The weather was absolutely beautiful today. I took a little time this afternoon to go out and take photos. I will post a few more tomorrow!
Click on the photos to enlarge them.
My friend Kahryn:
Dr. Hutchinson’s class:
Blog
-
Day 299 – Wonderful Autumn Day
-
Day 298 – Two Little Known 40D Settings
Here are two settings on the Canon 40D that few owners know about. If you know someone with a 40D, send this along to them!
1: ISO Expansion
In normal mode, the 40D only shoots in ISOs 100-1600. Once ISO expansion is turned on, ISO 3200 is made available, denoted as ISO H. This is a HUGE help in low light situations, especially capturing action, such as football games under the lights or indoor volleyball games.To turn it on:
Menu > Scroll over to the Custom Functions menu (the orange square with the camera) > Select C.Fn I: Exposure > Set > Scroll over to 3: ISO Expansion > Set > Select 1: On > Hit Menu to go back to the regular menu.
There you are! You can now shoot in ISO 3200! (I suggest using something like Noise Ninja in your post-processing to clean up some of the additional noise.)2: Highlight Rendition
This little known setting improves the details in highlights. You won’t notice a difference in most shots, but it becomes wildly apparent when shooting photos with strong highlights, such a sunset lighting up a few select clouds with others in shadow. Ken Rockwell has a great writeup on this setting.To turn it on: Menu > Scroll over to the Custom Functions menu (the orange square with the camera) > C.Fn II: Image > Set > 3: Highlight Tone Priority > Set > 1: Enable > Hit Menu to go back to the regular menu.
As Ken Rockwell points out, this setting won’t help you if you overexpose a photo, and it limits your ISO from 200-1600 if you have it on. I only turn it on when I notice a scene with strong highlights I want to get more detail in. -
Day 297 – Ritchie at Coffee House
-
Day 296 – Market Anarchy Links
I originally compiled this list for Mr. and Mrs. Odell, but I thought it would be good for everyone to check out.
Introduction to Anarchy and the Law: Ed Stringham
Anarchist Theory FAQ: Bryan Caplan
What it means to be an Anarcho-Capitalist: Stephan Kinsella
But Wouldn’t Warlords Take Over?: Robert Murphy
A 5-part series from Stefan Molyneux:
1: The Stateless Society
2: Caging the Devils: The Stateless Society and Violent Crime
3: These Cages are only for Beasts
4: Disproving the State
5: The Stateless Society Fights Back – Answers to Common QuestionsSmall Town Anarchy: J. L. Bryan
Anarchy, Anarchy – Wherefore Art Thou?: Wilton Alston
About Market Anarchism: Molinari Institute
-
Day 295 – Last Run of Chicago Photos
I have a lot more photos from my Chicago trip, but I am not posting anymore after today.
These past few days in Hillsdale have been beautiful! Check out William Clayton’s blog to see a beautiful Hillsdale autumn photo. I even had class outside yesterday! (The seminar I was in is not the one pictures on Will’s blog. Dr. Wenzel gathered us around a tree because Dr. Smith already took the amphitheater.)
-
Day 294 – Chicago Skyline at Night
Taken during a riverboat architecture tour:
-
Day 293 – Chicago Photos, Round Two
Click on the photos to view them at a larger size.
The Chicago skyline on a dreary day, taken from the Chicago St. bridge over 90/80. EDIT: 90/94.
Downtown urban art: This robot character was made out of the same thing the reflective lines on the road are made of. Evidently, someone got his hands on some of it and made these characters. I saw them all over downtown.
-
Day 292 – Chicago Photos, Round One
Hancock Building & Others
Inside Cloud Gate (The Bean) at Millennium Park
-
Day 291 – Jewish Deli and Art Institute
Today was the last day of Fall Break and my last day in Chicago. I celebrated by sleeping in, going to Eleven City Diner with Ryan and Carrie for lunch, then visiting the Art Institute. Shortly afterward, I made my way back to Hillsdale.
Eleven City Diner is great! It is a Jewish deli/diner with excellent food. I had a double decker corned beef & pastrami sandwich, and I tried a few other things. Here are a few photos from my phone:
-
Day 290 – Second Full Day in Chicago
I had another great day today! We got a late start (slept until 11), but Ryan and I met Carrie at Jake Melnick’s for lunch, which was excellent. I had a beef brisket sandwich, and we got an order of the XXX wings. Those wings are the hottest, yet most flavorful wings I’ve ever had. They blow Quaker Steak’s atomic sauce out of the water. They were very good, but insanely hot. Even now, 7 hours later, I can still feel the dull burn in my stomach from those wings.
