619th Friday Blog Roundup

There are exactly two things powering me through life right now.  I wish they didn’t make me sound vapid.  But you know what? They do, so let’s just put it out there in the open.  It’s Shuffle Cats and Dirk Gently.

Shuffle Cats makes me happy.  Cats playing cards at a speakeasy and wearing flapper outfits?  Makes me happy.  It’s a digital card game made by the creators of Candy Crush, but unlike Candy Crush, there are few gates in place to slow down game play.  So I could conceivably play for hours, though I try not to gamble my life away.  It’s a free app, which means we owe King.com an enormous thank you for it.  Greatest app ever, and I don’t care how that makes me sound.

Dirk Gently is a television remake of the books (well, loosely based on the books) rolling out via BBC America.  I told Josh that on a scale from 1 to 10, I was a 15 when it came to pre-show excitement.  It lived up to all the hype in my head.  iTunes has the first episode free for download if you want to try it out.  I’m still at a 15 when I think about each episode.

Part of me is a little embarrassed that the only thing I have to contribute to conversations lately is information about cats playing cards and holistic detectives, but I own it.  Shuffle Cats + Dirk Gently = Getting Through the Day.

*******

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 in order to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

*******

And now the blogs…

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

• “Measuring Myself” (Searching for Our Silver Lining)
• “Infertility Limbo. Or, Stopping so That You Can Carry On” (Different Shores)
• “No Regrets.  Boom Boom!” (No Kidding in NZ)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Much Ado About Nothing has a post marking her child’s first birthday, but moreover, her own mental state when it comes to her fertility.  I love the two sides of this part — the highs and the lows: “I thank G-d every night I have this life, that He gave me this chance to be these tiny people’s mother. It’s messy, and stressful, and there is yelling and fighting, and tears, and laughter. And I would be lying if I said it didn’t weigh on my mind every single day if I will get to do this again, one last time.”  And it’s a gorgeous, aching ending.

A concrete post I can point to forever for why I love blogging: Kmina visited a place I wrote about on my blog awhile back; a place I had read about in an article and wanted to see.  And she photographed the whole thing and made the big, overwhelming world feel small and cozy.  And now I really have to get over there and see the salt mines.

Lastly, while I normally am not moved by articles on Buzzfeed, Laura Turner’s post about her miscarriage made me pause.  Actually, the turning point in the post was when she visited a friend who had miscarried while Turner was still pregnant.  She wrote: “She didn’t cry, and I didn’t ask many questions. I would have done that differently, knowing what I know now.”  Isn’t that it?  There’s one side where you just don’t know, and there’s another side where you do.  And I’m really sad for those of us who know, and it makes me look at those who don’t with a lot more forgiveness.  And this: “But when it’s a fetus that has died, or a baby, or whatever you want to call it, your life doesn’t change, and that’s the strange part — because it was supposed to.”

The roundup to the Roundup: Shuffle Cats and Dirk Gently.  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 28th and November 4th) 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.