captain ahab.

over break, i had the pleasure of not shaving for a length of time. when i did shave, i had the pleasure of leaving a set of chops. more particularly, "whaler's chops," "1800's banker chops," "amish chops," or "leprechaun chops" depending on which term you fancy using.

it was a pleasure.

in order to remember the good times before i began school once more and had to shave them off, i decided while in the parking lot of big lots to get a photo or two of me with them. the shot i share with you now is the combination of an afternoon sun, quickshot autofocus, and a car to the side of me squeeling; all at the perfect moment to make this photo look like an abercrombie ad. it doesn't really even show the chops because of the extreme lighting, but oh well. it's for me to remember the good times, and that it does effectively.

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.

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.

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.

chris kirkpatrick.

this is going to be a short post. and as such, i thought i'd name it after the shortest member of nsync, chris kirkpatrick.


yes, i know the photo isn't really all that fair, but he really is the shortest. ask any real fan and they'll tell you the same.

anyway, short post. i'm attempting to start up a new blog. it's basically themed around notebook art, as in the kind you draw during class, on the phone, at work, or anywhere else where you're really not supposed to be. this is just sort of an invitation to submit some if you wouldn't mind sharing it. you can submit your work or questions to therealreasonfornotebooks@gmail.com. when i get the blog up and running (which is contingent on how much i recieve, if any) i'll post a link to it, of course.

so please do submit. we'll see if this can get anywhere. and we're not picky. if you drew a flaming scorpion in microsoft paint when you should have been studying, submit it.

thanks. i hope to recieve some from the lot of you.

joey fatone.

well, as many of you may be aware from my last post and facebook photo album, this last weekend i was able to spend the weekend in san diego. twas a wonderful time. and i spent much of it thinking about how i could possibly work

into the post. mission accomplished.

and onto the recap.

rather than bother to post all of the photos on my blog, you can find the facebook album here. only a few select highlights will make it on the post in the interest of time.

to introduce, i'll give you a short timeline.

*4:30 (mountain west). thursday, october 1.
picked up by parents, niece, and three nephews in provo. we begin the drive.

(travel through utah, arizona, nevada, and california enjoying the view. most of the time)

*18:30 (pacific)
arrive at coronado island. waste time on the beach. enjoy life.


*10:00 (p) friday, october 2.
go to sea world. enjoy it very much as i have when i've attended it in the past.

*15:00 (p)
play the idea of being a marine biologist and dying my hair red so i can grow a moustache and be just like the guy who hosted the preshow for shamu. also sit front row for the show. very neat.


*18:00
come back to hotel and enjoy more beach tomfoolery.


*9:00 (p) saturday, october 3.
the day devoted to the beach. gave my best effort in getting a huge sunburn on my back and had moderate success. enjoyed drinking seawater and playing in the waves as i always do.

*12:00 (p)
ate at anthony's which was simply delightful. very much enjoyed it. best fish i've had since england.

*13:30 (p)
purchased a pair of vans half-cabs with a member of kiss on the sides of each shoe. ten dollars new at a tent sale on base. thanked my lucky stars.

*15:00 (p)
more fun on the beach.


*10:00 (p) sunday, october 4.
more beach time, but less "action" and more "loitering" type activities. scavenged for shells and made a good haul. also sat around in the sand acting like i was about to get up. enjoyed most of the day doing such. a delightful final day.


*4:00 (p) monday, october 5.
leave the hotel and order hash browns from mcdonalds. we're on the way home.

*6:00 (mw)
stop at burger kind for breakfast, but it's closed until seven. the time zones have changed and what was 6:55 a few minutes prior became 6:15 across the state line.

(read, make bracelets, watch dvds with kids)

*18:00 (mw)
return to provo. get dropped off by parents, niece, and three nephews. grab my junk, throw it in apartment, and go to the apartment complex office to sort out rent.

*19:10 (mw)
go on campus and update facebook and write this post.



boom.


twas a wonderful time. i enjoyed it very much and thank my parents for letting me tag along. and if you missed it the first time, and really wanted wanted to see the photos i was too lazy to post here, here's the link. and yes, i know i said i'd post a few particular ones here and didn't. i'm sorry, i really need to get going.

i <3 chicken.

so, i try to keep my posts interesting, even if (in my mind) that means having to give some text to some otherwise only mildly interesting pictures. such is the case today. i'll be sharing an introduction to the photos, and then a story that many of you have probably heard before already, and then stop writing so i can begin thinking about all the things i need to put in the second part of my washington dc report, which i never actually did like i promised.

last night autumn, brad and i found ourselves in my apartment. and none of us had eaten yet, none of us wanted to go to get something to eat, and so brad had the idea to make a broccoli and chicken casserole. we agreed this would be the best course of action and began assembling ingredients.

being a chicken casserole, it of course was a good time to put some of the chicken breasts that autumn had purchased while ago to use. long story short, i wound up being the one to cut up the chicken, and during my chopping, the still-frozen core of her chicken made what was going to be delicious adorable!

in case you can't tell due to the quality of my camera-phone photo, that's a chicken breast that's formed a darling little heart. sorry if the color of the chicken blends with the color of my fleshy palms. i should have taken one with it on the carpet maybe.

