The Berkeley Archives: Jon Yip Talks to Himself

A Systematic Commentary On My Life At Berkeley

Spring 2003

Week 7: Everything is Beautiful

2-23-2003

Whoa... what a weekend.

Things went off to an awkward start because when Shirley and I went to the loop thing where the bus was supposed to be, no one was there. We looked around for a while and eventually found this group of people that were also waiting for the bus. Whew. Turns out there wasn’t anyone else from IV. There were a bunch of strangers from different churches. The bus ride was pretty uncomfortable and it was FREEZING because the windows leaked air even though they tried to seal it all up with duct tape. Actually I wasn’t doing that bad and could have done without any blankets but someone gave me an extra jacket they weren’t using.

We got to LA at about 6:30 and looked for the rest of the IV people. Tim Wong randomly spotted us! That was cool! He came with his church in SD, I think.

We found them eventually. Boy it was cold. After a while they let us in and we got a good spot on the field.

It was a looong day... lots of praying and worship, but mostly praying. Basically I went on a journey of a 12 hour sob-fest. The most powerful things were when we were praying for government, and for our campuses, and most of all...

THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY. For years I have known this in my heart, that there are effectively no real working Christians in the film business. The media is completely messed up, and Christians are afraid to get into it because of all the pitfalls and traps. Well, we got to do something about it!!! Oh man... they had all the people who felt a call for the industry to stand up, and they were praying for us... for people who had dreams, and had insecurities, and rejection, and fear... AAAHHH... sob sob sob... I wonder if people thought I was trying to be an actor or something... they would be thinking “what’s that goofy looking guy thinking, wanting to be an actor or something?” Well, I wouldn’t mind acting in films that I write, but anyway...

And also a whole bunch of other stuff. It was so crazy. I took a few pictures. I also get herra sunburned on my arms. At night time it became sooo cold. I was so freezing, worse than the bus, or in the morning. Jonny came for a while. That was cool; his roommate came too.

Anyway so it ended and I for one was freezing my buns off. We were going to go eat somewhere, so about seven of us jammed into Wayne’s car in a highly illegal fashion, but we drove to our bus first to see when they were leaving. Well, they said they were leaving NOW, so Shirley, Joyce, and I (Joyce was going to take the bus back) got out and boarded the bus. It stopped at Burger King and I ate some tacos. The ride back was much better because we borrowed Wayne and Grace’s sleeping bags and stuff. This time I was really HOT because there must have been a heating vent or something next to my seat, but Joyce told me later that she was really cold. Weird bus physics.

So we were back at Berkeley at 6 something. I was going to sleep when I got back, but I didn’t. I ate some food and worked on my webpage stuff and Shirley went to Safeway. Then she came back and went to sleep and I started my reading; might as well finish early eh. Well I closed my eyes and an hour and a half later they opened again. Oh well, I kept reading on til about 12:30 or 1:00, so that was pretty good. Leon woke up at 12:46 and Shirley’s estimate (12:00-1:00) was closer than mine by only 2 minutes (11:30-12:30).

Anyway, it was about this time that I started getting really really hungry. I ate and ate like mad. I would have done more reading but the book I’m supposed to read, Persuasion, is left at home because I stupidly forgot.

My lotion is called “Fruit of the Earth.” Wayne pointed that out to me at the Call and now Leon pointed it out to me this evening. Yarg how did I not notice that when I bought it?

So Leedah IMed about something... he said if he told me my head would explode. I didn’t believe him. I mean, what could it be. He told me it was a Peanut Butter Tournament. My head exploded.

2-24-2003

Hm. This morning everything is back to normal.

I went to class today; unusually, I took more notes than usual. On the way back I went to the new EB that opened on Shattuck. AWW yeah awesome, an EB right here in Berkeley! I need to buy Dark Age of Camelot but they didn’t have any more (Wayne and Jason bought the last two).

I spent the afternoon doing some assorted stuff... like eating, thinking, some reading, playing piano, and working out a script in my head. Leon spent the whole day at the library.

I went to the Asian American Studies decal and we watched The Joy Luck Club, which was pretty frickin’ racist. The aunts were so fakey and racist. I have to admit that there were some good points about the Asian family, but it was just so unrealistic, as they depicted all these monsters as if every Chinese family was like that.

Came back, ate some more food, played more piano, thought more about my script. As an experiment, I called the phone number on an empty bottle of Crystal Geyser water, and to my astonishment someone answered! Unfortunately, they weren’t to interested in talking, but at least I’m off to a start. I tried a few more food company numbers but they were all closed for the day. I had to withstand mockery from Leon and Shirley, but I WILL write this.

