The Morrison Journal

Taking stock...six months into 2006. (evaluating goals and accomplishments)

2006-06-04T12:06:00.000-07:00

Wow its been almost six months since I have last posted. Oh how time flies. I had actually almost forgotten about this until I met with some family friends recently in Detroit, MI. and how I hadnt updated anything in awhile. Well now I am sitting down, have some free time, and want to take a moment or two to reflect on the last six months. So Charlie and Sharon - this posting is for you guys. :)....

Six months ago in my New Year's blog posting (which I based my New Year's email that went out on this posting) I had several goals in mind when it came to 2006. This included going to visiting several places (San Diego, Las Vegas, NYC, Phoenix, and Rochester), being able to run 5 miles, losing 40 more pounds, and paying off more student loans.

So this posting will look back at the last six months to see where I have come and how far I need to go.

First probably one of my favorite topics to discuss is the running and weight loss situation. I had not been to my gym in awhile mainly because I have been running outdoors (more on that below) while I have been in Detroit for business and at home in Minneapolis on the weekends. The primary purpose of visiting my gym yesterday was to 1) See how much I weigh and 2) Get back into doing some form of light weight training. In my January post, I said I wanted to lose 40 more pounds by the end of the year. Currently I weigh in at 216. So since Jan 2006, I've lost an additional 27 pounds. Since May 2005, I have lost a total of 64 pounds. The challenge is not done yet, but I am near the end. Basically, I have 16 more to lose to get to my goal weight of 200. After I hit 200, I am going to evaluate whether or not I need to drop down any further. If not, I am going to switch to weight lifting and lower impact cardio activities such as swimming or the elliptical. I think weight lifting could significantly help me out especially in sport activities like basketball or soccer.

So after I weighed in yesterday (June 3), I went to work on some light weight lifting. I did find since I had not been doing it very regularly, I have lost some strength. However, I did expect this a little bit. Hopefully with the help of a personal trainer who can set me up on a semi-decent program/schedule, I'll be able to gain strength/muscle mass once I hit my target weight.

As I was discussing with several different people recently, I think the best part of this whole journey (weight loss journey) is not only the "hey you look great that I have received from people" but knowing in the fact that I did it the right way - through exercise and eating healthier.

As for the running part, this is where it gets interesting. Sometime in the April timeframe (I think it was April), I was able to run the 5 miles that I had set as a goal for myself. I was thinking great, now I can focus more on time and less on distance. In early May, I received a call from a friend asking if I want to run in a half-marathon. I told this friend to send me the training schedule, and I will consider doing it. Knowing that I probably wouldn't say no to this challenge and after looking at the schedule, I convinced myself that the half-marathon was do-able and I could at least try to prepare for it. So now I have the challenge of preparing for a half-marathon run at the end of July. That is the reason I have been running outdoors so much and havent been going into the gym very often.

As far as visiting places the last six months, I have been to Las Vegas, Chicago, Des Moines, San Diego, Detroit, and New York City. Chicago and Detroit I was there on business. It appears that I will be going to San Francisco for 3 weeks of training during June. (Pending a decision I have to make on that).

My trip to San Diego was in March. It was great because not only did I get to hang out with my friend, Adam, but I also got to hook up with my cousins and Aunt and Uncle out there. While I certainly enjoyed my time out there, I will probably split up my time better next time. I appreciated Adam getting me to see my family, but I think I may have inconvienced him a bit too much. It was definitely good to catch up with Adam and take life easy for a weekend. I'll be seeing Adam again in the summer - when we run the half-marathon in San Francisco and possibly in Phoenix.

My trip to Las Vegas was in April. This was my first real trip to Vegas. Last summer I did have about a six hour lay-over in Vegas - but that doesnt count as a real trip :). I took it with March, a very good friend of mine from back home and the one person out of all my friends who has known me the longest. We had a great time hanging out in Vegas - walking around the strip, doing some gambling, and doing the tourist attractions. After expenses, I came out roughly even for the trip. I am definitely glad to have been able to taken this trip with March. We had been talking about doing something like this for quite awhile now.

