little. yellow. different. A weblog by Ernie Hsiung

the long and the short of this

I’m going to selectively bring back some of the better posts I’ve written over the past three years and put them in an archive. If there is any posts that you remember in particular that I should bring back, drop me an e-mail or comment on this weblog entry. Thanks.

That was the short version of this post. Want to hear the long version? Read on.

You couldn’t tell by reading this website, but I’ve had my weblog up for a little under three years now. Three years! With my attention span, I’m amazed that I can maintain anything for three months, given my short attention span.

(And proof-reading the first paragraph, I realized that I wrote “attention span” twice in the last sentence, fully proving how low of an attention span I have.)

For those weblog readers that have kept up with my antics over the course of time, you’ll notice that my writing style has changed a little bit. At the very least, I tend to write short essays or stories now — probably a natural transition, given that you’re writing for an audience every day and you want to challenge yourself, right? Right.

It’s more than that too, I think. I’ve definately changed as a person from 1999, for the better. How my writing reflects that, I can’t put my finger on. (”Can’t put my finger on?” Obviously, my grammar isn’t one of the things that has improved.) And that’s the reason why I’ve been so hesitant about putting all of archives online. I mean, the old funny posts are damn funny. Those aren’t the posts I’m worried about.

The posts I’m worried about are the posts where I’m at my ultimate, heart-breaking lows. The ones where I’m nearly in tears, rambling into a web application at four in the morning because no one would talk to me at a gay club. The ones I’m crashing from all the Ecstasy I took hours before. I read the posts again, and the memories come flooding back. And don’t start with me about the posts about the sister.

I’ve moved on from it, sure I have. But I don’t like feeling vulnerable. It’s a feeling I’m all too used to.

And there’s my rambling and short attention span kicking up again, because the reason why I initially posted this wasn’t for a self-proclaimed pity party, it’s because of this: I’m going to selectively bring back some of the better posts I’ve written over the past three years and put them in an archive. If there is any posts that you remember in particular that I should bring back, drop me an e-mail or comment on this weblog entry. Thanks.

It HAS to have the milk story. Otherwise, what would it be? I knew about the milk story for years before I ever heard it.

Each and every post that involves conversation between you and your mother. Love those.

I love the internal-Ernie monologues… anywhere that you’re having a conversation with yourself. Very easy to relate to.

I’ll put my vote in for those. (Oh and the mother ones, definitely. She’s a sweetie)

my personal fave was the attack of the geese.

Oh, just bring ‘em ALL back, Dude!

(I’d recommend bringing back the one you mentioned ME, but I haven’t had much time to update my site!)

I agree.. all the “Mom” posts.. the Milk story.. and one of my personal favorites, the one about Bambi under your desk at work.

YES! You should just keep a separate site of conversations with MOM.

Or Mandarin in italics. ;D

Yeah, bring them all back!

People are not selectively created - they exist as amalgamated wholes, the sum of their parts and experience. Should a blog be any different?

Embarassing or not, heartbreaking or not, each post is a point along the path that led you to where you are today. Omitting the undesireable ones is a little misleading, don’t you think? The entirety has an authenticity that most people would kill for.

“Do NOT disrespect me. I will NOT be disrespected.”

Hiya, Eric! Long time no see.
Okay then… how about the posts that just really really suck?

The one about the song Prince never wrote. I think it included the word “vagina,” and it definitely included Ming. I think. Please?

What will it take for you to bring it all back?!

If it weren’t for the really bad posts, then the really funny posts wouldn’t be all that funny. All of them must be brought back to enjoy the full transition from Ernie 2000 into Ernie 2003.

anything with your mama in it!

Agree.., the ones about you and your Mom.

I wanna read the crashing from e posts, and the gay bar posts… things like that are the beauty of blogging. Plus… I can relate.

Well, the whole Weakest Link saga. But especially the early ones, about standing in line for the tryouts and trying to be snarky for the mock game. Umm, and from when you first moved to your current apt, I remember imagined conversations by the patrons of the bar across the street. Oh, and the driving into a ditch post.

You know, when I initially rediscovered your web presence, the first thing I did was head over to the archives to see what I had missed. Which turned out to be quite a bit.

Bring ‘em all back. Some of us enjoy the snifflling-in-his-pina-colata Ernie.

Ive been reading you for about a year and a half. It’s all good- I know it takes up a lot o’ space, but keep em all- catagorized and chronologically. ErnieSearch ver 1.0

There was a post about a yellow thing you had hanging on your balcony (something like that), and what people would think driving by when they saw it. That one was hilarious, and I totally agree anything with your mother in it, and the Bambi under the desk one.

Dude, why don’t you put all those posts into a book format? Weren’t you looking for a topic for one? Shoot, I’d buy a copy.

just reading over those made me want to get them all back.. please?

How about the one where they were going to Audit your cubical @ work.

Definitely the geese story. I laughed so hard I cried the first time I read it.

Im with everyone else who thinks all the post should be archived… they show like what you said, a transition, that wouldn’t be complete or honest, if some posts aren’t included. regardless, i like your blog a lot , thanks

So are you saying that you don’t want to bring back the painful stuff? Because while I love coming to your site for the laughs, and I do nearly always laugh, the stories about you and your sister are ones that have stayed with me over time.

The conversations between you and your mother deserve a whole publication unto themselves.

my vote is for all of them, i read for the humanity of it, not that you get any lower than me, but the edited version cannot be nearly as good as the unedited.