Oh Grace called about watching Russian Ark tomorrow, which was funny because she isn’t even going to watch it; Wendy is. She was just talking on behalf of Wendy.

I called Howard. The power is out in a bunch of places in Cupertino. Wow. Anyway that was cool. That guy is so funny. It’s so fun to call people. We probably will meet this weekend. By the way I offered to call Hsiu-Fan via AIM and got shot down.

Oooh and I called Jason Wang! That was cool too. He said he didn’t have that much time to talk but eventually I got him going until he asked ME a question! Aww yeah that was great. He had a dilemma about whether to take swimming or badminton. There were pros and cons for both. My phone cut me off or something but we continued over IM, the universal communicator.

I’m thinking about fasting milk but that’s impossible. There’s just too much dairy out there. What else can I fast?

I wish I had done more work today. Mostly I just was playing music and thinking. Ugh that’s so lame.

Watching Russian Ark tomorrow with Wendy! I hope I don’t forget.

2-25-2003

Whoa... I got up at like 9:00 today, even though I went to sleep at 3:00. Leon went to out to study just before I got up. So I did some reading for a while. Shirley skipped class and instead tried to (and successfully) read 100 pages in 100 minutes. At a little past 11:30 I went to Shattuck Cinemas to meet with Wendy and watch Russian Ark.

The movie was a paradox: fascinating but herra boring. Nothing happened. I wish they would have made more stuff happen. But as for the technical aspects of the film, they left me wondering and asking all these questions like “how did they do that?” and “wow that was cool” (OK, that’s not a question).

I was a little late for class. When I got to the library I had to go the bathroom really bad and I looked all over for it. It was on the top floor of the building (no elevator). I kept following the sings and it led me in a huge circle and I was getting more and more worried that I wouldn’t make it. Finally I found it; as far away from the entrance to the floor as it could possibly have been.

I ate a lot of food before chorus, which made me slightly late.

Chorus was OK. I managed to sneak in a good amount of heckling and tomfoolery with Min. Back on track, after sitting in the aisles for the past two rehearsals.

MIN (in squeaky voice): “Hi! I’m Jon Yip! I’m Chinese!”

JON (in squeaky voice): “Hi! I’m Min!”

MIN: I don’t sound like that!”

JON: “My name is ‘Nim,” backwards!”

MIN: What the heck!

Marika held us out there extra long. I came back; Leon and some small group people had just gone out to eat at the DC just before I got there; I could have caught up with them but I wasn’t that hungry because of all the stuff I ate. Plus, I knew that the storm of Doritos and Cheez-Its were coming, so I no worries.

Small group was cool; instead of regular Bible study we had this guy Ricardo talk to us a bit about homelessness and stuff (he is living with Ryan right now). I learned a lot of stuff about homelessness. I also ate herra Doritos and Cheez-Its.

People went to study afterwards, but forget that. Wayne and David played more Madden (Wayne got owned), while Tina and Jason also hung around; we were kind of planning to watch Rat Race but no one was really super enthusiastic about it, and it was getting late, so that didn’t go through.

Read some of Tom Sawyer. I still don’t’ know what I’m going to do about Persuasion because I need to read it but don’t have it. Argh.

Tina is quite odd and hyper (in a good way of course). She typed random stuff to Jason (using Leon’s SN) when he forgot to put an away message up. She also messed with her cousin’s Xanga comments.

TINA: Hahahaha!!!

JON: What.

TINA: Look, look!

(In response to some vulgar comment from an unknown stalker on her cousin’s Xanga, Tina has written: “I’m going to punch you” or something to that effect)

TINA: Whoops, I wrote it as anonymous. Hahahaha!!

JASON: Oh my gosh! Hahahaha!!

JON: It’s from like the local pimp!

2-26-2003

What an interesting day! First I had to get up herra early for prayer with small group. I set the alarm for 8:30, but I must have shut it off because I woke up at 8:55 and managed to change, brush my teeth, get to Ehrman Hall by 9:08 I think. Julia was waiting. I was the first one. Tina also came after I did. That went well.

I went to the RSF, maxed out like crazy, came back, took a shower, and did a little reading from Twain before I went off to class. Shirley had to work on a paper.

SHIRLEY: I’m going to discussion, and then to write my paper. Don’t let me back in until it’s finished.

JON: OK.

I wanted to take some pictures of my professor so I could put them on my website or something and make fun of him. I took one but then wanted to take another one with a higher shutter speed so it would be as blurry, and like a fool I forgot to turn the flash back off (since it reset itself) and then I took this blinding flash photo. I tried to pretend that nothing happened, and for a second I thought I got away with it until I realized that everyone was laughing.

