The Berkeley Archives: Jon Yip Talks to Himself

A Systematic Commentary On My Life At Berkeley

Spring 2003

Week 19: Not Mine, But Yours

5-18-2003

Pretty long weekend. On Thursday Ben picked me up to watch Reloaded. Traffic was pretty nasty and we got there just at 5:40 or so (the showtime was 5:45) and the previews had JUST finished. I guess they started the previews early so they could get the movie started right on time. Good thing we weren’t late. The rest of the bunch (Jonny, Eric, Grant, Anna, Leon, John and Cindy Kua) had saved seats for us so we Ben and I got pretty good spots. Oh and Stephen Kua and his friend that came over last time (Stephanie I believe) came too. Man it was a GREAT movie. It had been pretty well hyped up for me by all the trailers and sneak reviews and stuff, and I was bracing myself to be let down by a watered-down plot and over-dependence on special effects. But the plot was really good; it surprised me with it’s complexity and had many unpredictable and creative points to it. The effects were awesome and the fighting and action was just craaazy. I do wish that they had done more actual fighting instead of CG dudes doing stunts, but it had more than it’s share of stunts and kung-fu and it was all extremely impressive and satisfactory. Woohoo! At the end of the movie, I was the only one who knew to stay after for the Revolutions preview. I alerted the rest of them to this so they all stayed... six more months man...

Afterwards we all (minus Grant and Anna) went to TGIF’s to eat some grub. We had a great time. It was just so funny. Stephen is always a crack up. We joked around, talked, tried to understand Reloaded, etc. Whee!

Then I went to Jonny’s house to sleep over. For a while I chatted with people using Jonny’s screen name... heh heh Tiffany almost told me the present they got me but good thing I told her it was me... more on that later.

We shuffled through his sister’s fiancee’s huge library of DVDs and decided to watch The Game. It’s a great movie but I kind of fell asleep through parts of it. Then when it was over we talked for a while about some stuff... so it was probably 3-3:30 in the morning by this time? THEN, for some reason, he decided to play the last level of Warcraft III. To make a long story short, we ended up going to sleep at 5:30 or so; the sun was coming up. Just like last time. Why is that?

The next day we wanted to go to the church office to hang out with Ralph and Howard. Before we did, though, we went to this restaurant called St. John’s, where they had cheese-steaks that were really good. When we got those little pager thingies, I had no idea what they were. Turns out they blink and shake when your order is ready. Jonny (and later, everyone else) thought I was crazy for having never seen one of these in my life. How strange.

It was cool meeting with everyone and just talking about a lot of stuff, like the new service set-up, Mongolia, and other church stuff. Oh yeah Cindy was there too; she went to meet with Angela later. Talked for a pretty good while, then eventually everything we said would meet a response of “ice cream” from someone else, until we all were basically saying “ice cream” every other sentence. So we went to get ice cream. Actually it was just Howard, Jonny, and me; Ralph went home I think. I should have gone home but Dad was at some thing after work until 7:30 or so, and I didn’t want to ask Mom to get me, so I went with Jonny and Howard to the Century 22 where a bunch of ROL people were going to watch Reloaded. I wasn’t really planning on going, but Jonny just bought the tickets without my consent and I couldn’t do anything about it. Dad didn’t answer the phone but we left a message. So I found myself at another 5:45 showing. Besides Howard and Jonny, Tiffany, Jon Liao, and Angela were also there. It was pretty fun. I enjoyed the movie for the second time, but I got a call 2/3rds of the way through from Dad because he didn’t get the message. He was pretty mad. Whoops. What was I supposed to do though, I called him many times and no one got it. Anyway... Jonny took me home afterwards and luckily everyone was in a good mood because the family was all watching Me, Myself, & Irene on TV, and it’s a REALLY funny movie. Man they were cracking up so many times watching it. It’s fun to watch movies with the family. Haha.

After that we wanted to eat some pie, but it would take an hour so Jonny, Tim, and I went to Denny’s to eat a little because Jonny was hungry. We ate and talked for a while and then went home to eat the pie, which was good. Time to go to bed, but I had to pick songs for worship practice. That took a while. Finally I went to sleep. Oh and Jonny slept over.

Next morning I was aching because every single time I come back, my bed gives me a crappy sleep. I guess I’m just not used to the bed anymore. My back and neck are always stiff and painful. Argh...

Jonny left because he had to go somewhere; take his parents to the airport or something. Oh yeah he had to go to Gunn High School for some reason. At 12:30 I left for church with Tim to help John set up. It was a nice day, I think. Practice went pretty well. When we finished, it was time to start RECORDING! YEAH! The first actual track for “Unrecongizable.” Jon Hwong laid down the drum tracks.

JON H: Wouldn’t it be cool if I did it on the first take?

JOHN KUA: It would be great. I’ll buy your dinner.

(First take goes perfectly until the very end)

JON H: Noooo! My free dinner!

Alas, the next few takes were no-gos. On maybe the 5^th take or so, it came out perfectly, except for a few fills missing, but that was easily remedied by just playing those fills over and mixing them in. So it now sounds really, really great. Haha, that was really fun, recording... brings back memories from last year.

