l'blog pour l'blog.

"l'art pour l'art."

("art for art's sake.")

--french slogan (source debated)

i recently was reading my friend laura's blog where she discussed the purposes behind her blogging. it was a good read, and had me start thinking the my own blog's roots. my first blog post was four sentences long.

quote: 

disaster has struck, and i'm now a "blogger." or, you could take the immature route and think that i'm a "booger." i personally think that's the funnier option.

and on that note, my first blog post is complete.

this was the beginning of something that has now been in progress for two years,one month, and fifteen days as of the time of this post. while this description may make it sound like some sort of noble quest, you, my two readers, surely know otherwise. what it is, in fact, is a little nook of lund on the net. a place for me to ramble and for you to wish i didn't. 

this blog has roots in things since passed and addressed in posts previous in a variety of, at times absurd or stupid, ways. at these times i mainly wanted an outlet besides punching a wall. nowadays, however, i find myself punching fewer walls and needing less frequent bizarre allegories.

so why do i keep this up, my dear two readers?

l'blog pour l'blog.

dear blog.

"it's a butterfly. or maybe a fella in glasses... hey everybody, hold on a second... i know, i know, it'll only take a second. come check this out. it's pretty cool."

dear blog.
how are you? hope things are going well.
it's interesting. sometimes i wonder who's reading you, and imagine people in far off lands wondering what an american psychology student does with his time. it's pretty exciting. maybe a bit frightening. maybe you've a reader who's a friendly herb doctor in the southwestern united states reading about my new album. perhaps another is a small pakistani boy from islamabad wondering about what i asked santa for christmas (and let the record show, you really did have a hit from islamabad reading your "dear santa" post). maybe a swedish hacker who's ip address is traced to singapore, but who is really in ireland. or perhaps another psychology student in russia, comparing his own blog to you and thinking his is much better. if he's right, i apologize.

at any rate, i'm glad we can see at least where in the world people are that are reading via the geo-traffic link on the right side of the screen, even if we can't see who it is. then again, if i knew who it was, it may weird me out... maybe that's for the best. either way, it's good fun.

well blog, need to finish a paper for psychology now. but i just wanted to write and say hi. hope all is well. i'll do what i can to get you some new readers, but i think we've already a few all stars in our fanbase. see you next later!

--the little lund that writes you.

freshman year.

hey friends and others.
so, about four years ago now, i was a freshman in college living in helaman halls on byu campus and living the dream. part of said dream was to make beautiful music. what instead was realized was the creation of noise loosely described as music. that being said, over time it's been fun to share my wastes of time, and am finally putting forth the effort to do so. these tracks were done with the blessed hammerhead rhythm station and windows sound recorder along with film quotes as you'll hear. at any rate, it was a monster pain editing all of them, so it makes me all the more proud of them.

also worth noting before we get started are two things of practical application. one, i'm still unaware of a way to simply post these tracks as wav or mp3 files, so they're still being posted as movies(yes, the visuals are boring, but i can't be bothered to actually do anything visually for stuff i made four years ago). if you want to be able to download any of them, just get a hold of me or leave a comment and i'll just e-mail them to you. and second, while some i'm quite proud of, others were more me just playing around and trying to figure out how to work. for this reason, i'll only be posting the worthwhile ones, which are few, but there just the same.

so, here are the tracks, loosely in the order of which i favor them. i wrote these under the name "coat hat and cutlass" in case any of you burn these on mix cds and distribute them among friends. then when they ask who they're by, you can express that it's by coat hat and cutlass but they stopped putting out tracks a few years ago and sound very hip and knowledgeable.

as you mixed.

super micro fun.

frankly reanimixed.



your one unheard message.

try to enjoy.

lance bass.

hello world. they say you should leave the best for last. this being the last of the series of nsync posts, i think we all knew which member would be last.

"shoot for the moon. even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."
brian littrell
(about lance bass)

by way of friendly update, we're no closer to posting a link for the notebooks blog as i've still not received any submissions. so if you're really dieing to see it up and running, spread the good word.

anyway, this is one of those posts where i just get a chance to share things with everyone that i think are worth sharing. that's another reason i chose lance bass for this one. he's fantastic!

