The Berkeley Archives: Jon Yip Talks to Himself

A Systematic Commentary On My Life At Berkeley

Spring 2003

Week 12: Broke 150

3-30-2003

Bhar what a break. Let’s go over some stuff, shall we?

OK so I left off when we were all about to go home with Cindy last Friday. We all drove home and we went to Shirley’s house to wait around for a while. We played basketball. HORSE. All of us got reduced to just a bunch of HOs and some of us HORSes but eventually we all fell in this order: Cindy, me, Shirley. So Leon won by an E.

Then we went to this really cool sushi place; I think it was called Saiko or something like that. Mm good food but I didn’t get sushi, I got chicken teriyaki, which ruled. Leon pulled another himself again and sneakily paid for the meal with his sneaky little card. Yarg...

Leon drove me home. On Saturday I can’t really remember everything that happened... oh yeah, I went to meet Howard; we went to the Great Mall so he could exchange his air ion-izer thingy at Sharper Image for a different color. Then we dropped by Jonny’s house for a while, for fun. We went to eat somewhere, Chipotle, which was awesome because they give students a free drink. Heh. I went home and then to combined cell group. That was tons of fun, and cool. Christina gave me a Jamba Juice card, that was really nice. When I got home we all at this cake that Mom made; it was really good.

Then on Sunday we had church, as usual, and afterwards I drove Jonny, Shirley, Ben, and Cindy to some noodle place, Tung Kee or Pho, I still don’t know the difference, and that was great. Ben and I took herra pictures with my camera.

Went home, then I took Tim and Leslie to Jonny’s house to hang out and watch the Oscars (it wasn’t good to watch at our house anyway because we just had the floors refinished, so all the furniture and crap was crammed into the family room). Shirley and Ben were there, and Felix; Ben took Shirley back early but he came back. It was a pretty good show, pretty funny, and that Michael Moore made an ass of himself while Adrien Brody made a beautiful speech (told the orchestra soundtrack to cut it out when he went over time) that stole the show. Felix went home but the rest of us went to Denny’s (Debby’s hahaha) to eat; Leedah showed up, and Gloria, and Helen and Christiana (!). Helen I saw last semester when she visited our apartment but Christiana I hadn’t seen for years, I think! Wow, so that was cool. We played Spin the “Phone” with my phone and the one pointed to had to answer silly questions (mostly regarding “love interests.” Bah humbug, that isn’t the way “love” works you know. It’s not an “interest” or a feeling, it’s a conscious DECISION. Snarg why am I even talking about this to my journal. We went home after that.

MONDAY: Well, I went to play football in Fremont. Leedah hosted the game; Ben was there, David, Andrew, and some other local Fremont friends of theirs. Gloria and Vincent also showed up! All these old faces seen once again! First we played B-ball and all us college kids were getting owned by the youngsters. Then it was football time and for once I actually touched the ball, and not only that, but a lot! It was because the guys on my team said they couldn’t throw, so I always threw at kickoff, and I was also QB for the whole game. I made a very good QB. Tons of complete and really nice passes by me! Dude and this guy named Isaac was our star player, he ran two touchdowns alone on the first two kickoffs, straight out from the return! Whoa... we owned them.

Leedah, Andrew, Ben, David, and I went to KFC but I didn’t eat any. Then we went back to Leedah’s and watched Road to Perdition (I brought it and Battle Royale). Leedah and Andrew really wanted to see BR but I convinced them to see Road to Perdition instead. Then I went home.

TUESDAY: I wanted to go see a movie with Ben at the Milpitas Cinema Saver but Mom didn’t let me because I spent a lot of the day doing a lot of yard work and stuff. Yard work all day and the we went to Hometown Buffet (whoohoo), then we watched The Shawshank Redemption.

WEDNESDAY: Ben and I went to see The Pianist, and that was a good movie. We missed some of the beginning though. That night the family and I (except Dad who had work to do) watched Annie Hall that I got from the library. Weird movie. It’s kind of sad that all I have to say is about movies. Have I nothing else interesting from the break that I remember?