Went to Fry’s but nothing was there (Dad said there was a cheap hard drive but it turns out that was a Friday-only sale) and then went home. Soon I drove Tim to Borders in Los Gatos to listen to these jazz people play. It is actually really cool; this summer I should look in the Eye in the newspaper for any free musical performances. They just play some nice jazz in the coffee shop at Borders, and you can bring books to read, or chat with a friend, or play chess, or whatever. Really neat. Then I sped over to Berean to get some presents for Leon and Shirley (shh). I was looking at these glass decoration things but Tim persuaded me to get these kind of girly things with hearts on em. One is a angel statue thing that is pretty and another is a mug with a stuffed bear in it. It was pretty late and the lady at the counter kept joking at me for being the last one in the store. Hey, I was just taking my time... you don’t rush these things.

I went to bed pretty late that night because I just remembered that I had to make transparencies, and also, I had to pack everything for Sunday.

Sunday we went to church. Worship practice was good, the set was good, but I still got kind if irked by the fact that no one comes until 11:00 or something. Oh well... Haha, this morning before service, Ralph ran around with a face mask, shouting “SARS! SARS!” Haha that was hilarious. What was he doing?

Mike Connelle (sp?) did the speaking today; it was pretty good. I had to leave right after because I needed to get to Berkeley. Kimmy came with us. She kept trying to pay me back 4 bucks for the ticket but I refused. We were made late because Dad left his tickets in the other car and we had to go back and get them. Anyway, I drove up to Berkeley and traffic wasn’t so hot, and I had to change really fast when I got there, and find the Greek Theatre on the map, so I got there a little late, but it was OK. I met up with all the other English majors from IV (Dan Kwon, Liz Ng, Nancy Pham, Joyce Hwang) and also Dave Lai was there in his gown and cap even though he already graduated last year (in engineering). Much standing around ensued. Finally they called us down to those seats at the bottom while they played that song that they always play at graduations. For the next freakin’ era we sat under the burning sun in black robes. It seems kind of silly. James Schamus was the commencement speaker; at first it was OK, then he gradually descended into this tirade against Bush, Cheney, large corporations, and general conservativeness. I’m all for free speech, but I was waiting for him to somehow tie it in with English majors. He never did. Just and endless string of attacks against the right. Sheesh, save it for you movies, bub. We were cookin’ down there in that pit.

Finally they announced all the BA graduates, and it was about freakin’ time! We filed up and gave Professor Nelson (I took a class with him last year or something but it was so boring that I dropped) index cards with our names, and he read them. Dave walked with us for some reason, and his card said “Berkdog,” and the guy actually read it. Haha! How weird. What a long ceremony.

So I met up with my family in the stands, and a bunch of people were there too. Wayne, Wendy, Kimmy, and Jason, and Shirley managed to come also, and Jonny, Howard, and Jon Liao. Took a few pictures. We all went to Gypsy’s (AW YEAH), the family didn’t come because Tim had a recital back home. It was Jonny, Howard, Jon Liao, Wayne, and Shirley. On the way there I met Emily and Clarrissa; they were studying at whatever café it is on the corner of Bancroft and College. They congratulated me and all that stuff. Wow that was cool. Emily got baptized today.

EMILY: I was like, “Who’s that hot guy walking down the street?”

EVERYONE: Hahahaha!

JON: “Oh, and Jon Yip’s with him!”

EVERYONE: Hahahaha!

WAYNE: You know, you just dissed yourself.

JON: I know, I was complementing you guys!

SHIRLEY: Uh, except me!

JON: Well...

Jonny was a punk because he got there early and ordered food without me. Jon Liao was a punk because even after I told the dude I was going to pay for the meal, he Jon paid for it anyway when I turned my head. That was tons of fun; we just ate outside and chilled. Jonny took Howard and Jon L. home. The three of remaining went to our apartment. I was watching Liar Liar on TV, which is hilarious, Jim Carrey is SOOO funny. Meanwhile Cindy had taken Leon back up to Berkeley and they went out to eat. Wayne was confused as to why Shirley and I were so giggly about certain matters.

Sooner or later the whole gang was in the apartment. Cindy went home, then at around 11 or 12, Wayne went home. OH so anyway about those presents...

So anyway, Jonny and Tiffany got me this Hello Kitty toothbrush thing, the kind that spins around. Hahaha! The other day when I was using Jonny’s SN, Tiffany IMed me and Jonny right away was like “tell her that you’re Jon Yip!” So I was like “OK,” but I was wondering why he was so quick and nervous to tell me so. She was about to tell me what the present was! Yike! Lucky for them I had been stalling her anyway with random song quotes like Jonny does. Hahaha...

Wendy and Elliot made this extremely clever card for me... like one of those mad-lib things, but not really. I’m not explaining it right. At any rate, it was really clever. Kimmy also got me a card that was very nice! Later I looked in the envelope and found 4 bucks in there!! GRR!!

I also got this Guess wallet that came in this super super nice box. It is a REALLY neat thing. It looks so cool. Awesome!

And Shirley got me a Berkeley shirt and this nice looking/smelling rose that is sparkly. I was really happy today. And my face is all burned from that sunshine.

I am tired after a long day. I did not do any work. Anything else to write? If any, I’ll do it tomorrow because I really should sleep.

JON (12:38:10 AM): heyyo, min

JON (12:38:22 AM): I didn't get a chance to comeback at your sarcasms today

JON (12:38:34 AM): then again, I couldn't think of anything

MIN (12:39:14 AM): hahaha

JON (12:40:42 AM): so..there!

MIN (12:42:26 AM): ching xiao bao hao

JON (12:42:31 AM): what?

