I’m going to be 21 in about two hours.
Whoa.
It’s not really an accomplishment, per se, since all you have to do is not die to get here—but it’s beginning to dawn on me that this is kind of a big deal.
Also, I’m guessing if I didn’t have a principled argument against drinking ages, my interest in fighting for eliminating that age requirement would be pretty close to zero right now.
Yeah, I made it through the Russian paper, but I’m still fine-tuning it. I’d really like to post, but I’ve got to revise the paper and then…well, tomorrow is my birthday.
But I went to a nice lunch today with Michigan GOP Chairman Ron Weiser. The best part? He didn’t have the slickness of a real politician, coming from a lifetime of entrepreneurship. He’s got some good idea about the upcoming gubernatorial race as well as for making Michigan a Right to Work state.
Hopefully I’ll be back to write later. If not, it’s because I’m partying hard.
I won’t be posting until I get this paper on War and Peace written.
Which will actually require me to read War and Peace.
If I survive, look for a post Wednesday. If not, send a search crew up to my room. I’ve got some nice pictures (I think, maybe, I haven’t really looked at them) from my trip to Greenfield Village to post. Plus some other stuff.
See you all Wednesday! I hope!
I still need to post my review of ABC’s “V,” but at this point I might as well wait until the second episode goes online tomorrow. I’ve been trying to get screenshots but it hasn’t really worked out…plus, I was somehow a lot busier than expected today; I helped hand-distribute copies of the Michigan Review this morning (went pretty well), got my hair cut, and took a nap (I have a lot of hair. Getting it cut is exhausting.). Just got back from a date party at a comedy club in town, and I’m gearing up for a night of mystery and excitement.
So as I was waiting to get my hair cut, I was reading the Wall Street Journal; nothing really unusual as far as that goes. There’s an article about students who dress up in coat/tie or dresses for their football games today, which I think is totally the ting to do. I’ll probably attempt it some time before I graduate. Then, I saw it:
I would have made that face, too.
Yeah, that guy on the right kind of looks like he could be a frattier brother or cousin of mine. Maybe it’s just the hair, but…well, if I was adopted or have any secret siblings, the time for full disclosure is now.
The weird thing is, Auburn is where the Mises Institute is, so I’ve been meaning to check the place out. I’m going to try to take a summer program down there, and if I had been looking to do economics from the start, Auburn probably would have been higher up on my list of schools.
I’m contemplating going to Greenfield Villiage tomorrow depending on what time I wake up and what the weather’s like. Since I’m no longer allergic to my camera, I might have some photos to post.
I changed the oil in the Wagoneer yesterday. I suspect that something is still a little screwy with the lubrication system, but there don’t seem to be any leaks and it’s not burning oil; levels are holding steady.
So I drained the old oil, filled the power steering fluid reservoir, and checked the spark plugs to see if there was any fouling. There wasn’t.
Today, I start the thing up, and it’s running a little rough. It smells a lot richer too, like I’d fiddled with the carb. Oil pressure isn’t right, and I’m getting backfires when I floor it. That’s not good.
After taking it for a ride around the block, I parked and popped the hood. The fuel/air mixture was about right; oil level was good; there were no real visible problems…until I discovered that one of the spark plug cables was unplugged. They’re tough to pop off, so I’m sure I forgot to put it back on yesterday. The Jeep had been running funny because the V-8 was actually a V-7.
I’m sure someone with a lifetime’s worth of wisdom can turn this into a meaningful story with cosmic significance. I lack that deep insight and I’m currently more concerned with plowing through War and Peace to care to try. So let this be a lesson to you, however prosaic: always replace your spark plug cables.
In the meantime, the Porsche like performance and handling of the Wagoneer has been restored, and I can sleep soundly.
Oh, I also saw this, and thought it was funny/kind of pathetic:
Treasury soliciting donations.
Sure, we’ll get right on that. (Yes, I know that this isn’t new. Apparently the government has collected like $50k in voluntary donations since 1913 or something. How much have private charities voluntarily pulled in since then?)
I picked up lunch at the local Plum Market yesterday, and I think I like it even better than Whole Foods.
Yeah, you heard correctly: I’m admitting publicly that, despite all the crap I talk about it, I generally like Whole Foods. I enjoyed shopping at the World’s Most Pretentious Grocery Store Chain even before their CEO came out against nationalizing the health care system and was summarily crucified by the liberal establishment (though judging by the packed parking lot, it seems even the most principled Ann Arbor residents value organic wheatgrass more than sticking it to The Man). I think I like shopping there so much partially because roaring up behind all the Priuses in the parking lot with the “Think globally, act locally” bumper stickers in the gas-guzzling, emissions-spewing Wagoneer is really satisfying.
But the food’s also pretty good. I enjoy Whole Food’s selection of meats, cheese, olives, and their staggering array of balsamic vinegars (usually their basic produce selection is rivaled by the local Meijer, which does a pretty good job of keeping fresh stock).
