David C. Morris

  • It’s been a million years since I’ve posted to this site. I’ve been writing over at Substack. I’ve been responding to people’s questions about what my writing workflow is. I’ve been recommending that Substack support Markdown and come up with something like Mars Edit because I like it so much.

  • The girls were so happy to see me after spending a couple of days at the kennel.

    This is probably my fav pic I’ve taken of them in a long time.

  • An owl flew in to say hello during our walk through the forest yesterday.

  • What's in the Box?

    I don’t know why this popped into my head today, but when I was a kid, I loved it when my parents got a new appliance or piece of furniture that came in a huge box.

    Back then, you did the install yourself and they usually did not haul away the old appliance. Unfortunately, ours usually ended up on the side of the house or the backyard.

    Anyway, back to the box. It was magical. So many possibilities. Position it vertically and it was a rocket or space ship headed for Mars or a skyscraper or a teepee. Lay it horizontally, it became a castle or fort to defend against an unknown foreign invader.,

    I’d go into my mother’s kitchen and steal her knives to cut holes int he box - for the build out. I always needed two: 1) One with a sharp pointy tip to start the hole; and 2) Her bread knife with the serrated edge that worked great on cutting cardboard. Another must have was pens, sharpies (although I don’t know if these existed when I was a kid) and markers to outline/accent doors, windows, and to draw symbols on.

    We played with it for hours and days if the box held up. Unless the foreign invaders siege was successful by throwing rocks at it (I still have a scar on my head from one such siege). But the big destroyer of the large cardboard box was either mom or dad (throwing it away when were were asleep) or the rain.

    I recently replaced my clothes dryer. The delivery service unwrapped the new dryer, installed it, and hauled the old one away. No box. Made me a little sad as I remembered something from my youth and also glad that I didn’t have to breakdown the box and stuff it in my recycle bin over the next two or three trash days.

  • No More Mr. Nice Guy!

    I think I may have figured out something from my past. Growing up, there was a lot of fighting in my house from ages 7 to 10. My mom and dad fought a lot before their divorce. My mom and my older sister fought a lot too. And then there was my grandmother and aunt who fought a lot because of my Aunt’s alcoholism. I remember I would leave the house whenever there was fighting to get away from it. I’d get on my bike and I’d just ride away and stay out for hours to escape the fighting. I never understood all the drama. The screaming and the yelling.

    No that I am older, I still don’t like the drama. I don’t understand it. When I get mad, I get over it pretty quickly. I am trying to break a bad habit of when I get stressed or overwhelmed, I will escape my current situation getting in my car and going to a store. I just walk around the store going to familiar parts of the store to shop around, it gives me comfort. It might not be the same thing, but it seems to be a plausible pattern. It may also be why I score as being ‘too nice’ or ‘conflict avoidant’ on personality tests.

    Another couple of unrelated things that might effect me is that I never felt that my bio dad approved of me or thought I was smart enough for him. I have always felt the need to learn more and work harder to prove him wrong is some sense. This is just a little part, mainly work hard and learn stuff because I enjoy it. It might have less to do with that and more to do with wanting other people to like me. Maybe white I often feel uncomfortable in group settings and feel like I’m from the outside looking into the party/people having fun. Rather than being a part of it.

    These are just little things. I don’t think they effect me too much, just a couple of thoughts that were on my mind recently.

  • Turning 50 and Giving Back

    Time moves fast the older you get. It seemed like it took forever to grow up and then bam, you’re turning 50 this year. Obvious questions come up like, have I lead a purposeful life? Am I where I want to be? Am I doing the things I want to do? Am I surrounded by people who love me?

    The answer is yes to most of these questions. However, as I get older, I feel like I should be giving something back to others, to my community, to my family. I’ve lived a pretty selfish life. Not selfish in the sense that I don’t attend to the needs of others that depend on me, both at home and at work. But selfishness in the broadest sense - How can I put my own interests aside and help with things within my community?

    I don’t know where to start. I’m not a club or group person. Never have been. I’m not a team sport guy, always preferred individual sports. Why? I never felt or wanted the need to be part of a larger group. I have a small group of friends and that has always been enough for me.