MIN (12:43:10 AM): cheng chan chen chang chin ching

JON (12:44:11 AM): boo gok ging dow ba go zai nay

JON (12:44:16 AM): joogolay

MIN (12:44:37 AM): okie, like only TWO of those thingies looked Korean... we don't have a friggin "Z" sound

JON (12:44:43 AM): hahhah?

JON (12:45:02 AM): whatever dude

MIN (12:45:04 AM): xing qian shurrrh

JON (12:45:07 AM): anything goes with korean

5-19-2003

Hrrgh... my back is hurting again today.

Woke up this morning and started studying (whoa!). I looked through the Mark Twain books and pondered on how to go about writing my essay for English 150. Mmf... boring. I didn’t really get anything done... just thinking.

(on how farts and burps are turn-offs)

LEON: But mine smell like strawberries.

SHIRLEY: Hahaha!

JON: Ugh...

LEON: It’s like dancing in a strawberry field!

SHIRLEY: Hahaha!

JON: Gross...

LEON: ...On a wet morning.

SHIRLEY: Hahaha! Jon, you have to write that one down.

JON: No, it’s gross.

(Later: Leon farts)

LEON (waving hands in the air): Whoo, that one wasn’t strawberries.

Leon went out to eat with Victor and Shirley went to mass I think. I ate a lot of food; not because I was particularly hungry, but because I have quite a lot of food that I don’t think I’ll be able to finish this week. Victor came back with Leon. He eventually took a nap on our beds (yes, our... half of him on each). I did a little snoozing myself; well, not really snoozing since I wasn’t really ASLEEP... whenever Leon took a picture I was totally awake and knew he was doing it. My eyes were just closed. Most of the day was not productive even though I sat in front of the computer for almost the whole time, trying to write. Oh so Victor took that test that Shirley showed me yesterday: 20% of women are very attracted to people like him, compared with 25% of men who are very attracted to Shirley, compared with 30% of women who are very attracted to me, compared to the whopping 65% (yes, 65%) that are very attracted to Wayne!!! Whoa Nelly! It’s a really interesting test; tells you all about you and your potential partner, etc. Victor is the kind of guy that whose partner will come to his rescue. Ha ha ha! Whereas my evaluation, on the other hand, states that I’ll be the one to rescue HER. Heh heh.

However, I did write SOME stuff during the day. Almost a page completed by evening. Unfortunately the rest of the evening went by pretty much as the afternoon did. There was some interesting conversations and funny things that happened, but I can’t quite recollect them at the moment. I did some chatting, that is always a good thing.

OH YEAH. I spent a lot of the afternoon uploaded small group photos to my newtomorrow site to make room on Leon’s OCF site. So now all of my pictures have been placed on the newtomorrow site. Cool huh.

At around sunset time I decided that it was too damn nice outside to not go out there. Besides, I had been indoors all day and that can’t be good for you. So I took a walk around campus and town, taking a bunch of pictures. Man it was a really nice day, but kind of hot, especially in the apartment.

For dinner I made pasta, and bell peppers and carrots. I need to finish all this food.

Sooner or later I wrote some more, so now I have a full page done, and it’s only Monday. Woohoo! Shirley went out to study or something and she hasn’t been back yet (1:51am). I’m going to use that Hello Kitty toothbrush today.

(2:18am) Hm, Shirley’s not back yet. I used the toothbrush. It is really cool! Like those things the dentists use. I’m off to the sack in a few minutes. Good night.

5-20-2003

Got up at around 10:30 or so and went straight to work on the paper. By “work” I mean I sat around in front of the monitor and stared blankly at it for 3 hours. I’m not even kidding. By that time I had changed two words (from “is paradoxical” to “is a paradox”). Shirley came back from her final; she said she didn’t do well, but she probably did. She didn’t even go to sleep last night, she just came home (I was still awake when she did: roughly 3:30am) and then went to the final at 8:00. So she took a nap. Oh I called Comcast today to cancel our broadband at the end of the month. Surprisingly, they didn’t give me any crap or circuitous menus and phone number to cycle through; the lady just took me through it and that was that. How nice.

Tina was IMing me her CD burner woes for a while. I tried to walk her through it over AIM but it wasn’t working out. Oh and Julia wanted to borrow our vacuum cleaner. So Julia came over and I brought the vacuum down, and then went over to Tina’s to see if I couldn’t tame that wayward burner. After a bit of fiddling around, restarting, changing settings, downloading drivers, and a fudge-sicle, I got that baby to work. Linda was there too (housemates) and man are they SO WEIRD. I’m not even kidding. They will just like spout random comments in really high pitches and make weird comments and jokes, and then laugh really hard. They invited me to go swimming with them, but I said I had a paper to write, and also I didn’t have any trunks.

TINA: Can’t you just borrow Leon’s?

JON: I don’t think he has any either. Besides... uh, I don’t really want to.

I just don’t think swimming trunks are particular articles that you really want to be sharing or lending to people. That’s just me speakin’.

Came back. MAN it was such a nice day outside. It felt absolutely wrong and evil to spend it inside staring at a screen. Crap. I still did some more work on the paper, so that was good. Victor came over for a while in the evening. What did I do all afternoon? I can’t remember. The days fade so fast. Well, the TV was on for a significant part of the afternoon, that could explain things at least partially. The Hitler TV movie (or miniseries, I’m not sure) was on tonight but we didn’t watch it.