THURSDAY: Went to meet Ralph and talked about a bunch of great stuff. That was really cool. It is good to meet Ralph and I should do so more often.

FRIDAY: Mom and Leslie went to Sacramento for these conference things. Tim and I went Children’s Worship Night, which was AWESOME! Howard led the games and they went REALLY well and were TONS of fun. Tim led worship. When I saw those kids worshipping I suddenly started weeping like a little snuffly infant. I realized that those kids are someday going to be the history makers in this land. I wished I had desired to know God in the way that they do when I was at their age. Oh man it was a beautiful thing. AND all these kids that I remember as little kids... they’re all big now. Like Emily (John and Vicki Ha’s daughter) is really tall. She is 8. I remember when she was BORN. Oh man... And Brandon and Karen (Uncle Jason’s kids) are all big now too... and their brother Harrison is 4 now. I remember when HE was born too. Man I am old... Vicki did the word, a lesson on the Good Samaritan, and that was great too. I played the Man in the little role-playing story because for some reason no one wanted to play him.

Then we went to Leedah’s house for Poker Night baby!! Andrew, Gloria, Felix, and Eric were also there, but Gloria went somewhere else for a while and Felix didn’t play. First we did a good set of straight up poker, in which I got owned to the tune of 81 push ups. Then we finally got to watch BR, which Andrew loved, Leedah thought it didn’t make sense (as usual) and everyone else was just kind of disturbed by. Haha. Then we went into our second session of Texas Hold ‘Em, this time, Felix, Andrew, Leedah, Tim, and I played. I got owned again, but I was high in the game for a period of time before I started slipping again. Hrm. By the time we ended it was past 3:00. Leedah, Andrew and I went to Denny’s to eat and ended up sleeping at about 5:30.

SATURDAY: Practiced some songs like PPR and stuff, then went home. Took Dad to some meeting at Zion and then went to the baptism, which was great. I took a bunch of pictures. Kimmy, Anqi, Preston, Daniel, and William were the baptees, so to speak, from the English congregation. It was lots of fun and it was great. Lots of English congregation people went, I was pleased to see that. Then I picked up Dad.

FINALLY I set up the Two Towers outing with cell group (Rona didn’t make it, and Christina didn’t go because she wanted to see it with her dad. She ended up watching it at the same place, but the show before ours) so we packed 7 people into our Altima (Dad, Tim, me, Kimmy, Christine, and Angela) and carted off to Milpitas. Ahh, what a great movie. Whoo we were tired after that, but Dad had to go pick up Leslie from church because she came back from the conference.

Today we went to church, it was good. Good message by Ralph about not conforming to this world. These past two days have been very hot. Leslie and I went to In-N-Out with Alex, Howard, Jon & Tim Hwong, Eugenia, and Kim. Then we went home, then to Tim’s concert thing, which was cool. There was a special percussionist ensemble, and these Japanese taiko drummer group people, and stuff like that. After we got home I packed really fast and Dad took me to Elliot’s house (where Wendy and everyone else was waiting) because Dad had to go pick Mom up from Sacramento. So we went back to Berkeley.

I got inside. The TV was on so I assumed Shirley was on the couch watching it. Well, as I was taking off my shoes, the bathroom door opens and she comes out, and when she sees us she screams so loud I jump back against the wall. Dude it so freaked me out it was the loudest scream I’ve ever heard, because I was standing like RIGHT THERE when she came out. Ohh man...

Leon and I played some music for a while. Then Shanghai Noon was on TV so Shirley and I kind of watched that despite Leon’s protests about the white man stealing the Chinese man’s woman, though we submitted that she wasn’t actually STOLEN because the marriage wasn’t totally legit anyway (Chon was stoned from the peace pipe) and plus the girl went to the white guy herself, he didn’t STEAL her. Anyway... I’m so tired but I’ve been writing this thing for like over two hours, this is a long entry. OH YEAH and all my pictures from Leedah’s house and from the baptism are GONE! I had transferred all the photos from my camera to the computer, or at least, so I thought, so I deleted the memory card, then discovered I had no pictures from anything after Friday! AAUGH man I got so anguished over that! CRAP!!! I don’t even know how it happened!

