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

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So.  What are you doing for Christmas?  Are you traveling or hosting or doing a small celebration at home?  Did you decorate or skip it this year?  And if you decorated, do you have Christmas lights on your house?  I love those.  Do people turn them off when they go to bed, or do you leave them on all night?

I sort of think of them like a lighthouse, keeping lonely drivers company on the road.

If this Christmas is not your best Christmas, then what has been your best Christmas ever up until this point?  What made it so memorable?

Living vicariously through all of you and by watching Love Actually.

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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 posts.

I have long wanted to don a virtual reality headset and explore a three-dimensional space.  This summer I ended up getting two Google Cardboard… systems? (What do you even call that?)  But I couldn’t get them to work because I’m just not that bright.

The Wolvog found them this week and asked what they were, and he was able to figure it out in seconds.  He downloaded the app and told me he was looking at a beach.

OH MY G-D, I HAVE TO SEE NOOOOOOOOW.

So he handed it over and it was very cool.  If I turned my head, the image moved, too, just as it would if I was standing in reality and turned my head.

And then I pulled it away from my face and I instantly felt like I was going to vomit.  The dizziness and nausea didn’t leave me for at least 15 minutes.  It felt like when you stand in the middle of a field and spin around for a few minutes and then stop, and the whole world is wobbling.

Of course, in writing this, I went on Google Cardboard’s site and saw that there was a warning.  I’m a little bummed out because I had high hopes of doing some armchair travel with this, but I don’t think I can deal with the hangover.

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Martin Shkreli was arrested this week for securities fraud.  I cannot cheer on someone else’s misery despite their other actions, BUT I do wonder if he would have been investigated if he hadn’t jacked up the medicine prices.  Maybe yes and his arrest would have been a personal experience instead of an international news one, or maybe when people do crappy things, it draws negative attention that leads to crappy things done to them.  I don’t know: I guess I see him more as a “how not to comport oneself in the world” example more than anything else.

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Do squirrels feel shame?  I was writing and when I looked up, two squirrels were having sex… squirrel-style (I was going to say “doggie style,” but Josh said that’s probably rude to squirrels)… right outside my window.  If the window was open, I could have reached out to touch them.

The receiver squirrel had his/her eyes closed, and the other squirrel was taking care of business.  After they were finished, they looked up and met my eye, and froze in place.  We all stared at each other for about 3 minutes, and I got a definite shame vibe wafting off them, much in the same way teenagers stare at their parents when caught having sex on the living room sofa.

Finally, the giver squirrel casually cleaned himself up… with his tongue (TMI?).  And both squirrels hopped down.  Receiver returned a little while later with a different squirrel and promptly engaged in sex again.  In the same place.  Which seems a little rude, no?  I mean, if you’re going to have a second (third?  fourth?) sexual partner in the matter of an hour, shouldn’t you at least choose a new spot?  Pretend that you only have eyes for one squirrel?

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Have you found all the hidden images in the new Harry Potter covers?  I love stuff like this.

A police officer in our town was killed in the line of duty and his funeral was this week.  They shut down the roads for a few hours to accommodate the hundreds of people who had to move between the church and the cemetery.  I drove the route to meet a friend a little before the shut down, but people were already gathering by the side of the road to visually support the family, holding American flags.  Two schools lined the route, children with their hands over their heart as the cars drove by.

I didn’t personally know this police officer, but you couldn’t help but cry seeing the people waiting to pay their respects.  Here was an individual who was killed trying to make the roads safer; who was attempting to take someone off the road who had the potential to kill other citizens.  How can you say “thank you” for something like that?  You can’t.  You can only line the route with your hand over you heart.

I sat with my friend inside the closure and watched the cars go by for an hour and a half and sent good thoughts to his family.

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Thank you for all of your good wishes about the book.  While I love each book I write for different reasons, this one is extra special to me because it’s a passion project.  It’s something that 9-year-old Melissa would have found unfathomable, the most exciting thing that had ever happened to her.  I sort of wish I could go back to grade school and blow that girl’s mind.  I not only taught myself how to create interactive fiction — my favourite hobby and a huge part of my life — but I got to write a book about it.  That little girl playing Zork would have never believed it.

I hold it up to the kids and their friends as a “You never know what will happen.  Sometimes the most inconceivable plans come true, even when you start them without knowing how to even take the first step” moment.

And by the way, Infertile Girl got all 15 points first (as far as I know) with just a little nudge.  Go Infertile Girl!

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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:

• “The Lonely Island” (Breathe Gently)
• “Selling Hope” (So I Was Minding My Own Business)

Okay, now my choices this week.

In Quest of a Binky Moongee has a heartbreaking and very truthful post after this last loss that should be passed along to everyone who cavalierly says, “Well, you can always do IVF.”  My heart broke when I got to this item in the list of Sadness is… “seeing that Christmas cards of friends’ children have replaced Kevin’s photo in the prime spot of the fridge.”  Sending a hug, even though she knows that in the future that she will be okay.

