998th Friday Blog Roundup

Francine Pascal died this week. Like most girls my age, I was obsessed with Sweet Valley High books. I bought them the day they came out, immediately read them, and then felt an empty, aching feeling waiting for the next installment. I wrote my own Sweet Valley High fan fiction, typing it up on my word processor, and circulating it among the other girls in my elementary school. Let’s just say that Bruce Patman had a very spicy life in my version.

I joined the school newspaper in high school so I could be like Elizabeth Wakefield. I never tried cocaine because I didn’t want to die like Regina Morrow. And you better believe I’ve never flown in a tiny plane because of Enid Rollins.

I still collect Sweet Valley High books when I see them at a used bookstore, and we have a bunch of them on the shelf. They’re fairly ridiculous but still hold a special place in my heart.

Rest easy, Ms. Pascal.

*******

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.

*******

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.

Finding a Different Path thought commentary about JD Vance’s words missed the mark. She writes: “It just felt like a missed opportunity to fight the pronatalist status quo and point out that not having children doesn’t make you an oblivious, selfish, uninvested stain on humanity.” I wish the article had gone further, too, though I liked that the writer pointed out how harmful these words are and that he is putting them out there in the universe.

Lastly, The Road Less Travelled also wrote about Vance, this time touching on another aspect of the conversation around it. Namely, people who now declare themselves childless because their children are no longer in the house. She explains why this is offensive: “Your life is different from mine/ours because of the simple fact that you got to be parents and we didn’t. Just because you don’t have kids in the house now doesn’t mean that your life is now like ours. It’s not.” So true.

The roundup to the Roundup: Goodbye, Francine Pascal. 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 26 – August 2) 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.