LEON: You’re going to watch “Hitler?”

SHIRLEY: No!

LEON: You communist! You fascists!

SHIRLEY: “Nazi.”

LEON: Oh yeah, Nazi. How did I “Nazi” that one.

JON: Hahahaha! (To Shirley) Did you hear what he just said?

SHIRLEY: No...

JON: “How did I ‘Nazi’ that one.” How did I “NOT SEE” that one.

SHIRLEY: That’s so stupid! I’m living with a bunch of idiots!

Victor, Leon, and I watched American Idol on TV. I made a really good stuffed baked potato, except it wasn’t baked, it was microwaved. Julia returned the vacuum; she was going to the Jesus Jam Session (wow, I remember those from last year) but I didn’t go on account of my paper and all... I ate kind of a lot of food today. I am still hungry. I chatted with a bunch of people online. I haven’t called anyone for a really long time, and I was a little afraid to because people have “finals” and crap, but I decided to call someone anyway at almost 9:30pm. My verdict was Anqi.

So I was planning on talking for not that long, since these calls usually don’t take up too much time; like maybe 10-20 minutes. Whoa but that girl, she went on and on. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, I’m saying that’s good! I’m so happy that people want to talk to me. She just kept asking me a lot of questions about me, and what I’m doing, and all that stuff. She is really funny too. And (get this, I couldn’t believe it) she didn’t know my Mongolia ED story. WHAT?? I didn’t tell her because she’ll probably hear it one way or another and it won’t be good over the phone. But I learned a lot about her: she likes Korean stuff, she reads and writes fanfics about Korean stars, she thinks “African-Americans are good rappers; Asian rappers are wannabes” but still likes listening to Korean rappers (and Chinese rappers, they’re “pretty good”). She was also really interested in Mongolia, mission trips, college, and all the stuff that goes on in my life. Isn’t that great? In the end the call clocked in at over a whopping 39 minutes (!!!), which beats Tiffany’s record, but actually it doesn’t really because Tiffany had about a ten minute conversation before we got cut off, in addition to the 37 (I think it was 37...) minutes after I called back. So anyway, 39 minutes, that’s really awesome, but I hope her parents don’t get weirded out...

I don’t get how girls are a lot more open to talk than guys are. There are exceptions, like Jonny and Howard, but everyone else doesn’t have that much to say. I’ll call any given guy and it’s just “yeah, I’m good” and “yeah, I’m OK” and comments along those lines, and then it’s like, where do I go from there? “OK, bye.” Then when I talk to girls they’ll be like “so what is it like in the dorms? Are there a lot of parties? Are you allowed to go to them? Do people get drunk? What class are you taking? How are you doing? Do you have a lot of homework?” and etc., etc. One subject goes on to another, and then to another, and another, ad infinitum. How curious...

Worked more on the paper. Second page is now complete Jonny called me too to talk about a bunch of stuff. All kinds of stuff. Like he was chatting with a bunch of high school friends and he was telling me all about that. And just a lot of other random issues. I got quite a great deal of encouragement from him out of that call; now I feel a lot better about a lot of things. Actually it helped me even realize things that have already happened that I didn’t even notice that were really encouragements that I had overlooked. That sounds kind of weird; I don’t know how to explain it out in words (figures I’m an English major. Graduate, I might add). That took up a good chunk of time as well as Anqi’s call. Lots of good phone callin’ today.

There are a lot of things to pray for.

5-21-2003

Ugh... Got up today and I guess I started at the paper again. Leon went to his final, then came back... then he went to meet his professor who wanted to “talk” to him about certain stuff. He was gone for most of the afternoon. I chatted with Nancy (from Davidson) for a while this morning, explaining to her most of what happened in Reloaded since she didn’t get it. You know the more I talk about the movie, the more I realize that it is freakin’ awesome.

Man this stupid paper. I was pretty hungry today; I ate soup, but was still starving. Shirley asked me to eat a lot of her food so I made some Korean ramen stuff that she had, plus I put in a whole package of her tofu and also some of her imitation crab. Man that was too much food... I was stuffed. It was pretty warm today.

Later in the evening Leon came back... it turns out everything was OK. However, on his final exam (he had another one) he claimed that he got owned. At around 8 or so he went to help Victor move out or something.

The final American Idol was on... Shirley and I watched it, even though they dragged the stupid thing out over 2 hours. I was sure Clay was going to win, just because he is sooo much better. Then lo and behold, RUBEN wins. WHAT THE HECK!?!? I could not believe my freakin’ ears. HOW COULD CLAY LOSE??? He was the BEST!! That Ruben dude couldn’t stand a chance against him. Today (and yesterday) Clay hit these really high notes that sounded just absolutely prime. It was a B-flat. Crazy!! And he still lost!!! Oh my goodness, it was a grave injustice.

Jesse randomly asked if I wanted to go running. I sort of did, but I had a paper to write. Somehow, though, he convinced me, so he came over with his roommate, Steve, and this girl named Daphne (not Victor’s Daphne), a freshman from Unit 3. We ran up to Clark Kerr, and I got fully owned on the hill. Only about 7 minutes later I was a dead man. Daphne must run regularly because she just stormed up that thing. Anyway, we ended up on this really dark track that’s far up on CKC, and we all circled around it a few times. I talked with Steve while walking a lap, and also Jesse on the next one. I only really ran one lap, the others I walked. My stomach didn’t feel too good about it all; I had just eaten a big potato not too long before (similar to the really good one I made yesterday). Then we all walked back. It was then that I asked Daphne if she knew Victor (she was from San Jose, but I had a feeling she wasn’t the same one, otherwise I would have recognized her, or she would have recognized me, since Victor’s Daphne has been to apartment before). Turns out it wasn’t her, but she knew them. Isn’t it so weird how everyone seems to know everyone else (except me).

