About the Author

Brian Marshall — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:24:34 +0000

I’ll post a complete bio at some point, but here’s a little bit about me.

Happily married, with one daughter. Sorry, ladies.
Coding is what I do, but not who I am.
Drummer in “Tin Shed”, a Seattle-based original rock band (tin-shed.com)
I’ve done lots of improvisational theatre, which combines my love of acting with my difficulty in memorizing pages of dialog.
I’ve been in a few sketch comedy groups, and had sketches on stage in Seattle and on NPR. Shout out to Bald Faced Lie!
Trying to figure out how to edit movies, and if Final Cut Pro X is really as heinous as the reviews indicate.
Currently employed by Microsoft, though I’m writing this on a Mac.

So, expect to see random articles about family life, software, music, movie making, and the occasional comedy piece. I’ll let you know when that differentiates me from 90% of the other blogs out there… Or maybe you should let me know?

Are you Being Your Bestest

Brian Marshall — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:06:15 +0000

So, what does it mean to “Be Your Bestest?” That’s the topic I’ll explore in this blog.

Frankly, the main meaning of BYB (hereby the official acronym for “Be Your Bestest”) is that I can’t take seriously most of the books and sites that purport to give you the secret of life in 200 pages or less. “Learn how to be a better you by Friday.” “Wealth and Happiness through meditation and an all-cheese diet.” “Who moved my cheese?”

Okay, let’s get one thing straight right off the bat. I moved your cheese. I was hungry, and I saw your cheese. It was getting hard, and would probably go moldy if I didn’t eat it. So I did you a favor. I took your cheese, and I grilled it between two pieces of sourdough. It was delicious, especially when I dipped it in ketchup. That smell of crisp, tangy cheddar mixed with a hint of warm bread is the last you’ll ever see of your cheese. Get over it.

You can’t be the best your can be at everything, because the time you spend mastering one thing will always be time you could have spent mastering another. And you can’t give all your energy to everything you do, or you won’t have the energy to do the other things you want to do.

So “Being Your Bestest” is about doing the best you can, right now, with whatever energy you can afford. I don’t think we should ask more of ourselves, or of anyone else. It’s about trying, making mistakes, learning and laughing. And if any of us gets better in the process, that’s cool too. I’ll be doing my bestest to write whatever I want to in this blog, and hopefully you’ll find it entertaining, and at times even useful. And, if not, I still got to enjoy your cheese.