Fast forward to the recent past - May. Over memorial day weekend, I was able to fly out to New York City and stay with my friend Abhi. This was my 2nd trip to NYC. Since he had moved home for the summer, I stayed at his parents home in Long Island. It was really nice to meet his parents. I had heard alot about them before. Their home is extremely nice and one of the best parts was that they had a ping pong table :). I hadnt played ping pong in quite a long time. I wasnt even sure if I was going to be as good as I used to be. Sure enough, I played a few games and still wasnt beat by anyone I played. In fairness, I will say that Abhi probably had not played in almost 2 years so he was alot more rusty than me. Also I think if Abhi's dad played me long enough, he would have been able to beat me. We actually got a lot done in a rather short amount of time plus it didnt help that I arrived late coming into NYC/LGA, but at least I got there! :). Friday, I spent some time working over email and some documentation that I had to finish up, but that took no more than 1 or 2 hours. We saw the movie X-men 3, went to Dave and Busters to play some video games, went bowling, and got ready for a poker game friday night. Before the poker game started, we decided to play some basketball. We played 2 vs 3 and won all three games we played. That was a good time. I hadnt played basketball that much recently and basketball is one of my favorite sports. (Plus i think its a good way to stay active). The best part of the poker game was that I got to drink some of my favorite beer, yeungling. This beer can only be bought in 3 states - NY, NJ, and PA. I ended up taking back 18 bottles of yeungling with me. It was really neat meeting some of my friend's friends and getting to see some of them I met the first time around. On Saturday, we headed into Manhatten/NYC and spent the day in the city. We spent the majority of the day at the Museum of Natural History. I was really impressed by not only how big the museum was but by how much I learned as well. The special exhibit for museum was one discussing Charles Darwin. It was very well done. I would definitely go back again. During the evening in the city, we ate near our final destination for the night - a pub called McSorley's. This is the oldest bar in NYC. It had a great atomosphere and cheap $2 beer. We didnt arrive back at my friend's place until 2am on Sunday. Sunday and Monday of memorial day weekend were both spent relaxing. Although we managed to play more basketball on Sunday. As I told my friend Abhi, I really just enjoyed doing stuff like play video games, ping pong, poker, basketball. Not only because I enjoy doing those activities, but because I was doing those activities with friends.

These three trips have helped me to understand something that has taken me 2+ years to do: that is to be more appreciative, thankful, and grateful of the people that are important to me and help make me successful. It is only recently that I have told any of my friends this as well. In those 2+ years of learning, I have experienced many different things, but the things that have kept me going is the support I have received from my friends and family.

In the coming 12-14 months, I will be making a decision about whether or not I should move to a different city. I don't anticipate this to be a very easy decision to make. Hopefully, when it is all said and done, I will be in a place where I will be able to invite my friends to come and stay with me to repay them for those visits that I have already made.

Since this post is extremely long, I will just give a quick update on student loans. Right now I have only 2 more loans to pay back to Iowa Student Loan. Then I will focus my efforts on Wells Fargo. I anticipate that ISL loans will be paid off in September or October of this years. Wells Fargo loans progress will be made by the end of the year on a majority of those loans as well. The goals behind the quick repayment of these loans is to allow for greater flexibility in choosing a place to move to.

I am going to make a few phone calls today to my friends to see how they are doing after I complete my 7 mile run for the day. Because the only way I can maintain my friendships is to visit and communicate with the people I call friend.

Sincerely,
Tim

New year's, New York, New Jersey, New goals.

2006-01-09T21:08:00.000-08:00

First off, Happy New Year!...I hope your new year started as fun and as successful as mine did. Also, thanks in advance for reading this long post.

As you can see from the title, the word new is written quite a bit. I have just returned from a wonderful trip from the east coast. What can I say, I guess I like the east coast. This time around I was in New York City for new year's. It was absolutely fantastic finally being able to see the city, some of the sights (fortunately when I go back, I won't have to see them again!), and seeing friends. I saw times square, rockafeller center, central park, museum of modern art, grand central station, tom's diner (from seinfeld tv show), Columbia university campus, battery park, wallstreet, ground zero, and china town.

I think my favorite thing while I was out there was being able to hang out with my friends. I want to thank my friend Abhi for showing me around NYC to sights he's probably seen 20 times or more and for letting me stay at his place in the city. I must say I didnt know Abhi as well as I knew Adam (friend from jersey) before this trip, but I was glad to be able to get to know Abhi a little bit better because of the time I was able to spend hanging out. Abhi - you might want to learn how to actually play the guitar :). All in all, I think I pretty much experienced NYC. I want to thank my friend Adam for letting me come hang out in jersey after NYC. I certainly enjoyed playing the many games of poker, joking around with your brothers and cousins, going bowling and to the movies, and getting very little sleep. (Adam and Abhi - you have always made sure I've had a great time when I've come to visit and made me feel at home, for that I am thankful, and hope that our friendships are ones that last for a very long time.)