Crap, I chatted with a bunch of people today instead of really writing the paper. Don’t get me wrong: I tried. But nothing comes out; I just can’t think of any words to put down. It’s writer’s block. Anyway, I expressed my crap for the travesty that was American Idol this night.

HOWARD (11:53:04 PM): dude
HOWARD (11:53:16 PM): i knew clay wuz gon lose
JON (11:54:03 PM): what??
JON (11:54:09 PM): he was herrrra better
JON (11:54:11 PM): soo good
HOWARD (11:54:13 PM): i kno
JON (11:54:14 PM): what the heck man
HOWARD (11:54:15 PM): but see here
HOWARD (11:54:21 PM): the first winner of AI
HOWARD (11:54:25 PM): wuz a WHITE girl
HOWARD (11:54:37 PM): it would be aesthetically incorrect
HOWARD (11:54:44 PM): and ethically messed
HOWARD (11:54:48 PM): to the black community
HOWARD (11:54:54 PM): if a WHITE male
HOWARD (11:54:58 PM): won this
HOWARD (11:55:03 PM): then the blacks would be mad
JON (11:55:10 PM): but isn't it supposed to be the votes??
HOWARD (11:55:10 PM): that american idols can only be white
JON (11:55:16 PM): how can people be so blind
HOWARD (11:55:17 PM): yea but they were so close jon
HOWARD (11:55:21 PM): they HAD to hav rigged it
JON (11:55:25 PM): hahaha?
JON (11:55:27 PM): yah dude
HOWARD (11:55:37 PM): yea like even clay wuz better
JON (11:55:41 PM): I don't see how people could make such a grave mistake
HOWARD (11:55:47 PM): they wanted to show that even fat ugly black men can win
JON (11:55:52 PM): haha?
JON (11:55:57 PM): that would have been awesome
HOWARD (11:55:57 PM): see ppl are stpuid
JON (11:56:02 PM): if this skinny white dude won
JON (11:56:10 PM): geeky white dude
JON (11:56:32 PM): somethine is wrong with this world howard
JON (11:56:40 PM): something terribly wrong
HOWARD (11:56:47 PM): yea i kno
HOWARD (11:56:57 PM): plus ppl felt sorry for the black dude
HOWARD (11:57:19 PM): cuz hes fat and ugly and uh fat
HOWARD (11:57:21 PM): and black
JON (11:57:28 PM): yeah
JON (11:57:34 PM): but clay had this huge comeback
JON (11:57:37 PM): he got voted off
HOWARD (11:57:47 PM): yea it wuz rigged dude
JON (11:57:47 PM): and then got brought back on and then suddenly everyone loved him
HOWARD (11:57:49 PM): no doubt
JON (11:57:50 PM): that probably means the next winner will be some gay hispanic dude
HOWARD (11:59:31 PM): haha
HOWARD (11:59:34 PM): or an azn
HOWARD (11:59:35 PM): ...
HOWARD (11:59:37 PM): or not
HOWARD (11:59:48 PM): when an azn wins
JON (11:59:54 PM): haha? yeah some fobby korean dude that raps in englishHOWARD (11:59:57 PM): haha
JON (12:00:00 AM): with words that don't make sense together

And this one here kind of led right into the topic of graduations...

