Wednesday, 12/9

 Maybe that’s why I’m always so calm.

While going through one of the eight zillion emails I get each and every day I came across a rather interesting fact. A new survey shows that people who compulsively check their phones for texts or messages or e-mails suffer anxiety or depression at a rate up to 60% higher than people who don’t.

Sixty percent higher!!!

I actually know a couple of people like that; people who look at their phone every two minutes and seem disappointed when there’s nothing new to attract their attention. These are the same people who will send me a text or an e-mail and then wonder why I don’t get right back to them, even if the text or e-mail was trivial in nature. Well, that’s probably because I don’t check my phone every two minutes. In fact, I can actually go (gasp) hours without even giving it a second thought.

Oh, the horror!!

Call me weird (it certainly wouldn’t be the first time) but I don’t see why I should be checking my phone every two minutes. After all, that’s like being at work or being on call 24 hours a day. I wouldn’t want to do it without a phone; why should I do it with a phone? There are times when you just need to separate yourself from whatever or whomever. You need to allow your brain to detach and de-tangle, and that doesn’t happen when you’re checking your phone every two minutes.

I can’t say I was surprised when I saw that statistic; we seem to live in a world where there’s too much information and not enough time to process it. And before you go thinking I’m a technological Luddite or something, be aware of the fact that I use technology just as much or more than the average person. I just don’t feel this. . .compulsion to use it every single second I’m awake. I’m fine with leaving my phone at home when I go to the beach or to leave it in another room when I’m spending time with loved ones. After all, what’s more important in the scheme of things, especially for your mental health--a walk on the beach, or a text message you really don’t need at that moment?

Now can you see why that survey was probably quite accurate?

So the next time you see someone in store or in their car or even (heaven forbid) in a restaurant (when they're open) spending time with someone else yet checking their phone every few minutes, make sure you don’t say “boo” around them.

After all, they’re probably anxious enough as it is.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 12/8

 We'll just have to see how it all turns out.

As you may be aware, I'm in the midst of putting together another documentary for the Marquette Regional History Center, this one taking the place of the usual Kaufman Auditorium show Jack Deo & I do every January. Entitled “Skis, Skates, and Slapshots”, it'll talk about the history of winter sports in the area. This one's Jack's baby, but we're drawing on the experience I had in putting together “Third Street: Day & Night” to make this a multimedia extravaganza.

With, of course, silly stories. You can't have a Jim & Jack show without silly stories.

One of the things we'll be replicating from “Third Street” in this production will be interviews with people who actually made local history on skis and skates. This time around, though, we'll be facing a few difficulties I didn't face this past summer. There's the Covid surge, the resultant “pause” (now extended through the 20^th ) in Michigan, and the fact that the people to whom we're speaking are all elderly and therefore fall into the high risk category for the disease.

That, however, (hopefully) won't stop us.

I don't know how people would've been able to conduct remote video interviews in the olden-days (you know, like 2015) but Zoom is a wonderful thing. Instead of asking these high-risk individuals to come into the History Center we'll just do the interviews remotely. Assuming, of course, they either can figure out how to Zoom or have someone around who can help them out. Sure, it'll make the documentary look a little different, but if someone stumbles upon it in 2035 or 2040 they can take one look at the production and say--

“That's SO 2020”. Because it will be.

8-)

We'll see how it all turns out. The world will also get a chance to check it out on January 21^st, 2021, the date on which we would've done the show live. And who knows—maybe this is the way in which we'll have to do ALL of our shows for now.

Time, of course, will tell.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 12/7

 Larger than life? Me? Really?

You sure you have the right person here?

I've been reading through some of the birthday greetings sent my way on Facebook and two Facebook friends of mine, from opposite ends of the country, mentioned a “larger than life” personality in describing me. While I admit I don't have the personality of a “normal” person, I don't know that I'd call it “larger than life”. Dorky, sure. Weird, perhaps. But “larger than life”?

I don't even think the Backstreet Boys would agree with that.

I mean, I guess I can see where they're coming from. I do things that “normal” people don't do; I do radio and TV and public speaking and all that stuff. But I don't know that that gives me a larger than life personality. Even when I do those things I'm low-key. I'm more observational than I am a “performer”. But that's because that's now I am in real life. No matter what I'm doing, what you see is what you get.