So what does 2006 bring for me - well I guess it brings new goals and new hopes. I want to lose 40 more pounds by the end of 2006. The good news is I went to the gym tonite and weighed only 3 more pounds than what I did 20 or so days ago. I think this is really good considering I have n't been to the gym in the last 20 days and I actually survived christmas and the holidays pretty well. I havent been very vocal about this but since May 2005, I have lost a total of 40 pounds. I've always told myself that I would never let myself get to the point where my physical movement was impaired or that I could not perform physical activities like basketball, soccer, or racquetball. For some time I had begun to feel uncomfortable on airplanes and at some theme park rides, I felt that my weight was becoming an issue and it needed to be addressed. After that I joined a gym and started running and lifting weights. I started running about a mile every other day, as of today, I am up to over 3 miles and continue to lift. My goal for 2006 is to be able to run up to 5 miles. I also watch how much I eat and try to eat a little bit healthier than what I was doing before. (cutting out ordering pizza and cutting out drinking pop at home, trying to eat greens a little bit more, switching to diet pop at the office, etc) I have been motivated by this msnbc article dealing with something called: intuitive eating. ( http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10297653/ ). Constant exercise has helped as well.

Finally, I have a few trips planned for 2006 already. It will be a matter of setting dates and confirming with people that they are available. It will also depend what part of the country I am in for alot of 2006. Here is the list of locations I am planning on visiting in 2006 (and potential timeframes):

Las Vegas - April 2006
San Diego - March 2006
Phoenix - Summer 2006
NYC - Summer 2006 (either May or July) and Dec 2006 (New Year's eve for sure)
Rochester,MN - Sometime in Summer 2006

One of my other goals is to stay in contact with friends and family. I hope to do this through phone calls, emails, IMs, and visits. As you can see there is a lot to accomplish for 2006. I hope that if you have any goals that you are successful at accomplishing your goals.

If you'd like me to visit, specific invitations are greatly appreciated as well as reminders of open invitations.

Lastly, I just found out I'll be in chicago for the next six weeks. Who knows after that is over. Hopefully San Francisco is in order.

Until the next time where-ever our paths may cross,

Tim Morrison

Its been a long time....

2005-10-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

Well its been a long time since I have posted to the blog. (not like many people read this, but hey, you never know). Let me start with a number of updates:

1)I am finally done with my travels to San Francisco. I really have mixed feelings on this. I liked traveling out there and working with the people that were on the PwC team. I also liked being on the west coast. I practically spent my whole summer on the west coast including time in Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Diego, and San Francisco. At the same time, I think its good to have a break from being out of town. It's just too bad the break has to come during the winter! :-). Basically from now, until the end of the year, I will be working in Minneapolis. I don't know where I'll be after December yet as far as work goes (maybe Chicago, Dallas or San Francisco again?) It was pretty cool spending 3 months out there (25% of the year)...not many people in firm can say they spent 25% of their year in San Francisco.

2) I am still getting my New Years plans together. The current plan is that I will be gone from Dec 29 - Jan 5 spending Dec 29 - Jan 1 or 2 in NYC and the rest of the time in NJ. I have confirmed the the NYC plans but haven't confirmed the NJ plans quite yet. Either way, I plan on being out of the midwest around New Years.

3) Speaking of the upcoming holidays - thanksgiving, christmas, and new years...potential schedule is:
Nov 23-27 (evening of the 23rd) - home in Iowa
Dec 23 - Dec 28/29 - home in Iowa
Dec 29 - Jan 5 (could change depending on NJ timeframe) - east coast trip - NYC/NJ
Jan 5 - Jan 8 - home in Iowa
Jan 9 - Begin work again ... location to be determined

On a side note, I've found its becoming more difficult to use all my vacation days effectively. I never thought it would be this hard to use vacation days. I would like to plan for something in the summer but I havent decided what that would be. I don't think a trip abroad is in the cards yet, so I will begin to look at other options.

4) Loan update front....based on my projections...ISL loans should be paid off by Sept 2006 at the latest. Progress is being made. After ISL loans are paid off, the plan is to transfer the remaining balance of Wellsfargo loans to a 0% Credit card and pay those off quickly.

5) Based on conversations I've had recently, I've also began to do a year-by-year evaluation of when it makes senses for me to move. I do know that I won't be moving before my first promotion in the firm, but its hard to say if I should wait an additional year after my first promotion to move.

That is all for now. The next 20 or months are going to hard at times in terms of not being able to have alot of fun which is why I need to have alot of fun when I am out east. I think also there will be moments of extreme happiness as well. We will just have to see how this all plays out and how predictions and projections I get right.

Getting down to business.

2005-08-15T18:31:00.000-07:00

I have been in Phoenix, Orlando, Des Moines (yes that's home :) ), and San Francisco since I last made a post. All four cities have been excellent. I just wanted to give a short update on the student loans. I titled this post "getting down to business" because I have recently paid in full 2 of 6 student loans that I have with Iowa Student Loan. I plan on making large monthly payments for the rest of the year and hopefully the bonus and raise will help me pay off the loans quicker. I am doing this because I ran some numbers, and I am better off paying the loans off as soon as possible instead of trying to save up and pay off the loans with one time payments. I am definitely serious about paying off these loans as soon as possible. I am off to SFO in about 3 hours and need to look at this place I am potentially thinking about moving into. So I will sign off for now.

