The Berkeley Archives: Jon Yip Talks to Himself

A Systematic Commentary On My Life At Berkeley

Spring 2003

Week 9: 3-Step Process

3-9-2003

Saturday morning I took the BART home, then went to worship practice. Tim practiced his Unveiled songs first with some other people so I watched the King of Hearts team practice (they were there too) and made copies of stuff. Practice was cool. On the way back we picked up Ricky.

Kimmy was at our house; when we got back they all started practicing their tambourine stuff and I watched the rest of Little Women with Kimmy (they were watching it when we came home). It really is a good movie.

Mom made good dinner that night... oranges and celery, really good chili, garlic bread... food is so awesome, I love it. Boy you can tell how much I suffered last week.

There wasn’t that many people at cell group. But it went well. Afterwards there was some awesome snacks that Mark brought: Pringles, Doritos, cookies, apple juice, etc... oh man I went hog wild, it was so great, but then I gorged myself nearly to the point of illness. But I just needed those snacks.

When I got to church, even before I got inside I felt minor-ED striking, presumably because of those snacks. Anyway, I didn’t even go inside; I rushed into the bathroom. Ugh. This morning I arrived at church before 9:30 for worship practice, but the Teen Challenge people were there so we only got in about 20 minutes of practice, but it was OK since it was fairly simple and straightforward. So while we were waiting, Tiffany, Troy, and I talked about various stuff; Troy tried his best to keep conversation going. I said a few words before service about it being a new day, and to step out in worship in a new way. Worship went well (very well actually) but I got a little too carried away with harmony, as John later pointed out to me. The people from Teen Challenge were cool; the testimonies were great.

The chicken was great today. There was also Togo’s that Angela brought back to church because we had lunch with the Teen Challenge people, though it was weird because their group seemed to magically separate from our group so we had two individual circles of chairs with each separate group. I wanted to go over there and talk with them, but their circle just seemed so... closed and complete. I dunno, I am a wimp. I did talk with some of them though. They enjoyed our worship, so I was happy about that.

BABYSITTER STEVE: This is General Chicken. You know how KFC is Colonel Sanders? Well this is General Chicken.

Christina gave me her big Hello Kitty doll! It is soo nice! I feel kind of bad since it is so nice, but she doesn’t even like Hello Kitty that much. Oh well, now it is sitting on my bed with Honey Joe and they just look adorable now. There was a Mexico meeting; I went home, read the paper and crashed right there on the chairs at the dinner table and napped for a long time. I didn’t have much to pack; I to Tim’s accompanist’s house so he could practice his song (our car got bonked twice: first, Dad bonked the car behind us when we parallel parked, the when someone parked in front of us, they bonked us), then we drove up to Berkeley and I’ve done no work since.

SHIRLEY: What’s that drama term where you–

LEON: Girls?

JON: Hahahaha!!!

SHILREY: I’m going to kick you.

3-10-2003

Got up today, did some reading from Walter Benjamin’s retarded article for English 176. I ate a lot of cereal, and then a sandwich before I left for class. Shirley went and found the tickets for the ASUC ball so she bought one for me.

Class was really boring but I was wide awake the whole time. When I came back to the apartment Leon was there with Victor. We all started reading but Victor fell asleep and I did too, for quite a while. But I got a lot of Huck Finn done. I ate more food; more sandwiches, yogurt, bagels, all kinds of stuff.

My decal was good; we watched Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story and it was actually really good. I came back and made some dinner: I finished the wilting celery that was herra old, and had broccoli and onions. I have a LOT of onions that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to finish. I also made a chunk of pork and that turned out all right, but not as good as the last one I made.

I haven’t done any reading tonight. I’ve been listening to music and browsing through the genius of Fargo that I recently downloaded. Oh yeah earlier today I did a lot of researching on the whole “war” with Iraq situation. I restricted myself to non-US news sites, and I read many feedback forums and such. Our media and education system (the US, that is) leads us to believe that the rest of the world hates us and is not on our side. However this is not the case. Most people (on an international level), though they may not fully support or desire war (myself included), still realize the necessity of action when/if the situation demands it, and I think we are soon approaching that point. Really, what effective way is there to deal with a power like Saddam? Reading Brain Terminal (www.brain-terminal.com) also provided intelligent answers that made sense to me. Anyway. I consider myself much more educated in this matter because of my research today. I never thought I would get too far into political viewpoints, etc., but the truth is, this is our country, our world, and we have a right and a duty to know what’s going on and make in impact on it. There you go, that’s my crusade for today.