I'm just, you know, me. Doing what I do. Probably because I'm not that good at much of anything else.

It's funny; when I think of a “larger than life” personality I think of someone who's “on” at all times and who drives the world around them. That's not me. Like I said, I'm laid back. I notice things more than I drive things. I react, instead of instigate. I make the pithy little comments instead of the laugh out loud punchlines. That's just who I am. My public persona is exactly the same as my private persona, with the possible exception of a being a little better dressed when the “public” me is out there.

Yet, there are still some people who think I'm “larger than life”. I know they meant it as a compliment, and despite my whining I AM taking it that way. I just think they're running down the wrong path. I've known me a lot of years now, and the one thing that I would not call myself is “larger than life”. However, I've been wrong (many times) before, and I'm sure I'll be wrong again, so as far as this goes, who knows?

I just don't think I am.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 12/4

 I was supposed to be spending my birthday shooting a TV show. Now, I have no idea if that'll even happen at all this year.

First of all, I turn another year older today. That's not a big deal. As I joke each & every year if anyone deserves cheers and/or sympathy it's my mom, if only because I was born a month past my due date.

SHE'S the one who deserves all the accolades today.

I'm not big on birthdays, anyway. All it means is that I'm another year older, and if there's one thing that the Koskis don't do is acknowledge aging. So today would, during a normal year, just be another day, albeit one with pumpkin bars and mint chocolate chip ice cream. And, as it's been happening the past few years, a shooting date for that little TV show I host.

But alas...2020 has been anything BUT a normal year.

If things had gone according to the original plan we would've been shooting the first episode of our second round today. If things had gone according to the revised plan we put together after the original plan went out the window we'd be shooting the second episode of the season today. But because nothing has gone according to either original or backup plans this year, I get to spend my birthday not under the lights of a TV studio but sitting in my office, wondering if we'll ever get to shoot an episode at all this year.

I wouldn't take bets on it.

Once the original plans went out the window we thought we had a good revised plan in place; we'd shoot beginning in December so the programs could begin airing January 2^nd. We'd get a bunch of shows in the can this month and be off to a flying start. But between this third wave of the gunk and the fact that high school students aren't allowed any extracurricular activities (like, say, appearing on a TV show); well, those plans went out of the window, as well.

So instead of spending my birthday in my preferred way, I'll just go to work like it's a normal day. I do get birthday pizza tonight (thanks, Loraine) and thawed-out pumpkin bread (thanks, mom, for thinking of doing that before you escaped Michigan for the season), so it WILL be a little above average for a Friday.

It just won't be the exact way I had hoped to spend it. But it's 2020, so what are you gonna do right?

Have a great weekend...

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday,12/3

 I guess it's really not that bad. But at the same time, it really does suck.

December’s one of those months that I can’t quite decide if I really like; after all, it has the good (Christmas cookies, at least during a non-Covid year when I make Christmas cookies), the bad (cold, and no time to do anything), and the ugly (I turn another year older). But it also has something that happens during this time of the year. It gives me my only chance (or two) to see a phenomenon that I otherwise am unable (or unwilling) to experience.

That’s right--December allows me to see my only sunrise (or two) of the year.

Those of you who know me know that during most of the year I’m never awake to see a sunrise. The closest I come are those nights in June when I fall asleep a few hours before the sun rises. I’m not complaining, or anything; based on my body clock, that’s just a fact of life. But with the sun rising so late (if at all) during December, it does allow me the opportunity to get out and see it come up. . .if, of course, our ever-present cloud bank actually allows it.

This year, though, I've been a little lucky. Especially yesterday morning when there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

Yesterday, and on those various days when I do get to see a sunrise, it occurred when I was out running, and it usually seems to occur when I’m out running on the bike path near Shiras Park. I’m pretty sure you get the best view of a sunrise in Marquette from there; after all, there must be a reason a bunch of cars are parked in the lot every morning around the time the sun comes up. And I have to admit, the one sunrise (or two) a year I see from that location is much different than the sunsets I see from many different locations on a regular basis. The sunsets always seem to be “dirty”, for lack of a better word. When the sun goes down for the night it’s masked by all kinds of gunk in the air, kicked up by the activities of everyone during the day. Sure, the sunsets can be quite vivid, but like I said, they seem “dirty”.

