Category: Project 365
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Day 320 – Battle of the Bands Snapshot 2
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Day 319 – Battle of the Bands Snapshot 1
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Day 318 – Charger Volleyball
Today was a big day for Hillsdale sports!
The football team won 27-24 against Minnesota State in OT at their first ever D2 playoff appearance.
Then, the volleyball team won their GLIAC playoff match against Ashland! They go to the championship tomorrow!Here are a few shots from the volleyball game. (I was not at the football game, as it was in Minnesota.) Click on the photos to enlarge them.
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Day 317 – Night Shot at Baw Beese Lake
I went out tonight to do a dry run before the Leonids show up on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Unfortunately, the special battery in my wireless remote died after one shot, and I was limited to 30 second exposures rather than 30 minute exposures. I decided to take a couple photos anyway, and here is one that came out. Click on the photo to enlarge it (recommended!).
I apologize to those of you who have dark monitors. The sky in this photo is supposed to be dark, but not pure black. You should still be able to see it.
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Day 316 – Richard Brookhiser
Author and journalist Richard Brookhiser has been on campus for the last week giving a journalism seminar, and will be holding a public lecture on Tuesday here on campus.
Today, he met with students in the George Washington Fellowship Program, and I was asked to stop by and take a few photos. Since the photos are for the college, most of them have both Mr. Brookhiser and students in them. When I was going through my photos, though, I found this one, and I like it a lot. I think it really expresses just how much emotion and expression Mr. Brookhiser puts into his lectures. The college probably has no use for this photo, so I decided to show it here.
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Day 315 – Paul Schmitt
Even though I’ve been carrying my camera around for the last three days, I haven’t taken any photos for posting. I’ve had close to 30 people to track down over the last three days in order to take their photo in some fashion, so I’ve met people all over campus at any time between 8:00am and 12:00am Monday, Tuesday, and today. I finally got them all finished around 6 this evening, so I am glad that is over. Now it is time to work on my Collegian photos for next week!
For the time-being…
Here is a shot of my friend Paul that I took on Saturday while he was climbing a tree.
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Day 314 – Amanda’s Birthday
Today is Amanda’s Birthday!
For those of you who don’t know her, she is a beautiful, wonderful, smart young lady, and she has been a blessing in my life. If you have a chance to get to know her, I suggest you do. You won’t regret it.
In fact, I wish you could all get to know her and find out what a beautiful person, both inside and out, she is.
Here is a photo of her from a few days ago, taken on my phone:
Happy Birthday, Amanda!
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Day 313 – Twenty Year Anniversary of Tearing Down The Berlin Wall
Today, the Classical Liberal Organization (a group at Hillsdale I am the president of) organized a speaker panel on the topic: “The Fall of the Berlin Wall: Past, Present, and Future.” The CLO set up this panel to bring to light the reality of communism and how it affected the entire world. For far too many students today who did not live through the Cold War era, communism and its end can become just another set of historical facts. We don’t want this to happen here.
Here are the three speakers we had:
Dr. Bradley Birzer, History:
Dr. Charles Steele, Economics:
Dr. William Morrisey, Political Science:
We had a great turnout. Around 65 people showed up and filled the room we were in, even though today was a busy day at Hillsdale. The talks were excellent, and provoked some thoughtful questions. The event was a success!
If you have time, read this post Dr. Birzer had yesterday at De Regno Christi, entitled “The Priest, the Prophet, and the King.”
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Day 312 – The Gentiles
My friends Paul, Joe, Forrest, Richard, and Seth (L-R in the top photo) have a band named “The Gentiles,” and they are competing in Hillsdale’s Battle of the Bands next week.
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Day 311 – QB Sack!
…one of many that took place during the 59 Hillsdale-24 Tiffin game this afternoon.
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Day 310 – Break Time
Dr. Wenzel, an economics professor here at Hillsdale, occasionally gives his students an atypical assignment: Do nothing for 15 minutes. Turn off the cell phone, computer, music, television, etc. Get rid of all distractions, even books. Just sit on the edge of your bed in silence and think for 15 minutes. That’s all.