These past two or three weeks... I don’t know... I just feel different. I feel better about myself, more comfortable, more peaceful, and yet I don’t really feel motivated to do or be anything. Hmm. This may have to do with... heh heh. You’re probably wondering what it is, and why I am being a dork and hiding it.

Boy when I go back and read over my previous writings, I find a lot of fob-like mistakes. Like last week I wrote “I returned fired...” I guess that means I’m just a fob at heart. That make sense to me.

3-11-2003

I was pretty close to breaking my sleep fast this morning... good thing I woke back up at about 8:55 or so.

I can never remember what I do in the morning. Read? Something like that? Boy what did I do until 2:00??? I remember I fell asleep while reading, or something along those lines. I should start writing in the morning.

Oh man I ate so much food again. Class at 2:00 was pretty good because talking about Tom Sawyer is actually pretty interesting, even though I spaced out for a lot of it...

So I came back, emptied out the trash and stuff, ate more food, things like that. OK so I when I came back, 30 seconds later Shirley rang the bell because she forgot here keys AGAIN. This is probably 4^th or 5^th time she’s done it in the past couple weeks. Lucky for her I’ve been home every time... dude and today it was even more lucky because I happened to get out of class ten minutes early.

I didn’t really want to go to chorus, but I did. It was OK. Min and I exchanged puns as usual, along with more Korean/Chinese wisecracks. Dude my memory is pretty bad. All I can remember about today is the main points. No details. But I guess that simplifies things, and we all know how simple is good. Marika got pretty fed up today with our incompetence, but I think she was a little unfair. Oh well. We organized quartets today.

I came back and messed around til small group. The meeting was good, but the passage was a little to long and complex for such a short time. Since it was Julia’s birthday on Sunday, Tina brought bread that she baked; and there was also some good cheese (can’t remember what they were called but they were good) and Wayne got her a ton of film as a present. That was pretty clever. I made a pretty good pun, if I do say so myself. I said all the presents Julia got were cheesy, since she got cheese, and film (“Cheese!” Get it???). Not bad eh? Yeah, good times at small group. As usual, more weird yammerings between Tina, Wayne, Jason, and I. It’s like we’re becoming this weird bunch. Tina draws naked people in class. But don’t get all excited just yet; they’re all old (Tina said something about putting on a shoe? I don’t know what she’s talking about but she cracked up like a maniac after saying it) and it sounds pretty gross. Then again, my wife will someday be old. Whatever. OK, now you can get excited.

I made pasta and used another onion. Boy I made too much. Woof. All this food in my stomach. Shirley suddenly didn’t want to go the ball anymore, but I kept badgering her (via AIM even though she was 4 feet away from me) until she changed her mind again. What’s with that?

Leon was supposed to be either studying, or go to bed early today, but he spent the evening doing neither. He did, however, add the first entry to his xanga site! Now that is cool!

It was such a nice day today. I think God is so brilliant, and you want to know the reason why? The seasons are perfectly spaced apart. You love the rain and all, but after just the right amount of time, the sun comes out, and the breeze blows by, and it’s a beautiful day, and you love it. Then the winter comes again and it rains and snows, and that’s beautiful too. It cycles so that we’ll get the most from it, and love every minute of it. I feel like crying because the seasons are so beautiful. I’m not even joking.

I typed out the arrangement for “Unrecognizable.” This should be fun.

3-12-2003

Morning prayer today... it was just Leon, Julia, and me again, but Grace came a little later. Then when it was over Joyce came for a little to talk and stuff.

I should have gone to the RSF today to lift weights but I just didn’t feel like it. Again, I don’t remember what I did instead. I ate, stuff like that. Oh I watched a little part of The Tuxedo.

Class was boring (again) but I was wide awake (again). I went to pick up my photographs (which didn’t win) from Sproul. Guess what pictures won. There was a couple of crappy flash-photos of the PHOTOGRAPHER’S FRIENDS. They weren’t even good pictures. Just people standing around against a wall. BUT, the catch is... they are lesbians. Just happen to be gay. OoOoh, now it makes it all cutting edge and artistic... MY ARSE. Give me a break. But of course they have to pick them. The other pictures that won or got honorable mentions were just B&W photos of people looking dirty and/or scared, and also some pictures that someone just took at a concert or something. GHETTO! I’m not even kidding. I mean, I’m sure there were good submissions in the contest that were better than mine, but THOSE WEREN’T IT.

Sectional was OK. We did pretty good.

Victor was over when I got back. I ate more food, just to get rid of my milk, cereal, and bread. Shirley finally decided NOT to go to the ball so now I’m stuck all alone... I don’t even really want to go that much but I suppose I should anyway... argh. She was the one that got me into it in the first place. But she called Mariann and supposedly her and juniors will be “taking care” of me... that’s probably junior-speak for “ditching.” Meanwhile Victor played CS on my computer and got universally owned. Giving my online alias a bad name.

