Here's to you ... Mr. Office Bathroom Toothbrush Guy

Welcome back from Turkey Day break bloggers. I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving filled with plenty of food and booze. This isn't my weekly post, but I just needed a venting outlet for a minute. 

My question is: have the number of people who brush their teeth during the day in the office bathroom increased drastically or what? It's not like it's always right after lunch either, it's all day. Like 8:30am? Didn't you just brush your teeth at home? 


Maybe it's our new office or maybe there are new people on my floor, but I'm thinking one guy saw another guy brushing his teeth and decided, hey I can brush my teeth at work too! I really don't understand it. It can't be a bad breath issue, there is gum for that. It can't be a hygiene issue, because I consider myself as hygienic as the next guy and have never had a cavity (knock on wood). Someone explain this to me!


My thought - go buy some Trident and brush your teeth in the comfort of your home.


That's it, see ya later in the week for my blog about the current cleanse Natalie and I are embarking on. We're at Day 3, I'll hit you up on Day 5!


Peace,
Marshy

A Tradition Unlike Any Other ... Thanksgiving

Every year during the first full week of April, we hear the famous words of Jim Nantz echo from our flat screens or laptops as the camera soars through the majestic treeline of Augusta National ... "A tradition unlike any other ... the Masters". 


These words have become synonymous with the most well known golf tournament of the year and can be heard at times and places where the sport may not even be applicable. Whether you are an avid golfer or don't know the difference between a driver and a putter, but know the name of Tiger's 3rd mistress, there is a chance you have heard them while your boyfriend, husband, or father tears up during a montage of fist pumps and 50-foot putts sinking on the unmistakable greens of Augusta. This week, we set out to participate in traditions of our own, with family or friends, new or old, and I think we all can agree that gearing up for Thanksgiving and everything that surrounds Thursday is a feeling ... unlike any other.


Turkey Day is basically all of my favorite things wrapped up into one: football and action, hanging out with people I love, and green bean casserole. Oh, and of course, leftovers. The only thing that may be missing is chicken parm, but I think I do OK taking care of that craving every other day of the year. What constitutes a good Thanksgiving in your mind? 


The way the turkey is cooked? 
The sides, because who really cares about the turkey anyway? 
How much you won on the Lions game? 
The limited amount of travel you had to endure? 
The level of your hangover from Wednesday night in the Old Port? 
The late night turkey sandy?
Or is it just who is around you and having the chance to relax for a few days without the stress of school or work? 


I think the easy answer is all of the above, but we don't live in a perfect world, so if every year for the rest of my life I can sit down at a table, and then on a couch, with people I love then I'm good. Although I wouldn't hate if that leftover turkey sandy remained a staple ... 


As Nat said in her blog last week, life happens. Sometimes we have to adjust, maybe even on a yearly basis, to make sure we still make an effort to fit in as many of the good things about this week as we can. Tradition. Family. Food. I don't think we need to worry about football, or Vegas odds, going anywhere. 

In the past few years, whether Greg, Julie and I were up in Maine together or Mom and I headed across the street to the Belangers, we have been pretty consistent about cooking and football in sweats, drinking Peju (see winery pic right), and sitting down for a meal that usually lasts about 30 minutes. Perfection. This is often followed by more Peju, an amazing food coma nap, and then early evening leftovers and apple pie. Ahhhh.


This year, I am only adding to that perfection and could not really ask for anything more, with a new Marsh (Lex and bear below) and a Natalie in the mix. 

In two days, all of these favorite Marshy things are coming together in one place, at one time (well two places at two times, but by one place at one time, I was simply referring to Thanksgiving as a whole ... ya know?). Mom's heading this way, we are combining family forces with the Pateys on Thursday, followed by Lexi and leftovers at Greg and Julie's. Life is happening and moving forward in a way that keeps me excited about what is next - from holiday traditions to snow storms to vacations. This Thanksgiving I am hoping is only the start to a new tradition ... unlike any other ... for years to come. 