Not the one sunrise (or two) a year I see, though. The atmosphere’s had the chance overnight to clean out all the gunk that accumulated in it the previous day, so that when the sun comes up, it comes up undiluted by the flotsam of the previous day. Like the daybreak it heralds, the sun when rising is clean and clear and full of promise. I can see why people enjoy watching it come up, and I’d do it more often myself, if only during most of the year the sun just didn’t come up so darn early.

So aside from Christmas cookies, I guess you can add “sunrises” to the list of good things that December brings. I’m not quite sure if those two outweigh the cold and lack of time and the fact that I turn a year older, but at least December has one or two things going for it.

Unlike, say, January. But that’s a topic for another month!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 12/2

 This may be turning into “Birthday at the Beach” all over again.

Some of you may remember four or five years ago when it was mild few days heading into my birthday and I actually (as a gag) went to the beach on my big day. I did it because after mentioning it a few times on the air it seemed to touch a nerve with a lot of people; even Loraine was getting people she works with ask if I was actually going to the beach in December.

On occasion, especially on an occasion like that, I get reminded about the power of radio.

Anyway, something (kind of) along those lines seems to be happening again. My birthday is Friday, so as a gag (or, mostly as a gag) I decided that we'd figure out Upper Michigan's favorite Hall & Oates song on “Upper Michigan's Favorite Friday”. In the promo I wrote for it I had our announcer mention that we're doing it because it's my birthday and because I wanted to listen to Hall & Oates songs all day.

I mean, sure...it's a joke. But I COULD think of worse ways to spend my birthday.

Anyway, since the promo started airing over the weekend I've had over half a dozen people call or e-mail in their requests for Hal & Oates songs as a birthday gift to me. As one lady said, “Why should you have to wait until your birthday to hear a song. Play one for yourself now”.

Wow. I had no idea that a). people actually listened to those promos, and 2). that they cared enough to want me to have a nice birthday. But like I said, on occasion I get reminded about the power of radio.

Wow.

I'm glad to know that that power is still around; after almost a year of me working alone and listeners having their lives and their listening patterns disrupted I was starting to wonder things were still working the way they were supposed to. But this kind of reaction, especially for something as dorky as a bunch of Hall & Oates songs, lets me know that despite everything going on some things never change.

And that's kind of a cool gift as we're heading toward me getting another year older. Sure, it's not me spending my birthday at the beach (although I could, because the forecast does call for sun (and, uhm, 36 degrees)), but this year, especially, I'll take what I can get.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 12/1

 How stupid is it that I can't even spell the word in English anymore?

I tell you; it's not easy being me sometimes. As those of you who read this on a regular basis know my mind sometimes does stuff that defies logic and/or reality. There are days or times when I don't seem to have any control over it (my mind, that is), and that once again became apparent when I was writing yesterday's blog, the one about our Thanksgiving dinner. As I was typing it, I noticed I spelled one of the ingredients like--

Pistache

Now, I know what it means. It's a certain kind of nut that I gobble by the handful, and a certain kind of nut that resides in my favorite French & Belgian chocolate bars. And that probably explains why I wrote it in the blog in French; after all, when I see it written down it's usually in that language. I can understand that. What I can't understand is why, after realizing I wrote it in French and then went to change it to English, that I had absolutely NO idea how to spell the word “pistachio” in my native language.

Sometimes I amaze even myself. And usually not in a good way.

I stared at the word when I tried to write it in English, but it still resembled the French version more than it did the English (well, technically, Italian, right?) way of writing it. For whatever reason, my brain couldn't comprehend the translation of the word from my second language to my first. It just didn't work. So I did what any reasonable person did—I pulled out my phone, went to Google, and typed in “p-i-s-t” where, within a matter of nanoseconds, the English version of the word popped up on my screen. It still didn't look right, but I figured that if anyone knew how to spell it Google would know how to spell it.

After all, everything we find on the Internet is correct all the time, right?

Anyway, “pistachio” is now immortalized on the blog, even though it still looks a little too strange for my tastes. And that reminds me—I need to buy more. The dinner depleted my supply. So the next time we're at the store I'll have to pick another package up. However, given my track record of late, it wouldn't surprise me if I spent a big chuck of the day wandering around the grocery store in search of “pistaches”.

I just hope there's someone there who speaks French and can point me in the right direction. If not, well...it's not easy being me. Really, it isn't.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com), lost cause, from the sounds of it.