Blog of Josh Hall

What should I do with all these old jackets from my high school sports days?  I was not a record setting athlete by any means, but I have jackets from soccer, basketball, and then even some jackets from little league baseball.  They’re really nice quality jackets, but they have my name embroidered into the chest and the name of the high school or community on the back.  Some people would freak at donating them because of the personal information leak.  What do you think?

Own your failures.

People think “oh, I shouldn’t tell people I suck at this, because then they’ll know”  but chances are, they already know.  If you own it, not only will it help you grow, but it will rebuild your trust with anyone who already knew the truth.  In fact, I think it’s perfectly fine to ask people [periodically, without regularity] how you’re doing so you can have an accurate picture of your shortfalls.  Just don’t be that self-degrading person who makes a scene of their own failures, k?

I’m sorry, Dad.

There’s going to be a lot of things I should apologize to my dad for.  this will be the first one, that I’ve at least fully realized anyway.  Growing up, he had guitars that would just sit in cases and he’d never play them.  Once I got out on my own, I bought guitars and hung them on my walls and I played them all.  I recorded music.  I thought music was such a part of me that I could never walk away from it.  I will always want to play my guitar.  I couldn’t believe my dad didn’t play guitar regularly.  He wasn’t your typical “oh, yeah, I can play campfire songs” guitarist.  He knew music theory.  He just never did anything with it, and that is where I judged him.

Because right now, I haven’t touched my guitars at all, because I’d rather put my hands around my daughter than some dead piece of wood.  I’m not sure that’s why my dad didn’t play, I’m just saying that in my arrogance, I thought I was different.  I thought I would be different.  Quite frankly, I’m glad I’m not different, because I’d miss this little girl grow up.

My 30×30 list has some music related things on it that will not be done.  I’m alright with that, because my heart strings are being played by someone else right now.  Maybe she’ll want to play, or better yet, maybe she’ll be left handed and learn to play my guitars for me.  That’d be swell.

Stop apologizing.

The more you apologize, the cheaper your apologies get.  The world is plagued with what seems to be a responsibility to apologize when someone 1) doesn’t agree 2) is offended or 3) just doesn’t like what you said.  That last one is the linchpin and probably what is causing the disease.  It has become the social norm to just apologize and then every one can move on.  The problem there is, a lot of people don’t deserve an apology.  We’ve digressed to a society that thinks they’re owed an apology and we’re now at the point where we can’t progress because we’re too worried about what other people think.

The fact is, apologies are just words and words are stupid.  If you think you should be apologized to, why don’t you care enough to actually get something of value?

Some related reading:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/22/opinion/please-stop-apologizing.html

Welcome to the scotoma of LEGO creations.  Jeff Sanders is doing what everyone should have realized years ago. LEGO bricks have a little give to them, which means, when enough of them are connected in a straight line, you can bend that line.  His work has been featured with Nathan Sawaya’s touring displays.  Great stuff from an adult fan of LEGO.

http://www.brickbending.com/

You can’t control others.

You can influence.  You can lead by example.  You can threaten.  You can scare.  You can encourage.  You can explain your point of view.  You can layout the logic and consequences of actions.  You can suck it up and walk away when they still don’t do what you say because they don’t have to.  Plan accordingly.