Mike Janssen

Tonight, for the first time in a while, I feel free from the pressure of deadlines, and it is a nice feeling. Well, I do have to put the finishing touches on a few articles for Retail Traffic, it’s true. But at least I don’t have the feeling of needing to write thousands of words hanging over me. Instead, I sit in the La-Z-Boy, drinking an Oskar Blues Ten Fidy, having just polished off dinner and a few episodes of Deadwood, listening to the distant sound of cars rolling by and trying to persuade the cat not to lie on … Continue Reading

Life is funny. Life is just funny. It amuses me. Here I sit, enjoying a Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale and full of spaghetti. This week I’ve been working on two articles for Retail Traffic and one for Current, as well as the website for my mom’s farmers’ markets, Scanning the Dial, setting up my new MacBook (yum), my taxes and sundry other things. I tell you, it’s enough to keep a man from all the online Scrabble he really ought to be playing. Today, I worked steadily from 9 to 4. I know you people with 9-to-5 jobs are scoffing right now, but … Continue Reading

Earlier I dashed off something quite like the following after reading this article in the New York Times, wherein the author makes a somewhat pathetic case that, for at least half a dozen people who were accessible by deadline, blogging for a living makes for an unhealthy lifestyle.

Ugh, let’s talk about bad grammar (or listen to me talk about it): “Some sites, like those owned by Gawker Media, give bloggers retainers and then bonuses for hitting benchmarks, like if the pages they write are viewed 100,000 times a month.” “Like if the pages”? What? How about “…such as whether … Continue Reading

I use too many adverbs. The Walkmen are right when they say that the Coen Bros.’ No Country for Old Men is better the second time. I saw it last week, in a theater, specifically the Arlington Cinema and Drafthouse, which I’d never visited. It was nice to be able to drink a beer and watch a movie in a theater. And I didn’t find the screen overweeningly small, but then, I rarely have that problem. I don’t care much about screen sizes. I have a small TV. No Country is the rare movie that makes me want to read the book … Continue Reading

Tonight, for the first night all year, I can hear the spring peepers. I think I noted this last year on this blog, so I feel it’s important to note it this year. It marks a real turning point. And, in that way, this time of year marks a turning point for me — though I’m hard pressed to say exactly what it is. I am, I admit, being coy. But maybe life is like that. When are we not at a turning point? What would happen if we chose to acknowledge every moment that comes to us as a turning … Continue Reading