PROF. NEALON: Uh– what was that?

CLASS: Hahahaha!

NEALON: Who here has the camera?

JON (raises hand in back row): Uh, me.

NEALON: What was that all about?

JON: I’m– just taking pictures.

NEALON: Of me.

JON: Yeah.

Thankfully he took it semi-humorously. I was planning to take notes but got lost almost immediately, and therefore didn’t.

Sectional was OK. Marika was late.

EB was still out of DAOC.

Relaxed til decal time. Leon’s friend from Unit 2 last year came over and he kind of taught her some guitar stuff. Turns out she likes Radiohead! w00t. I showed her how to play “Karma Police.” Shirley came back.

SHIRLEY: Hi.

JON: Did you–

SHIRLEY: NO, I didn’t finish! I didn’t even start!

JON: OUT! GET OUT!

SHIRLEY: Shut up!! It was getting cold.

It was a weird decal because this time we met over MIRC instead of on campus. It was pretty haywire because everyone was talking at once. But it is cool because I can chat, eat, walk around, talk, and do other stuff at the same time that I wouldn’t be able to do in a regular class.

For the rest of the evening I read a whole lot of Tom Sawyer, which is a great book. Wow I can’t believe I read so much.

Oh, about the 40 day fast. Well, it’s only the first day and it’s been tough. I am fasting imdb.com, apple.com/trailers, biting my lip, and 1½ hours of sleep a day (i.e., wake up before 9). When I sit at my computer I just want to go to those two sites. They’re like my home. Then I keep on wanting to bite my lip because it’s peeling. OOOH I just want to bite it! ARGH! And don’t even get me started on the waking up early thing. AUGH how will I ever manage?? By the grace of God I expect. By the way, Wayne and Jason are fasting meat, Julia is fasting AIM, Ryan is doing no solid food til dinner, Shirley is fasting coffee and junk food. Wowee so tough stuff all around. We’ll see how it goes. You know it doesn’t even really matter if we break our fasts because it’s not about what we do physically anyway... the heart is more important.

I fell asleep while reading Twain, which is weird because when I closed my eyes I made special note to stay awake and listen to what was going on around me. Well, I started dreaming... about bowling. There was a bunch of people, and too many bowling balls on the carousel thingy. I wound up, stepped, bowled, followed through–

–and my arm quickly, involuntarily swung upwards, smacking my own face with the copy of Tom Sawyer that was in my hand, and that woke me up. I yelped (but not in an “I’m awake!” kind of yelp, but a “Ow, that’s hot!” kind of yelp, because to me it was as if I wasn’t ever asleep at all) and then felt like a complete retard for beaning myself with my own book.

A demonstration of the wondrous 3-part harmony of weirdness that we roommates can orchestrate (I can’t quite remember it verbatim):

LEON: “Sincerely.” Should I sign this application “sincerely?”

JON: How about “loOoOve.”

SHIRLEY: “Affectionately yours.”

JON: “XOXO.”

SHIRLEY: Hahaha!!

LEON (stars in his eyes): “Sincerely... yours...”

JON: “...forever...”

I went to the Rock with Leon and Jason today. It was so good. (First of all, we had this ice-breaker where, guess what, we had to share our most embarrassing moment. And we all know what that means. Yes, Dennis and a host of other people began to gather around my seat and I was once again forced to tell my story. Sigh... it’s entering a whole new circle now.) We were talking about what takes the joy from us, and then in smaller groups we discussed them and prayed for each other. For me, it is worrying about things in the future: my job, my life, and some other things that don’t bear mentioning in a journal of this sort. Anyway, the prayer was just so good for me; there was so much insight.

I finally realized: there is so much around me that I must take joy in. Everything. Even when things are crappy; there is no limit to the blessings that God has given me. Dennis prayed something along the lines of God fulfilling those who are patient, and that meant so much to me. I am all jumping ahead of myself here. I need to look at where I am NOW, and work from here.

Leon was on the phone with Cindy. He gave me the phone and I got to talk with her for a while! Wow, haven’t talked with her for so long. I was afraid to call her because I knew she was really busy but she said I can call anytime! Yahoo!

I walked home by myself (Leon and Jason went to study) and I was overwhelmed. I was suddenly so happy. I felt the rain falling in my hair and under the collar on my jacket. I breathed the air. I saw the streets, and the lights, and the cement from the sidewalk. I felt everything. I broke out into a huge grin and couldn’t get it off my face. I was also whimpering at the same time because I was crying. All the way home. I was afraid people would think I was crazy. I came back to the apartment all wet, and convinced that everything is beautiful.

