I just ordered pea flakes for Grace and Ada from GuineaDad. This site and the YouTube channel bring me much guinea pig info and joy. You will be amazed at his guinea pig architecture skills, too.

An short exerpt from the failed guinea pig playpen video this weekend. I tried setting up a little tripod to catch them at their eye level. It wasn’t long before Grace inadvertently shoved Ada out of the frame.

Day 7 of Micro.blog May Photo Challenge Sprint.

This is the best I can do for violet while self-isolating. (No guinea pigs were harmed in the making of this image.)

🤷‍♀️ 🌈📷

I would love to take the guinea pigs out to lunch today. But it’s a little damp and the temperature isn’t going to break 70F.

And check it out…

**Micro Meetup next Thurs. (Apr. 30), 5 pm - 6 pm PDT. **

@cheesemaker and I will be holding a virtual happy hour. Everyone is invited to be a guinea pig at what we intend to be a regular event.

Mark your calendars. Plan your backdrops. Details to come.

I knew it was a longshot, but I am sad that the Unicode Consortium rejected the guinea pig emoji proposal.

They probably won’t consider a crying guinea pig emoji either. That’s what I’d use here. 😭😿

(But I’m never using 🐹 for guinea pig!)

Why should bunnies have all the fun? Happy Easter!

More guinea pig cuteness. The instinct to stay in the cuddle cup is overridden by the instinct to eat fresh grass.

Today I’m thankful for my pals on The Incomparable Network. We had a lively chat today to wrap up Picard. A podcast a day keeps the blues away.

I look forward to another quiet night alone with the guinea girls.

Some people think this emoji:

🐹

could represent a guinea pig.

Never ever confuse hamsters and guinea pigs. That’s a common but serious faux paw.

I have been meaning to write up the process of submitting a guinea pig emoji to the Unicode Consortium for a few weeks now, but I’ve been distracted. 🤷‍♀️

I thought you all would enjoy seeing the proposed design too, by Neven Mrgan. I really hope it gets accepted!

Submitting a Guinea Pig Emoji Proposal

On March 4, 2020, I submitted a proposal for a guinea pig emoji to the The Unicode Consortium, the folks who decide these things. My guinea pigs are five-and-a-half years old, and I always wanted to have an emoji to represent them. There is a rabbit (🐇), a rat (🐀), and a mouse (🐁). There is even a hamster face (🐹), which some suggested would be usable as a guinea pig. *

Update (4/13/2020): The emoji was rejected. The committee felt that there wasn’t enough evidence that a guinea pig emoji was needed.

You can see that The Unicode Consortium’s emoji proposal request page has been updated, with the Guinea Pig marked “New” instead of “No proposal form.”

Like many guinea pig enthusiasts, I’ve always complained that there was no emoji representing our favorite rodent. I was inspired to stop complaining and work on a proposal when I saw Jennifer 8. Lee of Emojination give a talk titled “How I Became An Emoji Activist” at the 2018 XOXO conference. From Jennifer I learned that there was a process to getting a new emoji accepted. It requires some research and writing. My friend Heidi Helen Pilypas also inspired me with her successful proposal for a bell pepper/capsicum emoji.

The Unicode Consortium has a very specific template for emoji proposals. (Emojination has an annotated template that can be very helpful.) Besides building a case for why a new emoji is needed, you have to do research on the relative popularity of the proposed emoji item via Google and Bing searches.

You also can make the case that the proposed emojii can represent multiple meanings. Guinea pigs are synonymous with laboratory test animals; human test subjects are referred to as guinea pigs; and guinea pigs are also a popular meal in some parts of the world. (Researching that last bit was hard on me 😱, but I knew it was important to be complete and as objective as possible for the proposal.)

You also need to submit a proposed design. I was very lucky that Neven Mrgan, designer at Panic, has also owned guinea pigs and offered to design the sample. His guinea pig emoji so good, I want to start using it right now! But the earliest it’s likely to appear would be spring 2021, and it might not even be accepted. I would be disappointed, but I will still be very happy that I got this proposal together and submitted it for consideration.

I have more time to invent toys for the guinea pigs. 😇

I am thankful to have a cozy home with two guinea pigs for company.

I am looking forward to watching the latest season of Vera tonight. (I’m treating myself to a month of BritBox.)

Ada and I are in the new Cats & Netflix 2020 music video by The Doubleclicks!

The original was about being stuck inside in Portland during the rainy season. The new one features a guinea pig and a cat teleconferencing. (That’s Bandit and Erin on the other end.) 🤣

Here’s a fun thing to do: The Doubleclicks are updating their “Cats and Netflix” song and making a new video to go along with it. This one will be feature user videos of folks with their cats or otherwise self-isolating.

I’m sneaking guinea pigs into my submission.

The memo on plague survival has not reached the guinea pigs. They have been playing around with their water bottle today, and I’m going to have to add fresh bedding.

Today I am thankful for all my pals online, for commiseration, support, and entertainment. I look forward to another quiet night home alone with Grace and Ada. (I haven’t hoarded guinea pig treats, but I am well-stocked!)

Today I’m thankful for the new gas fireplace. It snowed today, a surprise for mid-March in Portland. The coziness is a welcome comfort.

I’m looking forward to another quiet night at home alone with guinea pigs.

Today I am thankful to be back home in Portland with my guinea girls. I’m looking forward to a day of rest with a little work sprinkled in.

Day 20 of the Micro.blog February Photoblogging Challenge: “scale.” My rodent of unusual size. ❤️

(Day 21 prompt reminder: “progress.”)

#mbfeb 📷⚖️

New thing I learned while researching my proposal for a guinea pig emoji: rabbits are not rodents. They are lagomorphs., an order that includes rabbits, hares, and pikas. 🐰🐇

I’ve found it hard to concentrate on anything besides Doctor Who today. So I’m pulling one from the archives for Day 15’s prompt “balance.”

This is Rosie, my previous guinea pig, balanced on my shoulders. #mbfeb 📷

Today I am thankful for the opening of the Green Zebra market only a block from my house—and they stock the Italian parsley that my guinea girls love.

I’m looking forward to hanging out at my sister’s house for dinner and family TV night, Survivor premiering. 🏝

Tonight’s soothing guinea pig munching sounds are brought to you by cucumber. Lo l P