I haven’t been in the mood to write. Some of it is coming down from getting to see the twins. We had the best time with them; it felt like old times in many ways. Like nothing had changed except perhaps we were more aware that the time together was precious, and they sounded like older, confident versions of the kids we dropped off weeks ago.

Some of it is the ongoing situation overseas. It impacts us deeply on multiple levels, and while I don’t talk about it here, it is the only conversation happening offline.

Some of it is a constant stream of work that bleeds into the deep evening hours.

All of it adds up to a feeling that I don’t really feel like writing.

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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:

• “Your Friendly Reminder To Do What You Want” (Infertile Phoenix)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Bereaved and Blessed has a beautiful post about going through her late mother’s possessions, in particular, her shoes. She writes, “As I slipped my feet in her shoes and laced them up, the memories rushed in from when we were together and I was helping Mom by gently finagling each foot, adjusting her socks and then tying them up (with one knot, as she preferred).” Her writing put me in the moment, made me feel the love and care that went into those interactions. And this line both gutted me and lifted my heart: “Though navigating this new reality, in which Mom is dead, continues to be difficult and painful at times, allowing myself to feel how I feel helps me to find meaning, as I integrate what was then and what is now.” Sending a lot of love.

Lastly, Infertile Phoenix points out that moving can change everything. You don’t always bring your baggage with you. It can be about grabbing control and feeling happy in a new space. Great advice: “You might as well live where you want to live! At the very least, don’t live where you don’t want to live.”

The roundup to the Roundup: Not in the mood. 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 October 13 – October 27) 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.

Our elementary school playground had a turtle-shaped climbing gym with a metal turtle head. The head had a hollow space inside, and you could fill it with mulch — as many uninspired children did — or fascinating rocks you found at the “rock factory,” which is what we called the hill next to the soccer field because we dug up rocks.

Sometimes, we placed notes inside and then informed someone on the playground that there was a note for them in the turtle head; an inefficient and frankly dangerous way of passing notes since it required the person to leave their game of kickball immediately to fetch it, lest it end up in the wrong hands.

This article made me weepy about a home for retired playground animals. Our turtle climbing gym is long gone; our elementary school became a community center many years ago. Moreover, I think a copy of that dolphin statue once upon a time was down here in Maryland outside the Loehmann’s in Loehmann’s Plaza on Rockville Pike, but the Internet fails me as I try to find photographic proof.

I love the idea of a playground animal cemetary you can visit.

Sometimes when we’re playing the New York Times Connections game, I’ll turn to Josh and say, “These categories are bullshit.” Like the one a few Saturdays ago where all of the choices were people’s names.

But then I found a Connections generator, and I realized how difficult it is to come up with categories and find four things that fit. Plus, come up with additional categories where things from the first category could potentially fit, and so on. I ended up giving up trying to make one.

It gave me a deep respect for Wyna Liu, who makes the NYT’s puzzles. Try it yourself.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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I was fascinated by this experiment, putting two photos side-by-side: the actual photo and the AI-described photo. The person writes, “just to be super clear, at no point did I upload or share my original photographs with the AI software for this. I just attempted to describe the original shot with words alone.”

So they said what was in the photo, and this Adobe AI tool could generate a photo that looked similar (or sometimes more real) than the original photo. Super creepy. It seems to do better with inanimate objects than humans.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.

I read about this idea earlier in the summer and saw the bookmark again. Instead of writing stories, the person challenged themselves to come up with five story ideas per day with an idea streak.

This appealed to me because coming up with an idea is easier than executing an idea, but you may have more energy to take the next step if you have a lot of good ideas.

For story ideas, you write down the plot you would like to read. What kind of story would really excite you if you were in the library, trying to choose a book? But this could also work for work ideas, packed lunches, or ways of letting someone know you care about them. You sit down and jot down five things every day, and at the end of the month, you have 150 – 155 ideas (except in February). Brilliant.