I remember the graduation one…please put that up.

Don’t forget the car wreck on New Year’s Eve . . . or whatever. I laughed a lot at that one.

You *are* putting up the Weakest Link one, right?

I know it’s pretty recent but I’d hate to see it lost in the rejig!

*WAAAAHH* I have no idea what most of them are talking about…!!!

You need to bring them all back, even if it is slowly…getting older things to validate can be a pain in le petit ass.
But yea, definitely need them all. New readers will McConfuckled when they meander on without the back story.
…Because you actually have new readers-unlike myself.

you should put them all up.
the evolution of ernie is crucial to the connection of the stories.

also, you should hook us newbies up with a search field.

then you’d definitely be the bestest,
and that’s on top of everyone’s compliments.

I say bring ‘em all back, we don’t just read because you’re funny, but also because we care. But if you’re gonna be picky…

then bring back the graduation one definitely, and the “pink dog collar you borrowed from belinda” conversation, and the excursion to Canada. OH, and the leather sling at Trader Joe’s, and the associated Japanese school for English one.

The ten-sided-die-of-I-don’t-think-so one has to be in there, even if it’s recent. That was priceless. In fact, I think that would make the perfect title for your book: “The Ten-Sided Die of I Don’t Think So”, by Ernie. Very catchy, that.

And anything with your mom.

Bambi! With Thumper! And your mum!

Not that the first two have anything related to the last. (They don’t…do they? XD)

Ernie! You brought over ALL my favorite posts! THank you! I needed the laughs this morning. Umm, just to let you know, though.. the 10-sided die of I don’t think so post/page thing isn’t working right.. the mini-blog on it is written a little too far to the left. Just thought I’d let ya know.

please, please PLEASE bring back the one about your doctor friend who was treating the OCD guy and “pick pick pick.”

That, and I vote for the mother ones.

rock on, Ernie!

i laughed til i cried when i read the one about the song prince never wrote…everyone agrees bambi and your mom are priceless…but i also think (as a relatively new reader) that it would be great if you set up a link so all three years could be read chronologically - forwards, not backwards! love your work mate! (some of us hail from far off australia :))

new readers, yes …. should consider the new readers like me .. i’ve enjoyed your posts thus far and it would be a pity not to glimpse a slice of your history and transitional phases. good. bad or ugly.

as we go through life, we ride a multitude highs and lows, editing out the lows really distort the truth that is you.

so yes please bring back all the old archives.

at the very least … i can get clued in to what everyone else is talking about … milk story…huh ? bambi…wha ? car crash…eh ???

I agree with those who say bring it all back. Sometimes the most painful, silly, embarrassing, or “oh my god I can’t believe I wrote/thought that” posts are the ones people relate to. Plus, by including them all, we get to see the growth of Ernie, which is always a cool thing to read about.

However, if you do decide against this, you have got to include:
-the conversations with your mom. Pure gold, they are.
-the one about your impending cubicle audit.
-the ones relating to the Weakest Link.
-your crashing on E pots. I actually don’t remember them, but I love the way people’s minds work when they’re coming off of drugs. I always wrote my best when I was coming down off of a trip. Never tried it when I was coming off of E, though.

There are so many good posts that you’ve made, it’s hard to narrow it down to just a few. So, yeah. Just bring them all back. Hehe.

I think it’d be cool to see them all, to be honest. I just discovered your site about two weeks ago and it’s great. I’d like to see what the stuff has been like before I found you on blogrolling

I love all the ones with your mom, your sister, and even the grandmother you never met - you could totally write a book about your mysterious family history.

I think you should put ‘Pensive…like Chairman Mao’ on a business card.

Love that story!

Bring them all back! Please!

Definitely, bring back the ones about your current b/f… E-mail exchange, lobster stuffed with diamonds and all that!

Ernie, I’d have to go with “cruising for guys at Fry’s.”

http://web.archive.org/web/20010418154644/http://www.littleyellowdifferent.com/index.php?z=2001_04_01_archive.html#3179239

Hey, Ernie. This blog works just fine, if ugly, on Netscape 4.7 Mac but it crashes the whole darned computer in IE 5 Win, at least the one at my gym. Yeah, the computer crashes and restarts. I am impressed. XHTML rules or else!

Hey, George, that link didn’t work, try this one
http://web.archive.org/web/20020609163047/http://www.littleyellowdifferent.com/index.php?z=2001_04_01_archive.html (maybe it’s the anchor that is messing up the Wayback Machine).
I liked the Steve Jobs story on that page even better, although that doesn’t show off Ernie’s writing skills. But cruising at Fry’s would actually make sense for nerds, no?

Of course the wonderfulness of getting a long-lost page via the Wayback Machine is slightly offset by not always able to follow links. I found AJ’s story about why he hates Filipinos at
http://web.archive.org/web/20020204013328/http://www.hr-nightmare.com/psb2/archive.php?archive=2001_04_22_archive.inc but by that time it didn’t seem worth the effort.

If you’re really only going to bring a few back, could you at least give us a week or two to browse the full archive to FIND our favorites?

I have to jump on the “bring them all” back train. I have personally read your entire archives at least twice, and especially as one of the slightly more venerable blogs out there right now you’d do a disservice to entirely erase your previous blogging presence.

That said, i would not grudge you the chance to weed out a number of posts that you feel were too personal or detract from the overall quality, as you truly have evolved quite a bit from the person you were when i started reading.