The glass door has some sort of leak that I can’t trace, and I need a bowl there to catch the water dripping.

Leon is still out there. Shirley was working on her paper but her computer keeps locking on her. I don’t know what she’s doing now. I should go to bed soon so I can keep up this 1½ hour fast.

2-27-2003

Wow I’m writing in the morning now! It’s 9:21am and I’ve been able to keep up my sleep fast for yet another day! Hallelujah, I am full of joy!

SHIRLEY: I’m afraid I’m going to gain wait over this fast.

JON: What?

SHIRLEY: ‘Cause right now I’ve been eating everything because of this sugar craving I have, and then when the fast is over I’m going to eat everything under the sun.

You’ll notice that my common reaction to almost any situation is the safe-playing “what?”

(Now it is night time, my usual writing time.)

Woof, I used the opportunity with so much time to 1) read the Bible quite a bit, and then 2) go to Safeway and buy herra food. Dude I bought HERRA food. Then I came back, put it all away, and it was only 11:45. I had gotten so much stuff done. This fast is doing miracles for me. Leon woke up late and skipped class. Shirley skipped all her classes to work on her paper.

JON: Did you study with Clarrissa and them, or just with Jason?

LEON: Clarrissa and Koh-Eun.

JON: Ohh yeah, you got a room, right?

LEON: Yeah, so we didn’t get any studying done.

JON: Ah, yes. That’s the way to do it.

LEON: I spent the entire time doing Strong Bad stuff.

I had bought a ton of pork, and didn’t have enough plastic bags to put them into for freezer storage, so I had to cook the last two, which turned out SUPERBLY well. The best pork I have ever made. Shirley and Leon both refused to eat any. Sigh. My cooking skillz are for nought in this household (more on this later).

JON (to Leon): Want some pork?

LEON: No.

SHIRLEY: You have to say it like, “I’m making an extra piece of pork; do you want to eat it?”

JON (to Shirley): I’m making an extra piece of pork; do you want to eat it?

SHIRLEY: No.

She used my computer to write her paper that was due today because her laptop kept locking up. She left a weird away message on my AIM. Nobody IMs me anymore.

Finished my reading (w00t) for English 150 and went to class; surprisingly, I didn’t fall asleep, nor did I find it boring. On the way back to the apartment I went to Copy Central to check the price on digital photo printing. $5.25 for the first, plus $1.75 for each additional! I could develop my own freakin’ roll for that much!

Chorus was good. I get tired from standing a long time.

I went back, picked photos to print, called a bunch of places to ask for prices. Krishna Copy said it was $1.25 each so I was like “HERR YEAH!” It was all the way on University. I walked briskly and got there pretty snappy. I had all this trouble printing because I had to format two pictures onto a page so I wouldn’t waste money. Anyway after a long ordeal, I finished.

Turns out it’s $4:00 for the first, and THEN $1.25 each! PLUS I had to pay 2 bucks just for the time I used the computers, which they didn’t even tell me about! Ghetto! But at least I had my pictures. I printed 10 and it came out to almost 12 bucks.

Time to make lasagna!!! Whoo it took a while, but aww yeah it looked good. Shirley left right before I popped it in, and Leon was gone at OASES, so I had no one to share the glory with. Wayne was busy, Julia and Jason went to study, Tiffany doesn’t like cheese, etc... no one could come. I got pretty down. I wanted to watch a movie but no one was there. Tiffany (Lee) cheered me up over IM with a tragic story about her collapsing and fainting under horrid conditions (first she tried a different story but I didn’t find it that funny, but the fainting thing was a side point and I found it hilarious, even though she didn’t. But what a pal, eh? She expanded on that part just for me). Finally Leon came back, but he ate already. AT LAST, we got Koh-Eun to come, JUST TO EAT MY LASAGNA! Woww I felt so honored. And she already ate too, but she said she was really hungry again because she took a chem midterm.

Well, she ate it, and said it was GOOD! AND THEN SHE ASKED FOR ANOTHER! Now that is something I have rarely seen; it is already unheard of for someone to even accept any food I offer them (except Victor if I offer a Mentos or something), let alone SECONDS. Wowww... I must say that it was pretty good, myself. She beat me to the sink and started washing dishes even though I told her to stop. Then she started washing the REST of our dishes even though she didn’t even use them. I was like “HEY! STOP! You’re a guest!” and I pushed her a little (more like a nudge) but she didn’t move. I didn’t really want to push her away from the sink because that just wouldn’t be proper.

