973rd Friday Blog Roundup

The worst feeling in the world is standing in front of a dead computer. One that contains all of your photos. The Wolvog was still home for one more day when my 11-year-old desktop refused to turn on, and after trying several different things, he gently told me that ole Deskie wasn’t going to spring back to life.

Well, that sucked.

While he was home, he picked out the computer I should order and even ran to the store to get the monitor for me. But there were two factors in play: (1) The Wolvog was not going to be home to set up the computer when it arrived, and that was a reminder that he now goes to college far away, which made me cry a lot. (2) Did I need a new desktop? I do a lot of my work on my laptop, but the desktop is an insurance plan, enabling me to do my job if I can’t use my laptop. Did I really need the insurance plan? Would I use the desktop enough to warrant the cost?

I felt super guilty, but I bought the computer to do all my photo stuff. But now I really need to do a lot of photo stuff to make it worth it.

Ouch.

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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 Road Less Travelled has a post about how the words we use shape our understanding of the world. A case in point: regular families. It seems like a small thing, but when we see that term, our brain dredges up our understanding of the term and reinforces it, even when our primary understanding of the term reinforces a stereotype or misinformation. Simple fixes such as changing “regular families” to “people” ensure we’re not deeming one idea “regular” or “normal.”

Lastly, happy anniversary to No Kidding in NZ, who celebrated a milestone anniversary. She writes: “Being childless does not doom a relationship, just as having kids doesn’t keep people together. My husband and I became closer through our losses, and have stayed closer as the years have passed.” What made the post so interesting (beyond it being a huge accomplishment) is the idea of whether you celebrate your anniversary alone or together. I’ve always felt like anniversaries are for the couple — you celebrate your love for one another on your own. But then again, there are all these people at your wedding, so you start off celebrating your love with other people. Do you celebrate other people’s anniversaries with them?

The roundup to the Roundup: Goodbye, old computer. 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 February 2 – 9) 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.