JulieLeung.com: a life told in tidepools

Due to a number of reasons, including the loss of our laptops and our family’s calendar (three conferences for the two of us in three weeks), it has been difficult to read blogs, write posts and respond to email. My apologies. I am also preparing for SXSW this weekend and what attention and time I do have is being directed towards that conference. Ted and I hope soon to have some better solutions for our little crisis and slower schedules.As always, thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read. Tonight I will try to catch up a bit and publish some posts from the draft folder…

Ever since reading Dear Elena (via Ted) yeasterday, I’ve been wanting to hug Daniel Steinberg and his family. No, parents are not supposed to bury their six year old daughter. She died suddenly this week and bacterial meningitis is suspected. I’ll be reading this blog again and again for the wisdom there. He describes how the garbage man who knew his kids came to comfort them, what a wonderful wife he has, what happened on the day Elena died .It just happened so fast. Like Elena, our Abigail just lost a prominent tooth in her mouth. Daniel and his wife started dating on our wedding day, and like us, they chose each other despite an important difference. The story is written with beauty in the pain, with hope and sadness. It makes you ache for Daniel and his family. It makes you grateful for your own family, to treasure, hug and kiss these kids who are only in our care for a short time. His posts encourage us not to leave any unfinished business. His stories encourage generosity. Daniel and his family are generous, teaching us by example and explicit instruction, letting us share and letting us learn from Elena.

But it isn’t because of privacy that we aren’t posting her picture. It’s hard to describe, but I’ll try.
I’ve read all of your comments. Thank you. Many of you have sent us support and that means a lot. But many of you have sent us a note about looking at your own child differently. Others have sent stories of losses you have suffered. A picture makes this story about one particular little girl. We’re touched that you have personalized this story and made it about you and your family.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Daniel, Kim, Maggie and Elena.
Hugs from us to you. Many hugs and thoughts and prayers.

Quote of the day from David Pelletier, speaking about Emily Hughes’ performance in the Ladies Free Skate at Turino as a commentator on NBCOlympics.com , (also partner of Jamie Salle, co-champion gold medalists in pairs figure skating at the 2002 Games. )

I don’t know what their parents feed these kids, because Sarah was one of the gutsiest performances I’ve ever seen, and when I look at Emily, I see the same thing — guts, raw power, she never gave up during the whole performance. She’d do one mistake and then — bang — come back with a strong jump.

Part of the reason I am a fan of the Hughes family is that I admire what they’ve done with their kids – and how many they had! I don’t know how they did it. Managing a family of three children is intense enough, nevermind six kids, two of them Olympic-level athletes. I think at one point the mom of the Hughes family fought breast cancer. Yes, I do wonder what they feed their kids! Something economical like oatmeal…or was it Wheaties?! Whatever it is, I want those kind of gutsy kids too!

Today Ted was at PyCon so I was able to satisfy my curiousity by continually hitting the “refresh” button on the browser, seeing the skating results appear in almost-real-time. It’s a bummer to miss seeing the Games on tv, but still fun to experience the suspense. And we incorporated the competition into our homeschool today: I made up lists of program components for certain skaters and pretend point values and let the girls practice their multiplication and addition skills to figure out who would win. We also sampled some skating music and in honor of Sasha played Tschaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet” (I guess it didn’t help her though.)

I don’t know why the media is calling Shizuka Arakawa’s win a “surprise”. If you’ve seen her skate, you know she has outstanding beauty and skill. She didn’t do well at 2005 Worlds but she was the 2004 World Champion.

And if the gold medal is seen as a representation or validation of a nation’s talent, then Japan deserves the honor. As one news site pointed out, Japan had the best “B” team of skaters. The skaters who stayed home in Japan probably could have done as well as the ones who came. Japan has depth and skill – and at least one quad – on their team. They were the ones to watch and may be the ones with victory again in Vancouver.

Although I’m not a Sasha Cohen fan, I was sorry to see her fall. I did hope that she had changed, and grown, and I hope she can go forward from this. Okay, I didn’t see her fall, but there are pictures of her falling posted all over the news sites. Embarrassing pictures too of her landing on her hind side, awkward. She’s been quoted as saying it was four minutes of her life, and so it was. It’s good to put it in perspective. I only hope the media can give her some dignity and not turn four minutes into forever.

