I bookmarked this article when I read it on Jane Friedman because I thought it was a great lesson for the kids as they work to secure research positions or internships and think ahead to careers and graduate school.

An author publishes her first book to great fanfare:

My agent sold international rights in eighteen countries. For a few glorious weeks, The Bookseller was on the New York Times bestseller list. Julia Roberts’s production company, Red Om, came calling, and I happily signed an option agreement.

External changes between the first and second books impacted that experience, and further changes between the second and third books led her on a completely different path. Nothing is a given; even the most successful-looking start may change course, and the most unsuccessful-looking start may work out fine.

She writes:

In the end, you have to just do the thing. Might work out, might not. But if you never try, you’ll never know.

Here’s to just doing the thing. I love this message and wish her a lot of success.

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

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I recently started a new notebook (why do I count my life in notebooks?), and I added a new section to the lists I copy over each time: A re-watching and re-reading list.

It’s not that I don’t know what I like to re-watch or re-read, but seeing it listed out feels like a place I can turn when I am feeling out of sorts and need to remember that there is art that makes me feel better. So the Magician’s trilogy is on there. Thursday Murder Club books. Horowitz and Hawthorne books. Eight Ramona Quimbys. (What? It makes me feel good.) One Day and Us by David Nicholls.

I don’t even need to re-read the whole book. I just need to spend an hour with the characters or setting.

What is on your re-read/re-watch list?

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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.

There’s a website called How Did You Find Me?, and it’s collecting the stories of how people ended up on the site. I found it because someone I know posted the link, and I clicked over to see it. But then there is the story of how I found that person. You can see how this can get interesting.

An explanation from the site:

How did you find yourself here? If you clicked on a Facebook link, what prompted you to click? If it was shared by a friend, how did you meet that friend? If you were searching Google, what were hoping to find? Why did you decide to check your email at the moment that you did?

I didn’t expect to like reading the path people took to reach the site as much as I did. I think it would be even more meaningful to hear how someone ended up on a certain blog in a community; e.g., how did you find A Little Pregnant and what got you to click over in the first place. I think A Little Pregnant may have been the first ALI blog I found. Unless my first was Getupgrrl’s. I can’t remember what came first by this point.

Still processing election feelings and don’t have a lot to say.

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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.

The Barreness captures the quiet before the results. We now know how things turned out, and while her statement worked during election day, it’s working in the aftermath, too: “I feel too many feels, thinking too many thoughts.”

The Next 15000 Days received a compliment, which she recounts after a thoughtless comment from another person, and it sums up a life well-lived: “I would like to be like Klara. She doesn’t wait for anyone – she just does things and knows how to actively enjoy her free time.”

Lastly, Finding a Different Path celebrated her Halloween anniversary, and I love their tradition of filling their yard with fake tombstones — a new one every year. And we get to enjoy pictures from some of their other traditions. Seeing this post was a sweet moment in a hard week.

The roundup to the Roundup: Post-election quiet. 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 1 – 8) 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.

Like many people, I went to bed upset and woke up numb. This was not unexpected — the world has been moving toward this as a whole — but it doesn’t make it any less worrisome.

I’ve used two articles to keep things in perspective. The first is an article from Pew Research pointing out that our memories are fuzzy — consolidation of power (holding the White House, Senate, and House) happens almost every single election and is often gone by the midterms. I found the visual timeline helpful as a reminder that this too shall pass, hopefully without too much lasting damage. (Positive thinking.)

The other is an article about emotional circuit breakers. If you’re numb today, there is a reason. You will not always be numb. If the task ahead looks too large, that’s because it is. Instead of feeling you must hold the whole world in your hands, focus your efforts on one small area. Care deeply about one small area. Lend support to the other areas (as others will lend support to you), but keep your focus tight so you don’t burn out.

Today looks bleak. Hopefully, the future will not look as bleak. That’s where I need to be not to fall apart this morning.