A final update (I hope) of our scaredy pig situation: Beorn is pretty much back to normal and walking into all areas of his cage. It started when he was playing with his treat ball, and he accidentally pushed it with his nose across the invisible line in his cage that he wouldn’t cross. He followed it to get the treat, realized nothing was scary about the other half of his cage, and started going in there to get food or hang out.

He went back to sleeping in his house. And eating food from his green food bowl, no matter where it was placed. And not trembling in fear. The only thing he still won’t do is drink from his water bottle. He’s not scared of it — he’ll walk over to it but won’t take a drink. I’ve tried rubbing cucumber slices on it, which he thinks is a game, and he tries to snatch the slices from our fingers (giving a proud little wiggle jump when he succeeds). But he won’t drink from it, no matter how much I try to cajole him to take a sip. He’s getting water from vegetables, so it’s technically fine. I’d just like him to also drink water from the bottle.

Happy that he’s in a better emotional space.

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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 writes about an opportunity in Ontario for bereaved parents. They can finally apply for and receive a free certificate of stillbirth for this child. She explains: “I have a little certificate that the nurses gave us at the hospital, with Katie’s tiny hand & footprints on it — but something from the government seems so much more ‘official,’ if you know what I mean, even if it’s only ceremonial.” It’s a small thing for government to do that has a big emotional impact for families.

Lastly, Finding a Different Path has an amusing exchange with a parent — well, amusing in retrospect. But it’s kind of an awesome general follow-up question for all questions in life: Do you have cats?

The roundup to the Roundup: Pig is back to normal. 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 October 18 – 25) 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.

When I taught, I always knew when I was done for the day. When I left campus, I usually left work back on campus with few exceptions. Therefore, when I left campus, I was done for the day. The work was there for me to restart again in the morning.

But I’ve been working remotely now for 19 years. 19 years! And it’s much harder to know when I am done for the day. If I’ve ticked everything off the to-do list, and it’s beyond a certain hour, am I done for the day? If I have to stop so I can make dinner, am I done? I’ve been trying to move to a different room to work on personal projects and delineate between work and home.

But if I had nothing to do after work, there is a chance I would just keep working. So I make myself things I need to do.

Oliver Burkeman recently wrote about the concept of being done for the day. He explains: “When you end the day feeling like there’s vastly more you ought to have done, you’re telling your nervous system it can’t take a break; and you’re reinforcing an idea of your work as an oppressive and insatiable force.” So he encourages you to set a point in the morning when you will know you are done for the day and stick to that endpoint. It’s more about “feeling done” than actually “being done.”

It’s an interesting read if you also struggle with this.

I like Nathan Bransford’s blog, mostly because he asks interesting questions and then sometimes re-asks them, year after year, charting the answers. A recent question: “Where are you spending time online these days? Have you noticed your habits shifting?”

It made me realize how the internet has gone the way of television. You know how it used to be that large groups of people watched the same shows at the same time? Many many many people watched, for example, Friends on Thursday nights. Cable fractured that, and streaming services fractured it more, so there is rarely a television event we’re collectively tuned into at the same time on the same day.

Communities used to go to the same sites, making it easy to find your group. For instance, Babycenter, IVFC, or the Resolve boards. But now that we’ve fractured into so many spaces on the internet, it feels harder than ever to make connections. As the internet grows and gives us more options to gather, we gather in smaller groups and make looser connections.

How do you find new people and connections when there are so many places to go?

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

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There was a story/idea going around the Internet a few weeks ago about trip planning Google Doc exchanges; these detailed Google Docs that people compile and trade with recommendations for various cities.

And it sounded like a great idea if you knew the person and knew you traveled similarly. For instance, I know someone who likes to go to vineyards when they travel. We don’t drink. So, a Google Doc with vineyard recommendations wouldn’t be helpful. But someone who loves historical sites and weird finds? That would be a fantastic exchange.

But then I realized I could get that without a Google Doc simply by checking out Rick Steves’ itinerary coupled with Atlas Obscura.

What do you think? Would you use a stranger’s Google Doc?

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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.

A few weeks ago, the Washington Post ran an article about a seemingly idyllic social network that sounded like the Internet pre-blog-hate sites. I don’t need to name them — you clearly know them and how people piled on certain bloggers. But before Facebook and Twitter and before those sites, blogging felt like sitting on the front porch, talking. Everyone in the ALI community was my neighbour. I went from blog to blog, collecting wisdom, nodding, and generally feeling like I had a community of smart people to ask questions and gain support.

So, I was thrilled to read about the site and a little jealous that it wasn’t in my state. But when I went to Google the site, I saw a very different reaction from users online who complained about how the site was just as tense as my own neighbourhood listserv despite the dek promising “unkindness is strictly prohibited.”

Are humans doomed to ruin every community we create to connect with one another? It sort of feels that way sometimes.