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.

We’ve been debating whether or not to get an Amazon account. We don’t do a lot of online shopping, so it doesn’t feel worth it to me. On the other hand, there are things difficult to get in stores but easy to get on Amazon (e.g., my hair products), so maybe it is.

The thing I’ve noticed as we dithered over whether to get an account is that we’re buying less. When it isn’t convenient because I need to order from three different sites to get what I need, and when shipping isn’t free, I drag my feet on ordering at all. Which probably tells me the thing I’m about to order is a want, not a need.

A case in point: The rubber around my phone case is breaking off. I could order a new rubber sleeve if we had an Amazon account. Ordering it from anywhere else costs more than it’s worth. I’ve decided to live with the phone case as is. It’s kind of punk rock. Or well-loved?

We already order coffee, pet supplies, and books from other sites. If I buy my hair products in bulk, I can get free shipping from other sites. Maybe it’s best if we don’t give ourselves an easy door to step through.

We’ve been inside Buckingham Palace twice since they started renovations in 2017, and both times, we’ve been amazed by the care extended to the rooms and objects inside while modernizing the space. You can feel the history in every room while also knowing that once upon a time, the palace did not have lights. Modernization and historical respect, hand-in-hand.

You know where I am going with this.

I am super sad seeing the photos of the White House, and it makes me want to avoid the area downtown. I am glad I have photos from some of the rooms destroyed in the rebuild. It was the way I entered the White House the first time I went. (And the hallway the first time I met Bo.) I’m sad to see that history gone forever. You can’t build it back.

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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:

• “40 ans” (Des méandres aux étoiles)
• “Päckchen” (Elaine ohne Kind)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Infertile Phoenix writes about being an observer or an experiencer. She explains: “The Experiencer is the part of you that is experiencing a situation complete with your thoughts and your feelings and all. The Observer is the part of you that is removed from the situation and can see it without everything that comes with experiencing it.” She applies it to a thoughtless conversation with her mother, but it’s a useful tool to process any difficult situation or conversation. Go over to read about it in action.

Lastly, Finding a Different Path keeps back what she really wants to say after an insensitive assumption/comment. She doesn’t say anything at all, realizing that she doesn’t want to be flippant or explanatory. She writes: “I thought how I don’t really know two of the four people at the table, and did I really want to brandish my losses at the bowling Grand Hurrah? Was it necessary? Would it make life better for anyone? Nope.” Sometimes what we don’t say is as profound as what we do say. And yay to “adorable guinea pigs and a satisfying hobbit-y existence.”

The roundup to the Roundup: Can’t get it back. 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 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.

A few weeks ago, The Atlantic had an article about Judy Blume’s Forever, and how kids secretly passed certain books around. It was easy to get Forever at our library, and all of Judy Blume’s books, but the ones that we passed around were V.C. Andrews — The Flowers in the Attic series and then the Heaven books.

The passing of the books was almost more important than reading the books themselves. I loved that everyone entered the trading path. Most of the people who passed along the next book to me were not even my friends. They just knew how powerful it was to keep the story moving from kid to kid, all of us devouring complete trash.

The only thing I didn’t get to do was start one of the chains. I tried when a new book came out. We were in the grocery store, and the new book was right by the cash register. I casually told my mum that I thought I should get it, and she just replied, “Do you?” I had to report that I was not successful the next day on the playground, but luckily, enough other kids had gotten copies and started them through the underground book exchange.

Many years ago, the same thing happened with Vox by Nicholson Baker. Everyone was reading it on my college campus, and when people finished, they would hand off their copy to another person. Someone dropped their copy in my lap when I was sitting on Library Mall — no words, just gave me the book. I passed along that copy to someone else after finishing it in one night. I ended up buying myself a copy to keep with the black cover, which I liked more than the pink cover I got in the exchange.

This is kind of lost now with digital books. Passing along the story becomes more piracy than an underground book exchange, which makes me sad. Because there was really nothing better than reading a book you sensed you weren’t old enough to have yet.