What a 4th of July weekend....

2005-07-06T23:13:00.000-07:00

Wow...The extended weekend in Detroit was great! It was most relaxing not having to think about work, email, or the internet. I arrived in Detroit on June 30 and started relaxing. I even got to visit the gym that day. On Friday, the rest of my family arrived in Detroit and they were pretty happy to be there. During the day on Friday, I made it to the driving range. (Thanks Charlie for taking me there and letting me use your clubs) I stayed with some family friends who very graciously let myself, my brother and his wife, and my sister stay at their place while we were in town. They made sure we had a great time and that we never went hungry! I must thank Sharon and Charlie profusely for letting us stay at their house, taking us to the tigers/yankees game (too bad the tigers didnt win), and making sure we always had something to eat. It was really nice to see their remodeled house. On Sunday, we did the Henry Ford museum. That was pretty cool, got to see a bunch of different cars, trains, and historical items. The mysimon was pretty sweet. I need to look for one of those on ebay. Overall, I would say it was great to see everyone (yes, even my family :) ) and that we all had a good time. I am glad I convinced my parents to do something other than stay home for the 4th of July.

I am in St. Louis right now as I write this entry. I'll be here until July 8th. The summer is basically half over and it'll be interesting to see how the rest shapes up. I keep hearing possible locations of where I could be on projects, but am not holding my breath until it actually happens. For the week of July 11, I will be in Minneapolis working. I don't know for July 18 or July 25 where I will be. What I do know is that July 28-August 1, I am going down to Phoenix for the weekend. It'll be nice to hang out down there with a friend. Also, looking forward to Aug 8-15. The 8th-12th, I'll be in Florida attending a conference. The 12-15th, I'll be home for the weekend.

One last thing, I will be working on posting pictures from the Detroit trip on this site called flickr.com. More to come soon.

slowly but surely....

2005-06-16T11:40:00.000-07:00

Ah another short update...slowly but surely, I am saving up to pay off a significant portion of my student loans. I have 43.92% saved up (that's aprox 13.1K) toward my goal of paying off 30K in loans by Dec. Like I've said before, I don't know if I will actually make this goal, but I'll come close.

secondly, really looking forward to being in Detroit June 30 - July 4. I will not be taking a computer with me. Will have no access to email and don't plan on being on the internet at all. It will be pure relaxation with a Tigers/Yankees game mixed in between.

third, I've been in Milwauke for 2 weeks in june and got to see Louis (friend,roommate when I was in Rochester,MN) both times. That was cool. He is doing well and has many of the same battles I have with being in a new city and all. We also discussed planning a trip out to San Diego next year which I think would be sweet.

fourth, looking into planning a weekend trip down to phoenix, AZ this summer. Everything should work out. Can already feel a desire to get out of the midwest for a few days again (although Detroit will be a very nice break from the norm!)... :)

fifth, looking forward to Advisory University (AU) in Orlando, FL on Aug 8-12.

sixth, current schedule (as current as I know it to be) --> June 21 - 24 in Detroit on business, June 27 - 29 (Detroit on business), June 30 - July 4 ( Detroit on vacation), July 5 - 8 in Minneapolis, July 28 - Aug 1 (tenative weekend in Phoenix), August 8-12 in Orlando, FL for Advisory University, Aug 12-15 home in Iowa to visit friends and family.

EDIT --> Almost forgot two things...1) I am going to try and get down to Ames this summer for a weekend, just to say hi to a few people down there. 2) Will go down to Rochester,MN for a weekend in July once everyone is settled into their new jobs at IBM would shoot for July 23 or may switch that weekend with tenative phoenix weekend depending on schedules.

Dumping the games.....or (the continued story of what happened)

2005-06-11T10:24:00.000-07:00

This post will be a little jumbled and not make much sense (or be very connected)....so I guess I'll seperate it by items.

Item 1) Well I have done it now. I have uninstalled all the PC games I had on my computer. I would like to sell the games I do have (aprox 22 PC games). I don't enjoy PC gaming like I used to and I don't want to play PC games anymore. I will still have my xbox in case I get that gaming urge. Odd as this may seem, its just all part of roller coaster I have been on the past 6 weeks. In fact, I may sell my desktop and go back to laptops (for space reasons, and other considerations). While I can't afford to do this right away, it is something I will be considering.

Item 2) As I think more and more about moving out of the midwest, I do get more excited. (The prospect of having 2-3 more winters to survive is a good one to think about) I have decided that when/if I get to move, I want to drive myself out instead having movers ship my car to whereever I might move.(Plus I would hope to be in a new car...before I moved out of Minneapolis) I do alot of flying as it is, I think if I drive, I would see a whole new experience. It would be my first major road trip on my own (hopefully I wouldnt do this by myself....would be nice to be able to find someone to drive out with me). To give a little background --> when I was younger, my family drove out to California in 1984 and out to Maine and the NE U.S. in 1985. Not that I remember much about the drive, but it was fun, and you really got to see the country from a different prospective.

