The Berkeley Archives: Jon Yip Talks to Himself

A Systematic Commentary On My Life At Berkeley

Spring 2003

Week 8: Proper Sustenance

3-2-2003

After IV on Friday it was totally cool because all these people came over and all my lasagna! Looks like I got my wish after all. Of course, the trade off was that we ended up leaving really late. Hm. Wayne drove all three of us home.

On Saturday I did laundry, went and bought Road to Perdition, and other stuff. Howard came over and we watched my new DVD; it was really cool.

We went to Tim’s orchestra concert but we came too late and missed the 1812 Overture, which was what I really wanted to hear. Then we went to Fresh Choice, where I chowed down.

Cell group was good; better than usual, I think. I had a lot of fun and learned some stuff, and everyone just seemed to be in a good mood, or were talking a lot, or something. It was cool.

Ohghgh had to get up so early this morning for D-something meeting. We met at Denny’s and I ate another unhealthy meal. We talked about a bunch of stuff and it was a really good meeting. Then we went back to church I had worship practice with Shirley. Boy worship was really good today. Service was good. Just a lot of good stuff today. After service there was a brief Mongolia meeting. Ralph said we should know who’s on the team by the end of the week. I drove Wayne and Kimmy home, then did more laundry and napped very briefly. Packed, did all that stuff, ate, watched a little news on TV, etc. At 6:00 or 7:00, Wayne picked me up and drove me and Leon back to Berkeley. Dang it, I didn’t find Persuasion! Now how am I going to read it? Sparknotes, what a life-saver.

I’ve been looking at the Sparknotes, but not really being productive. Emails, other stuff have been occupying me. I would write more cool stuff but I can’t really think right now; I’m just tired.

Whoa, just now I came THIS close to biting my lip.

I still don’t get tired of listening to my worship set mp3s from last month. Yeah...

3-3-2003

The 8:30 alarm shocked me this time. Normally I wake up before it goes off, but not today.

I ate cereal, and read the Bible. I asked God to show me something concerning a very important matter, and the first verse I turned to was in Judges, and it applied to the situation in an almost frighteningly uncanny manner. Hallelujah God is so faithful and amazing. That was NOT coincidence. Time to cry out.

Then I read a huge expanse from Tom Sawyer so I’m probably good to go for the week in English 150.

I was walking to class, and I was thinking about Democrats and Republicans. I thought to myself: “how can Christians justify being Democrats? I mean, they are for abortion, support gay marriage rights and laws, etc.” I thought of how Democrats say the same thing about Republicans. The main beef that they have is: “Republicans don’t care about the poor! All they want to do is get rich and make the rich even richer!” That’s what they say every time. Then I thought: “All these Democrats criticize the Republicans for not caring about the poor. Well, I want to see YOU care for them. You say all this stuff about the government taking care of them, but when was the last time YOU went out and YOU cared for the poor? The Dems are just using their party as a lame excuse for morality to cover up for all the dirty crap that goes on.” Then I went to class, which I fell asleep in numerous times.

On the way back I passed by this panhandler dude who asked for some change and I mumbled “sorry, not today” very quietly so that he probably didn’t even hear it. I thought to myself, “WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU???” Fortunately the guy shouted out at me, “Hey, you want to get me some popcorn chicken?” I turned around. Everything is beautiful. I said, “Yeah OK!”

“Are you serious?” the guy said.

“Yeah, I’ll get you some,” I said back, and I went to Sweetheart to do so. He was very appreciative and even offered me his change, but I didn’t take it. I would have asked him for maybe a couple pieces of the chicken though, but I’ve learned (from experience) not to ask a hungry man for his food. He asked my name; I gave it and he told me his, and I forgot it immediately upon learning it. I think it was Marcus but I can’t be sure.

I rested for the afternoon, did a little researching at Sparknotes on Persuasion, and then at 6:00 went to ASAMST decal and watched The Year of the Dragon, which was OK but the main character dude was a jerk.

When I got back I made chicken and vegetables, which weren’t bad but weren’t my best. I was working on my photos section of my website, for posting the Mongolia 2002 photos. I called Steve Yang and that was cool. But basically I’ve been working on my site.

I won an auction at Ebay for a really nice Battle Royale DVD! All RIGHT!

3-5-2003

Hm, got up nice and early again. Tired because the alarm cut me off in the middle of a good sleep again. I again asked God to show me something in the Bible. The first thing I turned to was John 9. Yesterday it was Judges 3. We have to cry out; God wants to and already has planned this; now it’s only a matter of us pressing in for it.

I cleaned the floors in the kitchen, vacuumed, cleaned the glass table. It was a productive morning. At around noon Leedah came over; we went to Gypsy’s and I got a ham calzone, my only meal for today (fasting). Leedah tried to coerce me into giving him a “name.” Ho ho ho. Fat chance for that!

I walked with him to the Campinile so he could meet Jesse, then I went to class and nodded off numerous times even though I was sitting next to the professor. When I got back home I just wanted to nap, but no time for that. Had to go to chorus. Min and I exchanged numerous sarcasms and insults. I would quote him if I remembered any, but the puns were so bad I think I tried to block them out. Mostly stuff about me being Chinese, and also not knowing his last name. I returned fired with cracks about his last name being either Park or Kim. Ha ha ha!!

MIN: Every week I try to get into your journal.

When I got back I practiced some music because I was going to lead worship at small group. John Kua came up to listen to the mandolin dude from Nickel Creek. Wayne came over also, and he joined Leon, Shirley, and us to go to La Mediterranee for dinner. Shirley and I weren’t eating so we just watched. We had a grand old time. We came back at about 7:00 and had small group.

