How do people in the movies get how things are spelled when someone tells them verbally? And even more, how do they remember a phone number after being told it once?

Maybe it\’s just for the time, but anytime someone tells me a phone number, I have to have them slow down and repeat it slowly. Then when someone tells me a street name, I have to have them spell it. Today, I asked for the address of a prospective place in Pittsburgh. She gave me the street address really quickly. Then said it was at the intersection of Elwood and Donmey. Then I looked at the map. It was actually Elwood and Negley. Maybe my hearing is going bad…

People have always said that I am more articulate in text rather than verbally.

When calling someone, I tend to jumble all my words together. I am thinking too fast and the words don\’t come out as smoothly as they would on paper (or screen). What\’s horrible is that when I try to tell people about my ideas, it comes out as a dizzying rollercoaster. And then when I write e-mails, everything is organized into paragraphs.

It\’s interesting that speech therapy only works on ennuciating the proper sounds, but they don\’t focus on teaching how to articulate thoughts clearly and succintly.

After 6 years of using my Greatland green backpack (with a zipper that is now falling apart), I have finally gotten a new one. A new feature-laden SILVER Adidas pack with a laptop sleeve, water bottle holder, cellphone pocket, organizer for pens and pencils, hidden pocket, music player sleeve, headphones jack, large zippers, and high-tech straps. Just because next year I\’ll probably carry all this expensive equipment with me. And this probably would be the last backpack I\’ll ever own.

During the first month that my dad first came to America for college in Washington, he kept encountered new words and new phrases that he never heard in the English classes he had in Hong Kong. One day, he encountered the word \”hump\” used as a verb.

He asked his roommate, a nice Caucasian guy, about it, \”What is \’humping\’?\”

The roommate smiled and demonstrated, a swinging pelvic action against the bed.

My dad, only 18 then (and also the person who said that friendship was a ship of many friends on an English test), gave an embarassed \”oh\”.

\”Have you heard of photography etiquette?\” the homeless guy asked me.

I had been using the digital video camera, trying to get a shot of the Fat Slice sign (Fat Slice is a pizza place in Berkeley, also where I had a Mike Fernando incident). And also of Seth (playing just the anonymous mysterious dark figure in the corner) walking through Telegraph. I was slightly surprised and stopped the recording. I ran after my walking actor and as I walked past the homeless guy, I said, \”No.\”

But I suppose me loitering in front of Fat Slice with an expensive camcorder on my hand would indicate something. In my class, the instructor warned us that it would be difficult to capture the homeless on video. It\’s the fact that they think we would mock them. Or that we are using their natural roles without any additional cost. We\’re using them. And that\’s why the other day when I was trying to film Telegraph/Bancroft, I pointed the camera down instead of trying to capture people. I didn\’t want people to think that I was filming anybody…and that people would run away. But the problem is that people in this world as the most interesting things to capture on video. All it takes is to ask them, but without a huge production budget behind me, what\’s their incentive?

I still need a shot of someone sitting at a curb in front of Fat Slice.

—

Happy Fourth of July! I remember last year, I spent it watching a movie (the HULK) with..guess who else…Seth.

If you really like a song, don\’t learn the words to it. Because you may realize how thoughtless the lyrics are. Just learn the melody.

Did I ever mention how much I cringe when I see my name printed as JEN and not JENN. I don\’t know how to correct people, because it seems so trivial. IF YOU HAVE TO USE MY NICKNAME, THEN I LIKE IT WITH 2 N\’S! [I got interrupted here when writing my Jenn vs. Jen rant and accidentally ended on a misguided note.]

There was one time that I ran up to the board where they had written a schedule. I grabbed the pen and added an extra n to my name. There was another time that Jen was written repeatedly on another schedule. I resisted the temptation to take a pen and write in the extra n. Just out of you know…politeness.

But what I always found very strange (and I must have addressed it before) that even if I introduce myself as Jennifer to somebody, they will start calling me Jenn. Most likely, they used to know someone whose full name was Jennifer but she went by Jenn. Like at work, there used to be a prominent employee whose name was Jen (that\’s probably why everyone keeps dropping the second n). Whenever I write e-mails and I need to use my shortened name, I always sign it JENN. Without the extra n, I feel like I am crippled or disabled. That the people who use the three letter form have robbed me of my right leg, my dominant leg. I need two of then. Just like how both of my eyes each need a thick lens for my near-sightedness.