3-31-2003

Got up this morning, ugh. For some reason, though, I can get up a lot more easily here than at home. The bed isn’t as soft, maybe that’s why. I sleep better on this bed even though it’s less comfortable. I guess harder beds are healthier.

I ate, did some stuff I can’t even remember. Man. At 1:00 I reluctantly went to class, which turned out to be boring and ghetto. I drew Ninja Turtles and jotted down a note or two. Soo boring. I went to the Ned’s and the ASUC bookstore after to get a book that I need, but neither of them carry it! Shoot man! Now what do I do?

It was pretty hot so I went to Sweetheart to get something. This time the special was coconut juice with vanilla pudding, so I got that. It was really good, and kind of weird, like something I’d drink in Taiwan or something. When I drank it I felt oddly at home, like I was a fob or something. A fobby drink, making me feel fobby, and there was a kind of peace that settled all over my world.

Victor came over with Leon. Leon brought me Gran Turismo 3 for my birthday! So I popped it in and played it for a while with Victor (Leon went to prep). After a while he left. I stopped but then got lured into a frag-fest with Ben on our long-lost beloved Godhead2 server! Oh what fun it was, with the massive ownage (either that or state of being owned) and guns.

I prepared the pork to eat. Mm I knew it was going to be good. I had it all figure out in my head.

We saw The Karate Kid in the decal today. Aww yeah, classic 80s movie is awesome. Woohoo! Then I came back at around 8:00 and spent about an hour and a half making the pork, stew, and baked toast. Oh man it all turned out so great, except the toast got a little too brown because I left it in the over even after I turned it off. Snarg.

Played lot of music today, practiced singing, but no reading or work done whatsoever. I DID, however, contact a learning center place because I saw a job opening for English teachers for K-8th graders and I asked to see if there any openings for English major grads. At least we’re getting started here.

I had a long IM chat with Gloria; she’s trying to get me to talk about girls and stuff. It feels just like last year all over again, especially with the warm weather now and it feeling just like summer. Summer is in the air...

4-1-2003

Bright and early this morning I took a trip to Safeway. Surprisingly, I didn’t buy that much stuff; my load wasn’t nearly as heavy as it usually is. When I got back, I realized that I wanted to make a cake, but I had no eggs, and also not much flour. Should have bought them when I had the chance.

What did I do until class at 2:00? Can’t remember, as usual, but you can be sure as shucks I didn’t do any reading. I played some GT3, CS with Ben, made and ate a lot of food, etc.

Class was OK. It was my day to lead some sort of discussion about Huck Finn but I hadn’t prepared anything; however I thought of a few things to talk about anyway. It didn’t matter that much because the conversations got led eventually to a bunch of other stuff and I didn’t have to talk that much.

On talking aloud in front of class, I discovered that I really talk herra ghetto and valley-like. Every other word is “like,” and I throw in a bunch of lame hand gestures and “you know”s all over the place, like I’m some sort of projects high-schooler gangster. In front of a bunch of these eloquent, literate, highly schooled and educated, and (supposedly) “intelligent” English majors, I felt terribly inadequate and doofy.

I stopped by a local little market to pick up eggs and flour.

Chorus was good, went by pretty fast but we had to stand up for almost the entire time and my feet were so sore I thought I was going to tumble over. I got moved again; Marika rearranged seating. Now I’m in the far corner, top row, and it seems like everything sounds different from my vantage point. Either the sound comes to me differently, or the guys next to me are way off-key, because I hear flat notes when we’re singing. Or it could be me. But I don’t sing flat. Or at least, not THAT flat.

Marika kept us over time AGAIN. When I got back I planned to get straight to baking, but True Lies was on TV and it is so hilarious. Eventually I got started. I just kind of made up the recipe, and the ingredient ratios, though I looked up various cake recipes online for reference.

Small group started really late today. Boy there was tons of food. Julia and Clarrissa (I think) brought brownies and almond tofu and fruit stuff (that’s the American way of naming it; the Chinese was is much cooler sounding but I don’t want to bother typing it out. I finished my cakes, which looked pretty good, I guess.