I tried it this evening, and it is relaxing, calming, and wonderful. Life can get so filled with things to do and deadlines to make that we never stop to actually think. Think and nothing else. After a stressful week, it was nice to reflect for a while.
Though I am, in terms of technology, an unapologetic modern, I still find value in turning some things off for a little while and having uninterrupted thought, free from the distractions of the modern world. If I knew I would not miss something important, I would like to turn my phone off and stop checking my email for a few days. The only problem I have is that technology is so ingrained in my life that if I shut off my phone or email, over 90% of my communication would be cut off. Perhaps this is a good thing, but not something I can do during school. Maybe I will give it a try over Christmas break or the summer.
Has anyone else tried this? How did it go? I am interested…let me know in the comments.
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Day 309 – Dr. Richard Ebeling
Tonight, Richard Ebeling travelled to Hillsdale to give a thought-provoking and engaging lecture, titled “Why the Berlin Wall Came Down and Socialism Failed: Ludwig von Mises and the Power of Ideas.”
Dr. Ebeling is a prolific author, former president of the Foundation for Economic Education, and professor of economics at many different institutions, including Hillsdale from 1988-2003. In 1996, he and his wife, Anna Ebeling, obtained the lost papers of Ludwig von Mises, which had been kept in a formerly secret KGB archive in Moscow for 50 years. Dr. Ebeling is now on the faculty at Northwood University in Midland, MI.
If you are interested in what Dr. Ebeling had to say tonight, read this article he wrote yesterday.
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Day 308 – Articles to Read
Have some spare time (unlike me)?
Read these articles. They are very good. I had to read three of them recently for class, and the fourth I came across a little over a week ago.
Menger: On the Origins of Money (PDF)
Hayek: The Use of Knowledge in Society (PDF)
Horwitz: Subjectivism (Google Book)
Buchheit: Applied Philosophy, a.k.a. “Hacking” (HTML)I apologize for the lack of new photos and decent thoughts this week. I plan to get out and take some photos this weekend, when I won’t have more exams hanging over my head.
The only worthwhile thought I have right now (worthwhile to this blog, that is) is that you should not trust the hype about the 3.5% increase in GDP last quarter. Do some research and see where it actually came from. I will give you a hint: Individuals’ consumption levels stayed roughly the same, investment stayed roughly the same, and net exports roughly stayed the same. What changed? Government spending! Does this mean things are getting better? No. In fact, unemployment went up last quarter.
Beware of Christina Romer going on national news and trying to convince you that things are a lot better since GDP went up 3.5%. “It just ain’t so!” -
Day 307 – Central Hall
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Exams finished this week: 2.
Exams left this week: 1.
Days to study left: 2.Oh, and I decided to fight the ticket I talked about a few days ago. My court date is set for Nov. 24, three weeks from today.
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Day 306 – Grand Valley Game Shirt
Hillsdale made a limited supply of shirts commemorating the homecoming game where the Chargers Football team beat No. 1 ranked Grand Valley State.
What’s new today: Exam number 1 of 3 for the week is finished! Now I have the Austrian Economics exam on Tuesday, and a Constitution exam on Friday. This week has been busy so far!
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Day 305 – Halloween Pt. Two
Two more Halloween Photos:
My cousin HankD made this zombie/skeleton by hand!
It was excellent to be home, even if for a little while. My wonderful Mom did my laundry (thank you!) and cooked a delicious meal before I had to drive back to Hillsdale this afternoon.
The Spider Holster finally came out today! I’ve been looking forward to this since the spring, but now that it finally came out, I am waiting to buy it. Even the cheapest version (just the holster, nothing else) is more than I want to spend right now. I am excited that it is finally out, though!
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Day 304 – Happy Halloween!
I decided at the last minute to drive home today and go to HankD and Jackie’s (my cousins) halloween party. I am glad I did! I had fun and enjoyed seeing everyone. Above is a photo I took of my Dad’s jack-o-lantern. I placed a strobe inside of it, a smoke machine behind it, and two skulls and a candle beside it.
