The Berkeley Archives: Jon Yip Talks to Himself
A Systematic Commentary On My Life At Berkeley
Spring 2003
Week 10: We Are Fashion Kings
3-16-2003
Yesterday morning Wendy picked me up and drove me and Wayne back home. Dad said the door was chained and no one was home so I went to eat with the whole Hu family for Uncle James’ 50th birthday. It was kind of a decoy lunch so he wouldn’t expect the surprise party later on that afternoon. Haha man those Hu’s crack me up, especially when they’re all together. All this funny stuff going on but they really fit together great.
I went back home and all the furniture and stuff was everywhere because some guys had re-varnished (or waxed or whatever) the hardwood floors. We couldn’t get to the family room because we weren’t supposed to step on the floors, but I climbed in through a window and stepped on a vent, then jumped to the room and unlocked the sliding door so we could get in from the deck. I tried out the new Battle Royale DVD and it is awesome. I was going to meet with Howard but I couldn’t because I had no car. There was also supposed to be worship practice but the Mandarin congregation used it for some reason, even though we should have preference over that room. Snarg.
Cell group was good. Christina led by herself this time because Tim wasn’t there. Actually a lot of people weren’t there. But it was a good meeting. I decided that I am going to take all the cell people who haven’t seen The Two Towers to go see it next weekend.
This morning I went to church. It was raining. Cindy and Jonny were back! We had worship practice. I played Andrew’s bass and it went all right, I sort of started to get an early hang of it. After the set my finger tips were about to fall off. Owww. The my playing was a little flat sometimes; Andrew later said it was because of the amp settings.
After church a TON of people went to Wendy’s to eat. I bought Wesley and Stephanie lunch because they didn’t have any cash. So we were eating and then Eugenia and Alice dealt a hand of 13 so I joined in, but I got owned because of their funky weird rules and all. Went home, then to CompUSA and got a case for my camera. Picked Leslie up, went home, went to eat at a Chinese restaurant to eat, then back to Berkeley, where obviously I didn’t get any work done. I watched Enemy of the State on TV.
At the restaurant:
TIM: My voice has been breaking a lot recently. If I’m going through another growth spurt than I’m happy but otherwise it’s just plain weird.
3-17-2003
Blah woke up today and I disliked having to leave my warm bed. Anyways...
Ate food, forgot what else I did that morning, AGAIN. I burned a couple of divxs to CDs. Argh I completely forgot what I did all morning. Victor and Leon came back and they were fun as usual. At 2:00 I went to practice quartets at Morrison; that was pretty fun. Then I came back. Man what did I do with the time? Something I’m sure. Man my memory is getting worse and worse.
I prepared some pork, then went to the decal and we watched Charlie’s Angels, which I really liked. Then I walked home with Naomi and we ran into Scott on the way back. Dude so ever since I started this voice lessons class, I see these people EVERYWHERE. I’m not even exaggerating when I say I see Joellen probably twice every day on the street or on campus. I saw her today on the way to Morrisson; she was wearing the Berkeley Blitz shirt, like me. “Nice shirt!” she said. “Thanks, you too,” I replied.
Speaking of Berkeley Blitz, today was the first day. At first I was a little self-conscious, simply because I was wearing a shirt that other people were SUPPOSED to be wearing along with me, but I didn’t see any. It would have been easier if I had just been wearing the shirt by myself. But after a while I started seeing people EVERYWHERE with the shirt. Like in Morrisson, like every other person would be wearing it. I saw them all over the place on the street. It was cool. Then when we were practicing quartets, Kevin (the tenor) asked me “It is finished. What’s that?” which was a PERFECT opportunity for me, but I didn’t go to the prep (fool that I am) and so I said “oh it’s this thing where all the fellowships on campus wear this shirt and wait for people to ask us what it’s about.” I would have told him more (I let him know about the testimonies going on every day) but we were practicing so I said I’d tell him afterwards. But I didn’t get a chance to because he had a midterm right after. At least he was interested. Hopefully he’ll ask someone else again; there’s so many people with ‘em (Susan was wearing one too).