it was very cute. i was a bit saddened as i had to go on to cut up this charming heart rather than being able to put it in a scrapbook, but as i hadn't paid for it, it wasn't really my choice. i chopped it into 2"ish sized pieces and threw it to the frying pan in preparation for its being in the casserole. still, it taught me something. love is everywhere. you just need to pull apart the right layers to see it. and possibly have part of it still frozen to hold the pieces together.

brad also studied a bit.

and now on to the story. it may come off as a bit crass, so my apologies if you've rather sensitive. i hesitate to share it just a bit, but you can guess by the subject matter what the punchline has to do with this post.

so. it was valentines day on my mission in england. i had the two elders i was working with, and as i was going to go home soon (and as no one wanted to talk to us on this oh so romantic evening) i offered to buy the fellows dinner. we went to the local kebab shop. the owner was a friendly turkish man who was clearly a bit surprised to have three guys in dress suits coming into his shop on valentines night. we spoke a bit, and then ordered. i'll just give you the straight dialogue between him and the three of us.

"what would you like, boys?"

"um, i'd like a doner kebab, please."

"alright. and you?"

"same for me with a coke."

"and you?"

"um... can i get a chicken kebab?"

"of course! good choice. chicken is a good valentine. very big breasts."

and we all laughed. like i said, a bit crass, but it was so hilarious and vaguely related to this post as a whole that i thought i'd share it. hopefully you're not offended.

lessons learned in the nations captiol.

hello everybody. you may have noticed that the blog's been a bit barren as of late.

mark williams certainly did (and my thanks for his devoted reading--what a wonderful cheerleader he is).

anyway, this is because for the last bit of time i've been visiting my father who's working in washington dc for a few months. the trip was very enjoyable, and i decided to share some of the adventures i had and the lessons i learned. but not in that order.

i'll first give lessons learned since they all have associated experiences, and then the experiences that didn't really have a morals to their stories, just novelty. and since there's a lot, they'll be split into two parts. this is part one.

welcome to washington dc!
(part one)
political hotspot and tourist attraction to boot!

to preface, i spent about a week here altogether. i went to most of the standard tourist sites including the government buildings, smithsonians, and other hotspots. the humidity was higher than i prefer, but bearable, and the only camera i bothered with was my cell phone. with these things in mind, i now present my lessons learned in washington dc (and the travels surrounding it).

lesson one.
even if you are on a special tour, you still might not be as clever as you think.
the national archives contains several documents of immense importance. these include the magna carta, declaration of Independence, bill of rights, and of course the constitution of the usa. the line demands you wait for at least an hour, and when you get in there you still probably have to wait to see the actual documents.
well, we were in front of a large student group. each document is in a protective case in a big rotunda with gold emblazoned titles above each item etched into the stone walls. as one of the school girls approached the constitution and practically licked the glass in front of it, she looked to the security guard and asked, "hey. what is that?"

classic.

lesson two.
short shorts are like scissors.
when scissors are used safely and wisely cutting thread or curling ribbons, they are useful indeed. however, attempting to juggle or run with scissors carries serious potential injuries. a similar phenomenon is seen with short shorts. while some people can use them wisely and enjoy good ventilation and please many of those around them, not all use them wisely.
here in utah, short shorts are not so common for both environmental and cultural reasons. with both of the reasons absent, dc has a much larger amount. both wisely and unwisely used.
i won't get into detail here, but suffice it to say that short shorts abused will result in gauged eyes, just like scissors. the difference is usually just whether or not it's intentional.

lesson three.
if you match, you're happier.
and i don't mean with yourself. i mean with others. somewhere between protesters, school groups, families and couples all matching their peers, i started to feel a little left out.

i think this couple is one of the most charming examples. look closely, though the picture, granted, is grainy.
whether this couple was going for practicality, high fashion, comfort or raw sex appeal, it worked on all accounts. these z-coil shoes make their mark.
several schools also were excellent examples though i'm lacking a photo. my personal favorite uniform pieces were shoulder strap refelective belts, bright red womens visors (note: worn by elementary school children, not women), and id necklaces introducing each member of the tour and the company sponsoring it. and of course, there is always having every student wear a certain kind of shirt. however, this was to a degree unnessecary because if able to choose their own shirts, they typically wore the same rhine stone encrusted t-shirts of president obama with "hope", "change", or "gobama!" written in bold lettering.


lesson four
celebrities look like secret agent.
for those who don't believe me, i don't care.
at the smithsonian museum of air and space, they have a planetarium. i attended one show there. as i waited in line, right before the doors opened, a man with a beard, big sunglasses, and a black fadora hopped in at the end of the line. the ticket man laughed, shook his hand, and let him pass after he gave him his ticket. the suspicous man looked familiar.
after the show, i saw him again in the gift store downstairs. further feeling as if i'd seen him before, i looked at him from the side while he waited in line to purchase his 'jr. spaceman' outfit. it was none other than october sky heartthrob, jake gyllenhaal. he purchased his outfit and left the store. i was going to attempt to get a photo, but decided that i wouldn't as i couldn't do so without looking like a complete jerk. however, upon contacting an expert on all things gyllenhaal (lindsay harding), i confirmed that he indeed had a beard and was working in the dc area.

