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Mark O'Brien Writer, Blogger

I'm the founder and principal of O'Brien Communications Group (obriencg.com) and the co-founder and President of EinSource (einsource.com). I'm a lifelong writer. My wife, Anne, and I have two married sons and four grandchildren. I'm having the time of my life.

Books Authored By Mark O'Brien

By Mark Nelson O'Brien

Recent Content

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Ready To Go &Raquo; Notes To Self By Mark Obrien
Ready to Go

If you’ve read my book, Random Thoughts: A Writer’s Notebook, you know I was employed as a hospital orderly in Meriden, Connecticut, from mid-1972 to mid-1974. I worked the first shift, which was …

If you’ve read my …

If you’ve read my book, Random Thoughts: A Writer’s Notebook, you know I was employed as a hospital orderly in Meriden, Connecticut, from mid-1972 to mid-1974. I worked the first shift, which was 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. My duties consisted of lifting and transporting patients, taking bodies to the morgue, occasionally assisting with autopsies on those bodies, helping funeral directors remove those bodies and others from the morgue, and providing aid to nurses (all of whom were female in those dark, oppressively paternalistic, binary days) with manual tasks for which they didn’t have the s…

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On The Level &Raquo; Notes To Self By Mark Obrien
On the Level

It’s a little-known fact that if the number of steps in your house — including the ones leading into the house — isn’t even, the house won’t be level. When I learned that, it freaked me out …

It’s a little-know…

It’s a little-known fact that if the number of steps in your house — including the ones leading into the house — isn’t even, the house won’t be level. When I learned that, it freaked me out to the point that I decided to count all the steps in and around our home. I counted the steps:Down to the basement From the basement out through the bulkhead Into the sunroom from the patio Up to the deck off our bedroom Up to the entrance to the breezeway between the garage and the house Down from the breezeway to the garage Up from the breezeway to my office Up to the front door.The total w…

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It Smells Like God &Raquo; Notes To Self By Mark Obrien
It Smells Like God

Over the weekend, Anne and I went to Ballek’s Garden Center to buy a plant for the inside of the house and a planter for the outside. Anne goes there much more frequently than I do. And every time I…

Over the weekend, An…

Over the weekend, Anne and I went to Ballek’s Garden Center to buy a plant for the inside of the house and a planter for the outside. Anne goes there much more frequently than I do. And every time I go, I wonder why I don’t go more often. As you drive up the winding gravel trail toward the barn and the store, the pasture to the left is full of cows peacefully grazing, barely interested in the cars that come and go all day. At the top of the trail, there are a few parking spaces to the left, directly in front of the store. But most people park to the right of the trail, at the edge of the f…

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The Days Of The Week &Raquo; Notes To Self By Mark Obrien
The Days of the Week

The story you’re about to read is true. The names haven’t been changed to protect the innocent because everyone in the story is innocent, some more than others. The telling of this story is inspir…

The story you’re a…

The story you’re about to read is true. The names haven’t been changed to protect the innocent because everyone in the story is innocent, some more than others. The telling of this story is inspired by my friend, Charlotte Wittenkamp, by whom I was moved to tell the first part of it in a LinkedIn thread she started. She’s innocent, too. Many years ago, I was returning from a Sunday afternoon outing with some friends in their station wagon. (Remember station wagons?) Frank drove. Janine sat beside him. I occupied the back seat. And, Sarah, their three-year-old daughter, played in the way…

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The Waterloo Diaries: The Bedsore Conspiracy &Raquo; Notes To Self By Mark Obrien
The Waterloo Diaries: The Bedsore Conspiracy

Author’s Note: Since I published my graphic novel, The Waterloo Diaries: The Bedsore Conspiracy, the book has received reviews from several people, including Dennis Pitocco, Victor Acquista, Sigmund…

Author’s Note: Sin…

Author’s Note: Since I published my graphic novel, The Waterloo Diaries: The Bedsore Conspiracy, the book has received reviews from several people, including Dennis Pitocco, Victor Acquista, Sigmund Freud, William Faukner, Brené Brown, Eckhardt Tolle, a sanitation worker named Moe Zambeek, Professor Herman J. Fleabeard in Piously Pedantic Prattle, the noted book critic, Wilbur Freemish, and Spud Needleman, a reporter for The Magnolia State Bugle. But I didn’t think any of those reviews was as dissociatively objective as I would have liked. So, I asked Dennis Pitocco if he’d have the boo…

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A Farewell To Arms &Raquo; Notes To Self By Mark Obrien
A Farewell to Arms

There’s been much speculation about Ernest Hemingway’s novel, A Farewell to Arms, which was published by Scribner in 1929. On the surface, it appears to be the story of the American, Frederic Henr…

There’s been much …

There’s been much speculation about Ernest Hemingway’s novel, A Farewell to Arms, which was published by Scribner in 1929. On the surface, it appears to be the story of the American, Frederic Henry, who’s serving as a lieutenant in the ambulance corps of the Italian army in WWI. But psychosexual scholars find a deeper meaning, tying it to Hemingway’s four marriages. During the time he was writing the first books of A Farewell to Arms (there are five, with chapters in each), he was married to Hadley Richardson. They were married in 1921 and divorced in 1927. Hemingway had been attracted…

