I first met Anita through a trackback. It was a relationship based on blogging, with an electronic beginning. Back in August 2003, I’d only been blogging for a month or so, and although I knew I had a few enthusiastic friends who were readers, and Ted had linked to me, it was mostly quiet on the blog, with familiar faces. Then the trackback appeared in my mailbox. I had no idea what a trackback was, or who Anita Rowland was either. I remember that moment of mystery and wonder…and gratitude. Soon Anita and I were having some conversations (when I search for “anita rowland” on my blog, more than 50 posts come up!) and by 2004, I was attending some of the Seattle weblogger meetups, led by Anita.

Anita connected me to Dave Winer through her post on geek boyfriend which I described and to Robert Scoble through the meetups. She connected me to many others on the Seattle scene, and to bloggers near and far. I might not have spoken at conferences or received attention for my blogging if Anita hadn’t helped me. And I would certainly have far fewer friends. I owe her. Back in the summer of 2004 she came out to the island, along with Robert and Maryam and Beth Grigg, among others, for a fun blogger picnic. Friendships were formed, thanks to Anita.

When R –, Anita and Jack‘s grandson arrived, Anita and I started hanging out together here and there. Anita generously rode the ferry to Bainbridge. R— and our Elisabeth are close in age. It seemed to me Anita was an amazing mother to R—-, firm and sweet. Anita had fun ideas for entertainment. When we enjoyed the toys she brought, she would let us borrow the game. For example, Anita and R— introduced us to I Spy. By the time I got around to returning it, she would say they had bought another one and we could keep it. Now my children love I Spy. At the Apple store the other day they were playing I Spy while I waited for my appointment. And I was remembering Anita.

Anita was gracious and giving. She poured herself into people, into the blogging community, into her grandson R—. I admired her in many ways. It takes lots of courage to live a life like Anita’s, going forward with spunk and knitted hats, raising a grandson, organizing events, constantly reaching out and connecting people to each other, learning, reading, traveling, being herself always.

For the last year or two, the girls and I tried to help with R—while Anita was getting treatments. All the planets had to align in order for us to be able to go over to Redmond for a day, and I always wished we could have helped more often. But the girls and I had fun hanging out with R—- and it was good to see Anita. We last saw her in the spring. Before that I remember going into a convenience store in Vancouver and walking back to the hotel with Anita after Northern Voice 2006. Probably one of my most fun memories will be the time we stayed late after a meetup at Crossroads had ended and emptied our pockets of change, letting the children ride together on the mechanical toys in the mall, Anita, Jack, R—, my girls and me.

In writing about Anita, I have to write about cancer. My relationship with Anita started with the trackback email, and ended with another email on December 10th 2007 saying she had passed away after a long battle with cancer. 2007 was a difficult year to watch people around me receive diagnoses. Reading Derek and Airdrie’s journey this past year has been intense. I think of them often. In June, one of my high school classmates died from a brain tumor (here’s a blog post a friend wrote about him). I did not know him well but I went to the memorial service along with many others from our class. In his eulogy, the beloved English teacher our class had asked to speak at baccalaureate, revealed that he too was fighting cancer, for the second time. I came home from the memorial service and that weekend went into the garden ripping out blackberry bushes with clippers and vengeance. Then I sat down at the computer and wrote the angriest piece of writing I have written. I was mad. Mad at cancer for taking away my classmate, affecting Derek and his family, attacking my teacher who had impacted my life. And yes, I realized I was angry about my brother too who died from his third brain tumor several years ago. I was angry Anita was ill and so many others I knew. (Note: in the week since I drafted this post I lost yet another friend to cancer.)
Anita is one of the first friends I have lost in this new way of existing online. I still see her face on my Twitter page. Anita is still one of my Facebook friends. I can go read her blog. On Flickr I can read some of the last communication we shared, comments on photos she had posted. I miss her. Her face reminds me. Her words are still here with me. I will always be in her debt for what she gave me, and I will never be able to repay her. It is unfair she has gone. It is unfair she had to suffer intensely. There is much injustice in this life. But Anita also reminds me of the grace and generosity she gave. In this injust world, I can strive to be kind as she was, to build relationships and create community, to pour out mercy and love, to be brave in my battles until the end.

If the week between Christmas and New Year is a good time to announce a presidential campaign (by the way, my favorite post of Robert Scoble’s from his time with John Edwards is his Things I Learned and I noted this Time article too), then it’s a good enough time to announce our new family videoblog: Guinea Pig TV.

Why Guinea Pig TV?

