Before I start, my friend Shan introduced me to the band "The Gossip" last week. My GOD can that woman sing!



"I've got a FEVER, and the only cure is MORE COWBELL!"

Anyway ...


I thought it was about time for me to update this blog again, as a lot has happened in the past month; most of it surprisingly good at all! (God, how long as it been since I could openly admit that I've had a great month? Far too long).

My life, as of late, has continued to circle around Grad School, which shouldn't really come as much of a surprise to anyone. This is my career, after all, and if it wasn't taking up most of my time, I'd be terribly worried that I wasn't giving it enough attention, or else that *gasp* I'd chosen to do something that was easy! Well, I assure you, my constant readers, that that will never happen! I seem about as addicted to doing thats the hard way as I always have, thank god.
Case in point: I just handed in one of the two major papers I'm working on this semester. The project called for me to pick a topic which related to the United States from Reconstruction through 1917. Now, the easy thing to do for me would have been to try to do some topic relating to my hero (who I know far too much about) Bob LaFollette, a three time governor and four term Senator from Wisconsin. Instead, I chose to write it on a topic that, although somewhat related to my field of study; namely the Nonpartisan League of North Dakota, a Farmer's Union/Political Party with distinct Socialistic leanings that took control of the state for roughly 6 years.
Once that was taken care of, I decided to make things even tougher for myself. The easy thing to do would have been to use a few books on the NPL and include one or two primary sources to spice it up a little bit. That, of course, would have been too simple. One day, when I'm a professor doing research, I'll be using primarily primary sources for my research. I decided to get some practice in doing just that; I collected well over 20 news articles, letters and speeches from the local archives and used them as the bis is of my paper, with a few texts thrown in to build my framework.
Why did I do it? I honestly don't know. Part of my believes it has to do with trying to impress for Professor. I'd hit a rough spot during my first semester which is resulting in my having to retake a class in Fall; and I think part of this experiment on my part was to prove to my Professor, and advisor for that matter, that he didn't misplace his faith in me (the man pulled some strings so I'd be able to stay in school this semester, after that class).
A larger part, I feel, however was that I needed to prove to myself that I could do this. I've been growing more comfortable in Grad School, and have been enjoying all of my classes. However, there were still some doubts huddled in the back of my skull. During my Undergrad career I'd attempted a paper much like this one, using primary sources as my main thrust, and it hadn't done as well as I'd wanted it to. Part of this was because the class was in the summer, I had just started dating a truly kick ass girl (truly, she was; I still hold a bit of a flame for her, years later) and my heart wasn't really into doing class work. What ever the case, I decided to use this paper to prove to myself that I really could do this type of work, belonged in Grad School, and that academia is the proper career path for me.
So, what was the result? Well, I honestly think its one of the best things I've ever written. A little dry from time to time (I also tried to improve my writing style which, often times, seems to become the academic equivalent of an H.P. Lovecraft story; in other words, my prose is often is more purple than a Princep's Toga), but informative and well structured. I sent a copy to my Father to edit, as I've been doing since High School, and he agreed that it was one of my better works and, as he said, "shows a definite maturation" in my writing style. My Dad's always been a stickler about writing, and has never been afraid to tell me when my papers are crap, so I think that praise was genuine.
So, yes, I'm happy

Watch. I'll get a 'C'

In other academic news, I've been invited to read one of my other papers from this semester (which I have yet to write!) at a History/Literature conference in Bismarck next October! Even better, since the conference is Literary as well as Historical, I sent in a proposal to read part of my epic poem there as well, and was accepted. My hope is that some academic there will take a liking to it and try to put me in contact with an agent, and I can finally get the damn thing published.

So, yes, things are going very well for me. I've got a summer job lined up, doing interviews with German-Russians in western North Dakota (here's hoping they ply me up with some Red Eye out there! I here tell that that is the national drink of the German-Russian volk), I've finally started to make some friends in this town; I've even managed to take this 19 year old kid under my wing. My mentoring someone always seems to be a sign that life is going well for me; I seem to pick up 'pupils' every now and then (Actually, in this case, it seems to be more of a fair trade. _I'll_ show him the ways of life and HE will introduce me to women. I haven't had too much luck meeting any since moving to Fargo )
Now, since things are going so well, the only thing I'm missing is a few women in my life. However, since everything else has improved as late, I figure that should work itself out as well. Everything else seems to be !

To end with a video as well:

I just picked up Porter Wagoner's last CD. As a Country fan, I'm rather embarrassed to admit that I hadn't listened to much of his music before. So, in the honor of a great man who died just as his career was beginning to revive (thanks in large part to Jack White; who I am constantly coming to respect more and more), I thought I'd end with one of his videos.



Its a bit of a downer and doesn't fit my mood at this point but, My.GOD!