Friday, 10/23

I'm having trouble remembering what day of the week it is.

Now, I'm sure those of you well-versed in being a smart aleck are at this moment shouting out something like “Jim, you're getting old. Pretty soon, you'll be forgetting where you put your teeth”, and the sad thing is you may be right. Add to that the fact that I've always had a problem remembering what day it is, and you wouldn't think it's be that big of a deal.

But it is.

Three times so far this week I've had to figure out what day it is, and that's a bit of a surprise. After all, my life is rather regimented; I have to do certain things on certain days, and you think that would be ingrained in my brain. But it doesn't appear to be. Thankfully, I haven't missed being where I'm supposed to be, but the way things are going, you never know.

It can, however, be a bit problematic. It's a pain when you have to ask someone or look up what day of the week it is, and have to do that three or four times a week. You'd think that after all these years I'd know what day of the week it is, even if (like this week) I shot “High School Bowl” on Wednesday and thought it was Friday. Is it the fault of (gulp) being on the on-ramp of starting to forget where I put my teeth? Or is it just a by-product of having so many things going on?

I keep saying my life is weird. I just didn't think it would get THIS weird.

Never fear. I have the feeling that now the problem's been identified and talked through, that it'll slowly disappear. That's usually what happened what something strange occurs in my life. I write about it here, you guys act as my online shrink, and things work out.

So I appreciate it. I'd give you the $150 an hour a real shrink gets, but I have this feeling I'd forget to pay you. After all, that's how I roll these days.

8-)

Have a great weekend. And don't forget that it IS the weekend.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 10/22

I wonder how much longer the red flash drive is going to hold out?

Doing what I do I use a lot of different computers, at home, at my various jobs, and even when I'm slitting in my auxiliary office working on a nice summer's day. Oftentimes I have to get a file from one computer to another, and while I've used e-mail, Google drives, and the cloud to move files from one machine to the other, I also use a flash drive. My trusty red flash drive. A flash drive that I've now used for (gulp) 15 years--

I have no idea how I started using this 8 GB Dane-Elec drive back in 2011, but I'm guessing that, at the time, it was one of the bigger ones that you could find. I keep it in the front pocket of my backpack (which I HAVE had to replace since 2011) and, at least once a day, I'll use it for file transfers or just to back up these blogs. I know that there are easier ways to do it, and I know that there are newer (and bigger) drives that I could use, but for a decade and a half my trusty red flash drive has done the job.

So why stop now?

Knowing how fast tech gear fails I'm kind of surprised that it's still going, and that's probably the main reason why I keep using it. I mean, will it ever fail? Will it keep going as a backup and transfer drive for the foreseeable future? Inquiring minds want to know.

As, as we all know, my mind is VERY weird when it comes to things like that.

I thinking--and this is just a guess--that the flash drive will outlive the rest of my working life (or, at least, my remaining time in radio), and that's the best reason I see to keep using it. If it does, and I come to that mythical day when I pack up my belongings and say "sayonara" to my office, I know the one memento that might be one of the most important, if only because have worked almost as long as I--

My trusty red flash drive.

We'll have to see.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 10/21

I have to run out in a few minutes for a special Wednesday shoot of “High School Bowl”, but I wanted to share the pictures that didn't make the cut.

What am I talking about? Yesterday, I shared my TV piece from Monday; you remember, the one about leaves. Well, leading up to it I had been shooting a LOT of pictures of leaves, and as I was putting everything together over the weekend I realized that I had waaaaay too many pictures of trees and leaves to use, so I had to cut many of them out.

And because I needed specific pictures for specific phrases, may of the best ones got left out.

You know, like one of a wet & gloomy Marquette...

Or one of a Marquette sky that's anything BUT wet & gloomy...

Or one of the Iron Ore Heritage Trail...

Or one of the most iconic places in Marquette...

So many pictures of leaves, o few opportunities to use them on TV, you know? And speaking of TV, that's where I'm heading now. After all, four teams from across the UP await!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 10/20

There are HOW many leaves falling from Upper Michigan trees this month?  Believe it or not, I know the answer.

Now, this seems like it might be one of those questions that you can't answer, like “how many stars are there in the galaxy” or “how many years can the Lions go without getting to the Super Bowl?” But for TV this week I needed an answer. I mean, it didn't have to be an exact number, just an answer in the general neighborhood. And thanks to my alma mater, I was actually able to get that general number.

Michigan State's still actually good for something these days, believe it or not.

I needed the number because I was talking about a storied UP October tradition that everyone (sarcasm alert) loves, the raking of leaves from one's yard. I was curious as to how many leaves someone might have to rake, but as soon as I saw the statistics from the Michigan State School of Forestry as to how many trees there are in the UP and how many leaves they each contain, I knew I had my hook for the piece.

