Category: Writing

I read #donutrunbecausehappy as “don’t run because you’re happy” and I was like, ‘that’s the old me’, but then I realized that because I read it that way, I still have part of that mindset.

Blue Acorn iCi’s onboarding officially lasts 60 days, but the initial, intensive learning period is 2 weeks. The first part (after the forms) was a bunch of reading. It then went into videos I had to watch of recordings. I was keenly aware that I was self-onboarding rather than being onboarded by a live person. However, I did have 2 people assigned to me. One was to teach me about the clients I’ll be working with and the other was to teach me how to be a BSA. I later realized I could increase the playback speed of the videos to 2x, which helped.

I realized that a lot of the work has already been templatize’d and checklist’d. The rest are simple rules that are repeated in various situations.

As I learned things and started comparing myself to others, I had to keep telling myself that I am a professional, I know what I’m doing, and it’s easy for me to learn new things. I then proceeded to learn new things very quickly.

It’s occurring to me (even more so) that I’m going to be drawing from almost ALL of my past experience for this role (from client demos and working with developers at GoServicePro to executive stakeholder meetings and change control processes at Marine Credit Union to working with e-commerce and integrations at Skinny & Co to SEO and client work with my own consulting services). Even the call center work at First Merchants may come into play here. Blue Acorn even has credit union clients who they help with online check opening web workflows. A big store you’ve heard of also uses Netsuite and “Celigo” (Netsuite integration software), two applications I recently administered at Skinny & Co.

It’s neat learning about clients they have from websites I’ve previously used. One of the companies that I’ll be working with is owned by one of the companies I worked with at Skinny & Co. This particular client I’m working with has been highlighted in the company newsletter as being a client that is utilizing Blue Acorn in ways it was never used before, which means the consulting range is wider than it’s ever been for this company. My client and another one of Blue Acorn iCi’s clients have competitors that Skinny & Co. have listed as competitors (i.e. True Botanicals and Tata Harper).

They practice Agile Methodologies and the Scrum framework, which means they do 2-week sprints (vs a continuous flow as in Kanban). They use a Fibonacci sequence (ex. 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 13) of numbers to represent sprint points rather than a linear sequence.

From a design perspective, they practice “Atomic Design” which is kind of like DRY (don’t repeat yourself) where things are created once and used in many places. A brand guide is a natural output of this as the design elements almost represents the ‘atoms’ in a 1-1 relationship. They call those elements in the style guide, “Design Tokens” or “style tiles” that when viewed together form a UI pattern library. The design tokens are more rigid while the pattern library can change over time based on use case iterations. They also design in high-fidelity first rather than low fidelity.

There are a LOT of new employees here. People I’m working with have only been here for 2 days to 2 projects.

There are many non-American-born team members. The Indian members are more obvious. The others appear to be Eastern European. In the one sprint meeting I was in, it was about 40% Indian, 20% EE, and 20% American.

Almost all other coworkers were wearing t-shirts. I am choosing to wear a dress shirt everyday.

There are many abbreviations being used everywhere by many different people. I’ve been looking them up and making myself a glossary.

They use JIRA, which I have some experience with from Marine Credit Union, but the interface has changed since then.

And as a side note, today I realized that what I learned from a single Shopify app podcast helped me in an interview to get this job (headless architecture and single page applications). It shows the power of intention as I was diving deep in my craft.

At the end of the day I gave my manager an update on where I was at in the onboarding process. I was late by 4 minutes to a meeting today with her and my peers because I didn’t take my watch to lunch. It was really embarrassing, but I learned from it. I’m headed to the gym now.

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.” -Proverbs 23:7 KJV

In January, my wife’s grandmother, Helen, died and my Grandpa Stauffer started to get sick. My oldest daughter turned 12 and my wife took her to Universal Studios. My mom ended chemo therapy and started radiation treatment. I flew to Orlando for work at GoServicePro.

In February, my best friend, Jason Cobb, told me he was moving to Wisconsin. My brother, Mitch, moved into a new house. Skinny and Company offered me full-time employment. On the last day of the month, GoServicePro moved offices and I let them know I was moving on.

In March, my Grandpa Stauffer died. Our family decided to wait to get together. I began working nights at Skinny and Company and went full time March 28th. I started to notice that our kids were starting to grow up.

On the weekends I would take the kids down to the park by the church. The Catholic church had decided to tear down the old church in the background as maintenance costs were too much to repair it.

Working at Skinny was fun and exciting, but also challenging. We were setting up new systems and so I had to do a lot of learning really quickly. This also uncovered other areas, which needed improvement so there was a lot to do.