Item 3) Looking forward to traveling again for work and vacation. I will be in Milwaukee on Monday-Thurs. the week of June 13. The week of June 20, I will be in Detroit. I might even stay the weekend to go visit a friend down in Columbus, OH...---aprox 3.5 hour drive from Detroit. Then from June 27-29, I will be in detroit on business, and from June 30 - July 4, I will be in Detroit visiting family friends. My parents and older brother and his wife will be there as well. We will go see a Tiger's game and just relax.

Item 4) Well I guess there's not an item 4 today. Pretty much all my random thoughts have been put down on "paper" today. Its off to shower, work out, shower again, get my haircut, then to clean my room and do laundery. This is another reason why I can not have my own place, is because I can barely keep my own room clean! Hopefully this will change for the better.

Loan savings update --> 12.6K out of 30K saved. Still a long ways to go... Should be up to 13.2K soon. Once I get those nasty credit card balances paid off , I 'll be able to save more....and really I shouldnt say nasty, because its all 0% right now and its 1 card. Nonetheless, I don't like carrying balances. Also I am in the process of consolidating my federal loans to lock in a low interest rate. (3.125%). This should be completed by the end of June.

New challenges ahead....

2005-06-08T23:02:00.000-07:00

In the continuing theme of changes....I think this summer has the potential to rock. I think there are a number of challenges ahead of me that will make the summer exciting and not have a dull moment.

1) The moving challenge. As some people know, I am looking for a different place to live in the cities. I am taking my sweet time trying to find the right place. I feel I will know when I find the right place and it will definitely increase my happiness level.

2) The gym challenge. I am really doing well at this right now. I am trying to build as part of my routine because I want to be able to work out on the road as well. I ran 2 miles tonite and felt pretty good. I want to be able to consistently run that two miles and move up from there. Now if I could find a decent racquetball partner.

3) The mentor challenge. I think this one is the one that sounds most interesting and has the highest upside. The advisory practice is getting two interns from Iowa State University. I have been assigned to be the mentor for both of them. I actually volunteered to a be a mentor for one of them, the other one is an added bonus. I will help and guide them through their internship. I will try to make sure they do well and enjoy their time as interns. It will also help me develop as an associate looking to move to the next level.

4) The unexpected challenges challenge. I think this is the scaresty challenge...dealing with the unknown....but I think this type of stuff makes you a better person...blah blah blah. Seriously, its how you handle the unexpected that makes you a better person and I have always considered myself to be a high performer. I also have very high expectations of myself.

5) The certification challenge. I think this one is actually going to be the hardest because it requires extra time spent studying. Here I thought I was done studying after I graduated! (Let me tell you though -- you are always learning, if not something is wrong) I am going for the CISSP certification and once I get it, I will be extremely happy. Hopefully this year will be my year to pass the test.

6) The vacation challenge. I looked and noticed i have 63 hours of vacation. Holy cow that's alot of vacation...that's almost 8 days. I know I will probably have to go somewhere for vacation...to where I don't know yet. I am sure I will use it somewhere not sure when or where.

If there is one thing that I want people to remember about me is that when I say I that am going to do something, I will not only do it, but do it at the highest level possible.

Alright enough for now.

A Car Update....and more...

2005-06-04T10:37:00.000-07:00

Recently, alot of people have been asking me if I had bought my car yet :) The answer is still no...For a long while I have been wanting to buy a new car....and I still do want to buy a new car....however my priorities have changed recently. If you seen the last few posts, you'll see my shift in priorities and in order to make those priorities happen, it will require a shift in resources (eg...money and lots of it...hey who doesnt like more money?!). Basically, I have gone from saving for a new car to saving to pay off loans very quickly. Because I have a finance and technology background, my cash flow situation (after-tax dollars available after expenses et all) sucks because of the loans. This is one of the reasons I am going to pay off early (or at least as much as possible). I do have a goal of reaching 30K this year to pay off. Its going to be very close if I can obtain that goal...(alot will depend on raises and bonuses) but I am going to at least try and even if i don't make 30, I will make 25 or get somewhere around there and 25 is still a huge chunk of change to pay off at one time. I am still going to get a car. I don't think it will happen until 2006 though and late 2006 at that. Also my list of cars keeps changing....I won't go into what has all been on the list, but basically the cars i would consider now are the following in no particular order --> CRV, RAV4, or the Mazda3, and of course if i did make it to california ( a 2005/2006/2007 mustang!).

