I wasn't always fat...

...but I was always a big kid. Just like my son now, (who's new nickname is Moose) I was a big boy. I went through phases where I was huskier than most of my friends ( yes I wore clothes in the husky department), but I also grew out of it thanks to a want to go to West Point and just genes. I've always had a big behind and big thighs, but at one point in my life I was, dare I say it, skinny.
Here's where you come in. I'll be giving a prize to whomever can send me a picture of my skinny self - If you have one. I'll post them here on my blog as they come in and you guys can vote.

Thanks

p.s. I'll get back to that skinny guy sooner rather than later, just you watch.

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Sorry i've been away for so long

This time of year always gets me excited, now especially since I'm a grown up (allegedly). It's recruitment season for fraternity men and it's always interesting to see what new and exciting ways the fellas try and get people to become pledges. Over the next month or so I'll see it all - from root beer kegs to hooters to a myriad of other things. To all of my Brothers across the country - GOOD LUCK!

Also, I would like a chance to send a shout out to my good friend (heck, for all intents and purposes she's my big sister) Meg (she goes by Margaret now, but I have a note allowing me to call her Meg still) for 3 things.
1. She lost a bunch of weight and looks rockin'
2. She seems to have found happiness in the arms of her new man ( even though he doesn't talk much - maybe it was me)
3. She gave me an awesome book about love and marriage and life, and it truly changed my way of thinking.

For all of those things - thank you - You are the best!

Lastly, happy birthday to my little Brother, Reggie, who turned 25 on monday - keep striving to your dream, and when you get rich, you'll need a lackey and I'll be there

See ya around

Marc...

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my favorite foods/things - part 1

So one of my friends asked me yesterday what I loved to eat - i responded food - i love most everything, but here are some of my favorites, and why - let the debate begin

Pizza - first off let me say I love Chicago Style pizza - not stuffed, true deep dish pizza. My favorite used to be Pizzeria Uno/Due downtown, before they sold out and became a chain that puts out bad stuff. Now I'm all about Lou Malnati's - the perfect blend of meat and cheese and it's so damn good. If i want thin crust pizza, i'll go up to the north side and get Pat's or out to the far south side and get Vito and Nick's, party cut, please (no wedges , squares)

Italian Beef - for those of you reading this from outside of Chicago and have no idea what an Italian Beef sandwich is, it's like a Philly cheesesteak, but different; it's like a french dip, but better and it's so food that i'll drive all over hither and yon to get a good one. For me the best, without question, is at Al's on Taylor Street. Great spice in the meat and the gravy and the hot peppers are so tasty. Get it dipped with hot and an order of fries and you're in heaven. the only thing that could make it better is to geta combo (they add a piece of Italian Sausage in the middle

Italian Ice - while Maro's is the best and always will be, there are others that I like a lot as well. Tom and Wendee's, Carm's, Icebox in Lakeview, but nothing's like Mario's. the crowds speak for themselves.

more foods coming - please feel free to comment

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My social experiment

So, I'm going through a lot of stuff right now - the search for a new job, stresses at home; fighting a myriad of factors that are causing havoc in my life, and I wanted to stop and take stock of what's going on. I thought a good place would be to determine how the world sees me. Try and take an objective look at me through the eyes of my friends (and my enemies, and my frenimies) using the most viable social platform out there - Facebook.

I asked the question:

I would like you to tell me what about me made you decide to say, "I like him." It could be something funny; it could be something deep, or something in between. If you could do this for me, I'd be very grateful. (If the answer is nothing, or, I hate that SOB, well, that's fine, too as it will help me with my project)

and the responses I got were interesting - people talked about how genuine I was (and still try to be); people talked about how welcoming I am; my love and dedication for my fraternity; how good I strive to be for my friends, the fact that I'm easy to talk to and that I always have an ear for people.
Some people talked about my character and my concern for otehrs and I even got some people to talk about my politics and how I force others to look at both sides. Some talked bout the first time they met me and how I looked (my penchant for bow-ties, ect)

The best comment I got, though, was probably from the person who responded who knows me the least - I've only met him face to face 1 time for 2 days while he was interviewing me for a job. He said,

"There's a passionate and sincere tone in your voice when you talk about the things you love ... your family, fraternity, friends... I appreciate that you live your life with a servant's heart. You're a gentleman"

That quote alone really made me take stock in who I am, and who I had become lately. It's my hope moving forward that I live up to that quote, because if we all do, we'll live in a much better place. What it really made me do was become dedicated to getting off of my ass and really getting to work. If people see me as that person then I have to be that person and live up to the ideals that are there.

that's all for now - see ya soon

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Something that might help you this year

NOTE - if you don't care at all about fraternities, or think they are stupid, today's post isn't for you - we'll be back with something else for you in the next couple of days.

