23

To catch anyone up that only knows what I am up to through this blog, I am now a graduate student at Northern Illinois University in American government, as of yesterday I am 23 years old, Rachel and I are better than ever, aaaaaaand that is about all of the basic updates.I really like being at a new school because it is really interesting arguing and conversing with a new group of faculty and students in a sphere that is completely different for me. Not that all Iowa State students and professors are the same, but I knew who was who and what arguments were worth pursuing. There is now a bit more excitement in addition to what comes regularly with classes. I do miss Iowa State. It is an adjustment and Northern Illinois is not nearly as beautiful of a campus. Also, and high ranking, is the M-Shop. I am planning on going to see The Thermals on November 8, but I still will be feeling a bit of withdrawal from not attending one concert at least every two weeks. I will get over it.One concert I was able to go to was Lollapalooza for the second year. I was able to see some pretty cool bands, for example: My Morning Jacket, LCD Soundsystem, Spoon, Daft Punk, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Tapes n Tapes, TV on the Radio, Elvis Perkins, Iggy and the Stooges, M.I.A. and many more. Best show award--LCD Soundsystem was just so well played and so exciting that it ranks very high. Honorable mention--My Morning Jacket, Spoon, Daft Punk. Best guest award--My Morning Jacket played with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and it was beautiful. Honorable mention--Pearl Jam invited all of the VIPs on stage during Rockin in the Free World and Dennis Rodman was one of them.

Best visual show award--Daft Punk hands down. Go on youtube and find a live Daft Punk video. They are pretty amazing.

Hustle award--Ted Leo, amidst family illness and cancelled shows because of it, played like a madman. It seems that he was a bid mad (angry) because while soloing during his second song, The Sons of Cain, he fell knocking over his amp's microphone and cutting his had, rather badly. After no help from the techies, he rocked the hell out of the rest of his set. Awesome.

Overall coolest experience award--Spoon and the meeting of bassist Rob Pope and Drummer Jim Eno. WOOOOOOO!

...and just one more cool picture of M.I.A.

So here's the political part. No, I do not know who I would like to see as the top candidates for president of the United States of America. They all have a lot of negatives (especially you Mitt Romney!) and most have positives. I like the ideas of populism that Senator Barak Obama displays and I do not think the claims that he is an ignorant, naive politician are unwarranted. I like the social causes that John Edwards is campaigning on and has worked for since the last election and those who say that social initiatives will do nothing for the country are not seeing the economic booms of nations that have fully accepted nationalistic measures (Norway, Ireland, England, etc.). Also, the idea that a wealthy person cannot help the poor is ignorant to a former president named Franklin Roosevelt. I think that Senator Hillary Clinton's aggressiveness and strength can offer the country some new avenues to make a turnaround but she needs to look out for brashness. Those who say that they do not want another Clinton in the White House repeating what we had in the 1990s probably do not remember the 1990s that well--economic prosperity, small business growth, relative lack of violent conflicts (other than those of Newt Gingrich), and other successes. Then there is Mike Gravel with the staring (watch the whole thing). No, I did not mention much about the Republican candidates, besides Mitt Romney riding high on his stronger military, economy, and families which sounds about like President George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004 and since...how is that working? We see the same fromMcCain (demagogue), Guliani (except "strong families" but in addition, demagoguery), and something different from Ron Paul (eliminate the Departments of State, Education, Transportation, Energy, Treasury, and everything else that pretains to government except his job). Cool.

So, you know how I feel about it. I hope you feel anything at all about all of this. Go ahead and let me know if you want. Otherwise, I guess you can stay quiet and comfortable--which is ok. Good luck with everything and thanks for checking in.