After lunch, we walked down Michigan Ave down to Millennium Park, then took the river architecture tour. I have some really cool photos from today, which I will upload over the course of next week.
Right now, we are on our way to dinner, then a house party down to street to hear some live music.
Tomorrow night, I will be back at Hillsdale.
EDIT: We decided to go see Where The Wild Things Are and then eat Chinese food at midnight, rather than go to the house party.
-
Day 289 – Jam, Michigan Ave, and BMG
I had an excellent day today!
I slept in, then got up and ate brunch at JamArchived Link, a trendy little spot in Ukrainian Village, just a few blocks from my cousin’s house. The food was excellent–great coffee, a tasty chocolate raspberry muffin, fingerling potatoes, and a spanish omelet with chorizo, roasted peppers, melted onions, and garrotxa cheese. The restaurant was really neat, with small tables, clear plastic chairs, and chefs out in the open.
After brunch, I decided to walk in the drizzling rain down to Michigan Ave (about 3 miles) to where Ryan works. It stopped raining about halfway there, and it stayed nice for the rest of the day. I visited Ry’s office, visited a bunch of stores down Michigan Ave. I carried my camera around all day, so I have a bunch of photos! I will post some when I get back to Hillsdale…the internet here is not very reliable.
Ryan’s girlfriend Carrie met us for a dinner of deep dish pizza at Lou Malnati’s. It was my first time eating it, and it was excellent! Later, we hung out at Carrie’s house for a little while, then went to the Blue Man Group show at the Briar St. Theatre. I had a great time!
Tomorrow, we are going to devour some hot wings at Jake Melnick’s, then visit some museums.
By the way: Another printed version of The Onion came out today! I was excited to find that. I really enjoy The Onion.
-
Day 288 – Chicago Arrival
I finally got my paper finished, turned it in, then hopped in the vehicle and drive to visit Ryan in Chicago. Before I left, it was snowing in Hillsdale! It stopped after 10am, but there was definitely snow falling for a few hours. The ground was warm enough that it melted right away, though.
I got stuck in traffic outside of Chicago for about 40 minutes, then once I finally got to Ryan’s apartment, I just hung out until he got home. I planned on going exploring, but it was raining all day, so I just lounged around. After he got home from work, we went for a walk and ended up eating at The Silver Palms. The dining area is actually in an old railroad dining car from the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. Apparently the restaurant was featured on Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. Ryan ordered the Three Little Piggy sandwich, which is a huge sandwich stuffed with smoked ham, pork tenderloin, bacon, and gruyere cheese, all topped off with an onion ring and a fried egg. I ordered the Smoked Meat sandwich, which is corned beef brisket, grilled onions, and gruyere cheese on pumpernickel. We ended up splitting the sandwiches, so we both are half of each. I liked mine better, but his mountain of pork sandwich was pretty good, too.
On the walk back, I found a newspaper box that had paper copies of The Onion, so I am looking forward to reading that later tonight.
I have very sporadic and unreliable internet at his apartment, so I might not be uploading any photos while I am here.
Plans for tomorrow: Visit Ryan’s office, walk around Michigan Ave. and take photos, eat deep-dish pizza, and go to see Blue Man Group!
-
Day 287 – Football Alumni Game
I am on my way to Chicago on Thursday. I am excited!
Besides lots of sight-seeing, photographing, and eating, I plan to update my photography portfolio here on my site while I am there. I have not updated it in a year, and my skills have improved in that time. I have a lot of photos to take out, and a lot of photos to add. I will post it when I get it finished.
Here are some photos from the alumni football game last weekend. All previous Hillsdale football players were allowed to participate in the event. Guys ranging from their mid-20s to mid-50s showed up to play.
-
Day 286 – More Charger Swimming
All three pre-fall break exams are finished! Now I have to put the finishing touches on my Austrian Economics paper on the notion of cost and its use in economic regulation, and I will be on my way to visit Ryan in Chicago!
Now, for the regularly scheduled program:
4 photos from the Charger Blue & White meet last Saturday:
-
Day 285 – Baseball Alumni Game
The Hillsdale Baseball Alumni came together last weekend to play a memorial softball game:
In other news:
2 exams down, 1 to go, and one paper to finish before I leave for Chicago! -
Day 284 – ∆T∆ Fraternity
A shot of ∆T∆ (pronounced Delta Tau Delta) in the homecoming parade:
∆T∆’s representative, Taylor Gage, was Homecoming King:
-
Day 283 – Homecoming Victory
The Chargers had a victorious win over nationally-ranked no. 1 team in division II, the Grand Valley Lakers, this afternoon. The Chargers broke the Lakers’ 48 regular season game winning streak. What a wonderful homecoming! Read about the win at the Hillsdale College athletics page.
