893rd Friday Blog Roundup

It feels a tad on the nose to leak an abortion ruling on the same week as Mother’s Day. (Congratulations, ladies! We’re forcing you into motherhood if you get pregnant!”) But… here’s the thing. We knew this was going to happen. We knew it was going to happen because a ruling was coming this summer, and all signs pointed to this outcome. We knew it was happening when the Court skewed heavily right due to Trump pushing through Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination and confirmation. I mean, even without knowing the future, we knew this was a strong possibility when Trump moved into office. So I’m not shocked. Sad, of course, frustrated, angry, worried. But not shocked at all.

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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.

Cup of Jo has an essay about infertility with a line that hits home: “I saw my gynecologist. She checked for cysts with an ultrasound but found none, told me spotting was common, and said to return in six months if I still wasn’t pregnant. I knew she was wrong, though I wanted her to be right. I wanted everything to be fine so I could have our baby.” Almost every single one of us has a story of “I knew something was wrong, but I was told just to wait.” But what I related to was that idea that we want our doctor to be right. We want that waiting to fix something. There is so much I love about this essay, especially the ending. It isn’t what you expect, and I’m grateful she left the story open.

Lastly, not an IF-related story, but one that resonated deeply. Inkle is a game studio, best known for their game 80 Days. They have a new game out called A Highland Song. They wrote this week about storytelling through letters that applies deeply to blog writing and the comment box. And I love this: “A Highland Song is always going to be a game about being on your own, in a place much bigger than you for which you’re ill-prepared. But even if you’re alone, you don’t need to be lonely. We all carry a universe of voices inside our heads, and there’s plenty to explore inside, as well as out.” Gorgeous.

The roundup to the Roundup: Sad but not surprised. 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 April 29 – May 6) 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.