Category — Friday Blog Roundup

Bio Girl is my book twin; my identical book twin. We not only like and dislike the same books, but we discovered this week that we even start liking books in the exact same place.

I recently started reading Rainbow Rowell’s Carry On since my book twin liked it. And it was at a solid 9 out of 10. Very likable but I couldn’t understand why she was sooooo gaga about it. Could this be the novel that threw me out of sync with my book twin?

But then I got to the point in the book where it shot past the 10 ceiling firmly into 11 out of 10 territory. Oh my G-d, it’s so good. Suddenly I understood why she told me she reread it immediately after the first read. When I wrote her to let her know that my fears of our book twinness have been resolved, it turns out that she had the same reaction in the same place.

So good. And I love having a book twin.

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Speaking of books, the winners of the Life from Scratch and Measure of Love audio books:

Jessie
Illustr8d
Charlotte

Sent you the codes so let me know if you have any trouble with the download.

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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:

• “Privilege, for Flint” (A Half Baked Life)
• “Deciding or Escaping” (Inconceivable!)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Two Adults, One Child has a wonderful post about looking closer at the years she misses from her youth.  Were they really as fun as they seem in retrospect?  Was she really that happy?  Is she forgetting about the loneliness or the fear?  It’s an important look back on the good, old days, appreciating them but also knowing that she will one day remember these years like she remembers those years.

The Road Less Travelled has a post about marking milestones but also how we stop celebrating things as we age.  She muses, “But most people get to relive, or improve on, the rituals and celebrations and milestones they experienced as a child with their own children as they grow up. Those of us without children don’t get to do that.”  It’s an interesting post about how celebrations change over time, while looking closely at what we mark and what we allow to pass without fanfare.

Res Cogitatae has a heart stopping post about her father’s accident that left him paralyzed and a look at whether the perfect life really exists.  She writes about people who led seemingly charmed lives in their twenties, “Now that I’m in my mid-thirties, I don’t think I know anyone like that anymore. Life and the universe have slowly, inexorably, crept up on all of my friends. And we’ve all lost something or someone.”  And then she points out that none of us are immune to accidents, the ones that catapult us from the lucky side to the unlucky side in seconds.

Lastly, Twangypearl the Elastic Girl writes about having her adoption profile shown and ultimately passed over by a new mother.  She writes, “I went to see Room later that day, which may not have been the best choice given the circumstances, but I enjoyed it in a weep-freely-in-the-dark way.”  That image of her crying in the dark, really of all of us at one point or another crying in the dark, stuck with me since I read the post.

The roundup to the Roundup: My book twin and I fell in love with Carry On at the exact same time.  Audio book giveaway.  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 12th and 19th) 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.

Mental Floss posted the exchange rate between Muggle money and magical money, giving us insight into the cost of various items in the magical world.  1 galleon is about $25, which means a sickle is $1.50 and a knut is 5 cents.  I don’t know, I sort of feel like the magical world would have a few more denominations between $25 and $1.50, nu?

Harry’s wand cost $175, which is far less than what we pay for our phones.  How are these two objects equivalent?  I don’t know.  But considering how much they use their wands and we use our phones, I thought it would be a comparable price.  On the other hand, he spend $250 on a pair of omnioculars.  That doesn’t sound quite right.  A pair of omniculars costs more than a wand with a phoenix feather core?

And Mr. Weasley got a $1250 fine for his flying car?  That seems awfully steep even in the scope of Muggles finding out about magic.  And the book Advance Potion Making is $225?  More than a wand?  A wand with a phoenix feather?  And that phoenix only gave one other feather?

Magic folk may want to rethink their pricing.

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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:

• “MicroblogMonday: He Stayed” (Our Wish)
• “Of Potatoes and Miscarriages” (I Pick Up Pennies)
• “I Will Grieve” (Infertilityhonesty)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Family Rocks has a raw, moving post that will make your heart ache.  She explains about her relationship: “He’s still the perfect package to me.  The package is a bit beat up.  Marred by resentments, hurts, family stress, breakages of trust and pain.”  You can hear the love and the pain in every word in this post.