JON (12:18:24 AM): dude
JON (12:18:25 AM): he lost
JON (12:18:30 AM): can you freaking believe it
CHRISTINA (12:18:31 AM): i knoee!!!
CHRISTINA (12:18:38 AM): i was like "wahwt!!!!"
JON (12:18:48 AM): serious!
JON (12:18:52 AM): I was groaning and moaning
CHRISTINA (12:19:01 AM): i got all quiet
CHRISTINA (12:19:07 AM): it's so sad..
CHRISTINA (12:19:23 AM): but he still might get a record deal cuz he's got a goood voice
JON (12:19:27 AM): yeah
JON (12:19:33 AM): maaan he was sooo good
JON (12:19:39 AM): did ya hear those high notes??
JON (12:19:43 AM): *faints*
CHRISTINA (12:19:58 AM): sirous!\
JON (12:22:14 AM): sigh
JON (12:22:21 AM): it's a cruel world, christina
CHRISTINA (12:23:04 AM): yes, it is
CHRISTINA (12:23:24 AM): brutal at times
JON (12:23:59 AM): and there's nothin we can do
JON (12:24:06 AM): but grit our teeth and let them whup us
CHRISTINA (12:24:29 AM): haha sounds like words from a book
CHRISTINA (12:24:33 AM): full of wisdom
JON (12:25:11 AM): haha?
JON (12:26:03 AM): finals coming up?
CHRISTINA (12:26:28 AM): omg, i think i'm screwed
CHRISTINA (12:26:41 AM): i have guild auditions this sat..and i dont even have stuff memorized
CHRISTINA (12:27:19 AM): finals are june 6 and 9...still seems far away
CHRISTINA (12:27:21 AM): how was graduation
JON (12:27:29 AM): it was cool
JON (12:27:36 AM): fried in the sun like raisins
JON (12:27:45 AM): and it was herra long
JON (12:28:20 AM): but it was cool cuz I got to hang with friends and stuff
CHRISTINA (12:28:41 AM): haha
CHRISTINA (12:28:43 AM): tha'ts cool
JON (12:28:56 AM): when is yours
CHRISTINA (12:29:00 AM): haha raisins, i like that
JON (12:29:08 AM): heheh?
CHRISTINA (12:29:09 AM): friday june 13
JON (12:29:22 AM): oOoh spOoky
CHRISTINA (12:29:44 AM): haha
CHRISTINA (12:30:29 AM): my school is under construction so its moved to the baseball field in the very back =/
JON (12:30:42 AM): ohh I see
CHRISTINA (12:31:59 AM): it sucks
JON (12:32:42 AM): it should be OK
CHRISTINA (12:33:06 AM): i hope so, but i'll prolly fry too
JON (12:33:11 AM): hahaha?
JON (12:33:30 AM): seriously, the orchestra pit was like a freakin oven
JON (12:33:34 AM): we just sat there bakin
JON (12:33:43 AM): faculty sittin pretty in the shade
JON (12:33:46 AM): gargh
CHRISTINA (12:34:06 AM): haha
CHRISTINA (12:34:20 AM): no shade for anyone i think at mine
CHRISTINA (12:34:39 AM): i'll be crisped
JON (12:34:49 AM): hahaha?
JON (12:35:03 AM): crisptina
CHRISTINA (12:35:47 AM): hahha
CHRISTINA (12:35:57 AM): thats cool
JON (12:40:07 AM): I'll see if I can go
CHRISTINA (12:41:55 AM): aww thanks
CHRISTINA (12:42:36 AM): you dont have to, cuz it's juss a crisping session where people talk and yea..i'm sure you knoe
JON (12:42:55 AM): hahaha?

Dang it... this darn paper... Leon is probably already sleeping, lucky duck, finished with his finals. It seems as if everyone is done with finals except me... well, also Shirley; her last one is tomorrow. She went to sleep already. I’m just sitting here writing this paper, stuck.

5-22-2003

Though going to sleep rather late last night, I still got up at around 9-something today to work on my paper. I didn’t get a WHOLE lot done this morning, but at least some of it. Leon and I went to the super DC to eat with some small group people; that was a lot of fun. Wow, it was extremely nice out at around that time; the perfect weather. Cool and sunny. Beautiful. (Though it did get really really hot later that afternoon, like after Elliot’s graduation) I took it easy on the food this time because my stomach isn’t totally in the best condition, for some reason. We made fun of Julia’s neck-touching phobia. Also we got into the whole guy-initiation thing, and I made my point that yes, it is up to the guy to initiate, but no, it isn’t freakin’ easy fun and games for us. It is so hard because for guys, it’s most likely that no girl out there likes you, while if you’re a girl, chances are there IS someone on there who likes you. So it’s a lot harder for guys to know, because we’re so used to girls NOT liking us to begin with, whereas with girls it’s a lot more likely that a guy DOES like you. Sigh...

(On Asian/White mixed kids)

EMILY: They are really good looking.

JULIA (grimaces): Err... no, not always... sometimes they... don’t come out right.

Then we went back; I changed out of my shorts and into some pants and nice shoes, and then went to Zellerbach for Elliot’s graduation. I sat with the Hus and also Grace was there; sooner or later a few other IV people showed up too. It was a pretty long ceremony. A couple of the speeches were kind of long, and also there were quite a few graduates (it wasn’t just astrophysics; they combined a lot of departments together). When we heard the names of the Ph.D’s projects, it was so scary. I mean, how do you talk to someone who wrote “Positron Spectroscopy in Laser Emissions at the Square Root of s=vt^2 at Absolute Temerature” (OK so I made that up... but that’s what they really sound like. Some are even more complicated than that). Took a bunch of pictures, then went home to keep working on the paper.

Shirley left like an hour early for her final. So I had the whole apartment to myself and I got to serious work on the paper. Struck by a strange revelation on my thesis, I fired away on the keyboard until I was done, and then I went back and tied everything back up to match the new direction that I had taken. It was not difficult because it was only a minor (and wholly related) deviance from my original, simpler thesis. Awesome! I was finished as of 6:56pm.

I went out and took a walk, then came back and watched some “Friends” on TV. I basically watched TV and chatted, on and off, and played a lot of piano. The entire evening was spent doing this. Leon came back and he’s either been on the phone or doing some application stuff for a job. Shirley has not been back since she left in the afternoon. Wonder what she was doing.

All the small group people went to go watch Reloaded at the same time as the graduation. At 11 or so they went to sleepover at Julia’s apartment that she’s living in next year (no one is in there now so she moved some stuff in already). At first I didn’t want to go (well, I did want to) because I was really tired and I need sleep. But then I thought “what the heck. I’m finished with this paper. When am I going to see these people again?” I can do without sleep for another day. So I headed over there, but not to sleep over; just to hang out for a while. Jason, Emily, Eric, and Clarrissa are sleeping over; Joyce was there for a while, and also these two to other girls whose names I wasn’t sure of (one of them was Ariel). Man, that apartment is big, especially for only two people. Before everyone else got there, Emily and I went out on the balcony and noted that you can totally see into other people’s apartments from that point; like literally dozens of windows and glass doors are clearly visible, with shades drawn up. We saw this guy who got down on his hands and looked like he was doing push-ups, but he didn’t move. *Shrug* There was a bunch of Julia’s divx movies, and we were planning to watch one of them, but they were all Disney stuff (because she brought all her other ones home already) so we just ended up playing a lot of cards, taking some pictures, talking, and laughing about stuff. Pretty fun stuff! At a little past one I decided that it was just too late, I needed sleep, and besides the conversation had degenerated into Asian guys, girls, height, getting hooked up with good Christian guys, etc., so I thought it was a good time to bid adieu. I left... I wonder when I’m going to see them again. Hopefully that wasn’t the last time!!! Waaahhhh...

