Music and Lyrics

Dear Reader, Image Credit: Western University The other day I was doing some math because apparently that is something people in my family do for fun. The numbers of the day had to do with the amount of time it takes to become good at something, the time it takes to become a master. You may have heard once or twice that after practicing a given task or skill for 10,000 hours, you become a master at it. This idea comes from Malcolm Gladwell in his book, "The Outliers." This sent me on a rampage of calculations. I'll summarize them as best I can below. In a year, there are 8,760 hours. This means it is impossible to become a master of something in less than a year. It would take at least a year and almost 2 months to become a master in something. However, that is assuming you practice deliberately and effectively 24/7 for that time period on whatever it is you are trying to master. Let's factor in basic needs, though. Out of 8,760 hours in a year, a person sho...

Dear Reader, Deck the halls with lots of students! Fa la la la la, la la la...way too many students. Here is your fun fact for the day: the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University becomes one of the busiest places in Utah during December. Students at the University are studying for finals, meeting up with their groups for the final projects and getting those last minute tips from their tutors. They are all in the library. Today I could not find a spot to sit! There is no need to fear, faithful reader. The floor can be a great place to write, as long as there is a wifi connection that provides communication with you. I realized that this Blog was visited for the 8000th time this week. What a great Christmas present! Thanks to my mom for the 7999 visits! Thank you, dear reader, for the 8000th. I figured that between this milestone and the Christmas season, today is a good day to share my view on Christmas and the reason for the season. So go ahead students, take a break fr...

Dear Reader, After talking with a friend of mine, I suddenly remembered some statistic I heard years ago that friendships lasting 7 years or more will be friendships for life. After researching and trying to find where the statistic came from, it seems that I slightly misinterpreted the idea. Of the articles about the subject, the Huffington Post  says that friendships have a high rate of decay which occurs around 7 years of friendship and Live Science  cites the same research that talks about a person's circle of friends being replaced every 7 years. These ideas seem slightly pessimistic to me, so I want to tell you that being friends for 7 years or more is really a blessing, rather than dwelling on how friendships don't last. Another article that popped up during the search for this 7-year statistic was an article about nurturing the friendships that already exist. The friendships that I have had for a long time are so great because we have seen each other grow and eve...

Dear Reader,  I work online at one of my part-time jobs. Sometimes it is required of me to look up a person's credentials or accomplishments to better fill out a description of their time on the radio. This means I do Google searches quite frequently to find their websites, their social media profiles, etc. By no means am I a guru on the world wide web, but I have been around the internet a few times. Why does any of this matter to you, reader? It matters because I have found a few things that are essential to being safe online. As much as anyone hates to admit, the persona built on the web greatly affects the actual person outside of technology. It matters because we need to review the tips on how to remain safe online regularly.  Here is a quick example of how important it is to monitor what you put online. If you put "Dale Lundstrom" into a Google search, there are 743 results as of today. A good number of those have nothing to do with me, it's true. Howe...

Dear Reader, The time has come again to look back on last year and look ahead to this next year: 2015! Yes, this is the year that Marty McFly comes to the future from his home in 1985, but that doesn't come for a few months (October 21st, to be exact). If you have no idea who Marty McFly is, go watch " Back to the Future ." In honor of the new year, I wanted to share a quick summary of what I hope to accomplish this year. Every year, I implement something I learned from my seminary teacher years ago. He showed us a scripture in the book of Luke about Jesus Christ's life: " And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." (Luke 2:52) It is interesting to note that this scripture is basically the only knowledge we have of Christ's life between the ages of 12 and 30, when he begins his ministry on the earth. My seminary teacher took this scripture and uses it to plan out new year resolutions. He makes a goal for of th...

Dear Reader, 3.141592...These are the numbers that begin pi. Here is one of the most random things you will ever learn about Dale. I love numbers. The title for today's post actually comes from a song when I heard when I was in third grade. You may be able to find a recording of it somewhere online, but it would be a arduous search, because the song I heard was sung by a guy who came to our elementary school to teach us about math during an assembly. The song used the numbers to create a melody based on the corresponding intervals. For example, in a C Major scale, pi would correlate as follows: 3=E . 1=C 4=F 1=C 5=G 9=D 2=D Anyway, that is just a small sample of weird things that numbers do in my head. The real purpose of today's post is to record one of my favorite conversations with my Dad. He and I began to argue one day about the numbers 2 and 3 . We quickly decided that 3 is by far the more significant number. We decided that because there are many occurrences of t...