    I make my living by running a learning & development team at my company. Most days, I’m helping my team prioritize work, clear obstacles, following up on assignments, and outlining new programs. I rarely do live instructor-led training anymore. When I do, it is usually purely operational. Showing people how to perform simple tasks using a new system or changes to an existing one. Nothing exiting.

    I’ve had an idea for a while that I’d teach a class at work differently than most corporate training programs. Instead of 60 minutes, 90 minutes, half-day workshop, I’ve always thought it might be interesting to pick a subject and go deep. Run it like a college class where we meet 1X or 2X a week for a quarter or semester length in time. Purchase a text book and go through it. Long form learning is what I like to call it.

    What subject would I teach? One that I am very interested in mastering is Interpersonal Skills. This is a wide subject area but involves active listening, self-regulation, managing relationship, resolving conflict, negotiation, persuasion, the list goes on as it is a pretty big subject area.

    I might give this some more thought. I’ve been working from home since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. This would give me a chance to go back into the office and get in front of people again. Maybe a small group of 10 people who want to improve their skills.

  • 🍿The Long Dumb Road (2018)

    Watched this movie late last night. Shoulder pain keeping me awake. I have a soft spot for Road Trip movies and thought I’d give this one a try. I wasn’t sure if I could put up with Jason Mantzoukas for an entire movie, not because I don’t like him, but he is just so much.

    This movie had potential and it almost turned out to be a good movie. All that I thought was missing was a little more back story in the main characters and better running time management. By that I mean, the movie goes on and on and then abruptly ends.

    I like how they took the mundane situations in everyday life and included them in the story. The best example is when Jason visits his high school sweetheart in New Mexico and the Art School kid hangs out with her daughter in her room. This is something that would have totally happened when I was growing up. The scene didn’t have to have anything more to it to make it great.

    Jason’s character almost turns out to be a human being in the end with his line, “You’re in a stolen car and you just assaulted someone.” A good dose of reality but too little too late.

  • 🖊 Sharpie Roller 0.5 Pen

    I may have finally found a Sharpie pen that I can use on a daily basis. I was a Target today looking for new highlighters and I came across this pen.

    I’ve always been a fan of Sharpie going back to my days working in warehouses. It was my go to pen and I remember asking someone for a marker, and they said, “Do you mean a Sharpie?” I didn’t know at the time that Sharpie reached the level of Kleenex.

    Over the years, I’ve tried out several Sharpie pens for daily use. While I’ve liked them, the tips were never sturdy enough for me. I tend to press down very hard when I write.

    Currently, my favorite daily pen is the Paper Mate Ink Joy gel 0.7 pen. Yes, there are better pens out there, but these are easy to pick up at Target, feel good in the hand, has a clip so I can slip it into the top of my Leuchtturm 1917 journal band and overall, it has a good weight to it.

    I will try it out over the next week to see if I still like it. The tip seems sturdy enough. I tend to like a larger diameter point for daily writing, but the ink flow seems fast enough.

    My only criticism so far is that is that it is tapered after the cap comes off. For me, I like the pen to be the same diameter all they way through. One of the reasons why I like the Paper Mate mentioned above so much. I tend to grip too hard and my hand gets tired on skinnier pens.

  • 🎶 Without You by Motley Crue (1990)

    I was driving home today and this song came on Sirius XM. The ballad, while not as good as Home Sweet Home from 1985 has a special place in my heart because it was on the Dr. Feelgood album. This was the first CD that I bought when I was 16 at Wherehouse Video in the Riverside Plaza in Riverside, CA.

    Cheesy lyrics talking about sailors, plants, climbing mountains. The song is really all over the place.

    My son asked me a few months back why there were so many power ballads back in the 1980s. He said he doesn’t get them. They’re heavy metal bands right? My only reply was yeah, but they also wanted to get their songs played on the radio.

  • 🍿 This Is Where I Leave You (2014)

    We picked this movie last night to watch. Halfway through it, I realized I had already seen it and had completely forgotten about it. I wondered how I could forget a movie with such an all star cast: Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Adam Driver, Rose Byrne, Dax Shepard, etc.