Their yard looked pretty awesome:
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Day 303 – Spring Semester’s Schedule
It is time to schedule classes for next semester!
After talking to a few professors, friends, and my advisor, I finally worked out my schedule for next semester, The number after the class name denotes the number of credits it is worth:
Symbolic Logic (3)
Theory of Probability (3)
Sophomore Math Seminar (1)
Intro to Philosophy (3)
Intermediate Macroeconomics (3)
Austrian Economics II (3)
Philosophy and Literature in Comics (1)I think I am most excited about Logic, Probability, and Austrian II. In Austrian II, we read through and discuss Mises’s Human Action in a small group. The math seminar will focus on proof writing, oral presentations, literature research, and using programs like Mathematica to enhance our math skills. It is geared for math majors/minors. As of right now, I am working on a math and economics double major.
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Day 302 – Patri Friedman at Hillsdale
Tuesday, political theorist, activist, former Google engineer, and World Series of Poker player Patri Friedman came to Hillsdale to give a talk on structural activism and seasteading. Friedman is the founder of The Seasteading Institute, whose mission is “to further the establishment and growth of permanent, autonomous ocean communities, enabling innovation with new political and social systems.”
He gave a very interesting talk on structural activism and the seasteading movement. The talk was the culmination of his past few years of thought on how to change political structures in order to maximize freedom in a society while still maintaining the stability of that society. While significant work has been done on how to set up political systems to preserve a high level of freedom and stability while minimizing coercion, little –if any– work has been done on how to actually get to political systems like this. Until now. That’s where Friedman comes in.
Does this interest you? If so, check out Friedman’s essay from April on the topic of structural activism and why he thinks it is the only way to make systematic changes that will lead us to a realistically freer world in our lifetime. The essay is basically an outline of what he spoke about on Tuesday night. Also check out Let A Thousand Nations Bloom.
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Day 301 – Dilemma
Yesterday afternoon, I was pulled over by a Michigan State Trooper for a traffic violation. I received a citation for violating code 257.637: passing a vehicle on the right.
After reviewing the code, I believe I was not in violation of that code.
Here is the situation: A vehicle in front of me stopped to make a left turn off of a two lane road into a driveway. There was a line of vehicles in the other direction, so it was clear he was going to sit there for a little while. The shoulder was fully paved, and as wide as a normal lane, so I slowed down and went around the vehicle in front of me–on the right. I thought this was perfectly okay, but apparently not. A State Patrol car happened to be traveling in the other direction and pulled me over immediately. I was not speeding, I was wearing a seat belt, and following all other traffic laws. The only thing I was cited for was passing on the right. The Michigan Vehicle Code has a clear exception for passing a vehicle on the right if that vehicle is making a left turn. The code also states, however, that “the driver of a vehicle shall not overtake and pass another vehicle upon the right by driving off the pavement or main-traveled portion of the roadway.” I did not drive off the pavement (the very wide shoulder was paved), but a shoulder is not technically the “main-traveled portion of the roadway.” Still, the vehicle in front of me was making a left turn, I slowed down, and was fully on the pavement.Should I challenge it? My ticket is $100 and there are no court costs involved if I decide to schedule a hearing, so the most I can lose is $100 plus my time in the hearing. How much of a chance do I have of winning the case? I realize the odds are stacked against me, as it is my word against an officer of the state’s word and another officer of the state’s interpretation.
By the way, since I am an out-of-state driver, the court needed either $50 or my driver’s license as bond, to make sure I pay the ticket. Since I did not have $50 in cash on my person, I had to hand over my license, so I have to at least pay $20 to get it back. If I lose the case, that $20 goes towards my total $100 fine. (I was told I am allowed to drive without my physical license for the time being. If I am asked for it, I just need to show the ticket I received, which shows that my license was posted in lieu of bond.)
What do you think, should I challenge it, or suck it up and hand over $100?
