Blog of Josh Hall

#84 – Life is defined by maintenance.

All you do in life is try to maintain it.  You eat for energy to do it again.  you sleep to do it again.  You work to pay for it again.  You do more or something new to make you happy…again.  Life becomes a huge cycle of maintenance.  Therefore:

#85 – The secret to life is to avoid or mitigate maintenance.

Set your bills to be paid automatically.  Eat well.  Learn to control your dreams so you’re not just sleeping.  Spend less so you need to work less.  Find out what makes you happy and keep on doing it.  Stop your mind from worrying about what you need to maintain in your house, but start accepting what doesn’t need to be maintained.

Kallie and I found a nice groupon getaway to the Lowes Annapolis Hotel.  We stayed a Saturday and Sunday night.  During the first night, there was an event held in the main atrium of the hotel.  I could imagine the noise from that event carried into the 6 floors of rooms that surrounded the atrium.  Our room was off a separate hallway though, so it was pretty quiet.  The room was great and Kallie seemed to enjoy that she got a nice robe with the room.

Breakfast was included with our deal, and it was fabulous both days.  Our waiter, Eric, had a thick accent, but he was extremely pleasant and fun.  Our vouchers were good for $40, but when our bill only came to ~$32, we were willing to just walk with that.  He suggested that he put on 2 bottles of Fiji water ($4 a piece) and have us just take it.  We appreciated the thoughtfulness and took his suggestion.  They also had a wonderful juice bar menu which included orange, pineapple, cranberry, strawberry, banana, and a bunch of other juices that you could ask them to mix together.  It was a great treat.

As for location, it may seem a little off the path from the main street and bay of Annapolis, but it was a nice flat ~1 mile walk.  The weather was great, and the walk was perfect to capture all the old buildings and history of Annapolis.  I pulled down an app which guided us around the major tourist sites of the town and provided some great historic background.

We weren’t in crab season, so we skipped that and just ate the Middleton Tavern.  The dining area is a little cramped, but the food and beer selection were pretty good.  They do have their own amber ale, which I do not recommend.  It was more of a light pilsner.  We also grabbed dessert at Reynolds tavern, which is a very historic and interesting building.  It was around 8pm or so on Sunday, so the place seemed a little empty, but as we left we noticed that there were people in each of the rooms of the building, as if they purposely gave each party their own private rooms since they could afford the space.  We really appreciated the feeling of having the place to ourselves.

Elevator rides are not social catalysts and therefor should not be used as social opportunities.

There are social norms to follow and you should make sure you’re prepared.

These are from “The Definitive book of body language” by Allan and Barbara Pease:

1. There will be no talking to anyone, including a person you know.
2. Avoid eye contact with others at all times.
3. Maintain a “poker face” — no emotion is permitted to be shown.
4. If you have a book or newspaper, pretend to be deeply engrossed in it.
5. In bigger crowds, no body movement is allowed.
6. You must watch the floor numbers change at all times.

I had a dream I was walking around at night in the park, where I grew up, and behind the swingset, there was this 3-4 story brick building.  It looked like an old tavern or inn, but it was beautifully maintained with a nice porch and white shutters on the windows.  It had a for sale sign in front of it.  Across the front door in big gold plate letters “Washington Train Museum” was written.  I walked in and everything was very clean, but obviously it was closed.  The front lobby had a gift shop area.  The upstairs was a restaurant.  As I walked up the wooden staircase to the third floor, it overlooked the dining area of the restaurant.  In the third floor, there were a few rooms, like offices perhaps.  One of them had a light on inside, behind a sheet that covered the door way.  I walked in, and there was a man standing in there.  He was an artist of some sort, definitely a hint of mystery about him.  He was in his 30s, black hair, thin black beard and mustache, and dressed like you’d expect someone from the early 1900s to dress with a tightly fit vest and sleeves rolled up.  He seemed welcoming and asked if I was interested in buying the building.  I told him that I didn’t remember the building being there when I was a kid, so I knew that it was not a permanent building.  I was so very impressed with potential of the place though, so I asked him how I could be sure people would be able to get to it if I did buy it and try to reopen it to the public.  He seemed entertained that I had figured out the building was a sort of “traveling” building.  Then I came up with the idea that I’d have to market it as a place where you could visit in your dreams.  Only such a lovely place could be rationalized as existing in a dream world.

We shook hands.  I woke up.

The English language is stupid.

It’s ludicrous.  Rules, then exceptions to those rules.  Logic, then words that defy that logic.  We’ve have this stupid language for centuries, and we just continue with the madness.  There is no end in sight.  Sometimes, I wonder if the AOLers and shorthand IMers are pure evil or truly revolutionary geniuses.

Related:  Gallagher’s bit on words (skip to 4:30 if you’re short on time and filled on humor)

“I hold it be a proof of great prudence for men to abstain from threats and insulting words towards anyone, for neither…diminishes the strength of the enemy; but the one makes him more cautious and the other increases his hatred of you and makes him more persevering in his efforts to injure you.”

– Niccolo Machiavelli