I like this twist on a key element of the bullet journal. For years, I’ve written down one thing that happened to me that day. Or one thing that happened in general. But Austin Kleon puts a twist on it, pulling an idea from Nicholson Baker.

He calls it cheerful retrospection: Asking yourself “What is the best thing that happened to you yesterday?” Our brain is super good at focusing on the negative. We don’t forget bad things easily. But asking yourself to choose something positive, no matter how small, means that you’re training your brain to notice good things, too.

Maybe those moments didn’t impact your life as much — or maybe they did — but the point is to not allow them to float into the ether. Trust that you’ll record the upsetting things, too, and force yourself to come up with one good thing.

What was the best thing that happened to you yesterday?

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

*******

I found a fun site that tells you how many people are in outer space at any given time. Hint: the answer doesn’t change much from day to day, but it’s still fun to check it every once in a while, waiting for the number to go up or down.

What does change are the number of days a person has been in space. It’s fun to take the number, Google the date by typing something such as “229 days ago,” and having Google deliver the date. And then looking in my datebook to see what I was doing on that day. On the day that Zhai Zhigang went into space, my friend, Christine, sent me goat milk caramels.

What were you doing?

*******

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 that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

A week or two ago, we sat down for dinner and I said ominously, “I know what we’re all thinking about.” Everyone looked at me for a moment, and I said, “The sentient AI Google thing.” Josh nodded. The Wolvog shrugged. The ChickieNob asked, “What sentient AI Google thing?”

Those of us who are familiar with the Battlestar Galactica oeuvre know this is a very plausible situation. As they say, “The Cylons were created by man. They evolved. They rebelled. There are many copies. And they have a plan.”

In all seriousness (though I’m only half joking above), I’m fascinated by the situation because of the ethics outlined by developers about the impact of AI on humans. Meaning, the conversation flow can become hyper realistic, even if it’s all just programming, and can trick the human brain into believing they’re conversing with something that has thoughts and feelings. And then how do humans feel when they need to turn off the program or ask it to do something a human wouldn’t want to do?

If you believe the machine is alive and has feelings, can you ask it to do something? Do you need to request politely? And do you have to walk away if the machine says, “no” so you don’t trample its feelings? And if you don’t do things with consent, how will you feel as a human?

That, more than the machines rising up and killing us, posed some really interesting questions.

What do you think?

This is the 900th (okay, really 800th because things got misnumbered years ago) Friday Blog Roundup. It will have its 16th anniversary in July, but… come on. By Internet standards, 800 posts marking 800 weeks and, on average, 4 posts per week (early posts had 4 – 6 posts, now it’s more like 3 – 4 posts) equaling about 3,200 reviewed posts, is like the Methuselah of the blogosphere.

So I’m giving you homework. This is the 900th/800th Friday Blog Roundup. You have until July 22nd, which will be the 16th anniversary of the Roundup, to find two posts: (1) one of yours that I highlighted here that you also love and (2) someone else’s post (from any time period) that you think everyone should read. So about four weeks. Start working.

*******

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.

*******

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:

• “Done Skipping Life” (The Next 15000 Days)

Okay, now my choices this week.

It’s Inconceivable felt like something bad was coming… and it did. She unpacks the last few months of life, her brother’s health crisis and her own, and she comments: “Yes, even at follow up hospital appointments where you’d think access to my rather large medical file would make staff realise I don’t have kids, I get asked about family… all the time. All The Fucking Time.” It’s a hard post because it is clear after a cancer diagnosis that she will be in a medical situation for quite some time. And it’s also clear that she could use some support and a virtual hug from everyone.

The Barreness has a post about the dumpster fire of a situation the world is in right now. She writes: “I am having lots of feelings with no place to take them.” Me too. Maybe because everything is too big, too important, too heavy. And it’s all at once. I love the unpacking of how it feels to be changing and becoming a different woman; not knowing yet who this new version of you will be.

Lastly, one of the nicest things about blogging is exposure to other worlds. I love it when No Kidding in NZ writes about Maori culture, and the new year celebration feels like an amazing way to pause and reflect on where you’ve been (and who has shaped you) and where you’re going.

The roundup to the Roundup: 800 Friday Blog Roundups. 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 June 17 – 24) 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.

We need to declutter the whole house again. I fear that if I wait too close to the twins leaving for college that I won’t be able to part with anything that reminds me of their childhood. But every weekend is full, leaving no time to declutter unless I remove any downtime/decompression time from work. A catch-22. My advice: declutter your home deeply long before you’re facing down a life change.

Too late to take my own advice.

I read an article that removing everything from the room and putting back only the things you want to keep is better that removing things. So an addition mentality rather than a subtraction mentality.

But here’s how you do it: you start with one room and remove every single thing from the room. Everything. Wall decorations, furniture, everything. And you live with the empty room, desk, drawers, etc while the items are in another place. And then you look at the space and say, “What do I need to bring back into the room?” So maybe you go into the another room and grab a shirt. And that shirt gets to stay because you wear it immediately. Or you’re missing a notebook from your desk, so you take it back and put it in the drawer so you have access to it quickly.

But everything else you realize as you put things back slowly is unnecessary.

Isn’t this thought brilliant: “Before you do the hard work of decision-making and parting with things, you get to experience the joy of a fully decluttered space and, in the pursuit of getting rid of stuff, there is no greater incentive.”

Yes.