Erin McKweon always makes me think. I mean, her music makes me dance, but her newsletter makes me think. She recently wrote about the cost of creating art. Yes, there are the very visible outliers — the Taylor Swifts and the George Clooneys of the world. But the vast majority of people who create the art we consume do not live a life of private planes and lake houses.

She quickly gets to the heart of the matter: “So many people enjoy art so blithely without realizing what it costs, financially and emotionally, to provide it.”

I think about this every time I see a two-star or one-star review on Goodreads. I saw one yesterday — “not well-written.” That was the whole review accompanying a one-star rating. Maybe it was. It wasn’t a book I read. But I think about that author reading that review and thinking about all of the things she didn’t do while she was writing the book for other people’s entertainment or elucidation. Maybe she made a couple thousand on the experience. Or maybe not even that much. Many publishers have stopped giving advances, so you only get a fraction of what you sell.

When I look at my bookshelves, peruse my ongoing music playlist, attend the theater or the symphony, or even watch a television show, I notice that the vast majority of what I consume is created by people who do not own second homes, and as Erin would point out, may not own first homes. The point of creating art is not to get rich. But we should pay the entertainment providers a living wage. Just food for thought.

We bought our Halloween candy last weekend. On Sunday night, I told Josh I was opening the bag and having one piece. Thus started the slippery slide of eating through the Halloween candy before giving it out tonight.

Listen, it’s an enormous bag. The kids are not going to go without their treats. But I needed the Snickers. I needed the Almond Joys. I even needed the mini Butterfingers, even though they flake all over you when you bite into them, making them sort of annoying. The only thing that was not in this bag was my absolutely favourite: Three Musketeers.

Luckily, Halloween candy goes on sale this weekend. I can snatch those up for myself.

It’s hard to have candy in the house.

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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.

And now the blogs…

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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:

• “#MicroblogMondays: I dreamed a dream…” (The Road Less Travelled)

Okay, now my choices this week.

All & Sundry has deep thoughts about how we get accustomed to new situations. And yes, the pain is still there after a loss, but it’s about the pain becoming manageable instead of being overwhelming and blotting everything else out. I especially liked this paragraph: “I am alone enough now that I often think about the differences of shared experiences and whether one state is intrinsically better than the other … There is such a huge difference between being lonely and being alone.” Yes, you’ll have to click over to read what comes in between, but start at the top because it’s a great post.

Lastly, Jewish IVF has a post about her final embryo transfer, a carefully orchestrated plan that went sideways when everything she put in place bumped up again people who hindered more than helped. The takeaway clinics need to hear: “I was so frustrated that no one paid attention to what’s important to me as a patient. There was no discussion between the clinic and the OR to communicate the limitations I had shared.” My heart hurt reading it.

The roundup to the Roundup: Don’t open the Halloween candy too early. 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 24 – 31) 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.

This is a monthly series, published near the end of the month summarizing what I found, ate, watched, googled, and felt this month. New categories added from time to time.

Books Added to My TBR (e.g., books I just learned about that I’m excited to read… maybe)

• 59 Minutes (Holly Seddon)
• The Ten Year Affair (Erin Somers)
• Anatomy of an Alibi (Ashley Elston)
• Untitled Cornish Mystery 1 (J.M. Hall) – not sure what this is, but I’m there for it
• Dissection of a Murder (Jo Murray)
• Permanence (Sophie Mackintosh)
• The Road to Dalton (Shannon Bowring)
• Then Things Went Dark (Bea Fitzgerald)
• Death Writ Large (Susie Dent)
• The Parkwood Murders (Chris Chibnall)
• Chosen Family (Madeleine Gray)
• The Armchair Detectives (Matt Dunn)
• The Artful Anna Harris (Tracy Maton)

Notable Meals (new recipes, old favorites, and restaurant items we ate this month)

• Cafe sandwich: Tofu, peanut-ginger sauce, soy-based slaw on a panini-pressed sourdough bread with a side salad of greens, carrots, and beets.

