635th Friday Blog Roundup

I bought myself Jackie so I could show it to the kids.  I really can’t put into words how much I loved this movie.  I cried through the whole thing, and I knew I wanted to own it the moment it came out on video.  Moreover, I wanted it as a digital copy so I could carry it with me wherever I went.

Some of it is the writing and the acting, but a lot of it is the space.  The West Wing gets some of the layout of the White House very wrong, and it annoys me whenever they walk through a door that doesn’t exist.  But this movie not only got the layout correct, but it makes me feel like I’m there.  Yes, we could watch a documentary on the White House and it would have the same effect, but this feels… different.  More emotional.

So I’m now carrying around Jackie in my pocket.  And four Harry Potter movies.  Because… you know… Potter.

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

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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:

• “Of Love and Rolling a Dosa” (Happiness and Food)
• “The Parents Who ‘Regret Having Children’” (Different Shores)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Riding the IVF Roller Coaster has a post that makes a great point: there is no formal declaration of best friendship in the way that you clearly know where you stand when it comes to marriage.  This means that I can consider someone my best friend, but maybe I’m not their best friend.  She writes: “However, why aren’t there rules about this? What about a ceremony to acknowledge who the best friend couples are? Why aren’t there rules to say if X is Y’s best friend, then it must be mutual and Y must be X’s best friend. I feel like a teenager who doesn’t know if she should refer to someone as her girlfriend.”  A really great question.

Bent Not Broken recalls a painful moment of someone springing an ultrasound video on her.  She thought she was going to get puppies doing cute tricks.  Instead she saw a baby wiggling around on the screen.  It’s a great post of how one person’s pleasure can be another person’s pain, and a good reminder to tread carefully, thinking through things before you click send or call someone over to see the “cutest thing ever.”

Anabegins has a post viewing your life in monthly (vs. daily) chunks.  She explains, “This past week I haven’t read or spent one on one time with anyone in my family. I may think I’m failing at my explicitly stated goals. But take a step back and look wider and the perspective is much different — this MONTH I’ve mediated 90% of days, had 3 one-on-one dates with each kid AND my husband, read 2 amazing books, and exercised 12 times.”  It’s a great reminder of looking at life goals in different ways to see the real story.

Lastly, No Baby Ruth is pregnant before IVF round 2, and I love her post because it captures the ups and downs of an early pregnancy.  Clearly someone out there has the early pregnancy experience that involves marveling over a positive pee stick and then running down the beach with the wind blowing in her hair and then happily shopping for baby clothes at six weeks (in other words, every pregnancy montage in a made-for-tv movie), but I do not know these people.  Pregnancy after infertility is hard, and because you know things so early, you go through the ups and downs of fear and reassurance.  Sending her good thoughts for smooth sailing from here on out.

The roundup to the Roundup: I now have Jackie in my hot little hands.  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 February 17th and February 24th) 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.