*disclamer*
blogger and/or youtube is being a punk and the video linking is being shotty. for now, please just accept my apologies, be old fashioned, and click the link.

first of all, a string of recent musical discoveries i've enjoyed. feel free to watch at your leisure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q46qCgBDdKM

haley bonar
this is a good little number of her's, but she's got more. just look around on youtube and they're pretty available.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_8p3fjt4Do
peter and the wolf
i quite enjoy this song. i was quite quick to begin recommending this crew to friends, and then started listening to their other stuff, and it wasn't quite as awesome... but anyway, it's worth checking out this song at least. also, live, they aren't exactly stellar. not to make a jab, or anything, but after watching that link, try this one. same song. live. i was a little dissapointed, though i get the impression they may have been drinking prior to this performance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVYcfOEPmLk&feature=related

anyway, i enjoyed it.

the next is a bit of spam mail i received over the weekend. i usually don't bother cleaning out my spam folder. but when i do, i enjoy seeing if there's anything humerous to be found. for whatever reason, i found this one quite funny, and share it now.
i couldn't tell you why, but i found it hilarious. maybe i'm just imagining this scene play out.

(Lights up on a small apartment living room. The table is set for a romantic evening. Tom is seen opening a bottle of wine, the finishing touch in his preparations. The door opens. Enter Kathy.)
Kathy: Oh! What's this?
Tom: Oh, aren't you a few minutes early?
Kathy: Yeah, business got slow towards the end of the shift and Jeff let me off early. What's all this about?
Tom: Happy anniversary. (He pours a glass of wine and hands it to Kathy, then doing the same for himself. He raises his glass.) To us. (Kathy gets visibly uncomfortable. Setting down the glass, she heads for the door. He pursues her.) Kathy! What's the matter? Did I do something wrong? I didn't mean to put any pressure on you, just wanted to celebrate a little. It seems like we've been so stressed lately. I thought it was a good excuse for a little relaxing...
Kathy: (Turning around, trying to hide how upset she is.) I know, I know... It's just hard to look at you... right now... just sometimes...
Tom: Kathy? What are you saying?
Kathy: I... I... it's just... (Beat.) I do not care for your clothes. (At this she begins to cry.)
Tom: Kathy... I'm so sorry... (They embrace.) I'll change... Give me a second. I'll be right back.
(Lights begin to fade as Tom exits to a door stage right, undoing his tie. Kathy sits, sips at her wine.)
Kathy:I do love him...
(To black. Fin.)

touching, isn't it? i think i may need to pursue that script...

and lastly, the random article function on wikipedia. give it a spin. it's good fun.

and that concludes this post, and the nsync post series. thank you justin, joey, j.c., chris and lance. you truly do make the world a brighter, since you are all such bright stars.

best wishes,

trace.

when the bee stings.

sometimes we all just need a good pick me up. .we need something that will make us feel better. sometimes we need a few of our favorite things. like raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens, and julie andrews.

forgive the youtube slide show format, but it's the best i could do. take a listen. you'll feel better even if you already feel great.



and for you more ambitious types--no need to be satisfied with watching.

and taking a lead from julie, i'll now be listing some of my favorite things. and remember, these are a few of my favorite things, not all of them. in no particular order:

*jonathan coulton*

a wonderfully lighthearted musician i recently discovered and have been enjoying ever since. this link will give you a good list of his stuff on youtube. give it a listen.

*grilled cheese*

need i say more? i think not. it's the best of a bowling alley and a sandwich thrown in the frying pan til golden brown and ready to make me jolly. double cool points when using the sandwich cutting device i received from my sister esa. it turns a one grilled cheese into two dinosaurs made of grilled cheese (as seen above).

*mark williams*

suffice it to say that if you don't know him, you wish you did. if you do know him, you know what i mean. and yes, the photo is of the aforementioned paper-mermaid burning.

*surf ninjas*

how can you not have this movie on your list? it's one of virtually everyone's favorite things. kwansu!

*human anatomy*

yes, it's going to devour me this fall, but as a subject it can't be beaten. it's always crazy when you look at your text book and then look at your forearm and see the same thing. just dissected. way too cool. chemistry would probably be the same if we could readily see on the molecular level. it's also cool that my body works. that's included in this one.

*robots*

and anything that has to do with them. androids are not included in this. nor are cyborgs. and on a side note, i realize that this is sloppier than most of my posts. cry about it. i did.

*mario... and luigi.*

most anything involving these two is bound to be good. and really, the film is what sort of spoils things here, so most any game is a safe bet. the funny part is that we all look back and slam on super mario bros the movie, yet at the time, we all loved it. and some of us saw it more than once. more than three times, actually. and really, it should be noted that the film is included in this favorite thing just because of the nostalgia attached to it. and because it has john leguizamo.