My mom’s cancer went into remission and her hair started to grow back. I admired her pursuit of health and her consistently positive attitude through the whole ordeal. Here she is at a band concert:

In April I went and visited Jason in Wisconsin. It was a long drive up there and back, but I’m glad I did it. We walked along the Mississippi river and up on top of the bluffs. While I was there my wife told me she was pregnant.

Later on that month I went to my first Pacer’s game with Skinny. That’s Mike, Luke, me, and Matt in the picture. Jordan, Landree, and Mike’s wife were also there (she was pregnant, too).

Samuel keeps growing up. He really likes going to the park. He’s my little buddy.

At the end of April we drove out to Missouri to see Peggy before going on to Dixon for the funeral for Grandpa Stauffer.

It was a good way to remember Grandpa.

Here we are all together in front of the church where my parents got married.

In May I finally setup my own office at Skinny. My brother-in-law, John, got married, and Suzanne and I went to a “Rev Indy” event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Skinny.

By the end of the month, I stopped to smell the roses. I bought a season pass to Eagle Creek Park and would go walking there during lunch kind of like I used to when I worked at Worksmart Systems.

I took the boys out there, too.

We went to the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500. It was my first time going. It was hot.

And we started going to the Silver Beach off Lake Michigan.

In June, Jason and I went to Chicago. I’ve been to Chicago with Jason more than any other person (so far). We watched a Cubs game.

We road bikes to China town to see the famous “Post No Signs” sign. It wasn’t there anymore, but we remembered it.

In July I thought I was going to Atlanta, but I didn’t get to go so I went to the 100 Acres Woods instead.

I went and saw my mom playing in the Greenwood band at a Greenwood park. She did good!

Worlds collided when Hans from GoServicePro went out with me and Mike from Skinny and Company to Amber Indian.

Kids got some ice cream and started growing up.

In August I went on a walk around Tipton with Samuel.

Magdalena left me a note.

We went and visited Jason and his family in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

And here’s us at the top of a bluff.

Here’s the office I had setup for a while at Skinny.

In September I bought a new bike (the first bike I’ve ever bought myself as an adult). My goal is to ride the Hilly Hundred in 2017.

Me and Magdalena went for a walk in Carmel on the Monon.

I took Samuel for ice cream.

Kevin learned how to ride a bike.

And I started going to the gym (or at least took at least one picture of myself at a gym).

In October I told Skinny I was moving on and I had Mike and Matt take this picture with me (thanks to Allison for taking it).

Carmina had fun seeing Skinny Coconut Oil at grocery stores around Indianapolis. She’s a good spokesperson.

I went and visited Jason in La Crosse, Wisconsin and made a movie of the trip.

The Cubs ended up winning the World Series. I had nothing to do with it, but I did visit them (twice).

Jason and I went for a bike ride on the trails at the top of the bluffs.

In November I accepted the job at Marine Credit Union in La Crosse, Wisconsin and moved into a hotel.

I came home for a bit and ate some tacos with Hans.

It was hard to say goodbye to my family after the weekend.

Samuel learned how to ride a bike and we went for a ride to the park.

In December I had a baby. We named her after Helen.

And my parents flew to Hawaii.

I bought the kids a PS4.

My brothers came up for Christmas.

I took Amalia to the park.

Here’s to 2016.

Things I want you to know about Life

Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity. Hours fly, flowers die, new days, new ways, pass by. Love stays. —a sundial

I like breakfast. I like it so much I started making an app to help me find biscuits and gravy. I talk about biscuits and gravy so much I rank higher than Hardee’s.com.

I own the hashtag #passmeabiscuit on social media. One of my favorite restaurants is Lambert’s Cafe “Home of the Throwed Rolls.” But I gave all of that up.

When I was young I thought big. I thought I’d own a large, vertical empire of companies. Instead of paying for gravel, I’d own a mining company. Instead of paying for contractors, I’d own a construction company.

I wanted to own a mansion with not just one basement, but several layers of basement, kind of like the uber-wealthy in London do today. I have this thing about digging. I like to dig. Sometimes I think the only way out is down.

Every spring for the last 2 years I’ve played Minecraft. I like to build roads. When I first started to drive I’d fantasize about building new roads, straighter roads. I wanted to connect more places. I’m a connector.

I like meeting new people and connecting people I’ve met with new people I’ve met. I guess this makes me a networker. I like to encourage people. I’m an encourager. I’m an introvert. I recharge when I’m alone, but sometimes I get lonely.

I live in Tipton. It’s a small town, but I’m not there that often. When I’m there I’m mostly at home, but sometimes I go for walks. There isn’t much places to go, but sometimes, at night, in the summer, there’s an intersection where you can find people. I go there sometimes.

I’m not sure it’s be too different if I lived in Indianapolis. I’d still have to leave the house. I’d still have to find that intersection where people hang out. The nice thing about roads is that they all lead somewhere. You just have to keep going.