We missed the Oscars last weekend. I know a lot of people watch the show even if they haven’t watched the movies, but I hadn’t even heard of many of this year’s movies. That feels strange, and I’m not even sure how it happened.

Back in 1993, the Mississippi flooded, and this chunk of land broke off and floated into the middle of the lake. We called it the Bog (a capital B because it was THE Bog), and people would go down to the lake to see where it was floating. The administration warned us not to step onto it because it wasn’t stable, and we’d likely fall through the marshy land.

That’s kind of what I think of when I think about movies right now. The concept of movies used to be attached to my brain. I knew what was out in theaters, even when I didn’t see the movie. But at some point in this past year, movies broke off from my main brain space and started floating out into the ether. I imagine all the movies hanging out on this figurative bog, and I’m on the shore, watching them float by. I’d like to reattach movies to my brain, but I’m not even sure how I missed so much this year, all things considered.

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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:

• “It’s Up to You” (Infertile Phoenix)

Okay, now my choices this week.

One thing I love about RSS feed readers is that they alert you if someone pops back up. Woulda Coulda Shoulda gave an update this week. She perfectly captures the current mood for so many of us: “Life goes on, of course. But the small measure of existential dread I’ve always lived with has multiplied a thousandfold.” It’s a lot. All of it is a lot. But grateful when people check in and share their a lot.

Lastly, Infertile Phoenix mark the 10-year anniversary of her final IVF cycle. She writes: “I want to celebrate in some small way on the actual day toward the end of the month, but I don’t have any ideas. How do you celebrate recovering from profound loss?” I agree that it must contain cake — not least of which to mark the sweetness of moving from not being able to imagine the next day to living a great life.

The roundup to the Roundup: Missing all of the movies. 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 Feb 28 – March 7) 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.

At the end of February, Amazon removed the ability to backup your Kindle books to your computer. To be completely honest, I had never backed up my books. I don’t own many Kindle books, and the ones I do are tracked in a spreadsheet with the receipt date listed. That isn’t really a backup plan, but I felt like I had a good sense of what was there and would know if one disappeared.

But my cousin was backing up her book, so suddenly, I wanted to back up my books. I scrolled down the list, clicking each one to back up to the computer until I started hitting books that I didn’t really care about. I mean, it’s one thing for me to decide to get rid of a physical book. That’s my choice. So I didn’t want the choice taken away from me by Kindle, but I also would never have kept these books if they were made of paper. They were part of a moment of time.

It’s funny that I’ve never looked at my physical bookshelves in the same way. I’ve gotten rid of physical books before because I didn’t need them anymore and wanted the space, but if I had infinite space (or, at the very least, more space than I have), I wouldn’t get rid of any of my books.

And here I was, willing to let go of some digital books.

In the end, I reopened my laptop and backed them up, too. I will probably never look at them again. I’m not sure I even needed to do the backup. But… the idea of not being able to do the backup or the choice being made for me felt wrong, too. They’re mine not to look at if I choose.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about the advice Oliver Burkeman gave in his latest newsletter. On the surface, it’s solid: “Make sure your psychological centre of gravity is in your real and immediate world.”

In other words, when the world is falling apart outside, recognize that while you may be unhappy with what is happening outside, stabilize yourself by paying attention to what is happening inside (e.g., “The world of your family and friends and neighborhood, your work and your creative projects, as opposed to the world of presidencies and governments, social forces and global emergencies.”)

But… the people involved in the local and global emergencies depend on those not involved to educate themselves, support those impacted, and agitate for change when necessary.

I think he meant that getting pulled down by a person who is drowning creates two drowning people; it doesn’t save one. But while he recommends “visiting” what is happening in the world and then retreating to process, gain perspective, and be productive, it also comes from a place of extreme privilege. It assumes that your “real and immediate world” is not impacted by the events of situations deemed far away.

You can hit reply and tell him what you think, but you can’t see anyone else’s thoughts, which is a shame because I think it would be an interesting discussion.

What do you think?

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

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Last month, I bookmarked or jotted down notes from open tabs in my phone’s browser. I wanted to bring it down to 100 tabs, though I only succeeded in bringing the open tab count closer to 150. It is currently back up at 236.

Scrolling back through open tabs is like an archaeological dig through my brain. There are the sneakers I saw a woman wearing when we picked up takeaway. (I made ChickieNob casually walk back and forth, trying to read the tag on the back.) And the bio for an artist who had a painting I liked in a gallery. And a list of plant-based fake meat products. And a recipe for Cornish pudding. If you go back far enough, you will find tabs for things I was thinking about at least 10 years ago. Things that were important enough to leave open all this time later.

I love scrolling back and seeing what was important years ago. They are snapshots of a moment in time, an hour of wondering.

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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.

When the tree fell in the backyard, it destroyed the fence, patio, and plant. The fence is the easiest decision — get it standing again. The patio is a little harder. We will need to pay for part of the work, though we don’t know what our part will be. It’s money we didn’t intend to spend because we had a perfectly functional patio.

The plant is the biggest issue. We will need to remove the plant — it’s enormous — and it’s unclear if the cost of putting in a new plant will be covered. So if we’re paying for the new plant, we can either go with the same plant, or we have the chance to do something new with the space.

I cannot stress the size of the plant. It literally took up like an eighth of the yard.

I’ve thought about putting in a soak tub. And berry plants. And rows of tomatoes. And an apple tree. Each idea sounds good in my head until I start thinking about drawbacks, and then I return to just sticking the same plant (albeit new) in its place.

It’s sometimes overwhelming to have a blank slate to play with.