David C. Morris

  • 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.

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