E tThe Berkeley Archives: Jon Yip Talks to Himself

A Systematic Commentary On My Life At Berkeley

Spring 2003

Week 14: Point of Immobility

4-13-2003

Oh man what a weekend. I took BART to Fremont on Saturday night, then Jonny picked me up and we went to Denny’s because I hadn’t eaten dinner yet. I ate herra food, I’m not even kidding, but since it is post-paper season, I allowed myself to slip a little. Then we went to his house and Joyce was sleeping there. Eventually she woke up. We were kind of intermittently watching random stuff on TV, including The Devil’s Advocate, which was scarier than I remember. Joyce eventually went home. Then we ended up seeing a lot of Home Alone 2, then after that we just did stuff. Looked at cars online, watched the recent Animatrix episode, etc... we went to sleep when the sun was coming up, at almost 7:00am. WUBFHB.

Then we woke up at 9:30 and went to church. It was so awesome because the Mexico team did the presentation of all their dramas and stuff. I love seeing the younger teams do their stuff, it really shows me how far God has taken them at such a young age. I cried on every event, dramas, tambourine dance, “On My Knees” (which normally I don’t like all that much but this time it really moved me. Maybe it was the sincerity of the performers. Or it could also be that it was the Spanish version instead of the normal English one). Some of the acting was really good; I had never seen a lot of these kids act before. King of Hearts was especially well done, I think, because their timing was right on and the cues and beats are pretty hard to follow. Acting was great too. Anyway...

After church I went with Jonny and Tiffany to Erik’s DeliCafe and we ate. Tiffany talked to herself in the back seat while reading this bridal magazine thing.

We ordered our food and ate it. Tiffany and I ended up getting the same thing; clam chowder and salad (I didn’t want to eat anything really heavy since I ate at the DC twice and also La Burrita, Denny’s, etc.). Oh man the three of us had such a great time and I laughed so much. Seriously, when we’re together we just go crazy. Then Grant joined us later and all of the few remains of sanity and coherence left were thrown out the window. It was just like our table in Mongolia where we laughed our heads off.

GRANT (holds sandwich near the ground): I’m on a low carb diet.

GRANT (holds arms out stiffly and says nothing):...

I found out Mom’s car ran out of batteries at church. Luckily Grant had AAA’s phone number so I gave it to her. Eventually a tow truck came to take it away, or something like that.

Then we went to Cold Stone (more joking about ice cream that “doesn’t melt,” etc.). Then we went back to church and hung out with the Decision Time team to help em out a little with practice. Howard was still around. I also chatted for a while with Ralph and John Kua, which was cool.

When that wrapped up, Jonny and I went to various places in Milpitas... Staples, Starbucks (they messed up on Jonny’s order so I ended up getting his wrong coffee... it was good... I hope I don’t get hooked) and then we watched Daredevil, which had some cool parts, but it seemed like it was wasted. The story was bad. It wasn’t very good.

We picked up some food from his restaurant and went to Grant’s house. Wow, the Conklins are so awesome. Joshua and Jordan are incredibly wonderful to watch and be around; they totally make we want to have kids, NOW. And Jacob is a great kid: so nice and outgoing; he showed me his room, and his stuff, and he’s really nice and polite... ahhh the Conklins. As usual, we did all our wisecrackings and goofiness. We ate Jonny’s food together.

They are so hospitable too. Grant made us these Italian soda things, and stuff. We talked for a long time about a bunch of stuff: the new servers, the war, etc. Suddenly we get to me and my “prospectives,” inevitably. Why does this not surprise me. The three of them (Grant, Anna, and Jonny) had a field day trying to get a name matched up with me. It was so funny; they were compiling all the names they could think of, and Anna would randomly shout one from a different room whenever one came to mind. SAH enough about that for now....

Jonny drove me to BART... I had a really great weekend with him and all the other people I chilled with... makes me wish it was summer and I could spend more time with them all... I can’t wait til this is all over.

4-14-2003

Woke up kind of early today, but got up late... it just didn’t seem right to sleep for only 6 hours when I got 2 and a half the night before. I ate, read the Bible, and some other stuff that I forgot, as usual. Talked with Leon for a while, I suppose, about various things. I installed my old Canon printer because of the problems with Leon’s; whew it’s a good thing I brought it last year. It works just fine after I did the printer head cleaning thing.

Dah I wrote more but it all got erased. I don’t want to write it again. Argh it was good writing too.

So class was stupid as usual. I came prepared to write a lot of stuff, but I couldn’t. It was too confusing. When I got home I did the reading for Wednesday in hopes that I’ll actually be able to understand the lecture, but I find that unlikely. I also wrote a response paper for the decal tonight.

At the decal we watched Lethal Weapon 4. It is a fun and exciting movie, but it has some racist remarks in it, especially by Mel Gibson’s character! I find it odd that they would make the main character be this racist kind of guy. Oh well. As Chinese people we should take accept the demeaning and oppression of our people with smiling and passivity. It’s the Chinese way.

OK, so I DID rewrite all the stuff.