STILL, I BASK IN THE GLORY OF MY VICTORY. Not mine, but Yours, O God. Thank you, Jesus, for everything.

5-23-2003

For some reason I awoke at 7:30 or so and despite my efforts to fall back asleep for a little more, I couldn’t. I got up at 8:10, got ready, and went to kickboxing. Shirley bailed again, as has been her habit of late.

The IV people weren’t there, so I lifted some weights before going to kickboxing. Since I haven’t been to class in a few weeks, and also since I lifted a bunch of weights immediately prior to the class, I got owned. She went extra long too and did all these combo things over and over and over again; I thought she would never end.

Whew, that ended. So I went home. Shirley went to go ice skating. I went to Ned’s and sold all my crappy, useless books, and basically got shivved in the arse. The girl at the counter would take a book, scan it, and be like “two dollars...” (next book) “fifty cents... fifty cents... one-fifty...” and so on, and I would just stand there, nodding, while I thought to myself, “Hey, I bought that book for fifteen bucks” or something like that. At least they rewarded me with a complimentary Ned’s beach ball and some candy.

Tina asked me over AIM if I wanted to go to the marina with her and a couple of her friends. I wasn’t too sure... so I gave her a hard time and put up a big fuss about it. Eventually she called me so I gave in and decided to go. When I went to her house and got into the car (Esther’s car), I suddenly realized that she was going to the Marina under false pretense of just throwing the frisbee around with some pals; and I remembered that this was supposed to be surprise party for her. Hahahaha!!! I knew it was her birthday, I just couldn’t put all the facts together in my head.

TINA (12:21:41 PM): done with the paper?
JON (12:21:44 PM): yepo
TINA (12:21:47 PM): cool!
TINA (12:21:54 PM): what are your apartmentmates doing todya?
TINA (12:21:55 PM): and you
JON (12:22:01 PM): beats me
TINA (12:22:03 PM): ahah
TINA (12:22:13 PM): ask them if they want to go to the MArina to play frisbee
TINA (12:22:15 PM): do you want to ?
JON (12:22:19 PM): what's the marina
TINA (12:22:20 PM): there's a nice park there I ear
TINA (12:22:23 PM): the Berkeley Marina!
TINA (12:22:26 PM): have you ever gone??
JON (12:22:27 PM): what's that
TINA (12:22:30 PM): oh my
TINA (12:22:31 PM): COME
TINA (12:22:41 PM): you can meet Esther LEe and Jen Lee (not related)
TINA (12:22:43 PM): they are cool
TINA (12:22:46 PM): unless you know them
JON (12:22:51 PM): I met jen before
TINA (12:22:56 PM): ok
JON (12:22:56 PM): she ran for some big thing last year
TINA (12:23:56 PM): yeah
TINA (12:23:58 PM): wanna COME!?
TINA (12:24:04 PM): you can just read too on the grass if you want
TINA (12:24:05 PM): just chill
TINA (12:24:08 PM): it's soooo nice today
TINA (12:24:09 PM): come ONNNN
TINA (12:24:14 PM): and tell leon
JON (12:24:16 PM): nah, I don't like to have fun
TINA (12:24:16 PM): are they around??
TINA (12:24:21 PM): pshaw
TINA (12:24:22 PM): come on!
JON (12:24:23 PM): hahahaha?
JON (12:24:24 PM): jk
JON (12:24:26 PM): err
JON (12:24:29 PM): shirley's not here
TINA (12:24:32 PM): ok
TINA (12:25:35 PM): so you coming or what?
TINA (12:25:38 PM): we are gonna leave soon
JON (12:25:56 PM): err I dunno
TINA (12:26:00 PM): awww!
TINA (12:26:02 PM): come come!
JON (12:26:02 PM): leon is takin a shower and then eating
TINA (12:26:06 PM): oh...
TINA (12:26:10 PM): tell him to come!
TINA (12:26:44 PM): he just showered?doh ahah. He probably doesn't want to play then
JON (12:26:55 PM): hahaha?
TINA (12:27:00 PM): sigh
TINA (12:27:07 PM): stop laughing with question marks!
TINA (12:27:08 PM): haha
JON (12:27:15 PM): hah???
TINA (12:27:54 PM): soooo>
TINA (12:27:57 PM): waht's your decision
JON (12:28:00 PM): bargahgahrg
TINA (12:28:12 PM): come on jon, you've NEVER BEEN TO THE MARINA!!!
TINA (12:28:15 PM): hw could you DO that
TINA (12:28:25 PM): ou need to go
JON (12:28:28 PM): what is this marina you speak of
TINA (12:28:29 PM): you're almost done with school
TINA (12:28:32 PM): the berkeley marina
TINA (12:28:38 PM): what's your number
JON (12:28:42 PM): what is a marina
TINA (12:28:43 PM): I'm gonna harass you
TINA (12:28:45 PM): WHAT?
TINA (12:28:47 PM): water
TINA (12:28:50 PM): berkeley water
TINA (12:28:51 PM): haahhaha
JON (12:28:54 PM): there's water in berkeley?
TINA (12:28:56 PM): where boats are
TINA (12:28:57 PM): YES
TINA (12:29:00 PM): we are by the BAY!
JON (12:29:02 PM): there are boats in berkeley?
JON (12:29:07 PM): what kind of town is this
TINA (12:29:12 PM): ohm y gosh
TINA (12:29:15 PM): Jon I'm gonna shoot jmyself
TINA (12:29:17 PM): what's your number
JON (12:29:23 PM): what, so you can harass
JON (12:29:24 PM): me
TINA (12:29:26 PM): l;gj;awefjio;aadgjkl;
JON (12:29:30 PM): how long is this going to take
TINA (12:29:30 PM): ]ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
TINA (12:29:47 PM): we'll be back by 3 or 4
TINA (12:29:51 PM): maybe before
TINA (12:29:53 PM): come ON
JON (12:29:53 PM): 3o 4!!!!
TINA (12:29:58 PM): what ESLe ar eyou doing????
TINA (12:29:59 PM): geeez
JON (12:30:02 PM): NOTHING!!!
TINA (12:30:06 PM): EXACTLYU
TINA (12:30:12 PM): you can do NOTHING outside by the water
JON (12:30:14 PM): but it's good to have a lot of free time available
TINA (12:30:15 PM): you dork!!!
JON (12:30:40 PM): 644 2705
JON (12:30:42 PM): give it a shot