I'll leave with you this:

"Turkey for the girls andTurkey for the boysMy favorite kind of pantAre corduroysGobble gobble goo andGobble gobble gickelI wish that turkeyOnly cost a nickel
Oh I love turkey on Thanksgiving."

Happy Thanksgiving y'all.
Marshy

Personas of Social Media

It's Monday. Everyone must have done something exciting, sad, embarrassing, or fun this weekend. So, it's time to share that with your "network", right?

Let's take a step back. What is the first website you launch when you get to work in the morning? If you don't sit at a desk all day or it's Saturday, what do you open first when you wake up? I am not one to judge, but I think the majority of my network will answer Facebook. For me, it's not #1, but it's undoubtedly within the first minute. 

1. Work email
2. Work IM
3. Gmail
4. Fantasy everything
5. ESPN
6. Facebook
7. Twitter
8. Google+
9. Barstool 

In that order. Every single day. Then I'm ready to go. I don't know everything, but I'm pretty sure Facebook sneaks towards the top on that list for 90% of my network (maybe ahead of work email) and I'm curious as to what else is on your list.

Social media surrounds us and has revolutionalized the world in the past 5-7 years. The impact it has on our lives, our relationships, and our families is insane. Don't get me wrong, I love it more than the next guy, but my question today is: do you have a method to your social media madness, aka posting, commenting, uploading? Do you only comment here, post pictures here, and share certain information here? If so, where is that? 

What I have done in this post is lay the framework for a few different social media personas and I want to hear your thoughts on where you fall. 

Here is my quick list (to be updated/tweaked as necessary):

1) Tweeter. A Tweeter could vary in their social media age, status, and existence. They could also be a professional athlete, movie star, or senior level marketing type promoting a product. Nevertheless, the Twitter platform of 140 characters or less is their #1 source of social media for both news and posting. This person may not care to share absolutely everything personal to them with their network and may have minimal interest in what their high school sweetheart or 8th cousin did Friday night. They have the information they want and know what's going on in the world first. Another classic Tweeter sees the main objective of social media being to drive revenue for their company or self promote themselves to gain mind share. Tweeter wants to put out and receive information that is influential to their life quickly and simply without the BS of comments, likes, and Zynga games. 

2) Bookie. The Bookie is someone who loves and may even be addicted to all things Facebook. This guy posts any and everything on FB. They check in on FB. They refresh FB on their smartphone every time they turn it on. They send/receive FB messages. They are FB chatting (do people do that?). The plethora of Facebook is them. You know this person, you love this person. Bookie is not going anywhere and is social and fun with lots of friends and pictures and knows basically everything about you and me because when you post a picture, they see it within minutes, and are looking through the rest of our pics and showing their Bookie friend seated next to them. The Bookie wants you to know what he is doing and he really cares about what you are doing (either sincerely or superficially). Love it or hate it, we've all been a Bookie at one point and have some Bookie in us.

3) Trendy (think this needs a new name?). Trendy only uses the newest, hippest (I said hip) social media trend. She was the first one on Facebook, loves Pete Cashmere and Mashable.com, Tweeted before Ochocinqo, experimented with Buzz and Google+, but didn't stick with it because it's not gaining the hype, and is usually posting things about or in relation to social media trends. Trendy has a blog and thinks maybe she can be the next Zuckerberg after watching The Social Network 20+ times. Her posts are usually not about breaking up with her boyfriend or getting drunk at the tailgate, but she is visible and likes to be seen.

4) Moody. Moody spreads themselves evenly among the various social media choices depending on what kind of mood and situation they are in. They post on Facebook because it's the fun outlet and everyone else does. They tweet because it may or may not take over the world some day. They check in on Foursquare because it's more selective than Facebook with a chance at a free bowling game or appetizer. They upload to Google+ because it's more clean and not ruined by all things Facebook. Moody enjoys social media, but also some sort of privacy. Moody is all about the sharing and receiving information, but does not have loyalty to one site or another.