I showed her my pictures for an opinion. Once again we were treated to a Leonian slip (in which Leon only hears part of a sentence and then says something that now means something entirely different in context):

KOH-EUN: My dad takes pictures like these.

JON: Is he a photographer?

KOH-EUN: Yeah... (pause) He takes a lot of pictures of weird things.

LEON: Oh, I bet you’re in a lot of his pictures.

JON: Hahaha!! Good one!

LEON: What?

I also put them online to get some feedback from the likes of Eugenia, Christina, Kim, I-ting, Tiffany, and my brother (you’ll notice they’re mostly girls, because I knew guys would be goofy and pic either the gangster picture or the one that had a sign that says “fart” in the corner. I know I should be the last one to stereotype males, with my crusade against male sexism, but when prize money is at stake, you gotta cut corners). Very interesting responses. I’ve almost made my mind.

I spent the night asking opinions on the photos and playing the guitar til my fingers killed me. I figured out the song that Misty Edwards did at the Call! Aww yeah we’ll be hearing it come my next worship set!

Leon went to go study with Koh-Eun and everyone else, as they usually do. I had a recap to write but I forgot to do it until just now (nearly 1 am). Shirley came back and I finally got her to eat some lasagna. The verdict is: good! Excellent.

I didn’t get to watch a movie, but oh well. Maybe tomorrow. I feel bad for turning down Leedah’s offer at the Peanut Butter Tournament in Fremont. I should have said yes. Argh.

2-28-2003

It’s 4:00 right now.

I went to sleep last night at 1:40 but Leon came back a little past 2:00 and we talked til 5:00 so I got really tired. Interesting... I think we both were enlightened from our discussion.

Had to get up even earlier today for kickboxing, but when we got there (at 8:45) the little reservation card things were all gone! They weren’t even supposed to start handing em out that early! So we couldn’t get into the class. Instead, we played basketball with the IV people. On the first game I got completely owned, but Shirley made a shot. Then I sat out for a round, and then played another game in which my shots improved highly: I made three shots; however, my ball handling remained extremely clumsy.

In the beginning of the second game, the guys decided to do what I feared: split teams by shirts and skins! AUGH!!! Justin (on my team) shot for who got to be shirts:

(Justin misses)

JUSTIN: OK, that doesn’t count.

(Takes another shot and makes it)

OTHER TEAM: Hey, come on!

JUSTIN: OK, fine, this one is for real.

(Takes a last shot and misses by a mile)

ELLIOT: Hahaha!

JON: Nooooooo!!! I’ll be invisible!! You won’t be able to see me!

ELLIOT: Hahaha!

JUSTIN: Hahaha! “You’ll be invisible...”

Brr the breeze from running got me cold. Plus I felt so weird, as quite a few ladies from IV were still present and it didn’t quite seem proper. Hm, I bet Justin WANTED to be skins.

My legs were sore afterwards. We came back, and then at 12:00 we went to the voice lessons with Mrs. (Benedict) Jackson. I sang “Gollum’s Song” and that went pretty well. Then I went to discussion, which was no fun.

On the way back I was totally caught by surprise when someone jumped out of nowhere and smacked me with some papers. It was Suzy from Davidson 6^th floor last year! I had seen her once earlier this semester. Anyway, she noticed that I cut my hair and I solemnly acknowledged this (meanwhile, her hair, which was really short last year, is getting pretty long now; she started growing it out at the end of last spring). She let me know about the Bowling for Columbine showing at Wheeler tonight; she is going with Shaila and some other people but I said I probably wouldn’t be able to make it.

When I got back, I spent more time figuring out which photos to pick; I had chosen two already because they were so popular (nearly unanimous votes for “flourescent” and “study”) and I had narrowed the final picture to the three runner-ups who had gotten more votes: “self,” “vicki & kim,” and “tea.” I dropped “tea” because even though it looked kind of neat, it wasn’t all that interesting. More people preferred “vicki & kim” because of it’s unusual perspective, but I was hesitant to use it because it looked like I was just taking pictures of my friends (which I was), and that seems rather ghetto and too amateur, in my opinion. So I opted for the “self,” which I think would work better because a) you can’t tell who it is, and b) it’s a self-portrait, which I think will go better through judges since it is more “artistic.”

So I went over to Sproul and handed them in. I don’t know how much of a chance I have... previous years have had roughly 120 entries or so, and when I was handing mine in, I saw this other dude with really long hair (a sure sign of an “artist”) with a huge portfolio that had photos in it that were probably huge blow-ups measuring maybe a 16x20 (the maximum size for an entry). I’ll be competing with those kinds of people. Then again, we’re vying for two grand here, so I wouldn’t expect it to be weaksauce either.