Personal Info

Personal Info: Aaron Owen Morris

Origin
	Born in Chicago, Illinois on July 20, 1985.
Childhood
	Raised in Wheeling, Illinois until c. 1990. Moved to Vernon Hills, Illinois.
Education
	Preschool – Buffalo Grove Jewish Community Center (1988-1990) Kindergarten – Diamond Lake Elementary, District 76 (1990-1991) Grades 1-5 – Diamond Lake Elementary, District 76 (1991-1996) Grade 6 – West Oak Middle School, District 76 (1996-1997) Grade 8 – West Oak Middle School, District 76 (1997-1998) High School – Adali E. Stevenson High School, District 125 (1998-2002) College (B.A.) – Union College (2002-2006) B.A. Astronomy, B.S. OT: Human Geography Graduate School (M.A.) – University of Cincinnati (2006-2008) M.A.–A.B.T. Geography Graduate School (M.S.) – Northern Illinois University (2009-Present) M.S. Physics
Religion
	Atheist (technically Multiversist), though I recognize an ethnic heritage as a Jew (i.e. Secular Jew).
Ethnicity
	From West to East: Welsh, English, German, Polish, Russian. In other words, Caucasian.
Politics
	Registered voter in Lake County, Illinois: Vernon Precinct 263.
Athletics
	Certified P.A.D.I. Open Water Diver (trained in the Yasawas, Fiji in 2005 and re-certified in Illinois in 2008) with diving experience in Fiji, Mexico, the Bahamas, St. Maarten, Bonaire, and Aruba. Hopefully I’ll eventually dive in the US (I’d like to dive the Great Lakes and the Florida Keys) and the Cayman Islands (I’ve tried but weather prevented the ship from tendering).
Travel
	U.S. Passport holder Have had additional immunizations for travel in developing countries. Domestic: [[Arkansas]]¹, California, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, [Texas]², Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin Visited 26 states (52%) Create your own visited map of the USA International: Aruba, Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Belize, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Denmark, Dominica, England, Fiji, France, Grenada, Holy See, Israel (Israel, Golan Heights, West Bank), Italy, Jamaica, Mexico, Morocco, Norway, Saint-Martin, Sint Maarten, Spain, Sweden Visited 28³ states (12.4%) Create your own visited map of the World
Professional Organizations
	Association of American Anthropologists (AAA) Member as of 2005. Association of American Geographers (AAG) Member as of 2005. American Astronomical Society (AAS) Junior Member as of 2002. American Chemical Society (ACS) Full member (somehow) as of 2007⁴, Student Affiliate 2002-2006. Iota Sigma Pi Honorary member as of 2004. Sigma Xi Associate member as of 2006. Society of Physics Students Member as of 2002/2003.
Hobbies (other than intellectual pursuits)
	Cooking Gardening – I grow (hydroponically (via an AeroGarden) and in soil) herbs and and peppers. Puzzles – Both 2D and 3D. Photography – Over 43,000 digital photographs and counting... Art collecting – My collection includes original works of art from all over the world (bought while traveling). Several pieces are on permanent loan to my family’s collection in Illinois (including a watercolor from Cuba).
Favorites
	Vegetable – onion (it’s used in just about anything!) Fruit – lemon Herb – oregano Spice – ginger European country – Sweden Artist – Monet Airport – Orlando (though Nadi, Arlanda, and O’Hare (if one can ignore the stupidity of common tourists) are up there) Musical – Evita Ancient Greek Writer – Herodotus (and yes, I have actually read him whilst in college) Ancient Roman Writer – Livy Ancient Philosopher – Thales Gemstone – Ruby Programming language – BASIC (or whatever the TI-86 uses) Element – Americium (Am) Intoxicant (legal) – Yaqona (Fijian: kava, Piper methysticum)
Preferences
	Coke (vs. Pepsi) Tea (vs. Coffee) (though I should note that I drink coffee for the caffeine when it is there, I respect tea too much to just drink it commonly) Metric dive tables (vs. Imperial) Two spaces after a sentence Comma before or/and in a list of more than three items Artificial dry creamer (vs. liquid creamers in coffee) TI-86 (vs. TI-83 or TI-89) Sony PRS-505 (vs. Amazon Kindle) Binary prefixes (vs. SI prefixes) for hard drives
Online Avatars (for boards or forums)
	Not a picture of me in any sense or even a picture by me in any sense. (I have been using this one for years when I needed an avatar for some Vampires! boards.) This really is me, albeit underwater. I use crops if pictures of me are required and I wish to maintain anonymity. Again, really me back in the Fall of 2002. This is a crop of the Physics 14 class picture. The avatar I use on LiveJournal when discussing Rifts or gaming. My Rifts character is of the same class as the the ‘Borg shown. The avatar I use on a private site. The above avatar is a crop of the same image.
Online Quotes (for boards or forums)
	“We are fleeting creatures, we humans!” - S Baxter Most that are profound would choose to narrate tales of living men with nouns like sorrow, verbs like lose, and action scenes, and love – but then there are now some, and brave they be, that speak of Lunar cities raised and silver spheres and purple seas, leaving us who listen dazed. -- Irena Foygel I use both at the Escape Artists forums and use the second on Scott Sigler’s forums (where I am inordinately pleased to be user number 1234).
Supported (not monetarily) Online Projects (Alphabetically)

Note
1	I’ve driven through part of Arkansas in 1996 (part of my family’s 1996 Atlanta Olympics road trip), though I never set foot on Arkansas ground.	Back
2	I’ve only ever been to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport en route to San Francisco from Cincinnati for the 2007 AAG meeting.	Back
3	Not all countries are listed on the site.	Back
4	Per the ACS membership amendment of 2008, I would have become a full member in 2008 anyway.	Back