boom. celebrities look suspicous. at least when they're at museums. they don't want anyone to know they're being so nerdy, i guess.


lesson five.
neither i, nor jimmy seely, are as fat as a whale.


lesson six
everyone wants to sing
somewhere between a street vendor, guards, school kids, people on the metro, people behind food counters, me, and some of the exhibits of washington singing a tune, it was proven to me that everyone wants to sing. if you don't sing, you're just holding yourself back. if you think you don't want to sing, you think wrong.


lesson seven
you're probably the weirdo
no matter where you go or what you're doing, if there's a lot of people, you're going to think that some of them are weirdos, and some people are going to think that you're a weirdo. it's just the nature of things.

for every person i saw that i was inclined to stare at for any reason, i almost always saw them staring at someone, or someone else staring at them, or someone else staring at me, or the weird person staring at me. what does this all show? yes, they're a weirdo, and you're probably somebody else's weirdo. it's a big cycle (see diagram).
this can be applied on many levels, but i'm sticking to the simplest and just keeping it there. so next time you're inclined to stare at the gentlemen in the combat boots and khaki shorts (a personal favorite), just remember that someone else probably thinks your plaid shorts and high tops are just as bizarre.




there are more, and maybe one day i'll record them. for now, i think i've written enough though. thanks for reading. hopefully more soon. more soon at least about other adventures (without lessons) from dc. hope you learned something.

and i hope williams is satisfied.

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.

facebook fiasco. (an apology and explanation)

well, this was a little embarrassing...

i'm assuming most of you are completely familiar with facebook (as you probably found this blog via facebook), but in case you are not... click here.

anyway, when i first arrived home from my mission, upon much encouragement, i obtained a facebook account and it lived a happy two month life. after two months, however, some problems arose. it seems in my facebook infancy i was a bit naive (much as i had been when i used myspace) and just added whoever requested me as a friend and accepted any old application invite sent. this lead to problems as between the (at times, racy) crew i had assimilated and the applications i had carelessly added took a toll on my poor account and it was malfunctioning in bizarre ways and was getting bizarre messages and wall posts to boot. rather than attempt to purify, as it was already falling apart, i simply deleted it and started a new account. (be my friend on my real account here, if you so desire)

well, i did so and all was well. i re-assimilated all my old friends and none of the same worthless applications or weirdos from before. all was well.

here's where things got confusing for some of you (and for me as well, as will be explained). it turns out that facebook never actually deletes your account. instead, it will render it as inactive, but retain all your friends, photos, conversation history, so on and so forth. i remember that i had quite a few photos on my old account, and being uncertain if i had them on my computer, i decided to hop back on a year later and reclaim the photos, which it let me do without problem. in order to prevent confusion and people wondering why they have two trace lund's with on their friends list, i did what i could to make it so the profile was essentially invisible. i deleted any friends i recognized or had conversations with and put all my account settings to private so that i could only see everything. people i didn't even remember i didn't bother deleting since i had already been deleting things for twenty minutes. i got lazy. besides, not like anyone that i didn't know would even notice if i randomly appeared again for two days on their friends list.

well, all was well and good, or so i thought, until i was hit with a rather entertaining (if not disturbing) message from a friend. he had (i'm guessing) been tagged in one of the aforementioned photos and noticed that they belonged to me, with a different name. he attempted to add me as a friend and said this:

hey man. is this your new drag queen name account or what? = P.

i didn't exactly grasp what in the world he was talking about, but it did make it clear that my "bullet-proofing" my account didn't work.

i wrote him this response from my real account:

hey bro. sorry about the confusion. remember last year when i got a new facebook account? maybe not... anyway. that's my old account. i just realized i still had loads of photos up on it and i'm trying to get all of them off and on to the computer. hahahahahaha, and thanks for your assumption that i have a drag queen name. did you like it? hahahahaha.

so all i know now is that apparently people can see i have two accounts up, it is causing at least some confusion, and for some reason my friend mentioned drag queens. needless to say, he wasn't the only one that was confused.

to do what i could in the mean time, i removed the photo of me in hopes of making it clear that it was not my actual account.

the message was sent this morning. autumn offered some insight when she mentioned that she had found the account somehow (which confused me because i thought the thing was invisible to everybody else) and mentioned that the people i had on my friends list were all pretty weird.

now things started coming together. i didn't bother looking (i just deleted the account again... i'll check if i have the photos elsewhere), but apparently the people i didn't bother deleting were all a bit... colorful. colorful enough that when i mentioned the whole thing to autumn, she said, "i wasn't sure... they might have been drag queens, i guess."

for the record, i don't remember every adding any as friends. however, i added anyone who sent a friend request and i don't even know any of these people... so let's just let it go.

and now it is done. so, don't worry about it folks. if you see anything by "traxy land", no, it is not my drag queen name, it's simply the name i changed the account to so people would know it wasn't my real account.

sorry for the confusion, and please never bring this up again. thanks!