A few weeks ago, we went to see the Pixies. Josh loves the Pixies. I like the Pixies. But Josh has been accompanying me to the symphony (more on that another day). I love the symphony. Josh likes the symphony. So these are the things you do for the people you love, and we love each other, so at least we match up there.

It was a great show — they played “Wave of Mutilation” twice, once fast and once slow. We danced through most of the set, though there was a moment when they played “Here Comes Your Man” when I closed my eyes, and for about three seconds, I honestly believed that I was 19 again and getting ready to go out for the night. And when I opened them and saw that I was at a concert with a bunch of other grey-haired people, I was so profoundly sad that you can’t go backwards and revisit favourite moments in time.

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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.

No Kidding in NZ writes about how to participate in interviews or essay collections when you have an anonymous blog. In other words, how do you come out as a blogger when you’ve kept that side of your life from other people in your day-to-day world? She makes an excellent point: “I don’t find it necessary that all my family and friends should know everything about me. We all share different parts of each others’ lives, so it is fine that other parts of my life are relatively separate.”

Lastly, The Barreness writes about being the responsible one. This moment captures so much: “When my dear friend was hospitalized and told she needed a new kidney and a heart, I immediately thought, can I donate mine? I mentally volunteered mine, before researching if it was even possible with my chronic illnesses.” And, of course, what do you do when life throws a curve ball, as she reveals by the end of the post? Sending a lot of good thoughts.

The roundup to the Roundup: Time only moves forward. 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 June 21 – 28) 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.

I only learned about this place when it closed for the year, but I’ve put it on my to-do list to go to this fall. Tivoli’s Astounding Magic Supply Company describes itself as “The District’s premier (and only) magic supply store, illusionarium, and de-lux haberdashery is also the official storefront for local nonprofit 826DC. 100% of your purchase supports 826DC’s free writing programs for DC students ages 6-18. Extraordinary!”

Isn’t that brilliant?!?!

The way I understand it, they are using the entrance to the writing center as a magic store, and anything purchased in the magic store benefits 826DC, which is a writing center for kids.

And I am completely in love with the names/storefronts in other cities.

Something to look forward to when school starts up again.

Have you been to the one in your area?

I read something profound last week in a newsletter that stuck with me, so I’m passing it along. The opening hooked me because I feel much the same way. It’s as if I don’t have a satiation threshold when it comes to progress. She writes:

Noticing how the desire to be “more productive,” to be farther along, to be progressing faster, to have gotten more things done is constantly pulling me away from being fully present to the task at hand. There’s this energy of wanting to rush past what’s happening right now to get to something “better” in the future — an inability to relax into, and be fulfilled by, whatever is happening in the present moment.

That rushing past things also ties into the desire for more when I’m not rushing. As in, I am sitting on the beach, and all I can think about is how I want to sit on the beach more rather than acknowledging, “I am lucky to be sitting on the beach now.”

But the most profound thought comes near the end: “If we are always rushing towards fulfillment, we will never actually experience fulfillment.” As in, we will never get there because we will always be trying to reach end goals that continuously move (that we encourage to move) to keep us actively pursuing them.

I don’t know the answer beyond recognizing when I’m doing it and reminding myself to stop. But it gave me food for thought.

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

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I spent longer than I want to admit trying to figure out the answer without looking ahead at the answer that Oliver Burkeman put in his newsletter:

Here’s a riddle, adapted from a Zen koan: imagine you’ve come into possession of a live goose, trapped in a large glass bottle … The neck of the bottle is much too narrow for the goose to pass through. Your job is to remove the goose from the bottle without harming it, and without breaking any glass.

How do you get the goose out?

It’s an excellent exercise for not overthinking things.

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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.

I don’t remember where I found this, but it contains a profound set of questions, including: what is the monetary worth of memories?

Meaning, what would you be willing to pay to retain your memories? Is there a price tag you’d place on how far you’d go to preserve your memories — from backing up your photos to treating memory loss? But also, what is the monetary worth of creating memories? Are there price tags you’re willing to pay not just for the experience but also for knowing you’ll have the memory of the experience afterward?

And then it travels into how do you know when you’re creating memories vs. living an experience that you’ll forget about over time? Or what would you do differently to allocate your money so you can spend it on things that create or preserve memories?

Such a thought-provoking read.