531st Friday Blog Roundup

So Unpregnant Chicken tagged me for a meme, and I never get tagged, so… THANK YOU.

Here are my answers:

1. What is your favorite book or movie and why? It’s a three-way tie: Harry Potter, Phantom Tollbooth, and Handmaid’s Tale.

2. What did you want to be when you grew up? I wanted to be a cardiologist. Like hardcore wanted to be one so badly and couldn’t fathom not being a doctor. Or I wanted to be a fish researcher. Or a writer. I ended up with only one of those three professions. (I’m not sure if fish researcher is a real job.)

3. Where would you travel if money was no object? Faroe Islands!

4. What do you miss most about childhood? My grandparents. I miss seeing them.

5. If you could have any fictional character for a pet who would it be? Definitely Tock from the Phantom Tollbooth.

6. Do you have any gross habits that you try to hide? I feel like I should start one to make myself more interesting.

7. Coffee, hot chocolate or tea? Coffee. Always. Everyday.

8. What is your favorite thing about blogging? The connections between people; making the world smaller and making friends with people I would have never gotten to meet otherwise.

9. What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done? Putting those things down in writing where my kids could find them in the future would be the craziest thing of all.

10. Do you have any hobbies? Game-making. Interactive fiction. Collecting copies of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

I have decided to tag everyone who is reading this to see who will answer these questions.  The ChickieNob helped me write them.

1. When was the last time you cut your hair? Did you like the haircut?

2. Grapes with seeds or seedless?

3. When was the last time you went to a fancy party? What did you wear?

4. What colour is your bedroom wall?

5. The worst smell in the world is…

6. Last thing you spat out.

7. Do you sing when no one is around? What do you usually sing?

8. Your least favourite name (and it’s okay if it’s Melissa; I can take it).

9. Did you like the food served at the last dinner party you went to?

10. What is your most prized possession? Would you kill a unicorn in order to save your most prized possession?

Cut-and-paste the questions onto your blog and answer them, and then pose 10 of your own.

*******

Do you know what Humble Bundle is?  It’s a site where you can pay-what-you-can for different games and books and such.  No Starch is offering a Humble Bundle right now with 5 books as the pay-what-you-can base, with lots of other books tacked on if you go over the base amount.  I own 4 of the 5 books:

• Ruby Wizardry: An Introduction to Programming for Kids
• Lauren Ipsum: A Story About Computer Science and Other Improbable Things
• The Manga Guide to Electricity
• Snip, Burn, Solder, Shred: Seriously Geeky Stuff to Make with Your Kids
• The LEGO Adventure Book, Volume 1: Cars, Castles, Dinosaurs & More!

I just got the Ruby one, and that’s a summer project because I’m still finishing up Javascript.  And I’m reading Lauren Ipsum with a group of the ChickieNob’s friends.  I have three of the unlockable books, too.  The Wolvog has rubbed off on me.  I don’t think I noticed how many computer-related books we’ve collected over the years.

So, passing along word in case you want them, too.

*******

Over on GeekDad, we’ve started an interactive fiction club.  It’s like a book club, except for games.  And we’re all playing Adam Cadre’s Endless Nameless.  Anyone can jump in at any time.  You can read the background for the group over here.

*******

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.

*******

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:

• “One Month & Pregnancy and Parenting Pressures” (A Few Good Eggs)
• “The Restaurant Approach to Having it All” (Stirrup Queens) — Thank you, Northern Star
• “Neville Longbottom is the Most Important Person in Harry Potter—And Here’s Why” (Tor.com)
• “Gifts of Infertility Series – #19 – Courage” (No Kidding in NZ)
• “To the Childless Woman at Walmart” (Waiting for Baby Bird)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Project Progeny captures the concept of hygge in a perfect post about friendship.  I loved this line: “There is no font that can imbue that word – friends – with the full weight of meaning I want to give it.”  The whole post made me feel warm inside, even if there is an ache between the words.

Riding the IVF Roller Coaster has a brief post about her sharps box.   Getting rid of it brings just as many problems as keeping it.  As someone who is now going on 10 years of a full sharps box at the top of a closet (don’t judge), I was especially touched by this line: “There’s been a lot of change there, which will probably make me feel that much more left behind – like the journey really, really is over.”  Maybe that is why I drag my heels, too.

No Kidding in NZ has an important reminder on how infertility has the potential to bring out our best and not just our worst.  She highlights 10 times that she has observed people choosing the better route and how it has strengthened the community.  It’s a post to bookmark and re-read whenever you’re feeling down about the world.

Lastly, Hope Floats Amongst the Cherry Blossoms has a moving post about annulling her marriage.  She writes, “I’ve been told that the annulment process can be very healing.  That has not been my experience.  It just feels like it is opening old wounds and rubbing salt in them.  Maybe I waited too long to do it.”  It is a quiet post, but I love when she points out that she is so much more than one aspect of her life whether it is fertility or marriage.

The roundup to the Roundup: The ChickieNob asks you 10 questions.  A lot of cool books for a set-your-own price.  Interactive fiction club — join along! 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 January 30th and February 6th) 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.