little. yellow. different. A weblog by Ernie Hsiung

the great chinese-american yahoo avatar-off

Happy Chinese New Year! Well, except for the ones in America who have to work today. Or those with broken families that fight. And the fact that I’m a day or two late for this post. Whatever.

What better way than to celebrate your ethnic heritage at work than, say, Yahoo! Avatars? The second I found out that there were new ethnically appropriate outfits, I simply had to IM all my Yahoo! Web Developer friends of Chinese heritage so we can get fantastic and apropos. Here are the avatars of myself, Eric (yes, THAT Eric) and Sandy. (It should be noted that I formerly worked on the Yahoo! Avatars website. That gives me full right to be as catty as possible.)

Ernie (left): I’m holding a sign! With that oriental font that you see in in Chinese restaurants!

Manager: (squints, trying to read the sign) You know, you photoshopped your Avatar to be really small. What does it say?
Ernie: (continues typing, doesn’t look away) “All trinkets, 50% off.”

Me, I like how the phrase “Gung Hay Fat Choy” is in air quotes, as if to be ironic.

Also, a HORSE! A MUTHAFUCKING HORSE! You know, I’d make an inappropriate comment like “into the pot you go with the penguins,” but that’s probably inappropriate.

Eric (center): Eric named his panda Ting-Ting, and naturally the panda has one of those boomboxes - you know, when you go to a Chinese circus and the panda dances to folk music or calculates integrals with an abacus? Like that.

Sandy (right): Sandy’s a girl, and her avatar actually eerily looks like her. Thus, she’ll win hands down if this were a contest for the most ethnically ironic avatar ever. DID I MENTION I HAVE A HORSE?!

And… my stuff has finished compiling. Back to work I go.

Holy god that’s spooky.

Any word on when the avatars will play nice with my Mac?

Right now the team is working on getting the site available for other browsers besides Windows IE - Firefox in particular. My assumption is that Safari integration will be the next logical step.

(As far as why the Av site only currently works on Win IE, I’m one of the guys responsible, and trust me, that’s a whole nother weblog post entirely.)

I guess this is a new word that hasn’t stabilized yet. I didn’t even know they had a name, and one source is calling them scare quotes and you’re calling them air quotes. What’s up with that and does anyone know what they’re “really” called?

looks tasty on my mac, with safari. anyone else expecting the panda to do the robot? or maul somone?

Never mind, scare quotes and air quotes both exist, but are two different (but related) things, so I could see their definitions blending as they make their way through the “English language.”

I still say this one would work wonders..

drat.. img tags not working.
http://www.fyreplace.com/images2/funny/ernieavatar.jpg

I can only wish that my life were as fabulous and exciting as yours! Avatars–I wouldn’t even understand these technical things!

That panda is contraband. Eric intends to slaughter it and freeze dry the panda’s frank and beans for use as herbal viagra.

my avatar has a gay polar bear. i used to have a pervy panda who threatened to pull down the shorts of other female avatars, but i switched to the bear. he would like me to tell your avatar “hello” and he “likes your hat.”

I’m pretty sure that when “air quotes” are printed on something, then they’re just called “quotes”.

Maybe it means you are hung like a horse?

Attention: Eric is hot.

That is all.

why are both Eric and Sandy holding little red cards?

you make me laugh Ernie. a whole bunch.

Brian: those red cards are immigration visas.

Yeah, Ernie, aren’t you going to give out dollars? Only Sandy and Eric love us?

I’d like to point out that maybe it’s my system, but the Avatars don’t support Firefox. What’s UP WITH THAT?!

-Oh wait, I just read the above comment. I’ll post it anyway to stress my insolence

Hey Ernie,

How did you capture your avatar to place it in your blog? I tried doing that, but the system won’t let me. That, and I’m a technological moron.

You shoulda had a cat as your pet. Because, as we all know, kung pao chicken is really HORSE AND CAT MEAT.