Overall things are starting to improve...it does take time....and it does suck alot of the time but I have once again started traveling (although more sporadically) ... I will be in Milwaukee the week of June 13 and then in Detroit for 3 weeks (one week is personal travel, two weeks is business travel)... The outlook after the 4th of July looks pretty good as well...i am also thinking about flying down to phoenix for 1 weekend this summer (probably late july) to see a friend who is down there for the summer...I am definitely interested to meet his female roommate and all of her friends...:) Also in early August (8-12), I will be attending the firm wide Advisory U in Orlando, FL. That should be a good time as well.

Also I talked to some people in Minneapolis about moving...and the people who count support me and will try to get it done, whenever I am ready to attempt to move which wont be for another 2+ years (I think at least).

Finally, a thanks to all my friends out there...you know who you are. I don't think I've ever had a more difficult time in my personal life then right now. Its just kind of an odd feeling to go through because I've never been challenged like this before. For the most part, I am a very optimistic person most of the time (although I play by the phrase "expect the worst, hope for the best" as well) and for the most part everything has worked out (job, friends, school, family life, etc) for me.

Lessons Learned in May....

2005-05-30T20:54:00.000-07:00

I know this post will probably sound a little sappy...but here goes....

You know, I have learned alot about myself and life in general during the month of May. I have learned what it is to have true friends and not just acquaintenances. A true friend is someone you can talk to at anytime and not feel as though you are bothering the person. A true friend is someone who will listen and give advice when needed. A true friend is someone you can bounce ideas off of and get their opinion on them. These are some only some of the qualities of a true friend. I think one of the more important qualities of a true friend is that a true friend will find ways to keep in touch/visit/call you. I consider myself very lucky to have the friends that I do have and only wish that I could have more time to hang out with my true friends. You don't realize how short the good times are, and how much time goes by before you see your true friends again.

I have also learned what it is like to be on vacation. (and it's a good feeling!) Vacations are way too short and it's always hard to come back from vacation (no matter how short it is)

I have learned what its like to have so little time at home. I don't go home very often anymore (even though its only 4 hours away). It seems I got to spend very little time with my family. When people found out I was in town, they of course wanted to see me. This is a good and a bad thing I guess because I do like catching up with people from back home and letting them know how things are. At the same time, I like seeing my family. There needs to be a better balance. If/When I move out of the midwest, this will make my time even more important with my family.

I am going to catch up with another friend this week in Milwaukee and see how everything is going. I hope time permits meeting up with this friend.

I think the events that triggered my lessons learned were 1) my first "real" vacation to the east coast and 2) the wedding I was in this past weekend. These two events have probably changed me more than all the other events of the past six months. It made me realize everything that I have going for me and evaluate what I want to do in the future.

A new update....since I haven't done one in awhile

2005-05-20T17:38:00.000-07:00

Basically I haven't given an update in a long time. I do apologize for this but am glad to be getting around to this. (Not like anyone reads this or anything). I guess I should summarize what I've been doing oh for about the past 2 months.

To start out I went out to San Diego in April to visit my 3 cousins, uncle, and aunt who are out there. Man was I impressed by California. I will admit that I had a hard time leaving. Then it was back to the grind of working, traveling , etc. for a few weeks till the month of May began.

During the first part of May, I started to get my file ready for work. This is a file that you put together that details your performance for that year. It is going to be an interesting process to go through, because this is my first time and because this is how raises and bonuses are determined is through this annual review committee process (ARC). As of today, I just finished my file, so it now goes to the file reviewer who will represent me in front of the ARC committee.

From May 14-18, I took a well deserved vacation to visit my friend and roommate,Adam, who I lived with in Rochester,MN (Jan 2004 - Aug 2004). Adam showed me a great time out in NJ. We went whitewater rafting, to Atlantic City to a casino (which I won at 100$ at poker), to Six Flags (Great Adventure), and to club in Philladelphia where one of his friends knew the owner. (Open bar rocks!). I also got a chance to go see a few movies, which I had not done in long time. I also got to see Sharon, another friend from the IBM Rochester days, and she hung out with us at Six Flags. I definitely had a good time, and to top things off, Adam let me know that he is for sure going to grad school at UCSD (yes, in San Diego).

I think I have learned alot from this short trip out to the east coast. I will begin as follows:

1) I definitely miss, and I mean miss hanging out with my friends. Right now, I do not know that many people in Minneapolis outside of my co-workers. I am going to have to change this fact very soon.

2) I have decided that I need to move out of the Midwest within 2-4 years. I have simply been out here too long (24 years) and need a change of pace/scenary/life. I do want to stay in Minneapolis for the next couple of years mostly in part to help my professional development and even if/when I do move I do want to stay with PwC. But I will be moving within 2-4 years. I have not decided whether it will be east or west. Although I do have family out west.