Just turned on KUOW and heard Robert Scoble and a Seattle food blogger talking with Chris Lydon of Open Source Radio on a show recorded in Seattle today. Chris said that he will be at Zeitgeist Coffee Shop 171 S. Jackson Street tomorrow from 6 to 7 pm (see this post). Wish I could be there! I admire Chris and wish I had met him when we were both at Bloggercon II two years ago. But I have met one of the people who works on Open Source Radio: she is a good friend of a good friend, and we were both at the wedding of our mutual friend many years ago.

11 Reasons Why I Like Northern Voice and Moose Camp

1. The Kids Room
Family friendly from the beginning, the conference only became more attractive to parents and caregivers with the addtion of a kids room this year.

2. NetSquared North
I was grateful for the opportunity to sit in on one of the NetSquared sessions during Moose Camp and I hope that this chance to mix and share ideas and perspective will happen again.

3. Affordability
How can you argue with a conference that is $20 or $30 a day?! I appreciate that the organizers have worked hard to keep costs low. Affordability also impacts accessibility, who can come.

4. Diversity
The organizers chose a number of women to speak at Northern Voice, and also a number of topics. Was it my warped perspective, or I thought last year had more gender equity in attendees? Regardless of precise statistics, I have a sense that the organizers of NV value diversity and want more of it.

5. Community participation
Moose Camp certainly accentuated this aspect, but I think NV in general is open to whatever community members would like to organize. For example, last year Roland and I put together a dim sum brunch on Sunday.

6. Focus
I’m grateful that NV has chosen to focus on the social and cultural aspects of blogging. As I read through the posts that appeared while searching Technorati for “Northern Voice” I noticed that at least a few people would have preferred more sessions on business blogging. I don’t know if the organizers will chose to change NV or set up two different visions for the conference, but at NV I feel like a fish in water (as opposed to a fish out of water, as I do at other conferences).

7. Risk – taking
The organizers of NV are willing to take risks. They try new speakers. They try new ideas, such as Moose Camp or BBQ at Stanley Park. They are willing to experiment and find what works. NV has also become a conference where speakers and others can take risks too.

8. Heart
Both those who organize the conference and those who come are passionate for blogging. The organizers put in hours of their own time, and so do other volunteers. And I get the feeling that many of those who come are coming on their own dollar and time, certainly their own Saturday shared. There’s an electricity that can’t be bought.

9. People
The people who come to Northern Voice and the people who put it together are some of my favorite bloggers. So yes I’m biased. It’s a great place to meet up with old friends and make new ones. What more can I say?

10.Schwag
We’re still using our sxip mug from 2005 and the buttons from 2006 will be remembered! Those Bloggable tees are pretty cute too!

11. Vancouver
Yes, really!

Ideas for possible changes

I found that the MooseCamp time slots of 30 minutes were much too short. I know that shorter slots allows more sessions, but I would have liked longer time on a topic.

More hands-on experiences would be helpful and fun. For example, I somehow thought that we would make and share movies in the One-Minute Movie session. Once I realized it was only 30 minutes, I knew that wasn’t possible, but perhaps a 1 – 2 hour time slot would allow people to make and share movies with each other – cool! I like Ken Rickards ideas too.

On a social note, I would have liked to have had some snacks. Bonding happens around food. Yes, I know this would have increased the cost, but perhaps we could each bring a snack to share, like we did at Mind Camp. Just an idea.

What would happen if Moose Camp were scheduled after Northern Voice? I wonder whether it would help make the Camp more relaxed, help fill in some of the blanks, so to speak, missed by the conference (it can’t cover everything), and also help continue conversations and connections began at NV. (melomel has also posted this idea.)

Also, perhaps provide a little more time for speakers to prepare (by soliciting proposals and notifying speakers slightly earlier in the year). At least I know I could have used it! 🙂

Thanks to the hundreds of people who made Northern Voice 2006 happen!

Looking forward to 2007…!