I’ve been writing on the internet since 1999.
Annnnd, there’s your confession. What does that mean? It means I’ve been doing this before “blog” was a word you could say in front of adults. It means I have posts older than entire Google products that have since been killed, buried, and eulogized by bloggers. It means somewhere in the Wayback Machine there’s a page where I am extremely earnest about something, and I’d appreciate it if you left that shit alone. (If you know, you know.)
Little Yellow Different is where I write about my life. For what it’s worth, right now that life is pretty much the following:
Taking care of my mom and closing out my dad’s accounts, one hold-music phone call at a time
Trying to figure out how a Gen X technologist fits in the grand scheme of things if the industry thinks he made a horrible career mistake the last five years of his life
Working out what “good Asian son” means at 49.
It has also included, at various times, the following: stolen cars, a dim sum humiliation I have not recovered from, an illegal internet game show, an appearance on a very not-illegal game show, and a paid tier I killed on purpose.
Here’s where to start, depending on what you came for:
The one people actually share
The Version of Me My Dad Still Believes In — Most-read thing I’ve written. Dad stuff, but the kind you can hand to someone who never met him.
The Happy Path No One Mapped — If you only read one, read this one.
You’re taking care of a parent (or you can see it coming)
3 Brutal Lessons From Becoming My Parents’ Caretaker at 47 — Nobody hands you a manual. This is the closest thing I’ve got.
My Mother Cut Off Her Internet and Her Landline to Protect Me From the Chinese Police — What it looks like when it starts.
You grew up in an immigrant family
5 Things My Asian Parents Never Said Out Loud But Made Crystal Clear — You already know all five. That’s the joke. It’s also the point.
You were online when the internet was still weird
I’m Gen X. I’ve Been Writing on the Web Since 1999. — Twenty-five years in. What changed, what didn’t.
You want to laugh
How I Got Owned by a Dim Sum Cart Lady in Front of My Boyfriend — Does what it says.
New essay every week. Some are heavy, some are dumb, most are both, and I don’t get to pick which one this week is going to be. Subscribe and you’ll find out at the same time I do.