the chair.

"and if by my efforts
i become someone i like,
maybe that someone will be a somebody
in time and history's sight."
--terrance long

a chair is a delightful thing. chairs come in a remarkable variety of styles, colors, shapes, sizes, and aesthetics. a good chair can be practical or frivolous, large or small, ornate or homely, and belong to one or many persons. if we're thinking in terms of plato's theory of forms, any chair could be the chair given that it suits the role its been assigned.

as i've recently read many a text on world issues, global struggles of various sorts, local problems and those plaguing distant lands, i've wondered what role i've to play in being a positive force in relation to any of them. i find hope in the chair. some of the best chairs i've encountered in my life have been modest in appearance, upkeep, or even comfort--but suit their opportunities to play their parts blissfully.

my goal in life is to suit my part blissfully.

negligence.

blog--
four months is a long time to neglect a blog. i don't feel guilty for the months i was at scout camp. i only had the twenty cents a minute kiosk from kinkos in logan to access the internet, and only on saturdays at that. i do, however, feel i owe you an apology for the weeks since i returned that i spent not writing to you. you understand it wasn't an issue of not wanting to do--but simply not doing. it doesn't excuse it, but perhaps it can help you understand that i meant you no ill.

things have been good for the last while. school is busy and my reappearing social life is treating me well. i'll spare you the slur of more detailed updates and assume that you'll be content to know that things are mostly good with enough bad to keep things interesting. it's a balance i'm comfortable with for the time being and will be enjoying until the equilibrium changes. i've been following the epicurean ideals in my own way for a while, and plan on straying from that soon. we'll see if the wave goes up or down after that.

sorry i've not a lot that's especially exciting to share with you. hopefully i will soon. i hope that if nothing else the break has been a time for you to relax, enjoy the slow pace of the summer, and that my returning to you will be a welcome back and not a 'let's have one more month' sort of situation... either way, you know we were made for each other. and i appreciate that.

with love,
trace.

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.

aldo.

as you may be aware from interaction with me or from blog posts past, i have some fairly varied interests. one of them is sci fi, and more specific to this post, planet of the apes.

in the original series' fifth and final installment, battle for the planet of the apes, humanity and apes are living in a fairly tense balance. they live in villages with humans as second class citizens. ceasar, the chimp leader of the ape revolution and leader of the establishment, feels that mankind had their chance and chose to war with and kill one another as well as mistreat apes. therefore, it was the ape race's role to care for society and assist humanity in maintaining its existence, as they've proved to be somewhat inept at it. and in order to prove they're of sterner stuff, apes establish a code of laws, the hallmark being 'ape must never kill ape.'

well, while ceasar is a worthy chimp with worthy intentions, others are not. enter aldo, the leader of the gorillas, the warriors of ape civilization. he has a rather tenacious dislike of humans and is eagerly trying to find an excuse to do us all in. well, he plans out a clever little way to do so and assembles a meeting of the gorillas to discuss a way to get martial law in order and attack a nearby human establishment. well, by some chance ceasar's good son cornelius (who aldo also hates as he always bests him in ape school) happens upon this little war council and scurries off to inform his father and the community. but aldo thinks fasts and hacks down the branch on which cornelius is perched, dropping him from the treebranch to the sickbed. then, while ceasar is at cornelius' side, aldo takes order to his own hand, starts the attack on humans both in an out of the village. in turn, cornelius passes and ceasar leaves the small home to find what's gone on in his absence.

the battle begins and in a moment of rest, one citizen makes it known that indeed cornelius' branch didn't break, but was hacked away. aldo has broken the great law. the crowd, realizing the gravity of aldo's action, circle and begin slowly chanting the horrible truth.

ape has killed ape.

i guess why i bring this up is that it's all too often that we become what we've faulted someone else for. myself included, as i always am in these sort of soap box posts. but it's really true. the practice can be found in politics, social circles, fashion, pop culture, and any number of other things. we seek to replace the humans only to follow their faults.

just something to think about, and it's always fun for me to have a chance to talk planet of the apes. and as i rarely get to with people face to face, i'll do so with my blog.

universal priorities.

maybe i should start putting "soap box" in the title of blogs that are nothing but a platform for me to fume or rant... maybe. we'll see.

anyway, this morning i didn't have a chance to grab breakfast before class, so i went to the student center to buy a banana and an orange juice. i grabbed a paper and sat down for a few minutes while i ate.'the voice of the brigham young university community' is the daily universe, the school paper. i understand that it is a student paper, and it's free, so you can't be too nitpicky. however, sometimes things can get out of hand.

north korea has been in the news a bit lately because it's had some rather aggressive statements concerning neighboring countries and its ability to launch missiles and so on and so forth. this has been going on for a few weeks. this post is not about north korea, though. this is about the daily universe, and the fact that, quoting a headline, "warships set sail ahead of north korean launch," made second page news while the cover featured "bike rules apply on byu campus," "motorcycles hold thrills and dangers," and "local owner build success." i don't mean to lower the importance of things happening on campus or in the community. but honestly, would it kill them to at least mention on the front page that a potentially hostile nation is apparently sending out preliminary warships? seriously. and it's not as if this is unusual--that's what gets me. to keep up with a general idea even of what's going on with the whole issue, you'd have to search in order to find the weekly half paragraph that's mentioned it for the last two weeks.

now to be fair, the front page also had one called "obama puts breaks on automakers" on the side. so they do make an effort to mention things of importance on the front. however, today's paper is more of the straw that broke the camel's back. other issues have been even more confusing in their priorities. a perfect example can be found here. while shootings (local and abroad) are interspersed throughout the paper, cupcakes have the front page priority. oh, excuse me, a cupcake craze coming to utah, i mean.

i suppose what it really comes down to is the reader. if the daily universe doesn't print what people want to read, people don't read it. but while i understand that some people do care about such a cupcake craze, i still can't grasp why it required a half-page photo and the title story of the entire issue. there was even an article on birthing techniques. we're at byu, surely many people would be more interested in that.

i spoke to a girl in my study group about this and she pointed out that she would buy a paper that "only printed stories about good things happening, because it would be refreshing." i can see value in this. i can also see how announcements and things in article form might be useful. however, it's supposed to be a newspaper. "news" being the keyword. while there is much news to print, surely some news has a bit more reason to be placed on the front cover. maybe i'm a cold-hearted grouch, but i'd rather hear about missile threats and national issues than cupcakes and the dangers of motorcycles. if nothing else, can we at least split the front page half and half?

anyway, that's my rant. my apologies if you really enjoyed the cupcake article, or wrote it, or decided it had the first page priority. it's nothing personal.
on the upside though, the daily universe does include that campus police beat, and that alone will keep me reading if nothing else.