It was so funny... we (Tina, Esther, and I) went up these hills, and when we came over the top Tina was like “Hey, Elliot’s already here...” (she was under the impression that he “on his way” or “didn’t know if he was going to make it” or something) and then she started realizing that there was actually a lot of people there, like her roommate, and friends... then she screamed “BENSON!!!” when she saw that her brother was there too. Hahaha!! The marina was tons of fun but it was sooooo cold. Man I was freezing. I threw the football around with Grace so she could learn how to throw it. She learned it really fast and now she throws pretty professional. Once I got hit in the nose, oof. Oh and there was a big water balloon fight; I tried not to get involved but then Emily threw one at me at close range for no reason, then grabbed the bucket and wouldn’t let me get at it. I think Tina came out the wettest; she got hit many times, and also she popped a lot of her own balloons on herself by accident. Elliot started it!

Anyway, just a lot of good times relaxing and chilling with people, eating cookies, watermelon, and hot dogs. Julia and Koh-Eun were there for a while but then they left. It was so sad... I won’t be seeing them again... at least, until I come up and visit Berkeley next year. Lot of other people were there too... Elliot, Emily, Ryan and Tina Chiang were there for a while, Jesse, and some others. Sigh... it’s so sad... it’s all over.

I think today was the first time I have ever, in my life, seen a girl fart, and not only that, but fart with the purpose of drawing attention to it and making people hear it. She was Tina’s roommate. How weird... I can’t believe I witnessed that...

Came back and whiled away the remaining afternoon. Leon and Shirley and packing a bunch of stuff up. Ralph called me up and we talked for over 20 minutes about a lot of stuff. Cool! Exciting!

(Shirley is wearing shorts for the first time in a VERY long time)

SHIRLEY: I must have the whitest legs of all Asian women.

JON (Not hearing the last word): No, I do.

SHIRLEY: I said WOMEN.

JON: What? I didn’t hear that.

LEON (in other room): I did!

Leon had an idea that we all go out and eat together, so at 7:00 we went to this Thai place (“Thai House” is it called?) and ate there. It was good. Oh man I was so hungry but by the end I was so full. We talked about a lot of things; mostly about Leon (heh heh). I was really stuffed but then Shirley all the rice into my plate and said “Now you have to eat it, because it would be impolite not to eat the food when I serve it to you.” A little later, Leon put some of the food on HER plate but then as it turns out, the rule only applies when girls serve it to you. Figures. Dinner was on me this time. It made me very happy to buy. Ahh, this is so sad... it’s almost all over... SOB.

Leon and I went back to the apartment for a little bit; Shirley went to go watch Bruce Almighty with some other people.

(Leon comes out of bedroom in his undies)

LEON: Hey Jon, have you seen my pants?

Then Leon and I went to go see the movie ourselves at California Theatres. On the way we ran into Edward! So we asked him to come along, and he did. Heh heh. We got there at the best time; there was no line, and we were like 2^nd in line to go inside for seats. Right after we got our tickets, the box office line started getting long and the line to get inside stretched out really long behind us. Excellent.

The movie was pretty good, really funny sometimes and a generally good message, although there was one part that was kinda theologically unsound, since it says we have to look for the miracle “in ourselves,” yadda yadda humanistic new age crap. But the rest of it was pretty positive and decent, religiously speaking. That was pleasantly surprising.

Came home. It’s getting late. My professor FINALLY emailed me back some comments (a little late for that, though). I’m not really going to change anything though, since I’ve expanded the paper a lot since I sent him the incomplete one. Ultimately he said it was a B+ on its way to an A-. Dang man, that’s good enough for me!!! I’m very happy now.