Anyway so I came back from the decal and made the pork, which turned out pretty darn good. No real productivity today (academically speaking) but I wrote a whole new complete story this evening, and worked very little on my resume, and played some music, and then talked with Leon for a long time about... stuff. My legs and butt are really sore for some reason.
Oh in the morning I was also probably doing a lot of research on Battle Royale.
3-18-2003
This morning I decided to remember what I did. But by now I have forgotten. Oh well I almost broke the sleep fast again; I woke at 8:30 from the alarm, then fell asleep again and suddenly woke at 8:55! Whew! I ate, did some random stuff for a while, then fell onto my bed and fell asleep until about 11:00.
Oh I remember what I did! I cleaned out Shirley’s laptop by getting rid of startup programs, retarded shortcuts, and useless programs.
Bah I didn’t feel like going to class but Shirley pulled that “If I’m going to class, you’re going to class” stunt so I went anyway. I almost nodded off a couple of times but it wasn’t a bad class at all.
Came back, ate, went to chorus, which tired me out through and through, but near the end we practiced movement 6 of the Brahms which is one of my favorite parts. Afterwards our quartet practiced some more, and that was fun. Oh and a guy asked me again today about my shirt... “I keep seeing these ‘it is finished’ stuff everywhere... what is that all about?” he asked. That is probably the most perfectly set up question I have ever heard. Perfect. And I responded quite nicely, in my opinion. I told him it was the last words of Jesus, and about how we are answering questions about him, and the testimonies going on, etc. It was cool.
Marika stopped the chorus once in the middle of a phrase, and she spoke a little absentmindedly:
MARIKA: I wouldn’t stop you if it was good. Uh– oops.
CHORUS: Ooohh...
Small group was good. Julia gave me this really nifty easel with a picture of Hello Kitty, but it also says “Hello, Jon.” Haha! I wonder if this Hello Kitty thing is getting out of hand. I mean, I like Hello Kitty, but it’s not like I’m in love. Everyone thinks I LooOove Hello Kitty. Well it’s a really cool easel anyhow! Emily also brought a couple of pumpkin pies! Aww yeah!
Instead of Bible study, we broke into groups of 4 and shared personal testimonies. That was really awesome. Clarrissa kept crying a lot when she did hers. Heh but it was really good.
EMILY: Eenie meenie miney moe, catch a tiger by the toe, if he hollers let him go, eenie meenie miney mo. Clarrissa, you go first.
(Large scale argument ensues)
CLARRISSA: Emily is NOT God!
JASON and JON: Hahahaha!
JASON: OK, let’s pray.
EMILY: Wait, wait, hold up: ... BraAaRP! (Loud belch)
(everyone in room shocked)
OK so we started eating the pies... they were great. Somehow, I got myself dragged into a pie eating contest with Wayne and Jason... because one of the pies wasn’t even finished yet and the other one was a bit lopsided, so we decided to split that into three and go for a speed contest... NO HANDS ALLOWED. I demanded the use of silverware, since we are civilized and I refused to degrade myself to such a barbaric act, but those two had their way. So it was a no-hands pie-eating contest; I was pretty excited because I had never been in one before. Wayne won by a long shot. Jason and I were close but he beat me too. I felt mildly bloated by now, but that was nothing compared to what was coming later...
I went to go “study” for the first time this semester, I think? We went to Koh-Eun’s dormitory. That’s my favorite place. I got to see her room because we went to get a bunch of bagels she had, and also she gave me postcard of the Volkswagen Beetle convertible... very nice!
KOH-EUN (points to the other posters by her bed): Now THAT’S a REAL car.
(I look and see posters of the BMW Z-something)
JON: Yeah, I guess they’re OK... but they’re not the BEETLE.
Jason didn’t come but he gave Julia my present to deliver to me.
JULIA: Open it, open it! I’ve been dying to see what it is ever since he gave it to me!
