Once upon a time, I was a decent gift-giver. Not the best, but certainly decent with people I knew well. I walked through toy stores or picked out outfits. And I believe most people were happy. And if they weren’t, they didn’t tell me, so I’m choosing to believe they were.

But in the past few years, I’ve moved to checks. Not even Visa gift cards. Or store gift cards. I’ve gone straight to checks, which may be the most unexciting thing you can give a child. Or even some adults. But that’s what we’ve done unless the person tells me, “I want this exact thing” or something like that.

I think the check thing is kind. I mean, a gift card means they now need to track a physical or digital card. While they may feel guilty spending money on something when they use a check vs. a gift card, I feel like that’s a small price to pay for the convenience of getting to make a choice on their own timeline whenever they need something fun in their life.

Maybe I’ll loop back to the fun side of gift-giving. I still do get physical things when I see something and think of the other person. But that’s different from gifting on command; gifting in a specific moment because it’s a holiday or birthday.

Clearly trying to be okay with this.

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

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I was this many days old when I learned about skants. A pants/skirt hybrid kind of sounds perfect for those of us who do not enjoy skirts but sometimes need to wear skirts.

I have also had a deep wish that stylish aprons would come into fashion. Not a flimsy kitchen apron, but a sturdy apron with lots of pockets that you tie on in the morning like Carmy wears in The Bear. And I wish everyone wore aprons so it wouldn’t look odd if one of us wore an apron.

These are the two fashion choices I’d push if I ruled the fashion world.

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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.

Every once in a while, I hear about a tech idea that has the potential to make an enormous difference. This week, it’s Walkcast. It’s a podcast that changes based on where you are walking. So you allow it to know your location (I know, creepy), and then it tailors the podcast you’re listening to to the space you’re in — some of it is real, some of it not.

From the site:

Walkcast is an ever-changing podcast generated as you walk, revealing the hidden layers that surround you. Each step might unlock a new fact about the street you’re on, or sometimes, it just makes stuff up. But does it matter if it’s real, as long as it’s a good story?

I’m good at getting myself up to walk daily, but if I wasn’t, I could see this being an enormous motivator. It would encourage you to get out of ruts and walk in new places or work exercise into your travel plans so you get to hear stories unique to the place. And it (hopefully) moves at your speed, so if you walk briskly and cover more ground, you get more information about the world around you.

Pretty cool way to visit a new city if it works, right?

The symphony sent an empty booklet with instructions. Every time you hear the symphony perform, bring the booklet and get it stamped at the front desk like a passport. Then, at the end of the season, you have the booklet as a reminder for all of the performances you attended.

Isn’t that a brilliant idea?

We’ve been tearing out the page in the program, jotting down our thoughts on the pieces in a few words, and then storing them in my notebook. Not as pretty, but it allows us to look back and download music we enjoyed.

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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.

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And now the blogs…

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:

• None… sniff.

Okay, now my choices this week.

Scientist on the Roof gives 10 things she doesn’t like right now, including a bit of jealousy about the way the cat spends their day. In a world that pushes positivity, it’s nice to see a calm, collected list of dislikes.

Lastly, No Kidding in NZ celebrates connections forged online. As she states: “Connection – however we find it – is so valuable to our sense of value, our feelings of belonging, and worth, to finding wisdom, and to feeling okay about ourselves.” Three cheers to this.

The roundup to the Roundup: A creative idea. 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 November 8 – 15) 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.

As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she reads that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better at doing this.

So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.

These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from October.

Here One Moment (Liane Moriarty): This author can be a little hit or miss for me, but this book was a hit. I had feelings about the ending and actual explanation for the events, but I loved the ideas presented in the story and wanted to pick it up to follow everyone’s story. I highlighted a lot of wonderful passages. Fantastic pacing for a long book.

Pony Confidential (Christina Lynch): When I first heard about this book, I thought it sounded bonkers. I didn’t know how she would pull off the premise. Then, I won a copy in a Goodreads Giveaway, so I got to find out before the publication date. (It’s out now.) Happy to tell you that it’s a super super super fun book. You will love Pony, laugh, and not care when there are inconsistencies. This was a difficult book to get right, but she managed to not just get it right but knock it out of the park.

What did you read last month?