Author: jfigy

A few weeks ago, I went with my wife and some friends to Minneola State Park to go snowshoeing. Unfortunately, all of the snowshoes had been reserved days earlier by people who know how things work here in Mankato. So we drove through the bison range instead. We didn't see anything, except a boulder that … Continue reading Minneopa bison

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog. Here's an excerpt: A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,600 times in 2015. If it were a cable car, it would take about 43 trips to carry that many people. Click here to see the … Continue reading 2015 in review

Many of you are wondering: What’s the Figys’s first married Christmas like? And if you’re not, you feel too awkward about walking out now. It’s like you showed up to the wrong class on syllabus day, but already claimed a great seat and asked a question about the midterm—so, why not take Anthro 245? So … Continue reading A Very Figy Christmas

My graduate assistantship with the President's Commission on Diversity requires me to write one Voices of Diversity article each semester. I have to find someone with an interesting story to tell, then tell it. It's great. Writing feature articles is one of my favorite things. It's mostly the reason why I became interested in journalism in the first … Continue reading Salma’s point of view

I had a flash fiction piece published by this interesting project called Found Polaroids. The website's founder has been collecting polaroids from all over, and as the site says: "The result is this: Found Polaroids, a collection of over 6000 images." More than one hundred photos already live on the site, but that's just the start. … Continue reading My Found Polaroid

Stephanie and I started an experiment five years ago today. We decided to eat a vegetarian diet for the month of October. We’d both tried it a few times before. But this time we did it for a reason. We did it to remember our friend, Stephanie’s best friend, Amanda. Amanda, a longtime vegetarian, was … Continue reading five year veggieversary

People back home always ask me, "How's Minnesota?" It's great, I tell them. The weather is nice (for now) and warm (also, for now) and the sky is clear (you get the picture). My classes are great, and I sometimes wonder how I got so lucky. Some days while my wife works, I sit and … Continue reading Mankato, Minnesota: The good, the bad, and the “different.”

“When are you going to write a song about me?” Stephanie asked me this question often when we first started dating. And rightly so. I’d written songs about girls before—and songs about books and songs about songs—so it made sense I would write one about the woman I’d one day marry. But I stopped writing … Continue reading A wedding song

1.   From: Management <Management@RAMJACcorp.com> Date: Friday, June 20, 2015 12:27 PM To: staff <office@RAMJACcorp.com> Subject: Fridge use issues (please read) Everyone, Management is setting a new rule for office fridge use. We really hate to do this, but recent events have tied our hand/s. The process started when Larry brought to our attention that … Continue reading new rules for office fridge use