I called Howard and left a message on his cell. I also called Jonny for a while and that was a lot of fun. I am writing a song for Easter. The chorus is done but the verses need to be worked on.

4-16-2003

Bah, got up late again, like all the days before. MAN I forgot what I did again, but I didn’t goof around, I know that. URG my memory is so bad! Anyway, I ate one of those Power Gels and walked to class, but it was cancelled! Radical! Blissful, I rushed home to find something fun to do. I started playing Shadowbane, hoping that I could actually gain a freakin’ level instead of running around aimlessly for three hours like a retard.

I ran into this dwarf dude and joined his group; it was just the two of us and we were just thrashing these little Lizard Men and crap, all small fry. But I couldn’t find anyone else. Then we ran off south and found this 1337 group of dudes and we maximumly slayed these bandit dudes. Oh man I gained levels like every 5 minutes. I hit level 10 just in time too because Emily called me to go make cookies at her place. Good thing there is no chorus today.

It was a lot of fun, we popped “Kid A” into the CD player and started mixing all the dough and stuff. There was this pre-made bag of cookie mix, but we felt that wasn’t enough so we made some more from scratch and started baking. We used these nifty new cookie cutters that she got; they were in Easter shapes. Her friend Manny also came by to help out a bit.

We got Jason to come later and swipe us into the super DC... heh. Whoo I went ballistic (again). Oh and Clarrissa was there too. And then we saw Leon. So we all ate together. At first I thought to myself, “eh, I’ll get a salad this time, and some fruit,” but after I saw the food I was like “screw that!” and stuffed my face with mashed potatoes, chicken, pizza, baked potatoes, sausages, burritos, Cherry Coke, Root Beer, a fudge popsicle and peach pie. Did I leave anything out?

Jesse came in too... it was funny because right when he came to sit down with us, we got up to leave... ohh it was so sad and I felt really bad... but it looked so funny too.

By the end of the devouring session, I was full to the point of immobility. Nevertheless, we (Emily, Jason, Clarrissa, and her friend whose name I forgot) went back to Emily’s to finish making the rest of the cookies. After a while we started making up our own shapes: first Jason made a Trogdor, which turned out REALLY well; the Emily made this Korean dude and also a big regular cookie; and then I made a man with a big knife. It looked really cool but it got a little skewed when transferring it to the pan, so he looked like his entire body was limp, as if his neck was broken. Oh and I wore this Hello Kitty apron that was Emily’s roommate’s. Sigh... then I accidentally (for real, it was a total accident) referred to it as looking “like a dress” and then Jason heckled me from there on.

I brought some of the cookies back. What a day; I’m really tired.

JON: Eat a cookie.

SHIRLEY (whining/crying): Eh-hu-huh-hu... I already ate so many coffee creme Oreos... (pause) ... what kind of cookies?

4-16-2003

Woof... had to get up early today for morning prayer. Leon didn’t get up. So I went over to Unit 2 and it was just Julia and me. I ate half of the banana she had; I was trying not to eat too much because we were supposed to go to the super DC later.

I was thinking about going to the RSF, but I decided not to. Brah. I played some Shadowbane, became a thief, and gained herra levels while acquiring really nice equipment and an enormous stash of gold. Heh heh.

I saw lots of people on the way to/from class today... Joyce, Crystal, Judy (from Davidson last year), Tiffany (small group)... neat huh. OH in class I couldn’t believe it; I really, truly, took a LOT of notes!! Almost one whole page!!! Oh man it was crazy! Not that I knew what the herr he was talking about, but I just wrote it down as he said it. Of course I didn’t come close to getting EVERYTHING because that’s just freakin’ impossible.

When I got back I started up the Shadowbane again, so I could sell off all my junk that I had collected and get some new abilities. After a while I stopped. I ate a peanut butter jelly sandwich (that, along with the half of a banana and half of the guy-with-big-sword cookie, was all I ate for the whole day).

So I did some reading this afternoon, for the Mark Twain class, but I closed my eyes for a while. I WAS AWAKE DAMMIT! But then Leon shone a flashlight into my eyes for 5 minutes and I couldn’t tell. I must have been asleep, I guess.

Then Shirley was trying to knock 100 words off her Fuller essay, so, she said, that it would fit into the little text box on the online application. I said “why don’t you try typing past the box.” So she did and of course, as I knew it would, the text box made a scroll bar. She thought the essay had to fit into the window! AHAHAHA!!! And then she was like “I spent 5 freakin’ hours trying to make short enough to fit!” AHAHAHAHAHA!!!

The MMO decal was on MIRC today but Morgan (aka Talvor) didn’t even show til like 10 minutes before “class” was over. So we ended up not playing, mostly just chatting and quoting Homestarrunner ( www.homestarrunner.com ). Then I went to go eat at this Korean place with Emily, Jason, and Clarrissa.

Dude Leon is herra gaseous right now (12:49am).

Anyway so after that we went to Grace’s place for our worship night. That was cool; Justin led worship for a pretty long time and we ate those cookies we made yesterday. Mmm... cookies.