Wild and Precious Life has a post as she nears the one year anniversary of her loss.  She doesn’t know how she will get through the month (and please go leave her advice in her comment section), especially since it is scattered with so many difficult dates.  It is about seeing the memories racing toward you on the calendar, and having no ability to stop them or side step them.

Lastly, Anabegins has a post about happiness; what it is, how you know when you have it, and whether we should be so focused on trying to obtain it.  What I love about this post is that it’s permission to approach happiness as you wish to approach happiness.  That you can be happy overall while still dealing with the annoyances of life or even sadness.  I like this non-black-and-white view of happiness.

The roundup to the Roundup: Honouring the dead.  Thank you for the book cheers.  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 December 11th and 18th) 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.

What was my resolution last year? To become a professional game-maker in 2015.

I know, not the most realistic goal since when I made it last December, I had no experience coding games. I mean, I could code a game, as in, I had the skills. But apparently people do not want to hire you and pay you real money if you have zero hours of professional work experience.

So I decided to tackle this goal a different way.

I pitched a book about teaching other people how to code a game, specifically people who have no coding experience.  It’s a game-making language that is central to leveling the programming playing field, making sure that people who have not traditionally had an open door into the computer world have a space to walk through into game-making.  Kids can grasp it.  Old ladies like me can grasp it.

And amazingly, a publisher bought the book and helped me shape it and gave it an awesome cover.  While it’s not out until spring, it’s up for presale on Amazon and Barnes and Noble et al.  So… introducing the newest member of my book family… Writing Interactive Fiction with Twine.

If you’ve played 80 Days or Lifeline or Device 6, you’ve played interactive fiction, which is an updated, computer-based version of the Choose Your Own Adventure stories from childhood.

To give you a taste of what you can do with it, I made a simple, kid-friendly game that you can play*: A Very Empty Basket.  So click that and play a round, and then come back here because I still have more to say about how this book relates to you.

Oh good, you’re back.

I guess I present this book to you not just because it has been a big part of my life for the last year but because I hope more people in the infertility community will start making their own games or simulation pieces in Twine.  People have been using Twine to give insight into living with depression or trauma or homelessness.  Why not infertility or adoption or loss?

Twine is a simple language to learn — you can pick up the basic tools for making a game in a matter of minutes.  It may take longer to build a complicated game with variables and datamaps, but a basic game: you could start building yours today.

So… I guess I set that as a 2016 challenge for anyone who wants to pick it up: make a game (and don’t get hung up on the word “game”) giving insight into the world of infertility or adoption or loss.  I want to champion that game and help you make it.

So now to come up with a new goal for 2016…

* There should be a prize for anyone who gets all 15 points.  Take a screenshot if you do and send it to me.

Dear Taylor–

My daughter was so excited to see that you were releasing a concert video on December 20th.  She missed your concert this summer, but she has been getting into your music, and this seemed like the perfect do-over for missing 1989.  We put it on the calendar: Sunday night, mother-daughter time.

And then I read an article about the video: it would be streaming exclusively on Apple Music.  Meaning, if you do not have Apple Music, you cannot see it.

It’s not that we couldn’t get Apple Music; we have the right equipment.  But we don’t want our hand forced in getting Apple Music.

It’s not as if you’re the first artist to offer an exclusive deal on an exclusive service.  There have always been television shows created and aired on a specific station (though, if you wait long enough to watch, you can usually pick up those shows on DVD down the road).  We’ve put our foot down with those shows, too.

There is too much out there vying for our attention, too many good pieces of art that ask for our eyes and ears.  I long ago discovered that there is no television show, no movie, no music offered exclusively that is better than what is offered without hoops to jump through despite what the zeitgeist or magazines or award shows would like to have us believe.  It’s just different.

And as is, I will never be able to consume all the great movies and television shows and music out there that is available on multiple platforms for easy viewing.  Why would I ever forgo the art that the creators clearly want me to see and make it easy for me to consume and head towards a video that makes me purchase additional services and watch on a specific device?

It’s like turning down a playdate with Betty Finn to play croquet with the Heathers.

Because you know what these sorts of deals feel like?  They feel like a clique.  Instead of being inclusive, inviting the fan in to enjoy more time with their favourite artists, they feel like a girl talking about the great party she threw over the weekend.  The one that you weren’t invited to but you’re supposed to feel badly because you missed out on something that was so. damn. cool.  And… that’s really unattractive.  Especially to a 41-year-old.

Artists deserve to be paid, but this is a money grab.  It’s not for your fans, it’s for you.

So we reject that.  And we’re buying a different movie instead.  Oh, we’ll still have mother-daughter night on the 20th.  It will just be with a different musician’s concert video.

And lest you feel that you are being singled out, this message goes for all of the shows offered solely on Amazon or Hulu or Netflix.  I’m sure Transparent and Casual and Jessica Jones are great.  But you know what is even better?  Giving my hour to a show that makes it easy for me to watch.