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Unforgivable...
7 March 1999
Saturday was a very packed day. Woke up after a rough sleep (noisy roommate entering and exiting the room... loudly) at around 6:22. Sat in my chair until 7AM or so and then got ready, ate and was taken to Kenny Gym Annex. We raced again with a lower incline and our car flipped over on the incline. It was a fun race though. Next year should be fun as well.
Studied in DCL for a while that day (like I am studying in DCL now, because that's where all Math/CS majors are when they aren't in their room according to Jack).
After studying I went to see one of Caroline's friends play at Area 51 (the EOH entertainment tent). I got cold and hungry so I ate and then came back to Allen Hall.
I went with some hallmates to a place called Vertical Planes to do some wall climbing. It was very entertaining. I can climb the easy wall, but my grip didn't feel strong enough on the harder walls. Especially the ones with tiny rock fragments on to which to grab (umm... I hate prepositions).
Came back, and almost all my friends were gone to the Monster Truck thing at Assembly Hall, except Caroline who opted out because her stomach was playing tricks on her. We decided to watch Depeche Mode videos (at least a few) and then go eat dinner at 10. We ended up going to get dinner at 11. Note: It's much easier to find dinner if you set out around 10PM, because
everything closes at 11PM. We walked around campus (witnessing drunk people too) until we came back to Garcias (which is next to Allen Hall).
We ate there. The pizza there is good I guess. We came back to Allen and I intended on going to sleep. Well I decided not too... I mean two people playing an intense game of
Street Fighter is not a thing you can sleep through. I ended up hanging with Jawed, Caroline, Kristine, Eric and an irate Matt Wright.
I read from Matt's book before he came. Well the excerpt of how he got into PERL and CGI and best of all U of I.
We ended up doing a lot of things that were very childish, but funny. We made fun of everyone including ourselves. We also ended up pranking
my roommate. We called him so much, just as a joke. Well anyway, we finally called things quits around after 4 or 4:30 and dispersed. We even all entered my room to face an angry Jack. Then Caroline and I went downstairs and talked about roommates for a while. She's had her bad share.
Judgement occurs. I go to my room. Change get ready for sleep. I ask Jack to get our of my chair (politely) so I could use it. And he lays on the third degree.
"Why did you make all those phone calls?" Well I told Jack to lighten up and calm down, but he just couldn't understand prank phone calls. He says that "I know Jawa doesn't like me, and you don't like me because you are better than me."
Jawa refers to Jawed. I responded in my egotistical way, "Jack, I think I'm better than a lot of people, but I don't dislike them because of it." Well basically I got the "Fuck you motherfucker" from Jack so I was like okay whatever. "And don't make fun of me on your web page." Well
okay. Note Jack if you are reading, this is just a retelling of events. Well I went to sleep at around 5:30 AM (I normally wake up at 6:22AM).
Jack finishes his game and says, "What you did tonight was unforgivable." He slams the door and he plops in bed. Then in 5 minutes he gets up goes to Eric's room and grabs him by the shirt and starts chewing him out. Eric tried to explain that this is waht people do
that people just do stuff like prank phone calls and stuff like that. Jack didn't take it and called him a racist, etc.
Jawed told me a similar account except no grabbing of shirt.
Well think what you will of it people. Good or bad. I had fun, and everybody seemed to learn that Jack has no idea of what racism is and that he can't take a joke.
This leads me to a new topic. Racism. Jack accused two of my friends of being racist. Sure,
racism can be interpreted as anything, but let's be serious. Maybe Jack knows what it is from firsthand experience, but I don't think he really does.
What we did the other night was just a prank call, nothing more. It had nothing to do with making fun of him.
It's not like we weren't making fun of everybody that night including our selves. The prank was to
be mischievous. To revive the little childishness in all of us. Race had nothing to do with it.
If it so happened that my roommate was some white kid that irked me enough to prank him,
I'd have done it. Well I'm not white, so replace white with any race.
You don't know racism Jack. I do. I witnessed it first hand as a little kid. People asking me about my
brown skin and why I was like that. Whether I was this or that. It wasn't nearly that bad as others have
had it, but that is racism Jack, not a prank call.
There is also the issue of group feeling. When I was made fun of, I knew others that were like me were made fun of. I was often
made fun of in a group. Jack, you are just one person. Not all the Taiwanese people.
I've seen others accuse people of racism, prejudice, sexism, whatever you want. It's such an
easy thing to accuse people of in America. Grow up people. Deal with life. Assume racism as the last
motive.
I await Jack to accuse me of racism (again). I'll give him this schpiel and the countless examples of
his being racist.
Ugh Humanity.
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