Tim

Philly

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:26:42 GMT

The medical cartel has decreed that amandalorelei go to the University of Pennsylvania, which means that I'll be living in Philly for the next four years. I would have slightly preferred to live in New York, but Penn is probably the best medical school in the region, and Philly has a number of advantages. Most importantly, it's cheap and it will take less time for me to get to and from school. Also, it's looking more likely that Amanda's parents will end up in DC, so being closer to them will be nice. I'm a little sad I won't be able to hang out with my various New York friends as much, but it'll still be easy to take weekend trips up there.

The next couple of months will be a whirlwind of activity as we plan a wedding, plan a honeymoon, find an apartment, find me work for the summer, move, have the wedding, and go on the honeymoon. And that's on top of the various tests and projects we both need to complete before the end of the school year.

Ontological Arguments

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 01:14:19 GMT

An argument for the existence of the Death Star:

The Death Star is, by definition, a spaceship more powerful than any spaceship that can be imagined.
Existence both in reality and in imagination is more powerful than existence solely in one's imagination.
Therefore, the Death Star must exist in reality: if the Death Star did not, the Death Star would not be a spaceship greater than any spaceship which can be imagined.

People actually say this sort of thing.

Grad School Decision

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:48:48 GMT

I'm going to Princeton this fall. Thanks to sosentos, redherring's boy, aux47, and keledy for helping me decide. One of the major downsides to this decision is that I won't be able to hang out with redherring. On the other hand, Pittsburgh is on the way from Princeton to Cleveland, so maybe we can get together on our way to visit amandalorelei's family.

Quotes

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:11:57 GMT

Cool! Last night I got quoted by Keith Olbermann, and today I'm cited on Speaker Pelosi's blog.

News

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 22:24:16 GMT

I had an aticle on the FISA debate in Slate yesterday. Also, I've started hearing back from grad schools. Yesterday Princeton, my top choice, accepted me. Yesterday was a good day!

We're engaged!

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 02:12:52 GMT

amandalorelei and I spent the weekend at her family's traditional vacation
spot, Lake Hope in Ohio. On Sunday morning I took her for a walk to a
scenic spot alongside the lake and asked her to marry me. She said yes.

We haven't figured out the details yet, but we're tentatively
planning to get married in 2009 in either Cleveland or the Twin
Cities. You can see pictures of the spot where I proposed and of the
ring here.

Me in Print

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 12:06:23 GMT

Woohoo!

Toenail Clipping

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 02:58:56 GMT

Amanda and I recently had an argument, which can only be solved by use of a poll!

View Poll: #908262

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 04:55:00 GMT

I've joined the myspace herd. If you're also on MySpace, please friend me.

My New Neighborhood is Gay

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 02:54:23 GMT

So I'm walking down the street and I pass two guys out walking their dogs. It briefly crosses my mind that it's a bit odd for two guys to be walking their dogs together, but I think nothing more of it. I greet the guy as I walk past.

About 10 seconds later, I clearly hear one of the guys say to the other: "When did men stop wearing clothes that show off their bodies? Seriously, when's the last time you saw a guy wearing pants that makes his ass look good?"

I don't think I've ever had a stranger comment on my ass before. I guess if I want to fit in in my new neighborhood, I'll have to pay more attention to what I wear.

Congratulations to Adam and Kaela

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 03:30:15 GMT

Two of my favorite people, stopityoumonkey and amerikanpatriot, got married yesterday. The wedding was amazing, and I was honored to be a part of it. And the reception... well, let's just say this is the first reception I've been to that featured to gorillas dancing to Smash Mouth's "All Star." Congrats guys!

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 17:08:06 GMT

Congrats to miesl and theowlseye on getting married! theowlseye describes the wedding:

The wedding was awesome and I hope to get some pictures up soon for those who couldn't make it. My cousin Tony, the best man, had some real zingers in his speech. Here are some quotes. "I'm about to give Jeremy here the most embarrassing and uncomfortable 2 minutes of his life. Consequently after the reception Jeremy will be giving Michelle the most embarrassing and uncomfortable 2 minutes of her life." And then another one went. "Michelle and Jeremy make a great pair. Michelle is industrious, determined, and loves to solve problems and Jeremy...well Jeremy is a problem." he then went on to say some nice things about us. Our parents came and said nice things about us. WHich cause me to cry. I am horrible at this things with the crying. If fact I'm still looking for the asshole who wrote Ole Yeller.

