884th Friday Blog Roundup
We kind of forgot to watch the Olympics. We watched the opening ceremony, and then we had good intentions to watch events when we received alerts about medals or remarkable performances. But by evening, we’d forget again. And then we were listening to NPR in the car last weekend, and they mentioned the closing ceremony and I realized that we forgot the whole thing.
It’s not like we had something better going on. I think it just comes down to our attention being so fractured between the internet and all of the streaming services. Once upon a time, the only evening television would be the Olympics or a movie. Now, we are drowning in a sea of content, and we don’t know where to focus.
I’m sad that I missed it. I like skeleton and luge. I caught half of Nathan Chen’s winning routine on YouTube before I was interrupted. I’m sure I could Google and see some more. But… it feels like I not only missed this part of the zeitgeist, but that the zeitgeist itself sort of missed the Olympics, too.
Did you catch more than I did?
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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.
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And now the blogs…
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.
Grumpy Rumblings allows the person who leaves the most comments during the year to direct a donation. I love this because it feels like such an OG blogging moment — the sort of thing we used to do because our platforms could make a difference. I am grateful to bloggers who keep the spirit of the space.
Jewish IVF gives a pregnancy update, but includes a thought towards the end that I found so interesting. She writes, “Not getting my tubes tied just yet but along the lines of wanting the freedom to travel, I think part of me is wanting to dissociate from the ttc stage of life. I’ve prioritized family building for the vast majority of the past decade. It feels normal to want to clear some space for something new.” It not only makes total sense, but the action can give you true closure; something I’ve always found lacking on my journey because we stopped in the middle of things.
Lastly, The Road Less Travelled writes about the idea of not being able to read while you’re in grief. This idea frightens me because reading is my self-care. She writes: “Coping with our own situation is taxing enough without taking on someone else’s, even when they’re just characters in a book.” So I definitely understood and anticipate I will one day be in a place where I can’t read. But it really freaks me out.
The roundup to the Roundup: I missed the Olympics. 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 18 – 25) 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.
6 comments
Thanks for the link!
Though I think our blog has about the same size influence that it ever had. It never got that big, but it has always been a nice community. And the readers choose great charities. We have probably never made a large difference anywhere but even small differences can be important to the people they affect. If everyone tries just a little then the world will be a better place. It’s only when people give up that the bigots and fascists and other assorted villains win.
I didn’t watch much of the Olympics this go-around either. Just too busy with life and too tired in the evenings. I love the women’s figure skating and am kinda sad I missed it but oh well.
BTW, I cannot imagine a season of life where I wouldn’t want to read. I have experienced periods where I have definitely had to *vary* from my usual — reading lighter, easy reads vs. thrillers, dramatic novels or non-fiction — but I’ve never not wanted to read at all except when I was too sick and tired during my pregnancy.
We actually watched a lot of the Olympics. This is the first time we let our kids watch a lot—like every night for several hours (on the west coast 5-8 pm was prime time, good for kids). So we watched almost every night, including opening/closing (although we joined the opening march of countries late). My kids really liked Kamila; we had to then explain the whole drug cheating thing after that came out.
Thanks for the shoutout, Mel! As I think I said in my post, I’ve never NOT been able to read, but my consumption definitely did suffer during the worst period of my grief, particularly my fiction reading. 2022 is off to a good start for me, though!
I did watch the Olympics, at least some of it — I was up at 5 & 6 a.m. some mornings (and up until well past midnight on other days) to watch the figure skating events live. And I did catch most of the opening & closing ceremonies (also live). But I didn’t watch much else, and certainly not as much as I usually do. A smattering of snowboarding, speed skating, curling and bobsled and a bit of hockey, and that was about it. Too much else going on — plus between covid and other restrictions on coverage, it just didn’t grab me in the same way as previous Olympics.
For once the Olympics time zone was kind to me (actually, Japan was good too), our cable service had multiple channels that I could choose from, and if I missed something the previous day (or 3) I could go back and watch it easily. So I watched a lot. Particularly the events that are so foreign to me – like cross-country skiing, and downhill. And snowboard cross. I loved it.
NZ got its first two gold medals ever in the Winter Olympics from two young athletes (they both won bronzes last time when they were only 16), so that was a focus too. I now know all about half-pipe freestyle skiing, and snowboard slope style! Lol
Though the elitism of it (in terms of the money it takes to get involved in any of these sports) and its lack of diversity always makes me uncomfortable.
Seconds helpings: Infertile Phoenix wrote a great post about the unexpected benefits of standing up for herself that led to a close moment with one of her sisters. https://infertilephoenix.blogspot.com/2022/02/saying-something-in-moment.html
PS. As I said on Loribeth’s post, reading can and does help me through tough times, as it can be an escape. Just don’t tackle anything too intense or deep at those times.