Since the invention of Reddit, I have been anti-Reddit. I mean, I’m not actually anti-Reddit because I have no problem with the site itself, but I’ve not been a visitor of Reddit. Not even for an AMA. I do not even know who is or isn’t an asshole.

But all of that changed recently.

I was searching for information online, and Reddit kept popping up as having the most useful, concrete advice. Other people were asking the same questions I was asking, and people answered their questions. I bookmarked Reddit boards. So I could find them again. And read them when new topics are added. Who am I? Am I still Melissa?

I don’t know where my anti-Reddit bias began, but I’m clearly over it.

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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:

• “It’s Okay To Like Your Childless Life As It Is” (Childless by Marriage)
• “An Unexpected Family Outing’s Facebook Post” (Yes, a Facebook post)

Okay, now my choices this week.

The Road Less Travelled has a post about making adult Halloween happen. It is definitely a holiday that can (and therefore, if you want to, should) be marked on multiple levels. And I am all for adults trick-or-treating.

Lastly, A Separate Life has a post about marking her birthday. At first, she wanted to do something big as she has done on other milestone birthdays, but after experiencing a milestone birthday out-of-sync timewise with loved ones, she went a different route: “I chose to celebrate with friends, with individual dinners and/or lunches (I still have one or two to plan). No gifts, no party, no fuss, just good company.” I love this. And happy birthday again.

The roundup to the Roundup: I’ve become enamored with Reddit boards. 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 21 – October 28) 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.

The twins found and downloaded all of their writing from elementary school. It is, as you assume, very sweet and funny.

The twins wrote a piece about how they imagined adulthood; specifically, they imagined their life would be at 29 when they were nine. The ChickieNob used 29 as a starting point, launching into plans that unfolded between 29 and 32. I had to read it aloud because she couldn’t get the words out. Some of it was ridiculous. Most of it was actually kind of possible if the stars aligned.

But it also was so sweet that it broke my heart because they filled their essays with big dreams. When do we stop dreaming big dreams and writing essays about where we’ll be in 20 years? I guess it becomes less amusing once you know how the world works. (In 20 years, I’ll be navigating medical appointments while renewing my AARP membership and feeling baffled by new technology. Yep… that’s probably pretty accurate if we’re all still living above ground.) But what about dreaming big dreams that may come true? That could come true. That are promises to your younger self to at least try to find the path that leads to that endpoint.

Food for thought.

For years, Josh and I have fallen asleep listening to the Shipping Forecast. It goes in cycles — months of listening, and then we abruptly stop, only to start up again whenever life gets stressful. A case in point; we’re in the throes of college applications. Life is stressful. We pulled out the Shipping Forecast again.

I read somewhere once that three makes a habit, and I don’t want to be dependent on the Shipping Forecast to sleep. So we always do two nights on, one night off. Sunday and Monday. Skip Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday. Skip Friday and Saturday.

I don’t know why listening to the weather in another part of the world is so comforting. Why I get so sleepy mentally traveling from point to point through UK waters. I’m happy that it’s there. It’s a small good thing.

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

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As someone who absolutely judges a book by its cover — I’m more likely not to read something I want to read if it has a bad cover than to read a book because it has a good cover — I thought this website is brilliant.

It gives you the first page or so of a book to read. If you like it, you can reveal the title and author so you can read it for real. If you don’t, you click “next book.”

Playing “guess the book” from the first page is also fun. It’s obvious when I’ve read the book or am familiar with the characters. (I see you, Mr. Phileas Fogg.) But I’ve been surprised sometimes to discover that a book I never thought about reading is actually quite engaging.

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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 discovered that brown noise is my favourite noise. If you asked me before I encountered that article (warning: that NYT’s article will make noise while you scroll), I would have said that I like white noise for drowning out other noise around me. But that’s because I called all sounds “white noise,” lumping the sound of rain in with the sound of dishwashers. And static.

But there are differences between white noise, pink noise, and brown noise, and my brain likes brown noise. Isn’t life amazing that you can be in your late forties and still learn something new about yourself?