Haha so Victor is laying on the ground reading. Leon is on the couch.

(Victor lifts his legs and lets out a massive gas straight at Leon)

(Leon does nothing)

LEON: Whoa, that was pretty good.

VICTOR: I can’t believe you don’t even care!

At 5:00 I went to the decal, which was pretty fun but felt like it was longer than it really was. Jason left early for the Bebo Norman shindig thing going on. After class, Wayne came over because I asked him to and he didn’t have that much stuff to do... heh sure. Leon left soon after we came back; he also went to the concert. I made some pasta and stuff and got rid of yet ANOTHER onion. We were planning to watch a movie but Shirley had control of the remote so we ended up watching a bunch of performance shows like American Idol and Star Search and stuff like that, which wasn’t bad at all. Dude, the Clay dude is back on American Idol because one of the girls got kicked out because she worked for some adult web site. YEAH GO CLAY!!! And the crowd was totally wild for him now because he is like the underdog that came back from the dead! AWW YEAH!

End of Days was on TV but Shirley refused to go the channel and Wayne didn’t want to see it. They both kind of ganged up on me and made fun of my tastes. Gee thanks. Boy this really isn’t my day. I’m feeling pretty cruddy about everything in general. But I still must remind myself that I am blessed and there is so much beauty around me to appreciate... even when school is crappy and nothing is going my way.

Well, Wayne went home; I snatched the remote and watched the rest of End of Days that was on TV; boy that movie is great. I like it so much. One of my favorite Schwarzenegger flicks, come to think of it.

I spent a good deal of time working through “Unrecognizable” because a lot of comments have noted that it’s a bit crowded and there are a lot of words. Well, I went through the song dozens of times and couldn’t add or take any words from it. I calculated the number of syllables exactly. If I take any out it will have awkward gaps in it. One of the problems with the audition is that I was playing keys while singing so a lot of the words got slurred because of my multi-tasking. If I sing it alone it will turn out a lot better. So I practiced my articulation through the song many times to make all the words clear and understandable. It is a very noticable difference now between its current sound and the audition.

I wish I had more “deep” stuff to write about, but I just... I dunno. I mentioned earlier that I am feeling unmotivated and bored, kind of, even though at the same time I am loving the creation that God has placed around me. There’s nothing I’m really excited about right now, though. Seems like I’m just going through the motions. I haven’t even begun to look for a job yet. And my English 176 class; who knows what’s to become of it. So my passivity; is it because I’m starting to trust in God more, or is it just because I don’t care anymore? Maybe it’s the “time of the month” (WHICH, by the way, males experience JUST AS WELL as females do so I don’t want to hear ANY CRAP about it! Just feed me, dammit!) or maybe I’m just waiting for something to happen. Cool stuff should be going down this weekend, maybe after that things will heat up a little more. Until then... Heavenly Father be with me.

Seeds of depression are setting in... I must fight back with the joy of the Lord. Am I going through a mid life crisis? I’ll be hitting the big 2-0 within the week...

3-13-2003

OK, so I got up today. I saw the rest of The Tuxedo, which was OK. And I also went to Safeway and got lots of good food like tomatoes and strawberries, and some other stuff. Then I plopped down on the couch and dozed off for a while. I also did more reading from Huck Finn. I really didn’t want to go to class. I got in an AIM chat with Min where we again matched off with our ridiculous puns that were so bad that they weren’t funny. Argh but I didn’t want to go to class. But I did anyway. It was OK, because talking about Twain is still fun, like I’ve said before.

Came back, ate food, went to chorus, which was pretty good. I sounded not bad at all; my singing is really improving. Marika kept us extra extra long. I rushed back to the apartment, nabbed a bit to eat, and sped off to First Pres for... Interpraise!!! Aw yeah that was cool. As usual, the worship team was in tip-top shape. Justin was on electric this time and he totally tore it up. The speaker was also really good; he was an excellent speaker, and talked about how we have to have a burden for our campus. Very nice. The response worship was good too. They did this jazz version of “Amazing Grace” that was totally sweet. It sounded so jazzy. I was really impressed with the team on that one; the guitarist, the pianist, the drummer (who happens to be Justin from chorus. Who woulda thunk?).

Afterward I walked outside and suddenly found myself in Tina’s (not the goofy, drawing Tina) car with her, Jason, Emily, and Clarrissa. I guess you could call it consensual kidnapping. I don’t know how it happened.

EMILY: Sooo, Jon... I hear you’re going to the ASUC Ball.

JON: Yup.