It has been three years since Bio Girl lost her sister.  She wrote a line so perfect that I stared at it for a full minute: “As with all things I guess, the grief over these last three years has gotten easier. Not because I miss her less, but because I have grown more accustom to the missing.”  Go hold her in your heart as she remembers her sister this week.

Lastly, Lavender Luz calls for a better discussion to introduce people to the intricacies of adoption.  She writes about a hospital-based program trying to change the conversation and better prepare and support all members of the triad.  She links to a podcast about the program, too.

The roundup to the Roundup: Magical to Muggle exchange rate.  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 5th and 12th) 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.

I was a little shocked by the number of people who said they would let their friend order. Some people talked about receiving suggestions from friends or waitstaff.  Of course, I take suggestions all the time.  A waitress’s suggestion just led me to a delicious sandwich at a vegan restaurant, and my cousin told me to try her buffalo hot sauce cauliflower thing and I did and loved it.  So, sure, I can roll with suggestions.

What gave me pause was the idea of going to a restaurant, sitting there with the menu closed, and telling the other person, “Surprise me!”  You would have to be a fairly trusting person and an adventurous eater — both of which I am not.

*******

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:

• “Hello From the Other Side” (Awaiting Autumn)
• “MicroblogMondays: The Tetris Effect” (River Run Dry)
• “Withdrawing After Loss” (No Kidding in NZ)
• “Your Life as a Video Game” (Stirrup Queens) — thanks, Katherine!

Okay, now my choices this week.

No Kidding in NZ explains that there are many reasons to withdraw after a loss and that self-care is just as important as reaching out.  I love that this brief post points out the positive sides of cocooning and hopefully emerging stronger and calmer.  A small change in perspective makes all the difference.

Pages, Stages, and Rages has a note she wrote to her daughter’s former caregiver back in China that made me cry, especially this exchange: “…She saw a picture of you.  She stared at it for a while. and I asked her what she remembered.  ‘She smelled good.’ Our daughter said. ‘She was warm.’  I knew she was loved.”  Go read the whole letter.

Infertile Girl in a Fertile World has a post about a Facebook meme making the rounds.  She has been tagged and doesn’t want to participate; at least, not in the way the meme dictates.  She writes: “But being infertile is like walking through a door and locking it behind you. No matter the outcome, you can’t go backwards.”

Inconceivable! has a post about the monsters in our lives.  This post resonated with me because I spend a lot of time worrying, which makes the monsters much larger and scarier than they actually are.  She explains: “I’ve spent years ‘seeing’ monsters such as illness, job loss and unexpected tragedies, trying to dodge them, afraid of their presence in an outsize way, far beyond simply doing the best I can to plan and minimize the impact in real ways – then moving on.”  Me too.

Battlefish has a great post about matching the “me” on the inside to the “me” on the outside.  She dismisses the thought as silly, but it made complete sense to me: this idea that your inside being and your outside being may not match, visually.  I loved this post.  It’s for every punk rock girl sporting a sensible haircut.

Lastly, No Baby Ruth wrote a post I needed to read this week about the Tale of the Porcupine.  If you don’t know this parable, click over to read the post.  You’ll suddenly remember why you can’t cut yourself off from the rest of the world and why you sometimes may be pricked as you brush up against your fellow travelers.

The roundup to the Roundup: Tipping my hat to more adventurous eaters.  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 January 29th and February 5th) 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.

I did not put on real pants from Thursday to Thursday.  That probably wasn’t necessary, but how often in life are you healthy but get to wear pyjamas for 7 straight days?  I mean, I changed them each day.  I showered.  But then I’d slip into a fresh pair of pyjamas and start anew.

It felt really odd to put on real pants on Thursday and leave the house.  I’m not really a fan of leaving the house on a normal day, but when you’ve been inside for 7 straight days, it makes everything sound too loud and look too bright.  On the other hand, I got confirmation that if we had to live underground, we could totally manage.  We’d even thrive.  The twins and I are indoor door kids.  We’re stay-at-home kids.  We’re don’t go anywhere for many days or breathe fresh air kids.

We had a good time being off of school this week.  It was like summer.  Except it was winter.  So not really like summer at all.

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If you haven’t yet signed up for the Random Act of Kindness Day, it’s creeping up on March 9th.  You can head over and sign up on Facebook.  Last year over 11,000 joined along, many of them fellow bloggers from the ALI community.  It would rock to do this together again.

