J.A. Yang was born in Taipei and came-of-age in San Diego. He has authored a few books, been published online here and there, and podcasts when the mood strikes. His favorite font is Enviro.
What is this and who is "Jace?" With 2025 starting up, I’ve decided it’s time to return to the world of online writing. At first I was exploring alternative options, such as Instagram or creating another newsletter. However, there are major downsides to both. Instagram is primarily a visual medium and text posts on there are limited to 2,200 characters, which is just around 400 words. That’s enough for some things but not nearly enough for longer pieces—which sometimes I’d like to do. So Instagram was out. Newsletters are fun and I even now have a separate email address specificially for subscribing to them—an idea I strongly encourage you to try—but I like being able to just link to a post in my archives if needed Plus I'm sure nobody wants me to flood their inboxes. Also, there’s some debate on whether using the industry standard, Substack, is moral or not. Additionally, with Mailchimp's Tiny Letter service now discontinued, I just didn’t have the heart to start ano...
Conflicted about what to do with all those smallish figurines collecting dust in your closet? Let's put them to work around the house! If you came over to my house and looked out the left back window, you might notice a little Donald Duck staring up at you from the corner of the windowsill. Slightly sun faded, the rubber figurine is about half an inch tall and instead of legs, has a suction cup body from the chest down. Unlike his irascible and anxious cartoon self, this Donald is calm and serene, which enables him to do an important job: providing a gentle reminder to not pull down the window shades in order for morning sunlight to stream through to the house plants located on our kitchen floor. That reminder is for me, or for the cleaners, or for any house guests. “Do not close these blinds!” There are other figurines dotting the rest of the house as well, each of them given specific jobs. Hangyodon comes out onto the bathroom counter as a reminder to close the small shower wind...
Wherein I re-dedicate myself to reading and re-energize my long dormant Goodreads. Plus, presenting a new Bookstagram account! There’s a world where I didn’t read anything in 2021. Usually I keep very detailed records of books I’ve read—and bought—but ever since 2020, it’s been a little shoddy. Somehow, I have no records of reading a book in 2021. Not. A. Single. Book. Someone please surface evidence of me reading something in 2021, please. Remember back in 2019 when I said “After last year’s debacle of twenty-two books read, I think it’s safe to say that I am no longer a reader.” Well friends, I am now officially no longer a reader. In total, it seems like I only read ten books between 2020-2022. I don’t even know how that’s possible but my guess it was video game related. Or just a simple lack of record keeping. The latter is possible because all ten of the books I jotted down from those years are hits, which seems nigh impossible. Here’s the list: A Phoenix First Must Burn, Patric...