It’s funny because Shirley has been going crazy every time someone eats food. I didn’t feel that bad at the restaurant but then when we came back and I saw people eating chips (Doritos, no less) at small group I suddenly discovered that I had a ravenous desire to eat them. I think snacks are my weakness.

Small group was really good today. I led worship, that went well. The passage that we looked at was completely applicable to the issue at hand, and I learned so much from it. It really pays to look deeper at Scripture and find stuff that you normally overlook without noticing at all.

After small group Tina, Jason, Wayne and I wanted to see Rat Race somewhere but we had a little trouble finding a place. Eventually we invited ourselves over to this guy named Peter’s house (he lives with Jesse) and watched it. It was really funny! I didn’t think it looked that good when it came out, but it was so funny! Watching it in a group setting could have contributed to that fact. But anyway, I had a great time.

Walking back, we had more good times.

(Walking)

TINA (suddenly): Ah, OH MY GOSH!

(Almost runs into tree)

That left us cracking up for a good long time. Dude she is so weird. Then she just randomly grabbed this flower from a bush and started sniffing it profusely, then she began rubbing it all over her shirt. *shrug*

8-5-2003

Morning prayer today... owned. Only Leon, me, and Julia there.

When I returned I ate the rest of the Frosted Mini Wheats, and also one of Shirley’s asian pears. The reason I broke the fast (ho ho breakfast) we that I was thinking of working out, and also there was a lot of food to get rid of.

Blargh, what did I do before class today? I don’t remember. Oh I finished typing out the Mongolia 2002 log. Class was boring today; I didn’t take any notes. I got my paper back: C+. Actually I think that’s pretty good considering that the majority of papers were Cs and the highest grade that the GSI mentioned was a B-. I still think the professors and GSIs are being herra ghetto about this.

I was so tired. In sectional I thought I would collapse at any moment. I could hardly stand up. Ugh...

I clunked down on the couch when I came home, and after a while fell asleep for a good amount of time (I think) until I woke up when Shirley came home. I went to the Anthro decal at 5:00. We designed an arbitrary character for Shadowbane: a birdman dude who was a rogue and stuff.

Dude I am getting pretty hungry, and really tired. I tried reading some stuff for English 176 and it was a bunch of crap; but at least I finished it. Leon went to the Rock, but I was too tired to move. When he came back he was supremely gassy it was frightening. Shirley has been toiling away (I ASSUME) on her paper that’s due tomorrow.

JON: Sigh... what a day.

SHIRLEY: You say that as if it’s over.

SHIRLEY: This paper is going to be so crappy. I’m not even paying attention to verb tenses anymore.

LEON: Oh verb tenses are the most painful thing in the butt.

3-6-2003

I wasn’t that hungry this morning. I watched about half of Keeping the Faith, which wasn’t bad. I started getting hungry when Shirley started watching TV and there was food on commercials and stuff. Plus Howard’s away message was something like “making cookies for my mei” and then I really wanted to eat cookies (and KFC). I went to class despite not wanting to.

Walking up the steps to the meeting room was difficult. My muscles have all atrophied without proper sustenance (only water). The professor (Hirst) took us up to the Mark Twain library upstairs and that was pretty cool; they have all these books and editions by and about Mark Twain, manuscripts, letters, microfilms, and tons of other Twain related stuff.

Ugh it was another ordeal walking up the stairs to our apartment. My legs are so sore. And to top it off I had to go to chorus, where Marika was kind of in a snippy mood. We got “yelled” at (she calls it yelling but it isn’t really) a lot, and I got tired of standing and sitting over and over again, my legs couldn’t take it.

Came back... completely bombed out. Leon was at OASES. Shirley went somewhere at about 8 and Wayne came over to pray for the issue at hand. We did a little worship and then started praying; Leon came back just then so we all prayed together for about an hour! It didn’t seem that long though. I really feel like something is going to happen.

I decided to call someone... so I IMed Tiffany and asked if she was busy. Normally people just say “yes” or else they’ll say “yes, but I can talk a little bit,” but she was like “nope.” Heh! So I called her. Boy that went on for a looong time; I think I broke my previous record. The final call time was over 35 minutes, and that isn’t counting the 5-10 minutes that we did earlier (before we got cut off for some random reason). Long, but it was cool and a lot of fun. We got to talking about lots of stuff, from colleges to food (FOOD!).

I just found this quote odd in some way; on eating meat:

TIFFANY: Sometimes my mom puts pork in soup or something. It’s easier to take it out, so I can give it to my brother, or my dog.

OK so just now I finished Keeping the Faith. Pretty good. My legs are really sore now; I don’t think kickboxing is a possibility tomorrow. Maybe I’ll just watch the IV guys play basketball or something.

3-7-2003

My legs were too weak to go out to the RSF today.

I wasn’t really that hungry. I prayed and waited. At 12:00 we went to voice lessons, which was cool. I was so refreshed to skip discussion... oh yeah. What a weight off my shoulders.

So I came back and waited for the email. So until then I didn’t eat anything. Meanwhile I watched My Sassy Girl, which was good and funny but really random and sometimes gross (barfing and stuff). When it was over I ate. Leon went to play basketball somewhere. When I first started eating the roof of my mouth REALLY hurt, A LOT. But after a few sandwiches it went away.

Large group was OK, talked about “radical partnership” but basically it was pretty vague. After that we (Leon, Shirley, Wayne, and I) went to eat at Gypsy’s (woohoo) and I got a nice fat calzone. Ho ho ho! Then we came back and watched Road to Perdition, which no one appreciated. I think people don’t like movies just because I like them. I mean, everyone else who has seen it think’s it is awesome. Then I bring it to the apartment and no one likes it. Same with Empire of the Sun. What the heck.

Then for some reason we watched another video: The Iron Giant, which Wayne hadn’t seen. Thankfully he liked that one. How could you not.