*acoustic guitar*

fun to play, fun to hear, and bob dylan utilized it well enough to make the list of a few of my favorite things. something very soft and soothing about an acoustic that you can't get elsewhere. also wonderful to watch splinter in wrestling matches.

*h.g. wells*

i've recently gotten into audio books and wells has been a staple in the lineup. personal favorites include sleeper awakes and island of dr. moreau. definitely worth investigating.

*england*

you friends across the pond know that i can't leave england out. i love the place. i'm happy to be american, but i'm happy to have english friends. you know i love you, you crazy english folk.

*wales*

and wales, i love you too. i put wales after england because i hoped that at least a few of you would be angry and assume i just lumped wales with england. you know i don't play favorites. just favorite things. and countries. oh how i miss doing sixty in a vauxhaul down your winding roads. i also miss some of the nicest, and at times, bewildering, people in the world. but mostly the nicest. and the people that were bewildering were still friendly... just more confusing than anything else.

and now, to end my list of favorite things, i give you one that's very dear to me.

*chairs*

though we really don't make a fuss about it, chairs really are just too good. really, chairs are wonderful. i love them to death, and hope to have many wonderful chairs before my days are done. and name them all.


now don't you feel better? i do. and it's a good thing to, because i was quite peeved. take care everybody, maybe next time i'll write something worth reading.

rabbit holes (radio version).

i'm in the middle of a weird phase right now.

life right now smacks a bit of when i wake up from sleeping in and can't quite make out what's really going on. even when i do, everything still feels just a little bit off. my daily schedule, hobbies, ability to do random things, none of them quite seem to fit the usual sound, smell, taste, feeling, or appearance of life. maybe it's from all the pizza.

i had a much bigger, much moodier post written up already. i wrote it over an hour's time whilst watching 'westworld.' (on a side note, that was a very good library find. i'm thoroughly enjoying it. it even stars yul brynner for all you 'king and i' types.) i was going to post it, but as i realized it was around three pages long, remarkably melodramatic, and really just annoying (as i would imagine to any reader), i decided to simply e-mail it to myself and forget posting it. maybe i would have thought otherwise if bothered reading it. it was too long and moody, though, so here you go instead. you should be glad i did so. all two of you that will read this.

basically, this post is just here so i can satisfy my need to post something after writing such a long post, and in turn not posting it. this is a sort of sad excuse for a post. like eating a cereal box because you threw away all of the cereal... yeah. just like that.

and now, since you bothered reading, here's part of the last post. it was the light hearted climax of an otherwise heavy handed piece of writing. it has an ironic history about it in context, but i'll leave it for now. if you're really that interested in it you can ask me, you two readers.

and i one day hope to smoke my awkwardness and everything else with it into extinction. figuratively, of course.

see you later. i promise the next post will be a bit more uppity and a little less johny raincloud.

mopping with cute little animals.

so, i know i had a post something like ten hours ago saying to just wait because it may be a bit before i have another reason to post.

well, a reason came up sooner than i expected. on top of that, it actually has nothing to do with tunes like i said it probably would. oh well.

i clean bathrooms every morning starting at 4:30 am. as you can probably guess, things can get pretty interesting with everyone consistently being up at this time. (for a great example of this, check out my coworker laura's post about it.) part of cleaning the bathrooms is mopping.

here's a typical perspective. nothing fancy, just a simple stick to mop head view that doesn't allow much to be seen outside of it mopping up a (often bizzarre) collection of marks, hair, and spills. this is, after all, what it has as a purpose. to clean up what mop's good friend broom misses.








anyway, this morning we put a new mophead on the stick because the one we put first on essentially had been used as part of a bullet-proof vest, it was not working at all. it was referred to as "the devil" by travis and "a wet t-shirt" by kyle. this is unimportant, though, outside of the fact that it caused us to go downstairs, replace the mophead, and come back up. because we were carrying it up we were able to see it dry which is unusual, as its almost always in a bucket of consume eco-lyzer mopping solution.

on our way upstairs, i began using it as a sort of gandolf staff, and met this when i looked at it.

it's a kitty!

or maybe the antagonist from soul reaver for playstation. whatever.

either way, it's adorable. i'm mopping with something that is just tooooooo cute! these animals are cute enough that other cats have been able to even spark and internet pop culture icon. i smell a spin off.

so. expect to have this image in your inbox soon, along with "hilarious youtube clips" from your coworkers.
because it's adorable.

i'll try to have an interesting post up soon. but at five in the morning, this seemed like a post opportunity i couldn't afford to pass up.