3) To co-inside with my desire to move out of the midwest, I have decided that I should not move until a majority of my student loans are paid off. (What better way to celebrate the end of my student loans than to try and move)

4) I am also thinking about moving to a different place in the cities. Not because I dislike where I am now, but because myself and my roommate just dont share many interests. I need to find some folks who have more similar interests.

On a short note about the student loans, I am going to try and make a huge dent in them by the end of the year. Alot of my savings will be used to reduce or pay down this debt. I feel that I can pay off alot of the loans within 3 years. (alot will depend on my raise and bonus) It will take alot of discipline, effort, and hard work, but it will be done.

Speaking of hard work, I have also decided to join a gym. I am tired of being over weight and want to lose weight this year, and hopefully keep it off. More to come soon.

Short Update...

2005-03-04T18:47:00.000-08:00

This is a short update. I am planning to be home in Iowa March 18-20. Also found out I will be in Chicago from March 14 - possibly end of April. Will know more this week. Training was a blast this week. I look forward to being back at ISU Mon and Tuesday of this week.

regards.

Lots of changes.......

2005-03-01T21:25:00.000-08:00

Ok ok,
I know I haven't written in awhile....but there's been a fair amount of news etc and I've been meaning to update. So I thought I was going to be on this Milwaukee project for awhile. Well, right now I am in Chicago attending some training. This training is going to lead to alot of opportunities. So who knows what will happen...Hopefully travel to warmer places if any :) I am meeting people from other regions within the firm and hopefully will get to work with some of them soon.

I also plan to be home in a couple of weeks to see my parents new kitchen and take care of personal business like meeting with friends! I don't know if I will be flying in or driving....maybe flying.

In other news, I just started paying back student loans....take my advice....if you can avoid student loans. I am going to do my best to pay them off early, but its going to take time.

Also, I still want to go to San Diego. I may just have to purchase the ticket myself and get approval for an "in-lieu-of" when it occurrs. Its hard to do with my schedule changing very rapidly.

A Shift in technology?!

2005-02-21T20:49:00.000-08:00

To give some insight, I have been using a laptop as my primary computer while I was in my last two years of college as well as the past year.. I think it may be a good time to go back to desktops. Also recently I flirted with purchasing a powerbook. While I would still love to own one, now is not the right time, as I do not have the necessary $$$. Fortunately, I came to my good senses and did not purchase one.

Well for the past 18-22 months, I have been wanting a new laptop. I had been waiting for intel's sonoma platform to become available. Now that it is available, I still havent been able to justify the purchase of a new laptop. Part of the problem is that I just got a new P4 desktop. Its pretty nice and I find myself spending more time on the desktop (it has a 19" LCD as well) than I do on my current laptop (14.1" screen, 1.6 Ghz Pentium M). Currently, I am also trying to save for a new car and a nice one time payment on some student loans. So I don't really want to move money away from those goals. So what I am thinking is starting to use desktops again because

1) I have a laptop from my job
2) I would probably get an additional LCD monitor
3) I plan on upgrading my video card to a Nvidia 6600GT graphics card
4) Also plan on getting an external 300GB HD

So in conclusion it looks like its time to ditch the laptop platform.

It looks like its time for me to go back to desktops.

The next question will be is: "Is it time to have more than one desktop :)"

In Milwaukee and going home tommorrow!

2005-02-16T21:07:00.000-08:00

Right now I am in Milwaukee on this major project with a team of about 8 other people. The team is great. The team is really having a good time and gelling together as a team. We went bowling yesterday and everyone seemed to enjoy it. We are looking at going paintballing next week. Unfortunately, I will not be attending. I am flying back to Des Moines, Iowa to do recruiting at Iowa State. I am looking forward to going back and visiting my old college stomping grounds.

Tonite, I also gave my cousin who lives in San Diego with her husband, a phone call. I am planning a trip to California to visit my family out there in March or April. It depends on the locations where I am at on this project. We had a good conversation and I am really looking forward to going.

I am getting to bed much earlier tonite. Hope all is well with everyone.

So its been a long time.....A long post to get caught up!

2005-02-13T16:45:00.000-08:00

So what inspired me to get back to this blog??? Well I have a friend, March, who recently started blogging and it reminded me (and inspired) that I have this floating around. I think this could be useful again and although I have less time than before, I should probably try to make time. I also apologize for this long post and will try to keep them shorter in the future.

Ok, I know, its been forever since I have posted to the blog. So I guess I should update on what has happened since June. In June, I was on an 8 month internship with IBM in Rochester,MN...hoping that would lead to a full time job offer. It did not. Fortunately, while still working for IBM, I was doing a bit of job searching myself (cause I had a feeling that no offer was going to be made) and I found a job with PricewaterhouseCoopers in their Security consulting practice. It was pretty much a roller-coaster ride when PwC made the offer. I basically had a couple days to think it over and I had to give them an answer. Everyone that I knew was extremely happy I had finally received a full time offer (I was too!). I accepted the offer and immediately went to 4 weeks of training in Orlando, FL. That was great, especially since I had never been there.