What I don’t enjoy is the Whole Foods stigma. I frankly don’t want to feel like I’m doing the world a favor by purchasing a quarter pound of high-end prociutto; if I really wanted to feel like I was helping Mother Earth and all her disenfranchised children, I’d eat half a cup of rice and donate the savings to some charity fund instead. They sell great food with a lot of useless, white-guilt assuaging baggage attached. And that baggage smells like mothballs.
Plum Market, which has kind of a Portland Co-op-meets-Ikea feel (must be the industrial shelving, exposed plywood, and sans-serif fonts everwhere, I guess), seems to lack much of the pretention of Whole Foods.
Trendy, but not painfully so
Since there are only so many sources of Fair Trade organic hummus, most of the brands are the same as Whole Foods, but that’s to be expected. Fruit prices seemed to be comparable to Meijer (I need to run there for some power steering fluid later, so I’ll check). Their pre-made food/hot bar thing was, uh, eclectic (as much as I hate that word); I got an acorn squash filled with fruit for lunch. The squash probably could have been cooked a little more thoroughly, or I could have actually heated it up in an oven instead of a microwave. Either way, it was tasty, if a little overpriced.
I’m not sure what exactly about the atmosphere I liked better than Whole Foods. They’re basically the same store; maybe the fact that Plum Market is in a nondescript strip mall helps keep it real. Or maybe it’s the people that were inside. I was fearing a hipster crowd wearing $500 designer glasses and $2 Salvation Army cardigans spending way too much money on Fair Trade organic hummus, but the patrons seemed to be just plain folks. Thank God.
They also sell See’s Candies inside the store, which is a huge plus.
In any event, I suspect I’ll be going back. Especially after I’m 21 and in the market for some wine. Or wheatgrass.
Since I’m here to write this, I clearly survived yesterday’s two exams. Considering the lack of sleep and overall lack of preparation, I think they went pretty well. Besides, I had more fun over the past five days than I would have studying, so it’s clearly all worth it.
I didn’t really intend for it to be so, but the past week became kind of an all-out 2nd Amendment Celebration. Wednesday, the College Libertarians gave away a gun (well, actually a $250 gift certificate for a sporting goods store, but…) at our annual gun raffle, along with training courses and other goodies.
Leon Drolet of the Michigan Taxpayer’s Alliance was kind enough to come in and speak to the crowd of 30-40 people who attended the raffle. The focus of his mini-speech was on the great expansion of 2nd Amendment rights since the early nineties. Just two decades ago, a map like this:
…would have been unimaginable. We usually think of rights as things that exist only to be diminshed by the government, and these days, that might be starting to look more and more like the case. But the successful push for greater firearm freedom has allowed law-abiding citizens in nearly every state to carry a concealed weapon. So far, we haven’t been turned into Somalia.
Leon’s broader point was that dedicated, principled people can eventually have an impact on policy and completely change the status quo. Support for increased firearm legislation is at a historic low. There’s no reason that support for more government intervention and control can’t be at a historic low in four or five years as well.
Thursday, the College Libertarians et. al. went to a shooting range in Westland. I was able to fire a variety of different handguns, something I hadn’t done at a range before, for a very reasonable rate. I particularly liked the Beretta 92, which just seemed to fit my hand really well. I’d still like to try a CZ-75; I checked out one from behind the counter, but there wasn’t one available for rent. Since I’ll be 21 shortly, I’ll have to start looking into handguns more closely.
Everybody had a great time, and we were all stunned to see that none of the hundred-plus guns in the store jumped off the shelf and shot anybody (cops and babies included). It’s bizarre how that works.
Friday, me and a friend from my fraternity headed up to Naubinway. While we saw a lot of ducks, we didn’t manage to shoot any. I’m referring to the experience as “Hiking With Guns” since we walked a few miles down the beach both Saturday and Sunday morning (and Saturday evening as well). I’m not really bummed about it, though, as it’s one of the few times I’ve been awake early enough to see the sunrise over Lake Michigan. I’ll have to try getting up early more often.
If nothing else, I now know what I need to do to get ducks next season (blind, decoys, etc.), since I’m more familiar with their flight patterns.
All in all, it was a valuable experience, and I don’t regret not studying for my exams.
Heading up north, no time to do an update. Lots of cool stuff happened this week, look for a comprehensive post Sunday.
In the mean time, some small woodland creatures are going to feel my wrath. After I get the appropriate licenses, of course.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
Cynicism is no longer being able to tell whether you’re being sarcastic or not.
Anyway, big day today: tonight is the College Libertarian’s Annual Gun Raffle! Actually, it’s a raffle for a $250 gift certificate good at a nearby sporting goods store, but that doesn’t sound as sexy as “gun raffle.” We’re hoping for a lot of negative press surrounding this event. Nothing attracts people quite like negative press.
Yesterday, I sent in my Cato internship application for next semester. I didn’t get the internship this semester, but persistence is everything.
I’ll know whether I got it or not around December 1st. In the meantime, there’s another internship program I need to apply for. With any luck, I should be able to spend some time away from Ann Arbor…