Television, Movies, and Music (watching and listening)

• Only Murders in the Building (Season 5): Sometimes the episodes are great. Sometimes they’re okay. I always enjoy watching it, but I don’t crave watching them a second or third time as I do with other comedies.
• The Office: We missed this years ago, but we decided to try it now because we’re enjoying The Paper. We’re only a couple of episodes in, and it’s slowly getting better. I think we’ll stick with it but watch it slowly.
• Taskmaster Season 20: The episodes are currently rolling out on YouTube. This is one of my favourite casts. We like everyone. It’s so funny.
• The Diplomat: New season! I did not see that twist coming at the end of the first episode but it totally makes sense on how the rest of the season will roll out. Such great storytelling and character exploration.

Added To My Ongoing Mix Tape

• “Smile” (Lily Allen)
• “You Get What You Give” (New Radicals)
• “Natural Blues” and “Honey” (Moby)

Tabs I Left Open (things I Googled and left up on the screen)

• A website about historic Sugartown
• Women’s wellies on the Barbour website (debating between Barbour, Hunter, and Bogs)
• How to get email notifications from Libby
• Location of Lyra’s bench in the Botanic Garden at Magdalen
• A sweater I liked at Hanna Andersson
• Exeter Cathedral’s new treasure room
• A Wikipedia page for the show Inside No. 9
• The advice song from the Hunger Games from Wiress on priorities: “First avoid the slaughter / Get weapons, look for water / Find food and where to sleep / Fire and friends can keep.”
• A page about the now defunct Bowcraft Amusement Park

Micro-Joys

• Seasalt (my other favourite British clothing brand) is opening stores in the US in same-named cities as where they have stores in the UK. There is a Seasalt in Shrewsbury UK, and there is now a Seasalt in Shrewsbury, New Jersey. We were nearby, so we drove over and I fell in love with the first skirt I tried on. I felt so good in it, and I can’t wait to wear it this winter.
• There is a black cat with a white foot who prowls around the neighbourhood and loves to sit in our bushes. One night, we came home, and there was a fluffy grey cat sitting upright on our top step, outside the front door. While we always expect to see the black cat, this was a cat we had never seen before, waiting for us. It stared at us as we watched it from the car. Finally, we opened our car doors and started up the steps, and IT VANISHED. It didn’t jump off the steps and run away. It literally vanished. We think it was a ghost cat.
• The apartment building I lived in during graduate school changed its name and quintupled the rent after a refurbishment. But it was driving me bonkers because I couldn’t remember the old name. I ended up having to message Serenity because I knew she would remember the name. So forgetting something meant I got to catch up with an old friend.

Mood

• Trying to keep things in perspective and take a step back when I notice that I’m not.

What about you? Let me know what you’re eating, seeing, listening to, googling, feeling this month.

A few weeks ago, I peered down into my Yeti and noticed the burnished patina on the bottom of my tea cup. It wouldn’t come off the stainless steel, no matter how much I scrubbed. Internet to the rescue.

I dropped about eight denture cleaner tabs into the bottom of the cup and added boiling (not just hot) water. I let it sit for a few minutes, then spilled it out and scrubbed. It took a few rounds, but the Yeti looks unused at this point. The metal sparkles. And the tea tastes better. Win-win.

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The dek for this article about Goodreads says it perfectly: “It’s glitchy. It’s mean. It’s a mess. It’s my favorite website on the internet.” It’s the only social media site where I scroll back to see where I left off because I don’t want to miss anyone’s reading update. It’s like a book club that never ends, accessible 24/7.

I learn more about other people than I do from other social media sites. I’m not just talking about what they’re reading; it’s how they talk about the books.

I know there are other, better book communities out there. But I still like Goodreads, not just for the critical mass of people and opinions.

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

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Crowdguesser is easier to play on a laptop than on a mobile device. Each day, you see five pictures of crowds of people, and you have to guess how many people are in the photo. Answer quickly because you’re being timed.

I find that I usually overshoot the total. I’ll guess a few extra if the group is below 50, and I can be wildly off if over 100. But I’m almost always over the actual total vs. under.

How did you do?

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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.