dustinfluke.com

This sign should read “This coffee is NOT GOOD”

Optionally, I feel it should contain a warning label, or one of those Mr. Yuk stickers.

Now I can finally understand why everyone here goes to Starbucks everyday. Despite supporting the largest corporation in the world, it’s the closest place we can get in and out in a relatively timely manner. Even their espresso con panna was good, and the barista knew what ‘con panna’ meant!
There are about five coffee shops nearby. I haven’t had the opportunity to find my favorite yet, but I’m sure that between the shops and my own home roasted french pressed coffee I make at work I’ll be set. I believe I’m going to try Z’s espresso next, as their store in east Lawrence is really good.

I don’t even think I’d accept 25 cents to drink whatever lies in the golden foil bag known to some as coffee. I’ve come to accept the fact that anything that comes in a box of 100 can’t be all that great or fresh, and this is no exception. Yeah, I’m a snob, but I enjoy my coffee.

So I haven’t been too great about updating the website or my flickr photos for some time now.

But I think that is all about to change. I got a new job.

While I loved working at Washburn for almost five full years, things seem to move pretty slow in academics. I found this both a blessing and a curse as my professional career had time to mature and grow, yet, my mind told me to "go go go" with new technology. While I’ve fought this battle in my head plenty of times I think I’ve finally found a good balance. A couple of weeks ago I accepted a position with the World Company. Most local folks commonly refer to the World Company as the Lawrence Journal World, as that is their most public identity. I’m going to be working in World Online. This is the shop that brought django to the masses. I’ve specifically been hired to support, train, and "whatever else" on the commercial version of django, Ellington CMS. My first day is tomorrow (well, technically it’s today since I’m writing so late) and I couldn’t be more excited. Ever since at Washburn it was decided not to move forward with the WebCT 6 upgrade, I felt a little let down, but more importantly, felt like I got the wind knocked out of me personally. After a summer long study of various course management systems, and all the time put into data analysis I was ready to move forward; and then WebCT decides to extend support, so everything was dropped. After that, it took a lot of work to think of something new that was close enough to what was old. I was left with horribly outdated documentation that we didn’t focus on due to the planned upgrade, and no action to move forward with an upgrade. So, I decided to do some video based training, and at the same time thought I might apply for one of those jobs open at World Online.

I’m entering into a new world, one I haven’t been exposed to in quite some time. I think it’s called product development. I think it’s called creativity, flexibility, and open mindedness. I think it’s called action, and not committee formations. For that, I’m excited. I’d imagine as I learn more and more django, visitors will see a slow transformation of this website to a django joint. Who knows. I do know it’s late enough and I should get some shut eye.