On Tuesday, I went out and took some photos that will be part of the set of the local Amherst cable station. They told me they wanted photos that exemplified the uniqueness of Amherst, and they all have to be horizontal. Here are some of the photos I am submitting to the station:
Today, I spent the afternoon and early evening with David Wagner. We went all over the place–Huron, Sandusky, and Castalia. Here are a few photos from our adventures. As always, click on the photos to view them at a larger size:
Here is a shot I took a few days ago. This sign was put up in front of my town’s city hall during the Ohio Bicentennial in 2003. The sign is commemorating my town’s heritage as the Sandstone Center of the World.
Download the tentative weekly schedule for my fall semester in PDF format.
Early afternoon today, I went and shot four rounds of trap to try out the choke tubes I just bought and to continue breaking in my over & under for the shotgunning course I am taking when I get to Hillsdale in a month. Here are a few shots my Dad took while I was shooting:
Tonight, I went out and took a few night portraits with my friends Shelby and Josh. Shelby was the model and her boyfriend Josh helped me with the lighting. Below are a few shots. Click on the photos to view them at a larger size:
This evening, my Mom’s friend and her son from Seattle came to visit. They are in town for a wedding, so they stopped by for the evening. My Mom and Terry have been friends for 28 years. I first met her son (his name is also Chuck) in 1998 and again in 2000. He has lived in Seattle, Vancouver, and around Australia, where he worked at an Apple store! He is studying to become a dentist. It was nice to see him again!
A few years ago, I did a major photo edit for a lady in my school district. The original 4×6 photo had 5 people in it, and she wanted the guy on the far left taken out, but there was a problem: the guy next to him had his arm around him. So, I spent about two hours putting the guy’s arm back in and fixing the back ground. Click on the image below to see the before and after at a larger size:
I got a few comments on the Black Eyed Susans that were in the back ground of the photos in yesterday’s post, so here is a photo of them:
A heavy rainstorm came through right after dinner. Luckily, it ended quickly and the sun came out, so I went outside to take pictures around my yard. Which one do you like best? I recommend you click on the photos to view them at a larger size:
Tonight, Amanda came over for dinner with my parents and me, and I made muffalettas! The sandwiches had capicola, salami, pepperoni, provolone, and a freshly-made olive tapenade. They were delicious!
At 4:00 today, I met a friend of mine at the Amherst Townhall to take some photos. He is in an intro photography class, and he needed to use a SLR for this week’s assignment. After he finished the assignment, I let him try out all of the different lenses I have. To show to what extent a wide-angle lens distorts things, I let him take a photo of me holding out my hand in front of me:
The rest of my day was very nice. I went to a cookout for my Dad’s uncle’s birthday in the early afternoon, took photos, then went out to dinner with Amanda and spent the early evening walking on the beach with her.
“My goal is to confuse you at a higher level about more important things.” – Dr. Wenzel
“Road owners need to put 8 story high crosses in dangerous areas instead of ‘Go Slow’ or some nonsense like that.” – Walter Block
“I say that is nonsense…nonsense on stilts!” – Walter Block
“That is a good research strategy: fine people who don’t know what they are talking about and prove they are wrong…then you have yourself a paper.” – Larry White
“It is no coincidence that Lester Thurow’s nickname is ‘Les Thurow” (pronounced less thorough). – Larry White, in talking about how Lester Thurow does not look at both the seen and unseen
“Suppose there was a tiger in the room. Would you go over and ask it if it is a nice one or a viscous one? No! You would get the hell out! It is risky not to!” – Walter Block
The FEE seminar ended last night, so I stayed over night, then drove south to Hillsdale this morning, spend an hour there, then drove home. Here is a photo of me somewhere in the middle of Michigan today:
Today was the last day of FEE’s YSC in Midland. I had a wonderful time this week! I met so many wonderful scholars and defenders of liberty here. Tomorrow, Brad and I are driving down to Hillsdale for a little while, then we are driving home.
To all of you who are sick of photos of speakers (especially Hank D), I am sorry. After this post, there will not be more for at least a month.
Larry White, economist and scholar on free banking:
Larry Reed, FEE’s President
Walter Block, economist and anarcho-capitalist scholar
Today was another great day at FEE’s YSC. Among other things, Walter Block talked about privatizing roads, which he recently authored a book about. I also got to participate in a discussion over lunch with Block, Ben Powell, and some other students about the legitimacy of fractional reserve banking. I also went out to dinner with a group of pretty cool people from around the world and discussed various liberty-oriented topics. In addition to all of this, the weather was beautiful, so it was a wonderful day. Two photos:
Walter Block:
Larry Reed, President of FEE (in the middle, asking a question):
There were some wonderful lectures today, including an immigration talk from Ben Powell, in which he destroyed every argument brought up against open borders. Another highlight of my day today was that I spent some time having a discussion with Walter Block. Also, Brad and I went to an asian restaurant for dinner, and I ate my first Korean meal: Bibimbap. It was very good, even with the fried egg on top!