In florida, I got to meet with other new or recent hires to the firm and do some networking along with some training. I also went to Walt Disney World and MGM Studios. I had a blast at both!

Ever since the middle part of September, I've been busy with work and done a bit of traveling. Alot of the work we have done is sarbanes readiness work. This is where we will go in and do management testing for our various clients. Anywhoo, its not the greatest work, but I have been exposed to alot of technologies such as the AS400 and various flavors of unix. The places I have been to so far is - Milwauke, Wis., Chicago, IL., and a couple of small towns in Minnesota and Wisconsin. So far I don't mind traveling, I just wish that I had some Elite status on the airlines to get those free upgrades!

Currently, I am involved with a major sarbanes project for a client with global locations. This project has 8 people and 2 partners involved from the firm. It certainly is a big project. I will be spending alot of time in Milwaukee and some time in either South Carolina or Canada. I would prefer South Carolina because its warmer. Who knows, maybe next time I'll be one of the folks going overseas! :D

So what's changed now that I have a regular job -- I guess to say ... alot. I am trying to be more disciplined with my finances. I am saving more. I have started saving for a car, but am going to delay that purchase even longer if possible into 2006. I just don't want to see all that money I have saved being spent to much at one time. Plus I like all the interest!

Another change is I am in a new town yet again! I moved from Rochester,MN to Minneapolis,MN. Minneapolis is a much better town but I know very few people here. I am going to try and meet more people. I would definitely like to join a gym (like I did in Rochester) and start playing racquetball again. I am also trying to stop drinking pop! I have cut back, but it will help once I stop buying it :).

Finally, I am starting to set goals. Things like advancing in my career, losing some weight, saving money, opening a ROTH IRA, and getting out and meeting people are the top of my list.

One last thing -- currently I am planning a purchase of my first apple computer ever. I do own an iPOD and I think its an amazing device. I am looking at the 17" Powerbook and will probably purchase within the next few weeks. Check them out at www.apple.com/powerbook ...They trully are amazing devices.

Late posting

2004-06-19T09:15:00.000-07:00

I don't remember if I said this, but I said I would post a thank you for the next thirty days or so to bitner@gmail.com. Well, I forgot last nite. (DOH!) I fell asleep for about 3 hours and then decided I would go hang out with some friends! I completely forgot about posting the thank you. Ok so here it is, I want to offer my extreme thanks for sending me an invitation for a GMail account to bitner@gmail.com. Sorry about posting this late! I'll try to do better next time.

I don't have much planned for today -- other than to play some racquet ball which is one of my favorite workout activities, do some laundry, figure out if I going to make it to Chicago over July 4 weekend, and maybe watch one of my 200+ dvd movies. (I am thinking one of the Police Academy movies!). Those movies just make me laugh so hard. Captain Harris is one funny man. Anyways, more latter.

Oh by the way, my GMail address is morriswt (at) gmail dot com. Feel Free to email me there!. ... Once again... Thank You bitner@gmail.com. Maybe in one of these thanks notes, I will post a screen shot or something!

A Special Thanks to : bitner@gmail.com

2004-06-17T09:28:00.000-07:00

First off, I recently posted at www.gmailswap.com and finally got a gmail account! But that would not have been possible without the generousity (sorry if I mis-spell anything) of Darin Bitner. This individual was kind enough to send me an invitation to Google's Gmail. For the next 30 days, I will try to find various ways of Thanking this person for inviting me to Gmail!

THANK YOU DARIN!

Well...its the first post to my new blog.

2004-06-17T06:48:00.000-07:00

I've always wanted to create a blog, and never really made time to do it. well, hopefully I will be able to post to this blog regularly. I am not going to try and become a grammar nazi here, but I will try to use proper punctuation, spelling, and capitalization whenever I can. Also I am going to use this page to just discuss current issues such as politics/war on terrorism/election year stuff, what's going on in my life/neck of the woods such as trying to a find a job/graduating/certain goals I have/how i am feeling on a certain day, and I am going to use this as an online journal. Hence the name The Morrison Journal. Sounds like some Sunday morning talk show.

Enough of this rambling, over the coming days/months/years, I will use this as a place to COMMUNICATE. :) ... Anyhow, right now, I am really wanting a gmail account. GMail is something that is being test run by the google. The cool thing is that you get 1GB of email space. (Who uses 1GB of email?? -- me!) Well not yet, but Google's idea is that you should never have to delete email.

Right now I am on a question to receive a Gmail Invite. Hopefully it will happen! I'll give an introduction to who I am etc in another post or two.

Regards,
Morrison