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Homecoming at MSU

On Saturday Kelly and I drove up to East Lansing for homecoming at Michigan State. We spent the day with my old housemates Kyle, Nick, and Jay, along with Jay’s girlfriend Kara and our friend Charlie. It was a long yet fun day.

Kelly and I woke at 7am in order to begin tailgating before the noon game. We arrived around 9:30 and met up with our group. We then called Ubers to take us to the house of the younger sister of Mollie, who used to live with Kyle’s girlfriend Kate and went to high school with Kyle. We spent about 45 minutes hanging out there before walking across campus to the tennis courts, a tailgating hotspot. Along the way my friend Dillon, who I worked with as a counselor at Boys State, came up to us. We caught up with him and his girlfriend Emily for about 10 minutes before reconnecting with out original group at a tailgate hosted by the family of Hailey, Nick’s new female companion.

We headed for the stadium and arrived just in time for kickoff. Despite a forecast of clear skies, it poured for a majority of the game. Our friends left at halftime and we left after 3 quarters. We all watched the last quarter from Harrison Roadhouse. MSU barely squeaked out a victory over Purdue after jumping out to an early 21-0 lead. We have lost 7 starters to injury and I’m starting to worry about this team.

In the evening, we got in to P.T. O’Malley’s just before they restricted entry. P.T.’s is where we celebrated my 21st birthday. We had a good time there, including Jay knocking over a drink while attempting to say hi to some girls and Kelly dancing to Footloose. We stopped for wraps at Conrad’s, classic East Lansing drunk food. While walking down the street we recognized a friend of Nick’s. Kyle pointed at him and went “hey its…” with no clue what his name was, which was awkward but hilarious. In our hotel room Kyle said, out of nowhere, “my old boss…” and didn’t finish his thought. Good work Kyle.

It was a great weekend. I’m lucky that this group has continued to get together in East Lansing every year and it was great to have Kelly join the fun. Hopefully next year we’ll do it again, without the rain!

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Michigan State vs Purdue

Tomorrow Kelly and I are heading up to East Lansing to see Michigan State play football against Purdue. Michigan State football is in the middle of a golden age. Since Mark Dantonio took over the program in 2007, the team has had 79 victories and 31 losses. Excluding his first three years, his record is 57 and 14. Over the past four seasons MSU has won the Outback Bowl, Buffalo Wild Wings bowl, Rose Bowl, and Cotton Bowl (which had a classic comeback victory).

My Dad went to Purdue so I grew up a fan of Purdue’s football and basketball teams. During those years, they were actually pretty good. Drew Brees, who went on to a superstar career in the NFL including a Super Bowl victory, led Purdue to a Big Ten Championship and a Rose Bowl. A few years later, Kyle Orton led Purdue to four straight bowl games before having a decent NFL career. These days, Purdue football is dreadful. Current head coach Darrell Hazell is 5-23, and his predecessor Danny Hope went a mediocre 22-28. So far this season they have only beaten Indiana State and lost to Marshall, Virginia Tech, and Bowling Green.

One weakness in MSU’s team this year is the secondary. Michigan State’s pass defense is ranked 114th out of 128 FBS teams. This is simply abysmal, especially considering one of our four games was against Navy which is ranked dead last in passing offense. Despite Purdue’s rough start to the season, their passing offense is a formidable foe. If they can reduce their interceptions (7 in 4 games), their 257 passing yards per game is more than enough to win a Big Ten game. Tomorrow all eyes will be on MSU’s cornerbacks and safeties to perform.

This year MSU has started the season with four straight wins and an amazing second place ranking nationally. Tomorrow’s match-up against Purdue will be one of many cupcake games against Big Ten teams including Rutgers and Indiana. In two weeks we will face off with a Michigan team defying preseason expectations after a 31-0 victory over BYU under first-year coach Jim Harbaugh. After defeating Oregon (ranked seventh at the time but now out of the top 25 after a brutal 62-20 loss to Utah) the match-ups against Michigan and Ohio State on November 21st are the two remaining tests to prove we are contenders for a national championship.

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Start of State Policy Network Annual Meeting 2015

I am on my way to the State Policy Network’s (SPN) Annual Meeting today. SPN is the network of state-based free market think tanks in the United States. I have previously attended this event in Amelia Island, FL and Oklahoma City. This year the event is being hosted by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Grand Rapids, MI. I spent the summer of 2012 as an intern at the Mackinac Center working on their Michigan Capitol Confidential publication. My work from that time, a series of investigative journalism pieces of government investments in green energy projects, is available online here.

I attended my first SPN Annual Meeting through their Generation Liberty Fellowship for young people interested in free market think tank work. I hosted a session on student outreach for think tanks on behalf of SFL. I think it was a moderately successful session. The next year I attended entirely on behalf of SFL, again running the student outreach session.

This year I have four primary areas of focus. The first is professional development through sessions on management and fundraising. The second is fundraising through meeting with new, potential, and current SFL donors. Third is maintaining SFL’s presence at our exhibitor booth. My final focus is networking with existing and new contacts, updating them on SFL’s work and my current role as well as learning of new projects from other organizations.

I am very excited for this conference and hope to gain a lot from my participation. This is my first non-SFL libertarian event in months. Following the conference, Kelly and I will meet up and head to Michigan State to attend the football game against Purdue with my old roommates and their significant others: Nick, Jay, Kara, Kyle, and Kate. On Sunday, we will celebrate my 24th birthday with my family. This should be a great week!