701st Friday Blog Roundup

It’s Friday the 13th.  Thus continues my compulsive need to mention that whenever Friday the 13th coincides with the Roundup.

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I read a great book recently — Us by David Nicholls.  The book is a few years old.  It’s about a couple who is considering separating going on one last (maybe?) vacation with their teenage son before he leaves for college.  It’s fantastic writing but the thing I loved most is that every chapter is just a few pages long.  I am smitten with authors who create mini breaks or tiny chapters so you can jump in and out of the story quickly.  Sometimes I won’t start reading if I don’t know how long I have to read if I see that I need to commit to dozens of pages before I get to the next break.

This was the exact opposite of that — inviting you to spend just a few minutes with the book before bouncing back out again.  Though the story was so good that I often said to myself, “just one more” when I got to each break.

Any other books that you can think of like that with chapters consistently two or three pages in length?

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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:

(These are from the last normal Roundup, though if you haven’t already done so, peruse the great posts in  last week’s Roundup Celebration)

• “When Fears Backfire” (Stirrup Queens) — thank you, Cristy.  Also, in case you’re interested, zombies scare us the most.
• “Loving My Body Again” (My Path to Mommyhood)
• “Unexpected Healing” (NotMyLinesYet)
• “A Thank You to Mel” (No Kidding in NZ)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Pregnancy After Loss Support has a post about people shaming others for trying again after a loss.  She explains, “That face, and that judgement, represented all of the fears we didn’t want to acknowledge. It was as though they were questioning, ‘Why are you doing this to yourselves?’ and more so, ‘How could you put these babies through this?’”  It’s a hard situation made all the more difficult by other people’s opinions.  It’s a really good post about why it’s important to give support and not stress.

Different Shores has a post about the recent NYT article about being childfree.  She talks about where she connected to the writer’s words, but also “the very un-21st century prejudice that many people still harbour towards those who are ageing without partners or offspring.”  The point of the NYT article is that the author is happy, leading an interesting life with an interesting job, and shouldn’t have to work to convince people.  But Different Shores points out that the average person is happy, too, and should also be believed.

Lastly, No Kidding in NZ has a post of bullet points, one being about a newscaster’s response to the Thai soccer team trapped in the cave.  She writes, “Someone commented that it was ‘the worst thing imaginable, being trapped in a cave in the dark with water rising.’ ‘I’ll tell you something worse – it’s being the parent worrying about your kid trapped in a cave,’ said another guy.”  It’s commentary not just about the lens we use to view a situation but considering other possible lens, too.

The roundup to the Roundup: It’s Friday the 13th.  I like short chapters.  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 July 6th and 13th) 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.