So, one of the blogs i read often is from my friends at Phired Up Productions. They ae in the fraternity and sorority recruitment business and generally great people. This is their blog from today and I thought that it really struck a cord with me about how our undergrads act sometimes and how we can help them get past being that awkward turtle
they are located at www.phiredup.com

Do youhave members who flail about socially like awkward turtles? Of course you do. You might even be one of them. One of the greatest gifts you can give one of these AT’s is the gift of social confidence and energy.

One of the reasons I’m so proud of what Phired Up does is because college students have limited opportunities in their formal education to learn good communication and sales skills. These are arguably the most vital skills to master if one wants to be successful in relationships, work, organizations, etc. after college — yet our institutions of higher education, in general, do a poor job of building positive communication habits in their students.

We can talk about recruitment strategies until we’re blue in the face, but if you’re an absolute social dud, if you’re awkward to the point of making others uncomfortable, if you can’t summon confidence and energy in yourself in social situations… well, we need you to improve yourself before we can improve your recruitment.

I recently did a powerful workshop with a group of fraternity men in which I demonstrated the power of bringing CONFIDENCE and ENERGY to a social situation. As we push the collegiate student organization world toward social excellence, a great place to start is by building their CONFIDENCE and ENERGY. What are you doing to build the CONFIDENCE and social ENERGY of your members?

Social Energy

I would argue that the energy you bring to a social situation is your own choice. After you read this post you’ll no doubt engage in some social situation… what energy will you bring to that. Will you be aloof, tired, bored, average, nice? Or will you be powerful, engaging, interested, fun, warm, inviting? It is your choice, I think…

The Myth of Cool

I learned long ago the power of taking off your “Cool Cap.” Cool Caps get in the way of social excellence. It has become commonly accepted that people who are good socially are the traditional “cool” people. I strongly argue that. I think socially excellent people are often not obviously”cool.” They don’t try to impress other people — other people are naturally impressed by how confident they are in themselves and the positive energy they bring with them to every social interaction. If you don’t think you’re cool, that’s o.k. It has nothing to do with being socially excellent. In fact, most “cool” people I know think they can lean on their coolness in social situations… they often miss out on experiencing social excellence.

Social Confidence

CONFIDENCE comes from practice. Plain and simple. To become confident socially, check out the lessons in these great non-Phired Up resources. Most of these are blog posts, and there are two big downloads that can be really helpful.

Share the lessons from these resources with your members — THEN PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!

The Positivity Blog: 8 Tips from the last 2500 years

The Positivity Blog: 5 Awesome and 5 Awful Conversation Topics

AskMen.com: How to Improve Your Social Skills

Penelope’s Trunk: Three Specific Ways to Improve Your Social Skills

Dale Carnegie: Communication Principles Free Download

The 7 Challenges Workbook: Free 100 Page Book Download

3 Steps to Making Socially Excellent Awkward Turtles

Here are three important stepsforyou to use to turn the Awkward Turtles in your organization into socially excellent members (who can recruit!):

STEP 1 - CHOOSE EXCELLENCE and ENERGY: The first step is to challenge your members on the choices they make in every social situation. What do they choose to be? Shy or Proud? Inward or Outward? Cool or Curious?Ask them todefine with a single word whatenergythey’d like to exude in that social situation. Ask themhow theywant the other people there to describe them after the social situation.

STEP 2 - PRACTICE IN REALITY: Many peopleget excited about the idea of role-playing social situations so that people can practicebeing sociallyexcellent.This is a fine way to start to build confidence, butnothing replaces reality as the ultimate testing ground. The truly best way to practice good social skills is to do it in real situations. Start by taking your awkward turtles somewhere that they’ll know nobody and nobody will know them. This offers a low-risk opportunity to experiment with new social techniques. Next, try it with some other organizations you’re friendly with and who might benefit from helping their awkward turtles as well. Finally, jump right into a real life social situation (or recruitment situation) and be there with your little turtles the whole time, correcting their behavior, encouraging them, and helping them build their confidence.

STEP 3 - KEEP IMPROVING: Social excellence is not mastered in the course of a day, a week or a year. Social excellence is a commitment to continual improvement and always pushing your own comfort zone. As an organization, make it one of your main accomplishments each year to push your members to higher levels of social excellence.

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My political bent

<b>My Political Views</b><br>I am a center-left social moderate<br>Left: 1.21, Libertarian: 0.37<br>http://www.gotoquiz.com/politics/political-spectrum-quiz.html">Political Spectrum Quiz</a><br>

It's right where I thought I would be - center left; socially/culturally liberal, financialy centrist and hawk on nat. security - Just where I like it

More tomorrow about my facebook social experiment

See ya soon - MASD

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