Transform Rockford: Final Visioning Session

After a couple months of following the Transform Rockford calendar, I was finally able to attend their meeting tonight, at the RVC Woodward Technology Center. I almost didn’t go (there is a chemistry final looming over me this week…) but figured I better go now or I’d never make it. It was a good choice because as it turns out, this was the last community visioning session that they are holding, so I was glad to participate in that. A little background for those who aren’t familiar with Transform Rockford. I was not aware of the organization until February…I think they launched some time…

Read More

The Lesser of Two Evils

The Republican National Convention has been nothing short of a complete overthrow of any pretensions of justice, as Dana Milbank of the Washington Post explains. “The Romney campaign had taken pains to stifle the Paul rebellion, by denying him a speaking role, expediting the roll call, changing party rules and even unseating Paul delegates from Maine.” I haven’t even bothered to follow the events because it sickens me to think of the utter lack of principles, the blatant disregard for integrity, and the deep animosity against the libertarian movement. And regardless of the Republican Party, the presidential and vice-presidential candidates have…

Read More

Wandering — But Not Lost

So in case you were concerned that I had dropped off the face of the earth…I have not. I have felt that way on occasion, but it was only a temporary sensation. In trying to describe my life for the last few months, I am reminded of Tolkien’s famous quote, “All those who wander are not lost.” To sum it up briefly, I’ve had some interesting ramblings across this earth, both physically and metaphorically. But the main lesson I’ve learned, or relearned recently is 1) God is in control of all things and 2) God is a good God. We…

Read More

Savannah: Resurrected

So it has been a long time, but as Pascal said, “the silence of these infinite spaces frightens me” so my fear of this dreadful silence drove me back. Actually…I felt rather guilty about having such good readers (at one point) and then dropping them so callously. I feel like I’m starting all over again, but that’s okay. And I also felt bad about putting so much time into this site and totally neglecting it. I had been something of a plugin junkie, so I’ve been dreading coming back and trying to clean up all my old plugins but it…

Read More

The Law of Diminishing Returns Demonstrated

I don’t really have a ton of time for blogging (have you noticed?) but there was this interesting example I wanted to share with you. I was introduced to the idea of the Law of Diminishing Returns in a lecture by Peter Klein several years ago. At first it didn’t make sense, but after I realized it was true only when a factor of production is limited, I understood it. Basically the law is that if one of your factors is “stuck” and can’t be increased, there comes a point when no matter how many other factors you increase, your…

Read More

Life = Busyness

So far I haven’t done a very good job of accomplishing many things since returning from Mises U. Last week I worked 36 hours and this week was probably not too much less than that. And it is really work. Which means I’m pretty tired when I get home and just don’t have the mental energy to study. That’s frustrating because there’s so much I want to do but it just isn’t happening. I need to develop a new schedule that will hopefully help me get things done. I’m really excited though because starting next week I’m going to be…

Read More

Survived Mises U 2011

I apologize for my lack of presence here for several weeks. The first couple weeks of July I was busy working to make up for leaving for 3 weeks. Then of course I had to pack and prepare for my trip. Then I was on the road for a couple days. After arriving in Georgia I had several promotional events to attend for my book, Path of Grass. Then I found myself in the middle of a huge Southern family reunion for several days…then we made a mad dash for Auburn and spent 42+ hours sitting in class for the…

Read More

The Reality of the Market

I really enjoy my job, for several reasons. One reason is that my company is the perfect real-life example of many concepts I learned in economics. I have to get my boss credit, he is sometimes a very quotable person and says things just like I’ve heard in my econ books…except he really is an entrepreneur who is dealing with very real customers (believe me…I have to talk to them every day…). First example illustrates consumer sovereignty. He said, “A lot of people think that business-owners run their company. That’s not true. The customer runs the business. The customers decide…

Read More

What the Market Requires

I’m actually getting to the point where I enjoy my job. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never not liked it, and from Day One I’ve appreciated the challenge it has been. But there were several weeks where I’d come home every day exhausted and wondering when the chaos and madness would end. And I’m happy to say it is improving. There’s still a very long way to go, but I feel better about what I do. I worked full time for a couple weeks in order to straighten things out. I’ve actually gotten to the point where I can do…

Read More