We hung out for a little bit, then Wayne drove Leon, Koh-Eun, and me home. I haven’t really done any work since then, but oh well. I’m trying to think of the words for this verse, but nothing is coming to mind.

4-17-2003

I got up kind of early this morning because the phone rang. Then I read the Bible for a while, and then went to Safeway. It was a quick trip but I bought a whole lot of stuff. I stuffed the fridge full of milk, yogurt, pork (and tons of it), vegetables, and I also bought a LOT of fruits. Gotta eat those fruits. There was still quite a bit of milk left, so I did everything I could to drink as much of it as possible. This turned out to be a huge mistake.

I played some Shadowbane and gained a couple more levels, as well as acquiring some rockin’ weapons. Now, I am actually a shade thief to be semi-reckoned with. Bandits are nothin’ now, I own them like crazy.

Ugh... in class I kept coming close to falling asleep. I tried to keep myself awake by thinking of song lyrics for my new song (that I’m planning to do this Sunday) but it didn’t work because nothing came to me. Well, maybe some ideas for melodies, but that’s it.

Came back, ate a little (actually, a lot) and got the pork ready for cooking. Then I went to chorus, where Marika fawned over us about the Brahms concert. Looking back, and after hearing what Marika told us, I realize that it really was an amazing concert. I mean, the text and music were so hard, and there was so much to cover. I remember in the beginning of the semester I was thinking to myself, “Man we are never going to be able to do this.” But wow, we just kept at it, every rehearsal, and on Saturday we nailed that beaut. Marika said she never saw Hertz Hall that full before. Seriously, it was an incredible concert, if you missed it, you missed IT.

For the entire time my stomach felt weird. One of the signs of old aging for Asian folk is lactose intolerance. Well, all that milk I had was getting to me. I thought I could just bear through it for the rest of the rehearsal, but then at 5:15 or so I thought “do I really want to suffer through this for another half an hour?” So I just walked out to leave, but Peter followed me out (he was leaving too but I didn’t know). Not wanting to look like I was straight up ditching, I walked toward the bathroom instead. Then Peter went out the door. Then I thought “what the heck, I might as well take a crap here so I don’t have to endure the walk home.” So I walked into the bathroom and into a stall... and suddenly it was an EMERGENCY. Oh man it was a CLOSE call! ED attack. It was so loud (I’m talking LOUD) that I thought the chorus could hear it from the auditorium (if I could hear them, they DEFINITELY could hear me). And I’m POSITIVE that you could hear it from outside the bathroom.

So I was just contemplating on how many opportunities there were for me to make a different decision. And I shudder to think of what might have happened if I had taken those opportunities. The sovereign divine intervention of the Lord is supreme, even in cases like this when it’s a matter of crapping in your pants at school or not.

I went straight to the pork when I got home. I had just begun to eat it when Shirley asked if I wanted to be in the drama tomorrow. Phil had 6 minutes to find a guy for a part. I said OK, and we had to quickly jet to his apartment for practice. Boy that was a lot of fun. The Jesses (Yang and Chui) were also in it, as was Cathy and DJ. Man these people are sooo funny. Jesse Yang and I got to constantly beat up DJ, while Shirley’s part is to cry. Yes, they’re very simple parts, but it’s actually really good and a lot of fun to be in. Wow, I haven’t been in a drama since my Christmas play (*fond memories*). On the way back Shirley intentionally and deliberately bothered me by saying she wants to marry a white guy, etc. She KNOWS I don’t like the white man taking our women. GRRR. Speaking of which, I saw this INDIAN dude with an Asian girl today. Weird huh?

Came back, at some more pork, watched a little TV, played some GT3 with Leon. He couldn’t persuade me to do it but after he turned it on I was coerced. I wrote my weekly recap for discussion tomorrow, and am still working on that song.

4-18-2003

I went to kickboxing this morning with Shirley... OK so first of all, I weighed 149.8 or something like that. Not good, but at least I’m below 150 again. Then for the actual kickboxing. Today was complete, utter, total ownage. I was a dead man by the halfway mark, and it just got worse and worse. I think the tempo was faster than usual so by the time we finished through the normal amount of drills it was only halfway done. Seriously, I was completely toasted.

Came back, printed my assignment for discussion, took a shower, ate, etc. At 12:00 we went to voice lessons, which was good; I sang the “Endlessly” song again with Dan and we need to practice.

Discussion was not that great, as usual, and no one talked today for some reason. At long last, he let us go and I was home free...

I had to finish writing the song, pick songs for Sunday, pack, and all this stuff. It took up the whole afternoon. Well, that and eating a ton of food. Well, not really a ton, but it FEELS like I’m eating a lot. Just salads and fruits though. Well, with the exception of that bagel I had with spaghetti sauce, cheese, and good stuff. Leon has been playing GT3 for a while and has gotten pretty far in terms of modding the Celica and getting trophies. I would play if I had time, but I don’t. Well, he got me to play just one round.

Anyway, tonight we’ll have large group (I’m in that drama tonight) and then Shirley and I are taking BART back home. Hooome... It’s going to be an awesome weekend.