375th Friday Blog Roundup
We downloaded Google Earth for the iPad, which is a free app. It has brought us hours of amusement. First and foremost, I love that when you put in a new location, the screen sucks backwards as if you have suddenly lifted into the air, and then you fly across the screen until you land in the new place. We virtually visit Disney World, using our fingers to drag ourselves between the park and the Contemporary Hotel. We walk through neighbourhoods in London, seeing how all the streets intersect. I sometimes go back to old places I’ve lived and follow the roads between different landmarks. It’s as good as Adele, in that regard, if you’re looking for a good cry.
But our absolute favourite thing to do is to put in fictional places and see where Google Earth places us. We’ve looked up Privet Drive and Hogwarts (Hogwarts is obviously unplottable, but we still tried it anyway). We’ve looked up Neverland (it brings up nothing). Terabithia (again, nothing). Radiator Springs (if you add in Route 66, it takes you somewhere in Arizona where the road layout is close enough to Radiator Springs that if your children don’t poke around too much, they will totally find it believable).
I think it is a major failing of Google Earth not to pepper in a few additional, fictional locations. Or, at the very least, create a second app called Google Earth Fantasy, where you could go to the Shire or Whangdoodleland or Cockaigne. Wouldn’t you love to see a map of London and then see Diagon Alley coming out from behind of The Leaky Cauldron?
What fictional place would you want included in Google Earth Fantasy?
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Today is obviously Friday the 13th. I couldn’t remember ever remarking that it was Friday the 13th in a Friday Blog Roundup even though it happens all the time. By which I mean that the Roundup is always on a Friday and Friday the 13th is always a Friday, therefore, the two must intersect. I searched my own blog and found mentions of it in pretty much two year jumps. The last time was 2010, so it feels like we’re ripe for another remark about the date.
I wrote this last time and it still stands, except instead of noticing it on Twitter, I noticed it when I was writing down plans for the weekend and I said, “oh my G-d, it’s Friday the 13th this weekend!”
Today is Friday the 13th. That only occurred to me because someone Tweeted about it earlier in the week. I also missed the fact that it was 8/9/10 on Monday. I am not the brightest woman when it comes to dates, though I have 2012 circled on my calendar not just because the world is ending that year, but because it’s also Queen Elizabeth’s diamond jubilee.
Though I’m usually fairly anxious around certain dates, allowing my imagination to run towards grotesquely disturbing scenarios, I’ve never had big feelings concerning Friday the 13th. Even if I live … like … 2 miles from Camp Crystal Lake and I totally know someone who knows someone who is the cousin of the counselor who decapitated Mrs. Voorhees.
It’s one of those dates that I feel like I should have big feelings about. If I’m not worried, then I must be a fool.
You know how girls pinched each other’s arms with a Cootie Shot to ward off boy germs? Mentioning that it’s Friday the 13th feels like a horror Cootie Shot.
Do you care about Friday the 13th or are you not superstitious about the date?
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And now the blogs…
But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week as well as the week before. In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:
- “A Letter to My Fertile Friends” (MMCC – IF Only)
- “Failed” (Are You Kidding Me?)
- “What I Was” (TheStorkDiaries)
- “Has Anger Solved Your Other Problems?” (DoctorMama)
- “Plan B” (Even Miracles Take a Little Time)
- “Mawage, that Bwessed Awangmen” (Eggs in a Row)
- “Devastation…” (For We Are Bound By Symmetry)
Okay, now my choices this week.
Baby Smiling in Back Seat has an interesting post about theft, and it made me consider tangible items (of which I had none) and non-tangible items (of which the perspective sort of changes whether you ask me or you ask the person “stolen” from — I don’t know if you can really steal friends, but someone else, for instance, might say I stole a friend). It’s not only an interesting topic on a very organ squirmy subject, but it also makes you think about the various ways you may have inadvertently or purposefully trespassed on another person’s life. Food for thought.
Miss Conception has a post about the hidden side of grief, the additional things that are missed after the initial loss. The day before what should have been her baby shower, she sits with her grief over her twins. It is not just the twins who aren’t here, but it is all the happy moments that can’t be partaken in due to their death. She writes, “Now…there will be no celebration. Tomorrow there won’t be any acknowledgement that they were supposed to be here at all. No one will even know that it was supposed to be my shower because the invitations never got the chance to be mailed. It will be just another day, like every other.” But it’s not just another day to her. Please shower her with love as she mourns her loss.
My Scar Smiles at Me also has a post about mourning, which becomes an exploration of why we mourn, why we don’t just sweep life under the rug. This thought took my breath away with its brilliance: “Yes, I don’t want to grieve every moment of my life. But I finally just said to my husband, ‘I don’t want to spend all day on the toilet, but no one wants to never ever take a shit’ its part of life and I while I don’t mind keeping it to myself now and then, the reality is we don’t talk much about our bowel movements at work, but there is unspoken space (both in time and equipment) provided for that necessary part of life.” You have to read this whole post.
Lastly, With Just a Little Help has a post about being ok-ish after their last IVF cycle. She relays a frustrating conversation with the physician’s assistant who messes up telling her important information about her embryos, as well as a difficult conversation with their parents. But it is a final phone call — a call from a friend — that reminds her that she is still ok-ish. A great post about the aftermath.
The roundup to the Roundup: Which fictional places would you like to see on Google Earth Fantasy? Do you care that it is Friday the 13th? And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between January 6th and January 13th) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week? Read the original open thread post here.