Last year at Northern Voice I mentioned I was experimenting with videoblogging and I even included a couple quick clips in the presentation I gave. There were a few bumps in the road this year, but as soon as I could, I started learning with iMovie. After years of refusing to categorize my blog, I figured I would experiment with ultra-niche blogging. A videoblog about a talking guinea pig: how much more niche and specific can you get?

Education

Guinea Pig TV also allows the girls and I to grow and learn together. I had made a couple simple movies but Guinea Pig TV is challenging my skills with video, editing and music. The girls learn how to develop ideas, write a script and even in one episode practice the German they have learned this year. Kids can gain experience speaking in front of a camera spontaneously. They see the benefits of planning and flexibility along with the joy of sharing, all aspects of creativity. For homeschooling, Washington state includes computers in “occupational” skills. I’m sure the girls are learning skills they could use in the work force (after all people do get paid to make videos), but I think this has other educational values also.

Passion for Piggies

Finally Guinea Pig TV involves one of our family’s new passions of 2006: Chatterboy. I don’t think I’ve done an official post about our new pet yet. In August we adopted him from another family who didn’t have time for him. According to 4-H standards he is an “American broken senior boar”, but to the girls he is their favorite object of affection.

Guinea pigs are excellent first pets, easy for a young child. They need only food and water once a day and he is happy to eat vegetable scraps for treats. Changing the cage is probably the biggest challenge we have had so far; finding a bedding that is absorbent, odor-free and not tempting to Chatterboy’s taste buds is harder than it seems. It is also the only task where Abigail needs my help. After taking care of frogs, fish and butterflies, we are enjoying having a pet who is communicative, cuddly and fun to feed.

And yes there are plenty of videos of guinea pigs on YouTube as I discovered, nearly 9000 as I am writing this. Quite a community. There are videos of guinea pigs (or cavies, as they are called) doing tricks, climbing stairs (maybe it will motivate ours!) and looking for lettuce.

Two other funny links: the amazing Guinea Pig Song video (I wish I knew who made this) and The Bad Guinea Pig List So there are plenty of people who love cavies and have computers, but as far as we can tell, our Guinea Pig TV blog is the first guinea pig videoblog.

Music Note

I must note that I am grateful to Derek K. Miller for allowing us to use his music, in particular Meltdown Man which is the theme for Guinea Pig TV.

The Episodes

So far we have six episodes on the blog but I’ve also posted video to blip.tv and YouTube (yes, under “Guinea Pig TV”). I may post occasional episodes to this blog, julieleung.com, but for most of the time I will post to guineapigtv.blogspot.com and also blip.tv and youtube.com

We’ve been creating shows since Halloween, when someone gave us a small plastic trick-or-treat basket, instantly inspiring the first episode. It took me a while to edit the video and put it up on the blog. My favorite episode is still that first one: Trick or Eat.

In Episode #2, the girls and guinea pig practice their German, inspired by myGermanClass.com (congrats to the creator on achieving top 100 status and also daddyhood!) as well as occasional bumbling conversations with the generous and gentle Roland and Boris(you know, that German Canadian).

Episodes #3 and #4 document our unusual winter weather in the Northwest, snow and power outage. What did Chatterboy do?

Episode #5 features a cavy Christmas carol, O Christmas Pig, as written on Caviesgalore along with holiday wishes from GPTV.

Abigail wrote and filmed Episode #6 Prince of Piggyland by herself, and I put it together under her direction. She was inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia – and the Christmas gift of small statuesque guinea pigs – to give her pet new titles and to chronicle them in video and pictures.

Even if you are not a fan of guinea pig videos, I hope you’ll take a peek. And, to slightly change this Tim Bray quote, I can hope that what Tim said about Northern Voice might also be said about Guinea Pig TV: it probably won’t blow your mind but it might fill cheer it up a little and it definitely won’t stress you out.

Enjoy!

I’ve been making some changes in my life and hope to write more about those soon. I am also planning to take this blog in a slightly new direction. First though I would like to post some pieces that are still in the draft folder.

One change I have made is that I am approving all comments to be posted. Some days all the time I have for blogging has been spent deleting spam. Instead for now I will try approving comments. Of course the disadvantage of this method is that it requires my presence and approval for conversations to continue. But for now, given the blog setup that I have and other resources, this seems to be the best solution.

My Flickr pictures document the signs of spring around me. In one garden bed, I have planted seven kinds of tulips. Five of them are visible here. Summer has been my favorite season, but this year I find the season of change exciting and refreshing.

Speaking of kids, here’s a list of links to compensate for my AWOL days.