-
Day 282 – Economizing on Brain Power
I had an interesting concept brought up to me today while I was discussing the difference between rationality and reason with Professor Lea. To try to understand the difference, we did a thought experiment about making choices. When a person makes a choice, he or she weighs the expected utility (broadly defined) of each unit, ranks the units by preference, then chooses the one with the highest utility. This happens whether or not a person is conscious of it, and it is a systematic way of making choices and rationally fulfilling ends. Professor Lea and I both understood this.
How, then, do we account for people who are stuck in a routine (i.e. walk the same way to class every day, go through the motions, eat the same thing almost daily, etc)? Is that routine irrational because it is not a systematic way of making choices, and one does it without thinking? At what point does a decision become a routine? Why is it rational one day because it is based on a systematic choice, and irrational the next day because it is part of a routine and not thought about?
After much thought, Professor Lea remembered an answer Hayek had to a similar question: individuals economize on brain power. This means that people go through a routine because it requires less brain power. Scarcity is a reality for brain power, too, so whenever individuals can economize on it, they do. This manifests itself frequently when individuals are involved in projects that take a lot of thinking.
I recognized it about myself when I am writing papers–I don’t think about small details like where I am going to eat for dinner. I just pick somewhere close and eat something on the menu that I frequently eat. When I am writing a paper, I try not to devote a lot of power to deciding on small details like where to eat, what to wear, where to study, etc. I just pick the first available option (within reason) in those cases.
Individuals aren’t being irrational, for the most part, when they follow habits or routines. Yes, those individuals are not making active choices and weighing the costs and expected benefits, but they are economizing on brain power and falling back on choices they previously made. This has huge implications which I will cover another time.
-
Day 281 – IM Football
This photo ran in today’s Collegian with this article. I also had a number of portraits I took for the homecoming bios, and I compiled the quick hits this week.
I have a very busy weekend coming up. I have three big exams on Monday and Tuesday of next week, a paper due Wednesday (which was just assigned last night via email), and a number of homecoming photos to take and edit for the college by Monday.
-
Day 280 – Taylor Gage
I had to do portraits of the guys nominated to the homecoming court here at Hillsdale. I took all of the of the photos outdoors. Taylor Gage could only meet me at night, so I got creative and did a little strobist work with a flash off-camera left.
A side note:
I am in an epistolary communications class and I love receiving letters. Here is my address if you want to send me one. (I will reply by letter, too!)
Chuck Grimmett
Simpson 308 B
300 N. West St.
Hillsdale, MI 49242 -
Day 279 – Aggregates
Today’s post is short.
After a meeting of the Classical Liberal Organization tonight in which a few people confused this, I feel the need to say something about this:
Aggregates don’t act. Aggregates don’t make choices, laws, invade other countries, or have rights. Only individuals which make up those aggregates make choices, act, have rights, and the other things that follow. Groups don’t do things. Individuals inside groups do things.
This has all kinds of implications which I will leave you to ponder. I am open to any questions, just email me or post a comment.
Oh, and here is something else which is also commonly misunderstood: a change in price does not change demand, only quantity demanded. Raising the price of ice cream will not change an individual’s demand of ice cream, only the quantity he or she demands. Think about it.
-
Day 278 – Central Hall Clock Tower
I got to go in the clock tower of Central Hall today! What a cool place! The webcams up there had smudges on the lenses, so I volunteered to go up to clean them for ITS. The journey up the various ladders and the rough hand-hewn stairs is a long one, but definitely worth it. The view is amazing from the platform at the top. I took my camera with me (with only one lens, unfortunately). There are some very neat rooms and spaces up in the clock tower. Here are a few photos:
South quad and Lane Hall:
Grewcock Student Union and North quad:
Delp Hall:
Plumb line to tell if Central Hall is leaning (Don’t worry, it isn’t!)
Behind the West clock face:
-
Day 277 – Beautiful Sky
I looked out of my window while I was studying after dinner, and I saw this beautifully colored sky.
(Just so people know, there are some birds in the photo. It isn’t sensor dirt!)
After much rest, NyQuil, water, and Emergen-C, I am finally feeling better. Good thing, because I have the first round of midterms over the next week and a half!
-
Day 276 – Coffee House
Coffee House is a venue where student musicians can perform for the campus in the student union. Hillsdale has some very talented musicians! Unfortunately, I could only stay for an hour. Click on the photos to view them at a larger size:
-
Day 275 – Swimming Photo
This photo was the sports sections header in The Collegian this week.