We broke into small groups (Leon, Emily, Jamie, and me) and did sort of an exercise in prophetic ministry, which was pretty cool and interesting. I think it’s something we should be doing more often, actually.

Today was probably the latest we ran, we ended at about 10, or later. Then we all had a grand time chatting and eating the brownies (AWESOME), xin ren do fu (AWESOME) and my cake (OK). At least it looked nice. And somehow, in the middle of it all, the topic of conversation suddenly and unprovokedly turned to me and my “prospects.” Why is this subject the hot item of interest these days? For some reason everyone wants to know about me and my “prospects.” Haha, how odd. Then we got to talking about how Asian women are stolen from Asian men. I simply stated that Asian women are good looking, and Asian men, well, aren’t. Then out of nowhere things turn to making me look weird again.

WAYNE: Repeat what you just said.

JON: I’m just saying that Asian women are good-looking, and Asian men aren’t. I mean, I’ve never seen an Asian guy that REALLY– um, wait, never mind.

(Everybody laughs at me)

Then it turns to baking and how that’s not a “manly” thing to do or something. Sheesh. What is wrong with baking. And back to Hello Kitty too. Will this haunting never leave me?

Bah it’s late, I need to sleep.

4-2-2003

I was hungry this morning because I didn’t have dinner yesterday. I went to morning prayer without brushing my teeth. Wah, ha, ha, ha. Like a dragon. Anyway, it was good; Julia and Emily were there also.

BAGAH I forgot AGAIN what I did this morning. But I know that I reluctantly went to class. However, I DID take fairly solid notes from the lecture, though I’m certain that by tomorrow I’ll have forgotten what they mean (especially considering I don’t know what they mean to begin with). Then I went to chorus; only three basses today: Min, Cameron, and me. I assume everyone else was going to the extra sectional that Marika was holding at night. Min and I pulled punny and slapsticky jokes and stunts, as usual. Hahaha! Antics.

Met over MIRC for the decal today, then we proceeded to move on to our first group Shadowbane experience! I had to start a new character because the Shade that I created was on the wrong server. But it wasn’t that much of a loss because I barely did anything with that character.

It was pretty cool; we just ran around and slayed a bunch of snakes and spiders, and lizard men, and racked up some experience points. After a good while, I finished at level 4. Whoop dee frickin doo. Not to mention I died like 3 times and had to find my comrades all over again, really far away. What I hate about these games is you have to run these HUGE distances just to get somewhere. Urg... And it doesn’t run too well on my computer, but that could just be because of all the other programs that are running at the same time... after all, the CPU is clocked at 1000mhz right now, with a GeForce2MX400 and 384MB RAM, which isn’t THAT shabby.

Made some pretty decent tasting vegetables today, with a fresh stock of produce from Safeway (red bell peppers and broccoli). I also made a little pasta, but not as much as I usually do. I have to cut back on all the carbs and sodium filled sauces and junk.

That cake I made tastes better today than it did yesterday.

I tried doing some reading, but it just weighs me down and I feel like crap (even more than I already do). I gave Cindy a call (finally) but either her phone or mine messed up. I called again and I got the machine, so I left a message. I then called Wesley, but no one picked up. So then I called Stephen Liu, and talked with him for a while, but it was kind of awkward because for some reason, this time conversation didn’t quite get going. Oh well. I also played a lot of piano tonight. Actually figured out some new techniques that I can apply in worship. It’s good to learn more music.

Man I really don’t get what’s going on with me. Is it the whole senior thing? I don’t want to do any work. I feel down all the time. I feel like everything is crappy when in reality there is a lot I should be thankful and happy about. I need more faith, is what I need.

Maybe this is just a post-spring-break depression, but I was going through this before break too.

4-4-2003

Whoops, for some reason my alarm didn’t go off this morning (or else I turned it off while I was asleep). Got up at 9:06.

(Jon stumbles into living room)

(Shirley looks at watch with that look on her face)

JON: Yeah, I know.