27 comments
My birthday is October the 13th, so the month is kinda spooky in and of itself. But when my birthday lands on a Friday, it feels extra spook-tacular. I’m not sure why? I’m not superstitious, but I feel like the day should hold something special.
I just started reading The Hunger Games trilogy. Actually, I finished the first book and started the second last night. Anyway, I’d love to see the fictional Panem that is in the book. It is actually a futuristic North America split into 12 districts with a capitol city somewhere west of the Rockies. Anyway, that would be cool for Google Earth to include.
I first feared and then loved the number 13. Recently learned that in Hebrew it means love. Can’t be so bad even on a Friday. Hope everyone has a good one!!!
Mr Spouse and I met on a Friday 13th, and I was going to chicken out and not go to our date, partly because it seemed an inauspicious day to do it. But obviously I am glad I did, and any Friday 13th is now slightly special for us.
My husband told me to tell you to Google Earth “Hobbiton” 🙂
Got separated on Friday the 13th and the divorce was finalized on a different Ffriday the 13th (both were very good days for me).
How about adding the Land of IF on Google Earth Fantasy?
And the starbase in Iowa (Star Trek).
I would LOVE to see Area 51 on ANY map.
I second Panem and Middle Earth! Also Westeros/Essos (the location of Game of Thrones!)
Definitely Panem, Middle Earth, and anything related to Harry Potter!
If you ask for walking directions from the shire to mordor you get a funny response 🙂
Look at Sea World. You can see one of the whales in the pool. Or at least you used to be able to, it has been a couple of years since I tried.
I used Google Earth to look up places in Scotland & Ireland where my ancestors lived, where I’ve never set foot before. Some of the houses/buildings are still there — & even if they’re not, you get a general sense of what the neighbourhood looks/ed like. Very cool.
When I was a kid, I always used to draw maps & floor plans to illustrate the stories I wrote. I love it when authors include stuff like that in their books. One of my favourites right now are the Flavia de Luce mysteries by Alan Bradley — there are four books & I think they all include a map in the front showing the layout of the village or of the estate Flavia & her family live on.
I always note when it’s Friday the 13th, but it doesn’t particularly bother me or freak me out.
Oooh, I second some locations from A Song of Ice and Fire. Namely The Eyrie, Braavos, and King’s Landing.
I do love a good map in a book – especially when locations are important to the plot.
I like the number 13 – I didn’t even realize until about midday that it was Friday the 13th today.
I love your google earth ideas! I use google earth all the time for work, so I have come to think of it as boring, I had forgotten how cool it was the first time I tried it out. I would love to be able to visit Hogwarts.
The 13th has always been special for us, and if it’s Friday, doubly so. We go engaged on a Friday the 13th, we got married on June 13th (which was a Sunday) and since then we view the 13th as a special day.
Thank you for sending people my way for a bit of support during this 3 month anniversary. Your site was a godsend when I first sought out others struggling with infertility and now it’s helping even more. What a wonderful community.
I suppose I would visit Middle Earth as well – like Rivendale.
Can’t think of any more places to add to Google Earth, but definitely ones from books and movies.
I’ve loved Friday the 13th as long as I can remember. It’s a good day for me. It seems to be Saturday the 14th that is cruddy. Thankfully, so far so good. heh
Here’s a Friday link:
Remembering Funny posted about it being two years since she heard her little one’s heart beat before her miscarriage. Beautiful and sad. http://rememberingfunny.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/two-years-gone/
I’d love to see the land the Milo visits when he travels through the Phantom Tollbooth!
Msfitzita had a post earlier this week that I keep going back to, describing the peace she has found in her life recently:
http://peanutsmom.blogspot.com/2012/01/unberable-lightness-of-being.html
This post took my breath away:
https://www.stirrup-queens.com/2012/01/cold-peace/
Tangent: I once read (DaVinci Code?) tha 12 is a masculine number and 13 is a feminine number. And that our fear of the mysterious and historical need to put down the power of the feminine is what gave rise to the myth of 13 as an unlucky number.
Not sure how Friday fits in, though.
Narnia. I’d love to see how that looks on a Google map. 🙂 And the 13th now has a different significance since it’s my daughter’s birthday. A positive spin so to speak.
Excellent post on the whole FB/Twitter as a source of anxiety thing, and Jen’s solution:
http://thisismorepersonal.tumblr.com/post/15833889767/guilt-free-infertility-2-0
I met my 1st boyfriend at a party on Friday the 13th. Never thought of it as unlucky after that (even after breaking up :). Hr called me up every Friday the 13th after that for a few years.
This 13th my Mom fell down a flight of stairs, broke her arm and badly bruised her hip so she can’t walk unassisted. Maybe it’s not tje greatest day after all…
friday the 13th is my mini-anniversary! sugar and i have several anniversaries — the date we celebrated for the first 12.5 years, the date of our legal marriage, the date of the celebration with family and friends. (i always wondered how i would choose which one to keep, and then i realized the solution is to use them all.) our legal marriage was on friday, november 13th, 2009, so i declared that all future fridays the 13th — which is a date i usually notice, or someone points out — would be mini-anniversaries, to be marked with a dinner out or at least a nice one at home. so far, so good.
This is a great post from Ike at Bloggers for Hope. He is introducing himself to the blog and also writing about his experience with male factor infertility. Very nice to hear it from a man’s perspective.
Oops forgot the link (see comment above). And he talks about Muppets too.
Am I a Muppet or a Man
A very belated thanks for the Roundup mention. During the move process I saved all of your posts to read later, and then later became much later, and here I am now.