EMILY: Sooo... who’s your hot date?

JON: Uhh... myself?

We drove all the way to Albany to go to this restaurant called Nation’s. For some reason, when I’m around Tina and Emily they always get to talking about how guys are always hitting on them... I guess that’s because they go clubbing and all that. And I always express how awkward it seems that girls are so accustomed, it seems, to it, while to someone like me it is a completely foreign concept. I said I would be flattered if people whistled at me. Then:

EMILY: Well then maybe you should go visit the Castro district.

EVERYONE IN CAR EXCEPT ME: Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

And also more talking about how guys Christian guys should be more aggressive, yada yada... sigh this is so impossible. I don’t know how to be aggressive. Or maybe I do... but I’m just hiding it... heh heh heh.

Well Nation’s was some good stuff. Nice big burgers with Miracle Whip-ish dressing rather than mayo... very nice. Shakes were a dream too. I split a chili cheese fries with Tina. Emily, Tina, and Clarrissa tried to pick me up (in a condescending manner, but all the same...) with various pick up lines. This then led to “Christian” methods of pick upping. Here’s three:

EMILY: “That Bible looks heavy. Can I carry that for you?”

JASON: “You have a Bible? I have one too!”

JON: “We should go read the Bible together some time!”

Yeah so we had quite a good time... I got another shake... mmm. Jason got a slice of pie... it was supposedly a “small,” but it was a frickin’ quarter of a whole pie, and totally not “small” at all... dude I should have gotten one; if I had known...

It started pouring out there. I ran out briefly because I thought Tina was leaving without me and I got soaked. I ended up getting a ride back with Liz Lee, who also came with some people (Patrick and some others). Back at the apartment, our glass door was leaking again like crazy. Man.

Bah it’s past two. Must write this recap and get up for kickboxing tomorrow. Oh man all this junk in my stomach...

3-14-2003

Woke up and went to the RSF this morning for kickboxing; Shirley didn’t go because she wasn’t feeling well. I got severely owned because I have missed two weeks of it and now I have to re-adjust to it. Oh man she owned us.

I practiced my songs and stuff back at the apartment, took shower, all that stuff. Voice lessons was great. I sang this week and it went pretty well. Boy those lessons plus chorus really improved my technique. I wish I could keep taking them after I graduate.

Discussion was pretty boring as usual but at least I didn’t start falling asleep. Once that got out, I was FREE. I came back and ate some food and watched Toy Story 2, which is about as good/bad as I remember it to be. Funny, but without the charm and wit of the first. Then I got rid of yet ANOTHER onion by dicing it and putting half in some vegetables and half in spaghetti sauce (I’ve been eating a lot of spaghetti recently, solely to get rid of the onions). Whooo whee it started raining pretty hard. Shirley and I walked to IV with Scott. It was a good meeting; lots of worship and also open mike and that was cool. Afterwards a bunch of IV people were going to the ball and they all had their nice clothes on except for me, so they drove me back to the apartment and I changed really fast. Dave drove us.

So we spent a lot of time waiting in the line, in the rain, but Mariann said that’s not normal for dances and such so I shouldn’t get the wrong impression. I got “frisked.” They put metal detectors on you and all that. I was wearing a trench coat so I looked a bit shady. But they frisked everybody. Well, not the girls, that just wouldn’t be right.

So the dance floor was herra packed and there was people everywhere. It was like a foreign land to me. The group rounded me up and soon I found myself caught in the thick of it. At first it looked pretty silly to me; all these grown people jiving around to goofy music, and it was hard for me to take seriously. But after a while of dancing like I pretended to know what I was doing, I got more into it and it was pretty fun. Earlier, Shirley had given me the 3-step process to follow: 1) ask a cute chick if she wants some punch, 2) if she says yes, ask her to dance, and 3) if she says no, repeat steps 1-2 on someone else. However I preferred my own 3-step approach: 1) mack, 2) seduce, and 3) destroy. Haha just kidding.

Those IV guys (Dave in particular) were pretty wild. That was cool to watch. But for some others, I was more than a little disturbed to see some IV folks getting their “freak” on if you know what I mean. Sigh. All in all it wasn’t a bad experience for me at all, for my first dance gathering thing. It’s just a little awkward to have guys who are freaking back up on to you and step on your foot, or girls wagging their arses right on you because it’s so tight in there. Seriously people were basically butt to butt in there. Oh hey I saw Emily (from Unit 2 last year) there.

That was fun. Came back and talked with Jonny on the phone. Leon wasn’t even back yet. He came back a little after I did; he went to the cheese fondue thing at Nikki Toyama’s and then went to study. Going home tomorrow.