Well, I can kind of remember what I did today. I played some Shadowbane and got up to level 6! I also got some new equipment, but now with my leather armor and helmet I look like a fruity minstrel or something. I wish I could just wear that cool black stuff that he came with. Now he’s this weirdo. Oh yeah I baked the toast again, and it was MUCH better this time. LEON AND SHIRLEY ACTUALLY ATE MY FOOD. (!!!!!)

Class was OK. I was kind of sleepy and felt like nodding off so I kept myself awake by thinking of lyrics for a new song.

Ralph called me and I chatted with him for a while, which was cool. I went to chorus which went late AGAIN.

Came back, watched a bit of TV with Shirley and also made some excellent spaghetti. Instead of opening a can of sodium filled sauce, I made my own new stuff, with red bell peppers, tuna, olive oil, and some other good stuff. Wow it turned out really good. I am now the CHICKEN, PORK, BAKE, and PASTA king!

I called Christina back (she left a message earlier) and we decided to just do some fun stuff for cell group instead of regular meeting, due to the Call. It’s going to be a packed weekend. I played more music, wrote most of my little assignment for tomorrow, chatted, and stuff like that. Here’s one I found quite entertaining that I held with my fellow Jon (Hwong).

JON HWONG: DONT EVER DATE ASIAN GIRLS JON YIP
HWONG: haha
JON YIP: ??
YIP: really??
HWONG: yeah
HWONG: they're just STUPID
HWONG: most of them are socially and sexually inept

YIP: ruh oh

YIP: asian girls seem like my only shot
HWONG: wat are you TALKING about
HWONG: you're the best looking asian guy there is
YIP: I can't imagine a white girl or something ever finding interest in me
YIP: HAHAHA??
HWONG: you're tall, too!
YIP: HAHAHA?
YIP: kinda tall, I guess

HWONG: dude if anything
HWONG: white girls probly think they dont have a chance with YOU
HWONG: thats why my girl held out as long as she did... she always liked me but she didnt think she had a shot with me so she never asked
YIP: wow...
HWONG: dude. you're the G, man
YIP: hahahaha?
HWONG: and you just dont know it
YIP: I sure don't
HWONG: how many fuckin asians are almost 6'0, play every instrument on the planet, lead worship, listen to radiohead, and have seen every indie film in existence?!??
YIP: hahahaha?
YIP: true, not that many
YIP: in fact, none that I know of
HWONG: dude.
HWONG: jon.
HWONG: you're a gold mine
YIP: hahhah?
YIP: I never knew that
HWONG: dude. pimp.
YIP: I should, huh

4-4-2003

Went to kickboxing with Shirley this morning. Now they are just giving out the numbers first come first serve. Ugh that means we have to get there even earlier! By the way, I got owned pretty badly; it wasn’t like I was exhausted or anything, but I just got really sweaty, and she went for the full hour of straight cardio work, then an extra ten minutes of ab work on top of that!

Oh my goodness, it happened. I broke 150. I currently weigh 150.9 lbs. The sacred boundary has been breached and now I have entered a whole new territory.

Ate, showered, etc. Voice lessons was cool, today everyone got to sing. On the way there (walking with Shirley and Naomi) Scott caught up with us and somehow I ended up talking about A.I. with him (like this: he asked how my break was. I said I did some stuff, including watching movies. He said do you watch a lot of movies. I said sort of. He said have you seen Jane Eyre. I said no but said is the actress Frances O’Connor. He didn’t know; he asked what is she from. I said A.I., have you seen it. He said YEAH) so I got all pumped up about it and decided to sing the “For Always” song today. Heh heh.

Discussion was crappy, as usual.

Came back and rested for a bit. I finally watched Waking Life, which was really cool and sometimes brilliant. Leon thought it was ghetto because they kept talking about all this “deep” stuff that was for “English majors and stuff.”

Did some packing, picked some songs for Sunday (I am subbing for Shirley). Large group was cool; Leon didn’t go because he is working on his project that is due tonight at midnight. People were kinda lifeless at the end because they knew we have to wake up herra early tomorrow for the Call. Shirley and I went home; I went to Mandarin House first and got some good food.

The Call is soon.