IT\’S JENN…not JEN! Thank god people don\’t call me Jenni as a result of my aim screenname.

[WHY is the work ssh server more responsive to my baby Eris powerbook when I am on my non-campus dial-up than when I am on the campus wireless network? grrrr…. Yes my laptop has a name. Eris. The goddess of chaos and DRAMAH!]

Last summer, I commuted to my internship every day with this guy who didn\’t own a car. I was happy to do so especially when he agreed to pay me in gas and even BART to Lafayette for my sake of not driving to Berkeley which would have been out of my way. And the following year (our senior year in Berkeley), whenever we saw each other, it was only a mild glance, a hi. No real small talk. I always felt that he was rather superficial. And that he couldn\’t help it, his personality was the kind that only made friends on the surface. Little depth and the like. Fake questions such as \”what\’s up?\” or \”how was your weekend\”.

To my surprise, he was one of the instructors at the id tech camp where I provide technical support. But we don\’t really speak. Just a nod of acknowledgement. So this is how things come to a standstill? This is exactly the reason why you can\’t be friends with everyone you meet. Besides, would you really want to?

A few weeks ago as I was walking to my car, a male voice suddenly called out behind me \”HEY JENN!\” I turned around and saw that it was my old suitemate–my suite neighbor who endured a life-changing experience of i-got-a-regents-scholarship-to-berkeley-and-i-was-eecs-but-i-rushed-for-a-frat-
and-nearly-got-alcohol-poisioning-and-now-i-lost-the-scholarship-and-my-social-
life-has-changed-and-i-got-drunk-all-the-time-but-recovered-and-now-i-want-to-
help-people-so-I-study-psychology-but-then-I-decided-American-Studies-is-better-
and-now-I-want-to-be-a-teacher. He was fun to be around, the little time we spent with each other. And back then, he ironically observed (a week after my boyfriend then and I broke up), \”You and your boyfriend are perfect for each other. You two look good together.\”

I remember feeling the everpresent numbness coming over me and responded, \”How would you know?\”

He just smiled and replied, \”I just know.\”

I never held it against him. It was the fact that we never reached that level of connectedness. And the same goes with so many other people I know. We may remember each other, use each other for superficial purposes, but then…that\’s it.

When I was younger, I overtook my parents\’ video camera. By the age of 12, I knew how to operate the clunky camcorder while my parents struggled with the manual. I created small videos. There was a short video I did which was my version of Alanis Morisette\’s Ironic. In it, I had my sister (she was only 11 then, I probably was 12) play all 4 parts while I directed it. We took the video in the my mom\’s car. One person who recently saw it was shocked that my sister and I didn\’t get into trouble (aka grounded by the parents) for sitting in the driver\’s seat and turning the ignition to the first position (thus only turning on the radio, AC, etc.). Yeah, I guess not!

And yesterday at my digital video class, we had a class assignment of creating a short video with ACTION. I got to play the part of the person who is running late and my other classmate was the one who was waiting for me. The entire clip was about us talking on our cellphone basically yelling \”where are you, i am almost there!\” to each other. Then shots of me running up the stairs, a shot from above, a shot from the side…and then me jumping off a balcony. Then a shot of my classmate screaming and then you hear a dull thump. Then a shot of me lying facedown on the ground…then suddenly I start groping for my cellphone…and lift myself up…and start running again yelling, \”I am almost there! I am almost there!\”

That experience reminded me how much I love movies too. The magic of it all. And how I had always wanted to be involved in the background. Even as a film critic. Just to provide the entertainment.

I make a list of movies I intend to see this summer like my sister. Tell me if you want to go see it with me! I also feel guilty for being influenced by the thing called $10,0000 marketing campaigns.

In the theater:

On video:

Oh my poor sissy! She just decided to go to the emergency room for her inflamed eye. How painful! :( Mostly because she didn\’t want to wait for an appointment which would have been tomorrow at 5-6 pm. Poor lady!

As humans, it\’s impossible to go through life without getting sick. Our immune system is tough, but not tough against all forces of Mother Nature. And that itself worries me. All these ailments plague my family history. In particular, breast cancer. My grandmother is going into surgery tomorrow just for that. And my step-grandmother (despite not being blood related) has gotten cancer…for the 3rd time. Should I be glad that medicine has improved so dramatically? Or should I be glad that we will all live longer despite pain and agony…and a dependence on a daily handful of pills?