Here is what I do when I'm not studying:

Carolina Review:

This is the conservative student-run magazine that eats a good chunk of my time. At a university where liberalism and the Left rule the ideological discourse, I believe it is very important to present another side to things, and that is what we strive to do at Carolina Review. As the editor, I put in a lot of hours both writing and making sure everythign comes together for each issue. Recently, conservative groups on campus have begun gathering steam, but the Review has been the only consistent conservative voice on campus for more than a decade. Check out our Web site here.

Playing Outside:

I love the outdoors -- if only there were still a frontier! Though I suppose the existence (or lack) of frontiers is all in our perception of the world, and in what we choose to see. Here's me, ready to start a snowball fight on a frozen mountain in Virginia. To read more about my recent exploits, click here.

Sailing (club sailing team):

Before freshman year of college, I had never sailed before. Since then I have developed a (basic) skill and competed in a few regattas. This fall I skippered in one for the first time. Lakes are a wonderful thing. I should've known better than to sign up for an expensive sport; now someday I'll have to get boat. You can check out the UNC Sailing Web site here.

Playing Music:

I'm a big fan of bluegrass and old-time music. I like country, too, but I have always loved the sound of the banjo, and last November I emptied my bank account on a whim when I fell in love with a banjo I saw at a furniture store just across the Georgia line in Rabun County. (Rabun County also happens to be the filming location of a well-known movie.) Now I'm teaching myself bluegrass style banjo, and it's slow going because I'm pretty busy. But I hope that someday I'll be able to play well.

Making Stuff:

I have always enjoyed crafts, and I have dabbled in everything from quilting to building (including a few furniture projects last fall that my roommate so kindly tolerated). My most recent projects have involved knitting and fabric, and I am also working on a rag rug for my floor. Usually I design things on my own, but sometimes I get ideas from quilt books and overpriced catalogs, which sometimes charge over $100 for something similar to an item I have made with leftover fabric scraps or $5 worth of yarn -- and when I make something, it's unique, which I think makes it better anyway. I'm starting to wonder if I could make a business out of this...

Eating good BBQ (Carolina BBQ Society):

This club is exactly what it sounds like: we drive around the Carolinas in search of good barbecue. Typically, we make a Saturday event of eating at a barbecue place some distance away. Occasionally, we will go on an excursion to a barbecue festival (like the big one in Lexington), and we also have an annual event know as the Down East Extravaganza, which consists of three meals in one day at different barbecue places in eastern North Carolina (for you non-connoisseurs, that's vinegar-based BBQ). It is a fine way to celebrate the two essential food groups: corn and pork. If we weren't intended to eat barbecue, then why on earth did God give us pigs?

Allen & Son: A Great Place in Chapel Hilll

Short Sugar's: My favorite in North Carolina

Piggie Park: South Carolina's Best

Arthur Bryant's: My Favorite in Kansas City

Gardening:

There is a garden club here, and the garden is conveniently right across the street from where I live. I tend to have class during meetings, but I've spent a few afternoons working in the garden, and it's pretty cool because it's all organic and kind of intensive, using a lot of items (like food scraps and plastic bottles) that would otherwise be thrown away.

Speaking of growing things, last spring I visited two farms to learn about sustainable agriculture with my food class. I was really excited -- the philosophy of those places combines the business and lifestyle aspects, making it quite possible to focus on both of these areas rather than one or the other. There are a ton of little places like that around here: small, specialized farms, each of which serves a particular niche.
This could be the future.

Pirate Club:

Arrrrrrr! This club was started last semester by a couple of freshmen who had nothing to do. It has since grown to include more than 400 members, all of whom apparently like the idea of being pirates. We know that pirates did bad things. We know a lot of them were cruel and that they stole from people. We don't care. Pirates are cool. The biggest pirate party ever was held at Ocracoke Inlet in 1718, and I think it would be incredibly cool to re-enact it. Actually, there are already groups that re-enact pirate parties -- and battles and things as well. (Yeah, apparently we re-enact just about everything down here. That makes us cool.)

Road Trippin:

For good or bad, I love the road. It's not a rare weekend that I am headed off to some new spot -- you'd be amazed what you can see for the cost of a little gas and a little time. So, if you happen to see me in an old little blue Ranger with a red stripe and a Carolina plate, kindly wave hello!

Geneology (my recent obsession):

I got into geneology a litle over a year ago. I'm not really quite sure what really sparked my interest, though I vaguely recall it having something to do with the geography of barbecue sauce.

In August I made a trip to Clinton, Missouri, and Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, to look up courthouse and cemetary records and to find out more about where I came from. I found a lot of interesting stuff, though I have also turned up more questions -- and more roadblocks to tracing back people who settled the frontier. There is also a whole lot more to find -- a lot of stuff is buried in courthouse basements that would take weeks to fully look through. And I haven't even begun to tackle the records in Virginia or Tennessee.This looks to be a lifetime project.

At some point I will put a bunch of this stuff online, though probably not for awhile.

Community Service:

For the most part, my community service activities deal with education. As a college student who spent some time worrying about how I was going to pay for school -- and also one who appreciates the opportunities college has opened up for me -- I believe very strongly in helping to make higher education accessible, particularly to those bright students who only lack information. These are two ways that I have put effort toward helping kids who want to attend college.

Tarheels Talk - This site provides information to prospective students about what it's like to be a student at UNC through essays written by current students. Those of us featured on the site also assist these students by answering their questions via e-mail.

North Carolina Students for Educational Access - This web site doesn't appear to be fully operational, but my participation in this organization has been to visit high schools in underprivileged areas to speak with them about college -- tell them what it's like, answer their questions, and let them know how it is accessible for them.

Playing with Guns:

My best excuse for this is that I'm on the club rifle team (part of the UNC NRA club), which just got started last year. So far we have only competed against NC State, which has so far kicked our butt -- twice. State has a really serious team with serious coaches and a lot of impressive gear. They also practice all the time. And they're really good -- something to aspire to, I guess. As far as I know, only one guy on our team actually competed in high school; the rest of us are just coming from hunting or shooting coke cans in our backyard. Actual competition is way different.

Speaking of playing with guns, I'm also in the paintball club, which makes occasional excursions to play at paintball places in the Triangle. I think girls are better at paintball than guys. Why? Because guys just run at things like Rambo while girls are sitting behind a tree coming up with a strategy. It's an overgeneralization, but in a lot of cases it's true. Apparently, some people seriously compete, but we just do it for fun.

Ceaselessly Taking Photos:

I am not going to post many photos here for two reasons: 1) It takes a lot of time and 2) I don't want them to show up all over the Internet on Web sites whose owners have no respect for copyrights. However, contrary to popular belief, there are things in existence that are not online. My many photos are among them.

Grits! This is just really cool.