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An Ode To Billie Jean &Raquo; Notes To Self By Mark Obrien
An Ode to Billie Jean

Unless you came here from another planet, you’ve likely heard Michael Jackson’s song, “Billie Jean”, at some point in your life. Come to think of it, at least one person who came here from ano…

Unless you came here…

Unless you came here from another planet, you’ve likely heard Michael Jackson’s song, “Billie Jean”, at some point in your life. Come to think of it, at least one person who came here from another planet did hear the song. Superman had it played at his wedding to Lois Lane. And he did the moonwalk — on the actual moon! But I don’t want to get off track (no pun intended). During the recording sessions for Thriller, Michael Jackson (MJ) approached Quincy Jones (QJ), the producer, with an idea: MJ: I want to write a song called, “Jelly Bean.” QJ: Come again. MJ: Yeah. I want to wr…

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Imatter &Raquo; Notes To Self By Mark Obrien
iMatter

It seems as if more and more people are in need of validation and positive reinforcement as of late. I don’t know if this is a reaction to our being in the last year of the first quarter of the 21st…

It seems as if more …

It seems as if more and more people are in need of validation and positive reinforcement as of late. I don’t know if this is a reaction to our being in the last year of the first quarter of the 21st century. I’m not sure if there’s something in the water that’s causing levels of insecurity to rise. Or maybe it’s just that we’ve come so far so fast — and given the cyclical nature of everything — we’re in a natural period of regression in which we’re less sure of ourselves than we’ve been in the past when we were distracted by less important things like being productive, ea…

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Like Floating On Air(Wheels) &Raquo; Notes To Self By Mark Obrien
Like Floating on Air(wheels)

I love reading spam emails for the same reason I love watching bad movies. They always make me wonder: Who wrote them? Did they actually make sense to whomever wrote them? Did the people who wrote the…

I love reading spam …

I love reading spam emails for the same reason I love watching bad movies. They always make me wonder: Who wrote them? Did they actually make sense to whomever wrote them? Did the people who wrote them have any questions about them? Who released them? Did they actually make sense to the people who released them? Did the people who released them have any questions about them? Case in point: An email recently got through my spam filter. It was promoting the Airwheel, a combination carry-on suitcase, and suitcase, and powered scooter. As I was reading it and scratching my head, it occurred to me …

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Black, No Sugar: Part Two &Raquo; Notes To Self By Mark Obrien
Black, No Sugar: Part Two

If you read Part One of this series, you recall my having learned Melitta Coffee filters were invented by a German woman, Melitta Bentz. Since then, Anne has been to the store to buy more coffee Melit…

If you read Part One…

If you read Part One of this series, you recall my having learned Melitta Coffee filters were invented by a German woman, Melitta Bentz. Since then, Anne has been to the store to buy more coffee Melitta coffee filters. And now I’ve learned they come in two colors — white and brown. Since I was curious as to why, I did some research. This is what I discovered. White filters are subjected to a bleaching process. Generally speaking, the bleaching agents used can be chlorine or oxygen. Melitta uses oxygen because it’s allegedly better for the environment than chlorine, even though chlorine c…

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Cut Me To The Bone &Raquo; Notes To Self By Mark Obrien
Cut Me to the Bone

I don’t know why, but ever since the Holidays, I’ve been spammed with ads for Coolina knives. They show up on my phone. They show up on my computer and my iPad. They even started showing up in my …

I don’t know why, …

I don’t know why, but ever since the Holidays, I’ve been spammed with ads for Coolina knives. They show up on my phone. They show up on my computer and my iPad. They even started showing up in my dreams, which is the only place I can prepare food without cutting my fingers off. And while I admit it’s a tangent, here’s a true story. When my first wife, Marianne, was pregnant with my first son, Sean, we’d invited my Aunt Maryellen to dinner one evening. Marianne didn’t cook. So, that gave me the opportunity to have two ideas:I thought it would be a good idea to serve turnips. I tho…

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Expectations Vs. Intentions: Part Two &Raquo; Notes To Self By Mark Obrien
Expectations vs. Intentions: Part Two

In the first part of what I didn’t know at the time would become a series, I cited a conversation on the Friendship Bench, led by everyone’s friend, Phil “Don’t Call Me Hank” Williams, in wh…

In the first part of…

In the first part of what I didn’t know at the time would become a series, I cited a conversation on the Friendship Bench, led by everyone’s friend, Phil “Don’t Call Me Hank” Williams, in which he asked a provocative question:What are your expectations for going into a relationship and how will you approach it intentionally?In a more recent conversation on the Bench, we were led by Nick Heap, a delightful gentleman and an estimable thinker. He, too, posed a provocative, figurative question:What would you do to rule if you were appointed king of some land?I call the question f…

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