mark without starting region

[Shaddin Doghmi]

i use marks for two different purposes at different times: starting a 
region, as well as pushing a position on the stack so i can come back to 
it later. When starting a region, i like having transient mark mode on 
so i can see the region highlighted. However, this becomes an annoyance 
when im using the mark for simply remembering a position. Of course one 
way to do it to map the transient-mark-mode toggle to a key, and just 
toggle that on and off.... however, what i would really want is two 
different functions: one sets a mark and starts a region, the other just 
sets a mark... is there any such thing? i tried writing two elisp 
functions to do it, but i know practically no elisp so its no wonder 
they didnt work(complains about number of arguments to set-mark-command):

(defun just-mark ()
     (interactive)
     (transient-mark-mode 0)
     (set-mark-command)
)


(defun mark-and-highlight ()
     (interactive)
     (transient-mark-mode 1)
     (set-mark-command)
)

any tips?