It's funny. I never actually thought about things like “how many trees are there in the UP” until I started doing these TV bits. But in the four years I've been writing them I HAVE discovered how many trees there are in the UP. I've also found out many deer there are up here; heck, I even know how many Dollar Generals there are in the UP. They're not things that a normal person would have to discover, but then...

When have I ever been normal?

So just how many leaves WILL be falling from UP trees this month? The shocking number is right here--

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 10/19

It's nice to know there's a still a newspaper out that, you know, delivers the news.

First of all, just let me say that I would not want to be in the newspaper business these day. The internet has pretty much destroyed the business model upon which newspapers were founded, and those that are still around are hanging on by the skin of their teeth, struggling to get by with reduced staffs, minimal advertising, and entire sections that largely consist of rewritten press releases.

It's REALLY not a good time to be in the newspaper biz.

Having said that, there is one newspaper in the UP that seems to have bucked the trend, and that's the Munising Beacon. It's a weekly paper, which I'm sure helps, and it's in a smaller community with a minimum of competition for ad dollars, which I'm also sure helps. But if you get the chance to grab one, check it out.

You'll be transported back to a time when newspapers were actually good.

The new owner/editor of the paper, Jennifer Champagne, did a profile piece on me in the Marquette Monthly a couple of years ago, before buying the Munising paper, and has since been sending me copies. And I have to say...I'm impressed. It looks like a newspaper used to, with real stories written by real people, real ads, and a real sense of community that newspapers used to provide in the days before news aggregators tore the guts out of the business.

Plus, she uses talented people--including at least one Munising High School Bowl team member--and that really shows.

Like I mentioned before, it's a horrid time to be in the newspaper business; in fact, it wouldn't surprise me if most of the newspapers currently around aren't around in 20 years. But it's nice to know that in small pockets around the country (and especially here in the UP) they're still going strong.

And if you'd like a perfect example of that, just grab yourself a copy of the Munising Beacon or check 'em out online. You'll see what I'm talking about.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 10/16

I'd be a catch if I were single.

First of all, let me state this—I am not single. I have not been single for many years. I don't wish to be single again. I am not implying anything with this blog other than the facts about to be stated. So don't read anything into it other than the fact that if I were somehow to be single, I have two things going for me.

'Nuff said.

Now, a “weird fact” of mine earlier this week had to do with the two things people are looking for when on a dating website. We've all heard stories about how said sites are not always filled with, well, the best of catches. But there seem to be two things that are deal-breakers, at least for 88 percent of women and 75 % of men.

The biggest deal-breaker is personal hygiene. Apparently, if you post a picture of yourself in bad clothing, or looking like you haven't washed your hair in three weeks, that turns most people off.

Who knew, he says sarcastically.

The other? Bad grammar. Poor spelling and not knowing which there, their, or they're to use is a turn-off for both men and women, although more women than men. So if you find yourself on a dating website any time in the near future, you know what to avoid.

That's okay. You can thank me later.

Like I said at the beginning of this, I'm not single, nor do I have the desire to be single. But I'd like to think that I'm pretty good with my own personal hygiene. And I know how to construct a sentence like, say, “They're on their way there”. So if the world were to flip on its axis—or flip on its axis more than it already has in 2026—and I found myself needing the services of a dating website, I would hope that I would pass muster.

After all, it seems like it's hard being single these days. Who knew there was so much pressure to get everything absolutely right?? Any kind of head start a person can get, I guess, is a start well worth exploiting.

8-)

I'm off to shoot “High School Bowl”. Have a great weekend...I know that as a non-single individual, I get to spend mine with my favorite person!!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 10/15

The timing of it could not have been more perfect.

On TV Monday and in here yesterday I talked about Canada and, specifically, how I wouldn't be here without the country, as that's where my great-grandfather, the guy after whom I was named, was born. I don't know if this was coincidence or serendipity, but Tuesday night, in the middle of all this, I received an e-mail from Ancestry, saying that I should check out my new and improved DNA profile, showing more regions than ever before.

Including, believe it or not, this one--

Ancestry has never broken things down so fine before (for instance, I now know the five regions of England from whence some of my forebearers came), but to see the “Canadian” part of my history come to life, right as I was talking about it on TV and writing about it in here, was indeed serendipitous. And even more surprising? That of the 18 (!) different regions & nationalities that make up by ethnic background, “Canadian” is now the second biggest.

Consider my mind blown.

Of course, the coolest thing about that is the fact that the “Canadian” part of me is actually from Quebec, the French-speaking part of the country. What's the one language (other than English) that I can almost speak? French. Which country's chocolate do I really, really like? France. To which country in Europe do I seem most drawn? France. You know, my attraction to that country almost seems like it's woven into my DNA, or something.

And, according to the new update, it apparently IS. Who knew?

This information is, of course, probably of no interest to anyone but me. But I do find it freaky that on the week I told everyone that I was indeed Canadian, that Ancestry backed me up to a degree greater than I ever thought possible.

(jim@wmqt.com)