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553rd Friday Blog Roundup

Remember last summer when I wrote about the librarian refusing to renew my book?  This week, I had to speak to her about a book I was trying to return that wasn’t on my account.  When we originally checked out the book, the system didn’t scan it into our account.  The computer said we only had 5 books out, but we were clearly holding 6 books to return.

She fixed the barcode on the book while she looked at my account.  “You have one more book out that is due in a few days,” she informed me.

“I know,” I told her.  “I’ll be back later this week.”

“Want me to renew it?” she asked.  What the hell?  Last summer she wouldn’t renew a book I wanted renewed, and now she was offering to renew a book that I said I would be returning on time.

“I don’t think you can.  It has holds on it.”

“I can,” she said.  And she renewed the book.

I brought back the book on its original due date because the book had holds.  Meaning, someone else was waiting for the book.  But really, she couldn’t renew a book when I desperately needed someone to be kind, but she could renew it when I didn’t need it renewed?

I love my library.  I love the librarians in my library.  But sometimes they just don’t make sense.

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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 in order 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.  In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

Okay, now my choices this week.

Not a Wasted Word weaves a metaphor between herself as a parent and an operating system.  It’s a post about feeling over-burdened and recognizing the role she has played in finding herself in that space, but also feeling that it’s a space she was led to.  She writes, “I know I created this dynamic, or at the very least enabled it. I made conscious choices to take on all of this because the alternative was worse.”  It’s a thought-provoking read.

The Empress and the Fool has a post about finding a connection with the book Goldfinch.  I haven’t read the book yet, but this post made me want to run to my library to pick up a copy.  She writes so gorgeously: “With my hand on an empty womb and skin electrified with both hope and terror, my feet shuffle in the general direction of forward.”  Click over to read the whole post.

My Lady of the Lantern has a moving post about losing her aunt.  She writes, “There is a difference between the dying and the dead. The dead are dead and the dying are dying, and hence still alive.”  It is a post about not knowing someone’s last day.  My heart went out to her reading it.

Anabegins has an interesting post about finding the key that fits in your lock; in other words, finding which type of personality you have and using it to your advantage.  A cool idea.  And yes, she does find the answer to her personality conundrum.

Lastly, Torthúil has a post about the pictures she has taken with her phone.  She doesn’t have a phone with a fantastic camera, therefore, she takes very few pictures with it.  And the pictures she takes tell a story.  The stories are wonderful even if the photos are grainy.  It’s their graininess that makes them all the more poignant that the moment was captured.

The roundup to the Roundup: Uh, thanks for the renewal?  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 3rd and 10th) 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.

6 comments

1 torthuil { 07.10.15 at 1:43 pm }

Ah, library books. I used to have a great relationship with libraries and then at some point I couldn’t handle the commitment and it just wasn’t that great anymore lol. Thanks for including my post. I wrote it very quickly out of an urgent need to record my emotional impressions and when I was done, I thought, “that’s kind of weird; I don’t know if anyone will relate.” I was still glad I wrote for myself and also glad that some people could relate. Lots of good writing in the round-up this week. 🙂 I enjoyed UnPregnant Chicken’s post about body image during fertility challenges and pregnancy. http://unpregnantchicken.com/2015/07/my-body-image-my-infertile-struggle/

2 Ana { 07.10.15 at 4:09 pm }

Thanks for the shout out. I feel kind of fraudulent, because the personality-stuff was straight from Gretchen Rubin. I’m wracking my brain trying to think of a link to share (you beat me to Noemi’s). In fact, her whole series of posts re: this issue were great, especially the comments.

3 St. E { 07.11.15 at 2:32 am }

Thank you for the shout out, Mel.

4 Mali { 07.11.15 at 9:52 pm }

Librarians don’t make sense? People don’t make sense! I suspect the previous time you wanted to renew the book she was having a very bad day. Maybe you were the tenth person to ask for a favour, and she’d had enough, even though your request was perfectly reasonable. Maybe policy had changed? Maybe she was just feeling more/less contrary one day over another? I repeat. People don’t make sense! lol

I do appreciate your weekly back-up reminders. But I can’t find my hard drive I use for back-ups. Ever since we went away in March. Gulp. I obviously put it somewhere safe, and so isn’t it the way that now it seems to have vanished? Thank goodness for Dropbox, where I save my blog backups, and other important documents. Which reminds me – need to back up my recent tax return, and my new CV. Off to back up there now. Thanks for reminding me.

5 Aly @ Breathe Gently { 07.12.15 at 2:34 am }

I have ‘The Goldfinch’ on my list of books to read, so this was a reminder to get on it. That blog post by Empress & the Fool was a poignant one.

Is there a July list coming for ILCW? x

6 Valery Valentina { 07.14.15 at 7:02 am }

mhm, maybe your librarian is a mortal human being? 😉 or, her operating system was updated in between your visits…

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