5) Finn. Finn does not do, care, or even think about social media. Occasionally, Finn checks it on his girlfriend's computer or phone, but in the end, lives life and is happy without anyone knowing about it or knowing what you did last summer. Finn is the guy who didn't save high school yearbooks, has about 20 actual photographs of themselves, and does not know the name or occupation of more than 10 people they went to college with. This title may even be in reference to someone I know, but there is 0% chance he will get mad at me because the thought of a Finn reading a blog is impossible. 

Pretty safe to say that I am a Moody and I'm happy being just that. As a matter of fact, the top of my Chrome screen right now is Gmail, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, MFL (Marsh Fantasy League), and Blogger ... in that order. So far today, I have tweeted, spent time stalking on Facebook but not posting, checked in on Foursquare, uploaded a picture to Google+ of Nat and my seats at the Bruins last Thursday (see right), and here I am blogging. To be honest, I have no rhyme or reason to why I didn't check in on FB, or why I posted this pic to Google+ and not Facebook, it just felt right. I found it hard to argue that I'm anything else but a Moody and actually believe most people may be right with me. 

As a second matter of fact, I'm going to go post this blog link on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ right now.

Where do you stand?? What about LinkedIn? Is that a social network? Do you connect with friends on LinkedIn or just use it for networking?

I embrace the argument that you could fall into multiple categories above, but like with all things in life, you need to make a decision ... and tell me why. Actually, feel free to comment with just your list of order of websites opened every day, because I think that will be very interesting.

As always, arguments/additions to my personas is more than welcome. Actually, I am not calling these final because I want to make them better ... this is my quick first draft. Also, not sold on the persona names.

Have a great week, kids.

Marshy

Faith, Fortune, and Foxwoods

The 1997 Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings had a saying posted in the home locker room of Joe Louis Arena that read: "Faith is to believe what you do not yet see; the reward for this faith is to see what you believe". The beauty of this motto is its versatility. You can take it in any way, shape, or form, and apply it to basically any aspect of your life. In the case of the Wings, they had faith in their strategy, believed in each other, and were rewarded with the Cup. In my case, since I let go of the dream to win a Cup by age 16, this saying has popped into my mind numerous times in the past decade. And this past weekend, a bunch.

Saturday morning, I made my first ever attempt (albeit only a few minutes) of Tai Chi. Ever done it? I stood there, on a Yoga mat, body relaxed, arms hanging to the side, incense burning, arms lifting in the air, and I began building my chi. I highly recommend it. You basically form an invisible ball with a force that generates between the palms of your hands and this in essence is your chi. Don says the greater your chi, the happier your partner. That's the ultimate goal, right? Apparently, for beginners, your chi/ball is anywhere between the size of a golf ball and a softball. As your chi grows, your ball grows. As I stood there, in the last year of my twenties, I was thinking about all the things I wanted to do (see blog post 1) and people I wanted to make happy, and could legit feel this ball being formed between my hands. It was pretty unreal. I believed in the process, am in a good place with an overall good state of mind, and was rewarded (or so I was told) with extremely good chi for a beginner and a pretty big ball ... NBD, fist bump. Faith.

So, that started my Saturday. Later in the day, went out for Greek food - love me some spinach pie. Have you ever had your fortune read through Greek coffee beans? Again, do it. As a matter of fact, wake up early next Saturday, do some Tai Chi, go eat Greek, and have a Greek woman tell you what's going on in your life. You can thank me later. The woman who read Nat's fortune was the owner's wife and made a disclaimer that she wasn't very good ... Ha! This was not your average witch on the side of the road in Old Orchard beach asking for $25 and looking to pull you into a dark room behind a curtain. This was for real and a friend, so we went for it. Let's just say she down played her abilities and the reading knocked us on our asses... in a good way. Believe.