    For me, the story just didn’t develop. Kind of like how Jason’s character ‘doesn’t do complicated’ neither did the story. Lastly, I didn’t think they cast Jane Fonda’s character right. She was funny and crass, but didn’t demonstrate a shred of motherliness in my opinion.

    I bet the book is much better and I’ve been looking for a good fiction book to read so I’ll have to add it to my wish list.

  • 🍿 I Want You Back - 2022

    I will watch anything with Charlie Day in it but what got me to click on it was that it had Jenny Slate. I recently watched My Blind Brother (2016) and I really liked her in that movie.

    Pretty lame premise for this movie - Two couples break up, Charlie and Jenny work in the same building, meet up in the stairwell, become friends, then conspire to break up their old flame’s new romances. However, I thought there was good chemistry between Charlie and Jenny and both were funny and likable.

    I enjoyed the supporting cast too. This was the first movie I watched with Scott Eastwood. He’s funny. And I was excited to see Manny Jacinto, I really liked him on The Good Place. Finally, I couldn’t place Gina Rodriguez until I just looked her up and saw she’s Jane from Jane the Virgin.

  • 🍿 Celeste and Jesse Forever

    I was browsing through Apple TV+ last night waiting for my son to come home from a Halloween Party (he dressed as Stuart from Letterkenny).

    I found this movie from watching trailers from other movies and getting “you might like this” recommendations. I was excited because I really like both these actors.

    The best word to describe this moving is ‘safe’. I was surprised to see that the movie was made in 2012 because it felt like man of the newer watered down, and safe movies.

    Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg were great. They had good chemistry. The supporting cast was great. They had potential to add a lot to the movie. And I loved the camera work. The move contained a lot of intimate two-person scenes.

    The storyline just didn’t take any chances. Why did they break up? I get it, people grow apart and want different things, expect different things from their partners. They touched on all the right topics, but didn’t go into the depth that was needed to make it feel like the two characters really went through anything real. No real growth, just cute.

  • Generational Differences in Car Interests and Customization

    My son is learning to drive. He’s doing well, but doesn’t seem too interested in the whole concept of driving, having a car, etc.

    In an effort to spark some interest, I ask him what types of cars he likes and I share stories about the cars I drove and dreamed about when I was just starting out.

    After a couple of weeks, I’ve made an observation. It my be my age (48) but I seem to see a lot less customization being done to cars in my area (Inland Southern CA) than in the past.

    I know it is still out there in certain pockets. But when I first started driving in the late 80s, it seemed like most everyone was lowering their cars (terrible idea), buying custom wheels, and adding decals or stickers, anything to stand out.

    It got me thinking that one reason I might not see as much customization being done to cars is that they’ve gotten a lot better since the late 80s.

    The stock wheels on most cars look pretty decent, and for an extra $1000 or so at time of purchase, you can get pretty sweet looking wheels from the factory.

    As far a lowering goes (kids, listen to me - don’t ever lower your car, just trust me on this and save yourself years of headache and $1,000s on tires), stock cars have a much more aggressive line to them today.

    I know there are other factors that my play into this, maybe this generation isn’t as materialistic as mine, or that overall their interests lie more in the digital rather than the analog realm.

    It just bugged me the other day when I asked my son what type of car the girl he’s been seeing at work drives (she’s brought him home a couple of times) and he shrugged his shoulders and said, “I don’t know, but it is pretty nice.”

  • 🎵👻 Billie Eilish - When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?

    Album Cover and Record

    In the spirit of Halloween, I picked up her album. I recognized a couple of songs from the radio. Appreciate the nod to The Office, a little Michael on Side 2. Digging the creamsicle color of the album too. And the bass? I didn’t know my Elac Bookshelf speakers had that much bass in them (I play mostly heavy metal on my turntable).

  • 👻 Halloween Trivia Prize

    Bottle of wine and goblet

    I am hosting a Halloween Trivia contest this week at work. This is the first place prize.

  • 💡On Demand Trash and Bathroom Cleaning Service

    Two things turn me off when I visit a restaurant: 1) Dirty bathrooms and, 2) Full Trashcans.

