Like super odd job.  So the title of the article is “The Job That Will Let You Do Whatever You Want in a Swedish Train Station, Forever.”

Did I click?  Of course, I clicked.

It’s one part art installation, one part social experiment.  Anyone in the world can apply.  An explanation:

Each morning, the chosen employee will punch a clock in Korsvägen train station, currently under construction in Gothenburg, Sweden, which will turn on a bank of bright fluorescent lights. Other than that, “the position holds no duties or responsibilities besides the fact that the work should be carried out at Korsvägen. Whatever the employee chooses to do constitutes the work,” reads the job description. The employee can also choose how publicly visible or anonymous they would like to be while on the clock.

So you could become a full-time, paid writer.  Or a full-time, paid thinker / sleeper / daydreamer.  Or a full-time, paid pom-pom-animal-creator / Cheerio-necklace-maker / Barbie-hair-cutter.  Or, I guess, you could take your current job if it’s portable and collect a double salary doing your position in a train station.

It’s really brilliant, and I love this quote: “As Gothenburg’s working class finds itself marginalized, Goldin and Senneby see a job that gives total control to the worker as an act of economic imagination.”  In other words, there is a problem, so let’s see how people solve it.  How do they create work for themselves?  And does this work benefit society as a whole?  Just the individual?

What would you do if you got the position?

Thoughts in random order:

1. We have Tig Notaro tickets.  So excited to see her perform again.  (And it’s the first time for the twins.)
2. Really loved Maureen Johnson’s YA book, Truly Devious.  Like loved it so completely that I ran out to the library to get the next in the series and feel super sad that the third won’t be out for a while.
3. I bumped into the ChickieNob’s old ballet teacher at the post office.  I hadn’t seen her in nine years.  We ended up talking for a while, and it made me so wistful to think about the ways the twins have changed over the years.  Ballet was her life until she decided she didn’t like performing.  She’s my backstage crew girl now.

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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 in order 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.  In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• None… sniff

Okay, now my choices this week.

Inconceivable has a post about luck as she moves towards her final transfer.  Maybe I related a bit too much to this: “I like predictability, stability, and known quantities – and privilege has allowed me some insulation from the unpredictability of life in other areas. This, I suspect, is why infertility in general has messed with my sense of self so much.”  Me too.

It’s Inconceivable (it’s an inconceivable extravaganza this week with two different, similarly named blogs) has a post about International Women’s Day.  She asks how the world sees women without children: “Where is the ordinary heroine, living her life after infertility, or baby loss or who is childless by marriage, or one of the many other reasons women haven’t had a child? When do we get to hear about her story, the grief, the despair she’s overcome to get here?”  Celebrate ALL women.

Lastly, Baby Ridley Bump created a book for her child to explain her donor gamete story.  These words made chills go down my arms (in a good, happy way): “But for us, and so many other donor recipients, we take pride in our story and I know for me, I want Georgia to understand and own her story just as much as we do.  We want her to know that every single thing that we did in our journey through infertility was for her, and was from a place of love.”  I just loved this post.  It’s a gorgeous book.

The roundup to the Roundup: Tig, Truly Devious, and ballet.  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 March 8th and 15th) 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.

I have been obsessively reading every piece that has come out about the college bribery scandal.  Not the petty ones combing through Felicity Huffman’s social media postings, but the ones from reputable news sources detailing the allegations.  Oh my G-d.

I am stunned and not stunned at the same time.  We know stuff like this happens.  Maybe not always on this level, but we know that people make major donations to universities for the sole purpose of having their child considered for admission.  So paying someone to change their child’s answers on the SAT… I can see that happening.  And at the same time, oh my G-d!

I think I can’t stop reading about it because the whole situation fills me with fear.  Not that we’ll lose our values and pay $500,000 to have our children pretend to be on the crew team, but because people who do this will be in the mix when we apply to college in a few years.  [I know, we can pause for an aside for a few seconds.  Remember when I started this blog and the twins were still drinking bottles?  Yeah, now my hair is grey and they are applying to college in a few years.]  Not literally these people because these people are involved in a major bribery scandal.  But people like these people who are willing to spend enormous sums of money to get a coveted spot in a freshman class.

The admissions process (and life in general) is already NOT a level playing field.  My kids have an advantage over another person’s kids because I am willing to buy them SAT prep books and encourage them to do them over the summer.  That’s an advantage.  Being in a strong school system, knowing how to navigate that system, reading every piece of literature that comes home from the school so I’m always informed — all advantages my kids have.  I can list these all day as well as all the disadvantages my kids have in comparison to other kids in the area, but the point is that college admissions aren’t balanced and fair.  Education isn’t balanced and fair.  And then you hear about something like this…

What do you think?

“Pyt” is Danish for something akin to “oh well”:

Pyt is usually expressed as an interjection in reaction to a daily hassle, frustration or mistake. It most closely translates to the English sayings, “Don’t worry about it,” “stuff happens,” or “oh, well.”

But what I really loved is not the word but the way it’s used: “At its core, it’s about accepting and resetting. It’s used as a reminder to step back and refocus rather than overreact. Instead of assigning blame, it’s a way to let go and move on.”

Accept and reset.  Adding a pause into a moment and deciding something is not worth getting upset about.  Taking a beat to breathe and reframe.  It’s not just that they have the word — it’s that they put it into action.  It’s a mentality, a reassurance, a comma breaking up a sentence about life.

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

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I am pro-name tag.  I prefer the kind that go around your neck vs. the ones that clip on, but other than that, I am pro-any-name-tag-all-the-time.  365 days per year.

It is embarrassing when you didn’t hear someone’s name and now too much time has passed to ask it again.  It is equally embarrassing when you’ve forgotten someone’s name you should remember, and frustrating when you’re staring at someone and you know you know but you have no clue where you know them from.

And then there are all the other added benefits:

Nametags give people lots of space to be called what they’d actually like to be called. If the name that you’ve been given at birth feels like not the best fit, nametags would give you the opportunity to adjust as you please, minimal explanation required. (You can even include your preferred pronouns—there’s room!)

Are you also pro-name tag?

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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 that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.