I can confirm from personal experience that the two of them make a cute couple. Now that I think about it, I believe that Jeremy got a LiveJournal at my suggestion, and he found Michelle via LiveJournal. Does that mean I get to take credit for their marriage? ;-)

Weekends

Wed, 07 Jun 2006 05:32:20 GMT

Here I describe my weekends in reverse-chronological order:

This weekend, yonko and tonarino_totoro came to town for a visit. We (everyone other than aux47, who flew in on Sunday) went wine-tasting at a Missouri winery, took a nap, and then went out for Italian food. yonko was not impressed with his Italian food, which was a bummer. That place has never let us down before.

On Sunday, we picked up aux47 at the airport and then went to watch the Cardinals beat the Cubs at baseball. We had good seats courtesy of the president of my place of employment, who has season tickets, and a good time was had by all. I've never gotten to watch a baseball game from good seats before; you can actually see the players and follow what's going on. We then returned to my house for an evening of potstickers and drunken risk.

Two weekends ago, my parents and my grandma flew into St. Louis on their way to go to my brother's graduation, which was 3 hours away in Terre Haute, Indiana. They came back the day after the graduation ceremony and spent a day in St. Louis with me. We went to tour an abandoned lead mine, and amandalorelei made them an amazing dinner. Then on Monday, we celebrated memorial day by wandering around malls looking for fashionable clothes for me.

Three weekends ago, Amanda had a different Stephanie in town, and they had a great time doing girl stuff.

Four and five weekends ago I spent learning how to scuba dive. This was accomplished partly in the aforementioned abandoned lead mine. The water was 58 degrees. 58 degrees is very cold. Still, scuba diving is pretty cool, and when we go to the Bahamas later this month, I imagine the temperature will be a lot more pleasant.

Finally, six weekends ago I was in DC, where I stayed with rustybluebike and saw assorted other friends.

Indecency

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 14:37:17 GMT

I've changed my default userpic to protest this silliness.

Wed, 12 Apr 2006 14:56:23 GMT

I parked next to a motorcycle this morning. It had a helmet with a whole lot of stickers on it. Here were a few of the more charming slogans:

"I might not go down in history, but I will go down on your little sister."

"Respect you in the morning? I don't respect you right now."

"You're the reason our children are ugly."

I bet he's a big hit with the ladies.

Wow!

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 23:58:54 GMT

You must all go try out Meebo. That is so cool!

I discuss Meebo further over at the Technology Liberation Front.

Updatey

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 03:59:28 GMT

Huh, so I haven't posted in a couple of months.

I've been very busy with stuff that makes really terrible LiveJournaling. Seriously, you guys are going to be bored to tears:

I had a hectic couple of weeks leading up to Christmas. Got an op-ed on cable franchise reform published in the Kansas City Business Journal. We had a board meeting at work, which necessitated some long hours of preparation. Amanda and I went to get a Christmas tree. I drove to Minnesota for Christmas. Saw lots of friends and family. Ate a lot of junk food and came down with a cold.

January came and I drove back to St. Louis. Work has been insanely busy. I testified before the Missouri Senate Commerce Committee on a cable franchise reform bill, which didn't go very well. Traveled to an event on the other side of the state kicking off the Show-Me Institute. Helped organize a rally for property rights that occurred yesterday. I had 2000 printers that say "No compromise of our property rights" printed up for the rally.

Over MLK Day weekend Amanda and I went on a siblings' road trip. We visited my brother in Terre Haute, IN, and her sisters in Oxford, OH. Played Monopoly with Andrew's college friends, and Cranium with Ellen and Emma's. Saw Ellen's kitten, which was very cute. Detoured through Louisville to get some southern barbecue.

Last week I sent the final draft of my paper off to Cato, which should be published next month. The title is "Circumventing Competition: The Perverse Consequences of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act." Yes, it's every bit as exciting as it sounds.

The upshot is that I've been busy pretty much non-stop for the last 2 months. This is the first week in a while where I've come home after work and puttered around the house. I enjoy what I'm doing and like being busy most of the time, but sometimes it's nice for things to slow down a little bit and let me catch my breath.

Awesome!

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 15:34:03 GMT

Yes, I realize this is what they want me to do, but it's awfully neat. Especially check out the behind-the-scenes video.

Phone Call

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 19:35:03 GMT

I just had a lady from the Save Ardmore Coalition call to tell me she loved my latest article on eminent domain. I write a lot of stuff, and most of it just kind of goes out into the ether. I hope that people read it, enjoy it, and perhaps even are persuaded, but it's awfully hard to tell. Explicit feedback like this is extreme rare, and it makes my day.

What she said

Sun, 09 Oct 2005 22:27:14 GMT

As Amanda notes, we've been dating for exactly a year. I'm a very lucky guy.

