Do you remember this absolutely amazing (and brilliantly simple) game from last January? Thomas (the creator) is back with an updated game that works the same way, but now with colourful bars that tell you how close you are to goal.

It is hard to wait to start grouping. Upon opening it, I immediately clicked two blocks together. I wanted to remain firm and wait for the weekend, but tiny peeks at it mean that I’m 18% of the way through.

Enjoy Make Groups.

I consider myself a fairly digital person even though I’m more analog than others. I still take meeting notes by hand, keep a paper journal and a paper datebook, and buy paper books. Writing that, it sounds like I hate trees. Anyway, I work remotely online and often socialize via FaceTime. That feels like a digital life.

I got excited by a list of 50 things you can do to lead a more analog life. But when I opened it up, I discovered that I’m much more analog than I thought. Before I read the list, I would have judged myself to be 80% digital/20% analog.

But I didn’t hit the first thing I didn’t already do until #10. I see sunsets, but I don’t make a point to go outside and watch the sun set. Some of the list is unhelpful — I didn’t need to do 11 – 15 because I find it super easy to not pick up my phone or go on websites — and some was confounding (how are game consoles analog? Why not board games?). But overall, it was a good reminder that some of the basics are worth keeping.

I’m thinking now I’m more 60% analog/40% digital upon reflection, though I got to that answer without any scientific proof beyond the fact that I already do (or already don’t do) most things on this list.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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It’s a super simple website, but it made me so indescribably happy. You write one good thing in the prompt bar, and it gets attached to a bird who flies around in the trees. And you can click on any bird and read what other people have written. All of the messages are small, happy things, and your small happy thing is flying around, too.

You can feed the birds when you click on them. Look at the four icons; it’s the one on the far left. And you can see how many people catch or feed your bird.

Enjoy.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.

I somehow missed the news about the English-language translation of the Talisman of Happiness, the Italian equivalent of The Joy of Cooking. It’s one of those cookbooks that everyone gifts to new cooks because it covers just about everything.

But I quickly became obsessed with the book due to its annoyingly brief instructions. The translator kept the tone and vagueness of the original text because that was the point. She gives you the basic knowledge to go from ingredients to a finished dish, but you, as the cook, are supposed to adjust it to your taste. Each recipe is a tiny puzzle to figure out, and because so many of the recipes are things I have never eaten, I can play with them to make them into something I enjoy.

We started with her penne alla vodka because I’m already familiar with the dish (it was amazing!), and her spaghetti alla carbonara di magro because it was mentioned in a newspaper review of the book (equally good!). My plan is to write what I attempt in the white space around the recipe so I can keep making it when I land on a version that works. I need a project. Cooking it is.

Obviously, I’m mostly thrilled with the midterm results, though it’s bittersweet because if everyone had voted this way two years ago, we wouldn’t be in this mess. All we can do now is launch investigations, control the budget, and reject appointments. Not small things, but we won’t be able to override a veto, even with that majority, unless things change drastically.

So I’m happy-ish. I want to see the people elected make good on their promises. And I want to see the same people who turned historically red spaces blue because they realized they had been electing people who harm them, to show up in two years and do it again.

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Stop procrastinating. Go make your backups. Don’t have regrets.

Seriously. Stop what you’re doing for a moment. It will take you fifteen minutes, tops. But you will have peace of mind for days and days. It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

And now the blogs…

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But first, second, helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week. To read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• None… sniff.

Okay, now my choices this week.

The Road Less Travelled hit 19 years of blogging. Go wish them congratulations.

Slaying, Blogging, Whatever recounts the events of a hard month. Amid injuries and work stress, she has the added sadness of her father’s first birthday after his loss. I got weepy reading about their birthday tradition with each other and the enormity of it.

Lastly, No Kidding in NZ hits the nail on the head in discussing articles pitting people against one another. She discusses a recent Daily Mail article that touches on childless vs. childfree, and writes, “The tone of both articles is, to put it mildly, unpleasant, and devised to create division.” I’ve found this more and more, so I’ve been reading articles less and less. I’m sure there are other people who love to read things that upset them, so we cancel each other out, but I appreciate having the commonalities (instead of the differences) pointed out.

The roundup to the Roundup: Midterms. Your weekly backup nudge. And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between October 30 – November 6) 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.