It was a little squishy and wrapped in napkins. I unwrapped it and it was one of these peanut butter filled cookies (like a Keebler-sort of cookie, but it wasn’t Keebler) except he had taken the fillings out of like a dozen cookies and put them all between two sides of one cookie, so I got this FAT sandwich cookie with like 12 fillings in them.
I got some studying done, but not that much. We talked with a couple of the guys in the lounge because they also asked about our shirts (since like most of us were wearing them) and that was pretty cool; they were cool guys.
Emily, Wayne, and I left a little before 12:00. We visited Wayne’s place briefly; he gave us a tour (even though I’ve been there before) and also gave me The Shawshank Redemption DVD! Wow today has really been my day!
OH YEAH that reminds me! You know what made my day today? I left a message that said something like “Please (x500) leave me a message,” and Christina left me a message that said “hi” FIVE-HUNDRED times! Now that was really clever! THANKS!
Boy what a great day; I really appreciate it when people take time to say something to me, or just notice me.
Anyway so from Wayne’s crib, I walked home with Emily, and took care of some errands, such as writing this journal, chatting a little, and uploading the herra pictures I took today. And now it’s already past 1:30. ARGH.
I just had a nice IM conversation with Andrew about the “GBM” action that Leedah and I made up. I believe Leon and Leedah coined the term.
Shirley came back pretty late today, after I did. Leon is still not back yet.
3-19-2003
Mmf, woke up today, went to morning prayer with Leon. Again, it was only us and Julia, but it was cool. When I got back Shirley was gone but she left me a message on my own away message... that was clever! Ahh very nice!
“herro. my name is jon yip. i just wanted to say... that today's the stuff nightmares are made
out of. today.... i am an old, old man. sob. wah. snuffle. don't cry for me world.. i'm already
dead. (instead, leave me passionate love messages!! yah, you know old men are hot!)
muahahahahaha.. now this is shirley. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JON!!!”
Then I went to work out at the RSF and pumped maximum iron. So when I came back no one was there... so I sat down and just did some random stuff... then suddenly I realized that the text on the wall was different! It said:
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIRE” and then signed “LPY.” Haha oh man I cracked up! Then later he gave me the definition of “sire.” Basically, it means OLD. Well, not exactly, but pretty much. Hah...
Class was ghetto; I slept. Then I went to practice quartets again, which was cool, but ED was striking at me for some odd reason. Maybe all the pie from yesterday, or the bagels, or it could have been any other number of things. I made it to the bathroom, barely.
I had the decal over Mirc today. Hah so I didn’t have to go to class. Cindy sent me a text message on my phone! Wow that was cool! And Shirley got me two bars of cookies & creme plus a monstrous Symphony bar PLUS this nifty vegetable chopper thing! Haha wow so cool! I haven’t really done any work today, but that’s cool. No, actually, I did some reading this morning. I called Ben for 2 and a half minutes (he has finals so I didn’t want to bug him too much. Actually Shirley told me not to bother him too much). Then I called Vicki for a little over 15 minutes and talked about colleges and architecture and that kind of stuff. Leon and joked around some and looked at the pictures from yesterday. I made pasta again. Mom called me and kept telling me not to go watch a movie because of the “danger” of going to public places and stuff. Sheesh.
Oh I also spent a lot of the evening trying to organize this Two Towers outing with cell group... oh man this is so hard, finding a time that can work for everyone. Agh...
Now I have a headache. There’s just all this crap going on this weekend, and ugh, it’s all just so complicated. I’ve spent a while now looking through www.careerbuilder.com and www.monster.com trying to find a job opening but it all requires experience, of which I have none. How the hell am I ever going to find one? ARGH. I have no connections. I HATE THIS!
It was raining today. Oh and the US is going to “war” with Iraq. Pretty odd birthday today, huh. I was feeling good earlier but now I feel stressed and depressed again. Sigh. What is this all leading up to?