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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.

*******

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:

• “Blogging Affects My Mood” (Stirrup Queens) — Thank you, Catwoman73
• “Peace in the Storms” (In Due Time)
• “People, on MLK Day” (A Half Baked Life)
• “Our Great Financial Sin” (Not a Wasted Word)
• “On Pandering” (Tin House)
• “On ‘the Terrible Efficiency of Gaslighting’” (Brevity)
• “I Like Mondays” (Infertilityhonesty)

Okay, now my choices this week.

I usually shy away from featuring huge sites, but Huffington Post had a beautiful piece about infertility this week.  Colleen Berge writes, “What have we really lost? What words can we use to do justice to this thing that knocks the air from our lungs?”  I love her unpacking of the “at leasts.”  It’s a really good read.

The Road Less Travelled has a post about suddenly realizing a connection between Katie and Malia Obama within the timing of the two daughters.  It’s a beautiful piece about two families in two different places feeling two huge waves of emotion as a milestone is reached and unreached at the same time.

Searching for Our Silver Lining realizes that she often waits for other bloggers to say what she is thinking, and decided this time to step forward with an article she read and express her feelings.  It’s a brief post, just introducing an idea tied to an article, but the post itself speaks volumes: do you wait for other people to say things, or do you start typing your thoughts as they come into your brain?

Lastly, Anabegins has a post about turning 40 that spoke to me.  If you remember that I was dragged kicking and screaming into my 40s, you will understand why I loved this line so much: “A birthday is just a date, not a magic gateway into a more enlightened state.”  I love the energy she is putting into getting over her can’ts.  And I’m cheering her on as she meets the milestone and sprints past it, changing her life and becoming better and better.

The roundup to the Roundup: We had a snow week instead of a snow day.  Do a random act of kindness?  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 January 22nd and 29th) 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.

Well now I’m glad that I kept my spelunking suit because we are about to get 6 million feet of snow.  For the first time ever, I received a weather alert warning of an impending blizzard.  Impending blizzard!  That sounds like something that happens in Antarctica, not Washington, D.C.  But I dutifully went to the food store and bought up staples like clementines and bread flour (if I’m going to be snowed in, all I’m eating is citrus and hot pretzels).  And now we wait.

The only thing I’m sad about is that I intended to buy myself a decent pair of boots this winter.  I wear a pair of Docs most days, but they’re not actually waterproof so they leak in the snow.  I was going to buy myself actual snow boots, but I didn’t.  And now I’m sort of screwed on the shoe-front despite my waterproof pants.  How was I to know that we were going to have a historic snow event where we get 28 billion feet of snow?

We have books.  We have video games.  We actually have a pile of work to do.  And we now have an open weekend since everything is going to be closed due to the 97 trillion feet of snow.  I feel like I shouldn’t squander these last few minutes before the snow comes, but I have no clue where to go except perhaps the food store to replace the container of peanuts I spilled across the kitchen floor.  Ha — as if there are peanuts left on the shelf.

*******

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:

• “Whose Story Is It?” (Lavender Luz)
• “Our Adoption Photo Shoot” (My Path to Mommyhood)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Infertile Fantasies blows my mind once again with the questions she asked this week about her donated embryos.  The other woman’s pregnancy didn’t go well and she has lost her fallopian tube.  The questions are so thought-provoking, though I suspect the answers will be different from person to person.  Still, these are the sorts of posts the general public needs to read to fully grasp IVF and frozen embryos and donation, et al.

Project Progeny is back with a post about the end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016.  My favourite line: “This job is not my own personal salvation and I think my biggest mistake has been thinking that it was.”  What incredible insight, and I wonder where else this applies in life.  The things we take to heart that we could also look at with this perspective.

Lastly, River Run Dry’s post this week is especially apt due to the name of her blog.  She has run dry, but she does a wonderful job of boiling down a familiar situation into its separate components and discussing how to get over the guilt and shoulds.  For anyone feeling stretched thin, go over and read this post.

The roundup to the Roundup: We are getting 400 quadrillion feet of snow.  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 January 15th and 22nd) 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.