Ever since Beorn’s massive freakout in October, he has random days where he is not himself. He doesn’t seem ill — he is eating and drinking water (though he only returned to drinking water a few weeks ago). He will happily come over and play with me. He begs for treats.

But he also sometimes runs frantically for a second. Or he acts as if he cannot find his bed. Things that are out of character for him, especially because more than any other pig I’ve ever met, he thrives on routine and loves reacting to cues.

When he does this, I feel like I need to unscare him. I need to speak to him in a quiet, normal voice and remind him that everything is normal around here. Nothing to worry about. There is nothing terrifying about the water bottle. His food bowl cannot harm him. His nighttime treat is on his bed, just as it has always been for the last 4+ years.

Sometimes, it works, but sometimes, he still seems off for a few minutes. I’m not sure why I believe I can unscare Beorn when Josh cannot unscare me when I am frightened or worried.

I’m sure advent calendars have been around forever, but I didn’t see my first one until I was in my 20s — a hazard of being a non-Christmas celebrator. But a co-worker had one, and then Martha Stewart had instructions for how to make your own matchbox advent calendar, and I made one for the countdown to Josh’s birthday that year.

But in recent years — and correct me if I’m wrong — I’ve noticed that people are moving from having one advent calendar to having multiple advent calendars. What went from opening one window and getting one piece of chocolate or a tiny toy has become opening four windows on four different calendars and getting a jar of jam + an airplane bottle of booze + chocolate + makeup. Am I correct? Have advent calendars multiplied?

It’s a fun idea, and four calendars must feel four times as festive, but is my perception correct? Have calendars multiplied? And where is the Elf on a Shelf? As advent calendar posts go up, Elf on a Shelf posts have gone down.

Or maybe that’s just my feed.

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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:

• Nothing… sniff.

Okay, now my choices this week.

Bereaved and Blessed reflects on her first pregnancy loss, 20 years earlier. She writes, “Though I don’t believe everything happens for a reason or that we need to try to find silver linings when we are grieving, I do think we can find meaning as we navigate difficult, uncertain and painful times in our lives.” A great message.

Lastly, No Kidding in NZ gives a look back on 22 years ago (if I’m doing that math correctly with 16 years + 6 years) when she was trying to figure out what came next and overwhelmed with sadness. On our hardest days, it would be so helpful to know how things look down the road. The most important point: “I don’t feel this way anymore. In fact, it has been a long time since I felt like this.”

The roundup to the Roundup: Advent calendar multiplication. 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 November 29 – December 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.

Slate had an article about a Facebook group where people make small decisions for you. We’re not talking about major life-changing decisions. The group will help you decide between two outfits or what to make for dinner.

I imagine like a human Magic 8 ball with a little more thought behind it.

I was intrigued enough to submit a request to join the group.

Would you let strangers make minor decisions for you?

I read about a project where they are encouraging people to “save wisdom” by providing methods and 1,000 questions you can use as prompts to think through answers. I started reading some of the questions, and it brought me to my own question(s).

What does it mean to save wisdom? Is wisdom transferable and applicable across people? Sometimes yes, of course, but a lot of the questions I read were firmly a no. And that’s how I feel about a lot of recorded wisdom. It’s interesting to hear what worked for a person, but in that way, it’s about presenting a perspective more than it is presenting wisdom. To me, wisdom is personal and often time unknowable unless you have had the same experience. Reading about someone else’s hard-won knowledge and deep truth is very different from experiencing my own gathering of knowledge and deep truth.

I like the idea. I like the thought. But I’m not entirely sure the questions are leading us to save wisdom.

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

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We saw BSO’s Billy Strayhorn/Duke Ellington performance a few weeks ago. I thought Jonathon Heyward was conducting, but once we sat down and read the program, we realized it was a guest conductor.

The guest conductor came out, and there was something familiar about him. Had we seen him before with a different BSO performance? Why did his voice feel so familiar, too? Josh reopened the program and discovered that the guest conductor had played Father Rueben on Big Door Prize. A multi-talented man and one of the best guest conductors we’ve ever seen.

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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.