    Regarding bathrooms, when you walk into them, they should appear clean, smell clean, be stocked (soap in dispensers, paper towels, toilet paper) and everything should work properly (sinks dispense water, toilets flush.

    Regarding restaurants, nothing is less attractive than walking up to throw your food away and the trashcans are completely full.

    I was sitting in a Habit yesterday (BTW - they had clean bathrooms and their trashcans were empty) and I watched Food delivery drivers come in to pick up online orders and it got me thinking the same could be done with bathroom and trash services.

    I’m not suggesting Food Delivery drivers do this, that would be gross. Instead, a business could contract with a 3rd party to make sure the bathrooms are clean and trash is emptied.

    Contracts could be set-up depending on the volume of traffic they receive and they could have an on-call service where they text or even hit a button like the one’s Amazon has to reorder products and a person would be there to address the issue.

    Just an idea. I may be getting old, but I’ve noticed dirtier bathrooms and full trashcans more and more lately.

  • 📚Little Free Libraries in my neigborhood

    IMG 0777

    I came across one of these while driving around looking at Halloween decorations. I’ve seen them before, but just not in residential neighborhoods. Last year, I had to cut down one of my queen palm trees because it died. It was right next to the sidewalk. I’m going to save up and install one in place of where the tree once stood. So far, I’ve found three other houses with them. I’d be the only one of my street. I love the idea.

  • 👻 Halloween Decorations Around Me

    IMG 0770

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    Halloween is my favorite holiday. This year, I started taking pictures of all the houses by me with cool decorations. I’ve been posting them to Twitter, but I thought I’d share some of the better ones here.

  • 🎵 Discography feature in Spotify

    I recently discovered this feature in Spotify. It lists all the albums the band has released by year. Once a week, usually on Fridays, I pick a band I like or one I don’t know much about, and I listen to one of their albums in full.

    I recently listened to Rush’s first and second album this way. I like the experience of working through an entire album instead of just listening to my favorite or most played tracks. Feels like a slower and more satisfying way to consume music.

  • Switched back to Roam Research from Obsidian

    I forgot to cancel my recurring annual subscription to Roam Research last month. I got the notification, but I did not look at my email in time. So, I was charged $154.00 for the annual fee.

    I had not used Roam Research much since switching to Obsidian back in January. However, because I just renewed it again, I sat down and tried to think how I could use both? My solution? I am switching everything back from Obsidian to Roam Research (for now).

    Here are a few reasons why? First, I love the automatic outlining feature in Roam. Yes, I turned on the nested outline in Obsidian, but I really like that bullets are automatic in Roam and the vertical bullet outlines are helpful for longer note taking sessions. Second, I find the Daily Notes much more intuitive and usable in Roam compared to Obsidian. I just put everything in the Daily Notes, everything. I found myself creating and having to navigate to different pages I created using backlinks in Obsidian. Maybe I didn’t understand how to best use backlinks in Obsidian, but they seem easier to reference with Roam. Lastly, I really missed all the / forward slash shortcuts with Roam. My favorites are /current time, /wordcount, and /pomodoro.

    A couple of things I will miss with Obsidian. First, the price. It is free, but I did pay some money, can’t remember how much to support the developers. Second, I like that each backlink is turned into it’s own markdown file and it is saved to my secured location instead of the web.

    I don’t plan to get rid of Obsidian, I may use it for some more limited purpose that I have not quite figured out yet. But for now, Roam Research is back and I am really enjoying it once again.

  • 🍿 Weekend at Bernie's

    On Friday or Saturday, my wife and I watch a late 1980s and early 1990s movie with our 16-year-old son. These were the years we were both in high school. This week, we watched Weekend at Bernie’s. My wife loves this movie, and I remember only seeing it once soon after it was released to video.

    There are three things I like about the movie and three things that I don’t. I like Bernie. Even dead, he steals the show. The second character I like is the guy who kills him. Such a great act. Lastly, even though she played a small part, I loved the woman cheating on her mafia boss husband with Bernie.

    I did not like Jonathan Silverman’s character, Richard. I have never got the no-confidence, awkward, hopeless romantic male lead in movies. Also, I did not think Andrew McCarthy was believable as the delinquent man child. He seems like too nice of a guy for that. There didn’t seem to be too much chemistry between the two of them. Lastly, I like campy movies, but this one felt a little creepy at times.

