Food Fighting Students Arrested??

Found this article via LRC (as I find most of my "news"), and could hardly belive what I was reading. Why on earth would anyone even think that arresting kids for participating in a food fight would be a good idea?? I mean, sure, there are a battery of "school punishments" available, the old detention, no recess (or whatever the trend is in middle school... I was a homeschooler from 6th grade on), lines, notes to parents, parent-teacher conferences, have them clean the mess (not really a punishment per se, but if I had thrown food on the walls at home as a kid that would surely have been included), whatever... but ARREST THEM?? For Pete's sake, they're kids, and they were throwing food. I'll quit ranting now...

Caring for Introverts

How to Care for Introverts

A friend emailed this list to me today, and I managed to find an embeddable version online. As a self proclaimed introvert, I found it kind of funny and interesting.

Misunderstanding?

Every now and again, it dawns on me how mixed up some people can get on what would appear to be simple and self evident aspects of economics. Especially with definitions. Things like "capitalism," "socialism," and "communism" have been detached from their real meanings. So many people I talk to and read have this odd (to me) idea that capitalism is the same as exploiting workers, and that giving aid to the needy is something that will only happen through intervention. I am writing a term research paper for one of my classes on how capitalism and Christianity can be compatible, and I have done my best to be very clear in my definitions from the start, to show that correctly defined capitalism (i.e. free market, private property) is compatible with Christian teaching. Writing that has really opened my eyes to how far more educated writers than I are confusing state intervention with charity, and private property ownership with the exploitation of laborers.

How did all this confusion and misunderstanding start? When did a person's belief that what is his is his and that he ought to be free to act as he chooses become an assumption by the world that he is a greedy pig? What happened? Maybe another day I'll address that... in the meantime...

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/triumph-of-socialism134.html

As the Nightmare Unfolds...

It's been a few days, my workload piled up on me in an inordinately short timespan. So, I thought that I'd post a few rules for undergrad life that have stood in sharp relief for me in the last few days

1) Know all of your due dates/test dates/quiz dates for the semester by the last day of the first week. Post these in a list (red ink) on the wall by your desk.

2) Your hardest class will not only affect your GPA in that course, but will invariably take up so much of your time that your grades in your other courses (no matter how easy) will slip

3) When studying for an exam in your hardest course takes away any time to finish homework/reading for other courses, and you can either attend one of the easier classes or finish homework for the next class, skip. The prof will invariably spend the first 20 minutes allowing the rest of the class to finish something you already have.

4) Never spend the last 5 hours of your day studying calc, and then go directly to sleep. Avoiding the bizarre dreams is worth the sheer exhaustion.

More pearls of pessimistic wisdom later... class calls :)

Maybe I Should Go Home More Weekends?

This weekend, I chose to throw caution to the wind and go home and relax, in spite of the Spanish quiz I have tomorrow, the Calc Exam I have Wednesday, and the 14 page rough draft due Friday. Maybe I should just go home more often, since I had a fairly major mathematical insight while cleaning horse stalls. Now I'm maybe not completely lost in Calc, hopefully I'm un-lost enough to pass... Why can't I have these revelations in class, or while doing homework, or immediately before an exam... Oh, well. I should just quit typing and be glad I had an insight at all. ;)
I'm in a good mood now, at least until the fact that tomorrow is Monday sets in fully. I got around 7 pages of my paper done, so I wasn't completely unproductive. I need to all but finish the thing, though... the library wants it's books back tomorrow *sigh*.

Austrian Student Scholar's Conference

On Halloween weekend, my school, Grove City College, hosted the Austrian Student Scholar's conference. Unfortunately, due to my class schedule and my study obligations, I couldn't make it to many of the presentations, but I did get to see Dr. Walter Block's lecture on "My 41 Years as an Austrian Economist." Really a very entertaining and informative lecture, everything I expected from my reading of Dr. Block on LRC.

Perhaps before I graduate in the next couple of years I'll get up the nerve to submit a paper for the conference. I love listening to others, and learning Austrian economics myself, but I don't think I'm ready yet to present a paper on eating chocolate cake, let alone a well thought-out and, lets just say it: good, economics paper at such an event.

Thanks to GCC for the great opportunites we have to hear these speakers!

Facebook...

... is just as weird in reality as it is in cyberspace. Perhaps some explanation is in order... I have staunchly avoided "getting a Facebook" for over a year, despite the cajoling of my roommates. Well, today I returned from class and found a notice over my deskside bulletin board that has labeled it as my "Facebook" wall. Several of my notices, quotes, thoughts and reminders are now bedecked with Post-its, bearing "comments." It's really rather interesting, but if I thought that the Facebook phenomenon was weird within the bounds of a monitor, it is nothing compared to the mock version affixed to my dorm wall. Ahhh, well, anything to keep my roomies entertained. ;)

Guy Fawkes Day

This morning, in my general overall eccentricity, I greeted my roommates with a reminder that today is November the Fifth, Guy Fawkes Day in Britain. Naturally and as is usual, they stared blankly back at me. Perhaps I watch too much TV, and have to large an interest in the history of other countries, but the Guy Fawkes legend has fascinated me for a few years now, at first since reading the Harry Potter novels (Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes, very aptly named), and then after watching V for Vendetta, of course. I thought I'd post a little info in honor of the holiday.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes

Another Lew Rockwell Gem

All right, confession time. I made it through high school (homeschooled, of course, but that is beside the point) and a year and a half of college without getting my driver's licence. Between my ability to walk or ride anywhere I feel like going, a required car-free existence as a freshman on my college campus, and the lack of a reliable hand-me-down car, I just never got around to taking the driven test.
Anyway, enough with my excuses. I found this on LRC this morning, a brilliant discussion on what it means to be free, through the lens of "the rules of the road." An awesome read, and a reminder that the requirement of health/safety in a state of freedom is responsibility. Stupidity cannot be legislated out of existence, and when "they" try, those of us who are responsible and can make reasonable assumptions about the safety of an action are stripped of the freedom to do something like text and drive if the situation is safe to do so.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/freedom-to-text133.html

Fast Food Frivolity

Yay for creative ways to order from Taco Bell!
One of my Economics professors mentioned this video in class a couple of weeks ago, and it is pretty funny. The guy taking the order deserves a raise... and a bonus.

Take Two: Piano Obsession...

Thought I'd take another stab at posting the piano videos, since YouTube likes me again...




And...

Cool Video

Another one of my favorites, thought I'd share. Yes, I have waaaay too much spare time for my own good.




Dig the dismount at 3:30! Wish I could land like that! :)

Piano Obsession

All right, now I'm on an awful piano music kick. Instead of doing homework, I scour YouTube for piano covers of popular music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8XcMavRrHk&NR=1

It's amazing how a piano can make hard rock sound soothing...

And, in honor of the Halloween Season (yep, I'm stretching it out against Wal-Mart's Pre-Thanksgiving Christmas displays), a little Danny Elfman music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0QLHzHqsWI&feature=related

Enjoy!

P.S. Blogger and YouTube aren't getting along well today, sorry about the links (as opposed to a normal YouTube window).

Flipping the Switch

Wow. Two days ago it was Halloween, the thirty-first of October, and pretty nice temperature-wise. Upper forties, you could be comfy outside in a sweater. Yesterday, November the first, it never cracked forty, despite the forecast high of fifty. It's twenty-nine, now. I don't wanna dress up like a snowman to walk to class yet!! I suppose we've seen the last of summer for a while.