The next day Nat brought me to Foxwoods for a final bday surprise. Reward. Ever been to the Big House on Sunday night/Monday morning? Little different scene. Unlike trips with the Moose Man or the Burkes where I may find myself at a poker or roulette table for hours on end, we did a whole lot of exploring, drinking at various bars, and hit up High Rollers - Foxwoods' luxury bowling alley. Golden walls surrounded multiple lanes separated by potted plants and chandeliers which Nat described as "bowling in a Pottery Barn". We felt as though we owed it to our bowling team, Alley Ooops!, to play a couple of frames as we missed out on week 1's win before calling it a night. We'll be ready for week 2.

Faith. Believe. Reward.

Clear eyes. Full hearts. Can't lose.

Marshy

Welcome to Marshy's Blog

What up kids? 


It's about that time ... no, not to bring forth the rhythm and the rhyme, but for you to begin hearing what goes on in my head. If you have no desire to hear what that is, it's ok, go read your Facebooks and Barstools, but you'll be sorry. I'm about to let you inside and drop some serious knowledge, wisdom, and life lessons on your ass.


What exactly is on my mind? Well, glad you asked. The first item up for a bid (come on down) a week after my 29th birthday, and a few days after my girlfriend's birthday (http://nataliepatey.blogspot.com wink plug wink), is an idea her friend (can't wait to meet you, Emily Dorsey!) presented to us about creating a "30 before 30" list. If you have never heard of it before "30 before 30" is 30 things I would like to do before I turn the age of 30 - which will happen on October 28, 2012. Pretty self explanatory, right?


Makes sense for an initial blog post too, right? Seeing that I have less than 360 days left to complete these things, and my Mom (what up Mom) said "you guys have some work to do", I should probably finalize my list and get a move on.


Here it is. Take a read, let me know what you think, and don't worry, I will keep you posted as I begin knocking these babies out of the park a la Big Papi circa 1997.



1) Jump into the Pond (don't worry about it)
2) Have zero credit card debt
3) Manage 5+ people (work related)
4) Take a helicopter ride (or magic carpet, whatever presents itself first)
5) Launch a blog (whoa, can I check this one off?!)
6) Write three more articles (here's the first: http://www.nesn.com/2011/02/perspective-from-the-pond-the-world-pond-hockey-championships-in-new-brunswick-canada.html) or two chapters of a novel
7) Read 8 books
8) Hike a specific trail
9) Travel overseas (Italy, Greece, India to start)
10) Spend an overnight with Lexi (my beautiful niece); Nat - please help
11) Volunteer my time somewhere, to something important
12) Go to a Broadway play (pipe down, I am still man)
13) Learn how to de-stress (drinking Ketel or Jack does not count)
14) Invest in something long-term
15) Get to a solid 185lbs (so you can see how jacked and tan I am)
16) Run a 10k
17) Do 100 pushups straight (see 15)
18) Learn 3 songs on the guitar (Chap - please help)
19) Go to the Wellfleet Oysterfest 2012 and obviously, Land Ho
20) Begin and finish multiple TV series (see Nat's blog)
21) Have 5 bottles of "good" wine in my wine cellar (which is a $20 wine rack from Target at the moment)
22) See Zac Brown Band live 
23) Go to Disney World (what up Melissa!)
24) Pop a bottle of fine champagne on the beach (toes in the water, ass in the sand style)
25) Camp out (obviously with s'more stuff, sans chocolate ... we'll get to that later)
26) Go through a toll and pay for the car behind me
27) Swim with fish
28) A W2 that says a certain amount of $ at the top
29) Establish a solid foundation (/bank account) for a good life
30) Ah the big one ... don't you wish you knew? 



So, that's it. Wish me luck and check back for the progress of the best year of my life. 


Subscribe. Comment. Tell your friends. I am hoping to provide you with an update a week minimum for the rest of my life ... ok, well for a little while. You will get to know me and the most important people in my life (just sparked an idea for blog post #2), so buckle up kids, we gonna have ourselves a time (Tim Burke shout out!)


Thanks for stopping by, San Diego ... or Boston ... or wherever.


I'm Marshy