  • Can I buy toner at Sportsman's Warehouse?

    I live in Murrieta, CA. Our local Staples store next to Best Buy closed about four months ago. I thought a gym was going in it’s place, but to my surprise it is now a Sportsman’s Warehouse.

    I’ve never been inside one. Not sure how successful it will be. Most of the stuff inside the store you can get at other places around here. Personally, I don’t like big box retail stores. I wish we’d go back to smaller specialty stores. But that is just me.

  • Dollar Shave Club is better than Harry's

    I am an avid podcast listener going back to almost the beginning. Pre Covid-19, my daily M - F commute has been 90 minutes each way for most of my 20+ career. So when I heard about Harry’s Razors (I think from the Revolutions podcast), I wanted to support the show, so I used their code to purchase the monthly subscription service.

    I liked Harry’s backstory, and I wanted their product. I never felt the razors were better than Gillette, but I did like getting new razors in the mail each month, along with shaving cream. The convenience factor outweighed my slight displeasure with Harry’s razor blades. I always felt I didn’t get a close shave with them, hair gets caught up in between the razors more, and they seemed to lose their sharpness prematurely.

    A few months ago, I purchased a razor and blades from Dollar Shave Club at Target. I don’t like the name, and I don’t care for the handle. Harry’s come in cool colors and feels more sturdy in hand. But after switching to Dollar Shave Club, I believe I get a better shave with them compared to Harry’s. It’s too bad because I really wanted to stick with Harry’s.

  • Roam Research Renewal

    I mentioned in a previous post my disappointment with the state of personal email and that I don’t check it for weeks at time. Well, I missed the renewal notification for Roam Research. I knew it was coming up (I just paused and set-up a reminder in ToDoist for June 1, 2022.) So I got hit with the auto-renew of ~$150.

    Last night, I decided to login for the first time since the beginning of 2021 when I switched over to Obsidian to manage all my work-related note taking. There are things I do miss in using Roam Research. Probably my two favorite features that are the outlining feature (Obsidian does this too, but it’s not ass good) and the ‘/’ (forward slash) features that auto pop-up.

    Since I am paid up for another year, I’m trying to figure out how I might be able to use it and fit it into my life. I am going to stick with Obsidian for work. I like the security of having .md files saved to my computer instead of out in the cloud as well as I get a .md file for each Topic I create.

    Right now I’m thinking of using it for my personal writing and research. I like the ‘unstructured’ nature of Roam Research for this purpose. When I’m thinking of something, I can just pop it into my Daily Note and go back and add wiki links after the fact.

    I will see. Obsidian is free (or super cheap to through the developers some money). I still think Roam Research is too expensive for what I am using it for. But who knows, maybe once I give it a try, I’ll think differently.

  • 🍿 Conjuring 3 - The Devil Made Me Do It

    My son and I went to see it on Wednesday at the luxury theater. I didn’t tell him that I already watched it on my laptop about a month ago through HBO Max. At first he didn’t want to go see it. He didn’t like that the premise was set on a ‘not guilty by reason of demonic possession’ plea.

    For me, I liked it better in the theater. It’s not the big screen, it is the sound. Just can’t get the same effect with earbuds or even over-the-ear headphones.

    Ed and Lorraine are terrific. But what I missed from the first two films was the focus on the family. You really didn’t get to know them as much as you did in the first two films. The retired priest and his evil priestess daughter were super cool, but there wasn’t much backstory there either, besides a quick peruse through a photo book.

    Probably my favorite aspect of the film (aside from the relationship between Ed and Lorraine) was the special effects they used on the characters that were being possessed by the demon (also, no backstory on who the demon was). I call it the ‘pop-and-lock’ effect where they twist and turn and arch their spine in unnatural ways. This always gets me way much more than the levitation stuff.

    Overall, I say you gotta see it if you are a fan of the series and the other films in the same universe. I thought the casting was great, especially Arne and his girlfriend who’s bond reminded me of a young Ed and Lorraine.

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