Sun, 24 Jul 2005 20:59:55 GMT

I'm thinking about buying a 1999 Ford Escort from a friend. It's got 40k miles on it and she's asking $3000. It has lots of nice goodies like remote keyless entry, power windows, cruise control, and a 6-CD changer. Anyone have experience with that model or suggestions on things to watch out for?

Update: I told her yes. I'm going to have a car again! That's exciting.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Sun, 03 Jul 2005 20:54:08 GMT

My life for the next year or so is set. I'll be moving to Saint Louis, working at the Show Me Institute, and living in Richmond Heights. I'll be quitting work on July 29 (I need to write a resignation letter), spending that weekend packing, and probably hitting the road early on the morning of the 31st. Around August 4, after we've had a chance to unpack, we'll be driving to Minnesota. Amanda will probably drive back around the 8th, and I'll stay for an additional week or so before flying back to Saint Louis.

My new place is great! I'm paying $850/month for a 2 bedroom, 2 story duplex with a private basement. I get my own washer and dryer, a dishwasher, an icemaker in the fridge, and central air conditioning. There's hardwood floors and a couple of stain glass windows downstairs, and carpet upstairs. There are cabinets everywhere. Out back, I share a 2-car garage and a third parking space with the other duplex. My daily commute will be 2 miles, and according to Google it will take 4 minutes. I'm hoping I'll be able to ride my bike or walk most of the time. I'm also 1.2 miles from Washington University, which hopefully means that I'll get to meet interesting and intelligent college students. And the nearest grocery store is less than a mile away. The neighborhood has a nice, tree-lined suburban feel, but I'm quite close to everything.

So I think my new life will be quite comfortable and convenient, but I'm still somewhat apprehensive about everything. I know no one in Saint Louis, and I will initially have only one co-worker, who will also be my boss. Saint Louis doesn't have the ready-made libertarian social scene, nor do I have any old friends from high school or college I'll be able to connect with. I'm unsure how one goes about building a social network from scratch. I had a great deal of help in DC from the fact that I already had a few Internet friends before I arrived, and because there are about 30 people my age working at Cato. Amanda will be busy with medical school, and her friends will likely be scary doctors-in-training who will speak med student talk to each other. I'm sure she'll do her best to translate into English for my benefit, but I'll still be something of an outsider.

I'm also not positive I'm going to like my new job. It could be fabulous, as I might get to do a lot of serious research and writing about Missouri politics. On the other hand, I might be stuck writing fund-raising letters and updating the web page. Although that wouldn't be a bad job by any means, I think that, when compared with the likely much less exciting social scene, it might make me miss Washington (and, for that matter, Minnesota) quite a bit. And, especially at a small organization where I'm basically going to be all alone with my boss, there's a distinct possibility that he'll turn out to be crazy and I'll be miserable.

Still, I'm not going to dwell on it too much. There's too much I want to do before I leave town, and I've only got about 4 weeks to pack and put my affairs in order here. If life in Saint Louis sucks, I'll have plenty of time to grouse about it after I get there...

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 05:04:20 GMT

Huh, my iPod died. The warranty expired a month or two ago.

Good deal!

Wed, 15 Jun 2005 19:31:39 GMT

If you've been thinking about getting a Mac laptop, this is an unbelievably good deal. $700 for a 1 GHz G4, including a 1-year warranty and Mac OS X Tiger, the latest version.

The machine is about a year old, but for most users, a 1 GHz G4 is plenty fast, and if it breaks in the first year you can take it in to Apple to get it repaired.

I just bought one for myself. I imagine new iBooks will come down the pike within a few weeks, but I don't really care. This is a great deal, and I don't want to shell out a lot of money for a high-end laptop until the new Intel-based Macs get here.

By the way, if you are interested, you should literally go buy it right now. There's a good chance the opportunity will go away within hours. (you'll notice I bought first and blogged about it afterwards. :)

Update: I just noticed that it doesn't include an AirPort card, which all the new iBooks do. So with the iBook upgrade, (Apple sells refurbs of those too) the price is more like $770. Still a good deal, although not quite as fantastic as I thought before I realized that. Apple's selling a 1.2 GHz iBook with a combo drive (this one only has a CD drive) and an AirPort card for $849, so that's also worth checking out.

Hmmm... now that I think about it, I believe Tiger only comes on a DVD-ROM. I wonder how that's going to work. I'm going to be seriously annoyed if I can't actually install Tiger on the thing.

Perks

Wed, 15 Jun 2005 16:21:46 GMT

I love having a job where I get to write headlines like "Government: Africa's Most Deadly Parasite."