A few photos from the third day:
I am having a wonderful time at the FEE Young Scholars Colloquium seminar at Northwood University. Here are some shots from today:
Dr. Nikolai Wenzel, Hillsdale College Economics Professor:
Ben Stafford, FEE’s Director of Programs:
Princewill Njie, a guy I met from Cameroon:
Dr. Sanford Ikeda, Purchase College Economics Professor:
The Sloan Building at Northwood:
I am on my way to Midland, MI to Northwood University for FEE’s Young Scholars Colloquium. I will be back in Amherst on Saturday, July 18. This wonderful man, Dr. Birzer (pictured below) is speaking there tonight. (He was my history professor this last semester.) I am excited to see him!
I took this photo of Dr. Birzer at a special lecture on Alexis De Tocqueville.
I spent last Friday evening taking photos at an All-Star Girls Softball game (middle school/junior high league, I think) at the request of one of the parents. I gave my CF cards to someone who edited and printed the photos, so I just got them back today. Here are some of the photos:
Tomorrow (Monday) morning, I am on my way to Midland, MI for FEE’s Young Scholars Colloquium with Brad Akin.
I follow the Digital Photography School‘s feed in my RSS reader. They have weekly assignments for their readers to complete. Though I have never submitted any photos to their contests, I occasionally do the assignment for fun. This week’s assignment is A Mistake: a photo, originally thought of as a mistake, which turned out better than expected. When I read this, I immediately thought of this photo I took of Liz and Andrew dancing at a jazz performance at Hillsdale. I forgot to change the settings on my camera, and the shot ended up being a long exposure. Luckily, I had the strobe on rear-curtain and a steady hand, so the ‘mistake’ shot ended up as a photo which froze Liz and Andrew in place, but still showed their motion. I miss Liz and Andrew. I can’t wait to see them on August 27!
A week or so ago, I received a comment from David at freeofstate.org on the post I wrote about Jeff Knaebel. Here is what he wrote:
AN UPDATE ON MR. KNAEBEL
I was with Jeff in Delhi when he did this, and have news on what happened next. The police agreed with his declaration, applauded his “action that followed belief,” and let him go, stating that he could now wander freely throughout India without papers. The next day, he went back to “get that in writing,” though they said that wouldn’t happen, they’d gladly help him if he ever got in trouble. I called the embassy, and they were unconcerned, as was the Inidan office of foreign affairs, similar to the Imigration Dept. in the U.S. Later that evening, we was interviewed for the evening news on TotalTV in Delhi. He is now writing and directing a couple of websites that further his ideas. See the video clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSeLVebtCds
First of all, I want to thank David from freeofstate.org for updating me on what happened after Mr. Knaebel went to the police station. I am very happy that he was let free to wander through India without papers and that the embassies were unconcerned. Given that this was the outcome, I have to take back almost all of my poorly written first thoughts. I wrongly assumed that Mr. Knaebel was going to be thrown in jail and that he willingly walked to his imprisonment. Since this is not what happened (thankfully), most of what I said no longer makes sense. I still agree with his base motivations and core beliefs, and I whole-heartedly apologize for my original criticism of his acts. After some further thought and reconsideration, I realize that he was pursuing what he thought was correct, and he was working in his own way towards a stateless society.
I suggest you all check out Mr. Knaebel’s website, freeofstate.org, and read What One Can Do.
Again, I apologize to Mr. Knaebel and wish him well. I am glad that he broke free from the chokeholds of all states.
Tonight I took photos at my cousin Hank D’s kickball game. Below are some photos form the game. View the full gallery. Also, check out the kickball team’s websiteArchived Link.
I thought I would give you all a look into what I listen to. If I could take only 5 albums with me on a very long road trip, this is what I would take:
Check out these albums if you have a chance. I provided Last.fm links for all of them.
I have only had my kayak out four times since I bought it a little over a week ago, but I am really enjoying it! I took it out tonight at the Wellington Reservation. Here is the view from where I sit:
Since I used my Dad’s camera to take the above photo, I found some pictures of me on it that he took down in Tennessee. Here is one of me in the hat I bought to keep the water from my paddle from dripping on my head:
Now for the misc. part:
I found two free cool Mac apps over the past few days: Adobe Kuler and The Unarchiver.
Adobe Kuler is actually an online application, but it has an Adobe AIR desktop plugin, so it has a nice desktop application. Kuler lets you browse, create, and download color schemes. You can import them straight into Photoshop or Illustrator. You can even create color schemes from photos! This is a must-have if you are a designer or artist.
The Unarchiver is an unarchiving utility. Yes, your Mac comes with one preinstalled in the system, but this one is better. It supports 30+ file formats, including some pretty obscure ones,and it can handle filenames with foreign character sets.
As many of you already know, HTML 5 was released a few days ago. Say goodbye to XHTML! (Finally!)
Here are a few resources for those of you who want to get an edge on the competition and see what is new in HTML 5 so you can implement it right away:
Also, here is a PDF cheat sheet from Smashing Magazine. Click on the image below to go to where you can download the full PDF:
My parents and I are on our way home today, so here are some photos I took yesterday. I suggest viewing the photos at a larger size by clicking on them.
First, here are my cousins Wyatt and Lindsay climbing a rock wall:
Next, here are the fireworks, sponsored by businesses around Kingston, TN. (Not government-run!)
