really maxed it out, increasing the weights and going til I couldn’t any more. So now I’m getting sore before the next day already.
Came back and ate, etc. Did some devotions. At 1:00 I went to class, took a few worthwhile notes, and fell asleep for the rest of lecture. Oh well, it’s enough to get me past my recap for Friday. Sectionals was fine but I couldn’t sing too well due to my throat condition (which is getting better, praise God). After sectional I took my add form to Wheeler and got that all taken care of. One more thing off my back.
I was thinking about taking a nap when I got back, but I didn’t. I just ate food instead. I did manage to lay down in my bed for a couple of minutes. Leon kept jumping around on my bed and almost landed on my nuts (this was intentional because he did it numerous times).
(Jon screams continuously)
SHIRLEY: I don’t even want to know what’s going on in there.
JON: Yeah you do.
The decal was cool; she basically talked more about the history of RPG’s and stuff like that, and introduced us to Shadowbane and stuff.
I came back and fiddled around a bit more. Leon went to the Rock, like he usually does on Wednesdays. I made some pasta. Rather than do the normal spaghetti sauce thing, this time I tried for something new. It was those little spiral pasta bits so I threw in some miracle whip, tuna, vinegar and oil dressing, dried parsley, assorted salts and seasonings, and a bit of ranch and cinnamon. Oooh yah it was good. I am the pasta master.
We watched Star Search and The Bachelorette, alternately, but mostly the latter. It is the final episode or whatever and they dragged the whole frickin’ thing out. It was odd because this girl is like going out with two guys simultaneously, and kissing them, and taking them to her parents, and all that stuff. Isn’t that weird? And we were all making calls based on little signs that she would give out to the two guys. Eventually Shirley made the right call. The girl picked the ultra-“sensitive” dude over the more witty and charming dude. To me it was just extremely fake; I could totally tell that the guy was putting on the whole “I’m a sensitive guy” show and he took it WAY overboard. I mean, “you are my poetry,” crap like that, lame analogies about the sunrise and other nonsense like that; I’m not saying it’s stupid to be sensitive, because in fact I think it’s a good thing, but don’t FAKE it for the ladies. My philosophy is don’t act different around girls unless you plan to keep the change, because if a girl likes a trait in you that you don’t actually have, and then you lose it after you bag the girl because you were actually faking it the whole time, then you’re screwed. I also knew it was fake because normally men won’t just talk straight out about warm fuzzy feelings and whatnot. They will express them in other ways, but they won’t say stuff like “It’s times like this when I don’t need a watch.” UGH.
So I tried going through the reading again, but it was completely impenetrable. I emailed the GSI. It looked hopeless. I had to look up every other word in Shirley’s sociology dictionary.
JON: “Homology”– what’s that?
LEON: The study of Jon.
JON: Har har har. Actually that was pretty good.
I finally gave up and started looking into the other readings we had. Eventually I did find one that I amazingly could understand to some extent, so now I will use that as my reference text. I went through it and highlighted everything I thought I could use for the paper. Now all I have to do is write. DAMN IT!!!
Stocks took a mighty beating today.
I kind of liked the weather today. Nippy and sunny, and windy. I bet if I had my long hair it would blow in the wind. Now my head freezes at the slightest breeze. I can’t believe my hair is gone just like that.
Now it’s 3:30. FREAKING PAPER.
2-20-2003
I’ve decided to call people “brother” more often.
Sheesh what a day... I woke up herra late and went to Safeway. I might as well skip the details because it’s always the same. I went to class, which was OK, then to chorus, where I again didn’t sing (read more of The Hours) then returned to work on my paper, which I’ve been doing ever since (it’s 2:30 now). I’m almost done. I had this big speech about how men are complex, just as women are, and how we are stereotyped to the point of brainwashing. It was just a small sample of the spiel I will have someday at church, God willing. I had a tough time trying to convince Leon that he isn’t some oafish buffoon just because he’s a guy.
The Call tomorrow... wargh!!! It’s going to be great. Must pray. And finish paper.
The worst part about writing this paper is that it’s so hard to do, and yet I do it knowing that I’m going to get a miserable grade on it. Based on the incoherence of the lectures and discussions, and the way both the professor and the GSI stated they wanted the papers to be written, I am confident that my paper is going to be bullshit to them, and not the good bullshit that they like, but the bad bullshit that looks like some idiot nerd wrote it up who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. It’s a terrible feeling, but it’s all I can do. I’m helpless. It’s awful.
2-21-2003
Shirley and I are leaving for the Call in a few minutes.
I got owned in kickboxing today. Totally owned.
I handed in the paper. Crystal was back in class again.
I watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.