Big Plans

At the Q101 office, I sit down with Justin, Matt (another contracted hire, who is a programmer) and Joel (I think that’s his name). Matt is wearing a slick suit, and with his six foot plus frame, combined with his blonde dreadlocks… he looks both incredibly intimidating and incredibly professional. Me? I’m in jeans and a t-shirt. Doh.

The culture at Emmis/Q101 is fairly relaxed, so no big thing. I spend most of the meeting listening and nodding. Everyone else seems to be better versed in programming languages (PHP, ASP, SQL servers, ColdFusion)… and I begin to feel a bit out of my element. Matt, as it turns out, is incredibly kind and friendly and not the intimidating figure I initially took him to be. I look forward to talking to him in greater depth.

After the meeting, Justin and I go over a few elements of what I’ll be responsible for. Though I’m less familiar with programming languages, Justin shows me that the bulk of what I’ll be learning will be his and Ben’s methodologies, their approaches to pattern recognition. We look briefly at AppleScript and BBEdit. I borrow Ben’s BBEdit book, and plan to study up on GREP patterns.

We go to some fantastic place for lunch (I had a turkey wrap with Havarti), and eat outside the Merchandise Mart, near the river. It’s overcast like you wouldn’t believe, and it starts to drizzle slightly… but it still feels fun to be hanging "professionally" with Justin and Ben. A good time, despite the weather.