824th Friday Blog Roundup

Google introduced AR animals. When you Google the animal from the Google app on your phone, it gives you the option to see it in 3D. Once you click on that, you see a 3D version of the animal moving around on a blank, white background. It asks if you want to see the animal in AR, and if you click “yes” and give it access to just about everything on your phone, it will allow you to see a quokka hopping around your living room.

I went from being so-beyond-excited-I-cannot-stand-it to being super disappointed once I learned the only way you can get this to work is to give it access to your microphone (why?), camera (that makes sense), and camera roll (why?). Which I’m not going to do.

But if you have the Google app and have given it access to everything on your phone, you can have a virtual koala friend hang out next to you while you watch television.

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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:

• None… sniff…

Okay, now my choices this week.

Hopelessly Infertile and Surrounded by Fertiles begs the people of the world to know their audience. A case in point: She doesn’t need to see pictures of new babies or hear people go on about how thrilled they are not to have babies anymore. No one knows what another person is going through, but there are certain topics that perhaps should only be discussed if you are certain about the other person’s situation.

Kveller asks us to remember infertile people during Chanukkah. The author writes: “But once I started trying to conceive — and subsequently endured three years of miscarriages and expensive fertility treatments — the holidays transformed from a period of celebration into a time to hide. I wanted to avoid people asking me what was going on (nothing! I was either trying to get pregnant or getting over a lost pregnancy), to steer clear of other pregnant women (I was jealous!), and to dodge triggering sights (basically everything).” You don’t need to be Jewish to get a lot out of this post.

My Path to Mommyhood talks about joyscrolling—the opposite of doomscrolling. It’s a website. And it’s relaxing fun. (Except when you think about the fact that you can’t go to Iceland right now.)

Lastly, No Kidding in NZ takes apart the word “failure.” She points out the need to separate the individual from the situation. “And that’s because we personalise it. It failed – the medical technology, or the adoption process, or broader society failed. It doesn’t mean that I am a failure. It might be my body that technology couldn’t help, but I personally am NOT a failure. And neither are you.” It’s a beautiful ode to resilience.

The roundup to the Roundup: Virtual animal friends. 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 December 11 – 18) 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.