3-20-2003
OK I’m writing in the morning now so I won’t forget. Well, I BROKE MY FAST TODAY! CRAP!!! I woke up at like 7:30 or so, fell back asleep, then woke up again at 8:50 or so and kept glancing at the clock every few minutes. Then I heard Shirley go into the bathroom so I thought “OK, I’ll just get up when she gets out.” Then the next thing I knew I woke up again and it was 9:02. ARGH!!! Oh well, it’s the spirit of the law and not the letter.
I hope today turns out all right. I just feel bleak here for some reason.
3:58pm - OK so I’m about to go to chorus now. Let’s see. I fell asleep on the couch for a while this morning. I read the Bible and did devotions. I ate. That kind of thing. I practiced the stuff for the quartets and watched maybe 20 minutes or so of 8 Mile, then went to do quartets, which went surprisingly well! Then I came back. Leon was here. I ate some food and stuff like that, I already forgot. He went to OASES. I watched a little more if 8 Mile. Shirley came back; she is done with her midterms and stuff now. I am eating a lot of carrots; trying to get rid of them before break.
Oh yeah I had a nice IM chat with Ben for a while, about age, and fashion. We are fashion kings baby.
9:32pm - Wowee chorus was really fun today! Probably because most of the time we all sang together, which is more fun that just doing sections alone. The time went by a lot faster.
Ahh so now I can relax. I whiled the evening away.
Whew it’s 1:00 now. Jason, Wayne, and a few of his friends came over to watch BATTLE ROYALE, the radicalest movie ever. The girl who plays Chigusa is going to be in Kill Bill! Awww yeah! But Mitsuko is my favorite. Heh...
Dude it was funny because everyone in the room shouted and cringed at the crotch-stabbing part. Ugh... Also, one of Wayne’s friends was Japanese and Wayne kept calling him Kiriyama. Haha... you know, the crazy transfer student.
They all made a lot of noise but it was cool. Part of the film watching experience I guess. But American viewers aren’t able to take foreign cinema seriously enough. Haha one of the guys was really squeamish during some parts... like near the end he was like “oh, f–k, the crazy guy is going to kill all the nerds!” when there were only 7 people left in the game. Haha.
DOH I even broke my IMDB and Apple fast today (wasn’t my fault). I clicked on the “trailer” section of the official Kill Bill site and it took me to a site within the www.apple.com/trailers page; then I looked up Kou Shibasaki (who plays Mitsuko in BR and clicked on this link from someone’s personal page and it took me to her www.imdb.com info page. All three fasts broken in one day. Aaaahhh.
JON: I broke all three of my fasts today.
LEON: Sinner.
3-21-2003
OK so I should be on my way home soon. Cindy is going to drive us.
Went to kickboxing this morning. There was a substitute today; her name was Mimi. Overall it wasn’t as hard as normal because she had a lot of pauses between drills but I wasn’t used to it so it was still kind of tricky. She has a different style.
When I got back I went on a mad cleaning frenzy; I swept the rooms, vacuumed, cleaned all the clutter, wiped the counters and tables, and all that stuff. Cleaning really makes you feel GOOD! I was in a great mood afterwards. And the weather out there is absolutely beautiful; I can wear shorts outside for the first time since summer!
Voice lessons was cool; we got to use the actual sanctuary today because some prayer vigil was going on in the normal room. There weren’t very many of us. Dan, Diana, and Jo(e?) Ellen. I skipped discussion because it’s so ghetto (GSI emailed us saying we could skip if we gave him a detailed description of whatever protest/rally went to instead... I emailed him with the IV prayer meeting and he said it was cool) and went to eat with Dan and Jo(hyphen?)Ellen. We went to... GYPSY’S, OF COURSE. Aww yeah. It was a lot of fun; they are fun to talk to and Jo-Ellen kept asking us all these questions... haha, lots of funny stuff. So now I know a lot more about them.
Cindy just got here a little while ago, after I came back. Shirley was with her! She came all the way back even though she went home this morning. Haha. They all went with Leon because he has to get his TB check or something for OASES. Meanwhile I’m here all alone. I packed and all that stuff. Looks like we’re good to go.