754th Friday Blog Roundup

We saw The Farewell on Wednesday night. It was fantastic. It’s based on a true story, and it actually made me smile much more than it made me cry; a pleasant surprise.

Plus Akwafina completely transformed herself. She was incredible. I love it when you see an actor in two roles and the two characters are so different that you know the person has completely dissolved into the character. I always feel that way when I see Benedict Cumberbatch. Sherlock is nothing like Hamlet who is nothing like Patrick Melrose who is nothing like Alan Turing. I mean, they all look like him, but I didn’t watch Sherlock thinking that I’m seeing Alan Turing as a detective. Does that make sense?

Whereas some actors are always the same character. It’s more or less the same film after film, so it doesn’t feel like they dissolve insomuch as it feels like they’ve changed costumes.

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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:

• “We Can Imagine What It’s Like When A Baby Dies–We Just Don’t Want To” (An Unexpected Family Outing)
• “For Those Suffering” (Infertile Phoenix)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Empty Arms, Broken Heart has a post unpacking that often-said sentiment: “You haven’t changed one bit!” She admits it bothered her. “She meant to compliment how young I still look, but her compliment back-fired and made me feel the need to show my growth. I lived and learned through infertility, divorce, and foster-adoption.” Our growth is often internal, not visible to the people who meet us again in passing, but this post will make you think twice about how you phrase the thought.

Life’s Basic Elegance has a post about a planner. Except… you know… it’s not really a planner. It’s a post about the things we stop when we are in mourning, and the importance of restarting those tiny daily rituals that bring us back to everyday life.

Road Less Travelled writes about social media minefields we may not even be aware that we’re stepping on. After her SIL asks her not to post something for fear of offending other people (who weren’t invited), she wonders how many other postings have inadvertently had a negative impact on another person. As she points out: “Life is both richer AND a lot more complicated since social media arrived on the scene.”

Finally, FinallyMyLinesNow has an ode to her partner. They’ve been through a lot together, and she marvels at the new side she is seeing now that they are parenting. She writes, “I never would have guessed that kids would make my marriage stronger, but seeing him care for the babies and me in every sense possible has done exactly that.” It’s a happy story.

The roundup to the Roundup: Go see The Farewell. 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 August 2nd and August 9th) 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.